By Up2snuff
When Bojo heads to his desk this Monday morning I hope he has spent the weekend reading some history. Not the (recent) history of the General Election campaign just fought and won, covered in the weekend papers. Not Classical history, either, but about the first few months of a Conservative Government in 1979. Why?
He needs to avoid making the same major mistakes.
Margaret Thatcher leading the Conservative Party in a General Election for the first time had won a great victory. She was put into power by the votes she called for from ordinary working men and women. Not the wealthy, not those in the elite professions like lawyers, doctors, stockbrokers (remember them?), bankers, actors and pop stars but by the working classes and ‘ordinary’ people.
Mrs Thatcher appointed a lawyer, Geoffrey Howe, as her first Chancellor. She then took her eye off the ball. Geoffrey Howe in his first Budget delivered on an election promise to cut taxes. Not for ‘ordinary’ people though. The Higher Rates of Income Tax were cut. The country’s finances were in no state to permit this. It had to be paid for, so Howe increased the rate of VAT and some other indirect taxes, including Fuel Duty. This, in particular hit the very people that Margaret Thatcher had called on to put her into a position of power to lead the country – the ordinary working man and woman. Not only that, it created extra inflation, something that the Conservative campaign in 1979 had pledged to bring under control.
One pledge delivered. One pledge immediately broken.
Howe was gracious and honest enough to later admit his Budget had been wrong and that he did not really know what he was doing in economic terms. He had blindly followed his Party’s manifesto pledges, apart from that given on inflation.
The real responsibility lay with the First Lord of the Treasury who should have been asking the Housewife’s Questions “Geoffrey, are you sure we can afford all this?” and “What is the likely effect of each measure?” Disaster might then have been avoided.
Disaster did indeed follow but not immediately apart from voters who had voted Conservative – perhaps for the first time – feeling colossally betrayed. They then had to cope with the extra inflation on top of that which the previous Labour Government had caused and then tried to cure. The extra cost of travelling to their ordinary jobs was particularly hard for ordinary working people who had had Conservatives campaigning on the importance of work and making ones way in the world.
The UK’s finances were further weakened, almost to the point of recession, so that when world recession really did hit within a year or so, the effect was devastating on both the country and the Conservative Party. Support poured away, ordinary people felt betrayed by the Conservative Party and not for the first time either. Edward Heath and Anthony Barber had done similar damage with their ‘dash for growth’ starting in 1970.
As Sgt Phil Esterhaus would say at the end of Roll Call: “That’s it. Let’s roll. Hey, hey! Let’s be …. truly C A R E F U L … out there today.”
Boris, are you listening and paying attention?
Feel free to discuss, Biased BBCers, but please stay polite and on topic.
Thoroughly agree with every word in this post.May I suggest you email it to Boris at no 10. I really mean this, I’m sure it would be read by someone there and maybe it just might be noted.
cromwell, hadn’t thought of doing that.
Just had two bad experiences in the past of new Conservative Governments dumping on the people who elected them within days, weeks, months of starting in government.
I’m hoping for better this time.
I’ve had my hopes dashed before. Thanks Theresa and goodbye.
Hello Prime Minister Johnson.
Cameron was the one with no sense of history. Hopefully Johnson will be a bit more switched on.
My recommendation would be to read up a bit on the 1930s and no I don’t just mean the Nazis.
Meanwhile I thought Sopel wrote a decent article. Maybe Labour are holding their cards really tight – though their public outpourings suggest they’ve learned nothing from the election.
NG, the recovery from the Great Depression in the UK was something that is forgotten today but has made quite a bit of an impression on me. I guess I am an economist, now. Don’t recall being taught much about it when studying the subject for a professional qualification but local history, brought to me by broadcasters ITV & C4 as well as BBC, doing what they should be doing and doing it well, taught me a lot about the London I was born and grew up in.
There are houses at the end of underground and suburban rail lines that are beautifully built, well laid out and fitted into quite good infrastructure, not just road & rail, but social (hospitals, schools) and recreational (golf courses, tennis clubs). These houses now sell for £1million+ or £2m+ (think Winchmore Hill) but could be bought by a school teacher, an insurance or bank clerk and a civil servant before WW2.
Personally, I would welcome Boris reaffirming Savid Javid’s announcement when as Home Secretary that, starting in 2020 his Government will start importing millions more third worlders under the UN Migration Compact.
Or will Boris write to the UN, withdrawing UK support for the Compact…………
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kBHiQaxrP8
Dream on……………
Yes, I am worried that whatever type of Government we have will be constrained by these global diktats. Somehow the message has to get through that we don’t want open borders. I think that contributed not a little to the Con victory since everyone knows that while all parties are soft on immigration, Labour is the worst.
Be great to think that this Conservative Government will continue the achievement of the Coalition Government and the Conservative governments since then in getting Britain back to work after 2007-2009.
You cannot really have totally open immigration and get unemployment down to, say, 300,000. If Bojo can create the climate in which one million jobs will be created in five years, that will be a magnificent payback to those who voted Conservative everywhere, not just in northern England, in December 2019. Bring it on! It will be a tough task and there will be opposition.
At that point and really only then do you need to import workers without specific, target qualifications and/or skills.
A new historic low for UK unemployment.
Now that would really ‘grind Labour’s gears’ in January 2024! 🙂
G – Boris writing to the UN to withdraw support for the Compact and negate May’s foolishness, may not be easy to see happening, but the idea should still be suggested to him. When he sees which other countries have NOT signed, the penny may drop- if it hasn’t already.
At this point the signatories are still not legally bound, but that is likely to change when the UN is ready to make its next move.
In fact, I cannot think of a SINGLE thing that would be more important and urgent; it can still be done quietly, and without fuss. (There will be noise from the Left, but they have just been squashed and may be a little less sure of themselves, their inborn arrogance notwithstanding.)The question is, who is going to do the persuading?
Sajid needs a little rap across the knuckles. He sounds like he would have been happier in Labour. Anyway, Priti Patel is now Home Secretary, so this is going to be her baby. She sounds less inclined to open the floodgates? But enough to whisper in Boris’ shell-like? That is the question.
G
Some of our politicians seem determined to turn the UK into a war zone.
On various political shows there seems to be a lot of post mortemers trying to tell us all that this election had very little to do with Brexit and that it was mainly because nobody wanted Corbyn. Maybe 80% of the reason for losing they seem to think.
While I can accept that Corbyn did lose labour a lot of votes I’m sure that Brexit was by far the biggest reason the Tories won.
It was basically the same labour party as the 2017 lot but with the difference that labour no longer accepted the referendum result and wanted a second referendum and then to remain.
There has been very little in the way of interviewers challenging this.
If the bbc think their side lost the election because of Corbyn then they’ve learned nothing.
I guess a lot of people, EG, had pinned their electoral hopes on personality (the BBC included) after Glastonbury and Jeremy Corbyn’s appearance there.
Labour feared Bojo. Have done for some time. They knew he had a winsome way to him. (Well, it has worked on numerous women! Apart from his sister, who has stood as an IllibNonDem candidate.) It was always going to be a tough GE for Labour on the personality wars front.
Think you are right.
It was on principles that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party really lost the General Election, in my view. They were prepared to exploit dead sons, sick children and overlook 39 dead VietNamese and, most of all, a democratic vote in 2016 and ask to be trusted.
Labour claimed to be a democratic Party. But they allowed themselves to be hi-jacked by National Socialist types like Starmer and Benn and Thornberry and Umunna (until he left – the much touted ‘Labour Obama’) and become a Remain supporting Party at the GE.
Corbyn as a self-described ‘democrat’, failed to stand up to them.
It was interesting hearing the BBC being blamed this morning, bearing in mind that the BBC notably refrained from describing Corbyn-led Labour during the Election campaign as a Remain Party and when they quizzed any Labour spokespersons about it, it was always done in hesitant, most reluctant terms and tones.
Voters can be acutely aware of such principles, or lack of them, and other subtleties.
Three cheers for democracy.
It is certainly true that Boris et al must nurture the new working class Tory voters and deliver for them. The long term Tory who voted Remain will eventually return to the fold and don’t require special attention. But for myself after delivering The Boris version of Brexit , no other now available, he should make busting the BBC another high priority along with northern infrastructure , NHS and immigration control. Sadly preventing the Islamisation of our country will not be on this government’s agenda , nor for that matter , any other UK government in the next decade or so. So we will carry on down the slippery slope. But getting rid of the BBC or at the very least cutting it down to size, will make all other government policies much easier to implement and crucially be a huge step in the right direction in the long running cold culture war which the left have been winning for decades.
Gabriel Gatehouse turned up to show he is in with the BBC fakegreen PR people like Harra and Richard Black
Jeremy Vicki Pollard Corbyn
..”Yeh, but yeh, I won on the big questions”
I understand what he means that the Blue-Islington-Socialist-Party does dance to the dame tune on most issues
but Corbyn is hardly making his party look Churchillian
.. or even dignified.
#badlosers
Stew – complete childish petulance. Unable to distinguish between victory and defeat. Sounds like someone (or more) need to take their deluded selves off to the psychiatrists couch…
“General election 2019: Labour leadership takes blame over result”
Who else could they blame ?
The Jews, probably. Livingstone has already started.
The Russians. Presidents Putin and Trump conspired – YET AGAIN – to prevent Labour/BBC winning the election.
taffman
Climate change?
Bad news for the Agenda21 globalists
is good news for us that pay taxes for their lalaland dreamery.
Greta going full Wolfie and then blaming Google Lunatic to Human translate was a funny though.
Why do they all talk about “carbon neutrality” in 2050 when it’s Carbon dioxide they mean? “Carbon neutral” is meaningless.
As is carbon dioxide neutral!!!
None of their rubbish will make any difference to the climate.
So when historical British colonised poor worlds governments and brought development and prosperity that was very very evil and we should be ashamed
.. Yet when the lefty metroliberals colonise the British political and media worlds
…..that is very very good ?
On matters pertinent to the headline, some have checked the BBC for reality, and, no, they still are utterly divorced from it.
http://isthebbcbiased.blogspot.com/2019/12/chris-morris-wails-and-gnashes-his.html
On their text pages – shortly to be axed in another cost-cutting exercise, reducing the corporation’s service still further – they reveal that the Government are examining the decriminalisation of failure to pay the licence fee.
It is explained that such failures can lead to a court appearance and a fine of £1000.00.
Odd though it may seem, they don’t mention the immense percentage of women accused of failure to pay – over 100,000 from 140,000 – nor the near 100 imprisoned as a direct result. (Figures from 2017)
The report on the BBC website contains lies and sophistry, or is based upon Abbottian mathematics. It whines that “non-payment cases accounted for ‘a minute fraction’ – only 0.3% – of court time.” No more explanation is given, but the suspicion would be that this figure is based upon the actual time in which the bullied victim is standing before a judge – probably only a minute or so per case. However, the vast majority of time is spent on preparing the case and the associated paperwork, which accounts for a lot more. In reality, in some years TV license cases exceed 5% of all court cases.
#ScrapTheTVPollTax
#ScrapTheBBC
#PardonAllThoseConvictedOfNonePayment
It’s also worth noting that Newsnight, those wonderful people who brought you McAlpine, O’Brien, Mason, Mair, etc, will soon be going for broke…
http://isthebbcbiased.blogspot.com/2019/12/but-at-what-cost.html
Fiiiiight!!
Guest who,
That is just a great tweet! Almost renews my interest in Twitter.
A leeeeeetle off-topic ….
…. but a really good laugh.
I’m still chuckling over Roland Deschain’s ‘This could turn awkward’
Is it me or have there been remarkably few HYS opportunities on the BBC webshite in the last couple of days?
Perhaps they fear the opinions that might come their way?
They are however running a HYS about the Man U vs Everton game……………
Mmmmm.
Boris worries me. He is way too politically correct. But it’s early days and we live in hope.
In other news, the good people of Dudley are uncomfortable with living in Corbyn Road and who can blame them?!
I’m delighted at Corbyn’s well-deserved descent into the dustbin of history. It just irks me that it’s taking too long. The racist, communist, terrorist-loving swine should have resigned on Friday.
The longer he lingers on, the better.
May he stand at the next election too.
vlad,
I don’t want him to linger on. I want him to be replaced by the next Labour leader who will hopefully do even worse in the next election.
How about Diane Apotamus ?
Wasn’t this token re-elected with a greater number? I have to wonder at the electorate she represents. I wonder if Mrs Soubry thinks token Abbott’s voters are not as stupid as hers?
Has Boris stated that he intends to decriminalise non payment of the TV tax? A family member told me this as a matter of fact this afternoon.
Hillary tried a gotcha against Trump
So Trump this tweeted back
“Crooked Hillary caught again.
.. She is a total train wreck!”
It’s fascinating to observe what remains of The Labour Party indulge in a protracted postmortem.
Different factions sniping at each other, finger pointing and endless excuses.
And the long process of finding a new leader must begin soon.
If they want to stand a chance of winning over the public they’ll have to pick somebody who is intelligent, reasonable, attractive, articulate with an element of charm
David Lammy’s got his work cut out…
What should not surprise, but irritates is how, as far as the MSM is concerned, the only thing that matters is how Labour lost, with a bunch of losers wheeled out every ten minutes on the bbc, Sky, global, etc to whinge and sulk and further illustrate further why the political-media estate has the collective intellect of a mould spore.
Did Jeff just imply that a black man is thick?
Of course not. He implied a thick man to be thick.
He judged him by the content of his character and not by the colour of his skin.
I like a man who is straight talking and calls a spade a spade.
Bolt : I suspect few thought-leaders of the cultural Left realise quite how loathed they are outside their tribe.
Have they ever wondered why their defeats keep coming as a shock? Or why the polls keep telling them they’ll do better than what then happens — Trump will lose, Morrison will lose, and Johnson will struggle?
This now happens so often that there’s a phrase for it: the “shy voter” syndrome. In fact, it’s the “scared-ofthe-Left” syndrome, because each time it happens it’s because voters were too scared to tell pollsters they wouldn’t vote for the Left.
Who can blame them? They’ve seen what the Left does to critics. They’ve seen the abuse, and the attempts to have us sacked, sued, shut down or simply beaten up.
And there’s one more reason why many of the Left don’t realise how much they’re on the nose.
The Left tend to hear only the Left,
which fools many into thinking that *“everyone” agrees with them*.
Take the Left-hijacked ABC, for instance. A rusted-on ABC listener would think not a single person in the world doubted that man’s emissions are causing islands to drown, the bush to burn and dams to empty.
All false, but when did you last hear anyone on the ABC say so?
But this arrogance that drives the Left also blinds it to its own weaknesses. And weakness number one is this: voters loathe your bullying, guys.
Or do you need another election hiding to get the message?
.
My tip: American voters will next year punish the Democrats just like British voters just flogged Labour for also trying to subvert their will — in this case the 2016 Brexit vote.
There have been a lot of experts doing the postmortem on the Labour election loss .
How about the BBC does its Labour mates a favour , the ones that can still trough it in the remaining ( as in numbers and pro EU) parliamentary party ?
Ask a worker . What the organisation was set up for .
Dinner of the Independent Remainers
.. that have now all lost their seats and their jobs
The BBC… bloated? Surely not?
Message to Al Beeb , ‘Lord Hall Hall’, its producers, presenters and researchers.
Your propaganda is not working. It did not work in 2015 when the nation called for a Brexit referendum.
It did not work in 2016 when the Brexit referendum was called.
It did not work in 2017 in the general election when the Tory party won on the promise of Brexit .
Finally it did not work in 2019 when you tried your damnedest to prevent Brexit.
If Boris knows what’s good for him he needs to get rid of you and your anti-British propaganda.
You are a disgrace to Great Britain.
Over to you maxincony………………
Littlejohn : The most ludicrous argument put forward by Bercow and the Stop Brexit crowd as they paralysed Parliament to prevent Boris’s withdrawal agreement being passed was that they were ‘defending democracy’.
Democracy? They don’t understand the meaning of the word.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7790961/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-wanted-Peoples-Vote-got-one.html
The EU do not recognise Great Britain and do not recognise Brexit.
They will not let us go easily as they know their end is nigh if we get out.
Expect more trouble from the EU. The losers don’t like losing.
Taffman – yes. The EU will never stop inventing meaningless rules… It has already made the EU highly expensive with huge overheads and has created huge unemployment (much higher than the UK). We do need to leave the Lisbon treaty for sure, but we have to make our own UK stall on what we can provide (to EU) and what we will now charge for. No more free funny money to EU bureaucracy.
Everything is negotiable now Boris has a clear mandate but the EU is a dual protection zone of principally French farmers and German Industry. We have bigger Finance, Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals and a huge range of world class Creative services. Including Films, Music and independent media (not just the paltry BBC World Service). Not to mention our own industry such as Dyson and Space engineering. The EU will do its damnedest to spoil whatever we do, but they are running out of money, like all socialist projects they have big problems in France and Germany on top of near economic failures of Greece and Italy and open hostility to ‘open borders’ policy which all EU states are having to reinforce their own borders against an invasion of third world terrorists. If the EU want our help, they will have to pay for it.
We may well have to save Europe when they fail to invent any new model army (amongst what is a bundle of pacifists) headed by self-important unqualified nodding Donkeys in Brussels. They think they are building a new world order, very much like the one that started the last World War. That was Socialism gone bad.
We can as a nation, just walk away, but I doubt we will on a practical level, the EU needs us more than we need them, for now or later. The ‘centrist’ (BBC type) failures in the EU are still there, the Euro is not a cause for celebration but enslavement. We have escaped that at least. There is worse to come in Europe, its not a nice place in parts (with full on immigration and crime) and France industry is falling apart along with Germany financial woes. Its a good time to leave. We should have left 20 years ago.
Philip_2
Maybe when we actually do leave, the people of The EU will wake up and realise that the bureaucratic leviathan has tried, and failed, to bring British Democracy to its knees ?
They do now.
🙂
Did I imagine that thuggish, belligerent Jon Pienaar gave an almost avuncular performance in the news at 10? Was the new, softly spoken and thoughtful delivery a sign of a new wave breaking within the BBC, in an acceptance that they have not simply backed the wrong horse for the last several decades, they’ve been piling all the horse shit in the wrong part of the stableyard.
Or is good old Jonnie just the first in the team to recognise that his scarcely hard-earned £165k is under threat? Even as a minor minion in those uber-grand BBC payscales, he might have to find work elsewhere as the looming cost-cutting starts to bite and all those famous faces fade from our screens, sadly not so irreplaceable after all.
Heavens! At this rate poor old Polly might have to take in washing.
Beltane
The reminds me of the old nursery rhyme “Polly put the kettle on “…………
The BBC really have not learned that they are out of step with the electorate. 10.10 pm news Sunday night started Labour this and Labour that, all about how it was the message had been delivered badly so people didn’t understand what Labour was really about.
Then London local news. Did start with the Conservatives but it was people unknown had delivered a warning about the City of London needing skilled workers and then a brief interview with someone from the LSE (not a place usually known for its right wing politics).
Message was Labour just misunderstood versus evil Tories.
The person most responsible for Labour’s downfall would be
Theresa May .
Because she dithered . And dithered and dithered .
Had she put that article 50 in immediately , negotiated strongly on our terms and got us out in 2018 then even the diehard remainers (15%)would have recognised a fait accompli and moved on . The politics and the next election would have been different .
But as each day passed and no leaving happened , the remainers grew emboldened . Time and the BBC were on their side . Negation by delay certainly suited them .
We would have been out or definately on the way out . Corbyn would have wanted us out . He’s still like Blair and Kinnock were before EU lucre bought them .
So had the election been post Brexit , Corbyn and a more united Labour would have been in with a chance [nationalisation – in EU rules ? ] , the LibDims couldn’t have overreached themselves by pledging to revoke article 50 as we would be out ( they would have to say they would re apply ) , Scotland would have to reapply and I’m not bothered if all Ireland reunites if that’s what they want .
Then everyone lived happily ever afterwards .
Nibor
My thoughts exactly. May who was a Remainer, delayed and procrastinated in the hope that the opposition could overturn the result of the 2016 Referendum.
Three and a half years on and the nation’s economy has suffered because of ‘Brexit uncertainty’ caused by May and her delay .
Time now to put the ‘Great’ back in to Great Britain.
Seconded – or should that be thirded? Whatever, I think its important to add that May dithered to EU rules from the outset, following their precise and delaying instructions from the day she took office – and before. Hammond as chancellor, for just one example.
This is not to excuse her behaviour, what she has actually done is to negate Thatcher’s political legacy as our first woman PM – and put back the feminist achievement agenda by decades as a result. Teresa May’s legacy is to have exemplified the reasons for male dominance in most professions
They’re onto you beeb, they’re coming for you…
“BBC BIAS: Tories pull ministers from Radio 4 Today as new row explodes
DOWNING STREET chiefs are boycotting BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme amid growing anger at the Corporation’s general election coverage.
Number 10 refused to put forward ministers for Friday morning’s broadcast and vowed to “withdraw engagement” from future editions while calling for an inquiry into allegations of political bias. The stand-off is the latest spat in an increasingly bitter row over the BBC’s impartiality in the run-up to the election.
Tory chiefs are enraged presenter Andrew Neil delivered an on-air monologue criticising Boris Johnson for failing to agree to be interviewed by him and are unhappy at the BBC’s coverage of the row over a four-year-old boy photographed asleep on the floor at Leeds General Infirmary.”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1217542/bbc-bias-impartiality-row-election-2019-downing-street-boycott-bbc-radio-4-today-programme
vlad
This could get nasty ?
Get the popcorn ordered.
Let’s hope it does get nasty.
Boris and the Tories must understand that with their majority they don’t need to go cap in hand to the BBC begging for a few minutes in which to be insulted and interrupted by lefty interviewers showing off how big their dicks are to their colleagues in the studio.
The balance of power has changed, the beeb need the MPs more than the MPs need the beeb.
Play the channels off against each other, threaten to give the interview to a friendlier rival, or bypass them altogether and talk to the press or Tweet to the public.
Use the threat of changing the extortion tax to a subscription model.
And give us a REAL alternative to all the current news channels, then let the public decide with their remote controls.
My screen tells me that the £ is 1.20047 Euros.
Things are looking good for trading tomorrow morning ?
Expect more investment in the UK , soon !
“BBC: TV licence fee decriminalisation being considered.
Rishi Sunak confirmed Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a review of the sanction for non-payment of the £154.50 charge, which funds the BBC.”
YES, Hallelujah!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50800128
It must happen because it is indefensible. The BBC know it and so do the Tory party . There is just no logical case for it to be a criminal offence.
Roger Bolton was discussing the way the BBC ‘reported’ during the election process with Kamal Ahmed on Radio 4’s Feedback. The subject of ‘reality checking’ came up and various complaints by listeners were aired – mostly about how the BBC failed to highlight all those ‘Tory lies’ relating to nurse numbers and Labour’s ‘Magic Billions’.
Could the BBC call-out liars? Well Ahmed said they couldn’t because they couldn’t tell what was in the mind of a politician. Roger Bolton moved on, ‘now that Boris had brought up the issue of the licence fee…
Let me stop you there Roger. A member of the public brought up the issue of the licence fee and Boris responded to the question. Now I don’t know what is in your mind Roger, that might be a mistake on your part or.. a lie!
“But the BBC warned decriminalisation could cost it £200m a year”.
Oh dear, will the BBC have to face a little hardship? Maybe their employees will all end up queuing at the infamous food banks.
Or maybe they will have to become efficient and stop troughing at the expense of the public.
Metro: “British Muslims prepare to leave UK after Boris Johnson wins election”
How tragic.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/15/british-muslims-start-leaving-uk-boris-johnson-wins-election-11911078/
Why? Is Boris going to stop benefits?
Same headline on BBC now for 4 full days now “Conservatives win majority”.
We know.
Let’s not forget the pollsters. Did they get it right prior to the election last week? After all, much rides on their accuracy e.g. Knighthoods in some instances.
I found this table which at the top shows the actual results and beneath, the poll predictions up to 12.12.19.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2019_United_Kingdom_general_election#2019
Consensus?