That’s an awful lot of random tangents but I’ll give it a go. I think Johnson is whatever ensures the survival of Johnson. I sincerely doubt he gives a ****. Remain is dead. All we can do is look at what impact Brexit has had here and so far it’s been overwhelmingly negative economically and socially. If other countries are ****ed too, economically or otherwise, that doesn’t somehow justify the type of Brexit we’ve chosen to pursue when less economically-damaging options were available within the remit of a flimsy non-binding referendum question. Covid was an absolute godsend for the government as it’s allowed us to mask our self-harm but if Brexit was a force for some good and we go along with the nonsense if sped up our Covid recovery then surely we should be hugely outperforming comparable countries rather than scratching around for random examples of other countries not doing well to justify ourselves.
Agree about Boris Johnson. I suspect he's on the way out. From an economic point of view, it's going to take time to see any dividend. We aren't doing any better or worse than our competitors. The Armageddon some Remainers predicted never happened. We have only just stopped paying net £10 billion or so into the EU budget. Big trade deals like the US will take time. So for the moment, the biggest benefit imo is that we have legal control of our borders (subject to illegal immigration which must be dealt with). I realise I differ on this from you and Strolls, but for me, looking at the environment, it's crucial to have a government that can be held to account - and the Tories will be, on immigration. There's increasing conversation among journalists that the UK needs to set target for total UK immigration, rather than continuing to take in a city the size of Birmingham every few years. There are simply not the houses or the services to deal with this, and UK residents, particularly recent immigrants, are the ones that suffer. As I say, I accept immigration is not high on your list of priorities. But I do think it will be more and more of an issue. If the Tories fail to control it post Brexit, I could see the red wall areas being ripe for smaller parties like Reform Uk to do better.
To be fair leaving the EU was a UKIP policy the Torys at that time, including the likes of Johnson never wanted. I believe they only reasons they offered the referendum were they believed it’d be voted down and they believed they’d lose a higher percentage of their voter base. They’ve been riding leaving the Eu ever since and has got them a free pass through corruption, through sleaze, with a Teflon pm who if any other party leader or politician had done a fraction of what he’s done would have got destroyed before they’d started. Do you think May could have made it to PM if she’d had the number of children he had? And failed to acknowledge them? Not. ****ing chance. The press span Torys as the brexit party when the biggest politician at the time who actually supported leaving the eu was Corbyn. He just wanted due process… which really seems like a good idea now considering the pigs ear of it, especially looking at the issues with Northern Ireland. Oh well we are where we are just hope we can get change before the Torys change too many laws that affect our rights, including working conditions and rules that ensure they can’t be held accountable and makes it more difficult to remove them from power.
He did the best with a dirge of a song. When Charles is king, it should be replaced by Steve Miller Band's, Take the Money and Run
Starmer is going to mention the B-word today, but will rule out what he must surely know is the only logical way to solve the problems caused by the B-word - rejoining the Single Market. Cowardice.
Meh. He can’t afford to upset the hardcore (I shan’t call them gammon) Brexiteers and give the Tories the easy retort that he’s trying to reverse Brexit through the back door.
Perhaps he should just set out all the facts about the benefits to be gained from rejoining the Single Market, but then say, 'But we're not going to do that, because you knew exactly what you were voting for, so we'll just have to make the best of the ****show that you've landed us in'.
Deliberately ignoring your other points, if I may, but why are we judging Johnson on the number of kids he’s had and which ones he acknowledge? In this wonderful new and inexorable liberal Utopia of our creation it seems somewhat old fashioned to suggest parental responsibility. Shouldn’t the State do that?