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Boris Johnson turned away from polling station after forgetting to bring photo ID
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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On bike? Flipping off? Boris Johnson?
I wonder how Boris feels about the current crop of carbrained Conservative candidates, given that supporting bikes was one of the few good things he did as mayor.
That’s a big part of the Boris Johnson myth. The “Boris bike” system in London was actually created by his Labour predecessor Ken Livingstone. The system officially opened shortly after Boris became mayor, who then took the credit for it.
The guy does ride a bike, but not as much as other’s coattails.
I've seen Boris "expansion of the london cycling network" up close and personal the few times I've decided to go for really long cycles away from London zones 1, 2 and 3 - the cycling "network" out there is basically made up of tiny blue signs with a white stylized cyclist symbol every half a mile or so along the side of the road and nothing else (not even paint on the road, just near invisible signs), but that was enough for him to claim he had added a huge number of miles to the London cycling network.
Boris "achivements" are invariably just traditional posh-boy lying: in a very strict sense not a lie, but using words ("cycling network") that leads others to understand one thing (actually usuable, properly marked "cycling lanes" that make it safer to cycle) which is completelly different from the reality (little signs on the side of the road that do not add up to a cycling lane or are even easilly spotted by drivers).
For sure, but even that is above the extremely low bar that the current conservatives (both the party and conservatives in general) have set.
Not sure if you're serious or not.
He's LITERALLY the reason Tory MP's are both fucking useless, or leaving/quitting in droves. When he gutted the party for not backing his Brexit vote, he got rid of lots of established conservative politicians, replacing many with populists.
The Conservative party doesn't have many actual conservatives in it any more. Many feel that they've been forced out, and even those looking to join feel that they're just a right-wing party on the tails of Reform.
It's one of the reasons I'm so excited for a GE. It'll likely result in a Labour landslide, but it'll also potentially be the biggest decimation of the Tories since Thatcher, probably more so because she was still ultimately a Conservative. If they can't root out the populists, the party is basically dead.
Serious about him being better than the current crop on this very specific issue? Yes. Other than that, he's a piece of trash and a hack of a politician, so I don't disagree with you on that point.
Although frankly I'd be happy if conservatism was buried altogether, and not just "populist" conservatism. Both forms are incredibly harmful to the poor and the disadvantaged in general.