Sex party organiser in Number 10

Not Gove - please, please - I will lose the will to live.

Even died in the wool Tories are backing off his policies.

Bl**dy hell Urmstongran! You really are having a laugh! Johnson's popularity is falling like a proverbial stone. Putting Raab in charge of anything is a gross mistake!

Urmstongran feels no shame, growstuff.

jenpax It's not just the DM. The story appeared in March in a number of publications, but didn't go anywhere, which shows how much control there is over the media.

Can you imagine what would have happened if it had been discovered that a member of Corbyn's team had been a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party and was married to the founder of a company organising sex parties?

It's the complete acceptance of the corruption, lies and destruction of democracy that gets me. It's not merely 'scarey', it's infuriating..

Dougie Smith and his sex party background are trending on Twitter. Apparently, he has previously worked for the Conservative Party as David Cameron's speech writer. He was initially hired to find dirt on Labour Party members.

This has all come to light following the highly inappropriate appointment of Smith's wife, Munira Mirza, as co-ordinator for the commission into racism. It would appear that she has questioned the Bosnia and Rwanda genocides and is a climate change denier, in addition to not believing in institutional racism.

This could all be a Brexit dead cat. Smith is a Cummings appointee, who has been hired because he "thinks outside the box".

These are the kind of people you're supporting Urmstongran.

The DM while being a lackey of the Tories in many ways also has a nice line in prudishness so I expect it published this with that in mind

Urm the political naivity of your posts would be amusing if it wasn’t so scarey.

Johnson has a similar, toxic appeal, to the one Trump has in the USA. The popularity he had at the last election is being eroded by the incompetence of his government.

Boris is very popular. He will still be in charge at the next GE in my opinion. He’s tapped into most of the electorate’s annoyance over how foreign aid is distributed for instance. Merging it with the Foreign Office - Raab in charge of allocating it.

Is Cameron joining Pope Blair in interfering in current affairs? Not interested.

I doubt that Hunt has a prayer in any coming leadership contest. He’s out of the loop now in that regard. Chairs of select committees no matter how good are seen as worthies ( and are generally very good at what they do).Remember , he only ended up as one of the last two because it was fixed that way - he was seen as someone Johnson could easily beat. Remember all the vote switching in the earlier rounds to achieve this?

And I don't want a sex party organiser and his wife in Number 10!

I'm not starry eyed about him - or any of them for that matter. However, the Tories do have a huge majority and that has to be accepted. I doubt if they'd call another election any time soon, so the only thing to be done is to make the best of a bad job. If I were Starmer, I'd love Gove to be leader because I think he'd be taken apart. However, I don't really like silly political games and I just want somebody in charge who isn't going to create an even worse mess than we're already in.

I think a risk factor with Sunak will be when it all comes out about the huge amount of money scammed with the furlough scheme and the govt backed loans most of which will never be paid back. I don’t think we should get too starry eyed about Hunt - he did lasting damage to the NHS including how he dealt with the junior doctors dispute. He’s just looking better as the others ( apart from Sunak) show their true colours now they are being tested.

I never really worked out what was going on between Gove and Johnson when May was chosen as Tory leader. Either the two of them hate each other's guts or it was all a sort of double bluff.

Gove and his wife might think he stands a chance, but he's toxic. He contradicts himself every time he opens his mouth and Labour would crucify him. Even Cameron sacked him because he was so unpopular.

The 1922 Committee (the men in suits) is apparently already putting pressure on Johnson. Whatever they do, they'll want to win the next election. Sunak is flavour of the month, but that's partly because he's an unknown. I don't know how much depth he really has.

I agree with janeainsworth that Hunt seems to be growing in stature, not that it's very difficult with the competition. He's a Tory, but at least the kind of Tory with whom you know where you stand. He's also a Remainer, which probably isn't very popular with the current parliamentary Tory party.

Whatever happens over the next year or more, we're all in for a bumpy ride and I'm afraid I can't see an end in sight. The UK is going to end up much diminished and probably without Scotland and maybe a flare up of trouble in Ireland. Apparently, even the Brexiters are complaining that the new passport is the wrong kind of blue! And the FT is reporting that the Tories are about to break the election pledge on the pension triple lock.

jane I agree he does seem to have grown but equally there’s been a lot of shrinking of others hasn’t there?

I agree it’s a dead cert that Johnson will not b PM at the next election. However those who will get rid of him have several things to consider re the timing of his departure such as the type of economic collapse / recovery that will happen; the impact of the no deal Brexit and thirdly the likelihood of a second COVID wave in the autumn coupled with a seasonal flu epidemic leading to the complete collapse of the NHS. Surely any successor wants to make sure that Johnson is seen as to blame for anything that goes wrong over the next few months? Then they can ride to the rescue. My guess at the moment is that the excuse for his going will be his health. My other guess is that Sunak will win the fight to be next PM. Give is a busted flush ( was he ever anything more?) and Hunt will come back into a major role - Chancellor? It will be interesting to look back at this thread in late Jan/Feb when it all kicks off.

Growstuff JH never seemed comfortable in his role as Secretary of State for Health, but then it’s hard to remember any previous ones who were.
Remember John ‘Oh fuck not Health’ Reid?

But as Chair of the Health Select Committee JH seems to have grown in stature & apparent competence.

Has anyone noticed that Gove has hardly made an appearance at the daily ‘briefings’? Disassociating himself from the chaos perhaps.

Yes, that weasel Gove is playing a dirty game with his mate from the Daily Heil!

So, these are very uncertain and frightening times, made even more frightening and confusing, knowing full well, that we are being led by charlotans and liars. Led by the ERG
We deserve more, we are led by the very worst of us

I'm not a huge Jeremy Hunt fan (because of what he did to the NHS), but I think you're right. At least he doesn't appear to be drunk and unable to string a sentence together when he talks in public.

I think if the Tories had chosen Jeremy Hunt instead of Boris the country would be in a very different place with regard to both Covid and Brexit.

I think Johnson will be gone well before the end of the year, but who will take his place? Gove? Hunt? Sunak?