The United Kingdom and the Death of Boris Johnson as we know it.

[ecuk268]

3 hours ago, rallyboy said:

Chris.

Grayling.

An appointment that tells you everything you need to know about no.10.

I wouldn't trust him to operate kitchen  roll without injuring himself - a truly pointless minister, totally devoid of any skills, with a car-crashesque track record of inept failure that makes the PPE debacle look like a glorious triumph.

And yet we pay him huge money to lead things....

We've gone beyond The Thick of It.

Failing Grayling in charge of the Intelligence Committee.

A good example of an oxymoron.

[shurlock]

 

Don't know if its the honey monster attempting a hold-up, a smurf in a gimp mask or just a strange outbreak of camel toe.

[Tamesaint]

Boris Johnson indicates at PMQs he has not read winter coronavirus report https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/15/boris-johnson-indicates-at-pmqs-he-has-not-read-winter-coronavirus-report?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

 

What has this country done so wrong to be led by this buffoon? You would have thought, during the current situation,  that he could have bothered to read a report about a possible second covid spike.

Perhaps Johnson is trying to match Trump. I never thought that I would say it but. come back Theresa. All is forgiven.

  

 

[badgerx16]

30 minutes ago, Tamesaint said:

What has this country done so wrong to be led by this buffoon?

  

 

Vote for him ?

[Batman]

2 hours ago, Tamesaint said:

Boris Johnson indicates at PMQs he has not read winter coronavirus report https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/15/boris-johnson-indicates-at-pmqs-he-has-not-read-winter-coronavirus-report?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

 

What has this country done so wrong to be led by this buffoon? You would have thought, during the current situation,  that he could have bothered to read a report about a possible second covid spike.

Perhaps Johnson is trying to match Trump. I never thought that I would say it but. come back Theresa. All is forgiven.

  

 

What went wrong?

People actually championed Jeremy Corbyn..some who did are even posting on this thread, scratching their head at what's gone wrong

 

[Hockey_saint]

Can't think why they were so desperate to have patsy Failing Graling in charge of that report.....I wonder how far the scope of that investigation goes......could be worth watching.

[Tamesaint]

The swamp draining continues. Blimey even Julian Lewis is considered to be a  pinko these days. At least Failing Grayling has been put back into his place.

[badgerx16]

2 minutes ago, Tamesaint said:

The swamp draining continues. Blimey even Julian Lewis is considered to be a  pinko these days. At least Failing Grayling has been put back into his place.

Grayling reaches a new level of 'fail' with his inability to win a rigged election.

[Lord Duckhunter]

1 hour ago, Tamesaint said:

The swamp draining continues. Blimey even Julian Lewis is considered to be a  pinko these days. 

Good, he was a remainer. 

[saint1977]

Good on Lewis, whilst I don’t agree with him on Brexit and a couple of other issues, he could see the government was trying to cover over and turn off the inquiry on potential Russian interference and Putin’s level of involvement in Vote Leave and the Conservative party. People aren’t fooled by the focus on China either, this is may be an existential threat to Cummings career and therefore Boris. The treatment of Lewis at not getting Failing as their patsy tells you how worried they are.

in other news, the chair of the committee investigating Patel who has so far failed to clear her of bullying and poor behaviour allegations has been moved roles.

Red Wall seats to be hit hardest in the manufacturing base according to a new report into a no deal Brexit. Populism working well then?

[saint1977]

3 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Good, he was a remainer. 

Are you sure? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Lewis#Expenses

[Tamesaint]

23 minutes ago, saint1977 said:

Are you sure? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Lewis#Expenses

Duckie is talking bollocks ... yet again.

[shurlock]

Julian Lewis is as swivel-eyed as they come - a Brexit Spartan who voted against May’s deal on all three occasions (unlike Johnson and JRM but hey they have posh accents and do the deferential duffers on here love a posh accent).

Such is the way that the swivels are defining pinko and nonpinko, remainer and leaver, there’ll be nobody left on their side except those on a watchlist and oddball platforms like parler. 
 

Keep eating your own lads.

 

Edited 16 July, 2020 by shurlock

[revolution saint]

49 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Good, he was a remainer. 

Jeez, you absolute muppet!  Julian Lewis is a remainer?  What planet are you living on?  

Personally I'm just glad for the first time in my life I don't have an official conservative as my constituency MP.  

[CB Fry]

Such a pinko

https://twitter.com/BrexitCentral/status/1113409698072530945?s=20

[CB Fry]

It's like listening to Paddy Ashdown in full flow.

I

[CB Fry]

[shurlock]

Even guido's fluffers aren't happy with Johnson's decision (once you get past the comments about pakistanis and bedwetting over masks). I'm just glad that our lot is made of sterner stuff.

[whelk]

4 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Good, he was a remainer. 

Got confused with your Spectator articles?

[Tamesaint]

An interesting piece in today's Times from Matthew Parris - a lifelong Tory.

I am sure that there will be derision from the usual suspects on here and talk of "pinkoes" and swamps. Sensible Tories however may well take heed of articles like this. Johnson definitely should.

 

 

 

“The point about the Mafia is that people must be scared. As Boris Johnson approaches his first anniversary as prime minister next week, he could do worse than remind himself of the 1972 blockbuster, The Godfather. The film brings it home. The important thing is not to be disregarded. You can do some seriously crazy stuff with horses’ heads in victims’ beds but only so long as people can see there’s method in your madness. Only a year into Mr Johnson’s tenure at Downing Street the outside world has noticed the madness but begins to doubt the method. And once people start deriding you, you’ve lost it. This week’s shenanigans over the chairmanship of the intelligence and security committee provide a gruesome illustration. The ISC is a body of MPs and peers nominated by the prime minister in consultation with the leader of the opposition and provides a measure of democratic scrutiny of our spooks. The rule is that it elects its own chairman. Instead Johnson tried to impose a chairman on the newly-appointed committee: Chris Grayling. And failed. A cross-party majority was secured by another of its Tory members, Julian Lewis, who is much better qualified for the role than Mr Grayling. Downing Street responded by expelling Lewis from the parliamentary party, claiming he lied to the whips. I doubt it. This is just madness. Among those who take these things seriously, the immediate response will have been horror. Then bafflement. And, as I write, bafflement yields to derision. As one former cabinet minister put it, “There’s nothing worse than being an ineffectual bully”. Downing Street is now trying to blame the chief whip for messing up the whipping, inadvertently admitting there was whipping. So Downing Street wanted this vote whipped. Let’s not get too deep into the weeds of custom and practice with the ISC. I do realise any prime minister is bound to have an interest in who chairs such an important body. The tension between the whole theory of independent committee-work by MPs, and party whips’ discipline, results in a messy and delicate compromise involving nods and winks and a mutual understanding about how far things can be pushed. So it should not shock us if rumour had reached the ears of Tories on the ISC that No 10 would like to see Grayling in the job. But this would have to have been attempted so diplomatically, with Downing Street ready if necessary to yield gracefully, privately and early. Instead Johnson has simply jackbooted his way into a public confrontation, lost it, then tried to kick a respected colleague out of the party. Was it really Johnson? Or Dominic Cummings, who famously believes backbenchers are pond life and can be disregarded? So far, so Mafia. But it’s no good being a bunch of bullies, twisters and worse if people start to think you are losing command. Colleagues’ attention will start shifting to conjectured successors. I said “bullies, twisters and worse”. There exists a very great danger that 21st-century cynicism encourages the mistaken belief that all governments are like this, and that there is no honour in public administration. The huge crop of new (and often unexpected) Tory MPs who think of themselves first and foremost as local heroes have arrived at Westminster with, perhaps, youthful memories of The Thick of It or even House of Cards, but less grasp of the part that personal honour and collective integrity have always played in parliamentary party politics. Honour has not always won the contests. There has always been deceit, corruption, self-interest, cowardice and unscrupulous careerism. But honour, and its counterpart, shame, have always been there, always active, sometimes victorious, and always in the fight. Until Johnson. It is he who sets the tone. Selected by his party for no known personal qualities except a brassy and shallow appeal to voters that colleagues (correctly) thought might win them an election, he now sits atop an administration more as mascot than commander: but a mascot, the public face of a government, can set the tone. Watch him flop and teeter as he did yesterday at his Covid-19 press conference: not so much a prime minister as a chap doing his variable best to put across the message he’s been handed to deliver. Not for a moment does he look like the architect of the policy. Imagine Margaret Thatcher in Johnson’s place at that lectern yesterday, and the command she would have conveyed. Johnson’s combination of insouciance, dysfunction and shamelessness is a modern wonder. Forgive my dwelling on the shamelessness, because it’s so important for both the media and the public not to shrug this off as normal. But it isn’t normal for your principal adviser to behave as Mr Cummings did in his flight to County Durham, claiming his boss knew nothing of it, and then carry on as if it didn’t matter. I understand what he went through and might have done as he did. But he’s one of the most important men in the government. It is not normal for such behaviour to be without consequence. The stupid scrap with the ISC is not normal, and the whipping (which failed) was shameless. The attempt (which also failed) to bury the ISC’s report on Russian interference was shameless. The removal from her post of the senior civil servant Helen MacNamara, who has completed a report into allegations of bullying by the home secretary, Priti Patel, is shameless. If the report is ever published we’ll never know if it has been doctored. This is not normal. Robert Jenrick’s behaviour as communities secretary was not normal when he intervened to force through a huge planning application that had been turned down at every stage in the process, potentially saving the applicant, a Tory donor whom he had met at dinner, some £40 million. He should have been moved from his post. Jenrick’s still there, given cover by Johnson. This is shameless. But his colleagues always knew his shamelessness from his personal history. That he isn’t even clever, however, they are only now discovering. If competence shone through then I think the shamelessness would remain an embarrassment that his colleagues would be prepared to suppress. But he’s losing, and the combination of incapacity and shamelessness is beginning to curdle. Boris Johnson’s colleagues see, and for the most part shrug, look away, or bite their tongues. I don’t believe this can last — but then I never thought he’d make it to the top in the first place. I now believe he won’t survive as prime minister through the year ahead — and maybe I’m wrong again. But as long as he lasts, his shamelessness shames Britain.

[Hockey_saint]

1 hour ago, Tamesaint said:

An interesting piece in today's Times from Matthew Parris - a lifelong Tory.

I am sure that there will be derision from the usual suspects on here and talk of "pinkoes" and swamps. Sensible Tories however may well take heed of articles like this. Johnson definitely should.

 

 

 

“The point about the Mafia is that people must be scared. As Boris Johnson approaches his first anniversary as prime minister next week, he could do worse than remind himself of the 1972 blockbuster, The Godfather. The film brings it home. The important thing is not to be disregarded. You can do some seriously crazy stuff with horses’ heads in victims’ beds but only so long as people can see there’s method in your madness. Only a year into Mr Johnson’s tenure at Downing Street the outside world has noticed the madness but begins to doubt the method. And once people start deriding you, you’ve lost it. This week’s shenanigans over the chairmanship of the intelligence and security committee provide a gruesome illustration. The ISC is a body of MPs and peers nominated by the prime minister in consultation with the leader of the opposition and provides a measure of democratic scrutiny of our spooks. The rule is that it elects its own chairman. Instead Johnson tried to impose a chairman on the newly-appointed committee: Chris Grayling. And failed. A cross-party majority was secured by another of its Tory members, Julian Lewis, who is much better qualified for the role than Mr Grayling. Downing Street responded by expelling Lewis from the parliamentary party, claiming he lied to the whips. I doubt it. This is just madness. Among those who take these things seriously, the immediate response will have been horror. Then bafflement. And, as I write, bafflement yields to derision. As one former cabinet minister put it, “There’s nothing worse than being an ineffectual bully”. Downing Street is now trying to blame the chief whip for messing up the whipping, inadvertently admitting there was whipping. So Downing Street wanted this vote whipped. Let’s not get too deep into the weeds of custom and practice with the ISC. I do realise any prime minister is bound to have an interest in who chairs such an important body. The tension between the whole theory of independent committee-work by MPs, and party whips’ discipline, results in a messy and delicate compromise involving nods and winks and a mutual understanding about how far things can be pushed. So it should not shock us if rumour had reached the ears of Tories on the ISC that No 10 would like to see Grayling in the job. But this would have to have been attempted so diplomatically, with Downing Street ready if necessary to yield gracefully, privately and early. Instead Johnson has simply jackbooted his way into a public confrontation, lost it, then tried to kick a respected colleague out of the party. Was it really Johnson? Or Dominic Cummings, who famously believes backbenchers are pond life and can be disregarded? So far, so Mafia. But it’s no good being a bunch of bullies, twisters and worse if people start to think you are losing command. Colleagues’ attention will start shifting to conjectured successors. I said “bullies, twisters and worse”. There exists a very great danger that 21st-century cynicism encourages the mistaken belief that all governments are like this, and that there is no honour in public administration. The huge crop of new (and often unexpected) Tory MPs who think of themselves first and foremost as local heroes have arrived at Westminster with, perhaps, youthful memories of The Thick of It or even House of Cards, but less grasp of the part that personal honour and collective integrity have always played in parliamentary party politics. Honour has not always won the contests. There has always been deceit, corruption, self-interest, cowardice and unscrupulous careerism. But honour, and its counterpart, shame, have always been there, always active, sometimes victorious, and always in the fight. Until Johnson. It is he who sets the tone. Selected by his party for no known personal qualities except a brassy and shallow appeal to voters that colleagues (correctly) thought might win them an election, he now sits atop an administration more as mascot than commander: but a mascot, the public face of a government, can set the tone. Watch him flop and teeter as he did yesterday at his Covid-19 press conference: not so much a prime minister as a chap doing his variable best to put across the message he’s been handed to deliver. Not for a moment does he look like the architect of the policy. Imagine Margaret Thatcher in Johnson’s place at that lectern yesterday, and the command she would have conveyed. Johnson’s combination of insouciance, dysfunction and shamelessness is a modern wonder. Forgive my dwelling on the shamelessness, because it’s so important for both the media and the public not to shrug this off as normal. But it isn’t normal for your principal adviser to behave as Mr Cummings did in his flight to County Durham, claiming his boss knew nothing of it, and then carry on as if it didn’t matter. I understand what he went through and might have done as he did. But he’s one of the most important men in the government. It is not normal for such behaviour to be without consequence. The stupid scrap with the ISC is not normal, and the whipping (which failed) was shameless. The attempt (which also failed) to bury the ISC’s report on Russian interference was shameless. The removal from her post of the senior civil servant Helen MacNamara, who has completed a report into allegations of bullying by the home secretary, Priti Patel, is shameless. If the report is ever published we’ll never know if it has been doctored. This is not normal. Robert Jenrick’s behaviour as communities secretary was not normal when he intervened to force through a huge planning application that had been turned down at every stage in the process, potentially saving the applicant, a Tory donor whom he had met at dinner, some £40 million. He should have been moved from his post. Jenrick’s still there, given cover by Johnson. This is shameless. But his colleagues always knew his shamelessness from his personal history. That he isn’t even clever, however, they are only now discovering. If competence shone through then I think the shamelessness would remain an embarrassment that his colleagues would be prepared to suppress. But he’s losing, and the combination of incapacity and shamelessness is beginning to curdle. Boris Johnson’s colleagues see, and for the most part shrug, look away, or bite their tongues. I don’t believe this can last — but then I never thought he’d make it to the top in the first place. I now believe he won’t survive as prime minister through the year ahead — and maybe I’m wrong again. But as long as he lasts, his shamelessness shames Britain.

It's that last line that does it for me.

[The Kraken]

At least we got to drain the swamp though, eh?

[buctootim]

I do like Matthew Parris. He’s the kind of one nation Tory who could persuade me to vote Conservative again. So it’s no surprise to read the contempt he holds Johnson in. 
 

I agree many MPs already have developed serious concerns about Johnson’s fitness to lead but they won’t ditch him until all the upcoming shit show  elements can. be dumped on his shoulders. But the problem with the Tory party has become more fundamental and systemic than one sub par leader. The party membership and cohort of MPs has changed, there are a lot of unprincipled headbangers,, perhaps more than ever before. There is no guarantee they won’t simply elect someone even more politically out there, just with better management skills

Edited 20 July, 2020 by buctootim
more than one dump in a day

[Hockey_saint]

10 minutes ago, buctootim said:

I do like Matthew Parris. He’s the kind of one nation Tory who could persuade me to vote Conservative again. So it’s no surprise to read the contempt he holds Johnson in. 
 

I agree many MPs already have developed serious concerns about Johnson’s fitness to lead but they won’t dump him until all the upcoming shit show  elements can. be dumped on his shoulders. But the problem with the Tory party has become more fundamental and systemic than one sub par leader. The party membership and cohort of MPs had changed, there are a lot of unprincipled headbangers,, perhaps more than ever before. There is no guarantee they won’t simply elect someone even more politically out there, just with better management skills

To be fair, that's what we thought of May wasn't it? "they couldn't possibly dig up anyone as moronic as her" - turns out we were wrong.

[buctootim]

53 minutes ago, Hockey_saint said:

To be fair, that's what we thought of May wasn't it? "they couldn't possibly dig up anyone as moronic as her" - turns out we were wrong.

That's true, but to some extent her shortcomings created the desire for a 180 switch from a charisma free leader to voting in a big personality let down only by zero integrity, morals or management ability. They just swapped out one problem for another, arguably worse and longer lasting. There are still many more rounded and good MPs I could vote for if leader, Tobias Ellwood for example - good on TV, intelligent, politically balanced etc. But they don't do well in the new Tory Party.  Corbyn's greatest culpability is not that he failed to get Labour elected but rather he created the vacuum of viable alternatives that enabled a snake oil salesman like Johnson to.  

Edited 20 July, 2020 by buctootim

[Hockey_saint]

1 hour ago, buctootim said:

That's true, but to some extent her shortcomings created the desire for a 180 switch from a charisma free leader to voting in a big personality let down only by zero integrity, morals or management ability. They just swapped out one problem for another, arguably worse and longer lasting. There are still many more rounded and good MPs I could vote for if leader, Tobias Ellwood for example - good on TV, intelligent, politically balanced etc. But they don't do well in the new Tory Party.  Corbyn's greatest culpability is not that he failed to get Labour elected but rather he created the vacuum of viable alternatives that enabled a snake oil salesman like Johnson to.  

Pretty much. I'd keep an eye on Dominic Raab though. As far as Corbyn goes, perhaps he should have stuck to what he believed in (however much I disagree with it) and gone full brexiteer, we all know he is/was one...would probably have saved a bit of the red wall.

[badgerx16]

1 hour ago, Hockey_saint said:

Pretty much. I'd keep an eye on Dominic Raab though.

God, no.

[Weston Super Saint]

I'm sure we've got people here who would jump at the chance to do this....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53568610

Quote

Boris Johnson has begun the search for a spokesperson to front daily White House-style media briefings.

 

[sadoldgit]

2 hours ago, Weston Super Saint said:

I'm sure we've got people here who would jump at the chance to do this....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53568610

 

Boris Johnson shedding yet more responsibility. Who would have thought it? It makes you wonder why he went for the job in the first place. He seems to be spending very little time doing it. Still, if the rumours are true about his extra curricular activities with two lady journalists then he clearly doesn’t have the time to do any PMing in between knee tremblers.

[Wes Tender]

On 20/07/2020 at 19:28, buctootim said:

I do like Matthew Parris. He’s the kind of one nation Tory who could persuade me to vote Conservative again. So it’s no surprise to read the contempt he holds Johnson in. 
 

I agree many MPs already have developed serious concerns about Johnson’s fitness to lead but they won’t ditch him until all the upcoming shit show  elements can. be dumped on his shoulders. But the problem with the Tory party has become more fundamental and systemic than one sub par leader. The party membership and cohort of MPs has changed, there are a lot of unprincipled headbangers,, perhaps more than ever before. There is no guarantee they won’t simply elect someone even more politically out there, just with better management skills

Johnson benefits from the scorn of critics such as Parris, for it suggests the Prime Minister is still an outsider

A very good article in Conservative Home yesterday about exactly this subject and the title is self-explanatory. Naturally I already held the view that the likes of Parris were not to be taken seriously by the Party. He would feel far more at home in the Lib Dumbs nowadays.

[The Cat]

He's given his brother a peerage now. It's just shameless. 

Oh and at a time when Russian influence in politics is under question he grants one to  Egbeny Lebedev. 

[Fan The Flames]

And WTF has Theresa May's husband done to deserve an honour. Tory elite. 

[Tamesaint]

Did Boris also ennoble Lord Duckhunter for his Brexit views? 😂

[badgerx16]

https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2020/july/lord-speaker-comments-on-new-appo/

Lord Fowler, the Lord Speaker, said:  

“This list of new Peers marks a lost opportunity to reduce numbers in the House of Lords. The result will be that the House will soon be nearly 830 strong - almost 200 greater than the House of Commons. That is a massive policy u-turn. It was only two years ago that the then Prime Minister, Mrs May, pledged herself to a policy of “restraint” in the number of new appointments. It was the first time that any Prime Minister had made such a pledge.
 
“This followed a report by a special Lord Speaker’s committee chaired by Lord (Terry) Burns proposing that numbers should be reduced to 600. This was debated by the Lords itself with over 90 speakers, commanding overwhelming support. The big opportunity was for the present Government to take forward this movement for reform. I emphasise that this is not a matter of personalities. It is a question of numbers and the abandonment of an established policy to reduce the size of the House.
 
“It is also a vast pity that the list has been announced within the first few days of the summer recess when neither House is sitting, and the Government cannot be challenged in Parliament.”

[shurlock]

I see Lebedev was awarded a peerage - reminds me of a resident swivel who, without fail, gets his knickers in a twist when the (Not) Independent (pmsl) is quoted on here. Not a peep over this appointment. Good to see intellectual consistency is alive and kicking.

Edited 1 August, 2020 by shurlock

[shurlock]

1 hour ago, badgerx16 said:

https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2020/july/lord-speaker-comments-on-new-appo/

Lord Fowler, the Lord Speaker, said:  

“This list of new Peers marks a lost opportunity to reduce numbers in the House of Lords. The result will be that the House will soon be nearly 830 strong - almost 200 greater than the House of Commons. That is a massive policy u-turn. It was only two years ago that the then Prime Minister, Mrs May, pledged herself to a policy of “restraint” in the number of new appointments. It was the first time that any Prime Minister had made such a pledge.
 
“This followed a report by a special Lord Speaker’s committee chaired by Lord (Terry) Burns proposing that numbers should be reduced to 600. This was debated by the Lords itself with over 90 speakers, commanding overwhelming support. The big opportunity was for the present Government to take forward this movement for reform. I emphasise that this is not a matter of personalities. It is a question of numbers and the abandonment of an established policy to reduce the size of the House.
 
“It is also a vast pity that the list has been announced within the first few days of the summer recess when neither House is sitting, and the Government cannot be challenged in Parliament.”

By some accounts Johnson is even planning a second list of peers as early as September to reward party donors.

Edited 1 August, 2020 by shurlock

[buctootim]

2 hours ago, shurlock said:

By some accounts Johnson is even planning a second list of peers as early as September to reward party donors.

Johnson is starting to show authoritarian traits. Parliament has already been significantly bypassed and marginalised. Now he is developing a cult of patronage. 

All previous PMs that I can recall willingly  accepted the primacy of Parliament even when it restrained them, even after 10 years as PM. Johnson feels entitled to do wtf he likes only a year into the job.   

 

Edited 1 August, 2020 by buctootim

[badgerx16]

I don't think padding out and gerrymandering the Lords were on the cards last December;

"Boris Johnson’s government is eyeing radical plans to reform the House of Lords as part of a constitutional overhaul aimed at strengthening the UK and countering the rise of Scottish nationalism. Aides to the prime minister are examining the membership and role of parliament’s upper chamber, which is home to almost 800 appointed peers and focuses on scrutinising legislation. Discussions among government insiders include whether the Lords should have directly or indirectly elected members, so as to give the UK’s constituent nations a greater stake at Westminster. Any Lords reform could be part of a broader constitutional overhaul trailed in the Conservatives’ general election manifesto, and the idea of sweeping changes is being driven by Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief adviser."

 

https://www.ft.com/content/dc8f0c22-201d-11ea-92da-f0c92e957a96

Edited 1 August, 2020 by badgerx16

[hypochondriac]

4 hours ago, buctootim said:

Johnson is starting to show authoritarian traits. Parliament has already been significantly bypassed and marginalised. Now he is developing a cult of patronage. 

All previous PMs that I can recall willingly  accepted the primacy of Parliament even when it restrained them, even after 10 years as PM. Johnson feels entitled to do wtf he likes only a year into the job.   

 

"authoritarian traits." you sound hysterical. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

8 hours ago, Tamesaint said:

Did Boris also ennoble Lord Duckhunter for his Brexit views? 😂

I turned it down.

Place needs abolishing, but no point in getting angry. They all do it, from Wilson to Johnson. Part of the establishment stitch up and always will be. 

Philip May deserves a knighthood for being married to that old trout for so many years & it’s good to see a proper bloke like Beefy rewarded. Clearly the best thing about these nominations is Bercow being snubbed. Delicious. 

[benjii]

2 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

"authoritarian traits." you sound hysterical. 

It’s true though. He’s like a better educated mini-Trump. Doesn’t have the application or bottle to do the job properly so abdicates responsibility to cronies and focuses on populist statements. Views himself as above the strictures of convention and rules. Will happily lie or turn 180 if it furthers his position. He’s probably not as reprehensible in his views but the approach is similar, if slightly more subtle.

[hypochondriac]

43 minutes ago, benjii said:

It’s true though. He’s like a better educated mini-Trump. Doesn’t have the application or bottle to do the job properly so abdicates responsibility to cronies and focuses on populist statements. Views himself as above the strictures of convention and rules. Will happily lie or turn 180 if it furthers his position. He’s probably not as reprehensible in his views but the approach is similar, if slightly more subtle.

No it isn't. There's loads to criticise Boris over but nothing about him is authoritarian. If anything he's been too scared of public opinion to do anything revolutionary or new and his whole nanny state idea on obesity is the antithesis of conservatism. Boris just wants to be popular. 

[Lighthouse]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53625829

I know discussions about rape only ever go well on here but wow, quite the allegation,

[The Cat]

More money spaffed up the wall. More friends or relatives of the Tories given dubious contracts. 

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/07/its-taken-just-12-months-for-boris-johnson-to-create-a-government-of-sleaze

[badgerx16]

34 minutes ago, The Cat said:

More money spaffed up the wall. More friends or relatives of the Tories given dubious contracts. 

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/07/its-taken-just-12-months-for-boris-johnson-to-create-a-government-of-sleaze

Why would anybody be surprised ?

[Tamesaint]

8 hours ago, The Cat said:

More money spaffed up the wall. More friends or relatives of the Tories given dubious contracts. 

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/07/its-taken-just-12-months-for-boris-johnson-to-create-a-government-of-sleaze

Dont worry. Sir Major Tom earned a fifth of the money that  the Government's inefficiency wasted.

 If he could have walked a bit further he would have paid for the entire spaff.

Edited 9 August, 2020 by Tamesaint

[saint1977]

Williamson in all sorts of trouble about A Level results and the worst disparities being suffered by offspring in Red Wall seats especially. A* and A grades up 5% for independent schools (Gove and Boris will be thrilled) and Sixth Form Colleges well down. Expecting a protracted and very public appeals process by hundred of thousands of learners. BTEC and more vocational Higher Courses more accurate because more work done during the year. 

I always did better in exams and so glad I went to a top University under the Major government which believed in social mobility. That said, I think there is a lesson from the more accurate BTechs and predictions. 

 

[LGTL]

The government handling of the A Level results is disgraceful and completely disadvantages the brightest pupils in notoriously ‘poor’ performing regions or schools. Williamson is up there with Gove in terms of complete and utter incompetence as Education Secretary. 

[Tamesaint]

9 hours ago, LGTL said:

The government handling of the A Level results is disgraceful and completely disadvantages the brightest pupils in notoriously ‘poor’ performing regions or schools. Williamson is up there with Gove in terms of complete and utter incompetence as Education Secretary. 

He has been incredibly quiet during the covid crisis. You would have thought that there would be some sort of plan if schools are so important that pubs will be shut to ensure that they can stay open. Has one been formulated? Has one been announced? What measures have been introduced to resolve the issues of distancing in the classroom?  Maybe something is coming but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Weston Super Saint]

8 hours ago, Tamesaint said:

He has been incredibly quiet during the covid crisis. You would have thought that there would be some sort of plan if schools are so important that pubs will be shut to ensure that they can stay open. Has one been formulated? Has one been announced? What measures have been introduced to resolve the issues of distancing in the classroom?  Maybe something is coming but I wouldn't hold my breath.

How would you solve distancing in the classroom?

Short of building probably twice the amount of classrooms in all schools in the next three weeks, I'm not sure it's possible.  It's a matter of physical space isn't it?