UK Politics Thread (Part 1)

Got to admit I find it weird that they kept Rayner’s presence “quiet”.

Equally interesting how alleged lies by the Labour party are somehow worse than those by Johnson.

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Just to be clear, they’re not for me.

We’ll have to see what happens with the investigation - but I’m confident that Durham Police will find no case to answer. Again. It’s only hypocrisy if Starmer and co have been guilty of the same as Johnson, which looks highly unlikely.

To me it looks a lot like Number 10, having been caught absolutely balls deep in illegality throughout lockdown, have decided that the best way to ride this out is to try to pin something, anything, on Labour and play the ‘they’re all as bad as each other’ card.

Irrespective of anything Starmer has done wrong, that response should be deeply concerning.

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The Greens, The Lib Dem’s and Labour should be preparing for coalition. Which includes an electoral pact in key seats.

Get in power, introduce AV and bury the Tories for generations.

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With my slightly piss taking hat at a jaunty angle, Boris doesn’t portray himself as a whiter than white person who’s all about truth and justice.

“Starmer said the decision of police to launch an investigation meant the weight of evidence about the parties was now clear.”

Glass houses Keir.

From his tweet:

Honesty and integrity matter.

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Given at that point Starmer had already been reassured by Police that his work curry was within guidelines, I don’t think he can be accused of throwing stones in glass houses.

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That’s not the point. He said BJ should step down over allegations. (As a lawyer he should know better). When the tables are turned, he doesn’t step down.

Tempted to change my signature to “Throughout all this, I think Boris is a cunt and should be deported to Venus”

He said that he should step down over misleading parliament. That is a very different thing. This comes down to the whole “Honourable Member” thing. MPs are expected to tell the truth in the house. If a minister has knowingly and deliberately lied to parliament they are expected to resign.

Sure he can. He asserted he’d broken no rules, as did Johnson. As with Johnson, the police initially decided that there was not sufficient evidence to consider charges [crucially, this is not the same as finding that someone had done nothing wrong]. As with Johnson, new evidence subsequently came to light which caused the police to review the situation [in Starmer’s case, the lie about Rayner and the leaked memo showing that a meal was pre-planned at the end of the work event, perhaps there’s more information that hasn’t yet been made public?].

Starmer has called on Johnson to resign if under a police investigation. Why wouldn’t the same rules apply here?

As with Johnson, could it be Starmer’s defence that when he said no rules had been broken that he (genuinely) thought (or had been advised) that was the case? That would make him wrong or mistaken but not, crucially, a liar.

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Why not? He’s prime minister ffs!

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You get to the top of the political tree by being a saint in your world? Enjoy life there.

Generally those discussions usually start towards the end of the parliamentary cycle rather than the beginning.

I think it is also a difficult time generally to debate concrete policies as this isn’t a routine government in ordinary times, and the main opposition party is also having to contend with an internal squabble.

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But he does though, ( non piss take hat on). He certainly thinks he’s superior to everyone else.

He’s not. He’s quite honestly slabhead level in attitude and ability. Venus is decent idea.

That certainly puts a different twist on things but if found guilty they should be charged.

But this should also not draw attention from happenings in No. 10 where there were regular events held by the people that made the laws.

Purge clearly required.

V For Vendetta GIF

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Interestíng, I would have thought that precisely because these aren’t ordinary times, there would be more policy debate, not less. But I take your point.

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I think @Klopptimist 's point is more in comparison with previous PMs such as John Major and the family standards etc that led to a number of resignations following various scandals.

With Johnson, there isn’t that kind of thing going on. Without a leader promoting moral standards, he in turn is less likely to become a victim when he himself is embroiled with a scandal.

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I don’t really see how anyone can truly believe that Labour would have handled any of the issues facing the current government any worse than the Conservatives have.

They probably would have been crap about most of it as well, but I’m pretty confident they would have been less crap.

Just in the past few months you have the (possibly deliberate) failure of the Ukraine refugee policy, a dereliction of duty on the cost and standard of living, energy companies posting profits 3x higher than their previous record while people struggle to afford heat or electricity. Johnson and several other cabinet members have been given fixed penalty notices for breaking laws they introduced. He’s lied to the House on many occasions. The list goes on, I can;t be arsed.

Make it easier. Name one good thing the Conservatives have done under Boris Johnson, that would not have happened under any other government.

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No, sorry - you aren’t having that.

Johnson misled Parliament. That, in any other time, is a resigning offence. That’s what he was pressured to resign over.

Johnson’s defence was that there wasn’t any parties. When that was found to be untrue, he admitted there were parties, but he wasn’t there. He then admitted he was there, but he didn’t know they were parties. And so on and so on.

With Johnson it was a catalogue of evasions and transparent lies.

Starmer has be open opened about what happened and clear that it was a work event. If there were rules broken, then they’ll have to answer to that, but it isn’t lying on the same scale as BoJo.

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I guess he agreed with you, he’s just said he’ll resign if the police fine him for breaking rules.

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