Moving on from Portugal, we have only a little time (well, 3 months) before Slovenia votes on April 24th.
If you think Portuguese or British politics is complex, welcome to the multi-dimensional nightmare that is Slovenia.
The latest poll - numbers compared to the last election in 2018
Slovenian Democratic Party: 26.0% (+1.1) Svoboda: 22.8% (new) Social Democrats: 13.9% (+4.0) The Left: 9.3% (+0.7) New Slovenia: 6.3% (-0.9) Marjan Sarec's List: 5.5% (-7.1) Alenka Bratusek's List: 4.5% (-0.6)
Svoboda is the former Green Actions Party which has been taken over by one Robert Golob, formerly State Secretary of the Republic of Slovenia and from what I can tell your average patriotic multi-billionaire businessman.
As we all know, the Slovenian National Assembly has 90 seats - the current minority coalition of the Slovenian Democratic Party, Let's Connect Slovenia and New Slovenia has 37 seats and is supported on a C&S basis by 10 MPs from smaller parties leading the Pensioners Party and the Slovenian National Party.
That's 47 and the 43 Opposition MPs come from the list parties of Marjan Sarec and Alenka Bratusek, the Social Democrats, The Left and two from Green Actions which is now Svoboda (see above).
The three main governing parties have seen their combined vote share fall from 46% to 36%.
Labour must be reviewing whether now is the right time to table a parliamentary confidence vote. They need to judge whether the momentum will have been lost by the time the Met eventually decide to take no action.
How could the likes of Hon Mr Bell vote confidence in Johnson after today?
They will not vote for a GE
There's no need for a Parliamentary VONC. The letters to the 1922 committee procedure is purely an internal party matter.
It was suggested Labour call a confidence vote and some conservatives would vote with Labour.
That is not the same as the 54 letters to the 1922
I don't like Johnson and I want him to go but one has to admire his comprehensive takedown of Starmer was superb. First the Saville put down which the BBC are loving.
I do wonder how many of the breaches of the rules - let alone the guidelines - were by Carrie and her friends.
I suspect
That may explain some of his behaviour. He simply cannot - or dare not - admit something which would put his wife in the frame.
FWIW, this is where my thinking has gone. Hence, the 'check the official diaries' comment earlier.
I've just had a horrible vision of BoJo stifling tears and saying that he has been acting all along to protect his wife and that he personally had no involvement in any wrongdoing..
Why can't he just blame her? Gets the heatd off him, and she's not official any more than, say, a Speaker's wife is.
She goes to the press
Ye
Bo
You keep repeating this on here every few minutes but that doesn't make it any the more true.
No one else, literally no one else, thinks it was a smart move. The jibe lowered the tone still further and by linking Savile to the debate today, the impression people come away with is not what you think. It's of two disresputable people who got off without investigation.
And I'm sure you don't really mean to be saying that the BBC loved the Savile comment. I mean, apart from not knowing how to spell his name, do you not know anything about the background to Jimmy Savile and the BBC?
It scythed Starmer down. Starmer was poor today. Mrs May, and Tissue price were excellent.
I thought Johnson came out swinging, and whether you and I might be disappointed that he saved his bacon, he did, because there are still not 54 MPs who were concerned enough to put their letters to Brady
Gosh did you really think Starmer was poor? I very much didn't. That for me was pitch perfect.
I'm not sure what Mexicanpete was watching to be honest.
I wasn't, I was listening on 5Live in Tesco Brewery Field carpark in Bridgend. I'd just paid my tax bill for this half year, so I wasn't in the best of spirits, then Johnson came out swinging and the rebels including Baker all fell in behind him.
Maybe I am reading it wrong, but he looks safe to me
He is safe for a while, I would agree, but only because the people with the power of sanction are his own MPs. It is still "emperor's new clothes". Even when he denies a party happened on the 13th November, and then the police say they are investigating a party in his flat on that day, yet he still won't admit it. Surely this is a job for the Standards Committee. You obviously never saw him grinning and laughing and taking the piss on screen.
He is relying on the police report to determine there is not enough evidence to proceed, which is the inevitable conclusion, despite 300 photos. That in turn allows him to bury Gray's report.
If it looks like he is losing the 2024 GE on the back of a collapsed economy he will throw in some seriously illiberal red meat, and he will win.
You can't blame it all on Boris Johnson. It has gone downhill for years. Tony Blair wasn't a parliamentarian, preferring media briefing to the House. David Cameron was okay I suppose. Theresa May likewise. The Remainer Parliament, even though I'm a remainer, was ridiculous really.
But Boris Johnson has taken politics down into the gutter.
Grieve was an excellent parliamentarian however, and he was also the chief remainer. May tried to bypass parliament many times, which is why he came in.
The appalling actions of Grieve and co directly led to the elevation of Johnson to PM.
No they didn't, but this is a common rewriting of history on the Brexiter side , that we've discussed many times on here. What made an extreme populist prime minister inevitable was in fact the actions of May in gradually excluding all softer Brexit options.
If May was still PM we'd still be negotiating our terms of release.
Got Brexit Done. Signed off Section 30 letter.
If Boris is indeed Toast I will remember him fondly.
That's why she couldn't have been, as I was mentioning. She set an extremely populist agenda in motion but was just inherently incapable of delivering it, clearing the way inevitably for our friend Bozo, the most nakedly populist of the main candidates, to come in.
TMay populist agenda?
I think she was trying to get us out of the EU but wasn't very good at it.
She was a safe pair of hands when it comes to low politics though.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually acquiescing to the ERG, though.
You can't blame it all on Boris Johnson. It has gone downhill for years. Tony Blair wasn't a parliamentarian, preferring media briefing to the House. David Cameron was okay I suppose. Theresa May likewise. The Remainer Parliament, even though I'm a remainer, was ridiculous really.
But Boris Johnson has taken politics down into the gutter.
Grieve was an excellent parliamentarian however, and he was also the chief remainer. May tried to bypass parliament many times, which is why he came in.
The appalling actions of Grieve and co directly led to the elevation of Johnson to PM.
No they didn't, but this is a common rewriting of history on the Brexiter side , that we've discussed many times on here. What made an extreme populist prime minister inevitable was in fact the actions of May in gradually excluding all softer Brexit options.
If May was still PM we'd still be negotiating our terms of release.
Got Brexit Done. Signed off Section 30 letter.
If Boris is indeed Toast I will remember him fondly.
That's why she couldn't have been, as I was mentioning. She set an extremely populist agenda in motion but was just inherently incapable of delivering it, clearing the way inevitably for our friend Bozo, the most nakedly populist of the main candidates, to come in.
TMay populist agenda?
I think she was trying to get us out of the EU but wasn't very good at it.
She was a safe pair of hands when it comes to low politics though.
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Moving on from Portugal, we have only a little time (well, 3 months) before Slovenia votes on April 24th.
If you think Portuguese or British politics is complex, welcome to the multi-dimensional nightmare that is Slovenia.
The latest poll - numbers compared to the last election in 2018
Slovenian Democratic Party: 26.0% (+1.1) Svoboda: 22.8% (new) Social Democrats: 13.9% (+4.0) The Left: 9.3% (+0.7) New Slovenia: 6.3% (-0.9) Marjan Sarec's List: 5.5% (-7.1) Alenka Bratusek's List: 4.5% (-0.6)
Svoboda is the former Green Actions Party which has been taken over by one Robert Golob, formerly State Secretary of the Republic of Slovenia and from what I can tell your average patriotic multi-billionaire businessman.
As we all know, the Slovenian National Assembly has 90 seats - the current minority coalition of the Slovenian Democratic Party, Let's Connect Slovenia and New Slovenia has 37 seats and is supported on a C&S basis by 10 MPs from smaller parties leading the Pensioners Party and the Slovenian National Party.
That's 47 and the 43 Opposition MPs come from the list parties of Marjan Sarec and Alenka Bratusek, the Social Democrats, The Left and two from Green Actions which is now Svoboda (see above).
The three main governing parties have seen their combined vote share fall from 46% to 36%.
Although we did all know it, of course, I imagine other people not here will be surprised how small the National Assembly is even for a nation of 2 million.
Labour must be reviewing whether now is the right time to table a parliamentary confidence vote. They need to judge whether the momentum will have been lost by the time the Met eventually decide to take no action.
How could the likes of Hon Mr Bell vote confidence in Johnson after today?
They will not vote for a GE
There's no need for a Parliamentary VONC. The letters to the 1922 committee procedure is purely an internal party matter.
It was suggested Labour call a confidence vote and some conservatives would vote with Labour.
That is not the same as the 54 letters to the 1922
I don't like Johnson and I want him to go but one has to admire his comprehensive takedown of Starmer was superb. First the Saville put down which the BBC are loving.
I do wonder how many of the breaches of the rules - let alone the guidelines - were by Carrie and her friends.
I suspect
That may explain some of his behaviour. He simply cannot - or dare not - admit something which would put his wife in the frame.
FWIW, this is where my thinking has gone. Hence, the 'check the official diaries' comment earlier.
I've just had a horrible vision of BoJo stifling tears and saying that he has been acting all along to protect his wife and that he personally had no involvement in any wrongdoing..
Why can't he just blame her? Gets the heatd off him, and she's not official any more than, say, a Speaker's wife is.
She goes to the press
Ye
Bo
You keep repeating this on here every few minutes but that doesn't make it any the more true.
No one else, literally no one else, thinks it was a smart move. The jibe lowered the tone still further and by linking Savile to the debate today, the impression people come away with is not what you think. It's of two disresputable people who got off without investigation.
And I'm sure you don't really mean to be saying that the BBC loved the Savile comment. I mean, apart from not knowing how to spell his name, do you not know anything about the background to Jimmy Savile and the BBC?
It scythed Starmer down. Starmer was poor today. Mrs May, and Tissue price were excellent.
I thought Johnson came out swinging, and whether you and I might be disappointed that he saved his bacon, he did, because there are still not 54 MPs who were concerned enough to put their letters to Brady
Gosh did you really think Starmer was poor? I very much didn't. That for me was pitch perfect.
I'm not sure what Mexicanpete was watching to be honest.
I wasn't, I was listening on 5Live in Tesco Brewery Field carpark in Bridgend. I'd just paid my tax bill for this half year, so I wasn't in the best of spirits, then Johnson came out swinging and the rebels including Baker all fell in behind him.
Maybe I am reading it wrong, but he looks safe to me
He is safe for a while, I would agree, but only because the people with the power of sanction are his own MPs. It is still "emperor's new clothes". Even when he denies a party happened on the 13th November, and then the police say they are investigating a party in his flat on that day, yet he still won't admit it. Surely this is a job for the Standards Committee. You obviously never saw him grinning and laughing and taking the piss on screen.
He is relying on the police report to determine there is not enough evidence to proceed, which is the inevitable conclusion, despite 300 photos. That in turn allows him to bury Gray's report.
If it looks like he is losing the 2024 GE on the back of a collapsed economy he will throw in some seriously illiberal red meat, and he will win.
Would love to know what red meat is left to throw at people after 14 years of a Tory Government.
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
You can't blame it all on Boris Johnson. It has gone downhill for years. Tony Blair wasn't a parliamentarian, preferring media briefing to the House. David Cameron was okay I suppose. Theresa May likewise. The Remainer Parliament, even though I'm a remainer, was ridiculous really.
But Boris Johnson has taken politics down into the gutter.
Grieve was an excellent parliamentarian however, and he was also the chief remainer. May tried to bypass parliament many times, which is why he came in.
The appalling actions of Grieve and co directly led to the elevation of Johnson to PM.
No they didn't, but this is a common rewriting of history on the Brexiter side , that we've discussed many times on here. What made an extreme populist prime minister inevitable was in fact the actions of May in gradually excluding all softer Brexit options.
If May was still PM we'd still be negotiating our terms of release.
Got Brexit Done. Signed off Section 30 letter.
If Boris is indeed Toast I will remember him fondly.
That's why she couldn't have been, as I was mentioning. She set an extremely populist agenda in motion but was just inherently incapable of delivering it, clearing the way inevitably for our friend Bozo, the most nakedly populist of the main candidates, to come in.
TMay populist agenda?
I think she was trying to get us out of the EU but wasn't very good at it.
She was a safe pair of hands when it comes to low politics though.
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
As ever, Brexit was the Pandora’s box that turned the country to shit.
The jibe about Savile was unforgivable. Really cheap. Starmer may be dull but he’s a man of integrity. It’s typical of our politics at the moment. Across the divide.
Boris Johnson’s demise has been forecast many times in the last several months. Nothing has happened yet. I suspect he is safe until the May local elections.
Just to post the poll findings of all voters. Not just Tories.
- Two thirds of voters (64%) want Boris Johnson to resign following the Sue Gray report. - 83% believe he broke lockdown rules - 75% believe he is not telling the truth.
January 31, 2022
All voters don't get a say until the next general election as we have a Tory majority government.
Until then only the views of Tory MPs, Tory members and Tory voters matter as to whether Boris stays PM
And the rest of Parliament if 40 of those Tory MPs decide not to support him and vote with the opposition.
Moving on from Portugal, we have only a little time (well, 3 months) before Slovenia votes on April 24th.
If you think Portuguese or British politics is complex, welcome to the multi-dimensional nightmare that is Slovenia.
The latest poll - numbers compared to the last election in 2018
Slovenian Democratic Party: 26.0% (+1.1) Svoboda: 22.8% (new) Social Democrats: 13.9% (+4.0) The Left: 9.3% (+0.7) New Slovenia: 6.3% (-0.9) Marjan Sarec's List: 5.5% (-7.1) Alenka Bratusek's List: 4.5% (-0.6)
Svoboda is the former Green Actions Party which has been taken over by one Robert Golob, formerly State Secretary of the Republic of Slovenia and from what I can tell your average patriotic multi-billionaire businessman.
As we all know, the Slovenian National Assembly has 90 seats - the current minority coalition of the Slovenian Democratic Party, Let's Connect Slovenia and New Slovenia has 37 seats and is supported on a C&S basis by 10 MPs from smaller parties leading the Pensioners Party and the Slovenian National Party.
That's 47 and the 43 Opposition MPs come from the list parties of Marjan Sarec and Alenka Bratusek, the Social Democrats, The Left and two from Green Actions which is now Svoboda (see above).
The three main governing parties have seen their combined vote share fall from 46% to 36%.
Also, I have a prejudice against parties which are just 'The [person name] party' or equivalent. Make an effort, throw in the words national, or democracy somewhere, or a one word concept like solidarity.
But putting aside the highlights - Keir, Blackford, May, and Bell - one observation is how generally ineffective Opposition MPs were.
Simply calling for Boris to resign doesn’t really do much. Of course Boris is not going to say, “You are right Nadia Whitthome, I will resign now.”
It would have been far more profitable to hammer at the bizarre inconsistencies both in the PM’s testimony so far, and indeed the process of inquiry.
Abbot had a creditable go, but there were only one or two others. Davey utterly sunk without trace, not sure what he was trying to do today.
Wera Hobhouse was a bit of a wtf moment too.
Wera 'We should listen to health concerns about 5G' Hobhouse being a bit WTF, you say?
I think the 5G criticisms are overdone.
Oh, I suspect her position was just that a lot of local people were objecting and so she wanted to make sure she was on their side, it's what MPs generally do with planning applications after all as it is not their responsibility, and the official reasons for objecting would stick to actually defendable ones. But nevertheless a lot of the objections were nutty 5G ones and she either believed the same, or simply didn't want to upset people who did believe it, which to me amounts to about the same thing, intellectually and morally.
She was either being stupid or cowardly.
Her clarification shows she was probably being cowardly, as in 'There's no evidence it is unsafe, but please don't do it anyway just in case because my constituents think it is unsafe and I want their votes at some point' Asked by the BBC to detail her concerns about health, Ms Hobhouse said she had spent time weighing up the available evidence and conceded that all the official guidance was that it was safe.
But she said that "given the widespread concern and conversations I have had with Bath residents who claim to be extra vulnerable, I believe it may be worth applying a precautionary principle on where masts are located whilst further studies are being undertaken".
Just to post the poll findings of all voters. Not just Tories.
- Two thirds of voters (64%) want Boris Johnson to resign following the Sue Gray report. - 83% believe he broke lockdown rules - 75% believe he is not telling the truth.
January 31, 2022
All voters don't get a say until the next general election as we have a Tory majority government.
Until then only the views of Tory MPs, Tory members and Tory voters matter as to whether Boris stays PM
And the rest of Parliament if 40 of those Tory MPs decide not to support him and vote with the opposition.
That definitely won’t happen.
Not unless Boris is caught with a live boy or dead girl in his bed, and maybe not even then.
No, the Tory MPs need to be both disgusted with Boris (one senses they are) AND believe that replacing him will restore Tory fortunes. It’s the last bit we’re stuck on.
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have allowed her to stay on as Tory leader, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
Just to post the poll findings of all voters. Not just Tories.
- Two thirds of voters (64%) want Boris Johnson to resign following the Sue Gray report. - 83% believe he broke lockdown rules - 75% believe he is not telling the truth.
January 31, 2022
All voters don't get a say until the next general election as we have a Tory majority government.
Until then only the views of Tory MPs, Tory members and Tory voters matter as to whether Boris stays PM
You can't blame it all on Boris Johnson. It has gone downhill for years. Tony Blair wasn't a parliamentarian, preferring media briefing to the House. David Cameron was okay I suppose. Theresa May likewise. The Remainer Parliament, even though I'm a remainer, was ridiculous really.
But Boris Johnson has taken politics down into the gutter.
Grieve was an excellent parliamentarian however, and he was also the chief remainer. May tried to bypass parliament many times, which is why he came in.
The appalling actions of Grieve and co directly led to the elevation of Johnson to PM.
No they didn't, but this is a common rewriting of history on the Brexiter side , that we've discussed many times on here. What made an extreme populist prime minister inevitable was in fact the actions of May in gradually excluding all softer Brexit options.
If May was still PM we'd still be negotiating our terms of release.
Got Brexit Done. Signed off Section 30 letter.
If Boris is indeed Toast I will remember him fondly.
That's why she couldn't have been, as I was mentioning. She set an extremely populist agenda in motion but was just inherently incapable of delivering it, clearing the way inevitably for our friend Bozo, the most nakedly populist of the main candidates, to come in.
TMay populist agenda?
I think she was trying to get us out of the EU but wasn't very good at it.
She was a safe pair of hands when it comes to low politics though.
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
As ever, Brexit was the Pandora’s box that turned the country to shit.
Disagree on a number of levels, but the bigger picture has to be clear.
It was an open wound, certainly present in politics since 2004 and starting to dominate since 2009. The war is lost but the battles are still being fought. Its been 6 years since the Referendum and we're still having Hiroo Onoda's dropping out of the forest.
The way to rescue this is, I think, actually quite simple.
Accept it.
If you want to rejoin, argue for that. Otherwise, seek to make the most of it and adapt to the new.
You think this is bad now? What will be many times worse is people using the "Boris gone, ah, so Brexit is a reopened debate". Christ.
Labour must be reviewing whether now is the right time to table a parliamentary confidence vote. They need to judge whether the momentum will have been lost by the time the Met eventually decide to take no action.
How could the likes of Hon Mr Bell vote confidence in Johnson after today?
They will not vote for a GE
There's no need for a Parliamentary VONC. The letters to the 1922 committee procedure is purely an internal party matter.
It was suggested Labour call a confidence vote and some conservatives would vote with Labour.
That is not the same as the 54 letters to the 1922
I don't like Johnson and I want him to go but one has to admire his comprehensive takedown of Starmer was superb. First the Saville put down which the BBC are loving.
I do wonder how many of the breaches of the rules - let alone the guidelines - were by Carrie and her friends.
I suspect
That may explain some of his behaviour. He simply cannot - or dare not - admit something which would put his wife in the frame.
FWIW, this is where my thinking has gone. Hence, the 'check the official diaries' comment earlier.
I've just had a horrible vision of BoJo stifling tears and saying that he has been acting all along to protect his wife and that he personally had no involvement in any wrongdoing..
Why can't he just blame her? Gets the heatd off him, and she's not official any more than, say, a Speaker's wife is.
She goes to the press
Ye
Bo
You keep repeating this on here every few minutes but that doesn't make it any the more true.
No one else, literally no one else, thinks it was a smart move. The jibe lowered the tone still further and by linking Savile to the debate today, the impression people come away with is not what you think. It's of two disresputable people who got off without investigation.
And I'm sure you don't really mean to be saying that the BBC loved the Savile comment. I mean, apart from not knowing how to spell his name, do you not know anything about the background to Jimmy Savile and the BBC?
It scythed Starmer down. Starmer was poor today. Mrs May, and Tissue price were excellent.
I thought Johnson came out swinging, and whether you and I might be disappointed that he saved his bacon, he did, because there are still not 54 MPs who were concerned enough to put their letters to Brady
Gosh did you really think Starmer was poor? I very much didn't. That for me was pitch perfect.
I'm not sure what Mexicanpete was watching to be honest.
I wasn't, I was listening on 5Live in Tesco Brewery Field carpark in Bridgend. I'd just paid my tax bill for this half year, so I wasn't in the best of spirits, then Johnson came out swinging and the rebels including Baker all fell in behind him.
Maybe I am reading it wrong, but he looks safe to me
He is safe for a while, I would agree, but only because the people with the power of sanction are his own MPs. It is still "emperor's new clothes". Even when he denies a party happened on the 13th November, and then the police say they are investigating a party in his flat on that day, yet he still won't admit it. Surely this is a job for the Standards Committee. You obviously never saw him grinning and laughing and taking the piss on screen.
He is relying on the police report to determine there is not enough evidence to proceed, which is the inevitable conclusion, despite 300 photos. That in turn allows him to bury Gray's report.
If it looks like he is losing the 2024 GE on the back of a collapsed economy he will throw in some seriously illiberal red meat, and he will win.
Would love to know what red meat is left to throw at people after 14 years of a Tory Government.
Just to post the poll findings of all voters. Not just Tories.
- Two thirds of voters (64%) want Boris Johnson to resign following the Sue Gray report. - 83% believe he broke lockdown rules - 75% believe he is not telling the truth.
January 31, 2022
All voters don't get a say until the next general election as we have a Tory majority government.
Until then only the views of Tory MPs, Tory members and Tory voters matter as to whether Boris stays PM
And the rest of Parliament if 40 of those Tory MPs decide not to support him and vote with the opposition.
That definitely won’t happen.
Not unless Boris is caught with a live boy or dead girl in his bed, and maybe not even then.
No, the Tory MPs need to be both disgusted with Boris (one senses they are) AND believe that replacing him will restore Tory fortunes. It’s the last bit we’re stuck on.
Indeed, Sunak trailing Starmer as preferred PM tonight with RedfieldWilton is even more important for Boris than the slight cut he has made to Labour's lead
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have kept her in power, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
May was a Remainer and probably started by hoping for a soft Brexit.
However, her style (radio silence for months and months) allowed the hard right to position hard Brexit as the only true way, and she was too frit to stare them down.
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have kept her in power, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
May was a Remainer and probably started by hoping for a soft Brexit.
However, her style (radio silence for months and months) allowed the hard right to position hard Brexit as the only true way, and she was too frit to stare them down.
I agree, except it wasn't just silence. She increasingly positioned herself, explicitly, to the harder Brexit side, just to survive, from day to day. This short-term political survival instinct in one way antcipated Boris, but in other ways, as a committed Christian, for instance, she had, and clearly still has, some very , very different principles.
"He’s made us all look corrupt and made the country feel like fools"
Any party that makes the likes of Boris Johnson - or Donald Trump - its leader IS corrupt, by definition.
And any country that elects their like, such as the UK - or USA - and puts them into power is ipso facto a pack of fools.
EDIT - I point this out, mainly in derision of the "made us" in the chastened Tory MPs remark. Much like Joe Rogan "sorry if I pissed you off".
Or any alleged "apology" ever uttered (apparently) by Boris Johnson.
So that makes Italy which elected Berlusconi or France which elected Sarkozy and Fillon, all convicted criminals, corrupt too?
Have you never visited France or Italy?
Bit unfair. HYUFD was urging us to be patriotic post-Brexit - something along the lines of taking our dirty weekends in Swansea or Skegness or somewhere like that the other week. Maybe even Brighton for all I know.
That brings back great memories of dirty weekends in Brighton with a Japanese lady.,,,
Just to post the poll findings of all voters. Not just Tories.
- Two thirds of voters (64%) want Boris Johnson to resign following the Sue Gray report. - 83% believe he broke lockdown rules - 75% believe he is not telling the truth.
January 31, 2022
All voters don't get a say until the next general election as we have a Tory majority government.
Until then only the views of Tory MPs, Tory members and Tory voters matter as to whether Boris stays PM
Starmer was excellent today. But today is not about the opposition. It’s about Tory MPs and what they stand for.
The number of letters must be very close to 54 tonight.
I very much hope so but I worry they’ve bottled it.
It feels like the Tory MPs are dejected and miserable about the whole thing, but that they haven’t got the guts to pull the trigger yet. I think some of them are still hoping against hope that he’ll fall on his sword without there having to be any of this nasty business. Which is obviously not going to happen.
I think some of them want to wait till May. Let Boris take the electoral hit.
A stop clock is right once in a while and here Robert Peston has picked up something very important that would otherwise have been snuck through without thinking
Robert Peston @Peston · 2m There is one massive unnoticed tension between what Tory MPs want from @BorisJohnson and what he announced today. His promised new Office of the Prime Minister, designed to improve management of the centre of government as per Gray’s analysis of what’s gone wrong, will… Robert Peston @Peston · 2m further weaken the cabinet and strengthen the executive, the PM. It will make the UK system even more presidential - and to that extent could weaken parliament too. Which is not what most MPs say is healthy. Wouldn’t it be paradoxical - haha - if Boris Johnson… Robert Peston @Peston · 2m emerged from this mess even more powerful.
Starmer was excellent today. But today is not about the opposition. It’s about Tory MPs and what they stand for.
The number of letters must be very close to 54 tonight.
I very much hope so but I worry they’ve bottled it.
It feels like the Tory MPs are dejected and miserable about the whole thing, but that they haven’t got the guts to pull the trigger yet. I think some of them are still hoping against hope that he’ll fall on his sword without there having to be any of this nasty business. Which is obviously not going to happen.
I think some of them want to wait till May. Let Boris take the electoral hit.
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have allowed her to stay on as Tory leader, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
Hard and Soft Brexit is Remoaner language.
Both May and Boris were merely trying to get out of the EU which proved to be far more difficult than leaving a "democratic" institution should be.
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have kept her in power, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
May was a Remainer and probably started by hoping for a soft Brexit.
However, her style (radio silence for months and months) allowed the hard right to position hard Brexit as the only true way, and she was too frit to stare them down.
I agree, except it wasn't just silence. She increasingly positioned herself, explicitly, to the harder Brexit side, just to survive.
Yes. Citizens of nowhere etc. She got high on the Daily Mail supply.
It seems the u-turn on publishing the full Gray arose when the PM belatedly realised he wouldn’t be able to whip his MPs to vote down an opposition motion insisting on publication
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have allowed her to stay on as Tory leader, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
Disagree on first sentence. Agree with the end - the reality is that she was pretty much absent any grand strategy or vision to present over a 7+ week election campaign.
I think, given Cameron's narrow win followed by the narrow Brexit win, any Brexit in any form needed a solid GE win to reshuffle the tory benches and ensure something could be voted through.
If we go back to Cameron, which is fair, then we have to go back further and revisit several key points in the 00s.
This is a mess two decades - at least - in the making.
Watching Ch4 News it's easy to imagine him going and quickly. It was something from the Kindergarten. Quite embarrassing for all Tories and all Johnson supporters. He's a lump and a man child. Watching Ruth Davidson crying was quite shocking
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have allowed her to stay on as Tory leader, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
Hard and Soft Brexit is Remoaner language.
Both May and Boris were merely trying to get out of the EU which proved to be far more difficult than leaving a "democratic" institution should be.
Yes. Definitely with the second part of this.
Anyway, maybe we want a completely paralysed government ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .
Just to post the poll findings of all voters. Not just Tories.
- Two thirds of voters (64%) want Boris Johnson to resign following the Sue Gray report. - 83% believe he broke lockdown rules - 75% believe he is not telling the truth.
January 31, 2022
All voters don't get a say until the next general election as we have a Tory majority government.
Until then only the views of Tory MPs, Tory members and Tory voters matter as to whether Boris stays PM
Watching Ch4 News it's easy to imagine him going and quickly. It was something from the Kindergarten. Quite embarrassing for all Tories and all Johnson supporters. He's a lump and a man child. Watching Ruth Davidson crying was quite shocking
Labour must be reviewing whether now is the right time to table a parliamentary confidence vote. They need to judge whether the momentum will have been lost by the time the Met eventually decide to take no action.
How could the likes of Hon Mr Bell vote confidence in Johnson after today?
They will not vote for a GE
There's no need for a Parliamentary VONC. The letters to the 1922 committee procedure is purely an internal party matter.
It was suggested Labour call a confidence vote and some conservatives would vote with Labour.
That is not the same as the 54 letters to the 1922
I don't like Johnson and I want him to go but one has to admire his comprehensive takedown of Starmer was superb. First the Saville put down which the BBC are loving.
I do wonder how many of the breaches of the rules - let alone the guidelines - were by Carrie and her friends.
I suspect
That may explain some of his behaviour. He simply cannot - or dare not - admit something which would put his wife in the frame.
FWIW, this is where my thinking has gone. Hence, the 'check the official diaries' comment earlier.
I've just had a horrible vision of BoJo stifling tears and saying that he has been acting all along to protect his wife and that he personally had no involvement in any wrongdoing..
Why can't he just blame her? Gets the heatd off him, and she's not official any more than, say, a Speaker's wife is.
She goes to the press
Ye
Bo
You keep repeating this on here every few minutes but that doesn't make it any the more true.
No one else, literally no one else, thinks it was a smart move. The jibe lowered the tone still further and by linking Savile to the debate today, the impression people come away with is not what you think. It's of two disresputable people who got off without investigation.
And I'm sure you don't really mean to be saying that the BBC loved the Savile comment. I mean, apart from not knowing how to spell his name, do you not know anything about the background to Jimmy Savile and the BBC?
It scythed Starmer down. Starmer was poor today. Mrs May, and Tissue price were excellent.
I thought Johnson came out swinging, and whether you and I might be disappointed that he saved his bacon, he did, because there are still not 54 MPs who were concerned enough to put their letters to Brady
Gosh did you really think Starmer was poor? I very much didn't. That for me was pitch perfect.
I'm not sure what Mexicanpete was watching to be honest.
I wasn't, I was listening on 5Live in Tesco Brewery Field carpark in Bridgend. I'd just paid my tax bill for this half year, so I wasn't in the best of spirits, then Johnson came out swinging and the rebels including Baker all fell in behind him.
Maybe I am reading it wrong, but he looks safe to me
He is safe for a while, I would agree, but only because the people with the power of sanction are his own MPs. It is still "emperor's new clothes". Even when he denies a party happened on the 13th November, and then the police say they are investigating a party in his flat on that day, yet he still won't admit it. Surely this is a job for the Standards Committee. You obviously never saw him grinning and laughing and taking the piss on screen.
We must be careful about this party-in-a-flat business. Sue Gray's report mentions a police investigation into "a gathering in the No 10 Downing Street flat" but Boris and Carrie live in the Number 11 flat. Presumably the Number 10 flat is unoccupied because iirc Rishi Sunak still lives in his old home.
Starmer was excellent today. But today is not about the opposition. It’s about Tory MPs and what they stand for.
The number of letters must be very close to 54 tonight.
I very much hope so but I worry they’ve bottled it.
It feels like the Tory MPs are dejected and miserable about the whole thing, but that they haven’t got the guts to pull the trigger yet. I think some of them are still hoping against hope that he’ll fall on his sword without there having to be any of this nasty business. Which is obviously not going to happen.
I think some of them want to wait till May. Let Boris take the electoral hit.
Why lose many hundreds of councillors - your best foot-soldiers - whilst you dither until May?
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have kept her in power, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
May was a Remainer and probably started by hoping for a soft Brexit.
However, her style (radio silence for months and months) allowed the hard right to position hard Brexit as the only true way, and she was too frit to stare them down.
I agree, except it wasn't just silence. She increasingly positioned herself, explicitly, to the harder Brexit side, just to survive.
Yes. Citizens of nowhere etc. She got high on the Daily Mail supply.
The citizens of Nowhere was the second most disgraceful speech ever made by a British PM. I think today´s PMQs has set a new bar so low that even a limbo dancer will struggle.
OR I never vote tory again, unless my MP (G Cox, Con) has crossed the floor by close of business
Never been so disgusted
Peter Gibson (Darlington) has gone from Boris is a disgrace prior to today to time to move on to other (more important) matters.
I don't see 54 letters arriving anytime soon.
I certainly won't be voting conservative again as long as this shower of sh*t remains in charge.
And if the rest of the party don't have the balls to defenestrate him, it makes it hard for me to vote for any of them either. For similar reasons I remain cautious about Labour, considering they allowed the sh*t show that was Corbyn for years.
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have kept her in power, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
May was a Remainer and probably started by hoping for a soft Brexit.
However, her style (radio silence for months and months) allowed the hard right to position hard Brexit as the only true way, and she was too frit to stare them down.
I agree, except it wasn't just silence. She increasingly positioned herself, explicitly, to the harder Brexit side, just to survive.
Yes. Citizens of nowhere etc. She got high on the Daily Mail supply.
The citizens of Nowhere was the second most disgraceful speech ever made by a British PM. I think today´s PMQs has set a new bar so low that even a limbo dancer will struggle.
Yes, absolutely correct.
It was the moment I knew I was no longer welcome in the UK. Many of my friends (often expats) felt the same.
Starmer was excellent today. But today is not about the opposition. It’s about Tory MPs and what they stand for.
The number of letters must be very close to 54 tonight.
I very much hope so but I worry they’ve bottled it.
It feels like the Tory MPs are dejected and miserable about the whole thing, but that they haven’t got the guts to pull the trigger yet. I think some of them are still hoping against hope that he’ll fall on his sword without there having to be any of this nasty business. Which is obviously not going to happen.
I think some of them want to wait till May. Let Boris take the electoral hit.
Why lose many hundreds of councillors - your best foot-soldiers - whilst you dither until May?
JFDI.....
Because the new leader doesn't want to kick off with some heavy electoral losses?
Difficult, I agree Mark, but there is a case for letting BJ take all the flak.
Starmer was excellent today. But today is not about the opposition. It’s about Tory MPs and what they stand for.
The number of letters must be very close to 54 tonight.
I very much hope so but I worry they’ve bottled it.
It feels like the Tory MPs are dejected and miserable about the whole thing, but that they haven’t got the guts to pull the trigger yet. I think some of them are still hoping against hope that he’ll fall on his sword without there having to be any of this nasty business. Which is obviously not going to happen.
I think some of them want to wait till May. Let Boris take the electoral hit.
Why lose many hundreds of councillors - your best foot-soldiers - whilst you dither until May?
JFDI.....
Because the new leader doesn't want to kick off with some heavy electoral losses?
Difficult, I agree Mark, but there is a case for letting BJ take all the flak.
Depends if Rishi is installed by May. New broom and all that.
Between Boris Johnson's performance today and that poll finding I have lost faith in my country.
Take my advice.
Emigrate.
Tempted to move to France, Canada, or Australia.
Well, you can knock Canada off the list - that's where the Hawaiian pizza was invented.
If you think our winters are cold and dark, try Canada's
Vancouver isn't cold. Nor is populated Canada darker. It's much further south than us. Most Canadians live south of Seattle. One of my favourite facts.
Winnipeg has over 600,000 people and is -6 Celsius today. Edmonton has over 1 million people and is -15 degrees Celsius today.
Parts of populated Canada certainly do get very cold in winter
Nevertheless you also said “dark”. Sunset in Winnipeg today will be, in local time, a whole half hour later than mine - and I have one of the longest winter daylight spans in the UK.
Edmonton, population over 1 million, is north of us and therefore darker than us in winter too as well as colder
Edmonton is 53.56°N. That's a lot more south than me.
There's a reason the Glaswegians are revolting:
Just about everywhere in the US is less cloudy than the UK, although I suspect the map is not picking up specific areas such as the Olympics west of Seattle. Most of Canada too.
You have to go somewhere like Kerguelen in the Southern Ocean to get significantly worse.
I expect there is a satellite derived map somewhere but I haven't found it.
Starmer was excellent today. But today is not about the opposition. It’s about Tory MPs and what they stand for.
The number of letters must be very close to 54 tonight.
I very much hope so but I worry they’ve bottled it.
It feels like the Tory MPs are dejected and miserable about the whole thing, but that they haven’t got the guts to pull the trigger yet. I think some of them are still hoping against hope that he’ll fall on his sword without there having to be any of this nasty business. Which is obviously not going to happen.
I think some of them want to wait till May. Let Boris take the electoral hit.
Why lose many hundreds of councillors - your best foot-soldiers - whilst you dither until May?
JFDI.....
Because the new leader doesn't want to kick off with some heavy electoral losses?
Difficult, I agree Mark, but there is a case for letting BJ take all the flak.
He will take it anyway. New leader will simply say, 'we are suffering a deserved punishment for the incompetence and criminality of the former leader. The British people are angry, and understandably so. It is now up to us to work hard on the cost of living crisis, the lack of investment in the north and the antiquated governmental system that doesn't meet the needs of the people to regain their trust.'
Watching Ch4 News it's easy to imagine him going and quickly. It was something from the Kindergarten. Quite embarrassing for all Tories and all Johnson supporters. He's a lump and a man child. Watching Ruth Davidson crying was quite shocking
Watching Ch4 News it's easy to imagine him going and quickly. It was something from the Kindergarten. Quite embarrassing for all Tories and all Johnson supporters. He's a lump and a man child. Watching Ruth Davidson crying was quite shocking
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have kept her in power, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
May was a Remainer and probably started by hoping for a soft Brexit.
However, her style (radio silence for months and months) allowed the hard right to position hard Brexit as the only true way, and she was too frit to stare them down.
I agree, except it wasn't just silence. She increasingly positioned herself, explicitly, to the harder Brexit side, just to survive.
Yes. Citizens of nowhere etc. She got high on the Daily Mail supply.
The citizens of Nowhere was the second most disgraceful speech ever made by a British PM. I think today´s PMQs has set a new bar so low that even a limbo dancer will struggle.
Yes, absolutely correct.
It was the moment I knew I was no longer welcome in the UK. Many of my friends (often expats) felt the same.
I'm Born here British and it made me feel unwelcome too.
Just to post the poll findings of all voters. Not just Tories.
- Two thirds of voters (64%) want Boris Johnson to resign following the Sue Gray report. - 83% believe he broke lockdown rules - 75% believe he is not telling the truth.
January 31, 2022
All voters don't get a say until the next general election as we have a Tory majority government.
Until then only the views of Tory MPs, Tory members and Tory voters matter as to whether Boris stays PM
Weren't you saying similar about keeping Owen Patterson as an MP ?
OR I never vote tory again, unless my MP (G Cox, Con) has crossed the floor by close of business
Never been so disgusted
Never say never... I said I would never vote Labour after Iraq, but I have forgiven them that now that 1. A long time has passed 2. Their leader apologised specifically for it and meant it 3. The Conservatives have become just so fucking terrible
Between Boris Johnson's performance today and that poll finding I have lost faith in my country.
Take my advice.
Emigrate.
Tempted to move to France, Canada, or Australia.
Well, you can knock Canada off the list - that's where the Hawaiian pizza was invented.
If you think our winters are cold and dark, try Canada's
Vancouver isn't cold. Nor is populated Canada darker. It's much further south than us. Most Canadians live south of Seattle. One of my favourite facts.
Winnipeg has over 600,000 people and is -6 Celsius today. Edmonton has over 1 million people and is -15 degrees Celsius today.
Parts of populated Canada certainly do get very cold in winter
Nevertheless you also said “dark”. Sunset in Winnipeg today will be, in local time, a whole half hour later than mine - and I have one of the longest winter daylight spans in the UK.
Edmonton, population over 1 million, is north of us and therefore darker than us in winter too as well as colder
Edmonton is 53.56°N. That's a lot more south than me.
There's a reason the Glaswegians are revolting:
Just about everywhere in the US is less cloudy than the UK, although I suspect the map is not picking up specific areas such as the Olympics west of Seattle. Most of Canada too.
You have to go somewhere like Kerguelen in the Southern Ocean to get significantly worse.
I expect there is a satellite derived map somewhere but I haven't found it.
Interesting that holland and Germany, quite some way south, are an island of cloudiness, yet (despite mountains generally helping to form clouds) you wouldn’t know that the alps are there from that map
OR I never vote tory again, unless my MP (G Cox, Con) has crossed the floor by close of business
Never been so disgusted
I think he's a dead man walking but I'm not sure why they keep saying we've all been made to look like idiots. Those who voted for him particularly the red wallers have always looked like idiots to me but I don't see that the fact of him ignoring his own rules should make those of us who didn't feel like idiots.
OR I never vote tory again, unless my MP (G Cox, Con) has crossed the floor by close of business
Never been so disgusted
Never say never... I said I would never vote Labour after Iraq, but I have forgiven them that now that 1. A long time has passed 2. Their leader apologised specifically for it and meant it 3. The Conservatives have become just so fucking terrible
That’s very true. I could not bring myself to vote Tory at the moment. I have reconciled myself to voting for Starmer.. I will hopefully be able to go back in time once the party has shown it can change again.
Between Boris Johnson's performance today and that poll finding I have lost faith in my country.
Take my advice.
Emigrate.
Tempted to move to France, Canada, or Australia.
Well, you can knock Canada off the list - that's where the Hawaiian pizza was invented.
If you think our winters are cold and dark, try Canada's
Vancouver isn't cold. Nor is populated Canada darker. It's much further south than us. Most Canadians live south of Seattle. One of my favourite facts.
Winnipeg has over 600,000 people and is -6 Celsius today. Edmonton has over 1 million people and is -15 degrees Celsius today.
Parts of populated Canada certainly do get very cold in winter
Nevertheless you also said “dark”. Sunset in Winnipeg today will be, in local time, a whole half hour later than mine - and I have one of the longest winter daylight spans in the UK.
Edmonton, population over 1 million, is north of us and therefore darker than us in winter too as well as colder
Edmonton is 53.56°N. That's a lot more south than me.
There's a reason the Glaswegians are revolting:
Just about everywhere in the US is less cloudy than the UK, although I suspect the map is not picking up specific areas such as the Olympics west of Seattle. Most of Canada too.
You have to go somewhere like Kerguelen in the Southern Ocean to get significantly worse.
I expect there is a satellite derived map somewhere but I haven't found it.
The 2 August 2027 total solar eclipse passes through Luxor, which according to one site I looked at has a 100% chance of sunshine (presumably rounded to the nearest 1%).
With a six minute totality duration Luxor will be the place to be that day.
Nadine Dorries is clearly an idiot, but she didn't seem drunk to me. Not at all. Playing a bad hand badly, and seemingly surly and defensive. But not drunk.
The best bits were the closing exchanges and half-smiles and knowing glances as the interview concluded
Nadine Dorries is clearly an idiot, but she didn't seem drunk to me. Not at all. Playing a bad hand badly, and seemingly surly and defensive. But not drunk.
I didn't have the sound on - but it was quite a drunken sway.
Between Boris Johnson's performance today and that poll finding I have lost faith in my country.
Take my advice.
Emigrate.
Tempted to move to France, Canada, or Australia.
Well, you can knock Canada off the list - that's where the Hawaiian pizza was invented.
If you think our winters are cold and dark, try Canada's
Vancouver isn't cold. Nor is populated Canada darker. It's much further south than us. Most Canadians live south of Seattle. One of my favourite facts.
Winnipeg has over 600,000 people and is -6 Celsius today. Edmonton has over 1 million people and is -15 degrees Celsius today.
Parts of populated Canada certainly do get very cold in winter
Nevertheless you also said “dark”. Sunset in Winnipeg today will be, in local time, a whole half hour later than mine - and I have one of the longest winter daylight spans in the UK.
Edmonton, population over 1 million, is north of us and therefore darker than us in winter too as well as colder
Edmonton is 53.56°N. That's a lot more south than me.
There's a reason the Glaswegians are revolting:
Just about everywhere in the US is less cloudy than the UK, although I suspect the map is not picking up specific areas such as the Olympics west of Seattle. Most of Canada too.
You have to go somewhere like Kerguelen in the Southern Ocean to get significantly worse.
I expect there is a satellite derived map somewhere but I haven't found it.
The 2 August 2027 total solar eclipse passes through Luxor, which according to one site I looked at has a 100% chance of sunshine (presumably rounded to the nearest 1%).
With a six minute totality duration Luxor will be the place to be that day.
Watching Ch4 News it's easy to imagine him going and quickly. It was something from the Kindergarten. Quite embarrassing for all Tories and all Johnson supporters. He's a lump and a man child. Watching Ruth Davidson crying was quite shocking
OR I never vote tory again, unless my MP (G Cox, Con) has crossed the floor by close of business
Never been so disgusted
Never say never... I said I would never vote Labour after Iraq, but I have forgiven them that now that 1. A long time has passed 2. Their leader apologised specifically for it and meant it 3. The Conservatives have become just so fucking terrible
Not so young then...
No, alas. Anyway, you promised me an elixir of youth. I'll do you a swap if you like. I'll give you a year's supply of toothpaste in exchange.
I'm guessing that's about half a tube for you.
Since the vid I've had the teeth polished up a bit and I brush my teeth (nearly) everyday but they are still fucked. I've got enough toothpaste so don't need any toothpaste backhanders.
"He’s made us all look corrupt and made the country feel like fools"
Any party that makes the likes of Boris Johnson - or Donald Trump - its leader IS corrupt, by definition.
And any country that elects their like, such as the UK - or USA - and puts them into power is ipso facto a pack of fools.
EDIT - I point this out, mainly in derision of the "made us" in the chastened Tory MPs remark. Much like Joe Rogan "sorry if I pissed you off".
Or any alleged "apology" ever uttered (apparently) by Boris Johnson.
So that makes Italy which elected Berlusconi or France which elected Sarkozy and Fillon, all convicted criminals, corrupt too?
Have you never visited France or Italy?
Bit unfair. HYUFD was urging us to be patriotic post-Brexit - something along the lines of taking our dirty weekends in Swansea or Skegness or somewhere like that the other week. Maybe even Brighton for all I know.
That brings back great memories of dirty weekends in Brighton with a Japanese lady.,,,
Watching Ch4 News it's easy to imagine him going and quickly. It was something from the Kindergarten. Quite embarrassing for all Tories and all Johnson supporters. He's a lump and a man child. Watching Ruth Davidson crying was quite shocking
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have allowed her to stay on as Tory leader, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
Hard and Soft Brexit is Remoaner language.
Both May and Boris were merely trying to get out of the EU which proved to be far more difficult than leaving a "democratic" institution should be.
"He’s made us all look corrupt and made the country feel like fools"
Any party that makes the likes of Boris Johnson - or Donald Trump - its leader IS corrupt, by definition.
And any country that elects their like, such as the UK - or USA - and puts them into power is ipso facto a pack of fools.
EDIT - I point this out, mainly in derision of the "made us" in the chastened Tory MPs remark. Much like Joe Rogan "sorry if I pissed you off".
Or any alleged "apology" ever uttered (apparently) by Boris Johnson.
So that makes Italy which elected Berlusconi or France which elected Sarkozy and Fillon, all convicted criminals, corrupt too?
Have you never visited France or Italy?
Bit unfair. HYUFD was urging us to be patriotic post-Brexit - something along the lines of taking our dirty weekends in Swansea or Skegness or somewhere like that the other week. Maybe even Brighton for all I know.
That brings back great memories of dirty weekends in Brighton with a Japanese lady.,,,
"He’s made us all look corrupt and made the country feel like fools"
Any party that makes the likes of Boris Johnson - or Donald Trump - its leader IS corrupt, by definition.
And any country that elects their like, such as the UK - or USA - and puts them into power is ipso facto a pack of fools.
EDIT - I point this out, mainly in derision of the "made us" in the chastened Tory MPs remark. Much like Joe Rogan "sorry if I pissed you off".
Or any alleged "apology" ever uttered (apparently) by Boris Johnson.
So that makes Italy which elected Berlusconi or France which elected Sarkozy and Fillon, all convicted criminals, corrupt too?
Have you never visited France or Italy?
Bit unfair. HYUFD was urging us to be patriotic post-Brexit - something along the lines of taking our dirty weekends in Swansea or Skegness or somewhere like that the other week. Maybe even Brighton for all I know.
That brings back great memories of dirty weekends in Brighton with a Japanese lady.,,,
Did you have kippers on the Brighton Belle?
Just sushi....
Ah, not so long ago. But JJ has pointed out we may be able to in future ... *contemplates a day outing with my Camden friend*
Am told Boris Johnson compared himself to Othello while addressing Conservative MPs tonight. He said he always sees the best in people, unlike Dominic Cummings (who he cast as Iago) https://twitter.com/hzeffman/status/1488249949284409354
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have allowed her to stay on as Tory leader, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
Hard and Soft Brexit is Remoaner language.
Both May and Boris were merely trying to get out of the EU which proved to be far more difficult than leaving a "democratic" institution should be.
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have allowed her to stay on as Tory leader, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
Hard and Soft Brexit is Remoaner language.
Both May and Boris were merely trying to get out of the EU which proved to be far more difficult than leaving a "democratic" institution should be.
Am told Boris Johnson compared himself to Othello while addressing Conservative MPs tonight. He said he always sees the best in people, unlike Dominic Cummings (who he cast as Iago) https://twitter.com/hzeffman/status/1488249949284409354
May realised she needed a bigger majority to get Brexit through in some form. Stacked the election, for a number of reasons, winning only a pyrrhic victory.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Red lines, hard brexit, increasingly clear that she was on a course to a minimal deal, I was meaning, really. She certainly wasn't very good at implementing all that she had set the scene for by continually gratifying the ERG, though.
Bad Analysis
The crucial missing word is in the first sentence - May realised she needed a bigger majority to get *Hard* Brexit through in some form. Soft Brexit wouldn't have allowed her to stay on as Tory leader, so, despite being a much more diligent and sometimes honourable prime minister than Boris Johnson, it was much her now forgotten opportunism that led to Boris as anything else.
Hard and Soft Brexit is Remoaner language.
Both May and Boris were merely trying to get out of the EU which proved to be far more difficult than leaving a "democratic" institution should be.
The report ultimately will have changed few minds. The key facts were already known. Conservative MPs can choose to stick with the prime minister, but he showed on Monday that they would be fools to think he is in any way chastened by events.
Katy Balls: Gray’s update, in which she was more than keen to stress this was not her report and just a summary, and Johnson’s response to it, has put him back in the danger zone.
When he needed to be statesmanlike and contrite, he was angry and combative – even refusing to commit to publishing the full report once the police investigation was concluded (a position Downing Street has already had to U-turn on).
His attack on Keir Starmer for the failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile (a claim that has been disproven) dismayed even his own MPs – while his questioning of drug use by the Labour frontbench was viewed as simply bizarre. “It was terrible,” says one member of the payroll… behind the scenes, discomfort is building. Johnson’s response to the report has only added to doubts about his future. For all the talk from Johnson of change in how No 10 operates, the part that most worries MPs is that he may not realise that he needs to change, too.
Watching Ch4 News it's easy to imagine him going and quickly. It was something from the Kindergarten. Quite embarrassing for all Tories and all Johnson supporters. He's a lump and a man child. Watching Ruth Davidson crying was quite shocking
Comments
Moving on from Portugal, we have only a little time (well, 3 months) before Slovenia votes on April 24th.
If you think Portuguese or British politics is complex, welcome to the multi-dimensional nightmare that is Slovenia.
The latest poll - numbers compared to the last election in 2018
Slovenian Democratic Party: 26.0% (+1.1)
Svoboda: 22.8% (new)
Social Democrats: 13.9% (+4.0)
The Left: 9.3% (+0.7)
New Slovenia: 6.3% (-0.9)
Marjan Sarec's List: 5.5% (-7.1)
Alenka Bratusek's List: 4.5% (-0.6)
Svoboda is the former Green Actions Party which has been taken over by one Robert Golob, formerly State Secretary of the Republic of Slovenia and from what I can tell your average patriotic multi-billionaire businessman.
As we all know, the Slovenian National Assembly has 90 seats - the current minority coalition of the Slovenian Democratic Party, Let's Connect Slovenia and New Slovenia has 37 seats and is supported on a C&S basis by 10 MPs from smaller parties leading the Pensioners Party and the Slovenian National Party.
That's 47 and the 43 Opposition MPs come from the list parties of Marjan Sarec and Alenka Bratusek, the Social Democrats, The Left and two from Green Actions which is now Svoboda (see above).
The three main governing parties have seen their combined vote share fall from 46% to 36%.
If it looks like he is losing the 2024 GE on the back of a collapsed economy he will throw in some seriously illiberal red meat, and he will win.
Boris made the exact same calculation, helped by 2 more years of, how do we put this politely, wrangling.
Country really should not be surprised we're in the position we are in.
Brilliant.
Boris Johnson’s demise has been forecast many times in the last several months. Nothing has happened yet. I suspect he is safe until the May local elections.
https://twitter.com/christopherhope/status/1488236730411008005?s=20&t=Fi3Wi04ksxsUmicRr2k1Tw
Not unless Boris is caught with a live boy or dead girl in his bed, and maybe not even then.
No, the Tory MPs need to be both disgusted with Boris (one senses they are) AND believe that replacing him will restore Tory fortunes. It’s the last bit we’re stuck on.
It was an open wound, certainly present in politics since 2004 and starting to dominate since 2009. The war is lost but the battles are still being fought. Its been 6 years since the Referendum and we're still having Hiroo Onoda's dropping out of the forest.
The way to rescue this is, I think, actually quite simple.
Accept it.
If you want to rejoin, argue for that. Otherwise, seek to make the most of it and adapt to the new.
You think this is bad now? What will be many times worse is people using the "Boris gone, ah, so Brexit is a reopened debate". Christ.
However, her style (radio silence for months and months) allowed the hard right to position hard Brexit as the only true way, and she was too frit to stare them down.
Ain't nobody got time for refighting all of that.
"hold my pint ... "
It feels like the Tory MPs are dejected and miserable about the whole thing, but that they haven’t got the guts to pull the trigger yet. I think some of them are still hoping against hope that he’ll fall on his sword without there having to be any of this nasty business. Which is obviously not going to happen.
I think some of them want to wait till May. Let Boris take the electoral hit.
https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1488238736919904263
Robert Peston
@Peston
·
2m
There is one massive unnoticed tension between what Tory MPs want from
@BorisJohnson
and what he announced today. His promised new Office of the Prime Minister, designed to improve management of the centre of government as per Gray’s analysis of what’s gone wrong, will…
Robert Peston
@Peston
·
2m
further weaken the cabinet and strengthen the executive, the PM. It will make the UK system even more presidential - and to that extent could weaken parliament too. Which is not what most MPs say is healthy. Wouldn’t it be paradoxical - haha - if Boris Johnson…
Robert Peston
@Peston
·
2m
emerged from this mess even more powerful.
Terrible news for the country.
Both May and Boris were merely trying to get out of the EU which proved to be far more difficult than leaving a "democratic" institution should be.
OR I never vote tory again, unless my MP (G Cox, Con) has crossed the floor by close of business
Never been so disgusted
I think, given Cameron's narrow win followed by the narrow Brexit win, any Brexit in any form needed a solid GE win to reshuffle the tory benches and ensure something could be voted through.
If we go back to Cameron, which is fair, then we have to go back further and revisit several key points in the 00s.
This is a mess two decades - at least - in the making.
Anyway, maybe we want a completely paralysed government ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .
I don't see 54 letters arriving anytime soon.
https://twitter.com/channel4news/status/1488235127847243780?s=21
JFDI.....
And if the rest of the party don't have the balls to defenestrate him, it makes it hard for me to vote for any of them either. For similar reasons I remain cautious about Labour, considering they allowed the sh*t show that was Corbyn for years.
It was the moment I knew I was no longer welcome in the UK. Many of my friends (often expats) felt the same.
Difficult, I agree Mark, but there is a case for letting BJ take all the flak.
Just about everywhere in the US is less cloudy than the UK, although I suspect the map is not picking up specific areas such as the Olympics west of Seattle. Most of Canada too.
You have to go somewhere like Kerguelen in the Southern Ocean to get significantly worse.
I expect there is a satellite derived map somewhere but I haven't found it.
(There's a version with a scale but it is a bit big to post inline)
https://external-preview.redd.it/OHaEsE5gvooo7czRlTObIht4NSUrvxU1rxSebiz4mGw.png?auto=webp&s=306df060fd5ffc6db94e5cfcb5977cc89f87c8d8
https://twitter.com/trussliz/status/1488243196509495299?s=21
Does Ms/(Mrs?) Davidson have the same excuse?
Profoundly silly woman
https://twitter.com/garysambrook89/status/1488243552874283011?s=21
With a six minute totality duration Luxor will be the place to be that day.
But back to my point-
What was Ms Davidson's excuse?
Safest to believe the precise opposite of any claim Boris makes. Indeed, I have no memory of an occasion when Boris has told the truth.
https://twitter.com/hzeffman/status/1488249949284409354
It ain’t happening.
I was right then and right now: Boris is going nowhere.
Sorry for not making that clear.
EDIT: Remoaner MPs
https://www.ft.com/content/9ca17c71-d4b5-46c9-81a6-0820d2c3c73b
When he needed to be statesmanlike and contrite, he was angry and combative – even refusing to commit to publishing the full report once the police investigation was concluded (a position Downing Street has already had to U-turn on).
His attack on Keir Starmer for the failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile (a claim that has been disproven) dismayed even his own MPs – while his questioning of drug use by the Labour frontbench was viewed as simply bizarre. “It was terrible,” says one member of the payroll… behind the scenes, discomfort is building. Johnson’s response to the report has only added to doubts about his future. For all the talk from Johnson of change in how No 10 operates, the part that most worries MPs is that he may not realise that he needs to change, too.