Is Boris fit to lead?

[JohnL]

Alan Medic Wrote:

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> Apparently Gove on LBC, has just said he drives to

> test his eyesight too. This is beyond ridiculous.

Ahh but he added he is not an authority on driving - do they actually know how the law works ?

[KidKruger]

SpecSavers shares plummet as the alternative for eye tests become apparent to the public.

This also may explain why roads are so busy today - must jump in the car myself and check if my bifocals work and what it's like driving with no contact lenses in.

Alan Medic Wrote:

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> Apparently Gove on LBC, has just said he drives to

> test his eyesight too. This is beyond ridiculous.

[malumbu]

Whilst I am not a fan of LBC the actual interview with Gove was even better, worth hearing the whole interview:

First minute or so and then returning at around 11 minutes on Cummings-Gate.

Gov did the "this is something my wife and I have done",

Ferrari: what drive 60 miles to test your eye sight" "staggered, this will be a good one" "you may well just as go to spec savers"

then the climb down "I'm not an authority on driving"

What was almost better was that both of them were almost corpsing (theatre term when you can't stop laughing on stage/when being recorded"

The bit on my Nissan Qashqui could do Durham on a full tank. It aint a Land Rover though. Not sure why he hadn't got his lines together

[malumbu]

Sorry couldn't be bothered to start a new thread about Johnson but found this excellent article in the FT, https://www.ft.com/content/50c34a1a-f6ff-4eb9-a635-4dc7bd4d176c , a short extract below

Mr Johnson was always going to delegate the tasks of government, the only question was to whom. He chose to import the combative leaders of the Vote Leave campaign, specifically Dominic Cummings and his acolytes, a group with little regard for the institutions of Britain.

Mr Johnson now looks like a Labrador adopted by pit bulls. His impulse is to unify the country. But his aides are permanent campaigners addicted to wedge politics, and theirs is to divide. Instead of bending his team to his style, they are reshaping him to theirs. Where were the wise counsellors telling him that threatening to break international law may not play well? The answer is that, when it comes to aides and ministers, all but the most loyal are ignored or purged. Was there, for example, really no better choice for national security adviser than David Frost, Mr Johnson?s Brexit negotiator, a former ambassador to Denmark and chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association?

Mr Johnson feels reliant on those who won him the election but forgets that voters also responded to his sunnier personality and his implicit promise that by getting Brexit done, the country would start to heal. A more hands-on premier would, upon victory, have moved to a peacetime team.

Instead, government has been subcontracted to a group who despise MPs, scapegoat officials and care not for checks and balances. Their innate authoritarianism (which is not Mr Johnson?s) alienates liberal Tories. He seems torn between combative aides and his one-nation instincts.

[TheCat]

I agree with all that. And picking up on the 'sunnier disposition' comment....

Regardless of whether you loved him or loathed him prior to his bout of Covid, there is not doubt at all that he is a different man since his illness. As I alluded to in the OP of this thread, I have ongoing reports from people I know that work in Whitehall that cognitively he is toast, and before he may have had the fortitude to push back against these divisive aides, now he doesn't stand a chance.

I think the change is most highlighted when former supporters start to turn on him - see the article link below from Toby young in the spectator, admitting he was wrong to back boris. Again...regardless if wether you love or loathe Toby young, he makes some stark observations about boris's demeanor....

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/i-admit-it-i-was-wrong-to-back-boris

Most colourful extract below:

"What on earth happened to the freedom-loving, twinkly-eyed, Rabelaisian character I voted for? Oliver Hardy has left the stage, replaced by Oliver Cromwell. His government has even said it wants to lower the speed limit on motorways to 60 mph. Didn?t Boris once say that voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3? Where did that guy go?"

[Blah Blah]

The rumours from Whitehall are indeed true. Extended family that work in the Whitehall press have corroborated this. So, the question becomes one of at what point he goes. And do we end up with Gove or Sunak in his place? The latter would get rid of Cummings I think, so may well win any leadership contest on that point. Hard to know though.

[malumbu]

As said at the time of May's rapid decline be careful of what you wish for. Clearly Sunak it a much better leader, even if it simply that he is not a sociopath like Gove. Perhaps he is the only talented person in the Cabinet. His politics aint so good though.....

If it was Gove I'll just hide under the covers and never get up again.

[JohnL]

Sunak's economics aren't as generous as it seemed earlier in the year.

He announced one thing to parliament about the employment support bill and then another thing was released to the media (the government is paying a lot less than he insinuated in parliament - only one third of a wage for a person on part time furlough - he definitely did not make that clear in his speech which of course the opposition was replying to so making the bill not challenged properly in parliament).

Germany and France's scheme for the next year is much more generous to part time furloughed staff.

[JohnL]

malumbu Wrote:

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> If it was Gove I'll just hide under the covers and

> never get up again.

Rarely give Gove any benefit but he hasn't moaned about that hideous spitting image puppet of him. Someone in the puppet making department detests him.

[malumbu]

Apols to bring up an old thread that was supposed to be about the PMs physical fitness, but after probably one of his biggest U-turns, on schools and no doubt other matters (Lockdown #3), I'd be interested in views that aren't drawn from the usual suspects (Mail, Guardian, BBC etc).

[diable rouge]

malumbu, wouldn't it be quicker if you just wrote out our views yourself?...

[KidKruger]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😭

diable rouge Wrote:

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> malumbu, wouldn't it be quicker if you just wrote

> out our views yourself?...

[TheCat]

He looks pretty fit in this shot....

[malumbu]

Not really sure why you have posted a picture of Johnny Ball. But fond memories of him in any case from the 70s and 80s (not now as he is (allegedly) a climate change denier) https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/tv/tv-veteran-johnny-ball-hits-16592148

Although "think of a number" would probably work for the PM. Sorry I have confused half the readership.

[Sephiroth]

We can all agree now surely?

"NO - he isn't, and never was, fit to lead"

[Seabag]

N

[Seabag]

O

[Seabag]

I just had a browse of the newspaper stand at the station

Boris is getting plenty of stick across the board, which is nice to see.

[jazzer]

He bumbles from catastrophe to catastrophe, I've a feeling his days may begin to become numbered.

The next question is, who would take over the rudder, is there anyone capable of leading the country and not repeating the safe mistakes. I suppose we also can consider that no one in our life time has dealt with anything as serious as Covid, so they are firefighting (to coin a phrase) day by day.

As for Downing Street parties, if they are stupid enough to meet for a large gathering, Christmas party or not, be it on their own heads and they take the risk, If they want to take the chance of catching Covid, well, personally let them. I couldn't give a hoot, I've other things to deal with in my own life.

They can lie, but in time as we are witnessing the lies surface and the liar gets called out. whether he faces any disciplinary action is hugely unlikely, he's the PM and what he says will go.

[TheCat]

Slowly, but surely, he seems to be running out of freinds.....at what point we reach the 'inflection point' on borader Tory support for him as leader, I dont know...but thats clearly the direction of travel....

From the DT....

By Christopher 'Chopper' Hope,

CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Afternoon,

How many ministers will quit over Boris Johnson's new Covid-19 restrictions?

It is a question now being openly asked by Conservative MPs amid anger at the latest restrictions to tackle the omicron variant.

I have it on good authority that two Conservative MPs openly discussed sending letters of no confidence in Johnson to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady earlier this week.

And this morning, ConservativeHome, the website widely read by the Party's MPs and grassroots supporters, raised the prospect of a no-confidence vote in the Tory leader.

Tory MPs cannot understand why the Prime Minister felt he had to bring in new rules on face masks, working from home and Covid passports, despite no evidence yet that English hospitals are being overwhelmed by the new omicron variant.

The Department of Health and Social Care will publish more information this afternoon about how the new restrictions will work.

Already, Number 10 is trying to mollify backbench Tories by promising a review of the plans early next month, while a "sunset" of the powers will happen at the end of January.

But plenty of Conservative MPs are in open revolt. William Wragg, the chairman of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, blew the lid off the heated rows in the Commons tea room.

He tweeted just after midnight last night at Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries: "Ah, the haranguing you gave me in the tearoom the other day, it all makes sense now, you were rehearsing your lines for Cabinet", followed by a hand clap symbol.

The fury was palpable in the Commons last night. Wragg himself yelled "resign" at Health Secretary Sajid Javid as he was unveiling the restrictions.

Other MPs spoke out. "I cannot vote for restrictions 'just in case' at a time when hospitalisations and deaths are falling," Ben Bradley, the MP for Mansfield, wrote on Twitter. "I don't believe the evidence supports Plan B and I will not vote for it."

Red Wall MP Dehenna Davison said today: "I have long opposed vaccine passports, and so will vote against their introduction next week."

And Party veteran Peter Bone said on Wednesday night that Johnson must lose his job if a wider vaccine passport scheme was to be introduced.

Tory MP Greg Smith forecast a big rebellion on the Institute for Economic Affairs' Live with Littlewood YouTube programme when the plans are voted on by MPs next week (even though it will be futile because of probable Labour support for the restrictions).

Smith said: "There will be a lot of Conservative backbenchers in the 'no' lobby and it would not surprise me if we started to see some of the payroll peeling off particularly on the vaccine passports."

Smith - who was speaking just as the PM's press conference was getting underway last night - raised the prospect that this could lead to mass resignations among the ranks of junior ministers and Parliamentary aides.

He said: "There have been a lot of very strong speeches, very strong questions from people who have PPS roles and who have junior minister roles around the vaccine passport issue."

The Prime Minister's authority is now seriously fraying with Javid telling BBC breakfast television this morning that he would not support mandatory vaccines and suggesting the PM was talking about health workers when he raised them.

The relationship between Johnson and his MPs was always transactional; they backed him as long as he won them elections.

And I wonder whether something more significant shifted last night; it felt like a moment when the Conservative party may have started to fall out of love with Boris Johnson.

Cheerio!

Chopper

[Sephiroth]

it's a shame the likes of CH only view it as what is good for the party and not the country (coupled with the whiff of covid denial - "at a time when hospitalisations and deaths are falling," is a weird thing to say as the whole world is worrying and dealing with Omicron (and is also the rallying cry they have used before last 2 waves of deaths)