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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think this is getting ridiculous…

215 replies

RenGreen · 14/01/2022 12:37

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59997364

I mean putting to one side she’s the Queen a woman who lost her husband after a 73 year marriage and unable to have her family by her side…a woman herself in her 90s whislt the civil servants whose advice she followed party!!!!

On top of that the other people of this nation who were protecting their loved ones - losing loved ones. Not holding celebrations. I do not believe anyone can defend this PM or his advisor/administration. We can and MUST do better.

OP posts:
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5
SafeMove · 14/01/2022 19:33

@Seemslikeagoodidea I have never, ever voted Tory and but I really thought they made a massive fuck up with Rory Stewart. He called the pandemic, very early on, and he was proven right. He is all round, analytical and excellent at both communicating and critical thought. We would be in a very different position, as a country, if he was PM. We wouldn't be a laughing stock, there would not be this much sleaze and he would never have allowed the culture that Johnson actively encouraged. It is a crying shame the leadership race was so agendered.

This 'their all as bad as each other' is so reductive. They certainly are not. Johnson's argument that he was too stupid to know and follow his own rules, is embarrassing as hell for a PM. There are MP's in every party who would rather have dug their eyes out with a blunt spoon than say in public, a statement of such utter stupidity and transparent bollocks which Johnson spouted at PMQ's. There are decent, eloquent, moral, hard working and honest MP's in every party. Ask their constituents. This partisan, football like, vote for the personality, 'we love the lad, legend, got brexit done Boris' attitude isn't just daft, it's harmful. The government are public servants who should safeguard, decision make and analyse what is best for the public, using our money and our needs as guiding principles. Not popularity, not polls, not ego. There are politicians who are capable of this but they have been resoundingly rejected or ignored. I do think we, the general public, have to take some responsibility for that.

SafeMove · 14/01/2022 19:34

Apologies for the poor SPAG.

AlexaShutUp · 14/01/2022 19:38

@Seemslikeagoodidea

I just emailed my MP to request that he writes to the 1922 Committee, to have Johnson removed. I've never contacted my MP before but felt it was time to do something more than posting on MN.
I have done the same.

Initially, I wanted Boris to stay on and get kicked by the electorate. However, he is such a liability now that there's no way that the Tories will allow him to lead them into another election. However, they might let him stay to take the blame when the shit hits the fan in the spring with the looming cost of living crisis. That would enable the next Tory leader to sail through the next election with an unblotted copy book and I want them gone. So Boris needs to go now!

AlexaShutUp · 14/01/2022 19:40

Yes, @SafeMove. I have never voted Tory either, but Rory Stewart would have been so much better than what we ended up with.

Seemslikeagoodidea · 14/01/2022 19:52

@SafeMove I'm glad that you agree. I have mentioned Rory in my email, it's probably futile but you never know, if others feel similarly maybe MPs will take action, we can but hope.

DerAlteMann · 14/01/2022 19:53

@AlexaShutUp

I'm sorry to say it but we will only do better if people start making better choices at the ballot box.
Look at what's on offer.
OhdearOhdearOhdearIndeed · 14/01/2022 19:57

@sweetgingercat

Our system is broken and needs a lot of repair. We need competent trustworthy people to act in our best interests. We need...
  1. Some sort of coalition government to sort this out.
  2. PR - FPTP is the problem that got us here.
  3. An elected upper house
4 Restrictions on political donations (esp from overseas)
  1. More local democracy
  2. Restrictions on press ownership and delinking between political parties and press.
  3. No more Facebook/Cambridge Analytica type campaigning
  4. Possibly an elected head of state (rather than a royal family)

Thats to start with...

Totally agree with this.
AlexaShutUp · 14/01/2022 19:59

Look at what's on offer.

I did. The options were all shit, but the Tories were shittier than most of the others.

Peregrina · 14/01/2022 20:24

I'm concerned that now he has (half-heartedly) apologised, that will sort of draw a line under it and people's anger will slowly fade and it will end up getting brushed under the carpet along with everything else. We need that investigation report to keep the momentum going.

I don't think people's memories will fade that easily. My parents both passed away more than a decade ago, but I haven't forgotten their deaths or their funerals.

What might get overlooked is just how badly Johnson has dealt with Covid and as a result, he might get another free pass. As a reminder: when Covid first arrived in the country, Johnson missed all the COBRA meetings about it. He was too busy sorting out his divorce that time. Or he was just too bone idle. His apparatchiks, chosen not for their abilities but because they were yes men and women, dutifully stepped up to make excuses for him. And so it's gone on.

liliainterfrutices · 14/01/2022 20:26

[quote SafeMove]@Seemslikeagoodidea I have never, ever voted Tory and but I really thought they made a massive fuck up with Rory Stewart. He called the pandemic, very early on, and he was proven right. He is all round, analytical and excellent at both communicating and critical thought. We would be in a very different position, as a country, if he was PM. We wouldn't be a laughing stock, there would not be this much sleaze and he would never have allowed the culture that Johnson actively encouraged. It is a crying shame the leadership race was so agendered.

This 'their all as bad as each other' is so reductive. They certainly are not. Johnson's argument that he was too stupid to know and follow his own rules, is embarrassing as hell for a PM. There are MP's in every party who would rather have dug their eyes out with a blunt spoon than say in public, a statement of such utter stupidity and transparent bollocks which Johnson spouted at PMQ's. There are decent, eloquent, moral, hard working and honest MP's in every party. Ask their constituents. This partisan, football like, vote for the personality, 'we love the lad, legend, got brexit done Boris' attitude isn't just daft, it's harmful. The government are public servants who should safeguard, decision make and analyse what is best for the public, using our money and our needs as guiding principles. Not popularity, not polls, not ego. There are politicians who are capable of this but they have been resoundingly rejected or ignored. I do think we, the general public, have to take some responsibility for that.[/quote]
Well said. You are absolutely right.

liliainterfrutices · 14/01/2022 20:27

@Peregrina

I'm concerned that now he has (half-heartedly) apologised, that will sort of draw a line under it and people's anger will slowly fade and it will end up getting brushed under the carpet along with everything else. We need that investigation report to keep the momentum going.

I don't think people's memories will fade that easily. My parents both passed away more than a decade ago, but I haven't forgotten their deaths or their funerals.

What might get overlooked is just how badly Johnson has dealt with Covid and as a result, he might get another free pass. As a reminder: when Covid first arrived in the country, Johnson missed all the COBRA meetings about it. He was too busy sorting out his divorce that time. Or he was just too bone idle. His apparatchiks, chosen not for their abilities but because they were yes men and women, dutifully stepped up to make excuses for him. And so it's gone on.

He also went on holiday.
Jk987 · 14/01/2022 21:28

@kittensinthekitchen

We couldn't predict this when we went to the ballot box.

@Jk987

You couldn't have predicted that Boris - and by extension the Conservative Party - would continue having the morals of an alley cat?
I'm not sure being stupid is much of a defence.

We couldn't have predicted Covid, it's associated restrictions and the rule breaking parties that are in the news. I've never been called stupid before but I won't take it to heart.
StoneofDestiny · 14/01/2022 22:39

Boris Johnson's 'wine time Fridays'. No10 staff held drinks EVERY week during pandemic

Mirror Online

StoneofDestiny · 14/01/2022 22:46

Posing in front of union jacks and going on about 'respect' a bit too much, mainly. But he also comes across as a bit inclined to follow focus groups and spin doctors, and one of the many depressing things the pandemic has shown is how many people actually support a culture of hang-and-flog and competitive martyrdom

Are you serious. Johnson has instructed every Tory to be pictured in front of the Union Joke every time they are on TV (an idea he got off Trump) and Pritti Patel is in favour of Capital Punishment! Up until he left the country was run by Cummings - the ultimate spin doctor..

Wreath21 · 15/01/2022 00:25

@StoneofDestiny

Posing in front of union jacks and going on about 'respect' a bit too much, mainly. But he also comes across as a bit inclined to follow focus groups and spin doctors, and one of the many depressing things the pandemic has shown is how many people actually support a culture of hang-and-flog and competitive martyrdom

Are you serious. Johnson has instructed every Tory to be pictured in front of the Union Joke every time they are on TV (an idea he got off Trump) and Pritti Patel is in favour of Capital Punishment! Up until he left the country was run by Cummings - the ultimate spin doctor..

I'm definitely not saying that Starmer would be an overall worse leader than Johnson. My concern is that he might be tempted to choose puritanism (no wicked drinky parties on MY watch) as a campaign strategy because, unfortunately, it might well be a vote winner. And if he doesn't. someone else might, and succeed. Because there have always been rather too many people whose main concern is that those they consider their inferiors suffer more than they themselves do (excellent example upthread, for instance - 'I won't vote for any party that doesn't commit itself to discriminating against a small group of people I hate, first and foremost'.) One of the things I used to worry about, before Covid, was that the Tories would decide that the next great support-winner would be to offer a referendum on the re-introduction of capital punishment...
lobeydosser · 15/01/2022 01:12

I voted Tory once when I was very young and clearly very foolish (the constituency MP was backing a local campaign I was keen on)
Rory Stewart is quite simply the only Tory that might persuade me to lend them my vote again. He's already achieved so much more in his life than Johnson ever will. He appears to understand the notion of public service and greater good rather than blatant self-interest.

As has been said above..we can dream can't we?

Seemslikeagoodidea · 15/01/2022 02:11

@lobeydosser Well, I've gone a little further than dreaming... I found his email address and have sent him an email, suggesting that now would be a good time for him to return to politics. Grin Pushy I know, and probably ridiculous, but maybe I'm not the only one who thinks that perhaps Rory's time has come? If he is the gentleman I think he is, perhaps he will reply. Then again, he's probably very busy with other things - I believe he does some teaching at a college in the States (but perhaps this is not a full time role... maybe he does a few lectures a year?). He's such an interesting character, he seems to have many strings to his bow.

Kennykenkencat · 15/01/2022 02:39

@Bluebluemoon39

Well I'll still be voting Tory - unless I just don't bother voting at all, but I hate not voting.

It'll be a cold day in hell before I vote for Labour.

The party doesn't bother me tbh - I'd have thrown a cheese and wine party if I thought anyone would've shown up.

Do you really think politicians from other parties and every Tom, dick and Harry weren't "breaking the rules?" - they've just managed to keep it under wraps (so far)

Boris and co were just unfortunate enough to get found out.

I don’t think it was about keeping it under wraps but more to do with the media deciding Boris and the Tories were going to get a good kicking and could do nothing right.

The Keir Starmer drinks party photos were out there but they weren’t used as it didn’t suit the media circus.

ilovesooty · 15/01/2022 03:07

@StoneofDestiny

Ridiculous the police are waiting on a non law enforcement person to investigate and tell them what to do! 😂😂

Who else would enjoy that preferential treatment?

Don't expect the Metropolitan Police to take any action either. Sajid Javid's brother is the Deputy Assistant Commissioner.

Now this is awks. Bas Javid, brother of Sajid Javid, wrote about how he was in charge of the Met's Covid policing last year in The Spectator. There's an urgent need into an inquiry as to why there has been no investigation into #DowningStreetParties
t.co/ubTzrtucyt

ilovesooty · 15/01/2022 03:11

Sorry, that last paragraph is from Snigda @snigskitchen on Twitter but it didn't link properly.

Vinomummyinlockdown · 15/01/2022 17:28

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Bertiebiscuit · 15/01/2022 17:31

Anyone who voted tory at the last election should take a hard look at themselves - everyone knew what Bojo the clown was like long before he became leader of the Tory Party, you only have to look at the behaviour of his father, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree - tbh the whole Johnson family are shady, that's an open secret, so why did people let themselves be lied to and misled so badly - I really don't understand

Jux · 15/01/2022 17:38

We need people who know what it's like to work in a normal job, outside of Westminster. Career politicians have given us what we've got, dishonest, gormless, inexperienced liars whose only idea is to be as photogenic as possible, not answer questions and scramble to 'the top'.

Men and women who have worked hard, overcome hardship and whoa ren't bloody millionaires. People who have gained experience and nouse, and have been proved competent and resourceful with integrity.

We need people who have represented their communities, who have sat on Councils, who have balanced budgets and live amongst real people.

rambleonplease · 15/01/2022 17:42

@Bertiebiscuit

Anyone who voted tory at the last election should take a hard look at themselves - everyone knew what Bojo the clown was like long before he became leader of the Tory Party, you only have to look at the behaviour of his father, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree - tbh the whole Johnson family are shady, that's an open secret, so why did people let themselves be lied to and misled so badly - I really don't understand
Agree. The negative impact of having Boris and his cronies at the helm is potentially irreparable.

I am still gobsmacked that anyone with a smidgeon of a brain cell could vote the clown into power... yet here we are!

ilovesooty · 15/01/2022 17:46

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted as it quotes a deleted post.