Off Topic News & Current affairs

I think having Sunak as leader would be a guarantee of a lost election. He would lose all the new supporters that Boris gained in the last election. Traditional Labour supporters wouldn’t vote for him as they would feel they have no connection to him as many of them thought they did have to Boris. He would also split the conservative vote and Labour would get in by default.

For all his faults, Boris is the only current leading politician who is anything like the personality we need in a leader.

 

Government accused of blackmailing rebel MP's who want Boris out

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60068612

Alleged intimidation tactics and threats of damaging revelations about them if they don't back off.
Not surprising...

 

But why do we need a "personality" as leader? Labour's greatest ever leader was Clem Attlee, who had very little personality, but plenty of character. Tony Blair had charisma too, and is now possibly the most despised man in politics. Alex Salmon has personality, but is also a serial groper. You get my drift.

 

One question raised by this story...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-60052754

Why was Barrow-In-Furness Council lending Tommy Morrison tax payers' money?

 

I think we place too much importance on the personality (personal charisma) of a Prime Minister these days.
He (or she) seems to attain cult status.
We don't need a Presidential style PM.
This is why I was irked at all those presidential style changes at No.10. Lecterns with flags behind them etc.
Now no Government spokes bod appears without a bleeding flag behind them. Even opposition politicians are doing it.
Load of nonsense.

Thanks for Brexit Boris (and Dominic).
Now let's have a sensible leader, who will kill off this drinks & arrogance culture at No.10.
And no more shadowy 'advisors' being given access to put pressure on scientists at secret meetings.

 

Perhaps I should have said a ‘strong personality’ rather than just ‘personality’ which has different connotations.

I want a Margaret Thatcher type ‘strong personality’ able to make decisions and stick to them, as opposed to a John Major, Theresa May and I suspect, Rishi Sunak, lack of decisiveness personality.

 

Surely Boris hardly fits the bill in this regard? I think the Conservatives have to put B****t behind them. Boris got it done, argument over. There were some very able people thrown out, or left the party because of it, and there's no point in excluding a perfectly able MP because of it.

 

Boris certainly isn’t as strong without Cummings behind him, which is obviously a problem considering what a lying toad Cummings is. For me Sunak is indeed a perfectly able MP, but party leader or PM ? - not strong enough for me - he’s more of a fence sitter, another Theresa May.

 

And presuming that the Tories actually lose the next election, which seems quite probable, who do we want as next PM, Sir Keir, Angela Rayner or a Labour stalking horse ?

 

Hilary Benn would be my choice.
I can remember in the 1960's Labour minister George Brown appearing on Panorama as pi55ed as a newt, and it didn't raise an eyebrow, nothing in any newspapers about it. Have we become more puritanical? I think so.

 

The noise of grinding axes is getting ever louder around Westminster.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60100525

"False and defamatory" according to the Chief Whip.
So I assume he'll be instructing his lawyers to sue Nusrat Ghani.
And I wonder what the Police are going to be told about intimidation & blackmail of the Pork Pie plotters.

There is a kind of "Me Too" movement gaining momentum around the (alleged ) misdeeds of Boris Johnson and his entourage.
At this point I think the accumulating pressure will probably be enough to persuade the required number of MP's to write that letter and trigger a Confidence vote some time soon.
The 'Partygate' report - assuming it is not a whitewash and is fully disclosed - could be the last straw.

Stories now of Tory supporting newspapers sitting on (effectively helping to suppress) reports of boozy No.10 parties?
Shame on them.

 

New we hear the Chief Whip has deleted his original twatter message and re-posted it with different wording.
Has he removed the word "defamatory"?

If he is not going to sue Nus Ghani, then perhaps he should consider resigning.

 

The new Highway Code advises cyclists to ride in the middle of the road to make them more visible...
WTF?

This is a far, far dumber idea than Smart Motorways.
How many cyclists are going to be injured or killed if they follow this crackpot advice?
The Highways Agency is obviously living on another planet.

 

I cycle as near the kerb as possible, and have been cycling for 60-odd years without mishap. The cyclists who get killed or injured are the ones who do everything by the book and think that will protect them. The streetwise kids who go up one way streets the wrong way and go up on the pavement don't get a scratch.

 

It's the worst example I've ever seen of asking people to follow daft rules, when those rules will clearly put them in harms way.
As I mentioned earlier, far worse than 'smart motorways' and they're bad enough.

What's the point of being technically in the right according to a rule book, when you're in hospital with 20 broken bones - or in a wooden box.
Unbelievable idiocy.

 

That’s all fine. It means I don’t have to steer so far to the left to knock them off anymore

 

Sorry Penguin, I didn’t see your reply before I wrote my one. Obviously I’d make an exception for you

 

No problems

 

Another day, another party

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60121572

First we had the denials.
Then we had the "outrage" at what they apparently didn't know was going on.
Then we had embarrassed admissions and a show of contrition.
Now at last we have casual admissions, and a kind of arrogant downplaying & dismissal.

Were these really parties?
Just like when Cummings took off for his round the UK jaunt, No.10 has fallen back on treating the public like fools.

The Lockdown rules were obviously only supposed to apply to dumb folks out on the streets.
The clever and the powerful could just sidestep them, and excuse themselves with technicalities and dissembling.
Rules are for fools.
So much for "we're all in this together".

All you people out there who lost loved ones and couldn't go to their funerals;
Be comforted by the fact that Boris and his party guests were laughing at you all the time.

 

Looks like these stories will keep emerging until Boris calls it a day.