May on the way??

[Regal Beagle]

I really struggle to see why anyone would rate Boris Johnson. Perhaps people who support him can tell us what good qualities Mr Johnson exhibits? Try as I might, I cannot find any. As for the other candidates, it really seems to be a case of who is likely to be the least worse rather than who is the best. On the other hand, compared to Jeremy Corbyn, they all look rather appealing. Shame that Ruth Davidson is not throwing her hat into the ring.

 

He is one of the few MPs who support the democratic will of the people for starters.

 

I think Raab is the guy for me though.

[ginge]

He is one of the few MPs who support the democratic will of the people for starters.

 

I think Raab is the guy for me though.

 

You think Raab has any chance? The guy who did not understand how reliant UK trade in goods is on the Dover-Calais crossing. The guy who was Brexit Secretary for 5 months, what exactly was he doing? Also said the idea of leaving the EU without a deal is Project fear and scaremongering.

[mr.hobblesworth]

They sound like the perfect match.

[mr.hobblesworth]

"The Conservative leadership hopeful Esther McVey has spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money claiming for a personal photographer on expenses.

 

The MP has submitted claims worth £8,750 for the services of the photographer and PR man Jonathan Farber in just two years, according to an analysis of data held by the expenses watchdog. McVey – whose website is adorned with photographs of herself – hired Farber, an ex-Tory councillor in her constituency in Cheshire.

 

One receipt obtained using freedom of information laws from May 2018 shows that Farber invoiced McVey £750 for five hours’ work for two shoots including “edits, image processing and travel time”...Although some other MPs have claimed for professional photography, most have done so for significantly smaller amounts than the sums McVey has disbursed..."

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/12/esther-mcvey-expensed-thousands-of-pounds-for-personal-photographer

[ginge]

"The Conservative leadership hopeful Esther McVey has spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money claiming for a personal photographer on expenses.

 

The MP has submitted claims worth £8,750 for the services of the photographer and PR man Jonathan Farber in just two years, according to an analysis of data held by the expenses watchdog. McVey – whose website is adorned with photographs of herself – hired Farber, an ex-Tory councillor in her constituency in Cheshire.

 

One receipt obtained using freedom of information laws from May 2018 shows that Farber invoiced McVey £750 for five hours’ work for two shoots including “edits, image processing and travel time”...Although some other MPs have claimed for professional photography, most have done so for significantly smaller amounts than the sums McVey has disbursed..."

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/12/esther-mcvey-expensed-thousands-of-pounds-for-personal-photographer

 

“We know airports have been built [using foreign aid] and actually the runways are in the wrong direction because of the winds… it’s in one of the continents abroad. We know we’ve got that airport where we can’t take off and land because of the winds, the cross winds there.”

 

This was her today on LBC...

 

Talking about Saint Helena, which is a British Overseas Territory (so not a recipient of foreign aid)... and it wasn't built the wrong way...the wind shear was too severe for commercial planes to land there at the time.

[Warren]

"The Conservative leadership hopeful Esther McVey has spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money claiming for a personal photographer on expenses.

 

The MP has submitted claims worth £8,750 for the services of the photographer and PR man Jonathan Farber in just two years, according to an analysis of data held by the expenses watchdog. McVey – whose website is adorned with photographs of herself – hired Farber, an ex-Tory councillor in her constituency in Cheshire.

 

One receipt obtained using freedom of information laws from May 2018 shows that Farber invoiced McVey £750 for five hours’ work for two shoots including “edits, image processing and travel time”...Although some other MPs have claimed for professional photography, most have done so for significantly smaller amounts than the sums McVey has disbursed..."

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/12/esther-mcvey-expensed-thousands-of-pounds-for-personal-photographer

 

Don't know the facts. But McVey was MP for Wirral West where I live. She was a very active and very visible MP, as might be expected from someone from a professional media and tv background. Hence she will spend more on that type of thing and it may have its returns in appearing more professional. Her replacement is invisible in comparison and I can't recall a single thing she has done or said locally.

 

She is likely to be in the next Cabinet as a successful and well educated business woman as well as Brexiteer. But Boris is going to win the leadership contest easily.

[Warren]

Who's Steve Bannon?🤔

 

An irrelevant American.

[Warren]

Has he mentioned any benefits of Brexit apart from the will of the people yet.

 

Yep. Did so today.

[JohnJames]

An irrelevant American.

 

Who coaches Trump,Farage and Johnson in propaganda techniques. He’s not irrelevant he’s malevolent.

 

https://t.co/X0J0Xg2KSo

[TheSage]

We might well be able to list a number of equally incompetent MPs in other parties but we are here discussing the next PM so it's only sensible in my view that the person appointed should be someone with integrity, honesty, respect and intelligence, along with the ability to try and heal the divisions in society after 10 years of austerity and Brexit.

 

In these circumstances I'm staggered that anyone should think that someone like Johnson is suitable to represent us as PM. Nor should a number of the other candidates be anywhere near high office let alone PM. Their understanding and grasp of world affairs and of Brexit is frightening.

But I suppose they are but a mirror image of some of those who vote for them.

[Fosse69]

We might well be able to list a number of equally incompetent MPs in other parties but we are here discussing the next PM so it's only sensible in my view that the person appointed should be someone with integrity, honesty, respect and intelligence, along with the ability to try and heal the divisions in society after 10 years of austerity and Brexit.

 

In these circumstances I'm staggered that anyone should think that someone like Johnson is suitable to represent us as PM. Nor should a number of the other candidates be anywhere near high office let alone PM. Their understanding and grasp of world affairs and of Brexit is frightening.

But I suppose they are but a mirror image of some of those who vote for them.

Quite obvious why May got the job, there is no competition.

[mr.hobblesworth]

Quite obvious why May got the job, there is no competition.

 

Exactly, she only ever got the job because everyone else quit. I still think that there might be some huge revelation to be made about Johnson, although I doubt the kind of people who make up the membership of the conservative party will care too much whatever it is, seeing as they're already backing a man with such an appalling reputation. Seriously, how could a man with Johnson's record ever be deemed suitable for the role of Prime Minister.

[mr.hobblesworth]

Unsurprisingly, he did not mention his two disastrous years in the Foreign Office, the chance he threw away to prove himself as a man with gravitas. His officials could get no plan, priority or strategy from him. What did he want to do? He just liked being there. He offended, mocked and idled, spouted Kipling in Myanmar. But worst of all, his blundering laziness helped to keep a distraught mother stricken in an Iranian jail, when any decent person would have devoted their life to her release. Let that one shocker stand for all his character faults.

 

Instead, Johnson kept returning to his mayor of London years, packed with factoids and untruths. No, Johnson, violent crime including knife crime rose in your last two years. No, you missed your affordable housing target. You praised firefighters today, but you closed 10 stations and fired 552 firefighters. You promised more apprenticeships, but they fell by 100,000.

 

Your vanity projects left a £43m bill for the garden bridge, a £40m overspend on your designer buses. What of the £320,000 wasted on water cannon: would you have used them on the climate protesters occupying central London? But only one truth mattered to these MPs: Johnson beat Ken Livingstone twice, when the Tories were behind in the national polls. A winner – that’s the only currency that rings their tills.

 

Today Johnson touched every base from business to the poor, calling himself a “one-nation” man – though he above all others is the one who split the nation with his referendum claims about 80 million Turks arriving and £350m a week for the NHS. Never mind that his tax plan gives £10bn to the rich, not the poor; or that refusing to pay the £39bn we owe the European Union for past debts will render us a pariah state.

 

Posing, for one day only, as the “sensible, modern, moderate Conservative”, he will be a nation-shamingly bad prime minister, but these Tories think that’s a price worth paying for their seats. The irony is their gross self-interest may wipe out their party.

 

More seriously, consider the clear and present danger in Ireland: what will he do to preserve the historic peace in the Good Friday agreement? The Brexit impasse hinges on that border, but Johnson said he’d not let the Irish “tail wag the dog”. What will he do, send in the water cannon? Or far worse?

 

Polly Toynbee in The Guardian writing about Johnson's launch yesterday.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/12/boris-johnson-speech-charlatan-bravado-untrustworthy

[Jacko51]

Why do people think Boris can negotiate a successful withdrawal from the EU either with or without a deal? He was sacked by Michael Howard for lying about an affair which saw the other party have two abortions. It seems that withdrawal was not his strong point!

[Essex Vale]

We might well be able to list a number of equally incompetent MPs in other parties but we are here discussing the next PM so it's only sensible in my view that the person appointed should be someone with integrity, honesty, respect and intelligence, along with the ability to try and heal the divisions in society after 10 years of austerity and Brexit.

 

In these circumstances I'm staggered that anyone should think that someone like Johnson is suitable to represent us as PM. Nor should a number of the other candidates be anywhere near high office let alone PM. Their understanding and grasp of world affairs and of Brexit is frightening.

But I suppose they are but a mirror image of some of those who vote for them.

 

I agree that the qualities needed are listed above. Do we really expect go find any politician in any party that meets such criteria?