I can see a lot of readers balking at that headline. Boris imposed three lockdowns on the British public, introduced vaccine passports and is a Net Zero fanatic. He’s unlikely to unify the Conservative Party, given that 57 ministers resigned from his last Government, making it impossible for him to carry on as Prime Minister, and if he does become the leader again some Tory MPs will probably set up a breakaway party, while others will simply defect to Labour and the Lib Dems. And hoping the electorate will forgive Boris for partygate and other sins and not simply wash their hands of the Clown Conservative Party at the next election is a massive gamble.
But my gut says that Rishi would be worse. During the last leadership contest he claimed to have been a lockdown sceptic all along, but that wasn’t very plausible. Not only did he support the lockdown policy – in public, anyway – but in his capacity as Chancellor he borrowed hundreds of billions of pounds so he could pay people not to work, which is the root of our current economic problems. And do we trust him on Brexit? The litmus test is whether he’d be prepared to scrap the Northern Ireland Protocol and deal with all the political fall-out from that. I think Boris would. I’m not so sure about Rishi.
It’s true that the Tory Party will look absurd if it makes Boris leader again six weeks after defenestrating him. But it’s going to look absurd whatever it does. Would it be any less ridiculous to appoint a third leader in as many years? At least Boris can claim to have a democratic mandate, given that the Conservatives won an 80-seat majority with him as leader in 2019. What democratic legitimacy can Rishi lay claim to? If he becomes our next Prime Minister I think the pressure to call an immediate General Election – not just from all the other political parties, but from the Civil Service, the BBC, Sky News, the EU, the Bank of England… the entire deep state – will be almost impossible to resist. And the longer Rishi puts it off, the more frit he’ll look. But a General Election in the next few months would almost certainly see Keir Starmer installed in Number 10 as our next Prime Minister.
Even supposing Rishi did rule out a General Election until November 2024 and the howls of protest began to die down, is it conceivable that a Conservative Party led by him could win? To my mind, that’s a bigger gamble than plumping for the devil we know. Love him or hate him, Boris is a proven election winner. Yes, he doesn’t have as many fans as he did three years ago, but maybe he could win enough of them back to scrape in with a reduced majority in a couple of years. I’m not saying I think that’s likely, only that it’s more likely than Rishi winning a majority.
That’s a persuasive argument, I think. Suppose you think Rishi would be preferable to Boris. Maybe so, but would Keir Starmer be preferable to Boris? On lockdowns, vaccine passports and Net Zero he’s even more of a zealot than BoJo, and with Rishi at the helm Labour’s victory at the next General Election is almost inevitable.
Finally, just think of how angry all the Boris-haters will be. As I’ve written about before, the reason Boris is so unpopular with the Establishment – the reason he brings certain members of the ruling class out in hives – is because he’s the embodiment of Merrie England. They detest his devil-may-care attitude, his disregard for conventional morality, the fact that he has three wives and god knows how many children. He’s Sid James and Falstaff and Benny Hill rolled into one. He’s a saucy seaside postcard come to life. Watching all the purse-lipped puritans rub their bony hands with glee after Boris’s demise turned my stomach and I’d like nothing more than to see Billy Bunter cock a snook at them as he barrels back into Downing Street. It would be like the restoration of Charles II, except the Interregnum will only have lasted six weeks.
I’m sure many people are unconvinced and Boris hasn’t even said he’s going to run yet. But I expect he will and if he does I’ll be holding my nose and backing him.
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Fraser Nelson nails it/him.
And the answer to his Why? question is easy: his narcissism and his wife. https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fpolitics%2F2022%2F10%2F22%2Fno-cheerleader-rishi-will-new-boris-different-old-one%2F
As I now see the world as globalist v. nationalist, rather than right v left, I think Toby has a point. Boris is better than Rishi. The latter is easily the globalist choice.
Bit late, but BJ panics under pressure. He’s done it time after time, and he’ll do it again.
If he hasn’t gone over to the Dark Side, he will. Is he one of BG’s puppets?
I called him Boris when I had high hopes and voted for him as cons leader. After the COVID lockdown/vaccine nonsense I referred to him as Johnson, because I thought he was a complete dick.
He did have qualms about lockdown – “let the bodies pile up”, but, because he has little understanding of the scientific method, or economics, allowed himself to be bamboozled by others.
I am concerned that he may have kyboshed potential peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in early 2022. But how many politicians were brave enough to deviate from the “Putin is a lunatic who is intent on invading Europe” narrative? Zero.
He does communicate well and comes across as a likeable and decent chap. He also seems capable of picking good people and delegating, although he was not able to spot which of those had a knife ready to stab him in the back.
Perhaps a few weeks in the wilderness have given him time for reflection. Maybe he will return as PM and admit to making the wrong call on COVID and the resulting trashing of the economy and health service. Maybe he will even start to see that we have… Read more »
Oh FFS!
Piss off and make like the five fingered widow.
Et tu, Toby?
The problem with a General Election though, is what’s to stop Labour if they win, doing a Truss on Starmer and imposing an altogether more hated leader on the country for the next five years?
Better start weiting some stories about the evil WEF. We know Rishi, boris, hunt, mordant, and many others are all part and parcel of the WEF. Charles, many Uk globalists as well. So who is the least bad of all these turncoats? Because britain you will have to have one of them. Not a pleasant thought.
The is delicious.
I distrust Boris enormously but having let my party membership lapse during lockdown I have no say. I told my MP, Priti Patel that if she kept supporting lockdown measures then I was done with her and the Conservative party. Obviously I’m just one person but I know I wasn’t the only one. Now I can’t write to her because I made it clear my support, which had previously involved a mammoth amount of leafleting, was gone and I would have no further dealings with her or the party.
I won’t vote for any of the mainstream parties so I only care in as much as the next Prime Minister can do a lot of damage. Whoever it is probably will but it’s so much fun to see all of the right people in an apoplexy about Boris possibly returning. At least I can have a laugh whilst everything tanks.
…couldn’t agree more..who the frick cares any more, and why would we bother?
The USA obviously rules everything to do with European ‘security’…even to the extent that they can bomb the economic viability of an ally with immunity….
Supranatural companies rule the rest… whether it’s the Bill and Melinda foundation, the WEF, DAVOS, WHO, Blackrock…whoever…any idea that it matters who you vote for and that it makes a difference is dead in the water…..it’s a pretence, pointless…
So vote for Boris..or don’t..it won’t make an iota of difference to the agenda…
We should not have to thinbk what the opinion of “the Civil Service, the BBC, Sky News, the EU, the Bank of England… the entire deep state” is on this or most other questions outside their direct remit. But we doi. And that is the most important issue for a PM to address.
Boris could deal with much of the criticism by acknowledging his known errors and them condemning them with humour as somewhat ridiculous; recognise that Covid was not well handled and drag in the blob and Labour to share the errors; recognise that (as an immediate matter) Net Zero must be delayed for a decade while we regain energy security, manageable prices and technological competence in the supposed alternative renewable energy sources; do something bold on cutting public expenditure; something bold on getting out of the (rest of) the EU.
Whilst I was pleased to see the back of Boris, I think Toby’s thesis is a strong one.
I can’t imagine why anyone thought Liz Truss had the makings of a Prime Minister, but with Isaak Hunt and Grant Chumps duly annointed, this can no longer be imagined to be stupidity and bumbledom. It is obvious that whoever is pulling the strings in the background is doing this quite deliberately, and they are now taking the piss.
For those who think the incompetent and boring Kneel Starmer (let alone the eggregious, venal and dishonest Potato Ed Miliband) might be better, in the hope that by some unexplained magic, the Tory Party would then undergo a Damascene Conversion, emerge from the Opposition Benches with a little common sense and a measure of concern for the poor bloody mutts who pay their wages, I unreservedly admire your optimism.
The only thing we have heard from the opposition parties since early 2020 has been the favourite squeals that we must have SoonerHarderStricterLonger and we need it NOW.
The other obvious points are that the Labia Party has “Open Borders” as a manifesto commitment and are so frightened by the excitable bearded… Read more »
If Boris is re-elected/selected the usual culprits will not back him in power and all will fall apart within days. The pseudo Conservative Party will not be able to govern and a GE will have to be called. I’m optimistic that we can get some Reform Party candidates elected and I think many will abstain rather than vote Labour.
Right, so the man who presided over the most disgraceful period in this country’s peacetime history and who was booted out by his own party, for a shedload of lies, falsehoods, misdemeanours and generally disgraceful and all round alleycat behaviour should be given another chance at the number one office of state in this country?
I see.
The man who closed thousands of businesses, who supported the enhanced end of life programme overseen by Midazolam Mat, who refused weddings, legitimate family funerals, the ability of families to say goodbye to dying relatives, closed churches, gyms, schools, instructed people not to hug or visit each other, instructed everybody to wear masks dependent of course on the height a mystery virus was flying on any particular day and which could only be detected by forcing a lolly stick into a brain, who insisted on everybody walking one way, ended holidays at both home and abroad, ensured that GP’s and Dentists were no longer available, ruined and closed many of our pubs, supported the payments of millions of pounds of taxpayers money to allow people to sit on their arses doing nothing for over two years, the man who fed billions to a… Read more »
Great post, HP!
Thank you Aethelred.
Spot on HP…the elderly released into care …even though hospitals were NOT under any pressure at the time…can you imagine …locked into your room, no family or friends can visit… left to die from neglect, agony, desperation or loneliness….
DNR’s stuck on the elderly, the mentally or physically infirm….the Liverpool Patheay becomes the norm….
Vaccines for the elderly, somehow then given to younger and younger cohorts …now we are a giving them to fuc***g babies…Jesus Christ!
Children, not allowed to see their mates, then masked, and fricken ‘bubbles’…
I’m beyond incandescent….it’s like saying we should have Mengele, because Hitler is worse!!
Unless someone can convince me otherwise if we have a GE i’m writing something to the effect of…these people aren’t in charge…these are…Bill Gates, Blackrock, WEF, Davos group…and they are not on the list!!?
…
‘Even if you dislike Boris’…LOL! Dislike..Where the hell have you been for two years, what have you been reading? I only ask because it can’t have been the comments on here….!!
Dislike him … I hate him, I despise and loath the creature…along with the rest of them…there is no good or better than, here….none!
I will not be voting for any of them…Conservative or Labour….not now, not ever….I’d literally rather poke my eyes out with sticks……!
You Stay in the La-La Land you have obviously created for yourself if you want, but I will never forget or forgive these lying, craven bastards……I will never give any of them my vote, or any sign that I approve, or am on board, with anything that they have done….……
……..I literally don’t care who wins or loses, because none of it matters anymore. The Government doesn’t control anything…and we don’t control them….that’s pretty blindingly obvious.
Until we get a all new parties… I’ll never vote again……
Disliking or loathing in a way isn’t the point (though I do). It’s more that he presided over the nonsense that was covid panic, is a warmonger, a warmtard, appears easily influenced and failed to do much about mass immigration and out of control wokery. Not much of a leader or a conservative.
Of course as I posted earlier he may still be the least bad choice, but that says more about our political class than it does about him.
…I don’t disagree entirely, but once we start talking about ‘least worse’, you lose me… I can’t agree..it would be like saying Hitler wasn’t all bad, let’s bring him back….NO just NO, I don’t care if he’s least worst..it’s still isn’t a good enough reason to vote…and lose my soul by doing so…for the pile of steaming shite!
Well I am not advocating voting, merely commenting on which one would be least bad. I presume as TY mentions he voted for Truss that he’s a member of the Conservative Party and presume judging by the above article that he’s intending to vote this time. I think his reasoning makes some sense, though he’s much more positive about any of the candidates than I would be. It’s hard to know what I would do if I were to be member of the party, as it’s hard to imagine me joining them, especially now.
Trying to be Boris-Positive, it could be that he has learned his lesson’, and perhaps will move towards what Truss allegedly was after, low tax, supply-side stimulation, social reforms, pro-fracking, quietly drop Net Zero.
But… the problem is that Boris has no principles, no ideas of his own, his only interest is and everything he does is for, Boris.
Or… he will just pick up where he left off knowing that they tried to get rid of him, failed, had to ask him back and certainly only the insane would try to get rid of him a second time. So too confident.
It’s a mess with no good options, just least worst. And what about Kemi Badeonoch – she wasn’t chosen because she would have been best choice by many accounts?
And there’s still Carrie Johnson whispering woke-isms in Boris’s ears.
One other thing that counts against Johnson in my book is that he’s mad keen on the Ukraine war. I don’t know what the other plausible candidates think.
A good argument Toby. The economic and systemic woes of today have been going on for years, driven by the politics of the world. I get tired of listening to the Tory bashing as equally I get frustrated with the lack of accountancey held against the socialist governments by the commentaries. Life is simple if you ignore the bad things in life. I was informed the other day that life under Blair was good, may be it appeared that it was, but it was enabled by spending everything earnt prior to his election leaving nothing in the treasury when his heir left office. The austerity and fincial woes have got worse ever since compounded by zero interest rates and inflation just above the bank rate, aided by QE, to a point where money has little value. The best thing the politicians of the world can do is stay at home for a long time and let the chaos reign. It will be over far quicker.
“Over at Going Postal someone has made this comment…
“Just step back a moment and consider that the Conservative Party have, in the past week, fired a chancellor for wanting to cut taxes and a home secretary for wanting to cut immigration.””
That sums up the absurdity quite nicely.
I was wondering how anyone who voted for Truss can now stay on as a member, if they wanted to keep their dignity.
I guessed the MPs throw them the Boris bone to keep them on board.
But then I read this excellent analysis (ignore the leftie drivel): the parties blob couldn’t care less about the membership or a high number of them, to the contrary.
httpsttps://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/10/the-party-is-over/#comment-1028251
Also a succinct analysis of our times:
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/nanny-state-makes-babies-of-us-all/
The oft repeated, with dogmatic certainty, statement that Johnson is ‘an election winner’ utterly baffles me. He won one election; on a populist Brexit ticket. And he couldn’t even get that right; Thatcher or Blair he ain’t. What’s he got to offer now? But then I’m Scottish and completely impervious to his charm; usually we like our politicians to be serious and somewhat competent (present devolved administration being the glaring exception). If Johnson had gone to a state school he’d be flipping burgers in McDonalds; a total chancer with a misplaced sense of entitlement. The Tories were losing by-election after by-election; someone read the room. What would Johnson mean for the Union? Maybe simply repeating no and ignoring Sturgeon is the answer but Johnson is so thoroughly dismissed in Scotland that I can’t help but think another bonkers Tory u-turn gives Sturgeon more fuel for her toxic and divisive fire. The voters and members wanting Johnson back aren’t the people the Tories need to listen to; it’s the floating voters who understand that as bad as the Tories may be, a Labour government would be even worse.
I voted for this man, I was fooled, he is no more than a snake oil salesman, a dissembler, unethical, a liar, immoral, a coward, and an incompetent. He is no more capable of putting this country back on its feet than Liz Truss, at least she tried to be a Conservative. Boris Johnson like the rest of them stands for nothing, the only thing he and his pack of curs cares about are their own careers, their own bank accounts and those who can furnish the filling of them.
No I had 2.5 years of being Locked up, then abused, vilified, hounded by the population, the Police and the medical community at his instigation because I would not take the experimental vaccine, which has sacrificed the health of millions to make Boris Johnsons sponsors wealthier. The Man is a Tyrant, and the “Conservative Party” as it misnames itself is chock full of self serving, cowards who sacrificed children, the economy, and the future of the UK on the Altar of their own hubris. Labour egged them on as did the Media.
Neither Party will mend the Country they are incapable of it, filled as both Parties are with career… Read more »
Amen.
Bingo
Excellent post.
Fab post, Hester.
Tell you what, Toby – how about sponsoring (or even leading) a new libertarian party based on the old ‘conservative’ principles but minus the historic class baggage?
You’ve had some sort of experience and been through the mill. It would be neither right nor left wing; that’s all old hat.
There’s already a constituency here and in the Free Speech Union, maybe even LeftLockdown Sceptics. I think what with Save Our Rights, Freedom Alliance, Reform/Reclaim/Heritage etc and some in Brexit/Ukip (who don’t have much to do any more so they could tone that aspect down so as not to antagonise Remainder lockdown sceptics – if such an animal exists)
Why has it GOT to be Boris? Is there no one in the Conservative Party – not one single man or woman – who is able to lead the party? Who then are all those faces we see sitting on the backbenches? Are they just spineless, jobsworth types showing up for their salary and expenses perks? By saying it has got to be Boris means that all those hundreds of MPs are just utterly useless. For god’s sake, they were elected because they said things to convince thousands of people to vote for them. They shook hands, met the populace, made more speeches and blah blah blah. And yet now, when THEIR party is in crisis, it shows that they were just prepped little minions, coming out with their snake oil words, hypnotising thousands of people with their words. Disgusted. So we get the same tired old bunch of tossers and losers who will make the same old mistakes and the pantomime will continue and when it’s the other lot’s turn, they’ll do the same and will have the same useless, spineless lot too. What do we have elections for? Musical chairs it seems. Just candy. Bread and circuses and… Read more »
To answer your second and third questions:”No” and “Yes”.These Conservatives are Cameron’s social democrats who expected all the hard decisions to be made by Brussels. For the most part they are best suited to the the management of a medium-sized department in a retail outlet
I fear you demean the abilities of the management of a medium-sized department in a retail outlet.
Let’s try a thought experiment. Imagine that you woke up one morning to a letter announcing that a distant uncle had died but had bequeathed to you the ownership of a whelk stall on Bridlington front.
Curiously, out of 650 MPs, no less than 626 MPs applied for the job of managing the stall (charitably leaving out perhaps a couple of dozen of the brightest and passably honest).
How many of that remaining number even might be competent for such a task?
Could you take the risk that you might be sued for your last pound because many whelk eaters had died after your ‘manager’ had bought in a stock of dodgy Chinese whelks and had forgot to refridgerate them?
Really, it isn’t about ‘there not being one single man or woman’. Of course there may well be. Despite her inexperience, I imagine Kemi Badenoch could turn out to be very good.
But as everything for the last 20 years demonstrates, being ‘able to lead the party’ isn’t the issue. Can you imagine that whover parachuted Isaak Hunt into the Chancellor’s post would give Kemi Badenoch a chance for ten minutes?
If that was the case, it’s about time we had a senior level whistleblower. I think democracy is dead anyway and I’m not interested in all these sharks fighting over the chaff. We need something new. If we carry on like this, we’ll be back in the Medieval Ages by tea time tomorrow.
Thank you Toby, my thoughts and sentiments exactly. As a lifelong Conservative Party member, however, I don’t see either of the two main contenders saving the party in the long term. Unless a political titan able to return the party to its idealogical foundation emerges within the next two years or so the mortal would inflicted by Cameron and his “Red Tories” will reach its culmination and we must prepare ourselves for the beginning of the political sea-change many of us think is inevitable
Toby, it doesn’t matter who is in No 10, which party forms the government. They’ve all sold their souls. We’re going to get the globalist agenda.
Only a revolution can save us from it and that isn’t going to happen.
The only credible candidate for me when I look at all the sorry mess we’re in would have to be the carpenter from Nazareth. If you want integrity, fairness, wisdom, courage & selflessness; If you want the one who governs you to be for peace and to make wars cease; if you want someone both worthy of world leadership yet who is still one of the ‘little people’. As mighty as a lion, yet gentle as a lamb – there really is only one who it’s got to be.
I put my hope in no other.
….Come Lord Jesus!
You realise that Boris is a bogof offer – buy him and get Carrie free (well not exactly free, it is her influence that has cost us all through his green awakening).
Remind me, how did this green family get to the Caribbean?
I wish Graham Brady would run. There again, he seems such a good guy I’m not sure I’d wish the job on him…
Not an apt analogy, the Restoration.
I would like to know if Boris has had time to reflect at all…even regret, & learn to have a new approach, &/or be firmer with duplicitous or traitorous people, or China too?
and what about going for peace in Ukraine?
wishing for the moon probably..
It might be time for him to be looking for greener pastures now. He’s been with NutNut for quite a while now.
Of course, Xi Jinping might try him out with Fang Fang, now she’s apparently done with Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) That might work out even worse.
Had positive vibes about Tobes joining team James earlier in the week, this article seems to suggest he’s still firmly of the believe this is all still cock up!!!
If the net effect is that there is a Labour Gov with a large majority, there will be plenty of work for you to do! No shortage of scepticism then. After all, during lockdowns, Starmer sounded worse than the other side, and Labour was even less attractive than the Gov.
There were a few speculative items on GBN yesterday about the potential split of the Tory party, and it kind of reminded me of what happened when the SDP was formed, and look what happened to that. Our electoral system is a big fence for any new party to climb over. It is just possible that there could be one dominant party for a while, with a range of smaller “opposition” ones that don’t work.