I'm not saying he isn't a real person, or that his situation isn't as described, but every post he makes seems obviously designed to get people biting, in my view. There's no way he'd say half the things he does if he wasn't looking for a reaction.

Isn't that a recognised symptom of Asperger's?

As cod'ead says, he is a real person and what you read is his real life and his real attitude, he actually did appear on Radio Leeds one evening dancing and rapping I just wish they'd have recorded what they were saying when they escorted him to the door.

As for having a drink one weekend, well I can point to to dozens of posts that he's made where he's declined invitations to go to games at Headingley because he is too skint, even the unemployed deserve a session now and again.

Not from what I've read (which isn't a lot, granted). A common symptom is saying things without knowing or thinking about how people will react, but it looks to me like Damo is doing exactly the opposite of that. He knows how people will react, finds it secretly amusing, and so courts their ire for his own entertainment. That's how it looks, anyway.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has recently decided to give his two penny's worth on the youth unemployment crises facing this country - Some Journalist via The Sun wrote: FECKLESS Brits on the dole should learn from hardworking foreigners who have taken their jobs, Boris Johnson declared yesterday. The London Mayor said some young people are out of work because they lack the "energy and appetite" for it. And he heralded the tens of thousands of foreigners working in the UK's hotels, coffee shops and fast food outlets as a shining example. Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... hnson.html I’m sorry but I think Boris Johnson is completely out of touch and unreasonable by declaring that some young people who are out of work lack energy and appetite for working. He is later quoted in the article that there’s jobs in London and that he does want to help young people get them. Well here’s how you can help Boris: You could withdraw these companies right to decide who they employ and get the job centre to find them a near suitable candidate who’s long term unemployed. It will then be that employers responsibility to make it work because for far too long it has been beneath them to give anyone a chance who does not fit in with they ideological idea for a candidate. It works both ways. It appears to me that potential employers seem to be just as fussy as the unemployed when it comes to choosing. However young people are not fussy and I'm sure that Boris would have called Vicky Harrison a bunch of names before she decided to commit suicide because been on the dole become too overwhelming for her. Yet I bet that some people would still torment her on here since she's died just to suit their bias opinion.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has recently decided to give his two penny's worth on the youth unemployment crises facing this country - Some Journalist via The Sun wrote: FECKLESS Brits on the dole should learn from hardworking foreigners who have taken their jobs, Boris Johnson declared yesterday. The London Mayor said some young people are out of work because they lack the "energy and appetite" for it. And he heralded the tens of thousands of foreigners working in the UK's hotels, coffee shops and fast food outlets as a shining example. Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... hnson.html I’m sorry but I think Boris Johnson is completely out of touch and unreasonable by declaring that some young people who are out of work lack energy and appetite for working. He is later quoted in the article that there’s jobs in London and that he does want to help young people get them. Well here’s how you can help Boris: You could withdraw these companies right to decide who they employ and get the job centre to find them a near suitable candidate who’s long term unemployed. It will then be that employers responsibility to make it work because for far too long it has been beneath them to give anyone a chance who does not fit in with they ideological idea for a candidate. It works both ways. It appears to me that potential employers seem to be just as fussy as the unemployed when it comes to choosing. However young people are not fussy and I'm sure that Boris would have called Vicky Harrison a bunch of names before she decided to commit suicide because been on the dole become too overwhelming for her. Yet I bet that some people would still torment her on here since she's died just to suit their bias opinion.

See?

Going by your logic, Boris Johnson must be a troll because he has an opinion that many people (mainly the unemployed and those who sympathise with the unemployed) find disgusting.

Damo-Leeds wrote:London Mayor Boris Johnson has recently decided to give his two penny's worth on the youth unemployment crises facing this country - Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... hnson.html I’m sorry but I think Boris Johnson is completely out of touch and unreasonable by declaring that some young people who are out of work lack energy and appetite for working. He is later quoted in the article that there’s jobs in London and that he does want to help young people get them. Well here’s how you can help Boris: You could withdraw these companies right to decide who they employ and get the job centre to find them a near suitable candidate who’s long term unemployed. It will then be that employers responsibility to make it work because for far too long it has been beneath them to give anyone a chance who does not fit in with they ideological idea for a candidate. It works both ways. It appears to me that potential employers seem to be just as fussy as the unemployed when it comes to choosing. However young people are not fussy and I'm sure that Boris would have called Vicky Harrison a bunch of names before she decided to commit suicide because been on the dole become too overwhelming for her. Yet I bet that some people would still torment her on here since she's died just to suit their bias opinion. Are you serious? Most ridiculous thing I have heard on here (and that's saying something).

Damo-Leeds wrote:London Mayor Boris Johnson has recently decided to give his two penny's worth on the youth unemployment crises facing this country - Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... hnson.html I’m sorry but I think Boris Johnson is completely out of touch and unreasonable by declaring that some young people who are out of work lack energy and appetite for working. He is later quoted in the article that there’s jobs in London and that he does want to help young people get them. Well here’s how you can help Boris: You could withdraw these companies right to decide who they employ and get the job centre to find them a near suitable candidate who’s long term unemployed. It will then be that employers responsibility to make it work because for far too long it has been beneath them to give anyone a chance who does not fit in with they ideological idea for a candidate. It works both ways. It appears to me that potential employers seem to be just as fussy as the unemployed when it comes to choosing. However young people are not fussy and I'm sure that Boris would have called Vicky Harrison a bunch of names before she decided to commit suicide because been on the dole become too overwhelming for her. Yet I bet that some people would still torment her on here since she's died just to suit their bias opinion. Are you serious? Most ridiculous thing I have heard on here (and that's saying something).

No I’m not been completely serious. All I’m doing is giving Boris Johnson’s opinion a taste of it’s own medicine. Companies should have the right to choose who they employ as the unemployed should have the right to choose who they get employed by. Freedom of choice is something I value dearly.

Boris Johnson is showing why he won't get further than being the London mayor, because he has these moments when he likes to be controversial for the sake of being controversial and say things to get cheers from his right wing chums, at the expense of alienating a lot of other people. This is why in the unofficial succession to Cameron battle, which is probably going to be Osborne v Johnson, Osborne will win hands down because much as people might see him as a smug sinister rich kid, Osborne wouldn't shoot his mouth off like this.

The comparison with foreign born workers is not a very good one anyway. There's a perception that immigrants come over here and do unskilled labour that home workers won't do but most of the immigrants that have come in the last 10-15 years are not in unskilled jobs, in fact there are higher percentages of them in the more skilled jobs than the native population are in skilled jobs. The reason there are tradesmen and construction workers from Eastern Europe over here is because they have trained in it over there. Also the ability to speak multiple languages is an advantage which employers like, which is again something that the Europeans have. So you can't compare like against like.

The bigger problem is that there is not enough unskilled/low skilled work to go round in the UK now, for people that don't have qualifications. In a globalised market it is easy enough for firms to outsource unskilled parts of production processes to the developing world where costs are cheaper anyway.