Power without Responsibilty

The prerogative of the harlot through the ages

While Boris Johnson is writing his £250,000 a year column in the Daily Telegraph and advising us all to be optimistic about Brexit, the pound is sliding through 31 year lows and six Property Funds in the city of London have closed to withdrawals.

On the day after the referendum result was declared Michael Heseltine mounted a scathing attack on Johnson for “leading his troops to the sound of the guns then quitting the field of battle”!

The further spectacle of Nigel Farage resigning as UKIP leader is yet another example of the unwillingness of the “Leave” campaigners to take responsibility for the Brexit negotiations and their consequences.

To quote Stanley Baldwin, three times British Prime minister back in those far off days of the 1930’s when Britain was still a Great Power, the principal Leave campaigners have achieved - “... power without responsibility — the prerogative of the harlot through the ages.

Following Gove’s back-stabbing of Johnson we are, of course, all enjoying the spectacle of the Tory leadership contest and also watching the Labour Party tear itself apart.  It would be great fun if it wasn’t so serious! 

Listen to Ken Clarke’s candid “off the record” comments, in which he dismisses the idea of Michael Gove as Prime Minister and discusses the other leadership candidates with Malcolm Riffkind.

The Leave campaign’s lies and back-tracking on their undeliverable promises are not, however, at all funny!  Neither is their characteristic bluster about a bright future outside the EU!

They have created a climate of uncertainty that will affect the country’s prospects for inward investment and employment for a decade and also probably provoked the break-up of the UK!

Thank you Michael Gove!

Who would have predicted that Gove would stab Johnson in the back? There again he has done the same to his friend David Cameron, so I suppose it should have been expected. Gove does not seem likely to poll enough votes from MP's to get into the final two, who will be put to a vote by Tory Party members; it seems likely that the second place slot will go to Andrea Leadsom. 

  

Theresa May does appear to be the safest choice for the negotiations with the EU but she's no charismatic Margaret Thatcher (more a British Angela Merkel) and was almost absent from the Remain campaign. Perhaps she was hoping to take advantage of the chaos that she knew would erupt after the result, whichever way it went. Nonetheless maybe it's time for a more realistic female approach instead of one lead by idealistic male dreams and fantasies!

There's lots of comment even in the tabloids about the lies that were told by the Leave campaign, particularly the battlebus £350 million a week lie. The biggest and most dangerous lie of all was blaming the lack of school places, social housing, healthcare etc on migrants. This was a masterstroke, worthy of the worst demagogues of the 20th century and has already given rise to an increase in racist attacks against EU migrants. The real reason for those strains in public services is aggressive Tory austerity cuts, but Corbyn was incapable of countering the Leave campaigns slick slogans.

Corbyn is a disaster for the Labour party! The country needs an effective opposition to rein back the Tory right wing and tell some truths that stick, otherwise look at the mess that they create!
Corbyn, for all his honesty and idealism, is totally useless as a political leader! Having lost the support of two thirds of his MP's he should go quickly, and not try to hang on pathetically in the hope of being rescued by his £3 party voters in a leadership election that could not re-establish him as leader of the Labour Party even if he won!

Today Johnson, writing in his £250,000 a year column in the Daily Telegraph, is calling the chaos and emotional uncertainty that he, himself, has created ”Project Fear Hysteria” and comparing it to the national mourning which gripped the nation following Princess Diana’s death.  He can’t distinguish genuine feelings from journalistic lies and half-truths. One doesn’t need to add that his tasteless comparison is offensive and disgusting. 

He goes on to accuse the Government of manipulating public opinion! Well he should know! And he calls for the public to be told some basic truths – not, of course, based on the opinions of the experts that he and Gove rubbished during the leave campaign but on his own unverified unilateral assertions. Are we expected to take him seriously! 

This man appears to be out of touch with reality, but as a columnist he doesn’t need to believe in and stand by his statements because he will probably need to write something more interesting next month to retain his well paid post!  You don’t sell newspapers by being boringly consistent!  

Thank you Michael Gove, for taking away from Johnson the possibility of being Prime Minister, and effectively ruling yourself out, at least this time round!