General Chat

At the event, Stewart told the audience that his appearance “constitutes my resignation from the Conservative party”, before reading the 1982 letter to Johnson’s father, Stanley, from his teacher Martin Hammond.

“Boris really has adopted a disgracefully cavalier attitude to his classical studies,” the letter begins.

Appearing on a bill that also featured the actors Olivia Colman, Jude Law and Benedict Cumberbatch, Stewart read: “Boris sometimes seems affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility … I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else.”

Hasn't changed or learnt anything about himself then has he ;-) :-D :-D :-D

Did his father even care what a teacher had written?

Did Boris pass his Classical Studies exam? If so, I think his behaviour was that of a teenager.

My two (and I am sure more) only ever put any effort into anything as the exams neared. More than one teacher told me he/she was cruising but I found it easy to sit back and let them get on with it because I knew I had competitive children. Indeed, one of them so angered a geography teacher that she was dropped from top group. She was enraged, but by the end of that school year she was in top group again.

I am not a Boris lover and I think even less of his so-called 'advisers' .


On another tack - Rollo, how about 'a book' on the outcome of the negotiations.

Will Boris bluff his way through a deal or no-deal or will he find his hands tied? I wonder whether anyone will come up with some interpretation of a statute that will yet stop B in his tracks? I would be searching feverishly through to find something but that requires patience which is often in short supply.

Johnson has pledged to the Court of Session in Ediburgh that he will comply with the "Benn Act" if no deal is reached with the EU.

The prime minister accepts “he is subject to the public law principle that he cannot frustrate its purpose or the purpose of its provisions. Thus he cannot act so as to prevent the letter requesting the specified extension in the act from being sent.”

O’Neill told Lord Pentland, the judge hearing the case, that Johnson had repeatedly contradicted that position, including in the Commons on Wednesday, by insisting the UK would leave on 31 October come what may.

As a result, O’Neill said, the court still needed to issue legally binding orders to force Johnson to comply with the Benn act in an interdict, or injunction. If the prime minister refused to do so, O’Neill could return to court to ask for Johnson to be fined or jailed, he added.

Number 10 declined to comment.

No Brexit then, or no Brexit ever? Boris has certainly been caught on the back foot.

He could simply throw his papers (and his dummy) up in the air and quit and we'd be looking for a new leader. I think there'll be a-jostling and a-shoving going on in the background at the moment.

I voted Remain but I do believe in abiding by a majority so I have conflicting thoughts about it all. I think we have a right shower in Parliament at the moment and the words 'booze-up' and 'brewery' spring to mind.

Elections, including referendums, have a use by date they don't remain valid for ever. That is why ordinary elections take place every few years.

The 2016 Referendum has for sure passed its use by date.
The only fair move from here would be a second referendum pitting Remain v one of May's Deal or plain NoDeal Leave.

As it stands more likely is a de facto coalition of Lab/Lib after a winter general election. Reaching a compromise between Corbyn's rigmarole and Swinson's plain cancel out could be fun esp if the LibDems have more seats than Labour.

Johnson is trying to entice Austria, Hungary and one of the Baltic States to refuse an extension. Problem is that Merkel has threatened a large German jackboot while the UK has no quid pro quo at all. She who pays the piper calls the tune.

'' Merkel has threatened a large German jackboot'' Is that why Brexit voters want to leave?
How many traitors have we in this country that want to stay?
I was a remainer until I saw the way we were treated by the unelected in Brussels when we said we were leaving, now 100% BREXIT.

You can't be serious.

It's a two way discourse.
Shame the Johnson's of this world think everyone should cow-tow to their ideals.

Am I the only person on this site who is a brexiteer and supports Boris? The more he is attacked, and the more dirt they try to dig up on him, the more his popularity ratings soar.

In answer to your question Harswell, the figure is zero. As for the unelected in Brussels, they are civil servants who carry out the will of the EU parliament (which is democratically elected by EU citizens).

I think it is rather treacherous for Johnson/Cummings to denigrate our own democratically elected parliament.

Project Fear, it turns out, was no project fear. Its forecast of lower investment (now 26% below other recoveries), lower growth (3% below trend as forecast) and a reduction in sterling’s value (18% down) were all correct or erred on the over-optimistic. Investment in the car industry has plummeted from £4.5bn in 2014 to a projected £200m this year. Nothing like this has happened in a major industrial sector since the Great Depression of 1931.

The traitors surely are those who knowingly promulgated Brexit - Gove, Cummings, Banks, Farage et al . They believed , and still do, that breaking asunder the current setup to be replaced by Singapore 2 is worth a generation of nihilism.

Kense and Rollo, I agree entirely with the treacherous names you wrote.

It does not bode well, I fear, as far as a depression is concerned but I hope it does not nosedive as far as the 1930's figures. Even though Germany and Australia were the worse hit economies in the 30s, the rest of the West suffered badly and I can recall my grandfather telling me of trudging miles to find work.

The only way out from that depression seems to have been creation of a huge war machine which, surely, at least one of those mentioned must have studied?

Of course, Johnson, Gove, Cummings, Banks etc will be 'alright Jack'. I'd hate to think they were all ousted and had to look for work during a depression, wouldn't you? ;-)

Snake oil by the barrel

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/10/no-deal-brexit-voters-clean-break