One of the drivers at Royal Mail when I was there was Ashdown's Batman in the army. Said he was a horrible bastard.
Let's hope the performance of European golfers compared to British ones in the Ryder Cup is not a foretaste of what's to come.
Good old Boris, always good for a laugh. I'm waiting to see how it goes, but I'm a bit baffled as to how the French Government, which is a major shareholder in Nissan, is given access to the conditions under which Nissan will operate, whereas our own Parliament, where sovereignty is being returned to, is being kept in the dark, and is not allowed to vote on the issue of Brexit? Maybe Royston, who is ITK about Parliamentary affairs, will clarify?
The UK Parliament hasn't been kept in the dark - it is common knowledge that Greg Clark has given Nissan written undertakings around the UK Govt stepping in as an underwriter in certain circumstances - the further devaluation of the pound affecting imports and exports being an obvious one, the costs of new tariffs if we don't get access to the Single Market being another. Ford has asked for similar to Nissan. You won't get the Govt publicising it, because they don't want to get into sweethearts deals for all and sundry.
Plenty of Labour Remain MPs will out of political necessity. I know 3 of them who have told me that they will. Take Stoke as an example - 3 Labour MPs all remain but about to go down to 2 MPs after the boundary changes. Stoke had a huge Out vote. Not one of those 3 MPs could risk going to their electorate in 2020 and saying "I was right you were wrong"
I can see Labour whipping to vote the Tories down joined by SNP, Norn Ireland, Wales and (for what it's worth) the Lib Dems .... plus I can see enough SE & London Tories defying 'The May' to remain in the EU. MP's feel they are a law unto themselves and that they have the right to defy the will of the people when they feel the 'People' have been stupid and made the wrong decision ..... "Yes but they only voted of Immigration and did not understand the bigger picture" ...... "We can not let them sleepwalk into a National disaster" etc.
The Govt. aren't publicising it, yet it's common knowledge? Aren't the financial sector expecting a similar sweetheart deal? Before the referendum there was a clear majority in Parliament for Remain, so the debate should be lively, to say the least
No, it won't happen trust me. You will have the odd unwhippable maverick like Clarke, but that will be more than covered by the Remoan MPs who decide to respect the referendum vote. People are confusing there being a majority in the House to Remain with there being a majority in the House not to trigger Article 50 - quite a different thing .
It's not long ago that Mrs May said it "would not be in Britain's interest to leave the EU" Now she's "disappointed" that there will be a delay in doing something she believes is not in the national interest. And that goes for a lot of MP's too. They will be voting against what they genuinely believe is the national interest. I assume that goes for my MP, Boris's brother and all-round good egg Joe Johnson. If Royston doesn't know his views I will have to ask him.
I once had a debate with JJ about the evils of mass migration. I think I have told the story before, but he looked at me in the same way the Richard Dreyfuss character looked at the aliens in Close Encounters.