Saying someone once held an important job is not a great argument if it turns out he sucked at it:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonard...r-donald-trump
Saying someone once held an important job is not a great argument if it turns out he sucked at it:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonard...r-donald-trump
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
LOL Buzzfeed demonstrates that? That's like Lewk quoting from Breitbart to demonstrate that a Democrat is unsuitable.
Even then, look past yours and the sites clear bias, past some of the anonymous sources whom even that author acknowledges were predisposed to be against Boris because of the referendum and there's some quite positive quotes in there.
OK I've read half of it now, I stopped after the homosexuality section as it is a f***ing ridiculous and absurd hack job. Peppered primarily with jokes from decades ago ["Boris being Boris" as Cameron put it, he was a clown he's become more serious lately] and when there are political points they are either very deliberately or disingenuously misrepresentative. Warning bells rang as soon as I saw the author (Adam Benkiov) who is a notoriously disingenuous hack but that has to be one of the worst and most dishonest attack pieces I've read.
Take the section on homosexuality. Read that and you'd think that Boris had been a lifetime opponent of gay marriage and equal rights. A campaigner against them as extreme as any from America's religious right. Anyone who was interested in the truth would show the complete polar opposite. Yes in 2001, long before gay marriage was legal anywhere and when Tony Blair still opposed it Boris made negative remarks about it. But check Pink News out for an unbiased review for anyone who actually cares about homosexuality rather than just doing a hack job on political opponents: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/05/2...ship-lgbt-gay/
So Pink News, a website dedicated to LGBT+ rights and news describes Boris as the then-highest ranking Conservative to back marriage equality, though they also to be fair and balanced referred to the 20 year old columns but to the pathetic hack Benkiov all he is interested in is the 20 year old remarks? And he didn't even deign to note that Boris was a leading campaigner for equality and the highest ranking Tory to back marriage equality before it was legalised? Even Buzzfeed were more balanced than that.Boris Johnson’s record on LGBT+ rights
The former Foreign Secretary is widely regarded as the favourite to become Britain’s next prime minister, having confirmed on May 16 that he would be running.
Broadly speaking, Johnson has a positive voting record on LGBT+ rights, backing several key pieces of legislation and abstaining on a handful of others.
As an MP he voted to repeal Section 28 in 2003 and to introduce civil partnerships in 2004.
By the time same-sex marriage was being debated Johnson had left parliament to become Mayor of London, but told PinkNews in 2010 that he fully supported LGBT+ rights. At the time he was the highest-ranking Conservative to come out in support of marriage equality.
But Johnson’s record is not without its blemishes. In January 2018, shortly after he had become Foreign Secretary, a series of 20-year-old columns resurfaced in which Johnson wrote about “tank-topped bumboys.”
And in a 2001 book, he wrote: “If gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.”
Tell me which we should take more seriously? Give me a break, yes Boris will make a good PM and I stand by that and by neutral sources rather than pathetic ax-grinding.
RB - I thought you'd "lost all remaining respect" you had for Boris since he's been meeting with Steve Bannon.
What happened?
I forgot he'd met Bannon. *blush*
I support the Boris I believe in, the "vocally from the liberal wing of the Party, pro immigration" Boris. I've not seen any continuing evidence of any relationship between him and Bannon and I'm not seeing any Bannon-like behaviour. If he goes down the Bannon road that's awful and I would not support that.
OK people, we have to understand that RandBlade made this horrible mistake of voting for Brexit for all sorts of wrong reasons and now he's incapable of admitting that Brexit is not only stupid but also nothing like what he tjought it would be. His Brextremism is the last thing between him and the crushing feeling of guilt of having been so stupid.
Congratulations America
Buzzfeed News != Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed News does decent journalism, Buzzfeed does listicles. Examples: https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/c...-buzzfeed-news, https://www.poynter.org/reporting-ed...litzer-prizes/, so it's kind of disingenuous for you to try and write that off with 'lol buzzfeed'.
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
This is essentially a more literate version of Trump calling everything he doesn't like fake news. It's not like what was in the link Minx post doesn't exactly line up with what we saw in public when he was foreign secretary. He got a British woman sent to prison essentially because he couldn't be bothered to do his homework, and you think this is the man that's going to solve Brexit?
Whatever else he is, the man is lazy and incompetent, a mediocre, overgrown school-boy who thinks he's a brilliant maverick. This may not be the 'Boris you believe in', but it's the Boris that exists in the actual world, the same world where vague suggestions and magical thinking can't wish away a complex border issue, and neither can a tough frame of mine convince an economic superpower to change it's own negotiating position into something against it's own interests.
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
Nobody is to blame for the Iran case other than Iran. Though Boris makes an easy scapegoat. She was an Iranian citizen already in Iranian prison so he didn't get her sent there.
A tough frame of mind not be be "magic" but neither is shouting loudly then collapsing at the slightest bit of pressure which is all May managed. Boris can hardly do worse.
The essence of Boris Johnson: https://www.facebook.com/16914557844...9074521979085/
Hope is the denial of reality
Why?
Our political system is a bit different to yours. Stateside potential Presidents run on their own platform. Senators are very independent of each other. Governors are individuals. Although you have 2 parties, you've very much got a selection of very individual people who run for President.
Here is different. Our MPs who can become PM are invariably in [or have been in] the Cabinet where they are bound by the rules of Collective Responsibility. Therefore the individual nature of the MP in question is clouded by collective responsibility and having to answer to the previous PM.
I believe that Boris Johnson is a liberal "one nation" Conservative who advocates for equal rights for all in the style of Cameron and Disraeli that I like and not a nativist socially conservative Conservative like May that I don't. I don't believe he is like Bannon, I do believe he is like Cameron.
If I'm right, he will have my support. Because that is my political philosophy. If I am wrong, if he is Bannonite then he won't. Does that make sense?
Analogy time! If you see known violent person a weapon, then make them think that someone damaged their car, you bare some responsibility for what happens next, even if the ultimate responsibility lies with the violent person. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was on her way to being released until Boris opened his mouth, something he could have avoided by putting a bare minimum of effort into his job.
Now, I'm not trying to make a moral argument her because I know full well you don't give a fuck about that woman, it's the pattern of behavior I'm trying to draw your attention to: what if he acts like that over something you actually do care about, with similar consequences?
*six months later*Boris can hardly do worse.
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
https://news.sky.com/story/nazanin-z...eline-11129050
Why do you insist on wasting my time asking about things you should already know? This wasn't that long ago. Trying to be more like your hero, Boris, in that you can't be bothered to do your homework?5 November 2017
Nazanin faces extra 16 years in jail
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is summoned to court in Tehran where the Foreign Secretary's comments are used as evidence against her, with prosecutors saying she was engaged in "propaganda against the regime".
The new case is opened up a month before she is eligible for early release.
She could face an extra 16 years in jail.
Last edited by Steely Glint; 06-15-2019 at 08:59 PM.
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
For those following along at home here are some Ministers that resigned under May because they fucked something up (rather than those who resigned because they disagreed over Brexit or for non-political reasons)
Michael Fallon, minister of defense, resigned because he put his hand on someone's knee in 2002.
"Many of these [accusations] have been false but I accept that in the past I have fallen below the high standards that we require of the Armed Forces that I have the honour to represent."
Priti Petel resigned as International Development Secretary because she had unauthorized meetings with Israeli officials. Petel: "[my actions] fell below the standards of transparency and openness that I have promoted and advocated"
Damian Green, First Secretary of State, resigned because he had porno on his office computer and lied about it.
So you can see that in UK politics that there is quite a low bar for when you are expected to resign. The norm is that when you fuck up and start generating bad stories about the government, you're expected to do the decent thing fall on your sword. You'll notice that all of the above are considerably less serious than Johnson's unforced error.
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
From same link:
The Iranians were already doing this before Johnson spoke. She wasn't about to be released and that is why the topic was brought up with Johnson.October 2017 Two more charges
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is told she faces two more charges, with prosecutors alleging she joined organisations which specifically worked to overthrow the government.
The Guardian says Tehran's prosecutor-general claimed that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained because she was running a "BBC Persian online journalism course".
The Iranian regime has a long-standing enmity towards the BBC's Persian service, which is banned in Iran but reaches people via satellite and on shortwave bandwidths, as well as online.
In the past, the Iranian regime has frozen the assets of its staff and harassed and intimidated their family members, according to the BBC.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is also accused of joining a demonstration outside the Iranian embassy in London, with authorities claiming they have photographic evidence.
Same linkThe Iranians were already not planning on releasing her, as they had said in October before Johnson spoke and afterwards too.7 November 2017 Johnson tries to contain his mistake
Boris Johnson announces he plans to visit Iran, after speaking with Iranian foreign minister Javid Zarif in an effort to contain the fallout from his blunder.
The Foreign Office says: "The Foreign Secretary expressed concern that his remarks to the Foreign Affairs Committee were claimed by the Iranian Judiciary High Council for Human Rights to have shed new light on the case."
Mr Zarif is said to have told Mr Johnson developments in the British-Iranian national's case were unrelated to his comments.
I think Vine's point has gone over your head. He's not crazy.
He had an act that his audience loved, which is what he was getting paid for. But it was an act. That's the point of Vine's story. All the blustering, the foolhardiness, the clowning around - it was put on and he did it very well.
Negotiations and efforts to secure her release were on going until Johnson handed a massive piece of ammunition to the Iranian hardliners, which they're still milking even to this day, and that was that. You want to put a man with this level of indifference and carelessly in charge of Brexit?
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
Your reasoning is nonsensical. The UK and Iran were attempting to negotiate a face-saving agreement that would include her release; for Iran, not releasing her would've meant not using an effective bargaining chip. Johnson's comment severely reduced the chances of coming to such an agreement, by increasing the diplomatic and political cost of her release. Now, Iran can—and, for internal political reasons, must—secure greater concessions from the UK for her release, and, consequently, the UK has been forced to take a desperate and historically unprecedented (?) measure of officially granting her diplomatic protection, which is tbh a futile gesture because of Johnson's blunder. Your blinkered defense of his incompetence is just staggering.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."