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Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 12:14 pm
by Crabcakes
davidjay wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 10:15 am
Boiler wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 10:06 am
Every day I think this country can't get any worse... and then it does.
When Major's government was up to its necks in sleaze they resigned when they were found out and the electorate were outraged. This government says "So what?" and the electorate agrees.
I wouldn't say the electorate agrees so much as the electorate are so swamped with things - an inept opposition followed by a still-underperforming one, pandemic, climate change, brexit fallout - that they just don't have time to stop and think. There are so many things to be angry about and be worried about that there isn't time to reflect and say "this is awful". It's the Trump approach - overwhelm and move on - and it works.
The cognitive load is too much. The way to beat it isn't to try and fight back on every front, but to carefully choose the ones that stick and keep going. Cummings was never going to survive his eye test trip, even if initially Johnson let him off. Hancock couldn't survive his affair not because it was an affair but because of when and where he had it.
I think there are reasons to be hopeful - not least of which being the strength of many youth movements. Greta Thunberg just isn't going away and doesn't care - and that infuriates people like Piers Morgan or Trump. They can't get her with their normal tactics just like they can't be got by the media's normal tactics. Plus a lot of the absolute worst people are either old and/or in poor health. No one will work the way Murdoch does again. Trump is a few chicken buckets short of a heart attack or major stroke (and his belief that he's an invincible adonis will hasten that). One of the Koch brothers is dead and the other isn't too hot.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 12:29 pm
by Nigredo
The temerity of the pork haystack to stick to that "Labour are the ditherers and we are the doers!" line at PMQs despite it being well documented he's chronically indecisive until the binary choice of the worst and least-worst options remain

Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 1:08 pm
by Boiler
Oblomov wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 12:29 pm
The temerity of the pork haystack to stick to that "Labour are the ditherers and we are the doers!" line at PMQs despite it being well documented he's chronically indecisive until the binary choice of the worst and least-worst options remain
And the electorate at large will buy into it.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 3:57 pm
by Spoonman
Before I start, I'm well aware that the following comment is potentially inviting a lot of heat, so I'll put on my flak jacket while typing.
The only way you'll scare the crap out of that bunch of corrupt fuckheads is if you relay to them that their actions might make someone - and it just has to be one - go down a dark road and that they decide that your name is next on the list after Jo Cox and David Amess.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 4:05 pm
by Youngian
Crabcakes wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 12:14 pm
I think there are reasons to be hopeful - not least of which being the strength of many youth movements. Greta Thunberg just isn't going away and doesn't care - and that infuriates people like Piers Morgan or Trump.
Boiler wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 1:08 pm
And the electorate at large will buy into it.
Sort of, Trump's a failure on 48 percent, Johnson can achieve a landslide on 40 percent. Dubious about a progressive alliance due to whether Green and LD dustbin voters would deliver but that's what's happened Hungary and its not looking good for Orban. We're witnessing the last stand of the self entitled white person who doesn't want to share the world. And they come in the form of nativist pricks and low tax economic liberals. So no divisions on the right. Hang in there.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 4:11 pm
by Youngian
Spoonman wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 3:57 pm
Before I start, I'm well aware that the following comment is potentially inviting a lot of heat, so I'll put on my flak jacket while typing.
The only way you'll scare the crap out of that bunch of corrupt fuckheads is if you relay to them that their actions might make someone - and it just has to be one - go down a dark road and that they decide that your name is next on the list after Jo Cox and David Amess.
Proposing arrests and jail sentences might be a good start. That means the former DPP upping his game before power fades from the Tories. And PC Plod knows what they have to do to indulge their in-coming masters.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 5:10 pm
by Boiler
Given a number of forces are as bent as a nine bob note, there'd need to be wholesale reform there too.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 5:39 pm
by Youngian
Corruption is a hiding for nothing for the Tories. If they want to make an issue of a Labour MP who's been 'at it' to go for a score draw (not dotting their 'i's and crossing their't's on expenses will be enough for tabloid fury) then Starmer will remove the whip. There are plenty of straight people in the Tory Party but the one's who are bent as nine bob note will almost certainly be Boris backers.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:23 pm
by Tubby Isaacs
Youngian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 5:39 pm
Corruption is a hiding for nothing for the Tories. If they want to make an issue of a Labour MP who's been 'at it' to go for a score draw (not dotting their 'i's and crossing their't's on expenses will be enough for tabloid fury) then Starmer will remove the whip. There are plenty of straight people in the Tory Party but the one's who are bent as nine bob note will almost certainly be Boris backers.
Sir Keir mentions that he oversaw the prosecutions for the 2009 expenses cases. He's good and confident on this territory. Combine this stuff (in time) with "so where's the £350m a week?" and he's got a winning hand.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:37 pm
by Tubby Isaacs
You can imagine them having a good laugh about the unnecessary flight, all old pals together.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... end-dinner
Boris Johnson has been accused of “staggering hypocrisy” after it emerged that he flew back to London from the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow by private jet to go to a dinner at a men-only private members’ club.
The prime minister is reported to have attended the exclusive private members’ club The Garrick in the West End for a reunion of Daily Telegraph journalists. He flew 400 miles on Tuesday night from Glasgow to London, according to the Daily Mirror.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:42 pm
by kreuzberger
Tubby Isaacs wrote:Youngian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 5:39 pm
Corruption is a hiding for nothing for the Tories. If they want to make an issue of a Labour MP who's been 'at it' to go for a score draw (not dotting their 'i's and crossing their't's on expenses will be enough for tabloid fury) then Starmer will remove the whip. There are plenty of straight people in the Tory Party but the one's who are bent as nine bob note will almost certainly be Boris backers.
Sir Keir mentions that he oversaw the prosecutions for the 2009 expenses cases. He's good and confident on this territory. Combine this stuff (in time) with "so where's the £350m a week?" and he's got a winning hand.
Given how hard he has driven on the £350m a week or even the 150,000 deaths, few can have much confidence in Starmer's killer instinct.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:46 pm
by Malcolm Armsteen
Rayner can do it.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:50 pm
by Tubby Isaacs
Way to go here and BTL. People who've never heard of pairing apparently get stuck into "they're just like the Tories".
Anything happening at all in the news which might make it less likely that people would attend, at all?
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:52 pm
by Malcolm Armsteen
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:55 pm
by Tubby Isaacs
kreuzberger wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:42 pm
Given how hard he has driven on the £350m a week or even the 150,000 deaths, few can have much confidence in Starmer's killer instinct.
I didn't say I was entirely hopeful of Keir winning this hand. But I think it plays to strengths in the way other issues haven't.
The Government got enough cover from its high profile advisers on Covid- not just the human shields who took all the difficult questions at briefings, but the JCVI too. Starmer had a good go when SAGE were disagreeing with the government, but it didn't really cut through in November last year, nor did he get (and SAGE) get any credit for being proved right. What he has to do is tie in the "marking your own homework" point with the lack of a public inquiry into Covid.
"It's the economy stupid" is too early to be a winner. Brexit and Covid provide cover.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:56 pm
by Tubby Isaacs
Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:52 pm
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=204&p=13131#p13131
Great minds and all that.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:58 pm
by Malcolm Armsteen
I'm not trying to claim credit, Tubbs, I'm pointing out that it's being discussed elsewhere...
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 9:02 pm
by Tubby Isaacs
Yeah, I know. But we thought alike, didn't we? I like that.
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 9:45 pm
by Boiler
Interestingly, I've just been pointed at a picture at COP26 that shows Johnson with a mask and Attenborough without...
Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 10:37 pm
by Nigredo
Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 8:23 pm
Youngian wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 5:39 pm
Corruption is a hiding for nothing for the Tories. If they want to make an issue of a Labour MP who's been 'at it' to go for a score draw (not dotting their 'i's and crossing their't's on expenses will be enough for tabloid fury) then Starmer will remove the whip. There are plenty of straight people in the Tory Party but the one's who are bent as nine bob note will almost certainly be Boris backers.
Sir Keir mentions that he oversaw the prosecutions for the 2009 expenses cases. He's good and confident on this territory. Combine this stuff (in time) with "so where's the £350m a week?" and he's got a winning hand.
That will probably get buried by tabloid smears about how in 2009 he also let Saville go
