The Coddling of Stooges

[smokingboot]

Nope, can't talk about my stress mess of work and health.

Instead, I will amuse myself. Here is a superlative twitter thread covering British politics over the past few days. I'm going to keep this because it makes me laugh.

https://twitter.com/RussInCheshire/status/1492198773736579074?fbclid=IwAR0N7JxTiHHXlFrtZzo_rWCO8cvNGfO-XipBQgqjrIYyU2qVMO-iWnT4fVk

I don't think we will go to war with Russia, but that could be hope talking. We are more likely to apply sanctions that only make ordinary people's lives harder, and don't touch the deep pockets of tory supporting oligarchs.

Has there been a sea-change? Many Brits seem politically lethargic or just embarrassed, but it does seem to be dawning that Boris Johnson might not have been the best choice to lead us through a global pandemic and potential world war. On the home front, he is desperate for diversions. Time was when he crowed his solution on how to deal with the media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtVtR-rNNjI

BJ's actions show how faithful he is to his method, though it doesn't seem entirely effective. The media isn't forgetting, it's stacking. Partygate has damaged him immensely, to the point at which he becomes dangerous. He and his party have enjoyed plenty of Kremlin linked donations and they won't want to antagonise Russia. However they will want to look as though they are ready for war, putting on a new drama, playing to that home audience, making sweet eyes at the US in hope of a trade deal. It's the usual double-faced 'perfidious Albion' trope they're all trying to play up to, in the belief that being universally mistrusted looks Machiavellian and clever, a real vulnerability if anyone out there actually is Machiavellian and clever.

As pertinent are his long ago comments on student politics.
https://twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/1490004590057693192/photo/1

This coddling of stooges is his real reason for the latest choice of Foreign Secretary. Now, Liz 'Pork Markets' Truss is without doubt a complete cretin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxG8lzRA1ZA) but she has been touted by an increasingly desperate tory party as a potential replacement for Johnson, and efforts have be made to polish her up as some new Thatcher-alike.

https://twitter.com/LouisHenwood/status/1491790840502521866/photo/1

https://twitter.com/the0500/status/1453788017341181962/photo/1

I am particularly bemused by the big blue trouser squat. Not only does Truss look as though she should undo her flies quickly before something terrible happens, she seems to be trying to imitate, not so much Thatcher herself as Gillian Anderson's portrayal of Thatcher, with looser hair and ferocious palazzo pants.

BJ is no fool, but he knows she is. She wasn't sent to meet Sergei Lavrov in order actually do or say anything, but as a way for her boss to present this ambitious if slack-jawed rival with enough rope to hang herself. And if that hasn't finished her off, NI should do it nicely. Doesn't guarantee anything of course, but whatever other deficiencies our PM has, he certainly knows his terrible art.