Octopus Overlords

That would make one of them.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Wed Jul 06, 2022 1:55 pm That would make one of them.

HA! ZING! LOL

Well, I'm no Brit, but from this side of the ol' pond, you can't say he wasn't a great PM. I mean, look what he did!

Just BREXIT alone...huge success! Right? No?

(I should probably check to see actual, real world results after BREXIT before spouting off!)

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Wed Jul 06, 2022 2:04 pm Well, I'm no Brit, but from this side of the ol' pond, you can't say he wasn't a great PM. I mean, look what he did!

Just BREXIT alone...huge success! Right? No?

(I should probably check to see actual, real world results after BREXIT before spouting off!)

You made a ... uh ... safe guess about how it went.

I think this should be called BORXIT.

As of this morning there are now 53 resignations and Johnson remains defiant.

Edit: Word is he is going to resign...and wants to hang on until the fall. Watching BBC this morning but a lot of folks talking about how the UK does not have a functional government right now.

CNN is reporting he just resigned and is speaking now.

stessier wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 7:36 am CNN is reporting he just resigned and is speaking now.

Indeed it was his usual mix of half normal and half Trumpy speech. He is blaming his downfall on a herd instinct in his own party. It will not go over well with many. Really sounded like a narcissist lashing out at everyone for his own poor moral character.

And here we have to worry about Trump getting elected again... I think the entire government could have quit and Trump would have never resigned.

Octavious wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 7:56 am And here we have to worry about Trump getting elected again... I think the entire government could have quit and Trump would have never resigned.

Movies/books/etc. will be produced about what happened over the last couple of days in the UK. And it won't be generous to Johnson I expect. The man is cut out of very similar cloth to Trump. The British people were lucky there wasn't a cult built around him.

malchior wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 8:02 am The British people were lucky there wasn't a cult built around him.

This was a comment I almost made a couple of days ago. It's a critical difference. And sadly, it's a comment about US Americans - not about Trump or Johnson.

malchior wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 8:02 am

Octavious wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 7:56 am And here we have to worry about Trump getting elected again... I think the entire government could have quit and Trump would have never resigned.

The man is cut out of very similar cloth to Trump.

Yet with all that, STILL just a tiny fraction as awful as Trump, in so many ways.

Grifman wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 1:02 am

malchior wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 8:02 am

Octavious wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 7:56 am And here we have to worry about Trump getting elected again... I think the entire government could have quit and Trump would have never resigned.

Movies/books/etc. will be produced about what happened over the last couple of days in the UK. And it won't be generous to Johnson I expect. The man is cut out of very similar cloth to Trump. The British people were lucky there wasn't a cult built around him.

They also had the benefit of a better designed and more functional political / constitutional structure. There's no way that Johnson would have been forced out if he was president of the United States.

Huge kudos to Hugh Grant!

Hugh Grant tweeted a request at activists protesting outside Westminster to play the Benny Hill theme on their loudspeakers; when they did it became the soundtrack for street interviews with leading Tories trying explain the situation to the British people

Damn, that's hilarious.

Reminds me of the marching band tuba players playing a clomping, funny tuba march in time with protestors wanting to keep the Confederate flag flying above our Capitol years ago.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:38 pm Damn, that's hilarious.

Reminds me of the marching band tuba players playing a clomping, funny tuba march in time with protestors wanting to keep the Confederate flag flying above our Capitol years ago.

All they needed was the theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm.

The damage Boris has done is incalculable. Basically he made himself defecto King and thought he could rule without his party but that isn't how it works in the UK.

The UK system is such that the PM is basically the equivalent of the US House of Reps speaker. Like the House of Reps you have seats and parties although considerably more than just the 2 in the US.

Its still a two party system as only the Conservative Party (think Republicans), and the Labour Party (think AOC and Bernie Sanders) have even the possibility of getting power. In the mix you also have the Scottish and Welsh independence parties, regional Northern Irish parties and the Liberal Democrats (think the US Democrats).

On top of all this is the monarch who in theory can rule as dictator if she wishes but history has shown a monarch trying to rule without parliament tends to get overthrown.

One difference is that the UK is more easily broken up than the USA.

It's possible that Scotland will vote for independence in the next couple of years. This would be like New England and some mid-Atlantic states seceding from the US, but it would be perfectly legal and not set off a Civil War.

waitingtoconnect wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 6:21 pm Its still a two party system as only the Conservative Party (think Republicans), and the Labour Party (think AOC and Bernie Sanders) have even the possibility of getting power. In the mix you also have the Scottish and Welsh independence parties, regional Northern Irish parties and the Liberal Democrats (think the US Democrats).

Also, you have AOC and Sanders listed as the ones most likely to get power, and then later you list the US Democrats.


I wish you were right

The UK is dealing with what might be the hottest day in its recorded history...and Johnson is partying.

Shouldn't they be happy that Johnson didn't go to the Cobra meeting?

They need to go all Sri Lanka on him.

The interests of the UK are served by Johnson not doing anything. Partying is what got him fired.

If you haven't been paying attention to the UK over the last few days the new PM - Liz Truss is weeks into her premiership and people are wondering if her new government will crash the UK economy worse than it already was. Step one was to announce a seemingly unlimited energy subsidy (we talked about it briefly here but the policy as released is bonkers). Then late last week they announced major tax cuts to "promote growth". Essentially in the face of much worse inflation than we are seeing here they've poured massive buckets of stimulus in and are running up debt.

That was part of what was behind the pound drop I posted about late last week. Now the markets have had a partial meltdown as they've had time to work out how irresponsible and insane the government budget is. Worse they've shattered confidence by refusing to even talk about the disaster they've unleashed. They won't release forecasts. Tomorrow's Prime Minister's Questions is going to be rollicking as the pound and the markets crash around her incompetence. It is looking like *another* failed Tory leader after a string of them. This is the face of populism at its worst.

Bold is doing a lot of lifting here in the NY Times headline

Boris Johnson resigns from Parliament after receiving report from probe investigating if he lied to Parliament when answering questions about COVID lockdown parties. It feels like a good day for reason and ethics.

NY Times

Britain’s former Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned his parliamentary seat on Friday, another dramatic twist in the career of one of the country’s most colorful and divisive politicians.

Mr. Johnson has been under investigation from a committee of the House of Commons that was looking into whether he had lied to Parliament over lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Friday, having received a confidential copy of their findings, he accused the committee of attempting to drive him out, adding: “They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons.”

The committee had the power to recommend a sanction that could have led to Mr. Johnson being forced to fight an election to hold his constituency just outside London — a contest he might well have lost.

It's like Pat Roberson died and it somehow unclogged the karmic toilet.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 4:24 pm It's like Pat Roberson died and it somehow unclogged the karmic toilet.

Unagi wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 4:39 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 4:24 pm It's like Pat Roberson died and it somehow unclogged the karmic toilet.

That deserves another

Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament, UK report says

Almost a year ago, Johnson was talking about remaining prime minister into the 2030s. But the privileges committee - the main disciplinary body for lawmakers - said on Thursday he should now be stripped of having automatic access to parliament.

The committee also accused Johnson of being "complicit in a campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation" towards them.
...
It recommended that he should not be entitled to a former member's pass, which enables most former prime ministers and lawmakers to gain automatic access to parliament. Parliament will consider the committee's recommendation on Monday.
...
It said that were Johnson still a member of parliament, it would have recommended a suspension from the House of Commons for 90 days.