A thread to catalogue the eloquence, dignity, diplomacy and wisdom of Boris Johnson II

[Brian]

So how did you campaign and vote in that referendum?

Campaign? I’ve never campaigned. As for how I voted, why do you ask?

What I didn’t vote for was PR because it wasn’t an option on the paper, had it been I would have done so. What did you vote for or do you not know?

I’m guessing UKIP!

You’re at it again. Why would you say (type) that?

 

[ff1d1l]

Apparently this is genuine

 

[TheDecameron]

Gosh ! The interviewer is my youngest son's double. Quite spooky. Same looks, mannerisms, gestures ... Only the voice is different.

He’s been moonlighting. Make sure you get a good birthday present this year.

 

[alanbeeb]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...e-to-probe-of-no-10-events-in-sue-gray-report

This is beginning to look like a conspiracy between the cabinet office and the Met to obfuscate and confuse the outcome of any report into a dribble that won't point at anything and we'll never know.... And so Boris can keep going.

 

[NeilR]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...e-to-probe-of-no-10-events-in-sue-gray-report

This is beginning to look like a conspiracy between the cabinet office and the Met to obfuscate and confuse the outcome of any report into a dribble that won't point at anything and we'll never know.... And so Boris can keep going.

He'll have to face the voters at some point. In the mean time, the Tory party is being slowly destroyed.

 

[ks.234]

He'll have to face the voters at some point. In the mean time, the Tory party is being slowly destroyed.

I fear not. The desperate thing is that the lies and deceits that made Johnson popular will still be popular after Partygate has gone.

What is substantially wrong with our politics will remain

 

[notaclue]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...e-to-probe-of-no-10-events-in-sue-gray-report

This is beginning to look like a conspiracy between the cabinet office and the Met to obfuscate and confuse the outcome of any report into a dribble that won't point at anything and we'll never know.... And so Boris can keep going.

I'm sure funny handshakes were exchanged all around.

In a few months, a minor story will emerge that the Met have decided not to pursue the matter any further. Nothing to see here. Move along.

 

[gingermrkettle]

What did you vote for

I voted to get rid of FPTP and for a system that, though not perfect, is a big improvement on what we have. Did you vote to keep FPTP?

 

[AnilS]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...e-to-probe-of-no-10-events-in-sue-gray-report

This is beginning to look like a conspiracy between the cabinet office and the Met to obfuscate and confuse the outcome of any report into a dribble that won't point at anything and we'll never know.... And so Boris can keep going.

Hear comes the cover up and whitewash.

Why would the MET NOT investigate the more serious allegations?

It's the serious ones that actually need investigating.

Completely corrupt from top to bottom, both government and MET.

 

[Dave H.]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...e-to-probe-of-no-10-events-in-sue-gray-report

This is beginning to look like a conspiracy between the cabinet office and the Met to obfuscate and confuse the outcome of any report into a dribble that won't point at anything and we'll never know.... And so Boris can keep going.

I stand to be corrected if the report emerges and is worthwhile after all, but ISTM this completely neuters the Gray report. There may be other things in it, but far and away the most important material is that concerning the parties and possible breaches of lockdown guidelines and laws by the PM (and perhaps other significant figures).

That's exactly what the Met is investigating. So the Met's request effectively amounts to killing the report, at least the parts of it that matter most.

 

[Tony L]

The conservative establishment will never allow honest scrutiny of the conservative establishment. Sue Gray has to hand her report to someone with the power to redact it. Cressida Dick has proven countless times she willingly leads a highly partisan and political police force and her officers are once again complicit in a crime. The police would have been well aware of any illegal gatherings in the Downing St gardens as several officers were guarding it as they do every day. I have little doubt this will be anything other than a whitewash on all sides.

My suspicion is we aren’t done with leaks yet so it would not surprise me if after any whitewash or dilution more pictures of events found they way into the public domain contradicting the establishment narrative. It is clear there are people ‘inside’ who, for whatever reason, want to bring Johnson down, and I doubt they’ll stop if these establishment investigations don’t do their work for them.

Regardless any damage to the government is obviously a good thing, and the longer it all keeps Johnson on the ropes and approval ratings in the gutter the better. That said it also acts as a distraction from the real crimes of this government; the theft of £bns siphoned to donors for zero national benefit, the creeping authoritarianism and erosion of our hard-won human rights and civil liberties, the punitive regressive taxation changes, the isolation, inflation and economic collapse due to Brexit etc etc.

 

[The Far North]

Given Starmer's legal background, he should be front and centre calling out the Met on what they are actually saying here. Cressida Dick said on camera the other day that not everyone involved would necessarily be issued with a fixed penalty, so Starmer should be right in there demanding to know whether this is the maximum penalty she is considering using. If there is evidence of criminality deserving a greater sentence, then I can understand the desire not to have that undermined by Sue Gray's report, but Starmer needs to act today if he is to have any credibility.

 

[Nero]

.....and what about the poor buggers who were fined thousands of £ during the pandemic? Do they have a right of appeal?

 

[ks.234]

The conservative establishment will never allow honest scrutiny of the conservative establishment. Sue Gray has to hand her report to someone with the power to redact it. Cressida Dick has proven countless times she willingly leads a highly partisan and political police force and her officers are once again complicit in a crime. The police would have been well aware of any illegal gatherings in the Downing St gardens as several officers were guarding it as they do every day. I have little doubt this will be anything other than a whitewash on all sides.

My suspicion is we aren’t done with leaks yet so it would not surprise me if after any whitewash or dilution pictures of events found they way into the public domain contradicting the establishment narrative. It is clear there are people ‘inside’ who, for whatever reason, want to bring Johnson down, and I doubt they’ll stop if these establishment investigations don’t do their work for them.

Regardless any damage to the government is obviously a good thing, and the longer it all keeps Johnson on the ropes and approval ratings in the gutter the better. That said it also acts as a distraction from the real crimes of this government; the theft of £bns siphoned to donors for zero national benefit, the creeping authoritarianism and erosion of our hard-won human rights and civil liberties, the punitive regressive taxation changes, the isolation, inflation and economic collapse due to Brexit etc etc.

Yes.

The basic problem is, I feel, what it is that we vote for.

By and large we vote a government in to manage the economy. Despite the fact that inflation is still the order of the day and looking back every recession we’ve had has happened when right wing Laissez faire or Monetarist ideology has been at the helm, Leftish governments are not trusted to manage the economy.

Instead of trusting governments to manage the economy as they see fit, perhaps the electorate should start to say what it wants the economy to do.

Surely everyone, left, right or centre, can agree that the economy should, as an absolute minimum, deliver on the best quality health and education available, and to do everything humanly possible to tackle climate change.

If the electorate cannot find a way to be clear about it’s priorities, we will always end up with governments that prioritise their own short term agenda for personal advantage.

 

[ks.234]

The Metropolitan Police has asked senior civil servant Sue Gray to make "minimal reference" to events they are investigating in her report.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60166997

 

[Nick_G]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...e-to-probe-of-no-10-events-in-sue-gray-report

This is beginning to look like a conspiracy between the cabinet office and the Met to obfuscate and confuse the outcome of any report into a dribble that won't point at anything and we'll never know.... And so Boris can keep going.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Aren't they three of Rees-Mogg's children?

 

[Seanm]

Feeling vindicated in not having invested any hope or attention in this insulting pantomime. Relying on the media and anonymous Tory insiders to get us out of a situation they themselves concocted was always going to lead to disappointment. And as for having any expectations at all of the Met, surely the most corrupt and sinister institution in the country, well. None of these people are ever going to investigate themselves or risk any serious damage to the Conservative Party.

 

[Dave H.]

Thinking about it, it seems that the crucial step was the timing of the referral to the Met.

If the report had been published, and simultaneously Gray had said that in preparing the report potential law breaking had been uncovered so she was now referring the matter to the Met, the process would have been far more transparent.

It's tempting to see conspiracy where none exists, or where simple, mundane bungling is a more likely explanation. But this does seem like a strikingly deliberately and obviously planned chain of events.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Thinking about it, it seems that the crucial step was the timing of the referral to the Met.

If the report had been published, and simultaneously Gray had said that in preparing the report potential law breaking had been uncovered so she was now referring the matter to the Met, the process would have been far more transparent.

It's tempting to see conspiracy where none exists, or where simple, mundane bungling is a more likely explanation. But this does seem like a strikingly deliberately and obviously planned chain of events.

An alternative view might be that publishing the report, then announcing the referral to the Met might have given the Met a way to duck out, on the (admittedly shaky) basis that the published report compromised any possible investigation.