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Comment by Freskis | Hacker News Reader

Your comment does't make any sense. You are saying that the Conservative party are making this huge change to distract from their current problems. Are you saying they created the entire plan in a few weeks? Do you have any evidence for your extraordinary claims?

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This is not the first occurrence of a scandal from this government; and it's not the first time that they have thrown out as many back-burner ideas as possible in the rush to replace the headlines with something more palatable.

In a notable previous instance, the prime minister's wife announced her pregnancy in the hours following a scandal breaking. Months later, they announced the birth of the child shortly after another scandal broke out.

Hence this fairly amusing parody tweet:

https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson_MP/status/14808339950216929...

It's a perfect example of a "dead cat on the table."[1]

Also, > Are you saying they created the entire plan in a few weeks?

They frequently toss out new "plans" in response to news events, anger in the base, scandals, etc. which have -clearly- been thought up in a hurry as a distraction and will be silently forgotten / dumped when no longer needed as a news-based base-fury-whip.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_cat_strategy

This change is more likely a threat to the BBC at a time when they furiously engaged in damage control.

It can be rolled back if they "behave".

Theyve been making variations of this threat for decades.

The thing is though, none of the leaks have been via the BBC, every single one is via an independent paper or channel - even traditionally right wing publications.

The other angle of this is how much Boris and this government are in debt/the pocket of Murdoch and News Corp. Boris and senior government ministers met with Murdoch and News Copt executives 40 times in the first 14 months of Boris’s government. This is as much about raining the BBC in so that Murdoch can have more control of the media landscape in the UK.

https://pressgazette.co.uk/rupert-murdochs-news-corp-met-min...

Murdoch's been crying about the BBC and the license fee for decades. They are no doubt aware that canceling the BBC would put them even more at his mercy, so in this instance I can see why they might not cave.

Have you not encountered the UK Conservative Party before? This is absolutely their modus operandi.

> Do you have any evidence for your extraordinary claims?

Anyone who has ever interacted with politicians knows that “The Thick Of It” is a documentary, not a comedy. These are not extraordinary claims at all. Wouldn’t surprise me if Priti wrote the tweet on the toilet with an aide firing suggestions through the door before one stuck.

That's what multiple newspapers including The Times are reporting, yes.

Since Boris' job is on the line, he's apparently panicking and due to roll out a series of popularist policies next week.

Boris is finished, he probably won't last the week. It reminds me of the day when Thatcher fell. Leading Conservative MPs will be currently phoning each other trying to determine how much support they will get if they make a move. Someone who has no serious chance will be nominated as a 'stalking horse' to stand up and challenge Boris. Then the other stronger candidates will put themselves forward to 'save the name of the party'. That is how they do it.

it's pretty impressive he survived every single previous controversy and even managed to get brexit through... if he's going to be felled by a badly timed and ill-advised party.

> Boris is finished, he probably won't last the week.

I've lost track of how many times I've heard this over the past 3 years

>Someone who has no serious chance will be nominated as a 'stalking horse' to stand up and challenge Boris. Then the other stronger candidates will put themselves forward to 'save the name of the party'. That is how they do it.

There doesn't need to be a stalking horse any more. Once 54 letters have been submitted to the 1922 Committee then a Vote of No Confidence is held amongst Tory MPs by secret ballot. If he loses then there's a leadership election.

It used to be the case that a sitting leader had to be formally challenged (which was usually done by a stalking horse), but the rules were changed a long time ago and it's not necessary any more.

We do still seem to get the stalking horse candidate, possibly just for tradition's sake. See Rory Stewart.

You are giving this Conservative government far to much credit. Their entire track record in government is full of poorly thought out sweeping changes. (See the entire Brexit process)

You need to distinguish between the Conservative government (= Boris Johnson' Lying Circus) and the Conservative Party. The latter are not well pleased with the former.

This is relatively normal standard operating procedure for this Government.

Throw out loads of policies at the exact moment something bad for the cabinet is starting to gain traction.

Plan?

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