The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel - The Tory leadership elections

We're talking about the most embarrassing rather than the most dangerous though?

I mean Hunt isn't even pretending he's prepared to tip the country over the cliff - he may be dangerous in plenty of other ways but there's a cavelier irresponsibility to Johnson that feels worse and the fact that it evidently appeals to lots of people in the country is more dangerous than anything.

xxp

i seem to recall Hunter S. Thompson making similar arguments on Ford vs Nixon. I agree that Johnson's power is more constrained than a POTUS's, but the big questions for me are about the extent to which Tory MPs will follow him wherever he decides to shamble, and the extent to which he may be able to offer non-Parliamentary positions of power and influence to any of the charming friends he's made along the way.

(oh and the most important question is still probably "exactly how much dickery can the EU withstand from a UK gov before it gives up on extensions and accepts the No Deal?")

We're talking about the most embarrassing rather than the most dangerous though?

― Matt DC,

Tom D introduced embarrassment as a factor, Noodle Vague brought in the fact he might be more amenable to extreme right policy decisions - which is what I was replying to. I don't understand what embarrassment has to do with anything, if thats the thing that somehow makes him worse than the others, which Im not convinced of either

but if we do stick on the concept of embarrassment, its an assumption to think he is necessarily seen as an embarrassment (seen by who?)

Wasn't xyzz suggesting Johnson's only worse in providing the added embarrassment factor for (we) libs - not actively worse than recent predecessors for upholding the hostile environment etc. Probably true but I did also suggest along with others Johnson's tendencies could tip him further to the right some days (if also further to the centre on others). He'll surely be less consistent than May or Cameron, more chaotic in more ways and generally akin to Trump in this respect while the media continue to take more interest in his private/personal life antics than pressure him on whatever he claims he will do or has done.

Like all these Americans who are embarrassed about Trump, what they embarrassed about?

Man up, guys!

I can think of many words to describe how bad Trump is, 'embarrassing' doesn't even get a seat at the top table

Probably true but I did also suggest along with others Johnson's tendencies could tip him further to the right some days (if also further to the centre on others). He'll surely be less consistent than May or Cameron, more chaotic in more ways and generally akin to Trump in this respect while the media continue to take more interest in his private/personal life antics than pressure him on whatever he claims he will do or has done

Sure, but Boris isn't going to be President, if we're going to talk about whatever he claims he will do or has done, are we talking about things he is going to all by himself? Or through parliament?

I give up.

everyone will be embarrassed bcz i called it wrong and that shames us all (tom hates to see it)

but you most of all

https://as2.ftcdn.net/jpg/02/15/30/69/500_F_215306961_H1vvFS9bmtGw4LSKTx0prDUU8fRoSwfa.jpg

absolutely unstartled by allison pearson btw, who has been a menace for years

(recalling her spitting rage on the late show at a v early adam curtis thing, which dared to poke fun at churchill and thatcher, and the only-nazis-are-monsters read obn WW2)

deranged lilico fanfic

I haven't heard the tape, & know nothing not public, but here's what the reports I've read suggest was the rough sequence of events.+

— Andrew Lilico (@andrew_lilico) June 22, 2019

The king of the ratio

Imagine lolico as Columbo, listening to those tapes for hours going "what is it that I can't hear?"

What is Lolico's day job, apart from making Toby Young look perceptive and thoughtful?

Boris is on the sofa on his laptop, presumably reading Tory election news.

At 10.15pm, Boris Johnson was sitting on the sofa on his laptop, reading a spot of Tory election news...

Scenario calls for Lanchester tbh.

This whole incident is gonna be sensitively dramatised in a 2-part drama sooner than later isn’t it

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/22/boris-johnson-neighbour-interview-call-police

A follow up with the neighbours.

If the guy I saw interviewed earlier on Sky was the neighbour then they're Muslims - which should provoke some interesting responses from Boris supporters.

... I should say he was of South Asian appearance with a name which would normally indicate a Muslim background.

pic.twitter.com/an4gd5X6dP

— Matt Cartoons (@MattCartoonist) June 22, 2019

That’s it then. Johnson is finished

it's not ok to mock me, just bcz he's reached the highest office of the land doesn't mean he's not also over

Wasn’t mocking you so much as acknowledging kingmaker Matt

It is ok to mock you tho

was listening to someone on R4 talking about old Oxford and Empire customs and he framed the contest as head boy vs the bounder, and said in days past someone like Cunt would have been a colonial governor. I'm turning the radio off and going swimming, had enough of this depressing shitshow already!

This piece is amazing and terrifying:

https://www.ft.com/content/85fc694c-9222-11e9-b7ea-60e35ef678d2?fbclid=IwAR2TKDF0DXz9y6AcxRCYEZKeJaPjQdayoXs1z69bcnHxnok31LJCNRlZkak

I think you need to google "How Oxford university shaped Brexit — and Britain’s next prime minister" and click on the FT link for that.

That’s the direct copy from going to Google :-))

infuriatingly they've found some way of preventing the links working, unless you google them yourself.. the fuckers!

Also infuriating: NS and NYT now do ‘you’re in PRIVATE MODE’ if you’re trying to read over your allocation in the dark browser.

Gove, who wore a kilt in debates, was such a gifted speaker that he could even make a compelling case to a student audience against free choice in sexual behaviour. He was unusually ideological by Union standards, a Thatcherite meritocrat. As Union president in 1988, he wrote a paean to elitism in the Union’s house magazine: “I cannot overemphasise what elitism is not. It is not about back-slapping cliques, reactionary chic or Old Etonian egos. It is a spirit of unashamed glamour, excitement and competition . . . We are all here, part of an elite. It is our duty to bear that in mind.”

time to start talking about gulags again.. real gulags.

Just another Saturday night then

ffs @ these Boris stans all over the media. Tim Montgomerie repeatedly telling us to forget about the police being called because no action was taken and both parties were safe and well, like anyone gives a fuck whether Boris was safe, unless he was the one screaming and shouting, "Get off me!"

Also infuriating: NS and NYT now do ‘you’re in PRIVATE MODE’ if you’re trying to read over your allocation in the dark browser.

i've been known to view source, save as a local file and edit out the overlay code

/clearly insane

Also re FT piece:

The @FT is pretty stingy on letting you read behind the firewall, so only three of you will be able to successfully hit this link to the single best explainer of Brexit and Boris Johnson -- Oxford culture & how the ruling class is groomed there. https://t.co/rhTxQxP6X3

— Quentin Hardy (@qhardy) June 22, 2019

That's an excellent piece - I hadn't quite made the connection between growing up in an antiquated fantasy world, the will to power as birthright for power's sake, and the refusal to share that power with anyone least of all Brussels.

Or at least I had but I hadn't quite appreciated how ingrained it was and how far back the roots of Brexit stretched. It does explain why they've been so inadequate in delivering it though.

When did you become this person, Allison? Because you seemed relatively sane when you were a subeditor back in the day. Now you appear willing to say anything to defend a crass, racist, chaotic, shambling, lying, carnival huckster. Does the notion of PM Johnson really thrill you?

— Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1) June 22, 2019

Obviously Jay Rayner hasn't been reading any of her columns over the last 10 years or more.

I am a bit interested in her, in that I never picked up her being so full of bile and froth when she was reviewing things on TV. I don't know if I was just a poor judge of character or if she's been somehow radicalised since then.

That was a long time ago she was on TV reviewing things.

also she was bad

Awful but my friend David fancied her like mad.