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

[beesley]

The Daily Express seems to be the mouthpiece of Boris Johnson. I have not seen a single critical headline from them. By contrast, the Daily Mail is quite anti-lockdown.

They were also the mouthpiece of Theresa May (to a lesser degree, mind). The Daily Express website is one of the most awful news websites you could find, unless you like reading about yesterday's episode of The Chase, in which case you are exactly its core readership.

[Geoffrey Howe]

The Daily Express seems to be the mouthpiece of Boris Johnson. I have not seen a single critical headline from them. By contrast, the Daily Mail is quite anti-lockdown.

They were also the mouthpiece of Theresa May (to a lesser degree, mind). The Daily Express website is one of the most awful news websites you could find, unless you like reading about yesterday's episode of The Chase, in which case you are exactly its core readership.

Did they deride Red Ed's idea to cap energy prices and then laud Theresa May doing it?
They endorsed UKIP in 2015. They're definitely the worst of the major 'newspapers.'

[Geoffrey Howe]

The Daily Express seems to be the mouthpiece of Boris Johnson. I have not seen a single critical headline from them. By contrast, the Daily Mail is quite anti-lockdown.

It's usually the Daily Mail which has massive quotes from Priti Patel on the front page; today it's the Sunday Express: 'And Priti Patel says 'we're coming after the criminals''.

(I don't read these 'newspapers'; I get their headlines from the BBC.)

Surprisingly the Torygraph (which I subscribe to) has lost its love for Boris since the last election.  Probably because he and Farage no longer write columns for them.  Instead they cheerlead Starmer's fight against "Trots".

Did you like Charles Moore's article yesterday?

[Conservatopia]

The Daily Express seems to be the mouthpiece of Boris Johnson. I have not seen a single critical headline from them. By contrast, the Daily Mail is quite anti-lockdown.

It's usually the Daily Mail which has massive quotes from Priti Patel on the front page; today it's the Sunday Express: 'And Priti Patel says 'we're coming after the criminals''.

(I don't read these 'newspapers'; I get their headlines from the BBC.)

Surprisingly the Torygraph (which I subscribe to) has lost its love for Boris since the last election.  Probably because he and Farage no longer write columns for them.  Instead they cheerlead Starmer's fight against "Trots".

Did you like Charles Moore's article yesterday?

Rather!

The first paragraph sums up what I think of Labour.  Like Thatcher (pbuh) I have a soft spot for Labour.

However I disagree With Baron Moore that Labour is on its deathbead.

[Geoffrey Howe]

The Daily Express seems to be the mouthpiece of Boris Johnson. I have not seen a single critical headline from them. By contrast, the Daily Mail is quite anti-lockdown.

It's usually the Daily Mail which has massive quotes from Priti Patel on the front page; today it's the Sunday Express: 'And Priti Patel says 'we're coming after the criminals''.

(I don't read these 'newspapers'; I get their headlines from the BBC.)

Surprisingly the Torygraph (which I subscribe to) has lost its love for Boris since the last election.  Probably because he and Farage no longer write columns for them.  Instead they cheerlead Starmer's fight against "Trots".

Did you like Charles Moore's article yesterday?

Rather!

The first paragraph sums up what I think of Labour.  Like Thatcher (pbuh) I have a soft spot for Labour.

However I disagree With Baron Moore that Labour is on its deathbead.

Matthew Parris seems to think (and hope) Labour is on its deathbed.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

The Daily Express seems to be the mouthpiece of Boris Johnson. I have not seen a single critical headline from them. By contrast, the Daily Mail is quite anti-lockdown.

It's usually the Daily Mail which has massive quotes from Priti Patel on the front page; today it's the Sunday Express: 'And Priti Patel says 'we're coming after the criminals''.

(I don't read these 'newspapers'; I get their headlines from the BBC.)

Surprisingly the Torygraph (which I subscribe to) has lost its love for Boris since the last election.  Probably because he and Farage no longer write columns for them.  Instead they cheerlead Starmer's fight against "Trots".

Did you like Charles Moore's article yesterday?

Rather!

The first paragraph sums up what I think of Labour.  Like Thatcher (pbuh) I have a soft spot for Labour.

However I disagree With Baron Moore that Labour is on its deathbead.

Matthew Parris seems to think (and hope) Labour is on its deathbed.

Too many people are unable to compartmentalize what they hope will happen and what they think will happen, letting the two bleed into each other.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

The only newspapers worth reading in this country are the financial times, crazy communist zines handed out by people on the sex offenders register and local papers that have headline news about youths  stealing a traffic cone. Everything else is tabloid junk.

[Geoffrey Howe]

The Times is pretty bad nowadays.

[Cassius]

A political party that can consistently pull in at least 30% (there or thereabouts) of the vote in even the least propitious circumstances (1983, 2010 and 2019 for example) can’t die. What’s going to take its place?

I am coming round to the view that Labour will simply stagnate under Starmer’s leadership though.

[CumbrianLefty]

A party that is "on its deathbed" (as opposed to "only" suffering severe structural and philosophical issues) wouldn't be making big gains in places like Worthing even now.

Now if pundits want to write about something interesting - its looking more and more like the Greens could be in the process of supplanting the LibDems as at least England's third party. How about that?

[beesley]

Re the Greens I think that could definitely happen in the distant future. It looks as if they might be the (joint) largest party on Bristol City Council, excluding the mayor. ​Shame about the mayoralty (nothing against Marvin Rees, but the Bristol mayoralty is a stupid position). Bristol is obviously one of their stronger areas but it's still an impressive result.

Obviously they would be considered to have a fairly low ceiling but I think many of their problems are structural/basic problems with recognition just as much as the challenge of appealing to voters. I was impressed at how many candidates they put up this time round.

[Conservatopia]

I have now read:
4 articles saying Labour needs to rebrand
2 of which call for Labour to be renamed
2 articles calling for a "Progressive Alliance"
3 articles saying Labour is definitely going to die
2 saying it definitely isn't
5 articles saying it should abandon "woke ideology"
2 saying it should double down
3 articles saying Labour needs to fight for PR
1 saying FPTP is saving Labour
And 1 article saying that actually everything is fine

What a racket journalism can be sometimes.

[Geoffrey Howe]

Maybe journalists are amongst those AI said need a holiday.

[Geoffrey Howe]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/09/scots-independence-union-nationalism

I have some sympathy for Boris' views on this, but, as I said on the Scottish election page, he is the wrong man to keep the union together. I do fear.

(By the way, should there be a separate Scottish general page, or should it be appended to the Scottish election page?)

[CumbrianLefty]

Already some "early election" chatter after these results.

Which is a good time to remind everyone that the new parliamentary boundaries (which will help the Tories, even if not as hugely as some claim) are unlikely to come in before autumn 2023.

[Conservatopia]

Already some "early election" chatter after these results.

Which is a good time to remind everyone that the new parliamentary boundaries (which will help the Tories, even if not as hugely as some claim) are unlikely to come in before autumn 2023.

Ah you've heard it too.  April '23 is the date I'm hearing bounced around.

Also worth noting that the FTPA still isn't repealed and when it is there will be legal wrangling over whether prerogative powers can revert back to the Crown (PM in reality) or not.

[Oryxslayer]

On the topic of boundaries....

https://twitter.com/BCEReviews/status/1391720381367599106?s=20

[Oakvale]

April 2023 hardly qualifies as an "early election", does it?

[Conservatopia]

April 2023 hardly qualifies as an "early election", does it?

I know it's some way in the future but it's technically a year early as the next election is May 2024.

CL may have heard rumours of an even earlier election (Dec 21?) that I haven't though.

[cp]

April 2023 hardly qualifies as an "early election", does it?

Considering their ability to change the FTPA, technically the latest the Tories could call the election is December 2024. A spring 2023 election would be over 18 months ahead of that.

[CumbrianLefty]

April 2023 hardly qualifies as an "early election", does it?

I know it's some way in the future but it's technically a year early as the next election is May 2024.

CL may have heard rumours of an even earlier election (Dec 21?) that I haven't though.

Chatter about mid-2022, apparently.

The last time a government went to the polls in a snap election *despite* having a very comfortable majority was when the Tories did it in 1923. They lost power, if only for a year.

[Geoffrey Howe]

What are the chances Mr Sunak finds just before the election that the recovery is so good he doesn't need to implement any tax rises?

[Oakvale]

April 2023 hardly qualifies as an "early election", does it?

I know it's some way in the future but it's technically a year early as the next election is May 2024.

CL may have heard rumours of an even earlier election (Dec 21?) that I haven't though.

Right but a Parliament running its entire term is a relatively recent phenomenon and generally tends to happen when a government's desperately running out the clock in the hope their opponents might lose a twenty-point lead. I would consider an election in 2023 to be the baseline scenario here.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

The inevitable tax rises and spending cuts probably have to happen before 2024 but probably won't happen before the next general election. Put the jigsaw together.

[Blair]

April 2023 hardly qualifies as an "early election", does it?

I know it's some way in the future but it's technically a year early as the next election is May 2024.

CL may have heard rumours of an even earlier election (Dec 21?) that I haven't though.

Chatter about mid-2022, apparently.

The last time a government went to the polls in a snap election *despite* having a very comfortable majority was when the Tories did it in 1923. They lost power, if only for a year.

My hunch is currently 2023 but these things ego sound cliche either come out of nowhere or get binned after months or years of chatter- if you said to someone in December 2020 they’d be pushing for an early election...