Kwasi Kwarteng has told the chief whip that he believes Boris Johnson has to go for the good of the country
Final straw was said to be a story from @MrHarryCole - which I'm told was impeccably sourced - naming Kwarteng as one of three Cabinet ministers facing axe in reshuffle
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
Genuinely surprising nearly all the Cabinet still in post. Sure, a few of them are now trying to get him to go, but technically nearly all of them retain their support through their positions. I don't buy it is a sense of duty.
I can see an argument for a couple of roles. Also, this way there is a still an escalatory step. 15 Cabinet resignations and a statement from the likes of Wallace that he would resign but feels he cannot.
Genuinely surprising nearly all the Cabinet still in post. Sure, a few of them are now trying to get him to go, but technically nearly all of them retain their support through their positions. I don't buy it is a sense of duty.
If you were the PM and had the option of picking anyone from the Parliamentary Tory Party exactly how many of the current Cabinet would remain in your first cabinet...
MP very close to PM says: "It’s over.. [but] he thinks in classical terms, for him there is no greater honour in resigning than being killed... if you are going to die, go down fighting" https://twitter.com/Smyth_Chris/status/1544734594821398531
That's odd. Slitting your wrists in a bath and making wisecracks while having a friend read some Stoic philosophy was the done thing. Or falling on your sword, if at all martial. (Not that I am suggesting these, of course.)
Suggests I’m right, tho. He sees this as a story, and he wants the right denouement. I have *some* sympathy with that. If you’re gonna take down the king, prepare for blood
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
Kwasi Kwarteng has told the chief whip that he believes Boris Johnson has to go for the good of the country
Final straw was said to be a story from @MrHarryCole - which I'm told was impeccably sourced - naming Kwarteng as one of three Cabinet ministers facing axe in reshuffle
Oh FFS There's a school of thought, expressed by grandees, that it would actually be cathartic for the party for Johnson to be removed in a ballot rather than resigning. They argue the defeat would be sufficiently big to reduce the amount of poison that removing a leader would cause https://twitter.com/JGForsyth/status/1544736051201298436
MP very close to PM says: "It’s over.. [but] he thinks in classical terms, for him there is no greater honour in resigning than being killed... if you are going to die, go down fighting" https://twitter.com/Smyth_Chris/status/1544734594821398531
That's odd. Slitting your wrists in a bath and making wisecracks while having a friend read some Stoic philosophy was the done thing. Or falling on your sword, if at all martial. (Not that I am suggesting these, of course.)
I thought Jennifer Accuri said he had a very small sword
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
But who is Aslan?
Do not suggest to Mr Johnson that Graham Brady is a beaver. The consequences might be unfortunate.
Kwasi Kwarteng has told the chief whip that he believes Boris Johnson has to go for the good of the country
Final straw was said to be a story from @MrHarryCole - which I'm told was impeccably sourced - naming Kwarteng as one of three Cabinet ministers facing axe in reshuffle
Oh FFS There's a school of thought, expressed by grandees, that it would actually be cathartic for the party for Johnson to be removed in a ballot rather than resigning. They argue the defeat would be sufficiently big to reduce the amount of poison that removing a leader would cause https://twitter.com/JGForsyth/status/1544736051201298436
How many times have we said that most Tory MPs have no backbone.
Granted Bozo won't go unless forced to but that they continually find ways to make things hard for themselves...
For instance not changing the 1922 rules now but waiting until after an election on Monday to do so...
“At some basic level, almost anybody in parliament would be a better prime minister than Boris Johnson. Larry the Downing Street cat, at the moment, would be a better prime minister,” says former Tory MP @RoryStewartUK. “He simply can’t govern.” https://twitter.com/amanpour/status/1544732459262251010/video/1
Well that's long been the case. But almost is the crucial word; because in 2019 he was up against one of the select few who would have clearly been far worse.
Wonder what Carrie thinks of all this. No more Chequers. No more G7s and G20s and NATO summits in glam places. No more being-at-the-centre-of-power
Now she faces a married life with a bored man in his late 50s, with two young kids; a man, moreover, known for relentless infidelity
Shame about the treehouse. One of the lost buildings, like that giant pyramid in North London. It'd have been quite something, the Wendy equivalent of Blenheim Palace. Modern Pevsners would write screeds about soffits and doorcases and rebates and porticos.
Iain Martin @iainmartin1 · 56m Is there any parallel in the history of the Tory party of a leader threatening to spring a general election - in which his party would get smashed - to frighten his colleagues and cling on to power? Queen wouldn't let him have an election BTW, though.
Effectively he would be threatening to suicide bomb his own party. It's not surprising if it hasn't been tried before.
PM Taro Aso in Japan 2009 is the only example anywhere I can think of out of all the 40 or so countries I try and follow, called GE before being ousted as LDP leader, landslide defeat at the election.
In that case, wasn't it that Aso called the election and then the LDP tried to oust him.
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
But who is Aslan?
SKS of course!
I think Aslan is the electorate perhaps. I always thought it a bit alarming in the book when it was said that Aslan was coming.
MP very close to PM says: "It’s over.. [but] he thinks in classical terms, for him there is no greater honour in resigning than being killed... if you are going to die, go down fighting" https://twitter.com/Smyth_Chris/status/1544734594821398531
That's odd. Slitting your wrists in a bath and making wisecracks while having a friend read some Stoic philosophy was the done thing. Or falling on your sword, if at all martial. (Not that I am suggesting these, of course.)
Suggests I’m right, tho. He sees this as a story, and he wants the right denouement. I have *some* sympathy with that. If you’re gonna take down the king, prepare for blood
Some truth in that. Consider Maggie's description of her own downfall at the hands of her cabinet.
But it does add to the idea that BoJo essentially sees other people as bits of stage background for his brilliant life story.
- 2 competing trains of thoughts among Johnson allies - fight on, appoint new ministers, stay in office by any means necessary - others feel it's over & pushing handover timetable - ahead of Cab showdown PM subscribed to 1st view
Oh FFS There's a school of thought, expressed by grandees, that it would actually be cathartic for the party for Johnson to be removed in a ballot rather than resigning. They argue the defeat would be sufficiently big to reduce the amount of poison that removing a leader would cause https://twitter.com/JGForsyth/status/1544736051201298436
It would also be wonderfully humiliating for the fat little prick
Been travelling today and just catching up. Probably just as well, I wouldn’t have got anything done anyway. It really is only the utter dross still supporting him - Mogg, Dorries, Jack, none of whom I would piss on if they were burning.
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
Kwasi Kwarteng has told the chief whip that he believes Boris Johnson has to go for the good of the country
Final straw was said to be a story from @MrHarryCole - which I'm told was impeccably sourced - naming Kwarteng as one of three Cabinet ministers facing axe in reshuffle
He stays until next week by sounds of it as if I have understand it Brady has decided not to change the rules until new 1922 people have been elected on Monday.
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
But who is Aslan?
SKS of course!
I think Aslan is the electorate perhaps. I always thought it a bit alarming in the book when it was said that Aslan was coming.
Surely Aslan has to be resurrected.
Where's Dave these days? I don't think Treeza quite fits the character.
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
But who is Aslan?
SKS of course!
I think Aslan is the electorate perhaps. I always thought it a bit alarming in the book when it was said that Aslan was coming.
Surely Aslan has to be resurrected.
Where's Dave these days? I don't think Treeza quite fits the character.
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
- 2 competing trains of thoughts among Johnson allies - fight on, appoint new ministers, stay in office by any means necessary - others feel it's over & pushing handover timetable - ahead of Cab showdown PM subscribed to 1st view
Right, I think I've constructed the scenario where by 11am tomorrow Ian Blackford is Prime Minister.
It does rely on Boris Johnson and the Conservative party being a pile of clown shoes buffoons so highly unlikely I know...
Go on, I'll bite. How?
Obviously it also require Durham Police to deliver on the FPN and then when I tell you it also requires a trained chicken and THREE orange tennis balls I think it becomes clear the scenario I am outlining so I won't bore you with the details.
- 2 competing trains of thoughts among Johnson allies - fight on, appoint new ministers, stay in office by any means necessary - others feel it's over & pushing handover timetable - ahead of Cab showdown PM subscribed to 1st view
Grim mood in Downing Street. No 10 insider says "lots of tears" in building. "Writing on the wall now. The working assumption is that it will be today"
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
But who is Aslan?
SKS of course!
I think Aslan is the electorate perhaps. I always thought it a bit alarming in the book when it was said that Aslan was coming.
Surely Aslan has to be resurrected.
Where's Dave these days? I don't think Treeza quite fits the character.
Theresa May?
Edit - Blair for a peerage and acting PM?
Yes, Theresa May. You could just about see that happening although only in extremis.
Acting PM Blair? I think we'd need an asteroid strike on the Commons.
Edit: Although that seems more likely than Boris actually resigning.
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
- 2 competing trains of thoughts among Johnson allies - fight on, appoint new ministers, stay in office by any means necessary - others feel it's over & pushing handover timetable - ahead of Cab showdown PM subscribed to 1st view
Grim mood in Downing Street. No 10 insider says "lots of tears" in building. "Writing on the wall now. The working assumption is that it will be today"
A letter to the Times from 1950 A sentence drunkenly written on the label of a bottle of Dow’s port, possibly by William Bagehot Seven husky words spoken by the dying King Charles II to Nell Gwynne Nineteen pages of impenetrable code known only to Alan Turing A portent in the sky over Whitstable! A diary believed lost during World War 2 A sturdy hymn
The oddity of that letter to the Times is that it was written under the pseudonym 'SENEX'. Which makes me wonder whether any particular posting here might count. HYUFD, for one, has a fair few words under his belt written with sufficient conviction.
Downing Street source says PM’s staff are telling waiting ministers - both loyalists and those who want him to quit - that he’s still not back from House of Commons.
Wine fridge surely. Unless that is an allusion to C. S. Lewis?
The White Witch’s Reign is almost over
Peter - Saj - Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny) Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor Lucy - ? Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player Maughrin- JRM?
Wonder what Carrie thinks of all this. No more Chequers. No more G7s and G20s and NATO summits in glam places. No more being-at-the-centre-of-power
Now she faces a married life with a bored man in his late 50s, with two young kids; a man, moreover, known for relentless infidelity
I thought she was already pretty much shacked up with Zac Goldsmith? If so, I shouldn't feel too sorry for her.
And apparently she has hated life in No. 10.
She has hated life in Number 10 - during Covid. That’s quite a bit different to normal life. She’s highly social and loves a party. I bet she was looking forward to Number 10 as it should be: the centre of socio-political networking
I don’t buy the Zak Goldsmith story. I have zero evidence, it simply seems unlikely for a mother of two young children
Being premier seems to send most of them mad after a while.
But two years to become utterly Downfall-level bunker insane must be a record surely?
Has anyone left Number 10 with their sanity intact? Does it posses some monkey paw like curse?
Callaghan, maybe? Probably May and Major, too.
Perhaps what they have in common is that they unambiguously failed in the job. Everyone does in the end, but their failure was so unarguable that they didn't have to waste any sanity pretending otherwise.
Right on cue, some brave individual on the BBC misunderstands a political leader is an annointed king. An unnamed MP close to Boris Johnson tonight described some of his critics as “treacherous”.
Being premier seems to send most of them mad after a while.
But two years to become utterly Downfall-level bunker insane must be a record surely?
Has anyone left Number 10 with their sanity intact? Does it posses some monkey paw like curse?
Callaghan, maybe? Probably May and Major, too.
Perhaps what they have in common is that they unambiguously failed in the job. Everyone does in the end, but their failure was so unarguable that they didn't have to waste any sanity pretending otherwise.
Major - because he hated the job by the end and was happy to leave, not because he personally failed.
Wonder what Carrie thinks of all this. No more Chequers. No more G7s and G20s and NATO summits in glam places. No more being-at-the-centre-of-power
Now she faces a married life with a bored man in his late 50s, with two young kids; a man, moreover, known for relentless infidelity
I thought she was already pretty much shacked up with Zac Goldsmith? If so, I shouldn't feel too sorry for her.
And apparently she has hated life in No. 10.
She has hated life in Number 10 - during Covid. That’s quite a bit different to normal life. She’s highly social and loves a party. I bet she was looking forward to Number 10 as it should be: the centre of socio-political networking
I don’t buy the Zak Goldsmith story. I have zero evidence, it simply seems unlikely for a mother of two young children
Trouble is, by all accounts Boris is not highly sociable and hates parties. Perhaps they have a shared interest in exotic holidays.
Sandbrook: Why didn’t he run Britain as he had once run London? For me, that’s the really baffling question. Why didn’t he surround himself from the first with genuinely seasoned, clever, ruthless people, as Reagan did — or as Thatcher, Clement Attlee and his hero Churchill did? Why employ Gavin Williamson? Why associate with Nadine Dorries? What can possibly explain the Cabinet career of Jacob Rees-Mogg? An elaborate bet? A practical joke that got wildly out of hand?
Ask people who know Johnson well, and you get different answers. Some suggest that deep down, he has always been intensely insecure — something that’s true of many politicians, but wasn’t true of Reagan or Thatcher — and that he dreaded surrounding himself with rivals and potential successors. Others point to the breakdown of his marriage to Marina Wheeler in 2018, insisting that she was his rock, his anchor, his source of psychological stability and political sense.
But perhaps there’s a simpler explanation, less grounded in amateur psychology, but none the less thematically satisfying. It may be that Boris Johnson’s capacity to play the British Reagan vanished some time between midnight and dawn on 24 June 2016, as it became clear that Britain had voted to leave the European Union. For as the sun rose that morning, just under half of the country vowed that it would never forget and never forgive. They blamed Gove, they blamed Farage, but above all they blamed Johnson. And with that, the part of the national conciliator, the amiable patriotic showman, was lost to him forever. He tried out for other parts, of course: the Brexit deal-maker, the Whitehall party-planner, the East African travel agent. But none of them really worked out. All his life he had been preparing to play a single role — and in the very act of securing it, he lost it forever.
So perhaps, in the end, he was just another victim of Brexit. As a former classical scholar, he might appreciate the irony.
Right on cue, some brave individual on the BBC misunderstands a political leader is an annointed king. An unnamed MP close to Boris Johnson tonight described some of his critics as “treacherous”.
They are, a load of wet, treacherous, treasonous, pygmies.
Exactly the same type of MPs who toppled Thatcher, another great election winner, leading to years of bitter division in the party and ultimately over a decade in opposition
Comments
Kwasi Kwarteng has told the chief whip that he believes Boris Johnson has to go for the good of the country
Final straw was said to be a story from @MrHarryCole - which I'm told was impeccably sourced - naming Kwarteng as one of three Cabinet ministers facing axe in reshuffle
https://twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1544735490825457673
Peter - Saj -
Susan - Sunak (generally useless and a bit whiny)
Edmund - Zahawi - almost king definitely a traitor
Lucy - ?
Mrs Beaver - Graham Brady - thoughtful but a bit player
Maughrin- JRM?
But who is Aslan?
Kemi's now 100. Worth a fiver on any of a dozen MPs atm imo.
There's a school of thought, expressed by grandees, that it would actually be cathartic for the party for Johnson to be removed in a ballot rather than resigning. They argue the defeat would be sufficiently big to reduce the amount of poison that removing a leader would cause
https://twitter.com/JGForsyth/status/1544736051201298436
Apart from *that*, obvs.
No.
Now she faces a married life with a bored man in his late 50s, with two young kids; a man, moreover, known for relentless infidelity
Glad he has grown a pair. I look forward to helping remove him from office as an MP
Granted Bozo won't go unless forced to but that they continually find ways to make things hard for themselves...
For instance not changing the 1922 rules now but waiting until after an election on Monday to do so...
And apparently she has hated life in No. 10.
She must be waiting for the big money post-office deals to come though, so she can claim half.
It's manic
"LALALA I can't hear you......."
But it does add to the idea that BoJo essentially sees other people as bits of stage background for his brilliant life story.
- 2 competing trains of thoughts among Johnson allies
- fight on, appoint new ministers, stay in office by any means necessary
- others feel it's over & pushing handover timetable
- ahead of Cab showdown PM subscribed to 1st view
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/live-blog/2022-07-05/uk-government-resignations https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1544737786179325953/photo/1
I once took an 80 seat majority and pissed it up the wall in less than 3 years https://twitter.com/RobinFlavell/status/1544379992041291776/photo/1
Where's Dave these days? I don't think Treeza quite fits the character.
Edit - Blair for a peerage and acting PM?
Oh.
Number of them told Chief earlier they would resign last night or today without movement, when invited to No10 by CHH to see tell the PM to his face.
https://twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/1544739041542807554
Wasters.
I think if he is clinging on until the newspapers go to press then this will be as disastrous for the party as was Black Wednesday.
And, yes, I do find that very sad. It didn't need to end this way.
*Tr: divide and rule.
Then Queen will invite someone else to try and form an administration.
https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1544721591006859266
Acting PM Blair? I think we'd need an asteroid strike on the Commons.
Edit: Although that seems more likely than Boris actually resigning.
Live updates: http://bloom.bg/3yrdf3c https://twitter.com/BloombergUK/status/1544740114340913157/photo/1
Which makes me wonder whether any particular posting here might count. HYUFD, for one, has a fair few words under his belt written with sufficient conviction.
I don’t buy the Zak Goldsmith story. I have zero evidence, it simply seems unlikely for a mother of two young children
Perhaps what they have in common is that they unambiguously failed in the job. Everyone does in the end, but their failure was so unarguable that they didn't have to waste any sanity pretending otherwise.
An unnamed MP close to Boris Johnson tonight described some of his critics as “treacherous”.
See the book by Dr Owen on leaders.
While Carrie stuffs anything not nailed down into her handbag.
Ask people who know Johnson well, and you get different answers. Some suggest that deep down, he has always been intensely insecure — something that’s true of many politicians, but wasn’t true of Reagan or Thatcher — and that he dreaded surrounding himself with rivals and potential successors. Others point to the breakdown of his marriage to Marina Wheeler in 2018, insisting that she was his rock, his anchor, his source of psychological stability and political sense.
But perhaps there’s a simpler explanation, less grounded in amateur psychology, but none the less thematically satisfying. It may be that Boris Johnson’s capacity to play the British Reagan vanished some time between midnight and dawn on 24 June 2016, as it became clear that Britain had voted to leave the European Union. For as the sun rose that morning, just under half of the country vowed that it would never forget and never forgive. They blamed Gove, they blamed Farage, but above all they blamed Johnson. And with that, the part of the national conciliator, the amiable patriotic showman, was lost to him forever. He tried out for other parts, of course: the Brexit deal-maker, the Whitehall party-planner, the East African travel agent. But none of them really worked out. All his life he had been preparing to play a single role — and in the very act of securing it, he lost it forever.
So perhaps, in the end, he was just another victim of Brexit. As a former classical scholar, he might appreciate the irony.
Exactly the same type of MPs who toppled Thatcher, another great election winner, leading to years of bitter division in the party and ultimately over a decade in opposition
Made for each other, we are .....