Boris Johnson Resigning

[47of74]

Look like it's been an interesting day across the pond.

Quote

The prime minister quits as Conservative leader but says he will continue to serve as PM until the party chooses his successor

Boris Johnson says it is "clearly now the will" of Conservative MPs that there should be a new leader

But a growing number of Tory MPs say he has to leave No 10 now rather than wait

Labour says Johnson cannot stay on as PM, or they will try to bring a no confidence vote in Parliament

Bye, bye Boris.

[Destiny]

I saw this this morning and honestly still am not sure what the heck is going on over there. Didn't he survive a no confidence vote like a week or two ago? UKers, are you okay over there?

[47of74]

Here's what Vice had to say this morning

 

[Destiny]

2 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

Here's what Vice had to say this morning

 

I saw that too -- I'm just confused since as far as I know none of this is new. Did something else happen that I missed?

[47of74]

1 hour ago, Destiny said:

I saw that too -- I'm just confused since as far as I know none of this is new. Did something else happen that I missed?

Sounds to me the conservatives got tired of their fuck face clone and Pincher was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  I have to admit I haven’t been following all that close what with all the stuff going on at home. 

[Destiny]

9 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

Sounds to me the conservatives got tired of their fuck face clone and Pincher was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  I have to admit I haven’t been following all that close what with all the stuff going on at home. 

Same tbh, which is why I'm confused. Like, I was driving to a protest listening to a story about how he survived a vote of no confidence, and it doesn't look like anything new happened since then so I just don't understand what changed in the ensuing time. If some British FJer wants to enlighten me, I'd appreciate it.

[Howl]

As of this morning (Thursday) 53 cabinet members had tendered resignations, there is essentially no functioning government;  continuing was unsustainable for BoJo. 

I hope Larry, the #10 Downing St. cat, is OK with all the changes. 

A lot of it had to do with an accumulating pile of scandals heaped on scandals and ethics violations. 

From Le Monde: 

"Mr. Johnson has been battered by waves of scandal in the last six months particularly, not least revelations that government officials held parties that broke lockdown rules in Downing Street. But the tipping point came over the last week, with claims that Mr. Johnson appointed a senior colleague despite knowing about sexual assault allegations against him."

Edited July 7, 2022 by Howl

[Gobsmacked]

2 hours ago, Destiny said:

I saw this this morning and honestly still am not sure what the heck is going on over there. Didn't he survive a no confidence vote like a week or two ago? UKers, are you okay over there?

We are now that the bumbling great arse is going. Why the hell folk voted for him is beyond the bounds of imagination.  Who will replace him may be worse - that would be difficult but sadly not impossible. 

[rosamundi]

2 hours ago, Destiny said:

UKers, are you okay over there?

No, we're not, I'm in a quiet state of existential dread as to who will come next. Basically, once the Conservative Party decides you no longer serve your purpose (which is not "to work for the good of the country and its people," or anything like that, it's "to serve the good of the Conservative Party"), it moves fast to boot you.

So there were really five things:

All those lockdown parties

Cost of living crisis plus tax rises

Owen Patterson (MP broke the rules, was suspended for 30 days, Johnson voted to pause his suspension, outcry, Patterson resigned)

By-election defeats, chipping away at the parliamentary majority, and some of those defeats were massive. Seats which had always been Tory, suddenly not.

Plus a vague air of sleaze and scandal hanging over the government, and them all fighting like rats in a sack because they're all promoted vastly above their level of competence. One of the lines on the Vote of No Confidence was "I'm voting to support him because there isn't a suitable replacement," which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.

He tried to defend a sex pest MP, lied about what he knew an when he was told it, and that was the final straw. Enough MPs saw the writing on the wall for their own majorities that once the big hitters such as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State for Health, and the Secretary of State for Education (whose replacement also resigned less than 48 hours later) started to resign from their ministerial roles, loads of other ministers also resigned from their roles, and it just got untenable.

One of the Prime Minister's roles is to be able to form a government, and there were people saying "my colleague has resigned as [minister for thing] and I made it clear to the Prime Minister that I would not serve under him as Minister for Thing." So there was an element of "can he actually form a government, how many people are saying they won't serve under him?"

Mind you, it's got to be a bit hard on the old ego if everyone's response to your heartfelt "Dear Prime Minister, it is with regret that I am writing to resign as..." letter is a resounding "who are you? Never heard of that job."

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by rosamundi
forgot a bit

[Destiny]

Thank you! So it wasn't so much anything new happened this week per se, it's more that a straw broke the camel's back, if I'm understanding correctly. I assume if he resigns as PM, you have to have new election to pick a new rep for wherever he's actually from, and the same with the rest of the resigned. Is that correct? Or are they just resigning from Minster of Thing positions not as the elected representative?

I admit to not completely understanding how the UK government works, given that most of my education on the topic was watching Malcolm Tucker swear in The Thick of It.

[rosamundi]

1 minute ago, Destiny said:

Thank you! So it wasn't so much anything new happened this week per se, it's more that a straw broke the camel's back, if I'm understanding correctly.

Correct, it was a lot of things piling up one after another. Oh, I forgot, when Johnson was Foreign Secretary another MP walked in on Boris Johnson and his then mistress, now wife, in a compromising position on the sofa in his office. Johnson also tried to get his then mistress a high-earning job somewhere in the government, which she was not remotely qualified for, plus there was the gold wallpaper for the flat, and I'm sure there's other stuff.

3 minutes ago, Destiny said:

if I'm understanding correctly. I assume if he resigns as PM, you have to have new election to pick a new rep for wherever he's actually from, and the same with the rest of the resigned. Is that correct? Or are they just resigning from Minster of Thing positions not as the elected representative?

He remains as Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, he has just resigned as Prime Minister. Same for all the others, they remain Member of Parliament for their constituency, they're just not Minister for Thing any more. So there won't be any elections, unless it becomes obvious that Johnson can't form a government (people refusing appointments, etc), in which case he has to go to the Queen for permission to dissolve Parliament and then it's a General Election, which would be interesting, because the Tory party's popularity is low and this would not be the time that an incumbent Prime Minister would choose to go to the country for an election.

[Destiny]

Just now, rosamundi said:

He remains as Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, he has just resigned as Prime Minister. Same for all the others, they remain Member of Parliament for their constituency, they're just not Minister for Thing any more. So there won't be any elections, unless it becomes obvious that Johnson can't form a government (people refusing appointments, etc), in which case he has to go to the Queen for permission to dissolve Parliament and then it's a General Election, which would be interesting, because the Tory party's popularity is low and this would not be the time that an incumbent Prime Minister would choose to go to the country for an election.

Thanks. If Thick of It did this episode, I don't remember it. I wonder how many of these people will stand for reelection when the time comes. It feels like it would be a major downer to be Minster of (Important Thing) then to be a no one.

I really appreciate you explaining it to me.

[rosamundi]

5 minutes ago, Destiny said:

Thanks. If Thick of It did this episode, I don't remember it.

This is unprecedented. Previously the record for "most holders of government posts resigning in a single day" was eleven. I think we hit 35 yesterday and we're now up to 55. We've had people refusing to serve in the government, which, yes, probably happened before but they didn't go on Twitter to say "I have made it clear to the Prime Minister that I would not accept the post of Secretary of State for Wales."

10 minutes ago, Destiny said:

I wonder how many of these people will stand for reelection when the time comes. It feels like it would be a major downer to be Minster of (Important Thing) then to be a no one.

Hard to tell. If you get re-elected and your party remains in power, you can be appointed Minister for Thing (or Minister for Different Thing) by the new Prime Minister. Or you could stay at home and count your money, get a job as a Non-Executive Director or a company, go on the public-speaking circuit. A lot depends on age and what the general feeling in your constituency is about you.

[rosamundi]

This may not be over yet.

1. His resignation speech didn't actually say the words "I resign," but started "It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister, and I've agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs, that the process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week. And I've today appointed a cabinet to serve, as I will, until the new leader is in place." (Emphasis mine).
2. The normal convention is that you head to Buckingham Palace (or Windsor, or wherever the Queen is) to hand in your written resignation. He has not done that, and nor has there been confirmation that the letter has been sent to the Queen.
3. Apparently they've sent out invitations to a wedding celebration party with the venue as Chequers, the Prime Minister's grace and favour country house. The way our system works is that once you resign as Prime Minister, or lose a general election, you move out within 24 hours, which includes the loss of access to Chequers. I think this is why he wants to stay on as PM until the new leader (and thus new Prime Minister) is chosen, instead of stepping down and letting the Deputy Prime Minister take over until the leadership election is finished.

[GreyhoundFan]

Bravo. I'm sure they just loved having a soundtrack. /s

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

Maybe Rudy could coordinate it…

[47of74]

 

[47of74]

14 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Larry might be a better PM than Boris

Quote

Now it seems that Larry has garnered enough respect from British politicians in his lengthy tenure as chief mouser that some are facetiously floating him for a potential prime minister bid himself.

“Well at some basic level, almost anybody in Parliament would be a better prime minister than Boris Johnson. Larry the Downing Street cat would be a better prime minister,” Rory Stewart, a former Conservative member of Parliament, said in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

Following Johnson’s election to the office in December 2019, it was rumored that Larry may be headed for the door since Johnson is inclined toward dogs.

However, even after Johnson’s Jack Russell terrier Dilyn moved into Downing Street, Larry has remained in his post and can now add Johnson to the list of prime ministers he has outlasted.

 

[AnywhereButHere]

Anyone in the UK have a prayer request for when this guy goes back with his quiche?

[47of74]

1 hour ago, AnywhereButHere said:

Anyone in the UK have a prayer request for when this guy goes back with his quiche?

It involves every Republican in office losing reelection along with someone going to prison for the remainder of his life...

[47of74]

Course the big question now is what about Larry the Cat?

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After the resignation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, internet has shifted its attention to Larry the Cat. Many videos are circulating on Twitter that show the Cabinet Office's "Chief Mouser" roaming outside 10 Downing Street in London or waiting for the gate of the Prime Minister's Office to open.

One of these videos, from the BBC, shows its correspondent Ros Atkins reporting live from Downing Street moments before Mr Johnson announced his resignation. The camera zooms in on Larry the Cat and a man is heard saying, "Are you asking him to resign Larry?"

The videos started a conversation on Twitter. "Personally I think we should vote Larry as prime minister. He'd do a better job than any Tory twat," said a user. "He's all I care about now," said another.

Larry the Cat's Twitter handle has also posted funny messages on the crisis unfolding in the UK. 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Sigh. Is he going to try and star in a remake of Terminator?