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Brexit

Westminstenders: Magical Thinking

973 replies

RedToothBrush · 24/05/2020 19:39

This week has seen reports of the government editing footage of Johnson to avoid embarrassing questions about the early government response.

We've been asked to accept that the rules were different to what we were told to excuse the law breaking behaviour of a senior government advisor. As Johnson said he was being a responsible father (as if Johnson knows what this is) and it wasn't as if he was visiting a lover (this Johnson would know all about). Let's be honest Johnson is the master of brazening out controversy.

We also have the ERG complaining they were lied to by Gove about the new Withdrawal Agreement and the border in the Irish Sea which surprises precisely no one else.

They appear to be a little upset by the Cummings debarkable too.

Westminstenders: Magical Thinking
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boatyardblues · 25/05/2020 22:51

the PM's authority with the British people draining away in front of my very eyes

Yup, not that he had much to lose.

UltimateFoole · 25/05/2020 22:54

So after everything we heard today the story that still most fits the facts is the one we already knew:

When the PM and Health Sec tested Covid-positive and his wife got sick then DC knew he would need to self-isolate for 14 days. He preferred to do that with access to the woods etc on his family's farm, so he DW and DS got in the car and headed up there.

The end.

___

All the rest of it is just too inconsistent; needing / then not needing childcare, too sick to care for child/ ok to drive 260 miles, not being able to get anyone in London to help - not even a paid nanny, his wife can drive/ he needs to do his drive-by eye test, DC is a stats whizz and knew low chances of him + wife being incapacitated by C19/ informed decision was to drive to Durham just in case, crowds harassing him on empty lockdown streets.

It's all an inverted pyramid of piffle if ever there was one.

___

And the PM knew damn fine where his special SPAD was. No way would they not have game planned that scenario given that BJ was diagnosed with Covid and anything could happen.

___

So glad I got that all settled in my mind.

___

Oh - and he altered his blog post to include reference to coronavirus. The alteration happened sometime since early April. Faisal Islam of BBC is looking into it so I'm sure it'll pop up from him on TV soon.

SwedishEdith · 25/05/2020 22:56

This is great

Faisal Islam
@faisalislam

Cummings today: “Last year I wrote about the possible threat of coronaviruses and the urgent need for planning”.. appears to be reference to this blog... actually about biolab accidents and giving a “Red Team” £1m to test security including honey traps ..

But

Jens Wiechers
@jwiechers
Cummings said he warned about i.a. corona virus in 2019.

Thing is, he didn't. References to SARS and corona virus were added to his blog post on pandemic risks sometime between April and May of this year.

twitter.com/jwiechers/status/1264953956758884354?s=20

RedToothBrush · 25/05/2020 22:57

They are going to try and tough it out.

If Johnson says he stays, then he stays.

Remember that.

Johnson has got through every scandal he ever has by ignoring it, and carrying on unless he gets given the boot and then he carries on anyway.

There is no one to give Johnson the boot right now.

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TheElementsOfMedical · 25/05/2020 23:02

After the first few minutes, I didn't bother following that load of utter bollocks, because it was quickly apparent who the intended audience was, and it wasn't me.

If I'm going to credit DC with any remaining Rasputin-esque intrigue, I'd suggest that his statement was aimed squarely at the [419 letter victim / snake-handling-cultists / KoolAid drinking] demographic.

Anyone recall, many moons ago, I wondered if continuing Brexit-adoration with all its mutually-contradictory oxymoronic empty-slogan nonsensical fact-free fervency was a modern secular psychological manifestation of the Costly Signalling Theory?

This originated from evolutionary biology, the basic idea being that an individual could signal their superior fitness by some expensive apparently maladaptive flamboyance - e.g. the peacock's tail - the pay-off being that they would be more reproductively successful. In human psychology, the analogy was that an individual could signal their fervent allegiance to their group by undertaking ostentatious maladaptive behaviours and psychological burdens - e.g. extreme forms of religious worship, affirmation of fantastical beliefs in the face of reality - the internal pay-off being the rewarding feeling of belonging, externally the acceptance of the group, and in our evolutionary past, better chances of survival due to this (but not anymore,, looking at modern examples such as TWAW, Flat-Earthism, anti-vaxxing, Brexitism and COVIDiots).

Anyway, this is a long way of getting back to my point: DC's complete corned-beef hash performance, if there had been any design behind it at all, is aimed at shoring up the support of the particular subset of the population who have completely wedded themselves into a Brexit=Tories=Boris=AllBrexiteers=Cummings=Great=NeverWrongNoMatterWhat identity. The story is deliberately costly. Just imagine the psychological reward of utter warm cuddly group belonging, at wholeheartedly believing that it's reasonable to drive your wife and child 30 miles whilst visually impaired specifically in order to test your eyesight.

Peregrina · 25/05/2020 23:23

[There is no one to give Johnson the boot right now.]

Only the back bench MPs, and that will depend on how long their constituents stay angry. However, people don't forget a death quickly, so if they have been bereaved and weren't able to comfort a loved one, and if they think the Government handled this badly then it might well stick for the remaining four years.

SwedishEdith · 25/05/2020 23:29

That's so weird. I was trying to find out why Mary Wakefield was praying for him (as a born and raised Catholic, you can always sniff out the converts) and then found this article

www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-i-changed-my-mind-about-catholicism

This quote is...well, apt? "And if you think they might go to Hell unless you say a prayer over them, then isn’t it your duty to do just that?"

But also this point agrees with PP (and Brexit adoration) "Replies Ratzinger: ‘Faith gives joy. When God is not there, the world becomes desolate, and everything becomes boring, and everything is completely unsatisfactory. It’s easy to see today how a world empty of God is also increasingly consuming itself, how it has become a wholly joyless world. The great joy comes from the fact that there is this great love, and that is the essential message of faith. You are unswervingly loved.’"

DrBlackbird · 25/05/2020 23:34

This whole sorry situation would be a perfect chapter in When Prophecy Fails and Dom is our very own Marion Keech, a cult leader whose prophecies include the UK being better off outside the EU a spaceship coming to earth. When the prophecy fails to come true and the spaceship doesn't arrive, her followers alter the evidence rather than accept the truth. I feel just a little bit depressed about it all.

What happens if the rate of infection goes up again? Will Johnson still be done with it?

Yes. Look to the US for what it will look like. What small measure of empathy that sprung up from his time in hospital has been used up.

RedToothBrush · 25/05/2020 23:38

We are where the US media were in 2017 btw.

Cummings isn't going anywhere. We will all spend weeks going "surely this will be the thing that sees him off". But it won't be.

Bullshitting has been so normalised.

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RedToothBrush · 25/05/2020 23:40

'Classic Dom' has been 'fucking up' for some time remember.

This story really shouldn't surprise anyone.

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RedToothBrush · 25/05/2020 23:43

My MP is saying "Its time to move on from the Cummings controversy".

So yeah. That.

We are now in full Trumpian Britain.

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RedToothBrush · 25/05/2020 23:46

Also:

metro.co.uk/2020/05/25/people-warned-not-test-eyesight-driving-dominic-cummings-statement-12756170/

Bleach.

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Peregrina · 25/05/2020 23:48

In which case you write to him and tell him why you are not prepared to move on from someone whose explanations failed to convince you that he didn't break the lockdown rules because.......

Or
You could start by saying yes, it is time, would you like to comment on the fact that we now have the highest death rate in the world?

RedToothBrush · 25/05/2020 23:49

Joe Pike @joepike
CONFIRMED: Tomorrow opposition party leaders (Labour, SNP, Lib Dems, DUP, Plaid Cymru, SDLP, Greens, and Alliance Party) will hold a meeting to 'discuss the next steps in holding Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings to account'.

Harry Cole @MrHarryCole
After pitch perfect response over last few days, think this is a very silly tactical mistake from LOTO. Unifying Tories right when they are split.

James Johnson @jamesjohnson252
gift to no10

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RedToothBrush · 25/05/2020 23:51

His comments haven't gone down terribly well it must be said Peregina.

Still, he has a few supporters...

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Peregrina · 25/05/2020 23:59

After pitch perfect response over last few days, think this is a very silly tactical mistake from LOTO. Unifying Tories right when they are split.

I am not sure - it could be the Opposition making sure that they are on the same page and don't blunt their arguments by falling out with each other. As for the Tories being split - they still have to consider their constituents - well I know quite a few don't bother, but quite a few are in marginal seats, and although a week is a long time in politics, 4 years can also be a short time.

RedToothBrush · 26/05/2020 00:00

Posted by @Coldwar_Steve and now doing the rounds on twitter.

Westminstenders: Magical Thinking
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RedToothBrush · 26/05/2020 00:01

4 years can also be a short time

Not sure there will be much left in 4 years time tbh

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BigChocFrenzy · 26/05/2020 00:04

More

The Secret Barrister ‏
Let's not forget a partisan & sleazy AG

The Secret Barrister@BarristerSecret

If the Attorney General @SuellaBraverman has been given that account, including the Barnard Castle eye-test, and feels able to advise the Cabinet with confidence that no breach has occurred,
I would respectfully question her powers of legal analysis and judgement.

BigChocFrenzy · 26/05/2020 00:05

Let's not forget a partisan & sleazy AG

The Secret Barrister@BarristerSecret

If the Attorney General @SuellaBraverman has been given that account, including the Barnard Castle eye-test, and feels able to advise the Cabinet with confidence that no breach has occurred,
I would respectfully question her powers of legal analysis and judgement.

RedToothBrush · 26/05/2020 00:08

The Tories are the GOP.

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RedToothBrush · 26/05/2020 00:10

A 'few old grannies' can die if it helps the international neo-capitalist oligarchs cause.

I really think we are past the point of sanity.

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NewAccountForCorona · 26/05/2020 00:11

I presume you have all seen the Guardian article about Robert West (something to do with SAGE). He's damning about the whole thing.

NewAccountForCorona · 26/05/2020 00:19

Sorry, this is the Guardian article.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/25/cummings-row-risks-breach-of-public-trust-says-psychology-expert

Fairly damning.

NewAccountForCorona · 26/05/2020 00:19

Sorry, this is the Guardian article.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/25/cummings-row-risks-breach-of-public-trust-says-psychology-expert

Fairly damning.

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