Who will be the next prime minister (October 2022 edition)

[Spymaster]

Can someone explain why the daily mail and the sun are telling their readers that return of Johnson is a good idea ?

If a paper is going to have an editorial opinion they have to back someone in what is the biggest political event of the time. The owners and the boards decide on who to endorse, based on who they think will win and how it will benefit them if/when they do.

 

[Crispy]

I think it’s more complicated than either trying to appease readers or influence them. I think it’s to do with how sense-making is formed through the way other people and objects are represented within the psyche. These representations at least partially, if not wholly, exist as part of a constructed discourse within social groups, rather than being purely individual, cognitive structures. In turn, this means that an imagined group (i.e. an in-group that have never actually met each other in person, but exist as a group through imagined commonalities) can develop towards a discourse that represent particular characters as containing sets of characteristics, such as the hero archetype, that are baffling to outsiders. So “Boris the hero” is a co-construction between the Daily Mail and its readers; a dialectic framed by things like confirmation and attention biases, that takes on a self-perpetuating narrative force of its own.

Parklife

 

[bimble]

If a paper is going to have an editorial opinion they have to back someone in what is the biggest political event of the time. The owners and the boards decide on who to endorse, based on who they think will win and how it will benefit them if/when they do.

Well, yes. How would BJ2 be good for the owners & boards though that’s what I don’t get.

 

[maomao]

I think it’s more complicated than either trying to appease readers or influence them. I think it’s to do with how sense-making is formed through the way other people and objects are represented within the psyche. These representations at least partially, if not wholly, exist as part of a constructed discourse within social groups, rather than being purely individual, cognitive structures. In turn, this means that an imagined group (i.e. an in-group that have never actually met each other in person, but exist as a group through imagined commonalities) can develop towards a discourse that represent particular characters as containing sets of characteristics, such as the hero archetype, that are baffling to outsiders. So “Boris the hero” is a co-construction between the Daily Mail and its readers; a dialectic framed by things like confirmation and attention biases, that takes on a self-perpetuating narrative force of its own.

I was going to say 'a bit of both' but you did it with more words.

 

[kabbes]

I was going to say 'a bit of both' but you did it with more words.

I guess words are a mothafucka, they can be great
Or they can degrade, or even worse, they can teach hate
It's like these kids hang on every single statement we make

 

[Spymaster]

Well, yes. How would BJ2 be good for the owners & boards though that’s what I don’t get.

Well there’s the repute and prestige that goes with getting it right. When The Sun switched from Conservative to Labour in 1997, they were widely considered to have significantly contributed to Blair’s victory. There’s a lot of value in a newspaper having political power.

Also maybe what Kabbes posted, but I didn’t understand it.

 

[TopCat]

Johnson hasn't a hope in hell.

You may have cause to regret this statement.

 

[Smangus]

You may have cause to regret this statement.

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Johnson ‘booed on plane’ back to UK​

Boris Johnson was spotted last night on a British Airways flight from the Dominican Republic to London Gatwick, amid reports that he plans to join the Tory leadership contest.

He’s reportedly sitting in economy class with his wife Carrie and their children, on the flight with the callsign BA2156. It is due to land at around 10.30am today.

Sky’s Mark Stone said Johnson was booed by other passengers as passengers boarded the plan

 

[TopCat]

Johnson ‘booed on plane’ back to UK​

Boris Johnson was spotted last night on a British Airways flight from the Dominican Republic to London Gatwick, amid reports that he plans to join the Tory leadership contest.

He’s reportedly sitting in economy class with his wife Carrie and their children, on the flight with the callsign BA2156. It is due to land at around 10.30am today.

Sky’s Mark Stone said Johnson was booed by other passengers as passengers boarded the plan

The public don’t have a vote. Just Tory mps and possibly a bunch of golf playing racist cunts.

 

[kabbes]

I think the Daily Mail is particularly good at identifying itself with a really well-defined and explicitly articulated imagined group. It asks itself all the time what that group is thinking and tries to be part of the conversation as an insider, like the popular kid that sets the tone of the conversation but is still one of the gang. That’s why it will change its editorial on a sixpence, going from “best budget evar!!!” to “Truss must go!” It senses a change of wind but it is also alert to the possibility that it got it wrong.

 

[Smangus]

No but

The public don’t have a vote. Just Tory mps and possibly a bunch of golf playing racist cunts.

No , but if he wins it won't be doing the vermin the favour they think it will. He is still well hated by many people.. Not the saviour from over the water.

 

[bimble]

There's also the very simple 'bring back BJ to own the libs' thing. All the tofu munching remoaners hate him etc and so.

 

[TopCat]

No but


No , but if he wins it won't be doing the vermin the favour they think it will. He is still well hated by many people.. Not the saviour from over the water.

I totally agree. He is hemlock. They look to be on the verge of taking a deep draught .

 

[TopCat]

There's also the very simple 'bring back BJ to own the libs' thing. All the tofu munching remoaners hate him etc and so.

He had a mandate. The rest don’t. This counts for a lot of people who supported him.

 

[killer b]

He had a mandate. The rest don’t. This counts for a lot of people who supported him.

does it fuck

 

[agricola]

I think the Daily Mail is particularly good at identifying itself with a really well-defined and explicitly articulated imagined group. It asks itself all the time what that group is thinking and tries to be part of the conversation as an insider, like the popular kid that sets the tone of the conversation but is still one of the gang. That’s why it will change its editorial on a sixpence, going from “best budget evar!!!” to “Truss must go!” It senses a change of wind but it is also alert to the possibility that it got it wrong.

Once perhaps, but I think it is much more now a shaper of those people's opinions than it is shaped by them. Look at how often the opinions that people claim are theirs (on Johnson, or especially on Corbyn when he was Labour leader) are just regurgitations of what the Mail (or that other rag) have been saying. On Corbyn especially it was astonishingly rare to hear a genuinely independent criticism of him, usually you could ask one or two questions about why someone thought the way they did and they'd realise that they couldn't remember the rest of the article that they'd read it in.

 

[bimble]

This is from the 6th september which seems ages ago. Quite an interesting read now .

Boris Johnson hints at comeback ambition as he departs Downing Street

Ousted PM makes reference to Roman dictator Cincinnatus while pledging support for Liz Truss

www.theguardian.com

 

[emanymton]

I was going to say 'a bit of both' but you did it with more words.

I was going to say they simultaneously form opinion and follow it. You did it with even fewer words.

 

[bimble]

I still don’t think he’ll be it. Lot of noise but if he does get to 100 reckon the party will shut it down somehow before a members vote.

 

[_Russ_]

The Party really is bitterly divided between those who want Boris back and those who dont, this is a both good and bad ...it further wrecks the wreckers party, but takes the country with it.
Moodys downgraded the UK's status to negative from stable today, indicating our credit rating could be going down

 

[Spymaster]

I still don’t think he’ll be it. Lot of noise but if he does get too 100 reckon the party will shut it down somehow before a members vote.

Who do you mean by “the party”?

 

[killer b]

Moodys downgraded the UK's status to negative from stable today, indicating our credit rating could be going down

this kind of thing actually makes me feel more well disposed to the government tbh. fuck moodys.

 

[Spandex]

Once perhaps, but I think it is much more now a shaper of those people's opinions than it is shaped by them. Look at how often the opinions that people claim are theirs (on Johnson, or especially on Corbyn when he was Labour leader) are just regurgitations of what the Mail (or that other rag) have been saying. On Corbyn especially it was astonishingly rare to hear a genuinely independent criticism of him, usually you could ask one or two questions about why someone thought the way they did and they'd realise that they couldn't remember the rest of the article that they'd read it in.

I'm not sure that's all about newspapers forming opinion. It's as much that people take a liking for Johnson or a dislike for Corbyn based on all sorts of ideas that have filtered into their subconscious over the years. They won't spend mental time and energy interrogating why they think that, when it feels like a gut reaction to them. If quizzed on it, they'll grab a few catchphrases they saw in the paper or heard on the news to justify why they think that way. That's why politicians love to come up with these simplistic phrases for people to latch onto. If you try to pick apart why they are saying a stock phrase they heard in the news they'll likely get annoyed with you as it isn't that specific phrase that accurately sums up the deeper reasons for their their likes or dislikes, it's just a lazy shorthand way of expressing it.

 

[bimble]

Who do you mean by “the party”?

I don’t know tbh. The ones who make up the rules as they go along, like the rule about 100 nominations by teatime on Monday.
Must be a lot of MPs who don’t want the members to choose again & will do their best to end up with only one contender by Monday.

 

[_Russ_]

this kind of thing actually makes me feel more well disposed to the government tbh. fuck moodys.

Oh dear

 

[killer b]

Oh dear

you go back to salivating over pan-national neoliberal enforcers telling your government what to do then

 

[Yossarian]

Can someone explain why the daily mail and the sun are telling their readers that return of Johnson is a good idea ?

What everybody else said, plus:

Rishi Sunak versus Penny Mordaunt or whoever: boring.

BORIS BOUNCES BACK, here's where his plane is right now as he travels back to Britain for what could be the most stunning political comeback ever: might get a lot of clicks.

 

[Edie]

This can’t be happening.

 

[_Russ_]

you go back to salivating over pan-national neoliberal enforcers telling your government what to do then

The fact that you can somehow confuse my understanding of an organisations influence with me being in favour of it shows very poor comprehension
P.S. FUCK OFF TWAT

 

[maomao]

if he does get to 100 reckon the party will shut it down somehow before a members vote

No chance of this happening at all. They can chage the rules but not halfway through a contest and would instantly alienate two thirds of the membership and a third of the parliamentary party.