Westminster Politics

finneh said:
More likely is the decimation of the economy caused by Covid (and the response to it) will show hugely "positive" economic trends 2021-2024. X amount of jobs created since Covid. X amount of people taken out of government support since Covid. X% economic growth since Covid. Deficit reduction of X% since Covid.

The decimation partly caused by awful government policy will be used as a barometer of normality; and growth from there declared as a great success.

Blend in the nostalgic look (from 4 years in the future) of how they stopped the best part of 10m people being income-less for months (despite that their policies were a huge contributing factor in the first place) and it should be a spectacularly easy task. No person receiving furlough, income support via self employment grants, bounce back loans etc will forget this for years to come; so it'll be simple to galvanise support from those people (and the people who have no need for furlough vote Tory anyway).

Remember every election since the Conservatives gained power "x jobs created", "y deficit reduction", "z less people on benefits". We've just had a factory reset to use the same winning formula.

Imagine Labour if they had the luxury of an 80 seat majority ending in 2012 when the financial crises hit. They'd be credited with "the recovery" and with a good bit of spin seen as a safe pair of hands.

At the same time it'll be impossible, if countered correctly, for Labour to pin anything big in terms of the blame on the Tories. They will say it's policitising a global pandemic that by this point is likely to have killed 1m worldwide.
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That was essentially the Tory campaign in '97 and Labour won its biggest ever majority. There's certainly a difference between presiding over growth following a crisis you were in power for compared to one you inherited. Not that I'd expect a similar result, of course, but a government being perceived as competent and well-led by the public isn't just decided by the economic figures.
 
Buster15 said:
Simple. He has charisma. And some people obviously take to him.
That is until they begin to see the real Boris.
And that is beginning to happen now.

The alternative is that he is a con man...
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He's a con man.
A throw back to 100 years ago when they were all like him
 
Ubik said:
That was essentially the Tory campaign in '97 and Labour won its biggest ever majority. There's certainly a difference between presiding over growth following a crisis you were in power for compared to one you inherited. Not that I'd expect a similar result, of course, but a government being perceived as competent and well-led by the public isn't just decided by the economic figures.
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I think the difference is not the governing power at the time of the crises and more the prosperity in the few years afterwards. High growth and a quick return of jobs/wealth is different to sluggish growth and a gradual return.

With the depth of the crash in my view it's likely to see exceptional growth proportionately and if the government, as I expect it will, manipulate the figures it could look almost miraculous. E.g give governmental departments 2021 funds to spend early to "stimulate the economy" and allocate it to the 2020 budget, exaggerating both the deficit and the recovery. Wiping off NHS debt in 2020 (as I believe they have) and then freezing spending so they accrue greater debt in 2021 for example would be a no brainer.

Of course if anyone could cock up this great political opportunity Boris and Sunak could so I'm certainly not placing any bets
 
Pexbo said:
Isn’t that enough with the opposition parties to hold Boris and Cummings in contempt of Parliament?


(again)
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Technically, but I think they would need a bit more to pass a vote in the commons.
 
Full bodied red said:
Nick Boles
@NickBoles
Recovering politician. Independent consultant. Working on things that interest me with people I like. Please address all enquiries to nickbolesoffice@gmail.com


The poor sod doesn't even have a website, but apparently he's important enough for us to have listen to....
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I posted the graph of BJ’s diminished popularity which was a reply to his tweet.

Also just because he is trying to recover his reputation doesn’t mean he’s wrong.

‘track and trace’ self isolation orders will be abused because of people feeling abused by Cummings. That leads to > in R in 3 weeks time and a Government under siege from NHS, police and other key workers with unauthored Labour activism as background noise.

Social Distancing is keeping protests as digital for now, but this level of genuine anger can’t be suppressed and will soon hit the streets. I think Boles is correct in that assessment.
 
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Fingeredmouse said:
That is disgraceful.
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Totally.
It just goes to show that the BBC is completely out of touch with public opinion.

I was going to say that the BBC should replace her with Alan Green but people might say that I am biased. So I won't.
 
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sammsky1 said:
I posted the graph of BJ’s diminished popularity which was a reply to his tweet.

Also just because he is trying to recover his reputation doesn’t mean he’s wrong.

‘track and trace’ self isolation orders will be abused because of people feeling abused by Cummings. That leads to > in R in 3 weeks time and a Government under siege from NHS, police and other key workers. And then you’ll have Labour unauthored activism as background noise.

Social Distancing is keeping protests as digital for now, but this level of genuine anger can’t be suppressed and will soon hit the streets. I think Boles is correct in that assessment.
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OK...Sorry....Thought you were posting, and wanted us to look at, Boles' comment.

He's just another ex-politician looking for something that will keep the wolves from the door. Lots of them about since December.....

As for Cummings - no doubt he's a dick with weird, spooky eyes, but within the global scheme of things relating to COVID, too many people trying to make too much of it - no way, Jose, can the MSM unseat Johnson with his majority so they're homing in on his closest ally and, to their never ending dismay, the man who won the BREXIT contest.

Might work, of course, but I'd be surprised if it does.....

I'll join you all if you decide to have a march against the Communist Government in China.
 
The BBC redefined journalism in December, when it could find no evidence that Laura K hadn't validated a story that didn't happen before she reported that it had. No idea why people are still surprised by their bollocks.
 
Dobba said:
The BBC redefined journalism in December, when it could find no evidence that Laura K hadn't validated a story that didn't happen before she reported that it had. No idea why people are still surprised by their bollocks.
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And Maitlis is hardly much better. Let’s face it there’s not a single major BBC political figure I can think of who you could comfortably describe as left-wing.
 
If Maitlis had anything about her she'd tell the BBC to go feck themselves. But she hasn't, so she won't.
 
finneh said:
More likely is the decimation of the economy caused by Covid (and the response to it) will show hugely "positive" economic trends 2021-2024. X amount of jobs created since Covid. X amount of people taken out of government support since Covid. X% economic growth since Covid. Deficit reduction of X% since Covid.

The decimation partly caused by awful government policy will be used as a barometer of normality; and growth from there declared as a great success.

Blend in the nostalgic look (from 4 years in the future) of how they stopped the best part of 10m people being income-less for months (despite that their policies were a huge contributing factor in the first place) and it should be a spectacularly easy task. No person receiving furlough, income support via self employment grants, bounce back loans etc will forget this for years to come; so it'll be simple to galvanise support from those people (and the people who have no need for furlough vote Tory anyway).

Remember every election since the Conservatives gained power "x jobs created", "y deficit reduction", "z less people on benefits". We've just had a factory reset to use the same winning formula.

Imagine Labour if they had the luxury of an 80 seat majority ending in 2012 when the financial crises hit. They'd be credited with "the recovery" and with a good bit of spin seen as a safe pair of hands.

At the same time it'll be impossible, if countered correctly, for Labour to pin anything big in terms of the blame on the Tories. They will say it's policitising a global pandemic that by this point is likely to have killed 1m worldwide.
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Brexit my friend. Covid + Brexit = Disaster. Anybody harvesting fruit & veg btw?
 


And an important reminder that aside from highlighting the BBC’s willingness to lick the Tory’s boots, it’s also got big problems with sexism. The arguments it used in the case against Munchetty were insultingly ridiculous, it merited much more media coverage. One point was that Jeremy Vine should be paid more because a couple of times a year he put fancy dress on
 
Rams said:
Brexit my friend. Covid + Brexit = Disaster. Anybody harvesting fruit & veg btw?
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Disaster is all relative. 10% better than 2020 could well be a disaster but could well be sold as a miracle.
 
Pexbo said:
Isn’t that enough with the opposition parties to hold Boris and Cummings in contempt of Parliament?


(again)
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They could put something forward but it would probably have to be purely about Cummings. I'm not sure if any Tory would be willing to damage their leader right now.
 
BobbyManc said:
And Maitlis is hardly much better. Let’s face it there’s not a single major BBC political figure I can think of who you could comfortably describe as left-wing.
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I'd rather see Maitlis, Neil or Robinson have the lead role. None of them are near me on the political spectrum but they don't seem compromised. I still don't get why Kuenssberg got was given the job. She's a decent journalist when she tries but there's clearly a conflict of interest.
 
In contrast the BBC came out in defence today of Laura K over her ridiculously one sided and lacking in context or balance tweets defending Cummings which very much framed the government response.
 
Tory discomfort on Cummings not going away; most powerful voice to revolt so far?
Most likely Javed has weighed in as revenge against Cummings as he has no future in Government role until Cummings is gone. I hope it emboldens other Tory MPs, but I think it comes from a self enhancement agenda rather than a moral one.



 
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And another senior Tory comes out publicly to criticise Cummings

 
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Mr Pigeon said:
I'd rather see Maitlis, Neil or Robinson have the lead role. None of them are near me on the political spectrum but they don't seem compromised. I still don't get why Kuenssberg got was given the job. She's a decent journalist when she tries but there's clearly a conflict of interest.
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Nah Neil is comfortably the worst, both in terms of ideology and personality, but his ego dictates that he’s more than willing to scrutinise anyone and call out bullshit when he sees it. Well I’d say that’s why Laura got the job - if they wanted someone with at least a vestige of impartiality then they’d have appointed someone else. They knew full what they were getting.
 
sullydnl said:
Perhaps she declined to go on due to the way she felt the BBC had treated her?
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Yeah, that's my assumption. Guessing they'll publicly claim that she asked to be subbed out to avoid being a distraction but this stinks.
 
GloryHunter07 said:
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That point kind of falls apart though when Kuenssberg gets backed by the Beeb for everything and Maitlis is turfed out within 24 hours. Maitlis also got slammed for trashing unions but that didn't cause the BBC to do anything. Suddenly she says something about Cummings and she gets punted? It's bullshit.
 
And another senior Tory comes out against Cummings. Feels like a tipping point is rapidly approaching ....

 
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