O/T:- ⚠️Impressed with the leadership [The UK Party Politics Thread]

[jackal2]

BoJo's mumblings about "getting it" have merely shown that he doesn't get it. The right wing Shropshire voters get it and as Swale often says "Final Warning" (again and again).

Boris can justifiably claim to have been a huge factor in winning the campaigns for Brexit and then the General Election. The concern I always had - and voiced even back then - is that he is not an ideologically strong leader, merely an opportunist career politician. It's common knowledge that he only decided at the very last moment to back Brexit rather than Remain, because he (rightly) thought it would provide the best platform for his career, and despite showing some positive early signs that he might govern as a strong right-wing PM, he has since lost the plot personally and politically. It more or less coincided with Dominic Cummings leaving and the PM's wife apparently taking his place as key advisor and chief pusher of the supermarket trolley.

Somebody asked Nigel Farage (the genuine Brexiteer) a few weeks ago who he would like to see as leader of the Conservative Party, to which his reply was 'a Conservative'. He correctly observed that if the current situation continues, the public in this country will go into the next General Election with a 'choice' between three social democrat parties, such is the way the Conservatives have gone about wasting what should have been an incredibly strong position. It goes without saying that if you're a Conservative Prime Minister and the only way you can get a key policy through Parliament is relying on Labour votes to overcome opposition on your own back benches, then you've seriously lost your way. Theresa May ended up in the same bizarre situation and suffered the same fate Boris probably will.

Two things can still play in the Conservatives' favour going forward.

Firstly, the Labour Party are not ahead in the polls because of any great public affection for Sir Keir Starmer, who himself lacks any real ideological convictions and sometimes sounds more like a Tory than the current Tory PM, annoying the hell out of the left of his party in the process. He hasn't got the charisma of a young Tony Blair and he hasn't got anybody as cunning as Peter Mandelson guiding his strategy. He's basically just stumbled into the lead by virtue of Boris' failings over the past year or so.

And therein lies the second point. The anger and frustration of the public, especially Tory voters, is towards Boris, and therefore a strategically-timed (I would say inevitable) leadership change in the not-too-distant future would see a lot of that anger go with him. The onus would then be on the replacement to set their own, hopefully much clearer course.

The biggest difficulty is finding that replacement - a genuine Conservative who means the words they say and actually believes in delivering the kind of policies and action the public mandated when they voted for Brexit and then the Conservatives in the General Election. To be honest, I don't see a convincing ideologically right-wing politician amongst the potential replacements being mooted, namely Sunak and Truss, but in the absence of many 'oven-ready' contenders it could be a case of working with what's available. Most of the (few) consistently right-wing minds are on the back-benches and are either at the veteran stage of their career (like David Davis or John Redwood) or too new and young to have gained any Cabinet experience yet, let alone run for the top job.

I think the country could do with a return to the politics of thirty or forty years ago when the holders of the most important jobs were older, more experienced, more seasoned politicians with far greater gravitas and a more developed sense of purpose. And if they happened to have 10 or 20 years of real-life experience before they began a career in politics, even better. That way, they might have an idea of what the real world looks like and their desire to enter politics might come from a passionate, gut-felt desire to change it for the better, irrespective of whether that drive comes from a right-wing or left-wing perspective, because you need strong ideological leaders on both sides. Sadly it won't happen for now, because key Government and Shadow Government jobs seem to be moving towards ever younger and more vacuous career politicians.

[Old_pie]

I guess my hope that BoJo would have been the charismatic front man of a good strong team.

The pandemic has eaten into much right-wing ideology. Even so it seems we might just do as well as to elect the next winner of "I'm a Celebrity, get me out of here" as choose from the current bunch of potential candidates.

He's not an unintelligent man and it beats me how he can be such a stupid bumbling buffoon.

[upthemaggies]

Mail On Sunday EXCLUSIVE: Brexit Minister Lord Frost has resigned from Boris Johnson’s Cabinet over the ‘political direction of his Government’. Full details in tomorrow’s Mail on Sunday.

[countygump]

Mail On Sunday EXCLUSIVE: Brexit Minister Lord Frost has resigned from Boris Johnson’s Cabinet over the ‘political direction of his Government’. Full details in tomorrow’s Mail on Sunday.

Now that's a biggy: Over Covid measures?



Lord Frost, a staunch advocate of Brexit, has spearheaded attempts by London to re-open negotiations over the terms of Britain's exit from the European Union.

His decision was reportedly driven by plans to introduce Plan B Covid measures, including vaccine passports.

Lord Frost has recently been locked in tense rounds of talks with European Commission vice-president Mr Sefcovic as the UK and the EU attempt to close gaps in post-Brexit arrangements.

[Elite_Pie]

It seems it's not just the public who don't like him, or the right wing of his party who don't like him, the left wing of his party who don't like him, and his backbenchers who don't like him. The only people who do like him are the bunch of corrupt sycophants he has surrounded himself with in his cabinet, but even that's based on future career prospects rather than morals.

Sadly, that might well be enough to keep him in power.

[BigFatPie]

Can’t believe this Brexit/Electing a f00king moron thing isn’t going so well.

Who’d have thought?

[BigFatPie]

Can’t believe this Brexit/Electing a f00king moron thing isn’t going so well.

Who’d have thought?

I’m sure some of the advocates of both of the above will be here any time soon to tell us how wrong they were.

Or maybe not.

[jackal2]

Mail On Sunday EXCLUSIVE: Brexit Minister Lord Frost has resigned from Boris Johnson’s Cabinet over the ‘political direction of his Government’. Full details in tomorrow’s Mail on Sunday.

In his resignation letter, Lord Frost, who attended cabinet, said his resignation would take "immediate effect" and spoke of his desire to see a "low-tax" economy.

"I hope we will move as fast as possible to where we need to get to: a lightly regulated, low-tax, entrepreneurial economy, at the cutting edge of modern science and economic change," he said.

He added that measures to reopen the economy in July "did not prove to be irreversible" - adding: "I hope we can get back on track soon and not be tempted by the kind of coercive measures we have seen elsewhere."

Basically, he's saying govern like Conservatives.

[the_anticlough]

[I]
"I hope we will move as fast as possible to where we need to get to: a lightly regulated, low-tax, entrepreneurial economy, at the cutting edge of modern science and economic change," he said.

What spooks them is when the buffoon adds 'high wage, high skill' to that formula and talks about levelling up.
Makes them think maybe he's serious, sees a role for the state in building the country and is not planning to exploit the **** out of the population like the tories have always done

They should chill, he's just taking the whole country for a ride

[sidders]

'Frosty the NO Man' is a big loss to Boris but not to the rest of the country. From what he has said, he would dispense with most COVID restrictions in favour of herd immunity (although he doesn't actually mouth those words; just the sentiment).
Jackal 2 has got it spot on. Frost is an old school Tory and wants a return to Thatcherite days. Do you? Do I? COVID has forced the government to take socialist style measures to protect the NHS and the likes of Frost despise that. They, of course, can insure themselves against having to share their medical issues with the hoi-polloi.
I agree with what was said above about the lack of talented politicians and the abundance of vacuous career politicians, but all parties are guilty on this score. I was pleased to see Starmer bringing back Yvette Cooper who can help develop the skills of several younger females in the Labour team.
Oh and the leadership of this country? Well, it's collapsed, hasn't it? And Brexit? Brought nothing but trouble and was never 'oven-ready'. Never trust a politician who constantly invents catch-phrases to take the place of serious ideological thinking.