Boris Johnson!

According to Tony Blair, the man who wanted to be EU President, there is no possibility of the UK rejoining the EU for at least a generation.

He’s probably right. But he’s talking based on the politics of it all – there’s no mechanism to rejoin the EU without approval of parliament/a referendum and the situation we’re in is that no party can possibly win on that ticket. And that’s all assuming the EU would have us again.

But the point is we’re talking about whether it was a mistake. Since you want to quote him, here’s what Tony Blair thought about it (2019):

the 65-year-old addressed Germany as part of the ‘Speakers Series’ that saw him call Brexit a “terrible historical mistake” before condemning the promises of Brexit advocates as being “100 percent wrong”.

You’ve been wrongfully imprisoned and there’s no chance of release or recompense but for goodness sake, please don’t moan, it’s making me feel bad. Ha. Get used to hearing “We told you so” for the rest of your life.

Is this thread still obsessed with brexit?

For someone who apparently wants us to stop talking about it, you seem to be.

According to Tony Blair,

… a man who ceased to be relevant to anything, what, 15 years ago? And you want us to move on?

Is it not possible to do both now? To be really annoyed about it and determined that we don’t go further still with empowerment of those that use brexit to foster division, racism, homophobia, etc. While at the same time accepting that it did happen and we need to rebuild from where we are, not where we wished we were?

Does that make me a lexiteer, or a pragmatist?

Again,

Everyone accepts that it happened. We’re not daft.

Remain fanatic here. I want the rights I was born with, now sadly taken away from me due to Russia/racists/bigots/xenophobes/morons/lies/MPs protecting their £££

Is this thread still obsessed with brexit?

It’s how Johnson lied and manipulated his way to being PM. You’re a hundred percent correct to say “it’s happened”… when it comes to leaving the EU… but I’m afraid we do need to understand what happened, and how it happened, and what we’re left to deal with… because deal with it we must… many of us don’t have the option to ignore it, it effects our daily work and lives negatively… yet we get on with it… sorry if we don’t do it quietly, while thanking Johnson for “getting it done”… unlike nearly everyone asked about Johnson’s legacy in the media over the last 24 hours. It’s not done… most of it is yet to be sorted. We’ve done the tearing things up bit. Got a trade deal in place that’s just a starting point. Now all the hard work begins of building back relationships and finding ways to remove barriers. Decades of work. All of which requires an understanding of the new position we find ourselves in… not pretending that it’s all done and can be ignored.

Faites vos jeux – sunak has announced his candidacy.
Can’t be long before javid and truss declare.
Will be interesting to see if the ’22 change the rules to slim down the number if candidates; last time each candidate required 8 supporters – which seems a ludicrously small number – to get onto the ballot.

Yes this ^

As I said a page or two back, and as Kimbers mentioned – I’ve a group of scientists (a real ragtag league of nations bunch FWIW) who’ve had the Horizon funding rug firmly pulled. Decades of collaboration in some instances. We’re very pissed off, but at the same time we have to work out how we can now continue those relationships another way. Remembering the problems division causes so we don’t make more of them (and yes, also harbouring a seething resentment that sees this outcome as something to be proud of), but moving onwards rather than sitting still wishing we weren’t here.

Brexit defined the last 6 years (and will continue to do similar for at least another 10). It is the sole reason Johnson got to be PM with all the circus and real lasting damage that has done to the UK. Brexit robbed me and my kids of rights we were born with and caused unnecessary economic damage that will affect everyone bar a few’s lives in a bad way.

Brexit has and will deliver nothing good of any substance to anyone – bar the elites that pushed for it to profit from it.

The motives that drove people to vote Leave are many, I am sure, but on balance I would say a lot less noble than they’d like to admit.

Brexit will continue to drive political instability and economic under-performance in the UK until it is reversed, bit by bit, over a period of time. The only question is how long.

Brexit is a bad idea – end of.

The candidates have to be Conservative MPs, so you have a group of no more than a few hundred people, all of whom work together, many of whom have being PM as their lifetime ambition.

Put them all on the ballot unless they opt OUT.
Get the voters to list the top ten in order of preference.single transferable vote to knock it down to 5 candidates, then have a run-off.
Could do it in a week even allowing for a bit of time for horsetrading, I mean they all have WhatsApp now so don’t even have to be in the same country.

I’m not exactly eye to eye with the Brexit Gollum on all things, but I wouldn’t argue with his view that lack of real-world experience and expertise makes politics and Whitehall stupidly slow and inefficient.

And clearly it’s not as if they have high standards for party leader!!!!!!

I will never accept brexit. I will continue to tell brexiteers ” look what damage you have done” i will never let them forget what idiots they are. Fortunately i have a possible solution in independence for Scotland

Why will no party get elected on a platform of rejoining? The majority think it is a mistake.

The damage done will continue utill we rejoin and we will never recover the lost ground

stupidly slow and inefficient

The Tory party already have the means to elect a new leader in 48 hours, if they wish. That’s pretty damn quick. Probably too quick. If they choose to take longer, it’ll be to make the process more transparent, more open, and give their members a say. All of which I’m sure they’d do if they weren’t in a rush to remove Big Dog before he does something else damaging to them.

A lot of the “inefficiencies” in “Whitehall” are to enable transparency and scrutiny. There’s been a lot of doing away with that kind of thing in recent years. Looking at who has been pushing for those “efficiencies”, and what they get up to when transparence and scrutiny isn’t properly in place… we should be worried.

Also, Boris should eff off out of there NOW. His disgrace is getting close to Nixon levels of bad behaviour. It’s not just “well, you’re not taking the country in the right direction”, it’s a rich fruitcake style mix of Clinton(Bill)-levels of disgrace, outright lies to his own party, breaking laws that he had only just made himself, corruption, and hobnobbing with unfriendly foreign powers.

It’s cringeworthy hearing him express sympathy for Shinzo Abe’s death. We need a national leader with at least a few crumbs of dignity.

@tjagain it doesn’t matter what the majority think its what those in the red wall seats think. If labour said they would reverse Brexit they wouldn’t win those seats back. There wasn’t a huge swing to labour in the Wakefield by election despite Partygate and the last Tory MP being a peado. They should have smashed that seat.

It’s choice between a labour or lib/lab government and make the best of Brexit or Tories remaining in and making a hash of Brexit I know what I’d choose.

The new leader surely has to be someone who wasn’t involved in BJ’s cabinets

So who does that leave – Hunt, May, Tugenhat some randoms etc. ??

It’s choice between a labour or lib/lab government and make the best of Brexit or Tories remaining in and making a hash of Brexit I know what I’d choose.

That’ll be our choice down here… and an easy choice in my opinion. It’s different up there. An indy Scotland (which I don’t want, but I don’t have a say) wouldn’t have the bad faith of recent years that the UK have to overcome when dealing with other countries. We, the UK, not trusted. And one change of government isn’t enough to earn back that trust, it’ll take several parliamentary terms… even if the voters want it. We need to learn, and we really should have by this point, that when it comes to our relationships with other countries, just voting for something doesn’t make it so.

Sarah Dines has been made a minister. Johnson will never change. Rubbing it in the faces of Pincher’s victims, and all Conservative MPs who have voiced concerns about how Johnson and his chosen whips have operated.

I think most posters on here have enough nous to figure out that there are other world events going on that affect our lives. We’re aware it isn’t that simple.

Indeed, but as has been pointed out many times the post Covid economic recovery in the UK economy is down considerably on EU recovery. Why?

Is this thread still obsessed with brexit?

This thread is about Johnson. His “great legacy” is he got Brexit done. Except it isn’t.

Peter Bone is now in the government.

The bottom of the barrel has been reached, and we are now extracting the rotten wood. It’s encouraging in a way, it indicates that very few MPs are available for selection.

Johnson staying on is a real low for this country.

He’s manifestly angling to still defeat his party opponents and remain as their leader.

He’s scheming to the end; putting himself above the needs of the country.

Worst case scenario is he does loads of damage.

He’s manifestly angling to still defeat his party opponents and remain as their leader.

Can he stand again? I can imagine he’d get 8 supporters if he wanted to, but no way is he going to get beyond the run offs. Not even the tories are that dumb now.

The mere fact that the word remainer is still in use is an admission that Brexit was a failure or has not in fact ‘been done’.

Brexit is/was shit
Tory govts are/were shit
“New Labour” was shit – lying tossers
Tony Blair was/is shit. Lying tosser

All money-grubbing ****.

Sorry. Bad place. This makes me ashamed to be English / British / UK-ish, but impotent to do anything so pokes my depression. Sorry.

If I had the means I’d be something else

Edit: depression is shit but it’s impossible to step away from this stuff as its in your face 24/7.

“Is this thread still obsessed with brexit?”

Johnson is Brexit in offal form.

This’ll cheer you up fazzini

Johnson seems to be actively trying to wreck the Tory party put of spite

Peter Bone is a minister and it’s not even one of the 10 funniest moments in British politics this week

— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) July 8, 2022

Johnson seems to be actively trying to wreck the Tory party put of spite

That would be a legacy I would applaud.

From Kimbers link 😀

I'm now so obsessed with Bercow saying "Mr Peter Bone" that I've spent a period of time setting it to the opening of Beethoven's 5th. Brexit is literally driving me mad. pic.twitter.com/P5w31OWkWi

— Rhodri Marsden (@rhodri) March 28, 2019

Johnson seems to be actively trying to wreck the Tory party put of spite

That would be a legacy I would applaud.

I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t if they are bunch of cowards. Not worth having politicians like that but again many will replace them again …

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/08/boris-johnson-lies-brexit-exit

I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t if they are bunch of cowards.

Not as cowardly as Johnson

After being found out time & again, hes still to cowardly to admit when he lies

Pretty gutted I was looking forward to just how bonkers baker would be

Still Braverman will be funny!

** EXCLUSIVE in the Daily Telegraph **
Brexiteer Steve Baker backs Suella Braverman as he drops his own leadership bid https://t.co/ItdpyoyjG2

— Christopher Hope? (@christopherhope) July 8, 2022

The government job for Andrea jenkyns is particularly offensive, trump loving binhead. She makes braverman look like Ruth bader Ginsburg

Corrupt to the last

There hasn’t been a deputy leader of the Commons for the whole of Boris Johnson’s tenure as prime minister. He is literally doing this for a laugh. https://t.co/IyKe29T7a3

— Patrick Maguire (@patrickkmaguire) July 8, 2022

A payout larger than the salary he'll actually receive, assuming he's in post for fewer than 3 months

— Henry Dyer (@Direthoughts) July 8, 2022

Pretty gutted I was looking forward to just how bonkers baker would be

Still Braverman will be funny!

I thought some people might be deeply disappointed if they saw the Tory Party swinging further to the right, based on their apparent form. But perhaps politics isn’t really like that for them and it’s all a bit of a laugh to be enjoyed as if it’s some sort of reality team sport extravaganza. Especially if they are under the impression that the consequences are unlikely to affect them in a material way such as forcing them to go hungry to the food banks.

I certainly won’t find it funny if as a consequence of Johnson’s pointless stupidity people on the far right of the Tory Party are propelled to the very top. In fact I will be devastated.

But then I don’t feel a desire to punish voters for being stupid and voting incorrectly, as some people apparently do – if I correctly interpret the deep distain expressed by some towards the general public.

Go on, tell us ernie, who are you rooting for?

Johnson seems to be actively trying to wreck the Tory party put of spite

I’d put money on a Johnson contact having registered a new party this week, and him officially joining it in the last week of him being PM.

ernie just comes on here to talk bollocks (like the rest of us). On Monday he’s Mandelson, Tuesday he’s Trotsky, Wednesday Widdecombe, Thursday Thatcher and Friday is special cos he wears his Michael Foot outfit just to keep everyone on their toes.

Im pretty sure @Binners has the copyright on that image, expect a stern letter from Lawyers IN Greggs shortly