Scrutable

So they're holding the offer off peerages to those who rescind their no confidence letters.

And only the other day, in defence of Johnson getting his collar felt, they dug out Blair being questioned by the police over the Cash for Honours scandal...

FlammableFlower wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 9:52 am So they're holding the offer off peerages to those who rescind their no confidence letters.

And only the other day, in defence of Johnson getting his collar felt, they dug out Blair being questioned by the police over the Cash for Honours scandal...

I think that will backfire.

I hope it will. I hope enough of the British public realise that Johnson was chosen by the Tory party and he's just doing what he's always done, and which they should have known.

He won a GE though didnt he? Highest % of popular vote for 40 years? So enough of the electorate chose him as well.

The question is have enough MP's / people grasped who the real Boris Johnson is yet...? Recent polls would suggest the electorate has, and has shifted against him. MP's who want their party to have a shot of staying in power would do well to remember that, when the no confidence vote comes.

TopBadger wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 5:32 pm He won a GE though didnt he? Highest % of popular vote for 40 years? So enough of the electorate chose him as well.

The question is have enough MP's / people grasped who the real Boris Johnson is yet...? Recent polls would suggest the electorate has, and has shifted against him. MP's who want their party to have a shot of staying in power would do well to remember that, when the no confidence vote comes.

The shameful british public always knew who he is. They just hoped that he would use his noted racism and homophobia to attack other outgroups and make them suffer.

TopBadger wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 5:32 pm He won a GE though didnt he? Highest % of popular vote for 40 years? So enough of the electorate chose him as well.

The question is have enough MP's / people grasped who the real Boris Johnson is yet...? Recent polls would suggest the electorate has, and has shifted against him. MP's who want their party to have a shot of staying in power would do well to remember that, when the no confidence vote comes.

Around the 2019 election Johnson had an approval rating of -11. As far as I remember, that was the lowest ever rating for someone who went on to win a majority. Overall, the voters didn't like him.

Johnson just had the good fortune to be up against a Labour leader with an approval rating of -50.

I assume the Tory press is still largely on his side?

Unsurprised that 85%+ of Conservative MPs are fine with Johnson continuing. It's probably just a handy distraction from all the corruption and authoritarianism.

Trumpian levels of disgovernance-via-chaos seems plausible in any country with a bought-out media. Make a quick buck and ratchet the country to the right, safe in the knowledge that the only opposition that could win an election is so anaemic they won't even try to tip the balance of power back towards the masses. One term of Fasho the Clown can give billionaires benefits for a generation.

Weird times for the Anglosphere.

Woodchopper wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 9:26 pm

TopBadger wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 5:32 pm He won a GE though didnt he? Highest % of popular vote for 40 years? So enough of the electorate chose him as well.

The question is have enough MP's / people grasped who the real Boris Johnson is yet...? Recent polls would suggest the electorate has, and has shifted against him. MP's who want their party to have a shot of staying in power would do well to remember that, when the no confidence vote comes.

Around the 2019 election Johnson had an approval rating of -11. As far as I remember, that was the lowest ever rating for someone who went on to win a majority. Overall, the voters didn't like him.

Johnson just had the good fortune to be up against a Labour leader with an approval rating of -50.

On a relatively low turnout too, Johnson got a fraction of a percentage point more votes than Blair in 1997 but on a turnout 10% lower, also less raw votes than Major in 1992 as well.

With a bad government up against a lacklustre opposition it was definitely a "Get Out the Base" election which Johnson did better with "Get Brexit Done" than Labour did with "Let's Get a Sort-Of-Brexit Done, After we've Gone Through Another Couple of Years Renegotiation, And Had a Second Referendum on it, Wording TBC, So Remainers We Can't Guarantee a Remain Option and Leavers We Can't Guarantee There Won't Be a Remain Option ... also Free Broadband Apparently!"

I didn't consider the turn out - thanks for pointing this out.

That he won a relatively apathetic campaign against Corbyn should point to Tory MP's being more nervous, not less, about Boris taking them into the next GE against Starmer though, right? You'd think they'd want to break with Johnson's gaffes sharpish and give a new leader a good two years to bed in.

Couldn't he appeal to the Republican National Convention or someone to declare that all he's been doing is plain civil Rest and Recuperation?

He hasn't even appointed a horse or a dog to the House of Uncommons, AFAIK ...

TopBadger wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 10:28 am I didn't consider the turn out - thanks for pointing this out.

That he won a relatively apathetic campaign against Corbyn should point to Tory MP's being more nervous, not less, about Boris taking them into the next GE against Starmer though, right? You'd think they'd want to break with Johnson's gaffes sharpish and give a new leader a good two years to bed in.

I'm guessing they have the May elections in mind.

FlammableFlower wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 11:17 am I'm guessing they have the May elections in mind.

It would seem to me that waiting just maximises the chances of damage via getting a kicking locally, but then perhaps thats the smokescreen some MP's need to justify turning against him.

TopBadger wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 12:55 pm

FlammableFlower wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 11:17 am I'm guessing they have the May elections in mind.

It would seem to me that waiting just maximises the chances of damage via getting a kicking locally, but then perhaps thats the smokescreen some MP's need to justify turning against him.

Unlike Labour, the Tories go for clean kills. They are just flushing their target out of cover.

TopBadger wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 10:28 am You'd think they'd want to break with Johnson's gaffes sharpish and give a new leader a good two years to bed in.

Two years is about the length of time it takes for a new leader to run out of New Leader Bounce, and for the electorate to return its attention to the awful crap that is likely still flying around by then, which no leader will have been able to fix. Especially not if they also have to satisfy the Tory back benchers.

Starmer officially blameless

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ffice-beer

jimbob wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 12:05 pm

wilsontown wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 3:23 pm

Stranger Mouse wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 2:42 pm

Review of said book here. Quite something.

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/20 ... -churchill

I think my favourite line from that review, for its sheer economy, is "The Germans did not capture Stalingrad, though this book claims they did."

Following my tweeting to that book review - I now have come across a new set of deniers. Those who think that the 6th Army captured Stalingrad.

I’m reading Fake History by Otto English- the chapter on Winston Churchill does cover some unbelievable b.llsh.t written by Boris Johnson in The Churchill Factor. Even knowing Johnson is a liar the level of bollocks is quite shocking.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fake-History-G ... 220&sr=8-1

Stranger Mouse wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 5:35 pm I’m reading Fake History by Otto English- the chapter on Winston Churchill does cover some unbelievable b.llsh.t written by Boris Johnson in The Churchill Factor. Even knowing Johnson is a liar the level of bollocks is quite shocking.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fake-History-G ... 220&sr=8-1

Fake History is unavailable in the US. Which probably says something*.


* I know it doesn't really

dyqik wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 6:37 pm

Stranger Mouse wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 5:35 pm I’m reading Fake History by Otto English- the chapter on Winston Churchill does cover some unbelievable b.llsh.t written by Boris Johnson in The Churchill Factor. Even knowing Johnson is a liar the level of bollocks is quite shocking.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fake-History-G ... 220&sr=8-1

Fake History is unavailable in the US. Which probably says something*.

* I know it doesn't really

Did the netshop find the US market for Fake History to be oversaturated already?

New picture of the Christmas quiz features Johnson, two other people, an open bottle of champagne and tinsel: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ ... s-26181071

This whole process has been a masterclass in how to time leaks in order to keep a scandal running.

Woodchopper wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 12:38 pm This whole process has been a masterclass in how to time leaks in order to keep a scandal running.

Cummings says there are worse to come.

jimbob wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 12:59 pm

Woodchopper wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 12:38 pm This whole process has been a masterclass in how to time leaks in order to keep a scandal running.

Cummings says there are worse to come.

I've heard it said even in the Dutch media that this is all Cummings's revenge. Is that plausible?

jaap wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 1:02 pm

jimbob wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 12:59 pm

Woodchopper wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 12:38 pm This whole process has been a masterclass in how to time leaks in order to keep a scandal running.

Cummings says there are worse to come.

I've heard it said even in the Dutch media that this is all Cummings's revenge. Is that plausible?

Very, very much so

tom p wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 1:42 pm

jaap wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 1:02 pm

jimbob wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 12:59 pm

Cummings says there are worse to come.

I've heard it said even in the Dutch media that this is all Cummings's revenge. Is that plausible?

Very, very much so

Yup.

The guy obviously has a massive and fragile ego.

He couldn't help telling a needless ego-boosting lie about having predicted a Coronavirus pandemic when telling an implausible story about his trip to Barnard Castle

jimbob wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 2:43 pm

tom p wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 1:42 pm

jaap wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 1:02 pm

I've heard it said even in the Dutch media that this is all Cummings's revenge. Is that plausible?

Very, very much so

Yup.

The guy obviously has a massive and fragile ego.

He couldn't help telling a needless ego-boosting lie about having predicted a Coronavirus pandemic when telling an implausible story about his trip to Barnard Castle

I can also see him, even when things are going well, collecting incriminating stuff 'just in case'

Yup