The UKAR politics thread

[vandal]

There's any number of ways to throw negative press at the PM, justified or not. Carrie should have been left out of it.

[verreli]

Maybe. They just want to show he's easily led astray. Never a good look for a leader.

[Teaboy]

maybe he's so incapable of leadership that mummy had to help him with his homework

[verreli]

What every leader needs is followers and in that case he hasn't done badly. I see this, along with the news from the USA, as part two of a trillogy. This episolde is "The neo-liberal empire strikes back". Looking forward to part three.

[jalfrezi]

What every leader needs is followers and in that case he hasn't done badly. I see this, along with the news from the USA, as part two of a trillogy. This episolde is "The neo-liberal empire strikes back". Looking forward to part three.

Nah, you got it the wrong way round, Trump was The Empire Strikes Back. I'll be surprised if Trump makes it to 2024 if I'm honest, he's hardly healthy is he.

[pbeardmore]

Brexit has been THE political project of Cumming's life and he is well known for giving 100% to his work. After the thousands and thousands of hours spent on this, after all of the stress etc etc, he leaves No 10 a week before seeing his vision come into reality. He could not stay on for even a few more days: to "pop a cork" and shake hands with the team. Either co-incidence or he knows whats around the corner.

[rockfordstone]

Brexit has been THE political project of Cumming's life and he is well known for giving 100% to his work. After the thousands and thousands of hours spent on this, after all of the stress etc etc, he leaves No 10 a week before seeing his vision come into reality. He could not stay on for even a few more days: to "pop a cork" and shake hands with the team. Either co-incidence or he knows whats around the corner.

he knows it will be a "Kris Kris Tofferson!" show, that's why he's going before it happens. won't be long after that BoJo goes as well, and Gove may go quiet for a bit as well

[Tommy]

There it is.

All that political capital Johnson lost to keep him in his post, all the jokes about Barnard Castle, all the harm his knobbery did to the UK’s Coronavirus response.

Was it worth it? Has he done *anything* to make it worth Johnson absolutely haemorrhaging all that goodwill back in May?

[Zoom]

time to crack one of these from the garage!

[Zoom]

who was that idiot they dragged out to answer Andrew Marr this morning? He was spouting the usual "we'll be fine with WTO rules and the leaders of all UK industries know far less about the consequences of a cliff edge Brexit than we do"

"We are not asking for anything remarkable. We are asking for an agreement akin to the one they have with Canada" (the EU have already ruled this out due to our proximity)

he also suggested that the UK and presumably motor industry can also just switch its supply chains to avoid 10% tariffs. Most embarrassing of all was suggesting that lamb exports could be saved by just putting the price up by 45% as the EU need ours so much

or else switch to beef farming; yeah right you see a lot of cattle on the Welsh hills

It's a worry that PMBJ has surrounded himself with such incompetents!

[Pen Pusher]

who was that idiot they dragged out to answer Andrew Marr this morning?

Environment Secretary George Eustice.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54950011

[iainpeden]

Boris is self isolating. He's not having much luck at the moment.

[IATthenRIAT]

Boris is self isolating. He's not having much luck at the moment.

Hiding in a freezer again is he

[Teaboy]

he didn't want to do PMQs or any brexit stuff this week so, into isolation he goes.... unable to function without cummings.

[Spiny Norman]

who was that idiot they dragged out to answer Andrew Marr this morning? He was spouting the usual "we'll be fine with WTO rules and the leaders of all UK industries know far less about the consequences of a cliff edge Brexit than we do"

"We are not asking for anything remarkable. We are asking for an agreement akin to the one they have with Canada" (the EU have already ruled this out due to our proximity)

he also suggested that the UK and presumably motor industry can also just switch its supply chains to avoid 10% tariffs. Most embarrassing of all was suggesting that lamb exports could be saved by just putting the price up by 45% as the EU need ours so much

or else switch to beef farming; yeah right you see a lot of cattle on the Welsh hills

It's a worry that PMBJ has surrounded himself with such incompetents!

If a foreign power was able to infiltrate British politics enough to install a government incompetent enough to destabilise the very country and its foundations, they couldn't have done a better job than we have at the moment. It's like a Frederick Forsyth novel. But non-fiction.

[Tommy]

he didn't want to do PMQs or any brexit stuff this week so, into isolation he goes.... unable to function without cummings.

Is there any reason he couldn’t do PMQs electronically?

Unconventional, yes, but every week MPs join via Zoom to ensure social distancing, and there was no one in Commons for the first few weeks until Victoria phantom of the House Rees-Mogg crapped bricks and tried to get MPs back in for no reason other than Johnson needs a braying mob to back up his bluster.

[Teaboy]

he didn't want to do PMQs or any brexit stuff this week so, into isolation he goes.... unable to function without cummings.

Is there any reason he couldn’t do PMQs electronically?

Unconventional, yes, but every week MPs join via Zoom to ensure social distancing, and there was no one in Commons for the first few weeks until Victoria phantom of the House Rees-Mogg crapped bricks and tried to get MPs back in for no reason other than Johnson needs a braying mob to back up his bluster.

we'll have to see, he didn't use zoom for the meeting on thursday though

[pbeardmore]

"Is there any reason he couldn’t do PMQs electronically?" Yes, KS

[Zoom]

if you'll pardon the pun fishing rights is a red herring; as has been mentioned many times by experts the UK will not benefit from an exclusive monopoly to its waters for the simple reason that the UK does not want a lot of what is caught. Yet they are still touting the same old line

A European parliament vote to seal a Brexit trade deal could be delayed until 28 December, three days before the end of the transition period, under an emergency EU plan.

With less than seven weeks to go before the UK leaves the single market and customs union, the negotiations remain troubled, with the talks on fishing rights in UK waters not progressing significantly since the summer.

The negotiations were “not in a good place” on fishing rights, Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, said as the two sides re-engaged in the discussions.

[toom317]

Boris, the gift that keeps on giving.

[FGR2]

I can’t see Johnson lasting much longer. He looked pretty rough on yesterday’s Video message.

His total reliance and inability to fire Cummings was a sign of weakness, now after firing him six months too late he seems to have been steered towards green issues, no doubt now heavily influenced by his “girlfriend.” Are green issues many people’s priority at the moment, I am guessing probably not?

He is just drifting which ever way people nudge him, failing to answer questions and just speaking in riddles.

Again he has failed to follow social distancing rules and has disappeared from view at the most critical time for BREXIT and the fight against the virus.

The clumsy comments about devolution reported today just play into the hands of the SNP and increases the risk of breaking up the country.

If he extends the lockdown in December then he has big problems from his backbenchers.

The guy is a liability, not up to the job and needs to go. I am guessing the backbenchers are just waiting for BREXIT to fail, or not be delivered as promised, then they will stab him in the back. The longer he is PM, the more damage he is doing.

[IATthenRIAT]

Lets just cut to the chase - the Tories are a liability - so is the current Labour party who are basically a Tory party hiding under the cloths of Labour with Keir anyway same as when Blair ws leader.

[pbeardmore]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... -isolation

[rockfordstone]

Lets just cut to the chase - the Tories are a liability - so is the current Labour party who are basically a Tory party hiding under the cloths of Labour with Keir anyway same as when Blair ws leader.

but that's kind of what this country wants.
we don't want an extreme left-wing government any more than we want an extreme right-wing government, that's why Blair was so popular and why i think Starmer will be. apart from the fringes which are given more and more air time through social media, we are largely a centrist country who want largely the same things with just a different shade of colour brushed over it. that's my experience of it anyway

[iainpeden]

Lets just cut to the chase - the Tories are a liability - so is the current Labour party who are basically a Tory party hiding under the cloths of Labour with Keir anyway same as when Blair ws leader.

While there are all sorts of questionable decisions under scrutiny at the moment, sometimes with the benefit of hindsight, nobody would deny that the UK government, along with many others around the world, has had to borrow vast amounts of money.

Would the lending institutions have been so ready to lend money at such low interest rates if there had been a Corbyn led government in place; especially given the "fully costed budget" which then had a coach and horses driven through it by Corbyn.

And before anybody accuses me of being a dyed in the wool blue, I actually voted for our local Labour candidate not because I had one ounce of confidence in Corbyn but because I didn't want Johnson to get the very obvious big majority he was racing towards.