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Blimey O’Reilly, it’s still going on! (The end part 2?)

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The Boris thread is doing a lot of heavy lifting with the never ending story of Johnson’s defenestration. Will it happen? Before or after Sue Grey reports? What more stories will come out? What defections?

Looks like it will run and run, so maybe a good idea to keep it on the front page.

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Comments

  1. Sorry, S, but really can’’t see the point of starting a second thread when the first is still so high on the recently updated list and given the now almost daily revelations, likely to remain there for the foreseeable?

  2. He’s safe for now. After the local elections in May is the next opportunity. But by then he’ll be the heroic leader who kept the economy open while all about him called for lockdowns. Positively Churchillian in the way he stood firm while others faltered. Yes, he may be a bit of a cad but he gets the big calls right. Good old Boris! Etc.

    • He’s possibly safe. Relying on a benign (sucré) and sufficiently-distanced report from Sue Grey may give him the tissue of a semantic excuse to move on from the parties, but it may be the dam bursting after which the letters fly into Sir Graham Brady’s office.

      He’s made enough enemies for this not to go away so easily, persuasive though his patter is.

  6. Marina Hyde arguably goes a step too far by invoking Pink Floyd.

    For decades, many politicians were unable to reach orgasm with their researchers or child’s nanny without their minds immediately racing ahead to whatever ghastly aye vote the whips would eventually extract from them in hush payment. For some, the response has become Pavlovian – even without the presence of a researcher or au pair, male Conservative backbenchers now become aroused every time they hear the division bell.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/21/tory-hunger-games-pork-pies-mps-

    • Yes, Marina Hyde certainly has been on form recently, really putting the boot in on Johnson…

      “If you ever wondered what Jim Jones’s corpse would have looked like if it had spent three weeks getting bleached and bloated by a Guyana river, it floated up to the House of Commons dispatch box yesterday at 3.30pm….”

  8. Looks like he’s managed to kick the can down the road. Nice lengthy police inquiry, a few token fines for minor officials, back to Sue Grey for a confidential report sometime later this year. As meaningful and rigorous as the Russia inquiry, the Patel bullying inquiry, etc.

  10. Robert Preston initially said that the police inquiry will delay the issue of the Sue Gray report for several weeks – there’s been an abrupt U turn. PM says it’s coming out this week, including photos:

    “This er was er quite clearly a work event and erm the photographic evidence of me seemingly photocopying my own arse was, as I recall it, part of a team-building exercise during a facilitated workshop…”

  12. On the one hand, this is one of the most serious crises, morally and politically, for as long as I can remember, raising issues which go to the heart of the governance of this country. On the other, it’s also the best laugh I’ve had for years.

  14. “Oh shit, Humphrey, Sue Gray’s report looks bad. How can we make it go away for a bit longer?”

    “Why not delay publication of it until the evening after PMQs, Prime Minister? Everyone will have forgotten about it by next Wednesday.”

  15. Given CD (never has a police chief been more aptly named) could equally be the other way round. “B, it’s C. You know that favor I owe you after all the disasters last year? I think I may be able to help you out…”

    Either way, they’re both see you next Tuesdays

  16. The Met have asked that the report minimises references to parties. If the PM then releases a redacted report and takes a rueful “we must follow due process” line, he will think this is a master stroke – but it will be the end of him.

  17. What Sue Gray should do is give Johnson the full report and say “it’s now up to you whether to release the report as it stands or not.” Johnson would be a fool if he tried to suppress it under such circumstances

    • It’ll get leaked, surely? It’s not as if Beej treats anyone in a way that inspires loyalty.

      my prediction: We’ll get a redacted version, Johnson will lie about what’s in it, some of the redacted stuff will come out showing that he’s lied, he’ll pretend to apologise, then carry on regardless.

  18. Perhaps he leaks these things himself…sending staff into a flurry of internal mistrust, suspicion and confusion. With everyone seemingly “at it” he can blame civil servants and the overall culture and “drain the swamp” i.e. sack everyone.

  19. While he might struggle on for a few months until May’s local elections, or – God forbid – brazen it out all the way to the next GE, he’s not going to be PM for that much longer.

    Ultimately, people just do not forgive or forget this level of contempt.

  21. Teresa May has told off the PM in the house. Front benches looking down at their shoes.

    Starmer asks the members opposite if they really, truly want to heap their own reputations and their careers onto the bonfire that is this leadership.

    PM responds that Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was DPP. That’s the famously Conservative supporting friend of Thatcher, knighted by Thatcher, Jimmy Savile.

  23. Watching the debate, it was clear Johnson was going to give the same brush off to everybody – I’m sorry for the people who suffered, but let’s wait until the police fetch the ball from the long grass. Oh, and look – ‘Saville’!

    So the best speakers weren’t the ones calling from him to resign – like he’s going to say ‘OK!’. It was the ones like Chris Bryant painting the bigger picture –

    The thing is, this is who the Prime Minister is:
    “a serious failure to observe…high standards…failures of leadership and judgment…excessive consumption of alcohol…in a professional workplace”.

    “gatherings” that “should not have been” able “to take place”; staff too frightened to raise concerns; parties in his own private flat. A leopard does not change its spots, does it? Every single one who defends this will face this again and again and again, because he still will not even admit to the House that when he came to us and said, of 13 November, that
    “the guidance…and the rules were followed at all times”—[Official Report, 8 December 2021; Vol. 705, c. 379]—
    and, on 1 December, that all the guidelines were observed, those things simply were not true. If he will not correct the record today, there is nothing accidental about this, is there? It is deliberate.

    Also Barry Sheerman

    I have known the Prime Minister a long time, and we have always got on quite well. He is not a wicked man, but he is a man who, for years and in every job, has got by flying on the seat of his pants. He has a chaotic management style, and that is a question of character. I ask him really to look in the mirror, as he said this morning, and say, “Am I the man for this challenging time for our country abroad, at home and in every sense?” Has he the character to carry on and do that job properly?

    That really pissed off the liar at the despatch box.

  24. On Sunday, the various experts were all saying that Grey’s bowdlerized report would, if not let Johnson off the hook, then at least give him some breathing space.

    It actually did exactly the opposite and the longer the police investigation drags on and the more stuff that Dominic pulls out of his battered cardboard box the worse it will get for him.

    Given the disapproval/distrust/dislike figures he’s currently raking up in the polls, he is now completely fucked and will really have to go.

    Did anyone see Sir Brllo of Pad’s excellent excoriation of Johnson on C4’s Despatches doc featuring Brillo on C4 on Sunday? Well worth catching on Catch Up if you missed it

  27. The Met have a photo of the PM holding a beer at one of the parties.

    Even if the 1922 committee get the required number of letters, and there’s a vote, I wouldn’t put it past him to call a General Election and try to appeal directly to the public.

  28. He can’t call a GE unilaterally.

    The fixed term parliament act is still in force and would require a big Commons majority vote to bypass.

    If there is a vote of no confidence, they would need around 180 votes to get him out. If he exceeds the 117 votes by which May lost her no confidence vote, he should realistically stand down, – that’s when it might start getting really ugly.

    too

    • I know that but if you think about the behaviour of his mate Trump – he did lots of things that you “can’t” do. He can make things very, very difficult if he refuses to go quietly. Her Maj may have no option but to dissolve parliament and a destroyed Conservative Party will have to fight an election with all their dirty laundry flapping in the breeze for all to see.

      Imagine Johnson leading UKIP and using his undoubted popularity with a vast amount of voters to divide the right wing voters. You’d think this would mean a thumping majority for Labour but I’m not so sure about that these days.

      • Johnson leading UKIP? It’s an entertaining thought experiment – him having to sit in a seat vacated by Farage, but it’s never going to happen, is it? His ego wouldn’t allow it for one thing – it’s all the ‘great’ crusty institutions of England where he’s squatted – Eton, Balliol, Times, Telegraph, Spectator, London Mayoralty, Foreign Office, No 10. UKIP is peasants revolt territory squalor.
        He only took on Brexit as part of his gameplan as another – he has no core beliefs.

        A seat in the Lords, some non-executive directorships, a comfortable editor-in-chiefship and a roll call of after dinner speeches and lecture tours – all agreeable, well paid bully pulpits from where he can continue to spaff his rabble-rousing BS, cloaked in polysyllables with dressings of classical references – he has no qualifications to do anything else.

      • “if he refuses to go quietly” – there’s no “if” about it.

        Andrew Rawnsley: One former cabinet minister predicts: “Boris will only be dragged out of Number 10 with his fingernails clinging to the door. There will be scratch marks down the woodwork.”

        In his desperation, as we saw this week with the Starmer thing, his true nastiness will come to the surface. It’s to be hoped that the British people finally see him for what he is. Better late than never. Perhaps it might persuade them not to vote for someone who they like for his funny hair – so Sajid Javid might be in with a chance after all.

        • Andrew Rawnsley has obviously been watching his old Spitting Image videos of when Thatcher got oust-oust-ousted back in 1990. Were Johnson or indeed any other PM to try hanging on to power if he lost a VoC, he’d have no ministers, MPs or mandate in less time than it took to say “no one told me I’d broken any rules”.

          What usually happens in these cases (and will almost certainly happen again here – and sooner rather than later) that someone will nip around to No 10 to have a quiet word that the jig is up. That someone in this case will probably the Govenator, the Dennis Howell of the Johnson cabinet.

          Re who’ll take his place – Given that it’s rarely the knife wielder that gets the job, Sunak is out as it’s obviously him who’s done most of the wielding. Truss has kept largely schtumm, while Tugenhat and Hunt have stayed largely clear of the mess.

  29. If former pols as dull and uninspiring as Major and May can rake in big money on lecture tours in the US, imagine how much dosh Johnson stands to make.

    The big question now isn’t when Johnson will go, it’s who’s going to replace him
    when he does…

    • He’ll go round Tory safe seats doing rallies where he claims that he’s still Prime Minister and the letters to the 1922 committee were all from dead people*, everyone wearing caps that say Save Britain and Keep Brexit Done. He’d play golf as well, if he could be arsed.

      *actually not entirely untrue

      • Interestingly, earlier this am the Fail Online was running a pic “IS THIS THE PHOTO THAT WILL FINISH BORIS JOHNSON? of the beleaguered soon to be former PM with a mega-sized can of Spanish beer. When I attempted to link here, the picture had gone. In its place was a picture marked SIMULATION showing Johnson holding a similar can of beer while sitting opposite Hi Risk Anus.

        • Before I put my readers on I thought you’d been on The Fall Online.

          Is This-uh …
          The Photo That Will Finish-uh …
          Boris-uh…
          Johnson-uh…

          BJ’s had a few £500 bottles of wine in his time. Perhaps even this morning. Being someone who cut his teeth in the 90s, he’s taking his cues from Britpop. They went, “Taking loads of drugs will make us good at the Beatles and the Stones”. He says “If I’m pissed all the time that will make me as good as Churchill”

      • I thought Guto was actually pretty good when he was at the BBC. But apparently DC thinks he’s a security risk because of his Huawei connections. What could possibly go wrong? I suppose if you hire someone who’s already a bit niffy, it saves them having to do something scandalous later.

    • Article by Chris Mason, who is a political lightweight, employed to trivialise debate, give the Conservatives an easy ride whenever possible, and challenge anything opposition spokespeople have to say, particularly Labour ones – in my opinion.

  33. Sue Gray is letting people look at the notes she made for her report before answering the Met Police questionnaire.

    Just so that everyone can make 100% sure that they are all telling the truth, obviously. In fact, it’s a useful aide memoire of the exact timing of any events and will therefore serve to underpin the integrity of the process and the investigation. We should be applauding the PM and his Downing Street staff for going the extra mile here.

    Or…

  34. The longer Partygate rumbles on, the more it’s being watered down, overtaken by other stories and the more likely it is that Johnson will wriggle his way free to fright (sic) another day.

    • Oh, he’ll get away with it. For now. I’m now quite happy for him to do so because otherwise the Tories will do what they always do and pretend that a new leader means that it’s a completely different government – rather than being held to account for the mess they’ve collectively made, and not just with their choice of leader. It was always a possibility that Johnson as PM would crash and burn the whole rotten crew. As that baldie feller says – let it be so.

  35. Far from getting buried under the landslide of stories about Putrid’s Ukraine invasion, it seems that Partygate has achieved that most dreaded of all political qualities – stickability.

    While opinion polls – and especially mid-term ones – are never a reliable indicator of what might actually happen at a GE, they’re a useful snapshot of the prevailing mood when they are taken.

    The fact that this poll’s findings are splashed across the front page of the Daily Fail will be setting alarm bells ringing at Conservative Head Office

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10556181/HALF-Boris-Johnsons-Cabinet-lose-seats-general-election-held-poll-reveals.html

  36. And now Gavin Williamson gets a “K”

    Can’t be for what he achieved in the past, (i.e. nothing).

    Ergo, must be for what he’ll achieve (delaying Johnson’s exit)
    by committing to keep his mouth shut in future.

    • I’ve seen this assumption made a lot, but what is it that Williamson knows that no one else does?

      (I realise the only logical answer to this is “I don’t know” but I thought I’d ask anyway)

    • Three seems to be suspicion about what Wilkinson knew send who he told regarding Banks and Wigmore having a clear Russian gov connection during the Brexit debacle, when he was Defence Sec and Johnson was filling astound in the Foreign Office. Scurrying to Carole Cadwalladr.

      Could it be he had kompromat on Johnson that would be particularly embarrassing at the moment?

      • Sadly, we’ll probably never know.

        As it’s hard to see the global repercussions of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine invasion being resolved before the Tories get slaughtered in May’s local elections, be interesting to see if the Tories have the guts pull the pin on him during a time of global crisis.

        While most journeys contend that Johnson has done quite well vis a vis Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine,

          • True but despite Blair’s later fanciful claim to the contrary in the run up to DS2: (They’re back and this time they mean business!), Saddam had no WMDs. Putrid not only has chemical weapons but also nukes and hundreds, possibly thousands of them.

            FWIW, I think they will get rid of him and be quite ruthless about it, too, Not for nothing are they the most electorally successful political party in the history of the Western world

            • Because of so many bigger things that have happened since, it’s easy to forget how “big” the Kuwait war was at the time. It was the first multinational war effort of the rolling news age . The potential scale of it was hyped up (see Chris Morris and Bill Hicks for the definitive commentary) to the point where people here were openly talking about conscription. I’d just turned 18 at the time and was worried that I’d be sent to the desert feeling and looking like Private Widdle.

              • That was the other thing, the original little contretemps you mention was in excitable Johnny Arab territory.

                This latest how-de-do is just across the channel and nearly all of the people involved in it are as lacking in melanin as you or I*!

                * Even if some of them are commies

  37. Sunday Times says the Life Peerage given to Evgeny Lebedev was raised as a National security risk but the PM personally intervened, citing anti-Russianism.

    At this stage, I’d. be more surprised if he didn’t.

  38. Johnson’s involvement in waving through the The Lebedev peerage is far more serious than the handing out of an undeserved knighthood to Williamson IM(NS)HO.

    Using Tory sleaze to call for the ending of the UK’s absurdly antiquated honors system might also be a good idea for Starmer to exploit in the run up to the next election

  39. The PM has just suggested that the Ukrainian resistance to Russia displays a similar spirit to that of the UK when they left the EU.

    If a Brexit supporter faced a Russian invasion, they would a) learn quickly that Farage, Johnson and Rees-Mogg and Co would be 100% OK with it and b) surrender immediately.

    • I have just emailed my MP.

      Presumably you were in the hall to hear the Prime Minister’s embarrassing nonsense. How much longer will you continue to support this inadequate excuse for a leader? I am sick and tired of feeling ashamed of my country pretty much on a daily basis.

      • It hasn’t been my country for lo these many years now, but I am ashamed of it, and have been since the Brexit vote. If there was a tipping point into cultural and political rot, it was Cameron.

        Then again, I’d be embarrassed by Thailand’s leadership if it was my country. There aren’t many nations where leadership seems inspired – Ukraine, er …

    • He’s a total and utter bell end, obviously.

      However, I think people miss the mark when they accuse him of corruption re his pulling investments in Russian companies just before the invasion. I think just about everyone did – particularly when the world’s governments were telling their citizens living in Ukraine to leave immediately several weeks before the invasion actually happened. You don’t need insider knowledge to know that there was some uncertainty going on.

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