[Andy McDandy]

He is still in full denial over partygate, he paints himself as the victim in the Nazain Zaghari-Ratcliffe case and claims that he was booted out because many MPs thought that he would be in power for at least another 7 years and feared that they would never get a ministerial post. The latter claim is ridiculous given how many many reshuffles he held during his 3 year tenure.

Aside from playing the victim card when someone's life was seriously in danger because of his pathetic ignorance and desperate need to grandstand, he avoids the point that his government collapsed when serving ministers resigned in droves because they'd had it with his shit.

[Crabcakes]

I imagine the timing of release just as the Conservatives choose a new leader is no coincidence either. He’s already setting out his stall for his glorious comeback as the next Tory leader to replace whoever they get in this time. And - like Trump - making it clear that anyone who wants a seat at the table has to buy into his narrative on events. The sword of Damocles for whoever gets the nod - if the sword of Damocles were actually just a large, overpriced and somewhat shop-soiled saveloy.

Thankfully, unlike Trump, a considerable majority of the public loathe him, don’t buy his bullshit, and won’t be changing their mind anytime soon - and his party of choice are one Badenoch-led election away from being overtaken by the Lib Dems. All he’s going to do is make things worse for the Tories by trying to recapture his ‘glory’ days, as his ego won’t let it lie.

[Yug]

... All he’s going to do is make things worse for the Tories by trying to recapture his ‘glory’ days, as his ego won’t let it lie.

Bring it on!

[Andy McDandy]

I've mentioned before that he seems to get an easy ride from the press because he knows how to play the game*, and in some ways has "won" journalism**. I suspect though that he's fast becoming the sort of faded celeb who only really has a public profile due to the media not letting them go, out of some nostalgic fixation***.

*Give them a story and they'll love you. Make their job easy. Give them the photo opportunity.

**Make shit up and avoid censure. Even better, get lauded for it.

***Joan Collins is the ur-example. See also: anyone who was in a reasonably popular band when you were at school.

[davidjay]

He's also a journalist himself. That helps.

[Bones McCoy]

Back in the Early '80s.
Just before the Federation of Conservative Students was disbanded.
(By Norman Tebbitt for being too right wing).

A bunch of privileged cunts graduated and planned their next moves.
Some would enter politics - friends of daddy would find a Westminster job, they'd work their way up the party machinery.
Others entered journalism, a much shorter, less greasy pole.
A connection there could land a senior role straight out of college.

In most cases the family fortune allowed them to play a zero-stakes game.
A few others had to brown-nose hard to live off soft loans from political supporters.

Some thirty years on, they've captured the Tory party, and 80% of the national print media.
Johnson and Gove have peaked in their journalistic careers and crossed over into politics.

A decade of opposition has allowed them to organise without public scrutiny.
The friends in the press, will continue to smokescreen for them.

This is what finally Delivered Johnson - "Funtime Boris".
Drinker, shagger, everybody's mate - unless you have to work alongside the lazy cunt.
He leaves the hard yards to Wormtongue Gove and Mekon Cummings.
They run amok, shielded from consequences by the allies in the press.

When Johnson falls, he falls hard, and a little of his corrupt regime leaks to the public.
The broken party cannot find a successor, and fails to select "the right sorts of chap", losine some press support.
The press has also changed character, the Telegraph going utterly batshit, and channels like GB news pushing ever further right.

Johnson is denounced in some circles as "Liberal", "Left Wing" and "Further left than Starmer".
The current set of leadership candidates demonstrate a measurable shift to the right.
No longer the clubbable shitlords, these are proper dark triad nutters, on a crusade to roll us back to the 1930s.


That' a long preamble for an assessment of a Johnson comeback.
* Many of his mates are retired, or chasing other interests.
* The public has seen the "fuck you" downside of "funtime Boris".
* His security blanket of sympathetic journos have broken ranks now chasing Teams Kemi, Jenrick or even Farage.

Johnson has a lot of dosh, and little actual support.
His party are in opposition.
He's going to be an old man when/if they return to power.
He will inevitable get bored and do something completely stupid and further sully his reputation.

He ain't coming back.

[Youngian]

I punced on page 1 of this thread by mistake and MWers should take a bow as to the fascinating public record created for future generations. Who will find it hard to believe just how bad Johnson in power was. Especially as we head for two decades of revisionism created by his powerful friends.