How other countries see us:
“Boris Johnson, Britain’s freewheeling, clownish prime minister, is about to play host…Story by story, scandal by scandal, Mr. Johnson has been exposed as a slapdash, venal, incompetent leader.
But it doesn’t seem to matter.”
nytimes.com/2021/06/11/opi…
“Boris Johnson, Britain’s freewheeling, clownish prime minister, is about to play host…Story by story, scandal by scandal, Mr. Johnson has been exposed as a slapdash, venal, incompetent leader.
But it doesn’t seem to matter.”
nytimes.com/2021/06/11/opi…
(Cummings’) “revelations came against a backdrop of reports exposing the Conservatives’ dodgy dealings during the pandemic: Covid-19 contracts worth billions of pounds going to friends of Conservative lawmakers with no experience in the health sector,…
“business tycoons with direct lines to the prime minister to push their interests and a lavish renovation of the prime minister’s residence at Downing Street that involved a secret donation by a Tory backer…
“Talk of sleaze and Britain’s “chumocracy” has permeated even the typically loyal pages of the right-wing press.”
But the Great British Public is so dumb it just laps it all up and keeps returning high approval ratings in the polls as our reputation plummets in the world.
But the Great British Public is so dumb it just laps it all up and keeps returning high approval ratings in the polls as our reputation plummets in the world.
Mr. Johnson (whose reputation for not just surviving career-ending controversies but thriving on them has earned him nicknames like “Teflon Johnson,” “Houdini”, less flatteringly, “the greased piglet”) has coasted through the turbulence. Engulfed in scandal, unassailably popular”
In his testimony, Mr. Cummings recalled complaining to Mr. Johnson that the handling of the pandemic was “chaos.” “Chaos isn’t that bad,” the prime minister replied, according to Mr. Cummings. “Chaos means that everyone has to look to me to see who’s in charge.”
“The chaos may suit Mr. Johnson, but for Britain it has been devastating.
The ultimate proof of the prime minister’s failings during the pandemic lies not with Mr. Cummings but in the concrete numbers:”
The ultimate proof of the prime minister’s failings during the pandemic lies not with Mr. Cummings but in the concrete numbers:”
“Mr. Johnson has led Britain to one of the highest Covid death rates in the world, overseen one the worst economic downturns in the Group of 7 and imposed the third-strictest lockdown globally… 
“Yet for all the specific peculiarities of Mr. Johnson’s persona — a dizzying blend of deception, bravado and self-deprecation — the jarring dissonance that defines his government, at once electorally successful and socially destructive is not particular to the current PM”.
In many ways, it is the story of the modern Conservative Party.
The party’s founding promise, laid down in Robert Peel’s Tamworth Manifesto in 1834, was to stop Britain from becoming a “perpetual vortex of agitation.”
The party’s founding promise, laid down in Robert Peel’s Tamworth Manifesto in 1834, was to stop Britain from becoming a “perpetual vortex of agitation.”
“Since the Conservatives regained power in 2010, Britain has become just that, with two referendums, three prime ministers and four general elections.”
“The Conservatives have flourished in these conditions, winning each general election since 2010 with a larger share of the vote than the last. But the spoils of victory have not been widely shared. “
“Wages have not risen against inflation for the longest period since the Napoleonic era, a third of children now grow up in poverty, and state welfare is now one of the stingiest in the developed world.”
This is leader the Great British Voting Public have chosen to represent us on the world stage.
I feel scorn. I suspect, so do so many of the world Leaders at the G7.
Scorn for him and quite likely for those of us with such careless bad judgement that we keep voting for him.
I feel scorn. I suspect, so do so many of the world Leaders at the G7.
Scorn for him and quite likely for those of us with such careless bad judgement that we keep voting for him.
As they gather in Cornwall they probably know that
“In 2008, Cornwall was one of three areas in the U.K. to suffer among the worst levels of deprivation in Europe; now it is 1 of 7….
“In 2008, Cornwall was one of three areas in the U.K. to suffer among the worst levels of deprivation in Europe; now it is 1 of 7….
“And the number of neighborhoods in Cornwall that rank among the most deprived in England has more than doubled since 2010. Across the country, Tory rule has coincided with a coarsening of living conditions.”
“Still, the Conservatives swagger on, unperturbed, maybe even energized, by the chaos and deprivation around them. “
And what does the Great British Public do to turn things around?
And what does the Great British Public do to turn things around?
“Brexit’s “Year Zero” effect, as one Conservative minister put it, allowed the party to reinvent itself as an anti-establishment force, while retaining its wealthy backers, and to tap into the dreams and anxieties of English nationalism more persuasively.”
How they must pity us!
How they must pity us!
Getting it from Matthew Paris too.
https://twitter.com/fascinatorfun/status/1403670587923390466?s=21
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