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

Seems like the delay in Sunak's apology was likely down to him having to be convinced not to resign, as it would have put too much pressure on Johnson to have to do the same thing.

There doesn't appear to be any appetite from the Tories to try to force him out. He isn't going to go unless forced to.

Despite having such a large majority, and thus being able to handle a change of leader, the opposite seems to have happened. Such a large majority has actually crippled the Tory party as they believe that only Johnson can deliver electoral success.

That without Johnson, they face electoral wipeout. Doesn't say much about the party and what it offers, but that seems to be the case.

They have all backed him so much at this stage that its almost too late to save themselves

He was never going to resign under any circumstances. It has to be a push but there are few left with any credibility who can push him.

The elections in May are the next big possible turning point. If they are not willing to shove him after a disaster there then he probably makes it all the way to an election.

Still in power and "gotten away with it" are two very different things.

Unfortunately it's the same as what's happening in the US. So many of the "checks & balances" require on people following accepted norms and unwritten rules. But when someone just says "No" to those, there's nothing in place to force it. And once it's made clear that you can do that and get away with it, the next person will be inclined to push those limits even more.

Damn, just realised there's no PMQs today. Not back until next week.

Nonsense. This was a once in 100 years pandemic where the entire country shut down.

I suppose next you will remind us there is a war on.

There's a significant difference in that it's now pretty clear he knowingly and repeatedly lied to Parliament. That's a breach of the Ministerial Code, and the minister or prime minister is expected to resign their position if found to have lied to Parliament.

The laws the PM broke were also laws he made, imposing huge restrictions on the people of the country. People lost the chance to be with dying loved ones, missed out on huge family events, postponed weddings, didn't see family for months. The idea that he then broke those rules for small parties is going to be hugely unpalatable for most. He pays a small fine, but facing no political consequences for it is going to cause a lot of resentment and with current or possible future Covid restrictions, is going to lead to a lot of people asking themselves why should they bother following the law when the guy who made the law didn't.

Well his claim re the birthday 'party' at any rate is that it never occurred to him at the time that it was against the law so when stood up in parliament and insisted no rules were broken I suppose he can maintain he believed that when he was saying it...

It was illegal to have any sort of gathering whatsoever not just a party. Even being in a room for a non essential cake was illegal. It doesn't matter if the cake was eaten or cut or whatever it was illegal. Any gathering of that size was illegal and everyone knew that nevermind the guy who made the rule

Well he is somehow insisting he didn't realise that until the police pointed it out so that gets him off the hook for lying to parliament. Very hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt that someone knowingly lied

Yeah, it's ridiculous but it won't be proven and that's the end of it. Almost anyone else would have resigned early in the process (or would have disallowed parties in No.10 during lockdowns to begin with). But that's not the case.

The Torys are now in a the tricky position of pretending the PM is so daft that he didn't know he was at parties and also pretending he's the best person to run the country...

Johnson can possibly claim ignorance for the birthday event. But there are rumours there could be further fines yet to come. If so, Johnson either has to resign as he has no possible excuse left and the Tories might feel he's now definitely too big of a liability, or he just says f*ck it and refuses to go. Unfortunately the latter is most likely.

If the opposition let him get away with it, he will survive. If they decide to apply the political pressure, they will win

Every time Johnson says he didn't know it was a lie he'll look like a bigger idiot.

His own party doesn't care but the voters will be swayed by repeated weaknesses being exposed repeatedly

If I was Starmer I'd go into the HOC with 3 life sized posters. 1 of Johnson, 1 of Zellinski, and one of Neville Chamberlain

I'd say Johnson could not even keep the lights out in his own flat during the blitz that was Covid.

That a true leader puts the people first, and Johnson always puts himself first, and then say Johnson cosying up to Russian Oligarchs is like why Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill (appeasement)