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It’s Boris, and Brexit, or Bust!
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, New York born British politician, will take on his new role of Prime Minister tomorrow afternoon.
But first, he became (I’m pretty sure), the first member of the British Conservative Party to work the honorific, “dude,” into a political speech.
May we live in interesting times.
I thought what he said about Conservative insights into human nature and the human heart was quite poignant.
And absolutely true.
Marvelous!
I like the dude.
You beat me to it She.
Great news for conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic. Boris is the greatest believer in the Anglo-American alliance since Lady Thatcher, not just in the cosmetic way that some Prime Ministers have treated it to burnish their own reputations, but in the fundamental values of freedom that underpin both our countries.
Tough days ahead but, at last, we now have the right hand on the tiller.
He won by a two to one margin – 92,153 to 45,656 – or 66.38%. Turnout was a very healthy 87.4%.
For some context Jeremy Corbyn won the Labour leadership with around 61%, Tony Blair with 57% and David Cameron won 68% of the Conservative members in 2005. In other words there should be no question about his mandate.
And I had to get out of bed so much earlier to do it . . . :)
I just hope he’s allowed to get on with it; the opposition (in all parties, including his own) and the media are already sharpening their knives.
Yes, but the real damage can only be done by Parliament, so he has about twenty four days to survive in that regard. Assuming they don’t torpedo him before he is called to see the Queen.
Although some fool was talking about scrapping the party conference season so the House can sit. I hope that was just the fag end of the May administration but it was the rumour in Westminster last week….
It’s been over three years since England voted to leave the European Union. I had no idea it would be so difficult to leave an alliance. What’s up, anyway? Just leave . Perhaps Boris can pull it off.
The number of plots to bring him down is incredible. Including one yesterday by a Conservative MP to bring him down before he was installed. Surprisingly, it was Bercow who stopped it.
But the last thing Boris should be afraid of is a general election. He is a fantastic campaigner. I hope he gets on with taking over Conservative Party mechanics as a high priority.
I hope so. Cameron totally mucked it up, and was floored when Brexit passed. That was the end of him. Theresa May was compromised from the start, as she’d campaigned as one of the (what have come to be known as) “Remoaners,” and then was tasked with carrying it out. I don’t think her heart was in it, her cabinet, and the party, was split, and the boil just festered and oozed for her entire term. “Just get on with it,” is a very British saying, and I hope BoJo can do that, one way or another. It needs to be over.
First thing he needs to do is form a cabinet that isn’t full of dolts, backstabbers and leakers. That would be a good start. No former British Ambassadors to the US, nor their staffs, need apply.
As a conservative, members of the British electorate and fervent Brexiteer, I am cautiously optimistic about the capacity of Boris Johnson (hereinafter BoJo) to fulfil his agenda: deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Corbyn.
With only three months to go to the current Brexit deadline, there are still several different scenarios in play:
With the cantankerous drunkard Jean-Claude Juncker having been replaced as President of the European Commission by the eminently more reasonable German Defense Minister, Ursula von der Leyen, there is a distinct possibility that the EU might seek a further extension of the deadline in order that a deal may be reached. Such an extension would be hotly opposed by several EU countries, in particular France, as well as by many of my compatriots. If the new EU leadership can come up with a new agreement, the wait will have been worthwhile.
BoJo is still ready to leave without a deal. This would not be a catastrophe (I seem to remember that the thirteen colonies seceded from the British Empire without a deal, and they haven’t done so badly), but it would provoke a general election in the UK, which could go either way.
BoJo’s goal is to unite the country. First, he must unite the Conservative Party. Good luck with that!
Other good news for Boris today is that a court case about an alleged paedophile ring in Westminster collapsed. The main sponsor of the delusional man who made the allegations was the deputy leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson, who is also the main man behind the moves to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn. Watson has been heavily damaged by this, which should keep the old marxist in charge of the opposition, for now.
Sounds mad I know, but a more centrist leader would attract defections from Tory Remainers. Much as I loathe him, Corbyn’s role in delivering Brexit is critical. He is a eurosceptic leading a europhile party who probably would be quite happy for Boris to deliver no deal, whatever he says in public.
She,
Beat me to it also. I was going to make the title of my post, “Boris Rises to the Occasion“. The speech was excellent. This is a great start. One can only pray that he can pull it through.
Regards,
Jim
I had never made that connection. Thanks for making it for me.
This is truly a horrific story. I knew about it, but hadn’t been following it lately. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/07/23/carl-beech-tom-watson-championing-nick-major-inquiry-paedophile/.
So this was just a vote among Tory party members? and there are only like 150,000 of them in the whole country of 10s of millions? I must say the British political system seems utterly daft to me. That any one can be leader of a nation but not stand up for vote before the whole nation…. and people complain about the electoral collage in the US, but this parliamentary system thing seem way less democratic.
Well that’s neither here nor there. Last I recall the Parliament couldn’t vote a majority on any plan except that they didn’t want a no deal Brexit. So how does any of this change now?
It is quite different from the one in the US, that’s for sure. Some find the fact that, when a general election (which this was not) is called for in the UK, the campaign season lasts only a few weeks (rather than over two years), quite refreshing.
Yes, it’s quite different. The two countries I’m talking about above went their separate ways over that matter, more than 200 years ago, IIRC.
I guess we’ll find out soon.
I am interested to see what kind of relationship BoJo has with the current mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. I suspect it will be spirited!
Interesting choice of word!
Apparently Team Boris didn’t want him to give one today, he is saving the good one for tomorrow and the now traditional steps of Downing Street speech. Margaret Thatcher famously quoted St. Francis of Assisi, I imagine Boris might go further back and quote Pericles…
There are 180,000 odd members, 159,000 eligible to vote (no recent ‘entry-ists’ allowed).
It’s a long way from the days of the Primrose League under Lord Salisbury. If I remember my John Ramsden (and I have had a celebratory drink), membership peaked again in the 1950s at somewhere close to a million. It fell during Thatcher’s time and most drastically again under David Cameron.
It has been climbing recently, a Brexit boost that was then snuffed out by May’s policy, and then again recently – hence those not eligible to vote. It was only a year ago that some were speculating that it was under a hundred thousand.
Boris, and Brexit, or Bust! Oh my!
Boris, and Brexit , or Bust! Oh my!
Boris, and Brexit, or Bust! Oh my!
(Sorry, everyone. I couldn’t help myself 😛)
Looking at the historical track record for states/nations seceding from a union [1] [2] [3] [4], I tend to conclude that the Brexit process has been relatively painless by comparison. There are vanishingly few historical examples of nations seceding from a union without bloodshed, and the historical examples that do exist [1] [2] [3] took upwards of a century to complete from start to finish.
@mrnick and @she, Boris mentioned “building his team” over the next few days. Do either of you have any preferences in this regard?
Not clued in enough to who’s who in the UK to make an informed decision. I just hope that all those who are ambivalent or conflicted have either run away or imploded. And I hope he’ll have a cabinet who’s committed to the same goals as he is. Mr. Nick can probably shed more light. All I know is that “get on with it” should be the order of the day, and that, if my Dad were alive at this moment, he’d be advocating for that too.
Real quick while I’m at work – anyone else notice how much they look alike?
He’s got to be the first PM in British history not to be married, no?
No. There were four before. (Actual bachelors, I think. Whereas, BoJo is divorced):
Edward Heath. That one, I remember. Lived with his mother for most of his life.
Earl of Wilmington, 1742. Don’t remember him..
Wiliam Pitt, 1783. There’s a biggie. But I don’t remember him either, actually, even such a withered old hag as I . . .
Arthur Balfour, 1902. Getting closer . . .
I’m going to really enjoy bringing that up to all of the lefties who want the US to be like the “civilised” European countries…
A few more of those ‘double-o’ types might come in handy.