[Boiler]

Throw them all in a Suffolk ditch, in second-hand hessian sacks.

[Oboogie]

Nadine Dorries will be adding the biased Lefty LBC to her "to privatise" list when she sees this.

[Boiler]

I note plenty of attacks on Marr in the replies.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should take a break from here and the media in general as I am getting so angry at what is going on, how we have all made sacrifices in the last two years, yet this lot... somehow it reminds me of Brezhnev clearing the roads near the Kremlin to race Zils. It's focused rage this time (unlike last year when I had my breakdown) but nonetheless, I think I need to do it for my sanity.

[Nigredo]

https://metro.co.uk/2022/05/25/dominic- ... -16710772/

Grima Domtongue weighs in.

[Nigredo]

[Nigredo]

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/partyg ... _source=tw

Just needed Helen Mirren walking about starkers and this is basically the set of Caligula.

[Watchman]

Nicked from comments on John Crace’s last piece, this sums him up completely for me, and how anyone cannot see this is a moron

“The country I love has died a little today. The Prime Minister has shown a total absence of emotional and actual intelligence, morality, integrity, decency, leadership, humility, authenticity, veracity, trustworthiness, respect, empathy, and most importantly of all self respect. An empty vessel of the worst kind. No heart, no soul, no stomach, no courage, and no strength of purpose. The ultimate example of the hollow man.”

[Nigredo]

Interesting thread this, basically stating that the pork haystack has shown how flippantly he takes national security measures and it doesn't bode well if we're targeted for a biological attack.

[Bones McCoy]

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/partyg ... _source=tw

Just needed Helen Mirren walking about starkers and this is basically the set of Caligula.

At least these cunts don't have a garden bridge where they can imbibe in public and rub our faces in it.

[Abernathy]

Right so. The final Sue Gray report has been published, and its contents are truly appalling. As widely predicted, Johnson is stubbornly refusing to resign, so the onus falls on the 359 Tory MPs currently in parliament. Only they have the power to compel Johnson to go. So far there has been only a handful of Tories prepared publicly to denounce Johnson and call for him to step down.

Johnson has gone from being an election-winning, charismatic electoral asset to an electoral liability in little over 2 years. I’d expect opinion polls to confirm an even bigger slide in his popularity in the next few days. Even the support drones routinely sent into TV and radio studios to defend him obviously don’t believe all that got all the big decisions right crap any more -if they ever did, and the days of “Good ’ol Boris” are surely over.

As ever, I’m interested in motivation. In short, why *wouldn’t* Tory MPs decide to ditch Johnson and install a more credible and acceptable leader? At least one of them is reported as making the observation that the day Johnson got away with Partygate is also the day the Tories lost the next general election.
There is precedent. In 1990, the Tories decided to replace the unpopular Margaret Thatcher with the ostensibly dull, yet apparently trustworthy John Major. Two years later, they won the general election against a Labour Party led by Neil Kinnock, which seemed to be perceived by electors as not ready for government.

Now, in 2022, with probably 2 years until the next election, the Tories actually have the chance to repeat the trick. Show Johnson the door, and install a leader who is more acceptable to electors, and more importantly, poses less of a risk to their chances of holding their seats.

Who is the 2022 John Major? well, there are actually some very viable aternatives. The Tories do need to eschew populist right-wing alternatives like Truss and Patel, though someone like Mordaunt might prove attractive. . Sunak may well have effectively ruled himself out thanks to the non-dom scandal, and Gove is probably a non-starter. Javid will, I guess be a contender.

If they’re at all wise (and I realise that ‘s quite a big assumption), they’ll go for someone that represents a complete rejection of everything that Johnson stands revealed to be. Jeremy Hunt will be obviously back in the frame, but humane, straight, sensible candidates like Tom Tugendhat , Ben Wallace,or even Tobias Ellwood really ought to be in the running.

But as I say, surely the Tories’ calculus simply must mean that they need to ditch Johnson , and right soon.

[Boiler]

Ummm... Overton Window?

[Youngian]

In short, why *wouldn’t* Tory MPs decide to ditch Johnson and install a more credible and acceptable leader?

Sunak’s a busted flush so Johnson is still the devil they know compared to some uninspiring choices. Tory MPs are in a suicide pact of their own making. Previous in-takes would have tossed BJ over the side by now but this rabble are of Johnson’s making; Political fruitcakes and gormless hacks.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

That's a decent analysis, Abers, but I'm not sure that the Tories are going to ditch the scruffy shitbag.

I wonder what has happened in the local associations - have the 'centrist' Tories (I suppose we should call them 'One-Nation Conservatives') been driven out as they have in parliament? Has there now been so much UKIP and assorted rightwing entryism that the 'traditional values' tendency has gone?

If so then I don't see any way back for the more moderate Tories.

[Bones McCoy]

I'll try to play this using the "magic quadrant" method, and hope the forum preserves the formatting.
That failed, so it's a dull list...

MP in marginal seat:
Keep Johnson: I'm safe for the remainder of this term, it was fun while it lasted.
Kick Johnson: Risk losing seat in early election.

MP in safe seat
Keep Johnson: He's our drinking buddy and promotes loyalists.
Sack Johnson: New bloke might promote on competence - and we're screwed.


For either type of MP, Sack Johnson introduces significant risks.

[Abernathy]

A Fleecebook friend writes :

Thing is, it's not 1990 anymore. Back then they were the Conservative and Union Party. Now they're very much the Brexit Party. Which presents them with a problem. The artists formally known as the ERG are keen for him to go. General Baker has said as much and Johnson's served his purpose. Even they know he's now an utterly useless liability. But the only serious Brexitty candidate left is Truss and they know she's an idiot. There are plenty of grown ups available (Hunt, Tugendhat, Wallace et al) but every single one of them is a Remainer. I realise they're all Brexiteers now but former Remainers lack purity. Next thing you know they'll be coming up with sensible solutions to the NI protocol that involve closer ties to Europe. Essentially this is the problem of Brexit: There's no Brexiteers sensible enough for responsible leadership. If they were, they wouldn't be Brexiteers. Let's call it the Brexit Leadership Conundrum. So they daren't move. If I was them I'd just get someone half sensible and Brexitty like The Saj or Mikey G (Charlie problem permitting) but it seems they're terrified. Under normal circumstances you might expect the cabinet to start moving but Johnson hand picked that team of idiots for a good reason.

[Spoonman]

The Prime Minister can still technically be sitting in the House of Lords, can they not?

Arise Prime Minister Lord Frost?



* I know that modern convention is that they must be a sitting MP in the Commons, but since when has parliamentary convention actually mattered two fecks to this lot unless it's been convenient?

[mattomac]

Considering his name keeps propping up I assume they even know he won’t be viable without a commons seat.

[mattomac]

Too many of them remember the “Oxford Union” Al, they still mention it in critical pieces about him, how he is a funny writer and so on, it’s enough to reach for the sick bag.

Too many wedded to the project, probably too scared of losing the “big dog” mandate, I don’t think they’ve considered for a minute that the election was won on a slogan, one that is starting to show signs of wear and tear and like in America, MAGA is alive and well but it’s figurehead is not that popular. (An election dare I say against a massively unpopular figure who had zero appeal to any floating voter and most of his own party that was held in December).

[Crabcakes]

My guess as to why no one with half a chance is making a move is that they want to be the one to make the *next* move. Let some poor sucker try and clean up Johnson’s mess (both figurative and literal, given the state of the place after his parties), sort out NI/cost of living/Ukraine/other Brexit bonuses, very likely lose to Starmer from a heady cocktail of ineptitude and sleaze, and then resign. Then someone gets to come in as a “clean break” in the comfort of opposition and rebuild.

The problem is, first they need a sucker - but thanks to Johnson’s recruitment policy of loyalty not ability, all they have are suck-ups.

[davidjay]

They've also learned from Heseltine. The man who wields the dagger won't wear the crown.