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Post by Harkovast on Jan 3, 2020 18:48:52 GMT
So why do you guys dislike Boris anyway?
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Post by StyxD on Jan 3, 2020 20:15:41 GMT
Well, his name is Boris and he's a not-so-covert puppet of the Russian government. I just find the idea overly cliché.
On a more serious note, he lies all the time, he covers his lies badly, and he gets away with it. So he's already pretty much like every little idiot authoritarian for idiots that has risen to power in the last decade, so dislike is really the baseline. But probably because of his involvement in the Brexit drama, that has been going for so long and is getting more and more stupid the longer it goes, it somehow feels even worse.
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Post by StyxD on Jan 3, 2020 20:23:23 GMT
And I mean really, I know it's not really helpful or nuanced, but I'm beyond the point of caring in Current Year and videos like this feel like catharsis: … Wait, this is from 30 years ago. Oh no…
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Post by Harkovast on Jan 3, 2020 20:29:39 GMT
He's not authoritarian, is he? I mean he won the election fair nad square and he's been a politician in the Tory part since forever.
It just seems odd to me that people in other countries are mad at Boris Johnson. I mean he's not doing anything to other countries.
Most people in the UK want to leave the EU, and he says he is going to give them what they want.
I think he's a douche in the sense that he is a power hungry politician. His affected silliness is always the mask that covers his coldly calculating drive to amassing more political power, which I think a lot of people over look. But in the scheme of things he hardly seems like teh worst or most incompetent politician out there.
The guy in France has the population in uproar and riots. The Austrailian guy can't even get people to shake his hand. Merkel in Germany is in danger of handing the country to the far right.
Boris winning actually cheered me up. Not because I wanted him to win in particular (I didn't vote...they were all insufferable), but becuase he won such a big majority.
Previously brexit was ham strung by parliament trying ot stop it. They demanded things like that he rule out a no deal brexit, which actively undermined his ability to negociate with the EU (You can't win a negociation if the other side knows you can't walk away). Now he can negotiate from a position of strength and maybe get us a better deal. I voted against Brexit, but the people have spoken and we can't start undermining democracy just because we don't like the results. The people have now spoken twice on the topic, so it has to happen. Thus I want us to make the best of it we can, which this seems to make more likely.
Also, areas of hte north going tory means we are now a hot political battle ground. Finally politicians might actually give a flying fuck about us! Boris might be BSing about what he will do for the north, but if he does fuck all that is just back to business as usual (Labour take the north for granted, tories dont bother with us can't they cant win here...at least that was the old wisdom.)
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Post by StyxD on Jan 3, 2020 20:42:11 GMT
He's not authoritarian, is he? Look, like I've said, I'm past the point of caring and debating minutiae for nothing. Think whatever you want. I just think your current stance is very naive, but I'd be lying if I said I'm surprised, you haven been slowly moving that way over the years.
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Post by Harkovast on Jan 3, 2020 20:50:14 GMT
Can I just draw attention again to the fact that I didn't vote for him.
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Post by Horsie on Jan 3, 2020 20:51:02 GMT
He just strikes me as a total opportunist, the sort of person whose beliefs are going to change depending on what he thinks is going to benefit him at the moment, he's a liar, and he's sneaky.
Just the other week he authorized the sale of a British defence contractor to a US-based equity firm, over the concerns of the MoD and independent experts (and even some of the company's shareholders). Fair enough, but the government announced the decision publicly at 10pm on the Friday before Christmas, to me that doesn't bode well for how they might handle potentially controversial decisions going forward.
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Post by Harkovast on Jan 3, 2020 21:00:20 GMT
Renard, yeah that's probably close to the truth. The thing people often get wrong with Boris is they think he's dumb. He's clearly not. he's very clever. He's also coldly calculating, self serving and machiavellian. When he's acting the fool, its a deliberate affectation to make him seem likeable and none threatening.
He is pretty light on actual political principles, aside from the principle of making Boris more powerful.
That's not to say he will run the country badly (making the country do well increases his power and likelihood to be rellected.)
In a way he's pulled a very clever trick. His persona makes him seem like a maverick, an outsider and a weirdo, when in reality he is the most insider Tory boy, power hungry career politician imaginable.
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Post by StyxD on Jan 3, 2020 21:01:53 GMT
Can I just draw attention again to the fact that I didn't vote for him. Yeah, but I mean… it doesn't really affect the points you made in your post.
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Post by Harkovast on Jan 3, 2020 21:19:34 GMT
Me being upset that he won wouldn't have any effect on anything. Maybe he will do a good job, perhaps things will improve.
Considering how ineffective the government has been recently, the bar for improving things is very very low.
I just don't find him that horrifying.
I mean if we are worried about the NHS, Labour wanted to make it available free to all foreigners who come to the UK. I'm not even BSing to make him sound bad. That was what the labour party were voting in faovur of at their conference. I don't see how the health service could survive providing care to the entire planet! The ideas they were saying were unworkable, pie in the sky nonsense.
So it wasn't like a choice between Boris and some wonderful return to calm and prosperity.
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Post by StyxD on Jan 3, 2020 22:15:51 GMT
Maybe he will do a good job, perhaps things will improve. Considering how ineffective the government has been recently, the bar for improving things is very very low. I just don't find him that horrifying. Hence my opinion. But sure enough, only the future can show which of us is right.
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Post by Harkovast on Jan 22, 2020 17:22:16 GMT
My home town is making headlines. Let's see what's going on in Rotherham. Well...fuck.
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Post by Harkovast on Jan 22, 2020 17:46:27 GMT
Apparently this was going on in at least 27 cities.
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Post by Horsie on Jan 22, 2020 17:53:56 GMT
Is this related to the scandal a few years ago over Rotherham police ignoring child sex abuse, or is this something unrelated?
I mean, clearly the police in Rotherham are fucking useless, but just how useless is the question.
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Post by Harkovast on Jan 22, 2020 19:16:15 GMT
This is more information on the same ones. People are becoming more and more aware of the problem.
Rotherham is considered labour heartland, with a labour council. The labour MP spoke out against this and the labour party demoted her for racism.
So when people on here are acting like folk in the north of England are so crazy for shifting towards the Tories...yeah Boris might talk some shit but he never supported people raping kids. Labour can't say the same.
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