What’s going on with Boris Johnson?

[Astro Cat]

Can someone across the pond give me their take on this resignation and what it will mean for UK politics? I can read the media all day, but that doesn’t give me a sense from the ground (so to speak).

Will his resignation have any effect on Brexit? What about government majorities?

[Ecurb]

I heard he's going to be appointed to the U.S Supreme Court.

[Tegularius]

I heard he's going to be appointed to the U.S Supreme Court.

Party time for SCOTUS!

[Gertie]

lol he's a useless bastard who's finally had his comeuppance!

tldr version -

Broadly the UK has a parliamentary party-based system of government, and the party with a majority of Members of Parliament elected at a General Election forms the government and chooses the Prime Minister from amongst its MPs - this in practice is also that party's leader. 

Johnson was the Tory party leader and became Prime Minister when his party got a majority in the last election. But his party has gotten fed up of his lying, and the loss of trust now bringing them down in the polls. The first big issue was discovering he broke his own Covid Lockdown laws, resulting in a police fine. And lied and lied about it. The last straw was him appointing one of his MP mates to a top job who was a known 'sex pest'.  First he claimed not to know this MP had a complaint against him for groping, then he sent his ministers out to say to the media to say he didn't know of any 'specific' complaint upheld, then that he'd forgotten he'd been told.

He used his ministers to lie and cover up for him one time too many and two resigned in protest. Then a lot more followed, suddenly discovering their love of truth and integrity made it impossible for them to continue in their ministerial roles under Johnson. 

But the problem was the Tory party had a Vote of No Confidence in Johnson (which effectively sacks him)  about a month ago after the Lockdown scandal, which he won and promised to be a good boy from now on, and their rules said they can't hold another vote to sack him for a year.  However, they could change that year rule if they wanted, and they wanted! 

In reality Johnson's position was untenable if he couldn't get ministers to work with him to run the government and he no longer had the backing of his own MPs, and they were about to change the rules to sack him via another Vote of No Confidence anyway.   So that was laid out to him and he finally agreed to resign.  But on condition he stays in office as caretaker Prime Minister for the couple of months it will take for the Tories to elect a new Party Leader who will become PM.  (That's left some Tory MPs unhappy, and many of us worried because Johnson is a reckless narcissist clown who might try anything while he's the caretaker PM with nothing to lose - a mini-me Trump with a better vocabulary).

It also means us plebs  will get a new PM without there being a General Election, because the Tory Party won the last General Election, not Johnson. The 'right thing to do' would be for the new PM to hold a General Election to get a new mandate from the people, but that would be risky (they're currently about 10% behind in the polls) so they won't.

If Johnson had still been popular with the voters this probably wouldn't have happened, but he was dragging his party's chances down with him, that's ultimately why they acted, out of self-interest.   We've also got a cost of living crisis going on, rising inflation, strikes happening, the effects of a terrible Brexit starting to come through, and Johnson's boosterish rhetoric and general irresponsibility had lost its charm.   But still, it's a big risk for the Tories because ditching your popularist leader isn't a good look, and now they'll be fighting over who the new leader will be.  They're in big trouble

[Gertie]

Oh effect on Brexit, I forgot that.

Well Brexit has basically happened, but there's still the building of workaround arrangements between the UK and EU to be done and a serious issue over customs checks (on goods and people) at the Irish border which now we're no longer in the EU Customs Union. That's still an extremely sensitive place to have a border issue, and could potentially blow up. It's always looked intractable and Johnson is breaking his previous Northern Ireland border agreement with the EU now he's facing the reality of his many vague promises. So that's a mess. And Sinn Fein are on the rise who want a united Ireland which would put N Ireland back in the EU.

There might be a Tory leadership contender who stands on a platform of trying to get us back into the EU Customs Union at least (or even the Single Market) but they'd be unlikely to win. There are at least two Tory nationalist hard-liners running for leadership who might well go the other way and further break the current workaround ties we have with the EU. They are scary libertarian types who have been taking over the Tory Party on the wave of right wing nationalism. Or the Tories might fancy a period of boring competence in the wake of Johnson, and a PM who'll knuckle down to sorting out the fallout of Brexit in tedious detail with the EU who want that approach. Hard to call at this point.

As well as the Northern Ireland issue, the Scottish Nationalist leader is calling for another referendum on Scottish Independence, which Johnson refused. 'The state of the Union' of the UK is looking fragile as a result of Brexit, because only England voters wanted it.

We're in the **** all round.

[Pattern-chaser]

I heard he's going to be appointed to the U.S Supreme Court.

No, he was examined for the position, but found to be too competent and too compassionate...

[Pattern-chaser]

Can someone across the pond give me their take on this resignation and what it will mean for UK politics?

...

Will his resignation have any effect on Brexit?

There are two parts to this problem. The first part is Boris himself. I thought at first that Boris is our Trump, but I now realise that was a knee-jerk response. Boris is not our Trump; Brexit is our Trump. Boris is an unprincipled self-serving narcissist, he has no integrity, is not trustworthy as a result, and he lies instinctively and uncontrollably. That's the first part of the problem.

The second part of the problem is mirrored over there in the US. We have a two-party system, as you do, but both parties are very similar. There is no real choice for the electorate. Specifically, our problem is that Boris is clearly undesirable, but there is no obvious candidate who is seen and agreed to be any better. And, considering how unacceptable Boris is, this is a real and alarming problem. We have no-one better than a lying and corrupt narcissist!

Brexit was begun some years ago, by a billionaire called Goldsmith, who formed the Referendum Party to address his frustration and dissatisfaction with the EU, and their pesky rules and regulations that protected the poor, and their (employment) rights. Billionaires could make a lot more money if they could just treat their workers as they wished to. But the EU made them give sick pay, pensions, a limit on the maximum number of hours per week that a worker could be required to work, and so forth.

And so Brexit was born, and very strongly supported by the media, which are owned and controlled by ... billionaires. They even persuaded a small majority of our voters to vote to support the rich, at the expense of the poor — themselves. I've never understood how right-wing parties pull off this deception.

We did have a socialist alternative, for a short time: Jeremy Corbyn. He was/is a dedicated socialist politician who worked his whole (professional) life against discrimination of any and all sorts. The billionaires obviously did not want a socialist government in power. They might be forced to pay taxes, and to share their profits with the workers who made them. That would never do. But he was squeaky-clean. There was no excuse to get rid of him, so they invented one: anti-Semitism. They accused the one politician in our UK who was totally dedicated to fighting discrimination, including anti-Semitism. It was not believable, but it was believed. Such is the power of the media.

[Aside: an independent inquiry found that there was/is anti-Semitism in our socialist Labour Party, but only to the extent that there is anti-Semitism throughout our society. In other words, our Labour Party was/is exactly as anti-Semitic as the rest of our population; no more, no less. This is hardly desirable, but it isn't a specific problem with our Labour Party.

The issue was further obscured by the vile, Israeli-created, myth that criticising or opposing the political state of Israel is itself anti-Semitic. Corbyn is a vocal critic of Israeli Apartheid in Occupied Palestine, hence the smear, backed up by Israeli propaganda and the thereby-mobilised Jewish 'lobby'.]

[Sculptor1]

Javid's resignation and the storm that followed, may well have deflected Scottish exit.

But there remains a sort of cognitive dissonance about B Johnson. Whilst 70% of the UK seems to know very well that BJ is a lying duplicitous sack of rancid lard who was never fit to run a stamp collecting club let alone hold down ANY public office, the Tories seem hell bent on trying to pretend that the last 3 years have been some sort of success story. and there are those that are all too deluded to want to believe them.

In our broken electoral system as little as 36% of the popular vote to gain a majority in the house of Parliament, and if the Tories down play the utter disaster of Brexit and the Pandemic, as well as all the sleeze and corruption. And the media are all too happy to comply.
There are several muted criticisms of BJ, with many transgressions conveniently forgotten; whilst at the same time a line of stooges are delivering their eulogies about the "massive success" job of the most incompetent blond since Trump.

Scots are pissed, but the Tories have bought themselves a little time to polish their sporrans.

My feeling is though, that another referendum on Independence will be forthcoming.

[Gertie]

Here's a good objective summary from respected journalist Jonathon Pie

https://www.facebook.com/JonathanPieRep ... -GK1C-GK2C

[Gertie]

What an edifying array of successors the Tories have to choose from as our new PM lol. Even done a Trump cancelling their last televised debate because they're such an embarrassment.

[Sculptor1]

What an edifying array of successors the Tories have to choose from as our new PM lol. Even done a Trump cancelling their last televised debate because they're such an embarrassment.

Yes, the Tory higher ups have started to notice what deep sh1t their party is in, with the cat claws trying to scratch each other's eyes out and scoring own goals like Liz Truss complaining about the state of education over the last couple of generations when it was only ever her own party who has cut provision to education through the period she complained of.

The whole selection process is interesting as it employs a PR system, but only consults Tory MPs until the last two when the wider party (200k?) is consulted.
This tiny band of crack pots, cheerleaders for racism and bigotry, are going to decide the future of the UK for the next two years.
It is an irony that Tory power has been based on the FPTP system which has denied the public a PR system. A system which would avoid the harsh swings from left to right that so plagues British democracy.

[AverageBozo]

What an edifying array of successors the Tories have to choose from as our new PM lol. Even done a Trump cancelling their last televised debate because they're such an embarrassment.

Yes, the Tory higher ups have started to notice what deep sh1t their party is in, with the cat claws trying to scratch each other's eyes out and scoring own goals like Liz Truss complaining about the state of education over the last couple of generations when it was only ever her own party who has cut provision to education through the period she complained of.

The whole selection process is interesting as it employs a PR system, but only consults Tory MPs until the last two when the wider party (200k?) is consulted.
This tiny band of crack pots, cheerleaders for racism and bigotry, are going to decide the future of the UK for the next two years.
It is an irony that Tory power has been based on the FPTP system which has denied the public a PR system. A system which would avoid the harsh swings from left to right that so plagues British democracy.

What do PR & FPTP stand for?

[Sculptor1]

What an edifying array of successors the Tories have to choose from as our new PM lol. Even done a Trump cancelling their last televised debate because they're such an embarrassment.

Yes, the Tory higher ups have started to notice what deep sh1t their party is in, with the cat claws trying to scratch each other's eyes out and scoring own goals like Liz Truss complaining about the state of education over the last couple of generations when it was only ever her own party who has cut provision to education through the period she complained of.

The whole selection process is interesting as it employs a PR system, but only consults Tory MPs until the last two when the wider party (200k?) is consulted.
This tiny band of crack pots, cheerleaders for racism and bigotry, are going to decide the future of the UK for the next two years.
It is an irony that Tory power has been based on the FPTP system which has denied the public a PR system. A system which would avoid the harsh swings from left to right that so plagues British democracy.

What do PR & FPTP stand for?

Proportional representation and First past the Post.

[Gertie]

Sculptor

It is an irony that Tory power has been based on the FPTP system which has denied the public a PR system. A system which would avoid the harsh swings from left to right that so plagues British democracy.

I must've missed where I was plagued by a harsh swing to the Left.



Well Badenoch's out at least, that woman is scary! She's as batshit right-wing as the worst of them, but comes across well.

I can't see Sunak or Truss winning the next General Election, even against Starmer. And Mordaunt seems to be waning - long-term it would be ideal if Sunak and Truss go through to the membership and we get PM Truss for two horribly bizarre years lol. I'd just need a holodeck to hide in till it all went away...

[Pattern-chaser]

Well Badenoch's out at least, that woman is scary! She's as batshit right-wing as the worst of them, but comes across well.

I can't see Sunak or Truss winning the next General Election, even against Starmer. And Mordaunt seems to be waning - long-term it would be ideal if Sunak and Truss go through to the membership and we get PM Truss for two horribly bizarre years lol. I'd just need a holodeck to hide in till it all went away...

Yes, whoever wins this leadership contest is still a Tory, and they will still work to move money from the poor to the rich, because that's what Tories do.