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

[CumbrianLefty]

There are several other possible leaders, dry your eyes.

[CumbrianLefty]

Well the "new evidence" that has so far been alluded to doesn't appear to be the sturdiest, let us say.

[CumbrianLefty]

Anyway it looks like the second year in a row will see election results overshadowed by Labour troubles; I wouldn’t be shocked if this chips away at support levels as it has been covered quite heavily.

With genuine respect, I think this is almost comically pessimistic.

[CumbrianLefty]

Labour people have a pretty straighforward response if asked - "Keir says he did nothing wrong, and there is no reason to disbelieve that unless clear evidence emerges otherwise".

[CumbrianLefty]

Well the supposed "smoking gun" from the MoS was somewhat underwhelming.

[CumbrianLefty]

Keir set to announce at 4 that he will resign if fined.

Hilariously the Telegraph political editor is crying that Keir is trying to influence a police investigation…

Something the right wing press would absolutely never even dream of.

[CumbrianLefty]

Point is though, if he *is* fined one of his best selling points compared to BoJo is badly hit.

[CumbrianLefty]

Yes, but the *general* awfulness of ex-SpAd MPs has been very noticeable for a while.

(there are indeed exceptions, but the whole point is that they are just that - exceptions)

[CumbrianLefty]

Starmer is likely to become PM via not being Boris more than any great love for him.

That is quite often the way, Blair was an exception to this as in many other respects.

(and maybe that wasn't an unalloyed good for Labour in the longer term)

[CumbrianLefty]

Its a bit like the WW2 thing - many parents of boomers *did* endure genuine hardship in the 1930s.

They mainly saw that as something that should never happen to anyone else again - but many of the next generation came to valorise it as they do the war that happened before they were born, and (still more ridiculously) see their much milder privations post war as somehow equivalent.

[CumbrianLefty]

I almost *want* to see them try and turn Ed "Starmer Without The Excitement" Davey into some sort of scary bogey figure - it will be genuinely hilarious.

[CumbrianLefty]

I almost *want* to see them try and turn Ed "Starmer Without The Excitement" Davey into some sort of scary bogey figure - it will be genuinely hilarious.

Wouldn't the campagin more be focused on turning "Former Trot" Starmer into such a figure for Con-Lib Dem swing voters ?

Well they are going to struggle with that too, though they seem to prefer the "he served under Jezza!" scare rather than the "Trot 40 years ago" one that literally nobody cares about even in the Tory party (after all, some of their MPs past and present were once on the left too)

There's also the Savile and grooming gangs stuff to rehash if they get really desperate, I suppose.

[CumbrianLefty]

I almost *want* to see them try and turn Ed "Starmer Without The Excitement" Davey into some sort of scary bogey figure - it will be genuinely hilarious.

Wouldn't the campagin more be focused on turning "Former Trot" Starmer into such a figure for Con-Lib Dem swing voters ?

Well they are going to struggle with that too, though they seem to prefer the "he served under Jezza!" scare rather than the "Trot 40 years ago" one that literally nobody cares about even in the Tory party (after all, some of their MPs past and present were once on the left too)

There's also the Savile and grooming gangs stuff to rehash if they get really desperate, I suppose.

Well it probably won't matter to Labour voters or even Labour-Con swing voters, but i'm guessing trying to scaremonger about far-left policies that a Starmer-Davey  Alliance would implement could work. Similar to the mansion tax attack in 2015.

But the underlying point is that - compared to even "Red Ed", never mind Jezza - Starmer and Davey are simply fundamentally not very scary people. Tories risk actually looking ridiculous if they just try and run the 2015 attack lines all over again.

[CumbrianLefty]

Turns out the arrested MP's victim is male and oh, who'd have thunk it, the MP has voting consistently against gay rights. Tories are honestly the massive deviants and hypocrites they think the rest of society are, aren't they?

Has the name of the MP been confirmed?

Still not officially, no. But it is pretty clear who they are now.

[CumbrianLefty]

Well there are rather a lot of towns in the UK

Some of these medium sized places becoming cities, whilst Bournemouth/Northampton/Reading are still waiting, is bound to be noticed by some though.

[CumbrianLefty]

That's hardly going to be a Tory/media line of attack on him though, is it.

[CumbrianLefty]

To be clear, this appears to be a different Tory MP to the arrested but not yet publicly named one.

[CumbrianLefty]

Daily Mail showing this morning that it can be unhinged about stuff other than Beergate.

[CumbrianLefty]

Try telling me that this man didn’t know exactly what he was doing.

I'm sure the voters of Wakefield, Tiverton and Honiton and the yet to be revealed Mystery Sex Pest Constituency will be thrilled to see this photo on their leaflets. Preferably next to a stock image of an elderly woman in a hospital bed.

I am sure, although the Mystery Sex Pest constituency is of a kin to Old Bexley and Sidcup and will not be flipping in a by-election.

Though that byelection was after the death of a widely respected representative.

If it happens, this one would be after the conviction of the sitting MP for multiple horrific sex crimes (it really doesn't do things justice to describe the allegations as "sex pest")

That can have a significant impact on even the safest seat on paper.

[CumbrianLefty]

Update: There’s to be a public statement from Johnson at 12.30 or so, a statement to the Commons in the mid-afternoon, and a meeting of the 1922 committee (with Johnson addressing the party) around 17.00.

This is all coming in via BBC News, and is liable to change on a day like this.

Which means it will be a weird PMQs, because ordinarily that's the main event whereas in this case it's just an appetiser.

Yeah, a bit like PMQs on Budget days.

[CumbrianLefty]

I seriously doubt there's any chance that the conservatives will Coup Boris, they've stuck with him long enough that I think most of the MP's have moved on with regards to the scandal.

There's always the possibility enough letters are sent in for a confidence vote to take place (though he would still expect to win it for the time being)

[CumbrianLefty]

It does mean Labour have to do some tactical rethinking, though. And at least we might not hear so much of that awful and empty verbiage "get a grip".

[CumbrianLefty]

Sunak calling the windfall tax a "temporary targeted energy profits levy" feels like the Westminster version of a “special operation in the Donbas”.

Won’t stop the papers reporting it as a windfall though.

He doesn't actually like doing it, for all the digs about him being "more generous" than Labour.

[CumbrianLefty]

In news from my area of Havering, the Residents and Labour have formed an administration.

The Labour leader, Keith Darvill, was MP for Upminster between 1997 and 2001.

For a while, he was the only Labour councillor there. There are nine now (even if that still makes them the effective junior partner in this one)

[CumbrianLefty]

https://www.politico.eu/article/tony-blairs-new-centrist-program-just-dont-call-it-a-party/

Blair and his attempt at a vaguely centrist-but-not-LibDem establishmenty party idea is like a turd that will not flush, is it?

Change UK didn't fail, it was just never really tried