🔥Bojo under fire 🔥

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson

Gods, I fucking hate the system run by people like this clown that has brought my country almost to its knees. I get enraged just hearing his name or looking at him. When does this end? How?

Get this fat Bam-Bam looking bastard out of office! Can’t stand to look at this creature.

I can't bear to look at his mug either. Now Dominic raab is anovver story. And Kier starmer.

R2 our country is far from on its knees. You sound hyyerical.

Have you forgotten the dire 1970s?

The 1930s?

How did this happen? Why don't you go ask those red wall voters in the northeast why they got tired of Labour's unfulfilled promises?

Boris is getting the fall men like him usually get: a few shiny successes, and they forget that old maxim, "In politics, a week is a year, and a year is a lifetime."

But if you think Starmer is going to put it all back together, think again.

We have the same problem many other European countries have now: much of the electorate hate them ALL and trust none of them.

Britain is not on its knees. It's a second rung power, like Japan, as befitting its size. Its better actually, instead of trying to hang on to delusions of past grandeur.

LOL the British left is even loonier than our own variety.

Sadly, the people in line to replace him are ten times worse than he, if only by dint of the fact that they don’t share his urgent overriding desire to be popular and liked. He’s only been held back from even more awful legislation by his needy, insecure people-pleasing streak.

Boris, get orf me land!

His wife runs him.

Why do the Libs hate Christmas?

Grease fire in Downing Street 10, please.

This is all over a Christmas party. Amazing.

Four parties while everybody else was supposed to be locked down.

A journalist on the SKY News press preview the other night said that Boris is one of those men, not unlike Clinton and Trump, who weren't really held accountable for their mistakes until very late in the day. I think that's a fair assessment. It would be just like Boris to lose it all over crap like illicit parties and a pay to play scandal, instead of, say, selling secrets to Putin or Beijing.

If Clinton had been able to keep it in his trousers once in the Oval Office, he wouldn't have been so easy to set up. But it never dawned on him that he should, because, after all, he'd been doing it all his life and look how successful he was! He cost Gore thousands of votes that might have ensured Bush didn't get in,, which also meant that American probably would never have invaded Iraq . . . etc., etc.

Boris' real Achilles heel right now isn't Labour and Starmer, but Boris' own backbenchers. The only thing Starmer's got going for him is that he isn't Jeremy Corbyn. If Boris is lucky, Omicron will blanket everything else. And Boris' other decent card is that nobody, absolutely NOBODY, wants Liz Truss as PM. Dishy Rishi may be another matter, but Rishi's day hasn't come yet, any more than Boris' day had come whilst May was out being run over by the EU bulls.

Word has it that May, who has been looking to put the boot into Boris for some time, is trying to get a NO CONFIDENCE vote on the docket for this Thursday.

If true, and Boris survives it, he might have a chance at redeeming his premiership. Of course, May survived one, too, and we know how that way.

You couldn't make it up.

R7 - You have NO idea.

lol. Britain is a shithole, especially after Brexit. I can’t believe the country is back to thinking they’re an empire. They’re more delusional than Americans.

No, r13, it’s all over the fact that the video shows Johnson’s staff laughing at evading the rules they set for the rest of us which, rightly or wrongly, kept old people isolated in care homes and families watching on skype as their relatives died from covid.

That video crystallised something which I think many people already sensed about Johnson and his government: he never feels bound by rules of decency.

Hey R5, you sound like a Bright Young Thing satire of yourself. Does Evelyn Waugh write your dialogue?

So is the issue that he had dangerous super-spreading parties when he should have been socially distanced, or that he forced everyone to lock down when there was no actual reason for it?

If he had any fear of illness or death he would have been giggling with friends time after time.

In my imagination, dinner & soirées at No.10 look exactly like the Skeksis banquet in Jim Henson’s DARK CRYSTAL.

R20 NOT. He would NOT have been.

R19 - Yes, I have a Ouija board and every time I put a post on DL, I bring him up.

So what's your point: the 1930s and 1970s weren't dire? Britain hasn't survived worse than Boris Johnson? Those former red wall voters didn't put him in #10 in 2019 with an 80+ seat majority?

Fuck, we were still rationing through1956 whilst the Allies rebuilt Germany.

Are you arguing style or substance?

If substance, you're simply wrong. Does it suck right now? Yes, but, really - compared to near starvation, rationing, the Blitz, the miner's strike in the 1970s when absolutely everything was shit?

Britain isn't about to disappear into the Atlantic. It's survived worse than this.

If style - merci du compliment. Waugh was acknowledged as one of the greatest prose stylists of his generation.

R20 - The issue is that whilst the rest of us were severely limited in how many people we could gather with, Johnson's government was having fun parties that broke all the rules the rest of us were living under.

It may not have been intended to as such, but it reads as two fingers up to the rest of us. And, it demonstrated that Johnson has no control over his party. He insists he was assured the party didn't take place. Well, then, he's lying or stupid or gullible.

Coming on the heels of the sleaze scandal, and yet another frantic government scramble to deal with the latest variant and seemingly changing its tune every time the wind changes, it's not a good look.

The only consolation is that things don't seem to be much better in France, Austria, Germany . . . antivaxx and antimandate riots, people screaming "Freedom!" as if they were Wallace being drawn and quartered . . .

Really, it beggars description.

In my view, human beings are only wired for short-term thinking. It's astonishing that we've got as far as we have.

Westminster on fire!!

Johnson is in on it, they had him in waiting to pull off this scam for years. His old man is a eugenicist.

R26 for real? Do you have a source for that?

He won't be removed as Prime Minister. He's at the vanguard of the new no-shame politicians - they just don't give a shit.

[quote]much of the electorate hate them ALL and trust none of them.

The electorate realize that they're ALL identical: authoritarian, doctrinaire, dictatorial, bigoted, hypocritical, racist, self-serving.

Sorry, but we oughtn’t skate past the allegation that BoJo is complicit in population control. That’s a big claim...

R20 Right? But oddly plausible, I'd like to know more.

If we’ve learned anything about shithead cons, they don’t take responsibility or resign. They double down and throw blame.

R32 Just like Corbyn and Labour.

R30 that is a conspiracy theory from antivaxx nutjobs.

His hair is a mess and his life is a mess( six kids by five different women)

R34 Oh, hadn't thought of that.

Seven children now!

Yecch! He has those same weird genes that make all his kids look alike and ugly.

r27 Here's BoJo's father saying that the ideal population of the UK (currently approx 70 million) should be ideally reduced to 10-15 million, 25 million max.

Boris Johnsons father Stanley Johnson wrote a book in the 1980's called the (The Virus) and within its pages it speaks about a vaccine being used for depopulation. Fast forward to 2021..his son is prime minister during a very unbelievable similar scenario. Let's contemplate the odds of that?

[quote]His hair is a mess and his life is a mess( six kids by five different women)

For the record he has (at least) 7 kids by (at least) 3 different women.

There's 4 kids with his ex wife Marina Wheeler, 2 with current wife Carrie, one with Helen MacIntyre, a woman he fucked when married to Marina Wheeler.

There are rumours about another child which appear to stem form a court judgment about Johnson which stated "the father's infidelities resulted in the conception of children on two occasions" but another of his mistresses Petronella Wyatt has said she had an abortion when they were in their relationship.

If there was another golden haired moppet with Johnson DNA in existence then I have no doubt the press would fight tooth and nail to report it.

R39😱😱😱😱

And he’s straight up getting a deal to republish that book

Thing is though, how does Boris’ passel of offspring mesh with his father’s ideas about population reduction?

Just a touch of passive rebellion on Boris’ part, or?

[quote] Stanley Johnson wrote a book in the 1980's called the (The Virus) and within its pages it speaks about a vaccine being used for depopulation

Having not read the text in question, may I ask—did said vaccine sterilise those who got it?

r42 With the elite it's rules for thee and not for me.

The apple didn't too far from the tree, Boris wrote this little piece "Global over-population is the Real Issue" in 2007. Oh the sheer irony of this corrupt breeder with 7 spawn.

Off with his head!

Was Johnson, Sr's literary opus fiction? It says "thriller" in the description.

Meanwhile, back at polling and polling stations . . . Labour took an 8pt. lead for the first time a vording to YouGov.

The North Shropshire by-election is Thursday. If the Lib Dems take it, as they seem to stand a chance of doing, it will smash another record, as I don't think the seat has been Tory once since 1904.

Those backbenchers will eat Boris alive if North Shropshire falls. It's not Labour with the knives out for him, but his own, and I can't blame them. The backbenchers are far more in the trenches and on the front lines when it comes to the less glamourous work of government.

As they say, interesting times.

R39/R44 to be fair, in that short paper Boris Jr. made no mention of any sort of forced sterilisation or culling of the herd, unless we take ‘access to birth control’ to be euphemistic.

[quote] All the evidence shows that we can help reduce population growth, and world poverty, *by promoting literacy and female emancipation and access to birth control*.

[quote] We seem to have given up on population control, and all sorts of explanations are offered for the surrender. Some say Indira Gandhi gave it all a bad name, by her demented plan to sterilise Indian men with the lure of a transistor radio.

There again, in the same paper, Boje does make the unflattering and direct comparison between humans and harmful bacteria:

[quote] hen you look down on what we are doing to the planet, you have a horrifying vision of habitations multiplying and replicating like bacilli in a Petri dish.

R47 It's pretty much impossible for the opposition to take down a Prime Minister who has a majority.

Luckily they don't need to, the Tories always eat their own.

OP if BoJo could self-immolate inside the Houses of Parliament, that would be brill. Smoke out the rats, yenno.

He is dangerous. The buffoon act is just that, an act. People with no sense think he’s “a character” with all his affairs and babymothers. What that says to me is irresponsibility and poor judgement. He is a deeply worrying presence and he has more moves than a box of worms. He is entirely self serving and looking out for his own benefit. John Bercow has the measure of him.

[quote]John Bercow has the measure of him.

John Bercow bullied his staff so horribly one of them had a breakdown and was forced to sign a non disclosure agreement to get a settlement.

John Bercow also protected his old friend Keith Vaz, the disgraced Labour MP who had already been suspended from the House of Commons twice.

Bercow is as corrupt, poisonous and pompous as Boris Johnson. It's a disgrace that pro Europeans are willing to overlook that because he's anti Tory.

One of the few good things Boris Johnson has done as Prime Minister was to block Bercow's peerage.

I didn’t say I was a fan of John Bercow’s.

R52 - Nailed it. Bercow was a disgrace.

Johnson is something of a cipher. He isn't stupid, and I wouldn't say he's never had an idea I disagreed with. In politics, as in the rest of life, timing is everything. BoJo was in the right place at the right time.

I don't think he's malign by nature. He was elected Mayor of London twice, and has held onto that seat for a long time. But I do think his primary flaw, as with Hamlet, o'ercomes whatever promise he had, and that is an assumption that bell is never chiming for him.

He can sound like a canny politician, and twice Mayor of London, a long-term MP, and then PM, suggest he has some gifts as a politician.

It's GOVERNING he's incapable of. Being an MP, or even Mayor of a city with the budget of a decent-sized country, isn't the same as governing from Downing Street and Parliament.

It's a fine but telling difference.

Yes, I know it's nearly impossible to unseat a sitting PM with a majority. But if a No Confidence vote occurred and enough of his backbenchers who make up that majority revolted, and he didn't survive it, a leadership contest ensues. And Johnson won't be an option in that contest.

It's the last thing the country needs right now, to be honest, but these MPs are fighting for their political lives, especially in the northeast.

If Johnson doesn't show he can tighten up his governing game, it could get ugly. Especially if the Lib Dems take North Shropshire on Thursday.

Of course, the thought of Liz Truss in Downing Street could cancel all that out.

I dunno. Arsk me after Thursday's byelection.

^*never had an idea I agreed (not disagreed) with

Wouldn’t count on an unseating.

How on Earth do you force out a man who won a huge majority, is unshamable, *only* cares about his own position, and knows where all the people who want him gone bury their bodies?

Same scenario never saved Thatcher, UK PM's can be gone in a week.

Bo Jong Un won't be gone anytime soon. He's protected by the NWO/Agenda 30/pharma elite and committed to execute their dystopian script to the letter. Dude ain't going anywhere.

R56, it is not difficult at all. As soon as he looks like a vote-loser, he will be ousted.

If a large number (not even a majority) of his MPs think he is destroying their chances of re-election they will get rid of him very quickly. They got rid of Thatcher after she won every ideological battle and 3 elections. And her party revered her, whereas many MPs only elected Johnson out of sheer desperation to beat Corbyn, who had come scarily close to beating May in the previous General election.

I don’t rule out Johnson recovering from his present scandals. He is a formidable charismatic figure who appeals to many. But equally, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that he will be glad to quit. He has aged immensely over the past 2 years. His massive ego would be bruised but he could move back to journalism, earn a fortune.

@R52

[quote] John Bercow bullied his staff so horribly one of them had a breakdown and was forced to sign a non disclosure agreement to get a settlement.

Oh honey, everyone bullies everyone in British society. It is part and parcel of the social class system, including race and gender. Workplaces are minefields, if people were as prone to litigation as in the US, 80% of the companies would have been sued by now, for one reason or another.

Boris is one fascinating trainwreck of a mofo. Babies everywhere, fat, sloppy, horny, hyperbolic, occasionally charming. He's in over his head and needs to go. He probably will get forced out. The British Conservatives are wedded to their Dickensian view of life and society. Boris only delivered Brexit. Everything else horrifies them. He's an ass.

@R54

[quote] He can sound like a canny politician, and twice Mayor of London, a long-term MP, and then PM, suggest he has some gifts as a politician.

Ffs, let me guess, you are from Finsbury, or the Whitehouse Consultancy, Hanover Communications?

He'll never resign over this. He's just like his buddy Trump. How many "Do as I say, not as I do" moments did Trump glide through with some calls of "Resign!", then nothing?

He doesn't have to resign, the Tory Party can remove him without causing an Election.

A Prime Minister isn't a President, Bojo was simply the leader of the party when The Conservative Party won the Election, he doesn't have a personal mandate from the electorate..

If the party decide that they want a new leader they can remove him, very quickly.

R58 if you’re going to post about Deep St@t3 conspiracy, at least have the decency to show your work and enlighten other posters. Most of us haven’t a clue what you’re on about.

Bojo- Isn't that what they used to call Howard Johnsons- no wait- that was HOJOS

After Cummings's trip to the Castle, and posh girl Allegra laughing about how to spin a No.10 party, if (probably when) there's a third such incident I'd be surprised if Johnson survives.

For the first time last week I could see him not fighting the next election. Significantly his biggest press cheerleaders The Sun and The Telegraph turned on him on their front pages.

When all parties plus public opinion turn on you there's but one way out. I can quite see a queue of Tories outside the PM's office telling him he must go for the sake of party and country. Doubtless the build-up will be intense, Westminster Green packed with journalists, a feeding frenzy like the last days of Thatcher. And I'm certain Johnson will go with a flourish.

The PM has the character of a bravura actor, writer or painter rather than a politician. In those former iterations he'd be branded a 'hellraiser.' No senior politician of modern times has been so indulged as he's been. His gifts will quite soon make him many millions.

Those £millions will quickly go when he cheats on Carrie and they inevitably Divorce.

R69 or when one of his illegitimate sprogs drag him through the courts...

R56 - see R57.

He has a large majority. But he can't at this point guarantee that they will all support him in a No Confidence vote. There are at least 60 of them who are baying for his blood like werewolves at a full moon.

Whether they'll have the spine at the last moment to vote against him in enough numbers to make it stick isn't something I'd bet my hard-earned on. But it's not impossible, either. His "shame" and character have nothing to do with it. The only question is, do enough of his own backbenchers feel threatened enough re their own political careers and retaining those northern red wall voters to go to the wall for those careers, instead of for him?

You need 15% to trigger a No Confidence vote. In this case, 54 letters would have to be submitted to the 1922 Committee to get it into the House for a vote. So far, at last count, anyway, only a dozen have been submitted.

Johnson has to do more than fend off a No Confidence vote. He has to right the ship, prove to his own party, not just the Great Unwashed, that he can govern effectively. If he doesn't pay now with a No Confidence vote, he will pay later in 2023, although, admittedly, much can happen in that time.

As I said, I wait with interest to see what happens in North Shropshire on Thursday. If it falls to the Lib Dems and enough Tories stay home in disgust, Johnson will face massive heat.

When Bolsover fell to the Tories in 2019, Labour were in shock. The tables may be turned by week's end.

As we say here, turnabout is fair play.

The1922 Committee are all literal vampires, aren’t they? They have to be.

98 MPs voted against his COVID restrictions.

The last Tory leader to be voted out by the Electorate was John Major in 1997, before that Edward Heath in 1974.

In truth the population of the UK have very little influence over who will be Prime Minister and PM's are more afraid of their own party's than the Electorate.

Well, the voters do vote in or out the party on power, i.e., with a.majority. So, whoever leads the party in power is PM. A heavily disliked party leader can cost his or her party a majority. The poster is right that on a more direct level his own ministers and backbenchers can be far more dangerous..

As, witness what happened to Boris yesterday when 100 of his own MPs voted against his bill. It only got through because Labour supported it. It was a stunning knife in the back.

Then there's North Shropshire today. If it falls to the Lib Dems, the gladiators fighting to the death in the Coliseum won't be a patch on it.

An update on the letters necessary to trigger a vote of No Confidence - because of the Omicron situation, the head of the 1922 Committee has told MPs that emails will be accepted in lieu of formal letters, and the word on the street is that in addition to the dozen already submitted, dozens more are being readied to be sent if North Shropshire is lost. Dishy Rishi is privately assuring backbenchers that he was against the vaccine passport and another lockdown, and Liz Truss is holding little lunches/teas for backbenchers to cosy up to them in preparation for running in a leadership contest triggered by a vote of No Confidence.

Christ, talk of swimming with the sharks.

^*For Yanks who may not know: the 1922 Committee is composed of all the backbenchers, although frontbenchers may be invited to attend meetings. The purpose of the Committee is to serve as a channel for rank and file Conservative MPs to let leadership know their concerns. The leaders of the 1922 Committee can play a pivotal role on the leadership of the party. It takes 15% of the PCP (Parliamentary Conservative Party, as opposed to the broad membership of people in the country identifying as members - there is a corresponding Labour Parliamentary Party) to trigger a vote of No Confidence. In BoJo's case, 54 letters would be required. If a dozen have already been submitted, it would only take 42 more to set off a No Confidence vote.

It should also be noted that the Tory MPs who voted against Boris' vaccine passport bill a couple of days ago defied the party Whip in doing so.

Lastly, the by-election today is for a deeply pro-BREXIT seat. The Liberal Democrats were deeply REMAIN. So you can imagine the fallout if feeling is running so high that North Shropshire votes in a Lib Dem MP. The seat hasn't changed its view of BREXIT - only of Boris and the job the government is doing domestically.

I know British Parliamentary and electoral processes can seem Byzantine to others. Hence, the explanations.

All I know about Truss is that she used to write the most insufferable and persnickety humour books about English grammar. They weren’t as funny as the DL grammarian trolls.

The idea that Liz Truss could be Prime Minister is hilarious. The woman is a halfwit and acts like she has learned human emotion from an instruction manual.

The clip below is from a speech she gave after she was advised to seem more upbeat and likeable.

R79 who allowed that townie harridan to speak on rural affairs? She comes from the middle of Oxford.

She'd be no more ludicrous than Bojo as leader, which is a damning indictment of British politics.

Also be less dangerous as PM than she is as Foreign Secretary.

Lib Dems claiming victory already by a "comfortable" margin, before the official count is over.

Call it the Tories' Bolsover Moment.

Sic transit gloria.

There will be blood on the morrow.

Lucky Rishi Sunak found reasons to fly back early from the US. He'll be well-placed to take soundings from supporters keen to set him up for the top job. No reports yet of Christmas parties last year at No.11.

Where's Francis Urquhart when we need him?

[quote]All I know about Truss is that she used to write the most insufferable and persnickety humour books about English grammar. They weren’t as funny as the DL grammarian trolls.

Liz Truss is the Foreign Secretary.

Lynne Truss is a writer who published Eats, Shoots And Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

They are not the same person.

In other news, LB Johnson, former US President and B Johnson, current UK Prime Minister, are also not the same person.

That didn't go well for Bojo then?

Fun to hear from Larry King on UK politics at R78!

R72 They serve a useful purpose. They are the MPs who do the rank and file work of connection with actual constituents on a regular basis. The backbenchers with no Cabinet or high flying committee positions.

The Cabinet and PM don't have to listen to them, but occasionally it might be wise to do so.

What happened in North Shropshire yesterday is a good example of why.

There are some parallels here with Biden's low polls,because in some ways, things are not dire here any more than in America. The unemployment rate is lower than before the pandemic, the government is trying to deal with inflation, the vaccine rollout was incredibly fast and effective, the supply chain issues are easing.

But the marquee items, the fights over how to live with what looks like a ceaseless epidemic, the migrant crisis, the tax and insurance cost raises, and the corruption/sleaze from lobbying to illicit parties, are front and centre.

What the people see or think they see is a failure to keep the party firmly in hand, inconsistency in messaging, and contempt for actual voter concerns.

Multi-generational Labour voters did it to Labour and Corbyn in 2019 GE. Now, it's the Tories' turn.

It's somewhat grimly satisfying as a warning to both parties.

All PMs should recite Shelley's "Ozymandias" to themselves before heading out to PMQs.

Wait till April and those tax rises go into effect.

This is going to get worse before it gets . . .

even worse.

Plus inflation and a higher than usual rail price increase. Quite the in-tray, Boris!

R89, Brexit means Brexit!!!

R74, which makes the lies they spread about Brexit wrestling back control from uncountable bureaucrats in Brussels all the more pertinent. Isn't it time for the UK elecorate to prise control off the Tory party?

R76, Liz Truss looks so dumb. I wonder what she thinks her chances are

R92 *unaccountable*

*electorate*

From my observations of Liz Truss her "I'm a bit dim, what's going on?" thing is an act. She absolutely knows she's talking bullshit and that extraordinary "I'll be opening pork markets!" is her way of getting around it. She's worked out that the only way to say the ludicrous things she's obliged to say is to say them as though they truly are amazing - she knows there's no way she can prettify them or give them depth, so why not just go with the flow? The party grassroots love it.

But, hey, what does it say for British diversity - and in the Tory party too - when the main contenders for next party leader and hence next PM are a brown man and second-generation immigrant (from both Southeast-Asia and Africa), a woman and a gay man? With somewhat longer odds there's also a brown woman and second-generation immigrant (from both Southeast-Asia and Africa too).

North Shropshire hadn’t fallen in two hundred years? Lol. Not only is BoJo done, but the Tories are FUCKED.

I really don't think that's the right way to interpret this result, r96. It's a by-election result and by-elections, especially mid-term, often throw up this kind of "rebuke" to the government of the day that will not be repeated at a general election. The previous MP, Owen Paterson, was sleaze incarnated, which is why he had to stand down. Moreover, this was a Lib Dem victory with Labour a distant third. The Lib Dems are not about to sweep the country, and neither are Labour.

Bozo has always been an idiot but Labour have always struggled to get ahead of him and the Tories in the polls. The only previous time Starmer managed to pull ahead of him in the head-to-head polls was when Starmer was first elected Labour leader, and that was brief and fleeting.

Don't forget that the Tories still have a huge majority of 79 seats - which is another reason why the Tory voters of North Shropshire were comfortable with voting for a Lib Dem because they knew that this would pose no threat to the government but would send a message. It's not rare for the Lib Dems to win a seat from the Tories at a by-election when the Tories are in power - Lib Dems are seen as less of a threat or less lunatic than Labour (even though in some areas they are more lunatic).

The Tory party has given Bozo until the local elections in May to fix things. If the results then are bad for the Tories, proceedings will start to get rid of him and replace him with someone less ridiculous and more competent.

[quote]the main contenders for next party leader and hence next PM are...and a gay man

The gay man being?

Michael Gove, r98. Ok, it's a stretch to say he's a main contender, but I'm sure that's how he sees himself.

How many illegitimate kids does this dunce have yet? Ten?

(Let alone all the abortions he's probably responsible for.)

[quote]Michael Gove

Is this an open secret, or has there been an acknowledgement? Missed that memo. Underwhelmed he's on our team, to be honest.

Michael Gove has too much baggage (secrets) , which will be exposed when his divorce from Glenda Slagg (Sarah Vine) is finalized.

Had he be openly gay he might have been a contender.

Have you seen his soon to be ex-wife? She's way butcher than him.

If you painted Sarah Vine Green she'd look like Shrek

I'm hoping Nadine Dorries throws her name into the hat as leader, just for the shit and giggles.

[quote]Michael Gove has too much baggage (secrets), which will be exposed...

Doubtless the charmless Gove holds cards of exposure too. He and Glenda Slagg were formerly best mates with 'Dave' Cameron and wife till they all fell out. Plus Gove felt confident enough to ruin Boris's first leadership run by running himself, and publicly declaring BJ wasn't fit for leadership. Later, Boris kept this front-stabber notionally onside by putting Gove in the cabinet! What a nest of vipers. The big-buck memoirs should be lively.

Boris knew damn well that the restrictions were necessary because he, like Donald Trump, had to be hospitalized with a serious case of Covid himself. And, like Donald, he went on flouting the guidelines because he's a feckless manbaby who doesn't give a shit about other people and whose idea of looking after his own interests is to do whatever he feels like and make others clean up after him.

I think what makes Johnson's parties during lockdown, like Cummings' trip to Barnard Castle, is that at the same time they were doing these things, ordinary people who broke the rules about travel and gatherings were subject to arrest and substantial fines.

[quote]ordinary people who broke the rules about travel and gatherings were subject to arrest and substantial fines

And ordinary people who strictly abided by the rules didn't see loved ones for final Christmases or on their deathbeds. Seeing the former press secretary casually laughing on tape about how to spin a No.10 party during lockdown is unlikely to be a vote-winner.

[quote] Boris kept this front-stabber notionally onside by putting Gove in the cabinet!

Well, you know how the old adage goes. Boje mightn’t be intelligent, but he is savvy.

The Tories can't afford to run Gove or Truss in a GE. Neither are liked by the public. The risk would be staying home or crossing lines to Lib Dems or Labour.

Entrenched Labour voters crossed lines in 2019 partly because of how disliked and distrusted Corbyn was. Result: 80+ majority for Boris.

They played it safe in 2016 with May. Didn't go well.

It's true that in politics, a week is a lifetime, so making predictions now even as far as June is dangerous.

Just the same, my guess is that it's more likely that they'll be looking at picks like Dishy Rishi.

Look, the in-tray was monstrous from the start with the BREXIT deal. Then the pandemic struck and most political leaders seemed to be flailing as they tried to keep looking as if they had things under control and knee what they were doing, when they didn't. Everyone was caught between not wanting to be in charge of a crashed economy or millions of dead people. Add in the migrant crisis, the NHS cracks, the inflation, the pissed off natives tired of it all, the bad news is just everywhere.

A PM isn't a magician. They've got or had antivaxx and antilockdiwn riots in France, Austria, and Germany, and I think recently, even Australia.

Americans are pissed off at Biden, the French are pissed off at Macron . . .

It's a really bad patch politically all around.

One or two mistakes can be expected.

But Boris seemed to have forgotten who was instrumental in putting him in #10. HS2 cancelled, insurance tax rise at the same time as huge iflation, interest rates driving up mortgage costs . . . those are going to cost him up north next time around.

They'd cut him some slack on a couple of parties, but not on top of the other shit that spells broken promises and levelling down, not up.

[quote]Americans are pissed off at Biden, the French are pissed off at Macron . . .

Notable that no embattled Western leader has so much as made the faintest dog-whistle about where this unholy mess began. No-one except that former 'leader' without filters.

[quote]Notable that no embattled Western leader has so much as made the faintest dog-whistle about where this unholy mess began. No-one except that former 'leader' without filters.

Oh fuck off. Macron has used Covid to boost his standing amongst the French, with ridiculous stand offs with the border closure with the UK. He has an election coming up next year and is fighting populists so he has to be seen to be firm.

And the European Union's stance on the Astra Zeneca vaccine was disgraceful

And before you call me a Boris fan, he's a useless lying cunt who should never have been selected as an MP let alone allowed to become Prime Minister.

R111 - Nailed it. Macron can thank le bon Dieu for Zemmour splitting the far-right vote. Until Zemmour officially threw his hat in the ring, Macron and Le Pen were nearly pegging level in the first-round polls. But, thanks to Zemmour, Macron is leading by about 10pts. or was last time I looked.

[quote] And the European Union's stance on the Astra Zeneca vaccine was disgraceful

Why do you throw the Astra Zeneca debacle in here?

He means AstraZeneca's inability to produce the vaccine the EU ordered, r113. In any case, it doesn't matter anymore because even the UK has dumped the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and is relying almost wholly on the German vaccine made in Belgium.

The people in that video seem exhausted. I feel sorry for them.

We need to put blame where it's due: on the unvaccinated, not weary government leaders sneaking some cubes of cheese and plonk.

The fact they they are hopeless, lying cheaters give them an exemption to the rules that they imposed. The public is weary.

^^^doesn't^^^^

saw a tweet that called harry kane the boris johnson of football and well, yeh

Frosty's gone.

Liz is trussed in as Mrs. Brexit.

r119 You're about 2 scandal's behind.

It must be mentioned that "Frosty the No-Man" was a brilliant if bitter moniker that Brussels had for the departed BREXIT negotiator. I can't stand Truss. She's Theresa May 2.0. Christ, I'd sooner have Dodgy Dave back.

R116 - The public is weary, but if Boris hadn't tried to get Paterson off the hook for the lobbying scandal (which as an Englishman enrages me far more than the unseemly parties did), not cancelled HS2, shown some spine on the migrant crisis, and told Sunak to stuff those tax rises up his arse and find some other way to shore up the NHS, the weary public might have been a good deal more inclined to shrug off the stupidity of the parties.

If Boris hadn't added in to the parties the stupidity of trying to save Paterson, cancelling HS2 after all those promises of levelling up made to the former Labour voters in the Northeast who put him into #10, the tax rises that will make life more miserable for the least well off, and showed the public something other than endless photos of British ships helpfully brining country-shopping illegal migrants ashore whilst French police look the other way, Boris might have skated successfully.

But put it all together and you have a political catastrophe.

I read Boris is thinking of bringing IDS back to sort it.

Right, mate. And don't forget the cup of hemlock.

What is wrong with Theresa May? She was treated appallingly by her own party only for being a woman. A repetition of what they did to Maggie

[quote]What is wrong with Theresa May?

Even Boris would have made a visit to the dreadful human disaster of Grenfell Tower. May's absence from the site of this tragedy just a few miles from No.10 was an abject failure of leadership.

May's problem was she was the one who had to do most of the Brexit negotiations when remainers and leavers were still at each others throats over 2nd referendum, article 50 or what form it should take so she took the full force of the Tory party and general infighting over that. If Boris had been PM at that point I doubt he'd have lasted either. When he actually got in the path was much clearer since there were no options left. And yes she was an uncharismatic robot with a manifesto of reintroducing fox hunting and taxing the elderly.

@R123

[quote] Even Boris would have made a visit to the dreadful human disaster of Grenfell Tower.

Has he? You obviously don't know BoJo. He doesn't even have the decency to turn up to flood ravaged areas — where people have lost their homes and businesses — if it doean't affect his chances for re-election.

And talking about Grenfell, Boris already has a very poor record with the AfroCaribbean community who were most affected by it. When Major of London he was invited to the Notting Hill Carnival and snubbed them without bothering to give an explanation

R124, "taxing the elderly" which is what Rishi Sunak is thinking of doing or has done already. So what is your point?

Theresa did all the heavy lifting; they used her, dropped her and then when the coast was clear in came Boris the Clown and his motley crew of cowardly bankbenchers, the puppetmasters.

*sorry Mayor*

[quote] So what is your point?

r126 That you don't announce that during an election, piss off 90% of your electoral base and get surprised when the 1922 committee stab you in the back for the result.

[quote]Even Boris would have made a visit to the dreadful human disaster of Grenfell Tower. May's absence from the site of this tragedy just a few miles from No.10 was an abject failure of leadership.

Are you just making this up?! Theresa May famously DID visit Grenfell shortly after the fire, when she was booed. The issue was that she didn't meet survivors.

[quote]When Major of London he was invited to the Notting Hill Carnival and snubbed them without bothering to give an explanation

And another lie. As Mayor of London Boris Johnson attended the Notting Hill Carnival multiple times. Google Boris Johnson Notting Hill and you can see the photos for yourself!

It's not as if there isn't plenty to criticise Tory Prime Ministers for without making shit up.

Who's the top Tory contender vying to replace him as PM?

Nobody yet, they will just leave him until everything begins to improve.

Probably late spring or early summer before he's forced out.

I'm actually starting to like the Tories bi-annual regicide. Sadly. It's probably the best safeguard to democracy in the Western world right now.

[quote] It's probably the best safeguard to democracy in the Western world right now.

The best safeguard to democracy is that a small group of entitled bigots, the ERG get to choose for 'the people' who 'they' want?

r133 Yes? I don't say that as a mark of pride, and you should certainty take that as a worrying indicator of the state of the west. But the Conservatives recreating Julius Creaser in the senate the most efficient succession policy is concerning.

God the genes for that hawk nose are strong--almost all of his children have that nose.

Theodore Apollo (the name!) looks just like Boris did at the same age.

R134 Thatcher was the exception to the rule, a long run for a Tory PM is 6 years usually. Four to five years has been the average since 1900, Bojo might just scrape three.

[quote]Conservatives recreating Julius Caesar in the senate the most efficient succession policy is concerning.

Classical scholar Boris would expect no less.

BoJo is the Teflon Clown.

Boris isn't teflon. He's a damaged brand.

And the Tories are ruthless when it comes to damaged brands.

I hated the way Labour MPs were so passive in resigning themselves to accept the crank Corbyn as their leader, but they played a patient game, watched him burn the party to the ground and are now rebuilding it slowly but surely.

Corbyn wanted moderate sensible MPs replaced with blindly loyal ideological toadies - he didn't manage that other than in a handful of seats where Labour MPs defected or stood down, but the Tories did, and now they're saddled with a bunch of nutters. Reasonably sensible Tories like Rory Stewart, Justine Greening, Amber Rudd, David Gauke are now gone - Nadim Zahawi would be the least worst option to take over of those currently in the cabinet.

Latest YouGov poll has 71% (up 7% from a month ago) saying Johnson is doing a bad job.

[quote] Boris isn't teflon. He's a damaged brand.

For now. He really seems to be getting away with everything; in 6 mohts' time his popularity will be back in full swing. In politics people forget very fast, anyone can make a come back.

I can't believe his hair!!!

How can anyone vote for someone who can't even be bothered to comb his hair?! He doesn't give a shit about himself, I doubt he gives a shit about anything else.

I would never!

Wishing Boje a very harrowing Ghost Of Xmas Future

Politics aside, he is so ugly.

Power must really be a drug, so strong as to make women leave his...looks, aside.

he looks disgusting with that messy hair

So he's survived the Christmas party kerfuffle?

Of course he did, R145. He truly is the Teflon Clown.

British history is full of Prime Ministers who were quickly jettisoned at the earliest opportunity. Meanwhile, the UK is experiencing record COVID infections and possible lockdowns, but talk of BoJo being toppled has subsided.

He benefits from the fact there's no competent successor waiting in the wings.

[quote]So he's survived the Christmas party kerfuffle?

The top civil servant in charge of 'the inquiry' had to step back, because his department had, um, another party. So now another top civil servant is in charge of 'the inquiry.'

This will take its time to report, and eventually come out on a very busy news day when hundreds of further news cycles have made all public thoughts of parties recede.

'The inquiry' will be an exquisite shade of whitewash, which throws a minor bone to those still rightly outraged at all the entitled flouting, by in effect saying, 'Naughty naughty, but there's work to be done, so let's all move on.' Said civil servant will be rewarded in due course with a juicy promotion.

[quote] Power must really be a drug, so strong as to make women leave his...looks, aside.

It's the reason why his current bird is with him in the first place. She's a grifter and a power-hungry manipulator.

[quote] This will take its time to report, and eventually come out on a very busy news day when hundreds of further news cycles have made all public thoughts of parties recede.

There is clearly someone who was in Downing Street during the pandemic who has the receipts and has no intention to let the subject go away.

There is real cut through on further restrictions. Not just Boris but in Scotland and Wales too, where from next week you can watch a game of football in the pub with 5 friends but watch it in a sports stadium in the open air. The one rule for them and one rule for us sentiment is still stinging.

In some ways the media has overreached. Some of the ‘parties’ were simply people eating food at their desk and doing a quiz - something I did in my office yesterday:. But the photo of the huge group of people with the awful London mayoral candidate cut through, as did the photo of the Downing Street garden party

There is no way Labour is going to let this go.

There are competent successors r146, but now is not the time to make any moves. The party will wait until the local elections in May. If the results are awful for the Tories then there will be more serious talk about replacing him. Now is not the moment though, especially since it's better for Boris to take the flak from the parties.

It's official - BORIS HAS BEEN FINED FOR BREAKING LOCKDOWN RESTRICTIONS!

And just like that, Carrie was fined too.