“First, Johnson made the Tories a comedy. Then Truss turned them into a laughing stock. A Johnson return would risk emptying the theatre altogether, as most of the public run screaming for the exits … Conservative members may not grasp the extent to which their party is becoming a joke - here and abroad”. Then he makes the connection very few of his contemporaries have.
“The thought occurs that maybe the Conservative Party no longer cares. Perhaps the sum of its ambition is to become the provisional wing of the right-wing entertainment industry: happy to preach to a diminishing band of true believers, and good for a newspaper column or fringe TV turn, while Keir Starmer gets on with the tiresome business of actually running the country”.
“If so, it can look forward to a Prime Minister staffing his government with fifth raters, since the bulk of the 66 Ministers who resigned in the summer will refuse to serve. If a by-election forced by a Commons suspension doesn’t get him. If the Tory benches don’t first vote down the report into his conduct that would trigger it, thus speeding the spiral of decline”. There was more.
“The Germans have a word for it: Totentanz - a dance of death. Conservative MPs, peers, donors, hacks and activists caper onwards an open grave, with Death himself - sorry, Johnson - leading the procession. The dance possesses them; it has a momentum of its own; they are powerless to stop”. Or perhaps they are merely unwilling to confront reality.
Matthew Parris, the former Tory MP who called Ms Truss’ disastrous interlude correctly, was all too willing to confront reality, telling “Put a stake through this vampire’s heart now … Johnson leaves only political death or injury in his wake so a return could kill the party and wound the country”. But for those who consider this just another game, reality has gone out the window.
For some reason, Master Cole managed not to mention the latest YouGov poll, which gave Labour a 37% lead over the Tories, and a 13% lead for Keir Starmer over Bozo as Best PM. The Blond carries a larger negativity rating than his opponents Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt. What Cole and his pals also miss is that it would be in Labour’s interests for Bozo to win.
As to that popularity, reporter Harry Taylor noted that “Sky News reporter Mark Stone, who is on the flight with Boris Johnson back from the Dominican Republic to Gatwick, said that Johnson was booed by passengers as he boarded”. Although Bozo was apparently flying economy, he, along with Carrie and the two kids, were allowed to board the aircraft first.
And from Germany, Jon Worth concluded “If you take a risk based approach to [Johnson’s] candidacy you conclude immediately it’s too risky. You can only stomach Johnson if you deny reality”. Which some right-wing commentators are now doing, including those at Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”). Bozo is OK because he triggers the Rotten Lefties™.
The problem for them is that this is no longer a game. As the BBC has reported, “The UK's economic outlook has been lowered to ‘negative’ by ratings agency Moody's due to political instability and high inflation. Moody's changed the UK's outlook - which is a marker of how likely it is to pay back debts - from ‘stable’”. They saw Bozo coming. And they deal in reality.
The right-wing idiocy is beyond the looking glass. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton
8 comments:
16 months ago Johnson started losing by-elections:
21 Jun 2021: Chesham and Amersham: 16,000 Tory majority become 8,000 LD majority
16 Dec 2021: North Shropshire : 23,000 Tory majority becomes 6,000 LD majority
6 June 2022: Johnson allies put in fake no-confidence letters to the 1922 Committee, triggering a vote two weeks before the Tiverton and the Wakefield by-elections. Johnson wins it: 211 votes in his favour, 148 against.
23 Jun 2022: Tiverton and Honiton : 24,000 Tory majority becomes 6,000 LD majority
23 Jun 2022: Wakefield : 3,000 Tory majority becomes 6,000 Labour majority
4 - 6 July 2022 : mass resignation of over 60 Tory ministers from Johnson’s government
7 Jul 2022: Johnson resigns
Tory MPs could forgive Partygate, Owen Paterson, Proroguing---but they could not forgive him being responsible for them losing their seats at the next general election.
Mind you, Harry Cole's book on "The Explosive Rise of Liz Truss" is supposed to be published on Dec the 8th. That should be good for a laugh.
The only remaining "hope" for lunacy and corruption.
https://youtu.be/8JDkdc246QQ
Cole's Truss booklet is already to be found in the bargain dumper of my local Oxfam shop, Stephen. And it hasn't even been published yet.
Another first for Thick Lizzie, the woman who put the hag in hagiography.
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I applaud, you, Tim.
You managed to get through this without mentioning the 'B' word.
The Gammonati are terrified of their their deregulatory, tax-avoiding project going up in smoke. Since it's a cult that has never shown an aversion to denying reality, then cheerleader g for Johnson is no great surprise.
We are far from the "tory Death Cult’s Final Act".
That will come when Starmer/Reeves is at the helm and we get the same policies with a different pr twist and another war.
At which point either (a) sufficient numbers of the electorate will come to their senses and ditch all of them into a septic tank, or (b) Britain will finally turn into a militarised capitalist rationed society.
Don't make book on the outcome.
Butbutbut, Ben Wallace tells us that Bloody Stupid Johnson still “has a mandate”. If a week is a long time in politics then three years is an eternity.
Johnson might also have given some thought to the job he was actually elected to do, viz. representing the residents of Uxbridge in Parliament rather than fucking off on three separate holidays since his own MPs chucked him out on his ear.
I am firmly of the opinion that Johnson knew he never had the numbers to make a serious attempt at regaining the leadership (though, opportunist that he is, he would have taken it gleefully had the Tories been stupid enough to believe the hype). Rather he wanted to make it look like he commanded a significant bloc which he could offer to either Sunak or Mordaunt in exchange for a cushy cabinet position, perhaps FO, which would give him access to a nice residence, the opportunity to trade favours in exchange for interior design and party venues, and the odd cosplay trip to keep him in the public eye.
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