[Tubby Isaacs]

Lord Geidt has walked out.

[Abernathy]

Yet another vox pop from the Wakefield by-election on the BBC news tonight, featuring a brain-dead moron who, apparently without irony, told the camera “I like Boris.”. She added, “I just think he’s got all the big decisions right.”

I almost screamed at the bloody TV. In fact I did.

Here we have the problem encapsulated. She likes “Boris” . Not “Johnson”, or “Mr. Johnson”, or even “the Prime Minister”. Firstly, she has clearly bought into the “good ‘ol Boris” image uncritically. The lies, the hypocrisy, the incompetence, the refusal to take responsibility, the callous disregard for people suffering under lockdown regulations while he partied in breach of the same rules in no 10, the vicious and inhumane Rwanda deportations, are all as nothing to her, she just loves good ‘ol Boris. Second, she repeats the “he got all the big calls right” bollocks verbatim, not because that’s what she really thinks, but because she’s heard it said by Zahawi, Dorries, Rees-Mogg, Schnapps, and all the other servile sycophants on the government front bench. She’s simply parroting that bullshit line/script all the Tories have been told to push out all the time.

Christ, it makes you just despair.

[davidjay]

Culture wars again. The Establishment control everything except him and me.

[Watchman]

This “he got the big calls right” really fucks me off, take the vaccination program; there’s a global pandemic, you’re provided with detailed and verified data that a vaccine works, any sane person would say “okay let’s vaccinate the population, it’s not a “big call”, it’s doing the bleeding obvious

[Andy McDandy]

Anyone else noticed that the script has subtly changed? It's now "He took the tough but necessary decisions", presumably to head off anyone raising the small matter of 170,000 dead. I get that he wants to sound like Churchill debating whether or not to allow the bombing of Coventry, because to intercept the raid would show that we'd broken the Enigma code, but seriously?

[Bones McCoy]

Anyone else noticed that the script has subtly changed? It's now "He took the tough but necessary decisions", presumably to head off anyone raising the small matter of 170,000 dead. I get that he wants to sound like Churchill debating whether or not to allow the bombing of Coventry, because to intercept the raid would show that we'd broken the Enigma code, but seriously?

The script is always on the move, that's how we end up with the modern recollections of the Thatcher era.
Nudge the truth a little every day.

Only one fact remains unchanged "We've always been at war with Eastasia".

[Nigredo]

This “he got the big calls right” really fucks me off, take the vaccination program; there’s a global pandemic, you’re provided with detailed and verified data that a vaccine works, any sane person would say “okay let’s vaccinate the population, it’s not a “big call”, it’s doing the bleeding obvious

It's pure revisionism, there was plenty of journalist talk at the time about how he was so hesitant to make a decision that it basically ruled out anything other than the harshest of lockdowns because there was nothing else to be done at such a late juncture.

That's how you end up with announcing a third lockdown a couple of days before Christmas and everybody piling onto trains out of the city so they can actually get to their family before travelling becomes illegal, and the resultant transmission spike from it.

[davidjay]

When you analyse his decisions, almost every one was wrong but that's not important because soundbites are better than facts. I survived Covid, none of my family died, therefore he got everything right. QED.

[Boiler]

This “he got the big calls right” really fucks me off, take the vaccination program; there’s a global pandemic, you’re provided with detailed and verified data that a vaccine works, any sane person would say “okay let’s vaccinate the population, it’s not a “big call”, it’s doing the bleeding obvious

I'm more thinking back to early 2020: we could see the mayhem and death toll in Italy at that time - I used to look and think "surely they'll learn from this and take the necessary, if harsh, measures?"

No, Hancock and his horsey mates got their Cheltenham Festival and from then on it was just dither and delay - very much an ostrich mode of hoping "it'll all go away, all it needs is British spunk" or summat.

Utterly, utterly incompetent. Which went on to be mirrored by other populist leaders.

And I remain firm in my opinion that he was never that ill - only his privilege got him into ITU. Anybody else would have been on a ward on oxygen.

[Nigredo]

When you analyse his decisions, almost every one was wrong but that's not important because soundbites are better than facts. I survived Covid, none of my family died, therefore he got everything right. QED.

The same survivorship bias that The Blitz (which he was tapping into) gets warped through, myself or people I know didn't have to pick through rubble of a bombed home and destroyed possessions to dig out the corpse of a dead relative so it was all a wonderful time in the air raid shelter huddling together and singing Vera Lynn.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Johnson's played Lord Geidt like a fiddle, I'm afraid. And Labour.

Geidt, having not resigned over Partygate or the wallpaper lies, has walked out over... the legality of steel tariffs. The steel tariffs Johnson supported are supported by Labour too (thanks, Rachel "Trump" Reeves). The letter was held back long enough for Labour to rush in.

I didn't see that trap coming. Though maybe it doesn't matter- as far as most people are concerned, liar Johnson has lost another ethics adviser.

[Bones McCoy]

Johnson's played Lord Geidt like a fiddle, I'm afraid. And Labour.

Geidt, having not resigned over Partygate or the wallpaper lies, has walked out over... the legality of steel tariffs. The steel tariffs Johnson supported are supported by Labour too (thanks, Rachel "Trump" Reeves). The letter was held back long enough for Labour to rush in.

I didn't see that trap coming. Though maybe it doesn't matter- as far as most people are concerned, liar Johnson has lost another ethics adviser.

I suspect that sort of detail will fly over the heads of the low information voters he seeks to herd.

Something Labour could learn is fitting their own policies into three word slogans.
Keeping the message simple, brief and steamrolling inconvenient details through repetition.

[Andy McDandy]

I've read his resignation letter. Not much mention of steel tariffs, but quite a lot of straws and camels backs.

[Boiler]

Well, common sense dictates...

‘No ethics at No 10’ (links to The Guardian)

Boris Johnson is considering scrapping the role of ethics adviser after the resignation of Lord Geidt, who accused him of making a mockery of his position overseeing standards in government.

Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said the move demonstrated “there are no ethics in Boris Johnson’s Downing Street”. “It appears he will now try to keep it that way, content to further debase standards in public life and demean his office.”

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: “Boris Johnson has no ethics, so it’s no surprise he wants to scrap his ethics adviser.”

[davidjay]

This “he got the big calls right” really fucks me off, take the vaccination program; there’s a global pandemic, you’re provided with detailed and verified data that a vaccine works, any sane person would say “okay let’s vaccinate the population, it’s not a “big call”, it’s doing the bleeding obvious

I'm more thinking back to early 2020: we could see the mayhem and death toll in Italy at that time - I used to look and think "surely they'll learn from this and take the necessary, if harsh, measures?"

No, Hancock and his horsey mates got their Cheltenham Festival and from then on it was just dither and delay - very much an ostrich mode of hoping "it'll all go away, all it needs is British spunk" or summat.

Utterly, utterly incompetent. Which went on to be mirrored by other populist leaders.

And I remain firm in my opinion that he was never that ill - only his privilege got him into ITU. Anybody else would have been on a ward on oxygen.

Go through his actions from December 2019 until lockdown and you will see prevarication, hesitancy, selfishness and downright idleness on an unprecedented scale. But all of that has been forgotten because vaccine. In the same way that the success of the army in the Falklands masked the earlier incompetence of government in allowing the situation to develop, so scientific genius and NHS initiative has provided reflected glory for this idiot to bask in.

And I agree with his illness. Fitter, younger, healthier people were left poleaxed for weeks, yet an overweight, sedentary man in his fifties went from ITU to discharge in three days and had no obvious after-effects.

[satnav]

I pretty sure it was Johnson who pushed to get people travelling abroad again in the Summer of 2020, this almost certainly lead to Covid spiking again in October which then lead to another lockdown being introduced in early November.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I've read his resignation letter. Not much mention of steel tariffs, but quite a lot of straws and camels backs.

He was clearly close to resigning before, but this is what he's actually resigned over. It's pretty bizarre, if I understand it correctly. He was asked about breaking the law on steel tariffs. He ought to have said "Sorry, that's not for me, I'm ministerial ethics not trade policy".

As it happens, I now think most people will just think "There goes the liar, lost another ethics advisor". And I'm very happy with that. When you're a liar, people don't care how clever you're being. They think you're lying.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I wonder if Geidt thought taking Johnson's shit at the Select Committee was above his paygrade.

[Nigredo]

It's just occurred to me that that the pork haystack made that "let the bodies pile high" remark in staunch refusal to implement another lockdown when it could have saved more lives.

And he made all the big calls correctly? Fuck off.

[Samanfur]

Election guru Lynton Crosby attending PM’s morning meetings

Lynton Crosby, the election guru and businessman, has been attending Boris Johnson’s 8.30am meetings in No 10, showing he is more involved in the prime minister’s decision making than previously thought.

The Australian political strategist, whose advisory firm has represented tobacco as well as oil and gas interests, is known to have been helping Johnson remotely over his leadership woes but his involvement in the regular meetings shows he appears to have taken a much greater role than before.

Crosby runs CT Group – a government affairs, polling and research company – as well as advising political leaders on their electoral strategy. His return to advising Johnson has coincided with a shift to the right as the prime minister tries to bolster his standing with that wing of the party and those who elected him 2019.

A No 10 source confirmed that Crosby had attended some morning meetings, but insisted these were party political rather than official government ones.

A government spokesperson said: “Lynton Crosby is not a government employee. Any assistance to the prime minister would be party political and in his capacity as leader of the Conservative party.”

One source with knowledge of Crosby said the election strategist, who mostly lives in Australia, had been mostly dialling into meetings.

A second source said he also sometimes attended in-person, entering No 10 via a more discreet entrance in the Cabinet Office. They claimed that officials had raised concerns about his attendance.