Boris Johnson: Why is a proven liar in power?

[Morzedec]

Anybody remember that holiday costing £15k but you cannot remember who paid?

Was that the same Maldives that are off the West coast of Cornwall? Turn R at Land's End?

[Oldjohnw]

So now we have the climate talks being run by the Business Department headed by a climate sceptic. And the D of International Development being run by someone who disagrees with foreign aid. And an Attorney General who doesn't support the independence of he Judiciary (the Lord Chancellor does so there's a future clash).

A S of S for Northern Ireland who managed in eight months to break the deadlock being sacked.

And the entire machinery of government run by someone who is on contempt of Parliament.

[661-Pete]

Well - as a 'crossword fan' myself (both as setter and solver), I couldn't resist fetching out the Scrabble letters - but this collection beats me. Best I can come up with is ASK? I RUSH IN! If you've come out with something more salacious or risqué, spit it out!

Your starter for 10.
Hi risk ....

All right. You win! I suppose it was not having twigged "HI" as colloquial abbreviation for "HIGH", that stumped me. And cyclists are always talking about, say, "HI-VIZ". I should have known...

[661-Pete]

Anybody remember that holiday costing £15k but you cannot remember who paid?

Well - confession time - the holiday we took last year cost around £10K - but that was for the two of us, and we most definitely paid for it ourselves, out of our savings. At least we didn't have to shell out $150 visa fees for our 24-hour stopover in Bolivia - as our American fellow-tourists had to...

[Oldjohnw]

Anybody remember that holiday costing £15k but you cannot remember who paid?

Well - confession time - the holiday we took last year cost around £10K - but that was for the two of us, and we most definitely paid for it ourselves, out of our savings. At least we didn't have to shell out $150 visa fees for our 24-hour stopover in Bolivia - as our American fellow-tourists had to...

Go where you like: it can cost 10 grand to holiday in the UK! But the difference is, you paid for it. Johnson, one of our wealthiest MPs, doesn't even pay for his own holidays. Some of his predecessors have done the same of course. Johnson has been reprimanded twice by the standards people and warned that next time something more severe would be required, as this behaviour appeared to be a pattern.

But the people spoke. Nothing else matters.

[mercalia]

picture of the day

....At which point, Dom had burst in. “Every cloud and all that,” he had said. “Don’t forget, the point of the reshuffle is to settle scores, render every department effectively anodyne, settle scores, appoint figurehead cabinet ministers, settle scores and make me the most powerful person in the country.”

“Don’t you mean me?” Boris had asked.

“Er … no. Now, where was I? Ah yes. Let’s get Rishi Sunak in instead. It would be a brilliant piece of levelling up. Replacing a multi-millionaire from Deutsche Bank with a multi-millionaire from Goldman Sachs. Classic Me!”

Minutes later, Sunak found himself inside No 10.

“Just one question,” said Dom, who by now had taken charge of the conversation. “Are you a 'yes man, Rishi?”

“Yes.”

“Great. You’re chancellor.”

“Um,” whispered Sunak. “I’m just not sure if I can write a budget from scratch in under a month.”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head,” snapped Dom. “I will be doing that.” This was his moment of triumph. He would be the first unelected chancellor to deliver a budget in the country’s history. One in the eye for the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. Take back control. Classic Dom


John Crace

[Psamathe]

I see Javid has resigned because he won't accept #10 imposing advisers. I'm no fan of Javid and he has rolled over far too many times but at least this time he has done the right thing.

It appears that Dominic Cummings, member of nowhere, is appointing the cabinet.

What if he is? The PM is free to ask anyone he likes for their views on who should be in the cabinet or not, and he is free to ignore or to follow their advice.

All PMs have employed unelected advisors. It is the norm, and anyone who thinks it is a novelty isn't too aware of how things have always worked.

Boris' problem is that he has now centralised so much power in himself (and all he did was what Cummings told him to do) an all he wants to do is wander around building sites wearing Hi-Vis and a hard hat with a camera crew broadcasting his every word.

And now he's got to build HS2 (even though HS1 has carried fewer passengers than my bike has) and there a bridge between Scotland and Ireland to get built ... and maybe London needs a "Garden Bridge" (now he's got control of the magic money tree).

When the PM decides on policy one would hope, in a democracy, the wishes of the electorate should feature fairly high in his considerations and that is the entire electorate not just one (unelected) individual.

Iab

[Psamathe]

Report sums-up the nature of Brois' mates

Boris Johnson cabinet now two-thirds privately educated after reshuffle, compared to 7% of UK population

Boris Johnson has increased the proportion of cabinet ministers from privately educated backgrounds, with nearly two-thirds of his top team having attended a fee-paying school.

Despite boasting he would put together a cabinet "to truly reflect modern Britain” when he entered Downing Street, new research now shows that members of his top team are nine-times as likely to have been privately educated than the general population.

Ian

[mercalia]

Report sums-up the nature of Brois' mates

Boris Johnson cabinet now two-thirds privately educated after reshuffle, compared to 7% of UK population

Boris Johnson has increased the proportion of cabinet ministers from privately educated backgrounds, with nearly two-thirds of his top team having attended a fee-paying school.

Despite boasting he would put together a cabinet "to truly reflect modern Britain” when he entered Downing Street, new research now shows that members of his top team are nine-times as likely to have been privately educated than the general population.

Ian

Modern Britain ( city of London ) ends at Watford, didnt you know that ( with islands at Oxbridge)? The industrial north and its red necks is the past, they are too stupid in thinking he meant them?

[carpetcleaner]

Boris is likely to be PM for at least 10 years if his opponents concentrate on criticising him rather than on finding some attractive polices to put to the people.

[mercalia]

Boris is likely to be PM for at least 10 years if his opponents concentrate on criticising him rather than on finding some attractive polices to put to the people.

yeah Labour potential leaders and Labours control by the unions dont bode well for the rest of us.

[kwackers]

yeah Labour potential leaders and Labours control by the unions dont bode well for the rest of us.

A belief that explains why BoJo is in power.

We voted for him, we can suck it up. It's not like we weren't warned.

[carpetcleaner]

Boris is likely to be PM for at least 10 years if his opponents concentrate on criticising him rather than on finding some attractive polices to put to the people.

yeah Labour potential leaders and Labours control by the unions dont bode well for the rest of us.

Labour is not controlled by the unions now. It is controlled by its membership.

That why it is in its current mess.

[PDQ Mobile]

Labour is not controlled by the unions now. It is controlled by its membership.

That why it is in its current mess.

Leaving aside the control issue (although why being controlled by the actual membership is so bad kind of escapes me), Labour was stated to have put forward at the last election a detailed manifesto which was even "greener" than the Greens.

They had costed it by raising taxes from many of those who are now in power, or behind that power.
As in buying £15,000 holidays for Johnson out of the goodness of their charitable hearts.
This Tory Govt is goingbto finance everything by more borrowing- exactly the very thing they so castigated past Labour Govts for so strongly.

If things go badly then the poor and middle income group will end up with the tab.
And inflation is surely set to rise, that's what Duncan- Smith said on the World at One yesterday as he attempted damage limitation about Javid. He cares not one jot about food inflation of course. 'Tis but a trifle for him.

I think your vote was dominated by the Brexit issue and to write what you have above is an obfuscation of your real motive.

[carpetcleaner]

Labour is not controlled by the unions now. It is controlled by its membership.

That why it is in its current mess.

Leaving aside the control issue (although why being controlled by the actual membership is so bad kind of escapes me), Labour was stated to have put forward at the last election a detailed manifesto which was even "greener" than the Greens.

They had costed it by raising taxes from many of those who are now in power, or behind that power.
As in buying £15,000 holidays for Johnson out of the goodness of their charitable hearts.
This Tory Govt is goingbto finance everything by more borrowing- exactly the very thing they so castigated past Labour Govts for so strongly.

If things go badly then the poor and middle income group will end up with the tab.
And inflation is surely set to rise, that's what Duncan- Smith said on the World at One yesterday as he attempted damage limitation about Javid. He cares not one jot about food inflation of course. 'Tis but a trifle for him.

I think your vote was dominated by the Brexit issue and to write what you have above is an obfuscation of your real motive.

I was not obfuscating.

I think Labour did so badly in the election because of its membership. That membership is dominated by affluent, middle class people who are strongly pro-EU, and they were responsible for the party's risible stance on Brexit during the election campaign.