Boris Johnson: well, it may not be confidence exactly…
…but it’s not no confidence:
…58.6% of Conservative MPs backed him — a worse result than former Prime Minister Theresa May, who had the support of 63% of her lawmakers (200, in a much smaller parliamentary party) when she faced a confidence vote in 2018.
May survived just six months further in the job, before ultimately being forced to resign.
A quick survey of the articles on this indicates that they say something similar: Johnson won narrowly, and it means he lacks political clout going forward.
I consider the parliamentary system somewhat difficult to fully understand. But it seems to me that 58% from his own party, although low, isn’t so very terrible and isn’t going to inevitably be fatal to his ability to hold on. That said, Johnson has been a big disappointment to me as PM. His fairly strict policies on COVID lockdown for the general public, as well as his relative lenience on the Floyd-type riots and their destructive nature in the UK, were two things I hadn’t expected of him.
At any rate, he lives to fight another day. He’s also continues to face a scandal that could help to sink him in the not-too-distant future. Here’s the story on that; it’s known as “partygate.”
Johnson was always fancied as some kind of civil libertarian and yet he either willingly or out of weakness went right along with the crushing lockdowns for far too long before finally coming around and now the UK (or at least England) is one of the most open western democracies but he burned a lot of support through that and then the whole ‘partygate’ thing was just a bad (and sad, what a weak party) look.
I got to think the UK is going to go Labour next time.
Griffin:
I think the fact that Johnson came close to dying from COVID rather early on affected his later decisions about lockdowns.
Nigel Farage, where are you?
there’s a reason andrew marr had boris as a transitional pm, in the rear view mirror in his dark prescient comedy ‘head of state’, its just as well, as neil ferguson and matt hancock seem to have been running the country, in the critical period,*
like the aberdeen cabinet they seems to auguring into a crimean adventure,
*they all proved to be extraordinary hypocrites in following their own rules,
There is an excellent chance that the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia will no longer exist in a politically recognizable form in 30 years.
it’s not a coincidence, that 1984’s Oceania, involved the UK (Airship One) Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Orwell was just being prescient,
There is an excellent chance
There isn’t an ‘excellent chance’ of a goddamned thing 30 years out.
Airship one arose out of 30 year war with eurasia i dont have to spell where that is, including brief nuclear exchanges
“I consider the parliamentary system somewhat difficult to fully understand. But it seems to me that 58% from his own party, although low, isn’t so very terrible and isn’t going to inevitably be fatal to his ability to hold on.”
Hi Neo – it is usually a bit of a process. Win the first round, but be wounded given it says almost half your party doesn’t have confidence in you as leader. Then the white-anting (“undermining” is probably more American) sets in where one or more contenders undermines your support further and eventually launches a leadership challenge. If they lose, but its close, they’ll retreat to the back benches and continue the white-anting. If its not close, they’ll stay in the wings, but it might not go any further.
A key variable is whether or not there is a viable alternative who wants to challenge, or if the incumbent leader sees the writing on the wall and steps down. For Theresa May there was a very important issue at stake with Brexit. Now? Not so sure other than Boris has been a disappointment to many (at least as far as I can see).
Note that under a Parliamentary system, the Prime Minister is elected or agreed by Parliament from the ruling party or coalition, and so can be changed any time the party/coalition decides. Under Westminster traditions, a leader would often resign with a vote that close, and choose to stand or not for re-election by the party. I’m not sure Boris is that kind of leader…….
One big advantage of the system is that it provides a mechanism for the party in power to dump under-performing leaders and maybe re-invent themselves before the next election (easier in Britain with 5-year terms than in Australia with 3-year terms). I bet the Democrats would love to have that (so-much easier) option now!
Parliaments are fragile things
https://mobile.twitter.com/KyleWOrton/status/1534155119213805569
Under Westminster traditions, a leader would often resign with a vote that close
I think the first time there was a formal vote in the parliamentary caucus for a leader was in 1965. If I’m not mistaken, the only occasion on which a party leader resigned consequent to a ‘vote that close’ in the party caucus was Margaret Thatcher’s departure in 1990. Edward Heath and Iain Duncan Smith actually lost their respective votes in the party caucus. (Heath sat on the back benches butt-hurt for another 24 years). John Major, Wm. Hague, and Michael Howard resigned after a failing performance in general elections. David Cameron resigned after being rebuked by the Brexit referendum. Theresa May resigned consequent to a tangle of problems in her caucus and in parliament generally. Something that’s happened just once before in 57 years isn’t a vigorous tradition.
True – maybe not a vigorous tradition – but close confidence votes aren’t exactly a common occurrence. Cameron and May did however resign after rebukes – Johnson might eventually, but I doubt it.
I actually like Johnson, but he has been disappointing – to the point he’s a bit like Morrison in Australia, whom I also liked, but was also disappointing – you reach a point as a conservative where you can form the view that if they are not really different from the Left, you may as well have the Left in power so you can oppose them.
As Neo points out in her article, it remains to seen where Boris goes from here. Given how appalling British Labour is (far worse I think than Australian Labor) I’m hoping he finds his direction.
Hes much worse than morrison again we have oceania
The very fact that the UK and continental Europe bought into the BLM craze and had their own BLM protests is just so utterly bizarre. Many young Britons followed in step with their American counterparts as they chased down their own police, calling them pigs and tearing down statues. Talk about Twilight Zone.