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UK UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson - A loco recordarentur operum verborumque eius
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Did you hear the one about the Brexiteer who was so hopeless that all the other Brexiteers noticed?
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Boris Johnson: The next human sacrifice to the Brexit machine
By Ian Dunt
Tuesday, 23 July 2019 12:44 PM
They giggled and tittered in their seats. Boris Johnson was doing one of his mix-and-match after-dinner speeches. He'd won the leadership comfortably, shrugging off his rival Jeremy Hunt by a two-to-one margin. Bit of blah-this, blah-that. The usual. He'd had weeks to prepare for this, but it seemed very cobbled together. He made a gag about the word 'dude'. People seemed to like that. The crowd laughed. A certain kind of person still finds him awfully funny.
But one day soon, the laughter will stop. The Brexit machine is going to eat him alive.
In the run up to his coronation, there'd been a lot of right-wing punditry about national confidence and optimism and charisma. It sounds like the crowing of victors, but in reality it was desperation. They'd run out of answers for the questions Brexit was asking of them. So their only option was to appeal to something magical, something intangible, in the hope that its mystical quality would break the deadlock. Their castle stronghold was being overtaken by goblins, but a wizard had appeared over the crest of the hill to make them all go away.
There's nothing new in this, of course. Brexit was always defined by fantasy. That was key to winning the referendum contest. It was central to Theresa May's survival, too. She spent over a year pretending there was some vast sunlit upland just beyond the mound of the withdrawal agreement. Her premiership only really fell apart when she could no longer sustain it.
And then, for a few fleeting weeks, British politics came into contact with the reality of Brexit. May brought her deal back. The bleak, pulverising reality of regulatory alignment, customs controls, economic pain and political humiliation were revealed. It was like forcing vampires to stand in the sun. The Brexiters screeched and contorted. They went mad. And by the time they had darted back into the shade again, May was gone and so was her deal.
So instead they found a fantasy solution to the problem: a leadership contest. And it goes without saying that their favourite candidate was the one with the most fantasy content: Boris Johnson. The clown whose painted face sunk into his skin.
But fantasy doesn't work. It's like trying to cure cancer with Reiki. You cannot magic these problems away.
If the backstop is not in the withdrawal agreement, the EU will not sign it. If it is in the withdrawal agreement, Johnson cannot get behind it and parliament anyway will not back it. So a deal is impossible.
No-deal, on the other hand, will never pass through parliament. Nor can Johnson try to cancel parliament to get it through. Last week's vote made it clear MPs wouldn't stand for it.
Whichever way he looks, he is shackled by a deadlocked parliament. The solution is obvious: hold a general election and try to get some more loyal MPs. But he has ruled that out.
Or he could use a second referendum, but he has ruled that out too.
All the options are closed. Some are closed by reality. Others are closed by the fantasies that he peddled in order to pretend it did not exist.
So which promise does he choose to break? The promise to get rid of the backstop? Or to secure no-deal? Or to avoid an election? Or to stop a referendum? He's going to have to break one of them.
And when he does, the laughter will stop. The tittering and chortling will be gone. He'll be standing in a packed auditorium, doing one of his patched-together mock-anarchic speeches - the kind that always gets them rolling in the aisles - and there'll be stony silence.
Even May was smart enough to avoid this. Think back to her early days. For months she kept her options open. Even on ending free movement, which would later become the centrepiece of her Brexit agenda, she would say it needed to stop in its 'current form' - holding the door open for some kind of change compatible with single market membership. And then only in October 2016 did she decide on her policy and start closing down options.
That was powerfully stupid and it ended up ruining her. But you have to give her credit: It was months before she did the dimwitted self-defeating thing. Johnson did it before he even had the post.
Everything that happened before is happening again. But this time it's going to happen faster. That's the only meaningful difference.
Boris Johnson: The next human sacrifice to the Brexit machine
The only question is: Which of his promises does Boris Johnson break first?politics.co.uk
We live in a post fact world.
The head of NIB was pushing his plan to privatise all health insurance including Medicare on the ABC yesterday with the premise 'everyone accepts that the private sector does things better'. That was it. No facts. No evidence. Actually it was directly opposed to all evidence. All he had was his own prejudice.
I use that example because it is Trump or Johnson or any of them in a microcosm.
Fat middle aged white men telling the rest of us how it is despite being too lazy or useless or simply unwilling to build a credible argument based on evidence or fact.
They are simply the last of the elites implementing as much as they can for their own collective benefit.
And we accept it. Because ultimately we as a collective are equally fat, equally lazy and equally useless.
We have been dumbed down to the lowest common demoninator.
I guess this is why the culture wars are so important.
Elroo
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With BJ being elected in the UK, I now expect that Jeremy Corbyn and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan threads to get an absolute pasting evertime BJ makes a fool of himself! It will be the usual deflection from another tories stuff by some of our resident cheer leaders.
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medusala he means you.
Wow the MSM really hates Boris. Sounds like he's a good'un! Should call an early election off this bounce and while Jeremy Corban remains unelectable. Because unlike May, Jeremy might actually deliver on what the peasants want (ie to not be controlled from Brussels).
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There was an election? Or a change of leader?
Has he jumped the shark? can he just say what he wants trump style and simply ignore his opponents?
The end is he presides over an absolute disaster, but his supporters point the blame firmly at anyone else.
But of course, unlike trump, Boris can point to farage and appear relatively moderate in comparison
The end is he presides over an absolute disaster, but his supporters point the blame firmly at anyone else.
But of course, unlike trump, Boris can point to farage and appear relatively moderate in comparison
Crankyhawk
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Or he gets no deal brexit via inaction.
Then gets tossed out shortly after; but from brexit POV it is mission accomplished
Mofra
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Unless the moves in parliament to take No Deal off the table pass.
BJ has promised no backstop, EU won't let a no deal pass without a backstop, No Deal may not be an option anymore.
When you're all bluff and bluster and suddenly you're backed into a corner, what happens? This is where we're now at. Popcorn dot freaking gif.
Crankyhawk
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He ruled out that option. It would make sense either he gets a mandate for no deal or gets obliterated
Mofra
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Did chuckle.
www.abc.net.au
Boris convinced his party to trade credentials for cut-through. Will Britain do the same?
In his carefully dishevelled campaign for the leadership, Boris Johnson sold his party a raffish can-do man who will drag Britain from its Brexit malaise by sheer will alone, writes Linton Besser.
www.abc.net.au
Elroo
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The poms new PM!
Hopefully Australia can top this by winning the Ashes!
Hopefully Australia can top this by winning the Ashes!
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It's not mission accomplished for him if he gets tossed out; his mission is the office, the power, not Brexit.
Brexit was just his tool, he couldn't give a rat's about Brexit.
I am obviously not an expert on British law and parliamentary procedure. But no matter what no deal legislation passed, if the date passes or the EU does not allow the UK to stay, what actually happens? The UK has a no deal exit regardless, no one as far as I know will be held to account other than I presume a no confidence vote and if that gets up an election.
I am not sure that's Winston's, sorry Boris plan
He clearly does care, otherwise he would have been PM a long time ago. We are at only Boris stage now, we will see action regardless of the cost to him.
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Simply utter nonsense.
- Aug 21, 2016
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LOL. Still banging this drum? You must have apoplectic when Rudd became our PM because he was elected by 57 people. Out of 25 million people.
I guess it's the loser's prerogative to have a whinge about the system after they lost.
Glad you backed that up
- Aug 21, 2016
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The referendum had a black and white question.
Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?
The vote was comprehensively that the United Kingdom should leave the European Union. But as you would expect from the British political class that opposed Brexit they appointed a Remainer to oversee the exit of Britain from the EU. It's no surprise that over 3 years on nothing has been achieved.
It was obvious very early that the EU would make things as hard as possible for the UK to exit - because a successful Brexit opens the door for other nations to leave, and possibly the breakup of the whole EU. The only realistic option has always been a 'no deal' exit and should have been done 2 years ago. There would be a period of up to a year where new agreements are made then everyone moves to a new BAU.
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