The banker loving, baby-eating Tory party thread (regenerated)

[HanoiVillan]

1 minute ago, desensitized43 said:

I think even the Mail could struggle to sell the prime minister saying he'd rather the deaths of thousands of people than a lockdown as something we should all be cheering.

(If they're not sticking the knife in for real, then . . .) they won't sell it as a positive, they'll just run denials that he ever said it and move on to talk about other things.

[OutByEaster?]

I think there's a chance that over time, wear and tear on this Prime Minister might be making each successive blow that bit more damaging.

He's a shark with a lot of barrels on him.

 

[HanoiVillan]

8 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think there's a chance that over time, wear and tear on this Prime Minister might be making each successive blow that bit more damaging.

He's a shark with a lot of barrels on him.

 

Well sure, he's gonna go eventually. No PM lasts forever.

But I think people are greatly over-estimating how vulnerable he is. They are 10+ points ahead in the polls, he won their largest majority since 1987, he might be about to do the extremely unusual and win a by-election from the opposition, and a huge proportion of the parliamentary party owe their careers to him. He's on decent terms with pretty much the entire media, and closer than that with the Telegraph and the Spectator. He's set his cabinet up so that people in the other senior roles are either too extreme (Patel), boring (Raab) or callow (Sunak) to pose him a real threat. The only real threat is Gove, who Murdoch famously prefers, but it's not his titles who are making noise this week.

Edited April 26, 2021 by HanoiVillan

[Genie]

I assume Boris is only in it it feather his nest long term. Has he managed to get enough ground work done so that he has a few good years of raking it in? 
At that point he will step aside without too much resistance. 

[HanoiVillan]

If you're not sure why Johnson's alleged comments might be damaging, the Guardian are thankfully on hand to help:

 

[StefanAVFC]

ITV reporting it as fact is a good step forward

Quote

There is an incredible amount of hysteria and noise being generated by the conflict between Boris Johnson and his former chief aide, Dominic Cummings. 
So maybe it is useful for me to share what I know about three big claims:

1) the prime minister did say he would rather see "bodies pile high in their thousands" than order a third lockdown (as reported in the Daily Mail);
2)  the cabinet secretary Simon Case still believes Cummings may be the "Chatty Rat" who leaked details about November's lockdown (see this morning's Times);
3) the refurbishment of the prime minister's flat was originally to be funded by Tory party donors, even though on Friday the prime minister said he had been paying for it.
To be clear, Downing Street has issued a straight denial that the prime minister ranted in that extreme way about how there would never be a third lockdown (which of course there has been).
That said, I am told he shouted it in his study just after he agreed to the second lockdown "in a rage". The doors to the Cabinet room and outer office were allegedly open and supposedly a number of people heard. 
I am bothering to repeat this assertion about what the prime minister said because two eyewitnesses - or perhaps I should say "ear witnesses" - have corroborated the Daily Mail's account to me.

https://www.itv.com/news/2021-04-26/robert-peston-boris-johnson-did-make-bodies-pile-high-in-their-thousands-comment

[Swerbs]

The BBC are running it now too.
BBC

[StefanAVFC]

And Johnson, his spokesman and Gove will come out and say it's a lie.

Battlegrounds drawn, interesting.

[Jareth]

Someone's pulling the strings - got Bozza to deny it and then an hour later the BBC have a source they cannot dispute...

Hang on - this can only be recorded material that they heard - what else could they be so 100% about? goodness, what else will come?

Edited April 26, 2021 by Jareth

[Stevo985]

Yet more evidence that Johnson is an absolute word removed of the highest order that the majority of the country will ignore

[Genie]

Maybe some baby pics will be on the way, seems to work for the Royals

Edited April 26, 2021 by Genie

[HanoiVillan]

18 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Yet more evidence that Johnson is an absolute word removed of the highest order that the majority of the country will ignore

Johnson has form for talking about piles of bodies in a very flippant way. Back in 2017, when he was Foreign Secretary:

Boris Johnson Libya 'dead bodies' comment provokes anger

'Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said Libyan city Sirte could be the new Dubai, adding, "all they have to do is clear the dead bodies away".

His comments at a Conservative fringe meeting sparked anger, with a number of Tory MPs calling for his sacking and Labour labelling him "crass and cruel".

[...]

"I look at Libya, it's an incredible country," Mr Johnson told the meeting.

"Bone-white sands, beautiful sea, Caesar's Palace, obviously, you know, the real one.

"Incredible place. It's got a real potential and brilliant young people who want to do all sorts of tech.

"There's a group of UK business people, actually, some wonderful guys who want to invest in Sirte on the coast, near where Gaddafi was captured and executed as some of you may have seen.

"They have got a brilliant vision to turn Sirte into the next Dubai.

"The only thing they have got to do is clear the dead bodies away," he said, before laughing.'

from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41490174

[HanoiVillan]

I should also add though, that this is a bit of a storm in a teacup really isn't it. It's obviously a joke, albeit a bit of a tasteless one, and presumably he was parodying the 'covid research group' position, which at the time was being portrayed (only semi-fairly anyway) as being cool with big piles of corpses.

He definitely is a complete word removed, but I think we knew that anyway, and there's an air of tattle-tail, 'I'm-telling-on-you' childishness about the story. He's not the first person in history to make tasteless jokes at work, and at least on this occasion (unlike the Libya one) it was done in private.

[ml1dch]

15 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

He definitely is a complete word removed, but I think we knew that anyway, and there's an air of tattle-tail, 'I'm-telling-on-you' childishness about the story. He's not the first person in history to make tasteless jokes at work, and at least on this occasion (unlike the Libya one) it was done in private.

On the other hand, there are countless examples of serious, objectionable things that he's said and done that he's just been able to laugh off or not be seriously scrutinised about.

So if he ends up getting wrung out like a wet towel going through a mangle because of an off-the-cuff, jokey remark - well, ain't karma a bitch. 

(obviously he won't be, and this will just be another one forgotten about and added to the pile)

Edited April 26, 2021 by ml1dch

[HanoiVillan]

Just now, ml1dch said:

On the other hand, there are countless examples of serious, objectionable things that he's said and done that he's just been able to laugh off or not be seriously scrutinised about.

So if he ends up getting wrung out like a wet towel going through a mangle because of an off-the-cuff, jokey remark - well, ain't karma a bitch. 

(obviously he won't be, and this will just be another one forgotten about and added to the pile)

Yeah, completely agree with that. I'm hardly going to complain if the proverbial straw is the one that was least objectionable, given so many of the others were.

Just as an aside, I see that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has today been sent back to prison in Iran for another year.

[StefanAVFC]

22 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

He definitely is a complete word removed, but I think we knew that anyway, and there's an air of tattle-tail, 'I'm-telling-on-you' childishness about the story. He's not the first person in history to make tasteless jokes at work, and at least on this occasion (unlike the Libya one) it was done in private.

eeeeerrrrhhhhh

I struggle to agree. For one, it was done in 'rage' apparently with doors wide open and many people heard. Doesn't sound like a joke, nor was it in private. And two, I'm not sure brushing it off as a joke at work is appropriate considering he is literally the PM and the joke was about thousands of dead UK citizens.

[Mark Albrighton]

Yeah it doesn’t read as a bad joke to me, it reads as a genuine “to hell with the consequences” stance. 

Plus he is the PM, he’s hold to a higher standard in what he says and does. Or theoretically he should be, especially when he’s supposedly at work.

While we know he’s a complete word removed, it still won’t be registering with with millions. And these “inappropriate” remarks can resonate and cut through with the public. Like Brown calling someone a bigot. I’d be willing to bet that’s what most people know him for now.

[Stevo985]

39 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Johnson has form for talking about piles of bodies in a very flippant way. Back in 2017, when he was Foreign Secretary:

Boris Johnson Libya 'dead bodies' comment provokes anger

'Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said Libyan city Sirte could be the new Dubai, adding, "all they have to do is clear the dead bodies away".

His comments at a Conservative fringe meeting sparked anger, with a number of Tory MPs calling for his sacking and Labour labelling him "crass and cruel".

[...]

"I look at Libya, it's an incredible country," Mr Johnson told the meeting.

"Bone-white sands, beautiful sea, Caesar's Palace, obviously, you know, the real one.

"Incredible place. It's got a real potential and brilliant young people who want to do all sorts of tech.

"There's a group of UK business people, actually, some wonderful guys who want to invest in Sirte on the coast, near where Gaddafi was captured and executed as some of you may have seen.

"They have got a brilliant vision to turn Sirte into the next Dubai.

"The only thing they have got to do is clear the dead bodies away," he said, before laughing.'

from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41490174

I remember it well

[Stevo985]

9 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

eeeeerrrrhhhhh

I struggle to agree. For one, it was done in 'rage' apparently with doors wide open and many people heard. Doesn't sound like a joke, nor was it in private. And two, I'm not sure brushing it off as a joke at work is appropriate considering he is literally the PM and the joke was about thousands of dead UK citizens.

 

1 minute ago, Mark Albrighton said:

Yeah it doesn’t read as a bad joke to me, it reads as a genuine “to hell with the consequences” stance. 

 

Yeah maybe I'm missing something but nothing I've read makes it sound like a joke, bad taste or otherwise.

[chrisp65]