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

[Torrain]

So, Johnson has written back to Dowden, basically telling him that he accepts the resignation, but actually it’s totally normal to lose two by-elections and a cabinet minister within 4 hours, and we should carry on as normal because he won a lot of seats in 2019. Quite surreal.

https://mobile.twitter.com/ChrisMasonBBC/status/1540229704963309569

[Blair]

The poor person having to draft that in a hotel room in Rwanda.

[Blair]

A thought- the Conservatives committed around £35 billion in public spending recently to ‘tackle’ the energy and price crisis.

It appears to have made no difference to their polling and the support isn’t designed in a way to get them credit- they should have done a debit card with ‘Rishi dollars’ on it.

[Bakersfield Uber Alles]

Hot take, I could see the Tories falling below 200 seats next election.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Peston suggesting that Sunak resigning isn't beyond the realm of possibility.

[Torrain]

Polling from Wakefield floating voters on their reasons for voting. Going to be interesting to see whether this actually affects the party leadership fight, or if they follow the PM’s lead and just bury their heads in the sand.
 

[Torrain]

In Tory grandee news, former leader Michael Howard has called for Johnson to resign and for cabinet members to threaten to quit to try and speed it up. 

Not the biggest voice in the party, but when combined with William Hague, who went public with his criticisms earlier in the month, it seems like there’s definitely some movement from silence to open resistance from the old leaders. Both are in the Lords, so will be interesting to see if this produces any noise there.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

In Tory grandee news, former leader Michael Howard has called for Johnson to resign and for cabinet members to threaten to quit to try and speed it up. 

Not the biggest voice in the party, but when combined with William Hague, who went public with his criticisms earlier in the month, it seems like there’s definitely some movement from silence to open resistance from the old leaders. Both are in the Lords, so will be interesting to see if this produces any noise there.

It's possible that every living former leader wants him to go. Aside from Howard and Hague, Major almost certainly would want to see the back of him, IDS possibly voted against him in the confidence vote, May certainly did and Cameron despises him for going against him in the EU referendum.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Polling from Wakefield floating voters on their reasons for voting. Going to be interesting to see whether this actually affects the party leadership fight, or if they follow the PM’s lead and just bury their heads in the sand.
 

The interesting thing about those results is that it suggests Boris Johnson was even more of a drag on the Tory vote than a convicted sex offender.

[CumbrianLefty]

Whelp, both by-elections were thumping losses for the Tories. Lets see how BoJo convinces the backbenchers to save his job this time.

Well, he's not due to face another VONC until next summer. I know that can be changed, but it needs to be done at the right time and way - some MPs maybe wish they had delayed their letters now.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Whelp, both by-elections were thumping losses for the Tories. Lets see how BoJo convinces the backbenchers to save his job this time.

Well, he's not due to face another VONC until next summer. I know that can be changed, but it needs to be done at the right time and way - some MPs maybe wish they had delayed their letters now.

There's a possibility that the 54 was reached due to Johnson allies putting letters in as a way of having the vote at a somewhat better time. A risk, yes, but a risk that has apparently paid off for now. And he likes risks.

[Blair]

Whelp, both by-elections were thumping losses for the Tories. Lets see how BoJo convinces the backbenchers to save his job this time.

Well, he's not due to face another VONC until next summer. I know that can be changed, but it needs to be done at the right time and way - some MPs maybe wish they had delayed their letters now.

There's a possibility that the 54 was reached due to Johnson allies putting letters in as a way of having the vote at a somewhat better time. A risk, yes, but a risk that has apparently paid off for now. And he likes risks.

I think this has been debunked several times since it was first suggested back in January.

[Cassius]

You know, someone should just put a sword up the arse of that fat c**nt. Jesus Christ it takes longer to remove CEO's in slowly failing family firms. Can someone not just give the pig a good sh**tting.

[GoTfan]

You know, someone should just put a sword up the arse of that fat c**nt. Jesus Christ it takes longer to remove CEO's in slowly failing family firms. Can someone not just give the pig a good sh**tting.

Mind if I borrow that line?

[Joe Republic]

You know, someone should just put a sword up the arse of that fat c**nt. Jesus Christ it takes longer to remove CEO's in slowly failing family firms. Can someone not just give the pig a good sh**tting.

That's fine, but just don't tell David Cameron there's a dead pig newly available.

[CumbrianLefty]

You know, someone should just put a sword up the arse of that fat c**nt. Jesus Christ it takes longer to remove CEO's in slowly failing family firms. Can someone not just give the pig a good sh**tting.

Tories made the Faustian pact with him, and really must suffer the consequences for a while yet

[Torrain]

Saturday seems to have just been a day of self-destructive statements for Johnson.

He started with “I’m never going to change” and ended with “I’m going to serve at least 3 terms! You won’t get rid of me until the 2030s!”

Just bizarre all around. The 3 terms comment feels particularly ill-judged, given recent history. If I recall, Gordon Brown’s Curry House Plot was triggered directly by Blair bragging about going for indeterminately longer. And Thatcher’s insistence on similar rhetoric, as her premiership was spirally, was a shot of adrenaline for opponents like Heseltine.

[Pericles]

Saturday seems to have just been a day of self-destructive statements for Johnson.

He started with “I’m never going to change” and ended with “I’m going to serve at least 3 terms! You won’t get rid of me until the 2030s!”

Just bizarre all around. The 3 terms comment feels particularly ill-judged, given recent history. If I recall, Gordon Brown’s Curry House Plot was triggered directly by Blair bragging about going for indeterminately longer. And Thatcher’s insistence on similar rhetoric, as her premiership was spirally, was a shot of adrenaline for opponents like Heseltine.

I wonder if that was taken out of context. The only thing I can find is him saying "I am thinking actively about the third term and what could happen then. But I will review that when I get to it." Technically though, 2019 was the first term. That said, he would be hypocritical to complain.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

He's trolling the idiots who are too inept (i.e. the parliamentary Tory Party and the cabinet especially) to overthrow him.

[CumbrianLefty]

There are some Tory MPs demanding another VONC before the summer recess, this seems unlikely.

[Torrain]

We just seem to be stuck in a soup of rumours this week.

Building on what CumbrianLefty said, the Times is reporting that 30 MPs have resubmitted their 1922 letters since the confidence vote, all before the by-election results were known, with a second raft of letters expected after Tiverton was lost. Obviously that’s pretty toothless while the 1-year rule remains in place, but could become significant if a significant portion of the party puts them in, piling pressure on the committee for a rules change.

More dramatically (albeit implausibly), sources from both parties have said that a number of Red Wall MPs are actively considering defection, possibly as many as six. Labour sources are bragging about having an open line of communication between leadership and the wavering backbenchers, just like they established with Christian Wakeford.

Will be interested to see if any of this turns out to be substantiated.

[YL]

We just seem to be stuck in a soup of rumours this week.

Building on what CumbrianLefty said, the Times is reporting that 30 MPs have resubmitted their 1922 letters since the confidence vote, all before the by-election results were known, with a second raft of letters expected after Tiverton was lost. Obviously that’s pretty toothless while the 1-year rule remains in place, but could become significant if a significant portion of the party puts them in, piling pressure on the committee for a rules change.

More dramatically (albeit implausibly), sources from both parties have said that a number of Red Wall MPs are actively considering defection, possibly as many as six. Labour sources are bragging about having an open line of communication between leadership and the wavering backbenchers, just like they established with Christian Wakeford.

Will be interested to see if any of this turns out to be substantiated.

Scepticism is warranted here I think.  There have only ever been five direct defections of MPs from Con to Lab (Alan Howarth, Shaun Woodward, Robert Jackson, Quentin Davies and Christian Wakeford) and defection rumours have a pretty low success rate.

Speaking of changes of party membership of MPs, Patrick Grady, MP for Glasgow North who has been caught up in a sexual harassment case, has suspended his SNP membership and is now sitting as an Independent.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

We just seem to be stuck in a soup of rumours this week.

Building on what CumbrianLefty said, the Times is reporting that 30 MPs have resubmitted their 1922 letters since the confidence vote, all before the by-election results were known, with a second raft of letters expected after Tiverton was lost. Obviously that’s pretty toothless while the 1-year rule remains in place, but could become significant if a significant portion of the party puts them in, piling pressure on the committee for a rules change.

More dramatically (albeit implausibly), sources from both parties have said that a number of Red Wall MPs are actively considering defection, possibly as many as six. Labour sources are bragging about having an open line of communication between leadership and the wavering backbenchers, just like they established with Christian Wakeford.

Will be interested to see if any of this turns out to be substantiated.

Scepticism is warranted here I think.  There have only ever been five direct defections of MPs from Con to Lab (Alan Howarth, Shaun Woodward, Robert Jackson, Quentin Davies and Christian Wakeford) and defection rumours have a pretty low success rate.

Speaking of changes of party membership of MPs, Patrick Grady, MP for Glasgow North who has been caught up in a sexual harassment case, has suspended his SNP membership and is now sitting as an Independent.

I notice a bunch of other SNP MP's are being Tim Farroned in the light of the Roe v. Wade descion, namely the scottish finance minister Kate Forbes and John Mason. Not exactly great news for the party given the existing scandal.

[Torrain]

I notice a bunch of other SNP MP's are being Tim Farroned in the light of the Roe v. Wade descion, namely the scottish finance minister Kate Forbes and John Mason. Not exactly great news for the party given the existing scandal.

Kate Forbes is a highlander, who was educated in the Gaelic school system, which has a high portion of quite socially-conservative Presbyterians from the Western Isles. Forbes herself is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, a small denomination who did not even use musical instruments during hymns, or sing anything other than the original biblical psalms until 2010. If you’re making assumptions about their position on contentious social issues, you’re probably not too far from the truth.

I knew a bunch of kids who grew up in the same environment, who I met either through Scripture Union, or university. As a rule, they’re lovely people, but if you get them onto any hot-topic social issues, some of them immediately transform into a slightly more compassionate version of the DUP. It can be quite jarring.

The SNP is odd like that. Independence has a broad constituency, so you get views ranging from Afleitch’s, all the way through to Western Islanders whose views are almost identical to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s on gay marriage and abortion.

It’s why, despite her high office, I don’t think Forbes would ever be a viable candidate for First Minister when Sturgeon goes. The political fight within the SNP alone, let alone the criticism from Labour and the Lib Dems would be too damaging for the party to pick her.

[Blair]

Saturday seems to have just been a day of self-destructive statements for Johnson.

He started with “I’m never going to change” and ended with “I’m going to serve at least 3 terms! You won’t get rid of me until the 2030s!”

Just bizarre all around. The 3 terms comment feels particularly ill-judged, given recent history. If I recall, Gordon Brown’s Curry House Plot was triggered directly by Blair bragging about going for indeterminately longer. And Thatcher’s insistence on similar rhetoric, as her premiership was spirally, was a shot of adrenaline for opponents like Heseltine.

My first thought upon hearing he was doing a Radio 4 interview was 'god he doesn't do them often'.

I then saw the reams of headlines he had created & remembered why. It is forgotten that he was largely kept away from doing any press in either his leadership bid or the 2019 election.