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

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Don't worry, they'll just whip up some nationalism over Brexit or go on the attack against unpatriotic people who hate sandwiches or something & their polling will go right back up again

Or they'll do what they've always done and claim that Labour represent an existential threat to our back pockets.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Yuppie = someone, generally a younger person, who benefited in the 1980s from the new economic structure. In my mind anyhoo.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Saw some clips of the new one. Seems to be more lewd than previously. When so many politicians are more or less cartoon characters in themselves it probably makes it more difficult.

One major difference between now and the mid-1990s is that there are far fewer standout 'celebrities', given the fragmentation of popular culture that modern technology has caused, thus perhaps it will be more politics-focussed. IIRC the original went more down the celebrity route in later series. This incarnation of it has arguably come on just a little too late. It has missed the fun of the 2015-2019 period just as the original missed the fun of the 1979-1983 period.

Btw, the 1987 election special is the best I've seen.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Williamson did the numbers in the May and Johnson leadership campaigns and there was less rebellion during his time as Chief Whip. Obvious crap at leading ministerial departments, but as a fixer he appears to have some talent.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

"Follows Back Pro-European".

Though if you want what it "means" in a more holistic sense, its the small but non-negligible section of the population (maybe 5% or so) who might describe themselves as more European than British.

And that has some unsurprising results - their contortions to defend the EU even over the fiasco that is their handling of the vaccine rollouts has been "amusing" to witness.

One of the effects of the whole Brexit process was to bring out a noticeable pro-EU tendency, one that goes beyond the boring "it's in our economic interests to stay in".

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Alan Duncan has released his diaries.

They're not really a huge surprise & his views were widely known at the time when he was a minister.

He's certainly a dying breed of a Tory MP....

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/03/boris-johnson-a-clown-with-no-diplomacy-skills-says-ex-deputy-in-diaries

Opportunistic careerists certainly are not a dying breed in the Tories.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Curious for people's views on this; the seat should have been won in 2017 by Labour... but it's a region that swung heavily in 2019, Andy Street is a non-offensive incumbent and Liam Byrne is well Liam Byrne.

https://twitter.com/SebastianEPayne/status/1389483686748254210

If Street was merely in the high 40s on first preferences in this poll then there would be a lot of Twitter takes about how preferencing would make it close. This would be ignoring that 1. a lot of people don't bother giving a second preference and 2. those who do often don't preference in a way predictable on the basis of left/right.

Also has Labour ever been considered the favourite here? The "should have in the bag" line seems a bit of hackish spin.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

The inevitable tax rises and spending cuts probably have to happen before 2024 but probably won't happen before the next general election. Put the jigsaw together.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Bad sandwiches etc.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

"The 1983 United Kingdom General Election but somebody stepped on a butterfly"

Short of being replaced by a Soviet sleeper agent, I'm struggling to see any collection of circumstances where Thatcher could ever end up as a Labour supporter.

She's not actually Thatcher in the above post.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

I am 100% certain that if the Vicar’s daughter was still PM then everything in Afghanistan would have been absolutely great forever. 100% certain.

She's been pretty useless at every major position she's held. Her dour personality has sometimes helped to conceal that.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

From that video you can tell he is not a true aristocrat. Far too materialistic. I must say that I find Rees-Mogg quite vacuous, though sometimes rather amusing.

You can also hear it in his accent. Certain syllables have a more humble twang.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

The news just goes from bad to worse. Geronimo the Alpaca is dead.           

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

The news just goes from bad to worse. Geronimo the Alpaca is dead.           

That this was ever news and that there was a chartered flight for animals out of Afghanistan last week is why we're all f-cked.

Sentient, sentient.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

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.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58814271

With Gavin Williamson having been sacked, this plonker is now the most reliable member of the government for making astounding gaffes.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Tory MP David Amess has just been stabbed at his constituency surgery.

Not just stabbed. Stabbed 32 times.

Ugh, I just caught it elsewhere and it sounded as though it wasn't as serious as that at first.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

London Bridge about to collapse? Forth Bridge of course collapsed in April of this year.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Williamson is now the numbers man for Jeremy Hunt, according to the Mirror. Probably tabloid gossip to some extent, but just about the only thing Williamson is good at is Tory parliamentary arithmetic - he was a pretty good Chief Whip and ran the campaigns of both May and Johnson.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Clarissa Eden, wife of Anthony, has just died. Yes, really. 101.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Oh so it was deliberate. 

https://twitter.com/bbcpolitics/status/1460675705876926468?s=21

I thought I read that Laura Konservative was leaving BBC?

She's supposedly being reshuffled, with Jon Sopel the favourite for political editor. Sopel has been covering US politics for some years.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

A rather bizarre speech this morning from bojo at the CBI where he among other things did an impersonation of a combustion engine, lost his place in his speech and then talked about Peppa Pig world.

The problem is much like Brown in 2009 and to a degree Keir earlier this year once things start going wrong everyone is looking for more evidence to reaffirm it…

The speech has been called 'shambolic'. From whom you may ask? Not from Labour, not from Johnson's enemies in the Tory Party, but from a Number Ten source.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Sunak already has turned into Gordon Brown to Johnson's Tony Blair according to reports.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Dorries, like Johnson, appeared on trashy reality/panel/talent shows prior to holding important governmental positions. Usually it's the other way around - see Balls, Cable, Widdecombe and so on.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Poor old Matty Hancock was in essence forced to hand in the towel over less than this.

Half a chance that Bo Jo will be out within hours, a full chance that the polls will show another significant shift towards Labour.