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Quote from: Iberian Red on June 05, 2020, 03:48:17 pmNo. He has the touch of a PedoWhat the f*ck are you on about?
No. He has the touch of a Pedo
Quote from: scawsby steve on June 05, 2020, 04:22:18 pmQuote from: Iberian Red on June 05, 2020, 03:48:17 pmNo. He has the touch of a PedoWhat the f*ck are you on about?Ok. SS.Could you explain or justify your earlier post? Nah
This thread seems to have gone very strange all of a sudden?
Quote from: BillyStubbsTears on June 05, 2020, 03:20:28 pmQuote from: Ldr on June 05, 2020, 03:01:54 pmQuote from: foxbat on June 05, 2020, 01:14:47 pmCan conservatives explain to me how working-class born, merited knight Keir Starmer is out of touch, but Eton-educated, burner of £50 note in front of homeless man,great laugh on the telly , Boris Johnson is a salt of the earth, man of the people?Who has said he is?His entire argument for nearly five years has been that he is on the side of The People against The Elite. Where have you been?That's not the same as someone saying KS is out of touch though is it
Quote from: Ldr on June 05, 2020, 03:01:54 pmQuote from: foxbat on June 05, 2020, 01:14:47 pmCan conservatives explain to me how working-class born, merited knight Keir Starmer is out of touch, but Eton-educated, burner of £50 note in front of homeless man,great laugh on the telly , Boris Johnson is a salt of the earth, man of the people?Who has said he is?His entire argument for nearly five years has been that he is on the side of The People against The Elite. Where have you been?
Quote from: foxbat on June 05, 2020, 01:14:47 pmCan conservatives explain to me how working-class born, merited knight Keir Starmer is out of touch, but Eton-educated, burner of £50 note in front of homeless man,great laugh on the telly , Boris Johnson is a salt of the earth, man of the people?Who has said he is?
Can conservatives explain to me how working-class born, merited knight Keir Starmer is out of touch, but Eton-educated, burner of £50 note in front of homeless man,great laugh on the telly , Boris Johnson is a salt of the earth, man of the people?
Johnson has been tested and found wantingThe marriage of convenience between the PM and his party is not likely to survive the years of grimness that lie aheadMatthew ParrisFriday June 05 2020, 5.00pm, The TimesHere’s a mystery, a parable really for bigger things. Do you remember the government’s Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), trumpeted almost a month ago? News stories can flare and die but this one did sound big. In the words of the Institute for Government think tank, the JBC would have two main jobs: “an independent analytical function to provide real-time analysis about infection outbreaks” and advice “on how the government should respond to spikes in infections”.One did wonder what Public Health England (PHE) and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) were for but this new outfit sounded like a good idea. As Britain flounders through a pandemic and public trust in politicians wanes, think of the more durable reputations of the independent offices for national statistics and for budget responsibility. Or the Bank of England. Or think of our security services.Well that appears to be what a panicky prime minister did think. He thought of the JTAC (the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre) and the JIC (Joint Intelligence Committee) and thought “Ah! Security! Spies! Yes — Medical Intelligence! Big announcement — media will lap it up.” And we all did. But what happened? You’re confused? So is the PM. Set up by government to inform itself independently from itself, the JBC has seen both its role and its leader change while still only in embryo. Only this week Downing Street told us that the JBC has been “in discussion” with the chief medical officer for England about moving from “level four” Covid security to “level three”. And at once a flustered health secretary pops up to tell us that the JBC doesn’t exist or (as Matt Hancock put it) “formally needs to come into existence”. A turf war with Public Health England, no doubt.You and I are looking at a right Horlicks of a government, and the rot starts at the top. If we’re really at “level four” of the epidemic, why are we even coming out of lockdown?How is this ludicrous travel quarantine ever going to work? Will our “world-beating” phone app ever be ready? Should we wear facemasks? Why does the virus appear to have fled London when only about 20 per cent have been infected? Where might it be headed next? What plans have we for localised lockdowns? Is the two-metre rule here to stay? What about schools when other year groups return? What about public transport as we return to work?But leave it off: we’ve reached a point when firing questions is just embarrassing. Why bother unless we can address them to a presiding and commanding human intelligence? Which brings us to Boris Johnson, apparently still the prime minister.You’ll have heard the mutterings. “Boris hasn’t fully recovered yet”, “not firing on all cylinders”, “no strategic direction”, “can’t concentrate”, “lost his bounce . . . ” Well he’s certainly lost his bounce. But as for all those other whispers about impaired judgment, they’re nonsense. He never had any judgment or strategic vision. His powers of concentration have always been weak. There never was a golden age of Boris Johnson, never was this fabled creature of whom we now see only a poor shadow. Mr Johnson was only ever a shallow opportunist with a minor talent to amuse.No after-dinner speeches now. What at least he does realise is that this is not a time when his skills as a self-parodying light entertainer are called for. Sadly though, he doesn’t have any other skills. He broke into Downing Street by clambering up a drainpipe called Brexit and he never fully believed in that foolish endeavour, as the more deeply-rooted Brexiteers always knew.Johnson may recover fully from the coronavirus but he is not going to get better, and a horrible national crisis has put that truth on show. Yet for him this, so far, has been the easy bit — the “rally round, boys, and let’s show a united face to our Covid-19 foe” bit.What comes next must prove much more difficult for any occupant of No 10. Ahead lie two or perhaps three tremendous tests.As Britain wakes up to the fact that we’ve messed up, the country faces a summer when our citizens, like children not allowed out to play, will watch with noses pressed to the window as continental Europe suns itself on beaches while we British are confined to Scrabble and computer games. It’s questionable whether this is even sustainable.Second, as winter approaches, a big second wave of coronavirus may hit us. I’m not expecting this but the scientists guiding what’s left of government policy fear it’s a real risk. Unless the rest of the world is hit by comparable second waves, British voters would turn on a Tory government with real ferocity and a plausible Sir Keir Starmer is positioning Labour to profit from it.Third, awaits the greatest test by far for any PM: struggling, maybe for years, to heal a gravely wounded national economy. Is Johnson the leader for a time of soaring unemployment, widespread bankruptcies, empty Treasury coffers and humiliating international comparisons? His parliamentary party at Westminster must wonder.I’d be an idiot to predict that Johnson must fall before the next general election; but you’d be idiotic to rule it out. Guessing where, when and how is a mug’s game, but a general statement is possible. Once your credibility is shot and the voters have fallen out of love with you, you are vulnerable to the first rabbit-hole that breaks your stride. And if the PM trips and falls, he will already know that his marriage to the parliamentary Conservative Party was only ever one of convenience. They don’t like or trust him, and only chose him because they thought (rightly as it turned out) he could win a general election.We can guess how Jeremy Hunt or Michael Gove rate Johnson’s capabilities. As for his chancellor, Johnson forced out Sajid Javid, who would never have been a rival, and replaced him with Rishi Sunak, a man already being seen (and, I hear, seeing himself) as a contender. The field will not be empty.Throughout these frightening recent months we’ve had a prime minister who navigates not by the heavens but by opinion polls. Look at his quarantine plans. His actions are dictated by what he thinks we think we want. Let him study those polls ever more closely in the seasons ahead. His backbenchers, ministers and rivals will be.
I missed this performance last week.https://mobile.twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1268225660796968960To think the country of Gladstone and Disraeli and Lloyd George and Churchill and Attlee and even Thatcher would be ruled by a f**kwit like this.
It doesn't matter which party you support Boris does not come across as a decent leader, whether it's of a political party or a country.He always appears to be trying to think it out as he speaks, stumbling and stuttering his way through. I wonder what Thatcher's appraisal of him would have been but I think we can probably guess.
I wonder if they'd have been treated similarly by their opponents if Twitter was around then?
If you're going to ad lib a speech and make it up as you go along, you've got to be good at it. Anyone remember this?"In the name of God, go; and take your Prime Minister, and the rest of your Rag, Tag, and Bobtails with you".Who was it?