Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
And had it not been for Brexit Cummings would now be an obscure footnote. Yet another Tory PM destroyed by European policy.
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
I did point out some time ago that Cummings has never been a member of the party. Yhat should have made him arms length if nothing else.
Putin has pulled all the right strings. We are going to have a lame duck government for the duration.
They are a long-standing Downing Street tradition, including under previous administrations, to help staff wind down at the end of a busy week. But the event continued many Fridays even after restrictions were introduced to help curb the Covid surge.
The fridge was delivered in Dec 2020...
Not sure your point.....
I am saying there was a drinking culture in the office pre covid, with pubs closed they carried on (encouraged by Boris), it became a bigger thing, where parties were regular, such they then needed a dedicated 30 bottle fridge for all the booze they were getting through.
The point is that they should have done what pretty much everyone else did, and adjust their lives to conform with the regulations.
Someone should have said, “guys, with these new regulations and to help avoid spreading the virus, we need to knock our Friday gatherings on the head, whilst this lockdown continues”.
Instead, they partied harder, a good number of them came down with covid, and they added to the burden for the NHS.
Based on what I read here on PB, seems that those who support - or in some cased used to support - Boris Johnson rely on these arguments:
1. He's proven vote winner 2. He delivered Brexit AND jabs. 3. He is the leader of the Conservative Party
And also seems to me that
1. Is no longer operative, nor likely to ever be 2. Indeed, but what has he done for you (or rather UK) recently? 3. Until he ain't, which could well be the best thing FOR the Conservative Party.
Note the interesting contrasts between the Sainted Margaret and the (once-) Blessed Bojo
A. Took her over a decade to wear out HER welcome with voters AND her cabinet, caucus and party. B. She fell over matters of principle (poll tax & Europe) and also because her polling numbers were slumping well BEFORE her final hours as PM C. Boris will likely fall NOT because of any principle, but rather due to the rank irresponsibility of himself and virtually everyone in his cabal with exception of Wilfred, Romy and (maybe) Dilyn.
Further note this stark contrast between Boris Johnson and his alleged role model:
> When Winston Churchill was thrown out by a landslide in 1945, it was at the HEIGHT of his personal acclaim by the British people, indeed the world - one reason why he was able to make a comeback and return to No. 10 as Prime Minister.
Even Churchill never won a landslide like Boris did though
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
This is about Boris being found out and I can tell you that I will rejoin the party when he goes and support his successor to win the next GE
It is time you called for Boris to go and pledge your support for his successor, and not act as some resentful so called conservative
Why are so many shrewd Political Punters on here, at this end of the week, still posting they think he will survive? The Smithsons, Eagles?
I’m calling it. The moment the reports published the letters go in.
What the report says, how damaging it is, doesn’t matter at all now, my tip to Sue play it safe warble on about Peppa Pig, no one will notice it doesn’t matter what you say, because report publication it’s purely the moment the Conservative Party claims it has enough to act.
This is the kicker: They have already been given enough to act, by Boris himself this week, when he admitted he lied to Parliament, admitted he broke the law, admitted he was at a party the same hour his spokesman was telling the nation nobody could! After the report, MPs send their letters in with piece to camera saying ‘from this report it unfortunately looks like Boris repeatedly mislead the house, and I don’t want to do this, as you know I voted for him, but we can’t have that.’
The report doesn’t matter now, they already have what they need. It matters only as symbolic cover for the action. The truth is, what drives the remaining letters and the comprehensive vonc is appreciating how this cocktail of anger and ridicule, of memes on distrust and betrayal that perhaps last for generations, is now damaging the whole party long term, not just Boris electoral prospects long term.
I’ve called it. Only about ten more excruciating days of Boozy Bozo to go and we enter the interesting New World of post Boris Conservative Politics.
And on that note, let’s party 🥳
I think he’s gone after he drubbing they get in the May locals. The party won’t stomach the loss of many hard working councillors to pander to this clowns ego.
Yes, it’s now or May. For reasons well rehearsed, May is hugely better for the Tory contenders and the party collectively; the only questions are whether they can possibly keep a lid on the discontent for that long, and what damage keeping him on would do in the meantime.
The Tory councillors they’d sacrifice by playing it long are no more a consideration than the Downing Street staff being listed for special measures.
ffs won't people think of all the poor paper candidates who might get elected to bogshire council by mistake?
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
Why are so many shrewd Political Punters on here, at this end of the week, still posting they think he will survive? The Smithsons, Eagles?
I’m calling it. The moment the reports published the letters go in.
What the report says, how damaging it is, doesn’t matter at all now, my tip to Sue play it safe warble on about Peppa Pig, no one will notice it doesn’t matter what you say, because report publication it’s purely the moment the Conservative Party claims it has enough to act.
This is the kicker: They have already been given enough to act, by Boris himself this week, when he admitted he lied to Parliament, admitted he broke the law, admitted he was at a party the same hour his spokesman was telling the nation nobody could! After the report, MPs send their letters in with piece to camera saying ‘from this report it unfortunately looks like Boris repeatedly mislead the house, and I don’t want to do this, as you know I voted for him, but we can’t have that.’
The report doesn’t matter now, they already have what they need. It matters only as symbolic cover for the action. The truth is, what drives the remaining letters and the comprehensive vonc is appreciating how this cocktail of anger and ridicule, of memes on distrust and betrayal that perhaps last for generations, is now damaging the whole party long term, not just Boris electoral prospects long term.
I’ve called it. Only about ten more excruciating days of Boozy Bozo to go and we enter the interesting New World of post Boris Conservative Politics.
And on that note, let’s party 🥳
I think he’s gone after he drubbing they get in the May locals. The party won’t stomach the loss of many hard working councillors to pander to this clowns ego.
Yes, it’s now or May. For reasons well rehearsed, May is hugely better for the Tory contenders and the party collectively; the only questions are whether they can possibly keep a lid on the discontent for that long, and what damage keeping him on would do in the meantime.
The Tory councillors they’d sacrifice by playing it long are no more a consideration than the Downing Street staff being listed for special measures.
ffs won't people think of all the poor paper candidates who might get elected to bogshire council by mistake?
They are a long-standing Downing Street tradition, including under previous administrations, to help staff wind down at the end of a busy week. But the event continued many Fridays even after restrictions were introduced to help curb the Covid surge.
The fridge was delivered in Dec 2020...
Not sure your point.....
I am saying there was a drinking culture in the office pre covid, with pubs closed they carried on (encouraged by Boris), it became a bigger thing, where parties were regular, such they then needed a dedicated 30 bottle fridge for all the booze they were getting through.
The point is that they should have done what pretty much everyone else did, and adjust their lives to conform with the regulations.
Someone should have said, “guys, with these new regulations and to help avoid spreading the virus, we need to knock our Friday gatherings on the head, whilst this lockdown continues”.
Instead, they partied harder, a good number of them came down with covid, and they added to the burden for the NHS.
You seem to confuse what i am saying. I am not excusing it in any way. I am saying, i called it how this went down several weeks ago and that Boris encouraged this culture.
Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar · 7m EXCLUSIVE: No 10 staff held ‘wine-time Fridays’ throughout pandemic with Boris Johnson regularly witnessing the gatherings.
Sources say PM encouraged aides to "let off steam" despite indoor socialising being banned under lockdown rules.
Called it.....
He's done.
It is over.
By Monday?
Nope. Not a chance. None. He’s going nowhere.
You keep saying that but this is terminal and soon
Are they making you really cross too Big G?
“oh he’ll survive” just seems to be tossed in too casually. I even accuse Eagles and Mike Smithson and RCS in this. I intend to challenge each of them, we need to hear now why they think he will survive. What does survive mean anyway? Do they mean The weekend? Until the The next general election? Still PM at the next Friday Wine session? Has anyone ever come back from so destroyed? What’s their reasoning? In Rishi there is a perfectly credible PM in waiting, the most trusted politician by the electorate.
Is it fair now to ask such experienced Political Punters to paint a picture of what they are seeing?
I’m happy to start saying I am watching something getting duffed up by an invisible assailant, a victim that hasn’t a clue what to expect next or when. The assailant is in complete control here, determined to complete its task, just calmly getting on with it, and nearly done. The victim actually has shown no means of fighting back against this. There is only one way this can end. Surely Nothing can come back from being so hollowed out of credibility - this is sheer anger from all the public, from all his own side and his own fans and praetorian guard.
Like 🤷♀️
An apt description
This is like the shower scene in Psycho but done in exquisite slo-mo so it lasts several weeks. But the end if inevitable. The blood spirals down the plughole. The mouth is pressed to the shower curtain. The last scream ebbs away
Brutal, exhilarating, cruel. A bravura performance
Has anything like this been witnessed in western politics.... since ever?
Thoughts and prayers with Rees-Mogg tonight. Fucking twat.
Losing his seat on UNS in the latest poll.
Not after the boundary changes which move some LD and Labour wards nearer Bath in his seat to Frome.
After boundary changes Electoral Calculus predicts a majority for Rees Mogg even now of 11% in his slightly more rural seat of Keynsham and North East Somerset
Based on what I read here on PB, seems that those who support - or in some cased used to support - Boris Johnson rely on these arguments:
1. He's proven vote winner 2. He delivered Brexit AND jabs. 3. He is the leader of the Conservative Party
And also seems to me that
1. Is no longer operative, nor likely to ever be 2. Indeed, but what has he done for you (or rather UK) recently? 3. Until he ain't, which could well be the best thing FOR the Conservative Party.
Note the interesting contrasts between the Sainted Margaret and the (once-) Blessed Bojo
A. Took her over a decade to wear out HER welcome with voters AND her cabinet, caucus and party. B. She fell over matters of principle (poll tax & Europe) and also because her polling numbers were slumping well BEFORE her final hours as PM C. Boris will likely fall NOT because of any principle, but rather due to the rank irresponsibility of himself and virtually everyone in his cabal with exception of Wilfred, Romy and (maybe) Dilyn.
Further note this stark contrast between Boris Johnson and his alleged role model:
> When Winston Churchill was thrown out by a landslide in 1945, it was at the HEIGHT of his personal acclaim by the British people, indeed the world - one reason why he was able to make a comeback and return to No. 10 as Prime Minister.
Even Churchill never won a landslide like Boris did though
From the video it could easily be a plane flying across, obliquely.
If you are the mentioned-in-passing second witness, that’s dodgy reporting!
lol. The Daily Mail doing dodgy reporting??? Never!
The way the chemtrail curves does suggest a plane, but then the absence of wings is odd, but that can be explained by the distance and the low sunlight, and maybe pollution haze
FFS IT'S A PLANE WHY IS THE MAIL PRINTING THIS SENSATIONALIST CRAP
When the sun is low, it shines sideways on the body of the plane, with the wings edge-on not throwing much of a reflection or casting much of a shadow
Either there was a second witness or there wasn’t. Someone who phones it in for fifty quid isn’t an eye witness.
Someone in the comments says this:
"SWR, Bournemouth, United Kingdom, about a minute ago
I also saw this from Bournemouth today, thought it looked really odd flying straight up and loads of trails."
And thus a rumour grows
I'm extremely tempted to believe your explanation, a large commercial aircraft, flying straight at her, caught in a low sun, so a kind of optical illusion. The two trails are a major hint
What gives me pause is that I have the original video, and I have enlarged it, and at 8 seconds in you very briefly glimpse the object much more clearly, and it really looks nothing like a passenger plane. It looks mostly like a rocket, or a wasp-shaped fighter jet
We shall never know. I have just kicked off a mystery for the ages. My work today is done. Time for an evening walk around Primrose Hill
You’d have to visit a lot of planets to find a less reliable source than the comments under a mail online article!
Something taking off from south London won’t be visible from bournemouth.
Also, there’s a high pressure temperature inversion, with a fair bit of low altitude haze that I’m seeing even here out by the sea; London must be a lot worse. So you’re going to get a lot of atmospheric distortion and shimmering - if the image appeared differently for just a few seconds, that could be it.
Some of the comments seem sensible, however.
I am now going with fighter jet doing maneuvers in the low sun, causing optical illusion
But then the lack of noise, and the alleged size
FWIW my friend Gabriella, hearing of the "it's just a plane" comments, says this:
Well they can suck my butt It was FUCKING MASSIVE and weird idk I was genuinely shocked?
She sounds quite convincing that this was way out of the ordinary...... on the other hand she has been isolating from Covid for a week and is a bit emosh
It’ll turn into a useful lesson for you to be more sceptical in future
On the one hand I think it would be ridiculous for a party to junk it's leader just because they have some negative polling, particularly when being behind is sort of expected at this point. So waiting for May is not immediately an irrational thought.
On the other, when there is such a rapid decline, is there a point where it is reasonable to act purely on polling alone? The by-election loss was bad, even for governments in by-elections, but do not always speak to the future after all (Copeland then the locals made May's GE seem a good idea). You don't want to seem like you junk someone at the first bit of difficulty, you look weak, but if the leader cannot get a grip perhaps thre is no option.
Thoughts and prayers with Rees-Mogg tonight. Fucking twat.
Losing his seat on UNS in the latest poll.
Not after the boundary changes which move some LD and Labour wards nearer Bath in his seat to Frome.
After boundary changes Electoral Calculus predicts a majority for Rees Mogg even now of 11% in his slightly more rural seat of Keynsham and North East Somerset
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
This is about Boris being found out and I can tell you that I will rejoin the party when he goes and support his successor to win the next GE
It is time you called for Boris to go and pledge your support for his successor, and not act as some resentful so called conservative
There is no polling evidence even a Sunak led Tories would lead Starmer Labour, we are 12 years into power.
Accept it BigG too, thanks to Cummings unless you live to 100 you may well have seen your last ever Conservative election win in 2019
I don't see how anybody working in #10 at the time can survive.
Its very fortunate that Dishy Rishi doesn't live in Downing Street.
This has now gone thermo nuclear in political terms.
There is no way I think that Johnson can be standing at the despatch box next Wed for PMQs.
The Raab discussion earlier just got interesting.
Of course Johnson will be there. He’ll brazen this out just like everything else.
I think so. At the moment it has very much the feel of Dr Kelly's death about it, with the PM teetering on the abyss, but Tone survived as will Boris.
I’m not sure the comparison stands up.
The thing with this story is that we all - or many of us - feel involved, on account of our sacrifices
Totally agree about how many punters here not getting comparison right.
And Blair, though embroiled in serious political crisis, wasn’t utterly hollowed out of all credibility.
That’s the key point. There is no comparison, other than those which end in resignation. How you bench mark against previous crisis. Dr Kelly’s sad death etc. This isn’t the same. Previous PMs in crisis still had credibility, they had political skills to fight back with, they had better people around them.
This is like the shower scene in Psycho but done in exquisite slo-mo so it lasts several weeks. But the end if inevitable. The blood spirals down the plughole. The mouth is pressed to the shower curtain. The last scream ebbs away
Brutal, exhilarating, cruel. A bravura performance
Has anything like this been witnessed in western politics.... since ever?
Why are so many shrewd Political Punters on here, at this end of the week, still posting they think he will survive? The Smithsons, Eagles?
I’m calling it. The moment the reports published the letters go in.
What the report says, how damaging it is, doesn’t matter at all now, my tip to Sue play it safe warble on about Peppa Pig, no one will notice it doesn’t matter what you say, because report publication it’s purely the moment the Conservative Party claims it has enough to act.
This is the kicker: They have already been given enough to act, by Boris himself this week, when he admitted he lied to Parliament, admitted he broke the law, admitted he was at a party the same hour his spokesman was telling the nation nobody could! After the report, MPs send their letters in with piece to camera saying ‘from this report it unfortunately looks like Boris repeatedly mislead the house, and I don’t want to do this, as you know I voted for him, but we can’t have that.’
The report doesn’t matter now, they already have what they need. It matters only as symbolic cover for the action. The truth is, what drives the remaining letters and the comprehensive vonc is appreciating how this cocktail of anger and ridicule, of memes on distrust and betrayal that perhaps last for generations, is now damaging the whole party long term, not just Boris electoral prospects long term.
I’ve called it. Only about ten more excruciating days of Boozy Bozo to go and we enter the interesting New World of post Boris Conservative Politics.
And on that note, let’s party 🥳
I think he’s gone after he drubbing they get in the May locals. The party won’t stomach the loss of many hard working councillors to pander to this clowns ego.
Yes, it’s now or May. For reasons well rehearsed, May is hugely better for the Tory contenders and the party collectively; the only questions are whether they can possibly keep a lid on the discontent for that long, and what damage keeping him on would do in the meantime.
The Tory councillors they’d sacrifice by playing it long are no more a consideration than the Downing Street staff being listed for special measures.
ffs won't people think of all the poor paper candidates who might get elected to bogshire council by mistake?
Most English rural seats are not up in May
Even worse - they can afford to lose plenty of seats in those and not lose power or undue years of recovery work. The ones where they don't have many seats already are ones they can ill afford to lose.
'Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.'
Part of me sympathises, part thinks that if you sup with the devil.....
I doubt however that the the situation is that dire. Changing the Leader will help a lot.
Boris still won a landslide over Corbyn though. I would vote for him again in 2019, I can live with a PM Starmer, I could not have lived with a PM Corbyn
Based on what I read here on PB, seems that those who support - or in some cased used to support - Boris Johnson rely on these arguments:
1. He's proven vote winner 2. He delivered Brexit AND jabs. 3. He is the leader of the Conservative Party
And also seems to me that
1. Is no longer operative, nor likely to ever be 2. Indeed, but what has he done for you (or rather UK) recently? 3. Until he ain't, which could well be the best thing FOR the Conservative Party.
Note the interesting contrasts between the Sainted Margaret and the (once-) Blessed Bojo
A. Took her over a decade to wear out HER welcome with voters AND her cabinet, caucus and party. B. She fell over matters of principle (poll tax & Europe) and also because her polling numbers were slumping well BEFORE her final hours as PM C. Boris will likely fall NOT because of any principle, but rather due to the rank irresponsibility of himself and virtually everyone in his cabal with exception of Wilfred, Romy and (maybe) Dilyn.
Further note this stark contrast between Boris Johnson and his alleged role model:
> When Winston Churchill was thrown out by a landslide in 1945, it was at the HEIGHT of his personal acclaim by the British people, indeed the world - one reason why he was able to make a comeback and return to No. 10 as Prime Minister.
Thoughts and prayers with Rees-Mogg tonight. Fucking twat.
Losing his seat on UNS in the latest poll.
Not after the boundary changes which move some LD and Labour wards nearer Bath in his seat to Frome.
After boundary changes Electoral Calculus predicts a majority for Rees Mogg even now of 11% in his slightly more rural seat of Keynsham and North East Somerset
Thoughts and prayers with Rees-Mogg tonight. Fucking twat.
Losing his seat on UNS in the latest poll.
Not after the boundary changes which move some LD and Labour wards nearer Bath in his seat to Frome.
After boundary changes Electoral Calculus predicts a majority for Rees Mogg even now of 11% in his slightly more rural seat of Keynsham and North East Somerset
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
From the video it could easily be a plane flying across, obliquely.
If you are the mentioned-in-passing second witness, that’s dodgy reporting!
lol. The Daily Mail doing dodgy reporting??? Never!
The way the chemtrail curves does suggest a plane, but then the absence of wings is odd, but that can be explained by the distance and the low sunlight, and maybe pollution haze
FFS IT'S A PLANE WHY IS THE MAIL PRINTING THIS SENSATIONALIST CRAP
When the sun is low, it shines sideways on the body of the plane, with the wings edge-on not throwing much of a reflection or casting much of a shadow
Either there was a second witness or there wasn’t. Someone who phones it in for fifty quid isn’t an eye witness.
Someone in the comments says this:
"SWR, Bournemouth, United Kingdom, about a minute ago
I also saw this from Bournemouth today, thought it looked really odd flying straight up and loads of trails."
And thus a rumour grows
I'm extremely tempted to believe your explanation, a large commercial aircraft, flying straight at her, caught in a low sun, so a kind of optical illusion. The two trails are a major hint
What gives me pause is that I have the original video, and I have enlarged it, and at 8 seconds in you very briefly glimpse the object much more clearly, and it really looks nothing like a passenger plane. It looks mostly like a rocket, or a wasp-shaped fighter jet
We shall never know. I have just kicked off a mystery for the ages. My work today is done. Time for an evening walk around Primrose Hill
You’d have to visit a lot of planets to find a less reliable source than the comments under a mail online article!
Something taking off from south London won’t be visible from bournemouth.
Also, there’s a high pressure temperature inversion, with a fair bit of low altitude haze that I’m seeing even here out by the sea; London must be a lot worse. So you’re going to get a lot of atmospheric distortion and shimmering - if the image appeared differently for just a few seconds, that could be it.
Some of the comments seem sensible, however.
I am now going with fighter jet doing maneuvers in the low sun, causing optical illusion
But then the lack of noise, and the alleged size
FWIW my friend Gabriella, hearing of the "it's just a plane" comments, says this:
Well they can suck my butt It was FUCKING MASSIVE and weird idk I was genuinely shocked?
She sounds quite convincing that this was way out of the ordinary...... on the other hand she has been isolating from Covid for a week and is a bit emosh
It’ll turn into a useful lesson for you to be more sceptical in future
Oh fer fuck's sake you condescending dork
I said from the start it is mysterious BUT NOT FUCKING ALIENS
Besides, I'm the one that made money simply lying on my butt sending absurd videos to the Mail, videos delivered to me by beautiful young graphic designers of my close acquaintance, and then getting them published and making them go viral, three hours later. You did not
Thoughts and prayers with Rees-Mogg tonight. Fucking twat.
Losing his seat on UNS in the latest poll.
Not after the boundary changes which move some LD and Labour wards nearer Bath in his seat to Frome.
After boundary changes Electoral Calculus predicts a majority for Rees Mogg even now of 11% in his slightly more rural seat of Keynsham and North East Somerset
I don't see how anybody working in #10 at the time can survive.
Its very fortunate that Dishy Rishi doesn't live in Downing Street.
This has now gone thermo nuclear in political terms.
There is no way I think that Johnson can be standing at the despatch box next Wed for PMQs.
The Raab discussion earlier just got interesting.
Of course Johnson will be there. He’ll brazen this out just like everything else.
I think so. At the moment it has very much the feel of Dr Kelly's death about it, with the PM teetering on the abyss, but Tone survived as will Boris.
I’m not sure the comparison stands up.
The thing with this story is that we all - or many of us - feel involved, on account of our sacrifices
Totally agree about how many punters here not getting comparison right.
And Blair, though embroiled in serious political crisis, wasn’t utterly hollowed out of all credibility.
That’s the key point. There is no comparison, other than those which end in resignation. How you bench mark against previous crisis. Dr Kelly’s sad death etc. This isn’t the same. Previous PMs in crisis still had credibility, they had political skills to fight back with, they had better people around them.
More importantly, perhaps they had allies. Boris is wholly transactional.
Interestingly, the younger people I know have, out of nowhere, started singing the praises of Angela Rayner - she seems to have been quite a hit over the last few weeks among the 'tell it like it is' brigade. I assume she's coming up quite a lot on social media, as that's their only source of information. Starmer - dull but worthy. Rayner - sock it to Boris!
Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar · 7m EXCLUSIVE: No 10 staff held ‘wine-time Fridays’ throughout pandemic with Boris Johnson regularly witnessing the gatherings.
Sources say PM encouraged aides to "let off steam" despite indoor socialising being banned under lockdown rules.
Called it.....
He's done.
It is over.
By Monday?
Nope. Not a chance. None. He’s going nowhere.
You keep saying that but this is terminal and soon
Are they making you really cross too Big G?
“oh he’ll survive” just seems to be tossed in too casually. I even accuse Eagles and Mike Smithson and RCS in this. I intend to challenge each of them, we need to hear now why they think he will survive. What does survive mean anyway? Do they mean The weekend? Until the The next general election? Still PM at the next Friday Wine session? Has anyone ever come back from so destroyed? What’s their reasoning? In Rishi there is a perfectly credible PM in waiting, the most trusted politician by the electorate.
Is it fair now to ask such experienced Political Punters to paint a picture of what they are seeing?
I’m happy to start saying I am watching something getting duffed up by an invisible assailant, a victim that hasn’t a clue what to expect next or when. The assailant is in complete control here, determined to complete its task, just calmly getting on with it, and nearly done. The victim actually has shown no means of fighting back against this. There is only one way this can end. Surely Nothing can come back from being so hollowed out of credibility - this is sheer anger from all the public, from all his own side and his own fans and praetorian guard.
Like 🤷♀️
An apt description
This is like the shower scene in Psycho but done in exquisite slo-mo so it lasts several weeks. But the end if inevitable. The blood spirals down the plughole. The mouth is pressed to the shower curtain. The last scream ebbs away
Brutal, exhilarating, cruel. A bravura performance
Has anything like this been witnessed in western politics.... since ever?
😈 and Normans now done it to the last 3 PMs.
Welcome Mr Sunak. Hope you enjoy your stay. Let me take your bags to your room.
Gives a whole new meaning to drinking on the job! 😂
Way back when, that is when yours truly was working directly on political campaigns, it was quite common to have cased of wine somewhere in the office.
However, this was NOT for "drinks parties" or any other consumption by staff. Instead, it was for deployment at campaign fundraisers.
Every once and a while there might be a six-pack of beer around, but generally any drinking of alcohol in the office was frowned upon, mainly because it might make a bad impression on volunteers, media and other visitors.
NOT a good look and risky to boot, at least in OUR line of work. Pretty obviously one would think.
Maybe it’s a New England Puritan thing but my (by U.K. standards very moderate) drinking habits have me labelled as a borderline alcoholic by my Connecticut in-laws.
Very US.
I have heard people describe the drinking of 4 Martinis as "frightening"
4 proper sized martinis is a fair amount of drink
For a trained professional... no.
Mind you if they were Dukes Vodka Martinis... yeah that would be a bit much.....
'Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.'
Part of me sympathises, part thinks that if you sup with the devil.....
I doubt however that the the situation is that dire. Changing the Leader will help a lot.
Boris still won a landslide over Corbyn though. I would vote for him again in 2019, I can live with a PM Starmer, I could not have lived with a PM Corbyn
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
Why is it Cummings' fault?
Before these leaks the Tories were level or 3% behind. After these Cummings links he has probably not only removed Boris but dragged the entire party with him.
Only thing he will also do is move the party further to the populist right in opposition, not to the technocratic, libertarian right he wants
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
This is about Boris being found out and I can tell you that I will rejoin the party when he goes and support his successor to win the next GE
It is time you called for Boris to go and pledge your support for his successor, and not act as some resentful so called conservative
There is no polling evidence even a Sunak led Tories would lead Starmer Labour, we are 12 years into power.
Accept it BigG too, thanks to Cummings unless you live to 100 you may well have seen your last ever Conservative election win in 2019
I think you should consider your position in the party with that attitude
Thoughts and prayers with Rees-Mogg tonight. Fucking twat.
Losing his seat on UNS in the latest poll.
Not after the boundary changes which move some LD and Labour wards nearer Bath in his seat to Frome.
After boundary changes Electoral Calculus predicts a majority for Rees Mogg even now of 11% in his slightly more rural seat of Keynsham and North East Somerset
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
And somewhere, in the far distance, if you listen out really carefully, you might just be able to hear the world's tiniest violin...
In all seriousness, I'm not exactly enthusiastic about any of the parties, but really - after nearly two full years of constant Covid bollocks, with rules ranging right the way from irritating nuisance to months of immiserating house arrest (and we're still not nearly rid of them all, of course,) does it surprise you that Boris Johnson is not exactly adored by the people? Fundamentally, he bossed us around with his flaming rules - and set the police on people who failed to comply, sometimes with ruinous financial consequences - whilst doing whatever the f*** he wanted.
If this doesn't result in actual justice then at least a good pasting at the polls would be something. And, frankly, if your Parliamentary party dithers and obfuscates and leaves the bugger in power until the next election, then the whole damned lot of them deserve to be voted out in one go.
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
This is all about the Big Dog. The Conservative Party can bounce back very quickly.
Am starting to think that juxtaposition in time between Downing Street à Gogo and funeral of Prince Philip, may be one of the most recent proofs for the existence of God?
Because it certainly puts the bow and ties the ribbon on Boris Johnson's fundamental, indeed for him insoluble problem:
That the Queen leads by setting a good example, by following the rules that her subjects are commanded to obey. Even and unto the death and burial of her own husband.
Whereas her Prime Minister is setting a bad example, by blithely ignoring, even mocking, the rules he and his minions impose on the lower orders, their fellow citizens. Even and unto such bullshit as workplace beanos and other Bullingtonianism.
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
This is about Boris being found out and I can tell you that I will rejoin the party when he goes and support his successor to win the next GE
It is time you called for Boris to go and pledge your support for his successor, and not act as some resentful so called conservative
There is no polling evidence even a Sunak led Tories would lead Starmer Labour, we are 12 years into power.
Accept it BigG too, thanks to Cummings unless you live to 100 you may well have seen your last ever Conservative election win in 2019
I think you should consider your position in the party with that attitude
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
I did point out some time ago that Cummings has never been a member of the party. Yhat should have made him arms length if nothing else.
Putin has pulled all the right strings. We are going to have a lame duck government for the duration.
That's the thing.
The last couple of days have had the feel of that scene on Goodfellas where it's just one dead body after another, set to the piano bit from Layla. And unless someone has a lot of receipts, it's not obvious that anyone in the Cabinet will have sufficiently clean hands.
And the worse it gets for the Conservatives, the more sense there is in hanging on until Christmas 2024 on the offchance that something will turn out.
Based on what I read here on PB, seems that those who support - or in some cased used to support - Boris Johnson rely on these arguments:
1. He's proven vote winner 2. He delivered Brexit AND jabs. 3. He is the leader of the Conservative Party
And also seems to me that
1. Is no longer operative, nor likely to ever be 2. Indeed, but what has he done for you (or rather UK) recently? 3. Until he ain't, which could well be the best thing FOR the Conservative Party.
Note the interesting contrasts between the Sainted Margaret and the (once-) Blessed Bojo
A. Took her over a decade to wear out HER welcome with voters AND her cabinet, caucus and party. B. She fell over matters of principle (poll tax & Europe) and also because her polling numbers were slumping well BEFORE her final hours as PM C. Boris will likely fall NOT because of any principle, but rather due to the rank irresponsibility of himself and virtually everyone in his cabal with exception of Wilfred, Romy and (maybe) Dilyn.
Further note this stark contrast between Boris Johnson and his alleged role model:
> When Winston Churchill was thrown out by a landslide in 1945, it was at the HEIGHT of his personal acclaim by the British people, indeed the world - one reason why he was able to make a comeback and return to No. 10 as Prime Minister.
Even Churchill never won a landslide like Boris did though
Interestingly, the younger people I know have, out of nowhere, started singing the praises of Angela Rayner - she seems to have been quite a hit over the last few weeks among the 'tell it like it is' brigade. I assume she's coming up quite a lot on social media, as that's their only source of information. Starmer - dull but worthy. Rayner - sock it to Boris!
Far too early to speculate on how this may impact the May election (but that's not going to stop me) though if the UFO over Tooting turns out to be extra terrestrial we'll be welcoming our new alien overlords by then.
Only a couple of weeks ago, I thought the Conservatives might do all right in London in May but could we see a serious battering for the blue team which is already down to just 500 councillors in the capital.
Losing Wandsworth and perhaps Barnet to Labour are possibles - losing Hillingdon would be hugely symbolic given the Prime Minister is a local MP. Beyond that, you have Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Bromley and Bexley as the remaining Conservative-run authorities. It's inconceivable any of these would slip to NOC but who knows?
The Conservatives also run Havering with a small group of Independents but the majority is small and that could easily go.
Based on what I read here on PB, seems that those who support - or in some cased used to support - Boris Johnson rely on these arguments:
1. He's proven vote winner 2. He delivered Brexit AND jabs. 3. He is the leader of the Conservative Party
And also seems to me that
1. Is no longer operative, nor likely to ever be 2. Indeed, but what has he done for you (or rather UK) recently? 3. Until he ain't, which could well be the best thing FOR the Conservative Party.
Note the interesting contrasts between the Sainted Margaret and the (once-) Blessed Bojo
A. Took her over a decade to wear out HER welcome with voters AND her cabinet, caucus and party. B. She fell over matters of principle (poll tax & Europe) and also because her polling numbers were slumping well BEFORE her final hours as PM C. Boris will likely fall NOT because of any principle, but rather due to the rank irresponsibility of himself and virtually everyone in his cabal with exception of Wilfred, Romy and (maybe) Dilyn.
Further note this stark contrast between Boris Johnson and his alleged role model:
> When Winston Churchill was thrown out by a landslide in 1945, it was at the HEIGHT of his personal acclaim by the British people, indeed the world - one reason why he was able to make a comeback and return to No. 10 as Prime Minister.
Even Churchill never won a landslide like Boris did though
Nor did he praise Peppa Pig or diss Kermit the Frog.
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Only if his MPs say so. If they can't make up their minds what to do, or determine that dithering until after the local elections is in their best interest, then he stays. I doubt whether most of them care about the collateral damage (hundreds of local councillors unseated, open warfare with the Scottish party, etc., etc.)
Was Hartlepool really only 8 months ago? 16% swing to the Tories. Shows how quickly politics can change.
OK, Hartlepool was a bit misleading, because it was mostly about Conservatives hoovering up a huge Brexit Party vote from 2019. But the national picture has been much the same- since then the Conservative vote has just kept falling. And every time it has felt like "this is bad for Boris, but they've stabilised", something else has come along.
'Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.'
Part of me sympathises, part thinks that if you sup with the devil.....
I doubt however that the the situation is that dire. Changing the Leader will help a lot.
Boris still won a landslide over Corbyn though. I would vote for him again in 2019, I can live with a PM Starmer, I could not have lived with a PM Corbyn
All politics, and voting, is relative. The poor old voter can only do their best with the options. At a minimum Boris got a sort of Brexit done, and I don't think anyone else could or would, and Labour has now been forced to reevaluate and choose a decent leader. Suppose the Tories were in this mess, and at the same time Labour were led by anti Semitic passive aggressive loons? It could be worse.
I have no hesitation in thinking that of the government options in 2019 a Tory win was better than a Labour/centre left coalition win led by Jezza.
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
I did point out some time ago that Cummings has never been a member of the party. Yhat should have made him arms length if nothing else.
Putin has pulled all the right strings. We are going to have a lame duck government for the duration.
That's the thing.
The last couple of days have had the feel of that scene on Goodfellas where it's just one dead body after another, set to the piano bit from Layla. And unless someone has a lot of receipts, it's not obvious that anyone in the Cabinet will have sufficiently clean hands.
And the worse it gets for the Conservatives, the more sense there is in hanging on until Christmas 2024 on the offchance that something will turn out.
I'm not sure that the Assassination of Bojo is anything to do with Putin
This is all about internal British score-settling. Cummings as the spurned mastermind, probably assisted by some Remainery civil servants who Can't Stand Boris
An unholy coalition, but highly effective. It doesn't need Vlad the Impaler as well
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
And somewhere, in the far distance, if you listen out really carefully, you might just be able to hear the world's tiniest violin...
In all seriousness, I'm not exactly enthusiastic about any of the parties, but really - after nearly two full years of constant Covid bollocks, with rules ranging right the way from irritating nuisance to months of immiserating house arrest (and we're still not nearly rid of them all, of course,) does it surprise you that Boris Johnson is not exactly adored by the people? Fundamentally, he bossed us around with his flaming rules - and set the police on people who failed to comply, sometimes with ruinous financial consequences - whilst doing whatever the f*** he wanted.
If this doesn't result in actual justice then at least a good pasting at the polls would be something. And, frankly, if your Parliamentary party dithers and obfuscates and leaves the bugger in power until the next election, then the whole damned lot of them deserve to be voted out in one go.
Annoyingly (as I share your dislike for the rules) the problem is probably not with the lockdown rules, it is with the fact that Boris wasn't observing them.
From the video it could easily be a plane flying across, obliquely.
If you are the mentioned-in-passing second witness, that’s dodgy reporting!
lol. The Daily Mail doing dodgy reporting??? Never!
The way the chemtrail curves does suggest a plane, but then the absence of wings is odd, but that can be explained by the distance and the low sunlight, and maybe pollution haze
FFS IT'S A PLANE WHY IS THE MAIL PRINTING THIS SENSATIONALIST CRAP
When the sun is low, it shines sideways on the body of the plane, with the wings edge-on not throwing much of a reflection or casting much of a shadow
Either there was a second witness or there wasn’t. Someone who phones it in for fifty quid isn’t an eye witness.
Someone in the comments says this:
"SWR, Bournemouth, United Kingdom, about a minute ago
I also saw this from Bournemouth today, thought it looked really odd flying straight up and loads of trails."
And thus a rumour grows
I'm extremely tempted to believe your explanation, a large commercial aircraft, flying straight at her, caught in a low sun, so a kind of optical illusion. The two trails are a major hint
What gives me pause is that I have the original video, and I have enlarged it, and at 8 seconds in you very briefly glimpse the object much more clearly, and it really looks nothing like a passenger plane. It looks mostly like a rocket, or a wasp-shaped fighter jet
We shall never know. I have just kicked off a mystery for the ages. My work today is done. Time for an evening walk around Primrose Hill
You’d have to visit a lot of planets to find a less reliable source than the comments under a mail online article!
Something taking off from south London won’t be visible from bournemouth.
Also, there’s a high pressure temperature inversion, with a fair bit of low altitude haze that I’m seeing even here out by the sea; London must be a lot worse. So you’re going to get a lot of atmospheric distortion and shimmering - if the image appeared differently for just a few seconds, that could be it.
Some of the comments seem sensible, however.
I am now going with fighter jet doing maneuvers in the low sun, causing optical illusion
But then the lack of noise, and the alleged size
FWIW my friend Gabriella, hearing of the "it's just a plane" comments, says this:
Well they can suck my butt It was FUCKING MASSIVE and weird idk I was genuinely shocked?
She sounds quite convincing that this was way out of the ordinary...... on the other hand she has been isolating from Covid for a week and is a bit emosh
It’ll turn into a useful lesson for you to be more sceptical in future
Oh fer fuck's sake you condescending dork
I said from the start it is mysterious BUT NOT FUCKING ALIENS
Besides, I'm the one that made money simply lying on my butt sending absurd videos to the Mail, videos delivered to me by beautiful young graphic designers of my close acquaintance, and then getting them published and making them go viral, three hours later. You did not
For sure; go treat yourself to a bottle or two of decent wine, or three of that east european plonk you like.
Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar · 7m EXCLUSIVE: No 10 staff held ‘wine-time Fridays’ throughout pandemic with Boris Johnson regularly witnessing the gatherings.
Sources say PM encouraged aides to "let off steam" despite indoor socialising being banned under lockdown rules.
Called it.....
He's done.
It is over.
By Monday?
Nope. Not a chance. None. He’s going nowhere.
You keep saying that but this is terminal and soon
Are they making you really cross too Big G?
“oh he’ll survive” just seems to be tossed in too casually. I even accuse Eagles and Mike Smithson and RCS in this. I intend to challenge each of them, we need to hear now why they think he will survive. What does survive mean anyway? Do they mean The weekend? Until the The next general election? Still PM at the next Friday Wine session? Has anyone ever come back from so destroyed? What’s their reasoning? In Rishi there is a perfectly credible PM in waiting, the most trusted politician by the electorate.
Is it fair now to ask such experienced Political Punters to paint a picture of what they are seeing?
I’m happy to start saying I am watching something getting duffed up by an invisible assailant, a victim that hasn’t a clue what to expect next or when. The assailant is in complete control here, determined to complete its task, just calmly getting on with it, and nearly done. The victim actually has shown no means of fighting back against this. There is only one way this can end. Surely Nothing can come back from being so hollowed out of credibility - this is sheer anger from all the public, from all his own side and his own fans and praetorian guard.
Like 🤷♀️
An apt description
This is like the shower scene in Psycho but done in exquisite slo-mo so it lasts several weeks. But the end if inevitable. The blood spirals down the plughole. The mouth is pressed to the shower curtain. The last scream ebbs away
Brutal, exhilarating, cruel. A bravura performance
Has anything like this been witnessed in western politics.... since ever?
I take this as proof that the domestic lockdown rules were far too strict, and the foreign travel rules far too lax for a long time.
Interestingly, the younger people I know have, out of nowhere, started singing the praises of Angela Rayner - she seems to have been quite a hit over the last few weeks among the 'tell it like it is' brigade. I assume she's coming up quite a lot on social media, as that's their only source of information. Starmer - dull but worthy. Rayner - sock it to Boris!
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
This is about Boris being found out and I can tell you that I will rejoin the party when he goes and support his successor to win the next GE
It is time you called for Boris to go and pledge your support for his successor, and not act as some resentful so called conservative
There is no polling evidence even a Sunak led Tories would lead Starmer Labour, we are 12 years into power.
Accept it BigG too, thanks to Cummings unless you live to 100 you may well have seen your last ever Conservative election win in 2019
I think you should consider your position in the party with that attitude
I don't know if anyone noticed my change of avatar, or if anyone has posted this picture here. Apols if it's an old meme already but it made me chuckle when I saw my mate post it on fb..
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
This is all about the Big Dog. The Conservative Party can bounce back very quickly.
Yes, although they will still be facing the headwinds of inflation, tax increases, Brexit and the Covid enquiry.
And they will be carrying the reeks of lobbying corruption, and 'one-rule-for-us' neither of which will entirely dissipate, even if Johnson goes.
Was Hartlepool really only 8 months ago? 16% swing to the Tories. Shows how quickly politics can change.
OK, Hartlepool was a bit misleading, because it was mostly about Conservatives hoovering up a huge Brexit Party vote from 2019. But the national picture has been much the same- since then the Conservative vote has just kept falling. And every time it has felt like "this is bad for Boris, but they've stabilised", something else has come along.
I'm not sure the Tories would win Hartlepool if there was a by-election there next week.
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
Why are so many shrewd Political Punters on here, at this end of the week, still posting they think he will survive? The Smithsons, Eagles?
I’m calling it. The moment the reports published the letters go in.
What the report says, how damaging it is, doesn’t matter at all now, my tip to Sue play it safe warble on about Peppa Pig, no one will notice it doesn’t matter what you say, because report publication it’s purely the moment the Conservative Party claims it has enough to act.
This is the kicker: They have already been given enough to act, by Boris himself this week, when he admitted he lied to Parliament, admitted he broke the law, admitted he was at a party the same hour his spokesman was telling the nation nobody could! After the report, MPs send their letters in with piece to camera saying ‘from this report it unfortunately looks like Boris repeatedly mislead the house, and I don’t want to do this, as you know I voted for him, but we can’t have that.’
The report doesn’t matter now, they already have what they need. It matters only as symbolic cover for the action. The truth is, what drives the remaining letters and the comprehensive vonc is appreciating how this cocktail of anger and ridicule, of memes on distrust and betrayal that perhaps last for generations, is now damaging the whole party long term, not just Boris electoral prospects long term.
I’ve called it. Only about ten more excruciating days of Boozy Bozo to go and we enter the interesting New World of post Boris Conservative Politics.
And on that note, let’s party 🥳
I think he’s gone after he drubbing they get in the May locals. The party won’t stomach the loss of many hard working councillors to pander to this clowns ego.
Yes, it’s now or May. For reasons well rehearsed, May is hugely better for the Tory contenders and the party collectively; the only questions are whether they can possibly keep a lid on the discontent for that long, and what damage keeping him on would do in the meantime.
The Tory councillors they’d sacrifice by playing it long are no more a consideration than the Downing Street staff being listed for special measures.
ffs won't people think of all the poor paper candidates who might get elected to bogshire council by mistake?
Far too early to speculate on how this may impact the May election (but that's not going to stop me) though if the UFO over Tooting turns out to be extra terrestrial we'll be welcoming our new alien overlords by then.
Only a couple of weeks ago, I thought the Conservatives might do all right in London in May but could we see a serious battering for the blue team which is already down to just 500 councillors in the capital.
Losing Wandsworth and perhaps Barnet to Labour are possibles - losing Hillingdon would be hugely symbolic given the Prime Minister is a local MP. Beyond that, you have Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Bromley and Bexley as the remaining Conservative-run authorities. It's inconceivable any of these would slip to NOC but who knows?
The Conservatives also run Havering with a small group of Independents but the majority is small and that could easily go.
I think Westminster is a potential dark horse and Labour overall control there is more likely than Barnet although Tories losing their majority in Barnet is certainly possible. Bexley, Bromley and K&C are surely impenetrably Conservative.
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
This is all about the Big Dog. The Conservative Party can bounce back very quickly.
That’s the key point for HY and his friends.
If Johnson goes quickly, and someone very different comes in with a big reset, they have some chance of ringfencing the damage to BJ’s personality.
If they let him limp on for months and gather round him and tie themselves to his string of less and less credible excuses, they’ll go down with him.
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
This is all about the Big Dog. The Conservative Party can bounce back very quickly.
Yes, although they will still be facing the headwinds of inflation, tax increases, Brexit and the Covid enquiry.
And they will be carrying the reeks of lobbying corruption, and 'one-rule-for-us' neither of which will entirely dissipate, even if Johnson goes.
Inflation is the one that hurts any government and there isn't much you can do in the short term. Trying to "fix" it quickly just makes things worse, while it is something every single person is affected by on a daily basis and in a very visible way
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
This is about Boris being found out and I can tell you that I will rejoin the party when he goes and support his successor to win the next GE
It is time you called for Boris to go and pledge your support for his successor, and not act as some resentful so called conservative
There is no polling evidence even a Sunak led Tories would lead Starmer Labour, we are 12 years into power.
Accept it BigG too, thanks to Cummings unless you live to 100 you may well have seen your last ever Conservative election win in 2019
That is properly batshit
And it's thanks to Johnson. Nobody made him do any of this.
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
This is about Boris being found out and I can tell you that I will rejoin the party when he goes and support his successor to win the next GE
It is time you called for Boris to go and pledge your support for his successor, and not act as some resentful so called conservative
There is no polling evidence even a Sunak led Tories would lead Starmer Labour, we are 12 years into power.
Accept it BigG too, thanks to Cummings unless you live to 100 you may well have seen your last ever Conservative election win in 2019
I think you should consider your position in the party with that attitude
Just facts, even if you may not want to hear them
Not really - you are essentially saying that if the appalling behaviour had been covered up and/or Boris’s string of lies had been believed, all would have been well.
Thoughts and prayers with Rees-Mogg tonight. Fucking twat.
Losing his seat on UNS in the latest poll.
Not after the boundary changes which move some LD and Labour wards nearer Bath in his seat to Frome.
After boundary changes Electoral Calculus predicts a majority for Rees Mogg even now of 11% in his slightly more rural seat of Keynsham and North East Somerset
Ok, where's Mohammed Saeed al-Hyufd got to? We need an explanation, now.
Still not as low even on that poll as May's Tories in Spring 2019 or Major's Tories in 1995 who were both sub 25%
Give up and surrender
It is over for Boris and soon
Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.
Don't expect even Sunak to suddenly be able to turn it round. Boris may well be the last Conservative leader to win a general election majority for the next 10 to 15 years
And somewhere, in the far distance, if you listen out really carefully, you might just be able to hear the world's tiniest violin...
In all seriousness, I'm not exactly enthusiastic about any of the parties, but really - after nearly two full years of constant Covid bollocks, with rules ranging right the way from irritating nuisance to months of immiserating house arrest (and we're still not nearly rid of them all, of course,) does it surprise you that Boris Johnson is not exactly adored by the people? Fundamentally, he bossed us around with his flaming rules - and set the police on people who failed to comply, sometimes with ruinous financial consequences - whilst doing whatever the f*** he wanted.
If this doesn't result in actual justice then at least a good pasting at the polls would be something. And, frankly, if your Parliamentary party dithers and obfuscates and leaves the bugger in power until the next election, then the whole damned lot of them deserve to be voted out in one go.
Annoyingly (as I share your dislike for the rules) the problem is probably not with the lockdown rules, it is with the fact that Boris wasn't observing them.
That's exactly what I'm trying to get at. I can see the rationale for most of the rules for most of the duration of the pandemic. It's simply the "rules are only for the little people" attitude that I can't stomach.
The Government imposed all these regulations, which led to criminal convictions and financial hardship for other people who broke them, whilst the Prime Minister and his officials did exactly as they pleased. The Augean stables need mucking out.
Far too early to speculate on how this may impact the May election (but that's not going to stop me) though if the UFO over Tooting turns out to be extra terrestrial we'll be welcoming our new alien overlords by then.
Only a couple of weeks ago, I thought the Conservatives might do all right in London in May but could we see a serious battering for the blue team which is already down to just 500 councillors in the capital.
Losing Wandsworth and perhaps Barnet to Labour are possibles - losing Hillingdon would be hugely symbolic given the Prime Minister is a local MP. Beyond that, you have Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Bromley and Bexley as the remaining Conservative-run authorities. It's inconceivable any of these would slip to NOC but who knows?
The Conservatives also run Havering with a small group of Independents but the majority is small and that could easily go.
I think Westminster is a potential dark horse and Labour overall control there is more likely than Barnet although Tories losing their majority in Barnet is certainly possible. Bexley, Bromley and K&C are surely impenetrably Conservative.
To be fair, the Conservatives lost control of both Bexley and Bromley in the 1990s - Bromley was NOC from 1998-2001 and Bexley was NOC from 1994-98 and Labour from 2002-06.
How Starmer must wish the Old Bexley & Sidcup by election was happening now rather than six weeks ago. That was in a part of the Borough with 100% Conservative representation. On the mind of swings we are now seeing, Labour might win 10 seats across Bexley which would slash the Conservative majority.
Comments
Putin has pulled all the right strings. We are going to have a lame duck government for the duration.
Someone should have said, “guys, with these new regulations and to help avoid spreading the virus, we need to knock our Friday gatherings on the head, whilst this lockdown continues”.
Instead, they partied harder, a good number of them came down with covid, and they added to the burden for the NHS.
It is time you called for Boris to go and pledge your support for his successor, and not act as some resentful so called conservative
This is like the shower scene in Psycho but done in exquisite slo-mo so it lasts several weeks. But the end if inevitable. The blood spirals down the plughole. The mouth is pressed to the shower curtain. The last scream ebbs away
Brutal, exhilarating, cruel. A bravura performance
Has anything like this been witnessed in western politics.... since ever?
On the other, when there is such a rapid decline, is there a point where it is reasonable to act purely on polling alone? The by-election loss was bad, even for governments in by-elections, but do not always speak to the future after all (Copeland then the locals made May's GE seem a good idea). You don't want to seem like you junk someone at the first bit of difficulty, you look weak, but if the leader cannot get a grip perhaps thre is no option.
Accept it BigG too, thanks to Cummings unless you live to 100 you may well have seen your last ever Conservative election win in 2019
'Thanks to Cummings it is probably also over for the Tories for the next decade.'
Part of me sympathises, part thinks that if you sup with the devil.....
I doubt however that the the situation is that dire. Changing the Leader will help a lot.
And Blair, though embroiled in serious political crisis, wasn’t utterly hollowed out of all credibility.
That’s the key point. There is no comparison, other than those which end in resignation. How you bench mark against previous crisis. Dr Kelly’s sad death etc. This isn’t the same. Previous PMs in crisis still had credibility, they had political skills to fight back with, they had better people around them.
Voters ask “what’s (s)he going to do for us?”
And the answer here is “embarrass and shame us”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/14/tory-party-nhs-labour-government-conservatives-keir-starmer
I said from the start it is mysterious BUT NOT FUCKING ALIENS
Besides, I'm the one that made money simply lying on my butt sending absurd videos to the Mail, videos delivered to me by beautiful young graphic designers of my close acquaintance, and then getting them published and making them go viral, three hours later. You did not
Welcome Mr Sunak. Hope you enjoy your stay. Let me take your bags to your room.
Mind you if they were Dukes Vodka Martinis... yeah that would be a bit much.....
I doubt he'd have asked you to.
Only thing he will also do is move the party further to the populist right in opposition, not to the technocratic, libertarian right he wants
In all seriousness, I'm not exactly enthusiastic about any of the parties, but really - after nearly two full years of constant Covid bollocks, with rules ranging right the way from irritating nuisance to months of immiserating house arrest (and we're still not nearly rid of them all, of course,) does it surprise you that Boris Johnson is not exactly adored by the people? Fundamentally, he bossed us around with his flaming rules - and set the police on people who failed to comply, sometimes with ruinous financial consequences - whilst doing whatever the f*** he wanted.
If this doesn't result in actual justice then at least a good pasting at the polls would be something. And, frankly, if your Parliamentary party dithers and obfuscates and leaves the bugger in power until the next election, then the whole damned lot of them deserve to be voted out in one go.
Because it certainly puts the bow and ties the ribbon on Boris Johnson's fundamental, indeed for him insoluble problem:
That the Queen leads by setting a good example, by following the rules that her subjects are commanded to obey. Even and unto the death and burial of her own husband.
Whereas her Prime Minister is setting a bad example, by blithely ignoring, even mocking, the rules he and his minions impose on the lower orders, their fellow citizens. Even and unto such bullshit as workplace beanos and other Bullingtonianism.
The last couple of days have had the feel of that scene on Goodfellas where it's just one dead body after another, set to the piano bit from Layla. And unless someone has a lot of receipts, it's not obvious that anyone in the Cabinet will have sufficiently clean hands.
And the worse it gets for the Conservatives, the more sense there is in hanging on until Christmas 2024 on the offchance that something will turn out.
Far too early to speculate on how this may impact the May election (but that's not going to stop me) though if the UFO over Tooting turns out to be extra terrestrial we'll be welcoming our new alien overlords by then.
Only a couple of weeks ago, I thought the Conservatives might do all right in London in May but could we see a serious battering for the blue team which is already down to just 500 councillors in the capital.
Losing Wandsworth and perhaps Barnet to Labour are possibles - losing Hillingdon would be hugely symbolic given the Prime Minister is a local MP. Beyond that, you have Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Bromley and Bexley as the remaining Conservative-run authorities. It's inconceivable any of these would slip to NOC but who knows?
The Conservatives also run Havering with a small group of Independents but the majority is small and that could easily go.
If the constituency party passes a unanimous vote for BoZo to quit, and their MP doesn't act, guess who gets deselected...
Although I'm sure he'll laugh like a drain if Boris Johnson's tenure isn't as long as Dave's.
I have no hesitation in thinking that of the government options in 2019 a Tory win was better than a Labour/centre left coalition win led by Jezza.
This is all about internal British score-settling. Cummings as the spurned mastermind, probably assisted by some Remainery civil servants who Can't Stand Boris
An unholy coalition, but highly effective. It doesn't need Vlad the Impaler as well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuhzdr1lJzY&t=8s
She is sooo sexy, I have watched her video’s before
And they will be carrying the reeks of lobbying corruption, and 'one-rule-for-us' neither of which will entirely dissipate, even if Johnson goes.
As David Cameron observed, Dom Cummings is a psychopath, what kind of idiot employs a known psychopath?
You took your time.
If Johnson goes quickly, and someone very different comes in with a big reset, they have some chance of ringfencing the damage to BJ’s personality.
If they let him limp on for months and gather round him and tie themselves to his string of less and less credible excuses, they’ll go down with him.
(I'll bring drugs if necessary)
And it's thanks to Johnson. Nobody made him do any of this.
no
The thing to listen for is cackles from the direction of Maidenhead...
The Government imposed all these regulations, which led to criminal convictions and financial hardship for other people who broke them, whilst the Prime Minister and his officials did exactly as they pleased. The Augean stables need mucking out.
How Starmer must wish the Old Bexley & Sidcup by election was happening now rather than six weeks ago. That was in a part of the Borough with 100% Conservative representation. On the mind of swings we are now seeing, Labour might win 10 seats across Bexley which would slash the Conservative majority.
Johnson could be the shortest serving PM since Sir Alec Douglas-Home.