After the slow-moving catastrophe of Brexit overtook her administration, Theresa May stepped down as prime minister of Great Britain. That announcement came in May, one final screw-you from the Tories, the party which started the whole Brexit debacle in the first place. For the past two months, there’s been a lowkey sadness and angst about what was coming next, post-May, for Britain’s leadership. The argument I kept hearing was that the Tories would of course retain power but it was just a matter of who would be appointed within Conservative leadership, and the choices weren’t great. Well, guess who the next prime minister will be? Boris Johnson.
Boris Johnson will become Britain’s next prime minister after being elected leader of the Conservative party, defeating Jeremy Hunt in the party’s leadership contest. The former mayor of London, who has long cherished an ambition to lead his country, won the contest by a convincing margin 92,153 votes to 46,656, with 66% of the vote. Turnout was 87.4% among 159,320 party members.
In a characteristically flippant acceptance speech, Johnson conceded that even some of his own supporters may “wonder quite what they have done”. He said that at a pivotal moment in history, his party must show its “historic ability to balance competing instincts – marrying the desire to maintain a close relationship with the EU, with the desire for democratic self-government in this country”.
He reminded his audience of ministers and party staff of his campaign mantra: “Deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn.” Pointing out that that spells “dud”, he joked that the final e – “energise” – had been left out. “I say to all the doubters, ‘dude, we are going to energise the country!’”.
Johnson will not take office formally until Wednesday afternoon. Theresa May will face her final prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons before tendering her resignation to the Queen. Johnson will then go to Buckingham Palace himself for his appointment to be confirmed – before being driven to Downing Street to give a speech in front of the black door of No 10.
I’ve grown to despise the American system of national elections/electoral college/gerrymandering and all of that, but wow, I hate the parliamentary system too. The way all of this was handled, from the execution of Brexit to David Cameron’s resignation and Theresa May’s resignation to Boris Johnson’s power seize… this isn’t what democracy looks like either. I know I have no room to talk as an American watching in horror as fascist Nazis seize more and more federal power here in this country, but YIKES, Britain. Can someone please explain to me what’s going on with Labour these days too? Also: the Queen’s whole summer-in-Scotland plans got ruined because of this mess. Boris Johnson has to kneel before the Queen this week and form a government in her name, YIKES.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.
This is very very bad
I am so embarrassed to be English today. I am not implicating the Scots or the Welsh in this, since I can’t imagine many of them were involved in the voting process.
As a Scot staring down the barrel of a Boris Johnson premiership and a no deal Brexit, I’m saying independence or bust from here on out.
You’ve come to the right place, then. Welcome to Shame City.
Is it me or is this guy a TRUMP lookalike?
@phaedra7 He’s the absolute shit of him. He seems to have purposefully adopted more and more of Trump’s traits in recent years.
This really sucks. It’s like we’ve been watching America screw themselves over with Donald Trump and decided we would like to to give them a run for their money.
You guys are supposed to be smarter and more cultured than us. What happened?
I’m kidding but honestly, I’m so sorry. The rise of nationalism is everywhere. I just hope western democracies can unite and eventually defeat it but until then, we have a bumpy road ahead.
We are having a federal election this fall in Canada and our very own Trump-lite is leading in the polls. I’m horrified and ashamed that so many women are saying they will vote for someone like him
OriginalLaLa … I am in the same boat as you. I just can’t with the Conservatives.
Have any of you watched the Brexit movie on HBO? Benedict Cumberbach starred. It was absolutely astounding … and it explains Facebooks/targeted marketing role in all of this. It was unreal. Watch it!!!!
Scheer is more Pence-lite than Trump-lite, but he’s still terrifying (and surrounded by Proud Boys). I really hope that Maxime Bernier’s lunatic party split the vote amongst the right wing-nuts. It’s sad when your hope is that 2 morons will cancel each other…
A real ‘here, hold my beer’ moment.
Just when I thought I lucked out by moving to UK from the US before Trump properly took hold. Will it never end?
No it isn’t very bad, it is no worse than every other cretin that has been in No 10 since Mrs Thatcher departed.
Will the depressing trajectory of the world never end. What has happened that has caused the earth to tilt on its axis like this?
I don’t know where l am going to look now. I avoid US news stations because l cannot stand Trumps face, and now U.K. news will be featuring the antics of Boris and the even worst Rees Mogg.
Ugh, the Queen is going to have to have weekly meetings with this guy. Yuck. This is morbid, but I really hope she lives to see who ever replaces him.
I think in this entire mess the Queen is one of the rare people who we don’t need to feel sorry for.
I can’t believe even after people know she covered for Andrew they still want to pretend she’s just some nice old lady.
Really? That’s who you’re worried about in this whole mess?
She’ll be absolutely fine (I imagine somebody else will run a lot of interference on her behalf) but for me it’s her being elderly and having to deal with him. In my mind’s eye I see it as harrassing a very old person which…yeah, is something he’d do.
She’s free to step down, then, and spend more time protecting child molesters. We certainly won’t miss her.
I don’t know much about British politics. (we obviously have enough on our hands here in the US). So I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be flip or anything. I know it’s bad news for ya’ll. I think it’s just more that I don’t know what to say, so I defaulted to a throw away comment about the queen. I know it’s terrible, we empathize here in the U.S.
She managed Thatcher, she’ll manage Boris. She’s not the one I’m worried for.
I’ll try this again, though I might screw it up again: as a (very) old woman, she reminds me of a grandma of mine that’s died a while back. So I’m getting an image in my head that Boris is the kind of obnoxious man who would harrass my grandmother (and grandmothers in general) and that’s what leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It’s not a logical thought, I know.
And I agree, the queen, as I acknowledged above, will be fine.
Don’t worry, she’ll be sitting around smiling at his “jokes” about black people just like she does when Prince Phillip makes them. Old racist lady will make it through just fine.
Agree with Kittenheels. I don’t have it in me to feel bad for the racist Royal Family.
Apologies for my poorly thought out comments.
Johnson is the world’s revenge on the UK for five centuries of British imperialism. The Poms are truly going to understand that karma’s a bitch called Boris.
Is it revenge if it is 100% self inflicted? Also, I think Ireland would argue it far exceeds 5 centuries of Imperialism.
Scotland and Ireland have suffered the English imperialism for longer than 500 years and they’ll have to suffer Johnson too. It’s not funny. I’m really worried for Northern Ireland, if a hard Brexit happens, they are screwed
If NI is who you are worried about, might want to to control the DUP. They are very much and directly complicit in the current governmental mess and are about as pleasant as ukip or farage’s disgusting brexit party.
As a Brit I am NOT happy about this, he is a bully and a buffoon who pretty much bullied his way into No 10 and I hope he is booted out soon – his premiership won’t last long, esp when October comes and he fails to deliver. Given the some people were sent two ballots I want an independent investigation done to ensure the vote was fair, I would not put it past Johnson and his mob to pull sh!t like that. We will NOT get a renegotiation on May’s deal, anyone who thinks otherwise is stupid.
Labour calling a vote of no confidence causing a general election in 3, 2 ……
Johnson becoming PM is pretty much paving the way for Corbyn to be the next PM which is very very very bad news – Corbyn will turn this country into another Venezuela.
Another Venezuela? How so? I’m genuinely interested cause usually that accusation is right wing anti-socialism paranoia, but from your comments here, I know that’s not you.
Thanks – its not but people are blind to the facts that Jeremy Corbyn is an extreme marxist socialist in the same vein as Nicolás Maduro. The kind of hardcore marxist economic ideals that Corbyn wants to push onto the UK are what has been pushed onto Venezuela and we have seen how that has worked out – high unemployment, high taxes, hyper inflation, poverty and hunger etc.. issues which has been proven to have increased under both Maduro’s and Chavez’s economic policies – policies that Corbyn agrees with and supports. The UK economy isn’t great and yes we have many social/economic problems but I am someone who wants new ideas to deal with the challenges that we all face – instead we keep getting the same old fools who keep pushing the same old political ideals that are over 100 years old, not fit for the modern world and have been proven repeatedly not to work.
As leader Corbyn has already proven that he is not only inept but complicit in the anti-semitic scandal that has engulfed the Labour party.
Sorry for the rant but the Johnson news has triggered me.
@Rapunzel – Corbyn has made no secret that he wants Brexit in order for the society to crumble (he doesn’t like the EU either), in order to sweep in with socialist reform. Which… is a rich man’s folly. For the poor amongst us, it’s going to be a mess. For someone in opposition, he hasn’t opposed anything of Brexit even though his party wanted it. He’s also overseen antisemticism in his party, and his right hand man (supposedly Seamus Milne – another private school educated school boy who’s rich) is supposedly all for this.
Putin is laughing. Russia won.
Corbyn by himself is very ineffective – see his past decades in parliament achieving a grand total of pretty much nothing. But he’s surrounded by some very privileged, very savvy, very nasty people and.. it’s not great for the Labour party, for the country (there should always be a strong opposition) and for democracy. He and his team are as much bullies as Johnson.
DU- thanks. I’m woefully under informed about UK politics.
Duchess of Hazard- I was aware of Corbyn’s anti-semitism issue, but not the rest. Yes, Putin is definitely laughing.
It’s as sad as watch the Dems in the USA fumble completely what should be an easy goal.
And Corbynistas are as culty as Trump fans.
Of course Corbyn hates the EU – too many white people there for his Saviour of the Minorites Self image (unless, of course, we’re talking about the minorites he specifically hates ) to enjoy.
@ Digital Unicorn
And then there is Corbyn’s closest advisors who are all Tankies
Me myself I stopped voting entirely after my local CLP tried to get a perfectly fine MP Anne Cryer (who with her deceased husband were on the left of the party – unlike their son who is pretty centrist and is currently the Chair of the PLP) tarred and feathered as Islamophobic for pointing out that young (mainly) white girls were being groomed and gang raped by mainly Pakistani men ,and that young Asian girls were disappearing from school when they turned 16 and then turning back up married to older men months later .
Five Pakistani – British guys from the next street over from me were jailed as part of a group for 120 years between them for raping a 12 year old .Both the Tory local councilor and Labour district councilor (who keep winning their seats) have made it a part of their platform that these sentences are somehow unjust and the girl was ‘no angel’ .
The woman MP ( Naz Shah) that has eventually inherited Bob’s seat in Bradford was the one that kicked off the whole anti-semitism row in Labour when she was suspended was promoted to the Shadow cabinet as Shadow Minister for Women by Corbyn six weeks after she said publicly that girls groomed and raped by Muslim men should keep quiet in the name of diversity .
So I have the choice of voting for these two parties crammed with bunches of fuckwits playing Mirpuri tribal politics (when them and the Bengalis in the next
ward are not trying to replay the war of 1971) or the LibDems who managed 2% in the last election .
So I sit it out .
This is such a terrible time for the UK, populism is on the rise and a massive shame that we have no leadership from the Labour Party which is a complete mess under a Corbyn.
I’m so sorry. Across the pond we have our own mess, but it’s hard to watch it happen to other countries too.
Excuse my ignorance, but is there not a political party in the UK that opposes Brexit? Is there a viable third party? This whole thing makes this Canadian feel nauseous (and I’m already nauseous enough about our October elections!!)
Well, Labour are supposed to be the anti-Brexit party but no one really knows where they stand as leader Jeremy Corbyn wants Brexit to happen as he has been anti-EU his whole career.
The Lib Dems are a stop Brexit party but they never do well in the elections.
Lib Dems are rising a bit in the polls, and as Labour is an absolute omnishambles the Lib Dems have a powerful position. Put simply, They cannot take the majority in an election BUT whoever wins may need them to form an alliance with for a majority government.
Thank you for the explanation! I had always thought that Labour was anti-Brexit, but had been reading lately about Corbyn’s views. It seemed like none of the political parties would actually try to stop Brexit from happening. I didn’t realize it was his personal views and not those of the party in general.
I really hope corbyn doesn’t become PM. The recent local elections have shown that people are voting away from conservatives and labour. My partner voted for the greens and may vote for Lib Dems now that they have a new party leader.
Yes, recent elections are showing the people are not voting the way the establishment wants us to. In Scotland people are voting against the SNP, who are only still in power thanks to a deal with the Greens.
Yeah I can see people turning to the Lib Dems, their new leader seems interesting, she’s young and anti-Brexit.
If Labour want to win another general election, they need to boot out Corbyn and his puppeteers. The public DO NOT like him and Labour have suffered for his ineptitude and the nasty people he has surrounded himself with.
yiikes, he is awful. This is all very worrisome…
Ugh!!!!! Sorry Brits………….
He’s looking a bit orange in these pictures. Trump 2.0?
This is not going to be good.
This is all David Cameron’s fault. He took a gamble and he lost big time and plunged in entire country into an uncertain future. I’m interested to see if Scotland has another referendum; also both the UK and the US have had to deal with far worse than Trump and Johnson – hell Boris used to be the Mayor of London.
This is the fault of the people of Britain who scapegoated immigrants while sleeping in their boots when their labor protections were gutted.
He literally destroyed the UK to become Prime Minister.
He’s the reason pig head loving Cameron called the EU referendum.
Indeed – either way we are fkd, Corbyn is much worse than him, he will turn what’s left of the country into Venezuela.
The people can see Boris schemed his way into being PM not because he wants to deliver Brexit because he likes power.
There will be a general election before the end of the year – he will NOT be able to deliver Brexit by October and trying to shut down Parliament to achieve it will not work. His own party are already turning on him and his no deal mantra.
Turn the UK into Venezuela? Lol, sure.
Wanting to nationalise the UK rail which is 75% foreign owned and the average fare is 5 times higher than that in Europe is such a travesty isn’t it?
From France to Portugal, Spain to Germany, Italy to Poland, passenger rail is overwhelmingly run by the country’s respective version of British Rail. Unlike in the UK, these were never privatised and broken up.
Wanting a fairer taxation system, investing in education and and the NHS is such a calamity right?
Such right wing hogwash.
Many economists back Labour proposals over the Tory’s continued austerity which has hurt the most vulnerable in society.
Don’t let the facts stop you from parroting rightwing talking points.
@Sam – the point is, Corbyn is willing (and has been willing) to side with Brexiteers (and not oppose the Tories) for the last three years under the guise that he can’t do nationalisation of trains and utilities due to being a member of the EU (which isn’t true). And he’s against FOM – which is shocking for a Labour leader. Actually, with his walking hand in hand with May and Brexit, he seems to be less Labour and more whatever.
Digital, you seriously don’t know what Marxism is or why Venezuela is in the dire straits it is now.
duchess of hazard.
I don’t agree with the way Corbyn has handled Brexit (I think he has actually harmed Labour) however, scaremongering and comparing his economic policies which have been backed by many economists to that of Venezuela is just frankly ludicrous. It’s just a rightwing tactic.
A lot of European countries have nationalised industries, only in the UK is this considered “the end of the country”. It helps if people are actually somewhat informed about the things they are against.
I do believe he’s a Brexiteer and I also believe that he needs to step aside to allow Labour a chance of winning at the next election.
Sam and Canber – read literally anything John McDonnell has ever written. He is quite open about wanting a Marxist system. A Corbyn majority government would be an utter disaster for this country. (And our labour protections have not even begun to be gutted – that will happen when we leave the EU).
Digital – No, your country is FAR from turning into Venezuela. Cuba is like Venezuela. Argentina, my country, was headed in that direction (heck, we might even end up there for all I know. Our President is shit, they all are!)
Perhaps in 10-15 years I will believe the UK is turning into Venezuela – a Narc-State controlled by the Army, russian and cuban spies, no freedom of press, hardly any private property and no human rights.
My primary take away from this (and other) comments on this thread is that no one here seems to know why Venezuela is in the situation it is.
@A, same. To me it popped up as a propaganda point on DM, and now seems to be just parroted by anybody who doesn’t like Corbyn, which is a bit ridiculous.
@whitecat, I had no clue that this was something started by the DM, but it makes sense in retrospect given how astoundingly devoid of facts the whole assertion is.
@A. and @Whitecat:
Thank you!
Leaving Venezuela to one side, Corbyn, McDonnell’s and Milne’s plans for the UK are disastrous all on their own, without comparing it to anywhere else.
He’s Trump’s mini-me. I despair. I really do 🙁
@Debbydoo:
I have good news for you, my dear. Trump’s mini-me is the president of Brazil (whose name I refuse to say).
Or maybe not. Come to think of it, the creature elected president of Brazil seems more like Trump’s doormat so…carry on: Johnson is Trump’s mini-me with more hair and a better vocabulary.
@Eve – Boris is also follically challenged (that’s why he likes the messy do) and hardly more erudite than Trump. He can barely put a sentence together.
Horrible, no good, very bad news. Not to mention David Cameron’s flippant decision (or was he paid off?) to hold a Brexit vote when absolutely no one was asking for it (except Putin). Also, Corbyn is just another Putin toady of the Bernie Sanders flavor. Could all of these arrogant, authoritarian-loving, mentally-deranged, mob-linked men please stop including the whole world in their mid-life crises?
I’m so sick of older white privileged men mucking things up for the rest of us. Their egos and quest for power is insatiable.
But Boris said just recently that UK must go on with Brexit because Brexit will anger Putin. So what is it-Putin wanted Brexit or Putin didn’t want Brexit?
Putin wants Brexit as he has made no secret of the fact that he wants to destroy the European Union – a weak/non-existant EU means he can rebuild the USSR.
Putin wants chaos. And Brexit causes the most chaos.
@adastraperaspera, no, Putin doesn’t want chaos. Putin wants world leaders who will be favourable to him and his cronies building up their wealth and influence unchecked. That means leaders who will remove sanctions against Russian oligarchs who are legally unable to do business in places like Britain and the US, unfreeze their assets abroad, and generally not stand in his way in terms of his foreign policy, which is pretty much limited to things that will enrich himself and assert Russia’s influence in its immediate sphere. This is not chaos, this is a very calculated plan to benefit himself and his friends.
@A – I think Putin wants chaos too. He’s had global domination on his mind since he was a KGB officer.
Longest episode of Black Mirror ever.
Right!?
Upvote.
I truly believe that this is the end of time. This is incredible.
I completely agree and I’m not trying to be over dramatic.
But the way that climate change is accelerating, and what the political world is becoming, I believe there will be a complete and total societal collapse, both political and financial, within the next 50 years. Food shortage will become a regular thing, natural disasters will intensify, cities will fall, people will die and/or be displaced and wars will break out over resources.
And I’m honestly baffled at anyone who doesn’t think this is our future.
I agree unfortunately. Very scary times.
We need to dismantle capitalism to stop climate change- which should be the number one priority for everyone.
To your last sentence, Jenns: YES.
But this is how authoritarianism and fascism take hold: when people are asleep at the wheel.
People thinking that it’s not that bad; that we can self-correct; that we can turn back the clock as if it never happened.
Stay awake. Stay alert. And stay fighting.
RESIST even if people around you can’t be bothered.
While I still have hope at putting a stop to authoritarianism and fascism, I’m afraid when it comes to climate change, we cannot stop the clock. The window of saving this planet from ourselves is shut for good. No matter what we do at this point, this world, and it’s geography, will change dramatically. I just don’t know how, given the current state of the world, we will ever be prepared for what’s coming.
+1, Jenns.
I’m just happy I don’t have kids. The future has never looked more bleak.
Jenns, I actually see authoritarian, militarized regimes in the Northern hemisphere, keeping climate refugees at bay and strictly supervising the use of resources.
Absolutely. Without a doubt. What’s happening at the border right now is nothing compared to what it will be. Eventually, it will look like Children of Men.
The poorest in the world will be the first to die. And the rich will hoard the resources and fight back against any attempt to take them. That’s why I get so angry when some billionaire makes a public donation and everyone trips all over themselves to praise them. Just wait until water and food is treated like gold. You think the rich is going to be making valuable resource donations to dying people? F**k no. They’ll be fine and their families will be fine.**
Again, I know I sound like some doomsday lunatic, but all signs point to this coming. And way more faster than ever anticipated.
**unless we do face mass extinction and then their money won’t save them
@Jenns, this type of pessimism is pointless, and it does a disservice to the millions of people around the world who are going to die as a result of climate change.
We owe it to them, and to us, to do what we can with what we have in this very moment. We may not be able to reverse the effects fully, but whatever we can do, we should do.
Resigning to our collective fate like we’re a bunch of lemmings, as if we have no power, is more useless than doing nothing. As a POC, as a person who comes from a so-called third world country that deals with a great deal of poverty, as a person who is staring down the barrel of seeing my childhood home and the places my family has lived in for generations go under the water or become an uninhabitable desert, I’m not giving up on this without a fight. I have too much at stake, and so does everyone else.
@A and @Jenns – you are both right – and therein lies the conundrum that many people are experiencing: despair coupled with determination to fight for our survival. And like expressed elsewhere here, I am so angry at how entitled white men have screwed things up for us all – from the Trumps and Johnsons of this world, to all the so-called captains of industry and investment banker “masters of the universe”.
Silver lining, it’s not Jeremy Hunt. He has no chance defeating Boris but yeah, lame silver lining.
Boris Johnson is Silvio Berlusconi without the riches, he is Steve Bannon’s plaything having fully and publically aligned himself with rightwing talking points and there is nothing modernist about him -he’s Olde Establishment, an entitled Toff with a public school vocabulary…unlike Drumpf he can be articulate with his prejudices.
Tbqh Her Madge is surrounded by people just like Johnson, the Upper Class is packed with them.
Corbyn is closer to Bernie Sanders and has a voting and activist record that leans towards equality and fairness. He has been wrong on Brexit imo, slow to back a second referendum and the Remain voters -some say this has been political manoeuvring on his part as he sought to keep the non-urban Leave voters within the Labour Party.
As always there are ideological divides within Labour, factions have broken away to form their own *small tent party* but nobody takes them seriously.
If Labour can keep their shit together and bring about the end of austerity I think Keir Starmer is the future of the Labour leadership, but a leadership contest is the last thing Labour needs right now.
Well said. On a more trivial note, what woman could ever present herself for any professional position without even bothering to comb her hair (see Boris and Bernie)? She’d be turned down immediately. I’m sick of the double standards.
Thinking today of Trump and Boris, and of the plenty of black women who have told their natural hair isn’t “professional” enough in the workplace.
A leadership contest is absolutely what Labour needs now, esp if I am correct and that there is a Gen Election before Christmas – Labour cannot and will not win with Corbyn as leader. He is a toxic, inept old fool and the polls keep reflecting that. Corbyn can’t even be leader of the party never mind leader of the opposition.
Yeah I agree Starmer would be a good choice as Labour leader – he could def take on Johnson.
I agree, he seems to be the best placed to go for that position – but would he risk going for it? Milne seems to keep Starmer on a very tight leash. He can barely walk down the street with Milne materialising at his side to moderate what he’s doing. It’s very odd.
@Digital Unicorn – yeah, I think so too, but Momentum thinks that Corbyn hung the moon, so they’d rather the party be destroyed instead of Corbyn being replaced. But Starmer had his chance though, and he bottled it. I don’t know if he’d have another chance at the brass ring, so to speak.
Starmer is my local MP and I really like him. His children go to school next to my house and he will always stop and talk to people and seems to find a good balance with local and national issues. The other day I walked past whilst he was on the phone and I could hear him shouting – ‘they’re crazy, just crazy enough to do it’. Unfortunately I couldn’t think of a reason to stick near him to hear what was next!
I agree. Not sure what all these people have been reading about Corbyn (lol) but he is basically Bernie Sanders.
The antisemitism has been dismissed by Jewish people like Noam Chomsky who can see the establishment see him as a threat.
Imagine the world with Sanders and Corbyn in charge- swoon!
As a working class woman of colour I’m sick of Republicans and Tories ruling for themselves and their friends.
Corbyn is much, much more left wing than Bernie Sanders. Don’t fool yourselves.
Oh good, glad that the self-loathing Noam Chomsky has been appointed the barometer of how Jews feel about long-time anti-Semite and anti-Semite apologist Jeremy Corbyn. Phew. 🙄
MSN, I agree.
Corbyn handled Brexit atrociously.
Keir Starmer is the way forward for the Labour Party.
I genuinely worry for Keir Starmer, the way Milne stalks him around to make sure he toes the party line.
@Kittenheels – Seamus Milne is Stephen Miller and yeah the way he not only stalks Starmer but Corbyn as well is creepy AF. He is literally always a few steps behind Corbyn whenever you see him in public. Milne is a Putin apologist, just like his Dear Leader.
Can’t the Queen just say GTFO you’ll not lead in my name and have him dragged off to the the tower? I know she can’t but I wish she could.
@Aang, no, we’re a parliamentary democracy. After the civil war background here back in the 17th century, the King gave way to Parliamentary Democracy.
The Queen is a figure head, and no one really wants the Queen to get involved re: her office being politicised. Theresa May along with other senior civil servants are the ones to recommend that Johnson can have the confidence of Parliament (the Tory party have a majority of two). The Queen could technically say no, but really she won’t because again, no one wishes her position to be politicised.
Boris Johnson has given a shot to Scottish independence right now. Sturgeon might send him a bouquet when all is said and done.
Indeed, Johnson was behind Cameron giving the Brexit vote in the first place such as his desperation to be PM and he will give Sturgeon what she wants if she backs him up – he’s has destroyed this country in his quest to be PM and now that he is his destruction will only continue.
Would she do that though, even if she could? A very large part of monarchists are tories, I’m sure she’s very well aware.
@Arnk – that’s good question, tbh. A lot of people who are into monarch (apart from Americans) are old and white. I don’t think she would because she’s aware that her position can’t be politicised.
Why on Earth would you think she would be against him? He’s exactly what she supports.
@kittenheels – not really. Queen Elizabeth’s husband is Greek, and she wrote to Germany back in the 80s saying that Britain’s future was in the EU. The Queen also knows that brexit will break up the Union, so say goodbye to Scotland and castles Mey and Balmoral.
He may be “Greek” but he doesn’t consider himself Greek – he sharply corrected a journalist a few years ago who called him Greek and said he was Danish and had always considered himself Danish. He was quite insulted to be called Greek.
That’s a problem with installed monarchies – with no ties they usually have contempt for the people over whom they reign and can’t understand why they’re (oftentimes) overthrown.
#notmyPrimeMinister as someone who is black (and Johnson is racist AF), I’m sweating. And investing in mace.
I agree, he’s #notmyprimeminister – Johnson is also a drunk bully who may or may not have assaulted his GF. Well done Tory party you have given us a Trump.
@Digitial Unicorn : you and me, mate. Come and sit by me. We’ll hate on him together. If we go into no deal, supposedly fresh food and water for people will be third on the list, because all available water has to go and cool the nuclear plants, or else we’ll have another Chernobyl on our hands.
All this just for another Eton lad to be Prime Minister. What the FUCK are they teaching at that bloody school?
If his gf hangs around – well, sucks to be her. But for us most of all.
^ What wine do you prefer, red or white?
@duchessofhazard ::raises fist in solidarity::
Johnson’s racism has been his brand for years, he’s the embodiment of Middle England and class privilege, an Eton Fuckboi with zero sense of decorum and his Cabinet will be a basket of deplorables who are even worse than he is.
@msn – seriously! I am only sorry that I didn’t dabble in black magic like distant family because I’d do a hex on him, I would. But I hope it chokes and that everything he touches is poison.
The British PM job has become a poisoned chalice, Theresa May found that out the hard way as will Johnson. He has till October 31st 2019 to prove himself, if he fails he is out! He will either be pushed out the same way May was (and he was behind that) or the Tories will lose a snap general election.
Now is the time for Labour to get their sh!t together but alas they won’t – the Corbyn Cult still thinks he’s the 2nd coming.
I guess the question is who would the Lib Dems get into bed with? They tried the tories and look where that got them but getting into bed with a Corbyn led Labour party would be worse off for them IMO.
@Digital Unicorn, Theresa May’s biggest mistake was that she thought she could come to a deal that would satisfy everyone. But the problem with Brexit is that no matter what happens, someone is going to get shafted, even if it’s on the Brexiteers side. Whether it’s the Irish border, the customs union, the freedom of movement–no matter what, in order to come to a decent Brexit deal that allows for Britain to exit the EU w/ the minimum amount of fuss, someone is going to be unhappy about it. I still remember the series of indicative votes that they took in parliament on the tail end of May’s PM-ship. Parliament voted no on everything put forth. There is no majority consensus, even among the Leavers, about what leaving will actually entail, and that was the problem that May came up against and ultimately lost out to.
Boris doesn’t have the same compunctions. He doesn’t care about satisfying everyone and softening the blow of Brexit. He wants to leave, no matter what the consequences. So I don’t think he’ll come up against the same problems as May, because he’s approaching this from an entirely different angle that she is. May found this out the hard way, and then tried to make amends for it in the end by trying to extend an olive branch to Labour, after her deal was shot down in parliament on 3 different occasions.
Boris will have to live in the real world (unlike Trump). In the real world, even if he is able to con his way into a no-deal Brexit through prorogation or similar, this will mean that real people will die for lack of medicine. Real people will not be able to cross borders, will not have enough food. After a couple of weeks of no-deal, Boris will be begging the EU for Theresa’s deal.
Even though this moment has been inevitable for months, if not years at this point I was still hoping that a miracle would take place (although Hunt is the opposite of a miracle.) There’s still a chance that he won’t become PM if enough Tory MPs are willing to put country before party and refuse to vote for him tomorrow. It would be hilarious to me, if after all his shenanigans, he becomes leader of the tories but is unable to form a government and has to call a general election.
Whatever the outcome, I’ll never forgive the Tories, or the British, for how they’ve turned their backs on Northern Ireland and the peace process. (Don’t @ me on how only 52% voted in favour of Brexit, a huge majority didn’t vote at all and are as much responsible for this whole mess as the people who voted for Brexit.)
The fact that the issues with the Irish border got ZERO (and I mean ZERO!!!!) spotlight from the British press is mind-boggling. It seemingly came out of nowhere, and yet, it didn’t. And yet, NO ONE, not the Telegraph, not the Fail, not the tabloids–NO ONE talked about the question of the Irish border in the referendum.
The Guardian, Independent, Times and BBC talked about the Irish border issue. Not enough people listened.
As someone who has lived there, it is sad seeing a country commit suicide. Brexit will go down as the moment the UK stepped up to the ledge. Instead of talking it down, the substandard and self-serving politicians will push it off. We need better people in politics worldwide or else we’re all screwed.
I wish I had something optimistic to say. Unfortunately, I’m all out. We’re all f*cked.
US has Trump and UK has Boris.
Ahhh things just keep getting worse. This is sickening. Trump’s tweet of support made me nauseous.
First my local muppet Jo Swinson becomes leader of the LIb Dems and now this ratbag is the PM. This should be the damned fire under every Scots arse for seeking independence, but we have too many moronic arses living in Scotland for that.
And with THIS coup…
Putin has OFFICIALLY won the Cold War….
God HELP us all!
But Cold War has ended with the collapse of USSR. How come we won over USSR then, but are losing to Russia now when Russia is weaker than USSR?
@Molly, it all depends, really. Putin came of political age whilst Russia was in the throes of Glasnot and Perestroika . After that, Putin supposedly got stung by it and pulled Russia in the direction it’s in now. The war isn’t really over as much as taken up a new complexion, if you look at Russia invading Georgia and their push back against Ukraine who wish to be a part of the EU.
@duchess of hazard, but EU doesn’t want any new country members, especially if those members are big countries and poor and underdeveloped. Too many mouths to feed already. Besides former communist countries cause a lot of troubles in EU atm, look at Poland and Hungary. Democracy is only a word to them, nothing more.
The Cold War…NEVA ended…..
@SallyS – the EU and the Ukraine were doing a bit of a flirty dance, but Russia crushed that cold.
@Lala11-7 – that is a word.
Yeah, those horrible ex communist countries, only causing trouble :rolls eyes:
People who keep insisting that Putin wants to “rebuild the USSR” or wants a rehash of the Cold War need to go hit the history books again. I’m sorry for being rude, but this irks me so very deeply.
For starters, the USSR was straight up communist. And Putin, whatever said and done, is NOT a communist. He is very very entrenched as a capitalist. His annoyance regarding the collapse of the USSR was only because he saw the relative loss of prestige as a loss for HIS personal prospects within the Soviet bureaucracy, not because he was particularly beholden to communist ideals. Him and his cronies had nothing to lose and everything to gain when the USSR collapsed, in reality. Every single person in Russia and former Soviet countries who is a billionaire now became that rich because they bought up state owned industries at bargain basement prices. These people (who are all Putin’s friends, usually) will do everything they can to protect their own wealth, no matter what it takes. There’s a reason why people refer to Russia as an oligarchy. It’s a state bought and controlled by rich people.
Americans and everyone else around the world are falling back into their old habits of referring to everything that they personally don’t like as “communist.” Just because a country like Russia is run by one ruthless individual who controls everything doesn’t make it communist. That’s not how that works. That’s not how ANY of this works.
@JAC, yes I’m sorry, but Poland and Hungary are right now horrible ex communist countries, because they act this way:
-Poland just recently tried to enforce early retirement of Poland’s supreme court judges; carried out assaults against media, it’s very anti-Semitic and just recently tried to deny Polish involvement in Holocaust,
-Hungary rewrote the country’s constitution to please Orban, has high levels of corruption, and Orban has tightened controls on the media.
It’s for a reason that the European commission has proposed cuts to EU funding to those countries cause they do not uphold the rule of law. Both the Hungarian and Polish governments are huge beneficiaries of EU funds btw.
I look forward to Boris flailing around ineffectually towards the EU while blaming them for utter Tory incompetence. I also look forward to the media calling Jeremy Corbyn the most anti-semitic anti-semite who ever anti-semited. Oh wait, they already do that.
This is all going to the 11th hour. Again.
As Jew in the UK, I do love consistently being told I’m lying about Corbyn’s anti-semitism. It definitely doesn’t make those comparisons to the 1930s feel even more apt, no siree.
@kittenheels, I’m with you. Corbyn is himself the problem, and until they remove him as leader, the Labour Party will continue to be institutionally anti-semitic.
It’s deeper than that. He and Milne have clearly decided the way to pick up Muslim votes is to dog whistle anti-Semitism in the form of “anti-Zionism”. Luckily many Muslims object to being treated like they’re dumb enough to go for that. But the damage is so deep now, I don’t see how Labour crawls back.
@Tina and @kittenheels – am with you both, its not just Corbyn but the nasty people like Milne and Formby he has around him. People that perpetuate the toxicity and nastiness that has engulfed the party.
Even Momentum has said that the party has a serious problem with anti-semitism. Momentum and Unite are the ones propping Corbyn and his regime up.
Tina and DU, always feels like a tiny victory to hear that others realise the toxic culture (and enormous rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes) aren’t just something being made up by Jews.
Send Formby, Milne, and Corbyn off to join their stated “friends” in Hamas and Hezbollah then if they believe so strongly in them. Most of us want to support and elevate each other.
His record over Kosovo (dismissing war-crimes commited against muslims there as fabricated) has also dented his popularity to muslims.
@KittenHeels, I hear you, I do.
I have literally no understanding of the British electoral system. All I know is, a significant portion of the population seems to have wantd Brexit the same way people in the US wanted to build The Wall, and their elected governments seem equally in capable of accomplishing either.
exactly. people voted brexit and were ignored. that’s not democracy.
Not sure they were ignored, it just seems from my far distant over the pond view that either Brexit itself is not actually feasible, in which case those voters were sold a bill of goods,,p or that the people who promised it are not competent to implement it.
The British people were manipulated into voting for Brexit. Watch the HBO movie on it. It talks about Cambridge Analytica. The Canadian headed company used to manipulate the vote. It was a fascinating and sad watch. It explains the rise of the right the world over. It is not a mistake, it is targeted marketing. It should be illegal. The Wall??? Same thing.
This.
No they weren’t, the issue was that they never voted to join the EU in the first place and were pissed about that and a vote on it had been promised for years: Tony Blair was promising it at one point (but of course he lies about everything so it never happened). This has been a 40+ year decision in the making.
@grumpy, yes, they did in fact vote to join the EU. They did vote on this in 1975. And no, this has not been a 40+ year decision in the making. Euroscepticism of the sort that led to this referendum was pioneered and popularized by Boris Johnson when he was writing columns for the Daily Telegraph starting in the 90s.
Ireland, Britain and Denmark joined the EU (then EEC) in 1973. There was a referendum in 1975 to determine if the UK should stay in the EEC and this passed by a 67% to 33% majority.
The British have felt unfairly treated by the EU since the late 70s/early 80s in part due to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which favored countries like Ireland but put countries like the UK with a relatively small agricultural base at a disadvantage . At that time around 70% of the EEC budget went to the CAP and it was generally felt that the UK paid more than most countries due to a higher VAT base while benefiting least from redistributions .
Around the time the UK refused to join the European Monetary Fund and maintained a separate currency, the BREXIT seeds were sown in the form of “Euro skepticism”. They took a long time to grow but BREXIT has been on the radar for decades.
And to echo Pineapple’s statement, the British people were manipulated into voting for BREXIT. I think many who voted for BREXIT were horrified when it actually won the referendum.
@EMF999, agreed, but you haven’t mentioned the rebate. We have had a sweet deal in the EU and we are utter fools to give it up.
Yikes. I’m sorry Brits.
Sorry UK. What’s going to be messy is the official sleepover at Balmoral. Will Boris Badenov bring his official sidepiece Carrie Symonds? She’s moving into No 10 without a ring or a final divorce decree.
Holy crap – have I moved to an alternate timeline? First Trump and now this. Holy crapola!
He looks like a stupider, more evil version of Trump.
Like, he looks ridiculous and harmless but he’s anything but. Am I wrong?
Nagini tweeted a congratulatory message on him becoming the next Prime Minister of the ‘United Kingdom of Kingston’.
https://storify.com/services/proxy/2/DvZwTCkJRHlK19MdTzgSIA/https/media.fyre.co/CgBhlAaOSviMG4XqX04L_Ivanka%20tweet.jpg
@Digital Unicorn LMAO. I’m DONE.
*Shakes head and reaches for vodka bottle*
What the effin’ EFF is happening to this world….
Yay! I’m so lucky to be a citizen of both the us and uk. Look at our leaders. The best of the best. What more can a girl ask for. /s 🤮
This has been a long time coming.
People who have been following British politics know that Boris Johnson has been DESPERATE to be prime minister since the 90s. He was the first person to start trumpeting the Brexit cause back when he was writing columns for magazines. He has been patently clear about the fact that he will do whatever it takes to be PM, even if it means burning Britain down around him.
And now he’s here. Make no mistake about it, this man doesn’t care about anything quite so pithy as his own legacy. He cares for nothing except his own ambition. He wants Brexit, and he’ll get it. He wanted to be PM, and he got it. He only cares about being liked insofar as it serves a purpose for his ambitions. Now that he’s got what he wants, he’s not going to give an ever loving sh-t about anything or anyone. The Trump comparisons only hold to a certain extent, because Boris Johnson is a heck of a lot more smarter and calculated than Trump could ever hope to be.
Fck him, and fck the Tories, and fck everyone who supports this dumbass.
“The Trump comparisons only hold to a certain extent, because Boris Johnson is a heck of a lot more smarter and calculated than Trump could ever hope to be.” THIS, all day. He created that bumbling fool facade as a way to hide his ruthless ambition and to charm people – it worked and he has what he has spent years scheming for. And yeah all he cares about is leaving a legacy, he wants to be remembered as a Churchill but the PM position has become a poisoned chalice – like May he will learn the hard way what the old adage of ‘be careful what you wish for, you just might get it’ truly means.
I have an acquaintance who worked within the Mayor of London’s office when he was Mayor, she didn’t work directly with him but heard enough stories to know that while he is extremely intelligent and can be charming/articulate when he wants to be, he is also a nasty bully who, yes, will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. He has also gotten physical with people who get in his way: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/17/michael-crick-boris-and-cameron-wrestled-over-papers-like-schoolboys
Everyone should be concerned about his approach to Brexit as unlike May he WILL crash us out without a deal or even a plan on how to deal with a no deal. Boris pretty much makes it up as he goes along.
“the PM position has become a poisoned chalice” This is my take: I don’t think Boris Johnson particularly cares about that. As I said, he’s not interested in being a GOOD PM. He’s interested in being PM. Period. He’s never given much thought to anything beyond that. He doesn’t care very much about anything except himself. He wants to be PM, and he wants Brexit, and he’ll get both, and damn all the consequences in the process. He THINKS this will get him the same sort of adulation as Churchill. And in a way, he’s kind of right. Churchill is reviled by large swathes of the world, mainly due to his rather nasty habit of being an unrepentant racist who pushed very hard for the continuation of the British empire. His written works are rife with his contempt for the subjects of the empire, who he saw as little more than unwashed, subhuman masses who needed to be brought to heel. So yeah, I have about as much respect for Boris as I do for Churchill. Poison chalice or not, he’s not going to let things like ‘democracy’ and ‘the rule of law’ and ‘the will of the people’ or ‘parliament’ get in the way of doing whatever the fck he likes.
Agree up to a point. Boris wants to be PM. He wanted to be PM when he went about the referendum BS. I don’t believe he thought then that that stupid referendum would do anything more than give him a chance to cast his shadow on the leadership post. He wasn’t going to be able to do so by falling in line behind Cameron and the best way to do so? Play up the oppositional stance. He had to go off and have a think about which way he was going to advocate when that bloody referendum was called. Is he a Brexiteer? I don’t believe it. Nobody believes it. He is patently less of one than Jezzer Corbyn.
As for his spicy anti-EU posts as europe reporter? Gah, there’s not a pro anything journo on the island if critiques are what you go by. Ian Hislop would be anti-EU by that measure (he’s not). Or Giles Coren (also Not).
BoJo isn’t a brexiteer. He doesn’t stand for anything except himself. Whoever mentioned Churchill is right. He sees himself as this Churchilean larger-than-life figure. Well I hope he’s right because while Churchil was the man for the time during WW-II don’t forget he and his party was voted out right after the war. He was also handed and lost many other positions. May Boris’ judgements be just as swift.
DU says elections and defeat for Boris in October. I am not so sanguine but i hope to high heavens they are right.
Inadvertently cut off my own rant about Boris.
I wanted to add that Boris only wants Boris’ name in lights. He is a rabid, power-hungry self-aggrandiser blissfully unencumbered by personal convictions other than self-interest. Unlike other rabid power-hungry self-aggrandisers who usually get into religious warfare as they bring their convictions into play, Boris’ only calculus is what position will win him a victory. That makes him dangerous because he will implode the country if it benefits him. Massively stupid of the millions who keep throwing their lot behind this colossal fuckwit. And I am speaking of the Brits here now. We have seen this wittering ass blather on as Mayor of London. Twice! As an MP. As a Cabinet Minister.(!). And if that wasn’t enough, the Tories thought to themselves – yea, more of that, please! Dunces and dimwits.
Trump likes BJ because they’re both suicide blondes.
Well…what could I say? Congratulations!
Come join us Brazilians who elected a monster who is, in many ways, worse than Johnson and Trump. We’re only seven months into the maniac’s government and the country is an unmitigated, irreversible mess.
ETA: The president here worships Trump and is selling Brazil cheap to the US and other countries.
I find most of the issue is with the voters themselves. More young people need to vote. We need to stop allowing the elderly, who are going to probably die in the next 10 years anyway, decide for us on who should run the country. Both my grandparents before they died for also super conservative. They had a slew of health problems, but still made it to the polls.