Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Tamas]

There are a lot politicians on every level in my experience who are absolutely only in it for the power trip, and have zero interest (and often the same level of talent) for any sort of governing. There are those for whom the power trip is to try and do something, for sure, but for a lot it is just the title and the power over people.

[Tamas]

To gauge the honest of Johnson's outrage over the leaked video:

At the briefing No 10 also said the PM still has full confidence in Allegra Stratton, his spokesperson on Cop26 who was his press secretary last December when she was filmed making light of a question about a lockdown-busting No 10 party in a filmed press conference rehearsal never intended to be broadcast

[garbon]

There are a lot politicians on every level in my experience who are absolutely only in it for the power trip, and have zero interest (and often the same level of talent) for any sort of governing. There are those for whom the power trip is to try and do something, for sure, but for a lot it is just the title and the power over people.

It just feels like even if he doesn't want to do the work, you would think he'd want to figure out a way to look better than this

[Tamas]

There are a lot politicians on every level in my experience who are absolutely only in it for the power trip, and have zero interest (and often the same level of talent) for any sort of governing. There are those for whom the power trip is to try and do something, for sure, but for a lot it is just the title and the power over people.

It just feels like even if he doesn't want to do the work, you would think he'd want to figure out a way to look better than this

I guess a life spent constantly lying and overcoming challenges by it, thanks to being a privileged little prick, must result in the reflexes he has been displaying.

[Sheilbh]

Isnt went into politics and became pm as they thought they'd be good at it a basic summary of Blairs early career?

Yes-ish. There's always a bit of mystery with Blair because he's a public schoolboy, whose dad was a Tory party member, who showed no interest in politics at university and then becomes a Labour MP when Michael Foot was leader at the worst election (until 2019) in Labour's post-war history at Labour's most ideologically fraught moment. You feel like there has to be some bedrock of conviction that got him there because, with his profile/background, he'd be a far better SDP or Tory candidate.

But as PM it's absolutely right - he thought he could do the leading the Labour Party/winning elections better than Brown so went for it but only seems to have developed an ideological vision of what he wanted to do as PM while he was in office.

Sure, but Boris got away with the Brexit bus as well.

As I say I'll never understand the obsession with the bus. It used a gross instead of net figure I don't get how that is particularly bad, or even really that misleading given the rest of politics. And since then spending on health has increased by over £350 million per week so I don't see the broken promise either.

But if something doesn't matter that should, that's a political faiilure for the other side of the campaign.

There are a lot politicians on every level in my experience who are absolutely only in it for the power trip, and have zero interest (and often the same level of talent) for any sort of governing. There are those for whom the power trip is to try and do something, for sure, but for a lot it is just the title and the power over people.

I think the vast majority of politicians are in it for good reasons. They want to help their community. They believe it's public service. They believe in an ideological project being best for the country etc. We see this with all the talk of good constituency MPs etc (and mine is standing down at the next elections after 40 years - and she's been a great constituency MP and changed the country for the better).

The same goes for councillors, the vast majority of whom are not paid and do the job in their evenings/with leave from understanding employers.

I get going for a ministerial role because you can make more change in that way - you will be more of a decision maker rather than trying to get things done/influence policy from the backbenches or committees. But putting yourself forward for a leadership role is something else entirely. I think part of it probably is just if you look at the alternatives and think you can do a better job.

And having said all of that - I think Marie Le Conte has raised a good point about the fact that the qualities that make for good MPs are not the same that make for a good parliament. There is something to the argument that we have a better parliament if you have lots of people who've had solid and successful careers elsewhere who have a foot outside politics, but it's also true that everyone deserves a hard-working MP who is solely dedicated to their constitutuency and the "MP as social worker" model that's emerged in the last 20-25 years.

I don't know how you reconcile that. Le Conte's suggestion is to look at staff because funding for MP's staff is very low and counts as part of their "expenses" so they tend to all have very junior 20 somethings in their first job doing some of the work and only one or two staff members. Perhaps if there was a proper formal staff structure for MPs (and it was part of the cost of parliament, not the MP's expense claims) you could have experienced caseworkers running the constituency side of things and they could also employ speechwriters and policy researchers/experts.

[Tamas]

No 10 won't confirm that cabinet secretary investigating Christmas party didn't attend himself
At the Downing Street post-PMQs lobby briefing No 10 confirmed that Boris Johnson did not attend the party on 18 December last year.

But, as my colleague Jessica Elgot reports, No 10 would not say whether Simon Case, the cabinet secretary asked to investigate the party, attended himself.

[Sheilbh]

It just feels like even if he doesn't want to do the work, you would think he'd want to figure out a way to look better than this

As I say he was a decent mayor (I'd say worse than Livingstone, better than Sadiq who's been underwhelming but better than the alternatives). But a huge part of that was that Johnson had a lot of people around him who he properly delegated to. I don't think he has that necessarily right now (which is his own decision, or consequences of his own decision burning bridges) - but it's also a far bigger job.

The stuff that gets to the PM's desk is because every other layer of the civil service and the cabinet can't make a decision because it's too difficult. You can't delegate that too much and there's no substitute for just chewing through the papers to reach a decision.

But both with this, the original decision to have the parties, the Paterson decisions and a few other points - I just feel like there's no-one in Number 10 who is asking how something looks from the outside. And all of those are personal decisions to Johnson, they're not policy or cabinet issues, they're smaller than that.

I also think it's interesting how a lot of the criticism/issues with Johnson are things that were last said about John Major. So apparently he basically reads the papers in the morning and that sets the day's agenda - they are constantly trying to fight what's already been said rather than having a grid of announcements etc to set the agenda. Also the line that Johnson has "fixed opinions - opinions fixed by the last person he spoke to" is a criticism that came up a lot with Major, everyone left a meeting with him thinking he totally agreed with them.

[Sheilbh]

No 10 won't confirm that cabinet secretary investigating Christmas party didn't attend himself
At the Downing Street post-PMQs lobby briefing No 10 confirmed that Boris Johnson did not attend the party on 18 December last year.

But, as my colleague Jessica Elgot reports, No 10 would not say whether Simon Case, the cabinet secretary asked to investigate the party, attended himself.

This reminds me of the Paterson affair which Number 10 managed to turn from a one or two day annoyance into a month-long scandal.

[Tamas]

A Guardian comment reminded me: so if they are saying Johnson didn't know about the party in what is his home, where was he mid-lockdown during that party?

[Tamas]

No 10 won't confirm that cabinet secretary investigating Christmas party didn't attend himself
At the Downing Street post-PMQs lobby briefing No 10 confirmed that Boris Johnson did not attend the party on 18 December last year.

But, as my colleague Jessica Elgot reports, No 10 would not say whether Simon Case, the cabinet secretary asked to investigate the party, attended himself.

This reminds me of the Paterson affair which Number 10 managed to turn from a one or two day annoyance into a month-long scandal.

Wasn't there some rumour I read somewhere about cocaine traces found in No. 10 or was that entirely unfounded? These people might genuinly can't remember who they snorted stuff up with that night.

[Sheilbh]

Wasn't there some rumour I read somewhere about cocaine traces found in No. 10 or was that entirely unfounded? These people might genuinly can't remember who they snorted stuff up with that night.

Oh that's 100% true. I have wondered if the cocaine/Christmas party lines would cross at any point.

It's like the talk of having drug sniffer dogs in parliament plus the passport suspension - London takes a lot of cocaine. I think it's probably highest among "young professionals" and that group are very present in parliament and Whitehall/Westminster.

[garbon]

A Guardian comment reminded me: so if they are saying Johnson didn't know about the party in what is his home, where was he mid-lockdown during that party?

At one point the police were saying they didn't know if there was a party. Odd given they have police stationed there.

[Sheilbh]

First snap poll has less than 10% of people believe Number 10's claim that there wasn't a party

[Tamas]

First snap poll has less than 10% of people believe Number 10's claim that there wasn't a party

I mean are they saying there wasn't a party? They seem to be saying there may or may not have been a party, with particular people may or may not attending the party that may or may not took place. But whether there was a party or not, all covid restrictions were adhered to by all people who may or may not attended the party that may or may not took place.

[Sheilbh]

I mean are they saying there wasn't a party? They seem to be saying there may or may not have been a party, with particular people may or may not attending the party that may or may not took place. But whether there was a party or not, all covid restrictions were adhered to by all people who may or may not attended the party that may or may not took place.

I believe the latest line is that the Prime Minister's received repeated assurances that there wasn't a party in his house and would be furious if he was to discover that there was a party in his house. He's asked the Cabinet Secretary to investigate this. They can now confirm that the Cabinet Secretary did not attend the party on the 18th December, but that doesn't confirm that there was a party on the 18th. To the extent there was a party, the Prime Minister's received repeated assurances that covid regulations were followed.

So yes. The messaging is clear as mud

Edit: And the leader of the Scottish Tories has said Johnson should resign if he knew about the party (and if there was one). This is getting serious.

Edit: And Ruth Davidson, former leader of the Scottish Tories and very popular with the grassroots:

Ruth Davidson
@RuthDavidsonPC
None of this is remotely defensible. Not having busy, boozy not-parties while others were sticking to the rules, unable to visit ill or dying loved ones.

Nor flat-out denying things that are easily provable. Not taking the public for fools. 1/2
And today's "we'll investigate what we've spent a week saying didn't happen and discipline staff for rules we continue to say weren't broken" was pathetic. As a Tory, I was brought up to believe in playing with a straight bat. Believe me, colleagues are furious at this, too. 2/2