Watchman wrote: ↑Thu Jun 29, 2023 8:37 am
I’m sure that on Planet de Piffle, he is absolutely convinced there are large swaths of the country that would welcome him into a prominent role with open arms, proving (to himself) that he was right all along and that he will return to save us all
I dunno about this. I think he's 100% a vain, self-important egotistical sociopath who thinks he deserves everything, but he's also no Trump - he's self-aware enough to know when he's not going to win and runs away first crying about being hounded out and things being rigged so he can't have a fair go (as opposed to trying, losing, and then crying about any result not being legit). He bottled it immediately when Gove stabbed him in the back, bottled it when he clearly didn't have the support to challenge Sunak post-Truss, and bottled it when the standards committee found against him rather than face the house and electorate (and got a 2 for 1 as that saved him bottling it from his previously safe seat before the next GE - a seat he made unsafe through his own shitness). He's demonstrably an absolute and utter coward, and only ever plays if he knows the odds are already stacked in his favour.
Consequently, any Johnson comeback is now going to be limited by how much of an easy ride it is and I just can't see him getting that ride as there are too many variables. He might fancy a go at becoming leader of the opposition again purely to fulfil some level of his Churchill fantasy if he can bully his way into an ultra-safe seat and then muster enough loons to get him on the ballot, but even if he did that I bet he'd find some excuse to bail before a GE if it looked like he would lose. His biggest 'win' in terms of going up against half-decent competition (which is why I don't count 2019 against Jez, as his main asset there was Jez himself) was as London mayor, and even that was against a tired Ken Livingstone when Johnson was widely seen as a modern, liberal Tory - yet he still dropped 50,000 votes on his second election when Livingstone stood again while the labour vote held steady.
Now though, wherever he stands and whatever he stands for, he will be seen as a lying, corrupt, right-wing brexiteer Tory with even *more* baggage than Corbyn. The circumstances where he could do any better than seriously damaged leader of the opposition are incredibly low because he'd be a gift to whoever he stood against.
25.8 %
14.5 %
37.1 %
12.9 %
1.6 %
