The right question is in the video in the tweet:
We’re live now on @BBCTwo with Emily Maitlis – you can also watch online at https://t.co/7kmessYy9v
#Newsnight | @maitlis pic.twitter.com/Tf2turNWAL— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) June 3, 2020
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The man is deluded, dangerously so. Apparently Government departments can be charged with corporate manslaughter. Does that include the office of PM?
I am mystified as to why the official opposition doesn’t attack his record more aggressively. There’s plenty of ammunition. By the time they get round to it people will have “moved on.”
Graham
There is plenty of ammunition but the aim is not make Johnson change his mind. The aim is to get the population to change their mind. Johnson’s gang still have enough support to win an election. People will often stick with support and find ways to ignore criticism, rather than admit they were wrong and do a 180 degree turn.
People often go through a process of doubt before they switch positions. Starmer needs to guard against being seen as carping in difficult time. His strategy seems to be sow doubt in Johnson and , I think, suceeding. Programs like Newsnight are undermining the government’s pretence to competence and not from a partisan position. Most the media now seems to be letting us know how poorly we doing compared with countries. Many of mildly approving of ‘Boris’ can now doubt without thinking they are supporting Labour. At some point they will start to listen to what he has to say.
I hope when they do, Labour has a coherent message to give them.
Absolutely not. What a sick joke that was and well done Emily.
Amazing, the BBC discovers that it is not an invertebrate.
I disagree with Mr Hewitt, blojob has to say what he says otherwise he would have to apologise. Looking at the latest ONS data (England & wales) & then bolting on N.I and Scotland it is looking like 67,000 dead, direct & indirect – probably north of 70,000 end of the month. As others have observed, through incompetance and in months Blojob has delivered more civilian deaths than Adolf Hitler did, trying hard for 5 years. If that is success – I’d be very interested to see failure.
That said, the Cam-moron-Gidiot government delivered 120,000 civilian deaths over the period 2010 to 2015 – 5 years – due to auterity – which they imposed on the country.
One thus starts to detect a pattern of intentional/unintentional killing of UK citizens by the Tories – and it would not surprise me if, by end 2020 the virus plus austerity has killed a quarter of a million wholly innocent people.
The only question left to ask/answer is: who are the dolts that keeping voting for the Tories? Are they in favour of more Uk citizens dying unpleasant deaths?
Good question….
The Telegraph tells them all is OK, and that is enough
I agree, a good question, but I think it gives weight to my argument. The electorate have short memories and Osborne’s vile opinions about the need for austerity are still given the oxygen of publicity.
To quote a poem by Robert Frost about a boy who died after a chainsaw accident while family and workers stood around him:
“And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.”
Anyone watching PMQs will realise that Johnson is well out of his depth, doesn’t answer the questions and puts on a show of bluster and indignation that he thinks is clever and assertive but shows him up as foolish and uncaring. Unfortunately the majority of people do not follow PMQs closely and are only aware of the politics from the occasional sound bite by accident. I think Starmer is playing his hand quite skillfully, exposing Johnson for the vacuous dogmatist that he is. It is better if Starmer continues his approach, if he were to get more aggressive PMQs will revert to the absurd bun fight that prevailed before with the full house of baying Tories drowning everything else out. Also the last thing Starmer wants is to be portrayed by the media as an extremist loony leftist that they annointed Corbyn with.
I also think Starmer is doing this well
While I can follow your argument, PMQ’s is theatre (or more like farce) and is not real life. And as you say few people actually watch. So how ever “clever” he may be in the HoC if he can’t get the facts of Johnson’s stupidity and culpability out into general circulation then he’s not going anywhere. The electorate have short memories and I suspect Johnson will be here for some time. I hope I’m wrong.
Labour is getting somewhere
Ian says ‘At some point they will start to listen to what he has to say’. Bill says ‘the last thing Starmer wants is to be portrayed by the media as an extremist loony leftist that they annointed Corbyn with’. Graham says ‘if he can’t get the facts of Johnson’s stupidity and culpability out into general circulation then he’s not going anywhere’.
Gentlemen, For Labour’s message to be heard beyond social media and hence by the mass of the electorate that message has to rely on the agency of the MSM including the BBC, ITN and Ch4. The TV channels take their cue from their daily review of what the papers say. That sets the agenda and the boundaries of debate. Therefore this ‘democratic’ discourse is largely controlled by the billionaire media moguls. You don’t have to be a genius to see where this leads. This establishment is quiet happy for successive governments to oscillate between Tweedledum & Tweedledee. However, if ever they perceive a threat to their vital interests real or imagined then expect another dose of the ‘Corbyn’ treatment, relentless dawn to dusk, wall to wall media assassination.
I disagree
Real change is entirely possible
But Corbyn neither understood what he wanted or how to deliver it
His failure was of his own making
As much as I want Starmer to become more assertive, I think he is playing his cards well. Many people are prepared to continue to give BoJo the benefit of the doubt, but are increasingly looking for the adult in the room. Starmer can fill that role. His messages have to be simple – Corbyn’s problem was that he asked too many Q’s at a time and that never works. Take one at a time and let the PM slowly sink.
I like sailing, and often you win by slowly and steadily making progress, until you are in a position where you can take most advantage.
He’s doing the intelligent approach of asking questions he already knows the answer to in the simplest possible terms whilst avoiding getting rattled. It’s working really well because BoJo relies on emotion and ridicule to win any argument. It just doesn’t work with an experienced lawyer.
One of Labour’s problems in the election was overly complicated, muddled messaging in the TV debates, confusing voters and getting too emotional about details, so as to miss the bigger picture. I remember noticing how simple Rishi Sunak’s speech was on one debate, compared to Rebecca Long-Bailey’s tirade of facts and statistics. It’s not just Corbyn who had problems.
Keir Starmer is not a particularly great orator, and he’s not going to get people’s passions going. But he does speak plainly, and that shows up Boris’s Latin infused waffle to be what it really is.
Agreed
He’s nothing to be proud of?
Whilst we watched the Chinese build a brand new hospital for covid at the end of January, he did nothing.
A government that gains support through its closed border approach left our border wide open at the most crucial point possible, only now talking about restrictions. Literally closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, whilst their fans talk about shooting illegal immigrants coming by dinghy!