| Johnson the Incompetent 00:10 - Nov 3 with 1154 views | HARRY10 |
Taken from todays FT, it is a worthy read, which can be read by those not willing to bypass its paywall
" It always seems to be too soon. It was too soon for the UK to lock down in early March, when other European countries had already done so. It was too soon for Boris Johnson to reimpose national restrictions in September, when scientific advisers privately called for them.
Now the UK prime minister’s allies tell us it is too soon to judge his government’s performance. They may be right. We don’t know how the pandemic will end – and other countries, including France, Italy, Spain and Scotland, which manages its own health service, have suffered similar peaks and troughs to England. If the UK government has erred, others have too, in different ways.
Yet it is not too early to judge the performance of Mr Johnson himself because we have already seen the pattern. His missteps over coronavirus have closely followed those he made over Brexit. In both cases, he insisted on seeing what he wanted to see. He saw a world where the British economy would blossom by shunning its largest trading partner, and where a virus would disappear while he shook hands with its victims. That world did not exist.
Mr Johnson went beyond patriotism to embrace British exceptionalism. As coronavirus spread in early February, he mocked the idea that it would affect the global economy, insisting that the UK was “ready to take off its Clark Kent spectacles”, and act “as the supercharged champion” of free trade.
If you are not Superman, taking off your spectacles just leaves you blindly optimistic. With Brexit, Mr Johnson insisted “Global Britain” would defy the laws of trade gravity; with coronavirus, it would build a “world-beating” test-and-trace system. Mr Johnson is not one for details. There was no sense of how these goals could be achieved – and they have not been. His global rhetoric only exposed his parochialism.
Futile promises are a hallmark of Mr Johnson’s leadership. During the campaign for Brexit he said the Irish border would be “absolutely unchanged”. Running for the Conservative party leadership he said the UK would leave the EU on October 31 of last year, “do or die”. With Covid-19, his pledges were less cynical, but still beyond his control. He suggested that the UK would turn the tide by June and, in July, said there would be a “significant return to normality” by Christmas. Some people are born to mislead.
Mr Johnson has been most at ease attacking the proposals of others, then stealing them. When his predecessor Theresa May came up with a Brexit deal that avoided a hard border on the island of Ireland, he likened it to a “suicide vest”. When Labour leader Keir Starmer proposed a two-week “circuit breaker” lockdown last month, Mr Johnson dismissed it as offering endless “misery”. In both cases, he ended up adopting the bulk of the proposals that he had lambasted.
His favoured tactic has been to wait until the last moment before U-turning. Whatever the political merits of this strategy, its real-world effects are likely to be disastrous. As Brexit talks drag on, businesses do not know what trading arrangements with the EU will be in two months. Thousands more Britons are now forecast to die of Covid-19 than would have been the case had lockdown been implemented in September.
Mr Johnson has his strengths. This time a year ago, he began an election campaign that made even some Remainers believe Brexit could be swiftly solved. After leaving intensive care in April, he gave an inspiring tribute to the medical team who had treated him for Covid-19. He is an ideal salesman of ideas, which is why his interest in climate change is so welcome.
The problem is that he does not stick to an idea. His signature on any topic is incoherence. He is pro-individual liberty and pro-public health. He likes low taxes and a big state. He wants to boost business, while refusing to listen to it. He does not want a culture war, but he doesn’t stop his government from fighting one. He wants to be the hero and expects everyone else to do the work.
Democratic accountability is an art, not a science – and not a very sophisticated one. Some leaders are punished for events on their watch for which they bear no blame. Some escape the blame for their misdeeds.
Mr Johnson may get lucky with Brexit: while voters now think voting to leave the EU was a bad idea, their minds are elsewhere. But he can have no complaint about being held responsible for the UK’s pandemic failings. He has made the same mistakes at least twice and now looks unlikely to remain in office beyond 2024. Whatever challenge faces him before then, he will probably make the same mistakes again. "
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| Johnson the Incompetent on 07:37 - Nov 3 with 951 views | HARRY10 |
Another worthy piece that not only highlights the sheer incompetence of this buffoon, but raises the concern about how corruption has skewed the fight against this virus.
" As a rule of thumb, you can pretty much guarantee that for everything that Boris Johnson says, the opposite will turn out to be true. As with Brexit, so it is for the coronavirus. "
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/02/subdued-johnson-just-a-piece-of | | | |
| Johnson the Incompetent on 07:48 - Nov 3 with 925 views | TrumptonBlue |
| Johnson the Incompetent on 07:37 - Nov 3 by HARRY10 |
Another worthy piece that not only highlights the sheer incompetence of this buffoon, but raises the concern about how corruption has skewed the fight against this virus.
" As a rule of thumb, you can pretty much guarantee that for everything that Boris Johnson says, the opposite will turn out to be true. As with Brexit, so it is for the coronavirus. "
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/02/subdued-johnson-just-a-piece-of |
Love that URL. |  | | |
| Johnson the Incompetent on 08:09 - Nov 3 with 885 views | HARRY10 |
| Johnson the Incompetent on 07:48 - Nov 3 by TrumptonBlue |
Love that URL. |
I shouldn't mind a quid for everyone who reads the next word as being sh*t | | | |
| Johnson the Incompetent on 08:57 - Nov 3 with 821 views | Swansea_Blue |
The annoying thing was that this was all known. He's an after dinner speaker, an entertainer playing the buffoon act for the cameras. Countless people who have worked alongside him have highlighted his unserious, lazy approach and indifference to details. He's the exact opposite of a leader you'd want taking us through a major political event (Brexit), let alone a national health crisis.
It wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't filled his cabinet with unskilled sycophants and padered to a SPAD who's seems intent on demolishing the expertise within the civil service and other institutions that run the country. As it is, it's horrendous. His incompetence is making us a poorer, sicker and less respected as a country. It's borderline traitorous stuff really; his government's actions are working against our country's best interests. |  |
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| Johnson the Incompetent on 09:50 - Nov 3 with 751 views | HARRY10 |
An utter failure as an MP, as his workload was equivalent to that of a Mexican taking a siesta, sacked elsewhere for lying (twice).
Being sacked as a politician for is going some.
Useless as London Mayor, turning up to meetings badly briefed and replaced very quickly as Foreign Secretary due to his being such an embarrassment,
And what have we had since July 2019 ?
The same steady stream of lies and incompetence, false promises and child like jingoism based round vacuous sound bites.
And for those so stupid as to imagine brexit was a good idea then where does that leave you now ? Nothing has been sorted, the infrastructure is not there irrespective of what might be finally agreed. And I doubt anyone has a realistic idea of where the country will be, come Jan 1st. | | | |
| Johnson the Incompetent on 10:15 - Nov 3 with 718 views | Oldsmoker |
| Johnson the Incompetent on 09:50 - Nov 3 by HARRY10 |
An utter failure as an MP, as his workload was equivalent to that of a Mexican taking a siesta, sacked elsewhere for lying (twice).
Being sacked as a politician for is going some.
Useless as London Mayor, turning up to meetings badly briefed and replaced very quickly as Foreign Secretary due to his being such an embarrassment,
And what have we had since July 2019 ?
The same steady stream of lies and incompetence, false promises and child like jingoism based round vacuous sound bites.
And for those so stupid as to imagine brexit was a good idea then where does that leave you now ? Nothing has been sorted, the infrastructure is not there irrespective of what might be finally agreed. And I doubt anyone has a realistic idea of where the country will be, come Jan 1st. |
Some infrastructure is being built - lorry parks in Kent.
The post-Brexit trading arrangements with the EU haven't been finalised so will those lorry parks be necessary. If we need them in Kent then why no lorry parks in NI. The Irish times consistently has articles exposing the lack of clarity over ROI/NI trade in 2021.
However, the EU has years of dealing with non-EU countries, the forms that have to be completed and the procedures that have to be followed. The UK has no official documents for traders to complete (not yet) and no agreed procedures because we have never dealt with the EU as a non-member for over 50 years. Our forms will be printed on the back of fag packets.
The saving grace for the Jan 1st Brexit mess will be that Covid has subdued Business activity enough so Imports/Exports may be at a low enough volume for the UK to cope with.
Unlike Covid where Johnson has conceded to the Adults and accepted their proposals he hasn't let go of Brexit. When the adults get to have their say and get their way with Brexit it will be too late.
This old joke sums it up.
So you want to drive to London? I wouldn't start from here. |  |
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| Johnson the Incompetent on 10:20 - Nov 3 with 704 views | HARRY10 |
Brexit will solve the problem of panic buying
.... there will be far call to buy | | | |
| Johnson the Incompetent on 10:37 - Nov 3 with 685 views | Oldsmoker |
| Johnson the Incompetent on 10:20 - Nov 3 by HARRY10 |
Brexit will solve the problem of panic buying
.... there will be far call to buy |
I'm researching the nutrional value of cardboard.
I reckon my Weetabix box could be a meal in itself. | |
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