Westminstenders: The Maddest of May and Boris's Dare

[RedToothBrush]

Boris Johnson just dared May to fire him.

That's what his little rant about £350 million buses is.

Meanwhile its been pointed out that HMRC literally are incapable of handling a no deal and can only cope with an EEA / EFTA deal with no tariffs.

And given how good and on time the government are with computer systems even in a best case scenario are extremely unlikely to crack it in time.

Which makes Hammond's talk of a civil contingence plan, look, well half arsed and lacking.

We also wouldn't have planes able to fly to Europe under a no deal as we would no longer be part of Open Skies. This could leave thousands stranded. But no biggie there.

Meanwhile if the Leave Alliance have things right, May is about to serve our one year notice on leaving the EEA making all these things a reality.

Which is less like shooting yourself in the head and more like shooting yourself in the head, chest, foot, arm, leg and face (for a second time), whilst being run over at the same time.

But hey, Boris Johnson has it sussed in his 10 point plan. Especially the point where he says Brexit will be a success.

If you call success ending democracy, becoming a dictatorship, starving everyone, bankrupting the country and causing civil unrest.

Rule Britannia.

Meanwhile, back in EU-land ...

www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/19/enisa_revamp/

The European Commission has proposed an expansion in the role of ENISA, the EU's cybersecurity agency.

(contd).

When Johnson said the plane he arrived in Anguilla on, was laden down with aid, he was easily caught out to be lying when the (Channel 4) reporter checked and found out it was only rations for the personnel on the plane.

Should Marr not have asked Rudd if she think it was worrying that a member of the Cabinet baldly lied about something it was easy enough to check on? Kudos to that reporter. And if so, should we all be really worried about lying by the Cabinet where it was not easily or even able to be checked?

Being a liar doesn't seem to be regarded as dodgy now. Or maybe politicians not receiving any admonishment for being wilfully and serially dishonest is how low our expectations have sunk.

Being a liar doesn't seem to be regarded as dodgy now. Or maybe politicians not receiving any admonishment for being wilfully and serially dishonest is how low our expectations have sunk.

Is it lying, or "mis-speaking" ?

Can't attach pics on this so I'm linking instead
twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/910072897204604929
This tweet has grabs of now deleted tweets from dept for international trade on how great the Canadian EU deal will be for us, and therefore reminding us what we will be losing!

Maybe Boris genuinely thought the supplies were aid not for the delegation - Boris is the type who probably hadn't thought that through!

dept for international trade on how great the Canadian EU deal will be for us

Again, I don't know whether to laugh or cry 😭😂

Having worked indirectly but been in direct contact excuse my whilst I vomit at that thought with Boris, I can assure you all he's not that negligent to have not known they weren't aid supplies.

Can't link, but it seems Ken Clarke hasn't been pulling any punches about BoJos lies on R4 Today.

Says he should have been sacked.

(paywall) There’s no point Tories arguing about who should be PM – at this rate it will be Jeremy Corbyn

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/18/no-point-tories-arguing-should-pm-rate-will-jeremy-corbyn/

It is putting it a bit too politely to say,
in the wake of Boris Johnson’s article in this newspaper on Saturday,
that the approach of senior ministers to the Brexit negotiations appears to lack co-ordination.

More bluntly, it is now 15 months since the referendum,
and high time that all members of the Government were able to express themselves on this subject in the same way as each other,
putting forward the same points, as part of an agreed plan.

Hopefully, that happy circumstance will follow the speech the Prime Minister is due to give on the subject in Florence on Friday.

If not, there will be no point Conservatives discussing who is going to be the Foreign Secretary, Chancellor or Prime Minister in the coming years,
because Jeremy Corbyn will be Prime Minister, sitting in Number 10 with John McDonnell and Diane Abbott, completely ruining this country.
< difficult to do worse than your lot >

Tory activists want to bang some very powerful heads together with some very considerable force

Of course, history reminds us that it can be surprising just how long a government can carry on with tensions at the top
– Blair and Brown carried on a permanent and bitter conflict for years on end.

But a minority administration facing the biggest challenge since 1945 is in a much more perilous position,
and it will come to grief without a determined effort to stick together from all of its members.

Blair and Brown carried on a permanent and bitter conflict for years on end.

I think they were able to work to a common goal.

With Brexit, there is no common goal. Tomayto, tomarto ...

< shudders at hashi's memory of touching Bojo with a barge pole >

That what you saw, LH ?

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/19/boris-johnson-would-normally-be-sacked-by-now-says-ken-clarke

Ken Clarke:
Boris Johnson would have been sacked from the cabinet by now if the Conservatives had a parliamentary majority

It's not demanding great intellectual prowess as Foreign Sec to know, when travelling to a disaster area, whether your plane is carrying relief supplies

A complete incompetent, or a complete liar
Of course both, from his record

I think they were able to work to a common goal.

They divided up the spoils: Brown focused on the economy and social matters, while Blair did the international stuff.

However, the stakes were lower or that's what we thought at the time

BigChocFrenzy

Yup, thanks .

Interesting timing. It reminds us there's a lot more to the Tories than May, Mogg and the 3 Brexiteers. Is Ken Clarke a "big beast" these days ?

Corcory Maybe Boris genuinely thought the supplies were aid not for the delegation - Boris is the type who probably hadn't thought that through!

Not the type who thinks it through when he lies. He probably hasn't thought it through either on the times he lost his job for lying? Do correct me if I have that wrong.

I suppose there are liars who think things through and liars who don't think it through. Any liars of every gradation in between. But a lazy liar is still a liar.

The Times fired Johnson for lying to its readers. Michael Howard fired Johnson for lying to him. When he’s cornered, Johnson accuses others of his own vices, as unscrupulous journalists always do. Those who question him are the true liars, he blusters, whose testimony cannot be trusted because, as he falsely said of the impeccably honest chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, they are “stooges”.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/25/boris-johnson-michael-gove-eu-liars

Any man of honour would have been mortified by the pathetic figure Johnson cut at the Treasury select committee last week. Bombastic and evasive, he gave a shifty smirk every time MPs caught him out. “A good liar needs a good memory,” we used to say. Johnson’s appearance at the committee showed he didn’t even have the conman’s basic ability to memorise a cover story.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/26/boris-johnson-mendacious-eu-referendum-next-prime-minister

politicalscrapbook.net/2017/09/oops-government-department-deletes-tweet-about-benefits-of-eu-trade-deal-for-britain/#more-67105
Oops! Government department deletes tweet about benefits of EU trade deal for Britain

That CETA tweet in all its glory.

LH I'm concerned that Ken Clarke is quoted there as saying that May isn't strong enough to sack him

Even among Tory party members, his polling on Conservative home for the next leader has fallen to only about 10%

What power does he still have ? Whose ear ?
Ah ..... the hairy ears of the Barclay Brothers, Murdoch, Dacre

Do we have a foreign secretary - whose gross incompetence and disloyalty even to his PM are obvious - but who presents the orders of the media barons to her ?

imo Ken Clarke is unfortunately a big beast left to die out in the wilderness

Sorry bigchoc
I shan't go on too much about the short times I was directly under him then thankfully emergency protocol was never needed in my time

Interesting that UK/EU companies can bid for public contracts in Canada.

On 21 September 2017 CETA will enter into force provisionally. As such most of the agreement will apply.

So, for nigh on a year and a half prior to Brexit, provisionally. How strange it was posted and then pulled. That doesn't look good. Wondering if the UK parliament will approve it, or only the Cons. I take it that it would be regarded as vexatious if they didn't. Or maybe the approval has been carried out.

ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ceta/index_en.htm

Boris is the type who probably hadn't thought that through!

Then surely he's not the type you would want in the UK's most senior internationally-facing role?

If brexit fails (as in "doesn't happen" - and I still believe there is a good chance of this) then leavers will need to ask themselves serious questions about the politicians that they supported.

DUP deal may not be kosher (lol)

Did Theresa May mislead parliament over her £1 billion deal with the DUP?

Despite claims that first tranche would come next month no arrangement made for its approval

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/did-theresa-may-mislead-parliament-over-her-1-billion-deal-with-the-dup-1.3224921

The chronology of doubts over the 'deal' coincide with them voting with Labour on tuition fees.

Hilary Clinton is calling out the Mercers and CA for Brexit too.

qz.com/1081021/hillary-clinton-says-trump-linked-cambridge-analytica-had-role-in-kenyas-annulled-election/

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/19/theresa-may-brexit-eurosceptic-italy-europe-speech-florence

One prominent Italian commentator captured the mood of regret this way: “To be alone in 1940 among the enemy was heroic, to be alone in 2017 among friends is absurd.”

Exclusive: Tories hold secret talks with Labour in bid to avoid defeat in crucial Brexit vote

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/04/exclusive-tories-hold-secret-talks-labour-bid-avoid-defeat-crucial/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw

Not done and dusted, and DUP 'deal' has a few issues.

Woman, your post from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Where the hell is that joined up thinking. Even now. In an era of instant news or propaganda. All the rubbish about the member state contribution as if it was a simple transaction. Farage especially goes on about that. When he is not saying 'well, you know what we can do' methods which are prohibited under WTO. We'll save the 10 billion and we'll have that in our pocket to spend on something else! When really the membership pays manifold dividends.