When is she going to fire him? (Boris)

Boris has always been perfectly capable of making up his own lies - he’s been sacked twice because of lying so the odds are pretty good that he just made this comment up as well.

Quote from the Newstatesman; 'this government has successfully normalised complete bloody incompetence' ,,,

I couldnt help wondering why Liam Fox, being interviewed this morning on Radio 4's Today program, refused to agree with John Humphys that Boris needs to say, to make it crystal clear, that what he had said was wrong. Fox repeatedly dodged the issue every single time Humphrys put it to him. Why was that?
Rightly or wrongly, I was left with the distinct impression that Fox does not believe Boris to have been wrong!

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the Canadian news agency Thomson Reuters's charitable arm, travelled to Iran on 17 March 2016 to visit her family for Nowruz (Persian New Year) with her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella. On 3 April 2016, members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard arrested her at the Imam Khomeini Airport as she and daughter were about to board a flight back to the UK. Her daughter's British passport was confiscated during the arrest, and the 3-year-old remains in Iran under the care of her maternal grandparents.

The exact reason for her arrest are unclear, though according to Amnesty International it is believed related to the 2014 imprisonment of several Iranian technology news website employees. Zaghari-Ratcliffe used to work for the BBC Media Action international charitable project, which is linked to a BBC training course offered to Iranian journalists, some of who were convicted for participating in the foreign training course in 2014

This is from Wikipedia. Do you know Lemons, it is possible to check these things before doubting the woman in an Iranian prison and, as Boris does himself, excusing his poor judgement and incompetence.

If a minister makes a mistake of this kind, the first response ought to be to correct it. Yet it took six days, and pressure from the British woman’s husband, to get Mr Johnson to do this. When he did it, his words then fell short. On Tuesday, Mr Johnson phoned his Iranian counterpart to correct his remarks. Yet in the Commons later he found ways of saying everything except sorry.

The Guardian view on Boris Johnson and Priti Patel: incompetent, insubordinate and still in office

The truth is lemon that anyone with a modicum of judgement would realise as was reported on 4 this morning that Johnson is the least distinguished Foreign Secretary since WWII, and is unable to do the job.

Priti has probably saved his sorry skin hasn’t she?

What a mess it all is. I even feel a bit sorry for TM, made a huge mistake in calling an election, even bigger mistake in the way she led her campaign and with a group of Ministers it seems she daren't get rid of.
Boris may well have a big brain but he doesn't seem able to use it effectively in the course of his work. Iran is a very different place to countries in Europe. We need a Foreign Secretary who has a big brain, knows how to use it diplomatically. That wouldn't be Boris then.

Call me naïve, but I always thought the exercise of “diplomacy” was meant to involve being diplomatic.
FIL was a senior member of the Foreign Office for much of his adult life and you chose your language carefully, taking great care to observe “conditions on the ground”. You were expected to promote the interests of HM government, but where innocent UK citizens were caught up, a delicate juggling act came into force including, like doctors “first do no harm”.
Boris is a highly intelligent man - hard as that may seem to believe these days - but his blundering tactlessness is entirely inappropriate and downright dangerous.
Loose cannons in a battle can end up wreaking devastation on both sides.
Oh for a return of the likes of Sir Humphrey Appleby - a devious bastard but one who rarely let thee others get the better of him. (I know he’s a Civil Servant, but you know what I mean)

Of course it all depends on what is meant by ‘intelligence’

Wikipedia is not regarded as a reliable source of information, as its posts are not checked or verified rigorously, and can be altered. People do try to check things by accessing a variety of sources, most of which have their own particular bias, which is why people are entitled to express doubts, based on their own judgement.

I didn't know the background of the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe arrest. There's an interesting article in the Guardian from last month, where they used a letter from David Cameron asking for her release as 'proof she has links to the government'.
www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/17/letter-from-ex-pm-about-jailed-british-iranian-woman-proves-government-links
I have a suspicion that whatever any politician said, it will be used against her as that's the Iranian modus operandi.

Well eazy I’ve read a variety of sources that triangulate with wiki. I’d love to see your sources that contradict that information.

primrose of course it will - that is how they work or modus operandi, if you prefer.

But we all can appreciate that you don’t pile coal on what is already a big fire.

There is no excusing Johnson.

As it says in The Times this morning, if everyone gets fired by Christmas the only candidate for Tory leadership left will be Jacob Rees-Mogg

or bit of both really. Nothing would surprise me these days

PMQs should be interesting

If you don't like the reference put forward eazybee how about not just criticising the source but offering one that shows a different view of what happened so that we can all be a little more knowledgeable.

Wow Primrose, thank you. That is very interesting and shows why her husband is very careful in what he says. I would say that it almost makes the Boris comments even more thoughtless as his department will know much more than this.

But it’s so much better to have an opinion just based on what you think without any facts cluttering it up isn’t it?

That was to GG’s 9.37 post

No PMQs today, I believe as parliament is stood down for a short recess. Back on Monday if I have got this right. I think the speaker could ask them to come back but I doubt that this would happen.

Two things spring to mind, one that it seems the woman in question certainly does have links to journalism and is interested in helping Iranian news website employees and was perhaps meeting people in Iran as well as having a holiday with family.We can’t be completely naive about this, it could have been the case.
Two, that Boris was always going to be a disaster in that very diplomatic post and should never have been appointed.
He is certainly very intelligent, but that role demands more.
He made a blunder by being ( possibly) truthful about her interest in the journalists, and should have stuck to the line about a holiday.
This is all IMHO of course, just as comments by anyone else on here are, since it is impossible for any of us to know the complete truth.

Oh bother - I wish I had as many recesses as they do.

I heard only part of an interview on Radio 4 today with Tulip Siddique (s?) She is MP for the family's constituency. Sorry tale of failed attempts to meet with Boris, despite raising matter in the house and going direct to FO armed with letter signed by 200 MPs of all parties, Boris still has failed to meet with husband. Saw interesting point on Mumsnet; by keeping BJ in public eye, making a complete arse of his job as Foreign Secretary, TM is scuppering his plans for being Prime Minister. He can't resign as Foreign Secretary to mount a challenge for leadership.

If that is what she is doing then she is as self-serving as he is Gill.

Now the Iranian broadcasters on an Iranian state TV news feature on her claimed Boris' gaffe was confirmation the Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe was in the country plotting against the regime.

There is no excuse for what he has done. He ought to go.