Boris
 

Flip me. The stuff on the interwebs....apparently he's up at the Hitler / Stalin level of nasty.

BBC have a good article on his stance with Brexit and what he's said, as well as the obstacles to what he's said which is worth a read.

He might just work though, he's thick skinned and determined it seems. I like the fact he's said the UK will leave regardless and that sort of bargaining strength is important. The sooner the UK ends this purgatory the better.

Is he the future of UK politics? No, of course not. But could he do a job to get through this mire of misery? Potentially.

Re: Boris
 

he's certainly got the front to get us through Brexit..

Re: Boris
 

Best case scenario - he'll push through the current deal tarted-up and claim a resounding victory. Call an immediate election and romp home off the back of that and the ineptitude of Labour. The country will face 4 more years of austerity plus where the poor and working-class will suffer greatly. For the upper working-class and middle classes in sectors not related to fire sale Britain, it will be about just hanging on. Boom times for cronyism and the financial sector.

Worst - no deal, logistical and financial collapse, public services (including the police) privatized, civil unrest, martial law and then puppet masters step out to take command. This scenario reads like an episode of Black Mirror for now but if there's going to be a Franz Ferdinand moment, this could well be it.

Re: Boris
 

I’m fed up hearing about Brexit. Juncker is holding international trade to a $40 billion ransom. Nasser tried similar in 56. Egypt had 80,000 troops Luxembourg has 450. The tenth armoured is already in Germany. It would be cheaper to annex Luxembourg and make Juncker British than to pay his ransom demand. Has Boris got What Eden had?

Re: Boris
 

The first paragraph is very possibly an option.

The second 'worst' case scenario is very much that. It's quite extreme......but the privatized police and martial law sounds exciting.

Re: Boris
 

There are people who want just that, who also have his ear.

For now, I still have faith in establishment stopgaps preventing it from happening, but then other events in recent times would have seemed totally unplausible only fives years earlier.

Re: Boris
 

Quite a good read about the current state of play.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/o...r-britain.html

Will Boris be a bad as some people say he will, probably not.
Will Boris be a great as some people say he will,
probably not.

The British do mediocrity so well. Got no reason to belive Boris will be any different.

On a purely selfish level, further drops in the pound if things go tits up would be advantageous to me right now.

Re: Boris
 

It's not just the PM role in the news ... he's having a massive clear-out of the Cabinet/government - Sky Breaking news ...

Re: Boris
 

The chattering classes are furious he sacked most of the Cabinet to replace it with a mostly if not all Brexiteer Cabinet. And of course the juvenile pro-corbyn twits are most upset despite that if their dear beloved leader did the same thing with a Labour Cabinet they'd be all for it.

I don't know why people are up in arms about it because May went for a balanced Cabinet and ended up with a Chancellor who did everything to sabotage or slow down Brexit by refusing to fund no deal planning, and the PM also kept key Brexiteers who were supposed to be part of the negotiations out of the negotiations, and look what happened, three years of turgid misery.

Johnson's promised to deliver Brexit and has put together a pro Bexit cabinet that looks willing to accept no-deal if that's the price to be paid. It seems perfectly logical to me. It's not as if a balanced Cabinet would have made any more difference in getting a vote passed through Parliament (just see May's spectacular failure. Multiple failures).

At this point the only possible way forward is to push for a Brexit at all costs, even a no-deal, or kill Brexit in the attempt.

Re: Boris
 

Never understood the idea of a balanced Cabinet. The country voted to leave, the manifesto commitment was to leave, why then hand the levers of power to those fundamentally opposed to the idea?

Of course if Sarah Vine hadn’t done her best Lady Macbeth impression in June 2016 then we’d be where we are now then and three wasted years would simply be a bad dream.

Re: Boris
 

I assume the corporate and business interests that fund the Conservative Party, or are key contributors to the UK economy, are slightly less gung ho about "we wun two warz" blind optimism being the primary methodology for leaving.

Re: Boris
 

I see the right honourable member for BAE systems got Defence. No surprise.

Re: Boris
 

The methodology is adequately preparing for a ‘No Deal’ exit if necessary, almost all of which has been in place on the UK side since March.

Re: Boris
 

He's left Scotland a popular man hasn't he...

Re: Boris
 

And rightly so.. Sneaking out the back door of Bute House..

I said after the failed referendum that the Scots wouldn't cause the Union to break up, Westmonster would... Quite impressed at my fortune-telling skills....

Re: Boris
 

Smart. That way Scotland has someone else to blame if independence doesn't work out....

Re: Boris
 

We'll manage. Not sure about England. How will they cope without all that North Sea Oil ?

Re: Boris
 

We'll buy it cheaper from the Ruskies and the Yanks and not bother with the cost of the infrastructure (Scottish Parliment).

Re: Boris
 

Ah yes, the promise of adequate food :thumbsup:

Re: Boris
 

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:

Re: Boris
 

The same thing happens these days with any right-wing politician.

Re: Boris
 

The pound is doing well I see, though for a few that was definitely part of the plan

Re: Boris
 

Good for the British Expats, tasty pay rise in he past week. Bring on a no-deal Brexit :)

Re: Boris
 

Re: Boris
 

Re: Boris
 

Re: Boris
 

I'd go for the house in Spain too. Cheaper, positive and better weather.

Re: Boris
 

May be a while Milly, but I'm in no rush

Re: Boris
 

**** that, you'd probably have some pleb from Grimsby living next door.

Re: Boris
 

or me!

Re: Boris
 

Right strategy always. Low ball, wait, wait, wait some more, low ball but higher again. They usually bite.

Re: Boris
 

I could dig that. You're a pleasant human.

Re: Boris
 

Get a room please !!!!

Re: Boris
 

Re: Boris
 

One argument goes 'North sea oil is cheap and will be for the next ten years after which it will be down to scouring and bringing up a lot of water. Best to cut the Jocks loose now and close the boarder. Let them enjoy the honeymoon, after which the Germans can finance them.' It's attitudes like that the Scots hate, and is why the English were barred from taking part in the referendum. I think the English have a moral obligation to look out for the Scots that were not slaughtered in the creation of the union in the first place. As for the european union at least its a more peaceful way of the Germans controlling Europe than the last two attempts. Part of me says that if the Scots want to be part of the sixth reich good luck to them but it does create a bit of a security concern having an exposed northern boarder

Re: Boris
 

Keep up the posh cooking and you can live the other side.

Stop flirting with me

Re: Boris
 

To be fair, I'm not suggesting or promoting devolution, BUT, if they want to go, who are we to stop them, after all Scotland is a discreet country within the United Kingdom. If they want to be part of EU, that's also their choice.

As far as crude goes, the current policies of UK government are reducing the use so much over the next 10-20 years, the country won't need very much at all. Gas is certainly dramatically cheaper to get from the continent and I suspect that'll be the majority of UK's carbon energy usage.

Re: Boris
 

We will leave you with Johnson and Rees-Mogg looking after you. I mean if you can't trust an Etonian ..............

Re: Boris
 

I see the US congress has basically told the UK to forget about a US-UK trade deal if the Irish border issue is not resolved and the GFA isn't respected. And it's not just because the Dems control congress. The Irish grouping apparently has 54 members from both sides, and has a joint Republican chair who made it clear that Republicans and Dems would vote anything down that breaches the GFA. The Irish lobby is very strong in the US, there are a lot of yanks who identify as Irish (even though they aren't). And a lot of white folks that voted Trump too.

The only way to solve that problem is to reunify Ireland, so the GFA is basically no longer required. Given the fact Tory members aren't really fussed about the union now, and put Brexit first, that could happen very soon.

But even then, trade deals take years, and the UK has a big trade surplus with the US (remember, the argument with the EU was that the country with the deficit has all the power), and will undoubtedly be desperate. So Farage is going to have to get on his hands and knees and suck Trump c0ck like he's never sucked before to get anything other than a totally one-sided "bend over and wince" deal from Mr America First.

It's very hard to see what the end game is for the brexitters. It was clear during the campaign that nobody seriously suggested no-deal was anything other than a catastrophe that simply would not and could not happen because the UK had a strong negotiating position. Turns out the UK didn't and the chinless wonders wildly overestimated the strength of their hand. And still are!

I'm actually quite excited to see how this turns out. We're going back to the 1970s, imperial measurements, the car industry in decline and the IRA blowing stuff up. I grew up during "the troubles" and say what you like about the IRA, but they were pretty good at reducing conservative majorities in parliament.

Re: Boris
 

I welcome the prospect of a 32-county Ireland, uniting the island. And the prospect of a Scotland left to our own devices.

"Oorsels Alaine !"