Johnson will lead the Tories into the next election.
I'm not sure. First, I've long expected Boris to resign before the next election, especially if there is a risk he loses. Paradoxically, attempts to force him out might have made that less likely.
But Boris is not out of the woods yet. As Donald Trump discovered with several judgments against him last week, dangers can converge from several directions. For Boris, partygate lingers on with the Gray report and Met Police investigations running; wallpapergate seems dead; cash for honours is concentrated on the Prince of Wales but can surely spread; the closely-related cash for access lurks in the Sunday papers; Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol are unresolved; levelling up is merely a slogan; prices are up; taxes are up; and he might have lied to parliament.
And it would be foolish to have an election where the campaign risks just one encounter with someone who lost a relative during the pandemic. They'd be mad to hold onto him into another campaign.
But StillWaters I think the other point you missed, or chose to ignore, was that we were commenting specifically on Boris Johnson's blatantly obvious attempts to raise WWII rhetoric and channel the spirit of Churchill.
Which has bugger all to do with whether he cares about Ukrainian skins and everything to do with his own skin.
Do you still think that Putin isn't going to invade and that this is all a feint?
He could always pull back and then have useful idiots claim the whole response to his threat was unreasonable.
Same way I'd be unreasonable if I reacted to someone waving a gun in my face and later they told me it was unloaded. How dare I react?
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Which is precisely the point of ramping up the Ukraine response. Masses of photo ops, pictures on tanks, tons of overseas trips, bellicose blowing on his horn, spirit of Churchill, World War II, World War III, gravest situation since 1945, nuclear threat on London ... etc. etc. etc. etc.
Johnson will stop at nothing to save his own skin
I’d buy you thesis a bit more if we were the only country doing this. Did I imagine Macron meeting Putin? Did I imagine Biden? I think your hatred is colouring your judgement. Sometimes people do stuff for the right reasons.
Biden having screwed up Afghanistan and Macron with a tight election around the corner are in the same boat. Germany, having had an election, and with more direct issues on their doorstep in the event of a Ukrainian invasion is more circumspect
Silly me, they are all only out for themselves. Presumably that goes for any other leaders who’ve expressed an opinion?
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Which is precisely the point of ramping up the Ukraine response. Masses of photo ops, pictures on tanks, tons of overseas trips, bellicose blowing on his horn, spirit of Churchill, World War II, World War III, gravest situation since 1945, nuclear threat on London ... etc. etc. etc. etc.
Johnson will stop at nothing to save his own skin
I’d buy you thesis a bit more if we were the only country doing this. Did I imagine Macron meeting Putin? Did I imagine Biden? I think your hatred is colouring your judgement. Sometimes people do stuff for the right reasons.
Or even do the right stuff for very mixed reasons indeed.
I don’t think Johnson a particular persuasive advocate for western unity over Ukraine, to put it mildly, and have very little trust in his judgment, but for now he has not made any real missteps.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Which is precisely the point of ramping up the Ukraine response. Masses of photo ops, pictures on tanks, tons of overseas trips, bellicose blowing on his horn, spirit of Churchill, World War II, World War III, gravest situation since 1945, nuclear threat on London ... etc. etc. etc. etc.
Johnson will stop at nothing to save his own skin
Sometimes people do stuff for the right reasons.
When you discover as big a shit as Johnson you realise that there is nothing he does that doesn't involve thinking all about himself. I sussed this with him quite a while back. So did most people on here. And increasingly so are the British public.
It's why HYUFD is correct. Under Boris Johnson the tories will not win a majority.
Johnson will lead the Tories into the next election.
I'm not sure. First, I've long expected Boris to resign before the next election, especially if there is a risk he loses. Paradoxically, attempts to force him out might have made that less likely.
But Boris is not out of the woods yet. As Donald Trump discovered with several judgments against him last week, dangers can converge from several directions. For Boris, partygate lingers on with the Gray report and Met Police investigations running; wallpapergate seems dead; cash for honours is concentrated on the Prince of Wales but can surely spread; the closely-related cash for access lurks in the Sunday papers; Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol are unresolved; levelling up is merely a slogan; prices are up; taxes are up; and he might have lied to parliament.
And it would be mad to have an election where the campaign risks just one encounter with someone who lost a relative during the pandemic. They'd be mad to hold onto him into another campaign.
That's the real problem isn't it? This is all going to come back again and again and again. And all that raw emotion we went through, which the right wingers are desperately trying to dismiss as over or cover up with this or that other crisis, will come surging back.
In many ways Johnson should have done the really brave thing and fessed up to the whole shebang. Lanced the boil now, hoped to remain in place, and rebuild over two years.
But the festering wound of all this, viscerally etched into the nation's soul, is going to rise to the surface during the General Election and with it will go many tory MPs.
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Which is precisely the point of ramping up the Ukraine response. Masses of photo ops, pictures on tanks, tons of overseas trips, bellicose blowing on his horn, spirit of Churchill, World War II, World War III, gravest situation since 1945, nuclear threat on London ... etc. etc. etc. etc.
Johnson will stop at nothing to save his own skin
I’d buy you thesis a bit more if we were the only country doing this. Did I imagine Macron meeting Putin? Did I imagine Biden? I think your hatred is colouring your judgement. Sometimes people do stuff for the right reasons.
Exactly, Boris is not to blame for this crisis. And nor is he taking advantage of it, in my eyes. He seems to be acting quite properly (for once).
He's clueless, but for once that's a good thing. He'll be taking his line from the White House, Brussels, his own Civil Service and one or two MPs like Tom Tugenhad who know what they're talking about.
They've all been playing a blinder so if the clown just follows their line we should come through this ok.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Who had 'not a time for a change' on their bingo card?
Its the classic phony catch 22 - if theres no crisis no need to change leaders; if there is a crisis too risky to change leaders.
Indeed.
Hence why the country couldn't possibly ditch Chamberlain in May 1940 in favour of Churchill.
Hitchens calls Liz Truss a lefty liberal, and has a pop at army cuts:-
Now, as we posture as the defenders of Europe against a much-touted Russian threat which may or may not exist, Britain has a mere 227 Challenger tanks and is busy reducing its Army from 82,000 personnel – already a record low in modern times – to 73,000.
"I note there is also an official drive to double the number of women in the British Army and to ‘tackle its male-dominated culture’. Well, such quotas usually lead to a lowering of physical standards, and, as most women aren’t especially keen on being soldiers, the main outcome is that more weedy men can join up.
I can promise you that the Russian Army continues to have a ‘male-dominated culture’, to put it gently, and does not plan to tackle it any time soon, and I am concerned about what might happen if our feminist forces ever actually clash with it."
Considering the recruitment and retention problems of the forces, recruiting from a wider population pool seems wise. In many technical branches brute strength is not the key performance.
Worth noting that the male dominated army hasn't had a great track record in recent times.
Hitchens is a very stupid person, deeply attached to the prejudices of the generation which preceded him.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Which is precisely the point of ramping up the Ukraine response. Masses of photo ops, pictures on tanks, tons of overseas trips, bellicose blowing on his horn, spirit of Churchill, World War II, World War III, gravest situation since 1945, nuclear threat on London ... etc. etc. etc. etc.
Johnson will stop at nothing to save his own skin
I’d buy you thesis a bit more if we were the only country doing this. Did I imagine Macron meeting Putin? Did I imagine Biden? I think your hatred is colouring your judgement. Sometimes people do stuff for the right reasons.
Biden having screwed up Afghanistan and Macron with a tight election around the corner are in the same boat. Germany, having had an election, and with more direct issues on their doorstep in the event of a Ukrainian invasion is more circumspect
Silly me, they are all only out for themselves. Presumably that goes for any other leaders who’ve expressed an opinion?
I suggest the three I have mentioned are masters of the art, but they are by no means alone.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Which is precisely the point of ramping up the Ukraine response. Masses of photo ops, pictures on tanks, tons of overseas trips, bellicose blowing on his horn, spirit of Churchill, World War II, World War III, gravest situation since 1945, nuclear threat on London ... etc. etc. etc. etc.
Johnson will stop at nothing to save his own skin
Sometimes people do stuff for the right reasons.
When you discover as big a shit as Johnson you realise that there is nothing he does that doesn't involve thinking all about himself. I sussed this with him quite a while back. So did most people on here. And increasingly so are the British public.
It's why HYUFD is correct. Under Boris Johnson the tories will not win a majority.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
And nor is he taking advantage of it, in my eyes. He seems to be acting quite properly (for once).
He is arguing that breaking a law is not a resigning matter during this crisis
If that is not taking advantage I am not sure what is
Thing is, even without this crisis I dont think it would have prevented similar similar argument. Its technical, minor, criminal conviction does not automatically stop you being an MP etc.
If MPs allow themselves to think a crisis in Ukraine alters the fundamentals that's on them. Boris cannot avoid responding and given his proclivities will naturally go faux churchillian, it's on them to ignore that if he has done wrong.
And as noted it makes no sense - 'X would be unsuitable to be PM because of Y, but because of a serious situation he is suitable again'.
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
Genuine question from someone who reads a lot of history but has no idea about the current military. How useful are tanks in modern warfare? In the battle of the bulge the Germans were fine when weather conditions precluded the British and American fighter-bombers from flying. When clear conditions returned it was a slaughter. Are tanks now not essentially obsolete in the era of jets and laser targeting?
Johnson will lead the Tories into the next election.
I'm not sure. First, I've long expected Boris to resign before the next election, especially if there is a risk he loses. Paradoxically, attempts to force him out might have made that less likely.
But Boris is not out of the woods yet. As Donald Trump discovered with several judgments against him last week, dangers can converge from several directions. For Boris, partygate lingers on with the Gray report and Met Police investigations running; wallpapergate seems dead; cash for honours is concentrated on the Prince of Wales but can surely spread; the closely-related cash for access lurks in the Sunday papers; Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol are unresolved; levelling up is merely a slogan; prices are up; taxes are up; and he might have lied to parliament.
And it would be mad to have an election where the campaign risks just one encounter with someone who lost a relative during the pandemic. They'd be mad to hold onto him into another campaign.
That's the real problem isn't it? This is all going to come back again and again and again. And all that raw emotion we went through, which the right wingers are desperately trying to dismiss as over or cover up with this or that other crisis, will come surging back.
In many ways Johnson should have done the really brave thing and fessed up to the whole shebang. Lanced the boil now, hoped to remain in place, and rebuild over two years.
But the festering wound of all this, viscerally etched into the nation's soul, is going to rise to the surface during the General Election and with it will go many tory MPs.
It would certainly be very risky to go into the election with Boris. Most of us have our own Covid story - mine only cost money, but it was about £5k and totally pointless. Some are tragic. It will be raised time and again. The Tories risk meltdown if they run with him.
The change involves risk too though, which is why they haven't done it yet.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a moral vacuum at the centre of government, but here we are anyway.
Good piece today from Rawnsley. It isn't just our government that is a moral vacuum, but all our major institutions. The culture of an elite who can behave with impunity and cover up for each other is a characteristic of all our power structures.
Yes it is but this is not something that has happened overnight. This is the destination of a journey we’ve been on for the last quarter of a decade starting with cash for questions. New labour and Cameron both came to power partly on a pledge to reform a broken system. Neither did. Both left it in a worse condition. A change of government in the U.K. would not stop this. A while ago Peter Oborne wrote ‘The triumph of the political class’. Interesting.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
More than anything else, ignoring the much more serious WW2 situation example, he does know the PM would be replaced if he resigned and there would be no vacuum?
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons.
This very important point has been pushed to one side as the goalposts moved.
If an FPN is a yellow (not sure I agree with that) then lying to Parliament, which he obviously has, should in itself be a straight red.
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
In a world of cheap and cheerful and incredibly deadly drones, why would anybody want to have numerous metal boxes waddling around the battlefield?
Hitchens calls Liz Truss a lefty liberal, and has a pop at army cuts:-
Now, as we posture as the defenders of Europe against a much-touted Russian threat which may or may not exist, Britain has a mere 227 Challenger tanks and is busy reducing its Army from 82,000 personnel – already a record low in modern times – to 73,000.
"I note there is also an official drive to double the number of women in the British Army and to ‘tackle its male-dominated culture’. Well, such quotas usually lead to a lowering of physical standards, and, as most women aren’t especially keen on being soldiers, the main outcome is that more weedy men can join up.
I can promise you that the Russian Army continues to have a ‘male-dominated culture’, to put it gently, and does not plan to tackle it any time soon, and I am concerned about what might happen if our feminist forces ever actually clash with it."
Considering the recruitment and retention problems of the forces, recruiting from a wider population pool seems wise. In many technical branches brute strength is not the key performance.
Worth noting that the male dominated army hasn't had a great track record in recent times.
Hitchens is a very stupid person, deeply attached to the prejudices of the generation which preceded him.
Hitchens has never moved on from his halcyon days in the 1820’s when he would sit with a young Jacob Rees-Mogg on his knee and the two of them would discuss awful progressive policies on the horizon like the end of slavery and laugh at the idea of the general population ever having the vote.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
I think in this case given what the FPN would be for I do think it a resigning matter. I also think the refurbishment of the flat business may come back to bite him. Had the FPN not been related to covid regulations I’d agree with you.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
As a matter of interest, David, what happens if the PM is cleared? Do all those who were charges and convicted under the Covid laws receive pardons and their money back?
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Why is Boris ramping war and linking again to WW2?
"We shall fight on the beaches..."
Yep it's pathetic to behold
Far better just to roll over and allow Putin to occupy and oppress million of other people.
All in the name of peace, of course.
Your position is shameful and pathetic to behold.
No I don't go in for bellicose macho posturing.
World peace is generally maintained when we don't play global moral crusaders. The last time the US-UK did it, on the pretext of false intelligence, lies and the desire to remove a dictator we managed to destabilise the world for at least a century.
So, yes, I'm afraid you have to look at the bigger picture. Drop the global moralising and focus closer to home e.g. our disgraceful facilitation of Russian money and property laundering in the UK.
Absolutely we should clean dirty money out of London. The financial services industry lost its moral compass over the last 20 years (although it’s always been grubby).
But Putin is threatening to invade a neighbouring country. If we, the Americans and others hadn’t stood up and been counted Ukraine would no longer be free in any meaningful sense of the word
But StillWaters I think the other point you missed, or chose to ignore, was that we were commenting specifically on Boris Johnson's blatantly obvious attempts to raise WWII rhetoric and channel the spirit of Churchill.
Which has bugger all to do with whether he cares about Ukrainian skins and everything to do with his own skin.
You do realise that this is all careful choreographed?
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
I think in this case given what the FPN would be for I do think it a resigning matter. I also think the refurbishment of the flat business may come back to bite him. Had the FPN not been related to covid regulations I’d agree with you.
There’s still no way that anyone inside No.10 will be accepting a fixed penalty notice, not if they have a lawyer anyway.
If the police and CPS have enough evidence for a prosecution, they can present that evidence to a court in the usual way, and let it be challenged by the defendants.
For those asking, thank you. The house is fine. The carnage is a long way from the house. I am lucky to have a very large garden. The only damage around the house was the BBQ which was in the hedge.
I saw the owner of the trees last night (behind and to the side of me half way down). His garden is big as well and he was unaware of what had happened. They only moved in 3 weeks ago so I feel sorry for them.
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
Genuine question from someone who reads a lot of history but has no idea about the current military. How useful are tanks in modern warfare? In the battle of the bulge the Germans were fine when weather conditions precluded the British and American fighter-bombers from flying. When clear conditions returned it was a slaughter. Are tanks now not essentially obsolete in the era of jets and laser targeting?
Depends on the theatre. For Gulf 1 as an example everyone sent their special forces units over prompting the officer in charge to make the plea for no more SF; they needed heavy armour.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
Genuine question from someone who reads a lot of history but has no idea about the current military. How useful are tanks in modern warfare? In the battle of the bulge the Germans were fine when weather conditions precluded the British and American fighter-bombers from flying. When clear conditions returned it was a slaughter. Are tanks now not essentially obsolete in the era of jets and laser targeting?
They are not as relevant as they were but are still a potent combination of firepower, mobility and protection. And also a symbol of national virility which is why the tories have gone for a larger headline number of Challenger 3 and very much smaller subset that can actually be deployed on operations.
The wider issue for the British Army is that they have no future IFV with which to form armoured brigades with MBTs.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
You make some very strange arguments sometimes. How the f*ck is it the police getting a say in who is PM if the PM himself or other politicians felt him breaking the law, in however minor a way, was a resigning matter? That would be their choice not a legal consequence of police arbitrary action.
Him accepting the fine was implicit - if he wants to stay in post he can take his chances at prosecution.
I dont trust the police but if Boris is issued such a notice and does not successfully contest it he should resign, irrespective of that he should have been ousted already.
Those who wield power over us must be held to a higher standard. A failure to do do to date doesn't mean the standard should be ignored at next opportunity. Do we not prosecute someone for assault because they got away with murder previously?
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
He certainly lied to Parliament. He tried to change the rules to get his mate off a suspension. He plumbed far-right paedo conspiracy theories to deflect from criticism. The man has no standards at all and he degrades us all by being there.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
Genuine question from someone who reads a lot of history but has no idea about the current military. How useful are tanks in modern warfare? In the battle of the bulge the Germans were fine when weather conditions precluded the British and American fighter-bombers from flying. When clear conditions returned it was a slaughter. Are tanks now not essentially obsolete in the era of jets and laser targeting?
Depends on the theatre. For Gulf 1 as an example everyone sent their special forces units over prompting the officer in charge to make the plea for no more SF; they needed heavy armour.
Surely now the best thing to have in that situation would be SF, each with their own allocated drone support to call upon?
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
As a matter of interest, David, what happens if the PM is cleared? Do all those who were charges and convicted under the Covid laws receive pardons and their money back?
I'm really not sure. Could be awkward either way.
It would depend on the basis of acquittal. If it was that the regulations are an incomprehensible muddle of very poorly drafted, extremely badly defined shambles then, at the very least, any prosecutions pending will be dropped. I very much doubt that those who have paid the FPN, rather than fight it, will get their money back. These things happen somewhat below my paygrade these days but from what I have heard prosecutions have been comparatively few and only for the most egregious examples.
But StillWaters I think the other point you missed, or chose to ignore, was that we were commenting specifically on Boris Johnson's blatantly obvious attempts to raise WWII rhetoric and channel the spirit of Churchill.
Which has bugger all to do with whether he cares about Ukrainian skins and everything to do with his own skin.
You do realise that this is all careful choreographed?
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
I think in this case given what the FPN would be for I do think it a resigning matter. I also think the refurbishment of the flat business may come back to bite him. Had the FPN not been related to covid regulations I’d agree with you.
There’s still no way that anyone inside No.10 will be accepting a fixed penalty notice, not if they have a lawyer anyway.
If the police and CPS have enough evidence for a prosecution, they can present that evidence to a court in the usual way, and let it be challenged by the defendants.
Ok, I get that, but what then happens with all the other penalties and prosecutions we have had under Covid laws and regulations?
Everybody has the charges quashed and money refunded?
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
He certainly lied to Parliament. He tried to change the rules to get his mate off a suspension. He plumbed far-right paedo conspiracy theories to deflect from criticism. The man has no standards at all and he degrades us all by being there.
He only lied if he believed anything he knew about was a party. If he didn't think a slice of cake in an office is a party, which is entirely reasonable, then that's not a lie.
The law being broken is a far more reasonable thing to concentrate on, since the law doesn't require it to meet the threshold of party.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
Exactly. We have been over this and you were wrong.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
You are right to the extent a FPN would confirm what we already knew, namely Johnson wilfully mislead Parliament. It is up to Parliament to act on that.
No FPN does not confirm he did not mislead Parliament, so onwards to the Gray Report MK II.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
As a matter of interest, David, what happens if the PM is cleared? Do all those who were charges and convicted under the Covid laws receive pardons and their money back?
I'm really not sure. Could be awkward either way.
It would depend on the basis of acquittal. If it was that the regulations are an incomprehensible muddle of very poorly drafted, extremely badly defined shambles then, at the very least, any prosecutions pending will be dropped. I very much doubt that those who have paid the FPN, rather than fight it, will get their money back. These things happen somewhat below my paygrade these days but from what I have heard prosecutions have been comparatively few and only for the most egregious examples.
Do we have any actual convictions, in court, of breaches of the Coronavirus regulations?
I’m aware of a few high-profile £10k FPNs paid by people who saw it as the cost of holding an event such as a wedding when they shouldn’t, and a number of acquittals in court, but don’t recall any convictions.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
I think in this case given what the FPN would be for I do think it a resigning matter. I also think the refurbishment of the flat business may come back to bite him. Had the FPN not been related to covid regulations I’d agree with you.
There’s still no way that anyone inside No.10 will be accepting a fixed penalty notice, not if they have a lawyer anyway.
If the police and CPS have enough evidence for a prosecution, they can present that evidence to a court in the usual way, and let it be challenged by the defendants.
That is right. They sit it out for 28 days and say Prosecute if you think you're ard enough. Buys them a year of sub judice.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
You are right to the extent a FPN would confirm what we already knew, namely Johnson wilfully mislead Parliament. It is up to Parliament to act on that.
Conversely no FPN does not confirm he did not mislead Parliament, so onwards to the Gray Report MK II.
Gray didn't mince her words in Mk I, and it is Tories who have been telling us to wait for the full report. Her full and final report could tip him into a VONC regardless of the police.
Labour were in power from 97 to 10; 10 to 23 or 4 would broadly match that, the combo of Corbyn and the shitshow of the 17-19 parliament probably extended the natural balance of things beyond what it should have been anyway. I think the Tories are spineless and gutless with far too few prepared to follow Aaron's lead and call a liar a liar with Rishi Miliband chiefly not stepping up to the plate. They'll lose in 23 or 24 with Starmer leading a minority Labour government.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
Exactly. We have been over this and you were wrong.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
No, it doesn't.
Just because you attempt whatabouterism doesn't make it true. This government didn't make the speeding rule - and its long been culturally acceptable that you can speed and pay a fine if caught so long as you don't end up with a driving ban.
Enforcing new rules, stripping away existing liberties and then breaking those new rules . . . that is an order of magnitude more serious than paying a fine for a pre-existing offence and you know it.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Which is precisely the point of ramping up the Ukraine response. Masses of photo ops, pictures on tanks, tons of overseas trips, bellicose blowing on his horn, spirit of Churchill, World War II, World War III, gravest situation since 1945, nuclear threat on London ... etc. etc. etc. etc.
Johnson will stop at nothing to save his own skin
Jolly good of Biden to pitch in and help save Boris’s skin as well
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
Genuine question from someone who reads a lot of history but has no idea about the current military. How useful are tanks in modern warfare? In the battle of the bulge the Germans were fine when weather conditions precluded the British and American fighter-bombers from flying. When clear conditions returned it was a slaughter. Are tanks now not essentially obsolete in the era of jets and laser targeting?
Depends on the theatre. For Gulf 1 as an example everyone sent their special forces units over prompting the officer in charge to make the plea for no more SF; they needed heavy armour.
Surely now the best thing to have in that situation would be SF, each with their own allocated drone support to call upon?
Again depends on the enemy. If you are facing what (at that time was thought to be) significant armoured forces in a contested invasion and the aim was to take and hold ground then that was not something that SF can do.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
As a matter of interest, David, what happens if the PM is cleared? Do all those who were charges and convicted under the Covid laws receive pardons and their money back?
I'm really not sure. Could be awkward either way.
It would depend on the basis of acquittal. If it was that the regulations are an incomprehensible muddle of very poorly drafted, extremely badly defined shambles then, at the very least, any prosecutions pending will be dropped. I very much doubt that those who have paid the FPN, rather than fight it, will get their money back. These things happen somewhat below my paygrade these days but from what I have heard prosecutions have been comparatively few and only for the most egregious examples.
Do we have any actual convictions, in court, of breaches of the Coronavirus regulations?
I’m aware of a few high-profile £10k FPNs paid by people who saw it as the cost of holding an event such as a wedding when they shouldn’t, and a number of acquittals in court, but don’t recall any convictions.
There have been a few in Scotland, mainly "house parties" with very large numbers present in the first, most serious lockdowns. But I suspect the majority of FPNs issued have just been ignored.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
As a matter of interest, David, what happens if the PM is cleared? Do all those who were charges and convicted under the Covid laws receive pardons and their money back?
I'm really not sure. Could be awkward either way.
It would depend on the basis of acquittal. If it was that the regulations are an incomprehensible muddle of very poorly drafted, extremely badly defined shambles then, at the very least, any prosecutions pending will be dropped. I very much doubt that those who have paid the FPN, rather than fight it, will get their money back. These things happen somewhat below my paygrade these days but from what I have heard prosecutions have been comparatively few and only for the most egregious examples.
Noted with thanks, David.
I did smile at your closing phrase. Would the behaviour of the PM, who actually created the laws, count as 'egregious'? You'd really think he might have been a bit more careful!
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
I acutally disagree with this. Firstly, Plod should not get to say who our PM is. Secondly, a FPN is the opinion of Plod that someone has committed a minor offence. The recipient is neither guilty nor bound to accept it simply by it being issued. They can reject it and take their chances in a prosecution.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
Do you think the police should be considering 1. the career prospects of someone, or 2. whether they dun it?
I ask because it's very easy to infer from your post that it's option 1 for you, which I can't quite believe unless you really say it. And if so, you are so very very wrong.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
Exactly. We have been over this and you were wrong.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
He should walk, like an old-school English cricketer. But he should have walked already.
Bozza's approach is more... Modern, or Australian, and not in a good way.
Hitchens calls Liz Truss a lefty liberal, and has a pop at army cuts:-
Now, as we posture as the defenders of Europe against a much-touted Russian threat which may or may not exist, Britain has a mere 227 Challenger tanks and is busy reducing its Army from 82,000 personnel – already a record low in modern times – to 73,000.
"I note there is also an official drive to double the number of women in the British Army and to ‘tackle its male-dominated culture’. Well, such quotas usually lead to a lowering of physical standards, and, as most women aren’t especially keen on being soldiers, the main outcome is that more weedy men can join up.
I can promise you that the Russian Army continues to have a ‘male-dominated culture’, to put it gently, and does not plan to tackle it any time soon, and I am concerned about what might happen if our feminist forces ever actually clash with it."
The Uk does not have the numbers to fight a full scale war - the PBI is largely irrelevant these days. What we excel at is special operations - niche roles - and our standards have not been diluted there.
He's going nowhere. Gauke writing in Newstatesman thinks that a fixed penalty notice will mean MPs move against him. I rather suspect he is out of touch. Not happening now.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
Exactly. We have been over this and you were wrong.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
No, it doesn't.
Just because you attempt whatabouterism doesn't make it true. This government didn't make the speeding rule - and its long been culturally acceptable that you can speed and pay a fine if caught so long as you don't end up with a driving ban.
Enforcing new rules, stripping away existing liberties and then breaking those new rules . . . that is an order of magnitude more serious than paying a fine for a pre-existing offence and you know it.
That is just your hobby horse. You don't get to pick and choose which laws you think it ok for the government to break.
If you break any you're out = coherent position If you break any it's all good stay as long as you like = coherent position If you break only the ones I don't like you're out, there rest it's all good = not coherent position
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
Exactly. We have been over this and you were wrong.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
No, it doesn't.
Just because you attempt whatabouterism doesn't make it true. This government didn't make the speeding rule - and its long been culturally acceptable that you can speed and pay a fine if caught so long as you don't end up with a driving ban.
Enforcing new rules, stripping away existing liberties and then breaking those new rules . . . that is an order of magnitude more serious than paying a fine for a pre-existing offence and you know it.
That is just your hobby horse. You don't get to pick and choose which laws you think it ok for the government to break.
If you break any you're out = coherent position If you break any it's all good stay as long as you like = coherent position If you break only the ones I don't like you're out, there rest it's all good = not coherent position
Its not that I don't like the rules, its that Boris created the one he [allegedly] broke himself.
If you break any you create yourself then you're out = coherent position
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
Exactly. We have been over this and you were wrong.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
No, it doesn't.
Just because you attempt whatabouterism doesn't make it true. This government didn't make the speeding rule - and its long been culturally acceptable that you can speed and pay a fine if caught so long as you don't end up with a driving ban.
Enforcing new rules, stripping away existing liberties and then breaking those new rules . . . that is an order of magnitude more serious than paying a fine for a pre-existing offence and you know it.
All of which are trumped by a Minister MISLEADING PARLIAMENT!
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
People occasionally resign for falling short of what is expected even if they are not proven to be a liar or a criminal.
1 Sympathies to @kjh - we only had our Arwen-damaged trees (finally) removed a few weeks back and the garden is still bare without them. Managed not to flatten next door's house which was a relief 2 I don;t think some Tories - as arrogant and pig-headed as they are - understand how normal people feel. They can't keep the PM locked in a fridge the entire election, he will have to meet people and he is going to have confrontation after confrontation with people who have suffered the worst losses whilst he partied. Ruinous. 3 The overton window shifts because too many Tory MPs are as amoral as their boss. So the threshhold for them writing a letter and growing a spine shifts. But there is a bigger problem. The PM lied repeatedly to parliament. But parliament can't remove him as the arbiter is the PM.
As the Rawnsley piece points out, our institutions are broken. We can't do anything about open corruption because the PM is the arbiter. We can't do anything about lies and criminality because the PM is the arbiter. We can't even investigate these criminally because the Met is broken and leaderless.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
Exactly. We have been over this and you were wrong.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
No, it doesn't.
Just because you attempt whatabouterism doesn't make it true. This government didn't make the speeding rule - and its long been culturally acceptable that you can speed and pay a fine if caught so long as you don't end up with a driving ban.
Enforcing new rules, stripping away existing liberties and then breaking those new rules . . . that is an order of magnitude more serious than paying a fine for a pre-existing offence and you know it.
All of which are trumped by a Minister MISLEADING PARLIAMENT!
If he didn't think that anything he knew about was a party, then how has he misled Parliament?
Its only a lie if he thought what he'd been to was a party at the time he said it.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
Exactly. We have been over this and you were wrong.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
He should walk, like an old-school English cricketer. But he should have walked already.
Bozza's approach is more... Modern, or Australian, and not in a good way.
I mean he should go. Absolutely and undoubtedly he should go. Just that as @MarqueeMark notes, it should be for lying to parliament imo, not whether there was a bottle of prosecco or Veuve Clicquot on his table.
Oh and also he should go because he is a fantastically useless twat wholly unsuited to be PM and always was.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
Exactly. We have been over this and you were wrong.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
No, it doesn't.
Just because you attempt whatabouterism doesn't make it true. This government didn't make the speeding rule - and its long been culturally acceptable that you can speed and pay a fine if caught so long as you don't end up with a driving ban.
Enforcing new rules, stripping away existing liberties and then breaking those new rules . . . that is an order of magnitude more serious than paying a fine for a pre-existing offence and you know it.
All of which are trumped by a Minister MISLEADING PARLIAMENT!
If he didn't think that anything he knew about was a party, then how has he misled Parliament?
Its only a lie if he thought what he'd been to was a party at the time he said it.
Being "surprised and furious" at "finding out" only recently about the parties was clearly a lie.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
He certainly lied to Parliament. He tried to change the rules to get his mate off a suspension. He plumbed far-right paedo conspiracy theories to deflect from criticism. The man has no standards at all and he degrades us all by being there.
He only lied if he believed anything he knew about was a party. If he didn't think a slice of cake in an office is a party, which is entirely reasonable, then that's not a lie.
The law being broken is a far more reasonable thing to concentrate on, since the law doesn't require it to meet the threshold of party.
So do him over the lies he is telling about jobs and crime. The government's own statistics head tells him to stop lyiung and he just plows on. Various Tories on here want us to move onto the genuinely important issues - and we do need to. But we can';t because the PM is a lying fantasist who refuses to recognise reality. Can't fix what is broken if you don't accept it is broken.
Hitchens calls Liz Truss a lefty liberal, and has a pop at army cuts:-
Now, as we posture as the defenders of Europe against a much-touted Russian threat which may or may not exist, Britain has a mere 227 Challenger tanks and is busy reducing its Army from 82,000 personnel – already a record low in modern times – to 73,000.
"I note there is also an official drive to double the number of women in the British Army and to ‘tackle its male-dominated culture’. Well, such quotas usually lead to a lowering of physical standards, and, as most women aren’t especially keen on being soldiers, the main outcome is that more weedy men can join up.
I can promise you that the Russian Army continues to have a ‘male-dominated culture’, to put it gently, and does not plan to tackle it any time soon, and I am concerned about what might happen if our feminist forces ever actually clash with it."
The Uk does not have the numbers to fight a full scale war - the PBI is largely irrelevant these days. What we excel at is special operations - niche roles - and our standards have not been diluted there.
All the army needs is the SAS and some nukes. That appears to be the guiding principle behind decades of Tory defence cuts.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a moral vacuum at the centre of government, but here we are anyway.
Good piece today from Rawnsley. It isn't just our government that is a moral vacuum, but all our major institutions. The culture of an elite who can behave with impunity and cover up for each other is a characteristic of all our power structures.
Yes it is but this is not something that has happened overnight. This is the destination of a journey we’ve been on for the last quarter of a decade starting with cash for questions. New labour and Cameron both came to power partly on a pledge to reform a broken system. Neither did. Both left it in a worse condition. A change of government in the U.K. would not stop this. A while ago Peter Oborne wrote ‘The triumph of the political class’. Interesting.
You're probably right, but not definitely. For all his obvious weaknesses, I have a suspicion that Starmer is a chap of real integrity and that he is incorruptible (one of the reasons he was a safe appointment as DPP). It's just possible that, were he in power, Starmer would take seriously the need to reform and cleanse the 'broken system', and would not be swayed by pecuniary or other interests that tried to subvert him.
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
To a certain extent are tanks just targets for drones to fire at now?
I wonder whether they're a tethered cat in a modern military. Ireland recently published a military review, which proposed a huge increase in spending, and would involve adding all sorts of new capability, including combat aircraft, attack helicopters, etc - but they don't mention main battle tanks at all.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
Exactly. We have been over this and you were wrong.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
No, it doesn't.
Just because you attempt whatabouterism doesn't make it true. This government didn't make the speeding rule - and its long been culturally acceptable that you can speed and pay a fine if caught so long as you don't end up with a driving ban.
Enforcing new rules, stripping away existing liberties and then breaking those new rules . . . that is an order of magnitude more serious than paying a fine for a pre-existing offence and you know it.
That is just your hobby horse. You don't get to pick and choose which laws you think it ok for the government to break.
If you break any you're out = coherent position If you break any it's all good stay as long as you like = coherent position If you break only the ones I don't like you're out, there rest it's all good = not coherent position
Its not that I don't like the rules, its that Boris created the one he [allegedly] broke himself.
If you break any you create yourself then you're out = coherent position
No that is an invented category. All rules are government-sponsored; it makes no difference when they were introduced. New ones, old ones, all of them. Just that (now, finally, welcome) you don't like this particular one.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
Exactly. We have been over this and you were wrong.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
No, it doesn't.
Just because you attempt whatabouterism doesn't make it true. This government didn't make the speeding rule - and its long been culturally acceptable that you can speed and pay a fine if caught so long as you don't end up with a driving ban.
Enforcing new rules, stripping away existing liberties and then breaking those new rules . . . that is an order of magnitude more serious than paying a fine for a pre-existing offence and you know it.
All of which are trumped by a Minister MISLEADING PARLIAMENT!
If he didn't think that anything he knew about was a party, then how has he misled Parliament?
Its only a lie if he thought what he'd been to was a party at the time he said it.
...err because there are photographs of Johnson at wine and party hat work events. As I recall he stated to Parliament he didn't know about any of these wine and party hat work events.
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
Genuine question from someone who reads a lot of history but has no idea about the current military. How useful are tanks in modern warfare? In the battle of the bulge the Germans were fine when weather conditions precluded the British and American fighter-bombers from flying. When clear conditions returned it was a slaughter. Are tanks now not essentially obsolete in the era of jets and laser targeting?
Depends on the theatre. For Gulf 1 as an example everyone sent their special forces units over prompting the officer in charge to make the plea for no more SF; they needed heavy armour.
Even Gulf War I was thirty years ago now. I wonder if things have changed more since then.
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
To a certain extent are tanks just targets for drones to fire at now?
I wonder whether they're a tethered cat in a modern military. Ireland recently published a military review, which proposed a huge increase in spending, and would involve adding all sorts of new capability, including combat aircraft, attack helicopters, etc - but they don't mention main battle tanks at all.
Which is fine as long as they set out clearly the parameters of their defence aspirations (something the UK continuously fails to do) and has public buy in.
No MBTs fine just don't forget Frank Kitson's dictum: the next conflict will be an unforeseen one*.
*Apart from the Russian invasion of Ukraine which has been foreseen as happening "tomorrow" every day for the past month. So far without it happening but perhaps now's the time.
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
Genuine question from someone who reads a lot of history but has no idea about the current military. How useful are tanks in modern warfare? In the battle of the bulge the Germans were fine when weather conditions precluded the British and American fighter-bombers from flying. When clear conditions returned it was a slaughter. Are tanks now not essentially obsolete in the era of jets and laser targeting?
Depends on the theatre. For Gulf 1 as an example everyone sent their special forces units over prompting the officer in charge to make the plea for no more SF; they needed heavy armour.
Surely now the best thing to have in that situation would be SF, each with their own allocated drone support to call upon?
Again depends on the enemy. If you are facing what (at that time was thought to be) significant armoured forces in a contested invasion and the aim was to take and hold ground then that was not something that SF can do.
But we have the munitions to clear out such armoured forces now, surely?
He's going nowhere. Gauke writing in Newstatesman thinks that a fixed penalty notice will mean MPs move against him. I rather suspect he is out of touch. Not happening now.
Being totally serious, I think HYUFD is generally a good bellwether of how loyalists, who would need to shift for Boris to be under threat, feel about things.
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
Genuine question from someone who reads a lot of history but has no idea about the current military. How useful are tanks in modern warfare? In the battle of the bulge the Germans were fine when weather conditions precluded the British and American fighter-bombers from flying. When clear conditions returned it was a slaughter. Are tanks now not essentially obsolete in the era of jets and laser targeting?
They are not as relevant as they were but are still a potent combination of firepower, mobility and protection. And also a symbol of national virility which is why the tories have gone for a larger headline number of Challenger 3 and very much smaller subset that can actually be deployed on operations.
The wider issue for the British Army is that they have no future IFV with which to form armoured brigades with MBTs.
Tanks have always been most useful when used in a combined arms situation, with infantry, anti-tank weapons, mobile artillery and air support. Terrain helps too, like the open country of the steppe. Tanks are not good for occupying ground.
Armoured warfare without air superiority is a recipe for disaster though. Hence the Israeli victories in their wars, and the turkey shoot on the retreat from Kuwait.
At the very least air superiority in an attack on Ukraine would be contested, but almost certainly Russian.
In the process of being cut to 148 with the Challenger 3 upgrade. Although the tories have only ordered 48 sets of Trophy APS which gives an indication of the final destination...
Genuine question from someone who reads a lot of history but has no idea about the current military. How useful are tanks in modern warfare? In the battle of the bulge the Germans were fine when weather conditions precluded the British and American fighter-bombers from flying. When clear conditions returned it was a slaughter. Are tanks now not essentially obsolete in the era of jets and laser targeting?
Depends on the theatre. For Gulf 1 as an example everyone sent their special forces units over prompting the officer in charge to make the plea for no more SF; they needed heavy armour.
Even Gulf War I was thirty years ago now. I wonder if things have changed more since then.
Well from the pictures we are all seeing in Eastern Europe you still need tanks and the infantry to take and hold ground. If we (the UK? the West?) are saying that we can't get involved in those conflicts then that is fine by me we just need to set out clearly what we do want our forces to be for and to do.
Retuned home from Southwold to carnage. Two enormous neighbours firs have fallen into my garden. One has sheered through an ancient ash taking off a branch the size of most trees. The other has fallen into our Walnut tree (another huge tree taller than our house) Half the Walnut tree is devastated but it is holding the fir up which may or may not be useful as underneath it is a large shed, 3 water butts, wood store, wheel barrows etc and in the shed is a motor mower and all my hedge cutting power tools. I have no idea if any of this still exists or smashed to bits.
Oh crap. Good luck getting everything sorted and hope there isn’t too much damage. Whatever you do, don’t risk being under a half-fallen tree, have the insurance company send a lumberjack out, even if there’s a bit of a wait at the moment.
Thanks for that advice. I had already thought about trying to get to the shed and then decided it was far too dangerous. Unless they prop the tree over the shed up when they cut it the shed will become matchwood (if it isn't already).
Good to hear. Sadly, we’ll probably hear of fatalities caused by such secondary accidents in the coming days, a combination of frustration with delays and thinking that it’s no longer dangerous as the storm has passed. Definitely something best left to the professionals with the right cutting and strapping equipment. If the contents of the shed are worth more than the cost of getting a crane to hold up the tree while they empty it out…
Thanks. No real value, but did want to get on with hedge cutting before birds nest. On further investigation in the light it is 3 firs down.
@RochdalePioneers thanks for post. I'm looking on the positive as I hate the firs so go to see them go. My Ash is huge (3 metre girth) so the loss of one branch is fine even if it is huge. More worried about die back. The walnut looks a bit odd being mainly one sided now. And there will be plenty of firewood.
There may well be 54 Tory MPs who want a change of PM, letters or no letters - but I‘m not sure there’s anything close to the 185 required to actually effect the change.
Boris Johnson shouldn't have to resign if he receives a fixed penalty notice for breaching his coronavirus laws, James Cleverly tells @RidgeOnSunday: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of government.” https://twitter.com/matt_dathan/status/1495320446702694400
Utter bollocks from Cleverly. He should resign if he receives one.
He should resign anyway. All this talk of fines is just shifting the Overton window.
Why? The Overton window was always that rule makers can't be rule breakers. If he's received a fine, it means he's broken the rules, so he should go.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
Same with a speeding fine. Amiright?
We've been over this before: If the PM had introduced the speeding rules himself, then daily been reprimanding the nation saying how important it is that the speeding rules have to be obeyed - then yes.
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
Exactly. We have been over this and you were wrong.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
No, it doesn't.
Just because you attempt whatabouterism doesn't make it true. This government didn't make the speeding rule - and its long been culturally acceptable that you can speed and pay a fine if caught so long as you don't end up with a driving ban.
Enforcing new rules, stripping away existing liberties and then breaking those new rules . . . that is an order of magnitude more serious than paying a fine for a pre-existing offence and you know it.
That is just your hobby horse. You don't get to pick and choose which laws you think it ok for the government to break.
If you break any you're out = coherent position If you break any it's all good stay as long as you like = coherent position If you break only the ones I don't like you're out, there rest it's all good = not coherent position
Its not that I don't like the rules, its that Boris created the one he [allegedly] broke himself.
If you break any you create yourself then you're out = coherent position
No that is an invented category. All rules are government-sponsored; it makes no difference when they were introduced. New ones, old ones, all of them. Just that (now, finally, welcome) you don't like this particular one.
The problem is that if you are caught breaking rules you introduced yourself you have lost credibility.
Boris's credibility never was very high, partly on account of having been sacked a couple of times for lying, but on this one countless ordinary folk were adversely affected.
That's not a great cv on which to fight an election.
Comments
Same way I'd be unreasonable if I reacted to someone waving a gun in my face and later they told me it was unloaded. How dare I react?
I don’t think Johnson a particular persuasive advocate for western unity over Ukraine, to put it mildly, and have very little trust in his judgment, but for now he has not made any real missteps.
In many ways Johnson should have done the really brave thing and fessed up to the whole shebang. Lanced the boil now, hoped to remain in place, and rebuild over two years.
But the festering wound of all this, viscerally etched into the nation's soul, is going to rise to the surface during the General Election and with it will go many tory MPs.
They've all been playing a blinder so if the clown just follows their line we should come through this ok.
Hence why the country couldn't possibly ditch Chamberlain in May 1940 in favour of Churchill.
Oh...
Indeed, silly you.
If MPs allow themselves to think a crisis in Ukraine alters the fundamentals that's on them. Boris cannot avoid responding and given his proclivities will naturally go faux churchillian, it's on them to ignore that if he has done wrong.
And as noted it makes no sense - 'X would be unsuitable to be PM because of Y, but because of a serious situation he is suitable again'.
Time for Mr Sunak to step up to the plate just before his window of opportunity closes.
Are tanks now not essentially obsolete in the era of jets and laser targeting?
The change involves risk too though, which is why they haven't done it yet.
No nominative determinism here.
Boris should have been forced to resign by MPs because he lied to the Commons. The MPs abrogated their legal and moral responsibility to insist upon that important principle (although SKS never actually gave them a VONC). They cannot and should not delegate that responsibility to a police force that few, if any, any longer trust.
If an FPN is a yellow (not sure I agree with that) then lying to Parliament, which he obviously has, should in itself be a straight red.
I'm really not sure. Could be awkward either way.
If he's not broken the rules (which I find exceedingly unlikely) then he's not broken the rules and he's not lied to Parliament. In which case, why should he go?
But Putin is threatening to invade a neighbouring country. If we, the Americans and others hadn’t stood up and been counted Ukraine would no longer be free in any meaningful sense of the word
If the police and CPS have enough evidence for a prosecution, they can present that evidence to a court in the usual way, and let it be challenged by the defendants.
He's wrong, of course.
The wider issue for the British Army is that they have no future IFV with which to form armoured brigades with MBTs.
Him accepting the fine was implicit - if he wants to stay in post he can take his chances at prosecution.
I dont trust the police but if Boris is issued such a notice and does not successfully contest it he should resign, irrespective of that he should have been ousted already.
Those who wield power over us must be held to a higher standard. A failure to do do to date doesn't mean the standard should be ignored at next opportunity. Do we not prosecute someone for assault because they got away with murder previously?
This isn't a parking ticket and you're disingenuous to try to conflate the two.
They were too spineless to do it 3 week ago
"Nothing has changed..."
Everybody has the charges quashed and money refunded?
The law being broken is a far more reasonable thing to concentrate on, since the law doesn't require it to meet the threshold of party.
You said "rules". If he has broken the rules, all of which his government "made" (and if they didn't draft them then they have a superior obligation surely to follow them), then he should resign. Which includes speeding fines.
No FPN does not confirm he did not mislead Parliament, so onwards to the Gray Report MK II.
I’m aware of a few high-profile £10k FPNs paid by people who saw it as the cost of holding an event such as a wedding when they shouldn’t, and a number of acquittals in court, but don’t recall any convictions.
I think the Tories are spineless and gutless with far too few prepared to follow Aaron's lead and call a liar a liar with Rishi Miliband chiefly not stepping up to the plate. They'll lose in 23 or 24 with Starmer leading a minority Labour government.
Just because you attempt whatabouterism doesn't make it true. This government didn't make the speeding rule - and its long been culturally acceptable that you can speed and pay a fine if caught so long as you don't end up with a driving ban.
Enforcing new rules, stripping away existing liberties and then breaking those new rules . . . that is an order of magnitude more serious than paying a fine for a pre-existing offence and you know it.
Sunak is waiting on having that to justify Boris's removal before making his move. I think he is playing it very smart....
I did smile at your closing phrase. Would the behaviour of the PM, who actually created the laws, count as 'egregious'? You'd really think he might have been a bit more careful!
1. the career prospects of someone, or
2. whether they dun it?
I ask because it's very easy to infer from your post that it's option 1 for you, which I can't quite believe unless you really say it. And if so, you are so very very wrong.
Bozza's approach is more... Modern, or Australian, and not in a good way.
If you break any you're out = coherent position
If you break any it's all good stay as long as you like = coherent position
If you break only the ones I don't like you're out, there rest it's all good = not coherent position
If you break any you create yourself then you're out = coherent position
1 Sympathies to @kjh - we only had our Arwen-damaged trees (finally) removed a few weeks back and the garden is still bare without them. Managed not to flatten next door's house which was a relief
2 I don;t think some Tories - as arrogant and pig-headed as they are - understand how normal people feel. They can't keep the PM locked in a fridge the entire election, he will have to meet people and he is going to have confrontation after confrontation with people who have suffered the worst losses whilst he partied. Ruinous.
3 The overton window shifts because too many Tory MPs are as amoral as their boss. So the threshhold for them writing a letter and growing a spine shifts. But there is a bigger problem. The PM lied repeatedly to parliament. But parliament can't remove him as the arbiter is the PM.
As the Rawnsley piece points out, our institutions are broken. We can't do anything about open corruption because the PM is the arbiter. We can't do anything about lies and criminality because the PM is the arbiter. We can't even investigate these criminally because the Met is broken and leaderless.
Its only a lie if he thought what he'd been to was a party at the time he said it.
Oh and also he should go because he is a fantastically useless twat wholly unsuited to be PM and always was.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/20/will-the-tories-hand-back-russian-cash-as-putin-threatens-war
I wonder whether they're a tethered cat in a modern military. Ireland recently published a military review, which proposed a huge increase in spending, and would involve adding all sorts of new capability, including combat aircraft, attack helicopters, etc - but they don't mention main battle tanks at all.
The PM plans to fight it out & is effectively giving Tory MPs a choice: back me or sack me
https://twitter.com/REWearmouth/status/1495336459326345220
No MBTs fine just don't forget Frank Kitson's dictum: the next conflict will be an unforeseen one*.
*Apart from the Russian invasion of Ukraine which has been foreseen as happening "tomorrow" every day for the past month. So far without it happening but perhaps now's the time.
Armoured warfare without air superiority is a recipe for disaster though. Hence the Israeli victories in their wars, and the turkey shoot on the retreat from Kuwait.
At the very least air superiority in an attack on Ukraine would be contested, but almost certainly Russian.
@RochdalePioneers thanks for post. I'm looking on the positive as I hate the firs so go to see them go. My Ash is huge (3 metre girth) so the loss of one branch is fine even if it is huge. More worried about die back. The walnut looks a bit odd being mainly one sided now. And there will be plenty of firewood.
Boris's credibility never was very high, partly on account of having been sacked a couple of times for lying, but on this one countless ordinary folk were adversely affected.
That's not a great cv on which to fight an election.