Politics Today

[arthur]

What do people think the long-term collateral damage will be to Boris and the Conservative party of no action against Cummings?

At the last election, the winner was not a traditional politician, a human being with strengths and weaknesses, good ideas and stupid ones, plus a degree of competence and political judgement. Instead the electorate chose a carefully put together artificial construct called "Boris Johnson". This project to build this construct, developed and managed by Alexander Johnson and various people at various times prepared to help him, has been a work in progress for years. One of the project's key milestones was reached in December 2019 with victory at the general election.

Since then, the Coronavirus has exposed the hollowness and uselessness of this construct. Since it has nothing positive to offer to assist its discharge of the responsibilities it has landed itself with of being Prime Minister, there is no potential for any improvement in the situation. The only way is down and eventually out. The only question is how long this will take

 

[arthur]

I see today that briefings that Johnson was in fact 'furious' when he found out about Cummins have made their way into the papers. Well if he was, why didn't he show some of that fury, empathise with the anger in the country, instruct DC to issue an apology, 'fine him 2 weeks wages' and then it would have been easier to 'move on'.

Because he is a bit dim, that's all

They are not evil geniuses but lazy, dogmatic and incompetent men, whose shabbiness is revealed as much by their little deceits as grand blunders.

Cummings and Johnson evil geniuses? Hardly, just lazy and incompetent | Nick Cohen

Boris Johnson and his aide are alike in their reliance on deception to prop up their vanity

www.theguardian.com

 

[RedPaul]

You can accuse Johnson of many things, but being a bit dim is a bit harsh. I don't mean he is clever just because he spouts Latin to get out of a hole, but does have some educational gravitas.

Regarding your critique of 'Boris Johnson - the artificial construct' , this has been a building a long time in the making. I think there is more to him than he has shown and I personally believe there was genuine sincerity in his wish to 'level things up' through, for example, investing in infrastructure. Even Andy Burnham was quite positive in the early weeks.

It is just CV has thrown everything out the window very quickly. How would others have coped in this crisis - Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May - we will never know because there is no comparison. I accept he looks out of his depth and now, exhausted and weighed down.

 

[arthur]

You can accuse Johnson of many things, but being a bit dim is a bit harsh. I don't mean he is clever just because he spouts Latin to get out of a hole, but does have some educational gravitas.

Regarding your critique of 'Boris Johnson - the artificial construct' , this has been a building a long time in the making. I think there is more to him than he has shown and I personally believe there was genuine sincerity in his wish to 'level things up' through, for example, investing in infrastructure. Even Andy Burnham was quite positive in the early weeks.

Hi Paul,

I'm having trouble grasping the concept of "Boris Johnson" and "genuine sincerity" being in the same sentence. This is the man who, when his mistress got pregnant and faced the prospect of a second abortion, told her "Tell you what, why don't you have an affair with someone else and say that the baby's his".

As for educational gravitas, what's that got to do with being intelligent (rather than just clever)?

 

[RedPaul]

Hi Paul,

I'm having trouble grasping the concept of "Boris Johnson" and "genuine sincerity" being in the same sentence. This is the man who, when his mistress got pregnant and faced the prospect of a second abortion, told her "Tell you what, why don't you have an affair with someone else and say that the baby's his".

As for educational gravitas, what's that got to do with being intelligent (rather than just clever)?

Hi Arthur

I'm not talking about morality, but his sincerity in terms of views held. You imply he has no views and is an empty vessel. I think there is more to him than that, even if you disagree with his views. Of course I accept the flip-flop on Remain/Leave can be used as an example of having two seemingly contradictory views.

Compared to Raab and Patel, he is positively MENSA president material.

 

[elginCity]

......Government is about trust and competence....

Rarely do we agree, but on this I'm with you 100%.

Although we've had the legal exchange of contracts, completion date hasn't happened, the buyers are understandably nervous and fearful the 'sale' will fall through. Therein lies the problem.

Because of Brexit, too many are ignoring their mistrust of this incompetent government and continuing to support it, whereas in 'normal' times the public as a whole would be demanding so much more of them.

 

[Hermann]

Sorry Olds, Couldn't disagree more. This is 1992/Black Wednesday squared. I think Indo's posted this already but here it is again:

To explain: voters’ views on politics usually divide into two groups. Positional views relate to the substance of policy choices. In the current crisis, these include whether the lockdown came into effect at the right time, or too soon or too late; whether the latest plans to relax it are wise or risky; and so on.

Valence views are different. They concern broader matters such as competence, honesty and fairness. Is this party or that politician on my side? Can I trust them? Do their private actions match their public statements, or do they operate double standards? Are they strong enough to take the right decisions when times are tough?

We all hold a mixture of positional and valence views. But here’s the thing. People active or seriously interested in politics (my guess is that includes most readers of this site and most of the people we know well) have strong positional views which determine their basic political stance. But most people — the great majority of normal voters — are mainly valence voters. Their broad judgements about parties and politicians matter more than their views on most specific policies.

I think forgotten is too strong, but there is plenty of time for Johnson to turn things around so that it is no longer relevant. I don't think he will, but he could.

 

[arthur]

I think forgotten is too strong, but there is plenty of time for Johnson to turn things around so that it is no longer relevant. I don't think he will, but he could.

The point made in the Kellner article is that poor old John Major made a reasonable fist of things post Black Wednesday, but it did him no good at all!

 

[elginCity]

18 years of Tories, people were also ready for a change.

 

[DB9]

The point made in the Kellner article is that poor old John Major made a reasonable fist of things post Black Wednesday, but it did him no good at all!

But he had to deal with his terrible "Back to Basics" & "Family Values" policies, They were fine but he seemed to forget telling his MP's about it too, The fact was that a week wouldn't go by when we had the sight of MP's standing with their others halfs at their gates reading a pre-prepared statement on how they made an "Error of Judgement" Thats what did for him plus by 1997 the Tories were looking tired and out of ideas. Best thing about the 1997 GE was when Major was in Braunton making a speech right outside the hardware shop called "Slees"