Did anyone bring a hook? Get him off the stage.


A succinct summary of Boris Johnson’s concession speech:

Johnson says the government has much more to do. He wants to level up, because he believes talent is evenly spread.

He says he has tried to persuade colleagues that changing leader would be “eccentric”.

But he failed to persuade them, he admits – even though the party has a “vast mandate” and is only “a handful of points behind in the polls”.

He says in politics “no one is remotely indispensable”.

The “Darwinian” electoral system will produce a new leader, he says.

He knows there will be people who will be disappointed. And he says he is “sad to be giving up the best job in the world”.

He thanks his wife Carrie and his family, civil servant and staff who have helped him – referring to being “here at Chequers”, before he corrects himself. And he thanks his protection team – the one group who do not leak, he says.

He ends by saying the future is golden.

OK, fuck off now, Boris.

I didn’t like the “Darwinian” reference at all. His views are more crudely Spencerian than Darwinian, I think.

I prefer this summary, too.

Comments

  1. Rich Woods says

    I’ve just had my drains cleaned today. It didn’t take very long and wasn’t at all messy, quite unlike what will have to take place in Downing Street and Westminster. For a start we’ll have to put up with a Raab caretaker government until a new leader of the Conservative Party can be elected; he’s not exactly a clean pair of hands. Second, the leadership contenders are all going to be people who Johnson promoted, who covered for him time and time again. A significant proportion of them were promoted only for their loyalty, not for their knowledge, competence or integrity; a few have shown at least twice that they are venal, arrogant bullies. I can’t see the Tory Party members (who number about 120,000) settling on someone who doesn’t have an iffy record, because those people have little or no governmental experience and no public name recognition; anyone deemed insufficiently pro-Brexit has long since been consigned to the Outer Darkness.

    Whoever does get elected is only going to be able to restore national confidence in government if they can show a clear break from Johnson’s preference for law-breaking and rule-bending, from the disregard for standards and ethics, from the populist approach over the honest and the practical, and can also draw the sting of Brexit (which is definitely a circle in need of squaring). You have to wonder who would want to put themselves forward for that, and who would be able to do so with a solid plan which could command Party support.

  2. call me mark says

    he thanks his protection team – the one group who do not leak, he says.

    So “thanks for not telling everyone I broke my own lockdown rules”?

  3. Reginald Selkirk says

    @1: Herbert Spencer

    Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression “survival of the fittest”, which he coined in Principles of Biology (1864) after reading Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. The term strongly suggests natural selection, yet Spencer saw evolution as extending into realms of sociology and ethics, so he also supported Lamarckism.[1][2] …

  4. birgerjohansson says

    Reginald Selkirk
    We already knew Republicans like terrorism by bombs. Both the airborne kind and those against abortion provides.
    This reminds me of the “Muhammed as a roundabout dog – they fokus their hatred on the most ridicilous things.

    If ze True Americanz take over there will be no shortage of volunteers for the stormtroopers.

  5. consciousness razor says

    Reginald Selkirk, #8:
    There is no evidence yet about who did it. There was motive for someone who believed it promoted Satanism or whatever, but there was also motive because it promoted eugenics.

    Good riddance, I say.

  6. Louis says

    Don’t sit comfortably yet my compatriots. He looks like he’s sticking around for a few months until the leadership race is decided. Or that’s how it looks at time of posting. He’s done massive damage to the UK in his time in office, if only to the conventions and the “non-existent-unwritten-constitution-of-the-UK-but-that-actually-sort-of-exists” constitution of the UK. Given even a slip of a chance (and with an utterly compliant cabinet of “all the non-talents” he has a chance) he’ll do more as he leaves. He’s spiteful, vindictive, and a “wrecker”.

    The incompetent and outright evil people he has surrounded himself with are not going to fail to take an opportunity to secure their slice of pie or power. This ain’t over yet.

    Louis

    P.S. I don’t even feel relief or schadenfreude, much worse is on the cards.

  7. wzrd1 says

    He says in politics “no one is remotely indispensable”.

    “Except for me, of course”.
    Then, having the temerity of acting surprised when that idiotic argument is soundly rejected by one and all.

    As for the Georgia Guidestones, well, they also contradicted the other godling darling of the GOP, Elon Musk, who recently insisted that we have no overpopulation problem, but indeed, an underpopulation problem and need more people born.
    Plus a politician calling for their destruction, as free speech is illegal on private property, all hail Big Brother and shit.
    My eldest is considering departing this land forever, out of concern that we’ll devolve into either The Handmaiden’s Tale or simply civil war.
    Frankly, I’m thinking we’re more heading toward The Purge…

  8. Rich Woods says

    It appears that the first test for the post-Johnson Tory government is going to be to get Johnson out of the Prime Ministerial post.

    Even the lying liar couldn’t make this shit up.

  9. F.O. says

    I like O’Brien, but I always have the nagging feeling… Why do work on the assumption that rules apply to rulers and then we act all shocked every single time we discover it is not really true?
    Isn’t that a pretense we should drop?
    Wouldn’t we build a better society if we got rid of that assumption?

  10. wzrd1 says

    @Rich Woods, as I recall, the Monarch can easily remove the PM from post, office and if necessary, nation.
    It’s one of the few powers that remain exclusive to the monarch.

  11. says

    wzrd1: The monarch may have that power on paper, but none of them have used it without being asked to, by the PM, for a very long time. I suspect that the current Queen has no intention of rocking that boat, and if she or her successor did, it would not be at all “easy” and there might be a huge backlash.

  12. wzrd1 says

    Ah, don’t rock the boat – a sinking boat.
    Grand idea! Pity that nobody’s bailing it out while they wait.