Was a hopeless negotiator here. Failed to get cross benchers to side with him.
He is a wrecker. Would have been perfect on a pro Brexit, anti Brussels campaign. I can’t see how this role suits.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12498386/tony-abbott-britain-trade-deal-supremo/
mikethep says
I can. Yet another dead cat. Oz exerts a strange fascination on the twisted minds of the Tories, cf Lynton Crosby, and universal admiration for Oz immigration policy (the hunt is probably on for a crap island to dump asylum seekers on). Probably won’t happen, but perfect for distracting attention from current Downing St clusterfuck. And if it does happen, he’ll fit right in.
hubert rawlinson says
Someone has suggested that he may have been placed as an Oz fall-guy when the ordure hits the fan.
I think this ‘government’ doesn’t need any further help in that department.
mikethep says
Turns out to be true – he’s sharing the job with Liz Truss. What can possibly go wrong?
It occurred to me that it was years since I’d heard anybody described as President of the Board of Trade. Turns out that the job has been folded into that of Sec of State for Trade and Industry (and permutations of that) since 1970. Hence Liz Truss. Curiouser and curiouser.
Black Celebration says
I seem to recall Michael Hestletine reviving the use of the title when he was Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. It’s an ancient title but Ministers can choose not to use it. Someone like John Smith probably didn’t – but people like
Hestletine would want a brass plaque done for his desk.
Martin Hairnet says
I see The Sun is describing Abbot as a ‘trade supremo’, but I prefer ‘trade talisman’. It’s more in keeping with the magical powers necessary to rescue the upcoming reality. Abbot is there to rekindle the ashes, to steady the middle order at 37-5, but he’s more Dermot Reeve than Ian Botham.
Seems the Tories are even outsourcing their dreams.
Sniffity says
As they might have said in “Yes Minister” – “Trade supremo – much more attractive than trade muggins…”
Junior Wells says
Nothing steady about Abbott. Impetuous, belligerent and erratic.
count jim moriarty says
Exactly the sort of useful idiot required to ensure that no minister will have to resign, just as the head of Ofqual and now the top civil servant at the Education Department have been sacrificed to keep the imbecile Williamson in situ.
mikethep says
Looks feral, is feral.
mikethep says
At this significant moment in our country’s history, it is only right that we look back at some of our new President of the Board of Trade’s achievements.
https://junkee.com/tony-abbott-farewell/206278
Martin Hairnet says
Abbot is Johnson’s Giuliani.
mutikonka says
As a health reporter I interviewed Abbott a few times when he was health minister. He’s a complete opportunist and flakey in his views. As a former journalist himself, he knows exactly what to say and do to make the headlines. He will change his views 180 degrees to suit the order of the day – viz taking credit for a China Free Trade Deal achieved by his predecessors, then 5 years later opposing it 100%. And sadly because of the current lamentable state of the media he is allowed to get away with it.
Junior Wells says
Do us a favour down here please. When Abbott makes it to the UK for his new job – keep him there.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/you-bastards-sacked-me-when-the-climate-sceptics-arrived-20200626-p556nn.html
mikethep says
He’s a former Prime Minister of Australia, apparently…here’s his new offsider wriggling, wriggling, wriggling…
hubert rawlinson says
Who would you like in return? we have a few options
Give us your cast-offs, well it seems only fair.
duco01 says
I believe Chris Grayling is free, and might be interested in a job in Australia.
count jim moriarty says
I’ll chip in a couple of quid towards his plane ticket.
thecheshirecat says
Couldn’t he go on one of his ferry companies?
Kid Dynamite says
if he tries to travel to Australia he’ll end up in Iceland
Moose the Mooche says
He can pick up a prawn ring.
Moose the Mooche says
I can’t believe it. I can’t fucking believe it.
Note to self: stop thinking things can’t get any worse. They always can.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Dear God, I can’t believe it. I can’t fucking believe it.
Note to self: stop thinking things can’t get any worse. They always can.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I keep saying this – I’ve lived through an age when generally things just got better and better. Less wars, less starving people etc etc. And then suddenly and, for me at least, no real warning, it’s suddenly a shitstorm. Global warming, Covid-19, Donald Trump and now Tony Abbott. It’s the end of the world as we know it ..
Moose the Mooche says
….and I feel drunk.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Surprisingly for a Friday night I’ve only had a lemonade shandy and a wee tincture of Springbank 67. I really wish I was properly drunk so I could wake up in the morning and think “Wow, that was some kind of nightmare where the UK could appoint Tony Abbott as a “Trade Advisor”.
davebigpicture says
This week brought more bad news in my work world. Bankruptcies and redundancies as well as, anecdotally (if that’s the right word) a suicide. More to come, I expect, as the furlough scheme winds down.
Steerpike says
Just imagine, if you can, the meeting with Michel Barnier …
Do you see Michael Caine’s Lawrence Jamieson and Steve Martin’s Ruprecht?
Moose the Mooche says
“Can I go to the bathroom please??”
mikethep says
Ian Dunt nails it, as so often.
Abbott’s appointment is part of the own-the-libs strategy – the government’s rejection of the objective point of something in favour of who it upsets. Abbott is therefore the perfect appointment. He upsets all the right people – Amnesty International, the Fawcett Society, Stonewall, Greenpeace, etc – and represents the triumph of the plain-speaking, stands-to-reason pub bore over expertise, comprehension or basic suitability. He is the nonsense dispute over the last night of the Proms in appointment form – just another culture war battleground, in the same endless tawdry administration of nothingness, with no idea of what it wants to do but a very clear impression of who it wants to enrage. The government is like a dog chasing a car: loud and determined, but without any idea of what it would do if it were to achieve its aim.
deramdaze says
I agree with that.
I honestly think that the main objective that Johnson, Rees-Mogg, Cummings etc. have is to annoy people. Annoy their enemies but, bizarrely, yet more importantly, stoke up rage in their supporters.
The idea that we can all vaguely rub alongside each other in a try-to-be-polite, try-not-to-touch-on-anybody’s-toes kinda way, is hateful to them.
I’ve got a theory, I was spouting it in the dire 1980s and looking straight at the likes of Johnson when I was doing it … born 1964, 1969 and 1971 respectively, they’re the first post-war generation that didn’t rebel and whose elders look far more rebellious. This is their teenage tantrum, 35 years too late.
Not surprisingly it has nothing to do with creativity and everything to do with nepotism, the old school tie, and the acquisition of wealth.
If it wasn’t so destructive to our country, I’d say “let them have it.”