Current Affairs

[oldbluefox]

I couldn't possibly say

[Onelife]

It looks as if, as I predicted, the usual suspects are spending more time than Boris on getting their excuses ready in case the inquiry doesn't produce the result they want.

Whatever the inquiry result, Boris lacks good judgement and that isn’t what this country needs in what is going to be a very competitive world market place.

So if he is still Conservative leader at the next election vote for someone you think can do better. That's is how democracy works. But for goodness sake the Boris Bashing is becoming so wearing and I detest the way it is turning into attacking everything this country achieves and is detracting from much more important matters.

With respect Sir Merv my posts have done nothing that could be construed as knocking our countries achievements. Secondly, I have never bashed Boris, I have given you the facts as presented by the actions of the bumbling fool. The fact that you and others are hell bent on supporting someone who lacks any moral compass is beyond me. I find it difficult to understand how intelligent people like yourself can defend his actions or indeed his lies. We don’t need Sue Gray to tell us he is a manipulator of the truth, it is plaintively obvious…. surely!

[Ray B]

Sue Gray is basically asking people what happened and she is recording the answers.

I am sure she will faithfully report what she is told.

But there aren’t going to be recommendations for actions - she doesn’t have that power.

What are you all expecting from this report?

Exactly Gill, was it not said that she will gather the facts of what did or did not take place at the alleged gatherings and not make any accusations of rite or wrong of anyone who may have been attending.
The facts will then speak for themselves.

[Kendhni]

With respect Sir Merv my posts have done nothing that could be construed as knocking our countries achievements. Secondly, I have never bashed Boris, I have given you the facts as presented by the actions of the bumbling fool. The fact that you and others are hell bent on supporting someone who lacks any moral compass is beyond me. I find it difficult to understand how intelligent people like yourself can defend his actions or indeed his lies. We don’t need Sue Gray to tell us he is a manipulator of the truth, it is plaintively obvious…. surely!

The conservative party and many individuals are finally starting to wake up to what Johnson is. However some have been so taken in by his lies, and are so invested in them that they cannot admit they have been fooled .. to the point that are accepting of lower and lower standards from their political representatives dragging the entire system down for the entire country (they are a danger to everything the UK stands for).

All that they have to defend him is straw clutching and more and more infantile arguments such as 'such and such would be worse', 'well somebody else did it' ... sounds like a childrens playground ... infact even a 5 year old schooled Johnson a couple of days ago.

I don't believe Johnson is a bad person, he is just the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time ... with his biggest downfall being his total inability to tell the truth. If Johnsons tells you it did not happen, then that pretty much guarantees it did ... if he tells you he wasn't there, then he probably was.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Whatever the inquiry result, Boris lacks good judgement and that isn’t what this country needs in what is going to be a very competitive world market place.

So if he is still Conservative leader at the next election vote for someone you think can do better. That's is how democracy works. But for goodness sake the Boris Bashing is becoming so wearing and I detest the way it is turning into attacking everything this country achieves and is detracting from much more important matters.

With respect Sir Merv my posts have done nothing that could be construed as knocking our countries achievements. Secondly, I have never bashed Boris, I have given you the facts as presented by the actions of the bumbling fool. The fact that you and others are hell bent on supporting someone who lacks any moral compass is beyond me. I find it difficult to understand how intelligent people like yourself can defend his actions or indeed his lies. We don’t need Sue Gray to tell us he is a manipulator of the truth, it is plaintively obvious…. surely!

And with equal respect to you, first I did not accuse you specifically of knocking our country's achievements, but others certainly have, both on this forum and elsewhere in the social media.

Second, if calling Boris a bumbling fool doesn't constitute bashing I'm not sure what does. It may be your honestly held opinion, which is fine, but in my equally honest opinion it is bashing.

Third I am not hell bent on supporting Boris or anyone else. I have merely countered the bashing when I have considered it over the top and have pointed out that the alternative offered by the Labour party has his own weaknesses, not least that we don't know who the hell he actually is or what he stands for. Is he Corbyn under a new name or Blair? Is he old Labour or New Labour? It matters.

I know Boris has many faults. He has also succeeded in many ways. Not least getting us out of the EU. Which is actually at the root of most of the Boris hatred. He could have run naked into burning buildings to rescue orphan children after that and some would have still found fault. But surely we can agree on the success of our test and vaccination programmes, for example?

And I have suggested we await the outcome of the investigation before making judgement, which his detractors, including you from your statement above, clearly won't. You have already decided. Well, to answer Foxy's question earlier, which others have dodged, yes I will accept her findings, whatever they are. A shame the bashers won't. It's like British Rail's regular excuses. It's the wrong kind of enquiry.

[david63]

Quite honestly I don't know why anybody in their right mind would ever want to be PM, or leader of any other country for that matter. Whatever they do is wrong for at least half the population and always wrong in the eyes of both the media and opposition parties.

[Stephen]

It must have it's perks otherwise why would any of them come into politics. Nest featherers the lot of them

[Kendhni]

Quite honestly I don't know why anybody in their right mind would ever want to be PM, or leader of any other country for that matter. Whatever they do is wrong for at least half the population and always wrong in the eyes of both the media and opposition parties.

Maybe wanting to be a PM should automatically exclude you from ever holding the role.
The FIL was a politician and you had to have a thick skin. I remember him telling me once that (generally) you cannot take things personally, the attacks are (generally) against a policy, not the individual ... that is why, after a disagreement on the floor, the two politicians can be sitting down having a drink together, as the media creates stories about how they hate each other.

The opposition party are there to 'oppose' and keep checks and balances in place ... not a system I like, but it is the one we have. The media is generally split down the middle with half backing their tribe and the other backing their tribe. What we are seeing now though is even the conservative backing media is showing disillusionment with what is happening ... they are as keen as the majority of people in this country at getting someone else in power.

I know Johnson is the "comeback kid" and usually bounces back from anything, but I think this cat may have run out of lives.

[towny44]

Quite honestly I don't know why anybody in their right mind would ever want to be PM, or leader of any other country for that matter. Whatever they do is wrong for at least half the population and always wrong in the eyes of both the media and opposition parties.

Sad but true, and if the media and critics do manage to get Boris fired, I am fairly confident that whoever takes over will ultimately suffer similar attacks.

[Gill W]

I step away from the computer for a few hours, and all sorts of interesting events happen.

Conservative MP William Wragg accuses the whips and number 10 of bullying and blackmail.

When asked, Johnson says he hasn't seen any evidence of this....... well, he would say that, wouldn't he. If pushed further, you'd half expect him to say that nobody told him that bullying was wrong and that blackmail was against the law !

I see his handlers have now put him in a mask for interviews, so that the tell tale dupers delight smirk isn't revealed.

In spite of the alleged wholesale phones clean up. it is being said that Sue Gray has found an email that confirms that Johnson was told not to go ahead with the party on 20th May 2020 This doesn't change anything I said earlier - it's still just a report from a civil servant reporting to Johnson.

Finally, with regard to Johnson's baby daughter - who can believe anything that emanates from Johnson or number 10. If he was supposed to have been very ill himself with Covid and his baby daughter had only just been ill, you'd think he wouldn't be so keen to throw off all restrictions. It just doesn't add up properly. I sincerely hope he wasn't using his tiny daughter as a shield, but it's got to the point where nothing he says can truly be believed.

[barney]

Quite honestly I don't know why anybody in their right mind would ever want to be PM, or leader of any other country for that matter. Whatever they do is wrong for at least half the population and always wrong in the eyes of both the media and opposition parties.

Sad but true, and if the media and critics do manage to get Boris fired, I am fairly confident that whoever takes over will ultimately suffer similar attacks.

It won’t be the media or critics that get Johnson sacked.
It will be his colleagues.
They are the ONLY ones with the power to remove him.
The electorate in general have no say in the matter.

[oldbluefox]

I step away from the computer for a few hours, and all sorts of interesting events happen.

Good grief Gill, you had me excited there. I thought you were going to talk about something other than Boris.

[barney]

The point really is that the Prime Minister’s response to the allegations of intimidation etc should be that he will immediately investigate and find out what he can.
He goes straight on the defensive when in reality, he should be going on the offensive and say he’ll investigate all allegations.
It’s equivalent to taking a complaint to your boss and them immediately dismissing it because ‘he’s seen no evidence’
He’s an HR department’s nightmare.

[Onelife]

Ken,

I think we stand on different sides of the fence when it comes to which party is worthy of Government but I am completely in sync with you on this point…

“To the point that are accepting of lower and lower standards from their political representatives dragging the entire system down for the entire country (they are a danger to everything the UK stands for)”.

I’m hoping Boris’s departure will bring about a watershed moment in British politics, one that sees no hiding places for those who think themselves beyond reproach.

We have these past few years seen our political system fall well short of expected standards not only its representatives but also from the underhand political manoeuvring that has taken place…some of which will have repercussions for future parliamentary procedures.

[barney]

Ken,

I think we stand on different sides of the fence when it comes to which party is worthy of Government but I am completely in sync with you on this point…

“To the point that are accepting of lower and lower standards from their political representatives dragging the entire system down for the entire country (they are a danger to everything the UK stands for)”.

I’m hoping Boris’s departure will bring about a watershed moment in British politics, one that sees no hiding places for those who think themselves beyond reproach.

We have these past few years seen our political system fall well short of expected standards not only its representatives but also from the underhand political manoeuvring that has taken place…some of which will have repercussions for future parliamentary procedures.

Part of the problem was when Bercow started making it up as he went along.
Then we had those who refused to accept the democratic decision trying every dirty trick in the book to overturn it.
Then we had Johnson illegally proroguing Parliament.
It now appears all bets are off when it comes to behaving decently.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Finally, with regard to Johnson's baby daughter - who can believe anything that emanates from Johnson or number 10. If he was supposed to have been very ill himself with Covid and his baby daughter had only just been ill, you'd think he wouldn't be so keen to throw off all restrictions. It just doesn't add up properly. I sincerely hope he wasn't using his tiny daughter as a shield, but it's got to the point where nothing he says can truly be believed.

Your callousness and spite really does show no bounds. Not an ounce of sympathy for a small child and her no doubt worried father.

[towny44]

Quite honestly I don't know why anybody in their right mind would ever want to be PM, or leader of any other country for that matter. Whatever they do is wrong for at least half the population and always wrong in the eyes of both the media and opposition parties.

Sad but true, and if the media and critics do manage to get Boris fired, I am fairly confident that whoever takes over will ultimately suffer similar attacks.

It won’t be the media or critics that get Johnson sacked.
It will be his colleagues.
They are the ONLY ones with the power to remove him.
The electorate in general have no say in the matter.

It will be the media, simply because if they stopped dredging up and replaying all these stories, there would be no pressure on the Tory party to even conside a confidence vote.

[Manoverboard]

Finally, with regard to Johnson's baby daughter - who can believe anything that emanates from Johnson or number 10. If he was supposed to have been very ill himself with Covid and his baby daughter had only just been ill, you'd think he wouldn't be so keen to throw off all restrictions. It just doesn't add up properly. I sincerely hope he wasn't using his tiny daughter as a shield, but it's got to the point where nothing he says can truly be believed.

Your callousness and spite really does show no bounds. Not an ounce of sympathy for a small child and her no doubt worried father.

I thought that too, shocking, I could only assume that Gill doesn't have children of her own.

[towny44]

Ken,

I think we stand on different sides of the fence when it comes to which party is worthy of Government but I am completely in sync with you on this point…

“To the point that are accepting of lower and lower standards from their political representatives dragging the entire system down for the entire country (they are a danger to everything the UK stands for)”.

I’m hoping Boris’s departure will bring about a watershed moment in British politics, one that sees no hiding places for those who think themselves beyond reproach.

We have these past few years seen our political system fall well short of expected standards not only its representatives but also from the underhand political manoeuvring that has taken place…some of which will have repercussions for future parliamentary procedures.

There will never be a genuine watershed moment because society everywhere seems to thrive on gossip, the more sinister and defenceless the better. If everyone ignored the media, social or otherwise, we could happily go about our lives without worrying whether someone in power was a liar, a buffoon or an an unscrupulous rogue.
Serendipity would be shutting down all news and making gossip a capital offence.

[Kendhni]

Ken,

I think we stand on different sides of the fence when it comes to which party is worthy of Government

I sit slightly right of centre so I want the Tories to be in power (albeit toned down a bit - hence why I liked the coalition government).

but I am completely in sync with you on this point…

“To the point that are accepting of lower and lower standards from their political representatives dragging the entire system down for the entire country (they are a danger to everything the UK stands for)”.

I’m hoping Boris’s departure will bring about a watershed moment in British politics, one that sees no hiding places for those who think themselves beyond reproach.

We have these past few years seen our political system fall well short of expected standards not only its representatives but also from the underhand political manoeuvring that has taken place…some of which will have repercussions for future parliamentary procedures.

I agree, I would say these last 6-7 years (some may shorter, others may say longer) have been an utter embarrassment for British politics and a destruction of an institution that should be regarded as one of the great democracies in the world. At the minute incompetence, corruption and nepotism put it in the same league as some third world countries.

Johnson has lost the trust of the majority of the electorate and even a significant element of his own party .. he has to go and hopefully be replaced with someone that has integrity and create some policies and lead the party allowing it to hold its head up once more. Unfortunately the last 10 years has more than doubled the amount of debt that we expect the next generation to pick up ... it would not surprise me if they rebel against that.

[Kendhni]

I step away from the computer for a few hours, and all sorts of interesting events happen.

Conservative MP William Wragg accuses the whips and number 10 of bullying and blackmail.

I think the whips have been accused of that many times in the past, reducing our MPs to tears in the corridors of power. I thought that strategy had been done away with a few years back and it is disgraceful that in a 21st century democracy it is allowed to continue.

I did however see another report were Johnson was nearly reduced to tears (allegedly) as he begged people to withdraw letters.

I never thought I would say this but I agree with Davies "in the name of god, go".

[Mervyn and Trish]

Well we know who is to blame for the debt. The last Labour government. (The same one where lies became the norm at no.10.)

You will be familiar with the supertanker analogy. Captains Blair and Brown had it full steam ahead towards the rocks.

There was enough angst about the austerity policies we had under the Tories. The pain was nothing compared to what it would have been to emergency stop that supertanker.

[towny44]

Well we know who is to blame for the debt. The last Labour government. (The same one where lies became the norm at no.10.)

You will be familiar with the supertanker analogy. Captains Blair and Brown had it full steam ahead towards the rocks.

There was enough angst about the austerity policies we had under the Tories. The pain was nothing compared to what it would have been to emergency stop that supertanker.

I understand, although I would not be surprised if Ken contradicts me, that Italy's national debt is worse than ours, however Italians in general are a far happier and contented people than we seem to be, I wonder why.

[Manoverboard]

Whereas of course the opposition Parties played a fair hand all the way through the Brexit discussions, I thought their overall behavior was outrageously selfish by ignoring the general population and what ' they ' had voted for.

Getting hyped up repeatedly about Johnson lying about going to a party is only of interest to the brain dead in my own opinion. He may have lied but unlike Blair's lies nobody died.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Maybe we should spin off a Boris Bashing thread, like we did for Brexit, so his critics can attack him in like minded company and the rest can ignore it. And keep this one for #BB free current affairs. As we hopefully start to emerge from Covid it would be great to look to the future and bigger issues than parties.