Tories 3 Labour 0

[Sue U]

Actual footage of Boris Johnson last week:

[ex-khobar Andy]

Under the headline “Rishi set for No 10 as Boris bows out” the Daily Mail writes that “The former prime minister insisted he had the backers to make the ballot paper and could win a vote among party members. But he said this would simply not be the right thing to do.”

The paper also carries a comment piece that says, “For the good of the party and the country, Mr Johnson set his dream aside. This is a gesture of wisdom, honour and statesmanship. His time will come again.”

Must be the only time on record where the words wisdom, honour and statesmanship and Mr Johnson appeared in the same paragraph. We can trust the Mail to set new standards. Of course if he wants to rock his abs in a new thong there will be pictures and further adulation. I apologize for leaving you with that image.

[Bicycle Bill]

Actual footage of Boris Johnson last week:

With that T-shirt he's got on, are you sure that not TFG when he was announcing the creation of the United States Space Farce?

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

Well the UK is only 14 years behind USA getting a POC in the top spot. I suspect with the mess he’s walking into Sunak will be sacrificed by his party after not too long but we can always hope for his success.

[Big RR]

True, but being the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer, he should know what he getting into. So he has only himself to blame.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Well the UK is only 14 years behind USA getting a POC in the top spot.

It took quite a while to find another qualified person whose father was born in Kenya; it's a pattern thing.

Altho' I suppose you are correct, I find it a trifle jarring to see Sunak described as a "POC". Trevor Noah would probably understand, what with having struggled once in a while with being "colored" rather than "black". In South African current nomenclature, Sunak is neither black nor colored but Indian, as all three people groups would be happy to insist.

His family is of a culture which, generally speaking, does not regard itself as "colored", whether in South Africa or Britain. Ethnic and tribal/cultural connections are more common. Anyway, Sunak was born in the UK so he's as British as I am which is all that matters (as far as origins go)

If he turns out to be a dud prat or a raging success, it's not because like all of us, he is a person of some color or other.

[BoSoxGal]

Quite obviously his value as a person and his competency in whatever field has nothing whatsoever to do with his skin color. However his opportunities can be limited by that, and you won’t fool me that there aren’t loads of Brits who consider Indians and Pakistanis and any other brown skinned Asians as people of color - except I’m sure that’s not the term they’d use.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Which is why I wrote "Although I suppose you are correct . . ."

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you

Probably not as many as you might think, not these days. And if Rishi (and his wife) pay their taxes for a change and dig the country out of the Boris/DisTruss mess, then no one is going to care about skintone. Probably won't care in the first place either.

The Tory upper classes can be condescending racists - it's the working class that can be downright aggressively racist, despite all those black mayors (Labour) going back to the turn of the last century. But there's always some racists, for sure.

There's joy in India though - their lad bossing the whites (BBC) although "What usually goes missing is a conversation about class. Mr Sunak was educated at an elite school and went to Oxford and Stanford. Likewise, Mr Tripathi adds, Indian corporate achievers are mostly products of elite Indian universities. As most Conservative Party politicians of Indian origin represent seats that are Tory strongholds, Mr Tripathi adds, "to that extent they have limited appeal among Indian or broader Asian communities". Both UK and Ireland will have Indian descent leaders shortly.

Interesting reading: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-63370153

[BoSoxGal]

I just read an article about Rishi Sunak’s father in law who is the actual source of his obscene wealth. Apparently the father in law is the Warren Buffet of India - he’s lived in the same flat with his wife for decades, drives a small car, does the washing up after dinner and even cleans his own toilet. He likes to read, a lot.

Maybe Sunak will have learned a thing or two about staying in touch with the working classes from the FIL’s example.


But yeah, there’s a whole lot of racism in the UK working classes just like there is here. Brexit and Trump are sides of the same coin. Just that tired old story of elites using fear and xenophobia to keep the working classes at war with each other and from seeing that the real enemy is the big fat bum on the plush.

[Gob]

Well the UK is only 14 years behind USA getting a POC in the top spot.

When you going to catch the UK up on this whole, "women can have the top job too" idea? So far you're 43 years behind, and counting. Any female contenders for the next round of the dog and pony show you laughingly call "elections"? Nope.

[BoSoxGal]

There are numerous women running in this election cycle for offices ranging from dog catcher to governor. In conservative Arizona two women are running against each other for Governor.

Our country’s voting population overwhelmingly elected a female president in 2016. The antiquated electoral college inhibits the will of the very clear majority of the population. In the UK the majority doesn’t even get a clear voice in choosing PM.

[Gob]

There are numerous women running in this election cycle for offices ranging from dog catcher to governor. In conservative Arizona two women are running against each other for Governor.

So, yet again, you don't have any women running for president, so are unlikely to have one for at least another 5 years, got you.

Our country’s voting population overwhelmingly elected a female president in 2016. The antiquated electoral college inhibits the will of the very clear majority of the population.

As I say, and have said for many, many, many, years, your system is fucked. Thanks for agreeing.

In the UK the majority doesn’t even get a clear voice in choosing PM.

We do, it's called " a general election". The parties nominate their leader, they population gets to pick which party, hence leader, they prefer. I'm typing this slowly, as you are obviously hard of thinking.

[MajGenl.Meade]

The best reason for the continuation of the Electoral College is that it prevents California from deciding Presidential elections by itself. Clinton's national margin was +2.87 million votes. Her margin in CA was +4.6 million. Why did the rest of the country bother voting? We could just turn it all over to the Left Coast - it would have saved the USA from Trump, granted.

In the original non-party "new country" environment,it was thought better that the voters should select the EC candidates who were "for" a certain candidate but were supposed to use their wisdom to prevent a useless or treasonous shit (see Trump again) from winning. Separating the power from the direct votes of a mob was of key importance to a successful Republic.

What has weakened the EC concept is indeed the popular vote which means the state electors nowadays are committed by the mob (you and me) as to which candidate becomes President. There is no debate in the EC as to whether or not Hillary or the Bastard should truly be elevated - it's just a rubber stamp.

However, if it continues to stop California (and New York) from deciding things for all those who are not Californians (and New Yorkers), then it has a purpose, somewhat warped as it is from the original intent

[Crackpot]

Gob you do realize no one is running for President right now right? Candidates at least have the brains to wait until after the midterms are over.

[Econoline]

Gob you do realize no one is running for President right now right? Candidates (except for Trump) at least have the brains to wait until after the midterms are over.

FTFY.

[MajGenl.Meade]

And speaking of original intent . . . which envisaged no "parties" . . . at least into the 1860s, no presidential candidate campaigned to be President. It was just not done. The parties caucused and convened and nattered and dealt and they'd vote on two or three or more chaps who had let it be known (quietly) that they were 'available' for selection. Lincoln was a surprise winner of the Republican nomination when Seward was expected to walk it. New York was astounded at how much opposition there was to Seward and Lincoln, in effect, was a compromise acceptable to all.

It would be nice if presidential candidates kept their mouths shut once the party nominations were made. And in one case, starting four years before any election.

[Burning Petard]

" I find it a trifle jarring to see Sunak described as a "POC". Trevor Noah would probably understand, what with having struggled once in a while with being "colored" rather than "black". In South African current nomenclature, Sunak is neither black nor colored but Indian, as all three people groups would be happy to insist."

And I am more than a trifle annoyed by this nomenclature stuff. Recently I listened to a Rabbi (probably orthodox, but could have been conservative) talking for more than an hour about chapter one of the book of Genesis. Beginning at about the third day, this account starts listing various groups of living things. Frequently they are described with the phrase 'every kind.' Plants, fish, trees, birds, sea monsters, cattle, wild beasts. . . . of every kind. Until G-d gets around to man. All the other living stuff, there was every kind. Of man there was only ONE kind. The speaker pointed out lots of interesting implications in this simple story we think we know because we have heard it all so many times.

I insist on filling out government forms that ask my race, with the single word human.

I think to declare false the cultural observations subsumed within the phrase 'critical race theory' is un-Christian to the point of blasphemy.

snailgate.

[BoSoxGal]

Snailgate you are just wonderful.

[BoSoxGal]

What do people think about this:

Braverman’s return shows how deeply Sunak is in hock to the hard right

[Gob]

I think it's a Guardian article, by Polly Filler, so no surprises there then.