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

[Suburbia]

They "run on it" rather more than they actually do anything about it, though.

Well, most conservative parties around the world, like the GOP, the Canadian Tories and the British Tories have no other choice but to run on immigration and crime because it benefits them, basically.....

With Boris Johnson eyeing 10 more years in power, it is possible.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-eyes-another-decade-in-power-jp0chz9xl

Labor needs to get it's act together, Blair 2005 was the last victory for them and Blair is reviled in the party, they need to win in 2024 or 2029....

Why do you believe this, more than literally anything else he says?

And what is more, all the previous "in the know" accounts emphasise that he doesn't particularly like being PM and resents that it doesn't pay more.

I can think of some other "Johnson" close to him who likes being in Number 10 very much, though.

Maybe they were the actual "source" on this occasion

Johnson is power hungry enough to do so....

But I don't see anyone outmatching The Iron Lady or Blair.....

[Silent Hunter]

We're living in a country where the police have been rather defunded, so that rhetoric doesn't work well. Does the British police need reform? Certainly. Does it need another funding cut, most certainly not.

[Suburbia]

We're living in a country where the police have been rather defunded, so that rhetoric doesn't work well. Does the British police need reform? Certainly. Does it need another funding cut, most certainly not.

Oh, they need reform. Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Mason Mount and other Premier League players' main goal is for that to be enacted, that's the whole purpose of the BLM campaign......

Priti Patel is a roadblock to that.....


https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/12/patel-faces-widening-revolt-over-policing-bills-restrictions-on-protest

[darklordoftech]

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/health/articles-reports/2021/09/10/most-britons-want-ban-cigarettes-and-half-want-ban

Do you think this poll is accurate?

[Continential]

I like how bronz has infested this thread with his posts.

[Suburbia]

I like how bronz has infested this thread with his posts.

I follow British politics and society a lot

[Suburbia]

Sad news:

The mother of Boris Johnson has died.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/13/boris-johnsons-mother-charlotte-johnson-wahl-dies-at-79

Looks like Dominic Raab will be running the country for a while....

[cp]

We're living in a country where the police have been rather defunded, so that rhetoric doesn't work well. Does the British police need reform? Certainly. Does it need another funding cut, most certainly not.

At this point, anyone who willfully describes (criticism of) the 'defund the police' slogan as a singular campaign to reduce the budgets of policing services is engaging in disinformation. In Blair's case this is perhaps not surprising, as he evinced authoritarian attitudes toward policing, sentencing, prison privatization, and treatment of immigrants and detainees throughout his political career.

As for trans rights, he's made a point of defending Joanne Rowling and portrayed the people criticizing her (and those advocating for trans rights generally) as shrill and counter-progressive. A lot of this was articulated in a New Statesman piece from a few months ago, but he hit the same notes in a recent Times interview, too. The whole shtick has strong 'old man yells at cloud' vibes, especially as he lumps it together with denunciations of the Green New Deal and continued support for the student loan racket.

[Blair]

It’s gone under the radar but Oliver Dowden certainly gets the award for the cabinet minister who goes slightly rabid in office.

[EastAnglianLefty]

We're living in a country where the police have been rather defunded, so that rhetoric doesn't work well. Does the British police need reform? Certainly. Does it need another funding cut, most certainly not.

At this point, anyone who willfully describes (criticism of) the 'defund the police' slogan as a singular campaign to reduce the budgets of policing services is engaging in disinformation. In Blair's case this is perhaps not surprising, as he evinced authoritarian attitudes toward policing, sentencing, prison privatization, and treatment of immigrants and detainees throughout his political career.

If the most obvious reading of your slogan calls for something entirely different than what you actually want, it's a bad slogan. At this point anybody willfully making use of it needs to realise that importing concepts wholesale from the US, regardless of context, is a very bad idea.

[cp]

We're living in a country where the police have been rather defunded, so that rhetoric doesn't work well. Does the British police need reform? Certainly. Does it need another funding cut, most certainly not.

At this point, anyone who willfully describes (criticism of) the 'defund the police' slogan as a singular campaign to reduce the budgets of policing services is engaging in disinformation. In Blair's case this is perhaps not surprising, as he evinced authoritarian attitudes toward policing, sentencing, prison privatization, and treatment of immigrants and detainees throughout his political career.

If the most obvious reading of your slogan calls for something entirely different than what you actually want, it's a bad slogan. At this point anybody willfully making use of it needs to realise that importing concepts wholesale from the US, regardless of context, is a very bad idea.

Lol. Thank goodness this attitude was ignored by activists in the 1970s and 1980s. Otherwise, Gay Liberation and ACTUP would have been sniffily dismissed as 'bad slogans' and 'imported concepts'.

[CumbrianLefty]

We're living in a country where the police have been rather defunded, so that rhetoric doesn't work well. Does the British police need reform? Certainly. Does it need another funding cut, most certainly not.

At this point, anyone who willfully describes (criticism of) the 'defund the police' slogan as a singular campaign to reduce the budgets of policing services is engaging in disinformation. In Blair's case this is perhaps not surprising, as he evinced authoritarian attitudes toward policing, sentencing, prison privatization, and treatment of immigrants and detainees throughout his political career.

As for trans rights, he's made a point of defending Joanne Rowling and portrayed the people criticizing her (and those advocating for trans rights generally) as shrill and counter-progressive. A lot of this was articulated in a New Statesman piece from a few months ago, but he hit the same notes in a recent Times interview, too. The whole shtick has strong 'old man yells at cloud' vibes, especially as he lumps it together with denunciations of the Green New Deal and continued support for the student loan racket.

Blair said, just last year, that Sanders was a bigger "danger" than Trump.

Perhaps that's all you really need to know.

[EastAnglianLefty]

We're living in a country where the police have been rather defunded, so that rhetoric doesn't work well. Does the British police need reform? Certainly. Does it need another funding cut, most certainly not.

At this point, anyone who willfully describes (criticism of) the 'defund the police' slogan as a singular campaign to reduce the budgets of policing services is engaging in disinformation. In Blair's case this is perhaps not surprising, as he evinced authoritarian attitudes toward policing, sentencing, prison privatization, and treatment of immigrants and detainees throughout his political career.

If the most obvious reading of your slogan calls for something entirely different than what you actually want, it's a bad slogan. At this point anybody willfully making use of it needs to realise that importing concepts wholesale from the US, regardless of context, is a very bad idea.

Lol. Thank goodness this attitude was ignored by activists in the 1970s and 1980s. Otherwise, Gay Liberation and ACTUP would have been sniffily dismissed as 'bad slogans' and 'imported concepts'.

Gay Liberation actually called for gay people to have the same rights as everybody else. It wasn't a popular slogan at the time, but that was because the underlying concept wasn't popular, not because the slogan had only a tentative relationship to the underlying concept.

The issues with policing in the UK have very little to do with funding and nothing to do with excessive funding. It's just not the right verb. Reform, abolish, rein in, there are plenty of options (and some that probably poll positively, or at least only mildly negatively.) I don't see the benefit of picking an irrelevant and unpopular slogan when in fact the problem is that the Commissioner of the Met is far too relaxed about her officers killing people for no very good reason.

[Silent Hunter]

We're living in a country where the police have been rather defunded, so that rhetoric doesn't work well. Does the British police need reform? Certainly. Does it need another funding cut, most certainly not.

At this point, anyone who willfully describes (criticism of) the 'defund the police' slogan as a singular campaign to reduce the budgets of policing services is engaging in disinformation. In Blair's case this is perhaps not surprising, as he evinced authoritarian attitudes toward policing, sentencing, prison privatization, and treatment of immigrants and detainees throughout his political career.

As for trans rights, he's made a point of defending Joanne Rowling and portrayed the people criticizing her (and those advocating for trans rights generally) as shrill and counter-progressive. A lot of this was articulated in a New Statesman piece from a few months ago, but he hit the same notes in a recent Times interview, too. The whole shtick has strong 'old man yells at cloud' vibes, especially as he lumps it together with denunciations of the Green New Deal and continued support for the student loan racket.

Blair said, just last year, that Sanders was a bigger "danger" than Trump.

Perhaps that's all you really need to know.

Where did he use the word "danger"?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/15/ex-british-pm-tony-blair-bernie-sanders-gamble

Also, considering how close that election turned out to be despite the pandemic (remember we locked down just over a week later here), you can't say he was wrong.

[cp]

We're living in a country where the police have been rather defunded, so that rhetoric doesn't work well. Does the British police need reform? Certainly. Does it need another funding cut, most certainly not.

At this point, anyone who willfully describes (criticism of) the 'defund the police' slogan as a singular campaign to reduce the budgets of policing services is engaging in disinformation. In Blair's case this is perhaps not surprising, as he evinced authoritarian attitudes toward policing, sentencing, prison privatization, and treatment of immigrants and detainees throughout his political career.

As for trans rights, he's made a point of defending Joanne Rowling and portrayed the people criticizing her (and those advocating for trans rights generally) as shrill and counter-progressive. A lot of this was articulated in a New Statesman piece from a few months ago, but he hit the same notes in a recent Times interview, too. The whole shtick has strong 'old man yells at cloud' vibes, especially as he lumps it together with denunciations of the Green New Deal and continued support for the student loan racket.

Blair said, just last year, that Sanders was a bigger "danger" than Trump.

Perhaps that's all you really need to know.

Where did he use the word "danger"?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/15/ex-british-pm-tony-blair-bernie-sanders-gamble

Also, considering how close that election turned out to be despite the pandemic (remember we locked down just over a week later here), you can't say he was wrong.

Leaving aside the demonstrably false self-serving premise that Sanders would have done worse than Biden (Sanders did better against Trump in most hypothetical polls), that argument is tantamount to gaslighting. By every possible measurement Trump was a worse option than Sanders. If mealy mouthed pearl clutching centrists couldn't line up behind him to stop Trump then they'd have no one but themselves to blame.

We're living in a country where the police have been rather defunded, so that rhetoric doesn't work well. Does the British police need reform? Certainly. Does it need another funding cut, most certainly not.

At this point, anyone who willfully describes (criticism of) the 'defund the police' slogan as a singular campaign to reduce the budgets of policing services is engaging in disinformation. In Blair's case this is perhaps not surprising, as he evinced authoritarian attitudes toward policing, sentencing, prison privatization, and treatment of immigrants and detainees throughout his political career.

If the most obvious reading of your slogan calls for something entirely different than what you actually want, it's a bad slogan. At this point anybody willfully making use of it needs to realise that importing concepts wholesale from the US, regardless of context, is a very bad idea.

Lol. Thank goodness this attitude was ignored by activists in the 1970s and 1980s. Otherwise, Gay Liberation and ACTUP would have been sniffily dismissed as 'bad slogans' and 'imported concepts'.

Gay Liberation actually called for gay people to have the same rights as everybody else. It wasn't a popular slogan at the time, but that was because the underlying concept wasn't popular, not because the slogan had only a tentative relationship to the underlying concept.

The issues with policing in the UK have very little to do with funding and nothing to do with excessive funding. It's just not the right verb. Reform, abolish, rein in, there are plenty of options (and some that probably poll positively, or at least only mildly negatively.) I don't see the benefit of picking an irrelevant and unpopular slogan when in fact the problem is that the Commissioner of the Met is far too relaxed about her officers killing people for no very good reason.

You need to learn a *lot* more about LGBT history.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Mr Tony's reputation is artificially depressed because of his embarrassing post-premiership antics and will rise quite a bit in the future (he'll move firmly into the Lloyd George/Wilson/Thatcher category), but the main reason why the process is so slow is that he cannot help but open his mouth every thirty seconds...

[cp]

Mr Tony's reputation is artificially depressed because of his embarrassing post-premiership antics and will rise quite a bit in the future (he'll move firmly into the Lloyd George/Wilson/Thatcher category), but the main reason why the process is so slow is that he cannot help but open his mouth every thirty seconds...

Copium's a hell of a drug.

[Silent Hunter]

Mr Tony's reputation is artificially depressed because of his embarrassing post-premiership antics and will rise quite a bit in the future (he'll move firmly into the Lloyd George/Wilson/Thatcher category), but the main reason why the process is so slow is that he cannot help but open his mouth every thirty seconds...

Of course, once you're the PM of a major power, there's generally nowhere to go but down.

[cp]

Mr Tony's reputation is artificially depressed because of his embarrassing post-premiership antics and will rise quite a bit in the future (he'll move firmly into the Lloyd George/Wilson/Thatcher category), but the main reason why the process is so slow is that he cannot help but open his mouth every thirty seconds...

Of course, once you're the PM of a major fading power, there's generally nowhere to go but down.

ftfy

Also, I think Blair said one or two things during his time in office to ensure his everlasting ignominy.

[Suburbia]

Mr Tony's reputation is artificially depressed because of his embarrassing post-premiership antics and will rise quite a bit in the future (he'll move firmly into the Lloyd George/Wilson/Thatcher category), but the main reason why the process is so slow is that he cannot help but open his mouth every thirty seconds...

Of course, once you're the PM of a major fading power, there's generally nowhere to go but down.

ftfy

Also, I think Blair said one or two things during his time in office to ensure his everlasting ignominy.

What did you want Blair to do in 2002-2003? He would have gotten the ire of Bush and Cheney. That was the time, the 2000s was a warmongering period because of 9/11, 7/7 and Saddam.....

Blair-Brown had a good economy until 2006-07, but Blair's centrism can be repackaged under a different messenger, but without angering or alienating the Laborite base like BLM, Tyrone Mings and Dianne Abbott.....

[Statilius the Epicurean]

At this point, anyone who willfully describes (criticism of) the 'defund the police' slogan as a singular campaign to reduce the budgets of policing services is engaging in disinformation.

Lol

[Silent Hunter]

Mr Tony's reputation is artificially depressed because of his embarrassing post-premiership antics and will rise quite a bit in the future (he'll move firmly into the Lloyd George/Wilson/Thatcher category), but the main reason why the process is so slow is that he cannot help but open his mouth every thirty seconds...

Of course, once you're the PM of a major fading power, there's generally nowhere to go but down.

ftfy

Also, I think Blair said one or two things during his time in office to ensure his everlasting ignominy.

What did you want Blair to do in 2002-2003? He would have gotten the ire of Bush and Cheney. That was the time, the 2000s was a warmongering period because of 9/11, 7/7 and Saddam.....

In fairness, Wilson's approach to Vietnam served him well.

[Conservatopia]

The squabbling in this thread takes me right back to 2019.

Ah how young and innocent we were back then when we trembled with fear at monsters while marvelling at wizards and unicorns.

[Хahar 🤔]

Mr Tony's reputation is artificially depressed because of his embarrassing post-premiership antics and will rise quite a bit in the future (he'll move firmly into the Lloyd George/Wilson/Thatcher category), but the main reason why the process is so slow is that he cannot help but open his mouth every thirty seconds...

It seems as though Tony Blair in retirement has decided to become the caricature his left-wing critics portrayed him as.

[Suburbia]

Mr Tony's reputation is artificially depressed because of his embarrassing post-premiership antics and will rise quite a bit in the future (he'll move firmly into the Lloyd George/Wilson/Thatcher category), but the main reason why the process is so slow is that he cannot help but open his mouth every thirty seconds...

It seems as though Tony Blair in retirement has decided to become the caricature his left-wing critics portrayed him as.

He is a center-left man. He won the Labor leadership in 1994 because Old Labor was losing elections, and New Labor won from 1997 to 2005....

A center-left government with strong social justice without virtue signalling can win.