The Boris Johnson thread

[Roger]

Dam - tks for the message. As for being a 'Leftie' - maybe I'm not quite as bad as you think . . . . in my time I've voted for Edward Heath, David Cameron, Theresa May and BJ (to my everlasting shame    ), twice   

[Roger]

Sorry Caller some more points from your Reply 58 . .

Your Friends in the UK - why not get them to join K-F then we can hear their views direct. Really ? The Govt. has done OK ? In what respect ?

The 'Scientists' - another mess resulting from the Govt. bull about 'following the science' etc.

Emily Maitliss - I thought the Newsnight Editorial team and Emily were 'spot on' - as they say, truth hurts.

Teess - it's clear  that even when all relevant adjustments are made in posterity, the UK has NOT done well in this crisis . .

[jungle]

Teesider  great post
I believe that FT graph is probably  the best way to measure the mortality rate with out  accusations of the figures being manipulated
Would like to add  I enjoy  following  this forum with everyone's posts ,reply's and  different views 
Roger and Caller your many posts and subjects  keep this forum alive
Would be a boring old  world if we all  held the same beliefs  or keep quite when told to   









 

[caller]

Simple cold comparison stats are meaningless in the context of the virus.

As I'm obviously on a different wavelength to others here, I'm bowing out, but I stand by everything I have said or shared. Every response I get is the same, Sth Kora, China, Italy et al and we still don't know the reality from two of those three. And we cannot in any way compare to two of those three. Comparisons, in my opinion, are meaingless, just look at Thailand in that respect.

Reading UK Doctors talking about the beast they are confronting and the challenges they are facing demonstrated to me, that we are dealing with something that has no defined pattern or certainty of treatment. It was harrowing and answered some of my questions about why so many deaths were continuing in the UK. The virus seems to have become a more potent beast as it has moved westwards, as some research, not yet peer reviewed, is suggesting.

But anyway, please feel free to continue salivating over your keyboard in your orgy of blame.

[Roger]

I watched PMQ's yesterday - it was the worst display of ill temper, irrelevance and poorly aimed bluster and rudeness that I have ever seen at the despatch box. I thought it was a disgusting display from BJ and he was rightly reprimanded by the Speaker several times. On this occasion, I felt ashamed that BJ was 'my' Prime Minister.

Worth a watch https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000m9n4/prime-ministers-questions-02092020  (Boris conducts his own orgy of blame LOL)

I don't usually like Michael Deacon's reviews in the DT, but he certainly hits the nail on the head here - "“This is a Leader of the Opposition,” squawked the Prime Minister wildly, “who backed remaining in the EU!” MPs looked at each other. No one had mentioned Brexit. The subject was education. There was an air of bemusement, even concern, as if the Prime Minister had just announced that he was the reincarnation of Rameses III, and intended to live on the moon with a sheep called Clive. Gently the Speaker attempted to jog Mr Johnson’s memory. “There are questions being asked,” he explained. “We do need to try and answer them.” "

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/09/02/boris-johnson-has-got-raise-game-pmqs-total-shambles/

[Roger]

Will Johnson continue his spoilt brat act at PMQ's this week ? Or will a fullsome apology be forthcoming 

""Johnson attempted to turn the tables, suddenly suggesting the Labour leader had somehow been sympathetic to the IRA because he had worked under Jeremy Corbyn. “This is a leader of the opposition who supported an IRA-condoning politician,” said Johnson, to the bemusement of MPs on all sides of the house."

. . . . . "An angry Starmer pointed out he had in fact spent five years of his legal career prosecuting IRA terrorists and working with the intelligence services to bring terrorists to justice. Despite Hoyle’s request for Johnson to apologise he refused to do so. Patrick Stevens, a former colleague of Starmer at the crown prosecution service who was head of its international division, said the Labour leader’s legal career was beyond reproach. "I worked with Keir Starmer at close quarters for five years. His work with the CPS’s world-class counter-terrorism division – the most serious and sensitive the service faced – was unwavering. He was equally committed to the CPS playing its part internationally in the UK government’s national security strategies, leading the CPS to engage in some of the most difficult jurisdictions around the world. His efforts went way beyond just doing the job; personally I haven’t met anyone more committed to the rights of victims and witnesses and the protection of the public".""

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/05/desperate-boris-johnson-to-step-up-personal-attacks-on-keir-starmer

[Roger]

Sweet Nora - even I can't follow my own mood swings about BJ   

Could BJ possibly be RIGHT this time - if these two notable wonkers disagree with him ?

"Boris Johnson is facing mounting criticism over his plans to introduce legislation to override his Brexit deal, as former prime ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair criticised the threat to break international law."

Looking around the state of the World - International law. MMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/13/blair-and-major-hit-out-at-boris-johnsons-plans-to-override-brexit-deal

[Roger]

Profligate spending to alleviate the medical costs and financial effects of CV-19 will have to be recovered at some stage. It was plainly ludicrous to pretend that tax increases and spending cuts would be avoidable. Poor ole Sunak has the job. BJ addresses the Tory Party 'virtual' conference with his head in the clouds and it's bluster, blather and waffle.

"Boris Johnson's blithe optimism and self-conscious witticisms are exactly what we dont need right now.

As a response to a national emergency in a country with one of the worst Covid-19 death rates in the world, the prime minister's flippancy is worse than woeful. Pandemic? What pandemic? It was entirely understandable, though still bizarre, that the prime minister spent far more time painting a portrait of the sunny, green, wind-powered Britain of the far future than he did the rather more pressing public crisis of today. It was as if the UK already had its world-beating test and trace system, and was serenely exiting the crisis. Perhaps the prime minister has convinced himself of this alternative reality. He has rarely seemed more out of touch. 

The businesses going bust, the workers being sacked, the renters being evicted and the students denied an education are not much interested in where they'll be flying to on the hydrogen-powered machines of the future. Few will be distracted from their current fears by the prime minister's vista of the lovely cycling holidays and picnics they'll be organising in the British wild belt of the mid-2030s; quiche in the sky, you might say.

Unemployment will double by the time of the next Conservative conference, and the country will probably still be struggling with the economic aftermath of the coronavirus and Brexit. The impact of Covid may well be more permanent and thus more devastating to sectors of the economy than hitherto assumed. Even with a vaccine and a degree of herd immunity neither guaranteed the economy will have to undergo significant restructuring. Working from home, shopping online and nervously avoiding mass indoor gatherings are trends that are here to stay. 

In terms of confronting the reality of that, there is a stark difference between the gritty realism presented in his speech by the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the fantastical boosterism of Boris Johnson. Mr Sunak manages to sound regretful and sombre, even as he tells the public that things will not be as they were. Mr Johnson cannot help himself from sounding flippant, even as he assures the nation that things will return to pre-Covid normal.
   
Where Mr Johnson believes that Britain can merely press the reset button, Mr Sunak is thinking of a country that will have to move on, and how to deal with the pain. The leader of the Conservative Party even compared the coronavirus to previous attempted alien invasions over the past 1,000 years, as if this sub-microscopic organism could be seen off like Philip II of Spain or Adolf Hitler. It is ridiculous. 

Even his ambition to fuel every British home and car via wind-generated electricity by 2030 was just so much bluster, a talking point for the public and something novel for the media to splash on. Mr Johnson wishes to make wind power to Britain what oil is to Saudi Arabia. A fine ambition, and there is everything to applaud in millions of green collar jobs.

But, as they used to ask of Labour, where will the money come from? Who is to pay for this breakneck speed environmental revolution? Will it be taxpayers or consumers and businesses? Who will own the infrastructure and take the risks? As with nuclear, what will the pricing structure be in the long run? Is it even practical? The few billions committed by the Treasury is certainly not enough to make Britain the greenest nation on Earth.

Much the same financial scrutiny needs to be applied to yet another scheme for the state subsidising home ownership. If Mr Johnson is proposing that the taxpayer guarantees the debts of first-time buyers in return for a tiny 5 per cent deposit during a recession, he had better come clean about the exposure. The risks to the public finances of HM Treasury taking on the negative equity of young homeowners are clear and unacceptable. Still less desirable will be the effect on house prices, artificially inflating them, pushing them once again out of reach and demanding an even bigger state subsidy.

For a party supposedly devoted to the free market, individual responsibility and balancing the nations books, a state-fuelled housing boom attached to a one-way bet for first-time buyers is reckless. The British government should leave mortgages to HBOS, Santander, the Nationwide Building Society and others who better understand what they are doing. At any rate, it is unlikely that Mr Johnson will still be prime minister in 2030, to answer questions about failed policy moonshots. The irony may be that it will have to be a Labour government that has to deal with a decade of mismanagement. 

Some adore Mr Johnson's blithe optimism and self-conscious witticisms, the style and delivery honed in the Oxford Union Society, dashed-off columns in The Spectator and countless Tory rallies and after-dinner speeches. It works well as a pleasant diversion in normal times, especially in front of an audience of boozed-up businesspeople, starry-eyed Brexiteers or cultish Tory activists. As a response to a national emergency in acountry with one of the worst Covid death rates in the world, it is worse  than woeful; it is an insult."

I'm not sure this link will work but here it is . . https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/boris-johnson-conservative-party-conference-speech-coronavirus-b835670.html

[Roger]

Keir Starmer does a forensic on BJ's 'Ministerial Code' promises last year - felt quite sorry for Boris as KS tears the promises apart, one by one. Ruthless. Worth a watch 

https://youtu.be/XH1t5onPecc?t=77

[Roger]

I like William (Lord) Hague - because we first saw him as a tot, I always think of him as a littl'un but he's 6' or more I believe. Even though he's a Tory, he often speaks good sense IMVHO   

" . . . it has been heartening to witness the Government getting something very obviously right: the procurement of vaccines and their distribution to millions of people. Just as encouraging for the future was the measured reaction of ministers to the indefensible behaviour of the European Commission last Friday. Rather than anything threatening or jingoistic, Boris Johnson and his cabinet colleagues employed quiet reason and diplomacy to resolve the situation."

and "So it is worth noticing that the ship of government is sailing a little more smoothly now, even in the stormiest of seas, and it is impossible to avoid noticing that this has happened over the last two months. The Government is being run in a different way in February from the way it was run in November. There may be many reasons for that: ministers are more experienced in their jobs, the new Cabinet Secretary is well into his role, the Prime Minister took stock and saw that things had to change. All of these things are probably true. Everyone will recall, however, that something very specific happened in November. That was when Dominic Cummings left Downing Street and his role as the PM’s senior adviser."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/01/dominic-cummings-gone-government-has-rediscovered-succeed/