The leaders debate proved one thing, there is nothing that isn't improved by the absence of Boris Johnson
Tom Peck
1 / 2
The Tory Party has five weeks to realise it is about to give the country the worst prime minister in its history
It’s officially week two of six of the Tory leadership contest and already the struggle to find new and exciting displacement activities for the fact that absolutely none of them have got a clue what to do about Brexit is already hotting up.On Monday morning, around a hundred Westminster based political journalists had twenty unrecorded, unbroadcasted minutes with each of them. Apart from Boris Johnson, of course. He didn’t turn up. At some point, it is dimly possible the Tory party might work out that they might be doing something really quite stupid by installing a new prime minister whose personal, professional and political life is such a thermonuclear embarrassment that he cannot face any questions at all from anyone. But that point is a very long way off yet. It’s an enthralling tactic from Johnson, who appears to see the Tory leadership contest as a particularly poor quality series of The Apprentice, and is just waiting for all the other deluded narcissists to take themselves out before he clambers out from under the boardroom desk to tell Lord Sugar that, unfortunately, he’s now fired everyone else so you’re stuck with me.Rory Stewart went first, who has had such good traction with his constantly repeated point that all the other candidates are offering is a macho threat to get a better deal from Brussels they won’t get that he is now adapting it to answer all questions.He now doesn’t just think that Dominic Raab and Boris Johnson are telling the country the are so big and strong that only they can get a better deal out of Brussels. He also thinks Tony Blair thinks he can get, and win a second referendum because he, also, is so “macho” that he thinks he’s right.Stewart considers himself the antidote to all this machismo. He, we are led to believe, is so unmacho, so unfailingly polite, that when the European Union doesn’t give him any concessions he can succeed where Theresa May failed, and just make the House of Commons suddenly compromise on it all. He will make enough MPs vote for the withdrawal deal because, well, Rory Stewart will be prime minister, and so they will all suddenly vote for this thing they hate just to, you know, not upset anyone. He will drive through the Brexit deal out of sheer, awkward politeness. It will be a Mustn’t Grumble Brexit.It may not happen. Most of the rest of the morning was devoted to arguments about Donald Trump retweeting Katie Hopkins’s tweet about Sadiq Khan, which Sajid Javid didn’t agree with, nor did Rory Stewart. Jeremy Hunt did, 150 per cent, but later changed his mind. None of it made one iota of different to the great unshiftable obstacle that is currently suffocating the nation.Someone had the temerity to ask Sajid Javid what, while a very senior figure at Deutsche Bank during the financial crisis, he had done to prevent it. We learned that none of it was Sajid Javid’s fault because he was in Asia at the time, where nothing went wrong. We also learned it was all Gordon Brown’s fault, for deregulating the City of London. The very thing that made Sajid Javid unimaginably rich could also be used, by Sajid Javid, to attack Gordon Brown, to further Sajid Javid’s chances of becoming the next prime minister. What larks.Sajid Javid also admitted to being perhaps a “less capable public speaker” than some of his rivals. He didn’t, when he was younger, “spend his spare time at debating clubs.”A sharp point, this, not least as most of Michael Gove’s time in this leadership contest has been spent praising his own speeches, or pointing out how scared Jeremy Corbyn will be of him at Prime Minister’s Question Time. Michael Gove, aged 51, has still not been told that the world is not just some rather large sideroom of the Oxford Union. Michael Gove wanting to be prime minister because he is, in his own view, really really really good at debating, has been the contest’s low point thus far, but only because Boris Johnson is not taking part in it.Still, Javid certainly made the room sit up and think more than any of the candidates.“The reason I got into banking,” he said at one point, “is because ... most Asians go into jobs that you need to take an exam for, like chartered accountant, dentist. It’s not because that’s what their parents think is the only thing open to them – the reason that happens is because their parents feel that discrimination is so inevitable in professions where you don’t have to take exams that the best way to get in is to have a piece of paper. So I did banking because it’s much more meritocratic.”How aggressively one’s heart bled for Javid in this moment is a matter of personal taste. Imagining the young The Saj, fresh out of Exeter University, striking a blow for the fairer society by reluctantly taking up his calling in the City is a slightly hard sell. One can only imagine how stunned he will have been to learn, long after this point of course, about the astronomical salaries available.All of which is to say, the only one laughing at the end of it, of course, was Boris Johnson, who again managed to get through another leadership hustings without saying or doing anything stupid, by not turning up.It can’t last forever, of course, this reimagining of British parliamentary democracy as a car radio with security settings that are well out of date, and that he has worked out how to steal. For the moment, the joke’s on us. That phase won’t last forever though.
People have criticised Boris Johnson for not turning up to Channel 4’s Tory leadership debate but, in fairness, it was Father’s Day. Johnson has more places to be than most. Quite how many, nobody knows.
He’s also the only candidate not taking part in Monday’s leadership hustings for Westminster journalists either. Why isn’t he taking part in that one? His team say is too busy doing “debate prep”, for the one debate he is actually taking part in, on the BBC on Tuesday, compared to all the other candidate’s three.
It is, at least, a foretaste of the Johnson premiership that will follow. Where a nation will have its intelligence not so much insulted as carpet bombed.
Channel 4, to their infinite credit, left an empty lectern there where the country’s next Prime Minister should have been. If anything, it was one of Mr Johnson’s least undignified public appearances. As far as I could tell, he didn’t tell any outright lies, which is a start.
Can anyone blame Boris Johnson? Facing questions comes with at least a faint obligation to answer them, and answering questions comes with a least a faint obligation to tell the truth, which is something he cannot do.
He can’t tell the truth about whether he’s ever taken cocaine, which is why he has refused to answer the question three times in the last week. He can’t tell the truth about his plan for Brexit because he doesn’t have one. He can’t tell the truth about anything.
It meant the viewing public were treated to the somewhat mad spectacle of five men competing for a prize they know they stand no chance of winning against the guy who was too scared to turn up and face them, but that wouldn’t be to say that many of them were burdened with any greater desire to tell the truth.
Michael Gove, at one point, claimed that, “the best Brexit deal will be one that spreads wealth around the country more equally.”
At this point, all any sane person can do is stand and applaud the madness. There is no sane analysis whatsoever anywhere that concludes that Brexit will leave the UK with more money to spend. The idea that membership of the European Union has ever prevented the UK from building a more equitable country is, obviously, garbage. And it is hard to see how it could ever be more potent garbage than when suggested by a key member of various Conservative governments of the last nine years, who have deliberately, and strategically, delivered the most savage cuts to the very poorest areas, because such places do not vote Tory anyway, so as George Osbornce once put it, there is nothing to lose.
There was Jeremy Hunt, saying his priority would be to “grow the economy, to improve public services.” Jeremy Hunt is not an idiot. That is why he voted for, and campaigned for, remain. There is not a cell in Jeremy Hunt’s body that thinks for a second that Brexit will grow the economy, and yet, here he must be, standing to be Prime Minister, unable to do anything but ride the wave of the Brexit lie that he is too ambitious to admit – even to himself – will drown him in the end.
Dominic Raab did some stomping about, a bit of berating. Dominic Raab wants to “go back to Brussels with the Malthouse Compromise”, words that, for those of us who have to make a living with our noses pressed up against this filth, go in your ears only to pour petrol on your soul and then set it on fire.
Rory Stewart told everyone, for the hundredth time, that there is no “machismo” solution to the Brexit impasse. Would be alpha males banging on their little lecterns, saying they’re going to go back to Brussels and get a better deal because “they negotiate for a living” (Hunt), or because “they’ve got a track record of delivering against the odds” (Gove) is a complete non-starter.
A sane country would listen to Rory Stewart. A sane Tory Party membership might at least pause for a second and wonder whether they’re about to do the right thing by choosing a man to go out and face the world on Britain’s behalf, a man whose personal, professional and political life is such a disgusting mess he cannot ten minutes of questioning from anyone.
In a few weeks, if events move on as they are likely to, there will be nowhere for Johnson to hide. It will be horrific. Be careful what you vote for.
Affluent Americans may want to double-check how much of their bank deposits are protected by government-backed insurance. The rules governing trust accounts just changed.
Former NBA guard Darius Morris has died at the age of 33. He played for five teams during his four NBA seasons. Morris played college basketball at Michigan.
It’s key to note that we’re not saying the “best team” or “best roster.” Instead, we’re talking about the best confluence of factors that can outline a path for survival and then success.
Teams have made their big splashes in free agency and made their draft picks, it's time for you to do the same. It's fantasy football mock draft time. Some call this time of year best ball season, others know it's an opportunity to get a leg up on your competition for when you have to draft in August. The staff at Yahoo Fantasy did their first mock draft of the 2024 season to help you with the latter. Matt Harmon and Andy Behrens are here to break it all down by each round and crush some staff members in the process.
With free agency and the draft behind us, what 32 teams look like today will likely be what they look like Week 1 and beyond for the 2024 season. Matt Harmon and Scott Pianowski reveal the post-draft fantasy power rankings. The duo break down the rankings in six tiers: Elite offensive ecosystems, teams on the cusp of being complete mixed bag ecosystems, offensive ecosystems with something to prove, offenses that could go either way, and offenses that are best to stay away from in fantasy.
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate edged back toward 7% this week but remains elevated, prompting housing experts to revise their forecasts for the rest of 2024.
Jake Mintz & Jordan Shusterman discuss the Padres-Marlins trade that sent Luis Arraez to San Diego, as well as recap all the action from this weekend in baseball and send birthday wishes to hall-of-famer Willie Mays.
Budgeting apps can help you keep track of your finances, stick to a spending plan and reach your money goals. These are the best budget-tracking apps available right now.