The Boris Johnson Show: Not a Comedy

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Originally Posted by obslam

All great except your list of incorrect facts and that the country isn't sliding into anything like bankruptcy.

Like a lot of people you seem to have a great deal of confusion between actual fact, your opinion, future possibilities (or not) and media, agenda-led rumour/gossip.

But you keep on with your largely solo conversation if you like it that much.

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A conversation cannot be 'solo', so it is your contribution that makes this what it is. I don't know what your definition of bankruptcy is, but mine looks at the facts with regard to the UK's income and expenditure and it doesn't look good. When dealing with the Conservative Party, or the Brexit Cult Party if that is what its current ID is, always assume the worst. The assumption the Govt makes is that the 'Covid Bounce' will pay for the money that has been borrowed, but once the bounce has ended and we crash back to earth, Brexit will dominate the news.

Obviously you choose to ignore or dismiss the crisis in UK-EU trade, and the stunning fact, and it is a stunning fact, that UK firms that have left the Single Market are now desperately trying or plannng to get back into it by transferring production from the UK to the EU, the Netherlands in partcular. These are facts, not opinions, but are reported on an almost daily basis in The Guardian, a newspaper you probably don't read because it is in your view 'left-wing' and thus by definition a source of useless information, while you happily indulge any source that doesn't report the facts because for them, and I suspect for you, Brexit is a dream come true, whatever the reality might be.

You have nothing to say about Somerset Capital moving its assets out of the UK and into the EU that its founder claims he is pleased to have left; just as you have nothing to say when you idol Sir John Redwood advised his stockholders to invest anywhere but the UK, indeed, in the EU which he too is pleased we have left. Hypocrites all, they enjoy your devotion and support -why?

Yes, the future could be even worse than I fear, or we could just be living through a 2-3-5-10 year transition during which the UK adapts to the fact that it has left the largest market in the world next door to trade at a disadvantage with states that are thousands of miles away even on the other side of the world, rather like Cuba when its closest trading partner was the USSR. I am not a prophet, and I hope I am wrong. Your predictions are the best because they don't exist. Your judgment perfect, because you never make it.

But you keep up with your largely solo ignorance if you like it that much.

If you stuck to facts, we could have a proper conversation, but combining few facts with a large dose of your fairly extreme opinions gives you little credibility. Adding in the insults gives you even less.

I work in economics and safe to say I don’t have many worries about the economies of either the UK or the EU in the next 20 or so years.

Anybody who thinks Covid will cost the country money long-term has the economic understanding of the likes of Peston or Kuenssberg - that is virtually nil.

But when it comes to facts, where are the ones that prove whatever point it is that you want to make about Brexit?

You have nothing to say about the fact that the UK has left the EU, yet Northern Ireland remains in the Customs Union, a peculiar exit if ever there was one.

UK traders forced out of the EU are now scrambling to get back in, taking jobs with them.

Somerset Capital is not so much banking on the succcess of Brexit which its founder has supported since 2016 and probably before then, as banking in the EU because it has more confidence in the EU than it does in Brexit Britain-

-ditto Sir John Redwood's advice to the customers of the firm he advised, to invest anywhere but Brexit Britain.

And now the UK Government, realising that taking the UK out of the EU and its agencies is damaging the UK's reputation for science, is pumpiing £250 million into the EU's Horizon programme that the UK was supposed to have left behind because we don't need the EU. Only of course, we do. Did Get Brexit Done ever mean anything? Or did it mean, Get Britan Back into the EU?

It does appear that you are not worried about the EU and UK economies, but is it because Brexit will be revealed to be a sham, as piece by piece, the UK finds ways of effectively returning to the EU and its Single Market albeit in an informal manner? Because I see no evidence, and certainly not from you, that the UK will be better off outside the EU, but a lot of evidence that just about everyone, other than the DUP , Steve Baker and Sir William Cash, want to be back in the EU where we belong.

Is there a greater insult to this country than a man who has such naked disregard for the rule of law, the truth and elementary ethics in public life? Instead of defining a Conservative by a Boris Johnson Loyalty Test, which Alan Duncan clearly failed, Theresa May should have had the courage to sack Johnson when he was Foreign Secretary and indeed, expel him from the Party.

Where is the outrage over the Jennifer Arcuri affair that proves Johnson and his sweetheart transferred money from London's ratepayers into her pocket so she could enjoy privileges and a 'leg up' for her business interests as he was getting his 'leg over' with her? In any age other than this age of impunity, this shabby little man would have been forced out of office, and probably spend the rest of his life writing garbage for the Telegraph, that bastion of Brexit published by two rich men who are not stupid enough to park their Billions in the UK or live here.

But as someone who expressed such indignation that there is a Politics & Religion Section in a Porn forum, and claim I write to myself when you obviously read what I write, unless you actually tell us what the economic reality is now, and is going to be, there will be no debate. Just a sneering discontent that does you no favours.

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Originally Posted by obslam

I work in economics and safe to say I don’t have many worries about the economies of either the UK or the EU in the next 20 or so years.

Anybody who thinks Covid will cost the country money long-term has the economic understanding of the likes of Peston or Kuenssberg - that is virtually nil.

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You must be a financial sector economist!

I guess these people don't understand economics either.
"This chapter examines the possible persistent damage (scarring) that may occur from the COVID-19 recession and the channels through which they may occur. Importantly, financial instabilities—typically associated with worse scarring—have been largely avoided in the current crisis so far. While medium-term losses are expected to be lower than after the global financial crisis, they are still substantial, at about 3 percent lower than pre-pandemic anticipated output for the world in 2024."
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/...ook-april-2021
The COVID-19 pandemic’s toll on economic activity in recent months is only the beginning of the story. While the rapid and unprecedented collapse of production, trade, and employment may be reversed as the pandemic eases, historical data suggest that long-term economic consequences could persist for a generation or more.
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft...mics-jorda.htm

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Originally Posted by filghy2

You must be a financial sector economist!

I guess these people don't understand economics either.
"This chapter examines the possible persistent damage (scarring) that may occur from the COVID-19 recession and the channels through which they may occur. Importantly, financial instabilities—typically associated with worse scarring—have been largely avoided in the current crisis so far. While medium-term losses are expected to be lower than after the global financial crisis, they are still substantial, at about 3 percent lower than pre-pandemic anticipated output for the world in 2024."
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/...ook-april-2021
The COVID-19 pandemic’s toll on economic activity in recent months is only the beginning of the story. While the rapid and unprecedented collapse of production, trade, and employment may be reversed as the pandemic eases, historical data suggest that long-term economic consequences could persist for a generation or more.
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft...mics-jorda.htm

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Aren't they global forecasts? Most UK forecasting has us back at pre-Covid/Brexit economic levels by Q3 or Q4 2022.

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Originally Posted by obslam

Aren't they global forecasts? Most UK forecasting has us back at pre-Covid/Brexit economic levels by Q3 or Q4 2022.

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They are making a general point and it's hard to see why it wouldn't apply to the UK, given it's been one of the worst-affected countries. The real issue is when (and if) you return to the previous growth path, rather than the level. If you get back to the previous level by the end of next year that would still be well below the previous growth path.

It's understood nowadays that serious recessions can have long-term effects (hysterisis) , contrary to what many economic models assume. Since the 2008 financial crisis many economies have never returned to their previous growth path, including the UK.

Obviously, any return to normality depends on achieving herd immunity through vaccination, including against virus variants. That is not guaranteed.

Brexit remains the unknown factor in any recovery, while the Goverment may increase taxes selectively, and the pressure to keep interest rates low or go below zero is strong. Thus-

"The government deficit will increase to levels not seen since the Second World War, and with it the national debt. By the end of the 2020/21 financial year, the government will most likely owe in debt more than the value of everything produced in the economy in one year. This will alter the complexion of the UK’s public finances for decades to come."
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vision/...after-covid-19

And, from a survey of 90 economists by the FT-

"The vast majority of those responding to the FT’s annual survey said UK GDP would not regain its previous level until the second half of 2022, or later. Many said political mismanagement of both the Covid-19 crisis and of Brexit had ensured the UK would underperform other richer countries — and that the biggest risk to the economy in 2021 was that an over-thrifty chancellor would damage the recovery by tightening fiscal policy too early. “The UK will be among the last, if not the last, of the high-income economies to regain its pre-pandemic size,” said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee."
https://www.ft.com/content/5c51299a-...6-a42a6317c324

But, again, how will UK trade perform if there is no re-negotiation of terms with the EU or some means of reducing the costs and bureaucracy of trade with the EU?
What happens if there is a major dispute with China that disrupts production of commodities on which the UK relies and cannot make owing to lack of capacity?
What of the financial services sector, whose future is still a matter of conjecture, but a sector which has seen Billions of pounds of capital removed from the UK and put into the EU?
How will the transport sector look over the next 10 years, the millions of cubic feet of office space, and the employment profile of the under-30 age group?
If there is no return to normal, how can the word 'recovery' mean anything other than a return to the low-growth, low-performance economy stangled by over a decade of Conservative mis-management?
Will there be a crisis in relations between Scotland the Govt in London, and given the riots in Belfast, a deterioration of relations between Northern Ireland and the Govt in London? These all have economic consequences that are negative in the short term.

One thing absent in all this are markets, given that we are living under a Communist, command-economy Government in all but name, and not a Marxist-Leninist one either. In time the furlough schemes will end, with the assumption that unemployment will fall. I don't know, but as a natural born pessimist, it doesn't look as good to me as it does to some people, and I have zero faith in Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.

With local elections taking place on the 6th of May, the Conservatives remain ahead in the polls, in England if not in Scotland or Wales. The predicament Boris Johnson is in is therefore something of a paradox. He and his Ministers claim the British public are not that interested in who paid for the refurbishment of the apartment at the top of 10 Downing St. They dispute the claim that Boris Johnson said he would rather dead bodies pile up than impose another lockdown on the UK. As for the precise relationship between his Govt and 'Private Enterprise', those relationships are in the well-worn phrase, 'good for business', though as Max Hastings pointed out two hours ago on BBC Radio 4's The World at One, Johnson has so re-written the rules of Government that it is no longer a matter of principle, let alone basic decency, if friends and backers of the Prime Minister make a load of money off Government contracts, or if former Prime Ministers use their access to Government to lobby on behalf of their mates and a business in which they stand to make millions. In astonishing insight, Hastings pointed out everyone in the country knows Boris Johnson is a liar, and so does Boris Johsnson. A pity that the Govt of Iran hasn't twigged and released Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from prison, as she is there in part because Boris Johnson lied to Parliament about the reason for her visit to Iran that led to her arrest. An act which, in those now distant days when the UK Govt had 'standards' would have led to him resigning as Foreign Secretary, or Theresa May sacking hm.

The Downing St apartment problem has a simple solution -create a separate designated residence for the Prime Minister somewhere in Whitehall, paid for by the taxpayer with more than a couple of rooms and kitchen wth a modest two-ring gas cooker and a microwave (or, as Nigella Lawson now calls it, a MeeCroWarvy).

Did Johnson really say he would rather dead bodies pile up than impose a new lockdown? I think so, but not out of spite, as it is the kind of flippant remark laced with poison he is apt to make, such as his dismissal in the Commons of vile attacks on women MPs on social media as 'humbug' (an all but meaningless word to anyone under 40), and the older claim he would lie down in front of the diggers to prevent them creating a third runway at Heathrow, a Commons vote for which he was famously absent from the House when it came time to vote on it.

As for Brexit, I was wrong when I said billions has left the country, its owners - Leave fanatics- preferring banks in the EU, because Leave is for Little People like me and you. The actual sum has now passed a Trillion Pounds. A fisherman in Devon says Boris Johnson has betrayed him over Brexit, for which he foolishly voted. Exports to the EU of milk and other dairy products are down 90%. That the Govt is crowing about inward investment suggests that Brexit is transforming the UK into an 'investment destination' but this is not odd if a Trillion quid is leaving while a Billion is arriving, for what is now an 'Investment Destination' is what used to be called a 'Third World' country. Which is what Brexit is creating here. With a Third World Government to match it.

And if Max Hastings is right, and if Dominic Cummings, who is not a Conservative, has tapes (tapes again? yes, tapes) of the flippant and idiotic things Boris Johnson is apt to say, the calculation will be that having achieved his ambition of becoming Prime Minister, having 'got Brexit done', and been at least part-time steward of the Covid Recovery, Johnson will decide he can make more money being an entertainer and writing garbage for the Telegraph (and a 900 page book explaining why he is he greatest Prime Minister since Churchill) -and he will quit. And quit before the end of 2021.

I just hope Max Hastings is right, and so does Boris.

"BAILIFFS are poised to knock on the famous black door of Number 10 Downing Street - after it emerged Boris Johnson failed to pay a £535 debt.
The PM's bill appeared on County Court Judgement files last October with the payment still "unsatisfied."
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/149314...-october-paid/

I doubt the Bailiffs will be knocking on the door, but one does wonder why on this occasion Boris Johnson couldn't find a Hedge Fund Manager or a wealthy mate to pay his bills, since he doesn't seem to think he should pay them himself. Pity Greensill wasn't in a position to buy the debt. Is there an informal rule that states f you are rich and powerful you don't need to pay your bills? Hasn't Trump a terrible record in settling his bills?

The dead cat deflecting from Betty's speech and the loss of even more of our rights.

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Originally Posted by Stavros

"BAILIFFS are poised to knock on the famous black door of Number 10 Downing Street - after it emerged Boris Johnson failed to pay a £535 debt.
The PM's bill appeared on County Court Judgement files last October with the payment still "unsatisfied."
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/149314...-october-paid/

I doubt the Bailiffs will be knocking on the door, but one does wonder why on this occasion Boris Johnson couldn't find a Hedge Fund Manager or a wealthy mate to pay his bills, since he doesn't seem to think he should pay them himself. Pity Greensill wasn't in a position to buy the debt. Is there an informal rule that states f you are rich and powerful you don't need to pay your bills? Hasn't Trump a terrible record in settling his bills?

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The evidence given by Dominic Cummings to a joint session of the Health and Social Care and the Science and Technology committees will surprise few people. Even Boris Johnson’s friends will cheerfully admit he is a pathological liar, completely untrustworthy and a managerial incompetent. What he lacks in basic skills he makes up for in PR, but lives for headlines without which he feels inadequate and ignored.

I can’t say much about Matt Hancock other than to assume Johnson keeps him there as the fall guy for all and any mistakes made in Covid, and the Johnson Govt made grievous mistakes, the most serious being the re-location of elderly patients in hospital to care homes without being tested for Covid. It is aggravated by Johnson’s failure to fulfill the pledge he made in 2019 to reform social care.

The real point of interest is Cummings praising a few people, damming many, but making no reference to Michael Gove, for whom Cummings worked most of the years between 2007-2014 (see link below) It is relevant because the gossip is that Gove has been plotting an internal party coup to replace Johnson, with Cummings as the scout returning from the front to issue warnings. He is evidently a fan of Rishi Sunday too, so a Gove-Sunak double act would present a rational replacement for the irrational Johnson, not least because the real heroes of Covid are the NHS and frontline workers rather than Johnson and Hancock. And with Johnson thin- skinned and craving constant attention and affection, he may jump ship rather than be forced to walk the plank. Watch that space.

https://dominiccummings.com/about/

Quelques aperçus pour notres temps...

1) A few weeks ago there was a rumour that Boris Johnson wants to remain in power for 10 years so he can transform Britain....now we are told his Cabinet re-shuffle suggests he is thinking of an early election in 2023. Oh dear, does this mean we are going to have to suffer 10 years of this waffling bollocks-

"Johnson said in his speech that strong leadership was “the yeast that lifts the whole mattress of dough, the magic sauce, the ketchup of catch-up” "--?
https://www.theguardian.com/inequali...k-of-substance


2) As part of the re-shuffle, his Brexit Buddy -and one time opponent- Michael Gove, has been given a leg-up in his political fortunes, perhaps because he is now without a wife and is not getting his leg over (well, not with her)? Whatever, he is now to be known as The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities; and, The Minister for Intergovernmental Relations (sounds like something from the USSR). It is not known if this means he has two salaries, but it does mean he is going to be very busy, perhaps too busy to plot the removal of Boris Johnson from No 10 Downing Street?
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/michael-go...191859169.html


3) If anyone knows what 'Levelling Up' means, drop me a line. If anyone can tell me how a Conservative, by definition committed to the Conservation of Inequality as viewed from Buckingham Palace, Sandhurst, the City of London, and Middle Temple, is so committed to social and economic change, then tell me that person is not in fact a Conservative. Thus-

4) Boris Johnson has defended his Government's cuts to Universal Credit, by saying claimants should rely on their own efforts rather than on welfare. This from a man who had his Caribbean holiday paid for by someone else, who had the costs of the refurbishment of his apartment in Downing St paid for by someone else, and who allegedly doesn't even pay for his own groceries, paid for by someone else... also known as 'welfare', as in, 'the rich concerned for the welfare of Boris Johnson'.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ent...b0231e3699003e


5) And as Brexit continues to swamp small and medium sized businesses with regulations in what was supposed to be 'regulation free' nirvana for British business, the Government so committed to free markets, has entered those markets, defying the orthodox view as Blessed by Margaret that the State should stay out of Markets-

"The UK government has become a shareholder in more than 150 companies during the Covid crisis, including a kombucha drinks maker, a bespoke ship builder and a knitting and crochet supplier, data reveals."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...y-ship-builder

6) And to return to Brexit -is it the case that when Boris Johnson uttered the prophetic words "Fuck Business" he was levelling that barb at SMEs in the UK? That the fundamental aim of Brexit was to transform the UK into an 'Investment Destination' for foreign capital more than eager to Buy Britain? As part of its 50 years of Independence from the UK, the UAE has announced a 10 billion pound invesment programme in the UK-

"Over the next five years, the UAE-UK SIP will drive a significant increase in investment across a further three sectors: technology, infrastructure, and energy transition, as well as build on the existing programme of life sciences investment."
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/u...-uk-industries

-Well, that relieves the Parasites of the City of London of the Risk involved in investing in their own country (they prefer dealing in Bonds, and other people's Shares rather than creating things that provide jobs for people)...
...meanwhile the Chancellor of the Exchequer also welcomes foreign capital as part of the 'Global Britain' strategy- again, so his mates in the City can avoid investing in Britain and just skim their 5% off the surface of everyone else's assets...

"Rishi Sunak has given his blessing to a multibillion-pound trend that has seen foreign private equity firms snap up British businesses, describing the buying spree as “good news” for the economy."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...-uk-businesses

7) Global Britain...but not an Empire, not even an Empire of Capital --which exists but cannot be owned by a single state. And one in which the French, who live not far from us, need never be consulted about anything, be it Sausages, Submarines, or Saltimbocca.

But is Boris Johnson Prime Minister of the UK, or in reality, just First Minister of England?

Having yesterday issued a childish swipe at France with his own version of Franglais, today Boris Johnson went to the UN and told the world it is time to 'grow up'.

Never one to reflect on his own choice of words, or indeed his policies -when they go wrong it is aways somebody else's fault, if not the French, the EU and so on, ad tedium.- Johnson deployed a dubious mathematical calculation on the human presence to establish that humanity is, in effect, 16 years old-

"An inspection of the fossil record over the last 178 million years – since mammals first appeared – reveals that the average mammalian species exists for about a million years before it evolves into something else or vanishes into extinction.

Of our allotted lifespan of a million, humanity has been around for about 200,000.
In other words, we are still collectively a youngster.
If you imagine that million years as the lifespan of an individual human being – about eighty years – then we are now sweet 16."

Citing presumably his own preferences "We have come to that fateful age when we know roughly how to drive and we know how to unlock the drinks cabinet..." (who these days has a 'drinks cabinet', with a lock?), Johnson went on in dramatic terms-

"My friends the adolescence of humanity is coming to an end.

We are approaching that critical turning point – in less than two months – when we must show that we are capable of learning, and maturing, and finally taking responsibility for the destruction we are inflicting, not just upon our planet but ourselves.
It is time for humanity to grow up."

And then toward the end, the schoolboy who never grew up said

"And when Kermit the frog sang It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green, I want you to know he was wrong - and he was also unnecessarily rude to Miss Piggy."

Muppets, one might say, never die, they just get elected to Parliament and deliver pompous speeches while, in practical terms, doing as little as possible to meet the targets they set themselves, as Sir David King points out in the clip from this evening's Channel 4 News, linked below.

Johnson's speech of Global Importance, is here-
https://www.gov.uk/government/speech...september-2021

Sir David King on COP26 and the opportunities ahead of us -positive about the UK other than Johnson failing to meet targets -and aso positive on China, is here-
https://www.channel4.com/news/govern...avid-king-says

*If not available outside the UK directly, may be on YouTube.

Max Hastings recently described Boris Johnson as 'an entertainer' rather than a serious poltician. The climax of the Conservative Party Conference was a sideshow to reality, though the sheep baa'd with approval -well not all as Steve Baker at a fringe meeting referred to his party's tax increases and declared, part satire, part despair 'we are all Socialists now'.

Others were less amenable to the lies Johnson trotted out (see the Independent link below). For example, the Free Market Adam Smith Institute said of Johnson's speech it was "“bombastic but vacuous and economically illiterate”"-
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/boris-john...231213616.html

Also on the sides, Dominic Raab rejected the suggestion misogyny be made a hate crime, then revealed he didn't know what it meant. Mr Raab is Boris Johnson's Deputy.

Johnson's Conference Lies debunked-
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-b1933390.html

It has not been a good week for the 'Prime Minister'- -surely, the First Minister of England? After leading the World at the Cop 26 assembly in Glasgow, where Boris banged on about carbon reductions, he lept onto a carbon burning jet to London where, with the help of the Chief Whip he organised a defence of Owen Paterson MP (annual salary £81,932), found guilty of accepting £100,000 from various commercal firms in return for Paterson (ex-Govt Minister) lobbying his chums in Government Departments. So outraged was Boris that one of his oldest chums be exposed in this way, he decided to scrap the Committee that exposed corruption, to be replaced by one dedicatedd to covering it up.

Martina Hyde takes up the story-

"Let’s play out with how the British prime minister spent the eve of this shameful vote. Boris Johnson had left his own climate conference on a private jet, incidentally, to have dinner at the Garrick Club with the longtime climate denialist Charles Moore. Also incidentally, Moore used to be Johnson’s editor when he published his various fabrications about the EU. Incidentally – again – Johnson fairly recently sought to install Moore as chairman of the BBC. (Moore has, incidentally, previously been a licence-fee refusenik). Still incidentally, Moore is a real friend of Owen Paterson’s, and has been a significant advocate for his foolhardy defence…"
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...s-commissioner

*Membership of the Garrick Club is for Gentlemen Only.

Currently, Boris has decided not to tell anyone how much his Spanish holiday cost, the costs, as far as we know, being borne by mult-millionaire Lord Goldsmith, the man who was sacked as an MP by his his constituents in Kensington then promptly sent to the House of Lords to represent 'the Government', either because the voters didn't realise what a gifted man Zac is, or because Boris needs to keep his friends close enough to sponge off them as and when needed, and anyway, Zac is 'close friends with Carrie, wife of Boris...

Fish 'n Chips, anyone? Boris is paying (he just persuaded Kwazi K to lend hm a tenner...)

"“How can I be the thrust – the throttle – your mere footstep as you make your career? Tell me: how I can help you?”"

Whichever way, not the way for the Mayor of London to use his 'office', or for that matter, his orifice..

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...to-win-my-love

You can tell they've been up to fuckery, they've wheeled out Stanley again!
Though, It was nice to see Lindsey grow a set of balls and finally remind Johnson it was PMQ's, not LOTOQ's, though to little too fucking late.
As far as Johnson's concerned, to quote Frankie Boyle, he "Should stick his face in a meat grinder and go live in the woods. I could watch him being gang raped and not feel a flicker of emotion...Actually, that's lie, I'd be disappointed they weren't killing him"!

Hey, when he' right...

Arise, Boris the Blunderer, you have nothing to lose but your brains...

Extracts from his speech to the annual conference of the British Confederation of Industry-

"I can remember mass unemployment..."

"I have had some pretty wonderful jobs in my life, but among those purely hedonistic, I would rank Motoring Correspondent of GQ magazine. I drove Ferraris, Mazeratis, Nissan's, Skylines, Protons..." (is he scratching his bum when he says this? Hmmmm...) followed by some incoherent nonsense about the "burble and roar" of the internal combustion engine....

"When I was a kid... I remember those huge barges taking coal up the Thames to Battersea Power Station..."

[on wind farms] - "it seems faddish and ludicrous to imagine that we could light and heat our homes with a technology dating from 9th century Persia..."

"Ev's may not burble like sucking doves, and they may not have that vroom! vroom! vrahh! vrahh! you love so much..." (08.03 for the theatre)...

-Having said industrial innovation will be led by business, this, from none other than the re-incarnation of Moses (Moses? yup, Moses)-

"We've set out a ten point plan for Government leadership, a new decalogue that I produced exactly a year ago when I came down from Sinai and said to my officials -the new Ten Commandments., Thou Shalt..." (10.08.)

-at this point, Boris who has been shuffling the pages of his speech gets more animated with them, starts quoting Lenin, repeats his lies about the Crossrail of the North, the waffle about rail links between Manchester and Leeds...with signs of a deterioration as he sounds nervous, looks lost....

15.54 "blast it..forgive me...forgive me...forgive me...." he is lost, shufflng papers trying to find out where he is supposed to be -probably the most incompetent speech I have ever seen or heard from a senior politician. Stunning, but a fine example of just what an incompetent fool this man is.

Suddenly he is on a roll talking about skills and training and the techs-

(from 17.20) "fintech-medtech-edtech-biotech-edtech..er..nanotech-greentech, so you basically sound like 15th century Mexico..."
(What? Hello? )

21.04 "Yesterday I went, as we all must, to Peppa Pig World- I don't know if you'v been to Peppa Pig World..who's been to- hands up anyone who's been to Peppa Pig World..(waits for a response)...not enough!"

Boris Johnson is Prime Minister of the UK. On the evidence of this shambles, not for much longer Maybe this time next year he will be a 'Greeter and Meeter' -at Peppa Pig World....?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb38AujLFPQ

Just another dead cat to keep us occupied as they sell off the nhs

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Originally Posted by Jericho

Just another dead cat to keep us occupied as they sell off the nhs

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Meow!

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Originally Posted by Stavros

Meow!

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If it involves Prime Minister Pantsonfire, that should be a grunt!

I returned to the UK to watch the shameless Boris Johnson tell the House of Commons he is sorry that the Bring Your Own Bottle party in May 2020 went ahead -"I wish things had been done differently"....but it is feeble to claim that No 10 Downing St is a working address when photos show people including the Prime Minister and his wife and baby attending -how many official meetings are there when staff are asked to Bring Your Own Bottle, Wife and Child?

And again "Wait for the outcome of the enquiry" -What? Boris Johnson needs to read the report of an Enquiry into an event that he attended, because he needs the Report to tell him what he was doing there?
Whether or not he survives is now down the Tory MPs, assuming Johnson insists on staying in office.

BYOB = Bring Your Own Bollocks to No 10, because the rest of the population are Mugs.

While the majority of the UK -incuding our Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II- was observing social distancing, Boris Johnson and members of his Downing St staff were partying like it was their last day on Earth. Whether it means their last day in their jobs we have to wait for an Official Enquiry to tell Boris Johnson what was happening at the parties in which he was in attendance, a bizarre process that may lead to his exoneration, not least because the person leading the Enquiry works in his Cabinet Office, and the final assessment of its results will be made by the man himself. But who knows, even Sue Gray might be so shocked at what she finds out that she cannot contain her criticism.

The point of this post is to draw attention to the aftermath of PMQ's last Wednesday when so many people called on Boris Johnson to resign, not leas the leader of the Conservative Party in Scotland, Douglas Ross. The Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissed the remarks Ross made by saying he is a 'lightweight' politician, which might actually be true, but in the context of Anglo-Scottish relations seems to emphasize how indifferent the English are to Scotland, suggesting Independence is a virtual reality for Rees-Mogg.

But the icing on this inedible cake came when Adam Tomkins, who 99.9% of the public have never heard of, said of Douglas Ross

'“Douglas is a man of principle and a man of steel"...


Hmmmm....one wonders where Douglas Ross is leading the Scottish Conservatives. To the Graveyard of political office?

I have to say thank you very much indeed to whoever it was who told me how to block posters.

It's surprising how much fun it is seeing from the front screen that the usual victim has posted what I am sure is his usual total and utter dross, but knowing that if I accidentally click on that thread I won't have to see his toxic bilge.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by obslam

I have to say thank you very much indeed to whoever it was who told me how to block posters.

It's surprising how much fun it is seeing from the front screen that the usual victim has posted what I am sure is his usual total and utter dross, but knowing that if I accidentally click on that thread I won't have to see his toxic bilge.

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Indeed, such is the 'total and utter dross' of my post, quoting English and Scottish Conservatives, that even one of the most passionate supporters of Brexit, Andrew Bridgen MP, has sent his letter to the 1922 Committee withdrawing his support for Boris Johnson, and calling for the election of a new leader of the Conservative Party.

What is being blocked here, my personal politics, or the facts as presented to the world by the men who voted to leave the European Union? Poor obslam is missing out on his opportunity to tell us if he thinks Boris Johson should remain Prime Minister, or Resign.

Not holding my breath on this one, but he may yet respond if he reads the post via others which quote mine. Funny old world, innit?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stavros

Indeed, such is the 'total and utter dross' of my post, quoting English and Scottish Conservatives, that even one of the most passionate supporters of Brexit, Andrew Bridgen MP, has sent his letter to the 1922 Committee withdrawing his support for Boris Johnson, and calling for the election of a new leader of the Conservative Party.

What is being blocked here, my personal politics, or the facts as presented to the world by the men who voted to leave the European Union? Poor obslam is missing out on his opportunity to tell us if he thinks Boris Johson should remain Prime Minister, or Resign.

Not holding my breath on this one, but he may yet respond if he reads the post via others which quote mine. Funny old world, innit?

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I'm quoting you, Stavros. So Obslam can see your post.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by obslam

I have to say thank you very much indeed to whoever it was who told me how to block posters.

It's surprising how much fun it is seeing from the front screen that the usual victim has posted what I am sure is his usual total and utter dross, but knowing that if I accidentally click on that thread I won't have to see his toxic bilge.

---

I'm not going to downvote your post which I was inclined to do but I don't understand blocking posters unless you're being harassed or something. Even then it's a choice I probably wouldn't make. Can't you just not read his posts or read them and disagree?

Boris Johnson today-
“I can’t believe we would have gone ahead with an event that people said was against the rules … nobody warned me it was against the rules, I am categorical about that – I would have remembered that,” he told Sky News."

This is simply absurd -it was Boris Johnson who appeared on TV to tell everyone what the rules would be, and now he is saying he needed someone else to tell him? The man is an idiot. Like constantly saying we must wait for Sue Gray's report to tell hm what he already knows!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...inst-the-rules

We now wait for the 1922 Committee rather than Sue Gray to move this unhappy chapter in English politics to the next rung on the ladder, going down.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick Danger

I'm quoting you, Stavros. So Obslam can see your post.

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LOL, if i wanted to read the poisonous drivel I could unblock the poisonous poster.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by broncofan

I'm not going to downvote your post which I was inclined to do but I don't understand blocking posters unless you're being harassed or something. Even then it's a choice I probably wouldn't make. Can't you just not read his posts or read them and disagree?

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obslam chooses not to debate, and is free to say nothing, or dismiss what I say as poisonous drivel. It says more about him than it does about Brexit, but nobody needs to get upset with obslam as the end result does not change the fact that the UK has left the EU.

Boris Johnson, on the other hand, as one of the principal architects of this disaster, is claiming to have 'Got Brexit Done' when the negotiations with the EU continue, albeit on the 'back burner' at the moment. It might be thought a brazen cheek for anyone to say we have 'moved on' when the simmering crisis in Northern Ireland has not been resolved, as the new Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, who now has responsibility for Brexit, is like Lord Frost before her making threats to annul the Northern Ireland Protocol, just as the DUP in Northern Ireland is desperately trying to hold on to what appears to be a shriking constituenct of 'Loyalists', as Northern Ireland appears to be better off inside the EU rather than outside it. As for the new rules that came into force on the 1st of January, these may continue to have a negative impact on the UK's trade with the EU as the demand, notably with regard to food, for Proof of Origin places yet more bureaucatic burdens and costs on small and medium sized enterprises. All of this contrary to the promises, bogus all, made by Johnson during the 2016 Referendum and after,

But just as there is a segment of the population that thinks Covid as as much an over-rated problem as Climate Change, the opporunity to debate these issues and even to change minds is limited, when minds are made up, and no amount of facts will chage them.

It just won't go away, and is if anything, getting worse.

So there you are in the Cabinet Room, 10 Downing Street (that's the one in London, England, not Greenwich Village, New York, New York), the table is set with snacks from Marks & Spencer, with a birthday cake in the centre of the table. 30 people assemble to sing Happy Birthday! to the Birthday Boy himself, Boris Johnson -and all of it as clear a violation of the rules on Social Distancing that he pronounced with such Solemnity and in such Grave Tones not long before it.

"Boris Johnson’s gathering with birthday cake in the cabinet room was not a party, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has said, denying the prime minister had organised the event.
“The prime minister clearly didn’t organise to be given a cake,” Shapps told Sky News after the latest revelations about lockdown breaches in Downing Street. “Some people came forward and thought it would be appropriate for on his birthday.”
But he suggested it was “unwise” for the prime minister have been given a cake at the gathering of staff. He told BBC Radio 4 Today that he shares “the sense of unease about all of this”.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...y-grant-shapps

The unease? Because we know about it now, because those who knew what the rules were took the 'sod it' view that such rules were drawn up for the Mugs, aka the British Public, and are now facing the prospect of being grilled by the Meropolotan Police. All of which enables Johnson to delay the Gray Report until the Police Report and to comment on neither until then.

Delay, delay. But can he delay his last day in office indefinitely? He will try, because he has no shame, doesn't think he has done anything wrong, and is destined to lead the UK out of the European Union and into a new era of Global Britain. Cue trumpets, drums for the Prime Minister.

As for us -we don't even get to eat cake. Just eat shit.

"Foreign Office emails appear to contradict Downing Street’s insistence that Boris Johnson did not personally authorise the controversial rescue of cats and dogs from a British animal charity in Afghanistan."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...espite-denials

Woof woof?
Woof!
Wooo....

"The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “It’s not uncommon in Whitehall for a decision to be interpreted or portrayed as coming directly from the prime minister even when that’s not the case, and it’s our understanding that’s what happened in this instance. We appreciate it was a frenetic time for those officials dealing with this situation.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...n-no-10-emails

Ah so, when 'No 10' is reported to approving this or that, be it in a crisis or over a holiday weekend, it doesn't mean the Prime Minister was involved.

So who is running the country wearing a badge that says 'Prime Minister'? And where does he work? Er, No 10. Which part of London is No 10 in? Whitehall.

And again, that is an address in London, Engand, not New York, New York. (And I only mention this trivia because I used to know someone who lived on that little street in the Village).

Sue Gray has published an 'Update' of her report INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED GATHERINGS ON GOVERNMENT PREMISES DURING COVID RESTRICTIONS.

She describes a 'failure of leadership', so how has 'the leader' responded? 'Sorry'. And further action must wait for the full report to be completed -he will decide if it is published in full, while the Metropoltan Police complete their report, not forgetting this means the Prime Minister of the UK is one of the people subject to this criminal investigation.

Over 100 people were arrested by the Metropolitan Police in London in early November 2020 for violating Covid regulations, but none of them were in the offices of the Prime Minister.

How much longer can this hypocrite remain in office? Probably longer than many want.

Gray's report, not that long, is here-

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documen...s_-_update.pdf

I must call it 'Putin's Penumbra' being that shadowy world occupied by Oligarchs and their minions, intelligence men, internet sleuths and who knows who else....linked to the Conservative Party in general, and Boris Johnson in particular.

The man who brazenly trumpets his leadership in the defence of Ukraine has been up to his neck in Russian cash, as the Russia Report might tell us. For that matter, since it is claimed Boris had an affair with the Russian violinist 'Olga D' (who can that be?) in 2020 if not before and since, Boris has been what, 'up to his wick' in Russian affairs? Then there is the relationship he has with a man called Ben Elliot, who is sort of in and out of Putin's Penumbra.

And then there is Brexit....and a campaigin infiltrated and manipulated by the Russians, who also dabbled in our elections, as Theresa May made public in 2017 when Johnson was Foreign Secretary and asked about this and said, categorically 'No' the Russians had not done that. As for the FBI investigating Russia's 'operatives' operating in London.....

Carol Cadwalladr has multiple tweets on this issue, if you have time to read through them.

Get Brexit Done! Defend the Ukraine! Invite me to your Villa again, Lev! Fancy a vodka, Olga?

The truth is out there, who will open the X Files so we can see it? But stay clear of the Kreuzer Sonata.

https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/s...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

After a thousand days of lies and corruption and incompetence, allow Professor Peter Hennessy to make the judgment on one of the worst Prime Ministers in history-

"On Sunday, the distinguished constitutional sage Peter Hennessy – not exactly given to intemperate public statements – declared of Johnson’s failure to resign for breaking the actual law: “I think we’re in the most severe constitutional crisis involving a prime minister that I can remember.” Describing Johnson as “a rogue prime minister, unworthy of [the Queen]”, Hennessy went on to judge him “the great debaser in modern times of decency in public and political life, and of our constitutional conventions – our very system of government”. As his diary entry for the day Johnson’s police penalty was revealed reads: “I cannot remember a day when I have been more fearful for the wellbeing of the constitution.”

Seriously, Tory party, there is no pooper scooper big enough to clear up Johnson’s constant mess | Marina Hyde | The Guardian

The party that elected Boris Johnson is now voting to either keep him or replace him. In the meantime, Lions Led by Donkeys has a couple of video accounts of his 'colourful' life...see them here-

Led By Donkeys (@ByDonkeys) / Twitter

comedy or tragedy?

Final Standings:

Resignations Premier League: Government/Party 59 Boris 3

Boris relegated

Boris resigns after seeing the Partygate report, Nadine Dorries resigned earlier having been snubbed by her heartthrob. The theory being that by not sending her to the Lords this allowed Tories avoiding a by-election. As hell has no fury like a woman scorned Dorries immediately resigned thereby forcing the dreaded by-election.

Boris -I AM THE NEWS!- Johnson, perpetually obsessed with himself to the exclusion of all others. I am sick of all this 'entertainment' politics, be it Boris or Trump, neither of whom have a shred of interest in the countries they live in, no significant policies on the cost of living, homelessness, climate change, education and health, transport and infrastructure. It is no surprise that like some second-rate Hollywood He-Man, Boris is leaving, he claims, -for now, as if in a year or two years' time the people will yearn for him to return to front line politics. He became Mr Brexit, then Bungled it, because in the end, he really didn't care one way or the other as long as he was making headlines and using his fame to make a fortune.

As for those multiple injunctions to prevent the media reporting on his affair(s) with one or two Russian beauties when he was supposed to be attending COBRA meetings to co-ordinate the UK's response to Covid -will the Enquiry find out where he was at the time? There is even more dirt waiting to be smeared on the front pages, but he needs to be in control of the message or his lucrative lecture tours might come to an end.

I hope we are at the beginning of the end of these clowns, liars and murderers like Johnson, Trump, Putin and Netanyahu, all of whom are functionally incompetent, all of whom have damaged their brand but more importantly, their countries. I would like to think a better generation of politicians is waiting to take command, but I have become cynical in my mature years though I am prepared to be pleasantly surprised. But it doesn't look promising right now.