“The posh accent “
That says it all for me about the attitude of this thread.
Inverted snobbery.
Sometimes it’s just the small things that press the bruise isn’t it? 😢
Voting. I’m so glad we still have the ‘old fashioned’ system…
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Prediction that Boris Johnson will be out by Christmas. He was never up to the task of leading this country.
(102 Posts)I agree with the article, more or less. I'm not a Tory (get away!) supporter and actually dislike him LESS now than I did at the beginning. I think he'd stand a better change of being allowed to stay if he ditched Cummings but given that Cummings is the puppet master, Boris is in a Catch 22 situation.
Every time I see Boris Johnson, I ask myself how on earth he got the job. Then I remember that it was luck, guile, and the big red bus and the stuff about the NHS getting £350m a week extra – the promise that never was.
So that question pretty much answers itself. I suppose what I really mean is that it’s just begun to dawn on me that he isn’t actually very good at the job. The posh accent and the classical references disguise it a bit, but the truth is starting to show through. He’s just not up to it.
Remember what close colleague and “friend” Michael Gove said of him back in the 2016 Tory leadership debacle? “I have come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead”. Right first time, Gove.
Every bumbling performance at prime minister’s questions, each stumbling appearance at a coronavirus media conference, each bit of misguided spin that emanates from Downing Street, all the “ramped up” insincere promises and the hasty U-turns serve only to build up the evidence that we have somehow contrived to place a clown with the emotional maturity of a toddler in charge of dealing with the worst pandemic in 100 years.
When will the madness end? I think by Christmas. I cannot say how or what the manner of Boris Johnson’s leaving office will be, but I think we can all discern that the pressures will only intensify. Each avoidable, so-called “excess” death represents a tragic, powerful and eventually overwhelming argument for his departure. There will be thousands more. Will they reach 100,000? The worst record in Europe? It is surely possible.
In due course, Johnson will become an insupportable political burden for his party, as well as a morally shameful one. Right now, there’s no chance of change because we are in the midst of the emergency. The long summer recess will be more politically charged this year; without parliament sitting, however, the opportunities for remote plotting will be fewer, and the time for change still not ripe. By the autumn, though, there is every possibility that the economy will still be depressed, the furlough scheme becoming unsustainable, and the death toll unthinkably high – with a real prospect of a second wave of infections overwhelming the NHS – because the lockdown was relaxed too soon. Those are the perfectly plausible developments that could unseat a serving premier with a large parliamentary majority. They will be apparent towards the end of the year, as will the public’s anger. The very trust and faith so many place in Johnson will switch back, making the sense of betrayal even more painful. By Christmas, a time for reflection, Johnson will be politically toxic. He will be no more immune to overthrow in such circumstances than Tony Blair in 2007 or Margaret Thatcher in 1990. Like them, he might well find himself replaced by his chancellor, with the promise of a fresh start.
Being at the top means making the right calls and taking the right decisions, and Johnson has failed at every turn. No doubt he may have had some bad advice, but he’s also been sloppy, complacent, and reluctant to apply himself to the task even when he was well. He left a confused power vacuum when he was so seriously ill. He was wrong on lockdown, on testing, on ventilators, on care homes and on protective equipment. So determined was he to ignore the devolution settlement in launching his lockdown exit strategy that he has weakened the union with Scotland and Northern Ireland. The free-trade deal with the EU isn’t going to happen. Neither will the one with the US, without featuring British farming. He has appointed a spectacularly lacklustre bunch to his cabinet, and seems overreliant on the svengali Dominic Cummings.
Now Johnson’s shortcomings have at long last been embarrassingly exposed by the replacement of Jeremy Corbyn with Keir Starmer and a reinvigorated and highly able official opposition.
Johnson is slowly losing allies and support in his party and among its usual media allies. Perennial doubts about character and judgement are re-emerging. The exit strategy is premature and chaotic, while also too slow for his natural allies on the right. More than anything, though, the people are beginning to comprehend the human cost of Johnson’s failures. He has let us down. That is the unforgivable bit.
It seems longer, but it is not yet a year since Theresa May was pushed out, and Johnson succeeded her (the muted anniversary celebration will be on 24 July). Since then, he has “got Brexit done” (in his own misleading definition), won the Tories a thumping majority and seemed to be set on a full term of strong and stable government. Of course, a global pandemic would have changed everything, as it has in every country. Preceding governments also made the wrong choices and failed to prepare. But the loss of life on the scale it is reaching in Britain was not inevitable, as the evidence of some other countries shows. Johnson told us in early March that we would be OK because “we already have a fantastic NHS, fantastic testing systems and fantastic surveillance of the spread of disease”. The response was poor, the leadership lacking. There will be a reckoning.
www.independent.co.uk/voices/boris-johnson-tory-government-christmas-cabinet-brexit-coronavirus-trade-a9520076.html
jenniferEccles 
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Boris was seen out jogging this morning in his old blue shorts. Excellent. That means he’s got more energy these days. He’ll need it, there’s a long road ahead but he IS popular (just not on here). You watch, once he’s got Brexit done without an extension his popularity will SOAR!
?
I think he IS popular on here, just not with the more vocal amongst us, which gives the impression that he isn't.
The question is 'where us Boris?' he is noticeable by his absence. Don't think that they are letting him out by himself
I agree with you Opal, I think he’s reasonably popular on here with many posters, but they do seem to be less vocal than others.
However, what any of us thinks individuality doesn’t matter, it’s what the people collectively think. They voted for Boris because they like him and they think he gets things done. At the time of the election, what was important to the people it seems, was to ‘Get Brexit Done’ and apparently that’s why they voted for him. No one could have seen what was waiting in the wings. My crystal ball certainly didn’t tell me, when I went with my husband to spend the new year celebrations at a country hotel, and was happily hugging strangers and wishing them a happy new year, that within a few short weeks we wouldn’t go nearer than two metres of a family member, let alone a stranger. Mind you, I defy anyone else in any other party or in the Conservative party, to have handled Covid19 much better. Almost every country in the world has made mistakes in their handling of this crisis, they were too quick, they were too slow, they didn’t have enough PPE, they didn’t have enough ICU beds etc etc etc.
I think Boris is here to stay. I suspect those who are disillusioned with his leadership are going to have to live with him for a good while yet.
I'm not disillusioned with his leadership because I didn't expect any better. No, I didn't predict a pandemic, but the flooding wasn't that unexpected and he didn't deal with that well either. I don't suppose any PM starts his/her five year stint thinking that it will all run smoothly. An awful lot can happen over the next few years and only a fool would predict what will happen. However, it would appear that Starmer's net approval rating is currently slightly higher that Johnson's. I don't suppose for one moment that the Conservative party machinery isn't working on approval ratings right now.
BTW maddyone I think what was important before the last election was that he wasn't Corbyn.
This is beyond a joke. Parliament is in recess, so there will be no PMQs tomorrow. I wonder why! 
I've been gardening for most of the day and came in to have a quick glance on here but was about to say what you just have growstuff. I can't believe that parliament is shutting down at a time like this. As for the PM , without reading everything on here [sorry will read it properly later] everything I've read recently points to his own party and Murdoch wanting to get rid of him. Unfortunately Murdoch wants Gove to lead.
@growstuff
I can't find anything about parliament being in recess. Have you a link?
Or do you have one, Maybee70?
It's outrageous.
I totally agree with maddyone and Opal. I don't usually even read political threads, let alone comment, as I just find lot of posters are not interested in listening, only in telling us how terrible Boris/Tories are. They forget that their candidate was Jeremy Corbyn and the country simply did not want him. I don't think Boris is perfect or his handling of the virus has been without mistakes but no-one saw this coming and we are all making it up as we go along.
I think Johnson is terrible and my candidate most certainly wasn't Corbyn.
Maizie
www.parliament.uk/about/faqs/house-of-commons-faqs/business-faq-page/recess-dates/
Apparently it's a scheduled recess, but it does seem extraordinary that they can take a break at the moment.
Oh, got it, ladies. It's the scheduled Whit recess.
Amazed that it is going ahead in the middle of a crisis...
As for the rest of this thread.
The government is losing control. There is growing criticism from all sections of the MSM. The devolved administrations refused to comply with the 'easing' of lockdown (and its daft new 'Be Alert' slogan) announced last week, teachers are in revolt and councils, including tory ones, are declining to reopen schools at the beginning of June. And I understand that in today's 'briefing' the tame scientist was not complicit in covering up the government's errors. Furthermore, polling shows increased public dissatisfaction with the government's handling of the crisis.
No government can be wholly free of criticism, even when getting things more or less right, but the criticism is getting louder, from many quarters, and is stacking up against Johnson's regime. If the tory party come to believe that he's a liability they'll have him out.
Garajo, obviously all this is getting to you. I think Boris has handled it well can you imagine Corbyn getting ip and speaking he brier had the answer or an original thought but he could have that nice brother of his advising instead if the scientists,, sorry he us captaining against the lock fiend in the first place, wanted us herded or something, who seem to want to fit in his shoes, sorry sandals. I will stick with Boris and the advisors get has.
This ore scripture text changes when you press send! Brier should be never captaining, campaigning.
There must be something in the water ...I have never heard so much nonsense about someone who is not just a liar and incompetent but now responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of YOUR countrymen and women.IF Bojo had taken notice of what was happening in other countries and acted accordingly this could have been avoided .As it was his "prediction" or plan to kill mainly elderly people has come to fruition.Be afraid...you dont know who will be next on his list of folk to dispose of .Meanwhile upwards of 40,000 families are grieving while you all declare hes either doing a great job or "doing his best" a remark usually reserved for small children learning simple things.IF THATS HIM DOING HIS BEST GOD HELP US WHEN HE ATTEMPTS HIS WORST
What is it that makes people refer to 'Boris' by his given name, but Sir Kier Starmer by his surname?
I don't think that Johnson will stay the course. He is floundering. Admittedly, it would take a very steady hand to steer us through Brexit, flooding, Covid and the recession that is already kicking in, and I'm not saying that Corbyn would have emerged victorious either, but Johnson just doesn't have the experience or staying power.
I think he will resign, saying that ill health and/or a need to spend time with his new family is the reason, and leave it to others to clear up the mess - either just before the Brexit 'deadline', or immediately after, so that he can get his place in history as the one wot dunnit, without the hassle of having to answer to the electorate when the proverbial hits the fan.
Paddyanne, I agree with your post.
Belgium, Spain, and Italy have all had more deaths per hundred thousand than the UK. Is Boris in charge there then too?
How on earth can you claim that Johnson has handled this well? It doesn't matter what Corbyn would have done. He's not PM and he's not even leader of the opposition any more. What does Corbyn's brother or his footwear have to do with anything?
Whataboutery at its finest! 
maddyone That is totally irrelevant and illogical.
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