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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel helpless in effecting government change.

81 replies

HavenLane · 31/01/2022 19:44

Polite title, but BJ needs to go. He's making idiots of us all. He lies, he treats us as if we are stupid, he oversells even the things he thinks he's done well.

How do we bring about his demise?

Feel like marching!

OP posts:
ThePlantsitter · 31/01/2022 23:01

You can say that Boris Johnson is a liar and unfit to lead and always WAS unfit to lead without saying anything at all about Tony Blair. This is not about Tony Blair it's about our current Prime Minister. The country is crumbling under his leadership. It is not about cake; stop pretending you think it is.

ilovesooty · 31/01/2022 23:08

It's not about parties and cake. It's about ethics, truth and fundamental decency, and transcends party lines. If you can't see that and understand that Starmer and Theresa May were on the same page, you don't understand why Johnson is unfit for office.

Peridot1 · 31/01/2022 23:12

I would march too. Have signed the petition.

I’m so disgusted with them all.

Littlesnail · 31/01/2022 23:13

Yeah, but it will just be a different PM in charge of the same govt. Same culture. Same civil servants. I think you're deluded if you think this would've been any different with any other PM - it's just the stories would not have leaked. The behaviour would be the same. At least with Boris Johnson there are enough people trying to oust him that we actually know what's happening.

AlternativePerspective · 31/01/2022 23:14

What do people think a march would achieve exactly. Fact is that this government is here to stay. That’s not going to change whether Boris Johnson is in power or not.

The best solution is to actually keep him in power because the sooner he goes the more likely it is that the conservatives will be voted in next time, especially given the lack of credible opposition.

At the moment people are less likely to vote Tory because of how much Boris’s popularity has dropped, but reality is that Keir Starmer has very little about him and rather than ever saying what his party would do in certain circumstances he spends his time political point scoring and shouting about what the government currently isn’t doing.

So in essence, Johnson needs to stay, and the opposition need to get their act together and come up with some decent policies which are likely to gain them a vote.

Porridgealert · 31/01/2022 23:19

@ThePlantsitter

You can say that Boris Johnson is a liar and unfit to lead and always WAS unfit to lead without saying anything at all about Tony Blair. This is not about Tony Blair it's about our current Prime Minister. The country is crumbling under his leadership. It is not about cake; stop pretending you think it is.
My comment was that a march over something much worse that Boris Johnson did, did not lead to a PMs downfall, The country isn't "crumbling". Don''t be so dramatic. And if it was, it wouldn't be because of office parties. So if you're marching over the country crumbling, that has more to do with your dislike of Johnson than cakegate.
Porridgealert · 31/01/2022 23:21

@ilovesooty

It's not about parties and cake. It's about ethics, truth and fundamental decency, and transcends party lines. If you can't see that and understand that Starmer and Theresa May were on the same page, you don't understand why Johnson is unfit for office.
And what I'm saying is that Blair lacked ethics and truth and a march did not remove him.
Tinyhorseshoes · 31/01/2022 23:24

YANBU
What else can we do?
Marching is the only way to protest.

ThePlantsitter · 31/01/2022 23:25

@Porridgealert your comment keeps referring to cake. Which as you know is not the point. Clearly you haven't noticed that the NHS is on its knees, the cost of living is unmanageable for loads of people, a good portion of the population is relying on foodbanks to feed their children, Far more people than necessary died from Covid, and there are miles long queues of lorries at our ports because we can't trade with our immediate neighbours. If you don't think that's a country crumbling you've got your head in the sand.

The office parties say everything about dishonesty and corruption in our government. They are not the cause of the anger on this thread they are a symptom of the cause of the anger on this thread. But you know this.

ilovesooty · 31/01/2022 23:26

What Blair did is utterly irrelevant to the here and now.

AlternativePerspective · 31/01/2022 23:28

Agree that saying the country is crumbling is over dramatic, and tbh is mostly media fed, the media who are lapping all this up.

The same media who led the frenzy two years ago to call for Dominic Cumming’s head when he broke COVID rules and who are now upholding him as some kind of paragon of truth and integrity.

Boris Johnson hasn’t changed. People knew what he was and they voted for him anyway. And the likelihood is they will do so again, because people have short memories.

Truth is there is no such thing as a politician with integrity. Even those who start out with the right intentions invariably move off in the opposite direction.

I am 100% certain that any other government would have made their own cock-ups, and that whoever was in charge now we would be calling for them to quit.

parietal · 31/01/2022 23:31

yes, i'll come and march too. this set of lying idiots have to go somehow.

Bunnyfuller · 31/01/2022 23:33

I think one of those change.org petitions. Send it viral (here is perfect launchpad). They’ll have to debate it once it gets to enough numbers and hopefully can’t be ignored?

I would start it myself but my job doesn’t allow me 😞

ThePlantsitter · 31/01/2022 23:33

I am saying the country is crumbling based on my own observations, not what the media tells me. I can see the price of power going up. I can see the demand for food at foodbanks. I have seen the queues of lorries for myself. I know I can't get a doctor's appointment for my kid and that the wait for social housing places is years long. You might not like the turn of phrase but if that is not a country crumbling perhaps you would like to describe it? Would it involve politicians paying cronies for shite services that don't do what they're meant to and the police assisting the government to slide out of charges of law-breaking? - oh, wait.

It is not good enough to say 'there are no politicians with integrity' and this isn't about cock-ups it's about deliberate misleading, dishonesty, misuse of public funds, and LIES.

Bunnyfuller · 31/01/2022 23:36

@Peridot1

What petition?

mum2jakie · 31/01/2022 23:38

[quote Bunnyfuller]@Peridot1

What petition?[/quote]
www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-public-vote-of-no-confidence-in-pm-johnson

WanJames · 31/01/2022 23:39

I’ll march too

Littlesnail · 31/01/2022 23:40

@ThePlantsitter All the problems you mention (excluding the lorries) are certainly Europe wide. They're global issues really, not simply UK ones.
No country feels it has enough doctors, short waiting lists, no food banks, readily available social housing..... we never have 'enough'.

ThePlantsitter · 31/01/2022 23:42

No country feels it has enough doctors, short waiting lists, no food banks, readily available social housing..... we never have 'enough'.

What is your evidence for this? It's... not true.

As the 5th richest country in the world we should all be prepared to pay so our population has enough of this stuff.

poshme · 31/01/2022 23:54

Change.org petitions are a waste of time.

They don't 'have to be debated' as per previous poster. They have no legal/politcal/parliamentary clout. If gov parliamentary petitions get enough signatories they might be debated- but not change ones.

poshme · 31/01/2022 23:55

@Bunnyfuller they don't have to debate change petitions- it doesn't matter how many people sign them.

Porridgealert · 31/01/2022 23:57

@ThePlantsitter

I am saying the country is crumbling based on my own observations, not what the media tells me. I can see the price of power going up. I can see the demand for food at foodbanks. I have seen the queues of lorries for myself. I know I can't get a doctor's appointment for my kid and that the wait for social housing places is years long. You might not like the turn of phrase but if that is not a country crumbling perhaps you would like to describe it? Would it involve politicians paying cronies for shite services that don't do what they're meant to and the police assisting the government to slide out of charges of law-breaking? - oh, wait.

It is not good enough to say 'there are no politicians with integrity' and this isn't about cock-ups it's about deliberate misleading, dishonesty, misuse of public funds, and LIES.

Price of power is going up across the world.

Foodbanks , I can't comment on. I'm lucky I've never used one.

There are lorry delays and some of it is to do with new paperwork but that will get quicker as people get to know what they're doing. But there's also been an increase in freight, work being done at the port and a quarter of the Dover ferries are out of action being refitted.

I can get doctor's appointments and hospital appoinments. Does more need spending on health? Yes. Did more need spending on health before the 2019 GE? Yes. So not a problem created by Johnson but exacerbated by covid. And is the same in many countries.

Social housing has long waiting lists. Johnson has committed to a large building scheme to try and ease the squeeze on social housing. I don't see how it can be done and I'm unhappy about the relaxing of rules, but I feel like my borough has more than met its target.

You're talking about longterm problems. These are GE issues. And the electorate spoke about 2 years ago.

OmgIThinkILikeYou · 01/02/2022 00:00

God you don't want Bojo to resign, him still being leader in the next election might be the main swing to actually help Labour get into power. OK its a bit of a waiting game but fingers crossed will pay off long term!

Littlesnail · 01/02/2022 00:00

@ThePlantsitter

Foodbanks www.debatingeurope.eu/2021/10/21/why-do-we-still-need-foodbanks-in-europe/#.Yfh2vurP0uU

Doctors "Health workforce imbalances and shortages are a major concern in the European Region" WHO www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Health-systems/health-workforce/data-and-statistics

Housing crisis Europe from OECD www.oecd-forum.org/posts/tackling-europe-s-housing-crisis

Where's your evidence of a single developed country that doesn't have an issue with doctors, food banks or any type of housing?

These are global issues. I don't even want to think about the US tbh. We never have enough.

Booklover3 · 01/02/2022 01:12

Mumsnetters match against Johnson.

I’m there.