The Boris Johnson thread.

[vandermolen]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/10/smart-suit-brushed-hair-it-was-just-the-speech-that-was-a-total-mess

V good article.

[Mandryka]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/10/smart-suit-brushed-hair-it-was-just-the-speech-that-was-a-total-mess

It's just far too depressing. The only sensible thing to do if you're British is to forget about it and listen to a Mozart piano concerto.

[SimonNZ]

John Crace has written some wonderfully brutal stuff on BoNo.

[Herman]

John Crace has written some wonderfully brutal stuff on BoNo.

You mean the pink-glasses singer? That should be easy.

[SimonNZ]

Lol. The incomprehensible mysteries of autocorrect.

[Herman]

Oh, I see. BoJo, who does not wear pink glasses.

Girlfriend should give him some.

[Mandryka]

Here's the roadmap

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6887280/FINAL-6-6637-CO-HMG-C19-Recovery-FINAL-110520-v1.pdf

[Pohjolas Daughter]

My daughter forwarded this to me:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N8DuyMihnjE

Very amusing!

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Lol. The incomprehensible mysteries of autocorrect.

I kept trying to type "Martinu" yesterday; it kept turning into "Martini"!  "Not a bad idea" I thought at one point.   

[SimonNZ]

I kept trying to type "Martinu" yesterday; it kept turning into "Martini"!  "Not a bad idea" I thought at one point.   

My landlord sent me a text a while back saying they needed to check my garage for something. I sent a text back saying "Okay, but I should warn you its a bit junky in there." and only just in time stopped it from going out as changed to "Okay, but I should warn you its a bit kinky in there." Seriously.

[Herman]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/11/boris-johnson-advice-coronavirus-spread-work

An Oxford epidemologist doesn't think BoJo's plan is going to work.

[Mandryka]

The Independent SAGE Report:-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MD4-8z-yy-lO5ZsfmXAxTUo79iFk1zfy/view

[Pohjolas Daughter]

My landlord sent me a text a while back saying they needed to check my garage for something. I sent a text back saying "Okay, but I should warn you its a bit junky in there." and only just in time stopped it from going out as changed to "Okay, but I should warn you its a bit kinky in there." Seriously.

Thank you, I needed a good laugh!   

[Mandryka]

Peter Bone (MP, Conservative, right wing of the party) lambastes BJ

https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1260257779304017923

[Mandryka]

[Papy Oli]

What time does the watershed finishes again ? 

[Mandryka]

Boris Johnson has announced his new top adviser

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-52779831/kitten-born-with-two-faces-in-oregon

[MusicTurner]

Boris Johnson has announced his new top adviser

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-52779831/kitten-born-with-two-faces-in-oregon

This one at least won't have any sort of embarrassing kompromat on government members ...

[SimonNZ]

Boris Johnson backs Dominic Cummings in face of Tory calls for chief aide to resign
Prime minister says key adviser acted 'responsibly, legally and with integrity'

"Boris Johnson has pledged his complete support for Dominic Cummings over a trip to a distant family home during the peak of the lockdown, using a Downing Street press conference to insist his chief adviser "acted responsibly, legally and with integrity".

Facing intense pressure to explain why Cummings appeared to have flouted lockdown rules by driving more than 260 miles to his parents' estate in Durham with his wife and young son after his wife became ill, the prime minister said Cummings had simply been trying to keep his family safe.

"I have had extensive face-to-face conversations with Dominic Cummings and I have concluded that in travelling to find the right kind of childcare, at the moment when both he and his wife were about to be incapacitated by coronavirus – and when he had no alternative – I think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent," Johnson said. "And I do not mark him down for that."

Calling some of the allegations against Cummings "palpably false" – but not saying which – Johnson continued: "I believe that in every respect he has acted responsibly, legally and with integrity, and with the overriding aim to stopping the spread of the virus and saving lives."[...]


One law for Dominic Cummings, another for the rest of us
Readers respond to the Guardian exclusive revealing that Boris Johnson's key adviser had breached lockdown rules after he was seen in Durham, 264 miles from his London home, despite having had symptoms of coronavirus

"My daughter and son-in-law are both doctors. They contracted coronavirus in March and both were ill for several weeks, their symptoms bad enough to have to spend some days in bed. They have two young children who were quarantined with them. All the grandparents are over 70, and live some distance away. At no time did any of us consider it appropriate, acceptable or indeed wise for them to drive to us in order to get help with childcare, or for any of the grandparents to visit them. They managed as best they could. I wonder what made it so different for Dominic Cummings and his family (Pressure on Dominic Cummings to quit over lockdown breach, 22 May)?
Janet Galley
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

• Dominic Cummings was infectious when he travelled. He put many lives at risk on his journey. What did he touch when he refuelled? Who was within two metres when he paid? Who was near him when he was buying food and drink for the journey? Who else used the toilets the family used? What about the human rights of the people he was near as he was out and about?

Is this why tracking and tracing was stopped – because it would have interfered with the liberty to be above the law that he wanted for himself?

Others have stayed home and avoided going by vehicle in case a breakdown or an accident put people at risk and put a further strain on resources. As a teacher I ask what lessons are our young people learning about Conservative party values, and how to live your life, from the behaviour of our government?
Name and address supplied

• If Dominic Cummings' stay in Durham was as innocent as he claims, why did the briefing from the Downing Street spokesperson make no mention of his location? If the Cummings family were so sure they had broken no rules, why did Mary Wakefield not mention, in her Spectator piece, that they were not isolating at home, but 264 miles away?

It is not surprising that, on her return, Wakefield found London's lockdown full of "comical uncertainty". The uncertainty was in the minds of herself and her husband, who clearly had a very vague idea of what the words "Stay at home" could possibly mean.
Sally Burch
London

• Michael Gove tweeted that caring for your wife and child is not a crime. Are we to conclude that all those who have followed government advice and stayed home and self-isolated while loved ones have been ill, and in some cases died, are simply too stupid to have understood the advice properly?
Bill Stothart
Chester

• Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson's actions in the early stages of the pandemic, and the virus spreading through the team of key decision-makers, tells us that they were not taking the situation seriously. The support of their activities by other government members at the weekend tells us that they still aren't.
Dr Michael Peel
London

• If Dominic Cummings needed to travel to Durham for essential support from his family then maybe there is some excuse. But why did he go back to London? It was the return journey that was inexcusable.
Dr Teresa Lehane
Malvern, Worcestershire

• Why such a deafening silence about Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds going to Chequers after the prime minister left hospital? They were both still suffering from coronavirus, during lockdown, and their home is No 11 Downing Street.
Pamela Skinner
Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire

• Just three words: arrogance, entitlement, hypocrisy.
Lynda Andrews
March, Cambridgeshire

• Boris's poll-tax moment has arrived already.
Chris Burrell
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire

[Mandryka]

All the world's a plague
And all the men and women merely payers

https://www.youtube.com/v/s1HMckETWWY&ebc=ANyPxKpvLcY_wE2PW6Bs1GSVsZJF5wSqsd7usijnY-_ptOD3M-tucXBS5gfTabvw4_E2OCLj03LObpwWZmGS08AnB7ZxMWlAHQ