Ne'er get thee stitched til Booris be ditched: UK General Election 2019

I'm not sure about the wisdom of Pacino/Hoffa's "charge with a gun". When I had a shotgun pointed at me during a bookie robbery once - charging at the guy was the last thing on my mind!

that’s why you’ll never be a firebrand union leader and then disappeared by the mafia

that maxim only works if the armed assailant has a defective firearm, otherwise the odds will be massively in their favour!

It’s like al pacino says: charge with a gun, with a knife you run

Never run with scissors though.

lmao

Boris Johnson's election lead halved putting UK in 'hung parliament territory', latest poll reveals https://t.co/GqDjXQVHVX pic.twitter.com/KAwmPa2LbD

— The Independent (@Independent) November 30, 2019

We're all going to die, courtesy of a particularly nasty serial killer by the name of...Hope

*charges at Hope with a whale tusk*

Boris the so called Heineken Tory turns out to be a Toby Jug of piss!

Corbyn has called for an investigation ... phew!.. an investigation into why the perp was released and not into the conduct of the racist police filth who murdered him in cold blood!

this is a friend in Southampton itchen, just to dampen any enthusiasm a bit

Great insight on Facebook from someone I went to school with. This literally happened under a Tory government, with unused EU laws in place to protect our borders, and the terrorist was disarmed by a Romanian baker and a Polish fishmonger, but it's Labour's fault 🤔 We're fucked. pic.twitter.com/UCleQXZuet

— Aaron Gilbert (@AaronDelays) November 30, 2019

yeah but we know that he REALLY has nothing but respect for the terrorist and is only doing this to play to the electorate, disgusting behaviour from the uk’s most vile monster

xp people who think this thought in 2017 too. Corbyn has always been portrayed as too close to foreigners/Muslims/anyone the press hates.

One of the victims was pretty left wing & his dad doesn’t want his death politicised.

"My son, Jack, who was killed in this attack, would not wish his death to be used as the pretext for more draconian sentences or for detaining people unnecessarily.. R.I.P. Jack: you were a beautiful spirit who always took the side of the underdog." https://t.co/VbJndgZ33s

— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) November 30, 2019

matt hancock going down well at the hustings I see

No surprise the Tories are putting Matt Hancock forward so much. He’s such a great campaigner and oh... pic.twitter.com/wGm1jEpEq9

— David Schneider (@davidschneider) November 30, 2019

seems bad idk

Boris Johnson personally warned about risks of freeing terrorists but said there was ‘no money’ to deradicalise them, ex-top prosecutor says
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-warned-london-bridge-attack-usman-khan-stabbing-terrorist-a9227681.html

I'm sure the Prime Minister will face tough questioning on this and other issues on the Andrew Marr show tomorrow.

If you’re Marr you have to be feeling pretty insulted at this point, and possibly feeling like you have something to prove.

You can't have something to prove if haven't got anything to prove it with.

what a fucking waste of space, he's no good at scrutinising pols, he's probably not made an incisive comment on politics in 20 years, yet there he is.

I've seen him up his nasty bullying game against Shami Chakrabarti once. The tough bastard he is.

would Neil be any better given their Spectator links?

https://web.archive.org/web/20071113152846/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=32770

which says

Spectator CEO Andrew Neil said: "Boris has been a wonderful and magnificent editor of The Spectator and we are sorry to lose him; in many ways he will be irreplaceable. But we wish him every success in his political career.

"Boris leaves the magazine in better shape than it has ever been in its long and glorious history, both editorially and financially. "Sales will hit a record 70,000 this December and the magazine has recorded another healthy profit in 2005. The editorial breadth and quality under his editorship has been unrivalled.

"Though he is stepping down as editor I am delighted that Boris will continue to have a close association with The Spectator, including a new column for us in the New Year."

Yeah that was unpleasant.

Meanwhile, all polls are wrong but this is encouraging if anywhere near accurate. Raab getting through a lot of blotting paper this evening:

I don’t pay much attention to constituency polling but this absolutely accords with what I saw when reporting from Esher and Surrey more widely earlier this week. Huge anger from traditional Tory voters. Lib Dem national picture eclipsing their potential to surprise in the south. https://t.co/vIhbrWsdke

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) November 30, 2019

🛑Usman Khan was released under a sentencing regime which no longer exists

🛑Johnson’s manifesto says not a single word about current Extended Sentences.

🛑The minor changes he has proposed to automatic release would not have applied to Khan.

Exploitative, dishonest, cynical. https://t.co/DiZWehvI6S

— The Secret Barrister (@BarristerSecret) November 30, 2019

Another lie.

On a day when campaigning has supposedly been suspended, the Cabinet, from PM to Home Secretary to ministers, is out in force telling flagrant lies about the criminal justice system to score cheap points out of people’s deaths.

What a country we live in. https://t.co/84i3WJgUwu

— The Secret Barrister (@BarristerSecret) November 30, 2019

I said “that terrorists from a decade ago were due to be released still radicalised”

Him “is there anything we can do about that?”

Me “it’s resources for one to one mentoring and deradicalisation”

Him “but that’s money again”

Me “sorry nothing else will do”

Him “got to go” pic.twitter.com/yRAGk0ANka

— nazir afzal (@nazirafzal) November 30, 2019

Last time (afaik) Neil interviewed Johnson he did at least point out that under Johnson's Mayorship crime in London dropped at a slower rate than the rest of the country to the usual bumbling response.

Neil enjoys a stramash too much to let a little thing like friendship get in the way - however he was shit in the last election and I certainly don't believe the hype about his Corbyn interview.

Current Tory Lead by Pollster:

Opinium: +15
DeltaPoll: +13
Kantar: +11
Survation: +11
ComRes: +10
YouGov: +9
Panelbase: +8
ICM: +7
BMG: +6

Polls from 23rd November or later only.

— Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) November 30, 2019

TBH if I was a poor website in need of clicks I'd publish the outlier poll as well.

Emily Thornberry: *tweets a picture of an England flag*
Boris Johnson:

Boris Johnson said:

- Poorest 20% of Brits are made-up of 'chavs,' 'burglars,' 'drug addicts,' and 'losers'.
- Claimed poorer voters just want "handouts".
- Said MPs only want to ban smacking because of "revulsion when they see a chav belting her kids".https://t.co/IPx26GdXhE

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) November 30, 2019

It's funny how all these terrible things he's written in the past are dribbling out. Every journalist has access to this stuff online, it's not like you have to spend weeks in an archive poring over clippings and microfiche.

I don't see the point, his core agrees with him on most of this stuff and Brexiteers wouldn't care if he was a child molester. Four years of handwringing about Trump's character has done fuck all damage to him either. Policy policy policy.

I think they should concentrate more on recent stuff that exposes his lack of policies, like him making the cutthroat gesture (forgetting that he was on film) when his talk radio pal steers the questioning towards social care. It would be game over if Corbyn did that, but still that is something should hurt him and should concentrate some voters minds if they don't gaf about his racism.

yeh, i think of Gordon Brown's "bigoted woman" comment and how it wrecked his campaign - it just wouldn't touch Johnson.

well that's the problem isn't it, Gordon Brown's bigoted woman comment pissed off the bigots, anything Johnson says/does they agree with so it's fine

Fuck the bigots, who wants their votes anyway? It's everybody else who counts.

there seems to be an awful lot of them

I'm basically agreeing with NV. it doesn't matter how much of a scumbag Boris is, his base like that

His 'base' is not that big, he can't just roll into a town and fill an arena full of all the pond life within 10 mile radius the way Trump can.

I admire your optimism

I don't think that's being optimistic. There are as nowhere near enough out-and-out bigots and fanatical Brexiteers out there for the Tories to win a majority, as they well know. I don't know how many Tory voters out there people are preparing to hold their noses and voting for a party led by Boris Johnson, but drawing attention to his fetid stench can't do any harm, in my opinion.

it seems like they're everywhere but maybe I've just been unlucky with the people that happen to be around me, tbh I've been fairly shut in this year. I come from a Brexit town and live in one now so maybe that's it. even people I work with in London seem to hate Corbyn as much as Johnson. although tbf I think they might be voting Labour anyway at this point

I live in Corbyn's constituency, so I suppose I'm part of the Islingtonian elite who wouldn't know a legitimate concern if I fell over one tbf.

what's the point of andrew marr

omg there is so much relentless repeating of out-and-out lied that have been "fact-checked" until the cows come home elsewhere but are not challenged when repeated here it is quite frustrating.

should’ve got jeremy kyle to do this with his lie detector tbh

could have used a few shock paternity reveals as well tbh

I'm enjoying music too much rn to interrupt it to watch that spineless sycophant who would be out of a job if the bbc political dept had any integrity or self respect.

i don't know why i'm watching this its basically nothing

marr totally let him slide after reading boris back some of his blatantly islamophobia shite, fucking shameful

I don't see the point, his core agrees with him on most of this stuff and Brexiteers wouldn't care if he was a child molester. Four years of handwringing about Trump's character has done fuck all damage to him either. Policy policy policy.

Yes and no - policy matters a lot but one of the key thought processes that goes through people's minds when they choose not to vote for someone is "they hate people like me". That's as true for Corbyn as it is for Johnson and my feeling is that the latter is going to do badly with working-class female voters (not to mention Muslims and black people but we all knew that anyway).

It doesn't hurt to pile this stuff up - as much as we might want it to be about a groundswell of enthusiasm for Labour's programme, this election is going to hinge over whether the electorate in key places decides that Johnson is more toxic than Corbyn. That means dissuading enough voters in the Midlands and parts of the North from switching from red to blue (policy plays a huge part here too), persuading enough Southern voters to switch from the Tories to the LibDems in key seats, and dissuading would-be LibDems in Labour marginals than Johnson is too big a risk.

It does appear that focusing on Corbyn's personality and past dodgy statements are working better for the Tories and their enablers this time round than they were in 2017. By all means keep talking about policy (particularly the holes in Johnson's Brexit policy) but there has to be a fightback on the personal level as well.

TLDR - there are clearly a lot of people who will vote for Johnson regardless of what he does, but there are also a lot of people who won't, and the key to avoiding disaster is to ensure those voters are peeled away from the Tories from as many angles as possible.

Came in about halfway through to find Johnson, following the Tories now standard interview procedure, of relentlessly talking over the interviewer so reducing everything to a kind of aural mush. Marr meanhwile was reduced to whimperingly pleading with him to allow him to ask the next question and had olainly been so unable to control the cunt that he was forced to cram about a dozen questions into the last 5 minutes, obviously ticking them off as he went along. Horrible all round.