Journals first:
Arrival of ‘clown who wanted to be king’ at No 10 is greeted with scepticism in Europe
“The Queen’s jester,”... “He’ll start breaking his promises tomorrow,”...“known for his eccentricity, his elastic positions, his narcissism and his lies”
And so on. The tragedy for people like me is that we probably agrees with all of those --but still want him to do well so he can drive Brexit over the line at last. After that he can disappear. It's a dreadful position to be in but there it is. The left-wing case continues to thrive, in blogs like Briefings for Brexit and the Full Brexit but the agenda has shrunk horribly to Hunt vs Johnson vs May.
Johnson has one other redeeming characteristic, noted by Q Letts in the Times -- he doesn't do robotic corporate speak combined with hypocritical liberal moralising, unlike all recent . politicians -- his most unforgivable characteristic for the woke virtue-signaller.
Then rather encouraging EC hostility with some useful idiocy too, in this 'report':
Boris Johnson’s claims that crashing out of the EU with no deal would be less painful because of a series of “side deals” that the UK has already done with Brussels have been dismissed as “rubbish” by the EU....Pauline Bastidon, the head of global and European policy at the Freight Transport Association, said: “There is a huge difference between a mini-deal or a side deal and a contingency plan. If it were a deal it would imply they have reached an agreement and are equally bound by an agreement. I’m afraid there is no such agreement....While everyone expects the proposal to on planes to be rolled over, there is concern that the others may not, especially if talks with Johnson go badly and elements of the agreement on the Irish border, the divorce bill and EU citizens are dumped.
Finally,a Grun panel (described in the subhead as 'Guardian Columnists'] are left to vent their collective views. They are confined to 'opinion' pieces, but the Grun has long abandoned the distinction with news and focuses much of its attention here:
M Gill, starts with quite a cool assessment:
What of policy? Johnson should ignore any calls to come up with immediate policy programmes that look beyond Brexit: that is missing the point. Under his plans the country risks a disastrous no deal in October – the consequences of which will affect all domestic policy and kill any plans a prime minister had for it. Instead Johnson should prioritise preparing for no deal – we have a lot to do here if we wish to catch up with our European counterparts.
G Younge, after noticing the continued importance of social class over meritocracy says:
His ascent is, of course, a catastrophe for the country. Whether he’s sucking up to Donald Trump, lying about kippers or insulting allies and enemies alike, he is a liability...There is nothing to celebrate in this moment but the symmetry. The leave campaign had no more plans for leaving the European Union than a dog chasing a car has to drive it. Now its most prominent spokesman is in charge of making it happen. For the past three years they have been able to claim that only if a true believer were in charge everything would be different. With Johnson in charge they are running out of people to blame for the situation they created.
I Hardman disagrees with her colleague Gill:
Johnson should also have learned from May’s failure to introduce the domestic reforms she claimed to care about the most. You cannot wait for quieter, easier times to work on these changes....Johnson demanded cross-party talks to find a solution to the social care crisis. He not only needs to set these up immediately but also lock all the parties in to the policy they eventually develop so that there is not a repeat of previous collapses in talks. He is also about to appoint a new housing secretary, and must choose someone experienced with an ability to deliver tough reforms. He has been worryingly quiet on his support for the domestic abuse bill
Of course,it will be both -- some sort of Brexit and then bread and circuses to win an election . T Kibasi (director of the Institute for Public Policy Research and chair of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice., so not really a reporter,but a kind of ideological bedfellow) goes back to Leaver-bashing:
he has lashed himself so tightly to the European Research Group (ERG) fanatics that they will carry him, and all of us, over the cliff edge just to feel the wind in their hair on the way down....So the UK can either negotiate a deal while still inside the bloc or from a weaker position outside of it. No matter what, there will be an eternal return to the question of the Irish border. Even if the UK were to exit without a deal, agreeing to the backstop and paying the financial settlement will be preconditions of any trade talks.
So a failure to understand confrontation, as usual, and reporting what the EC wants as unalterable facts -- same old same old. Then another bedfellow B Laffan (director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, and director of the global governance programme, both at the European University Institute, Florence):
Boris Johnson will have no time to savour his victory. During the campaign Johnson sent mixed signals when he pledged to take the UK out of the EU with or without a deal on 31 October – while also saying he wanted a deal. [usual literalism and inability to detect subjunctives,and EC views are law stuff]...Bonhomie and bluster will count for little.Meanwhile, the Grun team has another misunderstanding. It notes that I have read more than 6 articles in the last month, assumes this means I agree with them, and uses this to repeat its request for funding!
Meanwhile,enough of this balance.HJ Parkinson, sounds the true notes of the affronted petit-bourgeoisie:
Boris Johnson: the clown is crowned as the country burns in hell
['Hell' because the heatwave -- geddit? London is really hot!]
Someone who could easily be rejected as a Guess Who character for looking too ridiculous is now to lead the country. A man whose DNA profile is the exact same as a Bernard Manning joke...Elected by a staggering 0.2% of the nation, we can’t say it isn’t the will of the people....Johnson’s speech wasn’t so much circuitous as re-routed entirely around the North Circular. In the most excruciating moment, he mentioned that “Deliver, Unite, Defeat” was not the greatest campaign slogan he might have chosen, because it spelled out “DUD”. You just know that he came up with that campaign slogan purely so that he could make this quip, which wasn’t even good. He then added an extra letter, E, for “energise”, saying: “DUDE, we are going to energise this country!”...I have never, ever wanted to DIE more. How about a different brand, Boris? I’m thinking more: “Dithering, Idiot, Clown, Klutz.” :
Then some masterly ( sorry personaly) comments based on photos at hte meetig yesterday.Routine stuff --anyone with amotor drive cantakephotos of peoplelookingabsurd in mid-movement, but this is Graun-style interpretations of body-language. Johnson and Hunt initially missed each others' hands as they tried to shake,read as 'You see,
Johnson can’t even negotiate with his own hands to clap properly, let
alone with an entire European bloc' ]. Skilledreadingof other photos ensue:
he looks like he’s stumbled, wasted, off a party catamaran moored off Magaluf, drinking WKD from a hat with straws...And this, being caught on tiptoes, like a child who adds a fraction to their age when asked. An unbelievably humiliating way to start your tenure, aside from just being Boris Johnson in the first place...Rachel Johnson and Amber Rudd’s unveiling as a couple....And this incredible side-eye from Hunt’s wife, Lucia, as Johnson was named the winner, which speaks for us all...I don’t understand how a man can lie his way about bananas and condoms to high office. I don’t understand how a man whose entire prep for anything seems to consist of drawing a cock and balls – but in Latin! – on a sheet of paper, ends up in high office.
I don’t understand how a man can be recorded offering to facilitate the assault of a journalist and reach high office. I don’t understand how a man can be fired twice for cavalierly making stuff up and reach high office. I don’t understand how a man whose entire personality is a job-lot sold off from a closing down joke shop can reach high office. A racist, an inveterate liar, a man who makes Machiavelli look misunderstood and Pinocchio button-nosed.
Personally, I hope he does make Machiavelli look misunderstood.
Incidentally, 'Hannah Jane Parkinson is a Guardian columnist who writes on pop culture, music, tech, football, politics and mental health'.
Her photo shows an ageing middle class poseuese, anxiously signalling her interests, desperate to be liked. [I write in the subjunctive piss-taking, of course]. These seem to be combined in a typical flakey way as in this quote from a Staggers piece: 'Brexit, Trump, Windrush, fascist leaders and lying politicians, the news is so bleak I, like many of us, am struggling'. Another piece has : 'I am bleeding from the wrists in a toilet cubicle of the building I have therapy in, with my junior doctor psychiatrist peering over the top of the door, her lanyards clanking against the lock. Her shift finished half an hour earlier.' She was turned down at Oxford entrance (weren't we all) but continued to go to FE in Oxford, no doubt hoping to be able to bluff later. She was sucessful in getting a job with the Graun. She is an LGBT activist. End of subjunctive -- I won't go on -- it's too easy to shoot Guardian fish in a barrel.
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