Afternoon music
From the newspapers
“Boris Johnson could return as Prime Minister under astonishing plans being hatched by Tory MPs – with a ‘dream ticket’ leadership tie-up with Nigel Farage even being considered.
The Mail on Sunday has spoken to multiple Conservative MPs who believe that bringing back the former Premier is the only way to save the party from an Election wipeout.“
[Mail On Sunday]
Regular readers of the blog know that I have little time (if any) for either Johnson or Farage. However, looking objectively at the claims made in that Mail report, I can see why many Conservative Party MPs might favour the idea of “Boris”-idiot and Farage joining up to save the Con Party.
At present, the Con Party is between 19% and 24% in the polls. Even the higher figure would reduce the number of Con Party MPs from 350 to about 101, depending on the exact detail of where the votes were to fall; the lower figure might reduce the number of Con Party MPs to around 40 or so.
Were there to be an alliance between Johnson and Farage, and if both stood for election as Con candidates in 2024, the Con Party would still suffer a big hit, but might poll at around 30%. In addition, Reform UK would presumably stand down in terms of the General Election, thus gifting a great many marginal seats to the Con Party.
According to my use of Electoral Calculus, that might leave the Conservative Party with about 187 seats, about half what they now command, but not a wipeout: better than their performance in both 1997 (165) and 2001 (166), and not far off that of 2005 (198).
The Reform UK officials say this, though:
“But Reform Party officials said their aim was to kill off the Conservatives. One told The Mail on Sunday: ‘When Nigel gets back [from the ITV reality show] he’s going to start dominating the agenda. Within about six to eight weeks we’ll be polling in the high teens, and the Tories will start to slip below 20 per cent.
‘At that point between five and ten MPs will realise the game’s up, and defect to us. Then it’s game over. We’re looking at the last majority Tory administration of our lifetime. We’re going to destroy them.”
[Mail On Sunday]
Sounds good (that last bit). “Those who live will see“, though…
Would Farage even go for such a deal? I think that he might. He betrayed his Brexit Party candidates in 2019, after all.
I would not rule out the possibility that he might like a deal of the sort suggested, both for political and personal reasons. He might be able to sell it to his present supporters.
After all, if the Con Party were still to lose the 2024 (maybe January 2025) General Election fairly badly, Farage —if an MP by then— could put himself forward as candidate for Leader at the subsequent Con Party leadership election. The cat really would be among the pigeons then…
More from the newspapers
Some good points made.
Analysis from well-known psephologist, Professor Sir John Curtice.
Tweets seen
Truth-tellers are usually persecuted, but truth usually finds a way out.
Ironically, were London ever to be targeted by an Israeli nuclear weapon, the second or third-largest Jewish community in Europe would thereby be annihilated. I suppose that that means that it would not happen.
The Arab/Muslim states surrounding Israel may not be so lucky.
I was wondering the same; I think that Ukrainian (Kiev-regime) security goons must have detained him when he tried to exit that sad failed state.
A photograph from yesterday, 10 December 2023.
The Twitter/X account @Lucas_Gage is one of the very best on the platform.
Born and brought up in various countries, but their only loyalty is to Israel…
Late thought (a blog post from several years ago)
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 
Hello! I forgot to comment on the beautiful painting by Holsoe that you posted. Wonderful work!
Incidentally, I look for Gonzalo Lira and the article about him in Wikipedia is (as to be expected) disgusting. I am quite sure he has been murdered by Zelensky´s goons.
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Claudius:
The idea that Ukraine under Zelensky is any kind of functioning democracy, with civil rights, is ludicrous. In fact, Russia has more civil rights than Ukraine, and Russia itself has relatively few. “Ukraine” is basically somewhere between a gangster-state and a failed state; indeed, not far from being a non-state.
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Spot on! BTW, the bastard was here in Buenos Aires, last Sunday for the inauguration of the madman Javier Milei as President! Guess what was his present? A Jewish candelabrum! I am not joking!
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Claudius:
God.
Wouldn’t you know?…
“Populism” without social nationalism just becomes another front for “them”…
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