Categories
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » TMay is becoming big problem for the Johnson/Cummings regime
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » TMay is becoming big problem for the Johnson/Cummings regime
Reminder. Boris Johnson is taking the Tory parliamentary party for granted. This is no problem for Dominic Cummings, because he hates the Tory party anyway. But in time it will, history suggests, turn out to be a grave mistake for Boris Johnson. https://t.co/sB7FbhKZ6k
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
That the worst PM since Lord North hasn't perhaps shouldn't be a shock.
On the BBC News @ 1.
Revenge is a dish etc.
No one but no one is pining to have May back.
https://twitter.com/PeteApps/status/1277912470968045570?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1277912470968045570&ref_url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/jun/30/uk-coronavirus-covid-19-live-news-updates-leicester-local-lockdown-boris-johnson
Which means she will eventually leap frog Boris and Cameron to be the 3rd worst PM of all time.
"What, you think Johnson is in charge?!"
Sips from glass of water
😝
Absolutely nothing story
I assume there’s more to come as if Boris and Sunak really want to pump-prime the British economy we’re talking of the need for a sustained £100-250bn of infrastructure spending over 2-3 years. Not this.
Especially on the day when it is revealed that, alone amongst European leaders, she allowed herself to be humiliated and bullied by the appalling Trump. Merkel shrugged him off, despite the abuse.
https://twitter.com/LovedayM/status/1277945412301848578?s=20
That is a truly eye-watering piece of journalism, BTW. Definitely worth a read not just for the Theresa May bits. Tells you exactly how bad Trump has been for America, democracy and the West.
People are at last beginning to see what Trump is all about. Soon they will see what our joke of a "leader" is also about. Governing the country is about more than winning beauty contests for ugly people.
The thing about TM's interventions is that they're excellently pointed questions. There's clearly a massive gap between "put the best experts in place and don't shuffle everyone around all the time" and recent events. Put aside your like or dislike of TMexPM, it's a damn good question. And Gove doesn't have an answer.
But you'd expect the shoe lady to know about stilettos.
I still think the deal that she did with the EU was a good compromise, better than Boris's in some respect. But her leadership skills were such she could not deliver it. Selling ice cold water in the Sahara on a sunny day would be beyond that woman, it really would. She was awful. I hesitate to say worse than Brown (at least she did make her mind up eventually) but right up there with worst PMs of the last 100 years or so.
On the vast majority of counts, Starmer's better.
However, his kneeling before a mob and his yet to be fleshed out plans to carve England into pieces sit not at all well with me.
So you fully approve of not just Johnson himself, David Davis, Liam Fox, Chris Grayling, Andrea Leadsom etc?
And I assume you approve of those Cabinet Ministers Johnson has that May had like Raab, Patel and Williamson?
It is all summed up in that one indisputable fact: she went for an election when she was about 400 percent ahead in the polls, and she ended up losing her majority to..... Jeremy bloody Corbyn. FFS.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/british-elite-being-groomed-by-china-q5ng2plt8
A truly disastrous PM
A Cottage on Dartmoor - Anthony Asquith
La Grande Illusion - Jean Renoir
La Règle du Jeu - Jean Renoir
Ninotchka - Ernst Lubitsch
A lot more in the 1940s, of course.
no consultation, no consensus building, no allies and ultimately pretty much no followers
https://twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/1277944853876355072?s=20
But she's right, isn't she?
Boris, of course, has avoided that by sacking anyone who might be a competitor. You may think of that as strong leadership, but I think the "cowardly bullying" interpretation is more accurate.
https://twitter.com/ScotNational/status/1277954288367677441?s=20
No one cares.
To put it in a way @TheScreamingEagles should understand (but likely won't agree with) Theresa May was the Hicks and Gillette of leaders while Johnson is FSG.
If she really wanted to put the country first she would NEVER have made that calamitous conference speech ("citizens of nowhere") after the Referendum, which pointlessly offended everyone in Europe, made Britain look pinched and mean, alienated all moderate Remainers, and immediately laid down hugely damaging red lines, which boxed Britain in to a massively difficult Brexit.
Up to that point there was loads of room for flexibility, maybe EEA for a while, maybe something Swiss, but then the Stupid TMay put Britain last and her career first by f*cking it all up. I hate to be ungallant but she's a cretinous halfwit.
The only time she put Britain first is when she resigned as PM.
Of course it doesn't mean that Boris is right about everything (he isn't) or that she was wrong about everything (she wasn't) but one can lead and one can't. It's tested and proven. End of.
Theresa May = Ted Heath in a pantsuit?
As for Boris Johnson, seems to me that his hair is getting wilder and wilder by the day. He's almost back to his full bleach-blond tumble-weed glory. Looks (literally) like he threw away the comb and went back to using a weed-wacker.
https://politicalquarterly.blog/2020/01/28/the-worst-british-prime-minister-ever/
I'm with Paxo. Cameron was merely the worst since Lord North.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek3l9iaByro
I also fail to understand the issue about a diplomat being selected to do the intelligence czar job or the idea that diplomats have no expertise in security and defence. All top diplomats spend the majority of their careers in Chancery jobs. Politics, trade, defence and intelligence are not really separate issues, rather different facets of the same thing. And the JIC always used to be chaired by a diplomat. Not sure if it still is.
The attempted reform at social care probably defines her premiership best in all sorts of ways.
Incidentally I didn't vote for him but I wouldn't be jumping to any conclusions about his leadership until or unless he steers us out of the financial mess that's about to hit us.
https://www.recoverytrial.net/files/lopinavir-ritonavir-recovery-statement-29062020_final.pdf
No clinical benefit from use of lopinavir-ritonavir in hospitalised COVID-19 patients studied in RECOVERY
All Quiet on the Western Front
Battleship Potemkin
Frankenstein
The Lady Vanishes
The Adventures of Robin Hood
If he lasts the distance, the time to assess him will be 2024, when Brexit is done, and when the damn virus has (hopefully) dwindled in the rearview mirror
We can be pretty damned sure that it won't go so well next time.
I still believe Gone With The Wind is one of them. Apart from anything else, it's an amazing technical achievement, eg the "burning of Atlanta" is impressive even now
It reminds me of when I'm racing and backing a 33/1 shot in the last to try and recoup my losses. Even on a site that you'd think was quite savvy most people are oblivious to the state we're in.
He is better at elections than anyone since Blair. It's asinine to deny this.
What is debatable is his stature as PM. Too soon to decide.
Edit. 128 000 population.
A bonanza of £8 per person.
It seems to spread Mr Frost a bit thin to have him in charge of both Brexit negotiations and this new brief.
2019 was about as perfect a circumstance you could ever have for the Tories.
I'd have expected a plie of letters on the doormat of the 1922 Committee before you could say "Farage".
When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a poor reputation, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
And that's because brilliant people often think that changing things is simply a matter of a few reforms here, and changing a few people there. The reality is that there are more than 300,000 civil servants. There will be things done in odd ways for good reasons. And the things will be done long after the odd reasons have been long forgotten (but not, maybe, gone away).
I am also reminded of something Joel Spolksy wrote about rewriting code - and I'm paraphrasing here - old code looks bad, it looks ugly, it looks inefficient, and it always looks like a great idea to throw it away and write it again. But all those ugly hacks in there - they're usually there for a reason. And when you start over, those reasons are forgotten.
I'm a business person. And my mantra is iteration. Get any old shit out as fast as you can. And then have a regular series of small revisions. Every week change something small. Does it make things better? Nope, throw it away and go back to the old way. It work? Great, do more of it. I live by A/B testing not by brilliant planning and brilliant managing. Because nothing is as useful as real world experience. No matter how clever you think you are - and I'm sure Cummings is extremely clever - the real world is still more complex.
Big bang reforms, like with the NHS IT system, are apt to be expensive failures. Set small goals, but have short deadlines. Have a vague general idea about the way you want to go, but get there as a series of 100 small steps, not one giant leap.
Geniuses, though, like not just reform but revolution. Their record is not great.
Peter Ricketts: 2010-2012 Prior to his appointment as National Security Adviser, Ricketts had been the Permanent Secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Before he took over that position in July 2006, he served as the Permanent Representative to NATO in Brussels. He was also previously the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee.
Kim Darroch: (2012-15) In 2004, he transferred to 10 Downing Street, as Head of the Cabinet Office European Secretariat, where he served as the Prime Minister's principal advisor on European affairs. After three years, Darroch was appointed to replace John Grant in Brussels, as British Permanent Representative to the European Union in 2007 for a four-year term. On 24 June 2011, it was announced that Darroch would replace Peter Ricketts as National Security Advisor in January 2012
Mark Lyall Grant (2015-17) Lyall Grant was British Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) from 2009 to 2015. He held the office of President of the United Nations Security Council four times: in November 2010, March 2012, June 2013, and August 2014.
Mark Sedwill (2017-2020) In April 2009, Sedwill became the Ambassador to Afghanistan, In January 2010, he was additionally appointed as NATO's Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan, to be the civilian counterpart to the ISAF Commander, U.S. General Stanley A. McChrystal and then U.S. General David Petraeus. In May 2011, Sedwill took over as the FCO's Director-General for Afghanistan and Pakistan (and thus as the UK's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan). In February 2013, Sedwill became the Permanent Secretary at the Home Office.
David Frost: From May 2006 until October 2008, Frost was the British Ambassador to Denmark then Director for Strategy and Policy Planning in the Foreign Office from October 2008 to October 2010, before being seconded to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills where he served three years as Director for Europe, Trade, and International Affairs, Britain's most senior trade policy official. Frost left HM Diplomatic Service in 2013 to become CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association. Following the appointment of Boris Johnson as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Frost was taken on as HM Foreign Secretary's special adviser in November 2016, serving until Johnson left post in July 2018.
So we've had, 1) Permanent Representative to NATO and Chair of JIC, 2) Permanent Representative to the EU, 3) Permanent Representative to the UN and four times chair of the Security Council, 4) NATO Senior Civilian in Afghanistan and Home Office Permanent Secretary and 5) Johnson Special Advisor and Brexit negotiator.
Once you peek behind the curtain, there's nothing there...
Still, it's amusing seeing the contortions some people are going through to justify their religious faith in Boris. Some people even seem to be going so far as to try to claim he's a decent PM.
Look at Australia now going into a partial new lockdown, in Victoria
https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1277859458564198401?s=20
This is bad. Even countries that had apparently defeated it are suffering. If we don't get a vaccine or brilliant treatments this could cripple the global economy for years.
It signalling to the public and business there won't be a return to austerity, the government will spend what it needs, isn't looking to balance the books quickly, isn't looking to raise taxes.
To basically give the public and business confidence to spend and resume market activity.