Vixen
Penultimate Amazing
I had a boss called 'Hunt' and he quite proudly used to call himself by the 'c' word.
Our next unelected PM?
- Thread starter Darat
- Start date
I had a boss called 'Hunt' and he quite proudly used to call himself by the 'c' word.
Francesca R
Girl
Apparently BJ was appointed foreign secretary in error anyway.
T May had been jotting down cabinet ideas on a notepad and wrote "Boris Johnson --> F. Off", and it got misinterpreted.
#OldJoke
T May had been jotting down cabinet ideas on a notepad and wrote "Boris Johnson --> F. Off", and it got misinterpreted.
#OldJoke
By the way, here is another interesting development (for those outside the UK who may not see these things so easily) - the former head of MI6 is now saying in barely concealed terms, that Boris Johnson is unfit to be PM because he's intellectually incapable of, or emotionally incapable of, making safe decisions with vital state security/intelligence material.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48892102
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48892102
Mojo
Mostly harmless
No, I just think that when he says he’s opposed to “sin taxes”, he’s worried about something like this:
http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode15.htm
Or indeed news at all!If only this was shocking, or even mildly surprising news
If only this was shocking, or even mildly surprising news
What definitely IS news about it, is the former head of MI6 saying it so very clearly and so publicly.
Perhaps someone can remind us of when was the last time a head of MI5 or MI6 made a public statement saying that an incoming prime minister was unfit to be trusted with UK intelligence secrets?
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Well it would probably produce a different party in power. I would expect a Labour-Lib/Dem coalition (but only due to Labour not quite gaining enough seats to form a government on their own ... and with Lib-Dem's agreeing on a coalition only in order to prevent a "hard Brexit"). I would expect the Conservatives to do pretty badly in an election right now (though things can change very quickly in UK politics of course).
That could easily mean that a Labour-Lib/Dem coalition government could get a slightly more favourable deal from the EU (because when Corbyn met EU leaders at the time when Mrs May was asking for the current extension, the EU leaders made clear that they could work more easily with Corbyn).
And even if they could not get a better deal to offer the HoC, they might in any case have enough MPs between them (as a coalition) to back a deal without the Conservatives having enough MPs to overturn it.
That "deal" might of course be a new referendum (which iirc the Lib Dems want ... or else they want to scrap Brexit altogether), i.e. rather than any deal with conditions for actually exiting the EU.
IOW - for those of us who don't want to see the UK leave the EU, a new General Election could quite easily be expected to provide a majority vote against any hard Brexit (or even against any Brexit at all). So it would "solve" things in that sense (though of course you'd have the Brexit 30% of the electorate absolutely furious with UK politics ... and that would be a deeply uncomfortable position for any Lab-Lib/Dem government that alienated 30% of it's potential future voters like that ... but that's inevitable, because either way half the UK electorate is going to be very annoyed indeed whatever happens).
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Civil servants should keep out of politics. They are very well rewarded and get knighthoods and other honours merely for doing their jobs. If they wish to challenge politicians rather than serve them, then working civil servants should resign their posts, and retired civil servants should give back their honours.
In a similar sort of piece of news (which Darat and others can say is not news, if they want to say that) – I was just listening to John Pienaar's politics program this morning on BBC Radio-5, where he was interviewing first Jacob Rees Mogg, and then another Conservative MP (whose name I did not catch) who was saying that he would defy a Tory whip and vote against any No Deal, but he was then asked if he thought Boris would make a good PM, and he was absolutely clear in saying “no he would not make a good PM, because he is untrustworthy, he says one thing one moment but then does the opposite, he cannot be trusted”.
That is an amazingly scathing rejection of Boris Johnson for any Tory MP to make, not just a rejection as PM, but really a serious criticism of him as an honest or competent person at all.
That is an amazingly scathing rejection of Boris Johnson for any Tory MP to make, not just a rejection as PM, but really a serious criticism of him as an honest or competent person at all.
P.J. Denyer
Penultimate Amazing
Yes, but it's also an entirely reasonable, if not unavoidable, conclusion from an honest reading of his history. The man has been fired twice for lying and caught out without consequence many,many times more.
But will not make one iota of a difference to the 60,001 votes needed to make him our next PM.
Just another point. The MP is clearly confused, there is no vote needed for a no deal exit, he probably meant if legislation was put before the house that prevented a no deal exit he would vote for it. However I doubt that will mean anything as the HoC have rejected all such legislation and amendments so far and nothing has changed in the last few months.
Vixen
Penultimate Amazing
Probably all the time but the memo was marked 'Top Secret'.
Vixen
Penultimate Amazing
'Should' and 'will' are two different words for a reason.
Childlike Empress
Banned
Oh, he will probably get elected (i.e. Boris) by the paid-up members of the Conservative party, or at least it looks that way at present. But what interviews like that do show is just how much distrust and dislike there is for Boris even amongst Conservative MPs.
What does that tell us? Well it tells us (a) that quite a few of the people who have actually worked with him, do not trust him and think he is incompetent and nowhere near fit to be in any high office let alone Prime Minister ... and frankly, I do not ever recall so many MPs (as well as journalists who have worked with him) saying anything anywhere near so scathing about a prospective/likely Prime Minister.
And (b) it also tells us that as PM, Boris may not get quite the usual level of support expected from his own Conservative MPs in the forthcoming votes on any Brexit deal that he tries to push through the Hoc. And if Boris begins to look like a complete shambles and an embarrassment to his own party, then that would probably make it even more difficult for him to gain enough supporting votes for the sort of hard-line Brexit he wants voted through the HoC.
They may dislike him, but 2/3 of them voted for him in the process to whittle down the list to two candidates. This means that the majority like him enough and/or they know which way their bread is likely to be buttered in the future but in any case he currently has their support.
It doesn't really matter who thinks he's unsuitable unless it's enough Conservative Party members to swing the vote towards Jeremy Hunt (who is hardly a stellar candidate
)The thing is, as has been pointed out in the Brexit thread, Boris doesn't necessarily need anything passed by Parliament to get a no-deal Brexit, he just needs Parliament to continue to fail to agree on an alternative course of action.
Given that any alternative course of action would almost certainly be introduced by one or more opposition parties then it's highly likely that the bill will fail it the government whips against it - which IMO it will almost certainly do.
Whether it's a bill to force Boris to go back and ask for more time (which in itself solves nothing unless an alternative course of action can be agreed), a bill to force a second referendum, a bill to force a revocation of Article 50 or even a no-confidence motion (which again may or may not solve anything depending on the makeup of Parliament following a general election and the Brexit platforms of the various parties post election), if the Conservatives are whipped to oppose it then IMO it will likely fail because the number of Conservative rebels will be too small to offset the support of the DUP and the handful of Labour MPs who would vote against their party.
Even if Boris is personally unpopular among Conservative MPs (but he got the support of a clear majority of them in the leadership race), voting on Brexit-related matters IMO goes beyond the PM's personal popularity in any case. The Conservative MPs will toe the party line - especially one which delivers a hard-Brexit (remember Theresa May's deal failed to get through because it wasn't hard enough of a Brexit for the ERG.
By and large they are not (and never have been) potential LibDem voters, and not all that many of them are potential Labour voters, frankly.
He needs more than a majority of Tories, though.
Indeed, he needs almost all of the Tory MPs to support him (at least pay lip service). Only he can hardly be called a unifying character.