The Passing Show: the Death of a Clown
September 2024 › Forums › General discussion › The Passing Show: the Death of a Clown
- This topic has 49 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 10 months ago by
alanjjohnstone.
-
AuthorPosts
-
July 6, 2022 at 5:26 pm #231106
ALB
KeymasterI suppose we should have a thread on the fall of a privileged member of the ruling class (Eton and Bullingdon Club) whose life ambition is about to end in abject failure. Not that it will make any difference of course.
Intelligent representatives of the capitalist class have never really forgiven him for stirring up opposition to UK membership of the EU and pulling off Brexit, which is harming the interest of most of the capitalist class.
But the thing I personally hold against him is this — he has done all he can to keep the Ukraine war going with all the death, destruction and misery this is causing. Before he intervened talks were going on between the warring parties which might (or, agreed, might not) have led to some early end of the war. Johnson deliberately sabotaged any hope of this:
“According [to] Ukrainska Pravda sources close to Zelenskyy, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, who appeared in the capital almost without warning, brought two simple messages.
The first is that Putin is a war criminal, he should be pressured, not negotiated with.
And the second is that even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, they are not.
Johnson’s position was that the collective West, which back in February had suggested Zelenskyy should surrender and flee, now felt that Putin was not really as powerful as they had previously imagined, and that here was a chance to ‘press him.’” — Roman Romaniuk. Possibility of talks between Zelenskyy and Putin came to a halt after Johnson’s visit – UP sources. 5 May 2022.”Let militant warmonger — not lovable rogue turned despicable rogue — be his epitaph.
July 6, 2022 at 6:05 pm #231107alanjjohnstone
KeymasterBut what of his future?
Lucrative media rewards with press and television. Lucrative book deals with his memoirs. Lucrative employment contracts with think tanks and NGOs. (think former PM Blair)
Out of office, perhaps, but not out of pocket
July 6, 2022 at 10:30 pm #231114Moo
Participant“[The collective West] back in February had suggested Zelensky should surrender and flee”
I find that highly questionable.
July 7, 2022 at 7:11 am #231117ALB
KeymasterYes I don’t think that was the case. The question is who said it (or made it up). The Ukrainian nationalist journalist attributed it to Johnson and is the sort of exaggeration that Johnson might make but it might just be a journalist speculating.
In any event, the fact is that after Johnson visited Kiev the Ukrainian regime changed its position and broke off negotiations with the Putin regime.
Here’s the source of the claims:
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/05/5/7344206/index.amp
July 7, 2022 at 2:04 pm #231137Moo
Participanthttps://www.facebook.com/ledbydonkeys/videos/560420942266948
Try not to laugh at all the times he promised not to do something, then did it. What’s poignant is all these evil b*stards could have been good people if they were born into a socialist world.
P.S. Thanks, ALB, for posting a link to the source of the claims.
July 7, 2022 at 3:24 pm #231138Ozymandias
Participant“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”William Speareshake
Macduff
July 7, 2022 at 5:11 pm #231142ALB
KeymasterLike the last one, the new Chancellor if the Exchequer is a multi-millionaire. Today’s Times says of Nadhim Zahawi:
“Most of his wealth is tied up in property assets, said to be worth £100 million.”
Another example of a capitalist taking direct charge of their class’s general interest rather than entrusting this to a career politician.
July 7, 2022 at 5:38 pm #231143Wez
ParticipantOzymandias – paradoxical because we will probably always remember the enigma called Shakespeare for writing stuff like that – that signifies something, doesn’t it?
July 8, 2022 at 4:19 pm #231158ALB
KeymasterThere is much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the streets of Kiev at Johnson’s demise:
July 8, 2022 at 6:01 pm #231163Moo
ParticipantALB, it doesn’t matter in this forum whether you call the Ukrainian capital by its Russian or Ukrainian name. However, you’d better call it Kyiv on social media, unless you want to be labelled a Putin sympathiser.
July 8, 2022 at 8:23 pm #231164ALB
KeymasterI use Kiev, Kharkov, Lvov, Odessa, etc because that’s what they have long been in English. On the other hand I am prepared to spell Boris the Ukrainian way as Borys. But I am not going to spell Trotsky as Trotskyy. Using Ukrainian transliteration is an affectation.
July 9, 2022 at 8:20 am #231172ALB
KeymasterWith the economy in the state it is and likely to still be in two years, I can’t see how the Tories can win the next election. So, what we are seeing is the scramble to become the next Leader of the Opposition after a brief spell as a lame duck prime minister. I’m surprised that there are so many applicants.
July 9, 2022 at 10:18 am #231173Moo
ParticipantAccording to the Electoral Calculus (https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/homepage.html) if there were a general election this month: Labour would win 48% of the seats; the Conservatives 38%; the SNP 8%; the Liberal Democrats 3%; and others 3%. Therefore, it’s seems likely Labour will form a minority government backed by the Liberal Democrats.
If Scotland doesn’t leave the union, then I feel the days of parties winning super or comfortable majorities are over. In every future general election, either the Conservatives will win a small majority or Labour will form a minority government backed by the SNP or Liberal Democrats.
July 9, 2022 at 11:07 am #231175Bijou Drains
ParticipantThe Liberals might demand electoral reform as part of the package to support a minority government or form a coalition. Might actual get greater support this time around.
One thing that I am sick of hearing is that Johnson won a landslide victory with a huge majority. He won 43.6%, which is a plurality, not a majority and he only won 330,000 more votes than Theresa May.
He only got roughly 14 million votes, from a population of 47.5 million voters, about 29% of the possible votes.
July 9, 2022 at 5:13 pm #231187Moo
Participant“The Liberals might demand electoral reform as part of the package to support a minority government or form a coalition. Might actual get greater support this time around.”
Good point. I didn’t consider that.
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.