Since this is extremely enlightening — and hilarious — I wanted to share it with those of you who aren’t around for the early-morning thread. Thanks, Tony!
Over here on the shores of Fiddle-Earth it certainly looks like a critical mass of the financial interests that own the Tory Party have come to the conclusion that, with The Great British Brexit an established boot on the throat of the UK’s workers and the NHS doing sterling work pulling the Government’s exposed knackerjacks out of the Covid fire, they’ve probably squeezed all of the electoral mileage they can out of Flobalob Johnson’s ‘Roly-Poly Rascal with Rumpy-Pumpy Ways’ act and have therefore authorised the drawing and inserting of multiple knives into his wine-soaked carapace.
Leakers have started trashing him to their chums in the corporate media, which is par for the course where Tories and their internal feuds are concerned, but those chums have actually stared filing articles on the trashing rather than keeping it all on the down-low as ‘background’ for their inevitable tell-all books, which is wildly out of character for our doormat Press where their good friend ‘Boris’ is concerned and proof positive that his days of sloth and gluttony are definitely numbered. Word must have gone out from the paramount thrones of media power that the dense protective cordon erected around the Bullingdon Bully long before he won the Tory Party leadership is no longer in effect, leaving political editors across the Infotainment industry aquiver with anticipation over yet another Tory Party coronation.
As to the actual allegations themselves (always secondary in importance to the narrative they’re used to support) it’s being reported as multi-sourced and credibly witnessed that Johnson was overheard around the time of the 2nd National Lockdown angrily refusing to consider the possibility of ordering a 3rd Lockdown, regardless of the scientific advice, saying that he would rather “see bodies pile high in their thousands”. He’s denying it, of course, but he’s also denying –
– That there’s anything vaguely sleazy (that’s the word of the moment, ‘sleaze’, so redolent of mid-90s Tory vileness while steering public feeling away from the much more accurate but unsettling ‘criminal corruption’) about his secret text conversations with James ‘I love Brexit Britain so much that I moved my entire vacuum-cleaner production line to the Far East so I can still profit from trade deals with the evil EU’ Dyson about cutting the beardie billionaire some juicy tax incentives as part of the contracts he was gifted to produce ventilators (which his company didn’t, couldn’t and, eventually, still didn’t, because vacuum cleaners and medical ventilators are, like, totally different things) while ignoring repeated offers from actual ventilator producing companies that weren’t owned by Tory donors or friends of Cabinet members. Totally normal, nothing to see here, as evidenced by the current line of chaff being deployed by today’s interchangeable Tory talking-head arguing that Johnson’s detractors have a problem with the medium (texting = new-fangled and trendy comms platform that those fuddy-duddy losers just don’t get, bro) and not the message (Bozo never met a billionaire he wouldn’t bare buttocks for).
– That far from being surprised, outraged and intractably opposed to the very idea of a breakaway Super League as he told absolutely everyone last week, Johnson actually had a meeting in Downing Street with Ed ‘Shrunken Head’ Woodward, the (now former) Chief Executive of Manchester United Football Club PLC just a couple of days before the SL was announced. What could they possibly have had to talk about? Not the dramatic example of unrestricted greed and corporate arseholishness that would so dominate the headlines a couple of days later, that’s for sure. Why, the very thought is an outrageous insult to the character and credibility of…. uh…. ah… ummmmm….. let’s move on.
– That anyone but our poor, wee poverty-stricken church-mouse of a Prime Minister paid for the recent refurbishment of the living areas above 11 Downing Street into a cross between a Turkish brothel and the reduced section in IKEA. Certainly not rich Party donors, despite it being reported that donations for such were actually solicited. That would arguably be bribery, after all. No, no, Johnson paid for it all himself. What’s that? He paid for it ‘himself’ via a loan from Tory Central Office? That’s that answered then, isn’t it? I mean, there’s no suggestion that Tory Central Office was just the middleman for a corrupt donation from a rich Party donor, is there? Of course not. Just listen to the parade of minor Cabinet drones happy to tell the BBC and assorted other News outlets that they have no idea where Johnson got the money from but they’re sure he was telling the truth when he said whatever he said….. crystal clear now, yes?
It’s almost delicious that the source of the “pile up the bodies” quote might be Dominic Cummings, the Megamind-lookalike and semi-professional sociopath who Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal made look like slightly less of a highly-effective Russian intelligence asset responsible for masterminding the pro-Brexit social media campaign of 2016 and more like a head-in-the-clouds blameless boffin. Cummings was Johnson’s handler/dragon up until he was somehow forced out due to a conflict with Johnson’s latest mistress (sorry, what’s the proper Media gloss? ‘Loving partner’? ‘Influential girlfriend’? Something like that). It was always a known-known that Cummings remained close to Johnson’s ex-chum and current (totally invisible) Northern Ireland Secretary, Michael ‘Sockpuppet’ Gove, and through Gove to his ultimate master Rupert Murdoch, so Cummings slipping the scalpel into Johnson’s hide isn’t exactly a dramatic twist.
What makes it funny in a blackly comic way is that most of the Hoi Polloi will know Cummings best for his overt breaking of the first Lockdown this time last year and the humiliating way every single member of Johnson’s Cabinet rejected observable reality in order to protect Obvious Putinist Asset from facing any consequences. Now the same Cabinet lackies are trying to suggest that no one sensible believes a word that crazy rotter Cummings says, and it’s not working. When the BBC’s Chief Political Propagandist Laura Kuenssberg (think a blonde Maggie Haberman with a career-defining fetish for naughty public schoolboys in blue rosettes) has abandoned her in-your-face crush on Johnson to act as Cummings’ pukefunnel, it doesn’t take a political genius to read the tea leaves.
All that said, the Tories are obviously hoping that they can offload Johnson with all the responsibility for everything stuffed into the pockets of his ill-fitting suit jacket. Brexit, corruption, cronyism, 150,000 plus dead of Covid, everything. Not us, Guvnor, it was the fat TV celebrity wot done it, Vote Conservative for a Fresh Start. I’m sure the British Media will bend over like the spineless salarymen they are to help them do it, and it’s hard to see Labour’s incompetent throwbacks mustering any kind of compelling anti-Tory narrative out of it since their entire ‘policy platform’ consists of Hippy Punching and doing whatever they think the pro-Tory Press will find least objectionable, and doing even that incredibly badly, but you have to take your pleasures where you can in the Franchised Oblast of Brexitannia Minor, and seeing the expression on Flobalob’s face when it finally sinks in that he’s not going to be able to smirk his way out of it this time will be…. nice.
Maybe. We’ll see what happens. I’m hoping for retaliatory blow-back all the way down the pipe. Chew each other to pieces you dinner-party fascist fucktards, I’ll be in the garden with a beer.
schrodingers_cat
OT: Reupping from the Cheryl Rofer’s thread.
Guys COVID in Delhi has reached my family’s doorstep. Husband kitteh’s cousin and his aunt both have it. Aunt is in her mid 80s and barely breathing. My SIL, the medic in Mumbai is giving her advice over the phone because there is no way she can get medical help in the hellscape that India’s capital is right now. Please send her good thoughts.
Old School
@schrodingers_cat: How awful. Hoping for the best for everyone.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: Oh no. Fingers crossed.
Darkrose
@schrodingers_cat: Oh no…definitely will keep you and yours in my thoughts.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: A message flashed on Mr, Cat’s phone aunt is no more. Then 5 minutes later, false alarm she is still breathing but barely, from my SIL in Mumbai. It is crazy. A doctor who lives in the same apartment complex will do a house call later.
Lapassionara
@schrodingers_cat: what a nightmare! So sorry.
Brachiator
Fun comment!
Seems to me that the Tories are playing an odd game. Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings are putting on a Punch and Judy show, bashing one another, but in the end, Cummings cannot play white knight. He was either Johnson’s creature or puppet master, depending on who you believe. And, most importantly, he is really not one of the school boy elite. He is a rather threadbare Rasputin, who no one really cares about and is past due for the trash heap.
I continue to be amazed at the degree to which British media continues its centuries long tradition of corruption and butt kissing of those in power. Yes, US media is bad, but some of the British press don’t even pretend to give a shit about anything other than their own agendas.
Bottom line is that nothing will change even if Boris is replaced. Wait. One thing will change. The level of incompetence will increase dramatically.
But Boris Johnson was paying off his cronies from day one, and exceeded Trump levels of corruption, a hard bar to pass.
BREXIT has been a shambles, and is slowly sinking the economy.
And the same Conservative Party fools are still in place, ready to play another round of political musical chairs in which scoundrels take up new positions in a fetid, corrupt and incompetent government.
But the wild thing is how complacent the British people are about all this. I guess they figure that the country has been around for thousands of years, so no big deal. But I keep hearing people say, “well the country is falling apart, but we can’t do anything until the next general election. So, just buck up and take it.”
There are some bashing Labour, because they love opposition political theater, and are not getting enough of it from Starmer. But I have no idea what empty opposition is supposed to accomplish. And if you want to see some truly empty bullshit, watch Prime Minister Question Time. Even when Labour or the SNP asks a good question, Boris Johnson just ignores it and goes into one of his word salad rambles. He clearly doesn’t give a shit. Or even a shite.
And the truly lost souls among the public get more upset about the football scandal, but also take heart in the idea that BREXIT means that they can still keep the bloody foreigners out.
schrodingers_cat
@Darkrose:
@Lapassionara:
@Baud:
@Old School:
Thanks so much.
Jay
One of my wife’s co-workers, lost his Aunti last week. Too poor to retire, worked at the food bank, always brought him a cake, a card and a scratcher for his Birthday, even this year, ( contactless).
Died alone at home and nobody noticed for a week.
Holding your family in India and so many others in the light as best as I can, Cat.
dmsilev
@schrodingers_cat: Very sorry to hear that. Hope your husband’s aunt makes it through the crisis and that the rest of his family will also be ok.
Nicole
@schrodingers_cat: I’m so sorry. Holding your in-laws in my thoughts.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Please take care. Wishing you and your family the best in dealing with this awful calamity.
Kayla Rudbek
@schrodingers_cat: I’m very sorry to hear this. I hope that things go well for them.
Nina
My son is at university in Scotland. The other fun note is that Scotland is having an election about now, and the Tories are the biggest bastion of anti-independence votes. The SNP had some ugly split but it appears to be settling down, and they’re polling very well. Depressing the Tory vote could strengthen the SNP and Alba enough that a second independence referendum has a chance.
Jay
@Brachiator:
on the bright side, the DUP is imploding, blaming not only their own leaders, but also Boris the Lessor and the UK for their troubles.
rikyrah
Thanks for this post. You always bring great insight ?
BruceFromOhio
That is … quite a sentence. And a helluva way to open an essay. Many thanks!
@schrodingers_cat: I am very sorry to hear this, and that this is happening to you and your loved ones.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
Oh SC??????
boatboy_srq
In other words, BoJo is getting dRumpfinated?
Scott
So reminds me of the late, great Molly Ivins.
Sloane Ranger
@schrodingers_cat: I’m so sorry. My thoughts are with you and your family.
Brachiator
@Jay:
Yeah, this was a bit of a surprise.
Wow. Latest news
The sad thing is that BREXIT has a huge impact on Northern Ireland, and yet the supposed government there cannot get its act together, leaving it up to the British government to take the lead.
boatboy_srq
@schrodingers_cat: [[hug]]
I have newly-hired staff in Mumbai, who are sequestered at home and WFHing through the lockdowns and the blackouts. And they are healthy. I can only imagine what it is like for you and yours. Hang in there.
Barney
A couple of corrections:
The “beardy billionaire” is usually Richard Branson – it doesn’t describe Dyson.
Gove is not, and never has been, Northern Ireland Secretary (currently Brandon Lewis, a party apparatchik). Johnson recently sacked Julian Smith from the post, for having done something vaguely useful (getting Sinn Fein and the DUP to talk to each other and resume government). Gove is the “Minister for the Cabinet Office”, a vague title that allows him to interfere in whatever he wants, unless the PM has a firm control. Which, as is now plain, Johnson does not.
Talking of the DUP, Arlene Foster, its leader and First Minister of Northern Ireland, has just announced her resignation from both positions. This is because over half her MPs/NI Assembly members had signed a letter indicating they had no confidence in her. Mostly because she trusted Johnson to pull off the impossible with Brexit and get Scotland, Wales and England out of the EU single market, keep the Good Friday Agreement in one piece, and have no customs border between NI and Great Britain. Only 2 out of 3 of those can co-exist, and anyone with half a brain could see Johnson was lying when he said he could do all three. Plus Foster apparently doesn’t hate LGBT people enough – on a bill to ban “conversion therapy”, she only abstained when the DUP bigots wanted her to vote against it.
She now knows what you get for trusting Johnson. Whether those who voted Tory in 2019 will wake up and see that, who knows.
rikyrah
???
Megan Ranney MD MPH ? (@meganranney) Tweeted:
It’s funny. “Herd immunity” was all the rage amongst conservatives when it meant getting people infected and putting them at risk.
Now that it means getting a safe vaccine and PREVENTING #covid19 infection, it has somehow gone out of style? https://twitter.com/meganranney/status/1385971767680897028?s=20
boatboy_srq
Is that possible? At least in terms of Brexit. From what I saw, the Tories were absolutely the Party of Leave. Anyone filling BoJo’s shoes would be More Leave Than Thou just to retain the electorate. Edging away from that loses all those rural voters that think Brexit was the best thing since Britain was an empire.
topclimber
As long as the city of London can be a world capital for money laundering, there will always be an England. Huzzah!
ETA: Sorry to hear about Cat’s family. I wonder if the misery of this pandemic is easier to take in an extended family, or not at all.
topclimber
@Nina: I am holding out for a confederation of the Gaels–Scots and all the Irish. Anglo-Saxons are ok I guess, but who really needs them in your government?
Mike in NC
We were in London in August 2019. Twenty months ago. Haven’t been anyplace since then. Now we’re planning a trip to spend a few days in Key West near the end of May. Looking forward to traveling again.
Brachiator
@boatboy_srq:
The crazy thing is that BREXIT hard liners still seem to crave a no-deal BREXIT, even though it is pretty clear to the sane that this would be a disaster for the country.
BREXIT hard liners are also clearly delusional when it comes to Northern Ireland. The worst of them also seem to believe that they can ignore Biden’s clear warnings about not fucking up the Good Friday Agreement.
The worst Tories seem to hate that they have to pay any attention to Ireland at all.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: A friend is a Professor in Medicine in Delhi. She and her family are wonderful people. I hope they’re okay.
Sorry to hear about your husband’s family members. It turns my dismay at the right wing deniers into rage.
Sloane Ranger
@Jay:
The issue is that BoJo tore up the deal Teresa May negotiated with the EU, which treated Northern Ireland as part of the UK for customs purposes, in favour of a deal where NI remained in a customs union with the Republic and the rest of the EU. According to Boris, his was a much better deal, even if it treated Northern Ireland like a foreign country for some purposes. Why? Because he said so!
To be fair, the DUP MP’s voted against it but they also voted against May’s deal, which was unwieldy but logically consistent if you accept that Brexit was a good idea.
The DUP wanted Brexit but they also wanted an open border with the Republic for trade purposes. As usual, they wanted their cake and to eat it at the same time. But then, they’ve never been the sharpest knives in the draw.
Sasha
I’m pretty sure this is exactly what the GOP is planning to do with Trump as soon as he’s either dead or imprisoned.
Sloane Ranger
@Jay:
The issue is that BoJo tore up the deal Teresa May negotiated with the EU, which treated Northern Ireland as part of the UK for customs purposes, in favour of a deal where NI remained in a customs union with the Republic and the rest of the EU. According to Boris, his was a much better deal, even if it treated Northern Ireland like a foreign country for some purposes. Why? Because he said so!
To be fair, the DUP MP’s voted against it but they also voted against May’s deal, which was unwieldy but logically consistent if you accept that Brexit was a good idea.
The DUP wanted Brexit but they also wanted an open border with the Republic for trade purposes. As usual, they wanted their cake and to eat it at the same time. But then, they’ve never been the sharpest knives in the draw.
Barry
@boatboy_srq:
“Is that possible? At least in terms of Brexit. From what I saw, the Tories were absolutely the Party of Leave. Anyone filling BoJo’s shoes would be More Leave Than Thou just to retain the electorate. Edging away from that loses all those rural voters that think Brexit was the best thing since Britain was an empire.”
‘Don’t you understand? BoJo was a clown and a secret LaborCommunist Remoaner, wrecker and Kulack. He probably swore a secret oath to the EU and their Scottish ginger fifth column.
Only a True Tory can Make Brexit Great Again!’
Sh*t like that worked on the MAGA crowd, and English Tories appear to make them look smart.
schrodingers_cat
She is no more.
Barry
@Sloane Ranger: “The DUP wanted Brexit but they also wanted an open border with the Republic for trade purposes. As usual, they wanted their cake and to eat it at the same time. But then, they’ve never been the sharpest knives in the draw.”
Somebody put it that they were very dumb for Irish people, because any Irish person with half a brain knew that English Tories would betray them as soon as it was convenient.
Brachiator
@Sasha:
But it is really “Vote for the same old crap with a different face.”
Barry
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m sorry to hear that.
Mary G
@schrodingers_cat: {hugs}
That must be you and your husband’s worse nightmare come true. I imagine the combination of helplessness, sorrow, and rage must be eating away. Will pray for a miracle and hope that Modi becomes TFG of India as soon as possible.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Is this your aunt?
I am very sorry for all that is happening to your family.
Jay
@Sloane Ranger:
drawer?
I keep my knives in a wood block, hand wash them so they don’t bang into metal or porcelain and dull or bend the weft, and use diamond stones and a hone, so my sharps are sharp.
Little bit of effort, little bit of knowledge, little bit of discipline.*
SWMBO used to cut herself regularly, ( dull knives, self sharpening marketing bs, poor knife skills) until she met me,
*talents the British Right are missing in spades.
VOR
Fox News in the future: “Trump, Trump. Name sounds familiar. Isn’t he that Democrat coastal elite from New York City?”
Steve in the ATL
I found this post deeply offensive and am totally pieing Tony Jay. Since when is “wine-soaked” a term of disparagement?!
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: No she was my MIL’s sister.
Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
so sorry Cat. ❤️❤️❤️❤️????
Lapassionara
@schrodingers_cat: my condolences. Such massive sadness.
Cheryl from Maryland
@schrodingers_cat: Oh, so distressing! Hope all are doing as well as they can. Damn the complacency of the current Indian government.
RE: Tony Jay — have you considered novel writing? You are better than when Martin Amis described the Thatcher go-go 1980s. Now is your time.
RE: Scotland. Let’s go Auld Alliance! Repel the Sassenach!
dmsilev
@schrodingers_cat: Sigh.
Condolences to you and your family.
Jay
@Steve in the ATL:
from the outside, not the inside.
used to be a method of returning assorted dead Brit “hero’s” back to the UK for pomp and circumstance back in the days of sail,
now a method of preserving Tory Backbenchers between votes,….
skerry
@schrodingers_cat: I’m so sorry. My thoughts are with your family.
Jay
schrodingers_cat
It it was swift, she started experiencing symptoms on the 26th they got worse and now she’s no more. Probably could have survived if she had got medical help.
VOR
@schrodingers_cat: Your family has my deepest sympathies. I hope someday, when the pandemic has passed, your family can be together physically again to remember her. Keep yourself safe.
trollhattan
OT PSG leading Man City 1-0 at halftime. No Liverpool players have been hurt so you can rest easy, Amir.
Immanentize
@schrodingers_cat: I am so very sorry. Please share my thoughts of strength to you with your husband and your whole family in India.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I thought Tories hated any and every one who doesn’t fully believe that
BritainEngland is the motherland of the entire world, and that everyone else should bow down fully to the queen.Jay
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: My condolences.
Ruckus
@schrodingers_cat:
So sorry for your loss.
trollhattan
@schrodingers_cat:
So sorry. It’s hard to envision a path out of the current debacle and there is so much suffering being inflicted, unnecessarily. Here’s hoping your family is spared further tragedy.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat:
This has been the most terrifying thing since day one, the thought that there could be people in hallways of hospitals who can’t get treatment because there are no ventilators and no help available. Hospitals turning people away. Nearly impossible to comprehend, yet here we are.
I am so sorry.
Jay
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Tories play lip service to the monarch.
But the Conservative Party ignored the issue of Northern Ireland and the Republic because they seemed to be unable to get rid of their residual hatred for anything Irish. They also hated that the EU was committed to Ireland as a full member of the European Union.
The crazier thing is that a Tory member of the House of Lords, I think, went out of his way to insult Irish American Joe Biden. He also insulted Kamala Harris because of her Indian heritage. This is worse to some Tories than being black.
The Tories hoped that a President Trump would back their craziness. But they are continuing down a stupid road even though both Republicans and Democrats in Congress back the Good Friday Agreement.
And President Joe Biden is not having any of their bullshit.
Amir Khalid
@trollhattan:
PSG vs Man City: they should bill it as the battle of the petrodollar clubs.
Tony Jay
Evening, Juicers. I’ve been putting the boy through Operation: Bath, Bed and Book (Deathly Hallows, which is apt for today’s Britain and obviously unsuitable for a sensitive 8 year old whose greatest fear since book one is that Harry will get expelled) so that’s where I’ve been.
Cat, that’s just minging news. Really sorry.
pacem appellant
And now I want to know what’s happening in Scotland. I don’t know if it’s the best place to find info on the Scottish parliamentary elections, but I found this:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/0/scottish-parliament-election-2021-does-voting-work-predictions/
For once, I feel like I have a teensy bit of bandwidth for non-US politics. There’s always CA politics, but I’m taking hiatus from that because the recall is going to be another embarrassing dumpster fire and I’m not ready for that.
Jay
Another Scott
@schrodingers_cat: Condolences, SC, to you and yours. :-(
Relatedly, …
Grrr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Now equalized at minute 65, a feathered shot on goal disguised as a cross that the keeper was not anticipating.
Speaking of PSG, their women’s team just eclipsed the OL squad, who have ruled the roost for many consecutive years. OL sacked the coach mere days later, truly emphasizing the concept of “yeah, but what have you done for me lately? (Do not piss off French owners.)
ETA 2-1 Man City on a free kick that somehow knifes through a sliver in the wall.
Emma from FL
@schrodingers_cat: I have been watching the thread and hoping for good news. I am so, so sorry!
geg6
@schrodingers_cat:
I am so, so sorry. Fuck COVID and fuck shitty rightwing assholes who don’t care one way or another how many of their own people die. Modi is a murderer the same as TFG and Bonsonaro are.
Roger Moore
@BruceFromOhio:
If the Bulwer-Lytton contest had a non-fiction entry…
Betty
@schrodingers_cat: Such a tragic situation. It is hard to see this turning around quickly. The world better heed this lesson. Sympathies to your husband and his family.
geg6
@Barry:
My grandmother, from the grave, forcefully disputes the Irish bona fides of anyone from Northern Ireland and in the DUP, especially. She though the Brits and their remoras in NI were some of the stupidest people on earth. Made it interesting when my dad and mom got engaged. My grandmother, the granddaughter of proud denizens of County Kerry, and my other grandmother, proud immigrant to the US from Cambridge, England. And it really got interesting when my dad, brought up by a strict Methodist, converted to Roman Catholicism to make my mother happy. My dad (and his wife and five [at that point] kids) were completely shunned for many years. I don’t remember my paternal grandparents at all until I was about five years old, about the time my dad was finally forgiven.
Roger Moore
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m very sorry for your loss.
Kayla Rudbek
@schrodingers_cat: oh, no! My condolences.
schrodingers_cat
Thanks so much jackals. I will pass this on to Mr. Cat. I really appreciate it. She was a gentle and a kind soul. She did not deserve this.
schrodingers_cat
I am enraged. BJP and their minions are flooding social media saying that media showing funeral pyres is insensitive to Hindus. So I have pinned that tweet. They are still trying to stage manage this disaster instead of providing competent governance.
Retweet far and wide. There is little I can do from here other than speak the truth and bear witness to what I am seeing.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@schrodingers_cat: Late to this thread and just catching up. So, so sorry to hear of your loss.
tokyokie
@schrodingers_cat: Every time I hear how dreadful things have become in India, I think of you and wonder how your family is doing. I’m sorry to hear that the answer is not very well.
mrmoshpotato
@schrodingers_cat: I’m so sorry, s_c. I hope everyone else pulls through.
Barney
@Brachiator: not precisely a Tory – Lord (John) Kilclooney, an Ulster Unionist politician. This is the NI party that was (is?) most closely associated with the Tories; David Trimble was its leader when it was the most powerful unionist party and the Good Friday Agreement was negotiated, but the DUP eclipsed them. There’s not much the Tory leadership can do to a Lord in another party, however, and it’s hard to blame the Tories for it beyond “well, they’re all like that really, aren’t they?”
Amadan
@Brachiator: The ugly tweet about Kamala Harris and remarks about Joe Biden were made by John Taylor, a particularly noxious Ulster Unionist, not a Tory.
Ken
@boatboy_srq: From what Chris Grey says, the Tory line, and in particular the most extreme Brexit faction’s line, is “Brexit wasn’t done right.” With the dual implications that
(1) it’s all the personal fault of
David CameronTheresa MayBoris Johnson so you can’t blame the Tories, and(2) in some alternate universe where it was done right, the UK is today a sovereign economic powerhouse, dominating the whole of European and trans-Atlantic trade. And the NHS is getting that extra 350 million pounds a week.
Brachiator
@Amadan:
Thank you for the clarification.
Villago Delenda Est
@Tony Jay: “You could have been killed! Or even worse, expelled” — Hermione Granger after the troll incident in book one.
SC, all condolences sent your way.
Ken
Boy, have you got some Princess Bride framing story moments coming up.
“Wait, what did Fezzik mean “He’s dead”? I mean, he didn’t mean dead. Westley’s only faking. Right?”
“Jesus, Grandpa! What did you read me this thing for?”
Gbbalto
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
I am so sorry for your loss, especially under these strange and horrible circumstances. Best wishes for all the other members of your family in the old country!
Miss Bianca
@schrodingers_cat: very late to this thread, just wanted to say how sorry I was to hear this news. My condolences to you and Mr. S_C.
J R in WV
@Amadan:
From here, what’s the difference? One fascist is so much like another fascist, after all. Surely the Ulster Unionists support the Tories, don’t they?
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
@schrodingers_cat: I’m so sorry for you all. Beyond that I have no words.