In the news

Surely more that there are phones and cameras everywhere? In any case, Cummings clearly left behind a few Vote Leave sleeper agents.

Another journalist on twitter last night said they had photos of four teams of six all sat in the same room doing the quiz, assume they will let No.10 say it was all virtual and socially distanced like they were claiming on Marr earlier and then release the next photo to show them lying again. Same as they are claiming it was just after work event for the N0.10 team but again apparently there is an email which shows others being invited.

I actually think they could of got ahead of it and said everyone was working long hours on the covid response and we were trying to keep morale up and people would of accepted it but instead they just deny, lie and look like idiots.

If these pictures came out 2 weeks ago and Johnson just apologised it would have died in one news cycle.

If pictures come out of a packed room full of booze and paper hats however then it's a done deal.

I think he's pretty safe. The chattering classes are enjoying getting stuck into him, but not many of the public really want him replaced by Sunak or Gove because of a couple of parties. He won't resign or kowtow to the 1922 committee. He'll just tough it out.

The public don't elect the Tory leader. If they stay behind in the polls he will be removed. If his popularity rating stays below that of his party he will also be in trouble. No one ever thought he would be a good PM, it was all about Brexit.

Perfectly summed up.

But with him gone the next PM has to hold together the coalition of red wall and ERG nutters. One group wants investment and the other just want no/low taxes and fuck you to trade. Hard to ride those two horses

The public do have a say because their opinion is expressed in the polls. MPs won't even consider another leader unless the public express their wishes. But if he polls disastrously, the mechanism for removing him relies on him complying. He doesn't behave like a professional politician and he's not loyal to the Tory party, or anyone else for that matter. This is new territory, never seen before in the UK. I reckon he'd argue that it's an artificially created blip and refuse to go. If he's seen to stand up to his internal challengers he might even get a big popularity bounce. The only way to force him out would be for lots of Tories to oppose him in a vote of no confidence. But they just wouldn't do it. It would be so destructive that it could let Starmer in.

Only if it leads to an election, surely? Which is a choice for the new Tory leader

Whatever happened to the good old days of defections?

He is polling disastrously. If he loses North Shropshire on top of a big rebellion against the new covid rules, together with the parties, flat refurbishment etc, etc, then he'll be gone, IMO.
And then it'll be pork markets for us.

Why should they be bothered? A new ‘leader’ with as few principles as a certain strain of MP will be along in a minute to save them looking further than the ends of noses of their own self interest.

He tried to distract everyone with his unexpected Omicron restrictions, but it backfired. He's on very thin ice. A real politician would be panicking and trying to do deals. But he enjoys these moments of theatre. He thinks this is one of his Churchillian episodes. Part of his legacy. And rather a lot of voters have been buying into this shite since the Brexit referendum campaign. They're cunts who aspire to a leased Range Rover, but what are they going to do now? Give him another chance, or demand Truss or Dishy Rishy?

He thinks this is one of his Churchillian episodes.

The only thing he has in common with Churchill is overseeing the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

The only thing he has in common with Churchil

They're both big, posh cunts, Churchill seemed to have the good of his country at heart, even if it meant the suffering of others, Johnson has the good of himself at heart, even if it means the suffering of his country.

Johnson's doing a public address in ten minutes

https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1470080117372342288?s=19

Go ahead as usual but get a booster sooner.

When are people going to twig that the reason we have to repeatedly bring in the military to bail out public services is because the Tories have absolutely decimated them over the past eleven years?

It also makes a certain kind of voter dangerously erect when they hear the line "send in the army".

if having to "send in the army" isn't an admission of complete and utter failure i'm not sure what is.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/13/danish-ex-minister-inger-stojberg-given-jail-sentence-for-separating-couples-seeking-asylum

I suppose we can all dream.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-59643750

Harry Dunn crash: Anne Sacoolas to face Westminster magistrates

She's gonna feel silly about fleeing when they give her a £200 fine and a 6 month ban

Dirty war payout by MOD gets not much coverage in GB

https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2021/1213/1266497-miami-showband/

^ never heard of that before

^ Many haven't, the story has been relentlessly buried over here. I only heard of it a few years ago via an Irish musician friend. The article doesn't mention witness recollection that the killers were directed by an officer with a cut-glass British accent.