Ain't my Prime Ministers, bruv. I'm Irish.

I'm Irish. — Baden

I remember meeting an Irish woman and asking her if she was from real Ireland or Northern Ireland. Thankfully she was from real Ireland. Probably would have been offended if she was from Northern Ireland.

The most important development will be the end of the tradition of people from the privileged upper middle classes being groomed for a life in politics. Eton and Oxford are responsible for perpetuating this.
It looks as though this might now be happening. — Punshhh

Er.. isn't that the awful spectre of Borisenstein looming over the horizon?! Are the Tories really so desperate they'll bring back the man they threw out as unfit to govern only 4 months ago? I think, possibly yes. I can't see anyone else uniting the party. Even he can't do it via policy, but by convincing MPs they can yet avoid wipeout at the next election under his charismatic wooing of voters he has a shot. I think the public majority will not forgive his past misdemeanors though. And by the way: isn't there an appalling echo of Trump's situation in all this?!

I would assume some resentment on such elitism in the UK for the cradle of prime ministers to be so tiny. Oxford has about 3300 undergraduate places and 5500 graduate places every year (and about 25 000 students in all). And likely the politicians come from even a smaller group of students. That's out of a population of over 68 million.

It wouldn't wash in Ireland. But things are different over there, apparently.


Yeah, I don't recommend increasing your sample size on that experiment. :wink:

Boris Johnson ‘likely to face suspension’ from Commons over partygate lies

As of last night, he was neck and neck with Rishi Sunak when it came to nominations, with a number of Tory MPs including Paul Bristow and Nadine Dorries calling for his return.

Johnson is also said to have offered an olive branch to Sunak in order to ‘join forces’.

Except he could be forced to face a by-election if he is found to have lied to Parliament and is handed a suspension for 10 or more sitting days by the privileges committee.

A committee insider told the Sun that Downing Street has handed documents, pictures and messages to the privileges committee for the investigation and that the evidence was so damning it was likely to lead to a Commons suspension.

God, imagine the Tories actually replace Truss with Boris, and then he's suspended for lying to Parliament and forced to face a by-election, probably prompting an immediate resignation. What a farce.

God, imagine the Tories actually replace Truss with Boris, and then he's suspended for lying to Parliament and forced to face a by-election, probably prompting an immediate resignation. What a farce. — Michael

And here's the Boris Johnson thread waiting to be continued... :snicker:

How mad is it?! How desensitized we are to this chaos. Amazing! How used we are to the cogs of government not moving at all. How accustomed we are to the self-serving lack of talent that constitutes the British Conservative Party! (or U$ GOP)

Isn't there a rule somewhere that says "when you're done, you're done"? Boris is way done. We are sick and tired of Bojo. We're even more sick and tired of Donald. "Sick and tired of..." is sufficient reason for these public trough hogs to retire to a any pigsty they can find. Go away, stinking ghosts of elections past!

Now for balance, we don't want Bernie or Barach back, either. Or any number of fine folks who did their bit and are now done.

Well done, Johnathan Pie.

Beat me to it!

SO, OVER THERE LEADERS WILL RESIGN JUST FOR DOING A BAD JOB? SOUNDS NICE.

Cambridge University is woke by comparison with Oxford.
It’s simply the Chanels established by the political elites. Through which the chosen ones pass on their path to power.

Could Boris be the British Berlusconi? In the country of Britaly.

I’m working on the assumption that the Tory party are finished as a political force.

I was thinking the same thing. Common decency? Very un-American.

Cambridge University is woke by comparison with Oxford.
It’s simply the Chanels established by the political elites. Through which the chosen ones pass on their path to power. — Punshhh

Wokeness is pretty new. But there are similar small paths for example in France also. Yet I think for a democracy to work you do need people with different education and career paths. It's just funny to me, but I notice this education especially in the traditional Oxford education in their speeches and oratory: a British prime minister never speaks like a businessman, an engineer or someone from the military. (As they obviously aren't businessmen, engineers of from the military, but well trained in the art of giving speeches.)

But of course as the negative impact of Brexit will be felt as the global economy goes into recession and one cannot blame it on Covid, it's utterly stupid for the Conservative party to "rearrange the deck chairs of the Titanic" and select new prime ministers. The negative effects of Brexit will go for long.

Either Boris should have sat it out and be as popular as Yeltsin was in Russia in the 1990's or then have a new election. Elections have to be had only in 2025, so likely three years feels so long that Conservative party can have a pipe dream that the economy has "a brief rough patch" and walz through it. Otherwise it could be better to be in the opposition and have the Labor now to be in charge when the train wreck happens.

Could Boris be the British Berlusconi? In the country of Britaly. — Punshhh

Second longest Italian leader since Mussolini. And a friend of Putin.

She resigned because, facing electoral annihilation, her party would have given her the boot otherwise. It's not all that difficult to get rid of a PM compared to a U.S. President. If you're in search of common decency, you are probably looking in the wrong place.

She resigned because, facing electoral annihilation, her party would have given her the boot otherwise. It's not all that difficult to get rid of a PM compared to a U.S. President. If you're in search of common decency, you are probably looking in the wrong place. — Baden

Oh, it's more complicated than I thought.

Elections have to be had only in 2025, so likely three years feels so long that Conservative party can have a pipe dream that the economy has "a brief rough patch" and walz through it. Otherwise it could be better to be in the opposition and have the Labor now to be in charge when the train wreck happens. — ssu

It's January 2025, and given that that would mean a campaign over Xmas it's unlikely. The December 2019 election was shoe-horned in because of the Brexit end-of-year deadline. Normally Autumn would be chosen, so 2 years' time is realistically the latest date. That almost certainly isn't enough time for the Tories to get through the rough patch given the mess public services are in. Besides, the electorate's instinct is usually to 'give the others a chance' after a long period of one party's rule, and they aren't going to forget the calamity of this summer's Tory infighting.

I think that the malaise Brexit has done to the British economy won't be over in 2024-2025. Sticking along this sad time will have a deep impact on the popularity of Conservative Party. One has to remember that Thatcher (and later John Major) stayed in power because Britons remembered how bad it was in the 1970's with Labour governments. Only in 1997 enough time had passed, and then it was time for a "Third Way".

Winter of Discontent 1979, the waste collectors strike:

Johnson's out. It's Sunak's to lose now.

The people you mention are indeed indoctrinated to believe they are the chosen ones who were born to lord it over the masses. They can't do it without many members of the masses supporting them. They are expert manipulators of the politically ignorant mind

Yes, my point is that this model is now broken. The Tory’s have succeeded in gaslighting the population since the establishment of the 1922 committee. It’s poignant that this will come to an end exactly 100yrs later.

“The steal”. Will Boris’s support swing behind Mordaunt now.

The Tory political tradition via Eton and Oxford is a hangover from the British imperialism of the 19th century. Hopefully it is now broken.

The economic crisis in the U.K. is really dire. I heard an influential Tory backer interviewed on Radio 4 this morning. Saying that Brexit is a mistake, that the U.K. will become the sick man of Europe again and will probably be bailed out by the IMF.

I expect Mordaunt to bow out - either short of 100 votes, or beaten say 2:1 by Sunak. She surely can't win and forcing a party members' vote would seem churlish and divisive. MPs will be relieved they've finally got the result they really wanted back in July. Sunak is their only possible election winner. Shame the members are too blinkered to realise that..

Liz Truss — Michael

Who?

The Tory political tradition via Eton and Oxford is a hangover from the British imperialism of the 19th century. Hopefully it is now broken. — Punshhh

With Rishi it isn't, at least when it comes to Oxford. But the private preparatory school, Stroud, likely is nearly as exclusive as Eton.



Plus when you have appease the markets, what better to have than an analyst from Goldman Sachs as the new Prime Minister? :grin:

At least Sunak did understand that the economic policies of Truss were risky in this situation.