Well.
The scores on the doors are in. If you add up the parties who clearly want to leave (Brexit & UKIP) and those who want to remain (Lib Dem, Green, Change UK – the nationalist parties are a bit more complicated), it’s a draw (maybe a small remain lead).
The truth is we are back to where we started in 2016. Except The Tories and Labour are battered, bruised and exhausted.
There is no real chance of a ‘renegotiation’. By the time we have a new Prime Minister, 31st October will be round the corner. The Tories have to fish in the pool of The Brexit Party to win the next election and, I suspect, the DUP would accept No Deal. Forcing a general election or even another ‘People’s Vote’ seems unlikely, repealing Article 50 nigh on impossible. Labour hasn’t much choice other than appeal to remainers.
In the meantime, Nigel Farage has a nice stipend and an expense account to plunder (he’s one of the top ten expense claimers in the European Parliament). His face will be everywhere (beware Question Time).
There is a lot more bollocks to come, lots more business uncertainty, lots more question marks over the economy, lots more unpleasantness over immigrants and lots more climate change.
It’s all very depressing. At least Mr Yaxley-Lennon lost his deposit.
Moose the Mooche says
A bunch of people who voted UKIP last time voted Brexit Party this time. Votes have gone from Farage to, er, Farage. Hardly a landslide, is it?
PS. “Scores on the doors” is a hygiene rating for places that sell food. We’ll be having none of that EU-inspired nonsense after October, I can tell you.
mikethep says
Try living in Folkestone, mate. Looks like a landslide to me.
Moose the Mooche says
I’m from East Yorkshire, we have landslides all the time.
Cerstel ererrrzhun.
Tiggerlion says
I was impressed with The Yorkshire Party’s showing. Shame they didn’t win a seat.
Moose the Mooche says
All of our YP candidates had the same surname. No wonder people say we’re inbred.
salwarpe says
Would that be Hovis?
Moose the Mooche says
Aye – Frank Hovis.
Uncle Wheaty says
Did he work down the pit?
Moose the Mooche says
No, he was busy. On the lavatory.
Tiggerlion says
Nigel Farage’s ‘parties’ gained seven percentage points, Lib Dems eleven.
The polls just before Election Day suggested the possibility of 39%. It could have been worse.
Gatz says
The Brexit Party git just over 39% of the vote, lower than polls predicted, on a turn out of, at most, 40%. So about 12% of the electorate, and just over three our of ten of those who could be bothered to vote. It’s hardly a ringing endorsement for a hard Brexit.
dai says
They got 31.6% according to the BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48417228
Gatz says
Quite right – they were forecast to get around 38 and I would like to see that it was I meant, but in truth it was just a typo.
Dave Ross says
The absolute nonsense of my solution below sums up the position we find ourselves in…
1/ Make Boris Tory Leader and make Farage home secretary. Create the Con Brexit party
2/ Labour and Lib Dems and and Greens and SNP join forces on remain ticket.
3/ General election winner takes all. Including independence for SNP
4/ We all accept result
5/ Northern Ireland you say? Nope. No idea…
Tiggerlion says
Radical!
retropath2 says
Especially the never been tried before number 4!
Dave Ross says
Or ridiculous, but the thing is consensus and compromise lost heavily last night. So it’s shit or get off the pan time. In or out, pin your colours to the mast and prepare your policies for a final vote. General election or referendum. Even if it’s 50.5 to 49.5 we must accept the decision and get on with governing the country, by October. …..
Tiggerlion says
Dead right. Consensus and Compromise lost.
Today, I’m wearing shorts. Later, I’ll eat them!
Declan says
Dave, on point 5:
Stopping regarding the Good Friday Agreement as optional would be a fine start!
Vulpes Vulpes says
Anyone want to buy a decent second hand Sony television? I can’t contemplate another 5 months of seeing Max Headfuck on the telly every time I switch it on.
dai says
BBC Analysis:
Anti-Brexit 40.4% *
Pro-Brexit 34.9% **
Con 9.1%
Lab 14.1%
* Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Change UK and Plaid Cymru
** Brexit Party and UKIP
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48417228
chiz says
But…but… Labour and Conservative are both pro-Brexit, aren’t they? Both are committed to honouring the referendum result. Which makes the split 60-40 in favour of Leave
Tiggerlion says
Indeed.
Yet pollsters found that 90% of those voting Conservative last Thursday want to leave and 60% of those voting Labour want to remain. Add that in and you get close to 50/50 again with remain a bit ahead.
Twang says
You’re conflating the half witted leadership’s intentions with the preferences of their members. In a referendum (because this comparison is trying to predict voting intentions in a ref) we can assume the pro remain partys’voters would vote remain, but quite a few Labour voters would too. Who knows, maybe a few Tory voters too.
But you know this don’t you!
Martin Hairnet says
It was a good night for Remain, I think, with a strong showing from the Greens and Lib Dems. The Brexit Party did well, of course, but that’s cakeism for you. Farage excels as the pied piper of victimhood. His primary role is to deliver the UK into the orbit of pond life like Trump, Bannon and co. Still, there seem to be plenty of folks in the UK who are keen on that direction of travel. Turnout was low, which is pretty depressing, given what is at stake.
There is going to be lots more chaos over the coming months, because there is still a lot to fight for. The referendum result was unique in the way it so comprehensively trashed the rights of UK citizens. I don’t want my rights removed. I depend on those rights to allow my family to live here in Spain. How dare Farage and his dodgy mates try to take those away from me. There are no credible voices for no deal, and that is their biggest problem. They are stuck on 30-35%. I don’t think the EU are likely to grant a further extension in October. In which case it might boil down to no deal or revoke Article 50, but who knows? The UK is in a terrible mess all of its own making. It’s time for some brutal honesty from the top, but I’m not expecting any.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Here’s some brutal honesty: anyone voting for Farage is a cockswallowing cretin of the lowest kind.
chiz says
There it is – the reason why we’re losing the fight against uninformed bigotry, perfectly illustrated.
The Good Doctor says
Oh please. Don’t get your underpants in a twist.
Gary says
Jason Hunter (ex- international trader turned anti-Brexit activist and formely with 3 Blokes In A Pub) has credibly argued right from the very start that No Deal or Revoke are the only realistic options.
Tiggerlion says
I agree with this. No Deal or Revoke seem to be the only options that have a chance of actually happening.
There are no more negotiations to be hand. The backstop is as it is. The border in Ireland will be a hard one or we stay in the EU.
deramdaze says
Anyone seen that fat b****** Cameron?
No Prime Minister in history has left this country more in the crap, and all because when he was about 15 he “quite fancied” being Prime Minister.
The tragedy is that an Eton schoolboy who “quite fancies” being Prime Minister has already defeated 99.9% of the country to that prize.
I hate him more than Madonna … no, really.
Tiggerlion says
Madonna is great! 😀
illuminatus says
Not in Tel Aviv she wasn’t 😉
(though the staging for Like a Prayer was great. Until she opened her gob)
Carl says
Jeremy Paxman rates Cameron as the worst prime-minister since Lord North (who was in charge during the American War of Independence).
I think that’s quite generous towards Cameron, as some historians think Lord North wasn’t that bad, but was dealt a poor hand to play.
On the other hand, he was alleged to be quite indolent though, which should set the good Lord up as a suitable precedent for Bozzer.
Moose the Mooche says
Tories are all about competition, aren’t they?
“You might have been a really shitey Prime Minister, but just you wait until I get the job!”
illuminatus says
I’ve long said that Cameron is just the Eden de nos jours: complacent, convinced of his own invincibility until the moment of demise. I remember the “captain of a great ship” resignation speech outride Downing Street, and I wanted to smash him in the face with a baseball bat. He conveniently forgot to mention the part that he ran the ship aground, then jumped and left someone else to clear up the mess.
Eden presided over Britain’s death as an imperial military power. All Suez showed was that we couldn’t really do anything without US say-so any more. Cameron pretty much did for us as a political power. It’s not like he learned from Scotland, having come so close to losing there, only scrabbling at the last minute to get over the line. And I think it was a mistake on Miliband’s part to get involved. That is pretty much the thing that has killed Labour in Scotland – guilt by association.
Lando Cakes says
It certainly hasn’t helped Labour but I don’t subscribe to the ‘guilt by association’ theory. After all, most of the population voted against separation.
What did for Labour was FPTP – the SNP soaked up the pro-separation vote and in a FPTP election that paid huge dividends.
And recovery was stymied by Europe. Being led by an anti-EU ideologue didn’t play well in a country that was pro-EU. Who would have guessed?
Arch Stanton says
So when is a politian (any party) actually going to explain what no deal actually means.
I’ve never seen anyone on TV actually explain what it would do to the country.
You’d think it would be kind of important by now.
davebigpicture says
Just saw this
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48422801
I’ve only skimmed it and it’s not terribly comprehensive
Arch Stanton says
That still doesn’t really explain what a stupid idea it is.
Mike_H says
Nobody knows for sure but it doesn’t look good. The fullness of the stupidity is yet to be revealed.
Carolina says
I think “No deal on WTO terms” is brandished about like the words of a magic incantation by most people who have taken to it – like ‘Expelliarmus’ in Harry Potter. They do not understand what it entails at all but think it will just have a similarly miraculous, successful and rapid result. Well it would have a rapid result, but not a good one to say the least.
Mike_H says
As I understand it, “WTO Terms” can only apply if both parties are in agreement. i.e. have come to a deal.
Might as well call it “No Deal With A Deal”.
illuminatus says
The thing I found funniest was the person who said that No Deal was not going to work in the way that many of its proponents think, and that it would give them a very nasty surprise if it happened.
That would be Pascal Lamy.
Current head of the WTO.
mikethep says
And Farage is now saying he wants to be part of the team that negotiates No Deal. Er…
Freddy Steady says
Can you actually NEGOTIATE a no deal though…doesnt it just happen?
mikethep says
Er…that was what I meant by er…
Freddy Steady says
Er…oh!
fatima Xberg says
Let’s see if I understand this:
The UK takes part in the election for a parliament that they are meant to have left a couple of months ago.
The party with the most votes is the one who doesn’t want anything to do with Europe.
So people actually voted for the pro-Brexit politicians to go to Brussels and earn a lot of money (and expenses) for doing, well, nothing. Is this meant as some kind of punishment?
Gatz says
More than 30% voted to elect people to a parliament which they claim is unelected. Furthermore if there is a general election soon (unlikely but not impossible) the strongest Leave voices in Parliament are likely to be the ones most vulnerable to a Brexit Party challenge because they are not Brexity enough, potentially splitting their vote leading to a House of Commons which is even more reluctant to pass Leave legislation than now.
Look, I don’t understand any of this either. But then I voted for chaos with Ed Milliband and then to remain, and the one thing Leave have declined to do is present any argument why voters like me should change our minds, so by and large we haven’t.
Gary says
But Remain haven’t done such a great job either. They need to somehow persuade the readers of right-wing tabloids (of whom there are many, with The Sun and The Daily Mail being the UK’s most popular “newspapers”) and logical, reasoned argument is never going to do that.
Whatever one’s opinion of Owen Jones, this glimpse of Farage’s supporters is pretty scary:
Gatz says
Fair point. Almost everyone has just doubled down on their original opinion.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Nice to see that Major Harry Truscott is still alive and well.
Could do with losing a few pounds, bit of a calory cock-up. T-shirt rather tight over the lower latitudes. Gives one a slight air of having let oneself go. Never mind; damn tricky things, T-shirts. Still, when the balloon goes up, it’ll be every man for himself; keep mum, but I’ll drop the T-shirts for battle fatigues in an instant, and they are even less flattering!
Twang says
The hilarious thing is the new Brexit MEPs were glowing with pride and saying how delighted they were to represent their constituents, like they intend to actually do the job properly and all.
Lando Cakes says
I thought it was a good night for Remain and a poor one for Labour.
Sure Brexit gained 29 MEPs – a further 5 on UKIP’s total from last time – but UKIP lost 24 and the Tories lost 15. There was therefore a net transfer of 10 from Leave to Remain.
As for Labour, it seems that having an imbecile as leader is a vote-loser. Who knew?
chiz says
It doesn’t change much, to be honest. Traditional Labour voters will return in a General Election to some extent, Brexit party votes will go to the Tories, and FPTP will ensure we’re back where we always are.
Tiggerlion says
A hung parliament is where we have been for some time now.
davebigpicture says
What if a general election was forced in the next couple of months? Would Farage benefit from the momentum or are they not really contenders for government? Asking for a bewildered friend.
chiz says
Not sure that can happen. The Tories gain nothing from calling an election and there’s no majority for a VONC
Tiggerlion says
It’s a minority government of 8. There are 14 MPs in a confidence and supply arrangement, including the DUP, giving it a majority of just 6. All it needs is 4 Tories to be disaffected by the new leader and the prospect of No Deal. VONC could happen. Just look at Michael Heseltine at the moment.
Twang says
There are more than that ready to desert if no deal looks like it might happen.
hubert rawlinson says
Hopefully someone will stand against farage for the Milkshake Party.
Vulpes Vulpes says
I fear you’re wrong, chizzers. I’ll bet you a new pair of shreddies that a major dollop of the cockswallowing cretins of the lowest kind who voted for Farrago last week will vote for his bunch of sad inadequates all over again if we get a general election in short order.
chiz says
Maybe you’re right. If comfortable middle class southerners keep dismissing large numbers of the Northern working class as ‘cockswallowing cretins of the lowest kind’ there’s very little chance they’ll change their minds. Which is the goal, isn’t it? To persuade disaffected people who are at the shitty end of the economic spectrum not to side with self-interested chancers at the top of it.
Moose the Mooche says
Comfortable middle-class southerners also voted to leave. The idea that Brexit is the fault of us glottal-stopping Northern troglodytes seems to have taken hold. Interesting analysis of the data here:
https://theconversation.com/brexit-how-the-end-of-britains-empire-led-to-rising-inequality-that-helped-leave-to-victory-116466
mikethep says
Well, I remember getting into my cubs uniform for Empire Day and I voted Remain, so ner.
Moose the Mooche says
The article indicates that there was support for remain amongst those old enough to remember WW2… Er….
Martin Hairnet says
That’s a good piece, with some interesting and informed commentary afterwards. Brexit has become the catalyst for some pretty thorough self-examination, although whether any of this will penetrate the mainstream is debatable. Right now everybody just seems to be doubling down on the arrogance, with therapy still a long way off.
Have you read the Fintan O’Toole book Heroic Failure? I was looking forward to it, but found the structure a bit muddled. Still, lots of pertinent points.
Moose the Mooche says
I think the Empire stuff in that article is a bit OTT, but it’s an analysis of the referendum result that is worth reading.
Vulpes Vulpes says
You’re letting your desire to score points get in the way of simple logic old bean. I said nothing about geography or class as regards Faragists, just that they must be numpties (or words to that effect) if they couldn’t understand him for what he is.
Now if you’ll excuse me, my croquet teacher has arrived and I need to be sure that Malcolm has finished finessing the lawn with his nail scissors before my lesson begins.
Moose the Mooche says
Ha! What a giveaway. You’re no remainer. We remainers need no lessons – we already know everything.
chiz says
Here’s some simple logic for you; the more you scorn and abuse people you don’t understand, the less likely they are to agree with you. If namecalling’s all you’ve got to offer, fair enough, I won’t waste any more of your time.
Dave Ross says
Take their bloody votes away that’ll sort it…
Vulpes Vulpes says
More simple logic. This is a little blog where we talk bollocks about all sorts of things with a vaguely cultural relevance. It’s not a debating society and it’s not even the second rate chum’s club of Westminster. It’s a little island of relative calm where hyperbolic scorn and abuse can safely be heaped upon the heads of whoever, without fear of affecting anyone’s real life. Someone who worships Anthrax or Metallica, say, is never going to listen thoughtfully to any level of nuanced debate and decide that they really prefer John Renbourn, are they? Yet I’m happy to put aside my folk records and listen to the occasional ear-bleeder, even to allow that there is some merit in the cacophony from time to time. But the shower in the blue T-shirts? Are you seriously going to be trying to change their minds? Because I think if you are, then it’ll be you who is wasting your own time.
Tiggerlion says
I know quite a number of people who voted Farage. Their anger at mainstream politics is palpable and, mostly, rational. None that I know have swivel eyes. Ever since the referendum, they have been accused of ignorance, of being fooled, of lacking intelligence, of not understanding what they were doing. The Brexit Party was their opportunity to kick back.
However you slice and dice last Thursday’s vote, remain v leave is still as close as ever. The truth is, the country is split down the middle. Their viewpoint needs to be understood, not belittled. Most people are reasonable but, sadly, the current discourse on Europe is so polarised, abuse and bullying is alarmingly prevalent.
Progress through this impasse is unsurprisingly slow.
Blue Boy says
This is spot on. And also, Brexit is categorically not a northern thing. Cities like Liverpool and Manchester are strongly Remain; towns like Rotherham and Grimsby which have had the arse ripped out of their economies have strong Brexit sentiments – as do huge swathes of the South East and South West.
illuminatus says
Places like Middlesbrough and Hartlepool were pretty strongly Leave too. The common thread seems to be places where the people living there feel like the great post-thatcherite miracle has passed them by, and they’ve been mostly forgotten and neglected by the political classes. And then, post 2008, any stuttering signs of progress have been hacked doff at the knee by austerity. Cuts to services, especially in places where there was more need for them, have bitten. The EU has been a comfortable scapegoat for all of our political class to blame domestic woes on for a generation.
Many of these places around the were strongly pro one party or another, so the parties themselves took that core vote for granted and didn’t really work at trying to understand what was going on, or listening to the people on the ground. For years that anger has built, until finally in 2016 there was a chance to do something. An inchoate, vague something. A something that was uncertain. A something that would anger and annoy a patronising political establishment that seems to be obsessed with the capital city and the politics of Westminster: a chummy chaps club with subsided bars and a fuck you attitude to we proles and plebs outside. Remain was what we had. Leave was packaged as change. Yes, it was unicorns and lemonade, but for many, anything was better than what they had now.
And at precisely this time, the time we needed calm heads and thought, there happened to be a political class so devoid of actual heft and talent that when the storm hit, there was no one who could actually put a hand on the rudder and steer.
I’m a remainer, and while I don’t agree with leaving I know exactly why the places where I grew up came out the way they did.
Martin Hairnet says
Yes, although the link that Moose posted above suggests that middle class Tories in the south were a big factor in the Brexit vote. These are people who, while not entirely immune to the effects of austerity, have – being Tories – effectively rubber stamped it for the last ten years. Many of these folks will also have embraced the selling off of public assets, privatisation and shareholder schemes, the break-up of the unions, tax cuts for the wealthy, etc. In other words all the things that have increased inequality over the last forty years. And they still want out of the EU.
I share all the concerns about industrial decline and growing inequality. But why are those concerns coalescing around a right wing mouthpiece like Farage? His message is carefully calculated to appeal to the emotions, but if and when the dust finally settles on Brexit, what has he got to offer, given that, politically, he’s somewhere to the right of Ayn Rand? He’s a rampant narcissist like Trump and, according to today’s NY Times, the most dangerous man in Britain.
Freddy Steady says
@tiggerlion
Yes, good post. I’m a remainer and it’s quite easy to assume the moral high ground.
Gary says
Bollox is it “spot on”. If they’re pro-Brexit for valid reasons, I’d like to hear them. But if being part of the EU was not the cause of their grievances with mainstream politics and if they’re voting to limit future generations’ access to work opportunities and healthcare, to hurt the economy and create job losses simply because they want to “kick back” in some unrelated way, then they are indeed lacking intelligence and maturity.
Tiggerlion says
I’m not a Brexiteer in any shape or form, so am not best placed to put forward the argument.
What I’ve heard is questions over free movement of people’s effects on services:
‘My school is full of Polish kids who need extra resources as English isn’t their first language and my child’s dyslexia is being ignored.’
‘I can’t get an appointment with my GP because their list size has been increased by a whole bunch of Bulgarians coming over.’
‘In my street there is a house full of Romanians who are on benefits and driving around in a disability car.’
Sovereignty:
‘We joined the EU when it was a single market. Now, it has a parliament, a president and an army.’
‘The EU is a rules based organisation. We have enough rules at is.’
‘Germany and France run the EU at the expense of Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal.’
‘They only care about countries in the Euro and the Shengen Agreement.’
Macroeconomic and microeconomic:
‘It costs us that much to be in!! How much of it pays for their beaurocracy?’
‘Why can’t we strike trade deals without getting agreement from 28 countries?’
‘The EU is just a mechanism for the elite to line their pockets, just like parliament and the House of Lords.’
‘Being a smaller country economically will be no bad thing. If house prices fall, those foreign investors will leave and my rent should go down.’
And so on…
Gary says
But you know as well as I do that some of those arguments are pure nonsense and easily rebuffed/debunked, while others may be valid but are not worth the cost that leaving the EU would inflict.
Moreover: FARAGE! As with Salvini here, it doesn’t take much research into his attendance/voting (and expense claims) to see how little he has done as an MEP to champion his country’s interests.
No, I don’t see how anyone of reasonable intelligence can swallow his schtick and vote for him.
I agree there’s no point in hurling insults, it just makes matters worse, but by voting for conmen like Farage and swivel-eyed loons like Widdecombe your friends are undeserving of respect.
Tiggerlion says
Again, I’m uncomfortable trying to speak for others who are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves but I don’t see it as an active vote for Farage and his friends but against the swivel-eyed loons in charge of the Conservative and Labour parties. That’s why Farage does well in Euro elections where the outcome barely matters, it seems, but cannot get elected as an MP. They understand perfectly what Farage is and simply use him to ‘send a message’.
As a matter of principle, I find it better to treat everyone with respect. Even my ‘friends’.
Gary says
Your friends could have sent a message by voting for an alternative party other than Farage’s.
I respect your respect (!) but I wouldn’t feel the same towards them myself. I have no problem with my friends who don’t share my politics, but I couldn’t bring myself to respect people who actively support Farage, Widdecombe, Yaxley-Lennon and their ilk.
Tiggerlion says
To be fair, I don’t know anyone who supports Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
Otherwise, they actually share my politics on the whole. We are mostly centre-left, traditional Labour voters.
Gary says
I’d wrongly thought Yaxley-Lennon had stood as a Brexit Party candidate, but just looked it up and found he was Independent (albeit a strong supporter of Farage). I actually think he’s the least worst of the bunch, due to his lack of intelligence and the specificity of his “politics”. Farage is far more dangerous.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Voting for Farage just to “send a message” is like pulling out the drain plug because you object to the colour of the sails. In other words, it’s f*cking stupid.
But more to the point, as I’ve said elsewhere (but just got a big strawman of chippy abuse as a result) I fear that, having done it once, there are a worrying number of blue shirted types who will do the same again when the prize is Number 10, because they have become inured to a fully post-rational mode of operation. FAKE NEWS! And then we will be in REALLY SERIOUS TROUBLE.
Tiggerlion says
Farage is, indeed, very destructive. He has nothing constructive to offer but his pitch is very specific, very clear, very easy to grasp and sounds very positive. Other politicians are learning from him alarmingly quickly.
chiz says
Oh boy… that’s not why you were challenged, Vulpes, as Tiggerlion has very patiently explained to you above.
A lot of people voted to send a message – it was that kind of election – Alastair Campbell and thousands of Labour members among them. Some dismissed them as f*cking stupid too, when they’d probably be better off accepting it and trying to understand why.
retropath2 says
I have to say I’m glad I resigned my labour party back in the Blair days, as, irrespective of the lumpen ‘Wear Red’ nonsense that floods my faecebook page, calling him a traitor too etc etc , Alistair Campbell has only done what 1000s of other labour members have literally had to do, to demonstrate a Remain wish. I would love to see all those who did vote green and libdem resign on masse. That’d give a kick up the executive and arguably cause more concern than the loss of MEPs.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Precisely.
And there are plenty of ways to express an opinion or make a “statement” or, sorry, “send a message”, without voting for a fascist.
Tiggerlion says
How do you suggest a Leaver could have expressed their wish?
Vulpes Vulpes says
By adding themselves to the majority who didn’t bother to vote?
Tiggerlion says
Not voting expresses disinterest, not Leave.
Twang says
In this case not voting would be a vote for Farage.
Moose the Mooche says
That’s certainly how it gets interpreted. Apparently we’re all hardcore Brexiteers here in Hull… on account of the majority of votes being for NF’s lot.
On, er, a turnout of 24%.
Uncle Wheaty says
Bring on a General Election.
Orange is the colour…Lib Dems are the name!
Twang says
Indeed. My Tory MP is suddenly on job watch apparently.
Moose the Mooche says
We’ve had enough Orangemen in government recently…
dai says
“Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government!”
mikethep says
Does this help at all?
https://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g401/mikethep/Screen%20Shot%202019-05-28%20at%2009.38.08_zpskbylqdon.png
(pinched from the excellent Matthew Hankins on Twitter)
Tiggerlion says
Perfect.
mikethep says
Save you a click.
Moose the Mooche says
Where’s David Davis?
Black Type says
*Assumes Barry Davies voice* “…And frankly, who cares?”
Moose the Mooche says
Well part of the reason we’re in this mess is because he spent his two years as Brexit secretary doing fuck-all, apart from chuckling, so that the clock would run down too far for there to be any deal worth putting anyone’s name to.
Clever man, but clearly a total and utter shithead.
ernietothecentreoftheearth says
Alternatively, famously described as ” thick as mince and lazy as a toad” by Dominic Cummings, in which case the lost two years might be more a case of indolence than cunning.
Moose the Mooche says
I don’t think he’s thick. He’s knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s just doing bloody awful things.
davebigpicture says
It seems to me that whenever I see or hear news and current affairs pieces about Brexit, the vox pops disproportionately feature Leave voters and politicians. Has anyone else noticed this or am I just imagining it?
Moose the Mooche says
Well, if you’re out and about during the day you aren’t at work, are you? You won’t be asked if you’re unemployed, because you don’t matter. So you’re retired. All the remainers are indoors working jobs that they will lose after we crash out of the EU. Then I suppose the vox pops will be more balanced, so that’s something to look forward to.
Similarly, Brexit politicians are always available for comment because they don’t really do anything else. Nigel Farage hasn’t done a tap of real work for twenty years.
“We went to this pub at 2 o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon and surprisingly enough the only peop;e we could find were bitter, racist pensioners”
Blue Boy says
And now we go into a Tory leadership election. My hunch is it won’t be Johnson, but that MPs will put forward one Brexiteer – probably Raab, and one middle ground candidate – maybe Hancock, and the Brexiteer will win. He – and it probably will be he – will call an early election because struggling on as they are will be untenable.The Tories will slightly increase their majority, because Labour are so useless at the moment, but not by much. And then the new Prime Minister will discover what an unresolvable mess this all is. Even if it is Johnson they certainly won’t go for a no deal exit, but will end up with a deal very like Theresa May’s which they will have to put to a second referendum. And at that point – who knows? Maybe Remain, but equally possible Farage will convince people that No deal is a good idea. Meantime, another year (and it will be a year) will have been lost, and the country will continue to go to hell in a handcart.
Vulpes Vulpes says
As regards Johnson, with luck I am hoping to watch while the legal system looks into his situation as regards the Leave campaign. There has never been so many lies, so much deception, there has never been anything like it, and we should PUT HIM IN JAIL.
*waves little hand in the air, orangely pouting*
atcf says
This sums up my current feelings:
Twang says
I’ll just leave this here…
kalamo says
During The Swinging Sixties everyone was hanging themselves as the music was bad, and the EU wouldn’t let us join Eurovision. Then came Seventies Glam as they relented; we were so happy, and parties held throughout the land, on the night of The Song Contest.
And now our children are to be denied, by the old folk, who would cast us back to the dark days of Beatlemania.
Moose the Mooche says
The Beatles were mad keen on early entry into Europe. Hamburg prozzies, specifically.