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

[Joe Republic]

Fun Fact: Prime Minister Milliband's first term would have ended only one month ago

That’s some truly terrible news for Ed Miliband.

[Joe Republic]

"Fun" fact:

If the Conservatives win the next election scheduled for 2024, and serve to completion in 2029, this will be the longest unbroken run of party control since the early 19th century.  Considering it began with an unlikely coalition, segueing into the chaotic May government, that will be quite the feat.

[Joe Republic]

Here are some notable examples of what the three most recent Prime Ministers liked to do for some extracurricular fun:

• Celebrate a birthday with some nice cake
• Run through a field of wheat
• Have a dead pig perform fellatio on him

One of these jolly japes is the direct reason for their political downfall.  Any guesses which one?

[Joe Republic]

Christ, Jacob Rees-Mogg is going to be party leader at some point in the near-ish future, isn't he?  If anyone thinks that's a totally ridiculous notion, I direct your attention to the current one.

[Joe Republic]

^ Lenin?  Really?

[Joe Republic]

^ Lenin?  Really?

He worked as a legal assistant for a while, yes.

Yes, great.  Is it "cool" to be in the company of him?

[Joe Republic]

Is there much precedent for a former PM standing up and sticking the knife into their same-party successor, like we just saw?  I'm sure Heath would have liked to do it to Maggie.

[Joe Republic]

Incidentally, if Johnson were to repeat a certain lie outside the Commons chamber, he would almost certainly face a libel suit which, were it to happen, he would certainly lose and would certainly have to pay extremely heavy damages.

Parliamentary privilege has been frequently used to make allegations about the likes of Gerry Adams and others in Sinn Fein.

It's amusing that you can make up all kinds of crap about somebody when speaking in the Commons, but call them a liar and you'll get thrown out.

[Joe Republic]

As an aside, Boris Johnson really is the very last person who should be blasé about abusing parliamentary privilege. There are all sorts of unpleasant rumours about him and his personal life and actions over the years floating around that the wider public has never heard a whiff of.

Yes I thought this- I know of at least one that is common enough that many newspapers openly hint at it and there are no doubt countless more. Once you take the stance he has done all it takes is one opposition MP who is retiring and the current benchmark set by Johnson is that everything is fair game.

Do tell.

[Joe Republic]

Winchester is a good example of where a pact might have helped.  In 2019 Labour lost their deposit and won only 2.7k votes, but the Tory beat the LD with a majority of 985.

[Joe Republic]

Winchester is a good example of where a pact might have helped.  In 2019 Labour lost their deposit and won only 2.7k votes, but the Tory beat the LD with a majority of 985.

The thing is that that rump of Labour voters will mostly have been aware of the situation and decided to vote Labour anyway.  It's not at all clear that such people will vote Lib Dem even if there is no Labour candidate.

Also an explicit pact may drive some Tory/Lib Dem floating voters into the Tory camp.

Yes, though I imagine many of those Labour voters are the type who are motivated enough to vote, but not informed enough to know anything beyond "ooh I like that Starmer fellow over that wanker Boris".  I'm not suggesting that taking the Labour candidate off the ballot in Winchester in 2019 would have increased the LD vote by exactly the same number of votes, but I do believe that enough of them would have switched to make all the difference.

[Joe Republic]

Is it safe to assume that Partygate is completely forgotten?

[Joe Republic]

This is worse than the 90s.

I await the news that a Tory MP has been found dead from autoerotic self-strangulation while wearing nothing but stockings and suspenders and an orange in his mouth.  _{notthattheresanythingwrongwiththat}

[Joe Republic]

The Daily Mail continues their winning streak:

https://twitter.com/nadinedorries/status/1520886236797444097?s=21

The primary image leading the article, shown here in a tweet by the minister in charge of managing the dissemination of misinformation, has cropped out the person Starmer is sitting with.  Turns out that was Frank Dobson.  Who died in 2019.

[Joe Republic]

It’s also hilarious as Keir looks about 10 years younger in that photo- that’s what being Leader of the Labour Party does to you, as Mr Tony said.

It's from 2015, so close enough.

[Joe Republic]

In some local news:

https://twitter.com/NorthNorfPolice/status/1521138495846293506

[Joe Republic]

London Bridge will be handing over the state opening of Parliament to Charles, citing ongoing mobility issues.

[Joe Republic]

"British Bung Company"

[Joe Republic]

In news from my area of Havering, the Residents and Labour have formed an administration.

The Labour leader, Keith Darvill, was MP for Upminster between 1997 and 2001.

That's a nice part of the country for Labour to have had a bit of good fortune.  I wonder what would happen if there was suddenly an unexpected by-election in the area?

[Joe Republic]

To put it yet another way, next time he stands up at PMQs, he'll know that slightly less than a third of the people in the room think he should be the Prime Minister.

[Joe Republic]

A Commons VONC seems like a silly strategy to this outsider not-an-expert-whatsoever here.  About two thirds of the Commons doesn't want Boris as PM, but that doesn't mean that those 148 rebels will want to trigger a GE now, that they know will be an epic disaster.

And as Torrain said above, helping to reunite the Tories only a day after their deep fissure was put on global display puts a neat little bandage over the 'Tories In Disarray' headlines for now.

[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.

[Joe Republic]

Has anyone asked Larry if he still has confidence in the government?

https://twitter.com/number10cat/status/1544370237432381441?s=21

[Joe Republic]

Pardon my ignorance, but just how many ministers are there?  And (while this number seems to change every few minutes) how many are left?

[Joe Republic]

We were frequently reminded last month that Theresa May survived a VONC but was out only six months later.  Boris looks like he won't last six weeks after he survived his.