Johnson will try this, but whether the public will fall for it remains to be seen. Not everybody buys uncritically into Johnson’s fetish of 31 October as the date by which Brexit had to be acheived at all costs, and a presumably still larger group will not buy the notion that responsiblity for not meeting that deadline lies entirely with Parliament, and not at all with Johnson.
Johnson has, of course, never fought a general election as party leader, and so is something of an unknown quantity in that regard. He’s popular because he’s regarded as witty and entertaining, but I don’t think he is regarded as trustworthy, reliable or even honest. He may therefore have more difficulty persuading the electorate to buy his view of recent events than a different Tory leader would have.
I only wish I shared your optimism. We are now in the grip a populist politician with the backing of a hard right press. At this point, I can’t see anything other than a Tory majority. Makes me want to weep.
If Labour elected a moderate, charismatic leader and proposed even vaguely sensible policies, they would get the backing of the press. It happened before, and we had by far the best PM of my lifetime, not that there’s been that much competition.
But they won’t, as sadly moderates don’t seem inclined to get involved at the grassroots level.
I don’t get this, pretty much no politician in my lifetime has been ridiculed by the press as much as Boris. How do you think his reputation as a clown has been perpetrated?
And “populist” seems to be now used as a substitute for “politician who is popular that I don’t like”. By the definition of populism that I’m familiar with, Corbyn is the biggest populist out there, as was Macron, As is Sturgeon and Salmond before her.
You’re not reading the right papers. Daily Express, Torygraph, Mail, Times, Sun all bloody love him right now.
It’s not how I’d define populism - it’s about a politician who’ll say anything to get the people on side, even if it’s total bollocks. Say what you like about Corbyn, you could never call him popular outside of his inner Labour-left clique. The polls are pretty clear on that score.
I agree 100%. The only straws I feel we might clutch at with this general election is that Labour will suffer a major defeat and need to go through a significant overhaul. Including dumping Corbyn.
Corbyn’s problem is that he is fantastically popular with around 30% of the voting public and not at all with the other 70%.
Add in a small but [nontrivial] amount of Labour Brixiteers going to The Brexit Party and this gets you to the high 20’s that we see for Labour in the polls.
Farage’s offer to cooperate with the Tories was designed to be a win-win arrangement. If the Tories agreed not to contest strong Leave voting seats in traditional Labour areas, then it would improve the Brexit Party’s chances of getting those seats. All they would have to give up would be to not run in traditional Tory strongholds – seats they’re probably not going to win anyway. But since his offer was turned down, now Farage can state that leaving the EU is his first priority, and if the Tories were serious about leaving, they would have shown it by working with the Brexit Party. Basically it’s an indirect appeal to hard-Leave voters who may be leaning towards Johnson. I don’t think it will gain the Brexit Party any seats, but it will probably get them a few extra votes. Not to mention it got Farage’s face on the TV, which was his other motive.
LibDems, Greens, and the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists are anti-Brexit. The Northern Ireland DUP are pro-Brexit, although Northern Ireland as a whole voted to remain (the other Northern Ireland parties aren’t in parliament). Of the two main parties, Conservatives are mostly either pro-Brexit or, if at heart remainers, feel they have to go along with the referendum result. Labour is mostly pro-remain but is trying to offer a compromise position, because so many of their heartland constituencies voted to leave.
Most Labour MPs may be pro-Remain, but their campaign promise seems to be they will negotiate a new deal then ask the public to approve it, with the intention of leaving.
I say “seems to be” because, as always with Corbyn, it’s vague and subject to change on a daily basis.
No, the Lib Dems are by far the strongest Remain party in England. Labour (not a Liberal party) are effectively trying to be both at once, as they fear a lot of their long-term voters will vote Brexit party, and because there’s a significant split between factions.
80% of seats, yes, but more like 60% of the vote. Labour, especially, will struggle if they lose votes to another party as they are already polling well below the Tories. And that’s ignoring Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the local parties could well get enough seats to hold the balance of power, and could potentially be majority remain.
The problem is that Leave/Remain isn’t neatly split across party lines, and yet is the biggest issue at this election, despite the claims of some parties.