[Samanfur]

Don’t rule out Jeremy Hunt as the Jim Hacker compromise candidate. I’d love to see Gove squat in No 10 making Brown look decisive about when to go the country. As they’ll never be a right time for an obnoxious weasel like him to win a GE.

Hunt's been positioning himself ever since he left the cabinet. He's not making the sort of grand PR gestures that Sunak is or the sort of studio tours that Gove is, but he's been poking holes in Johnson's policies regularly, and making sure his fellow MPs - and the 1922 Committee - are watching when he does it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Jim Hacker didn't have to get elected by the Tory membership against some other candidate giving it large. Could Hunt?

[mattomac]

Who would that actually be though, can’t see Pob being the Johnson character, the next one who gets it will either be the fall guy for a battering at the next election, they have no money and no ideas.

Because I think that is where we are, when the opposition was shit you could line up and go for an election to make your mandate because even if you were shite (Hey Theresa), Corbyn was never actually going win.

Can’t risk that now, even a 80 majority is a risk not worth taking.

[youngian]

Who wants to be handed the Brexit shit can next year? May as well keep Johnson to take the shit.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

You are underestimating Sarah Vile's overwhelming ambition to be married to a Prime Minister's privileges.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I don't know any politician more obviously on the make than Gove, but that isn't to say he'll jump in at the first opportunity. Johnson had a serious chance of beating Theresa May with members in 2016, but Gove nonetheless pulled his support for him. Theresa May got to eat that particular shit sandwich. He might well let Johnson eat this shit sandwich for a while longer too.

[mr angry manchester]

The problem with Gove is, basically, that he is unelectable. He looks, and is, weird and would be to the Tories what Corbyn was to Labour.

My gut feeling is Hunt to take over when Boris either jumps or gets pushed.

[Bones McCoy]

The problem with Gove is, basically, that he is unelectable. He looks, and is, weird and would be to the Tories what Corbyn was to Labour.

My gut feeling is Hunt to take over when Boris either jumps or gets pushed.

If/when Trump goes down, a lot of the current top tories are gong to worry.
There must be a whole trail of malpractice through Trump, Bannon, The T-party, back to Bufton Street and Murdoch.
A few good journalists are onto the trains, but can't get a fair hearing yet.
But if it all starts to unwind, I expect a lot of grifters to get thoroughly rinsed.
None more so than Gove.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Anti-science EU latest.

[Bones McCoy]

In the EU even the Plancks have Ph.Ds

[Malcolm Armsteen]

The EU have genius level, innovative, visionary Plancks.

We have short ones.

[The Red Arrow]

Ker-chingggg!!!!

[Boiler]

Can somebody pour some salt on that slug, please?

[Tubby Isaacs]

I came across the Boston Consulting Group on my Accountancy Conversion course in 1997 (a good 13 week wide-ranging course, far more people should do something like it, albeit with less accounting). They came up with a matrix to describe different sorts of companies (stars, question marks,cash cows, dogs). Plenty of fun to be had playing with it.

I don't know whether the Boston Consulting Group are any good generally. But it strikes me that they're the sort of firm people who did a course like mine would hire to sound clever. Provided someone else was paying. Furthermore, it strikes me they're the sort of firm to see such people coming.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

It's easy to just say he's a shit (and he is) and move on, but his language, and that of other ministers discloses their deeper attitudes and values, and they are worrying.

The constant 'more than any other country in Europe' demonstrates that they consider their test regime is a success only when compared to others - whatever the underlying features of that other may be. We saw this from Gove/Comeings at DfE as well, tests were norm referenced, that is the top 10% (variable) got the top grade. However high or low their scores were. It just measured the 'best'. This drives people like me up the wall. We want to see success measured as criterion referenced - we need to get 90% (the criterion) of contacts traced - did we achieve that? 90% = success, 63% = failure. Mend it.

It's a dim and limited concept, and I think it shows that their level of cognition when it comes to even slightly complex problems is very poor.