Only BoJo could believe stopping a disaster would itself be disastrous (HERE). His speech, the first in a series we are told, was totally vacuous. Anyone who thought we would be able to get more details about where we're headed will be disappointed. It told us nothing new. BoJo himself wants to isolate us totally from the EU. Following any EU rules would be intolerable he has said.
Nevertheless, he said the fears of Brexit opponents — who predict a significant blow to economic growth, and diminished U.K. influence in the world — are “unfounded.” Calling for the country to move on from past divisions, the foreign secretary will make the case that the U.K. will remain a liberal, outward-looking country.
Reversing the truth, he says the forecasts of economic decline are "unfounded" when there are dozens of reports and masses of evidence to support the predictions. Conversely, there is only hope and faith on his side - the so called benefits of Brexit are unfounded.
I didn't listen to the speech - I can't bear to look at him or hear the fat fraud - but I gather it was completely devoid of detail so far from pointing out the Road to Brexit, it doesn't tell us anything about our destination.
Tom Brake, the Lib Dem spokesman dismissed BoJo as “completely deluded”.
"This speech wasn’t about the most important issue facing our country right now, this was about Boris’ ambitions to become the next prime minister. And it probably wasn’t much help on that front either. The lack of detail and understanding shown in this back of a fag packet speech would be astounding, if we didn’t already know that the government has no clue and no plan. As ever, Boris managed to find time to practice a dead language but failed to tackle the live issues. We are still completely in the dark on the government’s plan to tackle issues such as the Northern Ireland border which are central to his brief as foreign secretary and crucial to the future of our nation".
Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, asked to respond to Johnson's speech said it was “total nonsense” to claim that he wanted to build a European superstate.
"Some in the British political establishment were 'pretending that I am a stupid stubborn federalist'
"I am strictly against a European superstate. We are not the United States of America, we are the European Union … the European Union cannot be built against European nations".
Update: By far the best response is HERE by Oliver Kamm at The Times. Everybody should read it after reading about or listening to BoJo's speech this morning
Update: By far the best response is HERE by Oliver Kamm at The Times. Everybody should read it after reading about or listening to BoJo's speech this morning
