Boris stands down as MP with immediate effect part 3

[DuncinToffee]

Tomorrow is the Commons vote on the Privileges Committee's findings that Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament over Downing Street parties during lockdown

The vote is a free vote rather than being whipped either way. Tories have been told that the vote will be a one-line whip, meaning they will not be obliged to participate.

Boris Johnson is believed to have advised his backers to not vote against it.

Michael Gove confirmed on live tv that he will abstain

Tobias Elwood has u-turned on abstaining after hearing stories from voters

Rishi Sunak, who knows

I listened ti a caller on LBC this morning talking about the ‘moron risk premium’. I’d not heard of this before (or more likely just not paid attention) but it seems to me that the only remedy to this is to get these people as far away from power as possible.

this is what they (tories, Boris, rishi, truss) have done to our countries reputation and not one of them is standing up and admitting they were wrong. Bastards.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/world/europe/sunak-johnson-truss-economy.html

I you have some spare time, do read this thread about Johnson and his lies, You have to click on replies to see all posts

https://twitter.com/RussInCheshire/status/1670760179812450308?s=20

MEGA-THREAD (sorry)

Boris Johnson was born in USA, and lived there using the name "Al" until he went to Eton, at which point contemporaries said he invented "the eccentric English persona" we know now.

His family calls him Al in private. "Boris" is just a marketing brand.

twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/1670760205292912640?s=20

How Rishi Sunak's spokesman responded just now when I asked whether he agrees with the Privileges Committee that Boris Johnson should be sanctioned for repeatedly lying to Parliament.

That reads like a shit ChatGPT log.

Just had chance to watch this - his non-answering technique is a mixture of patronising and hilarious. As he avoids answering her question by giving her his preprepared answer three times the way he talks to her like she’s hard of understanding is bloody rude yet hilarious (Laughing at him, definitely not with him).

What a tosser.

The debate expected to kick off at 4:30pm

Someone has pulled a fast one on Rish! and told him by appearing inscrutable and aloof he will give the impression that this matter is of no significance and certainly doesn't need his masterful presence.

It's impossible not to imagine the sniggering as Rish! swallows it hook, line and sinker.

Sunak is a pathetic milquetoast, incapable of leading his own party and completely incapable of leading the UK.

We need a GE.

I don't think anyone can lead the Conservatives at the moment. Not by Johnson. Not by Sunak. (Or Truss, May, Cameron etc).
They are riddled with discontented factions funded & advised by murky Tufton Street backers, eternally navel gazing and blaming everyone else.

Maybe they've always been this shambolic and I missed it.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/met-police-partygate-downing-street-chequers-b2360209.html

Mrs Thatcher was elected as the "anyone but Heath" candidate, so divisions have been around since I can recall.

Sunak could make this all go away if he passed an amnesty bill for all offences committed under lockdown laws.

Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon FFS !

I seriously wonder if the same clowns that advised Rish! he'd look masterful by abstaining have also managed to con him into believing he really does have a chance at the next General Election. If that's the case, they should be prosecuted to full extent of the law for mental cruelty. I can't see how anyone could be that mean to a fellow human.

You'd imagine that given 4 Conservative MPs (plus the others) have been abused and harassed that Sunak and the Cabinet show their faces in the Commons.

Where are Dowden, Braverman, Hunt, Wallace Badenoch, Coffey, Keegan, Hands etc etc now?
They are in hiding.

What on earth are we paying them for?

They’ve been squabbling as long as I can remember, ‘Anyone but Heath’, - ‘Wets’ and ‘Drys’.

Honestly I think that's not a bad idea. Whatever one's view on the rights and wrongs of restrictions, there were clearly a lot of problems in how we implemented them. It was an unfair system, and it shouldn't surprise anyone that black and Asian people were disproportionately likely to be fined either. The optics of that are terrible.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/17/black-people-in-england-and-wales-twice-as-likely-to-be-fined-for-breaking-lockdown-rules

There are also still people appearing in the magistrates courts now for alleged breaches years ago, which is appalling. There's more detail on it in this thread, from Tristan Kirk who's the Evening Standard's court correspondent.

https://twitter.com/kirkkorner/status/1668987324049285120

I read today that there's a three year limit on these offences being prosecuted (or it might have been investigated). The latest Partygate event we know about is I think April 2021, so even if there were none after that, Sunak could potentially have almost another year of this hanging over him. There could be any number of videos etc still sitting on people's phones waiting to be leaked.

Tory aides invited to 'Jingle and Mingle' Covid party
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65952298

On top of not allowing Christmas lunches or parties, the rules also stated that it was prohibited to 'mingle' at that time. Makes you wonder why they used that word on the invitation.

https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1305282148279160832?s=20

(a reminder of the law at the time in the thread)

Sunak could make this all go away if he passed an amnesty bill for all offences committed under lockdown laws

I believe there might have been a point he could have feasibly done that (possibly immediately after Truss if he’d marketed right and made it about closing a chapter and moving on) but I don’t think he could make a move like that recently and avoid the same kind of Boris contagion.

What a shame.

Like I said, he could make it all go away.

So now the question for him (and team Boris are free to use this without any preconditions) is why won't he ? Is it coz he's got it in for Boris ?

(Now personally, I don't think Sunak has the capacity for the waste of effort it would be to despise Boris. But if Team Boris want to believe that, it's fine with me. The more damage I can do to the Tory party in my remaining few months on this plane, then better).

Well, I can see why he wouldn't. He was part of the government who implemented the whole thing and so he has a strong veiled interest in not acknowledging how badly done the whole thing was.

So now the question for him (and team Boris are free to use this without any preconditions) is why won't he ? Is it coz he's got it in for Boris ?

I get he impression he’s too vacuous for much motivation to exist. I daresay there are personal motivations at work but he’s looking less and less likely to reveal himself as the type to go off piste. He follows a (successful) formula for success and has been lucky so far that nothing else has thrown him wildly off course.

The more damage I can do to the Tory party in my remaining few months on this plane, then better

that sounds ominous, I’m sorry for anything you’re facing. Let me know if you want help chucking some rotten eggs and tomatoes at something

that sounds ominous, I’m sorry for anything you’re facing. Let me know if you want help chucking some rotten eggs and tomatoes at something

Hear hear.

That's why the poster said it was re writing history to say he was.

An amnesty bill would have to cover any offence related to the pandemic. So no new government could prosecute Covid loan fraud, none for corruption, and none for corporate manslaughter. It's not going to happen, no one would propose that and expect any public support.

I don't mind Mr Sunak not saying anything before the debate, I just want him to vote in the division and accept the Privilege Committee report.

What Johnson asked the rest of us to do at that time:

twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/1670768938525810689?s=20