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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Boris Johnson is having a deeply unimpressive referendum ca
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Boris Johnson is having a deeply unimpressive referendum campaign so far
Look at the above video from Boris Johnson’s appearance at the Treasury Select Committee earlier on this week, where his past comments/hyperbole on the EU came back to haunt him. Then there’s that tweet showing his inconsistency. Unfortunately for Boris these are the norms, not the exceptions.
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The Ukip-backed campaign to pull Britain out of the EU has recruited EU migrants to staff its call centre despite telling voters such low-skilled workers “deprive British citizens of jobs”.
Leave.EU employs four phone bank staff from EU countries including Slovakia. Their job is to rally voters across the UK to back Brexit. The appointments come despite Leave.EU claiming that “as the world’s fifth biggest economy, the UK is well placed to supply its own labour”.
That's one reason I'm including Hammond. Yes, he's dull. That's precisely why he's a convenient vehicle to be used to stop others: his own negatives are less potent than some other candidates'.
'If Britain left the Community, our position would be both uncertain and unsatisfactory. We might well find this country moving rapidly into a Socialist siege economy, because the gravity of our economic situation would be such that the Government would be very tempted to resort to rigid controls in a dual attempt to staunch the inflow of imports and the outflow of capital, while simultaneously extending the frontiers of Socialism. For example, Mr. Heffer was reported as having said at a recent Tribune rally in Manchester that getting Britain out of the Community would be the first step to creating the Socialist society which he and his Left-wing colleagues want in this country (Daily Telegraph, 12 April 1975)'
and...
'In general, [the Uk leaving the Community]...could contribute to the gradual fragmentation and even disintegration of the West, thus serving only the strategic interests of the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact.'
and...
'The Soviet Government would like to see Britain leave the Community and it has made its view known in frequent broadcasts on Moscow Radio'
When does it become acceptable to be the favourite? Once we know the final 2?
He's (Wes, not Sunil) only been a MP for five minutes: first elected in 2015.
California Poll: USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times
Trump - 37%
Cruz - 30%
Kasich - 12%
Poll conducted Mar. 16-23
MoE +- 5.5%
Dave didn't become favourite until after the Tory conference in October 2005, and he became Tory leader in December 2005.
Boris looks daft, IDS has resigned, Dave's looking weak and shifty, Osborne's toast. No LDs are visible, arguably only Jezza is looking good, but that's because he's kept out of it.
But the general premise is correct. Boris' shambolic and uncertain approach reflects Leave which has no coherent idea of what comes next, indeed it has a number of inconsistent ideas and objectives. I suspect Boris is very conscious of this and is anxious not to alienate potential supporters. But you either lead or you don't. He has to work out what he wants and then he has to sell it. Tick tock.
Theresa May is by not being visible.
Hillary Benn is but that's under the radar.
I'm responding to the obvious timing of personal attack on him by Parris - highlighted in the thread header.
Look at his life story: whether it's jobs or relationships, he starts something, gets bored, engineers a reason to leave, b*****s off, start's something new, rinse and repeat. He's let down everybody in his life, personal and professional, and bolted from every commitment. This is not somebody you would trust with the Premiership: frankly he's too irresponsible to be a junior minister.
But don't just take my word for it. For those of you who wish to read the non-paywalled text of Parris's attack piece, see here. For the 2013 documentary on Boris, see here [EDIT: fix tags]
Politics and the media are in a very tawdry place at the moment. I've never read so much low-level journalism. It's just so - ugh!
When it's gone, it is impossible to get back. He had a good run of 8 years, which is more than most pols get.
Easter with the family? OK to use your mobile phone at dinner? 88% say generally not OK https://t.co/ssuO0J1ulG https://t.co/PZxCrvtst1
Would have gone up this weekend, but it just needs some editing.
Is me prattling on about being a Muslim in Britain.
Should be up next weekend.
Sir Eric Pickles
@EricPickles
Palestinian Authorities are making payments to terrorists with UK taxpayers money
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3510827/Revealed-UK-aid-funds-TERRORISTS-budget-cuts-12bn-taxes-splurged-foreign-hand-outs-militants-killers-Palestinian-palaces-jobs-don-t-exist.html …
Aston Villa have better chances avoiding relegation.
... as compensation for them having to live in Oxford.
The bottom line is people like him, and he reminds people of the Olympics, those glorious few weeks when everyone was in a good mood for a change. Being able to cheer people up means others are willing to overlook all sorts of other personal failings. As bad as he would be for the governance of the country, I think the public would lap him up.
Conversely, as a Labour supporter, Michael Gove is my top preference for Tory leader: I think as far as Tories go he's alright and has a bit of integrity so the governance of the country wouldn't be too bad, but he also would severely damage the Tories' political fortunes since he has a natural talent for rubbing people the wrong way and he makes Ed Miliband look like a fully-paid-up member of the human race.
Remain got in touch and said I needed to do an anti Boris thread to compensate for the four anti George threads I've written in the last week
So far the campaign has been dominated by willy waving over who has the more signatures on a letter and doomsday scenarios for for / against leaving.
Is this really the best they can do?
(There is at least one very famous boat race veteran comedian, although he might be a bit busy).
In fact, although as we have both noted in the past Tory leaders tend to be hard to pick twelve months in advance, they're not usually hard to pick by about halfway through the actual election.
He appeared to know nothing about the race, and just wasn't very funny.
Boris was also deeply unimpressive in his first Commons outing after he declared himself a LEAVER.....yes, the general public won't notice, but you can be confident Tory MPs will......
LOL...they just caught Helen Skelton basically saying get him off...
No idea why they would want to shoehorn that into the programme...innocent face.
TBH, I think as segment it would be far better as one of those "anybody can do it" for the Olympics, given his normal upbringing, and not the stereotype of rowing only being Oxford vs Cambridge.
One of the problems with being married to a Turkish feminist atheist liberal is that religion doesn't often come up in conversation ...
(As an aside from recent conversations on here, it's perfectly possible to be an atheist and respect religions and the religious. Dawkins and his ilk are sh*ts.)
Reagan for example was not a details person but showed leadership
Blair was short on detail (and accuracy) but convincing as a leader (at the time)
Cameron also is short on detail but good with words.
Thatcher was both a strong lader and strong on detail and follow up.
Boris Johnson is no good on detail but he is inspirational, a good leadership quality.
In the meantime, the majority of atheists and feminists I talk to are much more moderate. In fact, it's a bit like religious extremists versus the 'ordinary' religious person.
But this is well off-topic ...
(*) Though I don't believe Harman is a feminist, despite any t-shirt she may wear.
I'd never heard that before and laughed out loud. That's the great thing about modern conservatives, they elect homophobic MPs then turn their guns on anybody homophobic or anti gay marriage.
How is that view from the moral high ground?
Incidentally Parris is a wanker, that has nothing to do with him being gay, I never talk to anybody who has the slightest problem with gays apart from gays.
One should note that this referendum campaign is Boris's chance to make his case to be Prime Minister. He must know this and he must be assumed to be giving it his best shot. I am betting on the assumption MPs won't be impressed.
For a real character assassination that hit's the parts Matthew Parris doesn't reach try this morning's effort by Nick Cohen.
As a heterosexual I never hear people talk about gays, everybody I've ever spoken to about gay marriage couldn't care less. Apart from my MP, he voted against it.
btw Hitchens was very entertaining but could be quite rude.
@kle4 Only if he's up against Osborne, then I think Corbyn may stand a chance. But I'd much prefer Labour winning a GE with another leader. Corbyn seems to find being a half-decent opposition leader difficult, let alone actually being PM!
@Wanderer Yes, they won (although by the way some are talking you'd think they won the World Cup and the Euros). On Corbyn's base, one caveat is how many of those are £3 people who simply signed up, and how many are actually a part of the core base of the party?
How about taking everybody at face value and not making preferences based on who they go to bed with?
Parris is a tosser, so are lots of heterosexuals, blacks, muslims and Mormons.
I appreciate its easier to lump together groups of people but try treating everyone individually and deal with the message not the messenger.
Except Arsenal fans of course.
Let's take gay marriage, mosques and consistency. One rule for one......