Not his fault – he wasn’t there! Had he, the famous ‘Big Dog’, been present he’d have won those by-elections …

 

 

As predicted, the Tories got slaughtered in yesterday’s by-elections. Tiverton – the constituency where that ‘porn MP’ had to resign, went to the Libdems. Wakefield in the North went back to Red. The turnout both constituencies was above 50%. The DM reports the truly gory details (link), with nice graphs.

We read that Johnson, asked before the result were in, said he’d not resign. We also read that Tiverton’s Tory candidate, Ms Helen Hurford, “locked herself in a room previously reserved for media interviews [….] when the scale of her defeat became clear.” (link) – oh dear. I shall refrain from saying what I really think about that. I’ll only say that this isn’t the behaviour I expected from a Tory candidate …

Above and beyond this electoral bloodbath there are two other aspects worth mentioning. One is that the rumours about a LibLab ‘election pact’, not to campaign against each other, were correct, confirmed by the results. In Wakefield – now Lab – the LibDem candidate lost his deposit with only 508 votes, in Tiverton – now LibDem –  the Labour candidate lost theirs (1562 votes). The DM scare graph producers created a lovely graph illustrating these swings (link, scroll down a bit). 

Matt Singh, an ‘election and opinion polling analyst’ according to wiki (I never knew we had such animals!) tweeted that this was ‘tactical voting on an industrial scale’. Just so! Such ‘tactics’ show me that we voters are only statistical toys in the calculations of party and election managers. It also shows that Lab and LibDem have party machines and party members who are happy to be told how to vote. Are ‘free elections’ where voters are voting according to their political opinions now a thing of the past? 

I leave it to you to wonder how any of the non-establishment conservative splinter parties can ever hope to win when they separately lost their deposits, when a general poll after the by-elections, giving Lab an 11% lead, shows that all those ‘reform’ parties, added together, only achieve 7% of possible votes. Anybody still thinking that our political party system is just fine better think again!

While Johnson and wifey enjoyed themselves in Rwanda, there’s another significant development. The Tory Party Chairman Oliver Dowden resigned as chairman:

“Dowden, in a letter to Boris Johnson, said supporters were “distressed and disappointed by recent events, and I share their feelings”. He said the by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton & Honiton were just “the latest in a run of very poor results for our party”. Dowden, who as party chairman runs the Tory election machine, said: “We cannot carry on with business as usual. Somebody must take responsibility and I have concluded that, in these circumstances, it would not be right for me to remain in office.” (link, paywalled)

The ‘allies of the Big Dog’ might applaud Mr Dowden’s resignation because clearly he and the Tory ‘election machine’ must have been at fault. BJ himself, after all, is a vote winner, innit, and doesn’t need to go. The Tories only lost because he wasn’t there – he was doing PM things in Kiev and now Rwanda – and now isn’t the time to deny him support, is it!

I however believe that Dowden’s analysis, that the Tories and by extension the PM ‘cannot carry on with business as usual’, that ‘somebody must take responsibility’, is a veiled but powerful criticism of BJ. The responsibility of these election disasters is Johnson’s. He and his allies cannot hide behind this ‘noble self-sacrifice’ of Mr Dowden.

You can read the whole letter here. Mr. Dowden’s polite thanks to BJ for letting him serve as Minister is as expected – he would have to write that! – damns BJ further by praising the loyal party ‘volunteers and staffers’ who are ‘the backbone of the Party and deserve better than this.’ Indeed – but so do voters deserve better, so does the country deserve better! 

This morning’s print editions came out before the results were in but even so they demonstrate nicely what the Westminster MSM editors think of us peasants. They believe that all we’re interested in are our summer holidays, thus their outrage is dripping from their headlines about ‘travel chaos’, with BA staff threatening strikes as well. Some also mention “BJ in Rwanda” where he ‘rebuked Prince Charles’ for his remarks about that ‘refugee deal’. Here is the usual compilation. 

Speaking of Rwanda and the Commonwealth Conference, we read in The Times that

“Boris Johnson has personally reassured President Kagame that sending asylum seekers to Rwanda is popular, The Times has learnt. Amid tensions between the prime minister and Prince Charles about the policy, Johnson told Kagame that it was supported by the British public.” (link, paywalled)

Has ‘the public’ actually been asked? The lefty, ‘human rights’ crowd certainly don’t support this, as demonstrated by the interventions by their lawyers.

There’s also a puff piece for Miz Truss in The Times, reporting on a speech she’ll give later today. Her speech is a veiled attempt to get the Commonwealth countries into the anti-Russia and anti-China fold:

“The Commonwealth must become a “bulwark” against China, Liz Truss will say today. In a speech to fellow foreign ministers from the 54 Commonwealth countries, Truss will argue that the bloc — the largest grouping of nations which does not contain either China or Russia — should act as a “robust counterweight to authoritarian regimes”.” (link, paywalled)

Oh yes? Are all Commonwealth Countries expected to follow the UK, clearly the USA’s poodle on this vital issue? Here are some more fluffy quotes, dripping with inanities:

“She is expected to say: “In an increasingly geopolitical world, where sovereignty is being challenged, the Commonwealth is a vital and growing bulwark for self-determination and a network of prospering free nations.” The foreign secretary says that “in a generation where we face new threats, the Commonwealth’s time has come. We are a network of countries united by a belief in democracy and sovereignty, and together we can be an increasingly powerful force in defending fundamental freedoms around the world.” (link, paywalled)

I’m sure the Commonwealth politicians will be impressed! There’s her hair-raising remark about us being in an ‘increasingly geopolitical world’ – really? Are geopolitics a new, Trussian ‘discovery’? Moreover, will the Commonwealth countries be prepared to ‘sacrifice’ their economies in order to be such ‘bulwark’, like we back home are expected to?

Aren’t Johnson and La Truss displaying, ahem, signs of ‘colonial imperialism’ when they tell the Commonwealth Countries to toe the anti-Russia and anti-China line? Perhaps BJ and Truss ought to ponder the economical consequences of their poodle policies. While Russia is exporting grain, food and fuel to Commonwealth Countries in need we won’t be able to because we’ll have nothing to export except inflation. 

The two by-election results might have been a protest vote as is usual during a parliament’s mid-term. However, these results tell me that BJ’s and La Truss’ days are running out. We plebs want our elected politicians to do what is good for the country, for us, especially in times such as these where the economy is crashing down a cliff while our PM and his Foreign Secretary have become warmongers-in-chief.

Not that the ‘alternative’, LibLab, is any better! Certainly not when the true string-pullers in Whitehall are never called to account, not when the various right-of-centre parties aren’t capable of uniting. I’ll not even point out their ineptness in being unable to ensure tactical voting such as the LibLabs have done. 

Apologies for having only grim news today …