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

Whats the difference between having him there instead of Gove, Hunt. or May?

The sheer mortifying embarrassment of living in a country that has Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, that's what. It's remembering that pity tinged with hilarity I felt for US ILXors and realizing that's us now, so it is.

Fucking hell I didn't realise another Tory MP got recalled this week. If the same happens to Mark Field and they lose both by-elections then a GE would be virtually inevitable regardless of whether Johnson wins. The Tories' working majority would be down to one vote.

The sheer mortifying embarrassment

The step too far that Hunt won't and May didn't bring is....embarrassment? That the globally respected brand that is UK may become tarnished in some way?

What don't you understand about that statement?

If you don't get it, you don't get it, what can I say? Well done, I envy your sangfroid.

We really need to name and shame the #Boris neighbours. Maybe record their blameless, unshouty lives and give the tape to a national newspaper. Anyone know who they are?

— Allison Pearson (@allisonpearson) June 21, 2019

Even Aaro is finding her a bit too extreme.

Gotta say off that garbage Late Review crew I didn't think she'd be so deranged as I find her on twitter.

I was unclear what it was that was worse about Boris than the others, thats all!

The Trump fellow has a few mean tweets, decorum is under threat worldswide

Gotta say if the UK is just embarrassed that would be kind of ok,
as if we got away with this - but it will be a lot more than that, with potentially lethal consequences for a lot of ppl, the longer Boris is PM.

(xxp) She's been deranged for years now.

Well I just wouldn't have seen it. The worst thing about twitter is hearing from a lot of ppl you totally don't want to.

I'd be sickened and embarrassed by my government if I came from...*list of at least half the countries in the world* but yes

(xp) I'm not suggesting you read the Telegraph but...

Pearson as deranged ultra-rightist kinda surprised me a little too

if Boris is materially worse than Hunt et al i'd argue it's to do with the extremity of his fecklessness/shamelessness making him more amenable to extreme right policy decisions. yeah they're all evil and murderous but there's still room for questions of degree i think.

if Boris is materially worse than Hunt et al i'd argue it's to do with the extremity of his fecklessness/shamelessness making him more amenable to extreme right policy decisions.

So this makes more sense, and I can agree with this, but does his shamelessness make him more amenable to extreme right policy decision? or politically expedient ones? (I realize you could say same thing re Trump in 2016, but the limits on Trumps power are less, and the perceived limits in Trumps mind less still) - and PM isn't King yet.

I don't see that I follows that the most brazen is the most dangerous. I'd take Boris over a Mitch McConnell type figure all day long

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!