What the country thinks about Johnson

I’d call that political propaganda and I’m surprised gransnet tolerate it.
Taken from a focus group, of what type of people??
Entirely unreliable and extremely lazy; there wasn’t even a question posed. ?

Urmstongran

^Operation Save Lardyass^

Fat shaming WWmk2? I expected better from you.
Imagine the howls if I’d called Ian Blackford or Dawn Butler that.

Childish really.

Pot, kettle, black? I think so.

And what's the alternative? Starmer who, as you rightly say, has now distanced himself from Corbyn. He's also distanced himself from Remain, of which he was an ardent supporter. He's trying to court the 'red-wall' with 'making Brexit work', and the culturally-liberal left by tiptoeing around gender issues. Running with both the hare and the hounds. He's an intelligent man, but I believe he's made a huge intellectual mistake.

No wonder so many feel politically homeless.

Spot on Dickens.

Granny23

*People will still vote Tory because there’s absolutely no credible alternative*

There is if you live in Scotland or Wales

There is if you live in England, it’s just that the Tories can’t think wider than their election Talisman, it’s not just about being able to (as my Tory MP told me) being a good communicator (debatable) and winning elections, it’s also about competently running the country - I’m not a Tory voter, but any decent moderate Tories were sidelined by Johnson and the whole Brexit debarcle

He was a Remainer at heart and only moved to vote.leave because he judged that as a Brexiteer he stood a better chance of being PM than following his true beliefs.

I think he was equivocal about Remain. His comments on the matter as a journalist have been distorted to suit the Remain agenda, but it doesn't do us any favours to miss out the important parts of his observations which show that he wasn't wholly convinced either way. Not as a journalist anyway.

As for his "true beliefs"... well, other than his personal ambition and belief in himself, it would be interesting to know what they are, I think he's more of an 'opportunities' man than a 'true believer'... in anything!

Only a Brexiter was going to become PM - so Brexit it was! Personally, I think if it'd been the other way round, he would have become a Remainer!

Who would you prefer Merseymog?

Boris Johnson should never have been PM and he should be booted out as soon as possible. He was a Remainer at heart and only moved to vote.leave because he judged that as a Brexiteer he stood a better chance of being PM than following his true beliefs. He has trashed the country for the sake of personal ambition, the most unfit prime minister in history. None of his current cabinet are fit to lead either.

I think Buffoon without a comb.

MayBee70

We only have to see what happened to the LibDems when they stood on a platform of rejoining the EU.

... true.

But I don't think "B***ocks to Brexit" T shirts were necessarily the best campaigning tool...

Teenage stuff.

We only have to see what happened to the LibDems when they stood on a platform of rejoining the EU.

“My money is on Gove waiting in the wings. He is the only one who hasn't been standing up and defending Johnson.”

Not “oily” Gove, he is not an inspiring election winners, zero voter appeal.

We’ve still, hopefully, got a couple more years before another election. Hopefully in this time it will become more apparent that brexit has been a huge mistake based on false promises by someone who is now a proven liar. Time for Keir to modify his position regarding our relationship with the EU.

Urmstongran

In the article Mr. Nelson goes on to say “Those who back the Prime Minister point to his durability. Take the opinion polls: the Tories are still just seven percentage points behind Labour. David Cameron would have killed for such a close gap. John Major was 40 points behind at one stage. When everything is going wrong for him – a cost-of-living crisis and lockdown hypocrisy exposed – Johnson is still very much in the game, and exhibiting a kind of survival skill that is valuable in a political leader.”

His "durability" is not a merit point earned by him and his "survival" is not a skill, he's learned; these traits are a testament to our FPTP voting system where a PM can gain his position even though the majority of the electorate did not vote for his party, and a manipulative press owned largely by vested interests who made sure that no honest debate about Brexit, or Tory values, ever took place. And a smaller left-wing press that just wants to keep the red-flag flying.

Johnson does not acknowledge his mistakes and will therefore never learn by them.

He's hyper-sensitive to responses by those who attempt to hold him to account for his actions - believing they are the problem, and not him.

The seeds of his downfall are sown within those character flaws. He believes in his own puffery, and that he only has to pull something out of the hat to become invincible once again because he doesn't have the intellectual capacity for genuine self-reflection and will not therefore understand that there are only so many times you can overstep the mark.

He's a 'user' who doesn't realise that he's also being used, by a party that is the interface between extreme wealth and privilege, and the public. They will poke a stick up his back and wave him around to the electorate, just so long as he manages to capture and maintain the support they need. But his gaffes and mistakes are eroding public - and business - confidence and when the party feels he's run the course of his usefulness, they'll dump him. As they did with Thatcher.

Yes, the party is "exhausted by his antics" - MPs are getting more and more emails and messages also - from an 'exhausted' public. My own Conservative MP - a long-serving Tory - has made little bones about the fact that he wants him replaced by someone who upholds traditional Conservative values. But, like many others I suspect, is biding his time.

And what's the alternative? Starmer who, as you rightly say, has now distanced himself from Corbyn. He's also distanced himself from Remain, of which he was an ardent supporter. He's trying to court the 'red-wall' with 'making Brexit work', and the culturally-liberal left by tiptoeing around gender issues. Running with both the hare and the hounds. He's an intelligent man, but I believe he's made a huge intellectual mistake.

No wonder so many feel politically homeless.

Currently watching Johnson’s news conference. He’s totally floundering. But why has it taken so long for journalists to ask him hard hitting questions?

Thanks. I’ve been dog sitting at my daughters so not up to speed with some of the threads!

Yes, Maybee70. I posted something about this yesterday. Here's a link which gives the backgound to the demolition:

scroll.in/article/1022269/how-a-bulldozer-tore-down-the-supreme-court-orders-in-delhis-jahangirpuri

An hour after India’s Supreme Court ordered municipal authorities to stop demolitions in Delhi, a bulldozer came crashing down on the entrance gate of a mosque in Jahangirpuri.

Extremely poor taste on Johnson's part and yet again the law doesn't seem to matter.

Boris Johnson has been embroiled in controversy on the first morning of his long-awaited diplomatic visit to India after inaugurating a new JCB factory, one day after the company’s machines were used to illegally bulldoze Muslim homes and businesses in Delhi.

JCB is owned by Lord Bamford, who is close with the Prime Minister and backed his Conservative leadership bid in 2019. Through his business interests, he has also donated at least £10 million in cash and gifts to the Conservatives since 2001.

On Thursday, civil society activists and members of the Indian public accused the under-fire Mr Johnson of carrying out an ill-timed visit to the plant in Gujarat, the home state of Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister.

‘Sushant Singh, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, a Delhi-based think tank, said: “The people working in Boris Johnson’s office are clearly unaware of the major human rights controversy over the use of JCB machinery in the bulldozing of Muslim homes and businesses in states ruled by Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] and in India’s capital’
apologies…didn’t make a note of which newspaper this was in….yet again Johnson hasn’t done his homework

So he is admitting that this country depends on foreign workers? How many air miles will it involve bringing thousands of workers from India and who is going to pay for the flights? Is the Home Office up to providing visas for these people? How many jobs did Johnson say his new trade deals were going to provide and can anyone verify that the figure is true or correct? Or did he just make it up?

Casdon

Whitewavemark2

It looks as if the run up to the election will be all about Brexit after all. The lies and mad policy decisions that never come to anything will be announced in the hope it reminds people why they voted for such a buffoon.

That is all he has left.

Operation Save Lardyass

That’s not going to work though. Public opinion has swung against Brexit, the migrant problem people thought they were voting to solve is still an issue, and prices are rising exponentially.

I read that on the flight to India Johnson told the press that he is hoping to encourage thousands of Indian migrants to the U.K. to replace the thousands lost because if Brexit.

Apart from the total idiocy of such a policy (when we had a really good system called free movement which allowed U.K. workers to toddle over to Europe if they wanted to (I was one for a time) as well as filling jobs that few in the U.K. seemed to want by European workers,) this will go down like a lead balloon in the red wall seats.

Oh, right. ?

Urmstongran

^Operation Save Lardyass^

Fat shaming WWmk2? I expected better from you.
Imagine the howls if I’d called Ian Blackford or Dawn Butler that.

Childish really.

Maybe - but it gives me a good deal of satisfaction.

Operation Save Lardyass

Fat shaming WWmk2? I expected better from you.
Imagine the howls if I’d called Ian Blackford or Dawn Butler that.

Childish really.

Whitewavemark2

It looks as if the run up to the election will be all about Brexit after all. The lies and mad policy decisions that never come to anything will be announced in the hope it reminds people why they voted for such a buffoon.

That is all he has left.

Operation Save Lardyass

That’s not going to work though. Public opinion has swung against Brexit, the migrant problem people thought they were voting to solve is still an issue, and prices are rising exponentially.

It looks as if the run up to the election will be all about Brexit after all. The lies and mad policy decisions that never come to anything will be announced in the hope it reminds people why they voted for such a buffoon.

That is all he has left.

Operation Save Lardyass

That too WWM. He fooled them once and made them vote. Some must feel they will not be fooled twice.