Thread by @tony_nog

1) easiest crystal ball in history
There seems to be a lot of shocked & surprised Tories around today & whilst it was shocking, why is anyone surprised?

What did think would happen when you elevate a lying chancer to PM? What part of his history is inconsistent with today?

2) there's a simple point to make here.Tories, mostly brexiters, knew Johnson's (lack of) character, flaky buffoonery and self serving nature.They knew of the dishonesty of the Brexit campaign but also the utter lack of a moral compass

But they wanted #brexit, so held their nose

3) lots of us were concerned about Brexit but a lot of us looked on in horror at the manipulation of people's fears, the brazen populism, the attacks on parliament & our institutions. The latent fascism as immigrants were othered, intellectuals attacked, the "will of the people"

4) historians warned us about how this has always ended badly, how democracy worked until it didn't, how populists throughout time had used the "elitist" trope to bypass democracy

But, y'know, brexit was on the cards so....

5) one of the most hysterical outcomes today was Steve Baker saying "we only voted for the WA because we were told we could back out of it later" - someone cheated out of their power to cheat others - and being angry about it without any self awareness

6) because it wasn't just about #Brexit,it was about zealots & demagogues trashing anything & everything to win a game of their own devising

There are scientists saying Johnson has trashed the lockdown, but he and his colleagues trashed literally everything that got in their way

7) Tim Montgomerie, Peter Bone, Julia HB - all shocked, shocked I tell you, at behaviour they were happy to go along with if it got them Brexit

8) when you've seen parliament shut down to avoid debate, lies about Turkey & 350 m, denial of a Irish sea border that was obviously going to be put in place, mostly a chancer telling everyone "we'll have our cake & eat it" then how can you be surprised today?

9) genuinely, what on earth in Johnson's history could possibly make you think his premiership would be anything but a disaster?

All that's happened is a slow burn over 5 years has been telescoped into 6 months by Covid

What the holy fuck did you expect?

10) one final comment for those Remainer public figures who said "we have to respect the vote" - well, this is the outcome. Did you really think letting Vote Leave get away with what they did wouldn't have consequences?

This was always about more than #Brexit