Boris Johnson, parties and the loss of the Ethics Adviser, part 7

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4560961-boris-johnson-parties-and-the-sue-gray-report-fall-out-thread-6?page=40&reply=117920731

Apparently he's involved in high level talks regarding training Ukrainian troops - a policy I am very happy to get behind - but I'm sure it was discussed between Wallace & Zelensky last Friday.

Yeah right

Does Johnson running scared from the red wall to have his pic taken in Ukraine make him the first ever human Chicken Kyiv?

🤣🤣🤣🤣👏👏👏👏

Well apparently Sunak gave a good speech to Northern Tory MPs. Tom Tuggenhat also gave a speech.

Tomorrow's headlines & photos will be swiftly overtaken by the domestic agenda. Johnson might regret his absence.

Johnson wanting to get back in the Ukraine limelight. Needed to show he could push back the enemy. Who Johnson saw has been encroaching on Ukraine territory.

The enemy for him, Tory devotees and the Tory press being the EU of course. Draghi, Scholz and the hugging Macron obviously got under Johnson's skin.

Bravo!

I can't take credit for the Chicken Kyiv, DS found it somewhere and forwarded it to me.

😂😂😂

There's an irony in Johnson running to Ukraine for a photo op whilst he's emulating Putins tactics of running a country more and more.

He really is the lowest if the low and I'm genuinely worried where we'll be as a country in 2 years time if he remains at the helm.

Perhaps I’m ridiculously optimistic @itsgettingweird but I hope the worse it gets, the more thorough the cleansing of the stables will be. Peter Hennessy talks about the “decent chap” code in politics and it’s always worked until now because senior politicians have had some kind of moral compass. This has illustrated that it doesn’t protect us against a charlatan so we need legal mechanisms to ensure that if someone like Johnson ever gets into power again they won’t be able to run amok like he has.

Slightly off topic but there is an interesting article in inews about the rail strikes. Train operating companies are limited in their negotiations because they are limited in what they can agree to.

It goes quite close to suggesting that the Government are deliberately blocking an negotiated agreement perhaps because they can make political capital from it.

I think we have all expected an attack on trade unions and they have been chomping at the bit to rewrite legislation. I suspect they hope next weeks strike will provide the impetus.

One rail industry source said: “We are in talks with the RMT. But I can understand the union getting frustrated because all we are allowed to talk about is the overall boundaries. None of the TOCs have been given a clear mandate to negotiate detailed pay rates.
“If we get the right reforms to weekend working practices we want, and the union engage on staffing levels, I reckon we could hammer out a deal on pay. Without a mandate from Government we can’t even address the pay question.”
twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1537847979121467393?s=21&t=ARRcmqxTwYZ3m6qg1yEWRg

Attacks on unions is also red meat for newspaper owners given their history.

Was there anything more to this @DuncinToffee ?

@Notonthestairs this does not surprise me. Wonder if suddenly things will change after the by-elections next week?

No, it was just a bit of fun with people coming up with suggestions what could have happened on that date. The boring reason seems to be that it was the date he started using that folder.

From Twitter, re the Elections bill passed in April.

”It happened so quietly you might have missed it, but this spring UK democracy suffered a severe setback. The Elections Bill—which slid onto the statute book in late April—contains the most draconian electoral provisions seen in living memory. It will introduce photo ID in polling stations, which could effectively disenfranchise millions of Britons. It will also bring the Electoral Commission under a form of government control.”

“The Elections Act may be more serious even than this other legislation, because no matter how alarming a government’s programme, there is always the possibility that you can boot them out. In chipping away at that principle, the act takes on a uniquely sinister character. It represents a power grab in the truest sense of the term.”

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/the-electoral-commission-is-now-under-government-control-fear-for-uk-democracy-john-pullinger-interview-elections-act

Where are we now on the “slipping into fascism” scale?

Thanks Beware. That is a great, if worrying, article.

"What now? When the government issues its first strategy statement, MPs should fight back on any provisions that further compromise the role of the Commission. Judge implored lawmakers to be robust in amending anything that fails to uphold regulatory independence."

The obvious problem is that we can't trust MPs to provide a challenge to the Sec of State.

Makes me feel like we're not so far away from January 6th, 2021 Washington scenarios.

Shall we start taking bets on what the full title of this thread is going to be in Part 8? I dread to think what Doris is going to do next 😩

The Elections Bill is very worrying. I think I read somewhere that there had been about 6 cases of voter fraud at the last GE. So this is just madness, we've never really been about election fraud have we... we are sinking into dangerous waters

I don’t object to having to show voter ID, in principle. I have to show ID to do many other things. But if they want this, they should issue ID cards to everyone. They could be very useful items, allowing one to access a range of services and benefits more easily than at present.

But if they want this, they should issue ID cards to everyone.

I think that an electoral card is available in NI.

Yes, and a simple ID card - name, address DOB, photograph. Not the all singing, all dancing ID card which Blair wanted to bring in.

Times have moved on from when most people would object. Except that it should not be a crime not to carry your ID. The wartime/postwar ones were abolished when a policeman wanted to see someone's ID card for no good reason. The case went to court and the whole lot were abolished. DH and I are both old enough to have had them. Mine disappeared years ago, DH, being a hoarder, still has his. They expired when you were sixteen.