[Gorefest]

If Scotland would leave, they'd still be outside the EU. They would be considered a new country which would have to apply for membership.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Pretty sure there was a petition for Yorkshire to leave at some stage. We're God's Own County - take us with you please!

[Gorefest]

Yorkshire is mainly leave voting though, isn't it?

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Gorefest, on 28 July 2019 - 04:44 PM, said:

Yorkshire is mainly leave voting though, isn't it?

Now I've checked, unfortunately yes. Yorkshire, you had one job and you cocked it up!

[worry]

Wales voted leave?! Was the EU demanding they give forest sprites and other fair folk full citizenship or something?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

worry, on 28 July 2019 - 07:19 PM, said:

Wales voted leave?! Was the EU demanding they give forest sprites and other fair folk full citizenship or something?

Leszy (Leshy) supposedly stealing their jobs... 'Focus group participants in Merthyr and the Rhondda were notably unhappy at the increase in the Polish communities in those places. This was not articulated simply as xenophobia: a specifically working-class objection to immigration advanced to us was that, by making the jobs market much more competitive, the wages of locals were driven downwards. [...] Several of those we spoke to talked of white elephants'

https://www.independ...e-a8021051.html

'"Migrants have no or little impact" on the employment or unemployment outcomes of the UK-born workforce.
The fall of the pound after the referendum has had a larger impact on wages and employment opportunities.
Migration does not force down wages to any great extent. There is some evidence that it does in lower-skilled areas, but the impact is small.
There is little or no impact on employment, wages or training.'

https://www.theguard...histle-politics

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 28 July 2019 - 07:54 PM

[Maark Abbott]

The issue with areas like Yorkshire voting leave is that people bought into the 'the EU made you poor!' rhetoric of the right wing and Faragists, when actually Tory and LibDem austerity is what has caused poverty levels in the region to soar.

I mean you would have thought the region would have learned after Thatcher that you can't trust a Tory but nooooooooooooo

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Johnson gave a bizarre interview with Talkradio in which he announced, apropos of nothing, that he liked to turn wine-crates into models of buses: "I have a thing where I make models of buses. What I make is, I get old, I don't know, wooden crates, and I paint them. It's a box that's been used to contain two wine bottles, right, and it will have a dividing thing. And I turn it into a bus."

[...]

Prior to the model-bus interview, if you googled "boris johnson bus" you would learn about Johnson's infamous "Brexit Battle Bus" which was driven around the UK in the runup to the Brexit vote, emblazoned with the lie that "We send the EU £350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead. Vote Leave." This is unequivocally false, and according to polls, it was an extremely compelling one, which may have tipped the Brexit vote for Leave [...] Today, the results are a mix of stories about the model bus hobby and the Brexit bus (as well as stories about whether this was a media manipulation gambit). In a month or a year, the Brexit bus might be off the page altogether.'
https://boingboing.n...ooglewhack.html

[Edit: 'In an interview with Metro back in 2011, three years into his tenure as Mayor of London, he professed to eerily similar artistic endeavours: “I like to relax by painting on cheese boxes.” [...] “I paint the whole thing white with a tube of children’s paint and I look for something to paint." [...] Just last week, he was one of a series of famous figures to contribute doodles to a charity auction [...] And what was it of? A London double-decker, of course – complete with “passengers enjoying themselves on the wonderful bus.”'

However, the fact that he doodled one bus a week ago is hardly evidence that he didn't plan to use the bus story as a distraction and Google bomb. He may not be very technology savvy, but it would be simple enough for an adviser to explain the concept of a Google bomb, which he naturally cross-bred with his dead cat.

https://inews.co.uk/...alk-radio-true/
]

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 29 July 2019 - 06:19 PM

[Malankazooie]

Ok, I knew of Boris Johnson but never really heard him speak at any length. Now that he is your PM, whooboy, listening to him is uncomfortable. I didn't think there could be a bigger buffoon then Trump, but damn, Johnson sounds like an idiot. Can you imagine what kind of clown show it's going to be when Trump and Johnson appear before the cameras to take questions? Hopefully that will be avoided somehow.

[Primateus]

Malankazooie, on 31 July 2019 - 06:09 PM, said:

Ok, I knew of Boris Johnson but never really heard him speak at any length. Now that he is your PM, whooboy, listening to him is uncomfortable. I didn't think there could be a bigger buffoon then Trump, but damn, Johnson sounds like an idiot. Can you imagine what kind of clown show it's going to be when Trump and Johnson appear before the cameras to take questions? Hopefully that will be avoided somehow.

Sometimes I kinda think he sounds like Prince George from Blackadder.

[Gorefest]

The difference is that Boris Johnson deliberately acts like a somewhat endearing idiot, whereas Trump actually is an idiot.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Gorefest, on 31 July 2019 - 10:54 PM, said:

The difference is that Boris Johnson deliberately acts like a somewhat endearing idiot, whereas Trump actually is an idiot.

https://www.youtube....h?v=dXyO_MC9g3k

A significant part of Trump's idiocy is deliberate---for example, I'm almost certain he knew that claiming (repeatedly) that Johnson was being called 'Britain Trump' (rather than 'Britain's Trump' or 'British Trump') was ridiculous, but he's expoiting the Dubya / Palin effect: many rural, working class, or generally less educated US o Ans get incensed when people criticize their failure to speak 'properly'. OTOH Trump also seems genuinely addled at times.

On the other hand, as Oliver's segment demonstrates, when it comes to policy Johnson shares a significant portion of Trump's intellectual laziness, lack of attention to detail, and idiotically cavalier attitude, as well as his obvious preference for ideological lies over truth. The difference there is a matter of degree.

As a con artist, Trump has displayed considerable social intelligence. And he correctly predicted before the campaign that he'd be able to get massive publicity without having to pay for TV ads just by making controversial statements and letting people have him call into their shows.

Is Johnson especially smart? He was supposedly pretty good at Latin, for whatever little that's worth. Unlike Trump, he seems to genuinely enjoy reading... or at least reciting Kipling's racist jingoistic doggerel.

[Edit: 'Boris Johnson took a Two-One in Greats from Balliol, which is to say he graduated from Oxford University with Upper Second Class Honours in the School of Literae Humaniores, which is more widely known as Classics. [...] Greats is traditionally seen as one of the hardest degrees Oxford offers. [Although t]hat’s probably not true these days [...] Public Schools and Grammar Schools would send their best scholars to read Greats. [...]Greats is a degree that brings with it an incredible amount of baggage in the circles that are aware of it, and the British media are very much in those circles. Boris is aware of the reputation that comes with his degree and plays up to it. He quotes ancient scholars, sometimes in the original Latin or Greek. When students protested the withdrawal of Ancient History A-level by the last exam board that had offered it, he came out of Parliament in a toga to address the crowd.'
https://www.quora.co...ery-intelligent
]

Up until the 20th century, university education in the UK was primarily based around Latin and ancient Greek, which gave the upper classes (and upper middle class) a (mostly) specious claim to superior intelligence and cultivation, while glorifying imperialism. Johnson's displays of 'intelligence' through 'classical' erudition are a farcical relic of that stupid system.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 01 August 2019 - 03:03 AM

[worry]

Is this good?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

worry, on 02 August 2019 - 01:46 AM, said:

Is this good?

Details:

https://news.sky.com...ohnson-11775356

Interesting, the election was in Wales. 'The result is a significant blow to the new Tory leader as his working majority in parliament has now fallen to just one. [...] She said: "People are desperately crying out for a different kind of politics. There is no time for tribalism when our country is faced with a Boris Johnson government and the threat of a no-deal Brexit.

"So my very first act as your MP when I arrive in Westminster will be to find Mr Boris Johnson wherever he is hiding and tell him loud and clear: 'Stop playing with the future of our communities and rule out a no-deal Brexit now'."'

[Mezla PigDog]

worry, on 02 August 2019 - 01:46 AM, said:

Is this good?

Nothing is good these days but the government now has a Parliamentary majority of 1 and a good number of Johnson's own MPs don't agree with him on Brexit so he definitely has no Brexit majority. And it suggests he would be unwise to call a General Election to try and boost his majority. Lots of people thought there would be a bounce towards the Tories because Johnson is populist and this suggests that the vote isn't there for him. I don't know how this constituency typically votes but I think it swings between Tory and Lib Dem. So I think it signals continued grinding Parliamentary deadlock lead by fantasists who won't acknowledge reality.

I'm trying really hard not to call him Boris. His name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson!

[worry]

His name is Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!

[Illuyankas]

Johnson is smarter than he appears, but dumber than he believes he is.

[Maark Abbott]

Beeb discussing food shortages and the possibility of rationing...

[Cause]

Maark Abbott, on 08 August 2019 - 08:00 AM, said:

Beeb discussing food shortages and the possibility of rationing...

Its around this point that youd expect adult politicians to use sentances like 'for the good of Britain we have decided to pause and re-evaluate our options'. Maybbe its time to write an actual constitution.

[Maark Abbott]

Cause, on 08 August 2019 - 08:52 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 08 August 2019 - 08:00 AM, said:

Beeb discussing food shortages and the possibility of rationing...

Its around this point that youd expect adult politicians to use sentances like 'for the good of Britain we have decided to pause and re-evaluate our options'. Maybbe its time to write an actual constitution.

No, I wouldn't, because the political class in the UK is all about self-enrichment and nothing else.