[Youngian]

So we’re now being run by a Clive Dunn tribute act. Boris may sound and increasingly look 85 but he’s a relatively young man.

[Boiler]

Surely completely impractical?

Not at all - just completely unnecessary. How many of us, I wonder, just buy (say) £20 worth of fuel when topping up the tank of a car? The unit of measurement of the volume of fuel is irrelevant then. The fact that the US manages to do it without difficulty speaks volumes; our biggest fault was never going fully metric like the Australians did - we kept specific measures in place, e.g. miles and pints. I don't think anyone is advocating a complete abandonment of SI units in science or suggesting we only use UNC and UNF screws in engineering, for example.

As far as I know, sausages are still sold by the pound - depending on the sausage my butcher makes there are either five or eight links.

Now, the one that would be daft would be to return to LSD as our currency, although a mate once wrote a macro to do it...

[davidjay]

I don't think it's a dead cat so much as another bit of populism from a Prime Minister who has nothing else left. Does that make it a dead cat? I'm still not sure what the term really means.

[Abernathy]

. Does that make it a dead cat? I'm still not sure what the term really means.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_cat_strategy

The dead cat stategy, also known as deadcatting, is the political strategy of deliberately introducing a shocking or important story to divert mass and social media discourse away from problems or failures in other areas.[1] The present name for the strategy has been associated with British prime minister Boris Johnson's political strategist Lynton Crosby.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_cat_strategy

The dead cat stategy, also known as deadcatting, is the political strategy of deliberately introducing a shocking or important story to divert mass and social media discourse away from problems or failures in other areas. The present name for the strategy has been associated with British prime minister Boris Johnson's political strategist Lynton Crosby.

>edit<
Cross posted!

[Boiler]

The term "dead cat" has become hugely overused and misused by the left as much as "woke" has by the right.

IIRC it was simply something to act as a distraction from something else, and then people started talking about the metaphorical dead cat on the table rather than what was previously being discussed.

Edit - cross-posted with Abers.

[Abernathy]

Great minds ...........

[Abernathy]

The term "dead cat" has become hugely overused and misused by the left as much as "woke" has by the right.

Eh? It was literally invented by the Tory political strategist Lynton Crosby. How on earth has it been "mis-used" by the left ?

[Abernathy]

The term "dead cat" has become hugely overused and misused by the left as much as "woke" has by the right.

Eh? It was literally invented by the Tory political strategist Lynton Crosby. How on earth has it been "mis-used" by the left ?

[davidjay]

I'm as wise now as I was before....

[Abernathy]

What exactly is it that bewilders you ?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Basically if you want to distract attention from some horrendous news or announcement you make another announcement which you know will take away attention.

Lynton Crosby said something along the lines of 'if it's going badly, chuck a dead cat on the table. Everyone then forgets what you were talking about and say 'look it's a dead cat!'.'

I really don't see how it's left-wing or overused. It's an actual Tory strategy.

See also "Look! A squirrel!"

[Crabcakes]

The only imperial measurements Johnson really need worry about is the ton - because he’s in a ton of shit now the underlings are happily reporting all his and his wife’s malfeasance, and the clowder* of dead cats it’ll take to distract from it

*really is the group noun for cats!

[Boiler]

The only imperial measurements Johnson really need worry about is the ton - because he’s in a ton of shit now the underlings are happily reporting all his and his wife’s malfeasance, and the clowder* of dead cats it’ll take to distract from it

*really is the group noun for cats!

Long ton or short ton?

Also, "time to move on". We've now seen he's quite happy to rewrite the rules to save himself so what's the point of getting outraged? On a personal basis and now I suspect a collective basis it'll change nothing. Come 2024 vast areas of the electoral map will still be blue - I know it will be here.

[Youngian]

The PM ordered his wife’s dog to be executed for barking. Just banter

[Bones McCoy]

Wanted to be the new Churchill.

Ends up being the new Heseltine.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37833381

(Heseltine: I did not kill my mother's Alsatian)

[Cyclist]

I was thinking

Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest!

[davidjay]

What exactly is it that bewilders you ?

I know what it is, I'm just not sure whether this latest bit of nonsense qualifies, or whether it's another of his pointless ideas to appeal to blokes who love their fukkin country.

[Andy McDandy]

Most newspaper columnists have a "form whinge", like Littlejohn with his komedy kavalkade fairground barker routine. Johnson is no exception. As (I think) Marina Hyde noted, his is as follows:

"Years ago, the proud, ruddy faced English man, after a good long day of wassailing the apple orchards, would pour a hearty tankard of foaming nut brown ale and merrily toast good queen Bess and damn the froggies and their perfidious centimetres, measuring their proud Anglo-Saxon John Thomases in sturdy trustworthy inches..."

A bit naughty, a bit xenophobic but in a "good natured just a bit of knockabout fun, can't you take a joke" way, a bit of chocolate box history, and as ever appealing to the 13 year old boy who has just discovered beer and girls.

So, with no other ideas but having to produce something, this is his natural fallback point.

[Watchman]

The only imperial measurements Johnson really need worry about is the ton - because he’s in a ton of shit now the underlings are happily reporting all his and his wife’s malfeasance, and the clowder* of dead cats it’ll take to distract from it

*really is the group noun for cats!

Two initial thoughts;
what was the wife of the Prime Minister doing alone in the No 10 flat with 2 un-named males?
had said persons been security checked