Brexit and General UK politics thread

[Crazedwraith]

For anyone interested BoJo got by far the most votes in the first round of the leadership contest. 114, the next nearest was Jeremy Hunt at 43.

They say the front runner at this point often doesn't win but they not had a lead this big before. It's basically BoJo's to lose.

Sadly.

[The Romulan Republic]

For anyone interested BoJo got by far the most votes in the first round of the leadership contest. 114, the next nearest was Jeremy Hunt at 43.

They say the front runner at this point often doesn't win but they not had a lead this big before. It's basically BoJo's to lose.

Sadly.

So basically the Cons are doubling down on going full Trumpist/Neo-fascist.

Not surprised. They chose their side when they decided to bow to the demands of the Brexiters.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

For anyone interested BoJo got by far the most votes in the first round of the leadership contest. 114, the next nearest was Jeremy Hunt at 43.

They say the front runner at this point often doesn't win but they not had a lead this big before. It's basically BoJo's to lose.

Sadly.

I can't think of anyone worse than the bumbling buffoon that is Boris becoming PM. If he's even marginally more competent than May he's not going to call a General Election.

[Crazedwraith]

Round 2: Raab's out. Rory Stewart is not last. Boris still far ahead.

[Tribble]

Round 2: Raab's out. Rory Stewart is not last. Boris still far ahead.

So basically, Cameron steered towards the iceberg, then jumped ship.

Next May hit the iceberg, then jumped ship.

Now Johnson’s plan is to go back over and hit the iceberg again hard enough to make sure the damn ship sinks.

Unless I missed something?

[Gandalf]

All of the "rational" leaders turned into an omnishambles, so why not appoint the guy who is already an omnishambles? Saves time.

[The Romulan Republic]

Round 2: Raab's out. Rory Stewart is not last. Boris still far ahead.

So basically, Cameron steered towards the iceberg, then jumped ship.

Next May hit the iceberg, then jumped ship.

Now Johnson’s plan is to go back over and hit the iceberg again hard enough to make sure the damn ship sinks.

Unless I missed something?

Yeah, its worth remembering that this is all ultimately largely Pig Fucker Cameron's fault. He's the one who decided to appease the neo-fascists in the first place.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Round 2: Raab's out. Rory Stewart is not last. Boris still far ahead.

So basically, Cameron steered towards the iceberg, then jumped ship.

Next May hit the iceberg, then jumped ship.

Now Johnson’s plan is to go back over and hit the iceberg again hard enough to make sure the damn ship sinks.

Unless I missed something?

Yeah, its worth remembering that this is all ultimately largely Pig Fucker Cameron's fault. He's the one who decided to appease the neo-fascists in the first place.

He was both stupid enough to let Farage put a cat among the pigeons, and smart enough to let May steer the ship onto the rocks. For his part, Boris wants to go full speed ahead. Best case is the ship runs aground, worst is that leaving and then rejoining the EU is the equivalent of backing off of the submerged mountain peak, thereby sinking in two miles of water.

[Crazedwraith]

Johnson and Hunt are the last two standing that will be put to the Tory Party members.

[madd0ct0r]

Johnson and Hunt are the last two standing that will be put to the Tory Party members.

Fucking depressing isnt it. Got a flyer from farages edf today complaining about the death of direct democracy.

[Crazedwraith]

Johnson and Hunt are the last two standing that will be put to the Tory Party members.

Fucking depressing isnt it. Got a flyer from farages edf today complaining about the death of direct democracy.

Ugh.

Everyone gets up in uproar when a new PM is selected without a General Election, but we never get a direct democratic choice in PM, the current situation just highlights it a bit more.

Particularly troubling now with Oct 31st getting closer that people would want to waste more time on a GE. Even the current Tory leadership election is gross self-indulgence and re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

[The Romulan Republic]

This happened:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... nsons-home

Police were called to the home of Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, in the early hours of Friday morning after neighbours heard a loud altercation involving screaming, shouting and banging.

The argument could be heard outside the property where the potential future prime minister is living with Symonds, a former Conservative party head of press.

A neighbour told the Guardian they heard a woman screaming followed by “slamming and banging”. At one point Symonds could be heard telling Johnson to “get off me” and “get out of my flat”.

The neighbour said that after becoming concerned they knocked on the door but received no response. “I [was] hoping that someone would answer the door and say ‘We’re okay’. I knocked three times and no one came to the door.”

The neighbour decided to call 999. Two police cars and a van arrived within minutes, shortly after midnight, but left after receiving reassurances from both the individuals in the flat that they were safe.

When contacted by the Guardian on Friday, police initially said they had no record of a domestic incident at the address. But when given the case number and reference number, as well as identification markings of the vehicles that were called out, police issued a statement saying: “At 00:24hrs on Friday, 21 June, police responded to a call from a local resident in [south London]. The caller was concerned for the welfare of a female neighbour.

“Police attended and spoke to all occupants of the address, who were all safe and well. There were no offences or concerns apparent to the officers and there was no cause for police action.”

Carrie Symonds was part of the team involved in the launch of Johnson’s leadership campaign. Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/Shutterstock
Johnson and Symonds have increasingly appeared together at public events in recent weeks. The former mayor of London topped Thursday’s ballot of Conservative MPs in the party leadership contest and is now the favourite against Jeremy Hunt to be the next prime minister.

The neighbour said they recorded the altercation from inside their flat out of concern for Symonds. On the recording, heard by the Guardian, Johnson can be heard refusing to leave the flat and telling Symonds to “get off my fucking laptop” before there is a loud crashing noise.

Symonds is heard saying Johnson had ruined a sofa with red wine: “You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt. You have no care for money or anything.”

The neighbour said: “There was a smashing sound of what sounded like plates. There was a couple of very loud screams that I’m certain were Carrie and she was shouting to ‘get out’ a lot. She was saying ‘get out of my flat’ and he was saying no. And then there was silence after the screaming. My partner, who was in bed half asleep, had heard a loud bang and the house shook.”

Johnson left his wife, Marina Wheeler, last year and began a relationship with Symonds, who has been credited with revitalising his appearance and approach to politics. She was part of his team when he publicly launched his campaign for the Tory leadership earlier this month.

In recent weeks the couple have been sharing a flat in a converted Victorian house. It has been reported that they intend to move into Downing Street together if he is elected leader.

Johnson’s office was contacted earlier on Friday for comment but had not responded by the time of publication.

[SpottedKitty]

This happened:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... nsons-home

The last I heard earlier tonight all he's said is "no comment". Would it be wishful thinking hoping this is enough to damage his chances? I'm not too keen on either Boris or Hunt, tbh; whichever one gets in, the next few months are going to be "interesting times".

[The Romulan Republic]

This happened:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... nsons-home

The last I heard earlier tonight all he's said is "no comment". Would it be wishful thinking hoping this is enough to damage his chances? I'm not too keen on either Boris or Hunt, tbh; whichever one gets in, the next few months are going to be "interesting times".

I doubt Cons would care. If they're anything like conservatives in the US, a domestic squabble won't even make a dent in their group-think loyalty. You'd need video of him killing or raping someone, minimum, to really kill his chances.

[Crazedwraith]

The last I heard earlier tonight all he's said is "no comment". Would it be wishful thinking hoping this is enough to damage his chances? I'm not too keen on either Boris or Hunt, tbh; whichever one gets in, the next few months are going to be "interesting times".

SpottedKitty, I don't have a solid source but according to tadio headline it has affected his popularity in the party, whether it's enough to make a difference I do not know. His campaign was described as 'faltering' on the today program which is why he's bought in IDS to help campaign and is doubling up his hard brexit stance.

But yeah: interesting times.

[Zaune]

I doubt Cons would care. If they're anything like conservatives in the US, a domestic squabble won't even make a dent in their group-think loyalty. You'd need video of him killing or raping someone, minimum, to really kill his chances.

In the interests of scrupulous fairness, I must point out that there's also no evidence Johnson was guilty of more than losing his temper and making an ass of himself in public. Compared to some of the things he's verifiably done (his comments on black and Muslim citizens of this country, which I shall not repeat here, spring immediately to mind) this is honestly pretty small potatoes.

[The Romulan Republic]

I doubt Cons would care. If they're anything like conservatives in the US, a domestic squabble won't even make a dent in their group-think loyalty. You'd need video of him killing or raping someone, minimum, to really kill his chances.

In the interests of scrupulous fairness, I must point out that there's also no evidence Johnson was guilty of more than losing his temper and making an ass of himself in public. Compared to some of the things he's verifiably done (his comments on black and Muslim citizens of this country, which I shall not repeat here, spring immediately to mind) this is honestly pretty small potatoes.

Fair enough, but it just affirms how little impact this is likely to have.

[SpottedKitty]

which is why he's bought in IDS to help campaign

"Help"...?

<laughs like Peter Lorre>

[Eternal_Freedom]

Well this could be interesting. According to BBC News, Johnson has said he'd end the public sector pay rise caps (of a laughable 1%) previously imposed. As a civil servant myself I can't help but be tempted by the idea. Of course, knowing our previous pay deals even if the cap were lifted I wouldn't be hopeful - our department has been the worst paid in all of Whitehall since pretty much the beginning.

Does make me feel kinda dirty for thinking this though.

[Crazedwraith]

Well this could be interesting. According to BBC News, Johnson has said he'd end the public sector pay rise caps (of a laughable 1%) previously imposed. As a civil servant myself I can't help but be tempted by the idea. Of course, knowing our previous pay deals even if the cap were lifted I wouldn't be hopeful - our department has been the worst paid in all of Whitehall since pretty much the beginning.

Does make me feel kinda dirty for thinking this though.

Broken clocks can be right twice a day.

Though Johnson is basically saying whatever whoever he's talking to right that second wants to here and wracking up masses of contradictions. So I wouldn't hold your breath.

[Eternal_Freedom]

True. Though public sector pay is becoming a major issue - it's no wonder we in the Courts service have such a high turnover when we've been stuck at 1% a year since 2010, despite inflation being something like 2% and the national average pay rise being about 3.5%. Combine that with a high-stress environment and a lot of staff are bugging out for the private sector (one team in my office has gone through twenty staff in twenty months, the others aren't much better - mine is the most stable and we've still lost eight staff in the same time frame, in a team of notionally twelve people. Eep). Hell, an RPG buddy of mine just got offered a job working for the Welsh Government straight out of sixth form college and he's getting the same pay I am (when I'm eight years older, got a lot more experience and a bachelor's degree as well). You can imagine I was not terribly happy learning that.

About the only good thing about public sector pay is the pension plan. Which is good, incredibly so, don't get me wrong - but a great pension in 40 years doesn't pay the rent now.

To quote myself when we were told about last year's pay raise offer of 1%: "That's not an offer it's a fucking joke." We still took it though, better than nothing.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Just had the debate between Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson. BoJo got curb-stomped by Hunt!

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah but that probably won't help Hunt very much, since last poll I saw Boris the Blond Bastard was way ahead.

Besides, "Yay! A colossal twit got owned by a less-colossal twit" really doesn't feel like much of a victory.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Hunt is basically the lesser of two evils.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I don't disagree with that at all, it's just a rather depressing reality.