Well, Telford is right in saying that, strictly applied, the Referendum vote has been honoured, as promised. All it said on the polling form was 'leave' or 'remain'. And as Alan and others suggested, that has also been the problem. Each 'leave' voter listened to his/her own campaigning team's promises and chose - presumably - to believe that those were the conditions under which they were voting to leave, which of course was nonsense. With no established leadership for 'leave' and no properly constituted manifesto, any 'promises' or conditions put out there, could hardly be considered implicitly binding in the Referendum itself.
If anyone voted 'leave' under the impression that their particular concerns were going to be addressed and implemented politically, then that was the product of their own belief. Which is exactly what the leave campaigners were, cynically, depending on. A leaver might now say: but we voted leave to get better trade deals, not to be blocked even further by the EU's intransigence. And those who promised these better trade deals only have to reply that: actually, you didn't vote for any deal at all. You voted to leave and we've done that. The fact that the EU is intransigent and unlikely to offer free benefits to a rogue non-EU nation like the UK is not our fault, and also not under our control (especially now we have sacrificed our influence within the EU itself).
Johnson, technically, need do nothing more than he already has done to fulfil what the Leavers voted for.
It's all a cynical, damaging shambles - effectively leaving the ordinary electorate out to dry, throwing others more vulnerable and politically sensitive under the bus, while not in the least harming the wealthy, the politically-connected, and tax-savvy corporate business owners.
An excellent post.
Indeed. But have you found a mandate for No Deal yet?
There is no specific mandate but when you vote for a party which states that they will get Brexit done, No Deal is the logical fall back position if you don't get a deal.
I suspect that they will be a compromise deal
Granted that is a point. However it does not sit well with the rest of what has been said. No deal is not a good thing to have on the table. If no deal happens we are in deep trouble. The EU is not going to come running after us. The potential breaking of the law is being seen very negatively around the world with those we want to deal with. Take no deal off the table. It is not a weapon it is a trap for the UK
The Lord Protector III would have fitted in well in Alice in Wonderland... or ...Through the Looking-Glass...
I'm sorry - the Mad Hatter position has already been taken by Donald J. Trump.
Rossweisse // who is apparently not going to receive her mail today thanks to the destructive mandates of Trump megadoor/Postmaster General Louis DeJoy
The Lord Protector III would have fitted in well in Alice in Wonderland... or ...Through the Looking-Glass...
I'm sorry - the Mad Hatter position has already been taken by Donald J. Trump.
Rossweisse // who is apparently not going to receive her mail today thanks to the destructive mandates of Trump megadoor/Postmaster General Louis DeJoy
He says the EU has threatened to cut off food supplies from NI to GB. Gove, asked on the Today programme this morning to provide chapter and verse, waffled but was unableto do so. Interesting.
I have been most remiss. The diocesan bishop visited our parish church today for the patronal festival. He sits in the House of Lords, but I never thought to ask him to exorcise BoJo the Clown, or Cummings, or both. But I don't suppose either of them go near the Lords, and Cummngs would probably have been above his pay grade anyway.
I have been most remiss. The diocesan bishop visited our parish church today for the patronal festival. He sits in the House of Lords, but I never thought to ask him to exorcise BoJo the Clown, or Cummings, or both. But I don't suppose either of them go near the Lords, and Cummngs would probably have been above his pay grade anyway.
I think exorcising Cummings would need the Pope, the Pope Emeritus, the Coptic Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Ecumenical Patriarch.
The greatest trick Cummings ever pulled was convincing the world that he's some kind of evil genius.
His only trick is going lower than his opponents think he will.
The greatest trick Cummings ever pulled was convincing the world that he's some kind of evil genius.
His only trick is going lower than his opponents think he will.
This is the key to understanding our times on both sides of the Atlantic.
Johnson/Cummings behave as though the law, rules and norms don't apply to them, daring every one else to prove them wrong. The problem is that the institutions with the power to prove them wrong are few and/or easily contained or subverted.
The Supreme Court, a year ago stopped Johnson shutting down Parliament, so they challenge the integrity of the judiciary in public whilst considering finding ways to politicise it to their advantage.
The BBC has the power and influence to expose their malfeasance but is easily cowed with public slanders of bias if they dare to call a lie a lie, and by threating their funding and installing the 'right' people into executive positions.
Much of the media is extremely friendly but those that aren't are easily undermined by denying them access.
I could go on and on. With Trump, the biggest scandal is not in Trump's behaviour - that was both predictable and predicted - it is the Trump-enablers who put party before country. Just to spell this out, the vast majority of the GOP has cooperated with Trump's misinformation campaign and helped with the endless cover-ups as well as curtailing the Senate Trial to prevent the evidence that would have made acquittal difficult for even them, becoming public. The same is true with Johnson. Most Tory MPs knew how dangerous and useless Johnson is but they cared more about winning a poxy election than the future of our country.
We haven't yet been hit by the full effects of Brexit but the 'leadership' of the buffoon in this pandemic has already cost tens of thousands of lives.*
The Republicans and the Conservatives need to spend at least two generations in humble apologising.
So long as they keep getting away with shit, they will do more and more. And you arseholes enabled them.
AFZ
*as mentioned on another thread I am working on a blog post on the demonstrable effect of lockdown timings.
The greatest trick Cummings ever pulled was convincing the world that he's some kind of evil genius.
His only trick is going lower than his opponents think he will.
This is the key to understanding our times on both sides of the Atlantic.
Johnson/Cummings behave as though the law, rules and norms don't apply to them, daring every one else to prove them wrong. The problem is that the institutions with the power to prove them wrong are few and/or easily contained or subverted.
The Supreme Court, a year ago stopped Johnson shutting down Parliament, so they challenge the integrity of the judiciary in public whilst considering finding ways to politicise it to their advantage.
The BBC has the power and influence to expose their malfeasance but is easily cowed with public slanders of bias if they dare to call a lie a lie, and by threating their funding and installing the 'right' people into executive positions.
Much of the media is extremely friendly but those that aren't are easily undermined by denying them access.
I could go on and on. With Trump, the biggest scandal is not in Trump's behaviour - that was both predictable and predicted - it is the Trump-enablers who put party before country. Just to spell this out, the vast majority of the GOP has cooperated with Trump's misinformation campaign and helped with the endless cover-ups as well as curtailing the Senate Trial to prevent the evidence that would have made acquittal difficult for even them, becoming public. The same is true with Johnson. Most Tory MPs knew how dangerous and useless Johnson is but they cared more about winning a poxy election than the future of our country.
We haven't yet been hit by the full effects of Brexit but the 'leadership' of the buffoon in this pandemic has already cost tens of thousands of lives.*
The Republicans and the Conservatives need to spend at least two generations in humble apologising.
So long as they keep getting away with shit, they will do more and more. And you arseholes enabled them.
AFZ
*as mentioned on another thread I am working on a blog post on the demonstrable effect of lockdown timings.
No I don’t let them. I have never voted Conservative in my life. Cummings and Boris are much more cunning than Trump. They are willing to play games, while Trump just hits you on the head with a big stick
The greatest trick Cummings ever pulled was convincing the world that he's some kind of evil genius.
His only trick is going lower than his opponents think he will.
This is the key to understanding our times on both sides of the Atlantic.
Johnson/Cummings behave as though the law, rules and norms don't apply to them, daring every one else to prove them wrong. The problem is that the institutions with the power to prove them wrong are few and/or easily contained or subverted.
The Supreme Court, a year ago stopped Johnson shutting down Parliament, so they challenge the integrity of the judiciary in public whilst considering finding ways to politicise it to their advantage.
The BBC has the power and influence to expose their malfeasance but is easily cowed with public slanders of bias if they dare to call a lie a lie, and by threating their funding and installing the 'right' people into executive positions.
Much of the media is extremely friendly but those that aren't are easily undermined by denying them access.
I could go on and on. With Trump, the biggest scandal is not in Trump's behaviour - that was both predictable and predicted - it is the Trump-enablers who put party before country. Just to spell this out, the vast majority of the GOP has cooperated with Trump's misinformation campaign and helped with the endless cover-ups as well as curtailing the Senate Trial to prevent the evidence that would have made acquittal difficult for even them, becoming public. The same is true with Johnson. Most Tory MPs knew how dangerous and useless Johnson is but they cared more about winning a poxy election than the future of our country.
We haven't yet been hit by the full effects of Brexit but the 'leadership' of the buffoon in this pandemic has already cost tens of thousands of lives.*
The Republicans and the Conservatives need to spend at least two generations in humble apologising.
So long as they keep getting away with shit, they will do more and more. And you arseholes enabled them.
AFZ
*as mentioned on another thread I am working on a blog post on the demonstrable effect of lockdown timings.
No I don’t let them. I have never voted Conservative in my life. Cummings and Boris are much more cunning than Trump. They are willing to play games, while Trump just hits you on the head with a big stick
I don't either.
However, for various reasons, democratic accountability is not effective either.
It's looking (according to this morning's papers) as if total lockdown is soon going to happen - two weeks' worth, so maybe not as gruelling as the big one, but bad enough.
The Fat Scarecrow (Johnson) and the Thin Scarecrow (Cummings) have lost the plot, if they ever had it in the first place.
It's my daughter's birthday next week. By all the rules, I can't see her, let alone take her and the bf, and us, out for a meal. But I could if she was serving me that meal.
The Lord Protector III told us a while ago that it was every TrueBlue Englishman's right to go down the pub, sink a few pints with his mates, [then go on to other pubs, spread the Plague, and kill off a few more Grannies]...though TBF he probably omitted to mention the bit in [ ].
"On the personal front, they say, Mr Johnson, 56, is worried and complaining about money. He is still supporting, to different degrees, four out of his six children, has been through an expensive divorce and had his income drop by more than half as a result of fulfilling his lifetime ambition."
Well, that would be sad if applied to most people but he's got a very full-time job (so no time to spend it) plus all his living expenses are covered (housing, food, travel).
If his reduced income is a result of achieving his lifetime dream (he must have known) and most of it goes in supporting results of past relationships which he chose, I can't find much sympathy for him.
Aw diddums. He earns over 5 times the average salary and from that he has to pay for food and doesn't have a home that's perfectly suited to his needs. Apart from the salary it's all so normal, so much like the plebeian masses ... it must hurt him so much to find he's nothing special.
Aw diddums. He earns over 5 times the average salary and from that he has to pay for food and doesn't have a home that's perfectly suited to his needs. Apart from the salary it's all so normal, so much like the plebeian masses ... it must hurt him so much to find he's nothing special.
P'haps if he cut back on the avacados and flat whites he could afford a housekeeper.
Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that his main worry is money rather than tens of thousands of dead people.
If I was in charge, the idea that I might be responsible for thousands of avoidable deaths would be fucking my mental health and keeping me nailed to my desk.
Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that his main worry is money rather than tens of thousands of dead people.
If I was in charge, the idea that I might be responsible for thousands of avoidable deaths would be fucking my mental health and keeping me nailed to my desk.
Aw diddums. He earns over 5 times the average salary and from that he has to pay for food and doesn't have a home that's perfectly suited to his needs. Apart from the salary it's all so normal, so much like the plebeian masses ... it must hurt him so much to find he's nothing special.
His salary is still less than many Local authority chief executives. Regardless as to what you think of him personally, Prime Minsters and Cabinet Secretaries are still underpaid considering what they are responsible for.
His salary is still less than many Local authority chief executives.
Local authority chief executives are not normally provided with housing as part of their package (easily the largest outgoing for most people).
Regardless as to what you think of him personally, Prime Minsters and Cabinet Secretaries are still underpaid considering what they are responsible for.
I'm pretty sure one of the reasons the Tories have a big penchant for Singapore comparisons is the many-million dollar salaries the ministers there command (on the flip side, they are also forbidden from holding other commercial offices for a period after they leave office -- but I suspect their attention doesn't extend that far).
Aw diddums. He earns over 5 times the average salary and from that he has to pay for food and doesn't have a home that's perfectly suited to his needs. Apart from the salary it's all so normal, so much like the plebeian masses ... it must hurt him so much to find he's nothing special.
His salary is still less than many Local authority chief executives. Regardless as to what you think of him personally, Prime Minsters and Cabinet Secretaries are still underpaid considering what they are responsible for.
I think you mean, many local authority chief executives - in fact, chief executives in general - are ludicrously overpaid. Once you top £100k, it's just a pissing contest between themselves as to who gets paid more.
Johnson has been paid stupid money in all the years leading up to this, and appears he either hasn't bothered to save any of it, or his personal life so self-inflictedly chaotic that he now has more demands on his purse than he feels he can afford. He's an idiot of the first order to have let either of those get the better of him - this, however, is not news.
Aw diddums. He earns over 5 times the average salary and from that he has to pay for food and doesn't have a home that's perfectly suited to his needs. Apart from the salary it's all so normal, so much like the plebeian masses ... it must hurt him so much to find he's nothing special.
His salary is still less than many Local authority chief executives. Regardless as to what you think of him personally, Prime Minsters and Cabinet Secretaries are still underpaid considering what they are responsible for.
Many people are under paid fir the work they do. Many have had to absorb parts or the whole of someone else’s job because the leaver is not being replaced. In that way he is no different to a lot of people.
“ His flaws as a prime minister are a revelation only to those who wilfully ignored his biography and his record.
He has spent a career living for today and letting tomorrow take care of itself. Colleagues and ex-wives can testify to his compulsion for over-promising and then under-delivering. He has been a gusher of dramatic and bogus predictions of what his government will achieve.”
Dramatic and bogus indeed, with no foresight whatever.
“The worst forecasters were those with great self-confidence who stuck to their big ideas,” wrote Mr Cummings himself.
The old ‘big idea’ - Brexshit - when it happens, will blindside them all. False optimism and over-promising all the way. Who will be the first Brexshiteer to say “None of this could have been predicted”?
Ha!
Well, I’m here, predicting it now. If you need pasta, tinned tomatoes, flour and yeast (and many other essentials) in January - come to me. I won’t be in any of the panicked queues.
“ His flaws as a prime minister are a revelation only to those who wilfully ignored his biography and his record.
He has spent a career living for today and letting tomorrow take care of itself. Colleagues and ex-wives can testify to his compulsion for over-promising and then under-delivering. He has been a gusher of dramatic and bogus predictions of what his government will achieve.”
Dramatic and bogus indeed, with no foresight whatever.
“The worst forecasters were those with great self-confidence who stuck to their big ideas,” wrote Mr Cummings himself.
The old ‘big idea’ - Brexshit - when it happens, will blindside them all. False optimism and over-promising all the way. Who will be the first Brexshiteer to say “None of this could have been predicted”?
Ha!
Well, I’m here, predicting it now. If you need pasta, tinned tomatoes, flour and yeast (and many other essentials) in January - come to me. I won’t be in any of the panicked queues.
Yep. Me too. (Assuming Covid lockdowns don't prevent me from stockpiling).
I have spent a lot of the past 4 years wishing I was wrong. Initially on Brexit and the lack of ability in the Tory party. More recently on Covid. I am so fed up of being right.
I had better keep on using delivered stuff for covid, and leave the stockpile I got for that for Brexit. It's much the same as above. The tinned beans keep going, and the small cheap tinned fish - sardines first and now mackerel - get eaten and now cannot be replaced from the usual source.
I remember a friend who got involved in Civil Defence way back when said the tunnels under Dover Castle were full of baked beans. (Regional Seat of Government).
You can't rid yourself of either Boris or Cummings - they both keep getting sacked, flushed away, then bobbing up, like a couple of persistent turds. And don't forget, Cummings was Gove's Mephistophilis before he was Johnson's. If Gove repaces Johnson, Cummings will still be there pulling the strings.
... Who will be the first Brexshiteer to say “None of this could have been predicted”? ...
Dido Harding probably - she couldn't even predict that we'd need more Covid tests when people started going back to work and school, catching bugs with Covid-like symptoms, and wanting to find out if they had it or not.
Comments
I refer you back to my last sentence
Rossweisse // who is apparently not going to receive her mail today thanks to the destructive mandates of Trump megadoor/Postmaster General Louis DeJoy
A very miss named person by the sound of it DeJOY
BTW @Rossweisse - I was thinking of casting BoJo in the role of Humpty Dumpty, as in 'Words mean what I want them to mean'...
I think exorcising Cummings would need the Pope, the Pope Emeritus, the Coptic Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Ecumenical Patriarch.
His only trick is going lower than his opponents think he will.
This is the key to understanding our times on both sides of the Atlantic.
Johnson/Cummings behave as though the law, rules and norms don't apply to them, daring every one else to prove them wrong. The problem is that the institutions with the power to prove them wrong are few and/or easily contained or subverted.
The Supreme Court, a year ago stopped Johnson shutting down Parliament, so they challenge the integrity of the judiciary in public whilst considering finding ways to politicise it to their advantage.
The BBC has the power and influence to expose their malfeasance but is easily cowed with public slanders of bias if they dare to call a lie a lie, and by threating their funding and installing the 'right' people into executive positions.
Much of the media is extremely friendly but those that aren't are easily undermined by denying them access.
I could go on and on. With Trump, the biggest scandal is not in Trump's behaviour - that was both predictable and predicted - it is the Trump-enablers who put party before country. Just to spell this out, the vast majority of the GOP has cooperated with Trump's misinformation campaign and helped with the endless cover-ups as well as curtailing the Senate Trial to prevent the evidence that would have made acquittal difficult for even them, becoming public. The same is true with Johnson. Most Tory MPs knew how dangerous and useless Johnson is but they cared more about winning a poxy election than the future of our country.
We haven't yet been hit by the full effects of Brexit but the 'leadership' of the buffoon in this pandemic has already cost tens of thousands of lives.*
The Republicans and the Conservatives need to spend at least two generations in humble apologising.
So long as they keep getting away with shit, they will do more and more. And you arseholes enabled them.
AFZ
*as mentioned on another thread I am working on a blog post on the demonstrable effect of lockdown timings.
No I don’t let them. I have never voted Conservative in my life. Cummings and Boris are much more cunning than Trump. They are willing to play games, while Trump just hits you on the head with a big stick
I don't either.
However, for various reasons, democratic accountability is not effective either.
AFZ
Close. the. damn. pubs. It's that or total lockdown.
The Fat Scarecrow (Johnson) and the Thin Scarecrow (Cummings) have lost the plot, if they ever had it in the first place.
What a simply *world-beating* team, though!
It's my daughter's birthday next week. By all the rules, I can't see her, let alone take her and the bf, and us, out for a meal. But I could if she was serving me that meal.
We wait with bated breath to see what They come up with...
*sigh*
The Lord Protector III told us a while ago that it was every TrueBlue Englishman's right to go down the pub, sink a few pints with his mates, [then go on to other pubs, spread the Plague, and kill off a few more Grannies]...though TBF he probably omitted to mention the bit in [ ].
This from a relatively friendly newspaper.
If his reduced income is a result of achieving his lifetime dream (he must have known) and most of it goes in supporting results of past relationships which he chose, I can't find much sympathy for him.
The poor man.
Sure. I did like this bit though which essentially comes down to 'he has to pay taxes and for his own food':
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EiRD9uzWoAEfJTJ?format=png&name=small
I think not, though he may be paid that sum...
P'haps if he cut back on the avacados and flat whites he could afford a housekeeper.
If I was in charge, the idea that I might be responsible for thousands of avoidable deaths would be fucking my mental health and keeping me nailed to my desk.
That's because you're not a narcissist...
His salary is still less than many Local authority chief executives. Regardless as to what you think of him personally, Prime Minsters and Cabinet Secretaries are still underpaid considering what they are responsible for.
Local authority chief executives are not normally provided with housing as part of their package (easily the largest outgoing for most people).
I'm pretty sure one of the reasons the Tories have a big penchant for Singapore comparisons is the many-million dollar salaries the ministers there command (on the flip side, they are also forbidden from holding other commercial offices for a period after they leave office -- but I suspect their attention doesn't extend that far).
I think you mean, many local authority chief executives - in fact, chief executives in general - are ludicrously overpaid. Once you top £100k, it's just a pissing contest between themselves as to who gets paid more.
Johnson has been paid stupid money in all the years leading up to this, and appears he either hasn't bothered to save any of it, or his personal life so self-inflictedly chaotic that he now has more demands on his purse than he feels he can afford. He's an idiot of the first order to have let either of those get the better of him - this, however, is not news.
Many people are under paid fir the work they do. Many have had to absorb parts or the whole of someone else’s job because the leaver is not being replaced. In that way he is no different to a lot of people.
“ His flaws as a prime minister are a revelation only to those who wilfully ignored his biography and his record.
He has spent a career living for today and letting tomorrow take care of itself. Colleagues and ex-wives can testify to his compulsion for over-promising and then under-delivering. He has been a gusher of dramatic and bogus predictions of what his government will achieve.”
Dramatic and bogus indeed, with no foresight whatever.
“The worst forecasters were those with great self-confidence who stuck to their big ideas,” wrote Mr Cummings himself.
The old ‘big idea’ - Brexshit - when it happens, will blindside them all. False optimism and over-promising all the way. Who will be the first Brexshiteer to say “None of this could have been predicted”?
Ha!
Well, I’m here, predicting it now. If you need pasta, tinned tomatoes, flour and yeast (and many other essentials) in January - come to me. I won’t be in any of the panicked queues.
Yep. Me too. (Assuming Covid lockdowns don't prevent me from stockpiling).
I have spent a lot of the past 4 years wishing I was wrong. Initially on Brexit and the lack of ability in the Tory party. More recently on Covid. I am so fed up of being right.
AFZ
I remember a friend who got involved in Civil Defence way back when said the tunnels under Dover Castle were full of baked beans. (Regional Seat of Government).
Meanwhile, O for the chaos of an Angela Rayner government (she did rather well at PMQs the other day...).
https://youtu.be/MtwiFEo6gFU
The truth at last
Precisely. They make good Prime Ministers/First Ministers/Chancellors...