Has Boris been outmanoeuvred?

[CommanderShepard]

From a guardian comment:

If Boris Johnson looked downbeat yesterday, that is because he realises that he has lost.

Perhaps many Brexiters do not realise it yet, but they have actually lost, and it is all down to one man: David Cameron.

With one fell swoop yesterday at 9:15 am, Cameron effectively annulled the referendum result, and simultaneously destroyed the political careers of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and leading Brexiters who cost him so much anguish, not to mention his premiership.

How?

Throughout the campaign, Cameron had repeatedly said that a vote for leave would lead to triggering Article 50 straight away. Whether implicitly or explicitly, the image was clear: he would be giving that notice under Article 50 the morning after a vote to leave. Whether that was scaremongering or not is a bit moot now but, in the midst of the sentimental nautical references of his speech yesterday, he quietly abandoned that position and handed the responsibility over to his successor.

And as the day wore on, the enormity of that step started to sink in: the markets, Sterling, Scotland, the Irish border, the Gibraltar border, the frontier at Calais, the need to continue compliance with all EU regulations for a free market, re-issuing passports, Brits abroad, EU citizens in Britain, the mountain of legistlation to be torn up and rewritten ... the list grew and grew.

The referendum result is not binding. It is advisory. Parliament is not bound to commit itself in that same direction.

The Conservative party election that Cameron triggered will now have one question looming over it: will you, if elected as party leader, trigger the notice under Article 50?

Who will want to have the responsibility of all those ramifications and consequences on his/her head and shoulders?

Boris Johnson knew this yesterday, when he emerged subdued from his home and was even more subdued at the press conference. He has been out-maneouvered and check-mated.

If he runs for leadership of the party, and then fails to follow through on triggering Article 50, then he is finished. If he does not run and effectively abandons the field, then he is finished. If he runs, wins and pulls the UK out of the EU, then it will all be over - Scotland will break away, there will be upheaval in Ireland, a recession ... broken trade agreements. Then he is also finished. Boris Johnson knows all of this. When he acts like the dumb blond it is just that: an act.

The Brexit leaders now have a result that they cannot use. For them, leadership of the Tory party has become a poison chalice.

When Boris Johnson said there was no need to trigger Article 50 straight away, what he really meant to say was "never". When Michael Gove went on and on about "informal negotiations" ... why? why not the formal ones straight away? ... he also meant not triggering the formal departure. They both know what a formal demarche would mean: an irreversible step that neither of them is prepared to take.

All that remains is for someone to have the guts to stand up and say that Brexit is unachievable in reality without an enormous amount of pain and destruction, that cannot be borne. And David Cameron has put the onus of making that statement on the heads of the people who led the Brexit campaign.

Does this referendum show that concept of right/left politics are out of date and from last century?
Immigration, terrorism and other hot topics - there isn't a simple left vs right response. You have UKIP ex-Tories claiming to be the voice of the working class etc etc...

Hence the parties focussed on one issue being the ones able to rally support, eg SNP...

As someone else mentioned up thread, does it need a new "party" to emerge specifically around the stay in EU issue to fight the next GE and be able to claim a mandate to stay in?

And back to Johnson - supposedly we get his and May's statements in the morning about leadership challenge ...So all about their future.
No word on anything from anyone about the actual, you know, .Vrexit where we go from here.....

That is a statement given by someone who was only ever a reluctant Remainer.

Now I understand why they all resigned.

He plans to facilitate Brexit.

Arsehole.

This is doing the rounds on FB just now and tickled me:-

Right. Fuck this. We're ALL up shit creek and we need a paddle. Now, not in three months.

Fellow Remain voters: Enough already. Yes, we're all pissed off but navel gazing ain't gonna help. Not all 17 million Leave voters can possibly be racist northern pensioners without an O level to their name. Maybe they have a point about this quitting the EU thing? Maybe not. Whatever, we are where we are and no amount a whinging is gonna change that. Allegedly we're the intelligent ones, so get your thinking caps on.

Leave voters. Well done. Good game. We hear you. Now you need to get stuck in to the aftermath and not just piss off back to Wetherspoons. (Just banter, twats!). And the first person to say they "want their country back" gets deported to fucking Gibraltar. OK?

Politicians.

David. Fuck off. Shut the door behind you. Now.

George. You may be a twat but you're our twat. Plus you know the passwords for our Junior Savers account. Get your calculator. Drop the face-like-a-slapped-ass routine. You're on.

Boris. Sorry mate. That photo of you abseiling by your scrotum over the London Olympics while waving a Union Jack can't ever be un-taken. Plus, you'll never be able to appear on Question Time again without some sturdy Glaswegian nurse asking where the fuck her 350 million quid is. Not only will she have a very good point, she'll be wearing a T shirt that shows you gurning in front of that fucking bus! No captains hat for you I'm afraid.

Theresa. You're in charge love. Get the biggest shoulder pads you've got. We need Ming The Merciless in drag and you'll scare the shit out of 'em.

Nicola. Yep. Fair cop. You probably could get us on a technicality, as could London. But we fucking love shortbread. And oil. And to be honest you're probably the best politician we've got, so we need you on side. Sort your lot out and we promise never to mention that Jimmy Krankie thing again (although it is pretty uncanny) and we'll make you a Dame once we're sorted. Bring Ruth Davidson. She kicks ass.

Opposition party. We'll need one. Someone take Jeremy and John back to the British Legion Club where you found them. Take Nigel as well. Give back their sandals, buy them a pint, then go to Heathrow and collect David Milliband. Fuck it. Lets gets Ed Balls as well. He keeps George on his toes. I think he works on the lottery kiosk at Morrisons now?

Oh. And Mark Carney. Give him a knighthood and tell him to keep that shit coming. We definitely need more of that good shit!

Everyone set? Right. Hold the Easyjet. We're going to Brussels and this ain't no hen party.

Johnson Telegraph column says the Leave vote wasn't about immigration in his view. And economy's healthy.
(Sky News)

The Chancellor will make His statement tomorrow

What do you reckon? George has done a deal...?
Even though he's the enemy to Gove / Johnson some sort of deal has been cut. It wouldn't surprise me...

Or will he go too, to add to the ever widening vacuum of power?

BearBehind

Bearbehind This could work

George is staying I reckon. No one else wants to be Chancellor.

Get your biggest shoulder pads - love it! Corbyn appears to be like bindweed, hard to get rid of!

It sounds like something written by Marholm Tucker. How I miss him!

Malcolm Tucker, obviously. Autocorrects fail.

Boris Telegraph column:

This EU referendum has been the most extraordinary political event of our lifetime. Never in our history have so many people been asked to decide a big question about the nation’s future. Never have so many thought so deeply, or wrestled so hard with their consciences, in an effort to come up with the right answer.
It has been a gruelling campaign in which we have seen divisions between family and friends and colleagues – sometimes entirely amicable, sometimes, alas, less so. In the end, there was a clear result. More than 17 million people voted to leave the EU – more than have ever assented to any proposition in our democratic history. Some now cast doubt on their motives, or even on their understanding of what was at stake.

It is said that those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration. I do not believe that is so. After meeting thousands of people in the course of the campaign, I can tell you that the number one issue was control – a sense that British democracy was being undermined by the EU system, and that we should restore to the people that vital power: to kick out their rulers at elections, and to choose new ones.
I believe that millions of people who voted Leave were also inspired by the belief that Britain is a great country, and that outside the job-destroying coils of EU bureaucracy we can survive and thrive as never before. I think that they are right in their analysis, and right in their choice. And yet we who agreed with this majority verdict must accept that it was not entirely overwhelming.

There were more than 16 million who wanted to remain. They are our neighbours, brothers and sisters who did what they passionately believe was right. In a democracy majorities may decide but everyone is of equal value. We who are part of this narrow majority must do everything we can to reassure the Remainers. We must reach out, we must heal, we must build bridges – because it is clear that some have feelings of dismay, and of loss, and confusion.
I believe that this climate of apprehension is understandable, given what people were told during the campaign, but based on a profound misunderstanding about what has really taken place. At home and abroad, the negative consequences are being wildly overdone, and the upside is being ignored. The stock market is way above its level of last autumn; the pound remains higher than it was in 2013 and 2014.
The economy is in good hands. Most sensible people can see that Bank of England governor Mark Carney has done a superb job – and now that the referendum is over, he will be able to continue his work without being in the political firing-line. Thanks in large part to the reforms put in place by David Cameron and George Osborne, the fundamentals of the UK economy are outstandingly strong – a dynamic and outward-looking economy with an ever-improving skills base, and with a big lead in some of the key growth sectors of the 21st century.

We should be incredibly proud and positive about the UK, and what it can now achieve. And we will achieve those things together, with all four nations united. We had one Scotland referendum in 2014, and I do not detect any real appetite to have another one soon; and it goes without saying that we are much better together in forging a new and better relationship with the EU – based on free trade and partnership, rather than a federal system.
I cannot stress too much that Britain is part of Europe, and always will be. There will still be intense and intensifying European cooperation and partnership in a huge number of fields: the arts, the sciences, the universities, and on improving the environment. EU citizens living in this country will have their rights fully protected, and the same goes for British citizens living in the EU.

British people will still be able to go and work in the EU; to live; to travel; to study; to buy homes and to settle down. As the German equivalent of the CBI – the BDI – has very sensibly reminded us, there will continue to be free trade, and access to the single market. Britain is and always will be a great European power, offering top-table opinions and giving leadership on everything from foreign policy to defence to counter-terrorism and intelligence-sharing – all the things we need to do together to make our world safer.
The only change – and it will not come in any great rush – is that the UK will extricate itself from the EU’s extraordinary and opaque system of legislation: the vast and growing corpus of law enacted by a European Court of Justice from which there can be no appeal. This will bring not threats, but golden opportunities for this country – to pass laws and set taxes according to the needs of the UK.

Yes, the Government will be able to take back democratic control of immigration policy, with a balanced and humane points-based system to suit the needs of business and industry. Yes, there will be a substantial sum of money which we will no longer send to Brussels, but which could be used on priorities such as the NHS. Yes, we will be able to do free trade deals with the growth economies of the world in a way that is currently forbidden.

There is every cause for optimism; a Britain rebooted, reset, renewed and able to engage with the whole world. This was a seismic campaign whose lessons must be learnt by politicians at home and abroad. We heard the voices of millions of the forgotten people, who have seen no real increase in their incomes, while FTSE-100 chiefs now earn 150 times the average pay of their employees. We must pursue actively the one-nation policies that are among David Cameron’s fine legacy, such as his campaigns on the Living Wage and Life Chances. There is no doubt that many were speaking up for themselves.

But they were also speaking up for democracy, and the verdict of history will be that the British people got it right.

I want to know how Johnson got Penny Mordaunt MP the Armed Forces Minister to falsely claim that the UK had no veto on Turkey joining.

Couldn't the referendum be ruled null and void because: promises were made which quickly turned out to be untenable; also some of the claims/ posters of the UKIP Leave campaign were possibly 'incitement to racial hatred' and therefore potentially illegal?
Then we could have a re-run where the two sides would have to be careful to present the factual truth.

'We who are part of this narrow majority must do everything we can to reassure the Remainers. We must reach out, we must heal, we must build bridges'

Ugh. I'd punch him on his self serving nose if he tried to reach out to me.

Poundland Prime Minister.

Yes, there will be a substantial sum of money which we will no longer send to Brussels, but which could be used on priorities such as the NHS

Well will it or won't it, Johnson?

Oh ... it won't.

BJ writes this in a newspaper article? And the Torygraph to boot? Unfuckingbelievable.

theBathroomSink Thank you

He's going to brazen it out, just amazing. Keep Calm folks, it's all fabulous, everyone's rights protected (he's able to say that without any negotiation, obv, coz he can presumably tell Spain what to do with Uk ex-pats? ) and there may even be money for NHS... And once they widen the points based immigration system across EU ppl aswell, then who will possibly remember they inferred immigration would come down, not go up - that wasn't what voters were concerned about anyway, silly... When they said control voters just meant they wanted Good ole Boris in charge, and their political news delivered just to subscribers to the Telegraph...

Well, he's complacent, I'll give him that....

Breaking News:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36637037

control – a sense that British democracy was being undermined by the EU system

British democracy, alas, Boris, is utterly undermined by Murdoch.

Clearly all the racist twats who now think it is OK to insult foreign -looking and sounding people do not read the Telegraph. Link to Guardian article
There was an EDL March in Newcastle as well.
I look forward to my next trip to Brum.

Boris's articles has some glaring impossibilities.

• He says that "British people will still be able to go and work in the EU; to live; to travel; to study; to buy homes and to settle down." and "the Government will be able to take back democratic control of immigration policy, with a balanced and humane points-based system to suit the needs of business and industry."

Free movement of persons is reciprocal.

• He also says "there will continue to be ...access to the single market." and "the UK will extricate itself from the EU’s extraordinary and opaque system of legislation: the vast and growing corpus of law enacted by a European Court of Justice"

Yeah. Single Market legislation. Which you need to adopt in order to be in it.

Oh well. Guess he can hand that wish list to Theresa May to negotiate in Brussels and see how she gets on.

He's in crowd cuckoo land.

reggae - it was always going to appear in the DT first, he works for them, they pay him a lot of money to write his column each week.

I agree with ObiWan he is absolutely going to try to brazen this out, but I don't think he had much alternative. I also think he's done for. He knows this is not what a lot of leavers wanted, he's fallen completely between two stools, and no-one is going to be happy.

Boris Johnson says UK will continue to "intensify" cooperation with EU following referendum result

Intensify cooperation??