[Gorefest]

[edit]words were inadequate.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 13 July 2016 - 07:53 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

I'm still living in hope that one day we'll wake up and all the news outlets are going "Lol, jk!!" and it will have all been one horrible practical joke/social experiment...

I call the above scenario my happy place. Or rather my desperate attempt to avoid reality place...

[worry]

Didn't Australia reaffirm its conservative leadership, Japan give its legislature a conservative supermajority aimed at reversing their pacifist constitution, and the Philippines elect a bloodthirsty murder enthusiast? I suppose what I'm getting at is if this is all your dream of a bad joke, the rest of the world's laughing it up with you.

[Khellendros]

- Coltaine -, on 13 July 2016 - 07:25 PM, said:

http://www.bbc.com/n...litics-36789972

Boris Johnson is back.

Okay, I'm a bit confused. I thought he would try now to lie as low as possible. And now he is foreign secretary.

It would be a good thing if he tries to clean up the mess he caused. But he is probably someone who will add more fuel to the flames. No other brexit-supporters available for the job?

It's not quite as mad as it looks at first glance (it's still pretty awful though). The Foreign Office has been downgraded for years. For all the important foreign affairs, it's the Prime Minister who goes, not the Foreign Secretary. And now May has diluted it even further, because she's taken away the Brexit stuff and created a new ministry for it under David Davis, and taken away the international trade stuff and created a new ministry for it under Liam Fox.

So Boris will effectively be the guy who shakes diplomats' hands and does small chitchat. She's given him a high-sounding, but ultimately lame duck position (I hope).

But all three foreign affairs appointees - Johnson, Davis, and Fox - were Brexiters. So May's giving foreign to them, and keeping home affairs for the remainers.

None of the appointments so far fill me with much enthusiasm (not that Tories normally would anyway) - there seems to be a fair few older MPs coming back into the Cabinet rather than fresh faces.


But at least Osborne is gone.

[worry]

Ah, Boris Johnson is one of those 21st Century anti-anti-colonialists that form the bedrock of Conservatism (it's one of the ties that binds social and economic). He has that in common with our future Vice President New Gingrich.

[Coltaine -]

Khellendros, on 13 July 2016 - 09:33 PM, said:

- Coltaine -, on 13 July 2016 - 07:25 PM, said:

http://www.bbc.com/n...litics-36789972

Boris Johnson is back.

Okay, I'm a bit confused. I thought he would try now to lie as low as possible. And now he is foreign secretary.

It would be a good thing if he tries to clean up the mess he caused. But he is probably someone who will add more fuel to the flames. No other brexit-supporters available for the job?

It's not quite as mad as it looks at first glance (it's still pretty awful though). The Foreign Office has been downgraded for years. For all the important foreign affairs, it's the Prime Minister who goes, not the Foreign Secretary. And now May has diluted it even further, because she's taken away the Brexit stuff and created a new ministry for it under David Davis, and taken away the international trade stuff and created a new ministry for it under Liam Fox.

So Boris will effectively be the guy who shakes diplomats' hands and does small chitchat. She's given him a high-sounding, but ultimately lame duck position (I hope).

But all three foreign affairs appointees - Johnson, Davis, and Fox - were Brexiters. So May's giving foreign to them, and keeping home affairs for the remainers.

None of the appointments so far fill me with much enthusiasm (not that Tories normally would anyway) - there seems to be a fair few older MPs coming back into the Cabinet rather than fresh faces.


But at least Osborne is gone.

Okay, that sounds not that bad. Smiling and waving/shaking hands is probably something not even Johnson can ruin. Hopefully.
That all foreign affairs secretaries are brexiters is a strong signal that she is really doing it.

[Coltaine -]

Kanyemander West, on 14 July 2016 - 04:00 AM, said:

Ah, Boris Johnson is one of those 21st Century anti-anti-colonialists that form the bedrock of Conservatism (it's one of the ties that binds social and economic). He has that in common with our future Vice President New Gingrich.

Really?

A shitty colonialist as well. This guy is ridiculous.

[Primateus]

Kanyemander West, on 14 July 2016 - 04:00 AM, said:

Ah, Boris Johnson is one of those 21st Century anti-anti-colonialists that form the bedrock of Conservatism (it's one of the ties that binds social and economic). He has that in common with our future Vice President New Gingrich.

Wow, that's....messe, no, that's FUCKED up!

[Cause]

Primateus, on 14 July 2016 - 08:53 AM, said:

Kanyemander West, on 14 July 2016 - 04:00 AM, said:

Ah, Boris Johnson is one of those 21st Century anti-anti-colonialists that form the bedrock of Conservatism (it's one of the ties that binds social and economic). He has that in common with our future Vice President New Gingrich.

Wow, that's....messe, no, that's FUCKED up!

That sounds a hundred years old. Did he seriously refer to the native!

[Primateus]

UK's new Prime Minister's governmental platform includes Blood for the Blood God!

[worry]

The thing about Johnson is that he's nowhere near alone. And it's no conspiracy, it's just the mundane day to day philosophy of the moneyed class. The difference between neoconservatives and neoliberals here is simply that the former want to maintain that Eurocentric oligarchy and the latter wouldn't mind a more diverse oligarchy.

[Studlock]

I think a lot about neoliberalism, and at the end of the day I would much rather have a neoliberal leading this disaster. At least with a neoliberal I can rely on their fetishization of technocratic ideals to produce scientifically-based policy--maybe not the most moral, or Pareto-improving policies, but effect in someways at the very least. Johnson is a manic who believes, because he is British, it is his right to dominate. This is a very insane thing to believe in 2016, especially since the UK has long played second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth fiddle to other states.

[Gorefest]

A map of all the countries Boris Johnson has insulted (the red ones...):

[Gorefest]

I foresee tighter relations with South America and North Africa...

[Nevyn]

Gorefest, on 15 July 2016 - 02:38 PM, said:

I foresee tighter relations with South America and North Africa...

In a way, being a country he has not yet insulted is in fact an even bigger insult.

[Gorefest]

That's a fair observation. Insignificance stings.

[Tapper]

Gorefest, on 15 July 2016 - 02:38 PM, said:

I foresee tighter relations with South America and North Africa...

Don't forget North Korea!

[Vengeance]

Pretty sure that all of the EU should be red not just France and Germany.

[Tapper]

Vengeance, on 18 July 2016 - 01:55 PM, said:

Pretty sure that all of the EU should be red not just France and Germany.

But is just a technocratic bureaucracy, comparisons with the Third Reich 2.0 notwithstanding.

[Gorefest]

Don't forget the Netherlands and, er...is that Estonia?

Plus he probably insulted the EU as a whole several times. He was the main Leave guy after all. So I think it counts.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 18 July 2016 - 02:57 PM