UK General Discussion:The Rt. Hon Alex Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, Populist Hero

[Progressive Pessimist]

Its actually a mildly interesting trivia question - Sunak would be the shortest PM since when exactly?

Thatcher was 5'5 compared to Sunak's 5'7, but was also a woman, so… Churchill's 5'6 is the next best answer.

Sunak is 5'7" and being talked about like he's Verne Troyer? Hell, he's taller than me.

[brucejoel99]

Its actually a mildly interesting trivia question - Sunak would be the shortest PM since when exactly?

Thatcher was 5'5 compared to Sunak's 5'7, but was also a woman, so… Churchill's 5'6 is the next best answer.

Sunak is 5'7" and being talked about like he's Verne Troyer? Hell, he's taller than me.

Still shorter than a heelless Theresa May's 5'8", though.

[ingemann]

Its actually a mildly interesting trivia question - Sunak would be the shortest PM since when exactly?

Thatcher was 5'5 compared to Sunak's 5'7, but was also a woman, so… Churchill's 5'6 is the next best answer.

Sunak is 5'7" and being talked about like he's Verne Troyer? Hell, he's taller than me.

He’s two inches smaller than the average British man, he has a proportional built, he is thin, and he’s in a profession full of tall people. Of course they see him that way. Honestly if he was built less proportional or was somewhat overweight he would look bigger.

[Torrain]

The Conservative Party has withdrawn the whip from Tobias Ellwood, one of Johnson's earliest and loudest critics, after he abstained from last night's vote of confidence.

He was one of over 50 MPs who abstained - so either the Government has been looking for a scapegoat, or he had a conversation with the whips where he made it clear that his abstention was based on his views, rather than an inability to make it to the Palace of Westminster in time.

Incidentally, Wragg was in Moldova last night, and is currently meeting the president of that state - in his official capacity as Chair of the Commons Defence Committee, at the time this message was posted. I'm really not sure why that's unforgivable, but the other 11 Tories who abstained get away with it. 

It's worth noting that several other Johnson critics abstained, including Nus Ghani, and William Wragg. That pair have the excuse of being deputy chairs of the 1922 committee, on a day when they were handling a vote - although I would note that the rest of the 1922 Executive, including Graham Brady, found time to vote.

Official line from the whips this morning is this: “Other Conservative MPs cancelled foreign trips, left poorly relatives and one MP’s mother died on the morning of the vote and still attended and voted.” They've inferred that the other 11 MPs made pairing agreements with Labour.

Frankly, this still seems like some hypocrisy on Johnson's part. He's spent the last week pearl-clutching about how our approach to Ukraine could be weakened by his successor, but when one of his MPs actually goes to discuss defence matters with a country in Eastern Europe, he punishes him, and dangles his political career in the balance, all because of a personal feud.

[EastAnglianLefty]

https://twitter.com/hzeffman/status/1549317013755011074

Frankly this shows the problem with the Conservative Whips' Office - they were always going to win the confidence vote, expecting MPs who had suffered a recent bereavement to come and vote on a formality was both callous and very very stupid.

[Torrain]

Incidentally - Ellwood (a vocal Mordaunt supporter) losing the whip means he's barred from voting in tonight's ballot. So we have a PM who's all in behind Truss, excluding one of her biggest rival's high-profile backers.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Sunak is 5'7" and being talked about like he's Verne Troyer? Hell, he's taller than me.

Without putting too fine a point on it, he is not 5' 7''.

[Torrain]

The final point I'll make on the Ellwood whip suspension - the Chris Pincher story led the news for days before Johnson bowed to pressure and withdrew the whip. Ellwood was turfed out within 12 hours.

[CumbrianLefty]

It has to be said that an MP not attending a VONC without prior agreement from the whips (or some other unforeseen compelling reason) has always been regarded as a serious transgression by all the major parties, and has certainly been punished in the past.

Its only because Johnson has so effectively toxiified everything that it is an issue now (and yes, the contrast with Pincher is simply one of the many facets of this)

[Silent Hunter]

Didn't Ellwood get delayed coming back?

[Progressive Pessimist]

Sunak is 5'7" and being talked about like he's Verne Troyer? Hell, he's taller than me.

Without putting too fine a point on it, he is not 5' 7''.

Shameful! Us in the below average height community should be embracing our vertical challenges and being honest about them! If I was a British Tory supporter this would sour me on Sunak.

[Angel of Death]

Have we all become so numb to the point that it isn't worthy of a mention how the sitting Prime Minister literally brought up the "deep state"?

https://www.irishtimes.com/video/world/uk/2022/07/18/boris-johnson-warns-of-the-threat-of-the-deep-state-to-brexit/

[Torrain]

The Mail have outdone themselves over the last couple of days:

https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1549693730705346562

[Torrain]

PMQs is remarkably poor quality this week. Johnson repeating the same talking points with even more frequency than normal, and just seems bitter. Starmer and Blackford are making a valiant effort, but don't seem to be landing any particularly good blows.

Maybe it's the heat, but the whole thing looks more like a passive-aggressive family disagreement. Typically there's at least some cross-partisan goodwill on the final PMQs of a PM, but there's none of that today. Some of his own backbenchers giving support, but none elsewhere. Quite a contrast with, for instance, the tributes payed to Blair by all party leaders all the way down to Ian Paisley, in his final PMQs in 2007:

Even Theresa May's final outing - deep as it was in the political quagmire of 2019, was a far friendlier, and good humoured affair - with some softer words from Corbyn (in between some harsh domestic policy criticism), praise from high-profile Labour backbenchers like Harriet Harman and Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson, and a non-partisan standing ovation as she left the chamber as Prime Minister for the last time.

Johnson got a standing ovation - but from exclusively one side of the chamber. May - as you might expect, got to her feet, but folded her arms and didn't clap.

[TheTide]

Johnson said "mission accomplished - for now."

[CumbrianLefty]

Didn't Ellwood get delayed coming back?

That is what he claimed, yes.

[Cassius]

Johnson said "mission accomplished - for now."

Genuinely surprised he didn't slip an "I'll be back" in there.

[CumbrianLefty]

Ellwood is going to be allowed to vote in today's MPs ballot, after which the Tory whip will be taken away again. I don't want to see Tories criticising Labour's internal arrangements ever again

[brucejoel99]

Johnson said "mission accomplished - for now."

Genuinely surprised he didn't slip an "I'll be back" in there.

We'll have to settle for "Hasta la vista, baby" as a close-enough allusion.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

So the top 2 choices for PM are Truss & Sunak? Wow, the UK is in an even worse shape than I thought.

Horrible choices.

[Lief 🗽]

Beautiful, thank you Britain!

https://twitter.com/oprosuk/status/1549698310113755137?s=21

https://twitter.com/oprosuk/status/1549697979602305024?s=21

[TheTide]

Beautiful, thank you Britain!

https://twitter.com/oprosuk/status/1549698310113755137?s=21
https://twitter.com/oprosuk/status/1549697979602305024?s=21

Either will do better than that in the early stages of their premiership, with the New Era nonsense that any new PM gets. Still, those figures don't bode well.

[MillennialModerate]

So the top 2 choices for PM are Truss & Sunak? Wow, the UK is in an even worse shape than I thought.

Horrible choices.

Yikes. I think Penny would’ve been formidable in the next election.

And Sunak will almost certainly be the next PM. Electability argument will spook some hard right voters away from Truss.

Beautiful, thank you Britain!

https://twitter.com/oprosuk/status/1549698310113755137?s=21

https://twitter.com/oprosuk/status/1549697979602305024?s=21

Sadly - it take enormous margins like this to get a half decent Labour majority because of Scotlands silly SNP fetish. And even more sad is I can’t see these margins holding till the next election

[DINGO Joe]

So the top 2 choices for PM are Truss & Sunak? Wow, the UK is in an even worse shape than I thought.

Horrible choices.

Yikes. I think Penny would’ve been formidable in the next election.

And Sunak will almost certainly be the next PM. Electability argument will spook some hard right voters away from Truss.

Beautiful, thank you Britain!

https://twitter.com/oprosuk/status/1549698310113755137?s=21

https://twitter.com/oprosuk/status/1549697979602305024?s=21

Sadly - it take enormous margins like this to get a half decent Labour majority because of Scotlands silly SNP fetish. And even more sad is I can’t see these margins holding till the next election

Well, it depends if strategic voting is still all the rage at that point

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

So the top 2 choices for PM are Truss & Sunak? Wow, the UK is in an even worse shape than I thought.

Horrible choices.

Yikes. I think Penny would’ve been formidable in the next election.

And Sunak will almost certainly be the next PM. Electability argument will spook some hard right voters away from Truss.

Beautiful, thank you Britain!

https://twitter.com/oprosuk/status/1549698310113755137?s=21

https://twitter.com/oprosuk/status/1549697979602305024?s=21

Sadly - it take enormous margins like this to get a half decent Labour majority because of Scotlands silly SNP fetish. And even more sad is I can’t see these margins holding till the next election

A Labour-SNP coalition is fine!