Has the BBC fact-checked John Pienaar?

The first comment on our new Advent open thread reads as follows: 

Mola Ram1 December 2019 at 18:16  

"After 10 years of Conservative rule blighted by austerity and Brexit-weariness, it takes an almost breathtaking audacity - hostile critics might say the brassiest neck in the business - to campaign for a fourth consecutive Tory term in office as the face of change. It takes, in other words, Boris Johnson."

The opening paragraph of John Pienaar’s article today smacks of personal opinion to set a particular tone rather than valuable political insight.

And the BBC's John Pienaar immediately follows that opening volley (with its strong echo of the "ten years" angle that Mr Marr was so vigorously pushing today) with a smidgen of sarcasm at the Tories' expense. 

And then - and we're still only a few paragraphs in - comes this: 

This isn't, however, easy to pull off. Mr Johnson has been a prominent MP and minister for much of that time - aside from, admittedly, a period away from Westminster while London mayor. 

Now, I know that John is a seasoned political reporter for the BBC, but one thing even I (a mere blogger) know is that Boris Johnson has been out of Parliament longer than he's been in Parliament over this period. 

And as for being a "minister for much of that time", until he became Prime Minister, Boris had only been a minister over the last "ten years" for...(drum roll)...less than two years.

Where's Chris Morris and his Reality Check to 'reality check' John Pienaar?

Dare I go on? What's next? (Live blogging!).

Ah, yes, John moved on from getting his facts wrong to being sarcastic about the Tories again. ("The PM did, after all, allow a decent interval (of maybe two or three hours) to pass after the attack before he began reciting Tory election promises of more police and tougher sentencing"). 

And on it went.

It's all very droll. Journalism as comedy. Radio 4 comedy, that is.