The Savile thing aside, BoJo and supporters are also pushing a “Keir Starmer voted against Brexit 48 times and wanted a second referendum, while Boris Got Brexit Done” narrative at a time when the negative effects of Brexit are definitely biting and it has gone back to being a minority-supported position. And it’s not remotely “done”. Not really a compelling argument.
Also, both Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris’ bus buddy Nigel Farage were openly in favour of a second referendum back when they thought they might lose the first one.
Johnson has now made a U-turn on his Saville accusation:
Let’s be absolutely clear, I’m talking not about the leader of the opposition’s personal record when he was DPP and I totally understand that he had nothing to do personally with those decisions.
I was making a point about his responsibility for the organisation as a whole. And I think people can see that. And I really do want to clarify that because it is important.
It looks like the price of gaslighting is going up, as well as the price of gas.
Munira Mirza said he should have apologised for the misleading remarks.
In her resignation letter, published by The Spectator, she wrote: “You are a better man than many of your detractors will ever understand, which is why it is so desperately sad that you let yourself down by making a scurrilous accusation against the leader of the opposition.”
A Conservative Party insider described Ms Mirza as “Boris’ brain and longest-serving adviser”, adding: "For her to depart at such a difficult time and in such a publicly critical way is simply devastating for the PM.
“It sends a strong signal to the Tory Party that even those closest to the PM have now lost faith.”
A former Conservative adviser also told the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, there was no way for the PM to “spin” her departure.
I read an article predicting there will be no challenge to his leadership this year but he will not lead the Conservative Party for the 2024 election. The explanation concluded Johnson is politically finished in terms of regaining popularity. There is nothing he can do to change the public perception. However any challenger who has serious ambition will want to wait a while until the UK is in a position where Covid can be put behind them rather than come into office now and face another variant as well as the economic situation which in the near term is forecast to get worse.
So Johnson is going down with the ship, so to speak. How well does that work in British politics? It sounds to me like the Tories are giving up on holding Parliament.
I think their ideal scenario will play out that in 2023 a new conservative party PM takes over after toppling Johnson and he or she gets a honeymoon period of good personal approval polls which will help the party brand. And if things get better economically then they can make up the ground lost in the head to head polls with Labour.
I’ve seen multiple Tories tweeting or otherwise communicating the same message: that all the resignations are a sign that that Boris is “taking immediate action” and “cleaning house”, because apparently telling obvious and idiotic lies is a core Conservative Party value.
Another core Conservative Party value appears to be: being an absolute shower of fucking rubes, as dumb a collection of natural born suckers as PT Barnum could ever dream of meeting.
Here, we have one MP voicing the idea that he and many of his colleagues are giving Johnson one last chance to change his ways:
This morning, in an interview on the Today programme, Huw Merriman, the Conservative chair of the Commons transport committee said that Johnson had to shape up or go. Mangling the familiar phrase (it was early in the morning), he said:
I’m deeply troubled by what’s going on. We all know that if the prime minister doesn’t ship up, then they have to shape out [sic], and that’s exactly what happened when this prime minister took over.
Interestingly, Merriman also claimed that he was probably talking for a silent majority of Conservative MPs.
I think there are a large group of Conservative MPs who are being loyal, focusing also on the prime minister’s positives and are not either eulogising with tweets, copy and paste, or going on the attack because they’ve never liked the prime mnister. That’s why you don’t hear from a lot of us, because we want this to work.
When it was put to Merriman that he was saying it was “shape up or ship out” for Johnson, Merriman replied:
It is for very single leader of any party, and certainly any prime minister, because it is all about winning elections and having a mandate to deliver.
How the fuck do any of these guys think that Johnson is about to stop being Johnson. He is exactly who he is when they made him Leader and PM, and he always will be. The idea that he’s about to turn things round and become a trustworthy leader with a strong grip on government is for the birds.
Someone needs to sit these guys down and explain to them that there are in fact no Official Wallet Inspectors and they are not getting their money back.
Seems that six of his aides have now resigned, four yesterday, two today.
We have a political system based around assumed honour and what should be done, and this has been broken by the likes of Johnson. He has broken the law many times, and has refused to resign, what chance do you think he’d resign if he lost an election? I think like Trump, they need to get him out of the office somewhere, and stick in a new leader and change the locks. “Sorry sir, you can’t come in”. Finally, he might get it.
What we are seeing is the rare sight of what goes on when someone refuses to go. Chaotic. Messy. Probably to all intents and purposes ungovernable (wondering how those who have told him to go will do politically, vote wise in parliament).
The Brexit nonsense of 2019 was chunks of his own party telling him to stop being a lunatic. However, that didn’t seem to stop him getting elected and them chucked out. It’s different now though. Brexit isn’t the great golden goose anymore for him. And his true character is revealed.
This is entirely the problem. Boris is what he has always been: dishonest, corrupt, egotistical, bigoted, and incompetent. And the Conservative Party knew this when they decided he was the man to lead and represent them. Because he is, ultimately, an accurate avatar for the current Tory Party.
They can get rid of him but another exactly the same will take his place, because they are all Boris Johnson in one form or another.
What’s weird is that I’m pretty sure I remember a point towards the end of May’s tenure when his stock with Tory MPs was pretty low. After all the internal machinations and lack of performance as Foreign Sec, I am certain I was reading insider pieces quoting people who thought he’d revealed himself and shot his bolt. Yet when the leadership contest came, he went through easily, becaues those MPs convinced themeselves he could work his Boris magic on the country even if he was useless and untrustworthy.
So yes, as you say, they knew he was. I suppose the calculation was that the press would continue peddling the “good old Boris” line that they’ve stuck with for years. Now that the knives are out across Fleet St, they’re paying the price.
That said, you can still find influential journalists peddling the absurd and fundamentally immoral line that he’s “good old lovable, roguish Boris” even now. (23 sec Video in tweet)
I just don’t see this, I think he will fight to the end but would accept any result. He might lie and cheat but he a) does not have a stranglehold of popular support so would not enjoy ANY support for anything unconstitutional, b) seems to have some care about his wider reputation, c) would fail, and would gain nothing from a failed attempt to corruptly hold onto power. Johnson is a corrupt liar but he’s not a fool.
However, aside from when he was he was a newcomer hoping to become an MP in 1997, he has never lost an election. So who’s to say?
I beg to differ on that way. The man’s an absolute idiot. He’s had people pushing behind him to get elected, but on a intellectual level he’s a dwarf, a bit of latin and some bumble. Someone recognised, similar to Trump, that he has an ability to infuriate half the room and weaponised that. After that it was bribing who needs bribing to stay in power.
When Bush 2 was in power, and it was pointed out he wasn’t very clever, people used the tried excuse of “well he got elected didn’t he” as if justification. It’s similar with Johnson. He’s been groomed. He’s been boosted. But he’s still a bloody idiot.
His election had a lot to do with the mediocrity and lack of personality of the other candidates. If Johnson learnt one thing from his hero Churchill it was that fame and personality win elections. He has cultivated the raffish schoolboy charm because the Tories like that sort of Etonian codswallop and the general public found him at very least an amusing, irreverent personality, which is rare for a politician.
Johnson and Trump are products of the ‘reality TV’ age that promotes controversial and pompous personalities allowing them to pontificate to the world how it is, according to them. They are con men who profess insight and expertise that they simply do not have.
The public got what they paid for - empty vessels that make a lot of noise but are simply not leaders, nor are they effective politicians.
Populist politicians are, I am afraid a product of popular culture. We want entertainment and this has been a great mistake. Better to have some competent person who leads carefully and deliberately and has a vision and the best interests of the country at heart. Rather than these absurd showmen.
