Yet more Tory sleaze….

[icowden]

Could you, perhaps, offer us some cogent reasons as to why Johnson is not the things we accuse him of? (Liar, hypocrite, fascist, corrupt, anti-democratic, authoritarian...)

It seems unlikely as the word "proven" can be prefixed to all of those and documentary evidence provided.

 

[Salty seadog]

Straight question. Closed question. Would you be happy with a proven liar incapable of admitting wrong and covering up lies with more lies being the prime minister of this country?

Press Y for yes, press N for no.

Edited for spelling.

As I say a yes or no answer is all I'd like.

@Pale Rider

 

[Hitchington]

"Boris is a twat, yeah, too right, like, like, like, Boris is a shithouse as well, spot on, like like etc ad nauseam."

Yep. https://boris-johnson-lies.com/

 

[Xipe Totec]

Seen the headlines this morning, even The Sun and his own personal fanzine, The Torygraph, have the knives out for Johnson. At one point I'd have doubted that would ever happen.

Starting to genuinely look like he's toast.

 

[Pale Rider]

Yep. https://boris-johnson-lies.com/

I wonder if stuff like that is counter productive.

It won't convince anyone of anything, rather like slagging Boris off on here.

Quite the reverse, some people might be more inclined to vote Conservative to give the nasty knockers a poke in the eye.

Seen the headlines this morning, even The Sun and his own personal fanzine, The Torygraph, have the knives out for Johnson. At one point I'd have doubted that would ever happen.

Starting to genuinely look like he's toast.

I was hoping for a bit more from The Sun.

I've not seen The Telegraph, but the good news for the government is it appears none of the papers have much in the way of further revelations.

That's what Tory central office will have been bracing itself for.

 

[newfhouse]

Quite the reverse, some people might be more inclined to vote Conservative to give the nasty knockers a poke in the eye.

I see this view and similar quite often and I'm not convinced. How does it work? What's the thought process? Is it just wishful thinking on your part?Why doesn't it work the same way when a Labour leader falls victim to the "nasty knockers?"

 

[Hitchington]

I wonder if stuff like that is counter productive.

It won't convince anyone of anything, rather like slagging Boris off on here.

Quite the reverse, some people might be more inclined to vote Conservative to give the nasty knockers a poke in the eye.

Do you trust a man who has told lies and been economical with the truth throughout his life?

A simple "yes" or "no" answer will suffice.

Tick-tock, tick-tock...

 

[Pale Rider]

I see this view and similar quite often and I'm not convinced. How does it work? What's the thought process? Is it just wishful thinking on your part?Why doesn't it work the same way when a Labour leader falls victim to the "nasty knockers?"

It's not so much the knocked as to how the knocking is done.

Lots of people are thoroughly unimpressed by nasty personal abuse of public figures, whoever that figure is.

At the minute the focus is on Johnson, not least because he's PM and Starmer is an irrelevance.

But were there websites and long threads on cycling forums hurling abuse at Starmer, the same people would be equally unimpressed.

Just my view, of course.

If I had all the answers as to how to influence people, leaving aside winning friends, you might have seen me blubbing on the steps of my town house yesterday throwing in the towel.

Except you wouldn't, because I'm not so dense as to allow myself to be filmed making statements which may come back to bite me on the bottom.

Do you trust a man who has told lies and been economical with the truth throughout his life?

A simple "yes" or "no" answer will suffice.

Tick-tock, tick-tock...

It's disingenuous crap like this which does your cause no favours.

But carry on, because if Boris's opponents had any tactical nous he'd really be in bother.

 

[swansonj]

I actually don't criticise Allegra Stratton for her levity in that recording.

If you are developing "lines to take", or practicing your communication skills, it's an intense process, particularly when doing it in a proper studio environment, you try out multiple different ways to address tricky questions, you watch the recording of yourself cock it up in five different ways, and the need to break the tension is quite legitimate, particularly when you know that the thing you are developing lines to defend is actually quite hard to defend. I seem to recall that President Bartlett did it more than once (we know that because Aaron Sorkin documented it for us), and I'll bet most people in that situation have done it. (To be fair, you would rather hope that you could trust your colleagues not to leak it).

So I don't particularly blame her for either what she said or for the style in which she said it. No, I blame her for choosing to work for an outfit whose objectives and culture led to her being in this situation, and that's why her tear-streaked resignation elicits little sympathy from me. If she hadn't knowingly chosen to work for a mob who think the law doesn't apply to them, she wouldn't have been in this position.

 

[newfhouse]

So I don't particularly blame her for either what she said or for the style in which she said it. No, I blame her for choosing to work for an outfit whose objectives and culture led to her being in this situation, and that's why her tear-streaked resignation elicits little sympathy from me. If she hadn't knowingly chosen to work for a mob who think the law doesn't apply to them, she wouldn't have been in this position.

Exactly this. You can't be an apologist for Johnson without knowing that he will happily throw you under a bus when it suits him.

 

[Pale Rider]

I actually don't criticise Allegra Stratton for her levity in that recording.

If you are developing "lines to take", or practicing your communication skills, it's an intense process, particularly when doing it in a proper studio environment, you try out multiple different ways to address tricky questions, you watch the recording of yourself cock it up in five different ways, and the need to break the tension is quite legitimate, particularly when you know that the thing you are developing lines to defend is actually quite hard to defend. I seem to recall that President Bartlett did it more than once (we know that because Aaron Sorkin documented it for us), and I'll bet most people in that situation have done it. (To be fair, you would rather hope that you could trust your colleagues not to leak it).

So I don't particularly blame her for either what she said or for the style in which she said it. No, I blame her for choosing to work for an outfit whose objectives and culture led to her being in this situation, and that's why her tear-streaked resignation elicits little sympathy from me. If she hadn't knowingly chosen to work for a mob who think the law doesn't apply to them, she wouldn't have been in this position.

I'm an inky fingered media dinosaur, but when I first started I was told never to type (we used to use copy paper) anything that you would not be prepared to see on the front page.

This advice followed on to when we got those new fangled keyboards and monitors in the 80s.

It still applies today to computers, video, and the rest.

Stratton ignored that advice, or more likely never knew of it.

The result was entirely predictable.

Exactly this. You can't be an apologist for Johnson without knowing that he will happily throw you under a bus when it suits him.

Boris didn't throw anyone under a bus.

Stratton made a rookie error - see above - and paid the price for it.

 

[newfhouse]

Boris didn't throw anyone under a bus.

Stratton made a rookie error - see above - and paid the price for it.

She's a dead cat under the bus. The hypocrisy surrounding the party in No. 10 is the real meat of this story and that is Johnson's responsibility.

 

[Deleted member 49]

I laughed at her crocodile tears.The same Allegra Stratton who is married to the political editor of The Spectator James Forsyth, close friends with Rishi Sunak,they’re godparents to each other’s children.The revolving door of the Tories....she has never even held a fecking no 10 press conference ! The self-gratification artist we've got as PM won't take responsibility for a single thing.I just wish one of his cronies had the backbone to actually call him out on it 🙄
Makes you wonder who recorded it....and why was it only released now ? Same for Handcock.

 

[matticus]

Boris didn't throw anyone under a bus.

Stratton made a rookie error - see above - and paid the price for it.

Seems to me that she was indeed thrown.
The rookie error was standing near enough to the thrower to allow this to happen.

(You can hear more in-depth analysis on my podcast, DM me for details ... )

 

[icowden]

I was hoping for a bit more from The Sun.

They are trying to keep quiet as they had a very boozy office party on the same night with at least two impromptu couples involved in "ugandan" discussions (one apparently in full view of the rest of the office).

Bit hard to openly criticise the government for an illegal office party when you were having one yourself (details of which were leaked to Private Eye and have been published).