[Youngian]

The only Tories backing Johnson now are the head bangers. He is starting to look like John Redwood when he attempted to become Tory leader in the days of John Major. People took one look at the state of his backers and realised that electing him would be a total disaster.

Don’t forget Sunak is one of them, on the Tufton Street wing rather than a dickhead in a Union Jack waistcoat. The wing that bankrolled Brexit and doesn’t give a flying fuck what Clacton thinks about immigration. Fight!

[Oboogie]

My first thought was Clive Anderson...I'm not helping, am I?

[Bones McCoy]

Randolph Armitage awoke, his head spinning.
The unfamiliar surroundings confirmed he was no linger in the library at Miskatonic University.

His head ... he remembered a concussive blow, then darkness and insane laughter.

Firm hands grasped him,and dragged him to his feet.
These was no more time for remembering.
He looked upon his captors.
Mad staring eyes, typical of cultists who had left their last vestige of sanity.

[Andy McDandy]

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/voices-rip-bo ... 00384.html

Excellent piece by Tom Peck on Johnson, best summarised as a guy who only ever really had one trick - knocking down Styrofoam walls he'd put up.

[Yug]

We might not have seen the back of the lying piece of shit just yet.

A Tory MP has confirmed he will not seek re-election in the seat once held by Boris Johnson - and which reports suggest the former prime minister may seek out in the future for a "safer" run for parliament.

John Howell, who represents Henley, has become the latest Conservative MP to confirm they will not stand as a party candidate in the next general election, which can take place no later than January 2025.

Mr Howell became the MP for Henley in 2008 when Mr Johnson vacated the seat to become London mayor that year...

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/boris-jo ... p-12855284

Fingers crossed that 1) the rumour that Johnson's after a safe seat is just a rumour, 2) if it's true then the people of Henley do the right thing at the next GE.

[Andy McDandy]

Howell comes across as rather Alan Partridgey. Mediocre broadcaster, had a series of blandly named and short lived "media companies", came up via the local council, not done much as an MP other than enjoy freebies. His saving grace seems to be a series of comments on his predecessor (from Wikipedia):

At the Conservative Party Conference in 2017, he was quoted by the Henley Standard as saying: "My message to Boris is to keep his bloody mouth shut!" regarding Johnson's demand that the post-Brexit transition should last "not a second longer" than two years. A year later, at the party conference in 2018, when Theresa May was reportedly being undermined by Johnson, The Guardian reported Howell as saying: "As far as I'm concerned Boris can just fuck off."

In 2019, following the election of Johnson to the leadership of the Conservative Party, Howell was quoted by the Henley Standard as saying: "Boris has been elected by a large majority of the party members and I'm a democrat and we must follow that."

[Crabcakes]

Amazing. Johnson’s ego is so monstrous he was up for potentially killing the Queen rather than lose even an iota of prestige.

[Youngian]

Any idea who the source was?

[Crabcakes]

Not sure on source, but sounds like this book is precisely what the Tories don’t need just before an election and it’s all about heaping further disgrace on Johnson. Good.

https://bylinetimes.com/2023/04/24/bori ... re-untrue/

[Youngian]

Johnson’s comments to Trump came amid growing concerns in Downing Street that his association with the then US President had become a “liability” for his personal “brand”.

Doubt the Love Boris, hate Trump crowd are a big demographic.

[Bones McCoy]

We underestimate how fortunate we were that Trump was a single term president.

Consider the harm a post Brexit Johnson / Trump double header might have caused.

[Yug]

This is a long read, but worth the time.

Johnson could have been the prime minister he craved to be, but he wasn’t, because of his utter inability to learn

Sir Anthony Seldon, the famous headteacher, has been writing book-length report cards on British prime ministers for 40 years. The latest, on Boris Johnson, based on the accounts of more than 200 people who witnessed his catastrophic, clown-car time in office first-hand, is a test not only of Seldon’s method, but also his tone. In previous volumes the author has assumed a base level of gravitas in his subjects, and of structure in their government. Though he employs the same quasi-legal model for his inquiry here, gathering careful evidence, weighing judgments, the story he pieces together is often one of venal mayhem; it frequently reads like a considered constitutional appraisal of rats in a sack...

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2023/ ... -interview

Martin Hammond’s infamous notes on Johnson at Eton, which recorded his “disgracefully cavalier attitude”, his “gross failure of responsibility” and his deep-seated belief that he “should be free of the network of obligation that binds everyone else” is the opening source of Seldon’s account.

Seldon is a man who has devoted his life to understanding and nurturing the kind of emotional intelligence and civic responsibility from which society can be woven. Johnson represents the wilful rupture of those beliefs.

“To those many people who say, ‘Of course he believed in Brexit’, the evidence is absolutely clear,” Seldon says. “From the beginning it was striking that he believed that there was a cause far higher than Britain’s economic interests, than Britain’s relationship with Europe, than Britain’s place in the world, than the strength of the union. That cause was his own advancement.”

“There has never been a prime minister who has been so weak to have ceded so much power to a figure like Cummings. Here was someone who went ahead and removed the chancellor of the exchequer, to replace them with someone more biddable. Who knocked out the cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, appointing someone unable to assert himself. Who tried knocking out and appointing his own person as governor of the Bank of England, and as head of MI6. While all the time expressing contempt for Johnson.”

[Andy McDandy]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/ ... is-johnson

Related, a review of Seldon's book by Andrew Rawnsley. Equally coruscating.

[Crabcakes]

It does seem that, in the end, as I’m utterly dreadful as Johnson was he at least got rid of the far worse Cummings - who could have done untold damage if not ousted when he was (not least of which because of his Russian links).

A true vortex of arseholes.

[Yug]

Rules are for little people

Boris Johnson records election clip inside moving car without seatbelt on

Lib Dems urge Derbyshire police to investigate clip of Johnson urging Conservatives to vote

https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... eatbelt-on

Boris Johnson could add to his record of minor criminal misdemeanours after being filmed inside a moving car while apparently not wearing a seatbelt, an offence for which Rishi Sunak was fined in January.

The 42-second clip, recorded for a local Tory group, sees Johnson in the back of a moving car, urging people in Derbyshire to vote in Thursday’s local elections...

He just can't help himself.

[Bones McCoy]

Scruffy arsehole.
I was hoping for him to get dress coded at the doors of the Abbey.

(Turned up at the coronation looking like an extra form the muppet band).

[Crabcakes]

Apparently he had a massive pop at Charles 3 about him not being a fan of the Rwanda policy. I’m no royalist at all, but what a fucking arrogant twat.

[Samanfur]

What does he think he's going to do about it? Try and sack HM, like he does anyone else who disagrees with him?

[Youngian]

He’s a big man but out of shape. Young Mr Grace with his nurse but played by a late period Brando.

[Andy McDandy]

Looking totally off his tits.