BBC gets (fairly) objective -- at last

I can't watch it live but the contents of the BBC Panorama broadcast tonight is summarised on the BBC website.

The 10 points are refreshingly clear of idiotic identity politics, imagined community stuff and petit-bnourgeois distanciation and focus on the real politik. Except for the last, which talks of perceptions of Europe in France and Germany as more than just a market but destiny --and then describes the equal misunderstandings of the desire for Brexit as short-term political expediency. The intention of the EC to punish the UK to discourage furtther populism is clear. The backstop is described as a 'French plan in a green jersey'. En route, the absence of any planning by the British side compared to the EC, and the weakness of the May team in accepting a crafty EC agenda (like putting the ludicrous withdrawal agreemet first), without even worrying about Parliamentary support, are described succinctly. The piece ends with saying there is still disbelief at the EC that no deal will take place, but the subordination of German business to the EC notion of 'destiny' remains an open question.

It will be gripping to see how the Graun and others report this tomorrow.

Grieve plans yet another coup

According to el graun, ace plotter D Grieve is determined to spend what must be his last few months as an MP organising yet another coup:

Former cabinet ministers could be among those who feel they have no choice but to vote down a Boris Johnson administration in order to prevent a no-deal Brexit, Dominic Grieve has said.

He doesn't care, but:

MPs who voted against their own party in a confidence vote are likely to lose the whip and be de-selected at the next election.

Some will be deselected before they enter an election, of course. What would inspire such a drastic move?

[possible allies] they think it ['no deal']  is going to be catastrophic,” he said.

Presumably we just have to take their words for it.

Elsewhere, the House of Lords is also stirring:

the House of Lords on Monday made moves to stop parliament being suspended to force it through. A cross-party group of peers launched their bid in the Lords this week, as they warned that the “procedural gambit” was needed to stop a “constitutional outrage”.

What has particularly worried the plotters is that a new tougher line seems to be appearing -- at least in the hustings -- over the backstop:

Tory leadership rivals say they would prefer no-deal Brexit to proposed Irish border solution

 Why even propose such a thing, given that:

The EU has repeatedly ruled out reopening Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement to revisit the backstop, which Brussels regards as a way of protecting the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland from a return to a hard border between them.[nothing to do with protecting the customs union, let alone punishing the UK, of course] 

Prize for the weakest link between current events and Brexit goes today to S Moore:

The moon landing still offers hope in a world ruled by tiny minds 

The article itself also tells Moore's own story of discovery and redemption, of course.

Waving your stumps

An old scandal has re-emerged, strangely timed to coincide with last-gasp efforts to rubbish Johnson: 

A journalist who Boris Johnson secretly discussed helping a friend [D Guppy] to have beaten up has demanded an apology from the Conservative leadership candidate as he stands on the brink of Downing Street.... the incident [took place] nearly 30 years ago

But fear and vulnerability last for ever, as we know:

the retired reporter said he had been so disturbed by the “Guppygate” incident he had told his wife to be careful answering the front door. While Collier learned of the call long after the fact, he was sufficiently unsettled by the discovery to worry for his family’s safety, he said. The 69-year-old called on Johnson to apologise to him and his wife over the incident, which he said had left her frightened at home with their then young son, Ross.  

Egging the pudding, and relying on, possibly even exploiting, memories of 30 years ago:

Collier’s wife, Jennifer, 64, a lifelong Conservative voter, also urged Johnson to say sorry. “He should be accountable for the things that he’s done. I think it’s disgraceful behaviour,” she said...“These people seem to think they don’t have to live by the same moral standards as the rest of us. They think because they went to Eton they don’t have to be answerable to things, and I just think his moral compass is way off the scale.”...Jennifer Collier, a former nurse who works for a charity, [can't get much more virtuous than that] said the couple had only recently moved into their home at the time and had not known many people...“So it was quite worrying [wrong terminology] to be told: ‘Don’t answer the door unless you recognise somebody,’ because I didn’t recognise anybody. Stuart was away at work all day, used to leave half seven in the morning, get back at eight o’clock at night. So I was in this house on my own with a toddler,” she said.

 Questioned about the tape by Eddie Mair in 2013, Johnson said: “Yes, it was certainly true that he was in a bit of a state, and I did humour him in a long phone conversation, from which absolutely nothing eventuated and … you know, there you go. But I think if any of us had our phone conversations bugged, they might, you know … people say all sorts of fantastical things while they’re talking to their friends.”

In an accompanying piece,  Collier says:

After the tape emerged, Collier said, he was interviewed by a police officer. “By that time I knew that there was a plot to find me,” Collier recalled. “But I didn’t want to get involved in pressing any charges. I just really wanted to get on with my life. Fortunately, nothing came of Guppy’s threats or Boris’s involvement.”... He does not regret his decision not to take it further with police at the time and has no plans to now...Collier, who left the NoW in the late 1990s, long before the hacking scandal exposed by the Guardian culminated in the newspaper’s closure in 2011, said: “Naturally, as a NoW reporter, I did a lot of stories where people wanted revenge on me

It's the old problem with activist journalism here.This is so transparently strategic and connected to the Graun's campaign to expose 'the real Boris Johnson' (the subheading on the second item,and the subject of a heavy-handed jokey quiz, offering the options 'gaff prone or arch schemer') that the impact of the actual story is diluted.It is just far too easy to see Collier and the Guradian exploiting their own past injuries in a rather cynical way.

The liberal moral panic mk 213 -- a Johnson hate session combined with virtue-signalling

Inevitable stuff from old 'bang on and on' M Kettle, commenting on the ITV debate between the leadership candidates.The subheading reveals the usual twin targets of the petit bourgeois both above and below:

Smirks, smugness and self-love will not deter predominantly rightwing, old, white and male Tory voters

Kettle possibly shares three of the four undesirable characteristics of the Tory voters too, of course. The piece starts with a prediction that shows the problems of such a partisan state:

He will sack Sir Kim Darroch as UK ambassador to the United States as soon as he gets his feet under the table and he will cosy up to Donald Trump by making a political appointment to succeed the man Trump called “wacky”.

Actually, Darroch resigned yesterday. Commentators have tried hard to blame Johnson's 'lack of support' for him in the debate -- actually he said if he made PM he alone would decide Darroch's fate (ie not Trump nor the press). Darroch was reported as saying he felt undermined by Johnson -- not by Trump, not by the colleague who leaked his confidential memo, but by Johnson! Whether he actually said anything of the kind is debatable of course. All ambassadorial appointments are political, of course, and it was Blair's appointee, I recall, who said his main task was to get as far as possible up the ass of the White House.

Kettle tries to recover and then embroider a bit in this current article 

Darroch was brought down by three people. The first was the leaker of successive critical memos from the Washington embassy, who gave them to one of Britain’s most effective pro-Brexit journalists [ah-- dark artery]. The second was President Trump, who followed up on the leaks with a fusillade of personal insults and punitive actions of his own which brought Darroch to the brink. And the third was Boris Johnson, who knowingly refused to express confidence in Darroch during Tuesday’s ITV leadership hustings with Jeremy Hunt. It was Johnson’s action that led directly to Darroch’s inevitable resignation today.

The most recent event must be the cause? Or Johnson just must be blamed the most?This is the Grudian's 'evidence':

The Guardian understands that he [Darroch] concluded he could not go on after he watched Tuesday’s Conservative leadership TV debate...A broad political consensus [all anti-Johnson Tories] has emerged that Johnson’s refusal to back Darroch had made the diplomat’s position untenable....Sir Alan Duncan, a Foreign Office minister, attacked Johnson’s role in the affair....Conservative MP Sir Patrick McLoughlin agreed...And the former Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said: “Anyone, I think, would have seen last night’s events and seen a potential prime minister letting someone go very publicly.”

Kettle extends his case:

Johnson’s ITV debate exposed once again a politician who can rival Trump for self-centred and ruthless opportunism. Tuesday reminded us that, in Johnson’s world, other people are always expendable. Ask the former London police chief Ian Blair, sacked by Johnson in one of the most disgraceful acts of his mayoralty. Ask Iran’s prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, innocent victim of Johnson’s lazy mind and incontinent tongue. 

Incidentally, the link reminds us that  

Blair has faced pressure to step down over a number of issues, most notably the botched anti-terrorism operation in July 2005 which saw a Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, shot dead by police who mistook him for a potential suicide bomber.

Blair's virtue is restored simply because Johnson sacked him? 

Kettle looks into his crystal ball again, and sees doom, doom:

Britain risks becoming the vassal of a capricious unilateralist state. Johnson or his successor would be Britain’s Carrie Lam to Washington’s Xi Jinping. This is a new world. There are no precedents. Britain’s postwar belief that it is a unique bridge between Europe and the US [the plot of the classic James Bond movie, usually ridiculed by the Gaurdianistas]  is more rickety now than ever. The Brexiters are set on destroying one end of the bridge. Trump is equally bent on blowing up the other.

Other Kettle predictions, curiously mixed together in the earlier piece are:

He [Johnson] will not override the Democratic Unionist party on LGBT rights in Northern Ireland. The HS2 high-speed rail plan is now as good as dead. And Johnson will kill the third runway at Heathrow and, in all likelihood, revive his plan to move London’s airport to an eye-watering and uncosted site in the Thames estuary which Britain’s sycophantic press will undoubtedly christen Boris Island.

So HS2 is a liberal cause now, and so is the third runway? Both are akin to overriding LGBT rights? Boris Island has not been comprehensively rejected after all?

The ways in which stories get legs, moral panics deepen and quotes and actions are interpreted as spectral evidence is well illustrated in another Graun piece on the Darroch affair:

Kim Darroch: effectively sacked by Johnson on the orders of Trump 

The heading on the website leading to the article even misses out the word 'effectively'

Whatever sanctimonious expressions of regret Johnson mouths and however much he blames the leaker, the Foreign Office knows he effectively sacked Darroch, believing he was carrying out the orders of Donald Trump.

Of course there might have been other factors, but let us not be distracted by them:

According to McDonald, Darroch felt that as long as he stayed in Washington he and his family would be a target....Darroch could sense that a wounded Trump meant to carry out the threat to ostracise him. A diplomat is by profession the ultimate networker and cannot continue if the lines of communication are cut....These were all cogent reasons to resign. Johnson’s decision not to defend him was a deliberate act of sabotage...Johnson chose to betray him...The last three days have shown a man who when asked to jump only answers: “How high?” It is not surprising that the Trump administration is so optimistic that Johnson will follow Trump’s thinking on issues such as Iran, Huwaei and Israel....he will have revealed himself to be shallow and willing to take advantage of an illegal leak to oust a civil servant who had dedicated himself to public life. Yes, ultimately the leaker is to blame, and Trump’s thin skin, but evasion of personal responsibility is already becoming the defining negative feature of Johnson’s candidacy.

 

 

What does the EU do for us (er...with our money)?

First some coup news.The Grieve amendment won by one vote yesterday,so the Government may have to report back on the progress of its proposals for N Ireland during September and October. Naturally, this was a triumph for Parliamentary democracy itself:

According to the Times

Mr Grieve said that he was “absolutely delighted”, adding: “It is essential that parliament expresses its outright opposition to prorogation, which would be unconstitutional. I’m so pleased it has the chance to do that.”

Then a legal version of a coup is reported/anticipated/encouraged:

Brexit: John Major threatens court action to stop Boris Johnson proroguing parliament – live news

Citing a Times article:

David Pannick QC. Pannick represented Gina Millar in the article 50 case and he explains why he thinks the JR [judicial review]  route might work:

First, the prime minister would be seeking to prorogue parliament for the purpose of avoiding parliamentary sovereignty on an issue of significant constitutional importance...Second, he would be seeking to stop parliament sitting when time would be of the essence, given the deadline of the end of October...And third, he would be seeking to evade parliament because it has previously made clear its wish to prevent a no-deal Brexit. 

A May aide has provided an interesting comment, invariably in a tweet:

Feel the need to point out that the last tactical prorogation of Parliament, for political means and to avoid Commons looking at something in more depth was by John Major to avoid the publication of a Cash for Access report when the House was sitting, leaving to [sic] long gap till GE [general election]

John Major was asked about this in his Today interview. He did not specifically deny calling the 1997 election a bit early to avoid the publication of a cash for questions report, but he said that by the time he did call that election, the parliament had already more or less run its full course.

Meanwhile, there is even an attempt to revive the Remainer Big Lie that was so discredited by the campaign slogan on the bus that so pisses them off. D Conn [sic] writes:

European funding has supported Britain for decades. Yet few people seem to know how much it has benefited their local area

Benefits, especially for the North East, include:

The Angel of the North...Gateshead council’s difficulties in raising the £800,000 needed for its monument to regeneration [are noted] , and in the bottom lefthand corner of the board is a tiny blue and yellow symbol of one organisation that came up with the cash: the European Union....Nissan alone...[benefitted]...from huge European regional development fund (ERDF) grants and, in just the eight years before the referendum, £450m in loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB).... the EU’s funding of regeneration landmarks, including the Sage music venue and Baltic art gallery on the Gateshead side of the Tyne, and the Millennium Bridge over to the Newcastle side....g 17 transformative developments, including of formerly derelict land around Lime Street station, major improvements to Liverpool John Lennon airport, and the arena and convention centre on the waterfront. Merseyside qualified for £1.6bn “Objective One” EU funding between 1994 and 2013 to try to haul it out of decline.... EU “structural funding” – from the ERDF and European Social Fund – was worth approximately £10bn to the UK between 2007 and 2013, and approximately £11bn is allocated from 2014 to 2020, with a further £25bn available for rural development and agriculture.

The bus lie issue is glossed:

an imaginary £350m weekly contribution to the EU without acknowledging the £5.6bn rebate or the annual £4bn invested back into the UK illustrated the general lack of knowledge about the basics of membership. ..[er...]...It is true of course that the UK – along with France, Germany and six other wealthier EU countries – is a net contributor to the EU, according to the long-agreed aim of raising living standards across the continent to help build peace, stability and a more prosperous single market that benefits all countries.

More Grievances - and hypocrital stuff on democracy

Guardian hopes for yet another Parliamentary coup rise again and the egregious D Grieve thinks up another wheeze, this time to stop Parliament being prorogued or suspended until the October 31 deadline.:

Grieve’s amendment, which has cross-party support including from a handful of fellow Conservative MPs, is to the Northern Ireland bill going through the Commons, and would require fortnightly reports on that country’s formation of an executive, which has been vacant since 2017... If passed, it would prevent the parliamentary session being prorogued, or abruptly ended, in the lead-up to the 31 October departure date.

Is any of this actually related to N Ireland? Is it openly admitted to be another Remain device? No, it's all piss and wind about Parliamentary democracy:

Grieve, a former attorney general, said “the idea that it is constitutionally proper to prorogue parliament as a device for bringing about a no-deal Brexit is outrageous …“If you decide that parliament is an inconvenience, when in fact it is the place where democratic legitimacy lies in our constitution, and therefore it’s acceptable to get rid of it for a period because it might otherwise [stop] you from doing something that parliament would prevent, then it’s the end of democracy.”...If MPs made a stand today to prevent prorogation, it would mean they could avoid having to do something more drastic later, Grieve said.

Opponents of the amendment can easily be dismissed:

Opponents of the amendment, such as the Tory MP Steve Baker, who is one of the leaders of the hardline European Research Group,[my emphasis -- no Remainers are ever 'hardline'] expressed outrage that Theresa May might give Tory MPs a free vote on the amendment...“Incredibly, I understand there is some doubt about the whipping on this matter.” Baker tweeted. “Surely Theresa May won’t allow her legacy to include failing to resist dragging the Queen into politics?” [weird and obscure point -- Her Maj formally decides if an election is necessary] ...He later drew attention to a newspaper story which suggested the chancellor, Philip Hammond, would support May’s legacy projects if she gave Tory rebels opportunities to vote for measures that ruled out a no-deal departure from the EU.

Meanwhile, the Owl of Minerva continues to stretch its wings over Ireland in this:

The Irish government has been caught in a bind, refusing to discuss plans for the border in the event of no deal because that would risk legitimising a disorderly exit. At the same time, it is aware of its EU obligations to protect the single market from third-country goods.

Specifically: 

McHugh, [Irish Minister for education] who represents the Donegal constituency that borders northern Ireland, said he will tell the cabinet about the impact Brexit is having on sectors such as tourism, which is promoted on an all-island basis and is down by more than 20% in the north-west of the island.

It is understood that in the immediate aftermath of a no-deal Brexit, checks on customs declarations and VAT could be conducted away from the border.  [denied as a solution earlier, of course] ...One option being considered by the EU agriculture department is to disrupt the all-Ireland economy. At present, this involves one third of milk from Northern Ireland being processed south of the border and more than 400,000 sheep being slaughtered annually in abattoirs hundreds of miles away in the republic....EU sources said that under the rules, milk from Northern Ireland will not be permitted into the republic from 1 November in the event of a no-deal Brexit because it will be deemed to have come from a third country.

Ah yes -- the rules. We must have  a hard line on those even if they make no sense and actually harm people


 

Another day, another Parliamentary coup

In the midst of a piece on the dreadful threat of a Johnson win ,the Observer casually drapes another dastardly plan (to be led by D. Grieve again, according to the Sunday Times,the man who makes the best case for the Toynbee Proposal to deny a voice and a vote to those who will not be around for the next Parliament):

For MPs concerned about his threat to leave the EU with no deal at the end of October, his clear lead has imbued a sense of determination. “I’ve had my period of mourning a long time ago,” said one. “It is going to be him. The key now is making sure we do everything we can to ensure that certain things can be stopped.”...For MPs opposing Johnson’s Brexit plans, attention has turned from stopping his administration to restraining it once in office. This week, a group of MPs will try to prevent Johnson from suspending parliament as a route to securing a no-deal Brexit that most MPs oppose. The plan, set to be unveiled as an amendment to a Northern Ireland bill tomorrow, is a sign of the determination of some to limit the room for manoeuvre of a Johnson premiership.

The editorial is predictable. There is the tiniest of straws to clutch:

Last week, the 160,000 Conservative members who will be making this choice on behalf of the nation received their ballot papers – some more than one, a farcical error that if left unrectified will undoubtedly call into question the legitimacy of the process.

Then the main themes:

in the effort to chase the votes of the tiny, unrepresentative sliver of the electorate that is the Conservative party membership, both men have moved definitively towards sacrificing the two long-standing creeds of British conservatism – the exercise of fiscal responsibility, and the conservation of the union – on the altar of a no-deal Brexit.

Why the Observer should care about sacrificing the tenets of British conservatism is not at all clear (!) After all:

This paper has been a staunch opponent of the austerity imposed on the country by successive Tory chancellors... Services for the most vulnerable children and adults have been left damaged as councils have seen government grants slashed by almost half. The priority for any new prime minister should be undoing these benefit cuts and increasing spending on social care, the NHS and schools.

So that is what 'fiscal responsibility' means? The sooner we  sacrifice it the better? Could all that be forgiven if only they would somehow Remain? Is the Observer sacrificing the economic welfare of the victims of austerity on the altar of Remain? Johnson and Hunt both seem to want to end austerity, although in ways that favour elites, of course

However, there are other factors:

In so openly contemplating crashing out with no deal, both Johnson and Hunt are treating the wishes of the people of Scotland and Northern Ireland with contempt, and are making the breakup of the UK more likely. 

The Observer means that minority of the Scottish and Irish population who voted Remain, and who together do not amount to the population of London? Their views should prevail? What about the minorities who actually want independence? Should we maintain the 'conservation of the union' against their wishes?

There is 'character' too, of course, an easier issue than the tricky one of rights of minorities:

All the polling evidence suggests that Conservative members will deliver a healthy majority for Boris Johnson, a man who has a long track record of misleading voters with impunity. He has misled the country about the implications of a no-deal Brexit, about the prospect of Turkey joining the EU, and about how much leaving the EU would free up in spending for the NHS. This is not a man fit to be prime minister. But the Tory membership don’t seem to care; one recent poll suggests that they would be happy to countenance significant economic damage and the breakup of the union in order to see Brexit happen.
Boris Johnson being handed the keys to Downing Street is the likely conclusion to a chapter of Tory party history that has seen it captured by a small group of Eurosceptic fanatics, who have no claim to represent the nation. 

Well, there was the Leave vote in the Referendum, of course, but Leave voters are clearly not 'the nation'. The clincher is probably small-c conservatism:

it would undoubtedly mark the start of an even more toxic and turbulent period for Britain.

Toxic and turbulent not just for the Northern working class this time,but for those who seem to believe they will be unable to 'travel,work and love across Europe', to paraphrase a tweet by D. Lammy (couldn't reference it -- he sends so many)