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Its not Boris's fault!

(176 Posts)
Alegrias1 Sun 23-Jan-22 11:35:23

I knew that title would draw you in!

Rory Stewart on why its not only Johnson we should be blaming. A leopard doesn't change its spots.

Boris Johnson is a terrible prime minister and a worse human being. But he is not a monster newly sprung from a rent between this world and the next. Twenty years have passed since the Conservative party first selected him as a candidate. Michael Howard and David Cameron made him a shadow minister, and Theresa May gave him the Foreign Office. Thirty years of celebrity made him famous for his mendacity, indifference to detail, poor administration, and inveterate betrayal of every personal commitment. Yet, knowing this, the majority of Conservative MPs, and party members, still voted for him to be prime minister. He is not, therefore, an aberration, but a product of a system that will continue to produce terrible politicians long after he is gone.

Rosie51 Wed 26-Jan-22 02:10:46

Anyone want to open a book on when Sue Grey's report will be published? The Met have no interest in it, so it can be released anytime.....Boris Johnson are you 'frit' according to Margaret Thatcher?

growstuff Wed 26-Jan-22 04:09:28

Whitewavemark2

Not sure where this leaves the Queen in her platinum year.The arrogance of these people is dumbfounding.

Jacob Rees-Mogg says on @BBCNewsnight that "a change of leader requires a general election".
Says UK is now effectively a "presidential system" and "the mandate is personal rather than entirely party"

John Major became PM without a general election, as did Gordon Brown. Has the Conservative Party changed its own rules?

vegansrock Wed 26-Jan-22 05:56:59

I wish we were talking about a government that was taking utility companies back into public ownership, renationalising the railways and proper subsidies for public transport making it affordable , cleaning up our waterways and protecting wildlife - would that do for starters?

Lucca Wed 26-Jan-22 06:15:54

Annie I met more Lefties in local government and in education than elsewhere and they suppress quite wealthy unions. I only visit here because so many leading pisters are so predictable. So you are forced to “endure” Conservatives like me

I don’t mind conservatives posting, or should I call them “righties “ ? It would be pointless if there were no debate.

Just pointing out you did the “pisters “ thing…..maybe you were

Whitewavemark2 Wed 26-Jan-22 08:17:16

growstuff

Whitewavemark2

Not sure where this leaves the Queen in her platinum year.The arrogance of these people is dumbfounding.

Jacob Rees-Mogg says on @BBCNewsnight that "a change of leader requires a general election".
Says UK is now effectively a "presidential system" and "the mandate is personal rather than entirely party"

John Major became PM without a general election, as did Gordon Brown. Has the Conservative Party changed its own rules?

Yes it is all nonsense of course. Smogg is clearly not clear of the constitution.

These people are such prats.

Whitewavemark2 Wed 26-Jan-22 08:23:04

When will the rats start to leave the sinking ship? Nothing is going to save this one.

ayse Wed 26-Jan-22 08:43:04

Whitewavemark2

When will the rats start to leave the sinking ship? Nothing is going to save this one.

I heard a suggestion yesterday that they will hang onto Boris for as long as possible thus avoiding being blamed for the cost of living rises, gas prices and post Brexit difficulties. I fear that any replacement will be far better at hiding any unconstitutional activities etc. from the general public.

Personally, I’d like to see this government gone and the centre ground take back control. Even better a general election with an alternative win, even if it’s a coalition. It couldn’t be worse than this shower of self-serving capitalists.

Whitewavemark2 Wed 26-Jan-22 09:47:16

ayse

Whitewavemark2

When will the rats start to leave the sinking ship? Nothing is going to save this one.

I heard a suggestion yesterday that they will hang onto Boris for as long as possible thus avoiding being blamed for the cost of living rises, gas prices and post Brexit difficulties. I fear that any replacement will be far better at hiding any unconstitutional activities etc. from the general public.

Personally, I’d like to see this government gone and the centre ground take back control. Even better a general election with an alternative win, even if it’s a coalition. It couldn’t be worse than this shower of self-serving capitalists.

I so agree. A completely new broom. Chance for the country to take a breathe and rethink its strategy and place in the world.

Whitewavemark2 Wed 26-Jan-22 09:47:34

Conservative peer Lord Finkelstein: "Jacob Rees Mogg says both inaccurately and intellectually offensively that this is a row about cake- this is a row about whether govts are subject to the laws they set, which is a far more profound question than about bday cake."

Kali2 Wed 26-Jan-22 09:50:32

Well, sometimes you just have to see the 'funny' side ...

fb.watch/aMQDgoOgmY/

Whitewavemark2 Wed 26-Jan-22 09:58:47

Dear oh dear

“Apparently Rishi Sunak was “unintentionally present” at the PM’s birthday bash. That’s his excuse, unintentionally present. Wonderful. The future looks good for Uk.”

ayse Wed 26-Jan-22 10:14:43

Whitewavemark2

Dear oh dear

“Apparently Rishi Sunak was “unintentionally present” at the PM’s birthday bash. That’s his excuse, unintentionally present. Wonderful. The future looks good for Uk.”

Agree. How can you be unintentionally anywhere unless you’ve lost your way. In which case you shouldn’t be Chancellor of the Exchequer let alone PM!

This government is a deluge of s* from the top down! Apologies for loosing it ?

Zink1 Wed 26-Jan-22 10:46:39

I worked abroad with someone who went to Eaton. A reasonably nice guy but, he said it's sort of drilled into them that they are born to rule.

They are reminded constantly of all
the prime ministers and others who achieved high political office who went to Eaton as their role model.


They honestly and sincerely believe they have a god given right to rule.

Callistemon21 Wed 26-Jan-22 11:16:38

Whitewavemark2

Dear oh dear

“Apparently Rishi Sunak was “unintentionally present” at the PM’s birthday bash. That’s his excuse, unintentionally present. Wonderful. The future looks good for Uk.”

Perhaps he was busy working alone in that room then got invaded by a horde of partygoers, Marks and Spencers party food, booze and cake and couldn't escape.

It happens to us all, surely!

Whitewavemark2 Wed 26-Jan-22 11:27:34

Apparently most people broke the rules, according to a Tory mp.

News to me.

GillT57 Wed 26-Jan-22 11:44:59

It is now a long running comedy as one after the other of the hapless apologists for Johnson get wheeled out to tell us, the great British electorate that 'He bumped into a cake', 'surely people working hard are entitled to have a slice of cake' 'everyone that I spoke to is delighted with how this country was being run by Johnson' . The last one was the hysterically funny appearance of Peter Bone, one of the barking made back benchers who will defend any Tory at any cost, in this case to his own dignity and self respect. Has anyone else noticed the new Liz Truss? Deep, 'sincere' voice, modelling herself on Madam Thatcher. Pitiful. grin

spabbygirl Wed 26-Jan-22 11:54:21

Johnson is no more than a slick salesman prepared to bend the truth to get what he wants, he lied in the election campaign & should be held to account for that, £325m for NHS, oven ready deal, plans for care,
none of that was true. Really he should be in the dock for that, but our weird rules means its breaking rules he is held to account for. I think they'll hang onto him though, cos they see him as a vote winner when they have no other. I want rid of the tories asap and a compassionate government, with experience of poverty, back in power.

Dinahmo Wed 26-Jan-22 11:59:57

Talk on J Vine today about the size of the debt and how can we leave it to our children to pay off?

When will people understand that there has been debt ever since the end of the 17thC and beginning of the 18thC when merchants made loans to the king in order to finance wars with France. Those were repaid and more loans made to finance the Napoleonic wars. Repaid and more loans for WW1 -repaid.

At the end of WW11 Britain owed £21 billion which was finally repaid on 31 December 2006. Did we notice that huge sums were being repaid during what for most of us were years of better health care, better education and more home ownership etc etc.

Nannashirlz Wed 26-Jan-22 12:05:57

Boris has done what he said he would do. Ok the press have it in for him and are quite happy to listen to Cummins he’s just got to stop the daily boats coming with all them fighting age men

Whitewavemark2 Wed 26-Jan-22 12:56:31

Oh another lie

Remember the Pen Farthing flight and apparent priority given to animal evacuation.

Johnson at the time denied in parliament anything to do with it.

E mail just appeared that stated that “Johnson has given authority for the evacuation”

GillT57 Wed 26-Jan-22 16:04:26

he’s just got to stop the daily boats coming with all them fighting age men. Ok, so now we know why you voted for Brexit, you don't care if you have foisted a liar, a charlatan, a man who is destroying Britain's reputation on the international stage, onto the rest of us, just as long as you can stop a few desperate people from making a new life in a safe country. Blimey

MaizieD Wed 26-Jan-22 16:35:02

Dinahmo

Talk on J Vine today about the size of the debt and how can we leave it to our children to pay off?

When will people understand that there has been debt ever since the end of the 17thC and beginning of the 18thC when merchants made loans to the king in order to finance wars with France. Those were repaid and more loans made to finance the Napoleonic wars. Repaid and more loans for WW1 -repaid.

At the end of WW11 Britain owed £21 billion which was finally repaid on 31 December 2006. Did we notice that huge sums were being repaid during what for most of us were years of better health care, better education and more home ownership etc etc.

More than that, Dinahmo. Most of it is a purely nominal debt, in that it was new money created by the Bank of England through quantitative easing and will never be paid off, because the BoE belongs to the government and the government really cannot owe itself money. We will not be leaving anything for our children to pay off. This is just idiocy.

The rest of the 'debt' is savings/investments. A great many pension funds among them. Why would the government want to pay them off? Would the savers/investors really want the government to pay them back? Savings and investments are secure when government backed because the government cannot run out of money, unlike any other investments. That's why people like it. Boring, not particularly brilliant returns, but saafe

Interestingly, in WWI the government had great difficulty in selling bonds to help finance the war. So the BoE put lots of money into the bank accounts of two of its employees, who then used it to 'purchase' the bonds...

bankunderground.co.uk/2017/08/08/your-country-needs-funds-the-extraordinary-story-of-britains-early-efforts-to-finance-the-first-world-war/

The WWII 'debt' was different because it actually was a debt to be repaid, not an investment by the US. No. we didn't notice that it was being repaid because governments kept increasing the supply of money to keep the domestic economy going. We weren't taxed heavily to repay it...

GillT57 Wed 26-Jan-22 17:41:28

It's interesting isn't it, that immediate post WW2, this country found the money to fund a brand new NHS, rebuild industry and houses, yet now we can't afford to help people struggling to eat properly and/or heat their homes.

Grantanow Wed 02-Feb-22 12:36:10

MaizieD is quite right: 95% of government is Civil Service delivered - paying benefits, collecting tax, issuing passports, etc., or run by bodies funded by government like the NHS. That goes on whoever is in power just as it did in Belgium. But the 5% is policy activity and that is where the problems lie. BJ is responsible for the culture in No. 10 and he should go.

Boz Wed 02-Feb-22 12:42:36

Zink1

I worked abroad with someone who went to Eaton. A reasonably nice guy but, he said it's sort of drilled into them that they are born to rule.

They are reminded constantly of all
the prime ministers and others who achieved high political office who went to Eaton as their role model.

They honestly and sincerely believe they have a god given right to rule.

The writer John Le Carre taught at Eton and became disillusioned with the prevailing ethos of the most important factor in life was to win. Not academic excellence, just the taught doggedness of how to reach the top.