He may be a clown, but the threat Boris Johnson poses is deadly serious

By Aditya Chakrabortty
Dec.5, 2019
Constantly inconstant, Boris Johnson is faithful in at least one area: generating outrage. That he does as naturally as a dog cocks its leg at a lamppost.
This week, he has used the bodies of those murdered at London Bridge as props for his election campaign. Last week the 55-year-old dodged a Channel 4 debate on climate change, sending instead his dad and his wingman, Michael Gove. And then there are his many columns, spitting at gay men (“tank-topped bumboys”), single mums (“uppity and irresponsible”) and black people (“smiling piccaninnies”).
I would go on, but equally so might you – and we both know what typically comes next. The performative pearl-clutching, the saucer-eyed wailing: “How could he?” The sound and rote fury on social media and rolling news, followed by a satisfied, full-bellied silence as grateful journalists wait for their next steaming dollop of Boris buffoonery.
Read more at https://www.theguardian.com

How Boris Johnson and Brexit are Berlusconifying Britain

By William Davies
Dec. 4, 2019
If this election campaign has a distinctive mood, it is a mix of bewilderment, outrage and exhaustion. The public sphere has been engulfed by a war of attrition in which every poll number, media statement or policy announcement must be treated with suspicion. What is it concealing? Who paid for it? What is it distracting us from?
The rules of engagement seem alien and unstable. Apart from the trolls-for-hire running the Conservative party digital media strategy, it’s hard to imagine that anyone is enjoying this. Political campaigns have always been an exercise in attention-seeking and sabotaging of opponents’ messaging, deploying classic military tactics of surprise and deception in the process, but this has now escalated to a point where meaningful argument has become all but impossible. Stand back for a moment, and a bigger question dawns: is this what the end of liberalism feels like?
Read more at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/04/boris-johnson-brexit-britain-politics-media-business

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Jeremy Corbyn ‘goes down like a plate of warm sick’ in traditional Labour areas that voted for Brexit

By Steven Edginton, Sascha O’Sullivan
4 Dec 2019
JEREMY Corbyn’s popularity is in crisis and the Labour leader goes down like a “plate of warm sick” in the party’s heartlands outside London, according to a top pollster.
“Jeremy Corbyn is a phenomenon whose popularity seems confined to university graduates, in particular in the south of England,” the chairman of polling firm Savanta ComRes, Andrew Hawkins, said in an interview with The Sun.
According to a poll by YouGov for The Times last week, the Labour leader was set to lose the election with only 211 seats but a series of surveys over the weekend predicted a Labour was putting a squeeze on Boris Johnson’s lead.
Read more at https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10479402/jeremy-corbyn-labour-brexit-pollster-warns/

John McDonnell: ‘Brexit isn’t the big issue’

30 Oct 2019
Labour’s John McDonnell says voters have much bigger concerns than Brexit.
The shadow chancellor told the BBC that in the community meetings he goes to, Brexit “isn’t the big issue”, and there are other worries, such as knife crime and funding the NHS.
Read more at https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-50234713/john-mcdonnell-brexit-isn-t-the-big-issue