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

[CumbrianLefty]

https://mobile.twitter.com/johnmcdonnellMP/status/1369337586746023942

No constitutional dissent allowed in a party that used to accommodate both Dewar and Dalyell.

Can't say I am overjoyed at this decision, but at the end of the day Dalyell and Dewar were - despite their differences - both *unionists*. So its maybe not the slam dunk point you think it is

[beesley]

I’m inclined to be sceptical of the after effects of COVID being a reason for him wanting to quit though. It’s certainly a good excuse for quitting, but I feel like he’s much more likely to quit because being PM is a hard and (mostly) thankless job where his capacity to ‘be himself’ (whatever that means) is considerably curtailed. He’ll have a lot more freedom and will be able to make a lot more money once he leaves office, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he quit now that he’s ticked being PM, winning a big election victory and notching up a few achievements in office off of the bucket list. Getting out early and thus avoiding being widely despised would be a bonus on top of these.

I was referring in part to the psychological effects of getting COVID - not in a medical sense, but it 'affected' him that way and reinforced the reasons you made.

[CumbrianLefty]

Nigel Farage has resigned as Reform UK leader. Not particularly surprising given the party’s failure to make hay over the government’s COVID policy, but I suspect he may have been pushed out by/come to a gentleman’s agreement with Richard Tice, who will now assume the leadership.

I’m sure he’ll be back as soon as the bar tab needs topping up.

I met Tice at an event in 2019. He’s smart and charismatic, and not someone to be written off immediately like say Paul Nuttall or Gerard Batten. But I doubt that he’s someone able to make a huge impact. I can’t see there being many people who’d prefer him to Boris Johnson when countering in the risk of letting Labour in through the middle as happened across the North in 2019.

Well that assumes a few things, not least that Johnson is still going to be there at the next GE.

At present, the openings for a "populist right" outfit a la peak UKIP are indeed limited - and that may well have played a part in Farage's latest decision. This may not always be so, however.

I see no reason, besides wishful thinking, to believe he won’t be. The Tories haven’t forgotten that before he became leader they were fourth in the national polls and facing oblivion. And Johnson has largely kept his personal ratings intact since then. They simply don’t have anyone more electable than him.

I can assure you that those pre-Christmas pieces planted in the right wing press about how BoJo finds the job of PM "limiting" and is unhappy it doesn't pay him more, didn't appear by accident.

And its no coincidence that this was also the time when his ratings had dropped behind Starmer's in several polls, either. Of course that is not the case currently, but what goes up can come down.

[beesley]

I can assure you that those pre-Christmas pieces planted in the right wing press about how BoJo finds the job of PM "limiting" and is unhappy it doesn't pay him more, didn't appear by accident.

Please Mr Johnson, feel free to change jobs some time soon.

[beesley]

In other news (to be clear I'm not trying to make light of the wider situation):

https://twitter.com/GreenJennyJones/status/1369781660401758209?s=20

[Coldstream]

In other news:

https://twitter.com/GreenJennyJones/status/1369781660401758209?s=20

Jenny Jones was head of “Green Leaves” the Green Brexit campaign which I always thought was the best named organisation in British politics.

[CumbrianLefty]

There is a chance that this move isn't 100% serious, tbh - but rather a classic of the "I want this to draw attention to an important but currently overly neglected issue" variety,

[Blair]

Am I the only one who finds myself saying yes to this question?

In quite a competitive field Chorley seems to have one of the worse grasps on politics; I wanted to ask if I was being unfair, or just have an irrational dislike of him..

https://twitter.com/MattChorley/status/1369967016375910401?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogl...

[CumbrianLefty]

He is both dim and quite staggeringly unfunny.

One of the very worst amongst a notably dismal current crop of lobby journalists.

[beesley]

He is both dim and quite staggeringly unfunny.

One of the very worst amongst a notably dismal current crop of lobby journalists.

The problem with lobby journalists, including Chorley, is that it's all a club to them. They're in competition with each other to ask the 'best questions' and enjoy nice dinners. Because of this, they have a tendency to report on things badly - see the Dominic Cummings scandal and the subsequent Rose Garden interview.

Whilst I agree Labour shouldn't solely focus on big national issues during a local election you can hardly expect Keir Starmer to be launching his campaign on road works - local parties should however do so very fervently in my view. Perhaps he should focus more on regeneration, high streets and small businesses, or social care and local bus services more generally, but it's the first time he's actually campaigned and fought hard over an issue since he became leader so it's somehow an improvement, and it's not as if he can make promises on behalf of local councillors.

[cp]

No, but he can articulate a big message that local campaigns can align themselves with (rhetorically, temperamentally) and improvise around. Sadly, Starmer and the current Labour leadership are unwilling/incapable of doing so. It would require them to articulate a systemic critique of the Tories, which they don't want to do for fear of seeming too redolent of the Corbyn era.

[beesley]

It would require them to articulate a systemic critique of the Tories, which they don't want to do for fear of seeming too redolent of the Corbyn era.

Which is why they will never get my vote, because they obviously don't care about the British people. I don't think my point necessarily disagreed with that.

[EastAnglianLefty]

The leader of the Labour Party should campaign on whatever issues the Labour Party polls best on. There are some areas where particular local issues get people more engaged than nurses' pay (although there won't be many of those), but those issues are still irrelevant to 99% of the country because they don't live in the same local authority.

[Meclazine for Israel]

48yo Wayne Couzens charged with kidnap and murder of a young woman, Sarah Everard, in London:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqW_ld0jA0Y

Very sad to find out that they have arrested a Police Officer.

[Blair]

I find the coverage of local elections by the national political press very funny; largely because I think they forget even more so that most normal people have absolutely no idea about them & don't vote.

It's a big caveat but in my own borough there's absolutely no correlation between the performance of the local council, our ward councillors* and the electorate result; but there's a huge correlation between Labours performance in London and the overall result.

Starmer to his credit has been talking a lot about local government funding- both in the context of a decade of cuts & then largely in the context of the council tax hike. There was even an opposition day debate on it-  The lobby just decided it was boring (it was!) and yet somehow criticise him for talking about something more likely to get headlines.

*I would be curious to know how many people even know the difference- a rather large number of people think that the local MP is also in charge of council services. We're not taught this stuff at school!

[afleitch]

It's been 25 years since the Dunblane massacre. It still makes me feel a little hollow when I think back to that day.

[cp]

Oof. First time I've ever heard of this. What a nightmare.

*hugs*

[EastAnglianLefty]

Starmer to his credit has been talking a lot about local government funding- both in the context of a decade of cuts & then largely in the context of the council tax hike. There was even an opposition day debate on it-  The lobby just decided it was boring (it was!) and yet somehow criticise him for talking about something more likely to get headlines.

*I would be curious to know how many people even know the difference- a rather large number of people think that the local MP is also in charge of council services. We're not taught this stuff at school!

And part of the reason we're not taught about it is that it is both complex and intensely boring. Most people do not want to understand the difference between the responsibilities of a parish council, a district council, a county council and a unitary council, because it just doesn't affect them until something goes wrong and they find whichever council is responsible isn't willing or able to help them.

[Blair]

Pretty impressive for the Met to appear more right wing than Priti Patel...

https://twitter.com/pritipatel/status/1370856092062912512?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle...

[Blair]

It was very appalling to watch the video tonight; especially after the High Court ruling pretty much told the Police to work with the organisers of the vigil to make it safe(as happened in Nottingham & other areas)

The Met have handled it awfully & have appeared absolutely tone deaf, I wouldn't be shocked if Khan sacks Cressida Dick over this.

[Cassius]

I imagine they didn’t want to be seen to be picking and choosing which large scale events should be allowed to take place, given that they’ve been aggressively policing other large gatherings and demonstrations throughout the year. I think that most of the other gatherings around the country only involved a relatively small number of people, making it much less likely that things would get out of hand as they did in London.

[afleitch]

They should have just pretended to be football fans.

[Blair]

I imagine they didn’t want to be seen to be picking and choosing which large scale events should be allowed to take place, given that they’ve been aggressively policing other large gatherings and demonstrations throughout the year. I think that most of the other gatherings around the country only involved a relatively small number of people, making it much less likely that things would get out of hand as they did in London.

The thread below had some interesting thoughts on it; basically saying that Parliament had ducked the question around protests & kicked the ball to the police who aren't really in a position to make judgements about this (The police have been one of the groups asking the loudest for the piss-poor guidance to be more explicit because they keep getting burnt over the lack of clarity)

https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1370796279295512578

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The Met is the worst police force in the country. It has improved a bit since Macpherson, but the fundamental character is what it is and just look at it.

[EastAnglianLefty]

It's not just what happened, but the way it happened and how the Met has tried to justify itself - the level of lazy mendacity is indicative of a force which believes that the rules do not apply to them.