[Andy McDandy]

He is still in full denial over partygate, he paints himself as the victim in the Nazain Zaghari-Ratcliffe case and claims that he was booted out because many MPs thought that he would be in power for at least another 7 years and feared that they would never get a ministerial post. The latter claim is ridiculous given how many many reshuffles he held during his 3 year tenure.

Aside from playing the victim card when someone's life was seriously in danger because of his pathetic ignorance and desperate need to grandstand, he avoids the point that his government collapsed when serving ministers resigned in droves because they'd had it with his shit.

[Crabcakes]

I imagine the timing of release just as the Conservatives choose a new leader is no coincidence either. He’s already setting out his stall for his glorious comeback as the next Tory leader to replace whoever they get in this time. And - like Trump - making it clear that anyone who wants a seat at the table has to buy into his narrative on events. The sword of Damocles for whoever gets the nod - if the sword of Damocles were actually just a large, overpriced and somewhat shop-soiled saveloy.

Thankfully, unlike Trump, a considerable majority of the public loathe him, don’t buy his bullshit, and won’t be changing their mind anytime soon - and his party of choice are one Badenoch-led election away from being overtaken by the Lib Dems. All he’s going to do is make things worse for the Tories by trying to recapture his ‘glory’ days, as his ego won’t let it lie.

[Yug]

... All he’s going to do is make things worse for the Tories by trying to recapture his ‘glory’ days, as his ego won’t let it lie.

Bring it on!

[Andy McDandy]

I've mentioned before that he seems to get an easy ride from the press because he knows how to play the game*, and in some ways has "won" journalism**. I suspect though that he's fast becoming the sort of faded celeb who only really has a public profile due to the media not letting them go, out of some nostalgic fixation***.

*Give them a story and they'll love you. Make their job easy. Give them the photo opportunity.

**Make shit up and avoid censure. Even better, get lauded for it.

***Joan Collins is the ur-example. See also: anyone who was in a reasonably popular band when you were at school.

[davidjay]

He's also a journalist himself. That helps.

[Bones McCoy]

Back in the Early '80s.
Just before the Federation of Conservative Students was disbanded.
(By Norman Tebbitt for being too right wing).

A bunch of privileged cunts graduated and planned their next moves.
Some would enter politics - friends of daddy would find a Westminster job, they'd work their way up the party machinery.
Others entered journalism, a much shorter, less greasy pole.
A connection there could land a senior role straight out of college.

In most cases the family fortune allowed them to play a zero-stakes game.
A few others had to brown-nose hard to live off soft loans from political supporters.

Some thirty years on, they've captured the Tory party, and 80% of the national print media.
Johnson and Gove have peaked in their journalistic careers and crossed over into politics.

A decade of opposition has allowed them to organise without public scrutiny.
The friends in the press, will continue to smokescreen for them.

This is what finally Delivered Johnson - "Funtime Boris".
Drinker, shagger, everybody's mate - unless you have to work alongside the lazy cunt.
He leaves the hard yards to Wormtongue Gove and Mekon Cummings.
They run amok, shielded from consequences by the allies in the press.

When Johnson falls, he falls hard, and a little of his corrupt regime leaks to the public.
The broken party cannot find a successor, and fails to select "the right sorts of chap", losine some press support.
The press has also changed character, the Telegraph going utterly batshit, and channels like GB news pushing ever further right.

Johnson is denounced in some circles as "Liberal", "Left Wing" and "Further left than Starmer".
The current set of leadership candidates demonstrate a measurable shift to the right.
No longer the clubbable shitlords, these are proper dark triad nutters, on a crusade to roll us back to the 1930s.


That' a long preamble for an assessment of a Johnson comeback.
* Many of his mates are retired, or chasing other interests.
* The public has seen the "fuck you" downside of "funtime Boris".
* His security blanket of sympathetic journos have broken ranks now chasing Teams Kemi, Jenrick or even Farage.

Johnson has a lot of dosh, and little actual support.
His party are in opposition.
He's going to be an old man when/if they return to power.
He will inevitable get bored and do something completely stupid and further sully his reputation.

He ain't coming back.

[Youngian]

I punced on page 1 of this thread by mistake and MWers should take a bow as to the fascinating public record created for future generations. Who will find it hard to believe just how bad Johnson in power was. Especially as we head for two decades of revisionism created by his powerful friends.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Sky News has pulled Beth Rigby's planned interview with Johnson because she 'was told she could not make an audio recording or transcript of the talk'.

Which is remarkable.

One wonders what the fuck is going on.

[Abernathy]

Isn’t the whole point of a recorded TV interview that it entails an audio recording of the interview’s dialogue ?

[Tubby Isaacs]

It was an interview at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, not a TV interview.

[Crabcakes]

If social media is much to go by, his ITV interview has gone down about as well as a turd sandwich.

Looks like he has drastically overestimated his popularity. Again.

[The Weeping Angel]

It was an interview at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, not a TV interview.

Oh right the way everyone was reacting I thought it was a major TV interview.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

To be fair, Rigby had bigged it up on social media...

[Crabcakes]

I see lardarse is now implying Starmer is greedy for taking declared gifts of significantly lower value than he did. And also saying he never lied.

I mean, why? He can’t possibly think we don’t know or that we believe him. At this point, what’s the purpose? Just to annoy people, or to see who’s still loyal when they parrot it?

[Andy McDandy]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/ ... john-crace

John Crace does a good book review.

I considered my position and concluded it was pretty good. Nothing was going to stop me not building those 40 imaginary hospitals.

I then threw every intelligent MP out of the party and promoted Thérèse Coffey, the idiot’s idiot. Finally, I hid in a fridge and won an election against an opposition leader that not even Labour members could vote for.

Sadly, I had to cut my tenure short. Having praised Theresa’s Chequers deal to the heights, I found myself having to resign two days later when I realised that David Davis had walked first.

I seem to have forgotten some other bits. Like how I keep being let down by people I have appointed while never once doubting my judgment.

I leave you with the queen’s parting words to me. “My first prime minister was Winston Churchill. My last were you and Liz Truss. Just imagine. I think I might as well die now.”

[Crabcakes]

Astounding. He hasn’t read his own book, or is disowning it because he forgot who he slagged off and when

[Andy McDandy]

He has form for this. IIRC he defended his "letterboxes" remarks as actually complimenting women who dressed as such. Along the lines of "If you really want to look like a letterbox and have everyone thinking you're some terrorist or battered woman, then fair play to you, actually I sort of admire your courage...".

[Philip Marlow]

Yup. All of this.

[The Weeping Angel]

[Youngian]

Cameron touting his biography did nothing to revive his self-destroyed reputation. And neither are Johnson's flailing interviews. However bad they make him look I'd rather he fucked off to America and never return.