Whatever happened to the Boris mania and how do the Tories turn this around?

[User135644]

They say a week is a long time in politics but a few months certainly is.

Remember in May when the Tories romped the local elections. Boris was loved (by leavers anyway) for getting Brexit done and the Tories had the vaccine bounce. Then came freedom day in the summer. They were flying in the polls and even took Hartlepool off Labour in a by-election. There was no end to their election winning machine and it was even called the year of the Tory.

Since then though two unthinkable by-election defeats to the Lib Dems, Labour have a poll lead as well and Boris is really unpopular all of a sudden.

How do the Tories turn this around?

What was so bad about Corbyn ..I didn't follow politics when he was leader. Seems to me he wanted Broadband for everyone and the energy companies to be nationalised. Sounds good to me sounds about now

What was so bad about him that this shitshow of a government is STILL defended with "but Corbyn"

*sounds good to me round about now

@VladmirsPoutine

The national psyché is a bizarre thing. It wasn't shitting on starving kids or poor people that did it in the end. Nor was it even the racism. It was simply having a few too many piss ups.

People saw the parties as taking the piss out of them when they were in lockdown.

Not as if the Tories don't take the piss out of the people in this country in a million other ways, yet the English still love them and vote for them.

One of the problems the Conservatives have is that Boris is a lying moron but there is no one decent (or even normal) to replace him.

@Imdreamingofapeacefulxmas

Oh no. Boris as a human definitely seems someone you could chat to in a bar etc. Corybn no. That's why he lost. Starmer... Sort of.

Really? Johnson seems to me like someone women would need to keep more than arms length away from.

I’d talk to Corbyn about his allotment.

Boris is only normal if your surrounded by Eton educated millionaires.

Corbyn was too socialist for this country, the anti semetic controversy, national anthem snub. He also seemed to rile the Israel / palestestine conflict. There’s also the slight boil in his bottom of his brother singing a song likening mask wearing with keeping a fart in your trousers.

I don't think it was ever Boris mania more corybn utter dread and fear!

I agree with this ^. I think a lot of people voted Tory last time, because the alternatives were so utterly dire. Corbyn the little Marxist or school-marm Swinson? No thanks. Boris is a bumbling windbag, but he wasn't Corbyn, and he was determined to finally put Brexit in the rear view mirror, so for many that was enough.

As for how the Tories turn this around, I don't know. The country is as split as ever, except this time it's the nervous nellies vs. the people whose attitude is 'fuck it, I'm done with Covid regulations'. I actually think Boris knows this and knows that large numbers of Tory voters are in the latter camp, which is why he's so far steered a middle course through this latest wave, allowing the nervous to WFH and wear masks, while allowing the don't cares to keep shopping and partying.

The problem with Corbyn is that he thinks a society should be equal. People should have mad things like access to broadband, we shouldn't demonise parents who can't feed their kids and so forth.

The public think that access to broadband and feeding your kids should be something you should just work harder to afford - even if you already have 2 jobs and are just about managing.

That's why people couldn't stand furlough - the idea that great swathes of the public would rather be at home with their feet up instead of down a coal mine trying to earn a decent living.

I've never had great faith in the tories because I'm not like them. My survival very much is precarious. I didn't mind them having a piss up. I minded a million other things they did so I find the change in mood about them quite bemusing.

But if you had not been able to be with a loved one when they were dying, would you have not minded the piss up, or would you have been furious? That's why it's a problem for many people, and we put up with the rules because we thought it was for the greater good.

Turns out that we needn't have bothered.

It’s satisfying to see the scales fall from people’s eyes over those smug, entitled, incompetent, arrogant, lazy people. But - a Labour gov is an equally horrendous prospect, possibly horrendous less in some ways and certainly more in others, so mixed feelings about it all. I’m so sick of the game where the British public oscillate back and forth between these two useless and dangerous parties - always thinking that the opposite one will be the one to turn this country around and give people a better quality of life. Neither of them ever will! None of the other smaller parties appear to be any good either so I don’t know what the answer is. The whole system needs to change. I’m actually not going to vote this next time, a first for me.

Carrie is that you?

I predict BJ will cling to power & win next election albeit with reduced majority.

It won't be BJ at the next election. I suspect someone like Truss or another Tory.

I wonder how electable people think Truss is? I wouldn't vote for her.

@CactusFlowers

By not being corrupt, lying, self serving arseholes?

That would be a start @CactusFlowers

By not being corrupt, lying, self serving arseholes?

The missing part here is to whom. They pissed off people whom hitherto weren't that affected by their conduct.

At least Boris seems relatively normal

Johnson's friends and family don't call him Boris. 'Boris' is a carefully cultivated 'man of the people' construct. Anyone who thinks he is 'relatively normal' has been taken in by this construct.

Boris is a figurehead put in power by the money elite who were happy for him to win elections. He is not likely to last much longer.

The policies which lead to the rich getting richer and the poor doing all the work will continue. Now that I have seen it, It breaks my heart for the people like nurses and delivery people doing the really important work.

I was NEVER a fan. Even before he caused me to change my user name.

I totally believe he said “let the bodies pile high” in the autumn of 2020. Unfortunately my DH was in that pile.

So sorry BorisKilledMyHusband

@BorisKilledMyHusband
I’m so so sorry

Thanks Patty and Evil. 🙏