BoJo banished - Liz Truss down. Is Rishi next for the toaster? **threadbans in OP**

No. If you invite people from another department who don't need to be there for work reasons and wouldn't be there but for the party, that's not on any view a work meeting.

Oh, sure. Johnson will never feel any compunction to resign because he has lied to Parliament. The notion will just baffle him.

He'll have to go if enough of the Tory parliamentary party feel that he has lied, or has lied so publicly and so egregiously, and that this necessitates his departure. And, sure, this isn't going to be a pure, high-minded, disinterested, noble public interest decision; members will be focussed on the threat to their seats. But not just on that; don't underestimate the anger of MPs who have been forced to humiliate themselves for Johnson's protection. Don't underestimate the rage when they do humiliate themselves, and are then exposed when Johnson changes tack — again. And, remember, while there are obviously Tory MPs whose seats are under threat if the Tory star wanes, under the UK's quaint electoral system there is a large chunk of the party who, basically, cannot lose their seats; they can afford to form a view about whose leadership is in the best long-term interests of the party, and/or in their own best long-term interests. Neither consideration might point to Johnson.

It's a combination of factors. The more Johnson is on the nose in public opinion polls - and he has been on the nose in public opinion polls for months now - the less plausible is the argument that Johnson, and only Johnson, can lead the party to victory at the next election. You'll have members that reckon, actually, their could be others in the party who could do it as well, or better, than Johnson, and who won't require such a sacrifice of self-respect; they might be worth a punt. And there'll come a point where some feel that nobody can lead the party to victory at the next election, and the time has come to start strategising about the one after that.

I really hope they concocted a big joint lie because I am full sure as soon as they hand it to the police then the photos will emerge.

Neither Johnson, nor any of the cabine, is suggesting that the PM will resign if he gets fined. Its not about what's right ot wrong. If it were about that, he'd already be gone. It's about how the narrative is shaped and how peopel and MPs react to it.

Where did you get the idea that a fine = a resignation?

Where did I say that?🤨

Oh right. I see your point I was replying to doesn't relate specifically to dodging a fine. But apparently his legal people believe this line about going back to work after the 'parties' will do that.

But maybe they're just whistling past the graveyard. Or the team is headed up by Lionel Hutz and Saul Goodman...

And I think what they're really looking for is a classic right-left issue to snap everyone back into line. Going back to work, isn't that issue (the Jimmy Saville comment t was more like it). They want to get people away from the core of the issue of whether he attended parties and flouted the rules and into the minutiae of something like whether he went back to work afterwards and whether that means he was working when he attended the parties, thus making them more like work meetings.

I don't think this is the issue they need, but I think that's what they're trying to get. Just muddying the waters is good enough in the meantime.

Is there doubt about whether the Gray report will be published in full again now? I'll bet they're working full time to get it changed and have the most incriminating parts removed. The longer it goes on the more successful they'd be at that too.

Visiting storm damage would usually be a good middle-of-the-road leadership thing to do. But I wonder if he could even do it without being heckled at the moment. Might have to just visit the tory clubs in the affected towns to avoid it turning into a sh1t-show.

My last paragraph makes total sense.

There is no such thing as 'populism', that's a term coined by the upper ruling classes. Journalists. Legal eagles. Politickers. Made up by exactly the same people who would rather they would decide if Brexit would or wouldn't happen, and not by anyone else. Well, no wonder those types are bitter, when they can't rule the world. Guess those types don't think this democracy thing is as hot an idea they thought it was.

I think it's a safe bet Boris has survived and is not going anywhere at this stage, a week is a long time in politics, 3 weeks an eternity.

Like covid, the #number10partygate off the news agenda.

I initially thought, he's Toast, then had second thoughts , then it was clear no one person in the Conservatives had the support to beat him , so back to he'll survive, then we had the Stammer incident out side parliament, I thought this will be linked to Boris's Jimmy Saville comments, back to toast , but Boris then dug his heels in, no apology, off to act the statesman, Ukraine and the partygate saga almost forgotten at this stage.

Unless something new an dramatic surfaces I think he'll survive but of course in Politics who really knows 😉

Wouldn’t surprise me if he’s been sitting in No. 10 all this time wishing for a Russian invasion to actually come. It would certainly buy him a load of extra time and raise the bar of what the Tories will tolerate before throwing him out.

However it probably wouldn’t save him forever. Churchill himself was voted out of office before the end of the war.

To be fair, it has been off the news agenda before. That doesn't mean it's dead. It will be back on the news agenda when the Metropolitan police complete their investigation and issue (or don't issue) fixed penalty notices. And then it will be back when the Grey report is released. And it may be back on other occasions when, e.g., more photographs of Johnson looking inebriated at a work meeting emerge - there are a lot of photographs out there. Etc, etc.

None of this means that Johnson will necessarily be forced to resign over this, but (a) it will dog him, and (b) it does bring closer the day when the party dumps him. Johnson has burned a lot of political capital over this.

I'm fat. I get a pass.