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'Brexit meltdown' possible, but don't panic, says UK's Boris Johnson (Original Post) shenmue Jun 2018 OP
Theresa May really ought to replace Boris Johnson T_i_B Jun 2018 #1
Then he'd seek to replace *her*... LeftishBrit Jun 2018 #6
dickweed BootinUp Jun 2018 #2
ROFL Amen shenmue Jun 2018 #4
WTO TimeSnowDemos Jun 2018 #3
To *part* of the domestic audience LeftishBrit Jun 2018 #7
It's coming TimeSnowDemos Jun 2018 #8
WTO rules aren't a given T_i_B Jun 2018 #9
True TimeSnowDemos Jun 2018 #10
What a prat. geardaddy Jun 2018 #5

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
1. Theresa May really ought to replace Boris Johnson
Fri Jun 8, 2018, 03:28 PM
Jun 2018

Last edited Sat Jun 9, 2018, 04:48 AM - Edit history (1)

But then if she really cared about the national interest would she ever have made him foreign secretary in the first place?

http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2018/04/05/no-responsible-government-would-keep-johnson-in-post


It's not as if we didn't know what we were letting ourselves in for. When Boris Johnson was announced as foreign secretary back in 2016, the State Department spokesman in Washington could barely keep a straight face. We knew this would be a hard appointment to live down, as a country. But, on balance, the bumbling former London Mayor has proved worse than expected.

He cannot control his mouth. He has always benefitted from shooting it off, so he continues to do so, even where it is demonstrably counter-productive for him to do so. In a job defined by the requirement that one speak cautiously and precisely, he has blathered away and made up a bunch of nonsense, to the detriment of the country he is ostensibly meant to represent.

Each time, the same mistake: the mouth moves, but the brain is not in control of what it is saying. This is because it has never really mattered before. When he was a journalist, he invented the literary semi-fictional journalistic sub-genre in Brussels, where all events were about bendy bananas and European bureaucracy killing British ingenuity, regardless of their veracity. When he was a journalist at the Times he was sacked for falsifying a quotation. Johnson is a pundit pretending to be a politician. He is a talking head, a Have I Got News For You guest. He is there to blather away, without specificity or consistency.

If Theresa May gave a damn about the national interest Johnson would never have been allowed anywhere near the Foreign Office. His presence there indicates that Britain has become a joke nation, a country so embroiled in its own nonsense machinations that people totally unsuited to the task of foreign affairs are installed in positions of enormous influence.

Johnson is irritating in the extreme, but he is ultimately like a puppy which has dirtied the living room. It doesn't know better. May is the adult in the room. She must take responsibility for the embarrassment Johnson causes the country, the danger he has placed its citizens in, and the succour he has given to its enemies.

LeftishBrit

(41,192 posts)
6. Then he'd seek to replace *her*...
Mon Jun 11, 2018, 08:27 PM
Jun 2018

But I thought at the time, why on earth did she give him that job?

 

TimeSnowDemos

(476 posts)
3. WTO
Fri Jun 8, 2018, 03:39 PM
Jun 2018

Seems like the most likely outcome... the UK government is pandering to the domestic audience and ignoring obvious truths. And as always, within 24 hours of the UK producing a plan/white paper/etc. the EU has rejected it for obvious reasons.

The UK government and media is living in a "fake news" bubble, where the impossible is not only possible, but inevitable...until it isn't.

LeftishBrit

(41,192 posts)
7. To *part* of the domestic audience
Tue Jun 12, 2018, 05:55 AM
Jun 2018

Last edited Tue Jun 12, 2018, 03:07 PM - Edit history (1)

48% of us voted Remain, and some Leave voters just wanted to defy the Cameron government.

Going on WTO rules with no trade bloc membership would be pretty much a disaster. I call it 'going on WTF rules'. Almost all countries nowadays are in some sort of trade bloc.

 

TimeSnowDemos

(476 posts)
8. It's coming
Tue Jun 12, 2018, 06:28 AM
Jun 2018

Neither party is anti-Brexit, despite a majority of voters being against it now. None of the solutions to NI are feasible, and in fact May is now apparently in the max-fac camp, despite the fact that the EU has already rejected it, and despite the fact it will cost the UK £385M/week, and destroy many many many SMEs that can't afford to rejig their entire business.

So that leaves WTO.

Which is frankly what you'd expect, considering that no one even knew what Brexit meant when they voted for it. And that includes everyone in Government.

And BTW. I see a LOT of delusional on all sides in the UK. Corbyn is still pro-Brexit and will remain thus, no matter what. The UK media refuses to acknowledge that the UK hadn't ACTUALLY proposed a single acceptable solution re: NI. And of course the main topic for discussion in the chattering classes is which unfeasible and rejected plan will the UK choose.

Off the cliff you go.

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
9. WTO rules aren't a given
Tue Jun 12, 2018, 01:38 PM
Jun 2018

Brexshitters are still utterly clueless as to what these rules entail, and we seem utterly unprepared to implement WTO rules.

There is also the matter of whether WTO members will actually allow us in, and what may be demanded in return. Can a country like Argentina hold us to ransom over anything?

 

TimeSnowDemos

(476 posts)
10. True
Tue Jun 12, 2018, 02:41 PM
Jun 2018

But...

I don't think there's any evidence that the Tories can solve NI.

I also don't think that the EU is going to just roll over. In fact it would be self-destructive if they did.

So... They're leaving... And WTO is the most likely outcome without a deal. IMO..

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