General British politics discussion thread

This. Johnson had a 53% negative approval rating by the time he was dumped. The Tories had been declining relentlessly in the opinion polling for over a year, and had been behind Labour for more than six months. This wasn't a momentary panic; this was the cumulative and continuing effect of episode after episode after episode where Johnson's laziness, entitlement, disdain and arrogance were manifested. And Tory MPs could see that this would never change. Johnson does not have what it takes to be a credible Prime Minister and his second term of office, were he to have one, would be every bit as painful for the party and the country as his first was.

Even now, with public attention focussed on how awful Truss is, Johnson has a negative approval rating of 36%. He's probably the last person who has any chance of leading the Tory party out of the swamp into which he has taken it.

For what it is worth, the question of the new Tory Party leader came up on Question Time last night on BBC1.

The vast majority of the audience wanted a general election.

A handful, maybe 5, suggested Johnson. Even his sister Rachel, on the panel, didn't suggest him.

Mordaunt was suggested by one audience member. Sunak was suggested by panel member, Camilla Cavendish, FT, on the basis of his economic plans and prediction of what would happen if Truss went ahead with hers.

Fiona Bruce made a big point of saying that the audience was representative of English voters. The majority were conservative voters.

Only Tony Danker, CBI, on the panel, really thought it was a good idea for the conservatives to continue.

Interesting, there was applause for the suggestion that electoral reform and PR was needed .

The impression, from that audience, is that the majority are fed up with the Conservatives and what a new start with a different, Labour or coalition government.

Between Covid, food banks and the lack of heating this winter the country would be better off with Pennywise.

He killed far less people than this Tory government.

Johnson is still to appear in front of the Privileges Committee about all the shenanigans the last time he was in charge.

They'd be mad to look to him again but the Tories are FUBAR (which you love to see).

I'd say there are plenty in the Tory membership who would be happy to have Johnson back. To be a paid up member of the Conservative Party, you have to be pretty blinkered and in a small affluent bubble, their thinking obviously aren't reflective of society in general. I can definitely see them reinstating him and said as much a couple of weeks ago.

I can't see it doing them any favours with the rest of the electorate though. The refusal to relinquish power and the disastrous way things have gone since they came to power will turn many against them indefinitely. Boris is incompetent and doesn't care for anything but himself, he's even on holidays right now when we should be working.

Don't know why Sunak would tie himself to Johnson again, it would be the ruination of him. He was right to keep the head down while Truss was PM and i think he'd be better off doing the same for whoever is next.

"Boris" has always been an act, a mask to fool the easily fooled. The real Alexander Johnson is a sociopath that care for nothing but himself, in whatever area of life.

If he gets in I can guarantee he'll continuing banging on about the vaccine rollout. It seems to be recent Tory PR practice to just answer every question with a reference to something you think is good for PR (Truss repeatedly mentioning the unit price cap, for instance); and he hasn't got anything newer to push.

He doesn't need to try and fix the economy. Just blame, Truss, the EU and Labour and continue swindling for a few years. That is his skill set and I can see a Tory win in 2 years with him blaming everyone for his failings.