Britain's next leader

[Nearly Sane]

OK this has gone beyond parody - watch from 6.01s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=gRHfgF0l1Jc

Boris relaxes by making model buses out of wine boxes

https://politicallanguageuk.wordpress.com/2018/09/14/13-boris-johnson-and-a-dead-cat/

[bluehillside Retd.]

Prof,

OK this has gone beyond parody - watch from 6.01s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=gRHfgF0l1Jc

Boris relaxes by making model buses out of wine boxes

Presumably someone in his team of minders even as we speak is desperately trying to knock up a cardboard bus and take a photo of it ready for tomorrow's Daily Mail...

[Udayana]

Prof,

Presumably someone in his team of minders even as we speak is desperately trying to knock up a cardboard bus and take a photo of it ready for tomorrow's Daily Mail...

ooh .. will it have new lies painted on the side ... or just the same old ones?

[SusanDoris]

Yesterday I had an e-mail from the Leadership Dept and the subject was: Confirm your attendance at the south central hustings.
I opened it and the content was about the first ballot to reduce the number of MPs wanting to be PM to two. I rang the secretary at the local office and apparently this hustings is tomorrow at The Pavilion in Bournemouth.   She said she would see if there was anyone who could take me.

I rang Central Office > Leadership Dept |> hustings dept and told them how inefficient their e-mails are, but insisted they check whether my name was on the list of people to be there. It was, but much as I'd like to go, I'm going to have to stay away because:
- if it is in The Pavilion, they must be expecting a large crowd
-there will be too many hazards  for me,even if I had someone guiding me
the person guiding me will not know my difficulties well
it will be dark - for me - inside the theatre and on the way home
etc

I can't see any way I can do it. However, the ballot paper will presumably be sent by post and I know whom to vote for since it will have to be the person who is NOT Boris. I shall not abstain because I shall want to see the numbers for each candidate later on.

[Gordon]

I've decided that I hope they choose Boris Johnson - perhaps a PM who is an card-carrying incompetent lying fuckwit will prove to be the most effective means of killing off Brexit and also his own party in its current format, since it seems large chunks of the Tory-party membership have largely succumbed to Brexit-mania to the extent of zealotry.

Listening to some of the drivel being directed at Tory party members would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.   

[Nearly Sane]

Seen elsewhere 'Jeremy Hunt calling for the new leader to be trustworthy. Is there some 3rd candidate no one knows about?'

[Gordon]

Guy Verhofstadt on Johnson (from the Grauniad's live politics blog, which notes that 'ensorcelling' means 'bewitching').

Though Johnson will most likely soon find himself in a position where he must make good on his promises, he continues to spread untruths. Chief among them is the myth that Britain can tear up the withdrawal agreement that May negotiated with the EU, withhold its financial commitments to the bloc, and simultaneously start negotiating free-trade deals. To Johnson’s followers, however, he is more prophet than politician: only he can deliver a mythical “true Brexit” that will deliver the prosperity promised during the referendum campaign.

As is often the case with populists, reality does not square with Johnson’s ensorcelling combination of false promises, pseudo-patriotism, and foreigner bashing. He and his fellow Brexiteers speak of a “Global Britain” that will trade freely with the rest of the world, even as they drag their country down a path strewn with uprooted trade ties and substantial new barriers to commerce.

[SusanDoris]

There was some online/face book Q and A hour yesterday evening I understand with Conservative members asking questions  with Boris and Hunt. Did anyone see any of it?

[Christine]

There's a funny piece by Conrad Black in The Spectator about how great Johnson is.  My two main takeaways were that Black thinks it's admirable to lie your head off if the lies advance Brexit and that Max Hastings is a relatively decent bloke, capable of changing his mind in the face of evidence.   

Support from Conrad Black!  How could anyone doubt Johnson's credentials now?

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/max-hastings-vs-boris-johnson-i-know-who-id-trust-more/   

[Nearly Sane]

There's a funny piece by Conrad Black in The Spectator about how great Johnson is.  My two main takeaways were that Black thinks it's admirable to lie your head off if the lies advance Brexit and that Max Hastings is a relatively decent bloke, capable of changing his mind in the face of evidence.   

Support from Conrad Black!  How could anyone doubt Johnson's credentials now?

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/max-hastings-vs-boris-johnson-i-know-who-id-trust-more/

The usual clickbait from the Speccie, I'm guessing. There are a few writers still on the books whom I would read. Black isn't one of them It is very hard not to think that much of what ones sees and reads in these context isn't satire.

[Udayana]

There's a funny piece by Conrad Black in The Spectator about how great Johnson is.  My two main takeaways were that Black thinks it's admirable to lie your head off if the lies advance Brexit and that Max Hastings is a relatively decent bloke, capable of changing his mind in the face of evidence.   

Support from Conrad Black!  How could anyone doubt Johnson's credentials now?

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/max-hastings-vs-boris-johnson-i-know-who-id-trust-more/

Bizarre. Anyway I can't see how being a decent bloke or trustworthiness even enter in to choosing between Hunt and Johnson .. both are pushing impossible propositions.

[Nearly Sane]

The various photo ops and set ups are a procession of the grotesque wankfests celebrating the slowest car crash in history,

[Gordon]

Reading the political blogs today you have to wonder how anyone (even the most rabid of Brexit-happy Tories) could believe the evermore hawkish and deranged nonsense these two fuckwits are coming out with.

[Spud]

According to someone on Radio 4 this morning, it would be against WTO rules for the government to subsidize specific farmers and fishermen who sell goods to the EU and have to pay tariffs, unless the subsidies include all fishermen and farmers.

[Gordon]

According to someone on Radio 4 this morning, it would be against WTO rules for the government to subsidize specific farmers and fishermen who sell goods to the EU and have to pay tariffs, unless the subsidies include all fishermen and farmers.

If so then these guys are making stuff up as they go along and either would be dangerous as PM. I'd imagine though that no matter who the Tory faithful choose reality will expose their lies and false promises.

Brexit looks likely to break current politics, which is probably no bad thing - the question is what comes next.

[Spud]

the question is what comes next.

What was the general outcome of the EU elections, in terms of how many voters support Brexit and how many don't? Does the success of the Brexit Party mean that there are now more Leave than Remain supporters?

[Nearly Sane]

What was the general outcome of the EU elections, in terms of how many voters support Brexit and how many don't? Does the success of the Brexit Party mean that there are now more Leave than Remain supporters?

Taking the last one first - no - since they didn't get a majority. As to the rest of it - despite the idea that you can take votes for parties opposed to Brexit vs those in favour - it's not a single issue election for parties other than the Brexit party so impossible to tell.  Current polls tend to put remain in a small lead but those are just polls. In one sense the numbers of the public don't matter, it's the numbers in the HoC that do.

[Udayana]

ISTM that even if Remain would now win a referendum by a couple of percentage points, it is unlikely that the UK could make a success of membership and future progress of the EU as a political union with a such a large, say 48%, Leave faction .

It would probably be best to cut our losses and leave with acceptance of the WA and negotiating a reasonable long term economic arrangement - but neither Hunt or Johnson are heading for this either.

[Nearly Sane]

ISTM that even if Remain would now win a referendum by a couple of percentage points, it is unlikely that the UK could make a success of membership and future progress of the EU as a political union with a such a large, say 48%, Leave faction .

It would probably be best to cut our losses and leave with acceptance of the WA and negotiating a reasonable long term economic arrangement - but neither Hunt or Johnson are heading for this either.

The issue though is surely whether such a thing is possible with the numbers in the HoC. The way Hunt and Johnson are heading has election written over it - not that that will solve anything either

[Udayana]

The issue though is surely whether such a thing is possible with the numbers in the HoC. The way Hunt and Johnson are heading has election written over it - not that that will solve anything either

True enough.

Without an election we will likely drift into no deal. An election may or may not resolve anything depending on actual manifestos and leadership.

[Nearly Sane]

True enough.

Without an election we will likely drift into no deal. An election may or may not resolve anything depending on actual manifestos and leadership.

The problem there is we're back at the point you made about the country being pretty equally split on the issue. Add to that that any elections cannot be solely about Brexit, and it seems to me to be just another delay.

[Nearly Sane]

Current predictions on Electoral Calculus based on running Poll of Polls is 'interesting'


https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/homepage.html

[Nearly Sane]

Saw that Jeremy Hunt was being accused of a reverse ferret on fox hunting elsewhere which prompted me to look to see where the phrase came from. In turn that led to reading the delightful snippet below


'In 2014, the Mayor of New York performed a literal reverse ferret when he repealed a ban on owning domesticated ferrets within the city.'


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

[Nearly Sane]

So the latest polls seem to indicate a landslide for the dangerous lying incompetent racist who is possibly going to prorogue parliament.

[SteveH]

So the latest polls seem to indicate a landslide for the dangerous lying incompetent racist who is possibly going to prorogue parliament.

So it could go either way, then.