In the head-to-head debate on ITV last night Boris came across as exactly what
he is. Part buffoon, part slippery evasive charlatan. He failed to answer any questions clearly and treated
the whole thing as a bit of a joke, which is precisely what he will do as prime
minister. Most of the time he looked like a fool with a stupid
rictus grin on his face. He continues to dig himself a very deep hole by emphasising once again that we
will definitely be out of the EU on October 31st, do or die. There is
not the slightest chance that this is going to happen. At some point he
is going to climb out and admit that it was never possible.
His supporters will be very angry indeed.
He says we cannot fail again, yet that is precisely what he is going to do.
The
audience wanted unadulterated optimism, realism is out of fashion - until it looms up ahead and cannot be avoided.
When it does, they will cry betrayal and Boris will look like a right twerp.
Yesterday, he was like the captain of the Titanic after the fateful collision with the iceberg selling the benefits of the bracing night air
in the north Atlantic, telling passengers to be cheerful and positive, that they
had a bright future ahead of them - but not quite looking them in the
eyes.
Martin Kettle in The Guardian summed it up, explaining why Boris "will be most ill-qualified PM of modern times". He efinishes:
"The most useful part of the exchanges came with the quickfire questions towards the end. Hunt had clearly decided that he needed to show decisiveness. He gave one-word answers, very effectively. Johnson waffled, avoiding giving answers of any kind, but his evasions were eloquent, too. The smirks, the smugness, the self-love, the bluster and the hyperbole told us that Britain is about to be landed with the most ill-qualified and most insouciant prime minister in modern times. He may not last long in office, which would be a relief for a damaged country. But none of this is going to make any difference to the result".
The attempt by Dominic Grieve and others to prevent Johnson proroguing parliament appeared to have succeeded narrowly although I can't quite figure out what happened. The Daily Mail first reported the plan had been torpedoed but later the BBC said it had passed by a single vote. Kier Starmer tweeted that it had indeed made the job of shutting down parliament a bit harder. It seems good news anyway.
Brexit has many problems but the main one, it seems to me, is the Irish border. This is the one issue that keeps returning again and again and which the Brexiteers seem to fear the most. Hence, the grandly titled Alternative Arrangements Commission operating under the auspices of Prosperity UK, a ..... well. I'm not sure what it is really, whatever it is it was set up in 2017 to "look constructively at Britain's future outside the European Union". It has a 23 member 'Technical Panel' and 44 members of the 'Commission' itself. Quite a body, eh.
The interim report's ideas were published the other day and the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce (BICC) attended a presentation, asked questions and published a response (HERE). Suffice to say it was not very impressed. Peter Foster, Europe editor at The Telegraph tweeted that they were 'trashed':
The British-Irish Chamber of Commerce has run rule over "Alternative Arrangements" ideas of @ShankerSingham1 and co...and trashed them.— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) July 9, 2019
My report with comment from @nealerichmond @NicoleSykes_ @hayward_katy and others 1/tread
https://t.co/ISswww28wM
Now the British Retail Consortium have piled in with their CEO Helen Dickinson commenting on it too, saying that it 'falls short' of a workable solution:
"Further answers would be required on vital issues such as VAT, sanitary
and phytosanitary checks and rules of origin to provide assurance to
consumers and businesses alike of a workable plan for frictionless
trade".
The BBC report that similar responses came from haulage and manufacturing groups in Northern Ireland. The AAC's work was criticised as "inadequate, unrealistic and lacking credibility". Even The Telegraph carried the withering news.
Let us not overlook that we are more than three years (three YEARS!) into trying to find a solution and this is what we have arrived at. Amazing or what?
Going back to last night's debate, both candidates were strong on leaving with no deal unless we could get a better one from the EU. They had to say these things to align themselves with the simple minds that make up the Conservative Party membership. Well, Hunt did, Johnson thinks like they do anyway. I said on Monday (HERE) that as leaving with no deal is talked up the pound will sink. So, it was yesteday when Reuters reported that it was sliding towards a two year low. The Telegraph, that great cheerleader of Brexit, reported that the slide was due to no-deal Brexit fears.
Margaret Thatcher once famously said, "You can't buck the markets". And Brexit will one day be broken either by the markets or the Irish border, or both.
Against this background ORB published their monthly Brexit tracker (HERE) which finds little has changed but look at the figures:
92% think the government is handling the negotiations badly (this will rise under Boris).
17% think Mrs May got the right deal for us.
38% think Britain will be better off after Brexit (42% disagree)
23% think they will personally better off after Brexit (47% disagree)
37% think immigration control should take precedence over free trade (48% disagree)
There seems to be no majority support at all for Brexit or the government's strategy or policies. Yet the two leading candidates are hell bent on the hardest and most damaging Brexit of all. You really have to shake your head sometimes.
It should be the highlight of the campaign.
