To be honest, if this is his best, then it’s an even more damming indictment of his capabilities. His best appears to be well below what a leader should have and what the UK needs.
It gets better, because it is all, ultimately, because of Brexshit...
No Brexshit, no incompetent buffoon Johnson Prime Ministership.
What a much better place this country would be in right now if it wasn't for that monumental fail.
And it gets worse. Brexit also dictates that you must unquestioningly champion what is an act of monumental folly to be anywhere near power. Which means that by your very nature you're not very bright. And the dimwit in number 10 doesn't want bright people around anyway as he feels intimidated by them.
Hence: Gavin Williamson, Liz Truss and the hideous array of thicko's and incompetents that presently constitute the most laughable cabinet this country has ever seen
At least they're not those overly negative detail obsessing "remoaners".
Hence: Gavin Williamson, Liz Truss and the hideous array of thicko’s and incompetents that presently constitute the most laughable cabinet this country has ever seen
It's almost as though Brexit has created a reverse talent pool where anyone sensible or with more than five brain cells wouldn't want to be anywhere near it, or has been hounded out.
You did forget the other category, though - outright crooks. Jenrick being a prime example.
You did forget the other category, though – outright crooks. Jenrick being a prime example.
Hancock too. Corrupt to the core.
Hancock too. Corrupt to the core.
I must admit I had him down more as a 'thicko' but recent reports of his handing out of covid contracts to mates is nudging him more into 'corrupt bastard' territory...
No Brexshit, no incompetent buffoon Johnson Prime Ministership.
But, but, without buffoon Johnson, there would be no Brexit. He drove that dumpster fire, so it's his fault. This is like a Catch 22 of Johnson-related arse.
Him getting a break instead of being held to account for his own naked self interest and shortcomings is what will enable him to justify doing it again and again and again.
Both legs or a neck would suit me.
It really wouldn't be surprising if there's been some IOUs written here. Ex-ministers seem to go on fabulously well-paid tours of banks in the states delivering pre-prepared speeches. A useful thicko is just what you want when ripping off the taxpayer and the NHS but I can't see anyone getting nailed for this.
Looks like Johnson's BBC hatchet man is a bit of a dodgy type who has probably been put there to neuter the organisation. Quelle surprise.
The 'Putin Method' continues to be followed.
👏🏼
While I am not Drakefords biggest fan generally due to him stopping me from seeing my family for the last year this is something I 100% agree with the bloke boris is an absolute moron.
Brilliant!
The clearest perspective.
But alas the audience is clapping, nay a standing ovation of the fool and his troupe.
Brilliant!
I came here to post exactly that !!
We did Henry IV part I for O level (yes, I am that old) and I never dreamed of how relevant to my own life it would be.
This is Eastcheap Britain and Falstaff is in charge. It is in the two Henry IV plays that Shakespeare most clearly illuminates the gulf between his great, theatre-filling clown, Falstaff, and the young Prince Hal who will go on to become the archetype of the king – Henry V. At the mock-court of Falstaff’s tavern, we are invited to laugh and drink more ale, pinch barmaid’s bottoms, dance with dead cats and put bedpans on our heads while Falstaff entertains us with stories of his bravery and heroism that we all know are flagrant lies. Says Prince Hal to the portly purveyor of falsehoods: “These lies are like their father that begets them, gross as a mountain, open, palpable.” Meanwhile, the realm falls apart.
The depressing thing is how many people are taken in by his shit.
I can't take any pleasure in being able to see it because enough of my 'fellow countrymen' have been fooled and taken in by him, thus making my voice irrelevant.
He's a thick, lazy, irresponsible twunt. And he is 'my' Prime Minister.
If I meet a foreigner now they are probably thinking "he comes from that place that believe in that clown". It makes me want to apologise and distance myself from my nationality.
There is nothing to be amused at by this story. It is tragic.
I'm outnumbered by my parent who are both Tory voters. I regularly have conversations with both of them about whatever Boris has been up to and they regularly trot out the line that the incompetence, dithering and bluster is all an act and that underneath it he is an incredibly hard working person of high intelligence. I even know where they get that idea from: The Daily Mail. It's got to the point now where I too feel like:
If I meet a foreigner now they are probably thinking “he comes from that place that believe in that clown”. It makes me want to apologise and distance myself from my nationality.
No amount of showing them how the current lot have divided people with lies, distraction and blatant cronyism will change their minds. Quite a few of their friends are similar with their kids playing my role. It is beyond my comprehension how people can fall for all of the crap Boris and co come up with on a regular basis. Dad has actually asked me where I get my information from as I've been correct on a few things recently that he thought was different and he didn't like it when I said 'Other sources than the Daily Mail and the Sun'. He still genuinely thinks the Daily Mail are the Gold Standard of journalism in the UK.
When you're fighting against that it's futile.
I just read the johnson clown piece, im depressed now
I too have Daily Mail reading parents, reluctantjumper, I couldve written every word you have
It is beyond my comprehension how people can fall for all of the crap Boris and co come up with on a regular basis.
Top of my head:
Because people are sorely lacking critical thinking skills.
Because people take things at face value.
Because the Boris reality-TV-Prime-Minister-character is usually quite good at saying "warm cuddly things people* want to hear".
Because people don't like hearing and believing harsh truths.
I'm sure there are more reasons.
* certain demographics, view his output as "a bit of harmless fun", "telling it like it is" and so on.
Couldn't read dantsw13's link as it set off the unsafe news filter, plus has so many pop-up's I gave up!
It's just remembered something. When my parents were in a friend's house after they got flooded out last year I loaned them my old laptop. As I have the NewsGuard add-on in Chrome it was always flagging up the Daily Mail website as an untrustworthy source of news! That didn't go down well with dad at all.
My 70+ year old parents have been isolating with nothing but the Daily Mail filling their heads.
Had a full blown rant at them at my mum's 'Brexit is just teething issues' as my employer goes down the drain and my dad's link between an aunt giving up her dead (Covid) husband's passport and all them immigrants don't have a passport.
Boris is also a Saint to them.
So jealous of my bro in Oz.
I too have Daily Mail reading parents, reluctantjumper, I couldve written every word you have
Torygraph for my parents.
Dad is actually seeing the light on Brexit and Boris, but had an interesting conversation about how he blames the unions/Labour for the destruction of the shipyards and industry in the north east and can't bear to vote for Labour. He feels he has no choice to vote tory, despite the damage they do.
Very odd.
My mum, much as I live her, is a nasty xenophobic sociopath at times.
Daily Worker. We had wonderful rows*.
* he was a Thames waterman
So jealous of my bro in Oz.
Follow Aussie politics for a while and your view may soften a bit.
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greyspoke
Free MemberSo jealous of my bro in Oz.
Follow Aussie politics for a while and your view may soften a bit.
At least it's warm and sunny and he only has to deal with the parental Boris fan club once a week.
Reluctantjumper - basically Peston interviewed Pritti Patel. He asked her what she thought of a quote about sexism in the workplace. Her reply was it was an outrageous thing to say, with no place in a modern society.
Peston then pointed out to her is was a quote attributed to BoJo by himself written in his last Spectator article!!!
Why does he get such an easy time though?
If I was Keir I would say every time in PMQs (or any interview)
"He cheated on every woman he's been with, he lies to this house, he lied to the Queen"
Why does he get such an easy time though?
If I was Keir I would say every time in PMQs (or any interview)
“He cheated on every woman he’s been with, he lies to this house, he lied to the Queen”
This is what frustrates me. He's not challenged by the Press or the Opposition. Sadly, the shagging around, indicative as it is, will get him more support from idiots, but the consistent lying as a journalist, as a minister - which cost him his jobs - and since should decimate any credibility he had.
This is what frustrates me. He’s not challenged by the Press or the Opposition. Sadly, the shagging around, indicative as it is, will get him more support from idiots, but the consistent lying as a journalist, as a minister – which cost him his jobs – and since should decimate any credibility he had.
This was all common knowledge (the lying etc) so the only conclusion I can draw is that the UK voting public are a bunch of gullible morons, no one with anything going on between their ears would have voted for that clown.
I don’t want to depress you, but what if many people like him because he is a self serving lying amoral bastard, rather than despite it? Because that’s what they also are, behind their carefully constructed public facades… and they are fed up with having to pretend to be decent people to get on in life? Resenting all the “do-gooders” and “virtue signallers” looking down on them and restricting them acting on their more base desires and “having it all” in the way that he does?
To be honest Kelvin that thought had crossed my mind but I think I would have preferred it if they were all as thick as mince (at least they could possibly be educated).
depressingly... it's a nasty I'm alright jack party for a nasty I'm alright jack country, they are well suited. unfortunately there's also a large we don't care contingent.
I think I would have preferred it if they were all as thick as mince
Same here. But he’s littered his public and private life with so many examples of his outright lies, that they are hard to avoid even if you are wilfully trying to. I don’t think ‘stupid’ can possibly explain most of the support he receives, just a tiny minority of it.
Reluctantjumper – basically Peston interviewed Pritti Patel. He asked her what she thought of a quote about sexism in the workplace. Her reply was it was an outrageous thing to say, with no place in a modern society.
Peston then pointed out to her is was a quote attributed to BoJo by himself written in his last Spectator article!!!
Ooh, that's brilliant. We need more of that type of questioning and for it to get to the mainstream outlets at primetime but sadly I think you may have found the flaw in the plan with this:
I don’t want to depress you, but what if many people like him because he is a self serving lying amoral bastard, rather than despite it?
That is so depressing.
They’ll be in the minority though. Some will just be voting to keep other politicians out. Some will be letting him off the hook for what they see as character flaws because they like some of his policies and his fake upbeat friendly presentation style. For some its just an “us versus the world” approach they approve of. He’s a very accomplished sociopathic motivating presenter, so there will be some that are taken in, but assuming that most of his support is “stupid” or “gullible” seems wide of the mark to me. A strange kind of wishful thinking. It appeals to me anyway, but I doubt it’s that widely true.
Distilling it down, this is basically the Trump effect.
Winning power by appealing to people's inner arsehole and legitimising being (at least) a little bit of an arsehole.
Johnson's GE victory and Brexit in particular were vindications of this 'it is ok to be a bit of an arsehole' messaging.
Brilliant. It doesn't take a genius to work out where this leads.
Its the Old Firm football effect too. Yes you are happy when your team wins, but what really gets the juices going is the other side losing.
That piece on "Boris the Clown" is pretty well observed.
We, however, have made our clown a real-world king. And from that moment on, we became a country in which there was only the mock heroic – a “world beating” country that would “strain every sinew” and give “cast-iron guarantees” while bungling its plans and breaking its promises. A country “ready to take off its Clark Kent spectacles” and act “as the supercharged champion” of X, Y, Z. A country on stilts – pretending that we had a test and trace system that was head and shoulders above the rest of the world. A country performing U-turns on the teetering unicycle of Johnsonian buffoonery – A-levels, school meals, foreign health workers and more. A country of tumbling catastrophes. Trampolining absurdities. Go to work. Don’t go to work. A country proroguing parliament illegally here, trying to break international law there. Paying its citizens to “eat out to help out” in the midst of a lethal pandemic. A country testing its eyesight in lockdown by driving to distant castles with infant and spouse during a travel ban. A country whose leadership stitched up the NHS in the morning and then clapped for them at night. A country opening schools for a single day, threatening to sue schools, shutting schools. A country on holiday during its own emergency meetings. A country locking down too late; opening up too early. A country sending its elderly to die in care homes. A country unwilling to feed its own children. A country spaffing £37bn up the wall one moment and refusing to pay its own nurses a decent salary the next. A country doing pretend magic tricks with the existence of its own borders – no, there won’t be a border in the sea; oh yes there will; oh no there won’t; it’s behind you …. A country of gimmicks and slapstick and hollow, honking horns.
Deceit and corruption at the top generates venality and negativity throughout the system. People become cynical and express negativity politically: ban demos, repatriate immigrants, leave EU, ban phobes, expel members, hurl insults between pisstakes, ban flags, ban travellers. This fragments and weakens communities.
You would hope a party could come up with a vision for the common good that we could fight for not against. Nope, thought not.
I’ve only just got around to reading the whole piece. Very, very good. Unfortunately, like most good writing on the subject, it only helps to understand how he works, and where we are, with no real contribution to helping us see a way past him, and on to better times.
Agreed, but useful to have all your hunches crystallized.
If I was Keir I would say every time in PMQs (or any interview)
“He cheated on every woman he’s been with, he lies to this house, he lied to the Queen”
Calling someone a liar in the Commons is not allowed and considered "unparliamentary language".
Skinner was kicked out just for calling Cameron "Dodgy Dave".
Better not then kiksy. Wouldn't want to draw attention to Boris' lies.
He lied to the Queen ffs! Where are all the flag shaggers on that one?
So you use the parliamentary language and conventions - misled this house, etc.
Skinner wasn't strictly kicked out for saying dodgy dave but for refusing to withdraw it. And doubling down iirc.
You could even call him a liar, withdraw it and replace with misled this house. Everyone knows what is meant.
Churchill favoured 'terminological inexactitude' but possibly the best was Disraeli; he said that 'half the cabinet are knaves' and then withdrew it and replaced with 'half the cabinet are not knaves'
Maybe time to reverse churchill the poundshop churchill? Or point out, pointedly, that some members of the opposite front bench have no history of being liars. It's a compliment, right?
[reminds me of the apocryphal player to referee exchange]
'If I called you a c would you send me off?
'Why yes, of course I would
'What if I thought it?
'I can't sanction someone because of their thoughts...
'OK ref, I think you're a c
'
He lied to the Queen ffs! Where are all the flag shaggers on that one?
Price worth paying to 'get Brexshit done'.
People who support Brexit don't really have any loyalties as such, just a permanent anger that someone else is taking the piss in some way - elites, remoaners, asylum seekers etc.
"If everyone was like me, I wouldn't have a problem"...
