Wednesday 5 June 2019

JOHNSON MAKES HIS PITCH FOR PM

Boris Johnson made his pitch to Tory MPs in parliament yesterday. Some news reports, although not this one from the BBC, described Johnson saying the party had to deliver Brexit OR face extinction. Ever in search of the sensational adjective, BoJo  - or perhaps the sub editor - didn't take quite enough care about the conjunction, which should of course have been AND and not OR.

Outside the committee room where this pitching took place, reporters listened in through a partially open door. The BBC's Chris Mason was one of them and he was soon busy tweeting to the world.

We learned that Johnson's 'plan' looks like the advanced catalogue for a unicorn auction arranged by a well known liar, con-man and handler of hot, fake merchandise.  The Tory MP's loved it apparently.
Returning to the Brady amendment - the 'alternative arrangements' is an exercise in futility. Clinging to proposals that have already been decisively rejected by the EU several times is not progress. It smacks of the English tourist's habit of thinking the waiter hasn't understood him because he didn't shout his order loud enough. It will cause a lot of head shaking and eye rolling in Brussels.
We then learn he wants to take out the backstop altogether and start all over again! The Irish border issue has defeated the smartest minds on both sides of The Channel for the last two years - and it will certainly defeat Johnson who has one of the dimmest minds on either side of The Channel.

The frustration in one of his own Old Etonian chums was turning to deep despair:
Duddridge, by the way is a Brexiteer for whom it all sounded like the perfect solution. Well it would wouldn't it?

The Tory party are adrift on a stormy ocean of chaos and are now absolutely desperate. Everyone has been looking for landfall for so long they think they see it at every point on the broken compass. It is as if they have all gone down with a sort of cabin fever.

John Danzig has been kicking over Johnson's 2016 delusions about having our cake and eating it HERE, reminding us of what EU Council President, Donald Tusk' said in response to Boris' recklessly optimistic words:

“To all who believe in it, propose a simple experiment.  Buy a cake, eat it, and see if it is still there on the plate.”

He added:

“The brutal truth is that Brexit will be a loss for all of us. There will be no cakes on the table. For anyone. There will be only salt and vinegar.  If you ask me if there is any alternative to this bad scenario, I would like to tell you that yes, there is.”

It was “useless to speculate” about a soft Brexit, he said, as this would be purely “theoretical speculations”.

“In my opinion, the only real alternative to a ‘hard Brexit’ is ‘no Brexit’. Even if today hardly anyone believes in such a possibility.”

This was in October 2016. It is what realism and statesmanship looks like. We are now seeing his words becoming brutally true.

President Macron of France has said he wants the October 31st deadline to be the final one, no more extensions (HERE).  It is possible to see what his intentions are. Fed up with us, the would be suicidal maniac, sitting on the cliff edge, in October they are going to dare us to jump into the abyss.

If Johnson becomes PM my prediction for 2019 would be:
  • It will be the most chaotic period ever in our history
  • The shortest ever premiership
  • The Tory party will split

Last weekend, I went to our village's local shindig - a sort of glorified fete - and spoke to a district councillor, a man I have great respect for as a human being and have known for about six years or so. A Conservative, he voted remain in 2016 but has accepted the result and thrown in his lot with the Brexiteers.

He genuinely thinks the EU will come chasing after us with a better deal if we continue to threaten to leave without one, unless the terms of the WA are renegotiated. He is also a supporter of Boris Johnson, who he said was 'very clever'.

I told him it was all wishful thinking and BoJo was the stupidest man in England - by a very long chalk.

I asked him if he had read the WA and the political declaration and he admitted he hadn't. Neither had he read the goverment's website (HERE) giving advice to members of the public and businesses on how to manage Brexit with Norway and Liechtenstein in 'all scenarios' including no deal.

In fact I was amazed at (a) his lack of knowledge and (b) his lack of curiosity about the real world impact of a no deal Brexit for this country. He said the EU wouldn't be able to sell us their goods - when I pointed out this included 30% of our food he had no answer.

I told him the Tory party would pay a big price for Brexit upon which he said they already had - at the local and European elections. I shook my head and told him, no, that was just a down payment.

The councillor will be one of the 120,000 or so Conservative members choosing the next PM and it may well be Boris they choose - Lord, help us.
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