He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Boris's short premiership will be the stuff of innumerable films, dramadocs and the last two series of The Crown. He needs to bang out his memoirs in time to cop some royalties.
"Boris Johnson - My Part in his Downfall" would be an apt title for the autobiography.
The idea of everyone getting their old jobs back and carrying on for months is not going down well on the phone-ins at all.
Nor should it but sheer pragmatism says it might be better than the alternative of a huge reshuffle now and another in a few weeks' time when the new PM takes over.
Indeed. But your regular punter doesn't follow that closely. One guy just on berating Labour and the Liberals for voting Boris out. He's vowed never to vote again.
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
IIRC, government salaries all come with three months’ notice period. So all of those who have resigned, and the new appointees if they end up replaced, will still be getting paid over the summer
How on earth are you entitled to notice if you've resigned ?!
It’s surprisingly common in senior management. Being a minister is also quite unusual, in that you can be fired at any time, with no reason required and irrespective of your performance in the job. Part of the reasoning behind it would be that you’re expected to relocate to London, and many ministers relocate their families to London too.
Even worse for Football managers too. Clubs that sack or "resign" their Managers can end up paying out tens of millions for the privilege of doing so.
Football managers at big clubs don't resign though. They head off and agree with the board a payout before leaving by mutual agreement. That isn't remotely what's happened with Donelan. I've a mind to stick in a FOI request about any payoffs she (Shouldn't imo) be getting.
You don't need an FOI request because it has already been explained to you. Whether or not you like the system is immaterial.
Guido's come out with a splash on his page, noone's explained anything.
Under the 1991 Ministerial and Other Pensions and Salaries Act, ministers under the age of 65 are entitled to three months of their ministerial salary when they are forced out of office.
Donelan's resignation was not before Borises'. She simply put, was not forced from office.
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
That assumes that his replacement will be less unpopular in Scotland. Big assumption.
You might think that Johnson’s -60s favourability ratings in Scotland are exceptional. They’re not. May and Cameron were similarly unpopular.
In fact, there’s a few names on the Tory list that might even plumb new depths.
The efforts of the new custodian of the sewage farm known as the BJ party to pretend that they don’t smell of shit are going to be a hoot.
I think Sturgeon will find Mordaunt a tricky opponent.
Mordaunt could cause some hysteria on Eurotwatter:
A UK minister gives a speech in the United States framing #Brexit as a new Cold War between democracy and statism, saying "now America has a choice to make" about which side it takes.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Netflix will be busting a gut to do the first series on the career of Boris J, because it is guaranteed to be a big hit, due to the salience of Brexit, Covid, Ukraine plus all the "colourful characters". In one vivid persona they are able to tell the extraordinary global story of 2015-2022
They will pre-empt the memoirs for millions, I reckon
The next few weeks are going to be wall to floor coverage of the conservative leadership race
Big G - my MP, the Attorney General (believe it or not) has thrown her hat into the ring. What is your opinion of her?
I really do not known much about her but I doubt she will be in the last two
Indeed. Not even in a "who is the best Suella Braverman impressionist" contest. The most senior legal officer for you lot who gives guidance that almost no other senior lawyers accept, and who announced her campaign as being war on woke.
If you want another inept non-entity who is entirely focused on ganging up on the gayers, she's your woman. I suspect many Tories want that sort of thing though.
That giant barrage you can hear? That's Labour and LibDem and SNP foxes being shot!
No it's the Tory party circular firing squad.
Indeed. There’s a lot of Tory glee today. What the poor wee souls don’t understand is that their Wilderness Years haven’t even started yet.
I honestly don't think they will care. The general expectation in life for conservatives is that people are honest, work hard and play by the rules to get ahead. Brexit allowed Boris to become leader when as Gove told us years ago he was unfit. Not following the rules and sending out ministers to lie repeatedly seems to have been the last straw moreso than partygate. Whilst Boris set the culture the Civil Servants and police should have stopped it all too. It is the financial impropriety (treehouse, wallpaper) moral standards (rumours of sexual activity in HoC, Pinchergate) and general truth telling that have really hurt. The writing was on the wall for me when instead of taking the huge vote against him as a reproach, he came out and said that he couldn't change, and for me the final nail was his criticism of those who had been sent out to lie for him saying they misunderstood and got it wrong.
I think we will see a weight lifted off as politicians are able to return to doing what they normally do
Tories being Tories? That’s certainly going to keep them in the teens in Scotland. What the Tories really need is to stop acting like Tories.
I was in Scotland a couple of weeks ago and was surprised at the vitriol against the Tories. I was with what I can only presume were two not overly political civil servants. They knew every affair every financial transgression of Boris for the last 30 years. They wouldn't believe me when I said that the people who loved Boris were the working class - barbers bricklayers and pub landlords. They honestly thought it was the middle classes that loved Boris.
Completely OT but since there is other news in the world apart from the Clown's antics today.
The French Government have announced they are going to completely renationalise EDF. They always owned 84% of it but now they are pulling the rest back. On paper this runs counter to EU law but I suspect they will find some sort of way around that.
The interesting bit is they are currently 70 billion euros in debt. Which is a hell of a hit even for a national government to take.
I mentioned that yesterday - the need for nuclear power and the sheer cost of building each plant really does mean that we need Rolls Royce building their factory and their small nuclear plants asap..
These are difficult days for you and to be fair you have been totally loyal to Johnson, but I hope you can now accept it is over and join those of us who want a conservative party with integrity and decency and to win the next GE
I will be rejoining the party once Johnson leaves
Really? Why will you rejoin? Boris didn't do this by himself. He was put there by the Tories.
I am a conservative and his brexit, covid and Ukraine actions were fine, but his behaviour since Paterson to Pincher changed everything for me and I resigned from the party
I expect there will be many rejoining the party now
The Tory party has proven itself a shambolic disgrace. The only sensible course is to boot it out so that it can sort itself out.
The conservative party is known for changing and winning elections and while a hung parliament looks likely do not underestimate the desire to win again
Theey might be known for it, but it is based on a sample of n=3 in the last 50 years (Major, May and Johnson).
Although it was technically true for the 2017 GE, May lost her overall majority and had to do a deal with the DUP, and not many Tories felt like that was an election they "won".
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
They won't as whichever of the final 2 is not Sunak or Hunt knows they would easily win the membership vote so why on earth would they withdraw?
Sunak and Hunt are Portillo and Ken Clarke or David Miliband to whoever ends up as IDS or Ed Miliband in the final 2
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Boris's short premiership will be the stuff of innumerable films, dramadocs and the last two series of The Crown. He needs to bang out his memoirs in time to cop some royalties
"Boris Johnson - My Part in his Downfall" would be an apt title for the autobiography.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged down this country.
I said "history will be kinder than PB". You are rather proving my point
No history will become a lot less kind than pb.
As the truth is unravelled about him and how it was conducted the man's status will continue to drop lower and lower.
Not a day passed without something slipping out and we have yet to get to the bottom of them. Yesterday's revelation about the meeting with Lebedev being one example.
The history of Boris Johnson will be FAR worse than any of us on here currently realise.
Completely OT but since there is other news in the world apart from the Clown's antics today.
The French Government have announced they are going to completely renationalise EDF. They always owned 84% of it but now they are pulling the rest back. On paper this runs counter to EU law but I suspect they will find some sort of way around that.
The interesting bit is they are currently 70 billion euros in debt. Which is a hell of a hit even for a national government to take.
I mentioned that yesterday - the need for nuclear power and the sheer cost of building each plant really does mean that we need Rolls Royce building their factory and their small nuclear plants asap..
One of the decisions that needs urgently to be taken and yet we have no functioning government.
Bringing in Agency staff (i.e., other Ministers from different Departments) to answer questions in the House is the plan. How can they do that seriously?
Completely OT but since there is other news in the world apart from the Clown's antics today.
The French Government have announced they are going to completely renationalise EDF. They always owned 84% of it but now they are pulling the rest back. On paper this runs counter to EU law but I suspect they will find some sort of way around that.
The interesting bit is they are currently 70 billion euros in debt. Which is a hell of a hit even for a national government to take.
How does this work in France?
The French Government seriously damaged the value of the company when they capped it's prices. Do the 16% of shareholders with their capital destroyed by politics have nay comeback?
But you are of course right Leon. There will still be some believers. Some who never saw it for what it was. It's ever thus. Right up to the moment they drank the potion they still believed in Jim Jones.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Any memoirs may get large advances from the publishers, but will be in the remainder boxes within months. No one wants to read over Covid either, except a few public health people trying to formulate lessons, and they will want facts not Johnsonion bluster.
Completely OT but since there is other news in the world apart from the Clown's antics today.
The French Government have announced they are going to completely renationalise EDF. They always owned 84% of it but now they are pulling the rest back. On paper this runs counter to EU law but I suspect they will find some sort of way around that.
The interesting bit is they are currently 70 billion euros in debt. Which is a hell of a hit even for a national government to take.
I mentioned that yesterday - the need for nuclear power and the sheer cost of building each plant really does mean that we need Rolls Royce building their factory and their small nuclear plants asap..
No nuclear power station has been built anywhere in the world without massive state aid.
Rolls Royce's mini-nukes will be no different. Massively late, massively over budget.
Assuming always the new PM doesn't take a different path.
I can’t remember where it was that Alan Clark said the Tory party always goes mad when the Indian Bean Trees around Parliament are flowering and MPs become intoxicated by their sickly sweet scent. But they are indeed in bloom right now. https://twitter.com/IsabelHardman/status/1544976768808980481/photo/1
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
They won't as whichever of the final 2 is not Sunak or Hunt knows they would easily win the membership vote so why on earth would they withdraw?
Sunak and Hunt are Portillo and Ken Clarke or David Miliband to whoever ends up as IDS or Ed Miliband in the final 2
Sunak and Hunt are Sunak and Hunt not some daft comparison
That assumes that his replacement will be less unpopular in Scotland. Big assumption.
You might think that Johnson’s -60s favourability ratings in Scotland are exceptional. They’re not. May and Cameron were similarly unpopular.
In fact, there’s a few names on the Tory list that might even plumb new depths.
The efforts of the new custodian of the sewage farm known as the BJ party to pretend that they don’t smell of shit are going to be a hoot.
I think Sturgeon will find Mordaunt a tricky opponent.
Mordaunt could cause some hysteria on Eurotwatter:
A UK minister gives a speech in the United States framing #Brexit as a new Cold War between democracy and statism, saying "now America has a choice to make" about which side it takes.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged down this country.
The next few weeks are going to be wall to floor coverage of the conservative leadership race
No skirting around that.
If they leave him in office then we will have *months* of Tory introspection and bloodletting as candidates propose ever-more extreme policy proposals ("bring back hanging for XR protestors"). Meanwhile the country burns and the economy contracts and the inflation crisis screws millions. And then the new leader wipes off the blood and says "vote for us".
Or - remove him today. Install an interim government who are actually capable of steadying the ship and making the decisions that need making. Whilst the Tories fight each other. And then have a chance of winning the election.
Are people really going to forgive the Tory Party if they let the country go to the wolves whilst they fight over who is the most extreme?
Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar · 12m NEW: Foreign Sec Liz Truss - and would-be Tory leadership candidate - is cutting short her trip to Indonesia and will be making a statement shortly.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged down this country.
I said "history will be kinder than PB". You are rather proving my point
No history will become a lot less kind than pb.
As the truth is unravelled about him and how it was conducted the man's status will continue to drop lower and lower.
Not a day passed without something slipping out and we have yet to get to the bottom of them. Yesterday's revelation about the meeting with Lebedev being one example.
The history of Boris Johnson will be FAR worse than any of us on here currently realise.
It's possible Boris will simply become a footnote of course. There is no Johnsonism like there was Thatcherism or Blairism. Cameron is already a footnote, so is May, so arguably is Brown.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Any memoirs may get large advances from the publishers, but will be in the remainder boxes within months. No one wants to read over Covid either, except a few public health people trying to formulate lessons, and they will want facts not Johnsonion bluster.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged down this country.
I said "history will be kinder than PB". You are rather proving my point
No history will become a lot less kind than pb.
As the truth is unravelled about him and how it was conducted the man's status will continue to drop lower and lower.
Not a day passed without something slipping out and we have yet to get to the bottom of them. Yesterday's revelation about the meeting with Lebedev being one example.
The history of Boris Johnson will be FAR worse than any of us on here currently realise.
I think there is some evidence that you may be right. The feral desperation with which he clung to office is perhaps another clue.
Rayner up in HofC. Asking some pertinent questions.
The media are not interested in the HOC - only no 10 front door
Maybe. But the questions she was asking don't disappear. Who is signing off decisions? Who will answer questions? Who is actually in charge at Education and Levelling Up? Others subbed in from other departments apparently.
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
They won't as whichever of the final 2 is not Sunak or Hunt knows they would easily win the membership vote so why on earth would they withdraw?
Sunak and Hunt are Portillo and Ken Clarke or David Miliband to whoever ends up as IDS or Ed Miliband in the final 2
I expect Sunak's stock with a lot of members rose significantly once he resigned and triggered all this off.
As poor as Sunak was polling, Boris was polling far worse. So Sunak might be rewarded by people looking at him for a second time.
And as much as the myth of "they who wield the knife, don't get the crown" is claimed the only time in recent years that's true is with Thatcher's defenestration. Thatcher herself, Brown and Boris himself all wielded the knife and got the crown. Cameron wasn't knifed, he lost the vote and went accordingly.
The idea of everyone getting their old jobs back and carrying on for months is not going down well on the phone-ins at all.
Nor should it but sheer pragmatism says it might be better than the alternative of a huge reshuffle now and another in a few weeks' time when the new PM takes over.
Indeed. But your regular punter doesn't follow that closely. One guy just on berating Labour and the Liberals for voting Boris out. He's vowed never to vote again.
I can understand his grief, odd though it is, but how does he manage to blame the opposition when the government has so large a majority ?
There's not following it closely, and not having a clue.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Any memoirs may get large advances from the publishers, but will be in the remainder boxes within months. No one wants to read over Covid either, except a few public health people trying to formulate lessons, and they will want facts not Johnsonion bluster.
Yep
Sky have already made a whole series with Sir Kenneth about Johnson's covid period. Out this autumn iirc.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged down this country.
I said "history will be kinder than PB". You are rather proving my point
No history will become a lot less kind than pb.
As the truth is unravelled about him and how it was conducted the man's status will continue to drop lower and lower.
Not a day passed without something slipping out and we have yet to get to the bottom of them. Yesterday's revelation about the meeting with Lebedev being one example.
The history of Boris Johnson will be FAR worse than any of us on here currently realise.
There's a lot already baked in (can he evade the Privileges committee if he stands down as MP? Has the Arcuri investigation concluded?) and lots of brand new stuff (the next C Pincher is planning an evening's bender to relax after a trying week) and it will all be scrutinised even years from now
My dream is he gets criminally done for something and falls foul of the laws which prevent serial killers from profiting from their own memoirs
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Netflix will be busting a gut to do the first series on the career of Boris J, because it is guaranteed to be a big hit, due to the salience of Brexit, Covid, Ukraine plus all the "colourful characters". In one vivid persona they are able to tell the extraordinary global story of 2015-2022
They will pre-empt the memoirs for millions, I reckon
Pure fantasy.
You are stuck in a bygone era, and still (sadly) starstruck. Like Nadine Dorries.
Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar · 12m NEW: Foreign Sec Liz Truss - and would-be Tory leadership candidate - is cutting short her trip to Indonesia and will be making a statement shortly.
'I am standing on a platform of going to war on Woke, delivering a Brexit so hard it will give members the horn, sending Putin back to Moscow with his tail between his legs and slashing the state back so small it would fit in my bath plug!'
Sir Bob Neill on his feet in the House making the point I am making - how long can we put up with an interim PM with so many issues that need to be resolved?
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Any memoirs may get large advances from the publishers, but will be in the remainder boxes within months. No one wants to read over Covid either, except a few public health people trying to formulate lessons, and they will want facts not Johnsonion bluster.
Yep good point - no one bar a very few, Chris Whitty perhaps, will want to read 400 pages about lockdowns.
He can't stay as PM, because there would be bound to be another scandal.
I think there's a 15-20% chance of an interim PM being necessary. If there is then it's 50% likely to be May as she's the one who's most capable and able to do it.
That being the case I'd be interested in backing May on the markets as Next PM at anything down to 15/1 with a few quid.
I think it’s highly dangerous leaving him as PM. A full leadership contest could and will take months.
Who is going to serve in the cabinet? Half the positions are vacant.
Fraser Nelson R4 recons short list of 2 by end of next week - out to party members on possibly an accelerated timetable so it’s done well before Autumn.
The party members should have no say in the leadership.
We are a Parliamentary democracy. It is the MPs who choose and who give confidence to a leader - and they need to choose the best person to lead the country. They need have a regard for all their voters not the limited few who are party members.
A tiny group of unrepresentative voters inflicted this twit on us before. They inflicted Corbyn on us. They should never again be allowed to do so.
That, however much I might agree with it, is a matter for each party to decide for themselves.
And I look forward to the Tory party leaders telling their eccentric bunch of members that they aren't fit to make such important decisions...
Leaders - real ones - speak truth to power, and that includes to voters. The elderly Tory membership needs to be told some very hard truths indeed, I'm afraid.
I don't want to come over all @MaxPB but they have to an unacceptable degree put their own interests and obsessions ahead of the good of the party or the country. They are not representative and they are not fit to make a decision which affects all of us.
Giving party members the power to impose a PM on us undermines our Parliamentary democracy and the role which MPs are meant to do. It makes MPs beholden to a tiny group rather than to their constituents as a whole. It is bad for our politics - as the election of Corbyn and Boris have shown us. It has degraded our politics and if Tories had any real care for the country they'd understand this. Labour too should change their rules. Party activists should be nowhere near as important as they have become.
I'm not disputing any of that; I agree with you. I was just pointing out that we can't wave a wand to make it happen.
'Giving party members the power' has it backwards - they already have it. The parties will need to take it away, and might find it a painful process - Labour certainly would; the LibDems also.
It would be the best Clause 4 moment any of the leaders could do. Show that they are willing to take on the activists, value MPs, make Parliament important again and say that they intend listening to voters not obsessives.
Totally agree with this and with your previous comment. It's an absurd way to replace a sitting PM in a parliamentary democracy - worse than a referendum, which at least is open to the whole electorate. It may be allowable in opposition but for government it almost guarantees some sort of crisis, even if the incumbent were reliable (which he isn't). And a stark contrast with the morning after a general election with the removal vans trundling in.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Netflix will be busting a gut to do the first series on the career of Boris J, because it is guaranteed to be a big hit, due to the salience of Brexit, Covid, Ukraine plus all the "colourful characters". In one vivid persona they are able to tell the extraordinary global story of 2015-2022
They will pre-empt the memoirs for millions, I reckon
That’s a brilliant point - do the TV rights now trump the book rights for politicians?
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Netflix will be busting a gut to do the first series on the career of Boris J, because it is guaranteed to be a big hit, due to the salience of Brexit, Covid, Ukraine plus all the "colourful characters". In one vivid persona they are able to tell the extraordinary global story of 2015-2022
They will pre-empt the memoirs for millions, I reckon
Pure fantasy.
You are stuck in a bygone era, and still (sadly) starstruck. Like Nadine Dorries.
Completely OT but since there is other news in the world apart from the Clown's antics today.
The French Government have announced they are going to completely renationalise EDF. They always owned 84% of it but now they are pulling the rest back. On paper this runs counter to EU law but I suspect they will find some sort of way around that.
The interesting bit is they are currently 70 billion euros in debt. Which is a hell of a hit even for a national government to take.
I mentioned that yesterday - the need for nuclear power and the sheer cost of building each plant really does mean that we need Rolls Royce building their factory and their small nuclear plants asap..
They will have to redo the shortlist, the hi-tech manufacturing hub of Richmond, North Yorkshire may not have quite the same level of support… and hate be a pedant, but it’s Rolls-Royce with a hyphen, worked for the PR team at the car business in Crewe many years ago where forgetting the hyphen was a hanging offence… the trade mark is owned by the engineering business and is, or at least was then, used by the car business under a licence.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Any memoirs may get large advances from the publishers, but will be in the remainder boxes within months. No one wants to read over Covid either, except a few public health people trying to formulate lessons, and they will want facts not Johnsonion bluster.
You're wrong. I rarely read memoirs but I will certainly read Boris' - not because of the man but because of everything he witnessed, and often personally decided. He's not James Joyce, but he can write well, which is a significant advantage
eg Covid. I really do want to know who decided what and when. I want the gory details. We were locked down for months. Who was pro, who was anti. And what was it like for him nearly dying? That's a chapter right there
The more I think about it, the more I am convinced it will sell very nicely. It is an incredible story. Those who hate Boris will never buy it. They will secretly steal it from friends and guiltily read it at 2am, while scowling with anger
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
They won't as whichever of the final 2 is not Sunak or Hunt knows they would easily win the membership vote so why on earth would they withdraw?
Sunak and Hunt are Portillo and Ken Clarke or David Miliband to whoever ends up as IDS or Ed Miliband in the final 2
I expect Sunak's stock with a lot of members rose significantly once he resigned and triggered all this off
Surely those who are still members are, like our very own @HYUFD, Boris loyalists and hence will not forgive Rishi.
Aaron Bell on his feet. Very very sad that so many ministers have quit, and its not tenable for the PM to continue as he won't be able to fill the vacancies.
How many other Tories at a very senior level have come to the same conclusion and are doing something about it?
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
They won't as whichever of the final 2 is not Sunak or Hunt knows they would easily win the membership vote so why on earth would they withdraw?
Sunak and Hunt are Portillo and Ken Clarke or David Miliband to whoever ends up as IDS or Ed Miliband in the final 2
I expect Sunak's stock with a lot of members rose significantly once he resigned and triggered all this off.
As poor as Sunak was polling, Boris was polling far worse. So Sunak might be rewarded by people looking at him for a second time.
And as much as the myth of "they who wield the knife, don't get the crown" is claimed the only time in recent years that's true is with Thatcher's defenestration. Thatcher herself, Brown and Boris himself all wielded the knife and got the crown. Cameron wasn't knifed, he lost the vote and went accordingly.
Thatcher only stood against Heath in opposition not power. Brown never stood against Blair, Boris himself never stood against May either and resigned over a point of principle Brexit
Caller on R5L virtually in tears. He has some deep loyalty amongst folk who can't make an argument they haven't read in the Express or Mail. Predictions of a Tory surge may not be as nailed on as many assert.
It doesn't surprise me, there are 2 ladies I work with who you would never think would have anything to do with BJ, polite, gentle, reserved , both are gutted he is going.
Yeah. I think this may lose more votes than it gains. Though most will drift to not voting. Unless Farage comes back.
Just last week the tories were just 2% behind in one poll, despite everything that has happened, I think BJ has a significant personal vote whoch is not recognised on this site. The new PM will have to try and win them over
Yes, I think you're right. There is some truth to the 'Heineken man' tag. There will be some who liked him who probably won't turn out to vote for a more 'boring' Conservative MP.
HYUFD still believes that Thatcher would have won in 1992 and he will no doubt be on here saying that Boris would have gone on to win in 2024.
And, of note, Adam Boulton's comment about Boris' "I have a mandate from 14 million voters", that it is pure Trumpian.
And looking at the polls, is pure bollocks. He's polling worse than his party.
Polls matter. Unless they don't help.
In which case we must assume that a previous election success is a guarantee of future success.
Even though many election winners have then lost elections. Scott Morrison is a case in point.
The membership will definitely go for Cheese 'n' Crackers. I can't see anyone else even getting close.
Dom will have to saddle up again to bring another one down then. He's already said of all the loons in Commons she is in a class of her own or words to that effect.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Netflix will be busting a gut to do the first series on the career of Boris J, because it is guaranteed to be a big hit, due to the salience of Brexit, Covid, Ukraine plus all the "colourful characters". In one vivid persona they are able to tell the extraordinary global story of 2015-2022
They will pre-empt the memoirs for millions, I reckon
Pure fantasy.
You are stuck in a bygone era, and still (sadly) starstruck. Like Nadine Dorries.
The rest of us have moved on from the cult.
Failing to hate Boris as much as you do doesn't make you starstruck, or part of a cult. I'd say almost all who have selectively defended Boris have done so pretty equivocally and qualified it with a 'he must go but...'
Yet another Tory MP on his feet saying leaving Johnson in place is absurd. Paymaster General says "the government will continue to function" to laughter.
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
They won't as whichever of the final 2 is not Sunak or Hunt knows they would easily win the membership vote so why on earth would they withdraw?
Sunak and Hunt are Portillo and Ken Clarke or David Miliband to whoever ends up as IDS or Ed Miliband in the final 2
I expect Sunak's stock with a lot of members rose significantly once he resigned and triggered all this off.
As poor as Sunak was polling, Boris was polling far worse. So Sunak might be rewarded by people looking at him for a second time.
And as much as the myth of "they who wield the knife, don't get the crown" is claimed the only time in recent years that's true is with Thatcher's defenestration. Thatcher herself, Brown and Boris himself all wielded the knife and got the crown. Cameron wasn't knifed, he lost the vote and went accordingly.
Thatcher only stood against Heath in opposition not power. Brown never stood against Blair, Boris himself never stood against May either and resigned over a point of principle Brexit
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Netflix will be busting a gut to do the first series on the career of Boris J, because it is guaranteed to be a big hit, due to the salience of Brexit, Covid, Ukraine plus all the "colourful characters". In one vivid persona they are able to tell the extraordinary global story of 2015-2022
They will pre-empt the memoirs for millions, I reckon
That’s a brilliant point - do the TV rights now trump the book rights for politicians?
Are there any TV rights? I don't suppose Netflix paid HMQ for The Crown.
He can't stay as PM, because there would be bound to be another scandal.
I think there's a 15-20% chance of an interim PM being necessary. If there is then it's 50% likely to be May as she's the one who's most capable and able to do it.
That being the case I'd be interested in backing May on the markets as Next PM at anything down to 15/1 with a few quid.
Currently 42 on Betfair. I got on in the mid 50s this morning, and have already laid. Ditto Raab, though less profitably.
To say no interest in a tv show about Boris as PM.... hasn't Sky got one coming out shortly starring Kenneth Branagh (who i imagine doesn't come cheap). They clearly think there is demand.
I can’t remember where it was that Alan Clark said the Tory party always goes mad when the Indian Bean Trees around Parliament are flowering and MPs become intoxicated by their sickly sweet scent. But they are indeed in bloom right now. https://twitter.com/IsabelHardman/status/1544976768808980481/photo/1
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Any memoirs may get large advances from the publishers, but will be in the remainder boxes within months. No one wants to read over Covid either, except a few public health people trying to formulate lessons, and they will want facts not Johnsonion bluster.
Yep
Publishers of pol biogs cover all their costs with serialisation rights to Mail or Times.
Aaron Bell on his feet. Very very sad that so many ministers have quit, and its not tenable for the PM to continue as he won't be able to fill the vacancies.
How many other Tories at a very senior level have come to the same conclusion and are doing something about it?
Adam Holloway looking like (even more of) a twat now.
Completely OT but since there is other news in the world apart from the Clown's antics today.
The French Government have announced they are going to completely renationalise EDF. They always owned 84% of it but now they are pulling the rest back. On paper this runs counter to EU law but I suspect they will find some sort of way around that.
The interesting bit is they are currently 70 billion euros in debt. Which is a hell of a hit even for a national government to take.
I mentioned that yesterday - the need for nuclear power and the sheer cost of building each plant really does mean that we need Rolls Royce building their factory and their small nuclear plants asap..
No nuclear power station has been built anywhere in the world without massive state aid.
Rolls Royce's mini-nukes will be no different. Massively late, massively over budget.
Assuming always the new PM doesn't take a different path.
There need to be a dozen of the SMRs under construction yesterday, at whatever price.
There’s going to be horrific stories this winter regarding energy prices.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Any memoirs may get large advances from the publishers, but will be in the remainder boxes within months. No one wants to read over Covid either, except a few public health people trying to formulate lessons, and they will want facts not Johnsonion bluster.
Yep good point - no one bar a very few, Chris Whitty perhaps, will want to read 400 pages about lockdowns.
But it's not gonna be 400 pages is it? Half the book will be Brexit
Covid will get 50 pages? Lockdowns 30? And many people will want to read it, because they want to know who made these brutal decisions, and why
Boris has a gift for self publicity. He will make sure there are juicy revelations throughout the book
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Any memoirs may get large advances from the publishers, but will be in the remainder boxes within months. No one wants to read over Covid either, except a few public health people trying to formulate lessons, and they will want facts not Johnsonion bluster.
You're wrong. I rarely read memoirs but I will certainly read Boris' - not because of the man but because of everything he witnessed, and often personally decided. He's not James Joyce, but he can write well, which is a significant advantage
eg Covid. I really do want to know who decided what and when. I want the gory details. We were locked down for months. Who was pro, who was anti. And what was it like for him nearly dying? That's a chapter right there
The more I think about it, the more I am convinced it will sell very nicely. It is an incredible story. Those who hate Boris will never buy it. They will secretly steal it from friends and guiltily read it at 2am, while scowling with anger
No you won't. Look at what Covid did to you. When you were stuck on your own it was tough. You actually want to read five hundred pages about that? Of course you don't.
There's a strange mob mentality to some of these comments from MPs.
What's strange about it? He pushed many otherwise naturally loyal people to the brink, and having taking the plunge they are naturally feeling emboldened and released by the collective action.
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
They won't as whichever of the final 2 is not Sunak or Hunt knows they would easily win the membership vote so why on earth would they withdraw?
Sunak and Hunt are Portillo and Ken Clarke or David Miliband to whoever ends up as IDS or Ed Miliband in the final 2
I expect Sunak's stock with a lot of members rose significantly once he resigned and triggered all this off.
As poor as Sunak was polling, Boris was polling far worse. So Sunak might be rewarded by people looking at him for a second time.
And as much as the myth of "they who wield the knife, don't get the crown" is claimed the only time in recent years that's true is with Thatcher's defenestration. Thatcher herself, Brown and Boris himself all wielded the knife and got the crown. Cameron wasn't knifed, he lost the vote and went accordingly.
Thatcher only stood against Heath in opposition not power. Brown never stood against Blair, Boris himself never stood against May either and resigned over a point of principle Brexit
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Any memoirs may get large advances from the publishers, but will be in the remainder boxes within months. No one wants to read over Covid either, except a few public health people trying to formulate lessons, and they will want facts not Johnsonion bluster.
Yep
Publishers of pol biogs cover all their costs with serialisation rights to Mail or Times.
Those days have passed. Serialisation rights have substantially reduced. Publishers have to work extremely hard to earn back advances.
A self-appraising account by a serial liar isn't going to earn back an advance.
Biographies about the wicked clown might do a little better.
The membership will definitely go for Cheese 'n' Crackers. I can't see anyone else even getting close.
Dom will have to saddle up again to bring another one down then. He's already said of all the loons in Commons she is in a class of her own or words to that effect.
Let's give Dom the credit he deserves for all this, which is: zilch. his one big specific verifiable claim was, he warned phatboi against the garden party. Gray: I have found no evidence of this. What else has he done? People thought he had 400 party pix. where are they?
Completely OT but since there is other news in the world apart from the Clown's antics today.
The French Government have announced they are going to completely renationalise EDF. They always owned 84% of it but now they are pulling the rest back. On paper this runs counter to EU law but I suspect they will find some sort of way around that.
The interesting bit is they are currently 70 billion euros in debt. Which is a hell of a hit even for a national government to take.
I mentioned that yesterday - the need for nuclear power and the sheer cost of building each plant really does mean that we need Rolls Royce building their factory and their small nuclear plants asap..
No nuclear power station has been built anywhere in the world without massive state aid.
Rolls Royce's mini-nukes will be no different. Massively late, massively over budget.
Assuming always the new PM doesn't take a different path.
They may well be massively late and over budget - but just simply building them in a factory as a repeatable process will be massively beneficial compared to current building methods
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
They won't as whichever of the final 2 is not Sunak or Hunt knows they would easily win the membership vote so why on earth would they withdraw?
Sunak and Hunt are Portillo and Ken Clarke or David Miliband to whoever ends up as IDS or Ed Miliband in the final 2
I expect Sunak's stock with a lot of members rose significantly once he resigned and triggered all this off
Surely those who are still members are, like our very own @HYUFD, Boris loyalists and hence will not forgive Rishi.
QTWAIN.
Boris polled dreadfully in the ConHome poll. He's been bottom in the rankings, well below Sunak, in recent polls.
That assumes that his replacement will be less unpopular in Scotland. Big assumption.
You might think that Johnson’s -60s favourability ratings in Scotland are exceptional. They’re not. May and Cameron were similarly unpopular.
In fact, there’s a few names on the Tory list that might even plumb new depths.
The efforts of the new custodian of the sewage farm known as the BJ party to pretend that they don’t smell of shit are going to be a hoot.
I think Sturgeon will find Mordaunt a tricky opponent.
Mordaunt could cause some hysteria on Eurotwatter:
A UK minister gives a speech in the United States framing #Brexit as a new Cold War between democracy and statism, saying "now America has a choice to make" about which side it takes.
You’re in favour of a closer relationship with the US?
I'm in favour of the US (or those within it who are interested) not seeking to punish the UK because Brexit was against their geopolitical strategy, which is what Mordaunt was saying.
Mordaunt is an ardent Atlanticist, she's also a bit of a woke fan - neither of those things are my cup of tea, but I recognise and respect a sincerely held belief.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Any memoirs may get large advances from the publishers, but will be in the remainder boxes within months. No one wants to read over Covid either, except a few public health people trying to formulate lessons, and they will want facts not Johnsonion bluster.
Yep good point - no one bar a very few, Chris Whitty perhaps, will want to read 400 pages about lockdowns.
But it's not gonna be 400 pages is it? Half the book will be Brexit
Covid will get 50 pages? Lockdowns 30? And many people will want to read it, because they want to know who made these brutal decisions, and why
Boris has a gift for self publicity. He will make sure there are juicy revelations throughout the book
Boris believes he saved the world or at least Great Britain (ex-NI) with his actions throughout Covid; it will be more than 50 pages or how will he tell people how masterful his actions were.
All I can see being a revelation is how he fought tooth and nail against Whitty, Van Tam, et al against the regulations. Which would make the book even more depressing in that he didn't succeed, largely.
I can’t remember where it was that Alan Clark said the Tory party always goes mad when the Indian Bean Trees around Parliament are flowering and MPs become intoxicated by their sickly sweet scent. But they are indeed in bloom right now. https://twitter.com/IsabelHardman/status/1544976768808980481/photo/1
But Alan Clark was very odd himself.
But possibly the last decent writer to be a Tory mp?
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
They won't as whichever of the final 2 is not Sunak or Hunt knows they would easily win the membership vote so why on earth would they withdraw?
Sunak and Hunt are Portillo and Ken Clarke or David Miliband to whoever ends up as IDS or Ed Miliband in the final 2
I expect Sunak's stock with a lot of members rose significantly once he resigned and triggered all this off.
As poor as Sunak was polling, Boris was polling far worse. So Sunak might be rewarded by people looking at him for a second time.
And as much as the myth of "they who wield the knife, don't get the crown" is claimed the only time in recent years that's true is with Thatcher's defenestration. Thatcher herself, Brown and Boris himself all wielded the knife and got the crown. Cameron wasn't knifed, he lost the vote and went accordingly.
Thatcher only stood against Heath in opposition not power. Brown never stood against Blair, Boris himself never stood against May either and resigned over a point of principle Brexit
To say no interest in a tv show about Boris as PM.... hasn't Sky got one coming out shortly starring Kenneth Branagh (who i imagine doesn't come cheap). They clearly think there is demand.
I suspect the grubby, farcical ending of Boris's political career will do much to dispel the Boris myth (a myth that he himself put in so much effort to create). In the last 24 hours he's come across as a serious nut job.
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
They won't as whichever of the final 2 is not Sunak or Hunt knows they would easily win the membership vote so why on earth would they withdraw?
Sunak and Hunt are Portillo and Ken Clarke or David Miliband to whoever ends up as IDS or Ed Miliband in the final 2
I expect Sunak's stock with a lot of members rose significantly once he resigned and triggered all this off
Surely those who are still members are, like our very own @HYUFD, Boris loyalists and hence will not forgive Rishi.
Again - another reason why the next party leader will be a stitch-up with no membership vote.
I’d imagine a joint Sunak/Javid ticket could be in play
It would be powerful and I can see Hunt joining it too in exchange for a big post.
Sunak PM, Javid CoE, Hunt Foreign Sec works.
You really think the Tory membership are going to vote for that?
What's the issue with Sunak, he's a Thatcherite leaver & his cameo appearence in partygate was the dampest of damp squibs. He appoints Sunak and Hunt once in post.
Sunak will not get past the membership, he is seen as a tax rising shyster.
As I said, even Steve Baker would now beat Sunak once it got to the membership
Is it going to get to the membership though?
Yes, Steve Baker and Braverman etc already announced bids so there will be no coronation.
Sunak's only chance is he faces Hunt in the final 2 but that needs over 2/3 of Tory MPs to vote for Sunak or Hunt and that ain't happening.
Indeed ironically Johnson might end up bring the most centrist Tory leader of this decade as Tory members look for more small state, low tax, anti lockdown, hard Brexit, anti Woke, socially conservative successors to succeed him
No coronation but probably no final two going to the membership. As in 2016, there will be huge pressure for the less likely of the final two candidates to withdraw.
They won't as whichever of the final 2 is not Sunak or Hunt knows they would easily win the membership vote so why on earth would they withdraw?
Sunak and Hunt are Portillo and Ken Clarke or David Miliband to whoever ends up as IDS or Ed Miliband in the final 2
I expect Sunak's stock with a lot of members rose significantly once he resigned and triggered all this off.
As poor as Sunak was polling, Boris was polling far worse. So Sunak might be rewarded by people looking at him for a second time.
And as much as the myth of "they who wield the knife, don't get the crown" is claimed the only time in recent years that's true is with Thatcher's defenestration. Thatcher herself, Brown and Boris himself all wielded the knife and got the crown. Cameron wasn't knifed, he lost the vote and went accordingly.
Thatcher only stood against Heath in opposition not power. Brown never stood against Blair, Boris himself never stood against May either and resigned over a point of principle Brexit
Who do you want to be next leader?
Wallace
Also, a Jock Guard has already been tried. I hope this one would be more successful. I can't see it.
He's untrustworthy and will seek to remain, buggering up the country to try and buy himself a favourable legacy in the meantime.
Get rid of him, PCP, or be shown to be utter fools once again.
On Leon's point about history being kinder to him than PB, that is possible, in relation to some big policy matters (others will disagree), but his personal standards will not be treated kindly, and in any case in the moment of being forced out few will be thinking about reflecting on positives
First up, no one these days reads political memoirs. Nor do they any longer have an interest in reading books by sad old white male sexual predators. Appetites have changed. He may get a decent advance but the publishers won't earn out the advance in sales.
Second, history will not be kinder to him on the bigger issues. Leon says this because of his obsession with Brexit, after a Damascene conversion on the way to the ballot box and with all the tedious zealotry that brings. For most of the rest of us it's obvious Brexit is a massive cock-up that is going to take years to sort out properly. The NI protocol is one example of Boris bodging Brexit in a disastrous fashion. He never thought it through properly because he didn't care about it. He was never a Brexiteer. He chose Brexit to become King of the World. Nothing more.
Other big issues? The initial vaccine rollout was a success but on most other counts our handling of covid has been another cock-up, from the ridiculously lax opening (Cheltenham and Bath Half ffs) to the over-reaction the other way with ludicrously over-tight lockdowns and pernicious policing. That Big Brother state then extended into horrendous legislature further restricting our freedoms. Except for himself, obvs.
He is a shit. The vilest prime minister of any of our lifetimes. He deserves a category of worst prime ministers all to himself. The others, however poor, don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as this wicked clown.
He dragged down his party. He dragged downthis country.
His memoirs will sell heavily internationally, Brexit is now bedded in as a fact of life, and whether you agree or not the public think the vaccine rollout out went very well. The short hand history of Boris will read “did what he said he’d do on Brexit, and managed Covid well, but was undone by his personal weaknesses”..
Netflix will be busting a gut to do the first series on the career of Boris J, because it is guaranteed to be a big hit, due to the salience of Brexit, Covid, Ukraine plus all the "colourful characters". In one vivid persona they are able to tell the extraordinary global story of 2015-2022
They will pre-empt the memoirs for millions, I reckon
That’s a brilliant point - do the TV rights now trump the book rights for politicians?
Almost certainly, with the money of the Streaming Services. Amazon and Apple have more buying power than many governments. And the Story of Boris will be highly attractive to Americans, as well as Brits and Europeans. See the endless NYT coverage of Rotterdammerung, this week
Comments
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/excl-cabinet-minister-sacked-after-eight-weeks-gets-payoff-worth-three-months-salary
Under the 1991 Ministerial and Other Pensions and Salaries Act, ministers under the age of 65 are entitled to three months of their ministerial salary when they are forced out of office.
Donelan's resignation was not before Borises'. She simply put, was not forced from office.
They will pre-empt the memoirs for millions, I reckon
Is this one of those days, which finishes with news helicopters chasing her plane down the final approach at Heathrow?
If you want another inept non-entity who is entirely focused on ganging up on the gayers, she's your woman. I suspect many Tories want that sort of thing though.
Although it was technically true for the 2017 GE, May lost her overall majority and had to do a deal with the DUP, and not many Tories felt like that was an election they "won".
Sunak and Hunt are Portillo and Ken Clarke or David Miliband to whoever ends up as IDS or Ed Miliband in the final 2
Though some might say that they’ve even somewhat over represented over the last few years.
As the truth is unravelled about him and how it was conducted the man's status will continue to drop lower and lower.
Not a day passed without something slipping out and we have yet to get to the bottom of them. Yesterday's revelation about the meeting with Lebedev being one example.
The history of Boris Johnson will be FAR worse than any of us on here currently realise.
How can they do that seriously?
The French Government seriously damaged the value of the company when they capped it's prices. Do the 16% of shareholders with their capital destroyed by politics have nay comeback?
Rolls Royce's mini-nukes will be no different. Massively late, massively over budget.
Assuming always the new PM doesn't take a different path.
Brief honeymoon, then net negative ratings within 12 months, out before 2025, I recon.
Or - remove him today. Install an interim government who are actually capable of steadying the ship and making the decisions that need making. Whilst the Tories fight each other. And then have a chance of winning the election.
Are people really going to forgive the Tory Party if they let the country go to the wolves whilst they fight over who is the most extreme?
@PippaCrerar
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12m
NEW: Foreign Sec Liz Truss - and would-be Tory leadership candidate - is cutting short her trip to Indonesia and will be making a statement shortly.
But the questions she was asking don't disappear.
Who is signing off decisions? Who will answer questions? Who is actually in charge at Education and Levelling Up?
Others subbed in from other departments apparently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI9Ip0GLUJ0
As poor as Sunak was polling, Boris was polling far worse. So Sunak might be rewarded by people looking at him for a second time.
And as much as the myth of "they who wield the knife, don't get the crown" is claimed the only time in recent years that's true is with Thatcher's defenestration. Thatcher herself, Brown and Boris himself all wielded the knife and got the crown. Cameron wasn't knifed, he lost the vote and went accordingly.
There's not following it closely, and not having a clue.
My dream is he gets criminally done for something and falls foul of the laws which prevent serial killers from profiting from their own memoirs
You are stuck in a bygone era, and still (sadly) starstruck. Like Nadine Dorries.
The rest of us have moved on from the cult.
That being the case I'd be interested in backing May on the markets as Next PM at anything down to 15/1 with a few quid.
Lord North was a Trinity man. Boris Balliol. I think we can safely say they now beat us in the worst PM stakes.
eg Covid. I really do want to know who decided what and when. I want the gory details. We were locked down for months. Who was pro, who was anti. And what was it like for him nearly dying? That's a chapter right there
The more I think about it, the more I am convinced it will sell very nicely. It is an incredible story. Those who hate Boris will never buy it. They will secretly steal it from friends and guiltily read it at 2am, while scowling with anger
How many other Tories at a very senior level have come to the same conclusion and are doing something about it?
In which case we must assume that a previous election success is a guarantee of future success.
Even though many election winners have then lost elections. Scott Morrison is a case in point.
His verdict? A ****.
This *surely* is untenable.
I got on in the mid 50s this morning, and have already laid. Ditto Raab, though less profitably.
There’s going to be horrific stories this winter regarding energy prices.
Covid will get 50 pages? Lockdowns 30? And many people will want to read it, because they want to know who made these brutal decisions, and why
Boris has a gift for self publicity. He will make sure there are juicy revelations throughout the book
A self-appraising account by a serial liar isn't going to earn back an advance.
Biographies about the wicked clown might do a little better.
Now here we are, with him having resigned and a majority of the membership saying he should go as well. Hmmm
Boris polled dreadfully in the ConHome poll. He's been bottom in the rankings, well below Sunak, in recent polls.
Mordaunt is an ardent Atlanticist, she's also a bit of a woke fan - neither of those things are my cup of tea, but I recognise and respect a sincerely held belief.
All I can see being a revelation is how he fought tooth and nail against Whitty, Van Tam, et al against the regulations. Which would make the book even more depressing in that he didn't succeed, largely.
Betting should be focused on that. So watch opinion polling carefully in the next few days.