Boris Johnson

[Kevin Thurlow]

"he is a narcissistic sociopath"

or "politician".

[MartinCarpenter]

That's maybe true but also rather unfair on most politicians

Most of them do seem to feel fairly strongly bound by a responsibility to the post, country, political party they're part of. Boris clearly never does/did.

The UK/USA really did seem to go through a phase of selecting terribly - and frankly obviously - unsuited political leaders a few years back, hopefully we've got past that a little bit. We'll have to see who the Conservative membership throw up this time I guess.

[NickFaulks]

2, The convention is that the outgoing PM stays in office until a successor is elected and no constitutional precedent for a deputy taking over as Prime Minister.

That could have been done and I do not understand why it hasn't happened.

[Andrew Zigmond]

By strict constitutional pedantry the Prime Minister is appointed by the Monarch and can only be dismissed by them. Even up to the second world war, when a Prime Minister changed between elections the succession would be decided by backroom deals. The last Prime Minister appointed this way was Alec Douglas-Home in 1963 and it was partly controversy over this choice that led to the two main parties electing future leaders by a ballot of first their individual MPs (Callaghan and Major both becoming Prime Minister this way) and then individual members which of course is a longer process. Both Brown and May were elected unopposed, with no need for a party members ballot so Boris Johnson was the first ever Prime Minister elected this way during which time his predecessor remained as a lame duck.

[Mick Norris]

"he is a narcissistic sociopath"

or "politician".

I know this isn't a serious point you're making Kevin, but I've spent quite a while talking with women who have experience with narcissists, one of whom was physically assaulted, and another had to involve the police

The condoning of his behaviour, and the toxic predatory behaviour of some politicians, not limited to the Conservative party I should add, results in adverse consequences for women in the general population, in the same way we've seen a rise in racist behaviour and a more extreme discourse and divided country including the murder of 2 of our MPs Jo cox and David Amess

Johnson, Farage and their ilk need to be called out on this

As you probably know, I have a now 17 year-old daughter who is mixed race, and I don't want to see her having to accept this as normal behaviour

There are lots of good politicians, and it demeans us if we give in to the "they're all the same" trope, as not all Conservatives are the same let alone members of other parties

[Nick Burrows]

There are lots of good politicians, and it demeans us if we give in to the "they're all the same" trope, as not all Conservatives are the same let alone members of other parties

Whilst of course this is true, we have also witnessed over the past 2 years, the majority of conservative politicians repeatedly defending Johnson to the hilt only now to be trying to present an image of integrity and decency.

[Mick Norris]

Absolutely, so like we have seen in the recent byelections, people need to vote tactically even for parties they dislike in order to get the Tories out (there's no Jeremy Corbyn or Nick Clegg excuse now)

[Jon Tait]

Absolutely, so like we have seen in the recent byelections, people need to vote tactically even for parties they dislike in order to get the Tories out (there's no Jeremy Corbyn or Nick Clegg excuse now)

Neither of those were excuses before.

[David Sedgwick]

The original was caught by Twitter's 140 character limit.

Your tweet must have been made prior to November 8th 2017 David.

"On November 8th 2017, Twitter doubled the character limit from 140 characters to 280 characters"

Thank you John. I have edited my original post.

In the two years since I joined Twitter, I have often been puzzled that I seemed to be able to post longer tweets than I would have expected. For some reason I never thought to count the characters.

[David Sedgwick]

I don't plan to comment further until after the end.

The end has now come in the sense that I was using the term in the above quotation.

I have decided to defer any further comment until the Conservative Party 1922 Committee has decided the procedure and timetable for the election of the next Party Leader.

[NickFaulks]

Meanwhile, the man continues to appoint Ministers. If you knew nothing about the Johnsons prior behaviour, you wouldn't believe it was possible.

He is clearly sitting in Downing St thinking that every day he hangs on is an opportunity for yet another lucky bounce. It would have to be a really big one this time, but what, for instance, if Putin were to lob a nuclear missile at the UK? They could hardly go on with their silly election then, could they?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I don't plan to comment further until after the end.

The end has now come in the sense that I was using the term in the above quotation.

I have decided to defer any further comment until the Conservative Party 1922 Committee has decided the procedure and timetable for the election of the next Party Leader.

I wonder how many members of the Conservative Party post on this forum?

Choose wisely, David!

[Nick Ivell]

I would imagine very few members of the Conservative party post on here.

I am not a member of the party, and never have been - but when this forum veers into politics, I do find it a bit of a Corbynite echo chamber.

For the record, Johnson had many faults. As did many of his predecessors, Disraeli for one. But for getting Brexit over the line (whether you agree with it or not), he will go down as a consequential PM, unlike the likes of Douglas Home, who may have been more honourable but will be remembered for nothing.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Would be genuinely interested about who on here you regard as "Corbynite".

I think that Messrs Killoran and Horton would admit as much, but apart from that I'm struggling a bit.

Speaking personally, I have always been a man of the left but did not vote for him in either Labour leadership election.

[Nick Ivell]

I simply felt, for the sake of balance, that the 'case for Johnson' should be put. So I did.

In general, I despise the politics of this forum (with occasional exceptions, such as David). For this reason, I will not be commenting further.

Let the Corbynite echo chamber resume...