Boris Johnson Archives | Page 2 of 4

Magical thinking by British politicians – again

December 5, 2019December 6, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, Politics Live

I was on BBC TV’s Politics Live, where a series of politicians from all three main parties said a series of extremely silly and unbelievable things. They were grilled by presenter Jo Coburn, assisted by myself, Matthew D’Ancona and Miatta Fahnbulleh. You can watch the show here, if you can access BBC iPlayer. The Tory on the show, Paymaster-General Oliver Dowden, tried to insist that, assuming Boris Johnson would gain a workable majority in next week’s general election, the Conservatives would finally end Britain’s Brexit nightmare by bringing the UK…

Britain

A numbed electorate between devil and deep blue sea

November 22, 2019November 22, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, general election

In this most dismal and dispiriting general election, a numbed British electorate desperate to end the Brexit nightmare is instead being corralled with its hands tied behind its back towards the likely continuation of that nightmare. One of the many fundamental negotiating errors made by Theresa May in trying to settle the terms of the UK’s Brexit withdrawal deal with the EU was to rule out leaving with no deal. At a stroke, she thus guaranteed that any terms agreed with the EU would not be in Britain’s interests. That’s…

Britain

Nigel Farage’s agonising calculation

November 12, 2019November 12, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, Nigel Farage

Anthony Wells, director of political research at YouGov, says: “Nigel Farage is sending a message that you can trust Boris Johnson to deliver Brexit”. This is untrue. Farage is not sending that message at all. Yesterday he repeated that “the direction we are going in is simply not Brexit”. He has not retreated from his opinion that the Johnson deal is a trap for the UK which, after it has left the EU will remain remain bound to it by destructive ties. Although Farage said he was encouraged by Johnson’s…

Israel

Britain’s deepening political nightmare

November 8, 2019November 11, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, general election, Nigel Farage

So here’s how things appear to stand at this point, 34 days before the Brexit general election which is being fought principally on the issue of whether or not Britain wants to get Brexit done. The Labour party is imploding, with Labour loyalists saying Labour voters should vote Conservative in order to save the country from the unconscionable threat of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister. The Brexit party is disintegrating, with even a number of its own former candidates backing the EU deal done by Boris Johnson. This although their…

Britain

The blue-on-blue onslaught on Nigel Farage

November 3, 2019November 3, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, Nigel Farage

The last few days have seen the eruption of a ferocious, no-holds-barred, blue-on-blue onslaught on Nigel Farage by Conservative party Brexiteers and others including members of his own Brexit party. See, for example, here, here, here, here, here and here. The essence of the Tory Brexiteers’ case against Farage is that his strategy is likely to stop Brexit by depriving Boris Johnson of a workable majority, and that the split it may cause in the Conservative vote could let Jeremy Corbyn achieve power. The latter scenario is a real possibility…

Britain

The nightmarish election dilemma

October 29, 2019October 29, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, general election, Nigel Farage

In the coming general election, those of us who are true Brexiteers are facing a potentially nightmarish decision. If we want to a) get Brexit finally and properly delivered and b) prevent the Labour party from gaining power, for whom do we vote? Because these two aims may well be incompatible with each other. This is why. Boris Johnson will be going to the country as the leader who will Get Brexit Done. Expect a bravura performance, with him posing as the heroic defender of democracy and the sovereign right…

Britain

Why did the Remainer Commons accept the Johnson deal? Because it’s a Remain-by-stealth deal

October 23, 2019October 23, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, Nigel Farage

Much is being made of the acceptance by this Remainer House of Commons of the terms of the deal Boris Johnson agreed with the EU (as opposed to the parliamentary timetable). It is being claimed that the Commons has performed a historic turnaround by accepting Brexit for the first time. Not so. What the Commons accepted last night was Brexit in name only, a faux-Brexit deal which would see the UK leave the EU only to remain shackled to it in perpetuity in key areas but without any power to…

Britain

Wake up, Brexiteers – BoJo’s deal is what you once called vassalage

October 20, 2019October 20, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, DUP, Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage has denounced Boris Johnson’s EU deal as “95 per cent the same” as Theresa May’s withdrawal deal, which was deemed so terrible by Remainers as well as Brexiteers that it was voted down three times by the House of Commons. You can watch much of his blistering speech here. Farage’s verdict, that the Johnson deal is a reheated version of May’s deal, accords completely with what I wrote here on Friday. He also points out that it would split the UK by effectively imposing a border down the…

Britain

No Brexit is better than a bad deal

September 16, 2019September 16, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, ERG, eu

It’s been reported that four of the “Spartans”, the European Research Group (ERG) members who are committed to a clean Brexit and are at the core of the resistance to the Remainer coup against the people, are now succumbing to the terrible pressure of Britain’s unprecedented political crisis. If Boris Johnson does a deal with the EU, they say they’ll have no choice but to accept it. From The Times: “A prominent figure in the ERG said: ‘The political risks are now so profound that the vast majority of us…

Britain

The staggering hypocrisy of the Remainers’ legality gambit

September 9, 2019September 9, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, British constitution, parliament

The hue and cry about Boris Johnson breaking the law if he refuses to request an extension to Article 50, as demanded by the law that parliament has now passed, is beyond staggering. Yes, the prime minister should obey laws based by parliament. But what if those laws are themselves the product of an abuse of process? Don’t any Remainers care about that? (please don’t all answer at once.) Parliament’s new power to dictate government business was reportedly achieved through Speaker Bercow repeatedly breaking parliamentary rules – and the advice…