Well, my goodness me, there have been very few occasions when I have thought to myself, well said' after reading one of your posts!! However, on this occasion I listened to this one before cursoring back to see who the author was and was surprised!
And the points made about the news media finding that the cakes and drink vasty outweigh the good things is something that has annoyed me from the start of all the let's-pull-down-the-PM, because it's what they do to anyone with a high profile, regardless of the fact that there is no-one with the personality strong enoughneeded to replace him. All the lefty, Labour, Scottish Indepenndece etc supporters will, as you will have noticed from responses to my posts!, see things from a narrow perspective. Yes, he made a lot of mistakes, but you can be sure that as soon as another leader is chosen, those journalists will be probing through their past to find every little mistake they have ever made .
Ah well, the choice of two which will be for the choice for Party members to vote for will b interesting - I hope!
ETA: (Second try - must have pressed the wrong key and it disappeared) I have now read the intervening posts and as predictable as I suppose mine is! I forgot to say that the thought of Nadine Dorries getting anywhere near the top of the list of 11 candidates makes me shudder. That 11 are all, in my opinion, pale grey shadows of leaders. That Tugan-something is possible, I suppose, but I don't think I'll bother to look him up.
Susan
You seem to be saying you hold Johnson to less rigorous standards because you like his personality. I have never fathomed his particular charm but each to their own - you are of course entitled to like whoever you like. I can see how the lack of detail in his speeches - often because he has not bothered to do his homework or read the in-depth cabinet papers or briefs - allows you to project all kinds of imagined competencies on him. It's somewhat like religious people in relation to their particular version of an unseen, immaterial god - you project attributes to Johnson based on blind faith that you wish were true rather than based on any facts or evidence.
Johnson can be an entertaining debater but a Cabinet Minister or PM needs to have a bit more substance than a flair for debating. And his debating skills towards the end seemed to diminish to just telling lies and trying to bluster his way out when his lies were exposed and when that didn't work apologising over and over again for each cock-up or lack of accurate recollection or misleading statement.
Your responses on this thread have lacked even less detail or facts to support your opinions than Boris Johnson's own speeches. Even if we just look at your point about cakes and drinks - surely it's worrying if a country's leader does not have at least the minimum levels of competence required to think a few steps ahead e.g. to how it would look if he was seen to be indulging in brithday and garden parties when voters could not hold the hand of dying loved ones or comfort grieving relatives because of the rules he and his government imposed on their electorate? Even the recently bereaved Queen had the presence of mind and was competent enough at her job to figure out that the optics of grieving alone for her husband was a better look than asking for special treatment, just because she is the Head of State.
Even a 12 year old would be able to predict that leaks of emails, photos, videos, CCTV, memos etc happen with depressing regularity and that the press would publish the story and add their spin on it. My view is that someone who is too incompetent to appreciate the likelihood of the information being leaked or the political fall-out from the leak and how it would affect his political standing is not someone who inspires any kind of confidence in their ability as a strategist or leader. Whatever good he was doing in relation to Ukraine through his public support - and here his charismatic persona probably was as helpful as any weapons he sent to Ukraine - he is clearly not someone who can be relied on not to trip over his own feet and balls it up in the not too distant future.
As for his strong personality, the only thing I can think of is that Johnson badly over-estimated the ability of his personal charm or charisma to get him out of scrapes caused by his lack of due diligence, attention to detail and professional competence. It appears that he thought that running the country and uniting as a leader sufficient number of the electorate and his MPs could be achieved by personality alone, as though it was some kind of reality tv show of photo-opps to be churned out for the entertainment of the masses rather than something that involved serious, committed, organised work. His personality seemed to consist of his mouth moving and saying the right words about getting serious work done but his actual actions meant he and his Ministers had to keep pausing to waste precious time apologising time and time again for Johnson's weaknesses and failings rather than dealing with the important issues a competent leader should be dealing with. I can understand why his MPs had enough of the farce this had become as his "strong personality" was insufficient for people to overlook his numerous other serious failings.
I suggest Johnson just moves on to the next stage, for which he does actually have the requisite competencies, and where his repeated gaffes and lack of judgement will actually help rather than hinder him by generating publicity. He should just get a publishing deal for him to churn out some entertaining books about his experiences and make entertaining TV programs or go on chat-shows or do after-dinner speeches. I'm sure there is a market for that amongst the public. He will probably make more than enough money to support his careless habit of collecting ex-wives and offspring by various girlfriends and also buy some property for him to move into.