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

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Boris wants Ireland to pay for a Bridge to Scotland.

Ahh yes, Ireland should pay for a bridge that would lie completely within the United Kingdom's internal borders. Makes complete sense!!

"we will build a bridge linking Scotland to Ulster, and we'll get the Catholics to pay for it!"

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Boris Johnson is now out of the hospital

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-politics-52262012

On Easter Sunday, no less! The memes will be writing themselves today.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I guess "Scottish Nationalist Party" is to Conservatives what "Democrat Party" is to Republicans.

Correct.  Both are a bit silly in my opinion but both achieve their desired reaction.

The SNP one actually makes sense by linking them to a generally right-wing ideology. The ‘Democrat Party’ thing is just totally inane.

Almost as if being a "democrat" is a *bad* thing? Come to think of it, given recent events......

Republicans don't like even the mere semantic link between Democratic Party and the connatations of 'democratic', so they say 'Democrat' instead.
Conservatopia is right that it's petty trolling.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Yes, but I don't even see how that makes any difference! That's how silly it actually is.

Was just clarifying that Republicans saying 'Democrat Party' did not stem from or is linked to anti-democratic attitudes in any real way, but rather feelings the D party doesn't deserve its name.

[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.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

The fact that Boris is now married to someone young enough to be his daughter really needs to stick in more throats than it has .

I don't see why any voter ought to care about the age of Boris' wife and not, you know, more relevant things, like how he runs the country. You know, stuff that actually matters...

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

The government has almost entirely lost the confidence of the right-wing press, judging by the headlines this morning. If Labour were racking up 30 point poll leads then it would feel very like the mid-1990s.

What happened?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Rest in peace.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Major rule breaking by the PM and others last Xmas seems to have been just discovered by the media.

They only discovered it now?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Is it out of question for Sir Peter Bottomley to face electoral difficulties in the foreseeable future?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Yes, the present mooted boundary changes aren't good for him and he is trying to get then altered.

What the process by which that is done?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Yes, the present mooted boundary changes aren't good for him and he is trying to get then altered.

What the process by which that is done?

You propose alternatives to the Commission, try to persuade them that your alternatives are better than their initial proposals according to the statutory criteria, and try to get people in the area to make submissions to the Commission supporting you.  (In this case, if arguing against the initial proposals, I would point out that they split Lancing and leave areas of Worthing in an Arundel & Littlehampton constituency, so though they reunify the town in name they don't really, not that I submitted anything about Sussex.)  If you are an MP you probably do this through your party, though in this instance I think it is swings and roundabouts for the Tories so the central party may not have been that bothered.

We'll get to see the submissions, including those from the parties, sometime in January IIRC.

Ah. Thanks for the rundown.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

As usual, some of the individual MRP seat projections are a bit hard to believe.

The most striking thing is how badly it shows the Lib Dems as doing; probably this is mainly because it doesn't pick up tactical voting for them.  This actually saves the Tories in quite a few seats they should lose on these figures.

There are a few other oddities, but some of the slighly surprising seats it shows Labour as winning are indeed seats I think Labour are going to be close in if they're close to winning a majority: the Bournemouth seats, York Outer, Rushcliffe and so on.

It also shows Labour as doing surprisingly well in Scotland.

The map gives me 2005 vibes for some reason...

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Hard to believe that Dromey's only been a MP since 2010.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

The interesting thing and something that lots of people said when it first came out all appears to have come from leaks within the Government.

"The ship of state is the only ship that leaks from the top" - Sir Humphrey Appleby.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Walkout during Covid statement?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

It's been touched upon briefly with some radio pieces with former defecting MPs (Lord Howarth apparently played a role in helping with this one- he too defected from the Tories to Labour) but I'm not sure anyone has really covered how big a change this is.

For MPs their staff are paid for by the taxpayer but are largely working for MPs they agree with politically; so you face having to re-hire an entirely new team. You lose your entire network & the support you have from your own intake (MPs like children are often friends with those elected who join in the same year) and you lose most of the influence or alliances you have with the wider political movement.

It is for this reason why it's rarer for Labour politicians to defect; we hate our movement, but it is our movement which dominates your life in a way that Conservative politics doesn't. The Labour Party is a chore you endure, the Conservative Party is a club you enjoy. If you compare the speeches from the departing Labour MPs who joined TIG with the departing Tories this is very clear- it was a genuine emotional detachment. Despite the Dennis Healey quip the Labour Party really is a socialist Sunday school.

Anyway it's a big move and a big decision; and well his seat certainly played a role it wasn't as grubby as previous ones (which were done for Government jobs & safe seats after MPs faced de-selection)

It can also be very difficult if you have a butler...

No - you just have to start calling him Comrade Butler.

It's okay for Labour MPs to have butlers. This meme was brought to you by Shaun Woodward.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

A minor detail: we have our first Minister from the 2019 intake. Andrew Griffith is the unpaid Parliamentary Under Secretary for Policy at the Cabinet Office, to support Steve Barclay and free up room for him.

Generally what determines if a new MP becomes a minister or becomes Lobby Fodder? What's the actual selection process ?

If the operative word is process, he was appointed by Boris Johnson and that was Johnson's prerogative to do so (technically the monarch appoints ministers). If that was not the intended question, I concur with what Conservatopia and MaxQue said. Griffith was also the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Boris Johnson personally. Previous holders of that role include Gavin Williamson who was Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Cameron, and got a lot of good and did a lot of bad as a result.

A huge amount of politics anywhere is about networking. Were you the son or daughter of a politician, did you work for a politician in their office or on their campaigns, etc.
It shouldn't be too surprising that the guy whose house serves as HQ for BoJo's leadership campaign becomes the first minister among his intake, serving BoJo in his cabinet.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

A minor detail: we have our first Minister from the 2019 intake. Andrew Griffith is the unpaid Parliamentary Under Secretary for Policy at the Cabinet Office, to support Steve Barclay and free up room for him.

Generally what determines if a new MP becomes a minister or becomes Lobby Fodder? What's the actual selection process ?

If the operative word is process, he was appointed by Boris Johnson and that was Johnson's prerogative to do so (technically the monarch appoints ministers). If that was not the intended question, I concur with what Conservatopia and MaxQue said. Griffith was also the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Boris Johnson personally. Previous holders of that role include Gavin Williamson who was Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Cameron, and got a lot of good and did a lot of bad as a result.

A huge amount of politics anywhere is about networking. Were you the son or daughter of a politician, did you work for a politician in their office or on their campaigns, etc.
It shouldn't be too surprising that the guy whose house serves as HQ for BoJo's leadership campaign becomes the first minister among his intake, serving BoJo in his cabinet.

It shouldn't be a surprise. But at the same time if I could put down the Western political class's decline to one factor it would be the slow and gradual re-aristocratization of the whole thing.  With University as a (shoddy) veil for "Meritocracy".

In the long run, the tumult of the 20th century was always going to subsist someway or another, and once things settle, then the grounds are perfect for the current political class to slowly turn into a new aristocratic class through sheer inertia.
Of course, in Britain, that de-aristocratization of politics probably never really happened in the first place, because Britain's aristocracy was never dislodged from the political arena in the first place.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

"It takes an idiot to act like a fool".
Boris knows how the game is played. It's unlikely he'll ever face any trouble for his remarks, because he knows the rules of the game and can play them for his optimal benefit.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

"It takes an idiot to act like a fool".
Boris knows how the game is played. It's unlikely he'll ever face any trouble for his remarks, because he knows the rules of the game and can play them for his optimal benefit.

His closest advisor - a women who he depended on more than Harold Wilson did Marcia Falkender! - has resigned because of it and his already dangerously position within the parliamentary party has become weaker as a result of it. You don't have to issue commentary on things you do not understand.

I was too imprecise. I meant legal trouble, as well as getting in trouble with the Speaker. The resignations do show the trouble this saga poses to him, but those troubles are not of legal nature.
There are cases of parliamentary privilege being abused (see: QLD Labor leading up to 2012). I don't know enough to deduce how the electorate responds to this generally.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

https://twitter.com/David__Osland/status/1507372082308558852

Credit where credit is due, this is a great tweet.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Not going to share it but Mail on Sunday has published a vile article accusing Angela Rayner of using basic instinct tactics of crossing her legs to distract Boris in the Chamber. Goes onto to insult her even further

This was actually briefed by senior conservatives and somehow written up and published by the MOS. I’m not particularly sure how it got past any lawyers.

Is Rayner launching a defamation case actualy likely though ?

Not qualified to answer this question, but if Twitter is any indication, she's not taking this lying down.

https://twitter.com/AngelaRayner/status/1518126832272486400

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I'm starting to realize, deep down, why the press has such a poor reputation among so many people in Britain.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

What a weird 6 months it has been.

"A week is a lifetime in politics" - Harold Wilson