# Prime Minister Boris Johnson tries to lead the UK but has resigned on July 7, 2022 **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 30, 2019, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872 "2019-07-30T14:24:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 55
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1082 "2022-01-23T13:23:00Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I wasn’t loyal to the party as I didn’t do enough to defend the party against Islamophobia allegations.’ Any guesses why? 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1083 "2022-01-24T11:10:51Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > The British people deserve so, _so_ much better than this. No, the “British people” don’t. The “British people” had multiple opportunities to have better, and rejected them in favour of diving headfirst into this nuclear dumpster fire. This is all their fault. Meanwhile, this guy’s #The WeekInTory thread really deserves a read: > I’m not posting all 17 tweets here - you’ll have to follow the thread - but the phrase “a supernaturally incompetent lurching tower of wrong wearing the teeth of a starved horse” features. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1084 "2022-01-24T11:52:01Z")
Sue Gray is speaking to Dominic Cummings today, who no doubt still has a lot of dirt to dish. She also spoke to the police officers on duty at Downing Street, who were apparently ‘only too willing’ to tell her about all the goings-on they saw. Johnson can’t survive much longer, but don’t think he’ll go willingly. They’ll have to drag him out of No. 10 kicking and screaming. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1085 "2022-01-24T12:01:26Z")
I’d feel more optimism about this if it weren’t for the fact that there’s no one on the front bench who isn’t either utterly corrupt, completely incompetent, or some combination of the two. Or for that matter anyone on the Tory backbenches. There is nothing to suggest that a change of leader right now will improve anything at all. Rory Stewart was probably the last Tory standing with even a tiny shred of decency to him, and he’s gone. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1086 "2022-01-24T12:18:57Z")
This is the boot waiting drop, IMO. I get why the opposition don’t want to generalise this to the Tories yet - Boris is under a lot of internal fire, which will quiet down as soon as it becomes apparent that the whole party has to defend itself. But at some point, either after he goes or after he wins an internal VONC, surely, surely, the line has to change to: Boris is the just symptom of a terminally sick party, one which is unfit to rule. ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1087 "2022-01-24T18:13:02Z")
I bet those coppers in Number 10 will be very forthcoming about the misdeeds of the politicians. I would not be surprised it many of them have a long standing axe to grind with their political masters. Remember the Plebgate scandal? > **[Plebgate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plebgate)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > "Plebgate" (also known as "Plodgate" and "Gategate") was a British political scandal which started in September 2012. The trigger was an altercation between Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell and police officers on duty outside Downing Street. Leaked police logs, later apparently backed up by eyewitness evidence, suggested that Mitchell had sworn at police officers and called them "plebs" (a pejorative word signifying someone of low social class) w... ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1088 "2022-01-24T18:15:19Z")
I agree about Rory Stewart. One of the few Tories that command respect. Sadly he is out of the game. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1089 "2022-01-24T19:24:04Z")
Maybe the Tories can make it up to Nusrat Ghani by making her Prime Minister. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1090 "2022-01-24T19:27:29Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Maybe the Tories can make it up to Nusrat Ghani by making her Prime Minister. Isn’t becoming Prime Minister usually a career-ending move? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1091 "2022-01-24T19:41:17Z")
Top o’ the world, Ma! ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1092 "2022-01-24T23:53:12Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > No, the “British people” don’t. The “British people” had multiple opportunities to have better, and rejected them in favour of diving headfirst into this nuclear dumpster fire. This is all their fault. I didn’t vote for him. 🙁 ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1093 "2022-01-25T06:33:33Z")
It’s been a long time since any government could claim to have the support of more than about a third of the total electorate, let alone more than 50% of those who bothered to vote. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1094 "2022-01-25T07:08:40Z")
The Spectator (of which Johnson was once editor) sums the situation up well, strangely enough: > **[Downflood: the Good Ship Boris is sinking](https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/downflood-the-good-ship-boris-is-sinking/)** > > In Sebastian Junger’s book The Perfect Storm, there’s a near-matchless description of how big boats go to the bottom. ‘The crisis curve starts out gradually and quickly becomes exponential,’ Junger writes of a boat wallowing and taking on water... > In Sebastian Junger’s book _The Perfect Storm_ , there’s a near-matchless description of how big boats go to the bottom. ‘The crisis curve starts out gradually and quickly becomes exponential,’ Junger writes of a boat wallowing and taking on water in a big sea: > > > “The more trouble she’s in, the more trouble she’s likely to get in, and the less capable she is of getting out of it, which is an acceleration of catastrophe that is almost impossible to reverse… If there’s enough damage, flooding may overwhelm the pumps and short out the engine or gag its air intakes. With the engine gone, the boat has no steerageway at all and turns broadside to the seas. Broadsides exposes her to the full force of the breaking waves, and eventually a part of her deck or wheelhouse lets go. After that, downflooding starts to occur. Downflooding is the catastrophic influx of ocean water into the hold. It’s a sort of death rattle at sea, the nearly vertical last leg of an exponential curve. > > This seems to me to be the stage at which Boris Johnson’s premiership has arrived. > … > > Each news cycle sees the good ship Boris battered broadside by yet more waves. Sue Gray’s inquiry, though it may well be the pretext or occasion for the boat finally going to the bottom, now seems to me almost irrelevant to the question of whether it will: if he looks like he’s going down, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. She may well uncover things we don’t already know, but it’s hard to imagine her report is going to change the complexion of the things. > … > > The blood is in the water, the sky is dark with chickens coming home to roost, and — sploosh! — that sound you hear is downflooding. ---
**Author:** ![cytop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@cytop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cytop)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1095 "2022-01-25T07:47:39Z")
Oh look - another ‘party’ … > **[Birthday celebration for PM sparks new party row](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60121572)** > > Frustration from MPs grows amid revelations of another gathering held at No 10 during lockdown in 2020. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1096 "2022-01-25T09:44:48Z")
It’s fine - we have been assured that it was just work cake. ---
**Author:** ![cytop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@cytop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cytop)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1097 "2022-01-25T10:57:03Z")
Ah, that’s OK then. Carry on as normal. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1098 "2022-01-25T13:45:03Z")
The Met are now investigating. > **[Police to investigate Downing Street lockdown parties](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60123850)** > > It comes as MPs await the findings of an internal inquiry, which could be published as soon as Wednesday. The report by civil servant Sue Gray was expected (by the Tories at least) to put an end to this by giving them a two-phase excuse: 1) We’re waiting the report and 2) We’ve had the report so the matter is closed. But with leaks coming so thick and fast, even a loyalist civil servant hell-bent on covering up for the PM would have no choice but to make some damning findings, or there’d be no credibility to the report at all. In fact, these findings now stretch to likely criminal activity, so Gray has no choice but to refer to the police, who in turn are now getting so embarrassed by their continued failure to investigate these allegations that they now have no choice but to take action. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1099 "2022-01-25T13:53:37Z")
They’ve concluded that Johnson is toast, so there’s no reason to cover up for him anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1100 "2022-01-25T14:31:32Z")
The Met investigation allows them to put the Sue Gray investigation indefinitely on hold. And given that the Met, led by Police Commissioner Dick, have been blatantly covering for the Johnson administration, it’s entirely possible that the Met “investigation” will - now that it knows the evidence Gray has found - be used to undermine or muddy that evidence. My prediction is that Johnson will still be ousted, but he’ll escape any punishment for repeatedly breaking the law. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872/1101 "2022-01-25T14:40:47Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > It’s fine - we have been assured that it was just work cake. And he already told us he believes in having his cake and eating it. Humble pie, on the other hand… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872.md?page=54) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prime-minister-boris-johnson-tries-to-lead-the-uk-but-has-resigned-on-july-7-2022/837872.md?page=56)