BoJo resigns; Truss fails; Sunak ascends

One year, you achieve the largest parliamentary majority in a century. Another year, you're resigning over ethical violations. Richard Nixon approves!

The Associated Press: Boris Johnson resigns amid scandal: Live updates.
https://apnews.com/article/boris-johnson-resignation-60da3c4b29a4e9c93c7db9f53034ad0e

Yep. Sorry, British Gary Busey.

Since America is so obsessed over where political leaders are born you can keep him imho.

Wait, what? A corrupt, scandal-ridden chief executive of a major western power ... actually resigned?

Nope. Tony Blair's majorities were far higher.

I wonder who's going to replace Boris Johnson?

Any potential candidates come to mind?

I'm VERY HAPPY for the UK that Boris Johnson resigned.

The field is wide open, and there are many possible winners - all awful in different ways, being Tories.

This guy is not replaceable. On the whole, I'd say that's a good thing. Hopefully it's a sign of a turning tide.

Bo Jo no mo'? Oh no!

Your Tories aren't as across-the-board vile as our Republicans yet, are they?

Different sort of evil. Plays on the forelock-tugging trend Brits have to "the upper class". We need more punks - maybe the Sex Pistols biopic will help?

They played on bigotry during Brexit but they don't have any real issue with PoC as long as they have cash.

They won't outright kill the NHS but they'll run it down slowly over time.

As the recent scandals that brought Boris down show, they think there should be one rule for them and another for us plebs, but actually being unrepentant when caught out is beyond the pale.

Probably not quite. But let's see.

Dominic Raab (looks like a serial killer) says that he doesn't believe in economic and social rights. As justice minister he's been running the criminal justice system into the ground so badly that trials are taking years to get to court and barristers are being paid below minimum wage. He has said that British workers are lazy and that it needs to be easier to fire them.

Rishi Sunak (smarmy rich fuck) is essentially a billionaire, previously a banker and hedge fund manager. He believes strongly in swingeing tax cuts for corporations and the rich. Despite that, while in office and largely because of Brexit he increased taxes to the highest level in decades - for everyone else. He himself was dodging taxes by claiming to be non-domiciled in the UK and a resident of the US even when Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Suella Braverman is the Attorney General, and has consistently disgraced the legal profession by insisting that any and all illegalities associated with the Johnson government were actually just fine. These include the violation of international treaties, violations of the ministerial code and other corruption. She has also defended torture.

Liz Truss is the opportunists opportunist, having flipped from harsh opposition to Brexit to eager supporter when it suited her. She almost provoked a war with Russia by claiming to support British volunteers going to fight in Ukraine, a comment she needed to retract. Her ignorance of the regions geography provoked ridicule from the Russian foreign Minister. And having claimed to have raised human rights issues with the Saudis, it quickly emerged that she was lying.

Priti Patel (pure evil) launched a scheme to deport refugees to Rwanda, at a cost of £120 million. Challenged legally, it has been found to be inhumane but the money has to be paid anyway. She's been fired from office twice before, including for holding unauthorised meetings with Israeli officials, a country whose abuses she backs to the hilt. She's been found guilty of bullying colleagues, but retained in office because Boris. She's brought in legislation which essentially allows the police to arbitrarily ban any protest that they wish.

Penny Mordaunt believes in homeopathy and wants it publicly funded...

I could go on...

I forgot Steve Baker. In his pitch to become leader today he talked about "seizing power".

Meanwhile, Sunak has wheeled out a polished promotional video - barely 24 hours after the vacancy came up. He's definitely been sitting on that for a while.

Next time Doctor Who does the Judoon, I hope we get this as an Easter egg.

So after all the troubles of Boris the thing that finally gets him is a gay scandal in his administration?

So gay pride took him down.

Dear UK, on behalf of the GLBT community you are welcome for getting rid of Boris. buttsex FTW!

No, that isn't even close to what happened.

So what is different aside from that scandal? Sure they will call it something else because that is what you do when you get rid of people because of homosexual scandals, but it is not like there were not a lot of other Boris scandals out there he should have been forced to resign over.

It is like Madison cawthorn over here. No one gave a fuck about anything he did until there might have been some gay shit going on and then all of a sudden he loses because of reasons.

I have seen this music before, and it makes absolutely no sense that now all of a sudden non-gay corruption is bad for BJ.

The issue was not the gay bit, it's that Boris lied about whether he'd been warned about the guy and made his ministers lie about it. Nothing would have been done if it turned out Boris was genuinely unaware of Pincher's tendency to get handsy after a few drinks when he appointed him.

This on the back of Partygate (Tory staffers breaking the lockdown rules over social gatherings to have boozy "work parties") which seriously hurt Boris over his integrity with voters (who his party were telling to isolate and not even go to hospitals to see dying relatives) and saw him fined by the police. Then he started changing the Parliamentary code of conduct so his actions would no longer be a resigning matter.

When even the Tory party thinks you have no integrity or honesty, you need to GTFO.

Maybe Trump will see Boris’ chickens coming home to roost and decide to sit out 2024.

Boarding schools might be to blame for BoJo.

I'd be wary of tarring all boarding schools with the same brush. It's Eton that's a well-known generator of cunts.

Sexist.

Prick.

That better?

My understanding is that in Britain, "cunt" has effectively been degendered. Which is why I don't use it myself, but don't really blink when the Brits on the board use it anymore.

I'd cringe if I heard an American apply it to a woman, but in the UK, especially when applied to men, it seems to be functionally equivalent to "prick" or "asshole," without much of a context beyond that.

Seems to me it's the same in Oz too. @Bailey, can you confirm?

Definitely used widely, although still recognized as one of the stronger swear words and there are some people who will object to its use on sexual grounds.

One of the great (and filthiest) comedy records ever recorded was "Derek and Clive" (Live) this is perhaps the most famous...or infamous...tracks...

I am just being honest here. That is how shit tends to work when you get fired or forced out for some gay shit.

What I am saying is Boris has gotten away with a ton of stuff that was shady. None of it seemed to matter to him and his people. Then all of a sudden this shit comes up and he is resigning. So the blame gets put on everything else, which he did bad, but everyone was letting it go.

I am just saying it looks a lot like how you get rid of someone once they are outed. From an outside POV it looks a lot like they are covering the gay shit up because they are letting him resign and not booting him out.

This is the same country that is trying desperately to pretend there is no racism with their royal family. There is a bit of the idea they are cool with homosexuality as long as it is not in the family so to speak. It is not like Boris was a nice and decent guy.

I am not saying I am correct here, but it is bad optics.