Westminstenders: It couldn't get any worse... Until today

[RedToothBrush]

We are trapped in the tailspin of the end of the UK. Firmly headed downward and getting more and more frenzied and desperate.

Even the most sensible of types like David Allen Green have finally noticed that Brexit isn't about leaving the EU it's about the frenzied and wilful destruction of our state instutions and structure. The collapse of the civil service, of our justice system, our democratic institutions and social order. All in the name of rule Britannia, a warped sense of taking back control to preserve an ideal that never existed and an idea of sovereignity that simply was a fantasy.

We move ever closer to Johnson becoming Prime Minister and a life under President Trump.

Joy.

Ode to Joy really isn't that bad.

Boris Johnson a good PM?

Are you on fucking glue!?

Does a leopard change its spots? Boris Johnson is a lazy man. He disgraced the Office of Foreign Secretary so why will he not disgrace the Office of PM. Unless he has some sort of Damascene Conversion?

BJ is neither a Leaver, nor a Remainer, just a Boriser all along, who will say & do whatever helps him become PM

Before the ref, BJ wrote 2 articles, one Remain, one Leave - then decided which would best enable him to become PM

His plan required Remain to win, so as a Leaver could reunite a wounded party and continue in the EU, business as usual

His face the morning after the ref showed his horror that this strategy was scuppered

Boris Johnson on Brexit - 2013:

(his genuine views, before Brexit was much of an issue)

“If we left the EU… we would have to recognise that most of our problems are not caused by ‘Bwussels’,

but by chronic British short-termism, inadequate management, sloth, low skills,
a culture of easy gratification
and underinvestment in both human and physical capital and infrastructure…

Why are we still, person for person, so much less productive than the Germans?

That is now a question more than a century old,
and the answer is nothing to do with the EU.”

Would anyone reckon that Johnson is actually just playing the buffoon here and laughing at all of us?

When he gets into power he will try to charm the entire Parliament and may succeed in getting them to vote for the WA. That's the least worst option now. Watch this space.

He is a charmer. His previous life as a self styled buffoon might work for him in the long run. They will laugh, but will vote the right way.

I think I might be losing the plot now, but a week is a long time in politics.

Prerequisite for a good PM is to put the country first

• BJ alway puts BJ first

It should go without saying that a PM shouldn't insult his hosts when on foreign visits,

or make racial & religious insults in the UK,

or spout careless remarks that gets a longer prison sentence for a vulnerable Brit imprisoned by a dictatorship

or plot to get a journalist beaten up

..... but with BJ we do have to say that no good politician would ever do any of these

His face the morning after the ref showed his horror that this strategy was scuppered

Contrast that with the jubilation of the people in Sunderland - who won't be quite so jubilant when Nissan pulls out.

And yes, there is overcapacity in the European car market, but why be the country which volunteers to make its manufacturing less competitive?

My answer to @gutrotweins is Johnson is a tosspot.

There are also other tosspots in the country. So they admire him as a fellow tosspot.

Waits for the applause and doctorate in politics

the trouble with charming your way through life is that at some point charm is not enough. You might need intellect, or knowledge, or empathy, but just being charming cannot get you everything you want.
(personally the execrable Johnson has no charm for me whatsoever, but whatever floats your tory boat i guess...)

or of course reveal secret information from MI6 without permission, so that his access had to be removed.

How the hell can the intelligence services continue to ban access for this blabbermouth, if he becomes PM ?

Dreadful security risk
Who knows what he might blurt out to Putin or Xi ... or Trump, for that mattef

Peregrina I couldn't bear to see the news coverage after the referendum night. Or for several days after. I just didn't want to see any happy cunts. So I never got to see his face. I still think I made the right call.

Kippers IS a Red Herring.
I despair.

peregrina There is some quiet relief in Germany - and maybe in other countries too - that the UK volunteered to take some hits for the required cutbacks in European car production

Clavinova
That Johnson piece, as has already been mentioned is dual sided, half truths that can be read both ways. When the new countries joined the EU, most others had a 7 year brake on immigration, making the rules much harder. I think it was Blair who was in power and he did not exercise this mechanism. Laws are ALL ratified and enforced by UK parliament and judiciary.

tobee - I was exactly the same about the result. I felt complete despair for a whole month. Then I decided to dig in for the fight against the result.

Johnson and Gove looked absolutely gobsmacked at the result. There was no sense of 'oh good, now let's get to work'.

Boris Johnson was a popular Mayor of London - come up with someone better than Jeremy Corbyn if you don't want a Tory government.

Or maybe I should say, fight against the way that May chose to try to implement the result. If she'd gone for a CU and stayed in the Single Market, as the Tory Manifesto of the time had a commitment to, I could reluctantly have accepted it. But not appease, appease, appease the ERG, who have now destroyed her.

"come up with someone better than Jeremy Corbyn if you don't want a Tory government."

True - Labour have only themselves to blame for not being 20-30% ahead in the polls for months
and not being a shoo-in for the next GE

Blair led Major's Tories by 20%+ for months and Major's govt looks brilliant compared to the Tories from 2016

It really is mostly JC that prevents Labour from a landslide victory against the worst UK govt for about 200 years

I blame (some) of the electorate who just do not recognise a charlatan when they see one.

But it's all Facebook and iPhones now, so soundbytes and lies can be taken at face value from all sides. And there is the print media too.

Those who actually see the crap they are presented with are rare enough now. Herd mentality and the cult of Brexit rules now. And we know how cults operate.

oh well I guess come Tuesday we'll get the official confirmation that we are going to have a complete charlatan as our Esteemed Dear Leader, and then we wait a bit more for the shit to hit the fan even more. Trebles all round as they say in Private Eye!

Pound Could Plunge to Parity Against Dollar on a No-Deal Brexit

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-17/pound-seen-plunging-to-parity-against-dollar-on-a-no-deal-brexit

The pound may fall to parity with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit, according to Morgan Stanley.

A drop to historic lows of $1.00-$1.10 would come under the market’s worst-case scenario of the U.K. leaving the European Union without a deal,
a risk that the bank says is growing.

The pound hit a two-year low below $1.24 Wednesday after Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, the contenders battling to become Britain’s next prime minister, hardened their Brexit rhetoric.

The only time the pound has dropped below $1.10 was in 1985, when it briefly touched $1.05 in a year that saw the U.S. devalue its currency to fight a strong dollar

"The pound has come under intense selling pressure since Prime Minister May withdrew from her party leadership position,
leaving markets with increased concern that the U.K. may be heading towards a harder Brexit,”

RTB
Patel seems to be unaware of the pillars of democracy and the checks and balances of the executive, the press and the courts...

Or let's face it, Magna Carta.

The right of the individual to have access to the courts in a timely fashion is the bedrock of the British constitution. This right is fundamental to the law and to the political system. You can't take it away and expect any other element of civil society to function. Parliament itself has its standing, its function and its authority thanks to the understanding to this right of the individual as expressed in Magna Carta.

come up with someone better than Jeremy Corbyn if you don't want a Tory government

Do we have any Corbyn fans on this thread? I’m sure I criticise him at least every other day. You are right, Labour should be ashamed of their performance in opposition throughout this sorry mess.

FFS. Still wading through it on catch up.
asked: 'are you good with money' he replies: 'well I've spent a lot!' (ha ha)
then rants on14th Century economic theory, date production, kippers, the Marxist JC wanting to pluck the feathers of our beautiful economic bird - is BJ on Glue???

Waving kippers in the air, wanging on about mars bars, desperately acting the clown looking for hoots of approval. Just excruciating to watch. I expect my sphincter still to be clenched a week from now.

Britain 2019: not a vintage year.

- is BJ on Glue???

Well if Gove is on coke and Stewart is on opium, I'm guessing glue would be a way of having a unique selling point within the Tory Party.