Anyway, Hamilton at 11 and Russell each way at 17 may be value for the race. Perez at 11 perhaps even more so. Nobody else, save Verstappen, has as many top 2 finishes this year, and he's well ahead of both Ferrari drivers.
The British Grand Prix was slightly odd when it comes to trying to assess race pace given how things ended, but I think Mercedes has narrowed the gap far more than I anticipated beforehand. But, Red Bull still seems top dog to me (albeit with more reliability problems than the Silver Arrows).
There are 12 races left including Austria, so could Hamilton or Russell take the title? They're a long way off Verstappen (88 and 70 points respectively). it's highly improbable but not quite impossible given reliability and Ferrari deciding to shoot itself in the foot constantly.
However, Hamilton at 21 is too short (29 Betfair). Russell at 51, is better value, especially as the market doesn't appear to have noticed he's done a better job than Hamilton this year (so far).
I won't be dabbling in this as I already did around the false dawn of Miami and are flat if they fail and ahead if they succeed, but a free bet on Russell for the title may be worth considering.
Boris will not earn his much-needed money through sales of his personal memoir. He may get a mildly decent advance but the actual books won't sell. No one wants to read a serial liar's spin and self-justification these days. Biographies about this turbulent time might do better but non-fiction generally struggles these days. The internet is such a great, and terrible, resource for finding out information, as are endless tv shows, that there are very few rabbits left for a non-fiction author to pull out of the hat.
As I mentioned, I doubt he will fill halls for talks either. No one wants to listen to a failure and liar, and he's a poor public speaker. As chaotic as in everything else. His best hope will be after-dinner speeches when everyone is too drunk to mind incoherent ramblings about Peppa Pig world.
Leon got very personal with us all over this but, of course, the reason he's so irate is his own fear. Boris Johnson was a serial philanderer, a man approaching sixty whose attitude to sexual predation belonged to an era from which most of society has moved on. Boris Johnson got the top job for one reason and one reason only: to deliver Brexit. And that was on the back of the Remainer Parliament and an unelectable anti-Semitic Trotskyite Labour leader. As a person Boris was manifestly unsuited to the top job and the page on the chapter has already been turned. The flowers fade and the grass withers. It happens to all of us and some deserve it more than others.
The country is leaving Boris and his type of politics and personal behaviour behind. Whether that's under a reboot of the Conservative brand, or a completely new broom under Labour-LibDems, we will wait to see. But move on it has, and is.
The obsequious love affair goes on. I used to have a friend who wrote for the Mail. Must be pretty embarrassing for them now. A bit like Johnson's cabinet I suppose
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
Good to talk to @BBCr4today about Boris Johnson and what happens next. Made the point that Theresa May legislated to commit the UK to Net Zero during caretaker period, a sweeping (and potentially very expensive move) to try to cement her legacy
Westminster was so focused on the Conservative leadership contest and the Brexit wars that it passed without much comment
But it does show that for all the convention (spelled out in the Cabinet Manual) that PMs in this position should not try to make controversial or long term commitments, they can. Depends on how much protest it provokes
A find bright morning here in North Essex and a morning which I hope starts a good weekend for my family! Our diamond wedding celebration is tomorrow and we'll have all the family who can be there with us! On topic I personally I'm very glad to see the end of the Johnson premiership and I hope to get back to a bit more normality in British politics!
A find bright morning here in North Essex and a morning which I hope starts a good weekend for my family! Our diamond wedding celebration is tomorrow and we'll have all the family who can be there with us! On topic I personally I'm very glad to see the end of the Johnson premiership and I hope to get back to a bit more normality in British politics!
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
A find bright morning here in North Essex and a morning which I hope starts a good weekend for my family! Our diamond wedding celebration is tomorrow and we'll have all the family who can be there with us! On topic I personally I'm very glad to see the end of the Johnson premiership and I hope to get back to a bit more normality in British politics!
Massive congratulations on your momentous day OKC. How marvellous.
And, agreed. I feel I can relax a bit now and not be so vexed. It was awful for anyone who loves this country, as I still do.
A find bright morning here in North Essex and a morning which I hope starts a good weekend for my family! Our diamond wedding celebration is tomorrow and we'll have all the family who can be there with us! On topic I personally I'm very glad to see the end of the Johnson premiership and I hope to get back to a bit more normality in British politics!
Congratulations!
I see that Jimmy and Ross Lynn Carter have reached their 76th anniversary yesterday. Quite formidable.
Boris will not earn his much-needed money through sales of his personal memoir. He may get a mildly decent advance but the actual books won't sell. No one wants to read a serial liar's spin and self-justification these days. Biographies about this turbulent time might do better but non-fiction generally struggles these days. The internet is such a great, and terrible, resource for finding out information, as are endless tv shows, that there are very few rabbits left for a non-fiction author to pull out of the hat.
As I mentioned, I doubt he will fill halls for talks either. No one wants to listen to a failure and liar, and he's a poor public speaker. As chaotic as in everything else. His best hope will be after-dinner speeches when everyone is too drunk to mind incoherent ramblings about Peppa Pig world.
Leon got very personal with us all over this but, of course, the reason he's so irate is his own fear. Boris Johnson was a serial philanderer, a man approaching sixty whose attitude to sexual predation belonged to an era from which most of society has moved on. Boris Johnson got the top job for one reason and one reason only: to deliver Brexit. And that was on the back of the Remainer Parliament and an unelectable anti-Semitic Trotskyite Labour leader. As a person Boris was manifestly unsuited to the top job and the page on the chapter has already been turned. The flowers fade and the grass withers. It happens to all of us and some deserve it more than others.
The country is leaving Boris and his type of politics and personal behaviour behind. Whether that's under a reboot of the Conservative brand, or a completely new broom under Labour-LibDems, we will wait to see. But move on it has, and is.
Good morning
I agree with your last paragraph and I think there is a possibility that when the conservative mps have reduced the candidates to the final two a deal may be agreed to have the new leader in place by the end of July. It may however be sent out to the membership which should see the result by the end of August
The turmoil will continue while parliament is sitting, but it rises on the 22nd July until 1st September which means the various investigations into Johnson will be well after he has left office though he has said he will remain an mp so it will be uncomfortable for him
I expect continuing very poor polls for the conservatives but come September with a new leader and cabinet hopefully sidelining the idiotic JRM and Dorries the political narrative will change and Starmer may find he has a fight on his hands
As far as Johnson is concerned he will make millions and you may not want to listen to him but very many will
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
That implies he has a preference for anyone other than Alexander Johnson. Doubtful he gives a shit really.
From that, John Major and Michael Gove both called for Boris to go sooner rather than later, and Andrew Marr said yesterday that he'd heard the same from 1922 types. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0UEOQqW1Uo
The outcome I really want, is the removal of the Tory party from office, for 10yrs or so would be nice, so you would think that I would be unhappy with the ending of Johnsons reign, possibly making it less likely that they lose the next election, on the contrary I am just glad he will be going, for the sake of the country. I also am far from certain that he wouldnt of won the next election anyway, the papers would have started their predictable 2 yr campaign against Starmer, and the polls would not have to have turned that much for the Liar to win again, whatever happens at the next election, we wont have to endure the spectacle of that lying oaf grinning at the steps of downing street, after securing another 5 years.
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
That implies he has a preference for anyone other than Alexander Johnson. Doubtful he gives a shit really.
I get the *impression* that Johnson really cares about his legacy. Really, really cares. Being Mayor of London or PM was not about helping London or the country; it was about how brilliant he would appear in the future. This is why the way his time as PM appears to be ending will be so hard on him - although his own actions have made it far worse as he has shown a characteristic lack of dignity.
He will want his legacy to be cemented; and that means having a successor who will not dismantle the little he has achieved (although to be fair, Covid and Ukraine got in the way). And that little is Brexit.
He will therefore want a hard Brexiteer in charge. And his track record indicates he will interfere to get one.
A find bright morning here in North Essex and a morning which I hope starts a good weekend for my family! Our diamond wedding celebration is tomorrow and we'll have all the family who can be there with us! On topic I personally I'm very glad to see the end of the Johnson premiership and I hope to get back to a bit more normality in British politics!
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
That implies he has a preference for anyone other than Alexander Johnson. Doubtful he gives a shit really.
I think that he wouldn't want someone who trashes his legacy by doing a Kruschev on him. Someone who exposes all his sordid graft etc.
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
Odd that on the day before he fell, he was caught confessing to flying off in secret to meet the KGB. Was fascinating as that exchange went on watching the aide behind him sit blank faced as he wrote a note and circled it then passed it to BlowJo who immediately shut up - as instructed?
We know there are major national security concerns about him and his circle. Some of us have been talking about the russian money and influence for a while - and now he's coughed. Another reason to get him out.
Lets assume that the Ukraine war heats up. Cool heads are needed. Is Johnson really the right man to be making decisions? The lame-duck PM is supposed to not make any policy decisions. That feels impossible when you consider what is going on in the world right now.
Labour risks getting itself into a pickle over this confidence vote?
Angela Rayner is dreadful! Labour need a good chief of staff quickly. They have to control who they put in front of the media. she is as close to incoherent as johnson was during his Peppa Pig meander.
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
That implies he has a preference for anyone other than Alexander Johnson. Doubtful he gives a shit really.
I get the *impression* that Johnson really cares about his legacy. Really, really cares. Being Mayor of London or PM was not about helping London or the country; it was about how brilliant he would appear in the future. This is why the way his time as PM appears to be ending will be so hard on him - although his own actions have made it far worse as he has shown a characteristic lack of dignity.
He will want his legacy to be cemented; and that means having a successor who will not dismantle the little he has achieved (although to be fair, Covid and Ukraine got in the way). And that little is Brexit.
He will therefore want a hard Brexiteer in charge. And his track record indicates he will interfere to get one.
He can seek to interfere, but his reputation is in tatters. His endorsement might be more of a negative than a positive for any candidate.
Labour risks getting itself into a pickle over this confidence vote?
Why? If Johnson won't leave Downing Street, call a confidence vote in the Prime Minister. And if the Tories all vote confidence in him that is another election leaflet written.
He will want his legacy to be cemented; and that means having a successor who will not dismantle the little he has achieved (although to be fair, Covid and Ukraine got in the way). And that little is Brexit.
He will therefore want a hard Brexiteer in charge. And his track record indicates he will interfere to get one.
Brexit will be dismantled by reality, whoever is the next Tory PM
From that, John Major and Michael Gove both called for Boris to go sooner rather than later, and Andrew Marr said yesterday that he'd heard the same from 1922 types. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0UEOQqW1Uo
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
So presumably the 1922 will announce over the weekend, or more likely Monday, the timeframe. Do MPs have to be sitting for the ballots? If they do then they've got c. 10 days to reach the final 2.
I've lost confidence that the 1922 can get their act together on anything but presumably 10 days is plenty of time to whittle it down to two candidates? They'll just have to hold ballots every day instead of every other day. Brisk business but perfectly possible.
Then it will be out to summer hustings for the run-off.
In a year's time, Boris might feel he's timed his exit quite well.
He'll be able (with little justification, but that's irrelevant) to sidestep some of the blame for what's likely to be a few years of painful economic retrenchment. If Ukraine defeats the invasion, he'll claim credit; if not, he'll again slide on the blame front. And the Brexit mess is likewise someone else's headache to sort out.
Repeat the above for the Conservative performance at the next election.
And I'm pretty sure @Heathener is completely wrong about his future earnings potential. Just deserts don't come into it.
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
I compared his resignation to the "abdication" of James II yesterday. The other, more immediate parallel, is with the letter he sent requesting a Brexit extension.
There's a tacit understanding that he's resigned, but no-one is going to force him to say the words out loud.
Boris will not earn his much-needed money through sales of his personal memoir. He may get a mildly decent advance but the actual books won't sell. No one wants to read a serial liar's spin and self-justification these days. Biographies about this turbulent time might do better but non-fiction generally struggles these days. The internet is such a great, and terrible, resource for finding out information, as are endless tv shows, that there are very few rabbits left for a non-fiction author to pull out of the hat.
As I mentioned, I doubt he will fill halls for talks either. No one wants to listen to a failure and liar, and he's a poor public speaker. As chaotic as in everything else. His best hope will be after-dinner speeches when everyone is too drunk to mind incoherent ramblings about Peppa Pig world.
Leon got very personal with us all over this but, of course, the reason he's so irate is his own fear. Boris Johnson was a serial philanderer, a man approaching sixty whose attitude to sexual predation belonged to an era from which most of society has moved on. Boris Johnson got the top job for one reason and one reason only: to deliver Brexit. And that was on the back of the Remainer Parliament and an unelectable anti-Semitic Trotskyite Labour leader. As a person Boris was manifestly unsuited to the top job and the page on the chapter has already been turned. The flowers fade and the grass withers. It happens to all of us and some deserve it more than others.
The country is leaving Boris and his type of politics and personal behaviour behind. Whether that's under a reboot of the Conservative brand, or a completely new broom under Labour-LibDems, we will wait to see. But move on it has, and is.
You’re not the first PB-er to fall in love with me
Boris will not earn his much-needed money through sales of his personal memoir. He may get a mildly decent advance but the actual books won't sell. No one wants to read a serial liar's spin and self-justification these days. Biographies about this turbulent time might do better but non-fiction generally struggles these days. The internet is such a great, and terrible, resource for finding out information, as are endless tv shows, that there are very few rabbits left for a non-fiction author to pull out of the hat.
As I mentioned, I doubt he will fill halls for talks either. No one wants to listen to a failure and liar, and he's a poor public speaker. As chaotic as in everything else. His best hope will be after-dinner speeches when everyone is too drunk to mind incoherent ramblings about Peppa Pig world.
Leon got very personal with us all over this but, of course, the reason he's so irate is his own fear. Boris Johnson was a serial philanderer, a man approaching sixty whose attitude to sexual predation belonged to an era from which most of society has moved on. Boris Johnson got the top job for one reason and one reason only: to deliver Brexit. And that was on the back of the Remainer Parliament and an unelectable anti-Semitic Trotskyite Labour leader. As a person Boris was manifestly unsuited to the top job and the page on the chapter has already been turned. The flowers fade and the grass withers. It happens to all of us and some deserve it more than others.
The country is leaving Boris and his type of politics and personal behaviour behind. Whether that's under a reboot of the Conservative brand, or a completely new broom under Labour-LibDems, we will wait to see. But move on it has, and is.
You’re not the first PB-er to fall in love with me
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
That implies he has a preference for anyone other than Alexander Johnson. Doubtful he gives a shit really.
I think that he wouldn't want someone who trashes his legacy by doing a Kruschev on him. Someone who exposes all his sordid graft etc.
Not in their interests given they all worked for him.
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
That implies he has a preference for anyone other than Alexander Johnson. Doubtful he gives a shit really.
I think that he wouldn't want someone who trashes his legacy by doing a Kruschev on him. Someone who exposes all his sordid graft etc.
Not in their interests given they all worked for him.
Boris will not earn his much-needed money through sales of his personal memoir. He may get a mildly decent advance but the actual books won't sell. No one wants to read a serial liar's spin and self-justification these days. Biographies about this turbulent time might do better but non-fiction generally struggles these days. The internet is such a great, and terrible, resource for finding out information, as are endless tv shows, that there are very few rabbits left for a non-fiction author to pull out of the hat.
As I mentioned, I doubt he will fill halls for talks either. No one wants to listen to a failure and liar, and he's a poor public speaker. As chaotic as in everything else. His best hope will be after-dinner speeches when everyone is too drunk to mind incoherent ramblings about Peppa Pig world.
Leon got very personal with us all over this but, of course, the reason he's so irate is his own fear. Boris Johnson was a serial philanderer, a man approaching sixty whose attitude to sexual predation belonged to an era from which most of society has moved on. Boris Johnson got the top job for one reason and one reason only: to deliver Brexit. And that was on the back of the Remainer Parliament and an unelectable anti-Semitic Trotskyite Labour leader. As a person Boris was manifestly unsuited to the top job and the page on the chapter has already been turned. The flowers fade and the grass withers. It happens to all of us and some deserve it more than others.
The country is leaving Boris and his type of politics and personal behaviour behind. Whether that's under a reboot of the Conservative brand, or a completely new broom under Labour-LibDems, we will wait to see. But move on it has, and is.
I suspect in the immediate aftermath he will earn a fortune on the after dinner circuit here, in the US and elsewhere. However too many inevitable Peppa Pig performances and the invitations will wither away.
He will get advances on his autobiography, Shakespeare's biography and a couple of other projects. His writing is floral and overrated. He will get bored and that income source will dry up as he becomes more irrelevant.
All the right wing rags will clamour for his short weekly columns and this will be a fruitful source of income for some time. As time progresses these will drop off until he is back to just the Telegraph and the Spectator, and here too, in five or ten years someone will question "why are we paying a quarter of a million pounds a year, for columns no one reads?"
The game show guest host spots and interview appearances will be embarrassing but lucrative, but they too will be time limited.
He will earn a substantial amount of money over the next few years, but both he and his wife are "world beaters" when it comes to spending it. But as he embarks on new and dangerous liaisons his wealth and marriage may again go one way and him the other.
Yesterday his anger at everyone else was palpable, with not a shred of self awareness as to how he found himself on the lectern in Downing Street. A silver spoon life overwhelmed by excess and self indulgence.
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
Odd that on the day before he fell, he was caught confessing to flying off in secret to meet the KGB. Was fascinating as that exchange went on watching the aide behind him sit blank faced as he wrote a note and circled it then passed it to BlowJo who immediately shut up - as instructed?
We know there are major national security concerns about him and his circle. Some of us have been talking about the russian money and influence for a while - and now he's coughed. Another reason to get him out.
[...]
If I was Boris I think I'd become an expat. I could see the hand of the law paying him one or two visits.
On top, your regular reminder that the newspapers follow the prejudices of their readers; they don't lead them. They are a product selling to a customer base like any other.
Think who buys the Daily Mail and Daily Express these days, and you have your answer.
From that, John Major and Michael Gove both called for Boris to go sooner rather than later, and Andrew Marr said yesterday that he'd heard the same from 1922 types. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0UEOQqW1Uo
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
So presumably the 1922 will announce over the weekend, or more likely Monday, the timeframe. Do MPs have to be sitting for the ballots? If they do then they've got c. 10 days to reach the final 2.
I've lost confidence that the 1922 can get their act together on anything but presumably 10 days is plenty of time to whittle it down to two candidates? They'll just have to hold ballots every day instead of every other day. Brisk business but perfectly possible.
Then it will be out to summer hustings for the run-off.
The chair of the 22 was on Today earlier and made a good point (I do want Boris out of No10 asap btw) that whilst he hopes it’s a quick process it’s also very important to get the right person and give time to candidates to show their “manifesto” and allow the electors a chance to examine and question.
I think trying to rush it does favour “big names” and it might not be a bad idea to ensure that if there is an outsider their voice has a chance to build momentum and be heard.
He will want his legacy to be cemented; and that means having a successor who will not dismantle the little he has achieved (although to be fair, Covid and Ukraine got in the way). And that little is Brexit.
He will therefore want a hard Brexiteer in charge. And his track record indicates he will interfere to get one.
Brexit will be dismantled by reality, whoever is the next Tory PM
Maybe you need to listen to the official opposition, maybe the next government whose policy is identical to the conservatives and rejects rejoining even the single market let alone the EU
Looks as if you will be tweeting for years to come
Boris will not earn his much-needed money through sales of his personal memoir. He may get a mildly decent advance but the actual books won't sell. No one wants to read a serial liar's spin and self-justification these days. Biographies about this turbulent time might do better but non-fiction generally struggles these days. The internet is such a great, and terrible, resource for finding out information, as are endless tv shows, that there are very few rabbits left for a non-fiction author to pull out of the hat.
As I mentioned, I doubt he will fill halls for talks either. No one wants to listen to a failure and liar, and he's a poor public speaker. As chaotic as in everything else. His best hope will be after-dinner speeches when everyone is too drunk to mind incoherent ramblings about Peppa Pig world.
Leon got very personal with us all over this but, of course, the reason he's so irate is his own fear. Boris Johnson was a serial philanderer, a man approaching sixty whose attitude to sexual predation belonged to an era from which most of society has moved on. Boris Johnson got the top job for one reason and one reason only: to deliver Brexit. And that was on the back of the Remainer Parliament and an unelectable anti-Semitic Trotskyite Labour leader. As a person Boris was manifestly unsuited to the top job and the page on the chapter has already been turned. The flowers fade and the grass withers. It happens to all of us and some deserve it more than others.
The country is leaving Boris and his type of politics and personal behaviour behind. Whether that's under a reboot of the Conservative brand, or a completely new broom under Labour-LibDems, we will wait to see. But move on it has, and is.
You’re not the first PB-er to fall in love with me
Shhhh, secret, but I'm not into men. You may have noticed.
Boris will not earn his much-needed money through sales of his personal memoir. He may get a mildly decent advance but the actual books won't sell. No one wants to read a serial liar's spin and self-justification these days. Biographies about this turbulent time might do better but non-fiction generally struggles these days. The internet is such a great, and terrible, resource for finding out information, as are endless tv shows, that there are very few rabbits left for a non-fiction author to pull out of the hat.
As I mentioned, I doubt he will fill halls for talks either. No one wants to listen to a failure and liar, and he's a poor public speaker. As chaotic as in everything else. His best hope will be after-dinner speeches when everyone is too drunk to mind incoherent ramblings about Peppa Pig world.
Leon got very personal with us all over this but, of course, the reason he's so irate is his own fear. Boris Johnson was a serial philanderer, a man approaching sixty whose attitude to sexual predation belonged to an era from which most of society has moved on. Boris Johnson got the top job for one reason and one reason only: to deliver Brexit. And that was on the back of the Remainer Parliament and an unelectable anti-Semitic Trotskyite Labour leader. As a person Boris was manifestly unsuited to the top job and the page on the chapter has already been turned. The flowers fade and the grass withers. It happens to all of us and some deserve it more than others.
The country is leaving Boris and his type of politics and personal behaviour behind. Whether that's under a reboot of the Conservative brand, or a completely new broom under Labour-LibDems, we will wait to see. But move on it has, and is.
I suspect in the immediate aftermath he will earn a fortune on the after dinner circuit here, in the US and elsewhere. However too many inevitable Peppa Pig performances and the invitations will wither away.
He will get advances on his autobiography, Shakespeare's biography and a couple of other projects. His writing is floral and overrated. He will get bored and that income source will dry up as he becomes more irrelevant.
All the right wing rags will clamour for his short weekly columns and this will be a fruitful source of income for some time. As time progresses these will drop off until he is back to just the Telegraph and the Spectator, and here too, in five or ten years someone will question "why are we paying a quarter of a million pounds a year, for columns no one reads?"
The game show guest host spots and interview appearances will be embarrassing but lucrative, but they too will be time limited.
He will earn a substantial amount of money over the next few years, but both he and his wife are "world beaters" when it comes to spending it. But as he embarks on new and dangerous liaisons his wealth and marriage may again go one way and him the other.
Yesterday his anger at everyone else was palpable, with not a shred of self awareness as to how he found himself on the lectern in Downing Street. A silver spoon life overwhelmed by excess and self indulgence.
On top, your regular reminder that the newspapers follow the prejudices of their readers; they don't lead them. They are a product selling to a customer base like any other.
Think who buys the Daily Mail and Daily Express these days, and you have your answer.
That's very true, though what does it say about Mail readers that the Express has come out with a dignified front page while the Mail has gone full tonto?
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
Odd that on the day before he fell, he was caught confessing to flying off in secret to meet the KGB. Was fascinating as that exchange went on watching the aide behind him sit blank faced as he wrote a note and circled it then passed it to BlowJo who immediately shut up - as instructed?
We know there are major national security concerns about him and his circle. Some of us have been talking about the russian money and influence for a while - and now he's coughed. Another reason to get him out.
[...]
If I was Boris I think I'd become an expat. I could see the hand of the law paying him one or two visits.
I don't think Carrie fancies the rubber chicken circuit.
Johnson will make a bunch on his memoirs, though few will actually read them, then drink himself to a slow death.
Heading on out but I don't 'think' Labour can call a VONC in a person, can they? Isn't the wording constrained to be a Vote of No Confidence in Her Majesty's Government?
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
That implies he has a preference for anyone other than Alexander Johnson. Doubtful he gives a shit really.
I think that he wouldn't want someone who trashes his legacy by doing a Kruschev on him. Someone who exposes all his sordid graft etc.
Not in their interests given they all worked for him.
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
Odd that on the day before he fell, he was caught confessing to flying off in secret to meet the KGB. Was fascinating as that exchange went on watching the aide behind him sit blank faced as he wrote a note and circled it then passed it to BlowJo who immediately shut up - as instructed?
We know there are major national security concerns about him and his circle. Some of us have been talking about the russian money and influence for a while - and now he's coughed. Another reason to get him out.
Lets assume that the Ukraine war heats up. Cool heads are needed. Is Johnson really the right man to be making decisions? The lame-duck PM is supposed to not make any policy decisions. That feels impossible when you consider what is going on in the world right now.
Yes, Labour might do better following up Lebedev than chasing confidence votes.
Here is Hansard for yesterday's urgent question on the meeting. Of particular interest are these two extracts (which are some time apart):-
Vicky Ford, FCO PUS for HMG: I understand that the Prime Minister also confirmed that he had met Mr Lebedev without officials present and that he had subsequently reported those meetings to officials as required.
Chris Bryant: Mr Speaker, I think the Minister inadvertently misled us earlier, because the Prime Minister yesterday—I was at the Liaison Committee—did not say what she said. He did not say—to the best of my memory, anyway—that he had notified other officials. If he had notified other officials, surely, as the Minister would understand, that meeting would have appeared on the transparency records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for April 2018 and it is not there. So, either she has misled us inadvertently today, or the Prime Minister did so, perhaps more deliberately, previously. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-07-07/debates/88BD523E-9AEF-45B9-97C5-5941F01AE888/PrimeMinister’SMeetingWithAlexanderLebedev
Kay Burley is a moron. There is no such thing as a caretaker PM. James Cleverly offering to lay a bet on Johnson not going very amusing.
There is such a thing. We have one every General Election.
That's bollocks. We have a Prime Minister. We might not have a parliament, but that's another matter.
It's not formal, but there's a convention, an understanding, that although the PM has all the normal powers if they need them, that they're in some sense only minding the shop.
Obviously this is only informal, so it's something where the boundary is a bit fuzzy, which is why people have pointed to May passing Net Zero (but that's not really a contradiction as it had Opposition support, so it wasn't controversial). Another interesting example was the consultation during the Eurozone crisis in 2010.
People are only making a thing of this now because they don't trust Johnson to act reasonably during this period with only convention to restrain him.
If that's the sad field it's got to be Rishi. When you take oput the clowns you're left with Tugendhat Wallace and Sunak. Tugendhat and Wallace are inferior versions of Starmer which leaves Sunak. He'd be the one for Labour to fear
On top, your regular reminder that the newspapers follow the prejudices of their readers; they don't lead them. They are a product selling to a customer base like any other.
Think who buys the Daily Mail and Daily Express these days, and you have your answer.
Fair point - and it's less than a million people for the print edition. It's garbage, but well targeted to its small niche.
Being serious, he was their longest serving PM and he did serious reforms both to the military and to the economy. You don't get to be in power for a long time, making major reforms, without upsetting a few people. It sounds like the gunman is ex-military. So almost certainly yes this was political, as awful as that is, and not just "mental health" which will no doubt be mentioned at some point soon.
On top, your regular reminder that the newspapers follow the prejudices of their readers; they don't lead them. They are a product selling to a customer base like any other.
Think who buys the Daily Mail and Daily Express these days, and you have your answer.
That's very true, though what does it say about Mail readers that the Express has come out with a dignified front page while the Mail has gone full tonto?
It says nothing about Mail readers but watch the resignation honours list.
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
That implies he has a preference for anyone other than Alexander Johnson. Doubtful he gives a shit really.
I get the *impression* that Johnson really cares about his legacy. Really, really cares. Being Mayor of London or PM was not about helping London or the country; it was about how brilliant he would appear in the future. This is why the way his time as PM appears to be ending will be so hard on him - although his own actions have made it far worse as he has shown a characteristic lack of dignity.
He will want his legacy to be cemented; and that means having a successor who will not dismantle the little he has achieved (although to be fair, Covid and Ukraine got in the way). And that little is Brexit.
He will therefore want a hard Brexiteer in charge. And his track record indicates he will interfere to get one.
Again, what makes you think a hard Brexiteer will create a positive legacy for Brexit? If anything, a soft, pragmatic Brexiteer, or even pragmatic ex Remainer is the only hope for a positive legacy.
And no need to interfere with that, the membership are still loony enough to strongly prefer those who are sound on Brexit anyway.
Labour risks getting itself into a pickle over this confidence vote?
One of the oddest aspects of this drama is the quiet incompetence of Her Majesty’s Opposition.
People expecting better governance anytime soon are deluded. Both the New Brexit Revolutionary Party and the Labour Party are unfit for purpose.
Come come Stuart. Labour have done well through this. Sir Keir Starmer was forensic and funny at PMQ's and they need do nothing else except keep their heads down, with the occasional well-meaning platitude from the sidelines.
When a party is tearing itself apart you really don't need to join in, or you may suddenly find they all unite and turn on you.
Best left to it. Labour are doing just fine through this. As the polls confirm.
He will want his legacy to be cemented; and that means having a successor who will not dismantle the little he has achieved (although to be fair, Covid and Ukraine got in the way). And that little is Brexit.
He will therefore want a hard Brexiteer in charge. And his track record indicates he will interfere to get one.
Brexit will be dismantled by reality, whoever is the next Tory PM
Will it? Starmer's Labour don't seem in any hurry to 'dismantle' it.
I'm not saying there won't be changes to Brexit, but 'dismantling' seems a rather optimistic hope.
Boris will not earn his much-needed money through sales of his personal memoir. He may get a mildly decent advance but the actual books won't sell. No one wants to read a serial liar's spin and self-justification these days. Biographies about this turbulent time might do better but non-fiction generally struggles these days. The internet is such a great, and terrible, resource for finding out information, as are endless tv shows, that there are very few rabbits left for a non-fiction author to pull out of the hat.
As I mentioned, I doubt he will fill halls for talks either. No one wants to listen to a failure and liar, and he's a poor public speaker. As chaotic as in everything else. His best hope will be after-dinner speeches when everyone is too drunk to mind incoherent ramblings about Peppa Pig world.
Leon got very personal with us all over this but, of course, the reason he's so irate is his own fear. Boris Johnson was a serial philanderer, a man approaching sixty whose attitude to sexual predation belonged to an era from which most of society has moved on. Boris Johnson got the top job for one reason and one reason only: to deliver Brexit. And that was on the back of the Remainer Parliament and an unelectable anti-Semitic Trotskyite Labour leader. As a person Boris was manifestly unsuited to the top job and the page on the chapter has already been turned. The flowers fade and the grass withers. It happens to all of us and some deserve it more than others.
The country is leaving Boris and his type of politics and personal behaviour behind. Whether that's under a reboot of the Conservative brand, or a completely new broom under Labour-LibDems, we will wait to see. But move on it has, and is.
You’re not the first PB-er to fall in love with me
Shhhh, secret, but I'm not into men. You may have noticed.
My partner is a gorgeous female.
Is she not worried that you’re clearly obsessed with me?
As for Bozza’s earnings, here’s the Independent:
“Mr Johnson, who is famously at home with deploying incendiary turns of phrase, would without doubt be in receipt of handsome offers from publishers for his Downing Street memoirs. Mr Blair received a reported £4.6m advance for his tome, with the sum being donated to charity.”
And here’s the Mail;
“Mr Johnson could become 'Billion Dollar Boris' if he plays his cards right with book deals, broadcast slots and speech circuits.
Experts say he will 'eclipse Tony Blair' and could net double the estimated £10million a year the former Labour leader made from speeches after office.
Mr Johnson, who once moaned his £250,000 Daily Telegraph column salary was 'chicken feed', is estimated to 'easily' earn £400,000 per speech while his memoirs could sell for 'at least' £1million
PR guru Mark Borkowski said: 'Boris is fairly wise and over the next 25 years if he can continue to grow it's going to be Billion Dollar Boris. He's a global brand, and with the right management, this is beyond speech-making.'“
He will want his legacy to be cemented; and that means having a successor who will not dismantle the little he has achieved (although to be fair, Covid and Ukraine got in the way). And that little is Brexit.
He will therefore want a hard Brexiteer in charge. And his track record indicates he will interfere to get one.
Brexit will be dismantled by reality, whoever is the next Tory PM
Maybe you need to listen to the official opposition, maybe the next government whose policy is identical to the conservatives and rejects rejoining even the single market let alone the EU
Looks as if you will be tweeting for years to come
And I'll still be agreeing with Scott's Brexit analysis.
The LOTO hasn't covered himself with glory in the last week. He was abysmal yesterday and his Brexit policy is failed Johnsonianism.
Good to talk to @BBCr4today about Boris Johnson and what happens next. Made the point that Theresa May legislated to commit the UK to Net Zero during caretaker period, a sweeping (and potentially very expensive move) to try to cement her legacy
Westminster was so focused on the Conservative leadership contest and the Brexit wars that it passed without much comment
But it does show that for all the convention (spelled out in the Cabinet Manual) that PMs in this position should not try to make controversial or long term commitments, they can. Depends on how much protest it provokes
I heard that on R4. Shocked to learn that the net zero target was put in place by executive order of the departing PM May. Sinks even lower in my esteem.
I really don't see any need to hound Boris out of office now but I do hope that the 22 get on with it. Their elections are on Monday I think and once the new committee is in place presumably they can announce a time table right away.
At the moment there are a lot of fantasy candidates like Braverman. An early round with a minimum tariff to clear out the deluded would be helpful. MPs will be looking to do deals and, for me a joint Javid/Sunak ticket would be seriously attractive. Most of our more successful governments have had a close team at the top, whether Blair/Brown or Cameron/Osborne. A PM needs someone who can act as an enforcer and link to the party, as Maggie put it every PM needs a Willie. The lack of such a reliable and solid supporter in cabinet and office was a major factor in the undermining of Boris but he was always a lone wolf who focused on himself. .
As soon as the voting starts any remaining power in Boris will drain away. We face a period of paralysis but we can cope with that for a few weeks and it will be worth it if we get a clearer idea of our sense of direction at the end of it than we have had for the last 9 months.
From that, John Major and Michael Gove both called for Boris to go sooner rather than later, and Andrew Marr said yesterday that he'd heard the same from 1922 types. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0UEOQqW1Uo
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
So presumably the 1922 will announce over the weekend, or more likely Monday, the timeframe. Do MPs have to be sitting for the ballots? If they do then they've got c. 10 days to reach the final 2.
I've lost confidence that the 1922 can get their act together on anything but presumably 10 days is plenty of time to whittle it down to two candidates? They'll just have to hold ballots every day instead of every other day. Brisk business but perfectly possible.
Then it will be out to summer hustings for the run-off.
The chair of the 22 was on Today earlier and made a good point (I do want Boris out of No10 asap btw) that whilst he hopes it’s a quick process it’s also very important to get the right person and give time to candidates to show their “manifesto” and allow the electors a chance to examine and question.
I think trying to rush it does favour “big names” and it might not be a bad idea to ensure that if there is an outsider their voice has a chance to build momentum and be heard.
They've got about two weeks before the summer recess, so that's it for the parliamentary stage of the proceedings. But the final vote will very probably go to the membership. The competition between the final unappealing duo will be too closely contested to avoid that, I would wager.
Didn’t someone here yesterday say that Zahawi looked like a hired assassin who had been called back to do one last job? No wonder he knew about Abe early…..
Kay Burley is a moron. There is no such thing as a caretaker PM. James Cleverly offering to lay a bet on Johnson not going very amusing.
There is such a thing. We have one every General Election.
That's bollocks. We have a Prime Minister. We might not have a parliament, but that's another matter.
We might not have a Parliament, but we have a caretaker government, that is very restricted by convention in what it can do. The Cabinet Manual goes into some details on this, it isn't business as usual.
If that's the sad field it's got to be Rishi. When you take oput the clowns you're left with Tugendhat Wallace and Sunak. Tugendhat and Wallace are inferior versions of Starmer which leaves Sunak. He'd be the one for Labour to fear
I disagree. Wallace is a very different type of politician from Starmer. He’s more guts and less cerebral. Cerebral politicians rarely do well in the long run.
If I was a Tory, especially a Scottish Tory, I’d go for Wallace. But the Tory party being what it is, we can be fairly confident they’re going to make the wrong choice. Again.
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
Odd that on the day before he fell, he was caught confessing to flying off in secret to meet the KGB. Was fascinating as that exchange went on watching the aide behind him sit blank faced as he wrote a note and circled it then passed it to BlowJo who immediately shut up - as instructed?
We know there are major national security concerns about him and his circle. Some of us have been talking about the russian money and influence for a while - and now he's coughed. Another reason to get him out.
Lets assume that the Ukraine war heats up. Cool heads are needed. Is Johnson really the right man to be making decisions? The lame-duck PM is supposed to not make any policy decisions. That feels impossible when you consider what is going on in the world right now.
I am no fan of Johnson. But the idea - as many on her claim - that he is doing Russian bidding is laughable given his actions and words.
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
That implies he has a preference for anyone other than Alexander Johnson. Doubtful he gives a shit really.
I get the *impression* that Johnson really cares about his legacy. Really, really cares. Being Mayor of London or PM was not about helping London or the country; it was about how brilliant he would appear in the future. This is why the way his time as PM appears to be ending will be so hard on him - although his own actions have made it far worse as he has shown a characteristic lack of dignity.
He will want his legacy to be cemented; and that means having a successor who will not dismantle the little he has achieved (although to be fair, Covid and Ukraine got in the way). And that little is Brexit.
He will therefore want a hard Brexiteer in charge. And his track record indicates he will interfere to get one.
Again, what makes you think a hard Brexiteer will create a positive legacy for Brexit? If anything, a soft, pragmatic Brexiteer, or even pragmatic ex Remainer is the only hope for a positive legacy.
And no need to interfere with that, the membership are still loony enough to strongly prefer those who are sound on Brexit anyway.
It's not what I think. Johnson knows who his supporters are, and what they wanted. Brexit. And he's made it very clear that *his* Brexit is Brexit - not a softer version.
He will want his legacy to be cemented; and that means having a successor who will not dismantle the little he has achieved (although to be fair, Covid and Ukraine got in the way). And that little is Brexit.
He will therefore want a hard Brexiteer in charge. And his track record indicates he will interfere to get one.
Brexit will be dismantled by reality, whoever is the next Tory PM
Maybe you need to listen to the official opposition, maybe the next government whose policy is identical to the conservatives and rejects rejoining even the single market let alone the EU
Looks as if you will be tweeting for years to come
And I'll still be agreeing with Scott's Brexit analysis.
The LOTO hasn't covered himself with glory in the last week. He was abysmal yesterday and his Brexit policy is failed Johnsonianism.
Boris will not earn his much-needed money through sales of his personal memoir. He may get a mildly decent advance but the actual books won't sell. No one wants to read a serial liar's spin and self-justification these days. Biographies about this turbulent time might do better but non-fiction generally struggles these days. The internet is such a great, and terrible, resource for finding out information, as are endless tv shows, that there are very few rabbits left for a non-fiction author to pull out of the hat.
As I mentioned, I doubt he will fill halls for talks either. No one wants to listen to a failure and liar, and he's a poor public speaker. As chaotic as in everything else. His best hope will be after-dinner speeches when everyone is too drunk to mind incoherent ramblings about Peppa Pig world.
Leon got very personal with us all over this but, of course, the reason he's so irate is his own fear. Boris Johnson was a serial philanderer, a man approaching sixty whose attitude to sexual predation belonged to an era from which most of society has moved on. Boris Johnson got the top job for one reason and one reason only: to deliver Brexit. And that was on the back of the Remainer Parliament and an unelectable anti-Semitic Trotskyite Labour leader. As a person Boris was manifestly unsuited to the top job and the page on the chapter has already been turned. The flowers fade and the grass withers. It happens to all of us and some deserve it more than others.
The country is leaving Boris and his type of politics and personal behaviour behind. Whether that's under a reboot of the Conservative brand, or a completely new broom under Labour-LibDems, we will wait to see. But move on it has, and is.
You’re not the first PB-er to fall in love with me
Shhhh, secret, but I'm not into men. You may have noticed.
My partner is a gorgeous female.
[...]
PR guru Mark Borkowski said: 'Boris is fairly wise and over the next 25 years if he can continue to grow it's going to be Billion Dollar Boris. He's a global brand, and with the right management, this is beyond speech-making.'“
Mr. W, I remember that from the time. A wretched attempt to create a legacy by saddling the country with a rushed through target without any consideration of how to achieve it or how much it would cost - but that's a problem for the future and May didn't care to consider the answers.
He will want his legacy to be cemented; and that means having a successor who will not dismantle the little he has achieved (although to be fair, Covid and Ukraine got in the way). And that little is Brexit.
He will therefore want a hard Brexiteer in charge. And his track record indicates he will interfere to get one.
Brexit will be dismantled by reality, whoever is the next Tory PM
Maybe you need to listen to the official opposition, maybe the next government whose policy is identical to the conservatives and rejects rejoining even the single market let alone the EU
Looks as if you will be tweeting for years to come
And I'll still be agreeing with Scott's Brexit analysis.
The LOTO hasn't covered himself with glory in the last week. He was abysmal yesterday and his Brexit policy is failed Johnsonianism.
The FPN can't come soon enough.
As I have just said he and his wife were enjoying the Royal Box at Wimbledon while this was unfolding
Kay Burley is a moron. There is no such thing as a caretaker PM. James Cleverly offering to lay a bet on Johnson not going very amusing.
There is such a thing. We have one every General Election.
That's bollocks. We have a Prime Minister. We might not have a parliament, but that's another matter.
We might not have a Parliament, but we have a caretaker government, that is very restricted by convention in what it can do. The Cabinet Manual goes into some details on this, it isn't business as usual.
See as 1 example Bozo's statement that no financial matters can be agreed.
Which wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the current energy crisis....
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
That implies he has a preference for anyone other than Alexander Johnson. Doubtful he gives a shit really.
I think that he wouldn't want someone who trashes his legacy by doing a Kruschev on him. Someone who exposes all his sordid graft etc.
Not in their interests given they all worked for him.
The Tories are very good at whitewash.
Kruschev worked for Stalin didn't he?
The incentives in Soviet Russia were somewhat different. I'd be very surprised if there's any appetite at all in the Tory party to examine their own dirty washing in public.
The morning after the night before. The challenge now for the '22 is how to remove him. Given everything that has gone on they are increasingly and acutely aware of just how dangerous an idea it is to leave him in office.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
One of my fears is that he will use his presence as PM to interfere with the leadership election, to get someone he strongly favours into the job. He needs to keep his nose right out of it - but being Boris, he will not.
That implies he has a preference for anyone other than Alexander Johnson. Doubtful he gives a shit really.
I get the *impression* that Johnson really cares about his legacy. Really, really cares. Being Mayor of London or PM was not about helping London or the country; it was about how brilliant he would appear in the future. This is why the way his time as PM appears to be ending will be so hard on him - although his own actions have made it far worse as he has shown a characteristic lack of dignity.
He will want his legacy to be cemented; and that means having a successor who will not dismantle the little he has achieved (although to be fair, Covid and Ukraine got in the way). And that little is Brexit.
He will therefore want a hard Brexiteer in charge. And his track record indicates he will interfere to get one.
Again, what makes you think a hard Brexiteer will create a positive legacy for Brexit? If anything, a soft, pragmatic Brexiteer, or even pragmatic ex Remainer is the only hope for a positive legacy.
And no need to interfere with that, the membership are still loony enough to strongly prefer those who are sound on Brexit anyway.
You and I have very different views probably on what a positive legacy entails, but how is a Remainer going to leave a positive legacy?
Boris has set the right foundations for a positive Brexit. The UK is not aligned to the EU, so we can and will diverge and evolve in different directions in years to come.
Anyone who decides to "make Brexit work" by aligning Britain with Europe is basically just reversing the entire frigging point of Brexit. There's nothing positive in that, its entirely acting from a negative perspective.
Labour risks getting itself into a pickle over this confidence vote?
One of the oddest aspects of this drama is the quiet incompetence of Her Majesty’s Opposition.
People expecting better governance anytime soon are deluded. Both the New Brexit Revolutionary Party and the Labour Party are unfit for purpose.
While this was panning out yesterday Starmer and his wife were enjoying hospitality in the Royal Box at Wimbledon
Not a good look
It's a very good look. Well done them.
Enjoying British summer. Showing they're normal. Whilst the tory party tears itself to shreds.
However, the fact that some tory sympathisers on here are starting to turn their ire on Labour and SKS is a sign that they are serious about winning again instead of focusing on removing the wicked clown from office.
Pretty withering assessment of Simon Case, the cabinet Secretary who will now have to contain Johnson for the next two months, as ex senior civil servant David Normington calls him ‘bystander at a car crash’ at times over recent months on R4Today https://twitter.com/gabyhinsliff/status/1545303034250534913
The papers after an historic day – politicalbetting.com
Comments
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-gbni/#2c8dedfb
Ladbrokes still has no sprint markets up...
Anyway, Hamilton at 11 and Russell each way at 17 may be value for the race. Perez at 11 perhaps even more so. Nobody else, save Verstappen, has as many top 2 finishes this year, and he's well ahead of both Ferrari drivers.
The British Grand Prix was slightly odd when it comes to trying to assess race pace given how things ended, but I think Mercedes has narrowed the gap far more than I anticipated beforehand. But, Red Bull still seems top dog to me (albeit with more reliability problems than the Silver Arrows).
There are 12 races left including Austria, so could Hamilton or Russell take the title? They're a long way off Verstappen (88 and 70 points respectively). it's highly improbable but not quite impossible given reliability and Ferrari deciding to shoot itself in the foot constantly.
However, Hamilton at 21 is too short (29 Betfair). Russell at 51, is better value, especially as the market doesn't appear to have noticed he's done a better job than Hamilton this year (so far).
I won't be dabbling in this as I already did around the false dawn of Miami and are flat if they fail and ahead if they succeed, but a free bet on Russell for the title may be worth considering.
Boris will not earn his much-needed money through sales of his personal memoir. He may get a mildly decent advance but the actual books won't sell. No one wants to read a serial liar's spin and self-justification these days. Biographies about this turbulent time might do better but non-fiction generally struggles these days. The internet is such a great, and terrible, resource for finding out information, as are endless tv shows, that there are very few rabbits left for a non-fiction author to pull out of the hat.
As I mentioned, I doubt he will fill halls for talks either. No one wants to listen to a failure and liar, and he's a poor public speaker. As chaotic as in everything else. His best hope will be after-dinner speeches when everyone is too drunk to mind incoherent ramblings about Peppa Pig world.
Leon got very personal with us all over this but, of course, the reason he's so irate is his own fear. Boris Johnson was a serial philanderer, a man approaching sixty whose attitude to sexual predation belonged to an era from which most of society has moved on. Boris Johnson got the top job for one reason and one reason only: to deliver Brexit. And that was on the back of the Remainer Parliament and an unelectable anti-Semitic Trotskyite Labour leader. As a person Boris was manifestly unsuited to the top job and the page on the chapter has already been turned. The flowers fade and the grass withers. It happens to all of us and some deserve it more than others.
The country is leaving Boris and his type of politics and personal behaviour behind. Whether that's under a reboot of the Conservative brand, or a completely new broom under Labour-LibDems, we will wait to see. But move on it has, and is.
Industrial amounts of popcorn required.
Question - has he actually resigned as Conservative party leader? He didn't mention the r-word at all. Just that a leadership contest would take place. So do the '22 threaten to remove the whip?
🔓 This front page story is currently free to read 👇 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/07/boris-johnsons-long-goodbye-leaves-uk-state-paralysis/?utm_content=politics&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1657260633-2
Westminster was so focused on the Conservative leadership contest and the Brexit wars that it passed without much comment
But it does show that for all the convention (spelled out in the Cabinet Manual) that PMs in this position should not try to make controversial or long term commitments, they can. Depends on how much protest it provokes
https://twitter.com/bronwenmaddox/status/1545289100512608259
On topic I personally I'm very glad to see the end of the Johnson premiership and I hope to get back to a bit more normality in British politics!
And, agreed. I feel I can relax a bit now and not be so vexed. It was awful for anyone who loves this country, as I still do.
Anyhow, it is good to see that the three-syllable ‘an before H’ guideline isn’t completely dead.
I see that Jimmy and Ross Lynn Carter have reached their 76th anniversary yesterday. Quite formidable.
https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1545241045012647937?t=V79xrzgv_ZMZRiDbA_qgNQ&s=19
I agree with your last paragraph and I think there is a possibility that when the conservative mps have reduced the candidates to the final two a deal may be agreed to have the new leader in place by the end of July. It may however be sent out to the membership which should see the result by the end of August
The turmoil will continue while parliament is sitting, but it rises on the 22nd July until 1st September which means the various investigations into Johnson will be well after he has left office though he has said he will remain an mp so it will be uncomfortable for him
I expect continuing very poor polls for the conservatives but come September with a new leader and cabinet hopefully sidelining the idiotic JRM and Dorries the political narrative will change and Starmer may find he has a fight on his hands
As far as Johnson is concerned he will make millions and you may not want to listen to him but very many will
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0UEOQqW1Uo
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
He will want his legacy to be cemented; and that means having a successor who will not dismantle the little he has achieved (although to be fair, Covid and Ukraine got in the way). And that little is Brexit.
He will therefore want a hard Brexiteer in charge. And his track record indicates he will interfere to get one.
So Labour not accepting him remaining PM until the autumn while a successor is picked.
Would Tory rebels vote for it? How many?
https://twitter.com/benrileysmith/status/1545296989503496192
Have a great family gathering tomorrow
We hope to emulate your achievement in May 2024
We know there are major national security concerns about him and his circle. Some of us have been talking about the russian money and influence for a while - and now he's coughed. Another reason to get him out.
Lets assume that the Ukraine war heats up. Cool heads are needed. Is Johnson really the right man to be making decisions? The lame-duck PM is supposed to not make any policy decisions. That feels impossible when you consider what is going on in the world right now.
I've lost confidence that the 1922 can get their act together on anything but presumably 10 days is plenty of time to whittle it down to two candidates? They'll just have to hold ballots every day instead of every other day. Brisk business but perfectly possible.
Then it will be out to summer hustings for the run-off.
Lab Gain by about 100 from Independent Greens polling just over 100
He'll be able (with little justification, but that's irrelevant) to sidestep some of the blame for what's likely to be a few years of painful economic retrenchment.
If Ukraine defeats the invasion, he'll claim credit; if not, he'll again slide on the blame front.
And the Brexit mess is likewise someone else's headache to sort out.
Repeat the above for the Conservative performance at the next election.
And I'm pretty sure @Heathener is completely wrong about his future earnings potential. Just deserts don't come into it.
(prices in brackets = 2 days ago)
Wallace 4.3 (9) ⬆️
Sunak 6.4 (7.5) ⬆️
Mordaunt 7.6 (5)
Tugendhat 9 (15) ⬆️
Truss 12.5 (9.6)
Javid 14 (10.5)
Zahawi 15 (12)
Hunt 17 (13.5)
Baker 30 (?) ⬆️
Braverman 55 (44)
…
Raab 85 (40)
…
Gove 151 (23)
…
Eustice 500 (21)
There's a tacit understanding that he's resigned, but no-one is going to force him to say the words out loud.
The Tories are very good at whitewash.
He will get advances on his autobiography, Shakespeare's biography and a couple of other projects. His writing is floral and overrated. He will get bored and that income source will dry up as he becomes more irrelevant.
All the right wing rags will clamour for his short weekly columns and this will be a fruitful source of income for some time. As time progresses these will drop off until he is back to just the Telegraph and the Spectator, and here too, in five or ten years someone will question "why are we paying a quarter of a million pounds a year, for columns no one reads?"
The game show guest host spots and interview appearances will be embarrassing but lucrative, but they too will be time limited.
He will earn a substantial amount of money over the next few years, but both he and his wife are "world beaters" when it comes to spending it. But as he embarks on new and dangerous liaisons his wealth and marriage may again go one way and him the other.
Yesterday his anger at everyone else was palpable, with not a shred of self awareness as to how he found himself on the lectern in Downing Street. A silver spoon life overwhelmed by excess and self indulgence.
Mr Johnson, go forth and multiply!
The Conservatives did not do it when Brown was having his 'contest' to be next PM. Nor Labour when the Conservatives last held a leadership election.
It'll make Labour look a bit weird.
[I do agree he should go immediately, but the Conservatives have effectively VONCed him out already.]
Edited extra bit: in the Brown example that would be VONCing Blair, of course.
Think who buys the Daily Mail and Daily Express these days, and you have your answer.
I think trying to rush it does favour “big names” and it might not be a bad idea to ensure that if there is an outsider their voice has a chance to build momentum and be heard.
Looks as if you will be tweeting for years to come
My partner is a gorgeous female.
Johnson will make a bunch on his memoirs, though few will actually read them, then drink himself to a slow death.
CON 29 (-4)
LAB 40 (+1)
LIB DEM 15 (+2)
GREEN 6 (n/c)
REF UK 3 (-1)
Highest Labour score since January... highest Lib Dem rating of this parliament https://twitter.com/patrickkmaguire/status/1545299367313260545/photo/1
Here is Hansard for yesterday's urgent question on the meeting. Of particular interest are these two extracts (which are some time apart):-
Vicky Ford, FCO PUS for HMG: I understand that the Prime Minister also confirmed that he had met Mr Lebedev without officials present and that he had subsequently reported those meetings to officials as required.
Chris Bryant: Mr Speaker, I think the Minister inadvertently misled us earlier, because the Prime Minister yesterday—I was at the Liaison Committee—did not say what she said. He did not say—to the best of my memory, anyway—that he had notified other officials. If he had notified other officials, surely, as the Minister would understand, that meeting would have appeared on the transparency records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for April 2018 and it is not there. So, either she has misled us inadvertently today, or the Prime Minister did so, perhaps more deliberately, previously.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-07-07/debates/88BD523E-9AEF-45B9-97C5-5941F01AE888/PrimeMinister’SMeetingWithAlexanderLebedev
Obviously this is only informal, so it's something where the boundary is a bit fuzzy, which is why people have pointed to May passing Net Zero (but that's not really a contradiction as it had Opposition support, so it wasn't controversial). Another interesting example was the consultation during the Eurozone crisis in 2010.
People are only making a thing of this now because they don't trust Johnson to act reasonably during this period with only convention to restrain him.
People expecting better governance anytime soon are deluded. Both the New Brexit Revolutionary Party and the Labour Party are unfit for purpose.
“The Brexit Torch-Carriers”
Suella Braverman QC (42)
Priti Patel (50)
Steve Baker (51)
“The Tax-and-Spenders”
Rishi Sunak (42)
Sajid Javid (52)
Jake Berry (43)
“The Liberal Centrists”
Penny Mordaunt (49)
Jeremy Hunt (55)
Sir Robert Buckland QC (53)
“The Small Government Tax-Cutters”
Liz Truss (46)
Nadhim Zahawi (55)
Grant Shapps (53)
“The Military Veterans”
Ben Wallace (52)
Tom Tugendhat (49)
Tobias Ellwood (55)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/07/who-replace-boris-johnson-resign-next-tory-leader-zahawi/
Have they missed anyone who might plausibly run?
Is that the lowest Conservative share since the days of Mrs May?
Being serious, he was their longest serving PM and he did serious reforms both to the military and to the economy. You don't get to be in power for a long time, making major reforms, without upsetting a few people. It sounds like the gunman is ex-military. So almost certainly yes this was political, as awful as that is, and not just "mental health" which will no doubt be mentioned at some point soon.
Sunak will be pissed off to be listed as a tax and spender I bet.
And no need to interfere with that, the membership are still loony enough to strongly prefer those who are sound on Brexit anyway.
When a party is tearing itself apart you really don't need to join in, or you may suddenly find they all unite and turn on you.
Best left to it. Labour are doing just fine through this. As the polls confirm.
I'm not saying there won't be changes to Brexit, but 'dismantling' seems a rather optimistic hope.
As for Bozza’s earnings, here’s the Independent:
“Mr Johnson, who is famously at home with deploying incendiary turns of phrase, would without doubt be in receipt of handsome offers from publishers for his Downing Street memoirs. Mr Blair received a reported £4.6m advance for his tome, with the sum being donated to charity.”
And here’s the Mail;
“Mr Johnson could become 'Billion Dollar Boris' if he plays his cards right with book deals, broadcast slots and speech circuits.
Experts say he will 'eclipse Tony Blair' and could net double the estimated £10million a year the former Labour leader made from speeches after office.
Mr Johnson, who once moaned his £250,000 Daily Telegraph column salary was 'chicken feed', is estimated to 'easily' earn £400,000 per speech while his memoirs could sell for 'at least' £1million
PR guru Mark Borkowski said: 'Boris is fairly wise and over the next 25 years if he can continue to grow it's going to be Billion Dollar Boris. He's a global brand, and with the right management, this is beyond speech-making.'“
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10993095/Boris-Johnson-set-net-fortune-leaves-office.html
The LOTO hasn't covered himself with glory in the last week. He was abysmal yesterday and his Brexit policy is failed Johnsonianism.
The FPN can't come soon enough.
At the moment there are a lot of fantasy candidates like Braverman. An early round with a minimum tariff to clear out the deluded would be helpful. MPs will be looking to do deals and, for me a joint Javid/Sunak ticket would be seriously attractive. Most of our more successful governments have had a close team at the top, whether Blair/Brown or Cameron/Osborne. A PM needs someone who can act as an enforcer and link to the party, as Maggie put it every PM needs a Willie. The lack of such a reliable and solid supporter in cabinet and office was a major factor in the undermining of Boris but he was always a lone wolf who focused on himself. .
As soon as the voting starts any remaining power in Boris will drain away. We face a period of paralysis but we can cope with that for a few weeks and it will be worth it if we get a clearer idea of our sense of direction at the end of it than we have had for the last 9 months.
But the final vote will very probably go to the membership. The competition between the final unappealing duo will be too closely contested to avoid that, I would wager.
Not a good look
If I was a Tory, especially a Scottish Tory, I’d go for Wallace.
But the Tory party being what it is, we can be fairly confident they’re going to make the wrong choice. Again.
(Is Wallace even running??)
(BTW, I want Johnson to leave No.10 immediately.)
A VoNC has to be tabled so couldn't be heard before Monday anyway so I actually don't see the problem..
His star has fallen. Now is the time for you to get over it.
The country is moving on. Thankfully.
Which wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the current energy crisis....
I'd be very surprised if there's any appetite at all in the Tory party to examine their own dirty washing in public.
They haven't suddenly become a haven of morality.
Boris has set the right foundations for a positive Brexit. The UK is not aligned to the EU, so we can and will diverge and evolve in different directions in years to come.
Anyone who decides to "make Brexit work" by aligning Britain with Europe is basically just reversing the entire frigging point of Brexit. There's nothing positive in that, its entirely acting from a negative perspective.
Enjoying British summer. Showing they're normal. Whilst the tory party tears itself to shreds.
However, the fact that some tory sympathisers on here are starting to turn their ire on Labour and SKS is a sign that they are serious about winning again instead of focusing on removing the wicked clown from office.
Politics is about to return to more normality.
https://twitter.com/gabyhinsliff/status/1545303034250534913