Given that Johnson has pleaded lack of money (how the **** he'd have survived on my nursing salary...) how has he managed to come up with the dosh?

FFS, the man has no clue about money.

Count Binface is facing ridicule in the political community after the latest opinion polls show he is neck and neck with comedy candidate Laurence Fox.

Binface, who is standing to be London Mayor on the back of a wildly ambitious and popular manifesto, is said to be distraught at news that the latest polls show his support is the same as that for the plonker who used to be married to Billie Piper.

https://newsthump.com/2021/04/21/lon...-laurence-fox/

...one of the plonkers....

The point was made over at the Grauniad, that the vast majority of people don't bother with politics unless they're hurting. As long as the monthly pay arrives on time, Eastenders is on, and the local team is doing alright, they don't give a toss as to who is Secretary of this or First Lord of that.

Liz Truss interview with Jayne Secker on Sky News
She won't deny claims that a Tory donor gave the PM a loan to pay for his flat refurbishments.

Truss on #Marr again avoids questions over whether the PM received a loan from a Tory donor for flat refurbishments:

"I’ve never been in the No 10 flat... the PM has now met the costs."

Truss doesn’t know when register of ministers’ financial interests will be published.

Argues govt lockdown leak inquiry is ongoing but "It’s a completely Westminster tittle-tattle that people don’t care about".

Truss also won’t deny that PM phoned newspaper editors to vent about Cummings.

The claim is that a donor paid the contractors directly for the makeover.

Now, many months later Boris Johnson met the costs after pressure.

This means there should be a loan declared to the Electoral Commission but there isn’t.

Yeah - she doesn’t have a good track record! :)

I just had a look at who is running for London Mayor.

Jesus Christ!

Honestly Count Binface really is one of the least loony of them all.

Obviously there is Lawrence "These days if you say you're English you get arrested and thrown in jail" Fox, there is loony anti-lockdown and 5G conpiracy theorist, Piers Corbyn, then splitting the loony anti-lockdown and 5G conpiracy theorist vote is loony anti-lockdown and 5G conpiracy theorist London Real podcast/You Tube guy, Brian Rose, and then there is the UKIP candidate with the I-can't-believe-this-is-not-satire name Peter Gammons!

Indeed, Count Binface For Mayor!.
It's the sensible option.

Meanwhile in the Cummings and Johnson car crash.

Apparently from the Sunday Times

Attachment 44610

Apparently Boris has been refusing to use the encrypted phone that a PM is normally given and has insisted on using his own phone for all his calls.
He's used the same mobile number for ten years.

I'd guess that there's so much **** hitting the fan at #10 right now that you wouldn't even want to be a fly on the wall.

I don't think they care, the Tory lead in the polls is still solid and Boris' popularity isn't being reduced by any of it.

Well, strikes me that there's nothing the UK gutter press likes more than some exposing of scandal and general destruction. I think the Mail/Express/Sun/Telegraph could get into a feeding frenzy soon. We can but hope ...

eta: I got a sick bag ready and checked, *gag*, The Mail on Sunday's headline. Found this :

Boris Johnson: 'Let the bodies pile high in their thousands'. PM's incendiary remark during fight over lockdowns is latest claim in No10 drama

Well, what do you expect with Corbyn and Starmer cutting the NHS for the last ten years?

I wish I could think that you were being ridiculous rather than just pointing out the view of a significant proportion of the electorate

It’s the strange thing that anyone would think “sleaze” would have any negative effect on Johnson’s popularity, he has been embroiled in sleaze all his “career”.

This is an interesting flex

Attachment 44613

I presume you are highlighting a quote about Johnson’s opinion on which of the sisters has had 2 face lifts?








:boxedin:

Is it one of those trick questions?

But rarely front page sleaze, especially in the gutter press.

The sleeze was inside the Sunday Times.

The "Let the bodies pile up" quote is not sleaze. It directly attacks Johnson's carefully-crafted image of an amiable buffoon who is "a bit out of his depth" but doing the best he can because "he's a good sort". Why that would be suitable for PM is a separate mystery, but he's got there and I haven't - so it plays well with enough voters and Tory party members.

Fair enough, "scandal" might have been a better word. But it was also on the front page of The Mail on Sunday, as I pointed out earlier.

The gist of what I'm saying is that that section of the press have given Johnson & co. a very easy ride indeed, and maybe that's changing.

Boris Johnson has always "complied with the rules" over the refurbishment of his official flat, the defence secretary has said.

Ben Wallace said the prime minister had "personally paid the bill" for works on the Downing Street residence.

Asked whether a loan had initially covered the refurbishment costs, Mr Wallace told BBC Breakfast: "The prime minister paid the money, from his own money".

He said this came "on top of" public money from the annual £30,000 taxpayer grant available to all prime ministers for the upkeep of their accommodation.

"At all times the prime minister has complied with the rules. He's paid for it out of his own money, " he said.

Mr Wallace also dismissed as "nonsense" a newspaper report that Mr Johnson said he would rather see "bodies piled high in their thousands" than order a third national lockdown.

Asked about the claims, Mr Wallace said: "I've known the prime minister for many years, that is not the prime minister I know. That is just nonsense."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56883078

It's happened. The Tories have now become their own official opposition!

The old political adage is that you don’t win an election your opponent loses the election.

Lots of outlets running with the "bodies could pile high" quote.

Boris Johnson has denied saying it and if you cannot trust Boris Johnson, who can you trust ? :rolleyes:

To be honest I don't believe he said it. It doesn't sound right.. too plebian. Now if he'd tacked on 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori!' it would be more convincing.

Hasn't gone away. NIRA recently admitted responsibility for an incendiary bomb attached to a policewoman's car.

Robert Peston tweeted

I'm understand CCHQ (Tory Party) made payment to the Cabinet Office to cover initial costs of refurbishing the PM's home in Downing Street, and the PM is now repaying CCHQ. There is an audit trail. Cabinet Sec Simon Case knows about it. Which is presumably why he told MPs...

today that he would do a report on the propriety of how the decoration and furnishing was funded. This is breaking news and I will update

Downing Street says to me - again - that the PM has now paid for the costs of the refurbishment. But there was a loan to him from the Tory Party. And I assume that loan will now have to be declared by him. You decide whether it was appropriate for his party to give...

him this kind of financial help (and very sorry for typo in first tweet in this chain).

PS I assume the PM will declare the loan from the Tory Party pronto. Because failure to do so would be a breach of the Ministerial Code. I am less clear on whether there is an analogous disclosure responsibility on the Conservative Party, but I assume there is.

This is every bit as deceitful and contrived as Cummings' eye-test fairy story in the Rose Garden of number 10 last year.
The difference is that this time the whole CCHQ is involved, and Johnson hasn't got the balls to tell this lie himself and has made Peston do it for him!

As an aside, it was mentioned in one of the Tory sleaze articles that the list of ministers' interests, which is supposed to be published twice a year, haven't been updated since July last year.

You are mistaking the actor for the role he plays….

Meanwhile Gove, in the HoC, was careful to deny the "Bodies piled up .." statement in a way that wasn't really a denial. Weasel words from the ultimate weasel.

I'm half expecting a full-on Johnson meltdown, but that's probably just wishful thinking. The next PMQs might be interesting. Wednesday?

It's pathetic saying that the loan for his flat refurbishment will be declared 'in due course'. He's like a shoplifter offering to pay for goods he'd stolen.

The Sweeney!

I'm more baffled by the fact that £30,000 per year apparently isn't enough to maintain a flat. What the hell are they doing to the place?

Sent from my Google Pixel Slate using Tapatalk

Gove has been very quiet lately..,
Cummings was Gove's spad. Neither like Johnson. Cummings hates everyone.
Murdoch and Gove are tight.

Wouldn't put it past Gove to be behind some of the current media leaks and stories as part of a leadership bid.
Little ****. Not that Johnson doesn't deserve a hard time.

I was quite surprised to hear that. You could easily replace a kitchen, couple of bathrooms, decorate throughout carpets the lot - we are told it is only a small apartment for £30000.