Boris The Spider!!!

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • Nickdfresh
    SUPER MODERATOR

    • Oct 2004
    • 49385

    Boris The Spider!!!

    Boris resigns as British PM:

    Britain's prime minister steps down as leader of the Conservative Party after a slew of members of his government said they could no longer serve under his scandal-tarred leadership.

    Boris Johnson resigns as British prime minister. Here's what happened
    Updated July 7, 20228:09 AM ET

    FRANK LANGFITT

    British Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a resignation speech outside 10 Downing St. in London on Thursday. Johnson is bowing out after his government hemorrhaged dozens of ministers and junior aides, and members of his Cabinet told him he should step down.
    Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
    LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has finally resigned under heavy pressure from lawmakers in his own party. His resignation caps a remarkable political career filled with highs, lows and almost too many scandals to count.

    He said he will stay in office until the Conservative Party chooses a new leader, who will then take over as prime minister.

    "Of course, it is painful to not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects," Johnson said in front of the door of No. 10 Downing St. in London, as loud crowds could be heard nearby. "But as we have seen at Westminster, the herd instinct is powerful and when the herd moves, it moves."

    The announcement comes after dozens of officials, aides and members of his Cabinet quit his government, saying they could no longer serve under his leadership. Several former Cabinet ministers told him he should resign.

    Despite political successes, Johnson lacked public trust
    Lawmakers in Johnson's Conservative Party credit him with driving Brexit through the British Parliament after his predecessor, Theresa May, was unable to.

    He also led the Tories to a historic landslide election in 2019, leaving the party with an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons. It was the largest victory since Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's win in 1987.

    Johnson, however, was ultimately forced to resign not over policy or political differences, but because of perceptions about his character. Many Conservative lawmakers as well many members of the public do not trust him. A poll last month by the research firm YouGov found nearly 3 in 4 Britons viewed Johnson as untrustworthy.

    The same pollster found this week that 69% believe Johnson should resign.

    The scandal that ultimately ended his nearly three-year premiership was triggered by his decision to promote a lawmaker, Chris Pincher, to a position of power even though Johnson knew Pincher had been the subject of a sexual harassment complaint.

    Initially, the prime minister's office said Johnson had not known about any specific allegations. On Monday, after more allegations emerged against the lawmaker, Johnson was forced to acknowledge that he had. Dominic Cummings, Johnson's former chief adviser with whom he has had a bitter falling out, said Johnson had referred to the lawmaker as "Pincher by name, pincher by nature."

    Johnson did not deny he used that phrase and apologized for appointing Pincher.

    Pincher resigned last week as deputy chief whip in the House of Commons over the scandal. Johnson suspended him from the party, meaning Pincher could not sit with fellow Conservatives in Parliament.

    On its own, the scandal would not have been a resignation matter for the prime minister. But some of Johnson's own Cabinet members saw it as part of a long-standing pattern.

    Ministers questioned his integrity
    During the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson had insisted that his staff had followed all the government's own social distancing rules. Later, it emerged that his staff had held a series of parties that included people getting drunk and spilling red wine on walls. Meanwhile, most Britons followed the government's regulations and some were unable to even say goodbye to dying loved ones. Many here were furious with Johnson and his staff.

    Johnson's Cabinet ministers tired of defending the prime minister to the news media only to learn later they'd been given false information.

    "Treading a tightrope between loyalty and integrity has become impossible in recent months," said Savid Javid, the United Kingdom's former health secretary, in his resignation speech Wednesday in the House of Commons. "Now this week, again, we have reason to question the truth and integrity of what we've all been told. And at some point, we have to conclude that enough is enough."

    Meanwhile, the opposition Labour Party hammered away at Johnson's remaining loyal Cabinet members, goading them to resign. During Wednesday's session of Prime Minister's Questions, Labour leader Keir Starmer said the U.K. could not afford to rely on Johnson as it continued to grapple with major issues, such as the war in Ukraine and record inflation at home. Staring at Johnson's Cabinet across the House of Commons, Starmer mockingly referred to their staying power as "the charge of a lightweight brigade." It was a reference to the Charge of the Light Brigade, a famous, failed British cavalry attack during the Crimean War.

    "Have some self-respect!" Starmer told Johnson's cabinet members. "Anyone with anything about them would be long gone from his front bench in the middle of a crisis. Doesn't the country deserve better than a Z-list cast of nodding dogs?"

    The Conservative Party's decision to press Johnson to resign was also a political calculation. Johnson rose to power in 2019 in large part because the party saw him as a winner. After all, as a Conservative, Johnson had won two terms as mayor of liberal, cosmopolitan London. He was also a crucial force behind the 2016 campaign to leave the European Union, which led to an upset victory and changed the course of British history.

    But last month, the Conservatives lost two parliamentary seats in special elections, leading many to think Johnson no longer had the electoral touch that had made him so valuable to the party.

    He did it his way
    Johnson, 58, trod an unconventional path to political power. He did not work his way up through local government, but came to fame as a celebrity journalist. He made his name as a newspaper columnist and appearing on Have I Got News For You, a comedic, current affairs TV show on the BBC.

    Questions of integrity have dogged him throughout his career. The Times of London fired Johnson in 1988 for making up quotes he attributed to his own godfather.

    Johnson won election to Parliament in 2001. But in 2004, the Conservative Party sacked him from its leadership for lying about an affair.

    'He's A Flawed Character And They Do Not Care': The Rise Of U.K.'s Boris Johnson
    WORLD
    'He's A Flawed Character And They Do Not Care': The Rise Of U.K.'s Boris Johnson
    Sonia Purnell worked with Johnson in Brussels when both were journalists with London's Daily Telegraph in the 1990s. She wrote a book about him called Just Boris: A Tale of Blond Ambition. In an interview with NPR in 2019, she said the prospect of Johnson becoming prime minister frightened her.

    "He has a very, very long track record of lying," she said.

    Johnson is a gifted politician. He crafted a persona as a bumbling, fun-loving man of the people and cheerleader for Britain. Johnson's most enduring image as London mayor was riding on a zip line, waving a pair of Union flags to promote the 2012 London Olympics, only to be stranded 15 feet off the ground, the harness chafing against his groin.

    His many supporters found him charismatic, entertaining and — to their minds — refreshingly politically incorrect. But his political positions on issues such as Brexit alienated liberal, urban voters as have some of his racist statements. He said Muslim women who wore burqas looked like British "letter boxes." Writing as a journalist in 2002, he referred to Africans as "piccaninnies."

    Goats, Cannibalism And A Sadistic Nurse: The Insults Of Britain's New Top Diplomat
    THE TWO-WAY
    Goats, Cannibalism And A Sadistic Nurse: The Insults Of Britain's Boris Johnson
    Over time, Johnson became what the British call a Marmite character, named after the yeast and vegetable spread that people here either love or loathe.

    As Johnson climbed the political ladder, the stakes of his decisions grew as did the impact of his false statements. In 2016, he campaigned in a double-decker bus emblazoned with a sign that promised that if the U.K. left the EU, more than $400 million would be returned to Britain weekly to support health care. It wasn't true, but some voters cited it as a reason for backing Brexit.

    In 2020, his government negotiated a Brexit deal with the EU that requires some customs checks on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Johnson is now pushing legislation through Parliament that would allow his government to drop some of the checks it agreed to, risking a trade war with the EU.

    Then came Johnson's most recent false statements about Pincher, an alleged sexual predator and government rules governing the pandemic, which was a matter of life and death.

  • FORD
    ROTH ARMY MODERATOR

    • Jan 2004
    • 59239

    #2
    Seems to be some confusion as to whether Boris will keep "creepy crawling" until October, or whether they're going to call a "special" election and kick him out the door right away. I'm no expert on the Parliamentary system, but it seems logical NOT to have a "lame duck" PM in place for several months, if your system allows a more immediate replacement.
    Eat Us And Smile

    Cenk For America 2024!!

    Justice Democrats


    "If the American people had ever known the truth about what we (the BCE) have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched." - Poppy Bush, 1992

    Comment

    • Nickdfresh
      SUPER MODERATOR

      • Oct 2004
      • 49385

      #3
      Originally posted by FORD
      Seems to be some confusion as to whether Boris will keep "creepy crawling" until October, or whether they're going to call a "special" election and kick him out the door right away. I'm no expert on the Parliamentary system, but it seems logical NOT to have a "lame duck" PM in place for several months, if your system allows a more immediate replacement.
      A local Brit commentator on NPR said it was unlikely and that he's gone sooner than later.. All the Tories hate him...
      Last edited by Nickdfresh; 07-07-2022, 08:25 PM.

      Comment

      • Nickdfresh
        SUPER MODERATOR

        • Oct 2004
        • 49385

        #4

        Comment

        • Seshmeister
          ROTH ARMY WEBMASTER

          • Oct 2003
          • 35530

          #5
          Originally posted by Nickdfresh
          .
          Johnson, however, was ultimately forced to resign not over policy or political differences, but because of perceptions about his character. Many Conservative lawmakers as well many members of the public do not trust him. A poll last month by the research firm YouGov found nearly 3 in 4 Britons viewed Johnson as untrustworthy.
          This is the fucking crazy thing, no matter what a leader does it will sail over the heads of 25% of people or at least they will choose to overlook it.

          Comment

          • Terry
            DIAMOND STATUS
            • Jan 2004
            • 12070

            #6
            Originally posted by Seshmeister
            This is the fucking crazy thing, no matter what a leader does it will sail over the heads of 25% of people or at least they will choose to overlook it.
            With Johnson, I guess the showmanship, bluster, bravado - the bullshit, to be frank about it - finally hit the inevitable brick wall.

            You folks across the pond there HAVE been turning over your PM's at a high rate of frequency over the last 6 years or so, eh? Certainly comparative to, say, 1979 through 2007, at any rate.
            Scramby eggs and bacon.

            Comment

            Working...