[satnav]

He opened the press conference by talking about what great progress was being made with the vaccines before handing over to the experts to dispense all the bad news about infection rates and deaths. So clearly he wants all the credit for the good stuff but likes to distance himself from the bad stuff.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Why change a winning formula? This is what he always does. It's like Nathan Barley saying "Believe!"

[Boiler]

[Bones McCoy]

[Samanfur]

I know that there's other stuff going on, but:

Johnson Vows to Slash Business Rules, Asking CEOs to Help

Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked business leaders to help him decide which regulations should be ripped up now that the U.K has completed its divorce from the European Union.

The premier made the offer in a call Wednesday afternoon with some 250 corporate leaders, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. He asked what red tape could be cut to make life easier for Britain’s companies to operate after Brexit.

Johnson also said Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak will lead a drive to speed up the machinery of government, acknowledging the state can be too slow to make decisions, according to three of the people.

One participant on the call said Johnson used a painting analogy, saying the fresco was not yet dry after Brexit and that there was an opportunity for businesses to add to the picture by telling government their needs.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's the Return of the Red Tape Challenge. Bloke who worked on it last time is unimpressed.

[Bones McCoy]

It's the Return of the Red Tape Challenge. Bloke who worked on it last time is unimpressed.

It's classic Liberal Arts / Public School / Oxbridge bullshit.
With a sprinkle of magical thinking.

We need to address THING.
OK we caught up with THING, what's the plan?
Plan? you civil servants are the experts, I expected you useless shits to know what to do - Just fucking do something.

It runs through their history like Blackpool through a stick of Rock. I give you.

The 26 year old headmistress who wasn't a qualified teacher.
The coding czar who couldn't use a computer (nor pronounce Zuggerbug).
All of Brexit from campaign to delivery.
Most of the responses to Covid.
Build Build Build.
50 extra hospitals.
20,000 extra police.
Buccaneering.

[mattomac]

“Let’s get rid of red tape....”

Yeah not doing Brexit would have helped

[Bones McCoy]

I am surprised that our PM and failing Churchill Tribute act has not tried to channel the great wartime leader one last time.

We face a Vaccine rollout "Biggest logistics task ever".
It's going to involve lots of volunteers and re-purposed venues.
The Tories love war analogies (alologies, let me summon my bulldog spirit) WAR!!! analogies.

Shouldn't a PM in Johnson's place, and of moderate intelligence start talking about our Dunkirk moment??




(The good Doctor reminds me that they spaffed the Dunkirk goodwill away with the Lorry Parks).

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's classic Liberal Arts / Public School / Oxbridge bullshit.
With a sprinkle of magical thinking.

We need to address THING.
OK we caught up with THING, what's the plan?
Plan? you civil servants are the experts, I expected you useless shits to know what to do - Just fucking do something.

It runs through their history like Blackpool through a stick of Rock. I give you.

The 26 year old headmistress who wasn't a qualified teacher.
The coding czar who couldn't use a computer (nor pronounce Zuggerbug).
All of Brexit from campaign to delivery.
Most of the responses to Covid.
Build Build Build.
50 extra hospitals.
20,000 extra police.
Buccaneering.

At least those were their own plans. They're asking for other people to send in their own plans. This is how it went last time:

[Bones McCoy]

I prefer to think that the instances I listed were a concept at best, and a slogan at worst.

No plan, let's launch a few pressers and see what ideas fall out of twitter.
(In many gases it wasn't so much ideas as derision).


We've stopped seeing the "Young tottie in Czardom role" because they've got the Bannon style funding working. No need to wrestle with the civil service code o create an obviously inappropriate appointment.

[youngian]

Allegra has swung her husband James Forsyth into action. The rest of this derisory piece is behind the paywall

Johnson is not Trump’s transatlantic twin

When Boris Johnson was foreign secretary he used to eat his lunch in the Foreign Office canteen. This was slightly to the annoyance of one of his political aides, who would have preferred to dine with him alone. But Johnson didn’t just want to eat there because of the hot food. He wanted to reassure the staff, many of them diplomats who privately regarded Brexit as a disaster, that it was going to be all right. Britain was not about to withdraw from the world, he told them. Quite the opposite.

This reveals the fundamental differences between Johnson and Donald Trump. He craves harmony in a way that Trump does not. He is an optimist, not a pessimist. He wants to reform institutions, not destroy https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/john ... -cshzqzlj2

[Malcolm Armsteen]

And he farts rainbows...

[mr angry manchester]

If Boris is aiming at being a Churchill tribute act, he's got the first bit right. Churchills career up until 1939 was pretty much a series of disasters.

[Bones McCoy]

He has one big roll of the dice left.
If he pulls off the vaccine roll-out he will have an achievement to tout as his "Big Win".