Current Affairs

[towny44]

Why do think I posted first???

[Mervyn and Trish]

No doubt Boris should go. But it's shameful all these Tories resigning just to deflect attention from Sir Hindsight's first major policy announcement. Even if that was a major U turn on Brexit. Who will the Remainers champion now?

[oldbluefox]

If, as seems likely, Boris has lost the confidence of his Cabinet it is only a matter of time before he has to step down.
As for Starmer I don't believe a word he says and wouldn't trust him either.

[Kendhni]

How long can the downing street clown infest number 10. His own front benchers refused to go out to defend him today ... meaning he forced his backbenchers to embarrass themselves in the media as spun his lies for him. The criminally gullible fools that kow towed to his every lie, with the most simple minded even considering him to be some sort of a hero or patriot, are finally turning their backs on him ... just go ... it will be the first decent thing he will have done for this country ... HIGNFY needs its clown back.

The sooner this 21st century con man goes the better ... so that we can start fixing the huge damage he has done. The big problem is that even the tory faithful have been struggling to identify any political talent or leadership in the party at the minute. Tomorrow it is likely that the downing street clown will announce replacements for any tory that dares to show anything close to exhibiting integrity. Well done Javid and Sunak for finally waking up and putting the country first.

[Stephen]

Dropping like flies

Boris Johnson fights for political survival as he prepares to face MPs https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62059032

[Kendhni]

I was wondering which yes-man Johnson was going to appoint as Chancellor, but, if the news reports this morning are to be believed, Zahawi told him that if he didn't get the role then he would also resign ... and voila, a new chancellor ... and one that follows orders. The greased piglet is spinning on his spit of dishonesty ... even the entire house of lords was laughing at him yesterday.

Time for the 1922 committee to allow another vote of no confidence if he is not gone before the end of next week.

[towny44]

I was wondering which yes-man Johnson was going to appoint as Chancellor, but, if the news reports this morning are to be believed, Zahawi told him that if he didn't get the role then he would also resign ... and voila, a new chancellor ... and one that follows orders. The greased piglet is spinning on his spit of dishonesty ... even the entire house of lords was laughing at him yesterday.

Time for the 1922 committee to allow another vote of no confidence if he is not gone before the end of next week.

Do you think he might be hanging on just to annoy you Ken?

[oldbluefox]

Is that Ken's mate out on College Green with his billboards this morning?

[Stephen]

!cid_f6521c3d-a020-4913-9004-ad8d053760aa.jpg

[Kendhni]

I was wondering which yes-man Johnson was going to appoint as Chancellor, but, if the news reports this morning are to be believed, Zahawi told him that if he didn't get the role then he would also resign ... and voila, a new chancellor ... and one that follows orders. The greased piglet is spinning on his spit of dishonesty ... even the entire house of lords was laughing at him yesterday.

Time for the 1922 committee to allow another vote of no confidence if he is not gone before the end of next week.

Do you think he might be hanging on just to annoy you Ken?

I hope so, his daily pretend-apology meetings will be greatly missed

[Stephen]

Keeping on theme

!cid_44ae8850-0e4b-4502-8d20-01d2cba7b475.jpg

[screwy]

Keeping on theme


!cid_44ae8850-0e4b-4502-8d20-01d2cba7b475.jpg

Brilliant.

[Onelife]

I just hope the next PM likes gold wallpaper because another refurbishment will be another slap in the face to those struggling to make ends meet.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Be ironic if Sir Hindsight ever becomes PM. He won't even be able to think about redecorating without the sharks circling.

[Kendhni]

I just hope the next PM likes gold wallpaper because another refurbishment will be another slap in the face to those struggling to make ends meet.

I suspect the £30K allowance, for redecorating, is barely a drop in the ocean in relation to the amount of debt this government has run up ... I would be surprised if Johnson's magic money tree has any leaves left on it.

[Kendhni]

Excellent speech from Javid, laying the blame firmly at the feet of a dishonest integrity lacking PM.
And it has been said that the Palace will block any attempt at an early election.

[Mervyn and Trish]

I just hope the next PM likes gold wallpaper because another refurbishment will be another slap in the face to those struggling to make ends meet.

I suspect the £30K allowance, for redecorating, is barely a drop in the ocean in relation to the amount of debt this government has run up ... I would be surprised if Johnson's magic money tree has any leaves left on it.

Do we have to do the stopping a supertanker analogy again? The path to the current level of debt was well established by the profligate spending of Bliar and Brown , and that was before the pandemic forced more spending. Or would you have preferred people to have been thrown out of jobs without a safety net to starve and companies to be left to crash and burn?

[Kendhni]

I just hope the next PM likes gold wallpaper because another refurbishment will be another slap in the face to those struggling to make ends meet.

I suspect the £30K allowance, for redecorating, is barely a drop in the ocean in relation to the amount of debt this government has run up ... I would be surprised if Johnson's magic money tree has any leaves left on it.

Do we have to do the stopping a supertanker analogy again? The path to the current level of debt was well established by the profligate spending of Bliar and Brown , and that was before the pandemic forced more spending. Or would you have preferred people to have been thrown out of jobs without a safety net to starve and companies to be left to crash and burn?

Do we have to do the 'it is always somebody elses' fault thing again? That falls into the same category as those who are still blaming Thatcher for everything going wrong.

I fully understand fiscal drag but what you are implying is that the tory government was so incompetent and ineffective that, even after 12 years of running the economy (including several years of make-believe austerity), they never actually managed to take control or achieve anything. In 2015 George Osbourne would have disagreed with you, as he was claiming that due to record tax revenue and a booming economy we were coming out of his make-believe austerity with a bright future ahead of us ... or, to use the fairy tale of the supertanker, the ship was fully under Tory control and steaming full speed ahead.

When the Tory government came to power they inherited a debt of about £900bn (much of which was as the result of bailing out the banks ... or would you have preferred people to have lost their life savings and ending up jobless with companies being allowed to crash and burn?). Taking the ONS numbers, it appears that since 2010 our debt has grown to almost £2.4tn at the end of last year (and growing) ... we are also told that COVID has cost about £400bn. According to Osbourne it was costing £20bn per year to service their inherited debt, so after 5 years that was another £100bn cost.

Allowing for these costs that still leaves a huge £1tn that was shaken from the Tory magic money that must have been spent on other follies.


After 12 years of Tory economic excellence and skillful handling of the economy it appears that the cost, just to service our debt, has increased from about £50m per day to £225m per day ... that is over £3000 per annum for every household ... and growing!!!

[Mervyn and Trish]

I suspect the £30K allowance, for redecorating, is barely a drop in the ocean in relation to the amount of debt this government has run up ... I would be surprised if Johnson's magic money tree has any leaves left on it.

Do we have to do the stopping a supertanker analogy again? The path to the current level of debt was well established by the profligate spending of Bliar and Brown , and that was before the pandemic forced more spending. Or would you have preferred people to have been thrown out of jobs without a safety net to starve and companies to be left to crash and burn?

Do we have to do the 'it is always somebody elses' fault thing again? That falls into the same category as those who are still blaming Thatcher for everything going wrong.

I fully understand fiscal drag but what you are implying is that the tory government was so incompetent and ineffective that, even after 12 years of running the economy (including several years of make-believe austerity), they never actually managed to take control or achieve anything. In 2015 George Osbourne would have disagreed with you, as he was claiming that due to record tax revenue and a booming economy we were coming out of his make-believe austerity with a bright future ahead of us ... or, to use the fairy tale of the supertanker, the ship was fully under Tory control and steaming full speed ahead.

When the Tory government came to power they inherited a debt of about £900bn (much of which was as the result of bailing out the banks ... or would you have preferred people to have lost their life savings and ending up jobless with companies being allowed to crash and burn?). Taking the ONS numbers, it appears that since 2010 our debt has grown to almost £2.4tn at the end of last year (and growing) ... we are also told that COVID has cost about £400bn. According to Osbourne it was costing £20bn per year to service their inherited debt, so after 5 years that was another £100bn cost.

Allowing for these costs that still leaves a huge £1tn that was shaken from the Tory magic money that must have been spent on other follies.


After 12 years of Tory economic excellence and skillful handling of the economy it appears that the cost, just to service our debt, has increased from about £50m per day to £225m per day ... that is over £3000 per annum for every household ... and growing!!!

George Osborne told us a lot that was cobblers. The problem was not the bailing out the banks. The problem was the Labour government had no money to do it because Gordon Brown's "prudence" was a myth. He failed to do what any sensible household did and save up in the good times. He just splashed more cash. He flogged the family silver. And he raped pension funds. And left debt escalating so fast that even the level of austerity we had couldn't stop it mounting further. By the time Covid came along the rate of increase had stopped but the repayments were yet to come. And the the pandemic changed everything. Just imagine how much worse it would have been if Comrade Corbyn had been in charge.

[Manoverboard]

The Banks repaid their bail out pennies ... just saying.

[Gill W]

Ah Towny you’ve let me down. When the news broke, I was convinced it would be Gill who made the first comment.!

Sorry Gill.

I’m on holiday, I haven’t even got a TV where I’m staying.

Fortunately I have a Wi-Fi connection, so I thought I’d just look in and see how you all are doing.

Been out walking all day, so just got my feet up, live streaming Johnson’s mauling at the Liaison Committee.

I hear he’s got a deputation of senior Tory MPs waiting for him back at Downing St, to tell him the game is up and he’s got to resign. Still can’t help thinking he’ll have to be bodily carried out of No 10 !

[Kendhni]

George Osborne told us a lot that was cobblers. The problem was not the bailing out the banks. The problem was the Labour government had no money to do it because Gordon Brown's "prudence" was a myth. He failed to do what any sensible household did and save up in the good times. He just splashed more cash. He flogged the family silver. And he raped pension funds.

While I don't disagree with much of what you say there ... there is an interesting point that an MP once explained to me. It is not the governments job to 'save', it is the governments job to balance the books. The argument is that the government should be spending what resources it has available to it to better those services it has. His argument was, what is the sense in saving mooney if the health service is in disarray.

The books have not been balanced for a long time.

And left debt escalating so fast that even the level of austerity we had couldn't stop it mounting further. By the time Covid came along the rate of increase had stopped but the repayments were yet to come. And the the pandemic changed everything.

Osbourne claimed it was under control and was reversing us out of the make-believe austerity ... are you saying, that like Johnson, Osbourne was another Tory liar? Are you saying that after 5 years of Tory government they failed to achieve any economic advancement or changes to any policies? I hadn't realised they had just sat about with their feet on their desks doing nothing.

There were other major money haemorrhaging events as well as/worse than COVID.

Just imagine how much worse it would have been if Comrade Corbyn had been in charge.

Considering there is zero evidence to suggest Corbyn would have been any better, or any worse, there is little sense in wasting times on such imaginations. All we know is that the current government has throttled the magic money tree to within an inch of its life on its out of control spending (beyond COVID).

[Kendhni]

The Banks repaid their bail out pennies ... just saying.

Mostly to a Tory government ... that only makes the current governments screw up of the economy even worse ... since they had borrowings made by Labour repaid to them ... so maybe we should consider the inherited debt as £900bn less what the banks repaid.

[Kendhni]

I hear he’s got a deputation of senior Tory MPs waiting for him back at Downing St, to tell him the game is up and he’s got to resign. Still can’t help thinking he’ll have to be bodily carried out of No 10 !

If he doesn't go this week I reckon that he will be forced out by another no confidence vote next week (once the 1922 committee sorts out internal changes and removes the 1 year rule) ... but then again he is the greased pig with more lives than a clowder of cats ... as someone (?) once said, "the only way to get rid of Johnson is to fire him".

[towny44]

The Banks repaid their bail out pennies ... just saying.

Mostly to a Tory government ... that only makes the current governments screw up of the economy even worse ... since they had borrowings made by Labour repaid to them ... so maybe we should consider the inherited debt as £900bn less what the banks repaid.

Surely the banks debts would have been factored into the accounts and would have sat on the creditors side of the books, which would have increased the debt if not repaid?