Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Johnson's lies duringwinning the Brexit campaign was what put us in the dire position of either inflicting a costly policy error on the economy or damaging trust in our democracy. There was no good outcome from there, but it was Johnson who put us there. We should have implemented a soft Brexit but that was blocked by May's red lines and the Tories whipping against those options in the Commons. And Johnson doesn't even believe in Brexit, the whole thing is simply a testimony to his infinite vanity and ambition.
FTFY. And again, it's not just that Leave won, but that Cameron had refused to allow planning for what a Leave vote would mean.
This just looks like an attempt to evade responsibility, like we saw with some lefties last night. If you put Corbyn up against Boris, you have to take some of the blame for the public seeing the latter as the lesser of two evils. Similarly, if you spent 25 years stopping the public having any say on the European Project beginning with Maastricht, leaving only the nuclear button available to the public, you can't blame them for pushing it.
I criticised Labour for choosing Corbyn as leader on here yesterday and repeatedly in the past. It was a disastrously stupid thing to do. I voted against him as leader twice. We gave the public every opportunity to vote against what you call the European Project, in the usual way of a parliamentary democracy.
When the only two possible leaders of government agreed on it? Risible. That's exactly when you have to split it out and let people vote on the issue independent of who forms a government.
Far more important than any of that is,,,,,,,,do they continue to embrace the hard target of net zero by 2050 at all costs?
Do you really think people would give a t*ss about Chris effing Pincher if they weren't getting poorer by the month,, the forecasts were for them to get even poorer, and there was no prospect of a recovery?
So, your solution to higher energy bills caused by imports of fossil fuels is for us to use more fossil fuels in the future?
It's certainly a unique take.
You seem to be ignoring the green levies (Up to 15% of bills?) that Britons pay for renewables that we hear on here are as cheap as chips.
If Johnson had scrapped those subsidies, or even reduced them. he would still be PM now.
The green levies are a drop in the ocean that are about 8% of bills now and that percentage has been falling rapidly. If he had scrapped them, it would barely have been noticed.
And those levies aren't all to fund renewables either. A significant chunk of that fund goes to contribute towards paying for the bills of those who would struggle to pay for them otherwise, a form of welfare in other words.
So now it seems at least more likely than not that he'll go, we have to replace him, in no particular order: Wallace, Tugendhat, Truss, Sunak, Javid, Hunt, Mordaunt, Braverman, Zahawi, Harper... I'm sure I've missed a least one or two.
But either way, there are at least five, possibly six there that I would find preferable to any of the candidates in 2019 or 2016, and another two or three that I would find preferable to most of those candidates. And meanwhile, SKS is (to me) preferable to any of his last three predecessors, and most of the realistic candidates to replace him (Rayner excepted) are also preferable (to me). And the Lib Dems are led by a grown-up too. There is reason to be not totally despondent for the future of politics in this country.
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Look at Europe. Look at the dreadful f8icking state it is in. Betting the bank on Russian gas. At war with its farmers. Double digit inflation in some areas. Central bank able to do nothing for fear of screwing the weaker states.
Why anyone wants to rejoin that, I will absolutely never know.
The Eurozone and the US are both at 8.6%, while the UK is at 9.1%.
Why?
Because the cost of oil, gas and grain has gone through the roof.
How come Switzerland isn't suffering the same inflationary pressures as the rest of europe?
That's easy:
(1) Hydropower is two thirds of their energy generation, so there's no cost pressure there. (2) Food is already incredibly expensive because it is probably the most protected agricultural market in the world, so no pressure from rising grain prices (3) The Swiss are so rich, that very little of their income goes on commodities. If you look at the basket of goods used to calculate inflation, petrol is less than half what it is in the UK
Far more important than any of that is,,,,,,,,do they continue to embrace the hard target of net zero by 2050 at all costs?
Do you really think people would give a t*ss about Chris effing Pincher if they weren't getting poorer by the month,, the forecasts were for them to get even poorer, and there was no prospect of a recovery?
So, your solution to higher energy bills caused by imports of fossil fuels is for us to use more fossil fuels in the future?
It's certainly a unique take.
You seem to be ignoring the green levies (Up to 15% of bills?) that Britons pay for renewables that we hear on here are as cheap as chips.
If Johnson had scrapped those subsidies, or even reduced them. he would still be PM now.
The green levies are a drop in the ocean that are about 8% of bills now and that percentage has been falling rapidly. If he had scrapped them, it would barely have been noticed.
And those levies aren't all to fund renewables either. A significant chunk of that fund goes to contribute towards paying for the bills of those who would struggle to pay for them otherwise, a form of welfare in other words.
The point remains.
If renewables are so cheap, then why do we have to subsidise them? Isn't Lord Deben rich enough?
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Johnson's lies duringwinning the Brexit campaign was what put us in the dire position of either inflicting a costly policy error on the economy or damaging trust in our democracy. There was no good outcome from there, but it was Johnson who put us there. We should have implemented a soft Brexit but that was blocked by May's red lines and the Tories whipping against those options in the Commons. And Johnson doesn't even believe in Brexit, the whole thing is simply a testimony to his infinite vanity and ambition.
FTFY. And again, it's not just that Leave won, but that Cameron had refused to allow planning for what a Leave vote would mean.
This just looks like an attempt to evade responsibility, like we saw with some lefties last night. If you put Corbyn up against Boris, you have to take some of the blame for the public seeing the latter as the lesser of two evils. Similarly, if you spent 25 years stopping the public having any say on the European Project beginning with Maastricht, leaving only the nuclear button available to the public, you can't blame them for pushing it.
I criticised Labour for choosing Corbyn as leader on here yesterday and repeatedly in the past. It was a disastrously stupid thing to do. I voted against him as leader twice. We gave the public every opportunity to vote against what you call the European Project, in the usual way of a parliamentary democracy. What was UKIP's top vote share in a Westminster election? Referenda are a poor way of doing politics, they attract every kind of protest vote and dishonest campaigning hence you end up with a vote for a Brexit that meant different things to different people, that nobody could implement in the way it was sold, which has made us all poorer, and which the public no longer support. It has been a total disaster, leaving us divided and weak. And Boris Johnson was the one who got it over the line. So no, I don't believe he got the big calls right.
When were the public given an opportunity to vote against the European Project?
Do you mean 2010 when the Lib Dems were elected on a manifesto promising a referendum, which they then opposed holding.
Do you mean 2005 when the Lib Dems, Labour and Conservatives were all elected on a manifesto promising a referendum, which Labour then refused to hold?
2015 was the third General Election in a row where MPs were elected on a promise to hold a referendum. It wasn't some novel idea invented by Cameron.
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Look at Europe. Look at the dreadful f8icking state it is in. Betting the bank on Russian gas. At war with its farmers. Double digit inflation in some areas. Central bank able to do nothing for fear of screwing the weaker states.
Why anyone wants to rejoin that, I will absolutely never know.
Congratulations to Britain, and especially to the Conservative politicians who took this difficult, but necessary, step. (I understand of course that there is much clean up to be done -- but that couldn't really start until you knew you would soon have a new leader.)
And there is much that needs intelligent attention, as this story reminds us: 'Speaking alongside his British counterpart in London on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray called China the "biggest long-term threat" to both the U.S. and the U.K.
I have been saying for months that following Trump risks your wealth, your health, and even your personal freedom in extreme cases. I think taht, however slowly, more and more people are coming to agree with me.)
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Cameron got that call wrong. The vote should never have happened.
If the vote had not happened, the tory party would no longer exist.
It would, it may have fractured, but it would still be there however Cameron enabled all of this for interns also Tory party discipline.
YO seem to have completely forgotten that there was a European election in which Farage won and the tories were hammered. If that wasn't a threat from the electorate, I don't know what is.
The person Johnson forgot to thank today was Farage, who stood down his troops in many constituencies so the tories could win big. I imagine Farage bitterly regrets that, and in case any tories get any ideas, it is something he would never do again.
Nah. Farage stood against the Tories in seats they needed to gain.
+1 - If Farage hadn't stood in seats with Labour MPs it's highly likely Bozo would have had a majority of 120-140 rather than 80.
Hartlepool is an obvious example of that but Doncaster and even Sunderland are other places where Farage cost the Tories a win.
Watching NBC from the US... Nothing about Boris on this side of the pond that I've seen. Seems strange to me that the implosion of the Government of the 5th/6th/7th largest economy hasn't been mentioned. Am I missing something?
Far more important than any of that is,,,,,,,,do they continue to embrace the hard target of net zero by 2050 at all costs?
Do you really think people would give a t*ss about Chris effing Pincher if they weren't getting poorer by the month,, the forecasts were for them to get even poorer, and there was no prospect of a recovery?
So, your solution to higher energy bills caused by imports of fossil fuels is for us to use more fossil fuels in the future?
It's certainly a unique take.
You seem to be ignoring the green levies (Up to 15% of bills?) that Britons pay for renewables that we hear on here are as cheap as chips.
If Johnson had scrapped those subsidies, or even reduced them. he would still be PM now.
The green levies are a drop in the ocean that are about 8% of bills now and that percentage has been falling rapidly. If he had scrapped them, it would barely have been noticed.
And those levies aren't all to fund renewables either. A significant chunk of that fund goes to contribute towards paying for the bills of those who would struggle to pay for them otherwise, a form of welfare in other words.
The point remains.
If renewables are so cheap, then why do we have to subsidise them? Isn't Lord Deben rich enough?
Well in part because we're committed to do so from before they were so cheap. Investments in older renewables, were made with a commitment to pay a certain tariff for years to come. New investments haven't had that for a while in many sectors. New solar investment won't get the feed in tariffs old ones did. New wind turbines don't get the fixed tariffs old ones did. We still need to pay what we committed to in the past and will do for the duration of those contracts, but that doesn't mean new investments are getting the same deal - new investments are economic on their own terms, so why would you avoid them now?
Do you think old contracts that are committed to shouldn't be honoured? Or new ones, without subsidies, that are economically cheaper shouldn't be signed?
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Look at Europe. Look at the dreadful f8icking state it is in. Betting the bank on Russian gas. At war with its farmers. Double digit inflation in some areas. Central bank able to do nothing for fear of screwing the weaker states.
Why anyone wants to rejoin that, I will absolutely never know.
All candidates need to make it clear that the Ukraine policy will be continued.
Ukraine is fortunately/unfortunately in the position of being his current devotion and having not yet been let down by him.
So long as the weapons and training keep coming, the Ukranians will be happy.
I think that this will be another nail in Johnson's self image. Those who come after will be equally lauded by Zelensky when they continue to do the same thing.
Not that it wasn't the right thing to do, just that Johnson is not some international colossus, working miracles. He (for once) didn't do the *wrong* thing.
SKS not voncing this afternoon would be the biggest unforced error in political history
HoC votes aren't secret. How can any tory mp vote confidence in him?
Who's right here
Ping
The VONC is in the government, not the PM.
Who is in charge of the government?
Looking forward to ping reprising his chart hit, How Aaron Bell is doing himself and his constituents a disservice by agitating against the nailed on till 2024 pm boris johnson. Always gets me on the dance floor.
Levelling up is about to be comprehensively ditched. That’s not good for Newcastle under Lyme. Stoke is about to get forgotten by the Tories.
“Do you remember the time the tories won in Stoke?” Future PBers will remark, with incredulity.
The new leader will revert to type. Their job is to serve the interests of wealthy members and voters in the south-east, while giving just enough scraps to the rest to scrape a majority.
You could argue Johnson was brought down by Owen Paterson, Christopher Pincher, Neil Parish, Imran Ahmad Khan.
Parish and Khan were beyond his control. Paterson and Pincher the issue was not what they did, but how he reacted to what they did - he tried to protect Paterson, and he lied about what he knew about Pincher.
Far more important than any of that is,,,,,,,,do they continue to embrace the hard target of net zero by 2050 at all costs?
Do you really think people would give a t*ss about Chris effing Pincher if they weren't getting poorer by the month,, the forecasts were for them to get even poorer, and there was no prospect of a recovery?
So, your solution to higher energy bills caused by imports of fossil fuels is for us to use more fossil fuels in the future?
It's certainly a unique take.
You seem to be ignoring the green levies (Up to 15% of bills?) that Britons pay for renewables that we hear on here are as cheap as chips.
If Johnson had scrapped those subsidies, or even reduced them. he would still be PM now.
The green levies are a drop in the ocean that are about 8% of bills now and that percentage has been falling rapidly. If he had scrapped them, it would barely have been noticed.
And those levies aren't all to fund renewables either. A significant chunk of that fund goes to contribute towards paying for the bills of those who would struggle to pay for them otherwise, a form of welfare in other words.
The point remains.
If renewables are so cheap, then why do we have to subsidise them? Isn't Lord Deben rich enough?
Because the UK government entered into fixed price purchase agreements in the past. And - to encourage adoption - offered very generous rates.
Currently, those purchase prices* are well below market rates.
Those twenty year fixed price contracts are starting to roll off, and wind farms will become merchant plants (i.e. price takers) like any other.
In all seriousness, MPs should receive some more orientation about parliamentary history and procedures. Won't help the liars like JRM, but might help some.
How can people get to become Tory MPs without understanding parliamentary system? Perhaps party needs an inquiry into selections. Britain is not a presidential system, there's the Queen. In our parliamentary system, lose confidence of parliamentary party and/or parliament? Gone.
I note with amusement that all those who criticised anyone who supported Boris as doing the Kremlin’s bidding now have to accept that getting rid of him is what the Kremlin wanted.
Labour have missed their chance of a snap election in favourable circumstances.
There was never any chance of that happening. It was entirely idle fantasy and speculation by half-wits.
There just isn't any support among a large majority of MPs for any such thing, as there is a large Conservative majority and the only way is down.
Johnson was keen to let the nonsense hang around as a nuclear threat, but the reality is that it wasn't a credible threat.
And a VoNC doesn't give you an election - even if it had passed rather than Tories rallying round, a caretaker administration is formed which can command a Parliamentary majority.
Far more important than any of that is,,,,,,,,do they continue to embrace the hard target of net zero by 2050 at all costs?
Do you really think people would give a t*ss about Chris effing Pincher if they weren't getting poorer by the month,, the forecasts were for them to get even poorer, and there was no prospect of a recovery?
So, your solution to higher energy bills caused by imports of fossil fuels is for us to use more fossil fuels in the future?
It's certainly a unique take.
You seem to be ignoring the green levies (Up to 15% of bills?) that Britons pay for renewables that we hear on here are as cheap as chips.
If Johnson had scrapped those subsidies, or even reduced them. he would still be PM now.
The green levies are a drop in the ocean that are about 8% of bills now and that percentage has been falling rapidly. If he had scrapped them, it would barely have been noticed.
And those levies aren't all to fund renewables either. A significant chunk of that fund goes to contribute towards paying for the bills of those who would struggle to pay for them otherwise, a form of welfare in other words.
The point remains.
If renewables are so cheap, then why do we have to subsidise them? Isn't Lord Deben rich enough?
Well in part because we're committed to do so from before they were so cheap. Investments in older renewables, were made with a commitment to pay a certain tariff for years to come. New investments haven't had that for a while in many sectors. New solar investment won't get the feed in tariffs old ones did. New wind turbines don't get the fixed tariffs old ones did. We still need to pay what we committed to in the past and will do for the duration of those contracts, but that doesn't mean new investments are getting the same deal - new investments are economic on their own terms, so why would you avoid them now?
Do you think old contracts that are committed to shouldn't be honoured? Or new ones, without subsidies, that are economically cheaper shouldn't be signed?
No one who installs solar in the UK takes the feed in tariff anymore, because it pays only about 20% of retail electricity prices.
I've seen 4 PMs quit before Johnson & with each it was sad on a human level, whatever you personally felt about them. Brown & his little boys, walking out of no 10. May getting tearful. With Johnson: nada. Snide, lacking in grace & self awareness.
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Johnson's lies duringwinning the Brexit campaign was what put us in the dire position of either inflicting a costly policy error on the economy or damaging trust in our democracy. There was no good outcome from there, but it was Johnson who put us there. We should have implemented a soft Brexit but that was blocked by May's red lines and the Tories whipping against those options in the Commons. And Johnson doesn't even believe in Brexit, the whole thing is simply a testimony to his infinite vanity and ambition.
FTFY. And again, it's not just that Leave won, but that Cameron had refused to allow planning for what a Leave vote would mean.
This just looks like an attempt to evade responsibility, like we saw with some lefties last night. If you put Corbyn up against Boris, you have to take some of the blame for the public seeing the latter as the lesser of two evils. Similarly, if you spent 25 years stopping the public having any say on the European Project beginning with Maastricht, leaving only the nuclear button available to the public, you can't blame them for pushing it.
I criticised Labour for choosing Corbyn as leader on here yesterday and repeatedly in the past. It was a disastrously stupid thing to do. I voted against him as leader twice. We gave the public every opportunity to vote against what you call the European Project, in the usual way of a parliamentary democracy. What was UKIP's top vote share in a Westminster election? Referenda are a poor way of doing politics, they attract every kind of protest vote and dishonest campaigning hence you end up with a vote for a Brexit that meant different things to different people, that nobody could implement in the way it was sold, which has made us all poorer, and which the public no longer support. It has been a total disaster, leaving us divided and weak. And Boris Johnson was the one who got it over the line. So no, I don't believe he got the big calls right.
When were the public given an opportunity to vote against the European Project?
Do you mean 2010 when the Lib Dems were elected on a manifesto promising a referendum, which they then opposed holding.
Do you mean 2005 when the Lib Dems, Labour and Conservatives were all elected on a manifesto promising a referendum, which Labour then refused to hold?
2015 was the third General Election in a row where MPs were elected on a promise to hold a referendum. It wasn't some novel idea invented by Cameron.
Labour promised to hold a referendum on the European constitution. The European constitution was abandoned after other countries voted it down. So the UK didn't hold a referendum on it.
Far more important than any of that is,,,,,,,,do they continue to embrace the hard target of net zero by 2050 at all costs?
Do you really think people would give a t*ss about Chris effing Pincher if they weren't getting poorer by the month,, the forecasts were for them to get even poorer, and there was no prospect of a recovery?
So, your solution to higher energy bills caused by imports of fossil fuels is for us to use more fossil fuels in the future?
It's certainly a unique take.
You seem to be ignoring the green levies (Up to 15% of bills?) that Britons pay for renewables that we hear on here are as cheap as chips.
If Johnson had scrapped those subsidies, or even reduced them. he would still be PM now.
The green levies are a drop in the ocean that are about 8% of bills now and that percentage has been falling rapidly. If he had scrapped them, it would barely have been noticed.
And those levies aren't all to fund renewables either. A significant chunk of that fund goes to contribute towards paying for the bills of those who would struggle to pay for them otherwise, a form of welfare in other words.
The point remains.
If renewables are so cheap, then why do we have to subsidise them? Isn't Lord Deben rich enough?
Well in part because we're committed to do so from before they were so cheap. Investments in older renewables, were made with a commitment to pay a certain tariff for years to come. New investments haven't had that for a while in many sectors. New solar investment won't get the feed in tariffs old ones did. New wind turbines don't get the fixed tariffs old ones did. We still need to pay what we committed to in the past and will do for the duration of those contracts, but that doesn't mean new investments are getting the same deal - new investments are economic on their own terms, so why would you avoid them now?
Do you think old contracts that are committed to shouldn't be honoured? Or new ones, without subsidies, that are economically cheaper shouldn't be signed?
No one who installs solar in the UK takes the feed in tariff anymore, because it pays only about 20% of retail electricity prices.
Indeed, that was my point, but old investments that were made a decade ago and still stand are still entitled to it, aren't they?
WTF is Andrew Bridgen alluding to there? Boris being 'unwell'
There's been rumours for a while that he struggles with long Covid then there's the rumours his mental health isn't well because he's not shagging as much.
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Johnson's lies duringwinning the Brexit campaign was what put us in the dire position of either inflicting a costly policy error on the economy or damaging trust in our democracy. There was no good outcome from there, but it was Johnson who put us there. We should have implemented a soft Brexit but that was blocked by May's red lines and the Tories whipping against those options in the Commons. And Johnson doesn't even believe in Brexit, the whole thing is simply a testimony to his infinite vanity and ambition.
FTFY. And again, it's not just that Leave won, but that Cameron had refused to allow planning for what a Leave vote would mean.
This just looks like an attempt to evade responsibility, like we saw with some lefties last night. If you put Corbyn up against Boris, you have to take some of the blame for the public seeing the latter as the lesser of two evils. Similarly, if you spent 25 years stopping the public having any say on the European Project beginning with Maastricht, leaving only the nuclear button available to the public, you can't blame them for pushing it.
I criticised Labour for choosing Corbyn as leader on here yesterday and repeatedly in the past. It was a disastrously stupid thing to do. I voted against him as leader twice. We gave the public every opportunity to vote against what you call the European Project, in the usual way of a parliamentary democracy. What was UKIP's top vote share in a Westminster election? Referenda are a poor way of doing politics, they attract every kind of protest vote and dishonest campaigning hence you end up with a vote for a Brexit that meant different things to different people, that nobody could implement in the way it was sold, which has made us all poorer, and which the public no longer support. It has been a total disaster, leaving us divided and weak. And Boris Johnson was the one who got it over the line. So no, I don't believe he got the big calls right.
When were the public given an opportunity to vote against the European Project?
Do you mean 2010 when the Lib Dems were elected on a manifesto promising a referendum, which they then opposed holding.
Do you mean 2005 when the Lib Dems, Labour and Conservatives were all elected on a manifesto promising a referendum, which Labour then refused to hold?
2015 was the third General Election in a row where MPs were elected on a promise to hold a referendum. It wasn't some novel idea invented by Cameron.
Labour promised to hold a referendum on the European constitution. The European constitution was abandoned after other countries voted it down. So the UK didn't hold a referendum on it.
Strongly suspect a woman will be seen the best to confront Starmer.
Truss and Pitel would be a disaster for the Tories though. I can't quite put my finger on why I feel Truss would go down like a lead balloon but I think it is her presence. She always seems like a lightweight mimicking a serious politician.
Yes, I have sympathy with that take.
Truss has that slightly distant response of a ventriloquists dummy.
I note with amusement that all those who criticised anyone who supported Boris as doing the Kremlin’s bidding now have to accept that getting rid of him is what the Kremlin wanted.
Rubbish, he delivered (or so he claims) the 2016 referendum result, a result much hoped for (and ably assisted) by the Kremlin. He is also a chaotic joke, so Putin would have been very happy for him to remain in place. The only person Putin would prefer would be Jezza Corbyn
WTF is Andrew Bridgen alluding to there? Boris being 'unwell'
There's been rumours for a while that he struggles with long Covid then there's the rumours his mental health isn't well because he's not shagging as much.
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Strongly suspect a woman will be seen the best to confront Starmer.
Truss and Pitel would be a disaster for the Tories though. I can't quite put my finger on why I feel Truss would go down like a lead balloon but I think it is her presence. She always seems like a lightweight mimicking a serious politician.
Yes, I have sympathy with that take.
Truss has that slightly distant response of a ventriloquists dummy.
WTF is Andrew Bridgen alluding to there? Boris being 'unwell'
There's been rumours for a while that he struggles with long Covid then there's the rumours his mental health isn't well because he's not shagging as much.
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Oh and money worries.
Can you not have sex when pregnant or something?
You can but it can be a challenge.
Factor in tiredness and morning sickness, oh and the need to pee gallons every two minutes...
WTF is Andrew Bridgen alluding to there? Boris being 'unwell'
There's been rumours for a while that he struggles with long Covid then there's the rumours his mental health isn't well because he's not shagging as much.
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Johnson's lies duringwinning the Brexit campaign was what put us in the dire position of either inflicting a costly policy error on the economy or damaging trust in our democracy. There was no good outcome from there, but it was Johnson who put us there. We should have implemented a soft Brexit but that was blocked by May's red lines and the Tories whipping against those options in the Commons. And Johnson doesn't even believe in Brexit, the whole thing is simply a testimony to his infinite vanity and ambition.
FTFY. And again, it's not just that Leave won, but that Cameron had refused to allow planning for what a Leave vote would mean.
This just looks like an attempt to evade responsibility, like we saw with some lefties last night. If you put Corbyn up against Boris, you have to take some of the blame for the public seeing the latter as the lesser of two evils. Similarly, if you spent 25 years stopping the public having any say on the European Project beginning with Maastricht, leaving only the nuclear button available to the public, you can't blame them for pushing it.
I criticised Labour for choosing Corbyn as leader on here yesterday and repeatedly in the past. It was a disastrously stupid thing to do. I voted against him as leader twice. We gave the public every opportunity to vote against what you call the European Project, in the usual way of a parliamentary democracy. What was UKIP's top vote share in a Westminster election? Referenda are a poor way of doing politics, they attract every kind of protest vote and dishonest campaigning hence you end up with a vote for a Brexit that meant different things to different people, that nobody could implement in the way it was sold, which has made us all poorer, and which the public no longer support. It has been a total disaster, leaving us divided and weak. And Boris Johnson was the one who got it over the line. So no, I don't believe he got the big calls right.
When were the public given an opportunity to vote against the European Project?
Do you mean 2010 when the Lib Dems were elected on a manifesto promising a referendum, which they then opposed holding.
Do you mean 2005 when the Lib Dems, Labour and Conservatives were all elected on a manifesto promising a referendum, which Labour then refused to hold?
2015 was the third General Election in a row where MPs were elected on a promise to hold a referendum. It wasn't some novel idea invented by Cameron.
Labour promised to hold a referendum on the European constitution. The European constitution was abandoned after other countries voted it down. So the UK didn't hold a referendum on it.
The European constitution wasn't abandoned, it was renamed the Lisbon Treaty. So the UK could and should have held a referendum on it.
You claimed the public could have used normal Parliamentary processes - the point is though, they did!
The normal Parliamentary process (2005) meant Labour promised to hold a vote, which people voted for and they reneged on, and Labour haven't been in power since.
The normal Parliamentary process (2010) meant the Lib Dems promised to hold a vote, which people voted for and they then were horrified when Cameron chose to implement their policy. They haven't been in power since.
The normal Parliamentary process (2015) meant third time in a row people voted for a manifesto of a vote and that got a majority. Then we had the referendum.
The normal Parliamentary process (2017) meant that an overwhelming majority (Labour + Tories + some others) of people were elected on pro-Brexit platforms, following the referendum.
The normal Parliamentary process (2019) gave an 80 seat majority to get Brexit done. Fifth normal Parliamentary process in a row that people expressed their views, even if you disliked it, not even counting the referendum.
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Look at Europe. Look at the dreadful f8icking state it is in. Betting the bank on Russian gas. At war with its farmers. Double digit inflation in some areas. Central bank able to do nothing for fear of screwing the weaker states.
Why anyone wants to rejoin that, I will absolutely never know.
The Eurozone and the US are both at 8.6%, while the UK is at 9.1%.
Why?
Because the cost of oil, gas and grain has gone through the roof.
I wonder how much better we'd be off if the BoE had pushed the 0.5% rise the last two goes around and sterling was sitting at $1.27-1.29, a lot of the current inflation is imported and priced in dollars. The Bank's failure to properly raise rates has compounded out inflation issue.
I note with amusement that all those who criticised anyone who supported Boris as doing the Kremlin’s bidding now have to accept that getting rid of him is what the Kremlin wanted.
All candidates need to make it clear that the Ukraine policy will be continued.
Ukraine is fortunately/unfortunately in the position of being his current devotion and having not yet been let down by him.
So long as the weapons and training keep coming, the Ukranians will be happy.
I think that this will be another nail in Johnson's self image. Those who come after will be equally lauded by Zelensky when they continue to do the same thing.
Not that it wasn't the right thing to do, just that Johnson is not some international colossus, working miracles. He (for once) didn't do the *wrong* thing.
Despite his image at home, his image abroad is one of the savior of Ukraine, from foreign journalists.
WTF is Andrew Bridgen alluding to there? Boris being 'unwell'
There's been rumours for a while that he struggles with long Covid then there's the rumours his mental health isn't well because he's not shagging as much.
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Oh and money worries.
I bet he is kicking himself he didn't just step down earlier under the guise of long covid.
Far more important than any of that is,,,,,,,,do they continue to embrace the hard target of net zero by 2050 at all costs?
Do you really think people would give a t*ss about Chris effing Pincher if they weren't getting poorer by the month,, the forecasts were for them to get even poorer, and there was no prospect of a recovery?
So, your solution to higher energy bills caused by imports of fossil fuels is for us to use more fossil fuels in the future?
It's certainly a unique take.
You seem to be ignoring the green levies (Up to 15% of bills?) that Britons pay for renewables that we hear on here are as cheap as chips.
If Johnson had scrapped those subsidies, or even reduced them. he would still be PM now.
The green levies are a drop in the ocean that are about 8% of bills now and that percentage has been falling rapidly. If he had scrapped them, it would barely have been noticed.
And those levies aren't all to fund renewables either. A significant chunk of that fund goes to contribute towards paying for the bills of those who would struggle to pay for them otherwise, a form of welfare in other words.
The point remains.
If renewables are so cheap, then why do we have to subsidise them? Isn't Lord Deben rich enough?
Well in part because we're committed to do so from before they were so cheap. Investments in older renewables, were made with a commitment to pay a certain tariff for years to come. New investments haven't had that for a while in many sectors. New solar investment won't get the feed in tariffs old ones did. New wind turbines don't get the fixed tariffs old ones did. We still need to pay what we committed to in the past and will do for the duration of those contracts, but that doesn't mean new investments are getting the same deal - new investments are economic on their own terms, so why would you avoid them now?
Do you think old contracts that are committed to shouldn't be honoured? Or new ones, without subsidies, that are economically cheaper shouldn't be signed?
No one who installs solar in the UK takes the feed in tariff anymore, because it pays only about 20% of retail electricity prices.
Indeed, that was my point, but old investments that were made a decade ago and still stand are still entitled to it, aren't they?
All candidates need to make it clear that the Ukraine policy will be continued.
Ukraine is fortunately/unfortunately in the position of being his current devotion and having not yet been let down by him.
So long as the weapons and training keep coming, the Ukranians will be happy.
I think that this will be another nail in Johnson's self image. Those who come after will be equally lauded by Zelensky when they continue to do the same thing.
Not that it wasn't the right thing to do, just that Johnson is not some international colossus, working miracles. He (for once) didn't do the *wrong* thing.
Despite his image at home, his image abroad is one of the savior of Ukraine, from foreign journalists.
Exactly - but I suspect that may dissipate in his absence, when his successor continues to implement the policy.
Watching NBC from the US... Nothing about Boris on this side of the pond that I've seen. Seems strange to me that the implosion of the Government of the 5th/6th/7th largest economy hasn't been mentioned. Am I missing something?
It is the main news on the ABC, Fox news websites and CNN even if Americans are normally focused on their own affairs
WTF is Andrew Bridgen alluding to there? Boris being 'unwell'
There's been rumours for a while that he struggles with long Covid then there's the rumours his mental health isn't well because he's not shagging as much.
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Oh and money worries.
Can you not have sex when pregnant or something?
You can but it can be a challenge.
Factor in tiredness and morning sickness, oh and the need to pee gallons every two minutes...
Well, that last bit would be added bonus for some men.
WTF is Andrew Bridgen alluding to there? Boris being 'unwell'
There's been rumours for a while that he struggles with long Covid then there's the rumours his mental health isn't well because he's not shagging as much.
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Oh and money worries.
I bet he is kicking himself he didn't just step down earlier under the guise of long covid.
No he isn't, he's planning his revenge. Pay attention.
Far more important than any of that is,,,,,,,,do they continue to embrace the hard target of net zero by 2050 at all costs?
Do you really think people would give a t*ss about Chris effing Pincher if they weren't getting poorer by the month,, the forecasts were for them to get even poorer, and there was no prospect of a recovery?
So, your solution to higher energy bills caused by imports of fossil fuels is for us to use more fossil fuels in the future?
It's certainly a unique take.
You seem to be ignoring the green levies (Up to 15% of bills?) that Britons pay for renewables that we hear on here are as cheap as chips.
If Johnson had scrapped those subsidies, or even reduced them. he would still be PM now.
The green levies are a drop in the ocean that are about 8% of bills now and that percentage has been falling rapidly. If he had scrapped them, it would barely have been noticed.
And those levies aren't all to fund renewables either. A significant chunk of that fund goes to contribute towards paying for the bills of those who would struggle to pay for them otherwise, a form of welfare in other words.
The point remains.
If renewables are so cheap, then why do we have to subsidise them? Isn't Lord Deben rich enough?
Well in part because we're committed to do so from before they were so cheap. Investments in older renewables, were made with a commitment to pay a certain tariff for years to come. New investments haven't had that for a while in many sectors. New solar investment won't get the feed in tariffs old ones did. New wind turbines don't get the fixed tariffs old ones did. We still need to pay what we committed to in the past and will do for the duration of those contracts, but that doesn't mean new investments are getting the same deal - new investments are economic on their own terms, so why would you avoid them now?
Do you think old contracts that are committed to shouldn't be honoured? Or new ones, without subsidies, that are economically cheaper shouldn't be signed?
No one who installs solar in the UK takes the feed in tariff anymore, because it pays only about 20% of retail electricity prices.
I'm on £153.80 / MwH or £182.95 if you include the deemed element.
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Look at Europe. Look at the dreadful f8icking state it is in. Betting the bank on Russian gas. At war with its farmers. Double digit inflation in some areas. Central bank able to do nothing for fear of screwing the weaker states.
Why anyone wants to rejoin that, I will absolutely never know.
The Eurozone and the US are both at 8.6%, while the UK is at 9.1%.
Why?
Because the cost of oil, gas and grain has gone through the roof.
I wonder how much better we'd be off if the BoE had pushed the 0.5% rise the last two goes around and sterling was sitting at $1.27-1.29, a lot of the current inflation is imported and priced in dollars. The Bank's failure to properly raise rates has compounded out inflation issue.
The USD has moved pretty much in lockstep against the Euro, the Yen, the Pound, the Rupee and even the Canadian and Australian Dollars (which are big commodity exporters), so it feels mostly like it's a rush to safety.
Higher rates might help lift currency somewhat... but they would also hit UK consumers at a time when they are already being squeezed.
WTF is Andrew Bridgen alluding to there? Boris being 'unwell'
There's been rumours for a while that he struggles with long Covid then there's the rumours his mental health isn't well because he's not shagging as much.
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Oh and money worries.
Of course as ex PM he's going to have the battalions of coppers for the rest of his life
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Look at Europe. Look at the dreadful f8icking state it is in. Betting the bank on Russian gas. At war with its farmers. Double digit inflation in some areas. Central bank able to do nothing for fear of screwing the weaker states.
Why anyone wants to rejoin that, I will absolutely never know.
The Eurozone and the US are both at 8.6%, while the UK is at 9.1%.
Why?
Because the cost of oil, gas and grain has gone through the roof.
How come Switzerland isn't suffering the same inflationary pressures as the rest of europe?
Do they rely on hydro and nuclear power and are not as dependent on gas as other countries ?
Strength of the Swiss franc? It’s a very hard currency
The franc hasn't changed that much versus sterling.
But the fact that they get most of their electricity from hydro power, and they did have negative inflation in most of recent years, means that they have not as much extra inflation and added onto a lower base.
When I first did business in Switzerland around 2001, 1 Swiss Franc was worth £0.4. It is now worth £0.86
WTF is Andrew Bridgen alluding to there? Boris being 'unwell'
There's been rumours for a while that he struggles with long Covid then there's the rumours his mental health isn't well because he's not shagging as much.
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Oh and money worries.
I bet he is kicking himself he didn't just step down earlier under the guise of long covid.
No he isn't, he's planning his revenge. Pay attention.
Right now he's probably looking for a lab that can breed a virus-resistant form of SARS-2, so he can flip from a "Living with COVID" narrative to an "Only Boris can save you from SARS-3" narrative.
Watching NBC from the US... Nothing about Boris on this side of the pond that I've seen. Seems strange to me that the implosion of the Government of the 5th/6th/7th largest economy hasn't been mentioned. Am I missing something?
It is the main news on the ABC, Fox news websites and CNN even if Americans are normally focused on their own affairs
You could argue Johnson was brought down by Owen Paterson, Christopher Pincher, Neil Parish, Imran Ahmad Khan.
and Boris Johnson
Interesting that three of them had surnames beginning with P. If he could have managed a few more he could have have the 6 Ps, which as every business person knows stands for Perfect Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
WTF is Andrew Bridgen alluding to there? Boris being 'unwell'
There's been rumours for a while that he struggles with long Covid then there's the rumours his mental health isn't well because he's not shagging as much.
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Oh and money worries.
Can you not have sex when pregnant or something?
I believe there are websites for people who are into that kind of thing.
“Olexander Scherba, Ukraine’s former ambassador to Austria, thanked Johnson on Twitter. “Many of my friends hated Boris Johnson for his role in Brexit. Quite frankly, I disliked him for that too. But my God, he did the right thing about Ukraine. And I’m not sure he would have been able to do it if the UK were still in the EU. Anyways, thank you, Boris!” he wrote
Zelenskiy’s office has made no secret of its fondness for Johnson, repeatedly praising him as an example to other world leaders.”
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Look at Europe. Look at the dreadful f8icking state it is in. Betting the bank on Russian gas. At war with its farmers. Double digit inflation in some areas. Central bank able to do nothing for fear of screwing the weaker states.
Why anyone wants to rejoin that, I will absolutely never know.
The Eurozone and the US are both at 8.6%, while the UK is at 9.1%.
Why?
Because the cost of oil, gas and grain has gone through the roof.
How come Switzerland isn't suffering the same inflationary pressures as the rest of europe?
Do they rely on hydro and nuclear power and are not as dependent on gas as other countries ?
Strength of the Swiss franc? It’s a very hard currency
The franc hasn't changed that much versus sterling.
But the fact that they get most of their electricity from hydro power, and they did have negative inflation in most of recent years, means that they have not as much extra inflation and added onto a lower base.
When I first did business in Switzerland around 2001, 1 Swiss Franc was worth £0.4. It is now worth £0.86
There was a big jump when it decoupled from the euro.
You could argue Johnson was brought down by Owen Paterson, Christopher Pincher, Neil Parish, Imran Ahmad Khan.
You'd be totally wrong, though.
The by-elections caused by Parish and Khan were out of Johnson's control, just as most by-elections are. They happen, and lost by-elections are unhelpful to any PM.
But the reason they were lost wasn't down to Parish or Khan. In neither case was their conduct helpful to the Tory campaign, but they were lost due to the PM and his Government being unpopular. Indeed, while Khan's conduct was a serious criminal matter, Parish elicited a degree of sympathy as he had done something crazy for which he was genuinely, deeply embarrassed. Note that Chesham & Amersham was lost earlier, when the Conservatives were doing rather better generally, and no blame attaches to the late MP - Governments lose by-elections, not really outgoing MPs.
In the cases of Paterson and Pincher, the damage was caused by unforgivable arrogance and stupidly in handling the matters by the PM personally. No PM gets away without a problem erupting, but Johnson turned them into existential crises.
Paterson was caught on a clear breach of lobbying rules. Johnson was persuaded, by IDS and others, to blatantly try to bend the rules to save him. Then, when it became clear there were significant headwinds, he threw all the MPs who had defended the indefensible on his behalf under the bus, causing enormous resentment.
For Pincher, it was Johnson's blunder in appointing him when he knew the background. That was a bad enough error, but then he lied about what he knew, and had colleagues debase themselves by repeating his lie on the media rounds.
Don't fall into the Johnson "poor me" trap of thinking this is down to other people letting him down. This is ALL Johnson personally. No Government is free of problems with personnel and election setbacks. But his handling of them - the constant lies, the overweening arrogance, the willingness to sacrifice others for himself at every turn - that's what has burned through the goodwill he had from a strong election win in 2019 in just two and a half years. Contrary to the mantra of him and his acolytes - he got the big calls wrong.
Just had a word with our window cleaner, who asked me if Boris had gone yet. He said that it was a shame, and although he lied him, as a liar he had to go. "I mean, partying and drinking whilst everyone else was locked up."
He asked me who I thought would take over. I said Raab or Wallace, then cheekily added Aaron Bell onto the list.
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Look at Europe. Look at the dreadful f8icking state it is in. Betting the bank on Russian gas. At war with its farmers. Double digit inflation in some areas. Central bank able to do nothing for fear of screwing the weaker states.
Why anyone wants to rejoin that, I will absolutely never know.
The Eurozone and the US are both at 8.6%, while the UK is at 9.1%.
Why?
Because the cost of oil, gas and grain has gone through the roof.
How come Switzerland isn't suffering the same inflationary pressures as the rest of europe?
Do they rely on hydro and nuclear power and are not as dependent on gas as other countries ?
Strength of the Swiss franc? It’s a very hard currency
The franc hasn't changed that much versus sterling.
But the fact that they get most of their electricity from hydro power, and they did have negative inflation in most of recent years, means that they have not as much extra inflation and added onto a lower base.
When I first did business in Switzerland around 2001, 1 Swiss Franc was worth £0.4. It is now worth £0.86
Absolutely, but the overwhelming majority of that change happened 2007 - 2011, not the past few months.
Early December 2021 1 Swiss Franc was worth £0.82, by early June 2022 it was worth £0.82
Far more important than any of that is,,,,,,,,do they continue to embrace the hard target of net zero by 2050 at all costs?
Do you really think people would give a t*ss about Chris effing Pincher if they weren't getting poorer by the month,, the forecasts were for them to get even poorer, and there was no prospect of a recovery?
So, your solution to higher energy bills caused by imports of fossil fuels is for us to use more fossil fuels in the future?
It's certainly a unique take.
You seem to be ignoring the green levies (Up to 15% of bills?) that Britons pay for renewables that we hear on here are as cheap as chips.
If Johnson had scrapped those subsidies, or even reduced them. he would still be PM now.
The green levies are a drop in the ocean that are about 8% of bills now and that percentage has been falling rapidly. If he had scrapped them, it would barely have been noticed.
And those levies aren't all to fund renewables either. A significant chunk of that fund goes to contribute towards paying for the bills of those who would struggle to pay for them otherwise, a form of welfare in other words.
The point remains.
If renewables are so cheap, then why do we have to subsidise them? Isn't Lord Deben rich enough?
Well in part because we're committed to do so from before they were so cheap. Investments in older renewables, were made with a commitment to pay a certain tariff for years to come. New investments haven't had that for a while in many sectors. New solar investment won't get the feed in tariffs old ones did. New wind turbines don't get the fixed tariffs old ones did. We still need to pay what we committed to in the past and will do for the duration of those contracts, but that doesn't mean new investments are getting the same deal - new investments are economic on their own terms, so why would you avoid them now?
Do you think old contracts that are committed to shouldn't be honoured? Or new ones, without subsidies, that are economically cheaper shouldn't be signed?
No one who installs solar in the UK takes the feed in tariff anymore, because it pays only about 20% of retail electricity prices.
I'm on £153.80 / MwH or £182.95 if you include the deemed element.
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Johnson's lies duringwinning the Brexit campaign was what put us in the dire position of either inflicting a costly policy error on the economy or damaging trust in our democracy. There was no good outcome from there, but it was Johnson who put us there. We should have implemented a soft Brexit but that was blocked by May's red lines and the Tories whipping against those options in the Commons. And Johnson doesn't even believe in Brexit, the whole thing is simply a testimony to his infinite vanity and ambition.
FTFY. And again, it's not just that Leave won, but that Cameron had refused to allow planning for what a Leave vote would mean.
This just looks like an attempt to evade responsibility, like we saw with some lefties last night. If you put Corbyn up against Boris, you have to take some of the blame for the public seeing the latter as the lesser of two evils. Similarly, if you spent 25 years stopping the public having any say on the European Project beginning with Maastricht, leaving only the nuclear button available to the public, you can't blame them for pushing it.
I criticised Labour for choosing Corbyn as leader on here yesterday and repeatedly in the past. It was a disastrously stupid thing to do. I voted against him as leader twice. We gave the public every opportunity to vote against what you call the European Project, in the usual way of a parliamentary democracy. What was UKIP's top vote share in a Westminster election? Referenda are a poor way of doing politics, they attract every kind of protest vote and dishonest campaigning hence you end up with a vote for a Brexit that meant different things to different people, that nobody could implement in the way it was sold, which has made us all poorer, and which the public no longer support. It has been a total disaster, leaving us divided and weak. And Boris Johnson was the one who got it over the line. So no, I don't believe he got the big calls right.
When were the public given an opportunity to vote against the European Project?
Do you mean 2010 when the Lib Dems were elected on a manifesto promising a referendum, which they then opposed holding.
Do you mean 2005 when the Lib Dems, Labour and Conservatives were all elected on a manifesto promising a referendum, which Labour then refused to hold?
2015 was the third General Election in a row where MPs were elected on a promise to hold a referendum. It wasn't some novel idea invented by Cameron.
Labour promised to hold a referendum on the European constitution. The European constitution was abandoned after other countries voted it down. So the UK didn't hold a referendum on it.
If Johnson were to lose a vote of no confidence, under Conservative Party rules he would be barred from the subsequent leadership election. Since he has avoided a vote of no confidence by promising to resign, is there anything that would prevent him from standing in the leadership election? His hard core of MP loyalists isn't huge but he might start out with a larger vote than some of the other contenders.
Far more important than any of that is,,,,,,,,do they continue to embrace the hard target of net zero by 2050 at all costs?
Do you really think people would give a t*ss about Chris effing Pincher if they weren't getting poorer by the month,, the forecasts were for them to get even poorer, and there was no prospect of a recovery?
So, your solution to higher energy bills caused by imports of fossil fuels is for us to use more fossil fuels in the future?
It's certainly a unique take.
You seem to be ignoring the green levies (Up to 15% of bills?) that Britons pay for renewables that we hear on here are as cheap as chips.
If Johnson had scrapped those subsidies, or even reduced them. he would still be PM now.
The green levies are a drop in the ocean that are about 8% of bills now and that percentage has been falling rapidly. If he had scrapped them, it would barely have been noticed.
And those levies aren't all to fund renewables either. A significant chunk of that fund goes to contribute towards paying for the bills of those who would struggle to pay for them otherwise, a form of welfare in other words.
The point remains.
If renewables are so cheap, then why do we have to subsidise them? Isn't Lord Deben rich enough?
Well in part because we're committed to do so from before they were so cheap. Investments in older renewables, were made with a commitment to pay a certain tariff for years to come. New investments haven't had that for a while in many sectors. New solar investment won't get the feed in tariffs old ones did. New wind turbines don't get the fixed tariffs old ones did. We still need to pay what we committed to in the past and will do for the duration of those contracts, but that doesn't mean new investments are getting the same deal - new investments are economic on their own terms, so why would you avoid them now?
Do you think old contracts that are committed to shouldn't be honoured? Or new ones, without subsidies, that are economically cheaper shouldn't be signed?
No one who installs solar in the UK takes the feed in tariff anymore, because it pays only about 20% of retail electricity prices.
I'm on £153.80 / MwH or £182.95 if you include the deemed element.
When did you install your system?
Ours is similar, from memory. Previous owners installed in 2012 or 2013 IIRC, as part of new roof. We bought in 2015.
Tory MPs queueing up to deliver the eulogies after stabbing him in the back... The chutzpah is incredible.
Someone here yesterday came up with the perfect epitaph for Boris:
Got the big calls right, treated the small calls with utter contempt.
Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong. Treated the voters with utter contempt.
Implementing the biggest democratic vote in British history is treating the voters with utter contempt? OK then...
Lied to them to win the Brexit vote. Lied to them in 2019 about his deal. Lied to them about levelling up. Lied to them about 40 new hospitals. Lied in the house of commons. Lied to the cabinet. Yeah, he's treated the voters, actually our entire democratic system, with contempt. Good riddance.
You said "Got the biggest call (Brexit) wrong". But it's the alternative to this (ignoring the vote and remaining in the EU anyway as advocated by SKS) is what would have been treating the voters with contempt.
Boris's negatives far outweigh his positives - but he did have positives.
Look at Europe. Look at the dreadful f8icking state it is in. Betting the bank on Russian gas. At war with its farmers. Double digit inflation in some areas. Central bank able to do nothing for fear of screwing the weaker states.
Why anyone wants to rejoin that, I will absolutely never know.
The Eurozone and the US are both at 8.6%, while the UK is at 9.1%.
Why?
Because the cost of oil, gas and grain has gone through the roof.
How come Switzerland isn't suffering the same inflationary pressures as the rest of europe?
Do they rely on hydro and nuclear power and are not as dependent on gas as other countries ?
Strength of the Swiss franc? It’s a very hard currency
The franc hasn't changed that much versus sterling.
But the fact that they get most of their electricity from hydro power, and they did have negative inflation in most of recent years, means that they have not as much extra inflation and added onto a lower base.
When I first did business in Switzerland around 2001, 1 Swiss Franc was worth £0.4. It is now worth £0.86
There was a big jump when it decoupled from the euro.
I am not sure when that was, but looking at the graphs on XE it was still at around 0.4 in 2007 and the pound has declined in value relative to the Franc steadily since then
WTF is Andrew Bridgen alluding to there? Boris being 'unwell'
There's been rumours for a while that he struggles with long Covid then there's the rumours his mental health isn't well because he's not shagging as much.
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Oh and money worries.
There was a weird reference in his speech to his police protection officers being the only people who don't leak. Makes me wonder what they know that the rest of us don't.
WTF is Andrew Bridgen alluding to there? Boris being 'unwell'
There's been rumours for a while that he struggles with long Covid then there's the rumours his mental health isn't well because he's not shagging as much.
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Oh and money worries.
I bet he is kicking himself he didn't just step down earlier under the guise of long covid.
No he isn't, he's planning his revenge. Pay attention.
Right now he's probably looking for a lab that can breed a virus-resistant form of SARS-2, so he can flip from a "Living with COVID" narrative to an "Only Boris can save you from SARS-3" narrative.
“Olexander Scherba, Ukraine’s former ambassador to Austria, thanked Johnson on Twitter. “Many of my friends hated Boris Johnson for his role in Brexit. Quite frankly, I disliked him for that too. But my God, he did the right thing about Ukraine. And I’m not sure he would have been able to do it if the UK were still in the EU. Anyways, thank you, Boris!” he wrote
Zelenskiy’s office has made no secret of its fondness for Johnson, repeatedly praising him as an example to other world leaders.”
A cabinet minister has said that the abortion limit in the UK should be brought down by a month but the rule that two doctors must approve the procedure should be abolished.
Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, said the 24-week rule — the cut-off point for when the majority of women can have an abortion — was “too high”, suggesting that “20 weeks is where it should be”.
However, she insisted she was pro-choice and that she would not push for the rules to be changed.
In an interview with Times Radio due to air tomorrow, Dorries, 65, said: “Any woman who wants an abortion should just be able to have one.”
Her comments come after the Roe v Wade ruling was overturned in the United States, removing the constitutional right to the procedure. Many states in the country have since imposed restrictions on abortion.
If Johnson were to lose a vote of no confidence, under Conservative Party rules he would be barred from the subsequent leadership election. Since he has avoided a vote of no confidence by promising to resign, is there anything that would prevent him from standing in the leadership election? His hard core of MP loyalists isn't huge but he might start out with a larger vote than some of the other contenders.
Watching NBC from the US... Nothing about Boris on this side of the pond that I've seen. Seems strange to me that the implosion of the Government of the 5th/6th/7th largest economy hasn't been mentioned. Am I missing something?
It is the main news on the ABC, Fox news websites and CNN even if Americans are normally focused on their own affairs
Without covid no Partygate. And no Dom Cummings eye test. Everything else he could have shrugged off
While that's undeniably true, his essential flaw would get him in the end - he does not tell the truth, and he lacks the capacity to do detail. I think you can get away with lying to some extent, if you keep on top of the lies you have told, but not both.
And morally - someone who lies as easily as he does should not be running a whelk stall, let alone the country.
Comments
And those levies aren't all to fund renewables either. A significant chunk of that fund goes to contribute towards paying for the bills of those who would struggle to pay for them otherwise, a form of welfare in other words.
If they count Hancock, they need to add Sir Norfolk Passmore, as I've "declined" to throw my hat in the ring.
(1) Hydropower is two thirds of their energy generation, so there's no cost pressure there.
(2) Food is already incredibly expensive because it is probably the most protected agricultural market in the world, so no pressure from rising grain prices
(3) The Swiss are so rich, that very little of their income goes on commodities. If you look at the basket of goods used to calculate inflation, petrol is less than half what it is in the UK
If renewables are so cheap, then why do we have to subsidise them? Isn't Lord Deben rich enough?
Do you mean 2010 when the Lib Dems were elected on a manifesto promising a referendum, which they then opposed holding.
Do you mean 2005 when the Lib Dems, Labour and Conservatives were all elected on a manifesto promising a referendum, which Labour then refused to hold?
2015 was the third General Election in a row where MPs were elected on a promise to hold a referendum. It wasn't some novel idea invented by Cameron.
And there is much that needs intelligent attention, as this story reminds us: 'Speaking alongside his British counterpart in London on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray called China the "biggest long-term threat" to both the U.S. and the U.K.
"The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology -- whatever it is that makes your industry tick -- and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market," Wray said while giving remarks to international business leaders. "And they're set on using every tool at their disposal to do it."'
source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fbi-director-calls-china-biggest-us-threat-details-attempts-to-undercut-economy/ar-AAZhVb0?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=b790bbd48d5c4073da6b28e6bb774dd9
(How are we doing on getting rid of our bad boy? I think we are making progress, bit by bit, legal action by legal action. For example: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/trump-appraiser-fined-10-000-a-day-for-not-producing-documents/ar-AAZf8uO?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=60a4203f47f3483d8a1e3b5a3b4dc66c
I have been saying for months that following Trump risks your wealth, your health, and even your personal freedom in extreme cases. I think taht, however slowly, more and more people are coming to agree with me.)
Hartlepool is an obvious example of that but Doncaster and even Sunderland are other places where Farage cost the Tories a win.
Do you think old contracts that are committed to shouldn't be honoured? Or new ones, without subsidies, that are economically cheaper shouldn't be signed?
Not that it wasn't the right thing to do, just that Johnson is not some international colossus, working miracles. He (for once) didn't do the *wrong* thing.
“Do you remember the time the tories won in Stoke?” Future PBers will remark, with incredulity.
The new leader will revert to type. Their job is to serve the interests of wealthy members and voters in the south-east, while giving just enough scraps to the rest to scrape a majority.
Currently, those purchase prices* are well below market rates.
Those twenty year fixed price contracts are starting to roll off, and wind farms will become merchant plants (i.e. price takers) like any other.
* Except some small scale solar from pre 2012
How can people get to become Tory MPs without understanding parliamentary system? Perhaps party needs an inquiry into selections. Britain is not a presidential system, there's the Queen. In our parliamentary system, lose confidence of parliamentary party and/or parliament? Gone.
https://twitter.com/iainmartin1/status/1544825584156565506?cxt=HHwWhICz-eKrqfAqAAAA
There just isn't any support among a large majority of MPs for any such thing, as there is a large Conservative majority and the only way is down.
Johnson was keen to let the nonsense hang around as a nuclear threat, but the reality is that it wasn't a credible threat.
And a VoNC doesn't give you an election - even if it had passed rather than Tories rallying round, a caretaker administration is formed which can command a Parliamentary majority.
https://twitter.com/gabyhinsliff/status/1545015839035981825
Apparently it didn't dawn on him that as PM, he just couldn't slip away quietly somewhere, he'd have a battalions of police officers with him.
The lockdowns made it even more difficult, and the fact that Carrie's been permanently pregnant, means he's not got his usual amount of fun.
Oh and money worries.
Factor in tiredness and morning sickness, oh and the need to pee gallons every two minutes...
You claimed the public could have used normal Parliamentary processes - the point is though, they did!
The normal Parliamentary process (2005) meant Labour promised to hold a vote, which people voted for and they reneged on, and Labour haven't been in power since.
The normal Parliamentary process (2010) meant the Lib Dems promised to hold a vote, which people voted for and they then were horrified when Cameron chose to implement their policy. They haven't been in power since.
The normal Parliamentary process (2015) meant third time in a row people voted for a manifesto of a vote and that got a majority. Then we had the referendum.
The normal Parliamentary process (2017) meant that an overwhelming majority (Labour + Tories + some others) of people were elected on pro-Brexit platforms, following the referendum.
The normal Parliamentary process (2019) gave an 80 seat majority to get Brexit done. Fifth normal Parliamentary process in a row that people expressed their views, even if you disliked it, not even counting the referendum.
"Sound" on Brexit
Low risk of scandal
Willing to offer unaffordable tax cuts.
3/3 Baker Mordaunt
2.5/3 Wallace, Javid
2/3 Truss, Braverman
1.5/3 Tugenhat, Hunt
1/3 Sunak
https://abcnews.go.com/
https://www.foxnews.com/
https://edition.cnn.com/
In any case the government has no longer imploded, the PM gas resigned and the Tory party will elect a new leader who will in turn replace them as PM
Higher rates might help lift currency somewhat... but they would also hit UK consumers at a time when they are already being squeezed.
awkward
Baker, Wallace and Hunt most pro life, Mordaunt, Zahawi and Truss most pro abortion
https://righttolife.org.uk/news/leadership-candidates-abortion
https://twitter.com/tompeck/status/1545026053642473472
What a fucking binfire
He thinks Johnson can't go soon enough. To put it very mildly.
“Olexander Scherba, Ukraine’s former ambassador to Austria, thanked Johnson on Twitter. “Many of my friends hated Boris Johnson for his role in Brexit. Quite frankly, I disliked him for that too. But my God, he did the right thing about Ukraine. And I’m not sure he would have been able to do it if the UK were still in the EU. Anyways, thank you, Boris!” he wrote
Zelenskiy’s office has made no secret of its fondness for Johnson, repeatedly praising him as an example to other world leaders.”
The by-elections caused by Parish and Khan were out of Johnson's control, just as most by-elections are. They happen, and lost by-elections are unhelpful to any PM.
But the reason they were lost wasn't down to Parish or Khan. In neither case was their conduct helpful to the Tory campaign, but they were lost due to the PM and his Government being unpopular. Indeed, while Khan's conduct was a serious criminal matter, Parish elicited a degree of sympathy as he had done something crazy for which he was genuinely, deeply embarrassed. Note that Chesham & Amersham was lost earlier, when the Conservatives were doing rather better generally, and no blame attaches to the late MP - Governments lose by-elections, not really outgoing MPs.
In the cases of Paterson and Pincher, the damage was caused by unforgivable arrogance and stupidly in handling the matters by the PM personally. No PM gets away without a problem erupting, but Johnson turned them into existential crises.
Paterson was caught on a clear breach of lobbying rules. Johnson was persuaded, by IDS and others, to blatantly try to bend the rules to save him. Then, when it became clear there were significant headwinds, he threw all the MPs who had defended the indefensible on his behalf under the bus, causing enormous resentment.
For Pincher, it was Johnson's blunder in appointing him when he knew the background. That was a bad enough error, but then he lied about what he knew, and had colleagues debase themselves by repeating his lie on the media rounds.
Don't fall into the Johnson "poor me" trap of thinking this is down to other people letting him down. This is ALL Johnson personally. No Government is free of problems with personnel and election setbacks. But his handling of them - the constant lies, the overweening arrogance, the willingness to sacrifice others for himself at every turn - that's what has burned through the goodwill he had from a strong election win in 2019 in just two and a half years. Contrary to the mantra of him and his acolytes - he got the big calls wrong.
Just had a word with our window cleaner, who asked me if Boris had gone yet. He said that it was a shame, and although he lied him, as a liar he had to go. "I mean, partying and drinking whilst everyone else was locked up."
He asked me who I thought would take over. I said Raab or Wallace, then cheekily added Aaron Bell onto the list.
Early December 2021 1 Swiss Franc was worth £0.82, by early June 2022 it was worth £0.82
Without covid no Partygate. And no Dom Cummings eye test. Everything else he could have shrugged off
And if in the top two, her chances of winning are fairly good too.
A cabinet minister has said that the abortion limit in the UK should be brought down by a month but the rule that two doctors must approve the procedure should be abolished.
Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, said the 24-week rule — the cut-off point for when the majority of women can have an abortion — was “too high”, suggesting that “20 weeks is where it should be”.
However, she insisted she was pro-choice and that she would not push for the rules to be changed.
In an interview with Times Radio due to air tomorrow, Dorries, 65, said: “Any woman who wants an abortion should just be able to have one.”
Her comments come after the Roe v Wade ruling was overturned in the United States, removing the constitutional right to the procedure. Many states in the country have since imposed restrictions on abortion.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nadine-dorries-bring-down-abortion-time-limit-vtc597dzz
Hahahahahaha
And morally - someone who lies as easily as he does should not be running a whelk stall, let alone the country.