What a great feel good photograph and gesture. As the mascot had sensory issues and had to wear headphones, Aston Villa's Danny Ings did the same. Empathy from footballers - whatever next?
Toodle pip
Booze, news and views from a drunken opinionated fool who can't spell very well, may well repeat himself, and can't blame it on dislexia
What a great feel good photograph and gesture. As the mascot had sensory issues and had to wear headphones, Aston Villa's Danny Ings did the same. Empathy from footballers - whatever next?
Toodle pip
So much for Rishi Sunak's version of compassionate conservatism. That lasted nearly a day with the announcement of this appointment.
As The Sex Pistols would say - what a fucking rotter.
White American racist fuckwits currently supporting Kanye West. If the Democrats don't win the next USA election, the nation will be fucked, as l can't imagine the Republican party agreeing to any type of democratic election the next time around. Be scared. Be very scared.
I think The New Statesman have pretty much summed up Boris Johnson an he fiasco of the last few days.
Here they go.......
After withdrawing from the Conservative leadership contest, Boris Johnson claimed there was a “very good chance” he would have won but insisted he was acting in the “national interest” because strong government required a united party.
His disciples at the Daily Mail took up the refrain. “For the good of the party and the country, Mr Johnson has set his dream aside,” the paper declared. “This is a gesture of wisdom, honour and statesmanship. His time will come again.”
Johnson acting in the national interest rather than his own? What manifest nonsense! It is crystal clear why he withdrew.
He cut short his Caribbean holiday and flew home last week expecting to be rapturously embraced by a party filled with remorse over his departure in July. He offered “deals” to Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt to clear his route to a spectacular Churchillian comeback. To try and build momentum, he and his aides claimed much more support within the parliamentary party than they seemed to actually have. They sent wavering Tory MPs dubious polling numbers to curry their support. Johnson even promised to keep his old nemesis, Jeremy Hunt, as Chancellor.
The ruses didn’t work. By the time he released his statement last night, Johnson had secured the backing of fewer than 60 named MPs, though he claimed to have surpassed the threshold of 100 required to stay in the race. The man who led his party to a “stonking victory” in the 2019 general election (albeit against the risible Jeremy Corbyn) had retained the support of scarcely one in six of his MPs. Even those that pass for “big beasts” in today’s drastically diminished Tory party – the likes of Suella Braverman, David Frost, Steve Baker and Kemi Badenoch – had deserted him, as had his apologist friend the former Telegraph editor Charles Moore, leaving a pathetic rump of diehard sycophants such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nadine Dorries and Chris Heaton-Harris in his corner.
No, Johnson did not withdraw for the good of the country. He withdrew because he faced a crushing defeat and public humiliation.
As for the scores of Conservative MPs who deserted him for Sunak, it would be nice to think that they really did act in the national interest, and of some perhaps that’s true. But the rest would have seen what Johnson, blinded by his immense ego, could not.
They saw that the public had grown heartily sick of his lies, cronyism and debauchery, of his disregard for the law and prime ministerial ethics, of the endless stream of scandals that he generated, of his protection of venal loyalists, of his vacuous rhetoric and broken promises, of his indolence and incompetence, of his demonisation of those who stood in his way and the evident contempt with which this self-styled “champion of the people” actually treated the electorate. And that was before inflation began to surge, standards of living to plummet and public services to collapse.
The Tories suffered a string of crushing by-election defeats. Their poll ratings plunged. Johnson’s own approval rating reached -48. Loathed by most of the country, his MPs realised that he had long ago ceased to be a “winner” and had become an electoral liability whose return would have destroyed any chance of them retaining their seats.
Johnson appears not to understand any of that. He showed no contrition, no remorse, in his graceless resignation speech on 7 July, preferring to blame Westminster’s “herd instinct”. His statement last night was even more delusional. Referring to his “massive election victory less than three years ago”, he claimed he still has “much to offer” and would be “well placed to deliver a Conservative victory in 2024”.
Happily, the man who proved the most destructive, divisive and dishonest prime minister in modern British history will not get that chance. His unambiguous rejection by his party, not once but twice, shows that the “greased piglet” has finally been cornered, the conman has been rumbled, the snake-oil salesman has been run out of town.
It is a disgrace that yet another prime minister should be imposed on the country without any electoral mandate whatsoever – not even the paltry 81,326 votes of Tory party members that Liz Truss garnered. But for all Sunak’s flaws – not least the fact he stayed loyal to Johnson for far too long – he does promise to lead the Conservative Party away from the lunacy that has engulfed it these past six years.
He is not malign like Johnson, or absurd like Truss. He is a Brexiteer, but not a rabid one. He is a free marketeer, but not a fanatical libertarian. He will hopefully seek to unite our fractured country, not divide it through yet more culture wars. He is more pragmatist than ideologue, a realist not fantasist. Above all, he understands the need for Britain to live within its means.
Tory MPs knew all that when they backed Sunak in such large numbers over the weekend. In short, a party now trailing Labour by 30 points or more and facing the very real possibility of electoral oblivion appears finally to have learned its lesson. “Cakeism” has run its course. Johnsonian populism is, mercifully, dead.
Also...Imagine how pissed off these are at the moment. Dreams shattered.
Toodle pip
So, the mighty sack of crap that is Boris Johnson has pulled out (for a change) of the Tory leadership contest. I certainly don't believe he had 102 backers, and that he is supposedly withdrawing for party unity, but l am happy that he has cut short one of his many holidays (while parliament is sitting), and had to travel back on an economy flight, only to be humiliated by not having enough backers. Let's face it, if he had over 100, he would run, and get voted in by the Tory members, otherwise, what was the point of returning from holiday, it's certainly not to earn his keep as a sitting MP. Also, the BBC and other sources shouldn't have been quoting the Johnson supporters over the last day or so saying he had 100 votes, without some proof, as it was just good publicity for him without any verification, and could have seriously affected the voting.
I've still got a sneaking suspicion that Penny Mordant will win, but either way, her and Sunik are both right wing gits who will persevere with austerity cuts, at great cost to the poor. They'd soon find extra money if they wanted to bomb somewhere. Bastards!!
Never vote Tory.
I know l often despair at the the ineptitude and bias of the right wing press, but sometimes it's just too easy. Here's a graph in The Sunday Mail explaining how Boris Johnson will beat Keir Starmer if he decides to run in the current leadership contest. The only trouble is (Gee wizz), it shows the opposite.
Never buy them, and never vote Tory.
Toodle pipJacob Rees-Mogg never lets you down. Just as you think the spoilt Victorian lickspittle who probably hasn't stopped being breastfed can't possibly do any more damage to the country, he produces this. No wonder the country is fucked.
Never vote Tory.
Plus....l agree with this
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Me waiting for the new Beatles box set of Revolver to arrive. My favourite Beatles album.
It's actually a Horsfield's Tarsier photographed / filmed by Joel Sartore.
Haven't these fuckwit papers caused enough damage? Wanting their darling Boris back shows how desperate they really are.
Boycott them all, and never vote Tory.
After the countless weeks off sprouting crap to appeal to the hardcore Tory members and the Tufton Street twats during the leadership contest, at no great surprise to anyone with half a brain, it has all been a fucking disaster that the poor are currently paying for.
What a great day to be off work and watching TV. Time for an election!!! (which l very much doubt will happen any time soon)
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While l was sitting reading on the settee, l wasn't paying that much attention to Mr Parrot, who was sitting on my chest, fiddling with the buttons on the neck of my t-shirt while l stroked him absentmindedly. It was only after he had got up and buggered off back to his stand, that l noticed he had chewed one of the buttons off, pooed on the back of the settee (which he doesn't normally do), and put the button on top of it, making some kind of statement. A statement pertaining to what l have no idea, but the little bugger's trying to tell me something.
Toodle pipIt doesn't take a lot to persuade me to get out of the rain and head to the pub, so this sign hits the nail on the head. Simple yet effective.
Passport photographs of The Sex Pistols taken for their 1978 USA tour. Reader...it didn't end well.
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I think l've found my ideal house. At least it would prevent me from having to keep the blinds shut all the time so l can get some privacy (unsociable git that l am). Think l'd have to buy the house next door to the one in the photo as well, to avoid having to make any conversation or hearing them.
FFS!!! I'd like to think she is joking, but knowing this inept crop of glorious leaders, l very much doubt it.
It was bad enough with Boris, and even worse now with Liz, but this would be a scary joke too far.
I may have put this up in the past, but if so, it's worth repeating. Bob Hope's marvellous looking house in Palm Springs. I must admit, l never expected him to live in anything as magnificent as this, but l certainly like it.
Going against all right thinking medical professionals advice, Therese Coffey, our great and glorious Health Secretary, is not afraid to follow her own calling. It's just a shame that she is such an imbecil, and this policy could harm people. Then again, coming from her, it's only to be expected.
Never vote Tory.
Toodle pipLesha Porche's 'Curved Lines' illusion makes your brain imagine there are curved lines, but when you try to focus on them, they can't be found. Pretty damn cool.