The UK’s highest court has ruled that diplomats who exploit domestic workers in conditions of modern slavery cannot rely on diplomatic immunity to prevent compensation claims.
Describing exploitation of migrant domestic workers by foreign diplomats as a “significant problem”, the supreme court ruled by a majority of three to two that exploitation of a domestic worker for profit falls within the “commercial activity” exemption to immunity under the diplomatic convention.
The case concerned Khalid Basfar, a London-based Saudi diplomat who allegedly treated a Filipino staff member as a slave, forcing her to wear a bell 24 hours a day to be at his “family’s beck and call”.
Boris could resign tonight or tomorrow, either with immediate effect (1), or giving enough time for leadership elections (2).
Boris could also wait for a VONC next week, following which he could either resign immediately (3), or again, giving enough time for leadership elections (4).
He could win a VONC (5).
He could also refuse to resign after an unsuccessful VONC and wait for the Queen to dismiss him (6).
There is a not unreasonable chance that Sir Graham Brady is the next PM. I don’t think Dominic Raab has a chance under any of these possibilities.
Meanwhile, the decision to only give spring boosters to 75+ is now coming back to bite us on the arse:
(To bring it around to the need to have vax rollout to younger ages)
I think the vaccination programme failed at the point the second jabs were due, it simply never scaled up fast and high enough to keep up the rate necessary. We've still done a great job overall, and moved far faster than most other comparable countries, but really we should be whacking these jabs into arms as fast as we can and as soon as we can. Seeing the dismal numbers we get now is very disappointing.
The rule about achieving a threshold.of letters then springing a vote in under 24 hours really needs to go. It isn't any time to take a considered view imho. So waverers just vote Confidence. Hence this.
There’s nothing sad about seeing the end of the most disgusting corrupt PM in living memory.
Wouldn't choose exactly those words but certainly the worst in my lifetime {Atlee onwards, since you ask}.
Interesting and serious follow-up question- who would be the second worst? Off the cuff I'd suggest Eden, but I'd need to think about it.
Eden certainly made one catastrophic error of judgement which led to the country being humiliated, but I don't know enough about his Premiership more generally to say where he ranks. I'd think Theresa May was quite competitive with him.
NEW: No confidence letters sent to Graham Brady have reached “big numbers”, I understand, making a fresh no confidence vote more likely within hours (even though the rules state a year, Brady may have no choice but to act)
A word about all the numpties writing letters today that voted Confidence last month. If it weren’t for them the country would have been deprived of all this fun.
Their judgement really is appalling. The only thing that has changed since early June is a Whip got pissed and gropy.
I suspect those two crushing by-election defeats on 23rd June sharpened minds considerably.
Mike Smithson was right about them all along. It takes us back to Eastbourne on 18th October 1990. A month later Thatcher was gone.
Conservative MPs might put up with a lot, but not the prospect of most of them losing their jobs.
Boris's epitaph will be that he got all the big calls right.
But treated every other call with utter contempt.
OPatz was a big call. And he fucked it up.
Pincher was a big call. And it ended him.
I'll give Johnson appointing Kate Bingham as a call he got right...
The Kate Bingham who said we wouldn't want to vaccinate the whole adult population because the risk of side effects was too great?
If that was one of his good calls, I'd hate to consider the bad ones!
Did she specifically say that? And when? Often population effects only become clear after much wider use (as in the AZ clotting problem) as 1 in 10,000 odds don't show up in trial data that well.
Yes, of course she said that.
And why one wouldn't want to vaccinate against a disease with around 1% infection fatality rate, because of side effects that didn't show up in a trial of 30-40,000 people is still a complete mystery to me. God knows what a mess we'd still be in now if her advice then had been followed.
Covid was the leading cause of death in Americans aged 45-54 and the second top cause of death in Americans aged 35-44 in 2021.
In any case, the way people focus on the death rate (which is admittedly important) and skip past the severe illness/hospitalisation/long term consequences rates does frustrate me.
Rates of death from cardiovascular or pulmonary diseases is a lot higher in post-covid sufferers of all ages. Neurological damage is far more common. We're going to be sweeping up the debris from this for decades.
And thanks to the massive and relentless hospitalisations we've seen, ambulance delays and other hospital appointment delays have been huge and will remain huge going forwards. Unless or until we give big increases in resources to hospitals and sort out filtration in shared areas nationwide (we're missing the window on this for a third summer in succession).
Meanwhile, the decision to only give spring boosters to 75+ is now coming back to bite us on the arse:
(To bring it around to the need to have vax rollout to younger ages)
Do you really trust the way that data was recorded?
The people recording it were largely under enormous pressure to justify measures that have been proven to have some truly awful consequences. As far as I know, nobody is seriously contemplating re-introducing these measures, such were their effects.
Boris could resign tonight or tomorrow, either with immediate effect (1), or giving enough time for leadership elections (2).
Boris could also wait for a VONC next week, following which he could either resign immediately (3), or again, giving enough time for leadership elections (4).
He could win a VONC (5).
He could also refuse to resign after an unsuccessful VONC and wait for the Queen to dismiss him (6).
There is a not unreasonable chance that Sir Graham Brady is the next PM. I don’t think Dominic Raab has a chance under any of these possibilities.
I would rule out (5) and (6). I think, in order of decreasing likelihood, are (2), (4), (1), and (3).
There’s nothing sad about seeing the end of the most disgusting corrupt PM in living memory.
Wouldn't choose exactly those words but certainly the worst in my lifetime {Atlee onwards, since you ask}.
Interesting and serious follow-up question- who would be the second worst? Off the cuff I'd suggest Eden, but I'd need to think about it.
Eden certainly made one catastrophic error of judgement which led to the country being humiliated, but I don't know enough about his Premiership more generally to say where he ranks. I'd think Theresa May was quite competitive with him.
Eden and Cameron have more in common. Eden was a v successful FS and effectively Deputy PM for some years.
They are both near bottom though because of disastrous judgements.
Post war, you’d want to suggest something like;
1. Thatcher 2. Attlee 3. Blair 4. MacMillan 5. Wilson / Heath / Major 6. Brown / Callaghan / May 7. Cameron / Eden 8. Johnson
That's the bizarre thing. Boris has been given umpteen chances. Couldn't he have at least tried to clean up his act and show some contrition? Instead he seems to have done the exact opposite - telling everyone where they can poke their objections. Almost seems like an episode of self-destruction.
NEW: No confidence letters sent to Graham Brady have reached “big numbers”, I understand, making a fresh no confidence vote more likely within hours (even though the rules state a year, Brady may have no choice but to act)
A word about all the numpties writing letters today that voted Confidence last month. If it weren’t for them the country would have been deprived of all this fun.
Their judgement really is appalling. The only thing that has changed since early June is a Whip got pissed and gropy.
I suspect those two crushing by-election defeats on 23rd June sharpened minds considerably.
Mike Smithson was right about them all along. It takes us back to Eastbourne on 18th October 1990. A month later Thatcher was gone.
Conservative MPs might put up with a lot, but not the prospect of most of them losing their jobs.
Action at the beginning of June would have saved at least one of those losses.
New: A group of cabinet ministers are about to tell the PM to resign in No10, including the chief whip, the BBC understands. Simon Hart is also one of them. He made it clear to No10 yesterday that it was “game over” but it shouldn’t have to come by ministerial resignations. https://twitter.com/ionewells/status/1544703938506772481
There’s nothing sad about seeing the end of the most disgusting corrupt PM in living memory.
Wouldn't choose exactly those words but certainly the worst in my lifetime {Atlee onwards, since you ask}.
Interesting and serious follow-up question- who would be the second worst? Off the cuff I'd suggest Eden, but I'd need to think about it.
Eden certainly made one catastrophic error of judgement which led to the country being humiliated, but I don't know enough about his Premiership more generally to say where he ranks. I'd think Theresa May was quite competitive with him.
As I recall, and I was starting to get really interested in politics then, Eden wasn't too bad. He was basically carrying on the policies of Churchill's government until he made his horrific error in going into Suez.
That's the bizarre thing. Boris has been given umpteen chances. Couldn't he have at least tried to clean up his act and show some contrition? Instead he seems to have done the exact opposite - telling everyone where they can poke their objections. Almost seems like an episode of self-destruction.
Perhaps Johnson is hoping that thousands of his supporters will march on Whitehall and storm Parliament, to keep him as PM.
Gove ready for his Mike Pence moment?
Who do we think might be big figures in a new Conservative government. Some interesting names that I'd almost forgotten about.
Penny Mordaunt Jeremy Hunt Tobias Elwood Tom Tugendhat Jesse Norman Neil O'Brien Seema Kennedy
A sensible approach would be to unite all parts of the party, including those that were pushed into the HoLs. The years of division and incompetence need to be put behind ( I almost said us!) them.
Boris's epitaph will be that he got all the big calls right.
But treated every other call with utter contempt.
OPatz was a big call. And he fucked it up.
Pincher was a big call. And it ended him.
I'll give Johnson appointing Kate Bingham as a call he got right...
The Kate Bingham who said we wouldn't want to vaccinate the whole adult population because the risk of side effects was too great?
If that was one of his good calls, I'd hate to consider the bad ones!
Did she specifically say that? And when? Often population effects only become clear after much wider use (as in the AZ clotting problem) as 1 in 10,000 odds don't show up in trial data that well.
Yes, of course she said that.
And why one wouldn't want to vaccinate against a disease with around 1% infection fatality rate, because of side effects that didn't show up in a trial of 30-40,000 people is still a complete mystery to me. God knows what a mess we'd still be in now if her advice then had been followed.
Covid was the leading cause of death in Americans aged 45-54 and the second top cause of death in Americans aged 35-44 in 2021.
In any case, the way people focus on the death rate (which is admittedly important) and skip past the severe illness/hospitalisation/long term consequences rates does frustrate me.
Rates of death from cardiovascular or pulmonary diseases is a lot higher in post-covid sufferers of all ages. Neurological damage is far more common. We're going to be sweeping up the debris from this for decades.
And thanks to the massive and relentless hospitalisations we've seen, ambulance delays and other hospital appointment delays have been huge and will remain huge going forwards. Unless or until we give big increases in resources to hospitals and sort out filtration in shared areas nationwide (we're missing the window on this for a third summer in succession).
Meanwhile, the decision to only give spring boosters to 75+ is now coming back to bite us on the arse:
(To bring it around to the need to have vax rollout to younger ages)
Do you really trust the way that data was recorded?
The people recording it were largely under enormous pressure to justify measures that have been proven to have some truly awful consequences. As far as I know, nobody is seriously contemplating re-introducing these measures, such were their effects.
What, the ONS? Seriously?
The ONS survey has been running for two years now, and is the gold standard for surveillance. The people in the ONS had and have nothing to do with decision-making for restrictions or lack of them.
And yes, we know restrictions were unpleasant. Rampant covid with minimal immunity around was even more unpleasant, as was its effects. No-one's seriously considering reintroducing these measures, because the effect of our immunity colossally reduces the impacts of covid.
Whilst 13,400 children lost a parent to covid before the immunity had been built up, far fewer will do so going forwards.
(Except in China, where they've seriously fouled up on vax rollout. Comparing Omicron surges in Hong Kong and New Zealand:
I will confess I do have a sliver of sympathy for Boris Johnson.
For his entire life he has wanted to be PM and look at him now.
But my sympathy is outweighed by the LOLS.
I think it is right to have sympathy for people - even those you fundamentally disagree with or consider 'bad' people when something nasty happens to them which is out of their control. But in this case everything that is happening to Johnson is completely self inflicted and he has it in his power to end it at any time.
I have no sympathy.
Nor much for those who are remaining loyal to him. They will find they should have brought longer spoons.
That's an entirely reasonable response, Richard.
It isn't nice to kick someone when they're down but he has shown contempt for the public as well as those close to him, so difficult not to withhold sympathy on this occasion.
The rule about achieving a threshold.of letters then springing a vote in under 24 hours really needs to go. It isn't any time to take a considered view imho. So waverers just vote Confidence. Hence this.
Perhaps they should do away with the vote part and simply say that if 50% of MPs send in letters of no confidence then the leader is deposed.
It's always seemed a bit weird to me that you might have MPs who would vote no confidence if there was a vote, but wouldn't write a letter to trigger a vote.
There’s nothing sad about seeing the end of the most disgusting corrupt PM in living memory.
Wouldn't choose exactly those words but certainly the worst in my lifetime {Atlee onwards, since you ask}.
Interesting and serious follow-up question- who would be the second worst? Off the cuff I'd suggest Eden, but I'd need to think about it.
Eden certainly made one catastrophic error of judgement which led to the country being humiliated, but I don't know enough about his Premiership more generally to say where he ranks. I'd think Theresa May was quite competitive with him.
Eden and Cameron have more in common. Eden was a v successful FS and effectively Deputy PM for some years.
They are both near bottom though because of disastrous judgements.
Post war, you’d want to suggest something like;
1. Thatcher 2. Attlee 3. Blair 4. MacMillan 5. Wilson / Heath / Major 6. Brown / Callaghan / May 7. Cameron / Eden 8. Johnson
I have not bothered to rank ADH.
Forgot post-war Churchill, who’d I’d probably put at 5=
Hang on - PM buries himself into a pit about a General Election which "Is Not Going To Happen.... unless". And he is now saying that people need to let people with mandates get on with the job.
Unfuckingbelieveable. Jenkin now pulling him back to "unless what" as he is not closing down the early election comment and instead is dancing around finishing the sentence.
There’s nothing sad about seeing the end of the most disgusting corrupt PM in living memory.
Wouldn't choose exactly those words but certainly the worst in my lifetime {Atlee onwards, since you ask}.
Interesting and serious follow-up question- who would be the second worst? Off the cuff I'd suggest Eden, but I'd need to think about it.
Eden certainly made one catastrophic error of judgement which led to the country being humiliated, but I don't know enough about his Premiership more generally to say where he ranks. I'd think Theresa May was quite competitive with him.
Eden and Cameron have more in common. Eden was a v successful FS and effectively Deputy PM for some years.
They are both near bottom though because of disastrous judgements.
Post war, you’d want to suggest something like;
1. Thatcher 2. Attlee 3. Blair 4. MacMillan 5. Wilson / Heath / Major 6. Brown / Callaghan / May 7. Cameron / Eden 8. Johnson
I have not bothered to rank ADH.
Serious question, where would you put peace time Churchill in that list?
There’s nothing sad about seeing the end of the most disgusting corrupt PM in living memory.
Wouldn't choose exactly those words but certainly the worst in my lifetime {Atlee onwards, since you ask}.
Interesting and serious follow-up question- who would be the second worst? Off the cuff I'd suggest Eden, but I'd need to think about it.
Eden certainly made one catastrophic error of judgement which led to the country being humiliated, but I don't know enough about his Premiership more generally to say where he ranks. I'd think Theresa May was quite competitive with him.
Eden and Cameron have more in common. Eden was a v successful FS and effectively Deputy PM for some years.
They are both near bottom though because of disastrous judgements.
Post war, you’d want to suggest something like;
1. Thatcher 2. Attlee 3. Blair 4. MacMillan 5. Wilson / Heath / Major 6. Brown / Callaghan / May 7. Cameron / Eden 8. Johnson
I have not bothered to rank ADH.
I think that is harsh on Cameron, and perhaps this is because you believe his decision to promise the referendum was foolhardy. Obviously I am biased on the subject because I think that decision was poor (particularly without a mechanism for a confirmatory referendum following a deal), but on the whole I think he was a very good leader, way better than those you have at 6, and probably better than those at 5.
The UK’s highest court has ruled that diplomats who exploit domestic workers in conditions of modern slavery cannot rely on diplomatic immunity to prevent compensation claims.
Describing exploitation of migrant domestic workers by foreign diplomats as a “significant problem”, the supreme court ruled by a majority of three to two that exploitation of a domestic worker for profit falls within the “commercial activity” exemption to immunity under the diplomatic convention.
The case concerned Khalid Basfar, a London-based Saudi diplomat who allegedly treated a Filipino staff member as a slave, forcing her to wear a bell 24 hours a day to be at his “family’s beck and call”.
A bloody good one too. Diplomatic immunity is widely abused by despotic nations to commit serious crimes. Hopefully the rest of the world adopts this measure.
There’s nothing sad about seeing the end of the most disgusting corrupt PM in living memory.
Wouldn't choose exactly those words but certainly the worst in my lifetime {Atlee onwards, since you ask}.
Interesting and serious follow-up question- who would be the second worst? Off the cuff I'd suggest Eden, but I'd need to think about it.
Eden certainly made one catastrophic error of judgement which led to the country being humiliated, but I don't know enough about his Premiership more generally to say where he ranks. I'd think Theresa May was quite competitive with him.
Eden and Cameron have more in common. Eden was a v successful FS and effectively Deputy PM for some years.
They are both near bottom though because of disastrous judgements.
Post war, you’d want to suggest something like;
1. Thatcher 2. Attlee 3. Blair 4. MacMillan 5. Wilson / Heath / Major 6. Brown / Callaghan / May 7. Cameron / Eden 8. Johnson
I have not bothered to rank ADH.
Serious question, where would you put peace time Churchill in that list?
Sadly way down. he was past his peak by a long way.
This reminds me of the denouement of "Pyramids of Mars", when the Doctor traps Sutekh the Osiran in a time tunnel and is curious to see how long he survives.
There’s nothing sad about seeing the end of the most disgusting corrupt PM in living memory.
Wouldn't choose exactly those words but certainly the worst in my lifetime {Atlee onwards, since you ask}.
Interesting and serious follow-up question- who would be the second worst? Off the cuff I'd suggest Eden, but I'd need to think about it.
Eden certainly made one catastrophic error of judgement which led to the country being humiliated, but I don't know enough about his Premiership more generally to say where he ranks. I'd think Theresa May was quite competitive with him.
Eden and Cameron have more in common. Eden was a v successful FS and effectively Deputy PM for some years.
They are both near bottom though because of disastrous judgements.
Post war, you’d want to suggest something like;
1. Thatcher 2. Attlee 3. Blair 4. MacMillan 5. Wilson / Heath / Major 6. Brown / Callaghan / May 7. Cameron / Eden 8. Johnson
I have not bothered to rank ADH.
I think that is harsh on Cameron, and perhaps this is because you believe his decision to promise the referendum was foolhardy. Obviously I am biased on the subject because I think that decision was poor (particularly without a mechanism for a confirmatory referendum following a deal), but on the whole I think he was a very good leader, way better than those you have at 6, and probably better than those at 5.
The problem there is that you are looking at the overall picture rather than the overall result.
And the result of those stupid decisions over the referendum does place Cameron at No 7 in the same way that Eden is there because of decisions around Suez...
There’s nothing sad about seeing the end of the most disgusting corrupt PM in living memory.
Wouldn't choose exactly those words but certainly the worst in my lifetime {Atlee onwards, since you ask}.
Interesting and serious follow-up question- who would be the second worst? Off the cuff I'd suggest Eden, but I'd need to think about it.
Eden certainly made one catastrophic error of judgement which led to the country being humiliated, but I don't know enough about his Premiership more generally to say where he ranks. I'd think Theresa May was quite competitive with him.
Eden and Cameron have more in common. Eden was a v successful FS and effectively Deputy PM for some years.
They are both near bottom though because of disastrous judgements.
Post war, you’d want to suggest something like;
1. Thatcher 2. Attlee 3. Blair 4. MacMillan 5. Wilson / Heath / Major 6. Brown / Callaghan / May 7. Cameron / Eden 8. Johnson
I have not bothered to rank ADH.
I think that is harsh on Cameron, and perhaps this is because you believe his decision to promise the referendum was foolhardy. Obviously I am biased on the subject because I think that decision was poor (particularly without a mechanism for a confirmatory referendum following a deal), but on the whole I think he was a very good leader, way better than those you have at 6, and probably better than those at 5.
Actually I supported the referendum and continue to do so. However the mechanism was foolhardy in the extreme and wherever you stand on Brexit, Cameron unlocked six years and running of chaos and degradation to the country’s institutions.
It is better in my opinion to have PMs who achieve “nothing” than one seemingly competent PM who pulls the catastrofuck lever, hence downweighting him.
Wouldn't such a call need to be ratified by parliament?
Not anymore . Only the Queen now can refuse to stop the mad man .
And why should she - Going into a late August general election with Bozo as Tory party leader will be the perfect chef's kiss finale to his premiership...
In the space of 24 hours Zahawi has got himself into the second biggest job in government, and is now telling the PM to go so triggering a leadership challenge with him starting it as Chancellor.
If it comes to it, I’ve no doubt that the Queen (de facto the Queen and the PoW and maybe even the DoC) will perform their duty with some personal satisfaction.
There’s nothing sad about seeing the end of the most disgusting corrupt PM in living memory.
Wouldn't choose exactly those words but certainly the worst in my lifetime {Atlee onwards, since you ask}.
Interesting and serious follow-up question- who would be the second worst? Off the cuff I'd suggest Eden, but I'd need to think about it.
Eden certainly made one catastrophic error of judgement which led to the country being humiliated, but I don't know enough about his Premiership more generally to say where he ranks. I'd think Theresa May was quite competitive with him.
Eden and Cameron have more in common. Eden was a v successful FS and effectively Deputy PM for some years.
They are both near bottom though because of disastrous judgements.
Post war, you’d want to suggest something like;
1. Thatcher 2. Attlee 3. Blair 4. MacMillan 5. Wilson / Heath / Major 6. Brown / Callaghan / May 7. Cameron / Eden 8. Johnson
I have not bothered to rank ADH.
I think that is harsh on Cameron, and perhaps this is because you believe his decision to promise the referendum was foolhardy. Obviously I am biased on the subject because I think that decision was poor (particularly without a mechanism for a confirmatory referendum following a deal), but on the whole I think he was a very good leader, way better than those you have at 6, and probably better than those at 5.
I'd move Callaghan and Wilson up a place each, as well.
Comments
Will Boris have Jogged On soon?
The UK’s highest court has ruled that diplomats who exploit domestic workers in conditions of modern slavery cannot rely on diplomatic immunity to prevent compensation claims.
Describing exploitation of migrant domestic workers by foreign diplomats as a “significant problem”, the supreme court ruled by a majority of three to two that exploitation of a domestic worker for profit falls within the “commercial activity” exemption to immunity under the diplomatic convention.
The case concerned Khalid Basfar, a London-based Saudi diplomat who allegedly treated a Filipino staff member as a slave, forcing her to wear a bell 24 hours a day to be at his “family’s beck and call”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/06/diplomats-who-exploit-domestic-staff-cannot-rely-on-immunity-says-uk-supreme-court
Boris could resign tonight or tomorrow, either with immediate effect (1), or giving enough time for leadership elections (2).
Boris could also wait for a VONC next week, following which he could either resign immediately (3), or again, giving enough time for leadership elections (4).
He could win a VONC (5).
He could also refuse to resign after an unsuccessful VONC and wait for the Queen to dismiss him (6).
There is a not unreasonable chance that Sir Graham Brady is the next PM. I don’t think Dominic Raab has a chance under any of these possibilities.
But things have only got worse, with No 10 continuing to try to lie their way out of difficult situations.
I have written again to Sir Graham Brady.
https://twitter.com/AaronBell4NUL/status/1544672584893079553
It isn't any time to take a considered view imho.
So waverers just vote Confidence.
Hence this.
She hasn’t even the wit to just go to ground.
Mike Smithson was right about them all along. It takes us back to Eastbourne on 18th October 1990. A month later Thatcher was gone.
Conservative MPs might put up with a lot, but not the prospect of most of them losing their jobs.
Who do we think might be big figures in a new Conservative government. Some interesting names that I'd almost forgotten about.
Penny Mordaunt
Jeremy Hunt
Tobias Elwood
Tom Tugendhat
Jesse Norman
Neil O'Brien
Seema Kennedy
The people recording it were largely under enormous pressure to justify measures that have been proven to have some truly awful consequences. As far as I know, nobody is seriously contemplating re-introducing these measures, such were their effects.
Personally, I'd add Blair to that run.
Which takes you back to John Major. Hmmm.
Tory Grandee, Tory Grandee, Tory up-and-comer.
https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1544674271544352770
Eden was a v successful FS and effectively Deputy PM for some years.
They are both near bottom though because of disastrous judgements.
Post war, you’d want to suggest something like;
1. Thatcher
2. Attlee
3. Blair
4. MacMillan
5. Wilson / Heath / Major
6. Brown / Callaghan / May
7. Cameron / Eden
8. Johnson
I have not bothered to rank ADH.
144 in 24 hours
IIRC there is a max of 100 paid posts and assorted bag carriers… can you clear out a government in a day
Pillocks.
https://twitter.com/ionewells/status/1544703938506772481
Time is up Johnson - just go
Seriously?
The ONS survey has been running for two years now, and is the gold standard for surveillance. The people in the ONS had and have nothing to do with decision-making for restrictions or lack of them.
And yes, we know restrictions were unpleasant. Rampant covid with minimal immunity around was even more unpleasant, as was its effects. No-one's seriously considering reintroducing these measures, because the effect of our immunity colossally reduces the impacts of covid.
Whilst 13,400 children lost a parent to covid before the immunity had been built up, far fewer will do so going forwards.
(Except in China, where they've seriously fouled up on vax rollout. Comparing Omicron surges in Hong Kong and New Zealand:
It isn't nice to kick someone when they're down but he has shown contempt for the public as well as those close to him, so difficult not to withhold sympathy on this occasion.
It's always seemed a bit weird to me that you might have MPs who would vote no confidence if there was a vote, but wouldn't write a letter to trigger a vote.
For not knowing that he needs to resign now.
(Lascelles principles)
"NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.... unless...er"
Astonishing and desperate .
Unfuckingbelieveable. Jenkin now pulling him back to "unless what" as he is not closing down the early election comment and instead is dancing around finishing the sentence.
Can’t quit until he has sorted a nice stucco mansion in belgravia to write his memoirs in. Preferably with a giant tree house if possible.
"It’s not going to happen unless everybody is so crazy as to have a new…" he leaves it hanging but implies 'new leader'
https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1544705335927181319
Bojo needled as fuck
https://twitter.com/arthistorynews/status/1544705357150289920
https://twitter.com/hzeffman/status/1544705556262313984
HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa
Also Bryant for vp
They will have to drag his corpse out.
I am not a spiteful person (other posters may disagree), but Boris is a moral leper and some kind of exile would be the best fate for him.
Re - formal allegations against "any other minister".
Wouldn't such a call need to be ratified by parliament?
"He survived about 24 hours".
And the result of those stupid decisions over the referendum does place Cameron at No 7 in the same way that Eden is there because of decisions around Suez...
It is better in my opinion to have PMs who achieve “nothing” than one seemingly competent PM who pulls the catastrofuck lever, hence downweighting him.
Like a script from House of Cards.