Borobuddah
Well-known member
The Spectator ffs!
The spectator “Boris Johnson is not fit to lead”
- Thread starter Borobuddah
- Start date
BoroBosco
Well-known member
For the delicate souls who can't possibly access the Spectator
"Danny Kruger, formerly Johnson’s political secretary and now the MP for Devizes, has – perhaps inadvertently – done the country some small service. In a note sent to newly-elected Tory MPs, Mr Kruger has reportedly advised his colleagues that ‘calling for Dominic Cummings to go is basically declaring no confidence in [the] prime minister.’
Well, yes, indeed. That is the point.
Because, in the end, this is not a story about Dominic Cummings but, rather, one about the Prime Minister. Even if we concede the possibility that he has not fully recovered from his own recent illness and, by making that concession, are tempted to afford him a greater measure of the benefit of the doubt than is traditionally granted to prime ministers, it remains mightily difficult to construct a coherent defence of the Prime Minister’s recent actions.
There is little escaping an obvious reality: this is a prime minister without clothes. The country can see this, even if cabinet ministers and Tory MPs pretend not to. He is what he is and he is not up to the job. In sunnier times this might not matter so very much but these are not the best of times and, right now, a significant portion of the Prime Minister’s responsibilities are wrapped up in his ability to inspire confidence. He is the captain of the ship and voters are entitled to think he is paying attention.
No such reassurance has been forthcoming. On the contrary, the manner in which the Prime Minister has sought to dismiss any and all concerns about Cummings’s behaviour has further undermined already fragile confidence in his government’s handling of this crisis. There is nothing to see here and the little people should know it is time to ‘move on’.
The prime minister should really watch his tone. His government’s response has turned a story into a scandal. A better, more empathetic, Downing Street regime would have appreciated the need for contrition at this moment. Instead the government has doubled-down on arrogant dismissal. As is so often the case, a notional demonstration of strength and resolve actually reveals the deep weaknesses at the heart of this government. It has a majority in the House of Commons but public confidence is palpably waning.
Again, Mr Kruger unwittingly shows us how. In his note to colleagues, he argues that ‘BJ and DC together are why we won the 2019 election and them together is the only way to GBD [Get Brexit Done], level up the regions and fix Whitehall - the only things which will win us the next election too. An arguable minor infraction of lockdown rules is totally secondary to that.’
But no mere advisor should ever be thought indispensable and any prime minister so wholly dependent on a single advisor, no matter how brilliant he or she may be, is a weak one. If Boris Johnson cannot function without Cummings he is not qualified to be prime minister. The price of defending Cummings is admitting Johnson’s inadequacy.
Most popular
James Forsyth
Escaping the dragon: the government’s new approach to China
Escaping the dragon: the government’s new approach to ChinaEscaping the dragon: the government’s new approach to China
So treating the media with contempt is one thing but treating the public with an equal measure of lofty scorn is quite another. This, mystifyingly, is now the government’s preferred course of action. And this leads to some truly risible positions. Thus, Michael Gove tells LBC radio that, why, yes of course he too has hopped in his car to test his eyesight as though this was a perfectly normal thing to do and the only surprise, really, is that some people don’t think this entirely reasonable behaviour. The spectacle of intelligent people deliberately peddling nonsense is often aggravating but it’s rarely as enraging as it is now.
We now enjoy a situation in which the Prime Minister’s approval ratings appear to be correlated with his appearances in public. The more often he is seen, the lower his ratings go. That is both intolerable and unsustainable. Yesterday’s appearance before the House of Commons liaison committee once again revealed a prime minister painfully out of his depth.
That was bad enough but the situation was made worse by Johnson’s obvious impatience with the idea he appear before the committee at all. ‘The trouble is’ he whined, ‘it does take a huge amount of sherpa time, of preparation time’. Well, one can see why and how this might inconvenience the Prime Minister while also holding to the view that if the Prime Minister believes it’s a bore to be asked questions about his own government’s policies then perhaps he might rethink his desire to be prime minister. Such scrutiny, however tiresome it may be, has generally been considered part of the job.
The Prime Minister’s defenders argue he cannot function without Dominic Cummings. Perhaps this is the case but it is not obvious he can function with him either. I do not, in truth, know if this is a Black Wednesday or Poll Tax moment for this government but the mere fact those comparisons are now being made is another data point supporting the proposition that Johnson’s government is in deep trouble.
No matter how sympathetic one might be to the difficulties of government during an emergency there is now little opportunity to evade the fact that this government’s handling of the crisis has not been impressive. That is partly a matter of policy failure – for which blame can be shared by any number of actors – and partly a failure of communications, for which responsibility begins at the very top.
Public confidence in the government is not the same as liking the government. It is possible to dislike a government while thinking it broadly competent. I have every sympathy for the predicament in which Mr Cummings found himself and I suspect many voters might, had they faced a comparable situation, have liked to behave as he did. But many voters did face similar problems and they did not act as he did. They stayed at home because that is what the government had told them to do. No defence of Mr Cummings can defeat this obvious truth. From which it follows that even if the country one day agrees to ‘move on’ it will not forget. And nor, frankly, should it."
"Danny Kruger, formerly Johnson’s political secretary and now the MP for Devizes, has – perhaps inadvertently – done the country some small service. In a note sent to newly-elected Tory MPs, Mr Kruger has reportedly advised his colleagues that ‘calling for Dominic Cummings to go is basically declaring no confidence in [the] prime minister.’
Well, yes, indeed. That is the point.
Because, in the end, this is not a story about Dominic Cummings but, rather, one about the Prime Minister. Even if we concede the possibility that he has not fully recovered from his own recent illness and, by making that concession, are tempted to afford him a greater measure of the benefit of the doubt than is traditionally granted to prime ministers, it remains mightily difficult to construct a coherent defence of the Prime Minister’s recent actions.
There is little escaping an obvious reality: this is a prime minister without clothes. The country can see this, even if cabinet ministers and Tory MPs pretend not to. He is what he is and he is not up to the job. In sunnier times this might not matter so very much but these are not the best of times and, right now, a significant portion of the Prime Minister’s responsibilities are wrapped up in his ability to inspire confidence. He is the captain of the ship and voters are entitled to think he is paying attention.
No such reassurance has been forthcoming. On the contrary, the manner in which the Prime Minister has sought to dismiss any and all concerns about Cummings’s behaviour has further undermined already fragile confidence in his government’s handling of this crisis. There is nothing to see here and the little people should know it is time to ‘move on’.
The prime minister should really watch his tone. His government’s response has turned a story into a scandal. A better, more empathetic, Downing Street regime would have appreciated the need for contrition at this moment. Instead the government has doubled-down on arrogant dismissal. As is so often the case, a notional demonstration of strength and resolve actually reveals the deep weaknesses at the heart of this government. It has a majority in the House of Commons but public confidence is palpably waning.
Again, Mr Kruger unwittingly shows us how. In his note to colleagues, he argues that ‘BJ and DC together are why we won the 2019 election and them together is the only way to GBD [Get Brexit Done], level up the regions and fix Whitehall - the only things which will win us the next election too. An arguable minor infraction of lockdown rules is totally secondary to that.’
But no mere advisor should ever be thought indispensable and any prime minister so wholly dependent on a single advisor, no matter how brilliant he or she may be, is a weak one. If Boris Johnson cannot function without Cummings he is not qualified to be prime minister. The price of defending Cummings is admitting Johnson’s inadequacy.
Most popular
James Forsyth
Escaping the dragon: the government’s new approach to China
Escaping the dragon: the government’s new approach to ChinaEscaping the dragon: the government’s new approach to China
So treating the media with contempt is one thing but treating the public with an equal measure of lofty scorn is quite another. This, mystifyingly, is now the government’s preferred course of action. And this leads to some truly risible positions. Thus, Michael Gove tells LBC radio that, why, yes of course he too has hopped in his car to test his eyesight as though this was a perfectly normal thing to do and the only surprise, really, is that some people don’t think this entirely reasonable behaviour. The spectacle of intelligent people deliberately peddling nonsense is often aggravating but it’s rarely as enraging as it is now.
We now enjoy a situation in which the Prime Minister’s approval ratings appear to be correlated with his appearances in public. The more often he is seen, the lower his ratings go. That is both intolerable and unsustainable. Yesterday’s appearance before the House of Commons liaison committee once again revealed a prime minister painfully out of his depth.
That was bad enough but the situation was made worse by Johnson’s obvious impatience with the idea he appear before the committee at all. ‘The trouble is’ he whined, ‘it does take a huge amount of sherpa time, of preparation time’. Well, one can see why and how this might inconvenience the Prime Minister while also holding to the view that if the Prime Minister believes it’s a bore to be asked questions about his own government’s policies then perhaps he might rethink his desire to be prime minister. Such scrutiny, however tiresome it may be, has generally been considered part of the job.
The Prime Minister’s defenders argue he cannot function without Dominic Cummings. Perhaps this is the case but it is not obvious he can function with him either. I do not, in truth, know if this is a Black Wednesday or Poll Tax moment for this government but the mere fact those comparisons are now being made is another data point supporting the proposition that Johnson’s government is in deep trouble.
No matter how sympathetic one might be to the difficulties of government during an emergency there is now little opportunity to evade the fact that this government’s handling of the crisis has not been impressive. That is partly a matter of policy failure – for which blame can be shared by any number of actors – and partly a failure of communications, for which responsibility begins at the very top.
Public confidence in the government is not the same as liking the government. It is possible to dislike a government while thinking it broadly competent. I have every sympathy for the predicament in which Mr Cummings found himself and I suspect many voters might, had they faced a comparable situation, have liked to behave as he did. But many voters did face similar problems and they did not act as he did. They stayed at home because that is what the government had told them to do. No defence of Mr Cummings can defeat this obvious truth. From which it follows that even if the country one day agrees to ‘move on’ it will not forget. And nor, frankly, should it."
Keelo
Well-known member
I dont need to read that to understand and KNOW Johnson isnt fit to lead a darts team.....Svengali Cummings made him PM with his "Get Brexit done".. "Take back control" and "£350 a week for the NHS" soundbites...3 soundbites most British people swallowed and ended up with a lazy,lying,incompetent clown. ....
Borobuddah
Well-known member
I think unprecedented is the right word
Laughing
Well-known member
Keelo, the problem goes a bit deeper than that, and feel free to ignore the post, it's quite long.
All, and I mean all johnson should be concentrating on, every waking moment, is how to best save lives. Every moment should be spent devising strategies for handling the outbreak. Then once those strategies are identified, they needed to be refined as new information becomes available. Decide how to communicate those strategies to the public, and get the public on-side and going along with the strategies.
You get the public on-side by making the scientific advice publicly available. You govern in a transparent manner and show real empathy for your people. Make them believe you are doing everything in your power to keep as many of them safe as possible.
You admit your mistakes, you move away from politics and in to crisis management. You draw on expertise, wherever you can find it, scientists, logisticians, manufacturing, anyone who can help with everything from epedemiology to shipping PPE. You mobilise your nation to battle the crisis together.
You bring leaders from the devolved union together, see what they have to offer, you speak to opposition leaders and ask for their help. How can you help save people?
He has failed on so many levels.
His leadership has been woeful and he has largely been missing from the daily briefings.
Sage reports and minutes have never been made public so we can judge whether scientif advice has been followed, or compromised.
We have heard about herculean efforts, glorious failures time and time again. About how hard the government is working to overcome the challlenges. Why not reach out for help if you are drowning?
Johnson choose to stand by his advisor when the public outcry was for him to go, how many hours did he spend with Cummings getting their stories straight? How many extra lives could have been saved by devoting that time to pandemic management? It doesn't matter whether you think Cummings did no wrong, the fall out took attention away from managing a pandemic in a country failing in it's primary duty to protect it's citizens.
We now go into a period of easing lockdown, some good news or just a political tool to get people talking about anytrhing other than Dominic f*cking Cummings? We have no real track, trace and isolate in place and it won't be until the end of June, at the earliest, according to, well the track and trace team leader. Would an experienced military man have fared better in some of the logistics around track and trace? Does the military not do this on a regular basis with any deployed forces? Would that have given some insights thst Johnson ignored?
You can select any metric you want and this government is failing us all, regardless of your ballot paper. Number of deaths, number of excess deaths, number of deaths per million, really take your pick, we are failing on them all.
At a time when the government should have been pulling everyone of us along, helping in any way we could, they have divided a nation, ignored parts of the union and cast aside our elderly as acceptable casualties.
All, and I mean all johnson should be concentrating on, every waking moment, is how to best save lives. Every moment should be spent devising strategies for handling the outbreak. Then once those strategies are identified, they needed to be refined as new information becomes available. Decide how to communicate those strategies to the public, and get the public on-side and going along with the strategies.
You get the public on-side by making the scientific advice publicly available. You govern in a transparent manner and show real empathy for your people. Make them believe you are doing everything in your power to keep as many of them safe as possible.
You admit your mistakes, you move away from politics and in to crisis management. You draw on expertise, wherever you can find it, scientists, logisticians, manufacturing, anyone who can help with everything from epedemiology to shipping PPE. You mobilise your nation to battle the crisis together.
You bring leaders from the devolved union together, see what they have to offer, you speak to opposition leaders and ask for their help. How can you help save people?
He has failed on so many levels.
His leadership has been woeful and he has largely been missing from the daily briefings.
Sage reports and minutes have never been made public so we can judge whether scientif advice has been followed, or compromised.
We have heard about herculean efforts, glorious failures time and time again. About how hard the government is working to overcome the challlenges. Why not reach out for help if you are drowning?
Johnson choose to stand by his advisor when the public outcry was for him to go, how many hours did he spend with Cummings getting their stories straight? How many extra lives could have been saved by devoting that time to pandemic management? It doesn't matter whether you think Cummings did no wrong, the fall out took attention away from managing a pandemic in a country failing in it's primary duty to protect it's citizens.
We now go into a period of easing lockdown, some good news or just a political tool to get people talking about anytrhing other than Dominic f*cking Cummings? We have no real track, trace and isolate in place and it won't be until the end of June, at the earliest, according to, well the track and trace team leader. Would an experienced military man have fared better in some of the logistics around track and trace? Does the military not do this on a regular basis with any deployed forces? Would that have given some insights thst Johnson ignored?
You can select any metric you want and this government is failing us all, regardless of your ballot paper. Number of deaths, number of excess deaths, number of deaths per million, really take your pick, we are failing on them all.
At a time when the government should have been pulling everyone of us along, helping in any way we could, they have divided a nation, ignored parts of the union and cast aside our elderly as acceptable casualties.
Keelo
Well-known member
I have read it and its spot on....im just at a loss why everyone cant see whats happening around them and blindly bang the drum for the two co conspiritors in charge of their disasterous handling on this pandemic...
This post is totally spot on. I agree with it all.
I´d just add: is any of it a surprise? Wasn´t it obvious what type of bloke Johnson is? And his party for that matter.
Paterson
Well-known member
I read a good comment in an opinion piece about Johnson yesterday, that he wanted to be prime minister and he wants to have been prime minister. It's the bit in the middle that he isn't keen on.
Understandably so, he isn't bright enough and he doesn't work hard enough. You can get away with that in easy times. Cameron managed it. Maybe that's unfair on Cameron actually, he probably was bright enough. But in times like this you need more.
Understandably so, he isn't bright enough and he doesn't work hard enough. You can get away with that in easy times. Cameron managed it. Maybe that's unfair on Cameron actually, he probably was bright enough. But in times like this you need more.
Laughing
Well-known member
Jaen, yes you are right, but I would have hoped, despite ideology, Johnson would have behaved differently. He has had an opportunity to be one the the UK's greats. He didn't have to make the decisions, but bring the right people in to make those decisions.
I would have locked down mid march, airports and ports, everything shut except the essentials. It would have been very unpopular at the time, but, history would record that it was the right decision with 10's of thousands of lives saved. I would have sectioned the UK into regions and tracked the virus per region, and the roads would be patrolled to stop people moving out of high infection zones, if this were required.
I would have spoken to, maybe Amazon fulfilment and asked them to get involved in the PPE distribution, it is something they do spectacularly well, they would certainly have a viewpoint on how best to approach this problem.
I would have given hancock 24 hours to bring me a list of every manufacturer we could re-purpose for PPE and given him a team of MP's to call round the manufacturers to get information about what and when they could deliver on the PPE front.
I would have run an open house on the scientific advice. We would have had a daily PM briefing and a daily science briefing where the press could ask the scientists anything they wanted. I would have asked the press for their questions upfront so I could investigate the answers and make them succinct and to the point.
I would have put my life on hold and done nothing but guide us through this crisis and saved as many lives as I possibly could.
I would admit every mistake and explain why it was made, I would not give one jot about my political reputation, that doesn't matter, what matters is saving lives.
I would have, probably retrospectively supported those that were struggling in lockdown, I would have had some system available in hospitals to prevent cross contamination. Every Covid ward in the country would be having weekly sessions to learn from each other what works and what doesn't. The disparity in hospitals is large as some have made mistakes.
NYboro
Well-known member
He's not that clever.
swordtrombonefish
Well-known member
I said either here or elsewhere when he was elected. He wants the title, not the job.
Neil always has the get out on that....He will always claim content is an editorial decision taken by editor Fraser Nelson. Which he has on previous occasions.
Which strangely enough when editor of the Sunday Times he always claimed Murdoch never interfered in the content. Until he was sacked for the China screw up, it's claimed. He then said Murdoch was always all over him like a rash on content.
Borobuddah
Well-known member
it is hugely difficult to prove what has been prevented, a huge bugbear for public service and social care
Laughing
Well-known member
I agree with the sentiment Borobuddha, however I would have expected judgement based on the available metrics, if the Uk had 5,000 fatalities and the rest of europe was as-is you would have to judge the strategies a success.
If we had of been in that position today, most of us wouldn't care about Cummings holiday or the previous lying and obsfication, we woud be delighted that a terrible disaster had been mitigated.
Borobuddah
Well-known member
True