Bojo on the brink....

[Gob]

Boris Johnson has insisted he will stay in office, despite a growing Tory revolt against his leadership.

At Prime Minister's Questions, he said he had a "colossal mandate" from the 2019 election and would "keep going".

It comes as ministers continue to quit government or party positions, with backbenchers also withdrawing their support.

Labour's Sir Keir Starmer said the Conservatives had become a "corrupted party defending the indefensible".

Mr Johnson's premiership has been plunged into crisis following the dramatic resignations of Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

They quit within minutes of each other on Tuesday, following a row over Mr Johnson's decision to appoint Chris Pincher deputy chief whip earlier this year.

Their departures have triggered a wave of further resignations, with a number of ministers going. Kemi Badenoch, Alex Burghart, Neil O'Brien, Julia Lopez, Alex Burghart, Mims Davies and Lee Rowley are among the latest departures.

And the Labour leader rounded on those who have stayed in post, mocking them as a "Z list cast of nodding dogs", keeping the PM in power.

He added they were "only in office because no-one else is prepared to debase themselves any longer", calling them the "charge of the lightweight brigade".

Tory backbencher Gary Sambrook accused the PM of blaming other people for his mistakes and was applauded after calling on him to resign.

Fellow backbencher David Davis, who dramatically called on Mr Johnson to step down in January, repeated his plea for him to quit before "it becomes impossible for government to do its job".

But Mr Johnson defied calls for him to go, adding he would "continue to deliver on the mandate I was given".

"The job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances, when he's been handed a colossal mandate, is to keep going - and that's what I'm going to do."

Time to PUPO Boris... (pack up / piss off)

[Big RR]

But Mr Johnson defied calls for him to go, adding he would "continue to deliver on the mandate I was given".

I know I have seen something just like this, fairly recently in fact, but I just can't recall where. seems like something I heard before, fairly recently in fact, but I just can't recall where,

[MajGenl.Meade]

Kemi and Mims quit? Ministry of Silly Names?

[Scooter]

Is it a trait of Conservatives everywhere to turn their guns inward at the first sign of trouble? It certainly appears to be a pattern in both the UK and Canada.

It's always amusing to watch, in any event.

[BoSoxGal]

Is it a trait of Conservatives everywhere to turn their guns inward at the first sign of trouble? It certainly appears to be a pattern in both the UK and Canada.

It's always amusing to watch, in any event.

Apparently not everywhere, since here in America the conservatives are perfectly willing to thrown themselves down the drain with dictator wannabe Donnie.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Even though BloJo will be gone in days or a few weeks it won''t make a lot of difference. The conservatives have by now clearly shown that they are led by a lying madman - willingly led until very recently - and if he is displaced he will be replaced by one or another of his enablers. It's as if Trump had finally resigned under pressure and was replaced by Pence, so we are not sure that it's progress. The Tories have a majority of 80 in Parliament and even if they lose a by-election or three caused by the death of a member that majority realistically might sink to 70. So a totally naff Tory might be replaced by a competent Tory although I cannot think of one.

[Scooter]

Bye bye, Boris

[Gob]

[Sue U]

The Life and Lies of Boris Johnson:



For fuck's sake, Britain, do better!

[Econoline]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKrLBPmRsrM

[Sue U]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKrLBPmRsrM

That was really quite good.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Piece about John Major (PM after Thatcher, before Blair, 1990 - 2007) in the Guardian today. It has a very familiar sort of sound.

Members of Boris Johnson’s cabinet failed to speak up while the prime minister spent years damaging democracy at home and the UK’s reputation abroad, John Major has told MPs.

The former prime minister issued a warning to a committee that democracy “is not inevitable” and can be undone “step by step, action by action, falsehood by falsehood”.

“It needs to be protected at all times and it seems to me that if our law and our accepted conventions are ignored then we are on a very slippery slope that ends with pulling our constitution into shreds,” said Major, who said democracy was “in retreat” elsewhere in the world and should not be taken for granted in the UK.

He added: “What has been done in the last three years has damaged our country at home and overseas, and I think has damaged the reputation of parliament as well.

“The blame for these lapses must lie principally, but not only, with the prime minister. But many in his cabinet are culpable too and so are those outside the cabinet who cheered him on.”

In remarks that are likely to be taken as pointed criticism of senior Tories, including some of the current hopefuls in his party’s leadership race, he added: “They were silent when they should have spoken out and spoke out only when their silence became self damaging.”

[ex-khobar Andy]

For those of you not keeping up (and why should you?) here is a summary of the story so far.

Finally felled by his never ending mendacity and obfuscation, Johnson announced on 7 July that he would resign. This was at least partially precipitated by the resignation, two days before, of Rishi Sunak as Chancellor i.e., CFO. In British politics, the Prime Minister is leader of the party with the most seats in Parliament (that's an oversimplification but it's more or less accurate) which, as result of the General Election in 2019, is the Tory (Conservative) Party.

So there is no VP ready to step in if the PM dies or resigns (as in USA) and the party has to select another leader. A few days after BoJo announced his soon-to-be resignation, the party announced the procedure for selection. The candidates would be whittled down to two by the MPs who number 357 out of 650. The unelected House of Lords plays no part in the process.

So they have now done that and the final two are the aforementioned Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. If Sunak makes it he will be the first person of Asian heritage (his parents immigrated from Kenya long before he was born in 1980) to be PM and if Truss makes it she will be the third female PM (after Thatcher and May).

The final selection will be made by the members of the Conservative party - i.e., those who cough up the £25 ($30 or so) annually to join. The Tories got 14 million votes in the last GE and there are generally supposed to be around 150,000 actual members. So in round numbers about 1 in 100 of Tory voters are actual members who can vote for the next leader who will become PM.

This voting will take place over the next six weeks or so and votes have to be mailed in by September 2. The result will be announced on Sept 5 and the new leader will take office immediately and will go to see the Queen.

[BoSoxGal]

Well my vote is for Sunak, simply because I just read a piece in the Guardian about how despicably Truss has misrepresented her experience of publicly funded education - which nevertheless got her a place at Oxford. She seems very slimy and I don’t hold with that kind of slimy even in a sister.

How slimy is Sunak? If he is only same slimy or slightly less slimy, I’d want him to win simply for the social good of having a brown PM. However I realize that the likely result will be a resurgence of xenophobic Brexitannia.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I think I agree that Sunak is probably the least bad -- he is stinking rich through his wife who is the daughter and heir of a father's wealth from Infosys which he founded. Dad is apparently worth $4 billion and I don't know what portion his daughter gets when he finally pegs. Dad is 75 and he has two kids. Sunak has a green card and has kept it so he has another option if he gets fed up with UK politics.

Liz Truss is a right wing lightweight and, as you say, is economical with the truth and has painted herself as having had a poverty stricken childhood. The piece in the Guardian you mention was an eye opener. Just not the case; but as with her mentor Johnson the truth is expendable and it's OK to lie if you can convince enough of the gullible to believe you.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I guess the black Essex gel was a bit too much for the Tories to stomach? Instead, we get a brown tax cheat and a white crypto fascist - helluvachoice

[Gob]

Truss is s fucking lunatic, Trump in frilly knickers, god help us all if she gets it.

[Sue U]

What are the chances of a general election being called before Jan. 2025 (which I am told is the latest date under current law)?

[BoSoxGal]

https://youtu.be/srHNcNoEJ9g

Ouch!

But really, unless Oxford University is the biggest scam in the history of academia, she’s clearly one of those slimiest of pols (I’m looking at you, Rafael Cruz) who is highly intelligent but plays stupid for the base. The worst kind.

[ex-khobar Andy]

What are the chances of a general election being called before Jan. 2025 (which I am told is the latest date under current law)?

Not great. A general election would be called before the due date (5 years from the last one which would make it Dec 2024 - maybe there is some grace period for an extra month, don't know) only if there is a no confidence vote in the HoC or if the government decides to call one. There will not be a no confidence vote - with a majority of 80, even if that is whittled down by a few deaths and lost seats, they won't lose that vote. And the govt would call an early election only if they think from the polls that there is some advantage to them, and I just do not see that.