[Watchman]

And you can guarantee that there’s a definite closing date for the existing one.. because the developers are desperate to get their hands on the land

[mattomac]

Let him survive. Still 2 years to the next election, and he’s going to be heaving all this shitty baggage with him, which can all be used against him - along with all the other inevitable revelations to come.

Johnson staying on now best serves only the needs of Johnson himself. When he isn’t damaging the Tories, his shitty team are. And while I’m as keen as the next decent person to see him gone, be careful what you wish for - because I’d much rather Starmer face an arrogant, lazy walking calamity who huge swathes of the population now loathe, and his inept, cruel and corrupt team, than a rejuvenated Tory party under a more popular new leader.

I’m not against him staying I’m just a bit fed up with warmed up analysis based on one poll.

[mattomac]

On the back of my annoyance with one poll analysts …Two polls since both showing increases or none movement.

No bounces for Johnson in these

[Nigredo]

https://bylinetimes.com/2022/03/07/gove ... d-johnson/

The pork haystack's meeting with Lebvedev was off the books.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Not very good by elections for Johnson yesterday. Lost to the Greens in Rutland, and hammered by Lib Dems in two Hitchin seats. Hitchin and Harpenden Westminster seat is in danger.

More consistent with a guy blabbering about Peppa Pig World than providing strong wartime leadership.

[Tubby Isaacs]

There are quite a few blue wall local election seats up in May. Even with a half or a third of the council up, there's lots of scope for the Lib Dems to do a lot of damage.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Adam Bienkov has more on Johnson and Lebedev.

But an online Jez fan has the real issue- Peter Mandelson. And Ben Bradshaw being quoted in the story because he's a "Blairite".

[Abernathy]

It’s all fucking connected, part 864.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Always the Palestinian flag...

Nick Cohen has a go:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... who-suffer

If puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy, conservatism is the haunting fear that some claimants, somewhere, may be comfortable. Conservative policy towards refugees is driven by the same crabbed and punitive moralism that led the Victorians to build workhouses. To add to their absurdist atmosphere, Patel is presenting a nationality and borders bill to parliament that will criminalise Ukrainian refugees who cross the Channel without her permission. The spectacle of Tory MPs, who have denounced Russia and praised the resistance, voting to treat Putin’s victims as villains will test all but the strongest stomachs.

Worth a read.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Mandelson is certainly implicated in this stuff. But, you know, he's not the Prime Minister. He's been gone from government for 12 years, and isn't coming back. He can't overrule the security services.

Ben Bradshaw isn't implicated at all, as far as I know. He's just a senior backbencher. Why not quote him?

[Crabcakes]

This is seriously dubious stuff, showing both Johnson’s arrogance and his naivety. I suspect he’ll shortly be yearning for the days when people just had a go at him for attending thoughtless hypocritical piss-ups.

[Boiler]

I'm sure some new and dreadful occurrence in Ukraine will help his acolytes to say "this is not important".

Or there'll be a "but Labour" moment.

[mattomac]

Mandelson is certainly implicated in this stuff. But, you know, he's not the Prime Minister. He's been gone from government for 12 years, and isn't coming back. He can't overrule the security services.

Ben Bradshaw isn't implicated at all, as far as I know. He's just a senior backbencher. Why not quote him?

Apparently though I have asked for evidence and they provide none Starmer’s chief advisor is Peter Mandelson, the closest I get is that Morgan Macsweeney is Starmers key fixer and he is close to Mandelson.

As for Ben Bradshaw if you can convince yourself of one thing why not pretend what you think is reality is in fact it.

[Youngian]

It was clear from Litvinenko’s assassination in 2006 what sort of regime Putin was running. Not that welcoming Russia’s elites was initially a bad thing. Their children will have known little else but the decadent West. Will they hear the call of Mother Russia and swap that for Russian Orthodox piety in a bankrupt state?

[Watchman]

de Piffle seems to be keeping a low profile

[Abernathy]

It’s all fucking connected, part 721:

An interesting conspiracy theory from Twitter: Assume Johnson was recruited by Russia at Oxford, then everything he has done since makes perfect sense:
- Employed at exorbitant fee by the Telegraph which we now know was part funded by Moscow.
- Spent years sniping away at the EU bureaucracy undermining its credibility.
- On the fence about Leave/Remain until he met with Lebedev where he decided/was instructed to support the Leave Vote. Vote Leave closely tied to Cambridge Analytica and Bannon, Banks, Wigmore and Russian money
- Salisbury poisonings - He was Foreign Secretary, but he ran to Lebedev - why ?
- Resigned a couple of weeks later, ran for PM against May.
Agreed a Withdrawal Agreement which would obviously cause unrest in Northern Ireland

[Crabcakes]

I can believe all that except Johnson being actively recruited, because there’s just no need. He’s a greedy, lazy, egotistical, vain narcissist - all he needs is to be flattered and fed information about how doing something that requires very little effort will lead to his personal advancement, and off he’ll go.

It’s like Inception for imbeciles - you just say it to their face, then wait 5 minutes, and it’ll be presented back to you as if it was their idea all along.

[Andy McDandy]

Yes, filter everything through the mindset of a 14 year old who's just discovered tits and beer. Bingo, that's how he's thinking.

[MisterMuncher]

Hanlon's Razor absolutely applies:

"Sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice"

[Boiler]

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/m ... ed-says-mp

Fenton has an interesting take on this - basically, oil.