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

[Conservatopia]

The PM earns between 155,000 and 170,000.  It's about four times what many of us earn.  I think that's a lot of money already.

[Cassius]

Perhaps if he’d done more research when writing the Churchill Factor he’d know that his waifu didn’t write any books whilst in office (although I suppose Disraeli did write Endymion whilst he was still PM).

[Blair]

FWIW the Adam Smith institute kind of have to put up some sort of rear-guard against rail nationalisation of any form but it's worth pointing out that a lot has changed even since 2015- when those articles were written.

The fundamental reason why the Government did what it did last week was because the state has for the last 10 years been propping up expensive & poorly ran train services at huge cost to the treasury because the franchise system is so broken, and when it does break the Government have to take over running the service.

It's not about a single issue like would nationalisation lower train fares- it's about the Government wanting to be able to actually have some control over a private network that we spend billions supporting in the subsidy alone.

David Cameron claims he earnt more money as a lobbyist than as PM. A lot of these problems might be solved if we paid PMs anything near what they might earn if they weren't in politics.

This is because a lobbyist who is an ex-prime minister is going to earn a lot more than a former parliamentary bag carrier or a graduate- someone like Cameron is hired for a reason. No matter how well you pay them while they're in office they will eventually leave...  

It's also rather charitable to Johnson who called his £250,000 telegraph fee 'chicken-feed'; he is a man who has a problem with money because of his own personal choices.

[Blair]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/23/reform-electoral-system-or-keep-losing-to-tories-keir-starmer-warned

This is of interest not for the headline but for the fact that Best for Britain is now running push polling on this issue... they're formerly an ex-pro EU/PV's group & it does seem like a lot of the 'FBPE' movement seem to have latched onto this as the latest way of saving us- and of course insisting that  Keir would be 20 points ahead if he backed PR.

[Cassius]

Yeah, it seems as though some people on the left have been sidling over to PR as well, even though PR would almost certainly put the kibosh on the possibility of any of their more radical proposals ever being enacted.

[Alcibiades]

2019 was the first general election since 1959 where Labour’s seat percentage was lower than their vote percentage. Based on Labour’s current coalition, FPTP is reasonably likely to continue to disadvantage them, as their votes are reasonably packed; there are lots of seats where they get above 60%, but far fewer where the Tories do the same.

[Silent Hunter]

Perhaps if he’d done more research when writing the Churchill Factor he’d know that his waifu didn’t write any books whilst in office (although I suppose Disraeli did write Endymion whilst he was still PM).

What about the final volume of The Second World War?

[Geoffrey Howe]

FWIW the Adam Smith institute kind of have to put up some sort of rear-guard against rail nationalisation of any form but it's worth pointing out that a lot has changed even since 2015- when those articles were written.

The fundamental reason why the Government did what it did last week was because the state has for the last 10 years been propping up expensive & poorly ran train services at huge cost to the treasury because the franchise system is so broken, and when it does break the Government have to take over running the service.

It's not about a single issue like would nationalisation lower train fares- it's about the Government wanting to be able to actually have some control over a private network that we spend billions supporting in the subsidy alone.

David Cameron claims he earnt more money as a lobbyist than as PM. A lot of these problems might be solved if we paid PMs anything near what they might earn if they weren't in politics.

This is because a lobbyist who is an ex-prime minister is going to earn a lot more than a former parliamentary bag carrier or a graduate- someone like Cameron is hired for a reason. No matter how well you pay them while they're in office they will eventually leave...  

It's also rather charitable to Johnson who called his £250,000 telegraph fee 'chicken-feed'; he is a man who has a problem with money because of his own personal choices.

About the railways - sure, and I haven't seen any articles from them published since 2018. If the Tories are 'nationalising' something there's probably a good reason.
I'm not defending Boris' personal life, I'm just saying that we would be in a better position if we paid people like the PM more - after all, many people who go into politics could be earning much, much more elsewhere. There is always enormous public opposition to this - which was effectively the cause for the expenses scandal; from what I understand they were encouraged to do this as a way of earning more. Interestingly, during the late 1970s pay policy farrago when many professions were getting double digit percentage pay rises, MPs were the only group not to get any pay rise.

[Cassius]

2019 was the first general election since 1959 where Labour’s seat percentage was lower than their vote percentage. Based on Labour’s current coalition, FPTP is reasonably likely to continue to disadvantage them, as their votes are reasonably packed; there are lots of seats where they get above 60%, but far fewer where the Tories do the same.

True, but on the other hand, assuming that a switch to PR leads to at least some fragmentation of the Labour Party (which seems quite likely even if the party itself keeps going), the route to any anti-Tory coalition government is going to run through one or more centrist political formations who will block at least some of the left’s priorities. This is the flaw of ‘progressive alliance’ thinking, in that it assumes, wrongly, that the Lib Dems are basically aligned with ‘progressive’ priorities. PR will simply give them (or a similar centrist force) the whip hand in any parliament.

Perhaps if he’d done more research when writing the Churchill Factor he’d know that his waifu didn’t write any books whilst in office (although I suppose Disraeli did write Endymion whilst he was still PM).

What about the final volume of The Second World War?

I was under the impression that he finalised that before he returned to office. I suppose he might’ve done some work on the History of the English Speaking Peoples whilst PM though.

[Conservatopia]

The prospect of the Lib Dems gaining relevance should be enough to dissuade anybody from PR.

[NewYorkExpress]

The BBC is undergoing a review of it's editorial policies after Martin Bashir was called out for using manipulative journalistic practices to secure an interview with Princess Diana

The BBC is to review its editorial practices and investigate how journalist Martin Bashir was rehired, following an inquiry into his interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.

Lord Dyson's report found the BBC covered up "deceitful behaviour" used by Bashir to secure the interview.

The BBC board accepted the findings in full and reiterated its apology.

Culture minister John Whittingdale told MPs that the BBC had "damaged its reputation" in the UK and abroad.

The inquiry, published last week, found Bashir had faked bank statements designed to suggest Princess Diana was under surveillance - to win the trust of her brother Earl Spencer, and eventually gain access to the princess for the 1995 Panorama interview.

.....


The BBC rehired Bashir as religion correspondent in 2016, when questions had already been asked about his conduct.

[NewYorkExpress]

The BBC is in hot water again, as one of their journalists was caught with old tweets that said "Hitler was right"

BBC News correspondent Tala Halawa has recently come under fire for a series of antisemitic tweets that have been unearthed by pro-Israel Twitter user Gnasherjew, according to Honest Reporting.

In one of the tweets from July 2014, Halawa wrote that “#Israel is more #Nazi than #Hitler! Oh, #Hitlerwasright #IDF go to hell.”

In another post on Facebook, she shared an image with the slogan “Solution for Israel Palestinian conflict – relocate Israel into United States,” which she captioned to be an “easy and simple world solution! To enlightening the ‘dark radical’ middle east."

[beesley]

I see Guido Fawkes are finally getting the treatment they deserve for their 'journalism'. They need to pick what they want to be: a serious journalism outfit with a right-wing perspective but still being seen as reputable or a professional trolling organisation. Not just based on today's incident.

[Silent Hunter]

What's happened, sorry?

[beesley]

What's happened, sorry?

A furore over their coverage of Nadia Whittome, mostly on Twitter unfortunately, but hopefully it puts pressure on the BBC not to give them the airtime. A shame that that GB News outfit has employed some of their former staff.

[Geoffrey Howe]

What's happened, sorry?

A furore over their coverage of Nadia Whittome, mostly on Twitter unfortunately, but hopefully it puts pressure on the BBC not to give them the airtime. A shame that that GB News outfit has employed some of their former staff.

Is this Andrew Neil’s thing?

[beesley]

What's happened, sorry?

A furore over their coverage of Nadia Whittome, mostly on Twitter unfortunately, but hopefully it puts pressure on the BBC not to give them the airtime. A shame that that GB News outfit has employed some of their former staff.

Is this Andrew Neil’s thing?

Yes.

https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1395767684688658433?s=20

For context here is their announced programming. Half of these people are not even credible journalists. And I say this as someone who is no fan of BBC News.

[Conservatopia]

It will come as no surprise that I am a big fan of Guido Fawkes.  However their coverage of Whittome is pretty silly.

Rob Roberts, who wants to be this parliament's Jared O'Mara, has finally had the Tory whip withdrawn.  Roberts has been covered very extensively by Guido fwiw.

[Alcibiades]

On the Martin Bashir/Diana thing, I do think that much of the coverage of it is slightly unfair (although entirely predictable from the Tory side). Yes, the BBC clearly failed here, but let’s not pretend that it is anywhere near this country’s biggest problem as far as dishonest journalism is concerned. It is quite possible that the Beeb will end up suffering greater consequences for this than the Murdoch press and tabloids ever did for phone-hacking.

[beesley]

Rob Roberts, who wants to be this parliament's Jared O'Mara, has finally had the Tory whip withdrawn.  Roberts has been covered very extensively by Guido fwiw.

Perhaps there is a lottery at the beginning of each Parliament on who can be the biggest tosser. Don't know why it took so long but pleased to see.

[Conservatopia]

Rob Roberts, who wants to be this parliament's Jared O'Mara, has finally had the Tory whip withdrawn.  Roberts has been covered very extensively by Guido fwiw.

Perhaps there is a lottery at the beginning of each Parliament on who can be the biggest tosser. Don't know why it took so long but pleased to see.

Unfortunately it looks like the Tories will give him only a short suspension and will use a loophole to avoid a recall election.

Don't forget Damian Green and Keith Vaz for processes taking ages or going nowhere.  You would have thought that Parliament would have got the message that things need to change.

[Zinneke]

So far in the Cummings deposition Hancock is coming out very bad it seems. He really incarnates the careerist pipsqueak type of Tory I actually despise more than someone like Johnson who just assumes who he is and doesn't try to hide it.

[Geoffrey Howe]

Hancock & co are only there because Boris doesn't want anyone to overshadow him - he wants a Cabinet of yes-men.

[Zinneke]

https://twitter.com/JohnnyMercerUK/status/1397490663202172933?ref_src=twsrc%5Etf...

Hancock & co are only there because Boris doesn't want anyone to overshadow him - he wants a Cabinet of yes-men.

Yup but true to their nature they all brief against him too

[CumbrianLefty]

Rob Roberts, who wants to be this parliament's Jared O'Mara, has finally had the Tory whip withdrawn.  Roberts has been covered very extensively by Guido fwiw.

Perhaps there is a lottery at the beginning of each Parliament on who can be the biggest tosser. Don't know why it took so long but pleased to see.

Unfortunately it looks like the Tories will give him only a short suspension and will use a loophole to avoid a recall election.

Don't forget Damian Green and Keith Vaz for processes taking ages or going nowhere.  You would have thought that Parliament would have got the message that things need to change.

Now talk that said (it seems inadvertent not deliberate, another case of hasty ill-scrutinised legislation perhaps?) loophole may be closed - and retrospectively so that it would apply to Roberts.

To their credit some in the party do genuinely want to be rid of him - and take any possible byelection loss on the chin - but fellow Tory MPs were only yesterday falling over themselves to say what a great person he was. Genuinely unedifying.