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

[Alcibiades]

Calm down guys, it’s just another work event. On his birthday. With cake.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

https://twitter.com/NadineDorries/status/1485687149836001283

Might want to reconsider this line of defence, perhaps.

[Torrain]

I have no words about Nadine Dorries that I could post unmoderated on this site.

I could , however, write paragraphs about the pain and indignity faced by members of my own family during the first two lockdowns, particularly my aunt, who had scarce opportunity to see her brothers and mother as she entered the last months of her life.

But that wouldn't be appropriate here - given the sacrifices that everyone made, I'd just be preaching to the choir. All I will say is that I'm bl**dy furious. Somehow, this is the Downing Street event that tipped me over the edge - and I'm just incensed.

I'm off to write a sternly worded letter to my MP - so that I don't spend the evening yelling into the void.

[TheTide]

https://twitter.com/gsoh31/status/1485689380194897921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwca...

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/NadineDorries/status/1485687149836001283

Might want to reconsider this line of defence, perhaps.

[Cassius]

I think it's time for the Conservative party to make a little sacrifice.

[Torrain]

"Let them eat cake" - Carrie Johnston, 2020.

[MABA 2020]

Out of Downing Street, always something new...

Ok this is getting absurd now

[Torrain]

The only silver lining to this travesty of a story is that Gray already seems to know about it, and it won't delay the report any further.

https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1485696728691007494

That being said, if this story is true, I'm inclined to suggest we shouldn't wait for the Gray report. Pretty sure we've passed the state of 'reasonable doubt' at this point.

With this event, No. 10 has finally conceded the existence of an explicit party in Downing Street, one with the PM in attendance no less, and including non-political personnel, such as Carrie Johnson, and their interior designer. There really is nowhere left for the excuses to go.

Ironically, I'm reminded of a US political anecdote. When everyone but Nixon realised he was doomed, back in 1974, Barry Goldwater and Republican leaders in both houses of Congress travelled to the White House, and made him seem sense. If ever there was a moment for the remaining grandees of the Tory party to attempt such a stunt - it should be tonight.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

A lot also started to support and vote for the party again, but never rejoined it. For the most part those who remained in the LibDems after, say, 1992 or so were those whose commitment to social democracy had become pretty loose and who fitted better into a liberal party anyway and those who would have found it very difficult to go back because of all the bridges burned but felt a need to remain in a political party almost out of habit. A small number also became Conservatives - this was mostly a thing with young people who had joined the SDP without previous political activism or Labour membership,* but also included John Horam, the MP for Gateshead West 1970-83 and then (as a Conservative) for Orpington 1992-2010. He's now in the House of Lords and has become increasingly weird in his old age.

_{*Including several future Cameron-era cabinet ministers.}

Going back to this, there's a degree of uncertainty in a few cases in part because (of course) most of the people in question left public life. One case where matters are very uncertain concerns someone who did not: Bob Mellish. Mellish did not join the SDP when he was still an MP and did not do so immediately on his elevation to the peerage, but Tam Dalyell's obituary (for The Independent) states that Mellish joined up a little later and deeply regretted doing so and found being outside the Labour Party difficult. Dalyell was a friend of Mellish's for thirty years so would probably know, but other sources (some of which are normally reasonably reliable: photo agencies and so on) state that he never joined the SDP, while his Wikipedia biography says that he was a LibDem member after the merger, but does not provide a source for this. All a little confusing and I might have a poke around any newspaper articles I have online access to if I get sufficiently bored to try to figure this one out.

[TheTide]

[Хahar 🤔]

John Horam, the MP for Gateshead West 1970-83 and then (as a Conservative) for Orpington 1992-2010. He's now in the House of Lords and has become increasingly weird in his old age.

That's an awfully long time to spend in opposition!

[Blair]

I really don’t like the way that supporters of the prime minister try to basically belittle the reporting of these stories it’s ridicule e.g. it was only a birthday cake, it was only a few drinks, he was only there for 10 minutes, it was harmless.

The fundamental issue is that he lied about it, at the despatch box.

[Conservatopia]

I really don’t like the way that supporters of the prime minister try to basically belittle the reporting of these stories it’s ridicule e.g. it was only a birthday cake, it was only a few drinks, he was only there for 10 minutes, it was harmless.

The fundamental issue is that he lied about it, at the despatch box.

Agreed - with all these events it hasn't been so much about the parties themselves per se. It's about the principle and the constant, ongoing lying that this Prime Minister, this government and this Party have engaged in over (at least) the past 2 years.

[Storr]

I really don’t like the way that supporters of the prime minister try to basically belittle the reporting of these stories it’s ridicule e.g. it was only a birthday cake, it was only a few drinks, he was only there for 10 minutes, it was harmless.

The fundamental issue is that he lied about it, at the despatch box.

I'm reminded of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal where Bill was advised that the public wouldn't care all that much about the affair itself, as long as he didn't lie about it.

[LAB-LIB]

Everyone calm down, Boris may not have known if it was his birthday or whether or not it was a party. Even if he knew one, it doesn't mean he knew the other and even if he knew both, he may not have known the two were connected. We need to wait for Sue Gray to tell Boris when he realized it was a birthday party before we pass judgement on this.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

At this point Will the tories even able to keep him until march

[Joe Republic]

Here are some notable examples of what the three most recent Prime Ministers liked to do for some extracurricular fun:

• Celebrate a birthday with some nice cake
• Run through a field of wheat
• Have a dead pig perform fellatio on him

One of these jolly japes is the direct reason for their political downfall.  Any guesses which one?

[TheTide]

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1485914218163576837?s=20

[Blair]

Inspector knacker finally strikes.

For what it’s worth the Met have a very very very vindictive streak when going after politicians.

[Torrain]

There was some confusion over whether the Gray investigation would be paused by this morning’s announcement from the Met.

The relevant passage: "...if during the course of the work any evidence emerges of behaviour that is potentially a criminal offence, the matter will be referred to the police and the Cabinet Office’s work may be paused."

This has now been cleared up.

https://mobile.twitter.com/benrileysmith/status/1485922076523384834

It won’t however be published until the investigation has concluded - kicking the football several weeks into the future.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Peston/status/1485925622782246912

[Blair]

It’s being suggested that it’s an incident that we don’t know about yet…

[TheTide]

It’s being suggested that it’s an incident that we don’t know about yet…

I've seen it suggested that there are five incidents that are particularly damning. Last night's isn't one of them, but one of them (the only one yet leaked) is the pre-DoE funeral party, which apparently isn't the worst one of the five.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Why is everyone going after BoJo, the ONLY completely innocent man in this whole affair? 

[MillennialModerate]

Question: How bad had the landscape and new boundaries screwed Labour? Back in ‘97 Labour got 43% and the Conservatives got 31%. Then in ‘01 Labour got 41% and Conservatives 32%. Those resulted in a massive landslides of 418 seats and 412 seats or 172 seat majority and then 164 zest majority

How many polls show similar percentages of the vote - some even more in Labour favor but the seat projections put them with a modest amount of seats. I even saw one poll that gave Labour a 6 point lead on the Conservatives and then finishing 20 short of a majority.

Does the SNP dominance basically make it very hard for Labour to form a majority government unless it’s a massive historical landslide?