I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
The careers of Caesar and Pompey as a start? they made Colston look really small time.... Mass slaughter followed by mass slavery and a topping of theft....
As for genocide - what do you call what happened to Carthage?
The theory was everyone was enslaved I thought? Rather than the Kill all the men orders for Melos/Mytilene. The practical difference may have been trivial of course
I just get ranty and pissed off by lazy veneration of Athens because they built some swanky buildings with stolen money, and voluntarily sat through a lot of B Movie level shit by the likes of sodding Euripides, and so on, and people are still secretly impressed by Johnson quoting translations of boring Aeschylus. Looking for an ancient world analogue of bojo most people would look to Rome, but actually the best fit is genuinely Pericles, and not in a good way.
Yeah. And at least the Spartans were genuinely fuck off hard.
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
The careers of Caesar and Pompey as a start? they made Colston look really small time.... Mass slaughter followed by mass slavery and a topping of theft....
As for genocide - what do you call what happened to Carthage?
The theory was everyone was enslaved I thought? Rather than the Kill all the men orders for Melos/Mytilene. The practical difference may have been trivial of course
I just get ranty and pissed off by lazy veneration of Athens because they built some swanky buildings with stolen money, and voluntarily sat through a lot of B Movie level shit by the likes of sodding Euripides, and so on, and people are still secretly impressed by Johnson quoting translations of boring Aeschylus. Looking for an ancient world analogue of bojo most people would look to Rome, but actually the best fit is genuinely Pericles, and not in a good way.
Yeah. And at least the Spartans were genuinely fuck off hard.
Their spirit lives on..
Is that Alpha Men Assemble, or David Baddiel on manoeuvres ?
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
The careers of Caesar and Pompey as a start? they made Colston look really small time.... Mass slaughter followed by mass slavery and a topping of theft....
As for genocide - what do you call what happened to Carthage?
The theory was everyone was enslaved I thought? Rather than the Kill all the men orders for Melos/Mytilene. The practical difference may have been trivial of course
I just get ranty and pissed off by lazy veneration of Athens because they built some swanky buildings with stolen money, and voluntarily sat through a lot of B Movie level shit by the likes of sodding Euripides, and so on, and people are still secretly impressed by Johnson quoting translations of boring Aeschylus. Looking for an ancient world analogue of bojo most people would look to Rome, but actually the best fit is genuinely Pericles, and not in a good way.
Yeah. And at least the Spartans were genuinely fuck off hard.
Their spirit lives on..
Is that Alpha Men Assemble, or David Baddiel on manoeuvres ?
Ah - I see, it's Mark Francois.
Looks like one of the Offroaders from the Fast Show. It's gripped! It's sorted!
As others have suggested, from the non-Conservative side of the aisle, I'm quite happy to see Boris Johnson booed and jeered to defeat over the next two years.
Every time he thinks he's making headway, somebody will bring something out of the archives to slap him back down and while the Conservative Parliamentary Party has a penchant for deposing failed leaders, it only does so when there's a clear and attractive alternative.
Sunak will have the option of leaving the ship or going down with it - ditto Truss and anyone else with leadership or Prime Ministerial aspirations. Opposition is going to be a new experience for many Conservatives and let's be honest, they weren't much good at it last time.
As @MarkH has intimated, the plates have shifted and the confidence of the "New Tories" from 2019 has been shattered. It's a reminder of one of the most valid adages in politics - it's easy to be hated, it's much harder to be ridiculed.
A single local by election today which is counting tomorrow so we can all have an early night (if that's what we do).
A few Tory politicians actually do better in opposition than government, eg Ann Widdecombe or Enoch Powell
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Well, that's an... interesting perspective.
On the one hand, describing the Roman response to the Great Jewish Revolt of the 1st century AD as antisemitic is clearly stretching a point, since the rebels were (in this case) clearly "asking for it".
On the other, it's difficult to see just how much more vindictive the Roman response could have possibly been if they had been raving antisemites. Unfortunately, a lot of the first hand perspectives are unreliable (Josephus being the obvious example), but it's clear either way that they murdered a lot of people, enslaved most of the rest, and destroyed as much infrastructure as they could.
If it doesn't start with himself, it's a waste of time.
Or a call to a shit hot divorce lawyer
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
Consequent upon something on BBC East I’ve just looked at the candidates nominated for Southend West. For those who have some info posted on Wikipedia, the words ‘far right fruitcakes and nut-jobs’ come to mind. There’s also an unspecified Independent and a Psychedelic Movement candidate.
I’d have to think hard and get more information before I decided where to put my cross!
Note that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party is NOT fielding a candidate in Southend West.
Presumable out of respect for the tragic circumstances behind this byelection?
Something beyond the ken or character of the REAL nutbags?
IF yours truly had a vote there, think I'd either skip the by-election or spoil my ballot paper. Certainly would NOT vote for the Conservative, however worthy.
UNLESS perhaps she publicly denounced/renounced Boris Johnson. Which is (I think) doubtful.
Leftwing and liberal voters in Southend in the by election have a choice a bit like the French leftwingers did in 2002, vote for the Conservative or a Fascist or stay home
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
I'm tipping him to run for US President in the 2030s. (He won't care if he is eligible or not and that can only be tested post election anyway). Loadsamoney in that.
Consequent upon something on BBC East I’ve just looked at the candidates nominated for Southend West. For those who have some info posted on Wikipedia, the words ‘far right fruitcakes and nut-jobs’ come to mind. There’s also an unspecified Independent and a Psychedelic Movement candidate.
I’d have to think hard and get more information before I decided where to put my cross!
Note that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party is NOT fielding a candidate in Southend West.
Presumable out of respect for the tragic circumstances behind this byelection?
Something beyond the ken or character of the REAL nutbags?
IF yours truly had a vote there, think I'd either skip the by-election or spoil my ballot paper. Certainly would NOT vote for the Conservative, however worthy.
UNLESS perhaps she publicly denounced/renounced Boris Johnson. Which is (I think) doubtful.
Leftwing and liberal voters in Southend in the by election have a choice a bit like the French leftwingers did in 2002, vote for the Conservative or a Fascist or stay home
Talking of fascists in France, how's the French election build-up going ? Hopefully Zemmour is out of the frame.
A letter written by Boris Johnson's classics master when he was at Eton has resurfaced saying he 'believes it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception'.
The report, from Martin Hammond to Stanley Johnson in 1982, rapped the 17-year-old for thinking he should be free of the 'network of obligation that binds everyone'.
The classics schoolmaster also slammed him for being 'affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility'.
It comes as the PM's future hangs on a knife edge as ministers pleaded with Tories MPs to wait for a probe into No 10 parties before calling for him to quit.
Martin Hammond was my old headmaster, once taught me for Latin
Just watched Nadine Dorries on Ch4 and it was spectacular! She'd dialled up the Day-Glo blue on her Computer so she came out looking like a 1970 Abba tribute band!
She was so enthusiastic in her defence of Johnson, Mrs Foxy is convinced she is the new Edwina...
Even Edwina was never quite as gaudy but Edwina never had as much to lose. For Someone like Nadine this was a once in a lifetime chance to be a Minister and you sense there's no humiliation she wouldn't go through to keep her mentor in his job
A letter written by Boris Johnson's classics master when he was at Eton has resurfaced saying he 'believes it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception'.
The report, from Martin Hammond to Stanley Johnson in 1982, rapped the 17-year-old for thinking he should be free of the 'network of obligation that binds everyone'.
The classics schoolmaster also slammed him for being 'affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility'.
It comes as the PM's future hangs on a knife edge as ministers pleaded with Tories MPs to wait for a probe into No 10 parties before calling for him to quit.
Martin Hammond was my old headmaster, once taught me for Latin
Consequent upon something on BBC East I’ve just looked at the candidates nominated for Southend West. For those who have some info posted on Wikipedia, the words ‘far right fruitcakes and nut-jobs’ come to mind. There’s also an unspecified Independent and a Psychedelic Movement candidate.
I’d have to think hard and get more information before I decided where to put my cross!
Note that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party is NOT fielding a candidate in Southend West.
Presumable out of respect for the tragic circumstances behind this byelection?
Something beyond the ken or character of the REAL nutbags?
IF yours truly had a vote there, think I'd either skip the by-election or spoil my ballot paper. Certainly would NOT vote for the Conservative, however worthy.
UNLESS perhaps she publicly denounced/renounced Boris Johnson. Which is (I think) doubtful.
Leftwing and liberal voters in Southend in the by election have a choice a bit like the French leftwingers did in 2002, vote for the Conservative or a Fascist or stay home
Talking of fascists in France, how's the French election build-up going ? Hopefully Zemmour is out of the frame.
Consequent upon something on BBC East I’ve just looked at the candidates nominated for Southend West. For those who have some info posted on Wikipedia, the words ‘far right fruitcakes and nut-jobs’ come to mind. There’s also an unspecified Independent and a Psychedelic Movement candidate.
I’d have to think hard and get more information before I decided where to put my cross!
Note that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party is NOT fielding a candidate in Southend West.
Presumable out of respect for the tragic circumstances behind this byelection?
Something beyond the ken or character of the REAL nutbags?
IF yours truly had a vote there, think I'd either skip the by-election or spoil my ballot paper. Certainly would NOT vote for the Conservative, however worthy.
UNLESS perhaps she publicly denounced/renounced Boris Johnson. Which is (I think) doubtful.
Leftwing and liberal voters in Southend in the by election have a choice a bit like the French leftwingers did in 2002, vote for the Conservative or a Fascist or stay home
Talking of fascists in France, how's the French election build-up going ? Hopefully Zemmour is out of the frame.
He is still taking enough votes from Le Pen to give Pecresse a chance of the runoff, if he was not running it would definitely be Macron v Le Pen in the runoff again
A letter written by Boris Johnson's classics master when he was at Eton has resurfaced saying he 'believes it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception'.
The report, from Martin Hammond to Stanley Johnson in 1982, rapped the 17-year-old for thinking he should be free of the 'network of obligation that binds everyone'.
The classics schoolmaster also slammed him for being 'affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility'.
It comes as the PM's future hangs on a knife edge as ministers pleaded with Tories MPs to wait for a probe into No 10 parties before calling for him to quit.
Martin Hammond was my old headmaster, once taught me for Latin
A good teacher ?
OK, ex Balliol like Boris but more of an intellectual and less charismatic but he was a moderniser. Took a sabbatical to go to Greece and do a translation of the Iliad I remember
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Well, that's an... interesting perspective.
On the one hand, describing the Roman response to the Great Jewish Revolt of the 1st century AD as antisemitic is clearly stretching a point, since the rebels were (in this case) clearly "asking for it".
On the other, it's difficult to see just how much more vindictive the Roman response could have possibly been if they had been raving antisemites. Unfortunately, a lot of the first hand perspectives are unreliable (Josephus being the obvious example), but it's clear either way that they murdered a lot of people, enslaved most of the rest, and destroyed as much infrastructure as they could.
have you read A Long Way to Shiloh by Lionel Davidson?
Best thriller ever, and superb treatment of Josephus (not the sort of thing you find in most thrillers)
But yeah, if you rebelled against Rome you got your arse kicked. My point is that Athens was at least as bad as any other example you can find in the Graeco Roman world, and gets not just a free pass but a monumental arse licking, for what? You can listen to all that gloopy bollocks in Pericles' funeral thang, then you can research what the many, not the few did to Pericles junior. Or swoon about what Socrates said about the Good Life, and then think about how his own Good Life hit the buffers. Bunch of wankers
Consequent upon something on BBC East I’ve just looked at the candidates nominated for Southend West. For those who have some info posted on Wikipedia, the words ‘far right fruitcakes and nut-jobs’ come to mind. There’s also an unspecified Independent and a Psychedelic Movement candidate.
I’d have to think hard and get more information before I decided where to put my cross!
Note that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party is NOT fielding a candidate in Southend West.
Presumable out of respect for the tragic circumstances behind this byelection?
Something beyond the ken or character of the REAL nutbags?
IF yours truly had a vote there, think I'd either skip the by-election or spoil my ballot paper. Certainly would NOT vote for the Conservative, however worthy.
UNLESS perhaps she publicly denounced/renounced Boris Johnson. Which is (I think) doubtful.
Leftwing and liberal voters in Southend in the by election have a choice a bit like the French leftwingers did in 2002, vote for the Conservative or a Fascist or stay home
Not sure how near the Conservative candidate is to the political centre of even the Conservative party. Over to the Right by the look of it.
Thing on Alpha Men Assemble on C4 News, very QAnony vibe. Their fixation with what the the authorities and lockdown are supposedly doing to kids also strikes a strongly recognisable chord.
'If there aren't millions turning out for this we may as well go home, lay down and let the Communists take over!'
Wasn't it great! A genuine bunch of loonies. I kept expecting Paul Theroux to sidle up to them with his 'Don't forget to camp it up you're on TV' face.
A letter written by Boris Johnson's classics master when he was at Eton has resurfaced saying he 'believes it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception'.
The report, from Martin Hammond to Stanley Johnson in 1982, rapped the 17-year-old for thinking he should be free of the 'network of obligation that binds everyone'.
The classics schoolmaster also slammed him for being 'affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility'.
It comes as the PM's future hangs on a knife edge as ministers pleaded with Tories MPs to wait for a probe into No 10 parties before calling for him to quit.
This has resurfaced more times than an orca off Vancouver.
Yes, I have just checked the bookshelves and the "network of obligation" report is in both Sonia Purnell's Just Boris and Andrew Gimson's Boris which are the only two biographies of the Prime Minister that I have read; there may be others.
Leaving aside the politics. My biggest concern about 'party-gate' is the growing number of institutions at risk of getting burnt up in the storm - the reputation of the civil service, trust in the police, the integrity of the Union. Things which when lost are so hard to win back.
Hm. Not sure about the reputation of the civil service, but for me the reputation of the police died with the zeal with which they went after people sitting on a bench of drinking coffee during lockdown. And the integrity of the union died over 20 years ago. I don't think these things have died with partygate.
Also includes this Comical Ali-style interview by Nadine Dorries on @SkyNews:“I’ve spoken to constituents and they’ve done nothing but express support for the Prime Minister...I haven’t spoken to a single constituent that is angry.”
And here's footage of the indefatigable @lucymanning on that very @BorisJohnson trip to Liverpool in 2004. Note how he doesn't apologise for the entire Spectator article
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Well, that's an... interesting perspective.
On the one hand, describing the Roman response to the Great Jewish Revolt of the 1st century AD as antisemitic is clearly stretching a point, since the rebels were (in this case) clearly "asking for it".
On the other, it's difficult to see just how much more vindictive the Roman response could have possibly been if they had been raving antisemites. Unfortunately, a lot of the first hand perspectives are unreliable (Josephus being the obvious example), but it's clear either way that they murdered a lot of people, enslaved most of the rest, and destroyed as much infrastructure as they could.
have you read A Long Way to Shiloh by Lionel Davidson?
Best thriller ever, and superb treatment of Josephus (not the sort of thing you find in most thrillers)
But yeah, if you rebelled against Rome you got your arse kicked. My point is that Athens was at least as bad as any other example you can find in the Graeco Roman world, and gets not just a free pass but a monumental arse licking, for what? You can listen to all that gloopy bollocks in Pericles' funeral thang, then you can research what the many, not the few did to Pericles junior. Or swoon about what Socrates said about the Good Life, and then think about how his own Good Life hit the buffers. Bunch of wankers
"Best thriller ever"? I'm hoping that you're not a paid reviewer, as Amazon now have my cash based on the recommendation.
Talking of fascists in France, how's the French election build-up going ? Hopefully Zemmour is out of the frame.
He is still taking enough votes from Le Pen to give Pecresse a chance of the runoff, if he was not running it would definitely be Macron v Le Pen in the runoff again
The polls seem to be consolidating around a clear Macron lead in round one with Pecresse and Le Pen very close in second place - we can probably call it a statistical tie at this time. Zemmour is two or three points behind in fourth and no one else is in double figures.
In terms of the run off, Macron beats Le Pen and Zemmour easily - as far as Pecresse is concerned, much closer, the latest I've seen is Macron winning 52-48 which is far from comfortable.
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Well, that's an... interesting perspective.
On the one hand, describing the Roman response to the Great Jewish Revolt of the 1st century AD as antisemitic is clearly stretching a point, since the rebels were (in this case) clearly "asking for it".
On the other, it's difficult to see just how much more vindictive the Roman response could have possibly been if they had been raving antisemites. Unfortunately, a lot of the first hand perspectives are unreliable (Josephus being the obvious example), but it's clear either way that they murdered a lot of people, enslaved most of the rest, and destroyed as much infrastructure as they could.
have you read A Long Way to Shiloh by Lionel Davidson?
Best thriller ever, and superb treatment of Josephus (not the sort of thing you find in most thrillers)
But yeah, if you rebelled against Rome you got your arse kicked. My point is that Athens was at least as bad as any other example you can find in the Graeco Roman world, and gets not just a free pass but a monumental arse licking, for what? You can listen to all that gloopy bollocks in Pericles' funeral thang, then you can research what the many, not the few did to Pericles junior. Or swoon about what Socrates said about the Good Life, and then think about how his own Good Life hit the buffers. Bunch of wankers
I have not; and thank you for the recommendation.
I don't know enough about the Greeks to comment - if your point is that the Romans were only bastards relative to what was to come significantly afterwards, then I don't disagree.
A letter written by Boris Johnson's classics master when he was at Eton has resurfaced saying he 'believes it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception'.
The report, from Martin Hammond to Stanley Johnson in 1982, rapped the 17-year-old for thinking he should be free of the 'network of obligation that binds everyone'.
The classics schoolmaster also slammed him for being 'affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility'.
It comes as the PM's future hangs on a knife edge as ministers pleaded with Tories MPs to wait for a probe into No 10 parties before calling for him to quit.
What's odd about it is that they made him head boy.
Talking of fascists in France, how's the French election build-up going ? Hopefully Zemmour is out of the frame.
He is still taking enough votes from Le Pen to give Pecresse a chance of the runoff, if he was not running it would definitely be Macron v Le Pen in the runoff again
The polls seem to be consolidating around a clear Macron lead in round one with Pecresse and Le Pen very close in second place - we can probably call it a statistical tie at this time. Zemmour is two or three points behind in fourth and no one else is in double figures.
In terms of the run off, Macron beats Le Pen and Zemmour easily - as far as Pecresse is concerned, much closer, the latest I've seen is Macron winning 52-48 which is far from comfortable.
Yes most Le Pen and Zemmour voters will vote for Pecresse over Macron but most Pecresse voters will vote for Macron over Le Pen or Zemmour. That is why Macron desperately wants to avoid a run off v Pecresse
Leaving aside the politics. My biggest concern about 'party-gate' is the growing number of institutions at risk of getting burnt up in the storm - the reputation of the civil service, trust in the police, the integrity of the Union. Things which when lost are so hard to win back.
The reputation of the civil service has already been damaged beyond repair by their gross and serial incompetence in many departments over many years.
Nobody trusts the police, for the simple reason that they have been amply demonstrating in numerous ways that they cannot be trusted.
The integrity of the Union is more problematic. But on topic, does anyone in Scotland really pay attention to a rude, arrogant, rather stupid, lazy, inbred failure like Rees Mogg?
What the pandemic and indeed Johnson have done is not so much cause the problems as take away the excuses.
What we have to do now - and this is far, far harder - is work out how to resolve the mess, for which Johnson's removal is a necessary but not sufficient step.
I don't want to cause you unnecessary grief but Luke Tryl, whose tweet you are responding to, in recent years worked for the DfE and then Ofsted......
A letter written by Boris Johnson's classics master when he was at Eton has resurfaced saying he 'believes it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception'.
The report, from Martin Hammond to Stanley Johnson in 1982, rapped the 17-year-old for thinking he should be free of the 'network of obligation that binds everyone'.
The classics schoolmaster also slammed him for being 'affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility'.
It comes as the PM's future hangs on a knife edge as ministers pleaded with Tories MPs to wait for a probe into No 10 parties before calling for him to quit.
Martin Hammond was my old headmaster, once taught me for Latin
Leaving aside the politics. My biggest concern about 'party-gate' is the growing number of institutions at risk of getting burnt up in the storm - the reputation of the civil service, trust in the police, the integrity of the Union. Things which when lost are so hard to win back.
Consequent upon something on BBC East I’ve just looked at the candidates nominated for Southend West. For those who have some info posted on Wikipedia, the words ‘far right fruitcakes and nut-jobs’ come to mind. There’s also an unspecified Independent and a Psychedelic Movement candidate.
I’d have to think hard and get more information before I decided where to put my cross!
Note that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party is NOT fielding a candidate in Southend West.
Presumable out of respect for the tragic circumstances behind this byelection?
Something beyond the ken or character of the REAL nutbags?
IF yours truly had a vote there, think I'd either skip the by-election or spoil my ballot paper. Certainly would NOT vote for the Conservative, however worthy.
UNLESS perhaps she publicly denounced/renounced Boris Johnson. Which is (I think) doubtful.
Leftwing and liberal voters in Southend in the by election have a choice a bit like the French leftwingers did in 2002, vote for the Conservative or a Fascist or stay home
Stay home OR show up but spoil their ballot. Thus supporting the electoral process without backing either the Boris Johnson Party or the alternatives.
Both because they are crap AND in protest in which the vacancy was created. By treating the byelection as essentially a process for designating a Conservative replacement.
Because, for good, ill or otherwise, at the last election the voters elected a Conservative. And assassination is NOT acceptable as a means of changing that decision.
I respect other viewpoints, but that's mine. For the 2-cents (or less) it's worth.
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Well, that's an... interesting perspective.
On the one hand, describing the Roman response to the Great Jewish Revolt of the 1st century AD as antisemitic is clearly stretching a point, since the rebels were (in this case) clearly "asking for it".
On the other, it's difficult to see just how much more vindictive the Roman response could have possibly been if they had been raving antisemites. Unfortunately, a lot of the first hand perspectives are unreliable (Josephus being the obvious example), but it's clear either way that they murdered a lot of people, enslaved most of the rest, and destroyed as much infrastructure as they could.
have you read A Long Way to Shiloh by Lionel Davidson?
Best thriller ever, and superb treatment of Josephus (not the sort of thing you find in most thrillers)
But yeah, if you rebelled against Rome you got your arse kicked. My point is that Athens was at least as bad as any other example you can find in the Graeco Roman world, and gets not just a free pass but a monumental arse licking, for what? You can listen to all that gloopy bollocks in Pericles' funeral thang, then you can research what the many, not the few did to Pericles junior. Or swoon about what Socrates said about the Good Life, and then think about how his own Good Life hit the buffers. Bunch of wankers
"Best thriller ever"? I'm hoping that you're not a paid reviewer, as Amazon now have my cash based on the recommendation.
It's not my favourite of his but I'd go along with best thriller writer ever*, and a pretty damn fine writer full stop.
Consequent upon something on BBC East I’ve just looked at the candidates nominated for Southend West. For those who have some info posted on Wikipedia, the words ‘far right fruitcakes and nut-jobs’ come to mind. There’s also an unspecified Independent and a Psychedelic Movement candidate.
I’d have to think hard and get more information before I decided where to put my cross!
Note that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party is NOT fielding a candidate in Southend West.
Presumable out of respect for the tragic circumstances behind this byelection?
Something beyond the ken or character of the REAL nutbags?
IF yours truly had a vote there, think I'd either skip the by-election or spoil my ballot paper. Certainly would NOT vote for the Conservative, however worthy.
UNLESS perhaps she publicly denounced/renounced Boris Johnson. Which is (I think) doubtful.
Leftwing and liberal voters in Southend in the by election have a choice a bit like the French leftwingers did in 2002, vote for the Conservative or a Fascist or stay home
Talking of fascists in France, how's the French election build-up going ? Hopefully Zemmour is out of the frame.
French media, especially Govt owned French media, is obsessing about the UK and BJ, and not mentioning the Covid case count in France
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
The careers of Caesar and Pompey as a start? they made Colston look really small time.... Mass slaughter followed by mass slavery and a topping of theft....
As for genocide - what do you call what happened to Carthage?
The theory was everyone was enslaved I thought? Rather than the Kill all the men orders for Melos/Mytilene. The practical difference may have been trivial of course
I just get ranty and pissed off by lazy veneration of Athens because they built some swanky buildings with stolen money, and voluntarily sat through a lot of B Movie level shit by the likes of sodding Euripides, and so on, and people are still secretly impressed by Johnson quoting translations of boring Aeschylus. Looking for an ancient world analogue of bojo most people would look to Rome, but actually the best fit is genuinely Pericles, and not in a good way.
Yeah. And at least the Spartans were genuinely fuck off hard.
Consequent upon something on BBC East I’ve just looked at the candidates nominated for Southend West. For those who have some info posted on Wikipedia, the words ‘far right fruitcakes and nut-jobs’ come to mind. There’s also an unspecified Independent and a Psychedelic Movement candidate.
I’d have to think hard and get more information before I decided where to put my cross!
Note that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party is NOT fielding a candidate in Southend West.
Presumable out of respect for the tragic circumstances behind this byelection?
Something beyond the ken or character of the REAL nutbags?
IF yours truly had a vote there, think I'd either skip the by-election or spoil my ballot paper. Certainly would NOT vote for the Conservative, however worthy.
UNLESS perhaps she publicly denounced/renounced Boris Johnson. Which is (I think) doubtful.
Leftwing and liberal voters in Southend in the by election have a choice a bit like the French leftwingers did in 2002, vote for the Conservative or a Fascist or stay home
Not sure how near the Conservative candidate is to the political centre of even the Conservative party. Over to the Right by the look of it.
She backed Leave but otherwise is a Sevenoaks District Councillor and barrister and relatively middle of the road certainly when you consider UKIP are about the most moderate right of her opponents
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Siege of Jerusalem AD70, for a start?
Plenty of others, I think.
Mytilene and Melos were fellow Greeks and nominal allies. The decrees in both cases were for execution of adult males. Sure, Rome crushed rebellions of the theoretically subjugated, but there's a difference. And if it's not much of a difference, why the differential status granted to the Athenians?
If it doesn't start with himself, it's a waste of time.
Or a call to a shit hot divorce lawyer
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
If he survives, I can see it making a difference surrounding himself with some grown ups, and I can imagine Boris knuckling down. For a while. But that would sideline Carrie and create marital tensions and, if nuggets from the past don't get him first, I could see him blowing off steam from all that new found responsibility by ending up in one or more active and discovered affairs under that roof by the end of the year. And being live and current those might get more traction than mere reflection on his past behaviour in that regard.
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Well, that's an... interesting perspective.
On the one hand, describing the Roman response to the Great Jewish Revolt of the 1st century AD as antisemitic is clearly stretching a point, since the rebels were (in this case) clearly "asking for it".
On the other, it's difficult to see just how much more vindictive the Roman response could have possibly been if they had been raving antisemites. Unfortunately, a lot of the first hand perspectives are unreliable (Josephus being the obvious example), but it's clear either way that they murdered a lot of people, enslaved most of the rest, and destroyed as much infrastructure as they could.
have you read A Long Way to Shiloh by Lionel Davidson?
Best thriller ever, and superb treatment of Josephus (not the sort of thing you find in most thrillers)
But yeah, if you rebelled against Rome you got your arse kicked. My point is that Athens was at least as bad as any other example you can find in the Graeco Roman world, and gets not just a free pass but a monumental arse licking, for what? You can listen to all that gloopy bollocks in Pericles' funeral thang, then you can research what the many, not the few did to Pericles junior. Or swoon about what Socrates said about the Good Life, and then think about how his own Good Life hit the buffers. Bunch of wankers
"Best thriller ever"? I'm hoping that you're not a paid reviewer, as Amazon now have my cash based on the recommendation.
I am pretty confident you won't be disappointed. Let us know.
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
The careers of Caesar and Pompey as a start? they made Colston look really small time.... Mass slaughter followed by mass slavery and a topping of theft....
As for genocide - what do you call what happened to Carthage?
The theory was everyone was enslaved I thought? Rather than the Kill all the men orders for Melos/Mytilene. The practical difference may have been trivial of course
I just get ranty and pissed off by lazy veneration of Athens because they built some swanky buildings with stolen money, and voluntarily sat through a lot of B Movie level shit by the likes of sodding Euripides, and so on, and people are still secretly impressed by Johnson quoting translations of boring Aeschylus. Looking for an ancient world analogue of bojo most people would look to Rome, but actually the best fit is genuinely Pericles, and not in a good way.
Yeah. And at least the Spartans were genuinely fuck off hard.
And gay. AIUI the idea was that gay ‘partners’ fought beside each other because neither would let the other down.
That wasn't the Spartiates, that was the Theban Sacred Band.
Leaving aside the politics. My biggest concern about 'party-gate' is the growing number of institutions at risk of getting burnt up in the storm - the reputation of the civil service, trust in the police, the integrity of the Union. Things which when lost are so hard to win back.
Given the invite was sent by a fucking civil servant, I think the reputation has already been burnt.
Well, just another British institution being trashed by our current government in favour of self serving sleaze and arrogance.
I oppose a lot of Tories, but I really despise what these current chancers are doing to the country. It is systemic looting and trashing of state functions that would embarrass a banana Republic.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Siege of Jerusalem AD70, for a start?
Plenty of others, I think.
Mytilene and Melos were fellow Greeks and nominal allies. The decrees in both cases were for execution of adult males. Sure, Rome crushed rebellions of the theoretically subjugated, but there's a difference. And if it's not much of a difference, why the differential status granted to the Athenians?
I would say Athens tends to get a free pass because of the sheer volume of intellectual output. That's not to say it wasn't capable of brutality, ofcourse.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
A letter written by Boris Johnson's classics master when he was at Eton has resurfaced saying he 'believes it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception'.
The report, from Martin Hammond to Stanley Johnson in 1982, rapped the 17-year-old for thinking he should be free of the 'network of obligation that binds everyone'.
The classics schoolmaster also slammed him for being 'affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility'.
It comes as the PM's future hangs on a knife edge as ministers pleaded with Tories MPs to wait for a probe into No 10 parties before calling for him to quit.
What's odd about it is that they made him head boy.
Sounds like George Best's plea to Matt Busby - "make me captain and I WILL be responsible"
Leaving aside the politics. My biggest concern about 'party-gate' is the growing number of institutions at risk of getting burnt up in the storm - the reputation of the civil service, trust in the police, the integrity of the Union. Things which when lost are so hard to win back.
The reputation of the civil service has already been damaged beyond repair by their gross and serial incompetence in many departments over many years.
Nobody trusts the police, for the simple reason that they have been amply demonstrating in numerous ways that they cannot be trusted.
The integrity of the Union is more problematic. But on topic, does anyone in Scotland really pay attention to a rude, arrogant, rather stupid, lazy, inbred failure like Rees Mogg?
What the pandemic and indeed Johnson have done is not so much cause the problems as take away the excuses.
What we have to do now - and this is far, far harder - is work out how to resolve the mess, for which Johnson's removal is a necessary but not sufficient step.
I don't want to cause you unnecessary grief but Luke Tryl, whose tweet you are responding to, in recent years worked for the DfE and then Ofsted......
Not surprised if he's so dumb as to think the civil service had a good reputation and the police were trusted!
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
Certainly hilariously unsubtle in the timing, if nothing else.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
Consequent upon something on BBC East I’ve just looked at the candidates nominated for Southend West. For those who have some info posted on Wikipedia, the words ‘far right fruitcakes and nut-jobs’ come to mind. There’s also an unspecified Independent and a Psychedelic Movement candidate.
I’d have to think hard and get more information before I decided where to put my cross!
Note that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party is NOT fielding a candidate in Southend West.
Presumable out of respect for the tragic circumstances behind this byelection?
Something beyond the ken or character of the REAL nutbags?
IF yours truly had a vote there, think I'd either skip the by-election or spoil my ballot paper. Certainly would NOT vote for the Conservative, however worthy.
UNLESS perhaps she publicly denounced/renounced Boris Johnson. Which is (I think) doubtful.
Leftwing and liberal voters in Southend in the by election have a choice a bit like the French leftwingers did in 2002, vote for the Conservative or a Fascist or stay home
Surprised someone like the SWP hadn't put their hat in the ring - they might have saved their deposit...
Leaving aside the politics. My biggest concern about 'party-gate' is the growing number of institutions at risk of getting burnt up in the storm - the reputation of the civil service, trust in the police, the integrity of the Union. Things which when lost are so hard to win back.
Given the invite was sent by a fucking civil servant, I think the reputation has already been burnt.
Well, just another British institution being trashed by our current government in favour of self serving sleaze and arrogance.
I oppose a lot of Tories, but I really despise what these current chancers are doing to the country. It is systemic looting and trashing of state functions that would embarrass a banana Republic.
Putinism in action, UK style. With Boris Johnson m/c & clown-in-chief clown in the middle of the circus ring.
If it doesn't start with himself, it's a waste of time.
Or a call to a shit hot divorce lawyer
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
She's highly rated in the animal welfare community - we see her as totally genuine.
If it doesn't start with himself, it's a waste of time.
Or a call to a shit hot divorce lawyer
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
She's highly rated in the animal welfare community - we see her as totally genuine.
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Siege of Jerusalem AD70, for a start?
Plenty of others, I think.
Mytilene and Melos were fellow Greeks and nominal allies. The decrees in both cases were for execution of adult males. Sure, Rome crushed rebellions of the theoretically subjugated, but there's a difference. And if it's not much of a difference, why the differential status granted to the Athenians?
I would say Athens tends to get a free pass because of the sheer volume of intellectual output. That's not to say it wasn't capable of brutality, ofcourse.
Yes, but that was pretty much par for the course in ancient city states with a hierarchy, whether Maya, Athens or Shang.
Though there is also a long and interesting history of co-operative and fairly democratic ancient societies, that we tend to ignore because wars make for more superficially interesting history.
Leaving aside the politics. My biggest concern about 'party-gate' is the growing number of institutions at risk of getting burnt up in the storm - the reputation of the civil service, trust in the police, the integrity of the Union. Things which when lost are so hard to win back.
Given the invite was sent by a fucking civil servant, I think the reputation has already been burnt.
The civil servant in question, Martin Reynolds, was hand-picked by Boris, with whom he worked when the latter was Foreign Secretary. All the senior CS at No. 10 are hand-picked. The problem is the politicisation of the CS by the current government (starting with Cummings), not the CS itself.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
Getting in some practice for the British Limbo Dancing Championships there...
Consequent upon something on BBC East I’ve just looked at the candidates nominated for Southend West. For those who have some info posted on Wikipedia, the words ‘far right fruitcakes and nut-jobs’ come to mind. There’s also an unspecified Independent and a Psychedelic Movement candidate.
I’d have to think hard and get more information before I decided where to put my cross!
Note that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party is NOT fielding a candidate in Southend West.
Presumable out of respect for the tragic circumstances behind this byelection?
Something beyond the ken or character of the REAL nutbags?
IF yours truly had a vote there, think I'd either skip the by-election or spoil my ballot paper. Certainly would NOT vote for the Conservative, however worthy.
UNLESS perhaps she publicly denounced/renounced Boris Johnson. Which is (I think) doubtful.
Leftwing and liberal voters in Southend in the by election have a choice a bit like the French leftwingers did in 2002, vote for the Conservative or a Fascist or stay home
Not sure how near the Conservative candidate is to the political centre of even the Conservative party. Over to the Right by the look of it.
She backed Leave but otherwise is a Sevenoaks District Councillor and barrister and relatively middle of the road certainly when you consider UKIP are about the most moderate right of her opponents
Doesn’t give me much confidence, I’m afraid. Still of the opinion already expressed!
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Leaving aside the politics. My biggest concern about 'party-gate' is the growing number of institutions at risk of getting burnt up in the storm - the reputation of the civil service, trust in the police, the integrity of the Union. Things which when lost are so hard to win back.
Given the invite was sent by a fucking civil servant, I think the reputation has already been burnt.
Well, just another British institution being trashed by our current government in favour of self serving sleaze and arrogance.
I oppose a lot of Tories, but I really despise what these current chancers are doing to the country. It is systemic looting and trashing of state functions that would embarrass a banana Republic.
Putinism in action, UK style. With Boris Johnson m/c & clown-in-chief clown in the middle of the circus ring.
Yes, or Trumpism trashing US institutions.
We have had them so long that we forget their value.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases tax again or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
John Major still got 31% in 1997 against a far, far better opponent than Starmer. Boris polled 28% yesterday with YouGov and there's still a big downwards trend.
What you fail to understand is that Boris can't Brexit again. That route to 44% evapourated on the day we exited the transition period and the TCA came into operation.
Boris is losing supporters, the people that got him an 80 seat majority and there's no real way to win new supporters. Relying in Labour imploding isn't going to work this time either because Statmer may be dull but he isn't a danger to the economy.
The mood among my Tory friends isn't improving at all, if anything Boris made it worse.
Leaving aside the politics. My biggest concern about 'party-gate' is the growing number of institutions at risk of getting burnt up in the storm - the reputation of the civil service, trust in the police, the integrity of the Union. Things which when lost are so hard to win back.
Given the invite was sent by a fucking civil servant, I think the reputation has already been burnt.
The civil servant in question, Martin Reynolds, was hand-picked by Boris, with whom he worked when the latter was Foreign Secretary. All the senior CS at No. 10 are hand-picked. The problem is the politicisation of the CS by the current government (starting with Cummings), not the CS itself.
That isn't a recent phenomenon. It was certainly politicised under Blair. A case could even be made that it began with Thatcher's post-Falklands attempt to set up what amounted to a parallel foreign office under Parsons.
A bigger problem seems to be that so many of them are just self evidently dumb and ignorant and yet unshakeably convinced of their own brilliance (rather like Cummings himself).
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Siege of Jerusalem AD70, for a start?
Plenty of others, I think.
Mytilene and Melos were fellow Greeks and nominal allies. The decrees in both cases were for execution of adult males. Sure, Rome crushed rebellions of the theoretically subjugated, but there's a difference. And if it's not much of a difference, why the differential status granted to the Athenians?
I would say Athens tends to get a free pass because of the sheer volume of intellectual output. That's not to say it wasn't capable of brutality, ofcourse.
Yebbutnobutyeah
Plato was undoubtedly (I think) the crown of the output, but it seems perverse to credit him to the political system when he was rabidly antidemocratic anyway, and look what happened to Socrates.
Some of the literature was pretty good*, but if you are going to treat it as a credit to the politics you have to do the same for Shakespeare, Milton, Dante, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn... And if you say the Parthenon, same for St Peters, the Duomo, Taj Mahal, English cathedrals....
And the Mitylene and Melos decisions were at least as psychotically cruel as any Persian tyrant could have managed. A real advertisement against democracy.
And the universities built themselves on the theory that knowing Greek was the pinnacle of academic aspiration, and Athens was the standard by which everything should be judged (that is literally why "the classics" are called that), and what we end up with, is Boris.
* I have read all the surviving plays, in the original, so you don't have to. Trust me, a lot of it is fcking hard going.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
Leaving aside the politics. My biggest concern about 'party-gate' is the growing number of institutions at risk of getting burnt up in the storm - the reputation of the civil service, trust in the police, the integrity of the Union. Things which when lost are so hard to win back.
Given the invite was sent by a fucking civil servant, I think the reputation has already been burnt.
The civil servant in question, Martin Reynolds, was hand-picked by Boris, with whom he worked when the latter was Foreign Secretary. All the senior CS at No. 10 are hand-picked. The problem is the politicisation of the CS by the current government (starting with Cummings), not the CS itself.
Boris Johnson is, after all, Minister for the Civil Service - so it could hardly be expected to be all rosy at the garden party.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
The last ten years of being a loyal Tory must have felt like being the Vicar of Bray on acid.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
How much lower do you think?
If Johnson stays in post I think a sub 25% poll by the end of the month.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases tax again or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
watch this space
BETTING POST Lab maj at 5/1 looks screaming value to me
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
Or slash spending on poor people in order to keep taxes on rich pensioners nice and low, surely?
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
It was George Bush Snr putting up income tax against his pledge not to in 1988 that saw him fall to just 37% in the 1992 presidential election and Perot get 19% of the vote while Bill Clinton won comfortably.
Similarly the Progressive Conservative government in Canada introducing a new national goods and sales tax before the 1993 election saw them collapse to just 16% and 2 MPs under Kim Campbell who had taken over from Brian Mulroney as PM. They ended up even behind the populist right Reform Party as the Liberals won a landslide.
See also May's disastrous dementia tax in 2017 that lost her her majority.
As others have suggested, from the non-Conservative side of the aisle, I'm quite happy to see Boris Johnson booed and jeered to defeat over the next two years.
Every time he thinks he's making headway, somebody will bring something out of the archives to slap him back down and while the Conservative Parliamentary Party has a penchant for deposing failed leaders, it only does so when there's a clear and attractive alternative.
Sunak will have the option of leaving the ship or going down with it - ditto Truss and anyone else with leadership or Prime Ministerial aspirations. Opposition is going to be a new experience for many Conservatives and let's be honest, they weren't much good at it last time.
As @MarkH has intimated, the plates have shifted and the confidence of the "New Tories" from 2019 has been shattered. It's a reminder of one of the most valid adages in politics - it's easy to be hated, it's much harder to be ridiculed.
A single local by election today which is counting tomorrow so we can all have an early night (if that's what we do).
A few Tory politicians actually do better in opposition than government, eg Ann Widdecombe or Enoch Powell
Probably not the first to observe my opinion that all Tories do better in opposition.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
How much lower do you think?
If Johnson stays in post I think a sub 25% poll by the end of the month.
I think he will stay in post, but the May elections could be interesting.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
It was George Bush Snr putting up tax against his pledge not to in 1988 that saw him fall to just 38% in the 1992 presidential election and Perot get 19% of the vote while Bill Clinton won comfortably.
Similarly the Progressive Conservative government in Canada introducing a new national goods and sales tax before the 1993 election saw them collapse to just 18% and 2 MPs under Kim Campbell who had taken over from Brian Mulroney as PM. They ended up even behind the populist right Reform Party as the Liberals won a landslide.
Election winning Conservatives do not raise tax
Who gives a primate's eructation about what the Americans and the Canadians do? You might as well inquire what the Fon of Bafut, and the Chinese Communist Party, do.
We are here in the UK, whether we like it or not.
And you still won't tell me if you think that the UK giving India independence was a good or bad thing. That's a lot closer to home that some Canadian person.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
It was George Bush Snr putting up income tax against his pledge not to in 1988 that saw him fall to just 38% in the 1992 presidential election and Perot get 19% of the vote while Bill Clinton won comfortably.
Similarly the Progressive Conservative government in Canada introducing a new national goods and sales tax before the 1993 election saw them collapse to just 18% and 2 MPs under Kim Campbell who had taken over from Brian Mulroney as PM. They ended up even behind the populist right Reform Party as the Liberals won a landslide.
See also May's disastrous dementia tax in 2017 that lost her her majority.
Election winning Conservatives do not raise tax
That's odd because my taxes are going up in April along with 30m other people's tax. By your own black and white statements the Tories are no longer election winning.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
Or slash spending on poor people in order to keep taxes on rich pensioners nice and low, surely?
Already scraped the barrel on that, as explained ad libitum by some on here. Because only Tory voters count.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
The last ten years of being a loyal Tory must have felt like being the Vicar of Bray on acid.
Leaving aside the politics. My biggest concern about 'party-gate' is the growing number of institutions at risk of getting burnt up in the storm - the reputation of the civil service, trust in the police, the integrity of the Union. Things which when lost are so hard to win back.
Given the invite was sent by a fucking civil servant, I think the reputation has already been burnt.
The civil servant in question, Martin Reynolds, was hand-picked by Boris, with whom he worked when the latter was Foreign Secretary. All the senior CS at No. 10 are hand-picked. The problem is the politicisation of the CS by the current government (starting with Cummings), not the CS itself.
That isn't a recent phenomenon. It was certainly politicised under Blair. A case could even be made that it began with Thatcher's post-Falklands attempt to set up what amounted to a parallel foreign office under Parsons.
A bigger problem seems to be that so many of them are just self evidently dumb and ignorant and yet unshakeably convinced of their own brilliance (rather like Cummings himself).
I don't agree with much of that. Under Blair, we knew who was a Civil Servant and who was a SPAD - mainly because the CS quietly got on while the SPADs hit the airwaves. He didn't clear out all the long-standing Senior CS, nor did they all run for the hills. Under this government, the distinction between SPADs and Senior CS has become (deliberately) blurred - do you know who's a SPAD and who's a CS?. Many of the best Senior CS were cleared out by Boris, Patel and others, or left because they no longer felt they could fulfil their neutral duty of advising ministers without fear or favour.
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Siege of Jerusalem AD70, for a start?
Plenty of others, I think.
Mytilene and Melos were fellow Greeks and nominal allies. The decrees in both cases were for execution of adult males. Sure, Rome crushed rebellions of the theoretically subjugated, but there's a difference. And if it's not much of a difference, why the differential status granted to the Athenians?
I would say Athens tends to get a free pass because of the sheer volume of intellectual output. That's not to say it wasn't capable of brutality, ofcourse.
Yebbutnobutyeah
Plato was undoubtedly (I think) the crown of the output, but it seems perverse to credit him to the political system when he was rabidly antidemocratic anyway, and look what happened to Socrates.
Some of the literature was pretty good*, but if you are going to treat it as a credit to the politics you have to do the same for Shakespeare, Milton, Dante, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn... And if you say the Parthenon, same for St Peters, the Duomo, Taj Mahal, English cathedrals....
And the Mitylene and Melos decisions were at least as psychotically cruel as any Persian tyrant could have managed. A real advertisement against democracy.
And the universities built themselves on the theory that knowing Greek was the pinnacle of academic aspiration, and Athens was the standard by which everything should be judged (that is literally why "the classics" are called that), and what we end up with, is Boris.
* I have read all the surviving plays, in the original, so you don't have to. Trust me, a lot of it is fcking hard going.
But it was also the sheer range and versatility of output. At the top Plato was a political-metaphysical thinker, for instance, as well as in a way a literary one, so there was no need for reflected glory from one part of society to the other. Again and again it's this multidimensionality which sets Athens apart, I would say, and sets many of our modern parameters. Its military and rituals could still be as brutal as any other, ofcourse.
I'd also hesitate to use Boris, and empty prestige and affectation among the wealthy, as the inevitable historical result of Athens. The Enlightenment wasn't just an affectation of the wealthy.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
How much lower do you think?
If Johnson stays in post I think a sub 25% poll by the end of the month.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases tax again or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
watch this space
BETTING POST Lab maj at 5/1 looks screaming value to me
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
It was George Bush Snr putting up tax against his pledge not to in 1988 that saw him fall to just 38% in the 1992 presidential election and Perot get 19% of the vote while Bill Clinton won comfortably.
Similarly the Progressive Conservative government in Canada introducing a new national goods and sales tax before the 1993 election saw them collapse to just 18% and 2 MPs under Kim Campbell who had taken over from Brian Mulroney as PM. They ended up even behind the populist right Reform Party as the Liberals won a landslide.
Election winning Conservatives do not raise tax
Who gives a primate's eructation about what the Americans and the Canadians do? You might as well inquire what the Fon of Bafut, and the Chinese Communist Party, do.
We are here in the UK, whether we like it or not.
And you still won't tell me if you think that the UK giving India independence was a good or bad thing. That's a lot closer to home that some Canadian person.
Where the same principle applies, see the Tories collapse post 1993 after imposing VAT on fuel. Or after May's dementia tax. Conservatives do not like tax rises.
I told you quite clearly Conservatives opposed Indian independence before 1948 but have accepted it since Attlee gave it. I was not born until 40 years after Indian independence view on it beyond factual comment on it is irrelevant
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
Election winning Conservatives do not raise tax
Seems a bit foolish then to be sticking up taxes in April via NI and fiscal drag.
The choice though is either higher taxes still or shafting the Red Wall. My money is on the latter.
This new No. 10 reorganisation is another purge of dissenters. Anyone who responded that they thought the party was a bad idea or didn't attend will be sacked. Any person who has muttered that the PM should have known better will be hounded out. Boris values loyalty and fealty above all else, he will see anyone who isn't as guilty as him or anyone who had reservations about all the partying as disloyal and a risk.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
As people said at the time Boris was elected - Boris will completely trash the Tory party as he destroys support from all directions.
The Tories are still polling higher than May's Tories were after she failed to deliver Brexit or Major's Tories were by 1995 v New Labour
So not scraping the bottom of the barrel just yet. Keep on digging...
Unless the government increases income tax or inheritance tax or imposes new restrictions on the vaccinated I doubt it will go much lower polling wise
But it has to increase income tax and inheritance tax to be a fiscally prudent Conservative party.
It was George Bush Snr putting up income tax against his pledge not to in 1988 that saw him fall to just 38% in the 1992 presidential election and Perot get 19% of the vote while Bill Clinton won comfortably.
Similarly the Progressive Conservative government in Canada introducing a new national goods and sales tax before the 1993 election saw them collapse to just 18% and 2 MPs under Kim Campbell who had taken over from Brian Mulroney as PM. They ended up even behind the populist right Reform Party as the Liberals won a landslide.
See also May's disastrous dementia tax in 2017 that lost her her majority.
Election winning Conservatives do not raise tax
That's odd because my taxes are going up in April along with 30m other people's tax. By your own black and white statements the Tories are no longer election winning.
National insurance is going up briefly to repay the extra money the NHS needed due to Covid. Other taxes are not and hopefully by the next general election tax will be cut again
If it doesn't start with himself, it's a waste of time.
Or a call to a shit hot divorce lawyer
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
She's highly rated in the animal welfare community - we see her as totally genuine.
Yes, Nick. You also rate doggies higher than darkies. That is implicit in that judgment.
And there isn't an "animal welfare community" for which you speak anyway. I am reponsible for the wellbeing of 9 equines (7 of them unridden and unrideable, as I am sure you think riding a horse is a refined form of abuse) and any number of dogs. I am guessing you aren't. Frankly I have you down as a borderline psychopath after your cynical deceit of this site throughout GE 2015 (tick tock) and your subsequent enthusiasm for the jew hater Corbyn. Surely animal welfare was only ever a career opening?
I sense a shifting of the the political tectonic plates. The next Tory leader must lance the boil of the ERG/Covid Recovery Group as Kinnock did with Momentum, although will probably face a similar fate. Since the CRG rebellion, the Rees-Moggs etc believe they have free reign, appealing to the c100,000 party members but increasingly alienating UK voters. As with Johnson, any new leader will be in thrall to the CRG unless they call a GE and remove the whip, so they can't stand, as Johnson did with Tory moderates. Johnson irretrievably lost any authority over his party with the CRG revolt against Plan B so was already a dead man walking. Even before 'party gate'. Previous PMs have been able to turn their tenure into filthy lucre. This option is no longer open to Johnson as he has already rewarded his acolytes and will have no traction as a columnist, expert meeting chair or lobbyist and will become. effectively homeless, on loss of office. Even as an after-dinner speaker to software salesmen, his appeal as the 'dim-sounding-but-actually-very-clever' speaker will fail if just one person suffered a bereavement during lockdown. Starmer must be hoping he'll cling on, with every PMQs 'he said this then, he said that then' which one is the truth? will resonate. Starmer has been collecting and collating receipts for 18 months now. His awkward squad, (Corbynite/Momentum) is easier to control. Without the whip, Corbyn faces a future of cultivating his allotment while collecting his pension. While his wife would advocate this course, his lifetime of 'tilting against windmills' will probably mean him setting up his own party. Without the party whip he cannot stand as an MP. Membership or support for such a new party would mean expulsion from Labour/removal of whip for Starmer's awkward squad. And then there is running a de facto 'progressive alliance' between Lib Dems and Labour where, as we have seen, there has already been an implicit pact in by-elections.
Welcome to PB!
On one of your points, think you're under-estimating Boris Johnson post-PM prospects. Certainly he would be a big draw in USA, as former premier AND as a Benny Hill impersonator. No BoJo fatigue over here! Heck, most of us barely know who he is. Certainly we have no real antipathy (or love) for him, just another Brit twit politico/talking head.
Am NOT talking chump change, but LOTS of greenback dollars, at least for a few years on (what used to be called) the rubber chicken circuit.
I've tipped Boris to become a moosehead professor at one of your well-heeled universities. He can teach a 2-hour course on British politics, and another on Ancient Greece. Seven figures for a week's work, if that. Here is an extract from his Rome vs Greece debate against Prof Mary Beard:-
To be absolutely fair, the Romans were utter bastards.
What, you mean like compared to the bubonic plague?
When they conquered people they conquered them, but I'm pushed to find an act of vindictive genocide anywhere near the one decreed by the hugely overrated C5th Athens for the Mytilenians and actually carried out on the Melians. And they managed to interact with the Jews without murderous antisemitism, which lots of people find quite tricky.
Siege of Jerusalem AD70, for a start?
Plenty of others, I think.
Mytilene and Melos were fellow Greeks and nominal allies. The decrees in both cases were for execution of adult males. Sure, Rome crushed rebellions of the theoretically subjugated, but there's a difference. And if it's not much of a difference, why the differential status granted to the Athenians?
I would say Athens tends to get a free pass because of the sheer volume of intellectual output. That's not to say it wasn't capable of brutality, ofcourse.
Yebbutnobutyeah
Plato was undoubtedly (I think) the crown of the output, but it seems perverse to credit him to the political system when he was rabidly antidemocratic anyway, and look what happened to Socrates.
Some of the literature was pretty good*, but if you are going to treat it as a credit to the politics you have to do the same for Shakespeare, Milton, Dante, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn... And if you say the Parthenon, same for St Peters, the Duomo, Taj Mahal, English cathedrals....
And the Mitylene and Melos decisions were at least as psychotically cruel as any Persian tyrant could have managed. A real advertisement against democracy.
And the universities built themselves on the theory that knowing Greek was the pinnacle of academic aspiration, and Athens was the standard by which everything should be judged (that is literally why "the classics" are called that), and what we end up with, is Boris.
* I have read all the surviving plays, in the original, so you don't have to. Trust me, a lot of it is fcking hard going.
But it was also the sheer range and versatility of output. At the top Plato was a political-metaphysical thinker, for instance, as well as in a way a literary one, so there was no need for reflected glory from part of society to the other. Again and again it's this multidimensionality which sets Athens apart, I would say, and sets many of our modern parameters. Its military and rituals could still be as brutal as any other.
I'd also hesitate to use Boris, and empty prestige and affectation among the wealthy, as the inevitable historical result of Athens. The Enlightenment wasn't just an affectation of wealthy people.
I'm not sure certain of our modern classicists weren't off sick in the sanatorium with a cold when the aphorisms at the Delphic Oracle were covered in class.
Comments
(Edit) - Ah - I see, it's Mark Francois.
On the one hand, describing the Roman response to the Great Jewish Revolt of the 1st century AD as antisemitic is clearly stretching a point, since the rebels were (in this case) clearly "asking for it".
On the other, it's difficult to see just how much more vindictive the Roman response could have possibly been if they had been raving antisemites. Unfortunately, a lot of the first hand perspectives are unreliable (Josephus being the obvious example), but it's clear either way that they murdered a lot of people, enslaved most of the rest, and destroyed as much infrastructure as they could.
Actually Carrie is by no means as bad as her misogynistic critics paint her. I hear she is devoting all her time to a charity for rescuing doggies from warzones full of awful poor brown people. The Blondi Trust.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Gardener?
Or something like that?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2022_French_presidential_election
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GQSTMPS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Best thriller ever, and superb treatment of Josephus (not the sort of thing you find in most thrillers)
But yeah, if you rebelled against Rome you got your arse kicked. My point is that Athens was at least as bad as any other example you can find in the Graeco Roman world, and gets not just a free pass but a monumental arse licking, for what? You can listen to all that gloopy bollocks in Pericles' funeral thang, then you can research what the many, not the few did to Pericles junior. Or swoon about what Socrates said about the Good Life, and then think about how his own Good Life hit the buffers. Bunch of wankers
Over to the Right by the look of it.
Not sure about the reputation of the civil service, but for me the reputation of the police died with the zeal with which they went after people sitting on a bench of drinking coffee during lockdown. And the integrity of the union died over 20 years ago. I don't think these things have died with partygate.
Tonight's #WaughOnPolitics is out
https://inews.co.uk/news/analysis/boris-johnsons-apology-for-boozegate-feels-as-flawed-as-his-apology-to-liverpool-1400337
Also includes this Comical Ali-style interview by Nadine Dorries on @SkyNews:“I’ve spoken to constituents and they’ve done nothing but express support for the Prime Minister...I haven’t spoken to a single constituent that is angry.”
But @38degrees tells me at least 16 of her constituents have emailed her office to express disgust at partygate and PM's conduct.
One of them, Anna, has given permission to share this https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1481718636352090112/photo/1
And here's footage of the indefatigable @lucymanning on that very @BorisJohnson trip to Liverpool in 2004.
Note how he doesn't apologise for the entire Spectator article
https://twitter.com/carldinnen/status/1367086475817472005?s=20
Plenty of others, I think.
In terms of the run off, Macron beats Le Pen and Zemmour easily - as far as Pecresse is concerned, much closer, the latest I've seen is Macron winning 52-48 which is far from comfortable.
I don't know enough about the Greeks to comment - if your point is that the Romans were only bastards relative to what was to come significantly afterwards, then I don't disagree.
Both because they are crap AND in protest in which the vacancy was created. By treating the byelection as essentially a process for designating a Conservative replacement.
Because, for good, ill or otherwise, at the last election the voters elected a Conservative. And assassination is NOT acceptable as a means of changing that decision.
I respect other viewpoints, but that's mine. For the 2-cents (or less) it's worth.
*Even taking flint knappers into account.
There's another fishing tantrum due.
I oppose a lot of Tories, but I really despise what these current chancers are doing to the country. It is systemic looting and trashing of state functions that would embarrass a banana Republic.
The UK is no more than a fiefdom with a paralysed Tory party unable or unwilling to pull the trigger. The one thing they used to be good at seems to have been lost.
Film by @agneschambre https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1481730316331012096/video/1
Though there is also a long and interesting history of co-operative and fairly democratic ancient societies, that we tend to ignore because wars make for more superficially interesting history.
We have had them so long that we forget their value.
What you fail to understand is that Boris can't Brexit again. That route to 44% evapourated on the day we exited the transition period and the TCA came into operation.
Boris is losing supporters, the people that got him an 80 seat majority and there's no real way to win new supporters. Relying in Labour imploding isn't going to work this time either because Statmer may be dull but he isn't a danger to the economy.
The mood among my Tory friends isn't improving at all, if anything Boris made it worse.
A bigger problem seems to be that so many of them are just self evidently dumb and ignorant and yet unshakeably convinced of their own brilliance (rather like Cummings himself).
Plato was undoubtedly (I think) the crown of the output, but it seems perverse to credit him to the political system when he was rabidly antidemocratic anyway, and look what happened to Socrates.
Some of the literature was pretty good*, but if you are going to treat it as a credit to the politics you have to do the same for Shakespeare, Milton, Dante, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn... And if you say the Parthenon, same for St Peters, the Duomo, Taj Mahal, English cathedrals....
And the Mitylene and Melos decisions were at least as psychotically cruel as any Persian tyrant could have managed. A real advertisement against democracy.
And the universities built themselves on the theory that knowing Greek was the pinnacle of academic aspiration, and Athens was the standard by which everything should be judged (that is literally why "the classics" are called that), and what we end up with, is Boris.
* I have read all the surviving plays, in the original, so you don't have to. Trust me, a lot of it is fcking hard going.
And as for Minister for the Union, well...
I cannot see Liverpool scoring tonight.
If Johnson stays in post I think a sub 25% poll by the end of the month.
BETTING POST Lab maj at 5/1 looks screaming value to me
Similarly the Progressive Conservative government in Canada introducing a new national goods and sales tax before the 1993 election saw them collapse to just 16% and 2 MPs under Kim Campbell who had taken over from Brian Mulroney as PM. They ended up even behind the populist right Reform Party as the Liberals won a landslide.
See also May's disastrous dementia tax in 2017 that lost her her majority.
Election winning Conservatives do not raise tax
We are here in the UK, whether we like it or not.
And you still won't tell me if you think that the UK giving India independence was a good or bad thing. That's a lot closer to home that some Canadian person.
I'd also hesitate to use Boris, and empty prestige and affectation among the wealthy, as the inevitable historical result of Athens. The Enlightenment wasn't just an affectation of the wealthy.
I told you quite clearly Conservatives opposed Indian independence before 1948 but have accepted it since Attlee gave it. I was not born until 40 years after Indian independence view on it beyond factual comment on it is irrelevant
The choice though is either higher taxes still or shafting the Red Wall. My money is on the latter.
He's a very naughty boy.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgmjex/what-happened-to-politics-for-all
A copy of our letter is below. https://twitter.com/CovidJusticeUK/status/1481710259584577538/photo/1
And there isn't an "animal welfare community" for which you speak anyway. I am reponsible for the wellbeing of 9 equines (7 of them unridden and unrideable, as I am sure you think riding a horse is a refined form of abuse) and any number of dogs. I am guessing you aren't. Frankly I have you down as a borderline psychopath after your cynical deceit of this site throughout GE 2015 (tick tock) and your subsequent enthusiasm for the jew hater Corbyn. Surely animal welfare was only ever a career opening?
γνῶθι σεαυτόν - know thyself
Μηδὲν ἄγαν - Nothing in excess