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

[YL]

Didn't see anyone point it out but only MLAs and MPs actually have a vote in the leadership election. Another rule which could potentially change states that the leader must be an MLA.

They would surely want an MLA as leader because the First Minister would need to be there.  The co-option system means it's easy enough to get someone into the Assembly, but double jobbing is banned, so anyone who's current an MP would have to resign their Westminster seat at the same time.

As well as Poots, Robinson and Donaldson, the Guardian mentions Sammy Wilson, MP for East Antrim, as a possible candidate.  I have an image of him as a bit of a backwoodsman...

[beesley]

Didn't see anyone point it out but only MLAs and MPs actually have a vote in the leadership election. Another rule which could potentially change states that the leader must be an MLA.

They would surely want an MLA as leader because the First Minister would need to be there.  The co-option system means it's easy enough to get someone into the Assembly, but double jobbing is banned, so anyone who's current an MP would have to resign their Westminster seat at the same time.

As well as Poots, Robinson and Donaldson, the Guardian mentions Sammy Wilson, MP for East Antrim, as a possible candidate.  I have an image of him as a bit of a backwoodsman...

Well you would think so, but there was somewhat credible speculation as to a rules change, hence why I stated as such.

[Silent Hunter]

Looking at Edwin Poots: I can see the most obvious feature of him that will caricatured... and I'm reminded, not in a good way, of the late Dr Paisley.

[LabourJersey]

Looking at Edwin Poots: I can see the most obvious feature of him that will caricatured... and I'm reminded, not in a good way, of the late Dr Paisley.

Just looked him and...oh my. He makes Prince Charles' ears look tiny by comparison.

[Blair]

I expect the Tories are rather glad that Parliament is shutting up shop tomorrow & that the local elections will give the bubble something to chase- although if the results are even average for Labour (hold Hartlepool, win one of the competitive metro mayors & pick up some council seats) I expect you'll see even more of a panic.

 

[Geoffrey Howe]

Re the flat business, this was in The Times today:

Sir,
A larger role for the state in the maintenance of official buildings is long overdue (leading article, Apr 28). No controversy would have arisen today in relation to the prime minister’s official residence if a plan proposed by the Treasury in 1885 had been agreed. A new use was needed for Dover House, the grand mansion in Whitehall where Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria’s first prime minister, had once lived. The Treasury offered to refurbish it and keep it thereafter in a style worthy of all prime ministers in perpetuity. The cabinet as a whole approved, but Gladstone, in power at the time, refused to move because his wife could not be expected to entertain on the lavish scale that would be required. Mrs Gladstone was indeed a lamentable hostess, but Carrie Symonds would surely have been in her element in a large elegant house decorated to her specifications at the state’s expense.

Lord Lexden

[CumbrianLefty]

I expect the Tories are rather glad that Parliament is shutting up shop tomorrow & that the local elections will give the bubble something to chase- although if the results are even average for Labour (hold Hartlepool, win one of the competitive metro mayors & pick up some council seats) I expect you'll see even more of a panic.

Though until the actual voting, this could well rumble on. Not ideal for the Tories surely.

[Blair]

Possibly the worse political take I’ve seen...

https://mobile.twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1388091110157869056

[Filuwaúrdjan]

We will never reach Peak Rentoul, the mountain will ever grow.

[Alcibiades]

Although, to be fair, while Rentoul’s way of putting it is rather odd, the Dyson affair was never going to be the most damaging of the many stories which have recently emerged about the PM. Labour would do better to focus on the others.

[Alben Barkley]

Wait are you saying I could text Boris Johnson personally after getting his number from a Google search?

...I’ll be right back.

EDIT: Damn, apparently they disconnected it after all this, but it was openly available for anyone for 15 years!

[EastAnglianLefty]

Didn't see anyone point it out but only MLAs and MPs actually have a vote in the leadership election. Another rule which could potentially change states that the leader must be an MLA.

They would surely want an MLA as leader because the First Minister would need to be there.  The co-option system means it's easy enough to get someone into the Assembly, but double jobbing is banned, so anyone who's current an MP would have to resign their Westminster seat at the same time.

As well as Poots, Robinson and Donaldson, the Guardian mentions Sammy Wilson, MP for East Antrim, as a possible candidate.  I have an image of him as a bit of a backwoodsman...

Born and raised in Belfast and went to a fairly posh private school there. He's not rustic, just painfully, painfully stupid.

[Geoffrey Howe]

Didn't see anyone point it out but only MLAs and MPs actually have a vote in the leadership election. Another rule which could potentially change states that the leader must be an MLA.

They would surely want an MLA as leader because the First Minister would need to be there.  The co-option system means it's easy enough to get someone into the Assembly, but double jobbing is banned, so anyone who's current an MP would have to resign their Westminster seat at the same time.

As well as Poots, Robinson and Donaldson, the Guardian mentions Sammy Wilson, MP for East Antrim, as a possible candidate.  I have an image of him as a bit of a backwoodsman...

Born and raised in Belfast and went to a fairly posh private school there. He's not rustic, just painfully, painfully stupid.

[Blair]

Its very funny how much back and forth there's been all week over the polling; including the usual 'well YouGov is owned by the tories'.

There's still a failure to generally understand how different each polling company is & well mostly how poor our polling can be at times...

https://twitter.com/Survation/status/1388238075671859204?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%...

[Blair]

Wait are you saying I could text Boris Johnson personally after getting his number from a Google search?

...I’ll be right back.

EDIT: Damn, apparently they disconnected it after all this, but it was openly available for anyone for 15 years!

The best part is that this reveal came from Popbitch- which is a rather legendary gossip newsletter that has been running for about 20 years.

[CumbrianLefty]

For the record, the two "best" pollsters at the last GE were Survation and Opinium.

Since you ask, YouGov were 3rd - they are far from a *bad* pollster (though their "house effects" - mostly favouring [as now] the Tories, but at times Labour - have become pretty notorious) but they do have something of a tendency to hog the limelight, which does get people irritated with them.

[beesley]

Often a disproportionately high amount of politically engaged, reasonably young, educated, middle-class people sign up to YouGov and then wonder why they don't get polled so much. As someone who falls into that bracket I can say that most of the questions I was asked were about things like television viewing habits - unlike some of the other pollsters they frequently survey broader things like that for whoever might want to find that out.

[Geoffrey Howe]

Somehow I had never come across this from our PM:

[Silent Hunter]

Wait are you saying I could text Boris Johnson personally after getting his number from a Google search?

...I’ll be right back.

EDIT: Damn, apparently they disconnected it after all this, but it was openly available for anyone for 15 years!

The best part is that this reveal came from Popbitch- which is a rather legendary gossip newsletter that has been running for about 20 years.

Didn't the Dutch PM used to make their number available?

[CumbrianLefty]

And now there is a bit of polling suggesting recent events are indeed having some impact.

[Blair]

And now there is a bit of polling suggesting recent events are indeed having some impact.

Part of the problem of the forever war is that a lot of people (on all sides) see everything as a reflection of how Labour are doing; when the big polling shifts over the last two years have all largely come in reaction to the Government (the boost when Boris became PM, the boost around the first lockdown & the fall during both Barnard Castle & the Christmas that never was)

[DINGO Joe]

Somehow I had never come across this from our PM:

So, has he freed Great Britain from the yoke of wearing an onion around their necks?  Or was it just the fashion of the day?

[Geoffrey Howe]

Somehow I had never come across this from our PM:

So, has he freed Great Britain from the yoke of wearing an onion around their necks?  Or was it just the fashion of the day?

Believe you me, Boris is doing his utmost to free us from the Brussels bureaucratic supermarkets. It’s about time the opposition stopped complaining and talking down Britain!    

[cp]

And now there is a bit of polling suggesting recent events are indeed having some impact.

Part of the problem of the forever war is that a lot of people (on all sides) see everything as a reflection of how Labour are doing; when the big polling shifts over the last two years have all largely come in reaction to the Government (the boost when Boris became PM, the boost around the first lockdown & the fall during both Barnard Castle & the Christmas that never was)

Starmer's installation as leader showed a pretty clear change in the polling, albeit for the Labour numbers. Considering the diminution of Labour's position over the past few months has occurred while the Tories' numbers were steady, that would seem to imply there's something being meaningfully observed about how Labour, or its leader specifically, is performing.

[CumbrianLefty]

No its not a perfect correlation, but equally its hard to deny that there *is* one.