There is only so much that can be done on a day when you return from holiday. But I did get an article on Boris Johnson into Open Democracy, here. This was my summary:
I think ... Johnson is simply dissembling without any care about whether what he is saying is deliverable or not. And that is perhaps the most worrying aspect of this. We have a man seeking to become prime minister who simply does not care about the truth, or anything much else come to that.
And Accountancy Age quote me on the same theme:
“There is absolutely no coherent logic underpinning this particular proposal,” says Richard Murphy, a chartered accountant and political economist, “either economically, or in tax terms or in social terms. It's basically an appeal to the electors in the Tory party Prime ministerial base.”
But I suspect that particular electorate is entirely happy about that. We're meant to have laws that stop election abuse. They do not appear to apply in Johnson's case.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
This is very scary. And very like Trump. The truth doesn’t matter, does it? Too many voters just want a slogan/figurehead.
The only Truth that Trump ever voiced was his observation that he could go out on the street and shoot somebody and people would still vote for him. Boris has taken that observation on board. (So has Farage.)
It’s not the likes of Johnson or Trump or Farage who scare me. It’s the voters who support these kinds of candidates who scare me. You can’t use logic on these voters, because they have wilfully decided to ignore it. They know better, but they just don’t care. They want simplicity. And these candidates talk ‘simple.’
If only there was a way to make ONLY these voters suffer the consequences of their wilful stupidity. But, sadly, we all go down together.
We can only hope that Wilful Stupidity isn’t the majority mindset. Yet.
Agreed
95% in agreement with that Jan. I’m sick of the laziness, selfishness and stupidity of members of the electorate who let themselves be taken in by people like Trump and Johnson. Same with Leave voters who are now being confronted daily with evidence that leaving the EU is very difficult, and will damage the UK enormously.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the only reason to continue fighting Brexit and Trump and the like is that they’ll hurt me and millions of other people (and other species in the case of climate catastrophe) who don’t deserve it. If only Americans suffered from Trump, rather than him endanger the whole planet, fine by me.
Same for the UK. If a ‘no deal’ (God I’m sick of that phrase) Brexit only hurt the liars and fools who promoted it, and voted for it, fine by me. The trouble is, as you say, we’ll all suffer.
Where I disagree is that you’re not frightened of so called leaders like Trump and Johnson. The fact that wretches like these want power and don’t care what they do (a) to get it, and (b) what they do when they get it, frightens me.
So true Richard neither the Tory Party the MSM or even our judicial system care about truth integrity or whether Johnson’s actions are downright corrupt. He was taken to court for downright lies during the EU campaign because the public knew he was guilty. Our country is doomed as many compare him to Trump and think that is a plus. Trump still holds power on the World stage inspire of everyone knowing of his guilt he gets away with it. Even being welcome by our Queen. What sort of a message does that give out ? Not only do many people in the UK want World Trade they also welcome the non rules that will be thrown out that previously protected the UK. It is common knowledge that nothing Johnson has ever done has been for the good of the country, just the furtherment of his career in politics. Our country can’t stoop much lower.
Just wait Min
Bojo appears to be immune from any of our “laws” but does the Electoral Commissions purview extend to ‘internal party elections’…?
No….and yet if it leads to the appointment of a PM should it?
PS Trust you had a good holiday…
I did
My inbox looks horrible today…
Politics only has itself to blame.
Trump rules because the Republicans and Democrats tried to be like each other = the voters over there do not see a difference, get despondent and then latch onto opportunists like Trump.
We are going the same way here.
We may have to enter a prolonged period where the public tries the populist route but still ends up with lives that are no better save that their racist or religious bents get an airing.
Thus is the consequence of orthodoxy.
Well, today there is an opinion poll in the Daily Telegraph which suggests Boris would get a landslide.
Tories 37%, with Labour on 22%, the LibDems on 20% and the Brexit party on 14%.
Thanks to the vagaries of first past the post this result suggest the Conservatives would win 395 seats out of 651, with Labour on just 151. This would be a majority of 140 seats despite the fact that the vast majority will have voted against them, although it should be pointed out that Boris + Farage = 51% in this poll.
He’s the only Tory candidate that would get a majority from this sample, Dominic Raab comes second, but this poll suggests he would be 57 seats short. The Tories would be wiped out if they elected Rory Stewart as leader and I doubt it’s because voters know his economic and fiscal policies.
Bottom line, our electoral system will encourage Tory extremism as opposition will be split 4 ways, Labour, LibDem, SNP (no way Lab ever wins big in Scotland again) and Greens.
As an aside I read recently that the tory party membership is now around 160,000, which appears to be up significantly from before the leadership race was announced. There can be no doubt that infiltration is going on to ensure a hard Brexiter is elected.
The lunatics have and will take over the asylum.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson may look superficially attractive as a figurehead. He is certainly amusing (like a clown), and charming (like most populist demagogues). “Boris” benefits from the wide single-name recognition, and any faults are excused: “oh, that’s just Boris”. But he has a poor record of actually leading and making decisions (to pick three, the Garden Bridge, the water cannon, and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe). Worse, he is demonstrably a repeated and unapologetic liar. Eddie Mair gets him bang to rights in the “nasty piece of work” interview. Matthew Parris has his number too – “underprepared, jolly, sly, dishonest, unapologetic … horrifyingly vulnerable”. Can his faults be brushed aside and forgotten?
As they say, we get the politicians we deserve. We may regret ditching Theresa May. (It could be worse – Chris Grayling…)
Al Johnson would put on a blackface and sing Mammie! if he thought it could get the oldie vote.
Eddie Mair is a disgrace – he has happily taken his gullible ‘liberal’ BBC listeners to LBC – in the warm up slot to the daily Farage propaganda slot. Giving Nigel ‘Thankyou Donald’ the opportunity to get his politics to a wider audience.
How is it concievable that a LEADER of a ‘major political party’ without any MP’s, is given a daily prosletyzing platform on mainstream national, free to air medium? Mair supports that!!
Hang on, this is the station that also has James O’Brien
And I thought Farage was once a week?
Charming? Amusing? Superficially attractive?
I must be on another planet.
The man doesn’t have an ounce of conscience and looks positively odious to me in every way. He’s that popular bully on the playground, the one who needs a good talking to and hours of counselling before he does too much damage.
Who could stop him, and how, is what interests me.
Farage is on daily at 6pm except on days when Rees-Mogg gets the slot to purr to the proles. They are busybodies!
I’ve been forcing myself to listen to the various radio phone in’s – to keep track of the full spectrum narrative manufacturing, they are all pretty much the same. O’Brien is a fig leaf, they are employed as such across all broadcasters, to hook the open minded.
Shows what I know…..
The base is not entirely happy. Selling out on gut instinct and fairness has a cost to society.
Remember that some regulation ‘secures/settles a turbulent market’ and allows the leading players to do what should be done to be done without the bad pennies driving out the good pennys.