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Original poster

Boris Johnson’s one-day working week

164 replies

Redolent · 10/06/2020 08:53

PMQs followed by the briefing. BoJo cunningly consolidating all his work into one weekday again. Wonder what compliant scientist they’ll wheel out for the afternoon.

OP posts:
Original poster
Redolent · 12/06/2020 22:54

So many Tories are very vested in how they voted in the last election, and feel the need to keep defending the government as a way of justifying that choice. They’d rather stick up for this shit show than feel any guilt about their voting record.

OP posts:
StarbucksSmarterSister · 12/06/2020 23:13

I still think he is recovering and not up to working.

But he IS up to jogging around Buck Palace grounds a few times a week, playing tennis at the American Ambassador's place and going to Oxford for lunch?

He left hospital 2 months ago. I wish people would stop making bloody excuses. He's notoriously lazy and it's showing.

TokyoSushi · 12/06/2020 23:24

I've been monitoring this for the last few weeks, he seems to do a full day on a Wednesday, a couple of hours on a Tuesday for the Cabinet meeting and sometimes an appearance somewhere on a Friday, seems to add up to about 2 days a week, and that's in a pandemic!

I wouldn't be surprised if he went down to Tuesday mornings and Wednesday lunchtimes once things settle down a bit 🙄

StarbucksSmarterSister · 12/06/2020 23:27

I assumed he was taking some paternity leave?

He said he'd take it end of June, so he's not done it yet

sleepydragons · 12/06/2020 23:30

He really is Britain's trump isn't he

i hadn't realised he'd got as good as that

CLCB07 · 13/06/2020 00:07

I think Boris will be gone within a year. I'm genuinely shocked watching him speak in parliament and briefings, he is struggling without a script. I can"t see the Conservative party keeping him for another 4 years.

sleepydragons · 13/06/2020 07:16

He's incompetent, has multiple children with different mothers, work shy, racist and generally vile. If he was from a council estate the media would have him pilloried. He's an appalling role model if you measure him against the standards he expects from the rest of us.

DippyAvocado · 13/06/2020 07:32

I don't know why people are surprised. He was well known for being completely lazy as Mayor of London, just delegating everything. He was an absolute disaster as foreign secretary. But he could deliver a three word slogan quite well so he got voted in. He didn't want to do any work. I don't think he ever intended to do more than one term - he envisaged 3 or 4 years enjoying the "glory" of getting Brexit done and setting up deals with his pals in the US then scarpering before the negative effects were fully felt.

I don't know who they would get to replace him. Lots of experienced Conservative MPs stood down at the last election, especially the more moderate ones. I believe the main criteria for the new intake was a strong support for Brexit. I can't think who would replace him (if anyone even wants the job in the aftermath of the pandemic and Brexit.

BashStreetKid · 13/06/2020 08:00

It was well known when Johnson was Mayor of London that he bumbled through by letting other people do all the work, with a few exceptions like deciding to throw away millions on the sheer folly that was the garden bridge. Unfortunately he still hasn't worked out that you can't work that way as a PM, and you definitely can't work that way as a PM in the middle of the worst crisis in 70 years.

Even on his one day a week, he doesn't really bother to work. It wouldn't have taken Einstein to work out that the focus of this week's PMQs was going to be schools and to do a little preparation on that topic, but Johnson couldn't even manage that much.

FliesandPies · 13/06/2020 23:44

So, a day of violent right-wing riots in London, another 180 deaths from CV, more warnings about the size of the economic crash coming and what do we hear from our Prime Minister? A tweet.

He's got to go.

B1rdbra1n · 13/06/2020 23:59

It appears that he really is worse than Trump
But I thought he was supposed to be clever?😳
I suppose that doesn't matter if you're monumentally lazy and of the opinion that 'only fools and horses work'
perhaps his predominant trait is arrogance🤷🏼‍♀️

FliesandPies · 14/06/2020 00:03

He's neither use nor ornament, as my old Nan used to say..

TheABC · 14/06/2020 00:09

Honestly, I would rather shut him away in Chequers where he can lead the life he is accustomed to and get someone else who is competent to lead the party. I don't mean Cummings.

Redcrayons · 14/06/2020 00:15

In his 1 day a week job he's managed to lead us to the worst death toll and the biggest likely financial repercussions in Europe. Imagine how much worse it could have been if he worked 5 days a week

True

At least a trump shows up every day (they probably wish he didn’t though).

FliesandPies · 14/06/2020 00:40

Honestly, I would rather shut him away in Chequers where he can lead the life he is accustomed to and get someone else who is competent to lead the party. I don't mean Cummings.

Trouble is, while Bozo is in office then Cummings holds the power. Tories need to get rid of both of them or they're stuck. In fact, if they could get rid of Cummings (which might possibly be an easier route) I think Johnson would almost certainly stand down.

Clutterbugsmum · 14/06/2020 07:46

At least a trump shows up every day (they probably wish he didn’t though).

I said that weeks ago on another thread.

I can't stand Boris or Trump, but at least Trump has been visible, while Boris is hiding hoping everything will go away.

Unfortunately unless he stands down, which he won't as being Prime Minister is more then actually doing the job of Prime Minister or his party go through the No Confidence vote again, then we stuck with him until May 2024. Although I have no idea who would be better to lead the Tory Party.

Medievalist · 14/06/2020 08:11

This reminds me of an intellectually challenged friend who thought bin men only worked one day a week because he only saw them on a Tuesday collecting his rubbish.

^^ This

DippyAvocado · 14/06/2020 08:20

How facile to compare being PM to a bin man. In a time of crisis on many fronts, the leader of a country needs to be visible to all the people. You expect to only see a bin man once a week. You expect to see your Prime Minister in the middle of a pandemic/mass protests a darn sight more often.

Medievalist · 14/06/2020 08:26

@DiippyAvocado

The op's premise is that because the PM is only seen on a Wednesday he only works on a Wednesday. Which is ludicrous and the bin man analogy reflects that. I despise Boris but there are a zillion good arguments to be made against him - this isn't one of them.

Bin men provide a more useful service to the country than Boris does.

Original poster
Redolent · 14/06/2020 09:23

[quote Medievalist]@DiippyAvocado

The op's premise is that because the PM is only seen on a Wednesday he only works on a Wednesday. Which is ludicrous and the bin man analogy reflects that. I despise Boris but there are a zillion good arguments to be made against him - this isn't one of them.

Bin men provide a more useful service to the country than Boris does. [/quote]
Of course there is an element of facetiousness and tongue-in-cheek in what I wrote. But I’m sure that he did think deliberately about consolidating his public facing duties, which he is patently floundering at, and to ‘get them out of the way’… It’s not beyond somebody who is generally as lazy as Johnson.

OP posts:
carexfairex · 14/06/2020 09:37

Starmer just moans and moans and moans.

Well I mean he is the Leader of the opposition. It's his job to call out the cunt.

FliesandPies · 14/06/2020 11:36

I despise Boris but there are a zillion good arguments to be made against him - this isn't one of them

So make one of those good arguments instead of deriding someone else's thread. If Johnson is working away behind the scenes (and I don't believe for a second that he is) then he's failing in his role. The role of a PM is to lead, to be a figurehead, a source of consolation/inspiration/optimism.

Tories voted Boris as leader for that reason - that he was a recognised and popular public figure with some sort of charm and charisma, the Anti-Maybot. If they believed he had any political acuity or intellectual power they obviously hadn't been paying attention to his previous record.

DippyAvocado · 14/06/2020 12:18

Exactly, facing the public is an essential part of being a leader. There are plenty of other people who are able to do the behind the scenes stuff and who probably are doing it, hopefully better than BJ would do it. With his reputation for laziness, I somewhat doubt that his lack of presence in public is due to him working away feverishly in his Downing Street office making decisions. He lives all that to Dom anyway.

The kind of behind-the-scenes things that probably are going on are to do with preparing him for what to say during his public appearances but it doesn't seem like much time is being spent on that either given that he just seems to talk off the top of his head during those. Big summer catch-up programme that nobody else knows anything about?

DippyAvocado · 14/06/2020 12:18

leaves all that

FliesandPies · 14/06/2020 12:35

I definitely think they are just keeping him out of the way as much as possible - he is such a liability and a lame duck - and being so lazy he is happy to follow orders. Cummings will be up to no good meanwhile of course, through Bozo he still has free reign at No.10.