I've found the stupidest political take

[andrewducker]

One of the many Conservative subgroups has decided that it's wrong that Carrie Symonds (Johnson's fiance) has any input into his political decisions, because she's not elected.

Now, she may be giving him advice they disagree with. She may even be giving him terrible advice. But the idea that he shouldn't be talking to his fiance about the decisions he's making because she's not elected is just ludicrous.

Is he not allowed to get ideas from books which aren't written by sitting MPs? Is he not allowed to talk to external experts who aren't elected? Not allowed to talk to members of the public in case he listens to them before they're voted on?

He's an MP. He gets to vote on laws. And he gets to listen to, and learn from, whoever he deems appropriate. If someone doesn't like the opinions he takes on, and the decisions he makes, that's fine. We can totally judge him for that. If someone thinks that he associates with awful people and judges him for that, then that's also fair enough. But the idea that he shouldn't listen to anyone unless they've been elected is beyond laughable.

Comments

[mountainkiss]

I don’t think he’ll remain unscathed within the party.

[danieldwilliam]

Mmmh, I was kind of getting the impression that the Tories were all for opening up and only Johnson's steady hand on the helm was preventing them.

[andrewducker]

Looks like about 80 of them are on the mass murderer wing.

Others may feel we should open up sooner, but not enough to make a fuss.

[dewline]

I suppose it won't be too difficult for me to track down those roughly eighty names myself, then.

[andrewducker]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID_Recovery_Group?wprov=sfla1

[mountainkiss]

It’s a small but vocal constituency. It’s complicated and interconnected with other threads here. There was a wonderful article last year by Rafael Behr in the Grauniad about how Johnson has created a party with a taste for insurrection. But - I think your point ultimately holds about their tendency to come together when it counts and if the PM, known vote winner, also has the feel of the wider country, that’s a very obvious place to coalesce.

[danieldwilliam]

I wonder if the best thing that could happen to England is that Johnson wins the next election by about 5 seats. So they can really enjoy the insurrectionist vibe.

[danieldwilliam]

They do seem to be very vocal.