It is harsh to lay the blame for the failure of Brexit at the door of Cummings, who on the contrary is the main reason the vote itself succeeded. He is a PR strategist, not a policy wonk. The prime cause of the failure of Brexit is Johnson. Anyone who has watched the latest post-mortem documentary (BBC2) can plainly see that the man is, in Thatcher's famous phrase, "Weak, weak, weak": not a thought in his head beyond personal ambition and being liked - FGS - chasing ignis fatuus where ever it led, in his case to the cake & bubbly of despond. A poor fool indeed. There are many other slithy toves ofc, but the greatest disappointment is surely Michael Gove. He was the one who was supposed to understand policy and political tactics - indeed still pretends to. He shall forever go down - especially in his own judgment - as "The man who failed to grasp the reins".
Fat Al was certainly a complete disaster, exemplified by his walking off after the Leave campaign had won in order to play cricket, FFS. He then continued to make matters worse over leaving the EU. And if that wasn't bad enough, the fat fool was 'in charge' during the Great Convid Scam.
I prefer to call Gove a slimy toad. He is the reason I gave up The Spectator.
It was telling (if contrived) in the latest Brexit documentary that Johnson and Cameron met to discuss the matter over a tennis match. The idea of those privileged porcines snorking about the court could almost stand as a metaphor for Eton government. Gove is not a prepossessing man, but I was surprised, and yes, disappointed, that after all that effort to get to the top of the greasy pole, he fluffed it.
You seem to have fallen for the myth Cummings was some kind of genius and how do you know that with a more competent knowledgeable individual pushing Flexcit the leave vote would not have been greater?
Cummings was a sloppy t-shirt wearing bare footed self promoting and inflated con merchant.
Talent was - QED - in short supply during the Brexit battle: no evidence that anyone better was available - to either side. For the rest I don't necessarily disagree!
Well I've been very clear for several years now that things have to get worse, sadly reaching rock bottom, before the necessary actions will be taken to put things right.
Burnham's honeymoon, assuming he is our next PM, will be measured in days not months and given his brain is completely infected with the Suicidal Empathy virus he will be as much use to solving our problems as a trap door in a canoe.
I also agree and have said so for some time that it is the election after the next when we should hopefully see the clear majority voting in a government that will tackle our ingrained problems that have taken hold over the last 30 years since the charlatan Blair led us a merry dance with his Third Way or should that have been the Turd Way!!!
What is clear is we have been misgoverned for far too long by politicians with the understanding, foresight and competence of gnat.
Reform are a blight on the Right. They won't learn anything in opposition. They're a low brow party filled with low brow politicians and the willfully ignorant. They'll keep on chanting slogans and playing the spiteful victim when they mess things up.
I’m increasingly coming around to Pete’s view that Farage and Reform are nowhere near ready to form a government and should be in opposition to learn the ropes and get a better leader than Nigel. However, we shouldn’t be blind to the left changing the voting system to keep the right out forever. The new messiah has already said he wants PR and they’ve snuck it through for mayoral elections to stop Reform (and Muslim rape gang inquiries).
Starmer as May, someone happier scrambling in the weeds of proceeduralism, Burnham as Johnson, a natural communicator, someone who gets vibes and instinct.
But just as Johnson failed because he was at heart an ultra liberal with no feel for the forces that drove Brexit as the precursor to rejecting the Uniparty, Burnham will fail when his blokey take is seen to be reheated technocracy, just with a better t-shirt and LP collection.
The parallels of Burnham and Johnson are prescient and really scary.
I think to be fair to Cummings he was more concerned with the yes/no binary and feared the Leave camp squabbling over treaty deals and giving ammunition to Remain who would just point and say ‘see, they don’t know what to do next.’ The failure was in the Tory Party - both sides, who never expected Leave to win and had no plans, not even vague contingency plans, as to what to do next. Cameron could have stayed on for long enough to pivot the UK into the EEA and a Flexit or ‘Norway for Now’ arrangement and Parliament would have backed him. The ERG obsessed with free trade and Singapore on Thames would have been sidelined. I expect Farage would have been content and retired to being a lucrative media career. This would have been the right approach, but would have been hard to articulate in advance.
I still can't understand why Cameron, having worked hard to dump the Lib Dumbs and govern without them, just threw all his toys out of the pram and walked away from the Brexit result. He would have made a much better fist of it than Mother Theresa.
The failure was no politician understanding how the EU worked and then the total lack of leadership to get to grips with the issues and sell the likes of Flexcit to the nation.
13th para:
“As such, there is reason to believe Burnham can arrest the decline or fend off the Reform”
Should be:
“As such, there is *NO* reason to believe Burnham can arrest the decline or fend off the Reform”
Bugger.
It is harsh to lay the blame for the failure of Brexit at the door of Cummings, who on the contrary is the main reason the vote itself succeeded. He is a PR strategist, not a policy wonk. The prime cause of the failure of Brexit is Johnson. Anyone who has watched the latest post-mortem documentary (BBC2) can plainly see that the man is, in Thatcher's famous phrase, "Weak, weak, weak": not a thought in his head beyond personal ambition and being liked - FGS - chasing ignis fatuus where ever it led, in his case to the cake & bubbly of despond. A poor fool indeed. There are many other slithy toves ofc, but the greatest disappointment is surely Michael Gove. He was the one who was supposed to understand policy and political tactics - indeed still pretends to. He shall forever go down - especially in his own judgment - as "The man who failed to grasp the reins".
Fat Al was certainly a complete disaster, exemplified by his walking off after the Leave campaign had won in order to play cricket, FFS. He then continued to make matters worse over leaving the EU. And if that wasn't bad enough, the fat fool was 'in charge' during the Great Convid Scam.
I prefer to call Gove a slimy toad. He is the reason I gave up The Spectator.
It was telling (if contrived) in the latest Brexit documentary that Johnson and Cameron met to discuss the matter over a tennis match. The idea of those privileged porcines snorking about the court could almost stand as a metaphor for Eton government. Gove is not a prepossessing man, but I was surprised, and yes, disappointed, that after all that effort to get to the top of the greasy pole, he fluffed it.
You seem to have fallen for the myth Cummings was some kind of genius and how do you know that with a more competent knowledgeable individual pushing Flexcit the leave vote would not have been greater?
Cummings was a sloppy t-shirt wearing bare footed self promoting and inflated con merchant.
Talent was - QED - in short supply during the Brexit battle: no evidence that anyone better was available - to either side. For the rest I don't necessarily disagree!
Well I've been very clear for several years now that things have to get worse, sadly reaching rock bottom, before the necessary actions will be taken to put things right.
Burnham's honeymoon, assuming he is our next PM, will be measured in days not months and given his brain is completely infected with the Suicidal Empathy virus he will be as much use to solving our problems as a trap door in a canoe.
I also agree and have said so for some time that it is the election after the next when we should hopefully see the clear majority voting in a government that will tackle our ingrained problems that have taken hold over the last 30 years since the charlatan Blair led us a merry dance with his Third Way or should that have been the Turd Way!!!
What is clear is we have been misgoverned for far too long by politicians with the understanding, foresight and competence of gnat.
Burnham's a socialist so expect more socialism.
Reform are a blight on the Right. They won't learn anything in opposition. They're a low brow party filled with low brow politicians and the willfully ignorant. They'll keep on chanting slogans and playing the spiteful victim when they mess things up.
I’m increasingly coming around to Pete’s view that Farage and Reform are nowhere near ready to form a government and should be in opposition to learn the ropes and get a better leader than Nigel. However, we shouldn’t be blind to the left changing the voting system to keep the right out forever. The new messiah has already said he wants PR and they’ve snuck it through for mayoral elections to stop Reform (and Muslim rape gang inquiries).
I see Burnham as a Johnson pitch by Labour.
Starmer as May, someone happier scrambling in the weeds of proceeduralism, Burnham as Johnson, a natural communicator, someone who gets vibes and instinct.
But just as Johnson failed because he was at heart an ultra liberal with no feel for the forces that drove Brexit as the precursor to rejecting the Uniparty, Burnham will fail when his blokey take is seen to be reheated technocracy, just with a better t-shirt and LP collection.
The parallels of Burnham and Johnson are prescient and really scary.
Someone give him a shirt a tie the scruffy yob looks like a dust man.
I can’t hear “the Johnson administration” without thinking of LBJ. Surely the Ukay version is called “the Johnson government”? Please? 😁
I think to be fair to Cummings he was more concerned with the yes/no binary and feared the Leave camp squabbling over treaty deals and giving ammunition to Remain who would just point and say ‘see, they don’t know what to do next.’ The failure was in the Tory Party - both sides, who never expected Leave to win and had no plans, not even vague contingency plans, as to what to do next. Cameron could have stayed on for long enough to pivot the UK into the EEA and a Flexit or ‘Norway for Now’ arrangement and Parliament would have backed him. The ERG obsessed with free trade and Singapore on Thames would have been sidelined. I expect Farage would have been content and retired to being a lucrative media career. This would have been the right approach, but would have been hard to articulate in advance.
I still can't understand why Cameron, having worked hard to dump the Lib Dumbs and govern without them, just threw all his toys out of the pram and walked away from the Brexit result. He would have made a much better fist of it than Mother Theresa.
The failure was no politician understanding how the EU worked and then the total lack of leadership to get to grips with the issues and sell the likes of Flexcit to the nation.