A choice between two extremely unpalatable individuals.
The world needs more understanding and competence with less hostility from acerbic undisciplined folks. God Bless the UK and wish them the best through this morass.
2
Johnson’s tactics are very familiar to us over here. Provide grand promises with no details. You would think brits would understand by now the devil is in the details. Say goodbye to your NHS, Donnies got his eyes on that prize.
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Unfortunately in this country we do not have the power to impeach a Prime Minister as in the USA where a president can be impeached. The only power we have is not to vote for this man, because if he wins a majority the only people who will benefit are Johnson and the super rich elites he represents.
I find the characterisation of the working class in this article as extremely patronising and ill informed and typical of the way in middle class journalist view people who have not been born to rule like Johnson, in this country. The working class that you refer to remember the Thatcher years and the miners strike when the police brutally attacked and imprisoned miners in order to destroy the mining industry and their communities. These are the communities that Johnson is targeting which have never recovered from Thatcher. Do you really think they are going to forget this history and vote for Johnson the Bullingdon bully?
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@Koret We're being continually told by the BBC that a lot of them are. Which is jawdropping if they actually do.
Mr Johnson is employing a simple philosophy - better to be seen avoiding scrutiny than to be seen coming unstuck under scrutiny.
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Talented, articulate, focussed, consistent and constantly the target of a biased media, Boris has controlled and bested his enemies. But that’s easily done with no intelligent competition. His opponents have taken on issues that anyone with experience of the matters, NHS, welfare state, private infrastructure, taxation, the European cartel, knows the alternatives on offer from the other parties lack credibility or improvement. What a great future we are poised to enjoy. Let the good times roll!
@David, don’t be daft. “Biased media”? Corbyn has been subjected to arguably the most vicious smear campaign ever seen in Britain. Boris is a serial liar, so good luck seeing those good times you’re anticipating rolling in that he’s promised you, mostly all contradicted by his own experts’ gloom and doom predictions. But hey, don’t let the facts get in the way... it’s YOUR fairy tale, tell it any way you want to. Just like Boris does.
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@David - What good times? You think because you're avoiding worse (your opinion, i have none on what the future would look like under different party control, not deep enough into it myself) that'll make what you'll be getting better? Not from anything i've seen on the situation. You'll likely be better off than otherwise but worse off than now.
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@David
"Talented, articulate, focussed, consistent and constantly the target of a biased media"
You haven't been watching him on TV lately. His unforced gaffes and outright lies have finally forced his handlers to forbid him to speak to the press unless the encounter could be scripted.
The interview with the ITV reporter about the 4-year-old boy sleeping on the floor at Leeds General Infirmary could politely be called a car-crash. And the media did not arrange for the dairy refrigerator hideout when he was approached by a persistent reporter live on air.
4
The UK will suffer even more under the Tories if Johnson gets a majority. He will sell the NHS to Trump and his cronies, more people will be forced to sleep in shop doorways. And as for Brexit......
2
i wonder if his pal across the pond is paying attention
You mean, your President?
The Brits follow this educated snake oil salesman at their peril.
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If BoJo loses, obviously a job can be lined up given all the shadowing he's been doing. Milkman, Shearer, baker, publican etc.
4
I'm not sure Johnson's campaign tactics (a reporter? RUN!!) are so much due to discipline as to his inherent laziness. No question he is possessed of a high level mental ability. However, notwithstanding his Eton and Oxford education, he clearly cannot think on his feet.
Can you imagine either Clinton or George Bush running into a walk-in refrigerator *live on-air* to escape a 5-minute live interview? That wasn't "discipline" it was just pathetic.
16
This is a highly intelligent person who might have radical ideas but at the same time is very rational and well read.To compare him to President Trump would be foolish indeed.The challenges that he faces with Brexit and with the NHS are far more monumental that anything which Trump faces.
4
@bananur raksas
Yes, Johnson is intelligent and well-read. And he is rational in that he will make the decision which he reasonably thinks will benefit Number One.
In terms of the qualities needed to be a leader, he is actually very Trumpian. Lazy, self-centered, arrogant and completely indifferent both to the act of governing and to the public interest. He has established himself as a serial liar.
He only cares about Brexit and the NHS insofar as as they relate to the election. So far as PM he has been irresponsible to the point of recklessness.
I'm voting tactically against the Tories, hoping the voters will deny Johnson his majority.
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@bananur raksas
Johnson is certainly bright, and much much much better educated than Trump. But he shares Trump's most despicable characteristics. He is utterly uninterested in the welfare of anybody but himself. He is without shame. And he lies as reflexively as breathing.
8
Yes, being President of the United States doesn’t require any skill. Most powerful economy in the world. Most powerful military. But, yes, no skill needed.
1
Er, new-found dignity? Here in Hove on the South Coast everybody has been talking about the break of day up in Yorkshire when Johnson dodged a simple question by locking himself in a fridge. You couldn't script this.
16
He’s dodged some major political debates and he’s also swerved the Andrew Neil interview with is unprecedented in modern British politics. He knows under scrutiny he will be pulverised. His lack of empathy to the picture of the ill four year old boy spoke volumes and his staged door steps have been laughable.
16
Yes, and well done. A simple message, a Brexit execution against the ridiculous and totally arrogant and shameful opposition from those who lost (because of the lies and foreign meddling, never forget to add that, that's what the losers want to believe in), and the jovial character are winning against the neither-fish-nor-fowl Labour, with a manifesto that has no chance for anything, and with the respectable but unelectable Corbyn.
So, 5 (is it 5?) more years of Tory, and then perhaps Labour, since the voters may get tired of Tories and elect whoever Labour put up, won't matter.
And with that character Boris at the helm, instead of 100 times more respectable and serious T May, or G Brown (Labour) or such respectable politicians and people. Strange times indeed.
2
@ss
"a Brexit execution "
Yes, execution is the right word for what Johnson and the Tories (if they get a majority) will do to the economy with their hard brexit withdrawal deal, and the cliff edge at the end of the transition period if they refuse an extension.
PS, Leave campaign lies are numerous and provable. Let's start with the £350m/week for the NHS on the side of the bus, disavowed less than 24 hours after the referendum result was announced.
6
If his disciplined act is something he thought of himself, then perhaps there’s a glimmer of a chance it may outlast his urge to lie. However, if it was an idea that came from his people, like those incredibly short-lived attempts by Trump (rather, his handlers efforts) to act disciplined, then it’s just another act. My bet is that it won’t last more than a day, if that.
13