I can only imagine that the media people who are saying this is the most right wing cabinet since the 1980’s were not sentient in the 80’s. Thatcher never had a Home Secretary remotely as illiberal as Pritti Patel, never had a Foreign Secretary remotely as xenophobic as Dominic Raab, never even had a Chancellor as anti-State intervention as Sajid Javid (though came closer there) and never had a Defence Secretary as bellicose as Ben Wallace.
Even Thatcher’s final and most right wing Cabinet contained figures like Ken Clarke, Chris Patten, John Major, Virginia Bottomley, Douglas Hurd and William Waldegrave. All Tories with whom I have fundamental disagreements, but every single one of them is far, far to the left of virtually all of Johnson’s appalling cronies.
Thatcher deliberately and cruelly wrecked the social democratic society in which I grew up, with the aim of destroying any ability for working people to be protected against the whims of the wealthy. But Thatcher never introduced privatisation into the NHS or state schools – that was her acolyte Blair. She maintained free university education in England and Wales. That was destroyed by Blair too. We should be more rigorous than to accept Thatcher as the definitive most right wing government possible. It is not only lazy, it obscures the fact we now have the most right wing British government since 1832.
Pritti Patel is a Home Secretary who admires the approach to law and order of Benjamin Netanyahu and voted against a measure to prevent pregnant asylum seekers being slammed into immigration detention pending hearing. Savid Javid is a Chancellor who materially caused the problems of British Steel by, as Business Secretary, vetoing in Brussels tariffs against dumped Chinese steel. Dominic Raab is a foreign secretary who negotiated a deal with the EU then resigned because it was so bad.
This is the biggest political shock to hit the UK in my lifetime and it is potentially worse than Thatcher. Here in Scotland, we need to move immediately for Independence. The time for talking really is behind us.
I think(hope) Johnson will be less inclined to go along with John Bolton’s plans for Iran, than say manufactured tanker crisis man Jeremy Hunt would’ve been. Raab, Patel and Wallace are concerning, but what can they do(implement) in a party with near no majority?
Jacob Rees- Mogg may be fiscal conservative and right-winger, but at least he’s morally conservative and you get the impression he’s a believer in strictly playing by the rules.
The appointment of Gavin Williamson is amusing – now back sat at the same table as Sir Mark Sedwill, who only a short time ago, pointed the finger at him over the leak of information from a meeting of the National Security Council.
It was reported neither Gove of Johnson get on with Sedwill (it’s reported both think the Whitehall bigwig a little too big for his boots) so that could be an early source of friction.
Boris Johnson has claimed the United Kingdom is entering a Golden Age of prosperity.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49113728
The European Central Bank has claimed it could cut interest rates to tackle a slowdown in the eurozone economy, also they will kick-start
quantitative easing.
This is when a central bank pumps money into the economy by buying up bonds and other assets.
So the E.U. not doing so well, they are going to be even poorer when the second largest economy waives good-bye.
And the basis for Johnson’s claims of a “Golden Age of prosperity”? It used to called the “sunny uplands”, but curiously enough they never materialised.
Au contraire, Laguerre. The Golden Age of Prosperity has materialised for the likes of Johnson and his class. Just not for the 99%. And if you think the plundering of public assets for the enrichment of the few, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Just wait till you see the terms of BJ’s trade deals. To the barricades, all.
why are leave supporters (I am assuming you are one) so keen on telling about the supposed downfall of the EU when GB leaves and not concerned with the forecasts of the GB economy going into recession or depression?
I agree with all you say, apart from the penultimate sentence. If Scotland gets independence the rest of us are really in permanent Tory Hell.
Sturgeon will never get a better shot.
And she and the SNP face their own time constraints, as winning another majority for an independence referendum at Holyrood is far from certain. Given the mixed -member proportionate electoral system it’s incredible they are even in the position to now. All the other major Westminster-linked parties are opposed to the idea.
My understanding is that come 1 November, we are automatically out of the EU. So what difference has the Commons vote rejecting a no-deal Brexit made? Boris doesn’t need to prorogue Parliament at all, just sit on the issue till then. Or am I missing something?
Tory MPs say they’ll vote no-confidence in their own govt rather than risk no-deal, but because of the long recess: Thursday, July 25, Parliament will then reconvene on Tuesday, September 3, the timetabling for that vote is incredibly tight and with it being Labour led / directed, come the moment, I doubt enough Tory MPs will vote to bring their own govt down.
As you say from Johnson’s perspective assuming he’s happy running down the clock to no-deal : A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
However, would he want to own the consequences of no-deal?
… would he want to own the consequences of a no-deal … This prime minister will predictively revert to type and disavow all responsibility when the country finds itself in a no-deal situation. Mr Johnson will claim it is what the nation voted for and the gullible British public will readily accept his word. My belief is that It has always been his intention to crash out of the European Union despite his declared preference to depart with a deal.
Rod, already the narrative in the MSM is quoting BoJo’s line – it is the EU’s fault for not opening negotiations etc etc. Well, the EU have been extremely patient, accommodating and helpful over the past three years to try to resolve the issue. They have been jeered at, truly insulted, viciously and maliciously had their characters assassinated by our MSM and by the like of BoJo, Davies, Rees-Mogg and all the rabid Brexiteers. Yet they have shown dignity amongst all this. Now, they are back to being insulted by Tory MPs (who seem to forget they are our allies not our enemies) with one quoting this week “Herr Juncker in the Bunker”.
I am ashamed about the UK and how a complete and utter liar, charlatan, bigot, racist and corrupt politician has come to be Prime Minister of the UK and appointed a Fascist Cabinet of corrupt politicians.
The very thought that there is such a thing as a ‘no deal brexit’ is misguided. Claiming we will ‘crash out’ is equally daft.
All that will happen on November 1st is that the default scenario takes effect. As in the financial markets a ‘netting out’ of debts will happen, and who owes who what will be sorted.
Such things as the border in Ireland, Gibraltar and Cyprus will need to be negotiated. I dread to think how that will work out, or how long it will go on for.
Then there is the wonderful scenario for the fishing rights. May need a whole new navy for that one.
Long and short of it is that the EU cannot be seen in any way, shape nor form to be helpful. The european project has one aim, and one aim only….to disenfranchise every citizen of europe on the altar of a supranational entity.
Good here, innit…_
Facepalm.
“All that will happen on November 1st is that the default scenario takes effect”
explain the default scenario regarding goods entering and leaving the country
@M.J. “Or am I missing something?”
If we are heading for a “no deal” Brexit there will almost certainly be a Commons vote of ‘no confidence’ in the government which they/he will lose.
The ‘no confidence’ process is now a dual-vote one. If the government loses a ‘no confidence’ vote there is a two weeks interregnum in which to find a solution before a second ‘no confidence’ vote which, if lost again, leads directly to a general election.
It seems likely that if there is a vote of ‘no confidence’ that during that interregnum ‘the Establishment’ (call them what you will) will seek to form a “government of national unity” including MPs from all parties, some suggesting lead by Yvette Cooper, that would hold power until a second referendum or general election was held.
That, for ‘the Establishment’, would have the benefits of sidelining Johnson, Corbyn and Brexit in one fell swoop.
There are, of course, a lot of ifs, buts and ands to come before we get there.
But if we do – prepare for fireworks.
But Tory MPs would have to show a resolve not seen to date. They’ve already stated anyone doing so will lose the whip and therefore not be standing as a Conservative MP in that election.
The stakes are enormous as it could well mean the end of the Conservative party(which imho, would be no bad thing).
Labour have all but become a party of remain with Corbyn’s statement today..
@ Goose. “But Tory MPs would have to show a resolve not seen to date.”
The government, with the DUP, currently have a majority of three. If, as seems likely, they lose the bye-election next week, they will be down to a majority of one.
It will then only need one Tory to vote ‘no confidence’ for them to lose the vote if all the opposition support it. Dominic Grieve has already made it crystal clear that he would do so as have a couple of others. Michael Heseltine, though obviously not voting in the Commons, has gone as far as to say that he would rather see a Corbyn government than see the UK leave the EU.
That’s not the case…
There are around 21 independents(correct me if I’m wrong) and at least 6 Labour MPs who keep voting with the govt on Brexit matters. Possibly more now with Sarah Champion , Lisa Nandy and Gareth Snell.
The TIG/Change people don’t want an election.
In reality the Tories have enough votes for it to be close.
What I’m trying to say is, the numbers are far from guaranteed.
Look at the vote earlier this year to prevent no-deal – the Cooper-Letwin motion- it passed by one vote!
Then there could be abstentions, rather than people voting no confidence, further complicating the arithmetic.
A sizeable number of Labour MPs probably don’t even want an election, because they’d rather have the Tories in power than a left-wing leader.
Just had a really horrible thought….
What if war were to break out in the Gulf?
How would that interfere with parliamentary process here? Moves to unseat the govt could be made v.difficult. It’d complicate matters immensely.
I don’t think War in the Gulf is likely to happen in a major way (unless that Johnson’s choice, to deliberately create the situation you fear). In the present situation, Bolton and Pompeo would have to get round Trump, and I’m not sure that’s as easy as one might think. The Iranians seem to have themselves under control, which is more than can be said about US or UK.
“The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. ”
— James Madison, American Patriot, prominent in writing the Constitution, 4th President of the United States. https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24671
I would presume that somewhere between Eton and Oxford, BoJoke became rather familiar with the general subject of what the Romans used to do.
And, technically, BoJoke and Wallace would appear to have authority on their own to start a war. Possibly directly, possibly with another run of the Lusitania gambit. The US military command can stop the four horsemen of Trump, Pompeo, Bolton and Hastert from starting a war. But that doesn’t mean that they can’t be drawn into a war.
Well said.
@Peter
If the government loses a ‘no confidence’ vote there is a two weeks interregnum in which to find a solution before a second ‘no confidence’ vote which, if lost again, leads directly to a general election.
I just looked at the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011.
Quote : If either the Commons passes a motion in which the “number of members who vote in favour” of dissolving parliament is “greater than two-thirds of the number of seats in the House,” or MPs back a vote of no confidence in the sitting government and 14 days elapse without any administration gaining – or regaining – that confidence.
Well it won’t two-thirds that is for sure.
Many thought it constitutional vandalism upon its introduction.
@Goose.
Hi again, thanks for this.
The “two thirds” vote thing just precludes the need for the second vote, and leads directly to a general election. The government only needs to lose by one vote to proceed to the second vote, which also only requires a ‘one vote’ majority.
I agree with you though, that the numbers are far from guaranteed.
It may be as few as 10 Tory MPs who’ll actually carry through their threats. It’s a really big deal, given they are in effect resigning from the party and forcing an election could literally destroy their party.
When push comes to shove, I just don’t see Tory MPs handing Corbyn the moment of his career by helping him bring their govt down. I.e., their fear of Corbyn is more than their fear of no-deal.
It was not constitutional vandalism, it was the Libdems saying they would not go into Coalition for Cameron to call an election whenever he felt like it.
If you read what far right Telegraph journalists wrote at the time, you can understand the Libdems position.
“my understanding”-oh dear
intended for M.J.
Fortunately others kindly supplied what was lacking in my understanding – the possibility of Tories supporting a no-confidence motion against their own government, if a no-deal Brexit seemed imminent. But, as others have said, it is not certain that this wil;l actually happen, though I can think of two that might do it: Ken Clarke and Sir John Major. And then there’s various people who resigned or got fired this week..
OTOH Labour just blocked such a motion by the LibDem leader calling it a childish move against them. I wonder whether Corbyn actually wants Brexit himself, and if he can blame the Tories, even better?
Parliament could in theory revoke the Leaving the EU Act (the “Article 50” Act). I haven’t heard of any parliamentarians trying that angle, but I’m not sure why I haven’t.
I believe most of them made a public commitment to abide by the result of the referendum. If they tried to revoke Article 50 now they would be accused of betrayal.
Can Cumbria please go with an independent Scotland?
No chance if Barrow is in Cumbria.
why? Will Barrow be the new Faslane?
The kingdom of Alt Clut had its southern boundary at Westmoreland. Draw a line between Shap and Seascale and everything North of the line is good to go.
Priti Patel is perfect for the top job at the Home Office. She arrives there with a wealth of knowledge that she learnt from top Israeli officials on how to control a rebellious ungrateful population. That might come in useful in the UK if the peasants start revolting too much.
And it was pure luck that she met those experts when she happened to be on a family holiday (so she said) in Israel a couple of years ago. She ended up having 12 meetings with the Israeli elite, including PM Netanyahu and the Public Security Minister, Gilad Erdan whose job is roughly equivalent to Priti’s new job at the Home Office.
The fact that even busy politicians are so hospitable to British tourists is a wonderful advertisement for Israeli tourism!
Meeting with the Saudi kings or Iranian ayatollahs is so much cleaner. Or with HRC. Or Macron. Or Xi. As long as the other is non-Jewish, no comments.
Boris is a maverick who wants to be PM, so he could be creating a Cabinet of “the far right” to avoid being outflanked when he puts forward (as a former remainer before campaigning for Leave as an opportunist)a “Deal” that can pass through Parliament with Labour support, that could sweep the country, if it hadn’t been deliberately sabotaged by May’s Remain+ Deal. That is solve the backstop question by remaining in the Customs Union.
This is serious. Boris may be no strategist but Dominic Cummings is, and it is evident that the new cabinet is geared up to move quickly. The SNP should not only get its act together within weeks at most, it should consider talking to the Remainers in Northern Ireland about a referendum to unite the island of Ireland, thereby escaping the issue of the backstop by staying in the EU and sidestepping the impasse over Stormont. The main thing for Scotland is to avoid a trade deal with the USA, and to stay out of any conflict with Iran. It’s up to England to move the nuclear deterrent to Portsmouth.
He’s been around and seems to be a butterfly. Another of those in the populations who have emerged from out of the woodwork. I see his wife works/worked at the Spectator for the Barclay Brothers who own it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Cummings
SPAD to Gove.
SPAD to Johnson. Who next?
SE
Just watched a discussion about him on NN. Apparently Cameron called him a “career psychopath” and there’s a row brewing tonight that Johnson has brought him onboard.
Cummings is in all probability a High Functioning Autistic? And his history seems to indicate that he spits his dummy and trounces off when the going gets tough ?
I’d imagine that we’ll not have to wait long before Dom’s vision runs up against Pritti et al’s love of power ?
Well: I guess if you go into politics not to play BDSM power games but to actually effect change, it is not much fun having parasitic twits letting you do the hard work of selling a vision, then kicking you out so they can strut about doing corrupt deals and blathering twaddle?
The better way is pay him handsomely to move on when the time is right?
I think that the SNP must now step up to the plate and force the issue of independence centre-stage.
They can no longer pretend it is business as usual or that the British Government and State will not have as one of it’s main strategic aims to totally destroy the popular campaign for independence by any means necessary.
I have to take on trust that the SNP have some sort of plan to deal with the situation we now face. Perhaps more importantly that these plans have been kept secure from the prying eyes of the British State.
Gary
I’m speechless here!
The SNP has enough on its plate without getting involved in NI affairs. What you’re suggesting would be political insanity! The “main thing”, as you call it, is for Scotland to focus on ourselves. The people of NI can work out their own future.
From America …. remember Lexington and Concord, remembering that where there is a will there is a way. 🙂
Yes, I know today that America just sits and oohs and aahs over royal princesses and babies, but the country used to write stuff like this …..
“when a long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same Object
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism,
it is their right,
it is their duty,
to throw off such Government,
and to provide new Guards for their future security.
— Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies;
and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations,
all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”
— American Declaration of Independence
Well wishes to Scotland from the few across the pond who remember their own history. 🙂
Historians argue about whether George III aimed at absolute despotism, but there is no doubt that that is what the neoliberals aim at.
Patriot Act, thanks for that quote.
Off topic a bit, but that is similar to what happened to the 2 former Eastern Ukraine regions in declaring independence from kiev (ukraine) and becoming republics. So it’s a bit rich for the usg to want them to return to ukraine.
Very good insight. Independence is a start but it won’t be easy. Remember, we are talking about England. Dirty tactics, and other “dirty” activities will be order of the day. There is a way to obtain independence but none of the current Scottish establishment must be in it. The SNP have done a fantastic job in giving Scott & Co and other vultures the ability to deepen their attack on the poorest in society. How much tax, collected in Scotland, has been spent murdering innocent people around the world on the endless war merry-go-round perpetrated by London? The SNP are not the future. The same as the rest and answerable to London. Please sir.
This will be of interest to Scottish commenters on here. An exchange from today’s HoC statement by the ‘PM’.
David Duguid (Banff and Buchan) (Con)
May I welcome my right hon. Friend to his post? I also welcome the comments that were made earlier about the SNP’s policy on fishing: to take us back into the CFP. Will he also confirm that as we come out of the CFP, we become an independent coastal state, only negotiating on access to our waters on an annual basis?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend is completely right. I congratulate him on the vision that he has for promoting Scottish fisheries and for using the opportunity of coming out of the EU to build that extraordinary industry. He and I have discussed it and I think that we should be taking forward the plans that he suggests. It is quite dismal to listen to the SNP because, as I say, it would give back to Brussels control over our fishing. What kind of a manifesto is that? I bet the SNP U-turns on that before too long.
Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) (SNP)
Why does the Prime Minister think he is so unpopular in Scotland? Just by him being Prime Minister, support for independence for Scotland rises to 53%. Is it all this Eton schoolboy bluster and buffoonery, or is it because he is prepared to take our nation out of the European Union against its will on a no-deal Brexit?
The Prime Minister
I think that possibly the reason why I seem to get a good reception in Scotland—which I did—[Interruption.] When I went to Aberdeen—I remember arriving and meeting some friends in Aberdeen airport—there was a very friendly reception throughout. It may be because the people of Scotland recognise that they have a commonsensical Conservative approach, which would not hand back control of their fisheries to Brussels just as Scotland has regained control of its fantastic fish.’
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2019-07-25/debates/D0290128-96D8-4AF9-ACFD-21D5D9CF328E/PrioritiesForGovernment
Earlier, Ian Blackford had addressed Johnson. Near this link.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-07-25/debates/D0290128-96D8-4AF9-ACFD-21D5D9CF328E/PrioritiesForGovernment#contribution-9661B8E9-7FF8-4A41-AD31-70E1B6A526DE
____
Theresa was at Lords today with Gauke and other ex ministers.
https://news.sky.com/story/theresa-may-and-ex-ministers-enjoy-first-day-off-at-lords-cricket-match-11770247
I think the thing most commentators are missing is the extent to which this cabinet is in hock to Steve Bannon. “I met Steve Bannon—the executive director of Breitbart.com who’s now become the chief executive of the Trump campaign, replacing the newly resigned Paul Manafort—at a book party held in his Capitol Hill townhouse on Nov. 12, 2013. We were standing next to a picture of his daughter, a West Point graduate, who at the time was a lieutenant in the 101 Airborne Division serving in Iraq. The picture was notable because she was sitting on what was once Saddam Hussein’s gold throne with a machine gun on her lap. “I’m very proud of her,” Bannon said.
Then we had a long talk about his approach to politics. He never called himself a “populist” or an “American nationalist,” as so many think of him today. “I’m a Leninist,” Bannon proudly proclaimed.
Shocked, I asked him what he meant.
“Lenin,” he answered, “wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” Bannon was employing Lenin’s strategy for Tea Party populist goals. He included in that group the Republican and Democratic Parties, as well as the traditional conservative press.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-trumps-top-guy-told-me-he-was-a-leninist
this is a man who believes we are in the Fourth “Turning” and in an existential war, which he and his ilk must win, whatever the cost: “n Bannon’s view, we are in the midst of an existential war, and everything is a part of that conflict. Treaties must be torn up, enemies named, culture changed. Global conflagration, should it occur, would only prove the theory correct. For Bannon, the Fourth Turning has arrived. The Grey Champion, a messianic strongman figure, may have already emerged. The apocalypse is now.
“What we are witnessing,” Bannon told The Washington Post last month, “is the birth of a new political order.”
“The winners will now have the power to pursue the more potent, less incrementalist agenda about which they had long dreamed and against which their adversaries had darkly warned,” Strauss and Howe wrote in The Fourth Turning. “This new regime will enthrone itself for the duration of the Crisis. Regardless of its ideology, that new leadership will assert public authority and demand private sacrifice. Where leaders had once been inclined to alleviate societal pressures, they will now aggravate them to command the nation’s attention.”
Michael Moore tried to interview him for his last documentary. Bannon said this: “What I really want to know is, How did you do this? He said, “Look, it’s very simple — we go for the head wound and your side has pillow fights. The head wound will always win over the pillow fight.” And that seemed so true and so honest, because liberals and Democrats are constantly about compromising. Never about having real health care that’s universal like in other countries; half-measures like Obamacare. I knew what he said was true.”
https://www.vulture.com/2018/09/michael-moore-fahrenheit-11-9-steve-bannon-mortality.html
So – we can expect head wounds – and we must be ready, and have an emotionally literate, sane, balanced, inclusive answer that lifts the country with us…
This makes for an interesting comparison with Dominic Cummings who Johnson has just appointed his chief adviser.
See a profile here:
https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2014/05/a-profile-of-dominic-cummings-friend-of-gove-and-enemy-of-clegg.html
And an extensive piece he wrote here:
https://static.guim.co.uk/ni/1381763590219/-Some-thoughts-on-education.pdf
Cummings is Dr Strangelove.
Manda
NWO = Zionism =Johmson’s nasty little game. Bannon’s just a rider on the zionist wave.like trump and Johnson.
Their job is to present their nasty con tricks as intellectually thought out and viable propositions wgen in reality they are conmen and women.
Johnson has no chance of re-negotiating anything. All lies and zionist victim-playing
“I think the thing most commentators are missing is the extent to which this cabinet is in hock to Steve Bannon”
Most…but not all.
Well would you please tell that to Nicola Sturgeon Craig? I don,t know what she has got up her sleeve but she is going to have to shake it down pdq, because that viper in no 10 has no time for the Scots or devolution and would have us in sackcloth and ashes in a heartbeat
What Westminster deigned to vouchsafe, Westminster may take away. Devolution has been what it was intended to be a diversion from the SNP’s purpose. A false dawn dressed up in the maudlin ‘Flower of Scotland’ myth of a new beginning.
The irony, Salmond and Sturgeon made it work…on the British state’s behalf.
Why are Scots so credulous? Is assuming the position of underling in the DNA?
Is missing opportunity a hereditary condition?
Escaping England’s orbit is at this rate going to be harder than anyone ever imagined.
I’ve seen a comment elsewhere that suggests that Boris being entirely a Showman, will happily be centre stage spouting clichés and posturing when things seem to be going his way, but will be out of view when his predictions turn out to be wrong. With the result that Corbyn and Swinson will appear to be whiners when questioning his vision.
It would be worthwhile for those concerned to watch the encounter between Johnson and Mary Beard in the debate concerning the virtues of Ancient Greece and Rome, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k448JqQyj8 It demonstrates clearly that withstanding Johnson’s initial blast of bluff leaves one in a position to literally knock him into a cocked hat.
It is to be hoped that the Cockpit of the Nation, a place where Johnson is compelled to stand and take blows, will rise to the occasion.
Of course, it could just be that what we are seeing is just the culmination of a plan to prevent the UK leaving the EU. The Johnson Government and Cabinet could not be better picked to ensure that the resulting calamity makes even many leavers condone the idea of starting again from scratch 🙂
What complete twaddle CO
we are all going over the cliff together, one giant leap for U.K. into the Abyss.
I have watched it before, thanks CO, too much time trying to be better than any of his peers….gis a longer line than George’s…
But no substance, a shiner.
Casual Observer, great post. Just one thing, Swinson is more Tory than the Tory’s. She wouldn’t look out of place in BoJo’s cabinet.
There is a simple and traditional split amongst voters again.
IN 30 years GDP doubled and 90% of that gain went to the top 25% of earner. Inequality gave up 50 years of improvement and reversed to 1930s levels.
Voters know that something has gone wrong, they are quick to blame politicians and bankers, but since the subject is never referred to by the media it remains angst, not directed anger.
Brexit chimes with that anger, but is not the same and certainly Boris does not represented the shafted 75%.
As soon as someone tries to represent the shafted 75% politics is completely changed. In the meantime all there is to see is the deathroes of the Tory party, and unless Corbyn or successor is very quick, of the Labour part too.
So he’s spaffed one day on his own coronation and tomorrow he’ll spaff another on pretending there can be no back stop.August will be spaffed on previous holiday plans and unfortunately nothing will happen before 1 November.
Johnson is a South Sea Bubble of vague waffle.
You’ll find out the taste of the waffle when it bursts Or rather spaffs on your face .
This cabinet is pure Zionist waffle.
There’s a what purports to be a genuine quote about where he claims not to have ‘Spaffed’ alone for 20 years 🙂
Casual Observer
With liars, I reverse the statement in order to get some kind of closeness to truth:
There’s a what purports to be a fake quote about where he claims not to have ‘Spaffed’ alone for 20 years.
The revised statement works much better. Unfortunately now the bugger is PM, every fucking phrase and nuance will have to be reversed/ revised. That’s why his own party will swiftly pull him down. Nobody has the time …..!
Casual Observer
like the famous phrase of the adulteress : I haven’t slept with anyone else. { I was too busy bonking them}
If nothing else, the time of Premier Boris promises to provide outrage and hilarity aplenty, even though, and as you suggest, it will likely be short.
Why will Johnson be any worse as PM than May? Nobody seems to have addressed that question. I actually find Johnson as PM to be quite exciting. He’s not nearly as stuffy or straight laced as any previous PM, he’s energetic and at least talks a good game.
As for independence, can anyone seriously see that happening whilst Sturgeon is running the show? I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason she’s so energetic in fighting to overturn the Brexit referendum and is so pro EU is that she has no intention of leading Scotland into independence and she knows that failure to do so means the end of her leadership (at last) so by supporting the EU, she’s looking to the future and sees herself installed in Brussels eventually. Essentially, she’s brown nosing for a position.
Independence is over.
Mist001
The appalling ERG present themselves as hard-nosed business people who know how to push the EU hard and get a good deal.
Mrs May made many concessions knowing that they would be reversed at the next stage of negotiations if discussions were kept on friendly terms.
We are in a family of European nations and in a family you don’t threaten or enrage your family members , destroying years of trust which may not be repairable, but which will have to be repaired at some stage.
Mrs May at least recognised the Good Friday Agreement. and the necessity of the Back Stop.
Johnson today referred to the Back Stop, speaking from his alliance with the DUP not from his alliance with the EU. But the GFA is not an internal political agreement , it is an international treaty. therefore Johnson has just done what Trump does, ignite a war with a sovereign country to get a rise in the price of oil.
Igniting a war with our neighbours is precisely what Mrs May has not done.
So my question to you when you say that Johnson is exciting, is to ask you if you care about a return to violence in Northern Ireland , and a return to violence between Britain and Germany , France, Holland or Spain?
For myself I feel visceral hate for anybody who starts war for the sake of temporary commercial advantage.
This is exactly what we don’t need our politicians to be doing. Johnson is lying to the teeth when he presents
his plan for brexit as making Britain great again. One or two very rich businessmen may profit from war, but the rest of humanity is utterly diminished by international aggression and conflict.
I am a child of the ’50s and I treasure the peace into which I was born. I utterly despise and detest anybody who ignites conflict for sel;fish national posturing or commercial gain.
“We are in a family of European nations and in a family you don’t threaten or enrage your family members…” I’ve seen that film – Marlon Brando, right?
“I actually find Johnson as PM to be quite exciting.”
Yes, that’s the motivation of all Johnson’s fans. Johnson’s “energised” optimism, not based on any rationality, reminds me a lot of the French military doctrine before the First World War, of “offensive à outrance” (attack to excess). Just maintain you’re going to win, attack without stopping, and you will do. My friend’s Breton family lost five brothers together in three months in 1914 to that doctrine. The consequent mutiny of the French army in 1917 was due to that doctrine, and the defeatism of the inter-war period. So, tally-ho, and over the top! We’re bound to win, aren’t we?
“quiet exciting”
Like jumping off of Beachy Head?
The time for chatting to the English establishment was effectively over three years ago.
The SNP’s save the Brits from Brexit strategy, if strategy it may be called, has wasted valuable time to no productive end.
The party still seems stuck in that loop and possibly will remain so until a leader emerges in tune with these freebooting, hard right, English nationalist times.
It’s a puppet government of the Americans and Israelis, little more. Whatever one might say of Thatcher’s governments they had a broad base of support among different sections of society. Johnson’s regime isn’t even trying to represent the country anymore. He is a doped-up oaf following American orders who want to pick off the UK with Brexit and divide Europe.
It’s been said of Johnson that as a child he dreamed of becoming ‘King of the world’. Aiming high usually has its benefits. So he’s just been appointed manager of the UK branch. As for a seat on the board….Well they’re reserved for rather more influential people – the sort that trade Manhattan apartments in much the same way as you or I might a pair of shoes.
“ we now have the most right wing British government since 1832.”
———
And chaos on the railways today.
Despite packing his cabinet with right wing extremists Boris Johnson cannot make the trains run on time!
Johnson’s government will fall and be replaced by a coalition against a hard Brexit, that will see another referendum take place. People will then vote against Brexit.
Jeffrey Epstein case much worse – was still running jets to Eastern Europe until just before his arrest.
Are you a betting man?
I’d wager that he’s aware of FDR’s mantra that ‘Nothing in politics happens by Accident’. In which case the sheer lunacy that will assault us over the next few weeks tends to make a rethink on Brexit entirely likely 🙂
Only slightly out of context, but pertains to how and who destroyed that world we both grew up in at the same time. It turns out 1997 was a most telling year.
https://www.gregpalast.com/larry-summers-and-the-secret-end-game-memo/
You forgot Keith Joseph. He was quite rabidly right wing.
Capella
Maybe that’s why history forgot him
Thatcher was rabidly right wing – it’s just that some people seem to have forgotten quite how much of an extremist she was. Besides enjoying tea and scones with mass murdering dictator Pinochet, Thatcher was responsible for Clause 28 under which gay rights activists could be prosecuted for “promoting homosexuality”. She didn’t care much for free speech either, and at one point issued a ban to prevent Sinn Fein being allowed “the oxygen of publicity” – instead Gerry Adams et al had to be dubbed over on TV! She sold off just about everything short of the railways and the NHS, whilst opening the way for Major and Blair to take care of those too. But most importantly, she accelerated Britain’s lurch towards a police state by introducing unlawful restrictions on freedom of movement during the miners’ strike and also against people in the travellers movement. In fact, her government oversaw brutal clampdowns against both these groups, most notoriously outside the coking plant at Orgreave and during the so-called Battle of the Beanfield. In short she hated the unions and just about anyone who was disobedient to the existing order. These enemies of the state, as she evidently saw them, had to be smashed once and for all. Like any good autocrat, she did just that.
Boris’s ‘government’ will be like a good dose of liver salts to a dyspeptic, it is a natural reaction to where we find ourselves today. We are stuck between vowing to leave the EU whilst vowing to stay and something has to give! I don’t know what the outcome will be when the dust settles, but it can’t be argued that we don’t need a damn good thunderstorm to clear the air. Boris is about to give it us.
Steviemac
We are not stuck. Corbyn has a viable proposal to get us Norway +
there’s an easy way and a hard way. Johnson is marching his troops up the hill round and round and down again. Tory toffs Total waste of time and sperm
The time for talking is indeed over Craig. A good deal of courage and careful planning is required. As for myself I shall emigrate to an independent Scotland (I want to leave England anyway). I have a number of cousins there who I think might also be esteemed and valued friends.
My god did Boris wipe the floor with Jeremy today. It’s going to be a bloodbath in the HoC every week! You could see the defeat etched all over Jeremy’s face as his evil communist henchman tried his best to defend him from the onslaught. Yes, evil communist henchman, seeing as we’re going in for hyperbole.
There is nothing far-right about Boris.. political discourse has shifted so far to the progressive liberal-left that merely to be a conservative is deemed extreme right-wing today. But Boris is very liberal in all matters, including economic ones. He was, after all, elected Mayor of London twice. But to want to leave the European Union is xenophobic. To want a sensible points-based immigration system as practiced in other advanced Western economies, is racist. This is how far progressives have taken us down the path of self-destruction. You have made your own bed. Normal service will now be resumed. And never, ever forget, that be it Trump, or Boris, or some actual far-right monster being elected to power elsewhere, YOU created it.
Anon
Nothing far right about Johnson?
If like you you are standing behind him I agree ke’s on the liberal left. But if like me you are facing him and opposing him, his position is on the very far right fascist extreme. Heil Hitler It’s called national socialism, Bin there done that got the grandparents’ full explanation.
“political discourse has shifted so far to the progressive liberal-left”
The one and only commenter who believes the massive shift to the right of the last few years is a move to the left. The hard right are determined to be “victims”.
Not to mention the vacuous term “conservative”. Conserving what? They ruthlessly change everything all the time in order to “free up” capital – which results in constant instability.
‘Constant instability’. A phrase arguably as significant as ‘take back control’. Another is the word, ‘margin’.
For short: ‘Con’, as in Con Artists.
Are you on something?
Anon 1 – you must have watched a different PMQ’s to me.
Anyway I’m hoping that CM soon writes on the Gulf oil tanker escalations. I’m particularly interested in the legalities involved.
Seeing as how PM Johnson has previous with Iran, events may soon overtake his stated policy priority of Brexit. We may need the EU.
Also, given the dodgy anti trump dossier on Bobo’s watch, as the ex security chief and ex spooks were involved amongst serving personnel as it comes out in the wash in the US, where next? Especially given that Mafsud is associated with Johnson as revealed by photographic evidence in the Mueller hearings yesterday.
I consider this to be a monumental week in politics.
It is unlikely that your hopes will be realized any time soon.
Any honest analysis would nee to recognize that the Stena Impero is owned by Stena and that Stena is a Swedish company. Why are British taxpayers being asked to pay for the protection of Swedish commercial interests? Why are British military personnel being ordered to risk their lives to defend Swedish commercial interests?
Many people (especially people on this blog) consistently rail against British foreign policy. How then to explain that British foreign policy is to some extent dictated by the pure and noble “feminist” government of Sweden.This would be the same Sweden that conspired with dark forces to persecute Julian Assange. Any honest analysis would come to some extremely dark conclusions about the Swedish state, and these conclusions would likely be in close alignment with President Trump. Now we couldn’t possibly have that,.
Finally take a look at this blog post and theme of the Hard right destroying much of the economic and social fabric of the UK. Take a look at the destruction of British merchant shipping – the failure of a large number of companies and the rabid re-flagging of the survivors to placers like Liberia and Panama. Now ask why Swedish companies decide to come looking in London. Why is it so terrible for Swedish men to risk death protecting Sweden and so appropriate for British men to risk death protecting Sweden? Answers are unlikely to fit with the prevailing agenda and so the questions themselves will never be asked.
The British Government claimed it was a ‘British’ ship.
The British Government has raised a flag of a ‘protection force’ with the EU.
The EU is ROFL its arse off!
The spooks are spooked – Republicans! In the US are going after them.
Do you think Trump would forgive the perpetrators of the ‘golden shower’ stories?
Totally agree with this rationale.
Dungroanin. Robert Fisk has an article on on the tanker wars of today and the 80’s in the Gulf, when he reported from one of our Navy ships then. There is nothing legal anymore. We really screwed up by taking the tanker with Iranian oil. The Iranians have, as they said they would, simply reciprocated. Fisk mentioned the terrible heat on board in the Gulf. The decks were glowing hot, gun sights not working etc…So transpose that terrible heat on today’s high tech electronics ! The oil companies must be begging BJ to let their tanker go.
Boris,as befits his kind of dilettante blowhard,will crack within six months.
He will end up a crumpled mad-eyed boozed up maniac.His arranged paramour will bolt-as arranged-and she will be revealed to have been something entirely different to what we’ve been told.
A deranged Boris will be led away soothingly by men in white coats.
What happens after that is anyone’s guess.
Anon1,
Don’t be utterly ridiculous.
Boris is only liberal with his zipper and deeply confused opportunistic sound bites.