A thread to catalogue the eloquence, dignity, diplomacy and wisdom of Boris Johnson: V Gone-ish!

[sean99]

It’s an unprecedented situation; a PM who simply refuses to stand down, and who can’t be sacked. The best option is for the 1922 Committee to speed up the leadership election process so that Boris is gone in weeks rather than months.

Failing that, I guess a Labour-led vote of no confidence could work, but only if the vote was specifically of no confidence in the PM rather than in the Government, and I don’t know if that would be allowed.

I think a better and more immediate option might be to call Rentokil and have No.10 fumigated.

 

[Tony L]

Sky have just replayed Johnson’s speech again in full. It really is worth listening to again very closely. He seems extremely careful what he says and he concedes absolutely nothing. It is mostly attacks at his party turning on him, puffing himself up, and it says nothing whatsoever about resigning.

 

[Le Baron]

Sky have just replayed Johnson’s speech again in full. It really is worth listening to again very closely. He seems extremely careful what he says and he concedes absolutely nothing. It is mostly attacks at his party turning on him, puffing himself up, and it says nothing whatsoever about resigning.

I watched it about 45 minutes ago. What struck me most was his 'cheeriness', fake or not. And his going out on the same lies with a catalogue of fake 'achievements'..."biggest investments for 100 years..". Which he is really attributing to himself. He was addressing his faithful in the electorate, as if to say 'look Tory Party, look at my genius you are throwing away'. And as you say there was no real talk about resigning, but rather "the party have decided that.." a new leader is required. Amazing lack of self-awareness.

 

[Tony L]

He was addressing his faithful in the electorate, as if to say 'look Tory Party, look at my genius you are throwing away'.

Yes, that bit was very clear. He was very careful to claim the huge mandate, the only one the Tory Party have had since 1979, as his alone. It wouldn’t surprise me if he attempts to take the party down with him in order to retain that as a personal achievement. It opens a no doubt highly lucrative speaking career of “I led the Conservative Party to their greatest victory and the herd turned on me…”. I certainly don’t think he is gone yet and I hope there is a lot of trouble for the Tories ahead.

PS If the opposition get their shit together and unify around PR it could be the last Tory victory in history! The Tory Party can never win a fair election. The problem here is obviously Labour.

 

[The Far North]

Sky have just replayed Johnson’s speech again in full. It really is worth listening to again very closely. He seems extremely careful what he says and he concedes absolutely nothing. It is mostly attacks at his party turning on him, puffing himself up, and it says nothing whatsoever about resigning.

Boris gonna Boris, and do it for as long as he possibly can. It also reminds me of "Drop the dead donkey" where new boss Gus goes round the staff saying "I'm not really here" and "brave decision George"

 

[Le Baron]

He was very careful to claim the huge mandate, the only one the Tory Party have had since 1979, as his alone

I'm usually fairly on the ball, but I missed that. That they haven't had an actual majority mandate like that since '79. It's no doubt the case that the last victory was Brexit-driven so with that unravelling by the day the outlook might not be anything like as victorious as that 2019 aberration. Hope maybe.

 

[Nick_G]

Relax. Not only is she nuts and quite probably corrupt (as an AG supporting law breaking), can you really see the UKIP base (formally known as Tory activists) supporting her? Or Patel, Zahawi, Sunak, or the Saj.....for that matter.

They didn't vote Brexit in order to ....cont p94.

It will be either Wallace (bit suspect on Brexit though), Daunting Penny or the Truss!

The other thing about that 'interview' that really made my blood boil was that there was no challenging of Braverman's remarks. Two of the 3 purposes of the BBC are to educate and inform, and, as it would appear that a significant proportion of the electorate vote Conservative, then maybe it would be good to remind listeners that being 'anti-woke' is a BAD THING and opens the door to fascism. What's happening under Putin is a pertinent example of the end result.

Crazy, hideous, and stupid.

 

[Tony L]

I'm usually fairly on the ball, but I missed that. That they haven't had an actual majority mandate like that since '79. It's no doubt the case that the last victory was Brexit-driven so with that unravelling by the day the outlook might not be anything like as victorious as that 2019 aberration. Hope maybe.

My wording isn’t good, they achieved a majority two more times with Thatcher, then Major and even once with May. Just nothing on the magnitude of 1979 or 2019. Totally flawed FPTP system obviously, but it is designed to give Tories majorities.

 

[Yank]

So if Thatcher was the British Reagan, Tony Blair was the British Bill Clinton, and Boris Johnson was the British Trump, where's the British Obama or even the British Biden?

 

[TheDecameron]

So if Thatcher was the British Reagan, Tony Blair was the British Bill Clinton, and Boris Johnson was the British Trump, where's the British Obama or even the British Biden?

Suella Braverman is Ivanka Trump with delusions of competence. Michael Gove is the Beltway Shooter

 

[matt j]

or even the British Biden?

Well I think Bruce Forsyth is no longer with us so we don't really have a Biden comparison. A bumbling, stumbling mess of an old man, if he even makes it to the mid terms it will be a miracle never mind the next election.

 

[Nick_G]

So if Thatcher was the British Reagan, Tony Blair was the British Bill Clinton, and Boris Johnson was the British Trump, where's the British Obama or even the British Biden?

Mick Lynch?

 

[twotone]

So if Thatcher was the British Reagan, Tony Blair was the British Bill Clinton, and Boris Johnson was the British Trump, where's the British Obama or even the British Biden?

There’s never been a non white non Protestant PM here Disraeli was a ‘Jew’ but he wasn’t really cause his mother wasn’t Jewish, Blair became a catholic once he left office.

 

[twotone]

Mick Lynch?

Probably Bevin or Attlee.

 

[Tony L]

So if Thatcher was the British Reagan, Tony Blair was the British Bill Clinton, and Boris Johnson was the British Trump, where's the British Obama or even the British Biden?

The Thatcher/Reagan comparison holds up, maybe even the Blair/Clinton to some degree (Clinton was far brighter), but I’d argue we haven’t had anyone even remotely of Obama’s intellectual ability, nor anyone delivering the quality of speech that is written by/for Biden (Biden’s presentation is poor, but the content intelligent, brave and unflinching). UK politics is mainly at the Trump level. Really poor quality candidates burping up simplistic three or four word slogans and expecting to win elections through a flawed system that rules out any serious challenge to the two failed establishment parties.

There are no good speeches here ever, just endless dumb slogans, chants and bravado (‘Brexit means Brexit, ‘get Brexit done’, ‘tough on crime and the causes of crime’, ‘for the many not the few’ etc etc). The standard of debate really is piss poor and aimed at the lowest-IQ tabloid front page rather than actually addressing real issues with open debate and logical reform. I’d kill for an Obama-grade politician here. The closest we have is the Greens’ Caroline Lucas, but she’ll never be able to win against a totally rigged Tory election system and a bovine Labour Party who refuse to challenge it.

 

[Le Baron]

British Obama was arguably Cameron, who himself was the Tory Blair (not to be confused with Tory Bliar).

Also Reagan was the American Thatcher. She was well onto the monetarist train before him.

 

[ks.234]

So if Thatcher was the British Reagan, Tony Blair was the British Bill Clinton, and Boris Johnson was the British Trump, where's the British Obama or even the British Biden?

There is no ‘odd one out’, they all have something in common!!

 

[Bob McC]

There’s never been a non white non Protestant PM here Disraeli was a ‘Jew’ but he wasn’t really cause his mother wasn’t Jewish, Blair became a catholic once he left office.

Boris Johnson is a convert to Catholicism.

 

[matthewr]

it says nothing whatsoever about resigning.

But he's resigned as party leader and the process is underway to pick a new leader and once that is done the new leader gets to form a government. Nothing Johnson can do to stop this now.

So he's definitely done as PM and this is just about him hanging around as caretaker for the next month or so.

Although the excellent Peter Stefanovic says it might drag on for ages:

https://twitter.com/PeterStefanovi2/status/1545112557932929028

 

[ks.234]

The Thatcher/Reagan comparison holds up, maybe even the Blair/Clinton to some degree (Clinton was far brighter), but I’d argue we haven’t had anyone even remotely of Obama’s intellectual ability, nor anyone delivering the quality of speech that is written by/for Biden (Biden’s presentation is poor, but the content intelligent, brave and unflinching). UK politics is mainly at the Trump level. Really poor quality candidates burping up simplistic three or four word slogans and expecting to win elections through a flawed system that rules out any serious challenge to the two failed establishment parties.

There are no good speeches here ever, just endless dumb slogans, chants and bravado (‘Brexit means Brexit, ‘get Brexit done’, ‘tough on crime and the causes of crime’, ‘for the many not the few’ etc etc). The standard of debate really is piss poor and aimed at the lowest-IQ tabloid front page rather than actually addressing real issues with open debate and logical reform. I’d kill for an Obama-grade politician here. The closest we have is the Greens’ Caroline Lucas, but she’ll never be able to win against a totally rigged Tory election system and a bovine Labour Party who refuse to challenge it.

Yes Obama is better that Trump, and Blair is better than Thatcher and just about anyone is better than Johnson, but the problem is that they all sing from the same hymn book, some louder than others, but they all mouth the same words