[Politics] Johnson inquiry verdict

[CheeseRolls]

All the Covid rules and the lockdown were ridiculous and unnecessary so no surprise that Boris found them difficult to follow. Only trouble was it was his government that put them in place. However I can understand him denying that he attended any "parties". Did the rules specify exactly what a "party" was? Where did a business meeting end and a "party" begin? Sure he broke some rules, but I like that about people if they're stupid rules in the first place.

He could have written the rules with Central government as an exception.
He could have put the cabinet office to the front of the queue for vacinations, as a priority justified by the need to run the country.

I am not saying these would have been popular at the time, but they were clear choices.

He could have admitted that some rules were broken and expect people to understand. Instead the government went in hard on a small number of rule breakers and expected everyone else to tow the line, regardless of the personal hardship faced.

Have I mentioned the lies?

Let me guess? Harder and longer lockdowns?

How about an adequate response to the vulnerable in care homes?

 

[Greg Bobkin]

At least he won’t be sacked for lying in his new job.

It's *almost* as if him throwing his toys SO far out of his pram was part of a carefully orchestrated plan to drum up extra publicity for his eagerly awaited first column where he will no doubt 'pull no punches' and 'tell the REAL truth'.

What a tedious berk he really is.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

He could have written the rules with Central government as an exception.
He could have put the cabinet office to the front of the queue for vacinations, as a priority justified by the need to run the country.

I am not saying these would have been popular at the time, but they were clear choices.

He could have admitted that some rules were broken and expect people to understand. Instead the government went in hard on a small number of rule breakers and expected everyone else to tow the line, regardless of the personal hardship faced.

Have I mentioned the lies?

How about an adequate response to the vulnerable in care homes?

Care homes should have been protected from day one and completely cut off and funded to do so, we were too busy paying everyone else to stay at home.

Covid lockdown benefits were ‘drop in the bucket’ compared to costs, study says

Johns Hopkins University study casts doubt on policy’s effectiveness

www.independent.co.uk

 

[WATFORD zero]

Care homes should have been protected from day one and completely cut off and funded to do so, we were too busy paying everyone else to stay at home.

Covid lockdown benefits were ‘drop in the bucket’ compared to costs, study says

Johns Hopkins University study casts doubt on policy’s effectiveness

www.independent.co.uk

You've made it clear many times that you didn't agree with Furlough or the lock downs and that really isn't for this thread, but you are aware it wasn't either/or ? We could have done both

 

[pasty]

Rather looking forward to HIGNFY tonight.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

You've made it clear many times that you didn't agree with Furlough or the lock downs and that really isn't for this thread, but you are aware it wasn't either/or ? We could have done both

Which was suggested at the time by a fair few people, I believe they were called granny killers?

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

OMG - the current caller on 5live is practically in love with Johnson - unbelievable level of stupidity

 

[pb21]

Sure he broke some rules, but I like that about people if they're stupid rules in the first place.

The committee wasn't looking at whether he broke rules or not, stupid or otherwise. They were looking at whether he lied and deliberately misled Parliament, which he did several times as PM.

Unless you like your leaders to lie and deliberately mislead you, you shouldn't like the conclusions of the report and what that tells you about the person they were looking at.

 

[knocky1]

OMG - the current caller on 5live is practically in love with Johnson - unbelievable level of stupidity

Nadine Dorries? Sir Mickey Fabricunt?

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

Nadine Dorries? Sir Mickey Fabricunt?

Female but not Mad Nads - similar blind devotion though

 

[Fungus]

Rather looking forward to HIGNFY tonight.

Yes, makes a change for the big news to come out BEFORE the recording. Wonder if the timing was intentional.

 

[Bodian]

Blimey, that's a low number.

Wonder how many have actually read the report though - or just gone along with their previous beliefs?

 

[Super Steve Earle]

The committee wasn't looking at whether he broke rules or not, stupid or otherwise. They were looking at whether he lied and deliberately misled Parliament, which he did several times as PM.

Unless you like your leaders to lie and deliberately mislead you, you shouldn't like the conclusions of the report and what that tells you about the person they were looking at.

I have long assumed our leaders lie and deliberately mislead us. It's not just a Boris or Tory thing.

 

[nicko31]

Well there you have it. He's always thought he could get away with anything and let's face it, that report could not have been more damning. He has had this coming.


Blimey, that's a low number.

But crucially only 14% said he did not lie (5th of the number that said he lied). Despite efforts of the right wing rags and various weird TV stations its not working

 

[Stato]

A few of his supporters turned out in the media yesterday peddling the old line that Johnson is a transformative politician who has a special connection with voters. It's weird that they still believe this to have ever been true. Most people, whether for him, or against him, may have found him amusing, but never seemed to trust, nor particularly like him. I suppose there is a bit of magical thinking mixed with a bit of (wilfully?) mistaking causality for correlation. ('cum hoc ergo propter hoc' as he would undoubtedly put it).

They think, or would have us believe, that Johnson was the key factor that broke through the red wall. They ignore Corbyn's unpopularity with a huge number of traditional labour voters; they ignore the urge to elect a government that would break the years long deadlock over Brexit negotiations; they ignore the broken trade union links between workers and Labour in the deindustrialised North; they ignore Labour's lost seats in Scotland; they ignore the decimation of the Lib Dems following the coaltion. There was a perfect storm for the Tories to win their landslide in 2019, but the only element that some politicians see is Johnson as leader. Yes, his celebrity probably made him less unappealing to unengaged voters than most of his predecessors had been, but he very much isn't now. In terms of public image, the avuncular clown has been replaced by the real man that those who knew him best warned about.

He is permanently tarnished with voters outside of the tory cabal who worship him. He will forever be seen as the Nero of Covid. The public will not forgive and forget. He won't get his Churchillian call in from the cold at a time of national crisis. Churchill was a man of action whose time arrived. Johnson is a man of inaction. We've seen what he is like in a crisis. He blusters, he blames, he lies and he waffles, and when none of that works, he hides in a fridge.

All of his statements around his downfall have exuded what my kids call 'main character energy'. He thinks that the story of the world is all about him and can't envisage a turn of events where he is an irrelevancy. The problem for him is that, to the rest of us, he's just a more colourful Liz Truss. He won't loom over his party for decades like Thatcher and Blair did, because he didn't actually do anything in office. He wants to be Churchill, but he will become Ted Heath: A jealous yesterday's man heckling from the sidelines, motivated purely by his personal issues with his former colleagues.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Care homes should have been protected from day one and completely cut off and funded to do so, we were too busy paying everyone else to stay at home.

Covid lockdown benefits were ‘drop in the bucket’ compared to costs, study says

Johns Hopkins University study casts doubt on policy’s effectiveness

www.independent.co.uk

Precisely. The dithering and then the mentalist plan to have minimum wage ancillary staff go from carehome to carehome, infecting the infirm old folk, killing thousands, apparently clueless that the elderly were most at risk, was criminal. And the nation hardly noticed as we were swamped with the governments hubris and gimmickry, as the sought way to monetize it for themselves and their cronies.

And Johnson did not deliver the vaccination rollout. The NHS went ahead with it while Johnson sat and watched. Not sure if he even watched in fact. Everything good that happened during vaccine happened despite Johnson, not because of him.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Which was suggested at the time by a fair few people, I believe they were called granny killers?

Indeed.

 

[The Clamp]

Johnson and his brown-shirts never took or intended to take Covid seriously. Ever.

Imagine being so pompous. So damned full of yourself that you believe you are immune to a virus that kills thousands. Thousands I might add, that they had a duty of care to.

They never intended to follow any rules. Instead they quaffed, sang, toasted, danced and sniggered their way through the whole thing in a manner more befitting of Bachus and his giggling nymphs than of a government charged with guiding us safely through the most deadly national crisis in our lifetime.

All of them should be charged with endangering lives.

All of them should be ploughed into a f***ing ditch.

 

[rogersix]

As I've said many times before he was more interested in having the title of Prime Minister than actually doing the JOB of Prime Minister. Same as the other blonde fella who used to live in the White House.

are they strawberry blondes?

 

[Greg Bobkin]

are they strawberry blondes?

No. Not fruity in the slightest!