The Boris Johnson thread

[Roger]

Thanks for your reply SFS and Teess - I certainly don't enjoy wearing a mask myself BUT I agree, it would have been better if mask wearing had been obligatory on public transport and in shops etc. from the start of and throughout the pandemic.

I get the impression that BJ's instincts this time were better but he has been unable to carry his Govt. with him - he is in such a weak position now.

Labour and Starmer were right to support Plan B IMO but I cannot fathom why lessons have not been learned from the past and in England, we have done nothing more in Plan B about potential superspreader events i.e. Football, Nightclubs, Concerts etc.

With an 'R' rate of 3-5 Omicron can cause havoc in the NHS through sheer weight of numbers.

[Roger]

You've got to 'fight for your right' LOL

Enjoy https://youtu.be/FkdqR4WKvuU

Total rhubarb . . . .

[Roger]

I feel sorry for BJ atm - we all know he plays fast and loose, but at least he is not afraid of getting stuck in, which is a great merit. Starmer is overplaying his words and losing impact - e.g. BJ 'talking out of both sides of his mouth' - silly stuff.

I hope BJ can talk some sense into India and their allegiance to Putin. That would be an achievement as would success in controlling illegal immigration.

If you can go through 1000 cuts, it's still death. We may have 3,4,5 more fines for BJ and the Gray report to come - it looks very difficult.

The local elections are likely to be a disaster for the Tories and by the time the next General Election comes, the Electorate will be fuming about inflation, (if they're not already). Oh Dear !

Worth another look https://youtu.be/FkdqR4WKvuU
This too https://youtu.be/V3TT1VE8Jq0

[Teessider]

Copied from FB page of my local micropub

[Roger]

Teess - Nice one. You're only saying that because it's true !   

[Coolkorat]

I see they are planning to delay the vote because so many Tory MP's plan to be absent. The idea of MP's being whipped to defeat the motion to refer the PM to committee, with the real possibility of losing the whip and being deselected, adds even more sourness to an already toxic Tory leadership.

[Alfie]

I saw a clip of PMQs yesterday. I have to say that the two ministers next to Boris Johnston (Dominic Raab and a woman whose name escapes me at the moment) did not seem too happy, as if they did not support the PM at all but could not do anything else but nod occasionally and grunt every now and again pretending they were loyal ministers. They certainly did not convince me that they agreed with what BJ was saying.

[Coolkorat]

Strong predictions there will be a vote of no confidence, which BJ will probably win. But it could be that further fines pile too much pressure on him and he is forced to resign (the more realistic probability to my mind).

[Roger]

Maybe 3,4,5 more fines for BJ / Carrie with the Gray report to come ?

The local elections are likely to be a disaster and by the time the General Election comes, with an Electorate fuming about inflation, whoever is the Tory Leader, probably still BJ, is going to have a very hard time indeed.

I saw Liz Truss leading a poll for replacing BJ and in that event I dearly hope the Tories can dig up someone else.

IMO BJ had a very bad Covid campaign and has got much else wrong, but at least he is not afraid to get stuck in and in these wartime conditions, I'm happy to see him there, for now.

[Roger]

BJ's responses at PMQ's yesterday were dreadful. I noticed this, in the Guardian which I'm afraid, rings true - "Johnson is so short of answers, he can no longer form complete sentences"

"It felt very much like the end of days. An intellectually and morally bankrupt government lurching from one crisis to the next while the country is left to flatline. No one is even surprised these days when yet another Tory MP is accused of sex offences. While we don’t know what the truth of these new allegations will be, the fact that there are fresh claims is no more than people have come to expect. The MP hasn’t even been suspended as he would have been in any other workplace. The ongoing scandal at Westminster is one that might have proved fatally toxic for some administrations, but now has become normalised. Just wait for the next story to break. And with 56 MPs, including three cabinet ministers, being investigated for sexual misconduct, it may not be long before it does.

The Commons was nowhere near full for the first prime minister’s questions of the new parliament. Many Tories had clearly decided they were better off out of Westminster than enduring the laboured ramblings of their leader. No one could really blame them. Waiting to take his place on the frontbench, Boris Johnson stood behind the Speaker’s chairs while several of his parliamentary private secretaries patted him down and tried to smarten him up. But Joy Morrissey had no joy. Despite her best efforts, the Convict still looked a complete state. Crumpled, ill-fitting suit held together only by the stains. Tired and pasty-faced. An unbrushed toddler haircut. Johnson can’t clean up his own act, let alone his party’s.

With inflation rising to 9%, there was only ever going to be one subject on Keir Starmer’s mind, and he duly devoted all six of his questions to the cost of living. Labour was all in favour of a windfall tax. The Tories had voted against one, even though the chancellor had said only a few days ago that he hadn’t quite made up his mind yet. Rishi Sunak needed a few more people to starve before reaching a decision. So where did Johnson stand?

The Convict scratched his head. Then his arse. Not the most attractive of habits. He looked puzzled. His mouth opened and a torrent of disconnected phrases poured out. Boris can no longer speak in complete sentences. Partly because he can’t be bothered, but mainly because he now has no coherent answers to anything. Speech is no longer a form of communication, but more a smokescreen. That’s when he’s not lying, of course. “Um … er,” he mumbled. It was like this. Starmer didn’t even know what a woman was. He seemed to think this was a killer putdown, but he didn’t even get any laughs from his own MPs. It was just random, tone-deaf nonsense. Playing the culture wars card while refusing to acknowledge the genuine hardships many people were suffering was not a good look. The Convict tried to change tack. The government was not, in theory, in favour of putting up taxes. Mmm. Possibly. But it definitely is in practice. Johnson and Sunak have done nothing but put up taxes since they took office.

The Labour leader continued to do his own scratching. Though rather more productively, as he was pawing away at the open sore of the windfall tax. A tax that almost everyone in the country thought was a good idea. A tax on which it was inevitable the Tories would be forced to reverse-ferret on within a few weeks. Not that it would be called a windfall tax. That would be an admission that Labour had won the argument. So it would be an excessive profit levy. None of which helped the Convict in his short-term ambition of merely getting through the next half-hour. Because Johnson really didn’t know what he actually wanted, other than for Labour to stop bugging him and for the little people to be more grateful for what he was doing for them. Whatever that was. He couldn’t remember exactly, but he was sure it would come to him in the end. His performance lapsed from the incoherent to the pathetic.

Nobody could have predicted the Ukraine war, but it was our duty to suffer alongside the Ukrainian people. The Ukrainians wouldn’t expect a windfall tax at such a time, and neither should we Brits. In fact, Starmer was appeasing Putin by demanding one. The Labour benches just looked bewildered. As did Tory backbenchers. Even by the Convict’s recent standards, this was deranged. Johnson is decomposing before our eyes. Being prime minister is something beyond his shallow talents. He can no longer cope. He was only ever in it for the good times. The parties. The status. The Being There. A tanking, stagflating economy and an imminent recession is beyond his compass.

Starmer ended by telling the story of a man who could barely afford the costs of running the dialysis machine that kept him alive. Johnson was choosing to let people like him struggle. The Commons was unusually quiet as the Labour leader spoke, and Johnson should have been humbled. Except the Convict has no shame. The only pity he has is reserved strictly for himself. This was far too real for him, so he pawed the air, as if to bat Starmer away.

Then he went on the attack. People should just be grateful they had jobs to do as they went hungry and cold. If they wanted luxuries, why didn’t they just get jobs that paid a bit more, like Rachel Maclean had said? Hell, he had taken a pay cut to be prime minister, so how about a bit of sympathy for his suffering? And what about some applause for Crossrail? That was all down to him. It wasn’t, of course. It had been Ken Livingstone’s idea. But hey, if the Convict wants to take the credit for an infrastructure project that was years late and massively over budget, then who are we to stop him? The rest of PMQs passed in a haze of anticlimactic apathy, the only highlight being Johnson insisting that no one worked well from home. He can speak for himself.

Labour could only sit and wait. They could make suggestions, but there was nothing they could do to force the government to tackle the cost of living crisis. The Tories, too, could only sit and wait, though they only had their crippling indecision to blame. They knew the Convict was just a hollowed-out, corroded hulk. There was no saviour rising from the streets to come to their rescue."

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/18/boris-johnson-pmqs-cost-of-living-crisis

Ouch !!   

[Alfie]

Ouch !!   

Indeed. Boris Johnson has a lot of faults, and it is probably time for him to go, but what an awful article. I used to like the Guardian but its standards seem to have plummeted. First the BBC, now the Guardian. Is there any decent journalism in the UK these days?

[Roger]

When Partygate broke I felt sure the writing was on the wall for Boris and subsequent events have sealed his fate, the last being this 'Pinch' saga. Boris couldn't change and he having chosen the 'thousand cuts' route, here we are   

If only when things went wrong, (when mistakes and misjudgements come to light), Boris had been able to face the music honestly, this might have been avoided. The Tory party is in a mess and facing the UK's economic woes, it's going to be very difficult for the Tories to win the next election.

Despite BJ's (IMO) catalogue of mistakes during the Pandemic and despite my being 'Labour' by inclination, I'm sorry it's come to this. For me his positions on Brexit, Immigration, Ukraine, ECHR were important and right and the UK is likely to be worse off with his going. A sad saga.

He's announced his Resignation now - it's surely impossible that BJ can stay in place for a transition period - he can't possibly hold the Govt together now - too much anger and too many stress points around.

Oh dear . . . .

[Pompui]

Well, he's gone or going. End of thread?

[Roger]

Nearly the end of the thread Pompui   

In today's Daily Telegraph, some thoughts from Frederick Forsyth. The 'bold' is mine :-

"SIR – Boris Johnson departs showered with praise from many quarters. We have a trusty adage in our culture: give credit where it is due. But what about the reverse?

A premier departing with such praise and affection usually leaves behind a country in very fine fettle. Ours is a complete fiasco.

It was not the Tooth Fairy who did this. It derives from one catastrophic judgment after another. Since the triumphant 2019 general election his government got everything wrong – excepting only its support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion.

Joviality alone is not enough – or certainly should not be. We shall all be suffering for years from the record of the beaming bungler.

Frederick Forsyth
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire"

[Alfie]

Bye-bye, Boris. You stayed around a bit too long but at least you got Brexit done. I don't think Ms Truss will last as long in the job as you did.

[sfs]

Totally agree Alfie, I think it became a bit of  a game for Boris towards the end. Ms Truss maybe a year, wrong choice in my opinion same mistke they made replacing Margaret Thatcher with John Major. History repeats itself!

[caller]

I don't think anyone knows and it's too early to say how Truss will fare.

If she is being compared to Major, as above, then she won't do too badly, if based solely on longevity.  Major was PM for 7 years and won an election everyone thought he would lose. I'd say Truss is starting from the same start point.

[Roger]

Maybe it's the last chapter in the Boris story - but would you bet on it ?

Here's the man in action this week http://hTTps://youtu.be/by7wOA0aytw or the shorter version from 'Politics Joe' https://youtu.be/wCP2H7dYZI8?

Wriggling throughout with his usual consummate skills - Boris knows he has been found out. And he forgets that we watched it all as it unfolded in those most difficult times, as he repeatedly tried to deceive Parliament in successive PMQ's.

An image that sticks with me is the photos of lone fishermen on miles of empty beach being arrested for breaking lockdown    but that's not to forget the experience of millions at that time which was often in tragic contrast to the 'partying'.

Talented, determined and eloquent as Boris is, when he got to the most important job in the UK, he couldn't put his 'laddish' tendencies aside. He let himself and us down and I doubt he'll be easily forgiven. It's a waste . . .

Even his MP status may be at risk now. I wonder if he will lose the Tory whip if he is found 'guilty'.

[Roger]

Apparently Boris is now asking his gang NOT to vote against the report of the Parliamentary Committee after the 'debate' tomorrow - is this a grown up sign from him at last  ?   

BJ's regular Daily Mail column should be interesting . . .

I'm guessing he'll keep his head down until after the General Election now - however, if the Tories fall, will calls for Boris to return be deafening  ?  And irresistable  ?