Shock exit from Boris!

Churchill was responsible or partly responsible for many debacles in his career. This includes Gallipoli - his idea when Lord of the Admiralty, and an utter disaster with huge loss of life.
Hopefully Johnson is not inspired to keep on bouncing back and will go away and write more history books. In another country preferably.
Why on earth italiangirl would you think him a decent man when he had twice been sacked for lying and has now played a major part in bringing about what will probably prove to be the worst self-inflicted wound the UK has managed to achieve since WW1?
Johnson does not have a good reputation regarding his private life either does he - so no evidence there of being decent.

I don't know how anyone could think that Boris is a decent man. A lying scumbag who has crippled the political and economic landscape. He had no plans for Brexit, he spent the weekend playing cricket and writing a weak column for the Telegraph back -pedalling on some of the Leave promises.

I think that Boris is a,decent Man and that Gove has stabbed him in the back .I now shudder if he becomes our Pm .

I'm reading Boris Johnson's biography of Winston Churchill at the moment. There's no way he will be more than momentarily surprised at current political shenanigans. It has like this in Churchill's time too. Churchill turned out to be a good leader in spite of other Tories' dislike and distrust misgivings about him.

While he plays a good bumbling buffoon, Boris Johnson is, nevertheless, a very clever man. Mind you, I don't think he would have to have been very clever to realise that becoming the next PM in the light of the leave vote and David Cameron's response to it would be lifting a poisoned chalice. It is clearly in his own interests to let someone else, possibly the egregious Gove, struggle through the aftershocks and outcomes of the referendum because whoever has to handle it all will inevitably make decisions that will be massively unpopular among both large sections of the electorate and fellow MPs. Perhaps so unpopular that he (or she) may have to be replaced as Tory leader…

On R4 just before the 6 o'clock new, a clip was played of Boris on Desert Island Discs. Sue Lawley was asking him if he'd always used his 'charm' to get on in life. Boris explained that as a child he had glue ear and had grommets. He couldn't hear very well and worked out that being vague was a good strategy if he wasn't sure exactly what was being said. And that's how it all started.

What a relief. Such a clever fibber Boris I even voted for him once.

I also notice that his right hand lady, Priti Patel has also been very quiet.

BTW, I wasn't shocked by Boris's stepping out of the leadership race. Just saying. It was just another shrug moment.

I was feeling the same about Theresa May until I read today that she actually thinks Sharia Law alongside UK law is OK. More than OK. Good grief!

I suppose I could hope it's just politick speak, buttering up to imams or something.

HQ, when someone reports this post as being outwith GN forum guidelines, before you delete it could you just insert vicars or bishops where imams currently is and see if you still think it needs deleted. Cheers.

Theresa May seems like a sensible woman with a certain gravitas. She's experienced at the sharp end. I wish Ruth Davidson could be drafted in somehow but we do need her up in Scotland right now.

I think the whole country has been thoroughly stitched up by a handful of people looking to further their own careers. I feel sorry for those who voted to leave, because they must have thought that Boris and Gove had some sort of deal and a plan ready to put in place. As it is neither party has a good candidate and they are all scrabbling round to find a least worst.

Gove and Boris will be in the shadow cabinet [unless Boris leaves politics].
The Cabinet rosesarered ?

Unless Corbyn or Angela want him over on their side

I don't think Boris backed out willingly - here is the 'leaked' email from Sarah Vine to Michael Gove saying that the rightwing press would not support Boris as mentioned above:

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sarah-vine-michael-gove-leaked-email-in-full-boris-johnson-tory-leadership-contest-latest-a7109861.html

Breeze and Tegan yes. I just thought thank you there is a god. Heseltine is right. I shared a table on a cruise a long while ago with a Teresa May aide and my opinion of TM is high.

Not Govine in number 10, puhlease!
Give the women a turn, how about Thersa May and Angela Eagle squaring up to each other at PMQ?

Oh! And who do you think released Mrs Gove's emails to the media just to make sure he's seen as his wife's puppet?

Bet you anything if she gets in George won't have to move out of No. 11

I'm surprised that you can't see what's plain as day.

This is Cameron, Osbourne, et al conspiring to 1) punish Boris and get him out of the running 2) convincing gullible Gove he'd have a better chance (which of course he hasn't now he's been conned into knifing Boris) so he will get his cum-uppancec and 3) getting their preferred candidate Theresa May as frontrunner.

So obvious. It's their revenge and they are now pulling all the strings

Hooray for that!
I want Theresa May who seems to have common sense and experience.

And Crabb thinks that homosexuality 'can be cured'.

Boris Johnston, IMO, is just a coward. He gets us into this mess and then chickens out. He's said to be an adulterer, but I don't see how that can be, as he obviously has no b****. Michael Gove is a snake, and his "charming" Scottish accent comes and goes, if you notice, depending whom he is trying to impress. Liam Fox is, as you say, daphnedill is disgraced. Theresa May wants to increase surveillance on us all, but she does seem to be honest, as far as one can tell. I despair.

He might speak with a charming Scottish accent (so does Gove) but he's a fraudster and disgraced former Cabinet minister.

Zoe William's (in the Guardian) The surprise departure of Boris Johnson slightly diminishes the case for Theresa May, since her qualities – maturity, responsibility, the safety of a person who at least has some regard for the truth – were much more pronounced set against his lack of them. Nicky Morgan would have been a good opponent, since she underlines how sober and imperturbable May is, the calming effect she has by not looking constantly astonished. Yet May still benefits from comparison with the other – against Michael Gove, she looks normal. Against Stephen Crabb, she looks like a household name. Next to Andrea Leadsom, she looks charismatic. And against Liam Fox, she looks like a moderate – Fox representing a co-option of Farage-speak, with its new dawns and its splenetic authoritarianism. (Fox is anti-abortion, by the way; not that it seems to matter in the chaos, but it would.)

I'm certainly no expert on the machinations of the Tory party but this is my prediction for what it's worth.

The MP's will narrow it down to Theresa May and a Brexiter. I think the Brexiter will be Liam Fox, not ghastly Gove, or that Leadsom woman who does a very unconvincing Thatcher impersonation, but Liam Fox who speaks with a charming Scottish accent but is to the right of Genghis Khan.

I predict Theresa will win hands down. That's my prediction. I'm no expert on the Tory party but experts! what do they know?

Theresa May would be our choice, Ok, she was for remain, but seem committed to the ref, decision.

It's mine and DH's now! I agree, we will keep Gove out instead, but I'm not a big fan of Andrea Leadsome or Crabbe. Looks like Theresa May.