General British politics discussion thread

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118452027#Comment_118452027

No one wants the job till Johnson is in a position to take the full blame for Brexit and Covid. No one wants his job till they are settled

Strazdas

Right wing press have run with the Downing Street party story on their front pages (bar the Tory Party newsletter known as the Telegraph). I'd say Johnson is still in a spot of bother.

Danzy

Johnson is now the news and in a sustained way.

No leadership survives that.

He'll be left hang on for a bit, then a new leader for a fresh start in the next election.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118453254#Comment_118453254

Deep down the challengers must also feel like many do that they just are not big enough to take him on.

Are the UKs Tories ready for a PM named Sunak, Patel or Javid, will they be worried Gove doesn't have the human touch or look the part. Truss maybe fits the bill but there have been so many cabinet reshuffles and leadership contenders since Cameron that the Tories are really scraping the barrel. Maybe the challenge will come from a forgotten previously scorned now back bencher from a previous administration

kowloon

Is it wise for Truss to wait much longer when she has Frost's responsibilities tied to her? I'd want to make a move before that brought me down.

ambro25

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118450382#Comment_118450382

Away from sports media glare, Djokovic has a non-trivial and well-documented record of ‘fraternising’ with ultranationalist Serbs:

https://globalvoices.org/2021/09/28/socializing-with-extremists-and-hoaxers-tennis-star-novak-djokovics-controversial-visit-to-bosnia/

Farage has an equally non-trivial record of collaboration with pivotal/string-pulling handlers for the alt-/far-right, like Bannon and other types all associated with destabilising efforts aimed at Western democracies.

Maybe I’m thinking 1+1=3 here…but well, there’s such a dense collection of dots like these about now, that it’s hard not to infer some sort of connection, the purpose of which is to add yet another brick in the rising wall of disinformation and division aimed at Western democracies. However small that brick is.

100 people invited to the latest party to be revealed. Once again, how is this only news now? **** me but it's easy to empathise with people who've lost faith in the media. Not that it was necessarily any better before but it's insultingly obvious now.

beggars_bush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118454411#Comment_118454411

quite a few people must have been sitting on this news for quite a while.

I wonder what else will emerge?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118455584#Comment_118455584

Probably won't be politically damaging but have we ever got a "pigs head love making" style tell all on Boris formative years ?

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118452681#Comment_118452681

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are likely to be the last two standing. And it's likely that Liz will win the vote put to the members of the party.

But YouGov poll says 59% of the faithful say Johnson should remain leader. With 47% expecting him to be leader at next election vs 45% not.

Next general election is scheduled for Thursday 2 May 2024 unless they gets tricksy.

Brussels Sprout

All the senior ranks are running for cover

https://twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1480881787412914179

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118455847#Comment_118455847

Liz Truss being discussed as a future PM is a difficult one to wrap your head around, she is an entirely unremarkable politician.

Is she favoured because she's seen as the option that can be more easily moulded to whatever the party wants at any given time?

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118456201#Comment_118456201

I would have thought that Rishi Sunak would have been the obvious candidate. However, apparently his biggest impediment is that he might find it difficult to win over the famously older, white party base in the final vote, when it gets down to the last 2 in any Tory leadership contest. Beyond those two who else is there? Gove?

Here's the current UK cabinet: https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers

Johnson basically purged all of the competent ministers from May's cabinet and even forced many out of politics altogether later on. He has surrounded himself with incompetent loyalists.

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118456273#Comment_118456273

Sunak seems infinitely more competent and coherent than Truss to me too. Sunak also came out of relative nowhere to the top ministerial job, so is clearly on the right trajectory. He has also managed to somewhat insulate himself from Johnson's nonsense, at least I can't think of instances where he has made a fool of himself to defend Johnson like the likes of Raab and Gove etc have.

Truss just strikes me as a complete charlatan.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118456201#Comment_118456201

It's a tricky one. Someone I know who has worked for her wasn't impressed. The Economist has run a few editorials extolling her virtues and they're easily some of the worst writing I've seen in the magazine since I've been reading it.

The obvious comparison to make is with Theresa May, both women who campaigned to remain. Where May fell was in trying to appease the Tory English nationalists while avoiding economic calamity. The referendum was nearly 6 years ago. Truss will face no such pressure. In the meantime, she's been overseeing the roll over of deals the UK enjoyed while part of the EU with third countries as well as the Australia deal. All of these are the closest things to success the government can laud as benefits of Brexit.

I think the ERG types will find her bland and inoffensive enough to stay quiescent. The rest of the party won't have to worry about her having big ideas for obvious reasons and having a woman leader running into the next election won't exactly hurt either. I think the public will either see her as someone who's bland and therefore not repulsive or as someone who gets things done, even if said things were already done and just needed some bureaucratic nudging from her department while she just posed for photos.

ArmaniJeanss

Truss has been very poor in any speeches and debates I've seen (though in truth the only one that stands out is the famous 'cheese' one) and doesn't strike me as having an intricate understanding of issues. I'd like to think she'd be shown up in GE debates v the likes of Keir Starmer, but who knows.

Sunak seems by far the better candidate, but I guess the Tory Party (and indeed England) have long decided they don't like those clever candidates with their highfalutin ways speaking from a competent position of knowledge.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118456328#Comment_118456328

I'm a regular Economist reader too and I have certainly noticed that they seem to give Johnson and his cabinet a more positive spin than he or they deserve (in my opinion). It's all the more confounding from a publication that prides itself on promoting good governance and free societies elsewhere. I don't recall them writing much about Priti Patel's Policing bill on clamping down on protests for example whereas they (rightly) run regular articles on Russia and China clamping down on freedom of expression.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118456491#Comment_118456491

Now that you mention it, that's a pretty shocking omission. I suspect that they're happy to be moderately critical of the Tories but will support Truss if she takes the leadership for the next election based on her history in DoIT.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118456172#Comment_118456172

When you have Michael Fabricant defending you whilst describing staff spilling out into the garden, then you know that you're in trouble...

https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1480867071944704000

Igotadose

Generic Jenrick for the PM. Grant Shapps for...deputy PM. Raab for...Chancellor. Dream ticket.

ancapailldorcha

Mod: No insults please. 2 posts removed.

Sam Russell

What a strange name for a spokesman defending a known liar - Fabricant. Surely that must be a parody name.

lurleen lumpkin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118457252#Comment_118457252

Yup. He's the fabricated replicant.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118456630#Comment_118456630

For ages I thought he was a satirist doing a Johnson gag. I mean his name literally sounds like it means made up

O'Neill

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118456290#Comment_118456290

I find Sunak has the air of someone with a bit of competence but is every bit as slimey as the rest of them. I find him incredibly dangerous actually, I think he has some serious plans for the NHS if he ever gets into power.

Larbre34

Careful now, I had a post removed for impuning Mr Sunak's character earlier. Apparently we can't have that.

gmisk

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-poll-resign-party-b1990911.html

When a paper like the independent is running with a story like this....he is clearly in trouble...death by a thousand cuts/parties...

Rjd2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118456201#Comment_118456201

Hugely popular with the grass roots and has a quirkiness that people like. As a politician its very much the Reagan/Thatcher type politics that a lot of the donor's and older richer tories love and as stated above has connections in the media.

However yeah when it comes to where it matters, bang average but sadly that doesn't matter anymore.

If I were to have a bet on this, I would bet Gove at those prices, Murdoch adores him and I suspect he is probably still close to Cummings who is obviously a very useful ally to have when it comes to leadership elections.

Larbre34

Gove hasn't a hope. He and Boris are seen as two cheeks of the same arse and with very good reason.

Rjd2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118458079#Comment_118458079

I probably should have added at those betting prices , not much value with the 2 front runners but yeah it would be tough for him, but he does have powerful backers and the base do like him.