The chance that Johnson will survive a full term as prime minister appears to be getting smaller by the day.
Overseeing the deaths of 150,000 people should have been enough. It apparently has not been.
Being indifferent to their deaths does cut through though.
Being indifferent because of an obvious bias to business may be worse.
Receiving what appears to be financial support for renovating the Prime Ministerial flat because the £30,000 provided by the state was, apparently, grossly insufficient, whilst also being utterly indifferent to the deaths of people really cuts through.
And, having sacked almost everyone close to him, Johnson looks horribly dependent upon Gove, who is a man straight out of central-casting for the role of Brutus.
Can Johnson survive this? I am beginning to doubt it. The man who has played the clown to such effect is no longer looking stupid. He is looking like a callously indifferent money-grabber instead, in a way that can definitely be understood by almost any voter.
As someone once said of the Tories, they are totally loyal to their leader until they are not. I sense that moment of disloyalty might arrive soon. The cost of the prime ministerial curtains may not be an issue on which too many Tories might wish to sacrifice themselves. The Johnsonian idea of sacrifice may in itself not appeal to them.
This time Johnson is at least in trouble.
And he definitely can't keep doing this. One more slip and I suspect he and the No.11 chintz may be destined for a short acquaintance.
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I’m not so sure.
I think that in Johnson, many of the public see an anti-establishment figure whom they identify with. The Tories would take a huge gamble if they got rid of him. His dis-respect for diplomatic and international social mores is seen as a positive thing by many. His other sleights will be seen as ‘fake news’.
And the other elephant in the room is HM Opposition. What are they are offering exactly?
You tell me because I just don’t know. There has to be an alternative. There is not one of any force that I can see – although the Green Party has tried.
We need a politician in opposition who is willing to unite politicians to get the Tories out. So far all we’ve had is Labour politicians who are just interested in market segmentation.
He just can’t help himself. The annual £30,000 to maintain the Downing Street flat (more than median earnings) is apparently not enough, despite refurbishments and continual maintenance by each of the previous occupants. So he (or perhaps his domestic partner, not to be confused with the person he was married to until November 2020, or the mothers of his other five or so children) needs even more money. The sense of entitlement is overwhelming but he can’t even be honest about it, and instead sends out allies to lie on his behalf: He didn’t take any public money. (Didn’t he?). He paid for it himself. (Really?). He has nothing to declare (surely he does) or will make any necessary declarations (late again, but only if we twist his arm). The cabinet secretary knows nothing. (None so blind as those who refuse to see.)
It should be no surprise to anyone. Boris Johnson is a habitually liar and cheat, a vacuum of integrity, with no moral compass whatsoever. He simply does not think the rules apply to him, and that he can talk his way out of anything. He disgusts me.
Michael Gove has been remarkably quiet. Sharpening his knife for a second attempt perhaps. Will he plunge it in the back or the front of his victim this time?
Back
Unfortunately I don’t think it matters a jot whether Johnson stays, or goes. To resurrect an old Glasgow expression, it’s an Annacker’s midden that needs a complete clear out. Since that won’t happen, then it’s immaterial who replaces him.
Buty. no one else is as electable, so I disagree
Better get him out before the boundaries are redrawn and ID has to be used to vote then.
As far as things go, labour are not capable of winning an election yet, and may never be if they keep on bickering. The loss of Scotland did the tories little harm, but did Labour a lot of harm.
Loads of possible gerrymandering to go yet…Labour “fighting fairly” stand no chance against the well-oiled tory backstabbing…still, Starmer may attract the “firm pair of hands at the tiller” vote…
And that is why he might not go, whatever he says or does: faut de mieux. Both within his party (who is a realistic challenger?) and with the opposition (which still seems content to let the government make mistakes, without setting out its own positive case: as things stand, the next election will be in May 2024 at the latest, just three years away). Where is the alternative?
Or to put it another way, he’ll stay in power as long as the Conservatives calculate that their electoral chances are better with him in place than with him gone. One thing they are good at above everything else is maintaining power. Almost everyone (even his backers) know he is a venal liar, but as long as he can bumble along with a cheery smile, claiming to be doing his best (don’t worry about the 150,000 excess deaths, just look at the vaccinations; don’t worry about institutional racism or creeping authoritarianism, just look at our shiny neocolonial gunboat er aircraft carrier flying the flag half way around the world; etc.) he might just get away with it.
“a knacker’s midden”?
Anacker (sometimes spelled Annacker, Annicker or Anaker) was the name of a Glasgow pork butcher family in the late 19th & early 20th century, so it’s just a coincidence that it sounds like ‘a knacker’. The firm was renowned for its messy refuse bins (known as ‘middens’ in Glasgow) which were picked over by the poor and the local dogs etc, hence it became a widely used expression to describe any messy, chaotic shambles. The firm had premises across Glasgow at a time when urban housing consisted largely of tenements with small backcourts where the middens were located, so it was tough luck if your tenement flat was above an Anacker shop – the stink and mess in the backcourt must have been insufferable.
About 30 years ago I remember driving through Bridgeton Cross in the city’s east end and saw a shop being renovated. The shop front had been dismantled revealing an even older shop front with the name Anacker (sp?) clearly visible. I regret not having a camera with me as I no longer remember the precise spelling. However the expression is still used in Scotland, although nobody, not least me, seems to be sure about its spelling. Oh, and Alex Beveridge is spot on: ‘Anacker’s Midden’ perfectly describes the stinking chaotic mess of corruption at whose centre Boris Johnson sits.
Hmm. https://www.scotslanguage.com/articles/view/id/4494
“firstly interpretated in SND as ‘a knacker’s midden’. Later research … suggested that it originated instead from: “Annacker’s, a Glasgow pork butcher from 1853 to 1942; their messy bins were frequently raked through by the poor”.”
What’s Gove been doing in Israel which has succeeded so well it’s now felt time to replace Boris with him? This is what we should be worrying about.
Now there’s a point?
Hmmm………
It is almost certainly the case that the anti Johnson camp in the Tory Party is orchestrating this, as evidenced by the gutter press today, which is piling in the punches. Remember Johnson was widely hated and was simply a choice of convenience to achieve power on the back of a Brexit campaign with his cheeky chappie bonhomie. That done, Dom done and reality reasserts itself. The Conservative Party has no problem with sleaze or the reasons for it (or rather REASON, greed), but it’s a useful political tool to get rid of Johnson, who is a problem in that there is an unpredictable, uncontrollable maverick element to the moron that is no longer convenient to the elite.
Good point Paul, as Kerry-Anne Mendoza (also) tweeted today:
“I’m not at all excited about Johnson being taken down by the right-wing press. It means someone worse & more powerful convinced them it was time for a replacement. The naivety of people congratulating the Daily Mail for ‘investigative journalism’ honestly takes my breath away.”
I am not sure I find persuasive an argument that is based on the proposition that a ‘vacuum of integrity’ (Dominic Grieve’s assessment, but I surmise also Max Hastings and Peter Oborne’s) should be kept in 10, Downing Street just because there is something even worse lurking in the shadows, further down the pike.
Is the whole country simply going to sit on its hands, no matter what; presumably because the issue does not ‘cut through’ with the electorate? How easy will it be to bring down the leader without threatening the whole edifice? Do the Conservatives have a leader who can not only defend the indefensible with barely a smirk, but also disguise his chill cleverness sufficiently to charm the 29% of the total electorate who actually vote Conservative, and find Johnson’s ‘charm’ forgivably endearing?
I suspect neither the current mess, nor another Conservative from this notably repellant front bench will cut any ice in Scotland. Indeed if nothing at all happens to the PM, because even this atmosphere of sleaze does not ‘cut through’ with the public, what does that say for the integrity of our whole polity? From the perspective of Scots (certainly this one), the Union is rotting and putrefying in front of our eyes. It is time for Scotland to exit the drama, before the constitution literally turns to farce.
With graft and corruption, and moral turpitude, we have two of the three essential elements of Tory decadence.
The third member of this cursed trinity is rioting in the streets. It does them all in the end. Just look at Heath and Thatcher.
How long before the serious civil unrest begins?
Apparently Sunak has told everyone how he funded No.11’s make over!! Hmmmm………………
You can just imagine those anti-Johnson types buffing up the next Tory turd that THEY elect for country as our PM.
The Thousand Year Rich (yes – I said ‘Rich’) must continue.
But also note how weird it is that somehow the country can’t afford to do up the residences of its leader(s)? Again, painting the picture that even the Government is the user (and abuser) apparently of ‘other people’s money’.
How subtle the lies the Neo-liberals tell can be.
There is a historical point here, in that in the distant past government ministers (and ambassadors) were expected to bring their own furniture and paintings for their offices or official residences. The Government Art Collection, for example, was created when that became untenable.
This sort of cultural expectation lives on in some places: I’ve heard of newly qualified barristers being expected indeed required to buy suitable desks and chairs for their chambers (that is, nice and expensive historic pieces, not Ikea or John Lewis perish the thought) when they secure a tenancy.
Obviously a person like Sunak (former investment banker and hedge fund manager, married to a billionaire’s daughter) is in a good position to drop the odd 50k or 100k on soft furnishings for a flat he might use for just a few years without too much thought. Despite his education and background, and high estimate of his own abilities and worth, Johnson is not as wealthy as others in his circle. By all accounts, he hates to pay for things, from a round of drinks to the food on his table or the schooling of his children.