To be really enjoying Boris Johnson's downfall?

[GrendelsGrandma]

I know he'll be replaced by someone equally awful and I know he's not quite gone yet, but I can't remember when I felt uplifted about politics and the ejection of this national embarrassment is warming my cockles. Anyone else feel the same?

There are a lot of amazing, talented people who are far better than Bozo who has basically had stepping stones laid before him to a life of power and privilege. Public school education, connections, massive head start.

Like Rishi Sunak and his faux ‘gosh look at me’ tweet.

and have one of the largest majorities in history

Hardly
Attlee 1945 majority 146
Thatcher 1983 -144
Blair 1997 - 179
Blair 2001 -167

That's just a selection. What he can boast about is that he did better than Cameron or May, but that's not exactly a high standard.

And unfortunately that is commonplace in all professions, work places and in many walks of life.

It's not what you know, it's who you know.
It's not what you can give emotionally or spiritually, it's how much perceived status you have and bullshit rhetoric you can talk.

And far more people voted not-Tory than Tory. You can thank the antiquated FPTP system for the majority.

There has to be a way to reincarnate Attlee somehow, scientists?

@SuitcaseOfWhine

You are kidding yourself - the country's democracy is burning all around you as we slide into an autocratic state, children are going hungry and families can't afford to heat their homes - and all you care about is self ID?

Try and see the bigger picture please, for all of our sakes. (That's the polite way of putting it).

This with bells on. Not sure if it is some Tory bot thing, as this is always plastered over these threads like it is a valid counter arguement when voting for any other party is mentioned. I do agree there are issues with these policies, but it is a drop in the ocean against the country being utterly neglected and mismanaged. That affects our kids, our parents, everyone, not just women. I vote for what is best for everyone.

I would suggest that the austerity and other policies of the last 12 years whilst affecting everyone have disproportionality affected women.

@VonHaus

There was a theory much promoted on MN that Boris Johnson is a Machiavellian political genius with a carefully crafted media persona designed to mask that fact and make him more approachable.

Of course, the other view is that if someone looks like a buffoon and acts like a buffoon, they probably are a buffoon.

It's not a theory, there are plenty of people who've worked with him who say he is actually introverted and calculating, he's just hit on a persona that wins public support. You could see him honing it on have I got news for you back in the 90s.

There are plenty of buffoons, they don't just waltz their way to becoming prime minister. It's the same as trump, there's a fair amount of shrewdness under there and the crazy appearance gives a free pass to do get away with all sorts.

jgw1:
The Met have said consistently that they have not investigated any historic breaches of lockdown regulations and are not about to start to. That is a very different thing from saying that there were no breaches.

The reason being that it is almost impossible to prove what might or might not have been a breach of regulations. People are not so interested in two year-old gatherings that they want the police to be wasting public money on fruitless investigations.

@merrymouse

A few years ago I went to a wake for an elderly relative. There was eating of canapés and drinking. of a toast. Was that a party?

Do you think it was a work gathering?

It was neither a work gathering nor a party. Do you always have difficulty in differentiating between different types of event, I wonder?

@Fairylightsongs

Well seems self preservation has united the tories, they don’t like the defection or that twat show boating and publicly calling on Boris to resign and they are uniting behind him

Right now they know rishi doesn’t have the gravitas and irrelevant of polls it’s Boris who would take them through an election.

He lives to fight another day.

There never was much likelihood of 54 letters going to the 1922 committee. People need to realise that half of what they read in the press comes from the febrile imagination of journalists desperate to keep stories spinning.

There never was much likelihood of 54 letters going to the 1922 committee.

We’ll wait and see, shall we? MPs will do whatever their inboxes suggest is to their advantage. People disgusted by this won’t forget when they next vote and many MPs will be very conscious of how quickly large majorities can evaporate. They have North Shropshire as a very stark warning.

It's not a theory, there are plenty of people who've worked with him who say he is actually introverted and calculating, he's just hit on a persona that wins public support.

Introverted and calculating doesn’t = competent. If he were he wouldn’t have got into such a mess over wallpaper in a rented flat.

However it’s well known that the ruffled hair is an act, and also that he hasn’t built up much support amongst fellow MPs.

His relationship with the Tories is transactional and he is there because he was popular enough with some voters to encourage them to vote/switch allegiance. However many people in the last election voted against Corbyn and for Brexit rather than for Johnson.

He is clearly a good columnist, and that involves knowing what will resonate with the public, but newspaper columns can be forgotten the next day. Intelligent columnists understand the difference between ranting and governing.

@Blossomtoes

There never was much likelihood of 54 letters going to the 1922 committee.

We’ll wait and see, shall we? MPs will do whatever their inboxes suggest is to their advantage. People disgusted by this won’t forget when they next vote and many MPs will be very conscious of how quickly large majorities can evaporate. They have North Shropshire as a very stark warning.

The deadline was last night and they didn’t come close. Folks need to remember they know how many roughly have issues with him, and it’s thought to be about 20. Sure they are making a lot of noise, but they just don’t have the support, there isn’t enough of them. It doesn’t help the media is whipping it up into a frenzy, which it always does, it’s a great click bait story, Boris might be ousted, but it’s clear there is no chance. Not right now anyway.

There is no deadline to putting in the letters - where did you get that idea from?

What happened to the police investigation into cocaine use in Westminster I wonder? Some of his behaviour reminds me of addicts I’ve known.

I think many are waiting to see what the report says.

I would guess that for a serious leadership challenge you also need a serious challenger, and although there are obvious candidates in the wings, it’s not clear that any want to go yet.

My brother is friends with one of Johnson's siblings. Al Johnson is nothing like Boris Johnson. As another poster mentioned he's actually quite introverted and much more comfortable with small groups. He's much closer to his siblings, particularly Rachel, than he is to anyone else.

@Blossomtoes

is very doubtful that it was illegal, given the disinclination of the Met to get involved in a highly debatable matter

Your faith in the utterly corrupt Met led by the Tory puppet Cressida Dick is touching.

The Met's legal advisers know full well that the CPS will not pursue cases that are based on trying to twist the law in order to try to show that people could not gather, eat nor drink at their work premises. The whole idea is preposterous.

It's really not "twisting the law".

I think he's a cockroach who will survive for now. The time is not right for the Tories to change leader. I suppose it will be good if they do because it will force the new leader to take more ownership of the shit they create and give time for people to realise they too are awful before a general election.

I thought the strategy had always been to set Boris up as the one responsible for the mess currently being created then change leader nearer to the election to give the illusion of optimism and hope.

@merrymouse

I think many are waiting to see what the report says.

I would guess that for a serious leadership challenge you also need a serious challenger, and although there are obvious candidates in the wings, it’s not clear that any want to go yet.

What you need more than anything is 54 letters to the 1922 committee. That never happened, so it doesn't matter who wants to challenge the PM - they cannot do so.

^That never happened, so it doesn't matter who wants to challenge the PM - they cannot do so.

Hasn't happened yet. It could still.

"I thought the strategy had always been to set Boris up as the one responsible for the mess currently being created then change leader nearer to the election to give the illusion of optimism and hope."

Yes that was my understanding too. They are banking on having an election during a honeymoon period with a candidate with a fresh face.

I don't believe for a moment Johnson will be leading the Conservatives in to another election.

@Notonthestairs

It's really not "twisting the law".

There was nothing in the law about work gatherings, so I'm afraid it would be a case of trying to persuade a judge that the law somehow included such events. "What?" says his honour "You mean that the law prevents workers having a snack or a drink on the premises? I hardly think so. Case dismissed".

It would never work, which is why the Met (and other police forces) won't take on hopeless tasks. A raid on a party while it is going on is finwe - but what evidence is left, two years on, in the garden of 10 Downing Street, that an event was a party? Even the invitation didn't mention party.

@Peregrina

Do you think it was a work gathering?

It must have been, because bringing booze to any gathering seems to be the new definition of work.

It certainly seems that the staff at No.10 had a culture of drinking. I seem to remember one saying that, with the introduction of hybrid working, drinking had to start on Thursday lunchtimes instead of Fridays.