the boris project: slouching blond beast who can or shrunken cowardly lump who was never going to

innarestin' to wonder where we'd be now if he hadn't flinched back then

all dead, probably

Ok I saw it as a sequel to the Theresa May thread, which iirc was about how good was she really at her job -- getting Brexit through, winning people over, that kind of thing.

Winning the Tory Party contest was -- to me anyway -- a nothing sort of achievement. xp

i guess my sequence of thought is:

a (basic assumption) : there is actually a complex machinery of state that needs delicate steering to pull this off
b (TM thread thesis): TM thinks she's the dedicated and focused technocrat who can pull it off (but IMO she isn't and can't)
c (this thread when it started): BJ bottled it then bcz he's daunted by the "complex machinery of state" and his judgment (that he's not up to it) is widely shared
d (belated realisation)**: the "complex machinery of state" has been massively damaged by may in the process of delivering her version of brexit (without it being delivered), its own structures are no longer part of the landscape we're passing through
e: whatever exists now -- SHAPE TO BE DETERMINED, THE ACTUAL IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING QUESTION -- is no longer daunting to BJ, bcz it's basically hired him and is pointing him in the direction it wants us all to go

**this shd probably not have taken me so long to realise maybe, i'm conflicted abt it bcz its dismantlement is in principle a good thing but as a consequence i think a lot of bad things are going to happen first, just bcz there's very little now slowing them down

its dismantlement is in principle a good thing

i'd be inclined to agree were it happening as a careful taking-apart with a clear view of how it will be reassembled and to what end rather than boris' inevitable approach of kicking over the sandcastle and hope the free market shores it up before the rising tides (quite literally) carry it all away

he can only kick anything over because it's already entirely hollowed out (like him)

for better or worse careful taking-apart with a clear view to reassembly never happens anyway so let's just enjoy this brief pause for breath and the wreckage of the ancien regime before the Terror starts

the terror is when you look in the mirror and realise you are actually trapped in Toby young's body and have to go through and endless loop of him writing that piece where he imagines Boris "with his broad Germanic forehead" wearing lederhosen.

although it was a relief to see he was trending for that fawning piece of homo-erotica rather him being unveiled the minister for eugenics and prevention of undesirable reproduction.

still time yet

here's sociologist and twitter-user @philbc3 rooting things in the decline of the tory party as an institution: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4391-the-meaning-of-boris-johnson

i don't disagree with this as sociology but it goes hand-in-hand with the hollowing out since the 70s of many key state institutions, plus the transformations in media since the 80s

shrunken
hunched
cowardly
lump who is never going to

i mean he's prime minister i guess, but is he going to? is he?

he's trying as best he can to channel his slouching beast, but the cowardly shrunken lump can never be fully exorcised.

my theory (for it's worth) (= nothing, i'm posting it on ilx) is that he actually really truly realised he didn't want it when the first clinch came, and flinched as everyone saw

but in the interim, during the may years, a *lot* of ppl with a lot of clout (= money and pet media-outlets) came to him and said, "no, go for it, we're behind you" -- and he still didn't really want it but he went for it, bcz at least all this gave him some kind of comfortable fallback and support network, and, well, time spent in rooms being gladhanded by toadies and the slick liaison ppl of various billionaires, and he began to convince himself it could and would work out, so here we are

very cool that we’re all gonna die because this priapic sack of rancid mayonnaise was stupid enough to be flattered by parasites, idiots, and his own throbbing ego into grabbing power he never wanted or ever had the faintest idea how to wield

this priapic sack, etc., no longer commands a majority

bg... welcome to the club

I'd never noticed his horrible little yellow-grey teeth until yesterday.

he is rotting from within iirc

"The EU.. to force us.. that's what they want, the EU, to force us..."

He's saying it all but it sounds so forced, so unconvincing. After today I am resigned to believe he doesn't have a clue. Which is a relief tbh, with all the "but he's smart not dumb, he's got a cunning plan just you wait!" comments. He's out of his depth, throwing the dice without having a plan, hoping for the best. Knowing that at the very least he'll be on wikipedia under the 'past MP's' header.

(relief for me obv not relief for the uk ppl)

But but Dominic Cumberbatch is the brains of the operation...

His name is now Quentin Taranchemo, do keep up!

i know too many columnists like him. He embarked on this wheeze after deciding the 800 words he had cranked out for "leave" were funnier than the "remain" draft and that's about all there is to it.

It's sort of beautiful that May spunked all the valid options they had away, so now they're actually in charge and they have little left to do but bluster over the dregs.