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Category: Boris

Let’s talk landslides

Let’s talk landslides

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Boris might well be on for a 100+ majority Even the balloons looked forlorn and listless; remnants of a celebration party no-one really expected to need and now mockingly reminding the few left of those misplaced hopes, as they swayed aimlessly in unseen aerial eddies. The signs had been there for weeks of course – months, even – but for one reason or another, they’d continuously been ignored. The local government by-elections, the Westminster by-elections, the leader ratings, the constituency…

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Why Johnson’s TV debate strategy could be a mistake

Why Johnson’s TV debate strategy could be a mistake

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Great thread from the New Stateman’s Stephen Bush Two. Ignore everything you think about the candidates and their abilities: head-to-head is harder for the incumbent PM, because they are the only one with a record to defend. https://t.co/7VWTL4KXWF — Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) November 18, 2019 Four. Even if form goes out the window and Johnson wins, the event itself is a big "Lib Dems CAN'T win here!" klaxon which from the polls is not a great message for Johnson to…

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For how long can Johnson continue to defy gravity?

For how long can Johnson continue to defy gravity?

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He needs to keep running and not look down for four weeks Wile E Coyote has enjoyed so many lives that even a cat would feel embarrassed, although perhaps ‘enjoyed’ isn’t quite the right word. Time and again over decades he’s been crushed, burned and fallen from a great height but always to return, unharmed, in pursuit of his great but unattainable aim. With such resilience and obsession, he should have been a politician. We should add one other politician’s…

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It’s Johnson’s bad luck that the floods have happened in Yorkshire home of many of his GE2019 target seats

It’s Johnson’s bad luck that the floods have happened in Yorkshire home of many of his GE2019 target seats

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Most of our media may not have worked out or care who Boris Johnson really is, but the people of Yorkshire certainly have pic.twitter.com/AZiCKizzVm — Jonathan Lis (@jonlis1) November 13, 2019 So another day goes by and still the misery continues for many families in South Yorkshire who have suffered because of the flooding. These are situations which are very tricky for a PM because just about nothing he can do or say is going to resonate well. This has…

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Foxes and Hedgehogs – a tale of tactics without strategy

Foxes and Hedgehogs – a tale of tactics without strategy

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” (Sun Tzu). Something those Remainer MPs behind the Benn Act would do well to reflect on. However successful it was in stopping a Halloween No Deal exit and, arguably, forcing Boris to negotiate a Withdrawal Agreement he could sell to his party, its effect has been to put the Tories in a strong position as they embark on their General Election campaign. How so? It allows Boris to say that he:- Got the Withdrawal Agreement…

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Farage plays his Trump card but Johnson surely shouldn’t be tempted

Farage plays his Trump card but Johnson surely shouldn’t be tempted

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Perhaps the most bizarre event so far in this election campaign was Nigel Farage talking to Donald Trump on his LBC radio programme yesterday. Clearly Farage has been the big loser from the emergence of Johnson as the Conservative leader and Prime Minister and we have heard very little from the the Brexit party leader over the last month or so. How was Farage going to get back into the game and start commanding media attention again? Well we have…

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With the former Brexit deadline ending at 11pm how the betting’s moved since Johnson came

With the former Brexit deadline ending at 11pm how the betting’s moved since Johnson came

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So here we are and a third Brexit deadline is about to be missed in spite of Johnson firm assertions that we would be leaving tonight when he first became PM. This has been a very active betting market with on Betfair alone £7.2m of bets being matched. The Betdata.io chart of Betfair prices really follows what has been happening. My own view is that Johnson won’t suffer any real political damage from failing to get the UK out by…

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Let’s not forget that Johnson’s precarious parliamentary situation is largely self-made

Let’s not forget that Johnson’s precarious parliamentary situation is largely self-made

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He inherited from TMay an effective majority of 3 The reason that Johnson is in such a weak parliamentary position stems directly from two big decisions that he has made. First there was the reaction to his first Commons vote when he stripped 21 of his party’s MPs from the whip. Then there was his Brexit agreement with its changes for the status Northern Ireland which have resulted in the DUP’s 10 MPs moving entirely to the other side. This…

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