NPR

I am somewhat astounded that the thing that looks like it’s going to nail Boris is not the corruption, the cronyism, the greed, the lying, the paying Accuri, the handling of the pandemic, the whole Cummings castle trip. It’s a throw away comment in a meeting.

ScarfaceClaw wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 8:58 am I am somewhat astounded that the thing that looks like it’s going to nail Boris is not the corruption, the cronyism, the greed, the lying, the paying Accuri, the handling of the pandemic, the whole Cummings castle trip. It’s a throw away comment in a meeting.

I'm not. Kaiser Chiefs wrote a song about these modern times.....

Daily Mail - which is a pretty horrible rag - is really going for knife-twisting on BoJo at the moment, he must have seriously pissed off their proprietors recently. Must be determined if they're even using the BBC as backup for their claims.

Well Rothermere was a backer of David Cameron so maybe it's as much about distracting attention from him.

tabascoboy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 9:38 am Daily Mail - which is a pretty horrible rag - is really going for knife-twisting on BoJo at the moment, he must have seriously pissed off their proprietors recently. Must be determined if they're even using the BBC as backup for their claims.

Well Rothermere was a backer of David Cameron so maybe it's as much about distracting attention from him.

The Mail is no longer the frothing Brexit-supporting, right wing rag it was under Paul Dacre's leadership. Its current Editor, Georgie Greig supported remain, and has sought to change the Mail's focus since taking over in 2018, and has come in for criticism from Dacre for doing so. Its still a right wing paper, but given its Editor's support for remain, and then for Theresa May's Brexit deal, its perhaps less surprising that the paper has it in for Boris.

ScarfaceClaw wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 8:58 am I am somewhat astounded that the thing that looks like it’s going to nail Boris is not the corruption, the cronyism, the greed, the lying, the paying Accuri, the handling of the pandemic, the whole Cummings castle trip. It’s a throw away comment in a meeting.

That's possibly a bit optimistic. He'll probably end up with a 2 point bump in the polls.

Lobby wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 9:46 am

tabascoboy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 9:38 am Daily Mail - which is a pretty horrible rag - is really going for knife-twisting on BoJo at the moment, he must have seriously pissed off their proprietors recently. Must be determined if they're even using the BBC as backup for their claims.

Well Rothermere was a backer of David Cameron so maybe it's as much about distracting attention from him.

The Mail is no longer the frothing Brexit-supporting, right wing rag it was under Paul Dacre's leadership. Its current Editor, Georgie Greig supported remain, and has sought to change the Mail's focus since taking over in 2018, and has come in for criticism from Dacre for doing so. Its still a right wing paper, but given its Editor's support for remain, and then for Theresa May's Brexit deal, its perhaps less surprising that the paper has it in for Boris.

Thanks for the clarification

The Mail was never going to support Boris to the death. Gove is their man.

More concerned about himself than getting on with lockdown! Now that is scum of the highest order

The accounts of what happened on the evening of October 30, 2020 could not be further apart – but on one matter there is unanimity. Boris Johnson was in a foul mood on a day he now wishes he could forget.
Having publicly pledged to do everything he could to avoid the “disaster” of a second lockdown, the Prime Minister had been strong-armed by his most senior ministers and aides into agreeing to just that.
Mr Johnson feared he would pay a heavy price politically for a decision that would hit the economy and rile Tory MPs and the public at large. He was wrong.

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 10:30 am The Mail was never going to support Boris to the death. Gove is their man.

Just imagine Gove as our next PM

He 100% said the comment. Fwiw I sense the newspaper proprietors are pretty anti-lockdown - I imagine a lot of their trade comes from people wanting something to read on the train etc.

ScarfaceClaw wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 8:58 am I am somewhat astounded that the thing that looks like it’s going to nail Boris is not the corruption, the cronyism, the greed, the lying, the paying Accuri, the handling of the pandemic, the whole Cummings castle trip. It’s a throw away comment in a meeting.

That won't nail him. I don't even care if he did say it, it is merely a turn of phrase to demonstrate how anti his position was to a particular cause. Its more horrified pearl clutching and utterly irrelevant.

robmatic wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 11:47 am

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 10:30 am The Mail was never going to support Boris to the death. Gove is their man.

Just imagine Gove as our next PM

Why do you think his wife's newspaper is going for Johnson, and the guy he's been joined at the hip to since their days fucking up education is leaking like a sieve?

Openside wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:05 pm

ScarfaceClaw wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 8:58 am I am somewhat astounded that the thing that looks like it’s going to nail Boris is not the corruption, the cronyism, the greed, the lying, the paying Accuri, the handling of the pandemic, the whole Cummings castle trip. It’s a throw away comment in a meeting.

That won't nail him. I don't even care if he did say it, it is merely a turn of phrase to demonstrate how anti his position was to a particular cause. Its more horrified pearl clutching and utterly irrelevant.

Not a particularly nice turn of phrase especially when you've left your office door open and can be overheard ranting and raving by witnesses who have now corroborated that he did say it when he's been lying through his teeth that he didn't say it
It's not so much what he said and in what context, it is the ongoing pattern of serial lying from the repulsive cunt!

Openside wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:05 pm

ScarfaceClaw wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 8:58 am I am somewhat astounded that the thing that looks like it’s going to nail Boris is not the corruption, the cronyism, the greed, the lying, the paying Accuri, the handling of the pandemic, the whole Cummings castle trip. It’s a throw away comment in a meeting.

That won't nail him. I don't even care if he did say it, it is merely a turn of phrase to demonstrate how anti his position was to a particular cause. Its more horrified pearl clutching and utterly irrelevant.

Agree with this. Amazed at posters on this thread who are normally pretty level headed trying to twist everything to an agenda

Boris is totally unsuited to being Prime Minister. Cameron lied plenty as well, and has proven very familiar with the cronyism, but at least he had some form of statesman-like manner and political skill.

Agree with others that it's kind of mad that a throwaway comment seems to get Boris more criticism than the lies, cronyism, corruption and appalling handling of the pandemic.
But whatever breaks the camel's back will do at this stage - this government needs a good old broom taking through it (I'm not really expecting that to happen anytime soon). How the likes of Williamson, Patel and Jenrick are still in government right now is a mystery for the ages already - at least for Hancock you can make the case that he had the biggest and hardest job of the lot of them (yet he still made time to make sure to make some money out of the situation).

Interesting that Gove has gone very quiet of late - hopefully his history and reputation prevents him from ever getting near PM.

Raab out of all them might have got himself the best through the last year.

Slick wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:33 pm

Openside wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:05 pm

ScarfaceClaw wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 8:58 am I am somewhat astounded that the thing that looks like it’s going to nail Boris is not the corruption, the cronyism, the greed, the lying, the paying Accuri, the handling of the pandemic, the whole Cummings castle trip. It’s a throw away comment in a meeting.

That won't nail him. I don't even care if he did say it, it is merely a turn of phrase to demonstrate how anti his position was to a particular cause. Its more horrified pearl clutching and utterly irrelevant.

Agree with this. Amazed at posters on this thread who are normally pretty level headed trying to twist everything to an agenda

That was my point. It’s a ranting throw away line that someone has overheard. In comparison with an almost endless stream of corruption and indifference to the truth this is almost irrelevant.

It’s the equivalent of ignoring someone shitting on your doorstep but getting upset because they told someone else to bugger off.

Slick wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 7:55 am

Torquemada 1420 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 7:52 am

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 26, 2021 11:41 am I dunno, perhaps you start to realise that the problem is actually corruption and a blasé "of course they're corrupt" response is useless and - if repeated by enough people - actively damaging to a functioning democracy?

This is true but when was the UK last worthy to be considered a functioning democracy? I mean in the true spirit of the term democracy and not what it represents now. Sandie might have a point here i.e. we long passed any semblance of representation of the people resulting in the people becoming so disinterested that this scale of corruption was inevitable. To me, it seems to be a steady but inexorable decline that could only be arrested by something drastic which is not what Brits do.

"We can't possibly be the monster. We are English you know" [/Peter Cushing. Horror Express.]

Today.

the belief in freedom and equality between people, or a system of government based on this belief

salanya wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 1:13 pm Boris is totally unsuited to being Prime Minister.

Because he wanted to be PM so he could be remembered as having been PM without ever wanting to do any of the PM work between those 2 points.

Slick wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:33 pm

Openside wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:05 pm

ScarfaceClaw wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 8:58 am I am somewhat astounded that the thing that looks like it’s going to nail Boris is not the corruption, the cronyism, the greed, the lying, the paying Accuri, the handling of the pandemic, the whole Cummings castle trip. It’s a throw away comment in a meeting.

That won't nail him. I don't even care if he did say it, it is merely a turn of phrase to demonstrate how anti his position was to a particular cause. Its more horrified pearl clutching and utterly irrelevant.

Agree with this. Amazed at posters on this thread who are normally pretty level headed trying to twist everything to an agenda

It's not really the language used - although it does show him to be at odds with the of the cabinet / Scientists - we did go into lock down

Assuming that he did say what he is reported to have said , it could have been explained away - turn of phrase etc

But no - ( again if he did actually say this ) - his go to was to lie - just easier to lie than try to explain - and if he lies about this .....

Torquemada 1420 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 1:45 pm

Slick wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 7:55 am

Torquemada 1420 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 7:52 am
This is true but when was the UK last worthy to be considered a functioning democracy? I mean in the true spirit of the term democracy and not what it represents now. Sandie might have a point here i.e. we long passed any semblance of representation of the people resulting in the people becoming so disinterested that this scale of corruption was inevitable. To me, it seems to be a steady but inexorable decline that could only be arrested by something drastic which is not what Brits do.

"We can't possibly be the monster. We are English you know" [/Peter Cushing. Horror Express.]

Today.

the belief in freedom and equality between people, or a system of government based on this belief

Not perfect, but better than some places I guess.

Twenty retired generals have created a political storm in France with a call for a military takeover if President Macron fails to halt the “disintegration” of the country at the hands of Islamists.

Slick wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 2:27 pm Not perfect, but better than some places I guess.

That's the damning indictment of modern democracy.

Dogbert wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 2:12 pm

Slick wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:33 pm

Openside wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:05 pm

That won't nail him. I don't even care if he did say it, it is merely a turn of phrase to demonstrate how anti his position was to a particular cause. Its more horrified pearl clutching and utterly irrelevant.

Agree with this. Amazed at posters on this thread who are normally pretty level headed trying to twist everything to an agenda

It's not really the language used - although it does show him to be at odds with the of the cabinet / Scientists - we did go into lock down

Assuming that he did say what he is reported to have said , it could have been explained away - turn of phrase etc

But no - ( again if he did actually say this ) - his go to was to lie - just easier to lie than try to explain - and if he lies about this .....

It is his default position in his personal life and his political life. He is a pathological liar. The last few days have seen Cabinet Ministers running around defending him on air............having to tell lies as well!

Apparently the money for doing up the place was, in fact, a loan from Tory Party funds which he has since repaid. Undeclared, if course, but then who cares?

As Twitter has it, it was just resting in his account.

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 4:40 pm Apparently the money for doing up the place was, in fact, a loan from Tory Party funds which he has since repaid. Undeclared, if course, but then who cares?

As Twitter has it, it was just resting in his account.

Lord Brownlow has been extremely generous to the blonde slug, Theresa May and Samantha Cameron by the looks
Of course he's got a peerage out of it, but then that's what wealthy donors get

The thing about making charitable donations that gives David Brownlow the most satisfaction, he says, is “to make a difference to people’s lives”.
The sort of difference, we now know, that means the prime minister and his fiancee, Carrie Symonds, can relax in the luxurious surroundings created by a very upmarket interior decorator in their Downing Street flat.
Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row in the royal county of Berkshire, who is ranked the 521st richest person in the UK with an estimated £271m fortune in the Sunday Times rich list, was revealed by the Daily Mail to have paid the Tory party nearly £60,000 towards the cost of the makeover by Lulu Lytle, described by Tatler magazine as “one of smart set’s most loved designers”.
The peer confirmed he had made the payment in an email to the Conservative co-chairman Ben Elliot and the head of fundraising, Mike Chattey, sent in October last year. No 10 said Johnson paid for the refurbishment of the Downing Street flat personally.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2 ... s-johnson

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 4:40 pm Apparently the money for doing up the place was, in fact, a loan from Tory Party funds which he has since repaid. Undeclared, if course, but then who cares?

As Twitter has it, it was just resting in his account.

Does the Tory Party have charitable tax status ?

Who authorized the loan, & were they entitled to do so ?

Does the Tory Party inform all its donors that donations may be funneled off to tart up the apartment of Tory MPs who earn multiples of their salaries ?

How many other loans has the Tory Party issued, & have they all been repaid ?

What interest rates do they charge, & can anyone apply for a loan at this interest rate ?

I'm sure a true answer to these will generate another twenty questons !

he gets a 30k pa allowance for revamping the place as he wants anywa

it's illegal for him to take on an undeclared loan. if he genuinely cared, i'm pretty sure the uk pm could raise an extra 30k for a year. apart from the 60k estimate being bollocks and him thinking the world owes him a living

Dogbert wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 2:12 pm

Slick wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:33 pm

Openside wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:05 pm

That won't nail him. I don't even care if he did say it, it is merely a turn of phrase to demonstrate how anti his position was to a particular cause. Its more horrified pearl clutching and utterly irrelevant.

Agree with this. Amazed at posters on this thread who are normally pretty level headed trying to twist everything to an agenda

It's not really the language used - although it does show him to be at odds with the of the cabinet / Scientists - we did go into lock down

Assuming that he did say what he is reported to have said , it could have been explained away - turn of phrase etc

But no - ( again if he did actually say this ) - his go to was to lie - just easier to lie than try to explain - and if he lies about this .....

Maybe, maybe not but the fact that this has come to light just shows what an utterly revolting and venal place politics is. It’s a nothing event blown out of all proportion...

Openside wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 8:37 am

Dogbert wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 2:12 pm

Slick wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:33 pm

Agree with this. Amazed at posters on this thread who are normally pretty level headed trying to twist everything to an agenda

It's not really the language used - although it does show him to be at odds with the of the cabinet / Scientists - we did go into lock down

Assuming that he did say what he is reported to have said , it could have been explained away - turn of phrase etc

But no - ( again if he did actually say this ) - his go to was to lie - just easier to lie than try to explain - and if he lies about this .....

Maybe, maybe not but the fact that this has come to light just shows what an utterly revolting and venal place politics is. It’s a nothing event blown out of all proportion...

I think the issue is he said about bodies pilling up and then the bodies did indeed pile up.

I don't really care about the comment I'm sure a lot is said in anger during such intense meetings.

I like neeps wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 8:47 am

Openside wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 8:37 am

Dogbert wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 2:12 pm

It's not really the language used - although it does show him to be at odds with the of the cabinet / Scientists - we did go into lock down

Assuming that he did say what he is reported to have said , it could have been explained away - turn of phrase etc

But no - ( again if he did actually say this ) - his go to was to lie - just easier to lie than try to explain - and if he lies about this .....

Maybe, maybe not but the fact that this has come to light just shows what an utterly revolting and venal place politics is. It’s a nothing event blown out of all proportion...

I think the issue is he said about bodies pilling up and then the bodies did indeed pile up.

I don't really care about the comment I'm sure a lot is said in anger during such intense meetings.

Quite, imagine if every time someone said “I’ll kill you” if you do that was taken seriously...

There were some changes to the original reports that amended what BoJo said to "bodies could pile up..." which is obviously an entirely different and understandable argument.

Problem is that what we know of BoJo is that it's all too believable that he might say something crass and insensitive ( bearing in mind that tens of thousands actually had died by that point) as a throwaway, and secondly that he has an ongoing track record of casual fuckwittery even if that's often excused by the "it's a lovable harmless buffoon act" brigade.

There's an ever growing list of reasons if not yet actual hard evidence to suspect his flippancy is more than just "a bumbling harmless facade" and hiding a complete cynical disregard for the electorate. Not maybe on the scale of DJT, but certainly unfit to be the leader of this country.

They stick together like shit to a blanket, the entitled arseholes
Sarah Vain's crass take on No 10 renovations won't help much. I wonder if Theresa May thought she "lived in a skip"

Sarah Vine, the Daily Mail columnist who is married to Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, defended Boris Johnson’s right to have his Downing Street flat refurbished on the Today programme this morning, saying the PM “can’t be expected to live in a skip”. She said:
The thing about the whole No 10 refurbishment thing is that the prime minister can’t be expected to live in a skip.
He has to live to a certain standard and the problem with all of these political things like this is that no-one is ever prepared to bite the bullet.

The electoral commission coming to this conclusion could actually be terminal for Johnson...all because the Mrs couldn't live with John Lewis furniture.

“We are now satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence or offences may have occurred. We will therefore continue this work as a formal investigation to establish whether this is the case."

'You've got to understand - the furniture was tacky shit from John Lewis' is a cracking comms piece in a country where John Lewis is considered by most people to be a sign of affluence.

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:18 am 'You've got to understand - the furniture was tacky shit from John Lewis' is a cracking comms piece in a country where John Lewis is considered by most people to be a sign of affluence.

Its the carelessness of such statements - I really don't expect political leaders to put on some sackcloth and ashes 'man of the people' bullshit but be ware that the average salary in the UK is around 38k and with house prices most people wont be able to afford even John Lewis furniture.

I'm sure he will answer any queries raised about this in today's PMQs with the same level of honesty, transparency and addressing the substance of the matter that we have come to expect from him.

tc27 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:22 am

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:18 am 'You've got to understand - the furniture was tacky shit from John Lewis' is a cracking comms piece in a country where John Lewis is considered by most people to be a sign of affluence.

Its the carelessness of such statements - I really don't expect political leaders to put on some sackcloth and ashes 'man of the people' bullshit but be ware that the average salary in the UK is around 38k and with house prices most people wont be able to afford even John Lewis furniture.

It's not even so much that for me as basic understanding of your voters. I bet there is a strong correlation between shopping at John Lewis, feeling affluent and starting to vote Tory. At the very least they should be aware it's one of the most respected brands in the country, not to mention they have it's ex CEO standing in a very close race in the West Midlands.

Don't subscribe to the general tone of this thread but really think this one has the potential to do Boris in - it hits a sweetspot of genuine scandal, something understandable to the average voter and something that will piss said voter off.

I'm intrigued by this new defence that boris shouldn't live in a skip.

I'm sure I don't share May's taste, but she was hardly a pauper.

Hal Jordan wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:24 am I'm sure he will answer any queries raised about this in today's PMQs with the same level of honesty, transparency and addressing the substance of the matter that we have come to expect from him.

Alas he will now be able to avoid answering any questions on this subject at PMQ's as "it is now under investigation by The Electoral Commission"

The thing is the EC could bring criminal charges - it cant be warded off by a Parliamentary majority or 'the court of public opinion'.

A PM facing a criminal charge simply has to resign - a PM with very senior people in his party facing criminal charges is probably also going to have to resign. We will see.

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:26 am

tc27 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:22 am

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:18 am 'You've got to understand - the furniture was tacky shit from John Lewis' is a cracking comms piece in a country where John Lewis is considered by most people to be a sign of affluence.

Its the carelessness of such statements - I really don't expect political leaders to put on some sackcloth and ashes 'man of the people' bullshit but be ware that the average salary in the UK is around 38k and with house prices most people wont be able to afford even John Lewis furniture.

It's not even so much that for me as basic understanding of your voters. I bet there is a strong correlation between shopping at John Lewis, feeling affluent and starting to vote Tory. At the very least they should be aware it's one of the most respected brands in the country, not to mention they have it's ex CEO standing in a very close race in the West Midlands.

Don't subscribe to the general tone of this thread but really think this one has the potential to do Boris in - it hits a sweetspot of genuine scandal, something understandable to the average voter and something that will piss said voter off.

Think of all the scandals to end Prime Ministers' careers, and Boris gets brought down by John Lewis