WHY BORIS JOHNSON COMPARING HIMSELF TO THE MAYOR FROM JAWS IS AN INSULT ... TO MAYOR VAUGHN

Famously, the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson proudly compared himself to the mayor from Jaws.

He first did it when, funnily enough, he was setting out to run for London Mayor.

The Independent said: In 2006, as he was preparing to run for mayor of London for the first time, Mr Johnson said in a speech Mr Vaughn was the “real hero” of Jaws.

“A gigantic fish is eating all your constituents and he decides to keep the beaches open. OK, in that instance he was actually wrong.

“But in principle, we need more politicians like the mayor – we are often the only obstacle against all the nonsense which is really a massive conspiracy against the taxpayer."

And then, during the pandemic, Sean Whelan, writing for RTE, reported that Dominic Cummings insisted at the health committee in Westminster that Boris Johnson said he should have behaved like the mayor in Jaws, as he regretted having a lockdown, and was resisting having another one in the autumn of last year. (2020).

All of which shows a fundamental lack of understanding on the part of Boris Johnson what impact Mayor Vaughn's actions had on both people and businesses on Amity Island as a result of him keeping the beaches. People died!

One must question whether Johnson has even actually seen Jaws, or if he did, if he actually understood the ramifications of the actions of the Mayor.

The death of Alex Kintner couldn't have been a clearer message, and if somehow, he'd missed that, the thundering slap delivered by his mum to Chief Brody should have resonated. Or perhaps, actually he - Johnson - doesn't care.

Cummings asserts it is the latter and that Johnson was more concerned about keeping the economy (the beaches) open. The UK, it's only an island if you look at it from the water.

After a series of continuing gaffes and breaking rules when it comes to a whole host of parties and gatherings, and then lying about them, has it now become unfair to associate the Mayor of Amity Island, Larry Vaughn, with the UK PM?

We, like many people were comparing Johnson (and Trump) to Vaughn when the Covid 19 pandemic broke.

Some might say that Johnson continues to be like Vaughn as his lies and errors in Jaws were forgotten by the time of Jaws 2, as he was clearly re-elected as Mayor.

The last time we see Mayor Vaughn in Jaws, he is a broken man. He is not the confident showman telling TV cameras that "Amity, as you know, means friendship."

When Brody is talking to Vaughn in the hospital about hiring Quint, Vaughn has been shaken to the core by the estuary victim. For the first time he isn't the Mayor, he is talking about the fact that his kids were on the beaches too.

He is no longer a stable anchor, like his jacket, instead he is adrift and in shock. He was thinking about the best interests of the town, the economy, but now realises the error in his judgement and signs on the dotted line to hire Quint.

The shark in Jaws appears for around four minutes in total, but its presence is felt throughout. The longevity of Jaws has been that Jaws is about people and politics, and that doesn't age. Jaws isn't about a shark, Jaws is people, just not in the Soylent Green way.

So, what was once about post-Watergate paranoia or Vietnam can just as easily be attributed to the ignorance and spread of AIDS, the BSE crisis or the Covid-19 pandemic.

And because of that, "Are you going to close the beaches?" will always have a far greater meaning for the audience viewing it in the present. We are all residents of Martha's Vineyard, islanders or not. Jaws is timeless and shall always be about our time, and that is what will always make it relevant.

Some feel that Mayor Vaughn went back to his old ways and learnt nothing in Jaws 2, but there is a pivotal deleted scene between him and Brody, which should have remained, and shows how Vaughn also learnt and changed from those events of the first summer of the shark on Amity.

Vaughn was the only one on the committee to not vote to sack Chief Brody, the only one. The Mayor knows the devastation the shark made to Amity; he doesn't want it to occur again either.

That scene changes everything you feel about the Mayor, and for that alone he should be allowed to step out of the comparison shadow of Boris Johnson. It's such a shame that scene wasn't left in the film, it is powerful stuff.

Check out the below scene seven minutes into the deleted scenes from Jaws 2.

And let us remember, although Vaughn is very much in the vein of authority lying and hiding things, playing into the realms of conspiracy and shadowy authority figures in the wake of President Richard Nixon and Watergate, he is also not a real person.

Johnson is. Even though it remains to be seen how much work of fiction comes out of his mouth.

One feels Vaughn would have redeemed himself even further had he appeared in Jaws the Revenge. Murray Hamilton had been approached, but sadly passed away prior to filming beginning.

Although for many Mayor Vaughn and his corruption - also see the likes of All The President's Men, Magnum Force, Capricorn One from the same period - makes him the true villain of Jaws rather than the shark. That deleted scene in Jaws 2 shows him in a much different light, he evolved.

And with that, Vaughn still gets my vote. Boris Johnson can continue to compare himself to the Mayor from Jaws if he wants, but he can only accurately compare him to the Mayor until the attack on Alex Kintner.

Vaughn learnt from his mistakes, Boris is still racking them up, tying himself up in knots of the sheepshank variety.

Mayor Vaughn wasn't a sleazy politician after all, Boris Johnson continues to seemingly relish in being just that and is letting us swim into the ocean of uncertainty as the public run back into the water, removing all help in detecting sharks (Covid).

Let’s just hope it isn’t us who get bitten again.