The Boris Johnson thread.

[Mandryka]

[vandermolen]

The Cabinet ministers keep telling us that 'it's time to move on' but actually it's time for Johnson to move on.

[vandermolen]

The invisible man (Hunt) out of the blue is seen as a small but possible threat by those wielding the levers of power behind Johnson. Just to make sure, a ruthless hatchet job on him in today's edition of the Johnson supporting Daily Mail.

I agree with the similarity between Starmer and Hunt. I won't forget. If Johnson is still PM at the next election, of which I have doubts, I probably will vote for him but holding my nose as I do so.

I would not vote Conservative anyway but Hunt would be my choice as leader. Even better would have been Rory Stewart.

[Que]

The Cabinet ministers keep telling us that 'it's time to move on' but actually it's time for Johnson to move on.

It seems to me that apart from "getting Brexit done", in which he didn't succeed, he had not much of a political agenda/vision.

[Irons]

I would not vote Conservative anyway but Hunt would be my choice as leader. Even better would have been Rory Stewart.

Not listened to it but he does a podcast with Alistair Campbell.

[71 dB]

I would not vote Conservative anyway but Hunt would be my choice as leader. Even better would have been Rory Stewart.

I'm afraid all "good" options are of the table. 

[Mandryka]

It seems to me that apart from "getting Brexit done", in which he didn't succeed, he had not much of a political agenda/vision.

The vision was levelling up. Actions speak louder than words, but if he can visibly  start the levelling up process in the next two years, and he does it while maintaining the wealth of traditional conservative voters, my bet is that he'll be elected again in 2024. 

This may be tantamount to squaring the circle of course . . .

[Karl Henning]

It seems to me that apart from "getting Brexit done", in which he didn't succeed, he had not much of a political agenda/vision.

Like A Certain American, his only political agenda seems to be: remaining in power.

[Que]

The vision was levelling up. Actions speak louder than words, but if he can visibly  start the levelling up process in the next two years, and he does it while maintaining the wealth of traditional conservative voters, my bet is that he'll be elected again in 2024. 

This may be tantamount to squaring the circle of course . . .

Indeed. "Levelling up" while tiptoing around the accumulated wealth and comfortable pensions of the well off baby boomers, is going to be a very hard trick to pull off in a global crisis. Add to that Brexit as an extra economic "handicap".

[Mandryka]

Indeed. "Levelling up" while tiptoing around the accumulated wealth and comfortable pensions of the well off baby boomers, is going to be a very hard trick to pull off in a global crisis. Add to that Brexit as an extra economic "handicap".

I can see how it can happen. (I thought about it after the I made the post you quoted.)

Look -- all he needs to do is get some cement mixers working up North so that he can point and say "look, we've already started to build X new hospitals in Newcastle and Y new affordable key worker housing complexes in Blackburn and a nuclear reactor in Bradford and a new fast road link from somewhere to somewhere else. In 10 or 15 years you downtrodden poor folks will  be levelled up, you'll be as well off as those fat cat cockneys."

And he can afford to do that with private capital investment. He will offer public/private partnerships to make it happen, without overtaxing the already comfortable southerners. He'll increase privatisation in health, transport, accommodation etc. It's essentially a Blairite solution, a New Labour solution  -- so he will, at the same time, pull the rug from underneath the feet of Starmer's Labour Party.

[vandermolen]

Not listened to it but he does a podcast with Alistair Campbell.

Thanks Lol - I'll try to listen in.

[vandermolen]

Like A Certain American, his only political agenda seems to be: remaining in power.

I agree Karl.

[Herman]

Like A Certain American, his only political agenda seems to be: remaining in power.

Well, that goes for nearly every one of them, doesn't it?

Out here in the Neths the PM is hellbent on breaking the incumbency record, for instance, even though it's hard to think of anyone less inspired.

[Irons]

It seems to me that apart from "getting Brexit done", in which he didn't succeed, he had not much of a political agenda/vision.

Which is his Achilles heel. If we are to believe announcements reported in today's press with right to buy housing, lowering of taxes and cutting import duty on food - I did smile at his line "how many olive trees do we have in the UK?" Boris is morphing from Blair to Thatcher. Although he is  making a lousy job of it he craves to be liked and approved of. I do not think Blair was too fussed and Thatcher definitely did not care if they were liked but they had a vision which they stuck to, whatever. Johnson loves power but he is without vision. Brexit was a vehicle to gain power and oddly it may be what keeps him in power.
   

[Herman]

I do not think Blair was too fussed and Thatcher definitely did not care if they were liked but they had a vision which they stuck to, whatever.
   

Politicians need to be elected and reelected.
So they need to be liked in some way.

[71 dB]

Politicians need to be elected and reelected.
So they need to be liked in some way.

Politicians who have demonstrated that they are not in politics to serve their constituents should get voted out in a functioning democracy.

[Karl Henning]

Politicians who have demonstrated that they are not in politics to serve their constituents should get voted out in a functioning democracy.

Isn't that up to the electorate?

[Irons]

Politicians need to be elected and reelected.
So they need to be liked in some way.

It is a fact that in the UK the two most disliked PM's since the war, Thatcher and Blair, were the most successful. I would go as far to say that Thatcher is the most disliked to this day and she has been dead for nine years!

[Roasted Swan]

Today - this is true - BoJo had an operation under anaesthetic to solve a "sinus problem" although Downing Street declined to elaborate on that.

A commentator quickly wondered whether it was to shorten his nose which had grown uncontrollably in recent times.......

[vandermolen]

Today - this is true - BoJo had an operation under anaesthetic to solve a "sinus problem" although Downing Street declined to elaborate on that.

A commentator quickly wondered whether it was to shorten his nose which had grown uncontrollably in recent times.......

Difficult to know as he's hiding away out of the country. Next it will be President Zelensky at the Tory Party Conference.