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

[LAB-LIB]

   

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForUK/status/1486353871060586499?s=20

I never thought I'd hear someone praise Blair and Lenin in the same sentence.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

   

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForUK/status/1486353871060586499?s=20

Why do even milequoast Labour party figures seem to be in love with the communist revolutionary aesthetic?

[Middle-aged Europe]

BoJo < Lenin < Blair < Clinton < Obama < Lincoln

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

BoJo < Lenin < Blair < Clinton < Obama < Lincoln

Say what you will about Bojo, at least he hasn't ordered his political opponents masscared and overthrown a democratic goverment.

[Torrain]

   

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForUK/status/1486353871060586499?s=20

Why do even milequoast Labour party figures seem to be in love with the communist revolutionary aesthetic?

Hey - even Tony Blair used to join in when they sang The Red Flag at party conference (before he quietly locked all copies of the songsheet in the cupboard for a couple of years). Some aesthetics of the early labour movement seem to just be ingrained in the party.

And you’ll find that even most of the centrists in the party were pretty hardline as students (check out the early 20s activities of Peter Mandelson, who joined the Communist Youth League and even attended Soviet-affiliated youth festivals in Havana. Then he was elected as a councillor, became disillusioned with the realities of governing under 70s Labour and started drifting rightwards), so the aesthetics seem to have been part of the initial draw to politics for some.

Edit: Also remember that when the US was still recovering from the Red Scare, some Labour MPs were taking trips to Moscow to burnish their credentials with hardline members of the party base. It’s a very different dynamic.

[Middle-aged Europe]

BoJo < Lenin < Blair < Clinton < Obama < Lincoln

Say what you will about Bojo, at least he hasn't ordered his political opponents masscared and overthrown a democratic goverment.

That was a joke.

[Benjamin Frank]

Theresa May should make a triumphant return, sort of like Kevin Rudd did.

[TheTide]

This person is a cabinet minister.

https://twitter.com/NadineDorries/status/1486594523560136706?s=20

[YL]

I used to find it somewhat embarrassing that she was a Member of Parliament.

[TheTide]

Guardian article on the leadership challenge.

This bit amuses me.

The shadow whipping operation is meeting up to three times a day – twice in-person and once virtually. It is organising in a nearly 100-strong WhatsApp “support group”. However there are fears some “spies” have infiltrated, and are briefing those who would back the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, in a leadership contest.

Who would have seen that coming?

[CumbrianLefty]

Theresa May should make a triumphant return, sort of like Kevin Rudd did.

Yeah, cos that ended so well for him

[Torrain]

Nadhim Zahawi, Education Secretary, Tory rising star, and rumoured leadership hopeful has been implicated in the Greensill scandal, according to the Financial Times:

https://www.ft.com/content/fe8c33e7-a846-4f98-ab33-68b580c6896f

On October 5 2020, Gupta sent a letter to Zahawi, a Conservative politician who at the time was a minister in the business department (BEIS), thanking him for his “support” helping Greensill secure the loans.

“Since you were personally instrumental in getting the BBB’s approval for Greensill Capital to provide financial assistance under the CLBILS programme, it would be very fitting if you could join us to mark this special moment that provides relief to thousands of workers,” Gupta wrote to Zahawi, inviting him to a “small gathering” at his company’s Rotherham steelworks.

[Benjamin Frank]

Theresa May should make a triumphant return, sort of like Kevin Rudd did.

Yeah, cos that ended so well for him

He probably kept the party from losing in a landslide.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Theresa May should make a triumphant return, sort of like Kevin Rudd did.

Yeah, cos that ended so well for him

He probably kept the party from losing in a landslide.

But nowadays he spends his time S**itposting on reddit and twitter so didn't quite work out for him.

[DINGO Joe]

Theresa May should make a triumphant return, sort of like Kevin Rudd did.

Yeah, cos that ended so well for him

He probably kept the party from losing in a landslide.

But nowadays he spends his time S**itposting on reddit and twitter so didn't quite work out for him.

I, for one,  would quite enjoy it if Theresa May would end up sh**tposting on reddit and twitter.  So bring her back!

[EastAnglianLefty]

The Met has now asked Sue Gray to make 'minimal reference' to eight incidents they're investigating, to avoid prejudicing their investigations.

This is odd, because whilst reporting restrictions to avoid a jury trial do exist, lockdown-related offences are punished by a Fixed Penalty notice, not a jury trial. Lots of fevered speculation at the moment about what this means for the report and what the Met thinks it's doing, but it's worth remembering that whilst it is 'institutionally corrupt' (this is the verdict of the Daniel Morgan official investigation), it's also hopelessly, hilariously incompetent.

[Blair]

Some thoughts.

1.) This is bizarre because the only reason we found out about the Met investigation was because Cressida dick had to appear before a very minor/insignificant policing panel in the London assembly on Tuesday and obviously felt that she needed to say something- she easily could have waited until immediately after the gray report had dropped or of course she could happen just investigated back in December.

2.) there’s a suggestion that they don’t want to include it because they’re worried about a cover-up or the destruction of evidence so surely if that was the case they would’ve done interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday!

3.) This is actually very standard behaviour for the Met when they’re involved in complicated and difficult cases.

4.) On the above it does not help them at all that they’ve had one of the worst years probably in the institutional history- having had a serving police officer found guilty of murder and then the Met attacking those protesting said murder- along with a report that found the Met institutionally corrupt and personally accused the commissioner of blocking said report along with the recent revelations around their investigations of murders which basically said the Met were institutionally homophobic. Public trust is very low and they have no goodwill to rely on.

5.) It was ofc Met officers who guard No.10 which adds to the above.

6.) The Met leaks like a sieve and were briefing last week that they would finish the PM with their evidence. You don’t even have to pay the Met anymore to leak stories.

[Blair]

I say this tongue in cheek but it would be fascinating to see how the foreign office or a British think tank would write about the Met if they were the capital police force in a post Soviet republic.

[TheTide]

The iconic television programme "The Bill" actually portrayed the Met in too flattering a light.

[Torrain]

It’s amazing that the Met’s position appears to have evolved from:

“We couldn’t possible investigate” to “We can cooperate and work alongside the internal inquiry” to “We alone can be allowed to get the credit for the investigation.”

Honestly, at this point I’d barely be surprised if the Gray Report leaks out one line at a time over the course of two months, with crime and policing correspondents who barely touch politics but have decent police sources, ‘mysteriously’ getting Westminster scoops, as the Met leaks it’s way through this mess.

[Torrain]

https://mobile.twitter.com/BethRigby/status/1487007271032967169

Guess it’s good news for Labour though - the Sword of Damocles hangs over Johnson’s head for weeks, in the run up to the local elections, while Conservative MPs fracture and factionalise over what to do.

A drawn out, leak-filled investigation is politically good for the opposition, but probably not best for the country, especially given how paralysed the government has been in recent weeks.

[CumbrianLefty]

Yes, Johnson's remaining apologists bemoan "trivia" stopping him from "getting on with the job" - but that is hardly likely to happen as long as this isn't "resolved". Even leaving aside the question of the hit the PM has taken already, and if the damage is recoverable.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Scotland/comments/seoy2d/to_think_bawjaws_government_might_have_fallen_in/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Apparently bojo birthday party was old news.

[CumbrianLefty]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Scotland/comments/seoy2d/to_think_bawjaws_government_might_have_fallen_in/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Apparently bojo birthday party was old news.

Though as some have pointed out, that piece didn't make the size of the gathering obvious.

[Silent Hunter]

The iconic television programme "The Bill" actually portrayed the Met in too flattering a light.

Sun Hill was a very dangerous place to be a copper though. They killed off over 20 characters. On average, we have one line of duty death a year for whole country in RL.