Quote: ratticusfinch "An excellent summary. There was a sign at a protest in the USA that read 'Trump, - we knew you'd be bad but fec k me' - you could replace Trump with Johnson. There is astonishing levels of theft from the public purse going on - but please look over there at the asylum seekers getting £30 a week.'"
I think the corruption of all these taxpayer-funded contracts going to Boris' cronies will end up being to him what the Iraq war became to Blair....less of an issue at the time it happened but after a few years when the public realise what happened he will be forever tarnished with it. Same with the housing secretary overruling Tower Hamlets council to get a Tory donor out of paying the levy on his development. This is the kind of dirty stuff that used to happen in European countries with corrupt politicians like Chirac in France or Berulosconi in Italy, where they had that kind of "nudge, wink" relationship with the electorate where people knew they were dodgy feckers but tolerated them for a while, but the UK was relatively free of it because of the strict rules in Whitehall (which Boris and his chums are tearing up under the guise of civil servants being 'enemies of the people').
The whole clash with the EU where they are ramming through that Bill to break their commitments in the Withdrawal Agreement, isn't about the Irish border or the EU "blockading food" like Boris is trying to say - its about being free from restrictions on State Aid (giving taxpayers money to private businesses) because Cummings wants to build his "British facebook", ie use taxpayers money to finance ventures from his tech industry pals.
In a few years time when everyones taxes go up and services are cut to pay for it and we're told "there's no money left" and they start finding out it was frittered away during Boris' days as PM in easy handouts to favoured donors they will go apepoop.
Johnson is like Trump but he's a lesser version of him and surprisingly weak in public performances. In the scenario which I suggested earlier where this had happened on Theresa May's watch, Boris would have been writing columns in newspapers taking the same position Dita's Slot Meter does on here, acting as the champion of "common sense" and "British freedoms" against the lockdown, because he'd be positioning for May's job. He was suited to that kind of outsider critique, he's not suited to being PM. He dithers about making decisions, then does something, mumbles about it when questioned, and U-turns later. I never liked him but thought he would have had a bit more personality and charisma about him as PM, but he's very weak in debates. I think the knives are being sharpened behind the scenes by some of his colleagues, notably Gove.