Why this? Why now?

M0nica

*chewbacca*, you are being far to kind to him. Boris is, and has always been, out for one person only and that is Boris and he will tread anyone into the ground who gets in his way. We ahve seen how over the years he has lied and cheated, employers, partners and wives, if they get in the way of his progress.

He also has this obsession with Churchill. Looking at him yesterday, you could see him channelling Churchill in his gestures, and stance. The refusal to resign is a classic repeat of Churchill at the darkest time of the war. This was his finest hour.

I do not think Boris gives a tinkers cuss for all those who oppose him and whether they are right or wrong. His only focus in life is himself and making sure he always comes out on top.

I do not think Boris gives a tinkers cuss for all those who oppose him and whether they are right or wrong. His only focus in life is himself and making sure he always comes out on top.

I think you're right. Additionally though, I don't believe he gives the proverbial tinker's cuss about those who support him either. They are relevant to him only in so far as they are useful to him achieving his Churchillian ambitions.

Does the man care one iota about the lives of his working-class Red-Wall support base? In 1995, when he was a journalist for the Daily Telegraph, he wrote about the "appalling proliferation of single mothers" and this was his view of men in general (quote from 'Full-Fact')

“And that brings me to the last and greatest group of male culprits. Most of these single mothers have had the common sense to detect that the modern British male is useless.
“If he is blue collar, he is likely to be drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless, and perhaps claiming to suffer from low self-esteem brought on by unemployment.
“If he is white collar, he is likely to be little better.”

These "drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless" Red Wall individuals are his support base!

I utterly despair - at one man's total lack of integrity and self-awareness, and a whole group of voters who are being used as the legendry "useful idiots" but believe he's 'on their side' and fighting for them.

Also dont forget what happen to the prisoners when he was foreign secretary, that poor lady, thankfully free now, who spent so many years away from her husband and daughter. All because Boris 'put his foot in it" He never accepted responsibility for that. It's as though his brain is not wired correctly and he just doesn't see what everyone else does!!!

There's much more to come out and they know it. BJ met with Lebedev (KGB spy) without anyone present when he was Foreign Secretary. He's a total liability.

chewbacca, you are being far to kind to him. Boris is, and has always been, out for one person only and that is Boris and he will tread anyone into the ground who gets in his way. We ahve seen how over the years he has lied and cheated, employers, partners and wives, if they get in the way of his progress.

He also has this obsession with Churchill. Looking at him yesterday, you could see him channelling Churchill in his gestures, and stance. The refusal to resign is a classic repeat of Churchill at the darkest time of the war. This was his finest hour.

I do not think Boris gives a tinkers cuss for all those who oppose him and whether they are right or wrong. His only focus in life is himself and making sure he always comes out on top.

I truly think Johnson's narcissism is so ingrained that he genuinely believes his critics are at fault - all of them - for questioning his authority, his leadership and his integrity, and is completely incapable of the self-reflection that such an astounding revolt would have on any normal person.

This 100%.

Our constitution is clearly not fit for purpose. We can now only wait to see if Johnson will plunge us into a crisis we should be able to avoid. Here’s why.

A PM is appointed by the monarch, and the only route for removing a PM is that they either resign or they are sacked. A new PM is only ever appointed on the advice of the outgoing PM, who will tell the monarch who they believe has the confidence of the commons.

If Johnson refuses to resign, even in the face of losing a Commons vote of confidence, only the Queen can sack him. If she doesn’t, on the grounds that she only acts on the advice of the PM, then the only means of removing him would be an arcane impeachment procedure or legislation to legally declare him removed, or a motion to compel the Queen to act. In the meantime Johnson could tell the Queen to dissolve parliament and trigger an election. There could be a lengthy delay between the dissolution and election day, giving him more time in power.

Just one of many reasons we need an accountable and effective head of state, and not a puppet monarch whose strings are held by the PM.

A lie too far. And straw, camel, back as Chewbacca said. And cabinet ministers who have concluded that they will be unable to claim any credibility at all if they don't get out! Whether they have left it too late for themselves, we will have to wait and see

Why now?

I think @Chewbacca hit the nail on the head ("Straw. Camel. Back. ???")

It's one more sleaze-scandal too many. He's now become a bit of a loose canon so to speak. Many are possibly wondering what the hell else is going to come to light.

Will he resign? I believe he intends to carry on "delivering" to his "huge" majority (or words to that effect).

It's somewhat odd - this "delivering" mantra. Most of the ardent Brexiters I've come across show signs of mental fatigue and exasperation when the subject of Brexit is raised - they can't understand why we 'Remoaners' can't grasp the fact that we're out, it's done - we've left, time to "move on" etc, etc, so why do we keep keeping-on about it.

In other words - Johnson has actually "delivered", he got Brexit "done". I remember @Urms saying she voted for the party because he promised to get us out, and he did... and she's happy with that. I suspect there are many others who feel the same way - those that lent him their vote for that purpose.

So what exactly, is Johnson planning on "delivering"? The last thing I understood was a trade-war with the EU who had the gall and nerve to insist that we adhered to the Deal that he signed.

I truly think Johnson's narcissism is so ingrained that he genuinely believes his critics are at fault - all of them - for questioning his authority, his leadership and his integrity, and is completely incapable of the self-reflection that such an astounding revolt would have on any normal person.

Too many MPs were conned into making public statements that they later found were lies.

And, of course, Chewbacca's response.

They are all terrified there will be a General election and they will all be out.

It’s the final straw, he lies all the time and doesn’t know he’s doing it, his whole leadership is based on lies, his lies achieve the Brexit result.

I’m just amazed that so many of his colleagues have supported him for so long when I could see through them in 2016, his aims simply were never achievable then and so it has been proved.

Straw. Camel. Back. ???