Boris Johnson!

Yep his greatest achievement as a London mayor was creating an image of a successful mayor , as opposed to the reality.

A successful marketing of brand BJ.

He did repeat the bridge thing again,wasn’t it a tad under a million for the Scotland to Ireland one to be er investigated.

TBH it would be cheaper to buy him a little island somewhere and feed him free daiquiris all day.

I think he was having a little informal competition with Chris Grayling to see who could spaff the most public money on one go and end up with absolutely nothing to show for it

He’s winning

Just!

Dont forget his amazing idea of putting an airport in the thames estuary right in the shipping lane of the new london gateway port….
and the associated money wasted …

putting an airport in the thames estuary right in the shipping lane of the new london gateway port….

Very close to a shipwreck containing about 1400 tons of high explosive.

That would certainly help create sufficient lift – to send him to the other side of the moon!

Bendy buses

Bendy buses wasnt him. Indeed it was part of his initial campaign to promise to get rid of them.
Sadly though he went with the moronic new routemasters to replace them.

The ‘greased piglet’ has done everything possible to avoid it and then block it, discredit it and refuse to cooperate with it, but on Wednesday he’s finally going to have to face the music and answer the charges everyone knows he’s guilty of… misleading parliament

Boris Johnson and Partygate: the stakes will be huge at this week's critical inquisition https://t.co/GuH2VDUv65

— Andrew Rawnsley (@andrewrawnsley) March 19, 2023

I expect that, even by the standard of a man who lies like he breathes, we’re going to see the depiction of some kind of alternative reality, where he’s the wronged victim being needlessly persecuted by ‘the establishment’

Exactly that, 4/7’s of the panel are conservative. Likely he’ll get £several 00000’s of compensation too

Doesn’t really matter what happens with the outcome, everyone knows he misled parliament, thinks he’s above the rules and is ‘special’ compared to us commoners. The only point of interest is how easily he gets away with it and if he is found guilty (50/50 at best thanks to the balance of Tories in control of it all despite the overwhelming evidence against him) how light the punishment is. Either way he’ll come out of it somehow richer and smelling of roses.

From what I understand the tories on the committee are the sort with a bit of decency and morals mainly.  Unlikely to have a lot of love for Johnson.  I doubt they will do a republican / Trump thing and find him not guilty in the face of the evidence

My guess will be they will censure him but less than 10 days suspension so there is no chance of a recall and a byelection

On what basis could johnson receive ANY compensation – several £00000’s?

It was a tongue in cheek comment, but I doubt anyone would be surprised if it happened.

He’ll make more than that just by charging gullible people to listen to his story about the whole saga on the After Dinner Speech circuit.

Kryton57
Full Member

Exactly that, 4/7’s of the panel are conservative

While that’s true, apparently at least a couple of them are absolutely livid at the way he’s both tried to dodge it all, and also constantly slated the members as being part of a witch hunt. IIRC all 4 have already signed the interim report, which was pretty damning. And tbf at this point there are plenty of Tories who would be very happy to have him just go away.

And the thing is, we know 100% that he misled parliament, that’s a matter of record. The only question is if he did it deliberately. So his defence is essentially going to be that he’s deaf dumb blind and braindamaged, just being negligent and careless isn’t going to cut it, to genuinely have not known he’d have to have had a railroad spike or two driven through his head.

Of course, spin is different, he’ll trumpet anything short of expulsion from parliament as being a total victory, and people will lap it up. He’s already claimed the interim report exonerated him in exactly this way, which also must have pissed off those 4 tories that were taking their careers in their hands signing it off. (though his mates have also used that interim report as a surreal attack point- apparently it proves they’ve already decided he’s guilty and makes it all a sham, while also exonerating him… )

The opposition need to be ready to go in hard to counter that. By which I mean Angus Robertson and Gary Linekar obviously. If he does manage to waffle and “I don’t know” and “I don’t remember” and “yes I was there drinking champagne but I didn’t think it was a party” and “no I didn’t read any of the dozens of messages from my old staff specifically saying it was breaking the rules” and “the police are leftie conspirators”, they need to be ready to say over and over “if his defence was true, he would be admitting he’s an absolute vegetable that you wouldn’t let watch a pot of soup”.

NEWS! An innocent man maligned: Read NewsThump’s EXCLUSIVE preview of Boris Johnson’s exonerating dossier https://t.co/469JHR8vYv pic.twitter.com/25bBddIXiT

— NewsThump (@newsthump) March 20, 2023

Apparently Allegra Stratton, who had to resign after being filmed laughing about Downing Street parties, is up for an honour in Boris’ list. Couldn’t be any more transparently corrupt, really.

Harriet Harman, as interim chair of the standards committee,should make it clear to johnson he is there to answer questions – not ask them.
Additionally, attempts to deflect by questioning the definition of ‘a party’ or challenging the integrity of the committee or resorting to random greek or latin quotes or cheap jokes should be firmly slapped down – as they would be if this was a court.

Harman is very capable and can be a firebrand.  I am a bit disappointed in her how much she moved to the right over the years but I do respect her abilities.  she is exactly the sort of woman Johnson cannot cope with.  I expect and hope she takes him to pieces.  I cannot see her standing for any bullshine

Double popcorn for Wednesday afternoon!

Oh yes.  Its going to be fun.

From what I understand the tories on the committee are the sort with a bit of decency and morals mainly.

But a Venn diagram of Tories who support Johnson (who to all but a handful of die hards is now a busted flush) and Tories who’ve volunteered to be on the parliamentary ethics committee is at best resembling a 60’s spy film binocular vignette. In fact I’d put weight behind the idea that the party might want shot of him completely before the election.

In fact I’d put weight behind the idea that the party might want shot of him completely before the election.

Would be nice, but he still garners a lot of support within the general population who feel he was stitched up, as demonstrated by the absolute walloper of a caller to LBC yesterday who called him “a man of integrity”.

in the words of the great Bullet Tooth Tony….”You should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity.”

My tory family members still think he is great and should be PM

Would be nice, but he still garners a lot of support within the general population who feel he was stitched up, as demonstrated by the absolute walloper of a caller to LBC yesterday who called him “a man of integrity”.

True, but when was the last time a level headed caller was put through the LBC switchboard 🤣

My tory family members still think he is great and should be PM

My Tory parents admit they knew he was an absolute lying, corrupt, idle imbecile, but at least he wasn’t Corbyn 🤦‍♂️

They’re saying that this hearing could last for 5 hours

Given that Johnson feels he has to answer to absolutely nobody and it is an afront to have to be questioned by mere mortals, how long are we going to get in before the mask slips and he gets really nasty with someone?

I’m going for just over the hour mark when he loses it and goes ballistic at Harriet Harman, because she’s both female and clearly a lot cleverer than he is

I’m going for just over the hour mark when he loses it and goes ballistic at Harriet Harman, because she’s both female and clearly a lot cleverer than he is

I’m going for postponed due to him having Covid….. nice bit of ironing to delay procedures

How about…johnson’s opening comment is ‘I don’t recognise this committee’ followed by a flounce.

Its when he tells them the hourly rate for his “speeches” that its going to go downhill.

A gaffaw,  a slouch, a couple of hesitances, a couple of “look here’s” an “off the cuff” semi correct quote about Themistocles, and it’s away for a pint in the Lobby Bar. Get a couple of your chums to write a piece tomorrow about how wronged and misunderstood you are.

Trebles all round and off the next speaking jolly.

How about…johnson’s opening comment is ‘I don’t recognise this committee’ followed by a flounce.

He’s pretty much said that already, hasn’t he? If he hasn’t its been implied for about a year.

Unfortunately the tinfoil-helmet brigade that make up his remaining fanbase will all gleefully buy into his ridiculous conspiracy-theory nonsense

He really is a Poundshop Trump, and I expect he’ll borrow all his moves on Wednesday. I’m sure the ‘liberal elite’ will be putting in quite a few appearances as our hero looks for scapegoats and set himself in the role of the victim

If they nail him down, then it’ll all be a “deep state conspiracy” with plenty of talk of “he should only have to answer to the electorate, this is anti-democratic” on the side. If he wriggles through on double speak and technicalities it’ll be “exonerated by a panel of his peers” and “a rigorous process has cleared him”.

Come to think of it, both of those will happen at once, no matter what the outcome, to see what people will swallow.

Shreaded Wheat head has published his defence which appears to be, somewhat predictably “I may have been at all these parties ‘work events’ but nobody told me that the rules were being broken, so how could I possibly have known?! Specifically, it was Dominic Cummings fault!

He’s continued with his efforts to undermine the committee

What time does it kick off tomorrow? Might WFH to enjoy some background noise

liar or idiot.

or possibly both

It’s meant to be 2 o clock, but I’m sure he’ll continue his tradition of being tardy with his timekeeping fashionably late

I misled parliament as a jolly wheeze.

I misled parliament as a jolly wheeze

I did not intend to mislead Parliament but they are clearly too stupid to follow my brilliant speeches, laced as they are with sparkling wit and Latin phrases.