Marina Hyde on "The pisser for Boris"

[Ghost Dog]

Here comes Boris Johnson, half an hour before deadline closes. He’s going to chuck his hat in the ring like Blackadder’s Lord Flashheart, isn’t he? “I’ve got a plan, and it’s as hot as my pants!”

Except he isn’t. Standing at a podium bearing not a soaring campaign slogan, but the rather more prosaic “ST ERMIN’S HOTEL”, the leading political bounder of the age announced that he had thought about the individual needed to take the country out of the mess he’s dumped it in (I paraphrase), and “concluded that person cannot be me”.

Where did it all go right? Normally Johnson is so smart he doesn’t even fly by the seat of his own pants. Unfortunately for him, his wingman recently decided he isn’t willing to offer up his undergarments any longer. Michael Gove, fresh from destroying his friend David Cameron, is going for the accumulator by announcing his surprise Tory leadership bid. As Gove put it this morning: “I have come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead.” It sounds like a tragic conflict of disloyalties, with which Gove has wrestled for perhaps 24 hours...

... Even so, and however inevitable it might feel after some reflection, this was a shock. We did know a schism might be on the House of Cards, as it were, thanks to yesterday’s accidentally leaked email from Gove’s wife Sarah Vine. Think of her as Claire Blunderwood. The pisser for Boris is that he now can’t even contemplate having Michael beaten up, like he did that troublesome little journalist back in the day, because many people have one eye on the news at the mo and would probably notice...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/30/boris-johnson-michael-gove-london

... And, an interesting comment at the Guardian (proofread & edited):

It's no secret the real power behind Gove is actually Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch (rightfully) doubted the commitment of Johnson to the actual Leave cause.

I think this significantly increases chances of an actual Brexit happening, since with Murdoch's backing Gove has a very real chance of securing the Tory Leadership.

He will then follow up on his master's wishes and take the UK out of the EU, no matter what the cost, and turn it into a neo-liberal heilstate in order to stay competitive globally.

Murdoch will have an even firmer hold on UK politics after, and be rid of that pesky EU that just would not listen to him.

This will most likely cost Gove's political career, but he undoubtedly has plenty of assurances from Rupert that the Goves will be well taken care of as a reward for their loyalty.

[RogueTrooper]

1. Terrible human beings doing terrible things to each other

A shame that the rest of us have to suffer because of their psychodrama.

I had heard that Aussie Turd Blossom Lynton Crosby was running Boris's campaign I wonder if he will switch to Gove. Also wondering about his relationship with Murdoch for the first time - odd, as they are both Australians and I should have made the connection earlier.

[Denzil_DC]

2. And word just in that Angela Eagle's having second thoughts

about throwing her hat in the ring against Corbyn!

This is such a good episode of The Thick of It. Wish I could turn it off occasionally, though.

[Denzil_DC]

3. This also one of those thread titles

where the placing of the quote marks is pretty damn crucial.

I had to do a double-take.

[Ghost Dog]

5. !

[Denzil_DC]

6. Yup.

[RogueTrooper]

4. Truth in comedy

:large