Johnson's expensively assembled side went down to a humiliating 4 - 0 defeat yesterday. His much vaunted striker, Dominic Cummings, recently signed from the crack Croatian side Votel Eave, proved no match for a scratched together parliamentarian team packed with wily veterans. They mounted a stout defence and then scored early with a breakaway move to get their anti Brexit bill debated. Johnson's side suffered a further double blow later when in quick succession, the actual bill was passed and his immediate attempt to get an early election also failed.
Parliamentarians scored another goal when the Lord's agreed at 1:30 this morning to get the bill through by 5 pm Friday.
Johnson has kept his 100% record of failure and his failure was so abject even that was a record. He has lost four votes in two days, more than Gordon Brown lost in three years. And it's just the beginning.
John Crace in The Guardian, always worth reading on Johnson, thinks his performance at PMQs yesterday was even worse than the 'car crash' of the day before. That, according to Crace, had been the 's**tshow' to end all s**tshows but the oaf surpassed even himself. And what we didn't realise at the time is - it was actually the high point of his day. In these worrying times we must be grateful for small comforts, eh? As Crace tweeted:
Serial liar Boris Johnson appears bewildered that no one trusts him— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) September 4, 2019
BNN-Bloomberg said about yesterdays shambles:
"Thanks to a series of miscalculations, Johnson’s party is cracking up, his government is collapsing, and his political strategy is backfiring. This week, he ejected 21 rebels from the parliamentary Conservative Party after they joined the opposition to stop him from forcing the country out of the European Union without an exit agreement. To restore his authority and a workable majority, the prime minister then called for a prompt general election — and lost that vote as well, failing to muster the necessary two-thirds support."
Johnson has all the appearance of one of those continental juggernauts stuck in a narrow Cornish lane with high banks on either side, after blindly following the satnav and is now stuck on a bend and totally helpless. At least the cautious Mrs May kept the Tories together but now even Conservative Home thinks it's the end of the party as we know it. We can only hope.
Our new prime minister, said to be the only man who could get Brexit 'done' by 31st October, has patently failed and has smashed the party into the bargain. As an Irish friend of mine used to say, deliberately misquoting Churchill, "give us the job - and we'll break the tools". It might have been made for BoJo.
And you might be interested in this item (no £) from The Telegraph yesterday. It is not all sweetness and light at No 10 between Cummings and his master (or is it his puppet?). There is a lot of unhappiness in Tory ranks about the career psychopath (Cummings I mean) although for the moment Johnson is standing by him - the PM claimed at a meeting of the 1922 committee yesterday that he (Cummings) was actually Johnson himself wearing a latex mask. This might not have been a joke - you never see them together do you? The Telegraph says:
"Dominic Cummings personally sabotaged a compromise plan put forward by the Conservative MPs who went on to rebel against the Government, the Telegraph has learnt.
"The Prime Minister's chief adviser launched a foul-mouth tirade against former business secretary Greg Clark after he proposed the government set aside a day after the October European summit for MPs to vote on a no-deal Brexit."
"The Prime Minister's chief adviser launched a foul-mouth tirade against former business secretary Greg Clark after he proposed the government set aside a day after the October European summit for MPs to vote on a no-deal Brexit."
Cummings is completely out of control and mad with power.
A measure of how desperate the PM is now comes from reports that he first of all offered to stop the Lord's trying to fillibuster Hilary Benn's bill in return for Corbyn getting Labour to support an early election. This fails to understand the Labour party. Corbyn is just as much a prisoner of a polarised Brexit as Johnson and he couldn't possibly make that concession. It also failed to understand the Lords, who outmaneuvered him anyway. He can't bluff anybody can he? Even the few low-value dog-eared cards he had have been snatched away.
Michel Barnier is reported to have told EU diplomats that talks with the UK are 'in paralysis' and that no new proposals have been tabled. They also fear Johnson is moving away from the close relationship set out in the political declaration. I am sure this is no surprise to the EU, after all Johnson's own 2018 resignation letter makes it clear he wants much greater regulatory independence/divergence and this can only make the need for the Irish backstop even more important for Ireland and the EU.
What is going to happen now? Lord knows. Johnson has sworn never to ask the EU for an extension so he now has a very big problem. The law will force the prime minister to do so. Will he be that prime minister? He must either go back on his vow, revoke Article 50 or resign. The options are narrowing.
The Gina Miller/John Major legal challenge against prorogation is set to go ahead this morning. They are essentially arguing the same case as the one lost in the Scottish Court of Session yesterday but who knows, they may win.
Finally, I must say it was entirely the wrong time to get a puppy. Carrie Symonds is going to be so busy with domesticating, clicker training and socialising a completely wayward and headstrong animal that she won't have any time for Dilyn.
