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I'm frankly disappointed that he didn't have Dominic Cummings rattle up a pithy three word slogan on his way out the door.
Jock Right Off
Oil Price Crash
Reject Competent Government
Blame Anyone Else
...something along those lines.
Can't have the porridge gobblers making us look incompetent, what?
The UK now looks like a complete Banana Republic. And the blame for that lies completely at his door.
Some blame needs to be passed on to the idiots that voted him in, surely?
Absolutely. All the polls show that there are a substantial number of those who now know how badly they ****ed up.
His personal approval have been in freefall since March and he's turned a 26 point poll lead in April into a -5 deficit now, which looks like it'll only be heading in one direction. Quite a job in 7 months.
The Tory party is legendarily ruthless. Anyone with those kind of results is normally toast. The only reason he is still there is because who else would want the job at the moment, and seeing as Brexit is his doing, they'll make him carry the can for that impending disaster first.
I think I'm going to stick a big bet on Johnson not being PM by the end of January
I think I’m going to stick a big bet on Johnson not being PM by the end of January
I did think they were going to give him longer (until end of next year or mid 22 to make sure he carries the blame whilst they can claim a new broom) but I am starting to change my mind on that. Saw one comment apparently from a tory MP which was along the lines of Sunak doesnt have that long to launch his leadership bid since if he is still in charge of the exchequer when the bills come due he will be screwed.
What I struggle to get my head around is that if you were to ask anyone on the street 'do you trust politicians', the answer would undoubtedly be 'no'. And yet a massive chunk of the population voted for Brexit and the Tories on the basis of what they were told by Boris/Gove/Farage or what they read in the Sun/Mail or what they saw on Facebook.
I'm not sure I would call them idiots (OK, I probably would), but they must be willfully ignorant and gullible. I find it baffling that some of my relatives, who I would say were otherwise intelligent, still think that Brexit is a good idea and Boris is doing a good job. It ****es me off that as they are retired/nearly retired, they are probably going to be insulated from the worst effects of Brexit, yet their grandchildren will have to pay the price of their ignorance and stupidity.
When can we get rid of this odious turd?
There must be someone somewhere that can do better? No?
Imagine the scene.
When he does eventually slither out of No10 ,we will all look to the horizon, hope in our eyes as we await a saviour, a saviour to rescue us from this shitstorm.
Who will we see?
NOBODY
Socrates nailed it when he said the electorate need to properly understand and inform themselves for what they are voting for, or step aside. Social media and pithy slogans are not a substitute...
The Tory party is legendarily ruthless.
Just a little reminder that while anything 'union' wise can be seen as a tory party issue, its the Brexit party that's in charge.
Robert Jenrick was on Sky News this morning talking about Scotland saying he has no time for separatism or narrow nationalism - how they can say this stuff with a straight face is beyond me.
Has he tested positive for a second time yet?
Robert Jenrick was on Sky News this morning talking about Scotland saying he has no time for separatism or narrow nationalism – how they can say this stuff with a straight face is beyond me.
I know. We're being trolled by our own government.
more adam curtis recommendations but...
century of self is quite old, but its striking the similarities to the 1900's and now.
, but they must be willfully ignorant and gullible. I find it baffling that some of my relatives, who I would say were otherwise intelligent, still think that Brexit is a good idea and Boris is doing a good job. It ****es me off that as they are retired/nearly retired, they are probably going to be insulated from the worst effects of Brexit, yet their grandchildren will have to pay the price of their ignorance and stupidity.
I was disappointed so many voted based on their own historical bias, rather than what was best going forward for their grandchildren. My dad, at least, seems to have seen the error of his ways.
I’m not sure I would call them idiots (OK, I probably would), but they must be willfully ignorant and gullible.
No, not idiots, but definitely credulous fools.
I was disappointed so many voted based on their own historical bias,
Quite so.
I would have had a massive falling out with my family if I had continued to discuss it. They were incapable of rational discourse on the topic. It was instead, quite literally like talking to an animated version of the Telegraph with added doses of "those Nazis bombed us you know". Highly depressing.
Robert Jenrick was on Sky News this morning talking about Scotland saying he has no time for separatism or narrow nationalism – how they can say this stuff with a straight face is beyond me.
Robert 'Honest Bob' Jenrick?
A total crook for whom the lies just fall out of his mouth with no qualms whatsoever.
He has no morals at all - except for those he hypocritically expects others to hold.
Come on Boris knew exactly what he was doing, it's absolutely in his interests to keep the SNP popular, at a Westminster level they are not important, what's important is to keep Labour out of Scotland.
Plus devolution has not been a success unless you want to see the union break up. It's been devisive and encouraged lots of nasty nationalistic fervour in all parts of the UK and given the Conservatives a stranglehold in government with the collapse of Scottish Labour. Personally I'm not a fan, all the arguments about being together that apply to the EU apply to the Union. Let's sort out the issues not chuck it in a la Brexit.
given the Conservatives a stranglehold in government
You think that’s the result of devolution? Really?! And you think the issues re being part of the UK/EU are the same? The Scottish government will be excited to hear about their veto powers… you should let them know…
An over-centralised democratic system which every 4 years hands the health, wealth and happiness of 65m people to one ideologue and half a dozen of their half-wit mates in the pocket of their party funders on the basis of promises of over-simplified solutions to complex problems. What could possibly go wrong?
I do wonder whether devolving power and budgets to regions and communities advised by citizens assemblies might just be, perhaps, almost, a little bit better. There’s a lot of bright, able and energetic people with the right values out there helping improve their communities and all the evidence suggests that diverse involvement makes for more successful and effective large scale change.
You think that’s the result of devolution?
In part yes, it's given the SNP a good campaigning base and escalated nationalist thinking which has had the unintended consequence of turning Scotland into a single party region which has not affected conservative seats much but significantly reduced Labour's seats.
Who'd have thought it, that creating a devolved assembly where politicians focused on local issues would have been popular with voters? This is just another dead cat being chucked on the table by Boris to detract from the bit of a mess that is Brexit and Covid. Instead of hiding in a fridge, we have a politician prepared to stand up daily and talk through the difficult decisions, popular or not.
The trend among political journalists to use the word 'sober' when they could use 'serious' or 'determined' or 'focussed' is really gathering pace. I heard it again this morning to describe how Blohard ought to try to play PMQs today.
It's almost as if they are playing a game amongst themselves to see who dares to use it. Nudge-nudge, wink-wink etc.
all the arguments about being together that apply to the EU apply to the Union. Let’s sort out the issues not chuck it in a la Brexit.
Arguably off topic but that's my view as well. A lot of issues to try and sort though.
Boris' drinking is now a pretty open secret, HIGNFY went for it a couple of weeks ago.
MCTD I noticed an MP saying 'we've had enough of the 'tired and depressed' Boris', not a million miles from PE's 'tired and emotional'. It amuses me how journalists let out little peeps of info, with L Fox it was his 'firm friend', 'best man', 'deep-throated friendship'. With Boris it'll be around the drink, slipping into something cool, Carrie being on the books and as he gets closer to taking it on the chin and being moved on all these references will become bolder. He's not a very slick act.
Come on Boris knew exactly what he was doing
Said no one, ever.
His Scottish comments are a spectacular own-goal, even by his usual standards of half-arsed buffoonery.
Cheered me right up, it did.
A bit psychologistic and a bizarre source but worth a squiz nevertheless:
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/wholl-grab-the-steering-wheel-from-out-of-control-johnson/
Wow that conservativeswoman article veers everywhere and isn’t even internally consistent. I was waiting for the paragraph that started ‘And another thing!!!
But it’s telling that it seems to spit it’s greatest venom at the start where it seems his greatest crime is that before the last election he might have secretly been a little. Bit. Poor. [the horror]
and is written by a man
From the first paragraph of that article:
How did the political culture of a great nation degrade to the extent that it promoted such a man to a leader?
Because the Conservative party were desperate for someone to get them out of the corner they had painted themselves into through a combination of stupidity and bigotry.
I haven't read the rest of the article, seems not worth it.
that the virus has an average age of mortality of 82, higher than the UK life expectancy,
So being dead already is the best defence against dying from Covid.
Because the Conservative party were desperate for someone to get them out of the corner they had painted themselves into through a combination of stupidity and bigotry.
Couldn't have put it any better myself.
So being dead already is the best defence against dying from Covid.
It's 100% effective, in fact. But now you've let the cat out of the bag you won't be able to present it as a 'finding' in your capacity as a government 'consultant' and trouser £100k for the privilege. Schoolboy error.
The whole Conservative Woman thing seems to be written by men to tell their women how they should be.
The whole Conservative Woman thing seems to be written by men to tell their women how they should be.
That article seems to be written by a man who found out Boris had shagged his wife.
That article seems to be written by a man who found out Boris had shagged his wife.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz8RjPAD2Jk
So, this ton of money on defence..... Why?
I assume it’s bait to his flag shagging base rather than anything useful?
We're going to have our own Space Force!
WTAF? Waking up to the defence spend announcement.
OK, it "may" create some British jobs, we "may" need to look at our Forces and satellite security etc if we are about to walk away from wider cooperation, but throwing money at the department that has the reputation for being least cost efficient on spending? Now, of all times!
Unless the flag waving loon really is going to try and recreate the glory days of empire by invading the rest of the world?
Oh, hang on. Previous European governments elected with big majorities via populist lies to recreate a glorious past, boosting military spending to get out of an economic disaster? WhereTF is this headed?
Space Force
Cyber Team
Green vehicles
Green infrastructure
More vaccines than anyone else
Oh look a squirrel...
Just heard we’re ‘going to launch the UK’s first rocket by 2022’, so the budget must be for the time machine to stop them from launching the first British satellite using the first British launcher back in 1971, after which the Conservatives cancelled the programme.
Didn’t it cost us a couple of billion and 15yrs just to get a radio system working that was based on an existing system?
Arms cannot be used for consumption nor production they are therefore 'waste' production. Arms production has a high labour capital ratio and a skilled labour force so not an obvious choice for job creation and is likely to have a high import content. Arms expenditure tends to be deflationary in that it can offset the increasing centralisation of capital so it can stabilise the boom/slump cycles but we need reflation. The New Deal involved investment in infrastructure that benefited the economy, an additional £18bn on arms quite frankly is f madness. Historically the arms industry has been found to be generous in its interactions with decision makers and their agents. The hang em and flog em Tories may well be cheered by this but any sentient creature will be angered and bemused. 8000 containers full of overpriced and possibly unusable ppe and now this. It ain't getting any better.
Is he buying a fleet of gunboats to conduct future diplomacy?
Isn't today the day the Brexit talks collapse?
Well at least he's proved Theresa May wrong about the magic money tree.
Yeah but.. a space force!!!
Can we have an Arnold Rimmer style salute?
They’ll be more money announced over the next few years for “arms” (note that most of this particular announcement isn’t for the armed forces) just to stand still. Brexit means we either spend more on security, or accept weakened security… (or, as I think most likely, both).
Presumably the opposition will argue that arms trades should be left to neo-liberal market forces and that taxpayers' money should be spent on affordable housing, hospitals, schools, public transport, wage rises for the many not the few. Maybe not. Just heard a Tory saying this will create 10,000 jobs per year and using the conflict in Armenia as a rationale. Absolute bare-faced lies, and people go along with it.
using the conflict in Armenia as a rationale
Ah, an updated, post-truth, version of the Cold War 'Domino Theory' where superpowers ended up propping up (notionally) loyal but corrupt regimes because if one 'domino' fell, the rest would follow?
Different slant, but similar conclusion.
It's nice that the Tories are going to spend money on ways of killing people. It's a change from their usual policy of killing people through not spending money.
Would any of his mates happen to profit substantially by new contracts awarded in this area?
Is he buying a fleet of gunboats to conduct future diplomacy?
He's buying more water cannon to quell the upcoming Brexit food riots.
As with the previous 3 he bought when he was Mayor of London, they'll be unusable, cost a fortune in trying to bring up to standard and then languish in a a warehouse for years before being sold for scrap.
Historically the arms industry has been found to be generous in its interactions with decision makers and their agents.
Weapons-grade Chumocracy. I’ll bet Dido is getting a gun license as we speak so she can be instrumental in procuring the next tranche of anti-sub choppers via a Swedish banana importer.
And these are the people that voted for hungry kids and cheered when nurses didn't get a pay rise.
It's also only about the third or fourth time that the government has announced some sort of cyber force. Makes me wonder how much of this is just people in government relaying on the general public having a short memory for historic spending.
It’s nice that the Tories are going to spend money on ways of killing people. It’s a change from their usual policy of killing people through not spending money.
Brilliantly put. However, this whole announcement is a dead cat to distract from the EU negotiations going nowhere and 'us' committing ourselves to utter chaos and turmoil in January.
Boris just loves to think BIG, completely unviable plans. Bridges ranging from the inner city garden to 20 mile sea crossing. Airports in rivers and being Prime Minister. All complete pie in the sky nonsense. As soon as Cummings is out of door he's free to announce whatever he dreamed about during his afternoon drunken nap.
A moon shot bridge into space. Just Boris on the vino again.
I wonder how much they will try and claw back from benefits for those out of work (soon to be huge numbers),on in-work benefits or disability to pay for this?
The money tree will most definitely be lost of you are on their expendable list and managed to survive Covid...
Wasn't Dominic Cummings about to bring a 'hard rain' on the MoD procurement processes etc? Interesting that this is announced as soon as he leaves.
It’s nice that the Tories are going to spend money on ways of killing people. It’s a change from their usual policy of killing people through not spending money.
Superb, and needs wider publicity
Indeed - but the thread prize goes to:
Weapons-grade Chumocracy.
Coffee keyboard interfacing has occurred.
Wasn’t Dominic Cummings about to bring a ‘hard rain’ on the MoD procurement processes etc?
Little Marky Francois (whatever happened to him?) famously threatened the military that Dom was going to come and 'sort them out'
Lets just take a moment to remind ourselves of the look of terror that threat provoked
Incredibly for Penfold, prior to his daft threat, he actually had a valid point about the MOD spaffing billions of quid on stuff that never sees the light of day
That Mark 'where could he be' Francois clip is remarkable.
It shows an already grotesquely fat little bastard visibly getting fatter on his own pomposity over the course of a few seconds.
Hopefully the reason he seems to have disappeared is that someone in the dirtier side of the military has done a 'Markov' on him with a brolly.
But in actual fact, we all know the real reason....
Just to correct the misapprehensions about Field Marshall François - he's still on top secret manoeuvres.
Can't say more otherwise I'll get a Markov.
How much of that extra spending will be to protect Tory MPs when the reality of Brexit job losses and massive economic crash hits?
What are the odds that Boris will continue to show confidence in Priti...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55007122
After all - what's the harm in a little bit of bullying.
Space Force............some lord or other paid over a hundred grand a year to have his intern hit page refresh (Internet Explorer 8) on the SpaceX website once a week.
Last weeks deep dive Kingsman, Matrix and Moonraker.
space force, blaah.
But laser guns on Navy ships thats something, about time they get back to close up naval engagements.
Mikkel
Free Member
space force, blaah.
But laser guns on Navy ships thats something, about time they get back to close up naval engagements.
tbf this will play incredibly well with that 40% brexity base (well the Navy bit), territorial waters, our fish, The Falklands!, the days of empire
Its cummingseque in its targeted nature
(of course itll all never happen)
But laser guns on Navy ships thats something
manufacturing lasers that act like the Star Wars weapons is next to impossible to the point where I'm not going out on much of limb to say it won't happen in my lifetime
Except it is bullshit. This is the MoD and the Navy we are talking about here. They built a 21st century air defense frigate that was ridiculously expensive and stopped working in warm water (like The Gulf). I think they are still being fixed and that only adds to the half billion pound price-tag they had.
Or maybe they will go on the one remaining aircraft carrier we run and will be ready by the time the F35s we ordered are actually delivered. In ten years.
MoD procurement is horrific and slow, and expensive because the requirements always change and that's just money in the bank to the contractors, most of whom either had senior staff in the MoD, or who send senior staff back to the MoD. It is literally _not_ in their interest to fix that problem.
I'm struggling to think of what a future war will be like, but having laser guns on what remains of the navy is not likely to be a high priority for anyone but the navy. And BAE Systems
@allanoleary I thought exactly the same thing, aside from it being another story to stop people talking about corrupt PPE spending, what better way than to sort out your CV for Feb 2021 when life gets a bit tough and you need a change of scenery after all Westminster is so 2020.
@willard A fair few of my former Navy colleagues went straight to defence contractors after their 22yrs, when you already know the kit it's a short step into a new job.
I’m struggling to think of what a future war will be like
I'm not, we've seen it, it was 2016 and the other side* won.
*Russia, that is. Not the silly little twerps waving plaggy union jacks (made in China) that think they won. Obvs.
What are the odds that Boris will continue to show confidence in Priti…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55007122
After all – what’s the harm in a little bit of bullying.
Isn't it practically a badge of honour for this shower to break the ministerial code?
A bit like ASBOs for teenage delinquents 'back in the day'?
So Priti Awful was indeed guilty of bullying but it's not her fault as she's just so horrible to everyone all the time that it's not for her to know when it becomes bullying.
That's all cleared up then
Move along now. Nothing to see here
https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/status/1329752894107750400?s=20
I'm not surprised he's resigned. Whats the point in being an advisor if everything you say is ignored as Johnson doesn't think that any rules actually apply to him and his mates
It's a tricky one. One one hand, there's an independent report which says that she's a bully. On the other, our prime minister, who has been sacked twice for lying, says that she isn't.
On the other, our prime minister, who has been sacked twice for lying, says that she isn’t.
I believe the defence used was it was inadvertent which seems to be his standard defence against law breaking. A rather radical break with the traditional approach that ignorance of the law was no defence.
The UK really is just a Banana Republic.
They clearly all think that none of the rules actually apply to them and they've packed in even making any attempts to cover up their flagrent cronyism and corruption
The UK really is just a Banana Republic.
They clearly all think that none of the rules actually apply to them and they’ve packed in even making any attempts to cover up their flagrent cronyism and corruption
Yep. They've broken the unwritten contract that you had to at least pretend to be governing in the interests of the people. They've eroded this country's decency and democracy, which is ironic given their traditional and more elderly support consider themselves so damned pious.
So Boris hammers the labour party for not taking action over the antisemitic investigation Patel has been proven to be a bully his response... oh its fine! The guys an absolute joke shame on all you people who voted for this! Bullies are scum of the earth and ruin peoples lives! Dealings with complaints and ministers shouldn't be handled by their own political party it should go to an independent group aka a tribunal where a decision is made.
At least we know who Cummings gave his secret dossier on Boris Johnson to when he left...