Gurdina celebrates -- years of misery to come

The GRu is having some worrying thoughts about the forthcoming election (agreed at last). S Jenkins:

A win for Boris Johnson would lead to a ruinous hard Brexit. How are opposition parties acting in the country’s interest?

The polls may be unreliable but, with a divided, demoralised opposition, the odds must be on Johnson winning [could be because enough voters will agree with his deal, of course, or, like me, hold their noses and vote against Remainers and revokers]

There is only the consolation of moral victory and a few years muttering I told you so to the cows in the field, passing traffic, or anyone who will listen:

That is not the end. Next year comes the real moment of truth: proper negotiations on a long-term trade deal with Brussels. Remember, Britain will still be in a transitional customs union, and it will start to be hit by a tornado of economic bad news.

This line seems to be echoed by the egregious M Barnier:

British companies risk trade barriers to the European Union if a future government seeks to abandon EU standards on workers’ rights and environmental protection, Michel Barnier has signalled.

I don't think I'd have much of a problem with that, though, unless it became a game of restrictive practices, and it would ease Labour's worries, surely?

Luckily, there is more punishment promised as well:

[Barnier] warned that the EU-UK free-trade deal could be blocked by any one of three dozen national or regional parliaments. “Don’t underestimate the difficulties of the process of ratification,” he said...[and]... the UK would have to pay a “proportional” contribution to the EU budget to remain in the single market beyond 2020.

Meanwhile, Graun commentators might be quite disappointed with a comment on the England Rugby Team's stance while the All Blacks performed the haka. The team stood in a V formation. They were fined, no doubt for the usual sort of thought crimes involving colonialism and disrespect for indigenous peoples.The Gra is normally hot on those. How disappointing to read this:

Tapeta Wehi, a haka expert from Rotorua in the North Island, praised the English side’s bold move and said he wished more teams would respond to the haka with such panache....Wehi said the haka was widely misunderstood and was intended as a challenge to the opponents – and any side that met the challenge deserved respect – not a fine...“Most Māori love it when the challenge is met – I love it,” said Wehi.

Oh dear -- some sort of support for confrontations, albeit ritualised ones. Tapet Wehi looks like they are male,and, unfortunately, hegemonic phallogocentrism has outweighed the pull of the spiritual and peace-loving traditional wisdom of the Maori (assuming Tapet Wehi is one) in this case. More regulation of team body language is clearly required.