UK Politics - BoJo Kool-Aid vs Project Fear Cocktail of Terror

[Spockydog]

Count Cuntley of Cuntingdon.

[Spockydog]

While we're here, shall we break out the tiny violins for all those Tory MPs who yesterday shamelessly allowed themselves to be whipped into Voting For Corruption, only for Bozo to crap his dungarees once he realised how damaging this would in fact be.

Bet they're absolutely fucking delighted with his latest u-turn.

 

[Derfel Cadarn]

9 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

While we're here, shall we break out the tiny violins for all those Tory MPs who yesterday shamelessly allowed themselves to be whipped into Voting For Corruption, only for Bozo to crap his dungarees once he realised how damaging this would in fact be.

Bet they're absolutely fucking delighted with his latest u-turn.

 

Especially those in marginal seats.

[A wilding]

Pretty good speech today from the chairman of the committee for Upholding Standards in Public Life.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/upholding-standards-in-public-life-speech-by-lord-evans

Extract:

Quote

In my view yesterday’s vote on the report of the Commons Standards Committee was a very serious and damaging moment for Parliament and for public standards in this country.

It cannot be right that MPs should reject, after one short debate, the conclusions of the independent Commissioner for Standards and the House of Commons Committee on Standards - conclusions that arose from an investigation lasting two years.

It cannot be right to propose an overhaul of the entire regulatory system in order to postpone or prevent sanctions in a very serious case of paid lobbying by an MP.

It cannot be right that this was accompanied by repeated attempts to question the integrity of the Commissioner for Standards herself, who is working within the system that the House of Commons agreed in 2010.

And it cannot be right to propose that the standards system in the House of Commons should be reviewed by a Select Committee chaired by a member of the ruling party, and with a majority of members from that same party. This extraordinary proposal is deeply at odds with the best traditions of British democracy. The political system in this country does not belong to one party, or even to one government. It is a common good that we have all inherited from our forebears and that we all have a responsibility to preserve and to improve.

The Seven Principles of Public Life, that all governments have espoused for over twenty five years, require that Ministers and MPs should show leadership in upholding ethical standards in public life. I find it hard to see how yesterday’s actions in any way meet that test.

 

[polishgenius]

Madness. 

[Spockydog]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Madness. 

It's a special kind of madness. They call it Trumpism. And it has infected our democracy.

[kiko]

5 hours ago, Spockydog said:

It's a special kind of madness. They call it Trumpism. And it has infected our democracy.

I remember that brexit came before Trump. Would be careful with that narrative.

[Spockydog]

Parliament was prorogued three years into Trump's presidency. I seriously doubt that would have happened had Clinton won the White House, nor would many of the other stunts Johnson has pulled.

 

[Varysblackfyre321]

1 hour ago, Spockydog said:

Parliament was prorogued three years into Trump's presidency. I seriously doubt that would have happened had Clinton won the White House, nor would many of the other stunts Johnson has pulled.

 

 

6 hours ago, kiko said:

I remember that brexit came before Trump. Would be careful with that narrative.

True 2016; was a good year for the far-right across the world. Well it’d be ultimately bad for anyone who wasn’t a whiney nationalist but eh.

[Spockydog]

Marina Hyde on eviscerating form in The Guardian today:

Quote

Owen Paterson was just the fall guy. This week’s chaos was all about Boris Johnson

An edifying week in the government of Britain, a country run by the third prize in a competition to build Winston Churchill out of marshmallows. Yup, this man is our sorry lot: this pool-float Targaryen, this gurning English Krankie cousin, this former child star still squeezing himself into his little suit for coins. The sole bright spot for Boris Johnson is that furious Tory MPs are currently only comparing him to the nursery rhyme Duke of York. Still, give it time.

On, then, to the unforced blunderrhoea of the Owen Paterson affair and its fallout. The sheer full-spectrum shitshow of it makes sense when you understand two things: the Carl von Clownewitzes behind the government’s shameful “strategy” for sweeping aside a vital democratic check on corruption; and the fact that for Johnson, none of it was to do with Owen Paterson. The departing MP for North Shropshire was simply useful for the prime minister’s personal goals – until he wasn’t.

Imagine being so thick and morally bankrupt that you keep on voting for this cretin.

 

[Spockydog]

Suck on this, Tory enablers:

"Brexit got done. So did everyone who voted for it."

 

[Spockydog]

These people are infuriating.

No 10 declines to rule out potential peerage for Owen Paterson

Quote

 

Downing Street has declined to rule out the possibility Owen Paterson could receive a peerage after his decision to step down as a Conservative MP amid a lobbying scandal.

Boris Johnson’s spokesperson also did not deny reports that some Tory MPs had been warned they could lose future funding for their constituencies if they did not support a Commons vote to halt punishment for Paterson and rip up the anti-sleaze rules he broke.

 

 

[Ser Drewy]

Why can't there just be official firework displays? 

It's been a constant stream of booms for over half an hour now. My dog's hiding under the bed. 

[Which Tyler]

14 hours ago, Ser Drewy said:

Why can't there just be official firework displays? 

It's been a constant stream of booms for over half an hour now. My dog's hiding under the bed. 

Or at least put a decibel level on those allowed for sale - like every other loud thing.

34dBA is considered antisocial, and councils can respond with ASBOs etc. Silent fireworks exist; so they should be the only ones allowed outside of official displays.

Thankfully, my dogs aren't too concerned about them, though I've known plenty who were. It also plays havoc with my internet / wifi as I was trying to watch the rugby last night, and it would freeze every 10 seconds or so.

[Spockydog]

Tory voters, the world is laughing at you, and your cretinous pus-sac of a leader.

‘Like a clown’: what other countries thought of Boris Johnson at Cop26

Quote

It was one of the defining images from Cop26.

Seated next to Boris Johnson on Monday and wearing a mask was 95-year-old David Attenborough. The prime minister, however, was maskless. At one point, Johnson seemed to have nodded off.

On stage and in front of 120 world leaders, the contrast between the two men was striking. The naturalist was sombre and serious. There was a “desperate hope” we might still avoid disaster, Attenborough said in Glasgow, in the most memorable phrase of the week. Joe Biden was among those to give him a standing ovation.

Johnson sought to strike a similarly elevated tone. There were serious moments in his speech: he mentioned a responsibility to future generations, for example, and to “children not yet born”.

But overall the prime minister appeared to rely on the jokes and verbal antics that have served him well in the past. With the world watching on the most urgent issue of the age, he sought to mix it up – part statesman, part standup.

Labour said his speech seemed thrown together at the last moment. To many others, his quips seemed strangely unsuited to the grave occasion and to his non-British audience.

He began by likening the climate crisis to James Bond wrestling with a ticking bomb. “It’s one minute to midnight on that Doomsday Clock and we need to act now,” he declared. (Days before, at the G20 summit in Rome, he had used football for his analogies – describing humanity as “5-1 down at half time”.)

Johnson’s Cop26 address was met with stony silence. The prime minister left pauses for laughs. They never came.

I'll tell you who is laughing, though. All those people who mocked Trump supporters for their brainless support of that moron. Guess what? They are now mocking you.

[Spockydog]

Bozo is up north today, hiding from the sleaze debate in the House. Clearly, he didn't fancy being questioned on the real reasons he tried to dismantle the anti-corruption system last week. He will not be able to paper over the Downing Street flat scandal, no matter how expensive his fucking wallpaper was.

Seeing loads of pictures of him strolling around Hexham hospital, maskless, with his lying mouth agape. Plenty of pictures of him talking to patients and nurses, with everyone wearing a mask. Except Johnson. What an enormous mouth-breathing wanker.

[Spockydog]

LOL.

No 10 says watchdog need not look into PM’s flat renovation

Quote

Downing Street has argued that Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, should not investigate who paid for the renovation of Boris Johnson’s flat, in the latest apparent attempt to exert pressure on the independent regulator.

 

[Spockydog]

Last one from me.

Just wanted to express my sympathy for the not at all corrupt Lord Bethell. I wonder how the poor lamb will cope in jail.

 

[The Anti-Targ]

8 hours ago, Spockydog said:

LOL.

No 10 says watchdog need not look into PM’s flat renovation

 

Seems like that is exactly when an independent regulator should get in and investigate a thing. Surely if you believe you are innocent of any accusations of corruption you would welcome an investigation to clear your name. 

[A wilding]

At a minimum, he bent the rules over his flat refurbishment and everyone knows it. And the retrospective changes, including him actually coughing up some of what was apparently his own money to eventually pay for some of it himself, don't alter that fact.