As a miner's son, still living in an ex-coal field and right next door to Bolsover I'm finding the centrists love-in (James O'Brien et al) and attack of Johnson's comments completely disengenous as usual.
It's almost become a badge of honor to stand with the miners. A pointless exercise currently. If you want to have a sentiment that rings true these days then you need to be part of the movement towards the left - which means not supporting the Labour party in its current form, and in future not taking part in the tear down of leaders like Corbyn that can offer real change, and move away from the market ideology.
Also Thatcher loved the idea of cheap imported coal so Johnson can go spin on any climate issue.
Tories being Tories is not that shocking.
I have no idea what your point is?
And yet Kelvin you appear to feel an irresistible urge to respond to whatever it is that I post.
If you have no idea what my point is how about simply ignoring it?
You addressed a post to me and didn’t want me to respond to it? Perfectly normal behaviour…
Yep Kerley, problem is is this all leads to a race to the bottom and then workers have to start again trying to resist zero hours and sweated labour. People need to realise that the xenophobes and racists also oppose unions and workers' rights. This is where the LP should be making the case but Starmzy wants a little RW business-friendly coterie of a party a million miles from workers' concerns.
NB I've seen LP nonsense going on about their failures resulting from 'changes in the class structure'. Blimey, class is determined by your relation to the m of p, not on whether you wear a brilliantined short-back-and-sides and a shiny suit.
..and didn’t want me to respond to it?
No not really. It would obviously be different if you actually engaged in some sort of half sensible debate instead of mindless retorts such as "can we talk about Johnson now?".
Ignore my posts if you can't understand my point and focus instead on talking about Johnson, which despite your suggestion no one is stopping you from doing.
I look forward to reading your deep and carefully thought out critique of Johnson 🧐
... Should probably be isolating.
One of his team has tested positive, apparently.
His trips isn't going well
Hope he cockles an ankle with each step.
How long before a picture emerges of him & this aide his wasnt close to, side by side
Hes off to chequers just in case obvs
https://twitter.com/MarxMedia/status/1423762842377916429?s=19
Hiw Big do we reckon the indy poll bounce will be off the back of his visit?
… Should probably be isolating.
One of his team has tested positive, apparently.
Covids Over…….till it pushes back.
If he did go on meeting people I think that’s bad.
If the only people he’s been meeting are more Scottish Tories, a lot of who I imagine are of the ‘it’s all an infringement of my civil liberties’ brigade, just let them get on with their own little super-spreader event
Can you imagine how muche mileage the SNP would get out of contact tracing Johnsons suerspreader tour of scotland!
A useful contribution.
Hes off to chequers just in case obvs
Prime minister goes to prime ministers regular weekend retreat?
Sky News: Boris Johnson accuses charity of trying to 'airbrush' Winston Churchill's 'giant achievements'.
https://news.sky.com/story/winston-churchill-charity-accused-of-woke-attack-on-wartime-leader-after-rebrand-12402869
"It beggars belief that the man who saved this nation in our darkest hour finds himself cancelled in this way,"
I know that Johnson himself didn't say it but that's quite an achievement, just one man saving a whole nation.
"Never was so much owed by so many to just one person"
Churchill hasn't even been cancelled.
Cheap way for Johnson to generate some headlines to appeal to his acolytes.
Timing feels slightly odd though - this is kind of shit he pulls for Sunday headlines and it might draw attention away from Patel's plan to drown a few migrants.
Boris likes to think he models himself on Churchill but all he achieves is picking up some of Churchill's mannerisms, most of his failings (plus a lot of his own), but none of his qualities (I suppose by repute in parliament Churchill was supposed to be a pretty good knife in the back merchant so perhaps one).
his is kind of shit he pulls for Sunday headlines and it might draw attention away from Patel’s plan to drown a few migrants.
While breaking international law - again
(I suppose by repute in parliament Churchill was supposed to be a pretty good knife in the back merchant so perhaps one).
He was very quick-witted with wounding retorts, as this famous exchange typifies :
Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I'd poison your tea.
Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it.
He was very quick-witted with wounding retorts
During the thirties he had a real reputation for scheming behind the scenes and making sure he wasn’t on hand when the knife was put in (I suppose that would count as briefing off the record and putting other people up to do your dirty work today).
Read elsewhere that Nicolas Soames is the Trust's Chair and approves - so Boris Johnson thinks he knows better than Churchill's family.
During the thirties he had a real reputation for scheming behind the scenes and making sure he wasn’t on hand when the knife was put in
Ah I see Richie, you mean his political manoeuvrings in parliament rather than his verbal assaults.
I don't know anything about the shenanigans which may have occurred within the Tory Party during the thirties.
Although Churchill was clearly a ruthless man, as his responsibility for decisions which led to the completely unnecessary Bengal Famine of 1943, in which over 3 million people died, testifies, so I can well believe his willingness to stab others in the back to achieve his goals.
If we're looking for one man who allowed Britain to hold out till the Russians and Americans got involved I'll nominate Alfred Cyril Lovesey who found a crucial few hundred more horsepower. The politicians and generals didn't do that well really but the engineers baled them out.
^^ Similar to the scientists/vaccines currently bailing our shower of a government out.
Read elsewhere that Nicolas Soames is the Trust’s Chair and approves
Fatty is head of Serco and making a lot from Boris and Dido.
Fatty is head of Serco and making a lot from Boris and Dido.
Yeah, but he doesn't really need to, so he can afford to remind them of their station every once in a while.
It's creepy doublespeak for him to claim the charity is airbrushing history for giving a realistic nuanced picture, especially after his 'Churchill: How One Man Made Up History' book.
Richie_B
Full MemberBoris likes to think he models himself on Churchill
Yep, but that's mostly because he doesn't really know anything about the real Churchill, just the imaginary version he wrote a fanfic about.
It's hard to believe, but the Scotland-Ireland tunnel is apparently not going to happen.....
Almost as though it was a bit of hastily dreamed up 'Boris is a bit of a card' fluff to distract from something else.
Reality is coming hurtling down the tracks, though. I'm predicting a fractious and thin Christmas.
Well, who’d have thunk it?
I suppose we’ll just have to wait for next week’s announcement of an elevator to a viewing platform on the moon
That kind of shock is hard to take. Could they still throw a few billion quid at a roundabout under the Isle of Man just for the sake of it anyway? Or at least a few million at a private company doing a feasibility study (into the obviously unfeasible)?
He models himself on the gluttony.
Or at least a few million at a private company doing a feasibility study (into the obviously unfeasible)?
They're all too busy being paid hundreds of millions doing something similar re running a country with a £85bn a year hole in its revenue whilst intentionally alienating its closest partners - and needing to give £350m a week more to the NHS.
There's lots to do before they can declare it unfeasible, obviously.
🇬🇧🍆💦🇬🇧
as his responsibility for decisions which led to the completely unnecessary Bengal Famine of 1943, in which over 3 million people died
He shares some of the responsibility alongside many Indian politicians who arguably did more to ensure that Bengal starved. Such as a caste driven "relief" system which more or less ensured that poor Bengalis would see little food coming their way. A system of tariffs to control to internal movement of rice and grain, (which essentially meant that internal relief efforts stopped) and insisting that exports still go ahead. Then there's the no small matter of the Japanese Invasion of Burma, and a Typhoon. Churchill's undoubted view was that India should remain in the Empire and had a patronising view of the ability of Indians to govern themselves, and could've done more more quickly to ease the famine, as could the Indian Govt. You could argue that he took his eye off the ball, he did have a war on after all, but he's certainly not "responsible [ ] for over 3 million deaths"
He shares some of the responsibility
Seems to be the current concensus, but it's not such an eye catching headline.
You can argue who and what circumstances were responsible for the Bengal Famine both ways. As it was in the middle of a world war it is a grey area. Sending troops in to ‘deal' with strikers in 1926 and sending the majority of the free Polish army ‘home’ to Stalin at the end of the WWII are more squarely Churchill’s responsibility.
Seems to be the current concensus, but it’s not such an eye catching headline.
Just wave a Union Jack and overlay a soundtrack of Spitfires and "we will fight them on the beaches" and all the not so good stuff disappears. 👍
The point I was hoping to make was that statements like
"He single-handedly saved that nation" and "He was responsible for the death of 3 million Bengalis"
Are both empty and come from the same place and their intent is equally simplistic and dangerous (i.e. to stop the audience from thinking and exploring for themselves). Both are worthy of criticism and rejection . History is complex and rarely lends it's self to snappy one liners.
Under Priti Patel, Johnson thinks we're the Saudi Arabia of penal policy, where y'know, they behead people and it's illegal to be gay.
Under Priti Patel it's sink or swim.
What's fatso trying to hide this time? Could it be the kicking of the can down the road again on border checks - the ones that are going to cripple UK exports (even more)?
His ability to make completely crass and inappropriate remarks never ceases to amaze me. It really is a gift.
