Stand By Your Man

[gulliver1]

Boris is standing by Hancock, and refuses to sack him after breaking Covid rules and a few others. Is it now time for the two of them to go. It's one rule for the Cons and another rule for the Public... enough is enough ..... They should both GO.

[naomi24]

Gulliver, I bet their 'delete' button is well used on your communications. Oh, God! It's him again! Zap! ;o)

[gulliver1]

To be fair , I did send my text late at night and was told, the Lights are on in Boris's Office but there is no one there . So I know it was the right office.

[youngmafbog]

I totally agree Gully. Now there is something In thought I would never write.

Johnson has totally misread the public on this one. Hancock MUST go and if Johnson insists on keeping him then he too must be forced out.

Hancock has no credibility whatsoever, even he had a grain of self respect he would have fallen on his sword immediately. But he hasn t and he wont.

[ichkeria]

To judge by those pictures, he’s been paying attention to hands and face - just not space :-)

[gulliver1]

How Tammie Wynette would have advised Boris.
Stand by your man
Show the world you support him
Give him all the support you can
Stand by your man.

[youngmafbog]

Hands. Face, Back to my place.

[ichkeria]

Lol

[ToraToraTora]

gulliver perhaps you could outline a mechanism by which a seating PM with a 78 seat majority could be removed. I'm sure we'd all find your insights fascinating.

[youngmafbog]

Pressure from th back bench/1922 MP's?

Boris is wrecking the Party so ,much so I no longer have a Party to vote for. He is not a true Tory and those that are should push for him to go.

With such a majority he could do great things, but grandstanding impossible to achieve green projects are not the Tory way. Spending needs to be bought under control and if Boris cant get that then he must go.

Also supporting Hancock now nthis is all out shows poor leadership. He should have given him 10 mins to resign for bringing the party into disrepute and undermining the Government and if he didnt sack him very publicly.

[Sunk]

They are displaying the arrogance that comes from having a huge majority in parliament. Blair and Thatcher both ignored any criticism and toughened out mistakes.
I suppose the difference is that Johnson and his gang seem to be making a lot of mistakes. Sleaze and corruption are back.

[naomi24]

^We could be forgiven for thinking Covid had never happened.

[jim360]

The Queen could do it.

Or, rather, try to do it. It's a fascinating aspect of our Constitution that only convention* prevents the Queen from trying to force a PM to step down. I suspect that the Courts would be obliged to step in, and there'd be uproar, but, still, as I understand it, there's no legal mechanism that yet exists that explicitly stops the Crown from trying.

This isn't meant to be serious (see the footnote). It's irritating that ministerial accountability simply doesn't exist under the current Government -- I'm struggling to imagine a clearer breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct than breaking rules you yourself had laid down -- but unless the Tory Party itself decides to force Hancock out then he's clearly staying.

*Legally, that is; the Queen also wouldn't even dream of trying this anyway.

[ichkeria]

This is largely down to Johnson’s personality and mentality: you can laugh anything off with a joke. People will forgive a bit of dodgy behaviour as after all none of us are perfect.
I suspect he’s still trading off the contrast with the staid Theresa May.
I’m not sure he’s judged this one right tho: there’s no way Hancock will be sacked. But a weekend of negative feedback to Tory backbench MPs might have an effect.
I don’t personally mind what happens one way or the other and usually I get bored by calls for ministerial sackings or resignations.
This one seems to have a pretty solid moral and possibly practical force behind it though

[gulliver1]

Could a vote of No confidence be applied here, by the Cons themselves ?.

[ToraToraTora]

jim, there is no way HM would get involved in such a charade.

[ToraToraTora]

gulliver, they could force a leadership contest I suppose but that would be suicide for those involved. In the party this will not be seen as a serious issue, they will be more concerned that he was stupid enough to get caught on camera! It's only the media and opposition that get into hysterics. I doubt they'd find a stalking horse. You've got Boris for as long as HE wants me old china. Labour can't win an election for the foreseeable.

[William51]

Hancock has done wrong and should resign. But it takes two, what will happen to Gina Coladangelo, will she go too, she should.

[naomi24]

I’ve rarely read such thoughtless bilge as has been posted here. With Brexit and the pandemic Boris has seen us through the most trying years since the second World War - and okay - he’s made mistakes - but what do you want? Perfection? Where are you going to find that? Get a grip and stop moaning for goodness sake! Count yourselves lucky we have him. In other hands the past few years could have been - and no doubt would have been - a damn sight worse! Pathetic!

[Ken4155]

^
Mrs Hancock will see to it that she no longer works for her husband. Surely?

[davebro]

"what will happen to Gina Coladangelo, will she go too, she should."

Should never have been appointed in the first place IMV - smacks of cronyism. Maybe Hancock was taking his cue from Boris' dealing with the Arcuri woman.