UK in/out referendum on the EU (Brexit vs Bremain)

I think that toad Farage is already on the warpath.

{{ So thanks to brexit Scottish fishing is taking a hammering.

'one shellfish exporter had lost £40,000 in a day, with many more losing out due to bureaucratic hold-ups at the border.
Fishing minister Victoria Prentis, appearing before a House of Lords committee, admitted “things are tricky at the moment” but said her team is “working hard” to resolve issues as they arose.
During her appearance Ms Prentis raised eyebrows by telling peers she did not read the fisheries deal when it was published on Christmas Eve because she was “very busy organising the local Nativity trail”.

You couldnt make that up- the fisheries minister never read the fisheries deal, because she was organising a local nativity!

She went to say "it’s true to say that we had, as an industry, dreamed some pretty big dreams and in some cases it’s true to say that we didn’t get everything we asked for."
Before giving as a solution that we just need to eat more fish in the UK!

When the matter was brought up at PMQ'a today Boris' response was-

“It is the policy of the Scottish nationalist party not just to break up the United Kingdom under their hare-brained scheme, but also to take Scotland back into the EU and hand back control of Scottish fisheries to Brussels, thereby throwing away all those opportunities.”

When told this reply was an insult to the fishing community losing money day after day and it was pointed out to him that currently 1/3 of the Scottish fleet is stuck in harbour, and those that are going out are having to land in Denmark to avoid the red tape of Brexit, and the EU is providing a £5 billion fund to EU fisheries to help with the transition, and Ireland was getting £1 billion in aid, Boris replied-

'“Mr Blackford continually advocates the break up of the union with the United Kingdom and he continually advocates going back into the European Union, even though that would be immensely destructive to the Scottish economy, to jobs, to livelihoods, to pensions, to the currency.
As far as I understand it, they’re already spending money in Scotland on indyref2, when they should be getting on with fighting the pandemic, that, I think, is what the people of Scotland want to see."

See a pattern here. only good thing is worse they do in dealing with addressing the problems of Brexit here, and more they simply respond with 'SNP bad, independence bad, EU bad' more likely it is we will become independent! }}

I know, just when I think I couldn't despise Johnson the smirking w***** any more. I do.

{{ It gets worse! }}

'Exports of Scottish seafood from smaller companies are to be halted for a further five days by the transport company that handles most of the trade.
DFDS stopped groupage exports last week after delays in getting new paperwork for EU border posts in France.
That was due to have resumed now but the company has told customers it will not begin again until next Monday.
Delays are reported by industry sources to have meant a sharp drop in exports - in one company's case, the normal flow of 100 tonnes of seafood per week resulted in only 8.5 tonnes being shipped.
The Groupage Export Service will start again on Monday 18 January, but it will not be an overnight service, Instead, it will take two nights from arrival at Larkhall to reaching the French market - known as "day one for day three".
DFDS acknowledged the "painful" effect of the interruption to exports on its customers.'- BBC News

I thought Brexit was supposed to give fishermen the glorious sunlit uplands? Its beyond ironic that fishermen are the first to suffer.

{{ Brexit is going well. NI is turning back to violence, sparked by the Unionists side. A week of rioting, and place names like Shankill Road and Lanark Way that were sadly all too familar during the Troubles are once again the epicentre of violence, petrol bombings and worse.
As usual there is a mix of things going on but Brexit is the prime mover (or excuse depending how you see it) for the latest rounds of violence.
Boris has played a very dangerous and stupid game with NI, one thats backfiring badly now and could get much worse.

To sum up likely effect of Brexit on the UK- NI may well plunge back into violence fuelled by a Unionist movement that feels Boris has stabbed them in the back and divided them from the rest of the UK. Scotland is likely to vote overwhelmingly for pro-independence parties, some of those, especially Salmonds new party are calling for people to take to the streets if Boris refuses a referendum under those circumstances, which will inevitably lead to confrontation and violence in Scotland too. And the fishing industry acorss the UK, but particualrly in Scotland (just because the bulk of UK fishing is in Scotland) is screwed and barely able to trade with the EU at a profit, if at all.

Going well so far! }}

Those bastards Cameron and Johnson need stringing up for crimes against humanity. Blood is on their hands. If NI kicks off its going to be awful to watch. All those kids sliding back into darkness, no words for those Tories are bad enough. The highstreet is dying, the farmers and fishermen stitched up like a kipper (although the idiots voted Leave), and now NI.

{{ Well, well Boris is in hot water, because along comes a spider called Cummings.
This whole recent period of Tory sleaze news; crooked deals, promises of fixes to big business, backdoor channels to government and PM for his  rich friends, looks with hindsight to have been a well planned revenge from Dominic Cummings.
Thats the problem when you hire a ruthless, ambitious, clever and cunning bastard of a man with no empathy or compassion and treat him like a confidant and co-conspirator, revealing all, then very publicly sack him.

Looks like sequence of events was probably Cumming used the loyal friends he has in Parliament and the media who have for various reasons a hatred of Boris- not least all those he ousted from the government for not going along with his Brexit plans or illegal breaking of Parliamentary laws, and those he ousted from politics altogther for opposing him, but who still have influence. And Cummings got these disenfranchised and disgrunteld lot to feed the newspapers the necessary stories, knowing Boris only too well he knew Boris would immediately default to attack, point the finger and accuse him.
Which brings us up to present time.

Right on cue Boris briefs the press it was Cummings behind all the leaks.

And Cummings denies it and offers his phone and emails to prove he never received the information that was leaked. Of course he didn't, he didn't leak them, he just had to know they existed and have someone in the right place who did have a copy and a grudge. Cummings just set the wheels in motion.

And having been wrongfully accused Cummings now openly responds, dishing more dirt, letting us all know Boris was trying to use illegal means to fund his wanted changes to No10's private quarters.

This in turn has forced the government to counter saying the PM paid for it himself. Westminster rumour mill says he paid with a loan. With the most likely thing being he organsied it as a loan from the same not allowed byt he rules sources so as to circumnavigate the law.

Naturally all the other Westminter Parties led by Labour and Starmer are clamouring for a full judical public enquiry of all this.

And as the next part of the Cummings attack, those Tories who refused to go along with Boris and he purged from the party and politics? Now its their cue in the revenge plan to begin to pile in.

"Former attorney general Dominic Grieve said the "constant wriggling" over payment for the flat refurbishment was "just one illustration of the chaos Mr Johnson seems to bring in his wake", describing the prime minister as "a vacuum of integrity"...(he) also described his (Boris') government as "a cronyistic cabal". - BBC News

And Cummings put a final boot in himself-

"Mr Cummings questioned the prime minister's "competence and integrity".

And this is far from over, this is just Cummings doing the foreplay before the big bang goes off when he appears before a government committee on the 26th of May. Its supposed to be about the response to the pandemic, but Cummings has said he promised to answer questions about "any" issues.
He's looking to torpedo Boris and hole him below the water line, which would be a fitting ending for a PM with delusions of Churchillian granduer about himself and yet who falls so much shorter than Churchill as to be a parody of a Prime Minister shepherding their people through a national crisis. }}

Its good to see them fighting like 'rats in a sack'.

Dominic Grieve. I like the cut of his jib.

{{And it shows no signs of lessening, in fact its getting worse with someone briefing the Daily Mail and the BBC- who have both run with it so the sources must be strong- that faced with the prospect of calling another lockdown in England in October Boris said he'd rather "let the bodies pile high in their thousands".

There is also right now a select committee questioning our rarely seen top civil servants over the Greenshill affair, and whilst they have largely stonewalled, lots of "that is under investigation and I therefoe cannot comment at this time" responses this telling nugget got through regarding who gave Greenshill a government position- }}

'Darren Tierney (top civil servant) says that while his team have not been able to find any contract (for Greenshill) there is "some evidence that his appointment was signed off by the then-minister of the cabinet office and the then secretary of the cabinet office".
That would have been Francis Maude and Ian Watmore, he says.
David Jones (Tory MP on the committee) says he finds it "rather alarming" that Simon Case and Tierney come before the committee "not knowing anything about the terms upon which Mr Greensill managed to be installed in Downing Street".
Case agrees that he finds it alarming as well.'- BBC News

couple of things, if its in the Daily Mail its curtains for Johnson, if they run with the sleaze that means the MSM has turned against him, finally.

Secondly, if Cummings is on the warpath he really does know where all the bodies are piled up, and its curtains for Johnson.

But if Johnson really did say that phrase he is more disgusting than I could have imagined.

{{ Well there is no bigger Tory supporting rag than the Daily Mail- and they broke the story so they must be sure of their sources- and they have plenty in the govenrment,and as you say it indicates they are turning on Boris for whatever reasons of their own. But this is looking more and more like a well planned and orchestrated attack on Boris from various sources- Cummings, Gove, and many of those Boris ousted from the party all working in tandem to damage him bit by bit, day after day. }}

Doesn't Gove's wife work for the Daily Mail? and Gove is best mates with the "chatty rat" Henry whatsit, who is best mates with Carrie Antoinette. The plot thickens.

{{ Yeah she writes a very right wing coloumn for them.
Gove has always had ambitions to be PM. And he would be far worse than Boris, Boris is just incompetent and self-indulgent, privelaged and crass. Gove is clever, scheming, ruthless and lacking the most common morality. And far more to the right of the party too.}}

yep he is far worse but would the Conservative party vote him in as PM, he isn't popular. I think Sunak would be more likely, or Hunt. They are all reptiles though.

{{ Things get worse for Boris and the Tories.
Added to his let the bodies stack up we have him saying they should just let the virus 'rip through' the population.
Boris continues to deny saying anything but the BBC, ITV and the Daily Mail are all sticking to their stories, claiming they have sources independent of each other.
And the it looks like the PM's office lied about whether or not the flat refurbishment came from Tory donors, which if so Boris never declared which is a clear breach of the ministerial code.

Talking of the ministerial code on another front Boris clearing of Pritti Patel, the Home Sec, after she was found guilty of bullying civil servants has been taken by the civil service to court.

And on Brexit the EU is supposed to ratify the temporary arrangement on trade, but the French are raging over the way fishing rights have been implemented and are threatening to put restrictions on UK services industry- our biggest sector.
And on top of that the EU have banned some imports which is killing the Scottish fishing industry stone dead- 'Meanwhile, British seafood exporters have been hit by an EU ban on UK exports of live shellfish. Scottish firms account for most of that business, and some now face collapse.'- BBC
So that's a disaster of Boris's making.

Boris is facing multiple attacks on multiple fronts, and Cummings is yet to unleash all he has at his select committee appearance. }}

yep, "unleash the Kraken!". its all going tits up.

{{ Its going tits up for the unionists in NI too, looks like they are trying to oust their own leader Arlene Foster (First Minister of NI) over her party backing Boris's Brexit with the border down the Irish Sea.

"We as councillors and as members are deeply concerned about the future of unionism, Ulster conservatism and the DUP. As members and councillors, we have received the brunt of the anger from our voter base caused by ineffective leadership."

Seems the main things they are angry about are Brexit (unionism), second to that is the recent change to NI abortion law (Ulster conservatism), and finally the Irish Language Act (unionism and the future of the DUP). }}

Good, I hope Brexit bites their bums.

{{ Arlene Foster has resigned as FM of NI before her party pushed her, thoughh they had already stuck the knife in her back.

And it keeps getting worse for Boris, the Electoral Commision is now lookinginto it saying that there were "reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence or offences may have occurred".

At PMQ's Boris again said he paid for it himself, but refused to say who paid the initial bill. As the BBC put it- 'The question is a simple one. Who paid the bill for the Downing Street flat makeover at the start?'
But Boris wont answer that question which rather suggests the answer would be a very dodgy one. }}

There is so much sleaze its like a scattergun, its everywhere.

{{ This is what happens I suspect when Cummings and Gove scheme in unison, not sure if its cordinated or if one or the other of them is just taking advantage of kicking Boris while he is down, but its a worrying thought for the future if they are working together.
Gove doesn't have to get elected by the people to be PM- he just has to oust Boris and win the party leadership in the vote. Then its a change of leader so no election until the end of the 5 year term. With Gove probably reckoning he'll be PM when we see the end of a pandemic and oversee an economy that will inevitably bounce back over time, and get elected on a wave of optimism, much like Thatcher did in the 80's when the economy boomed and the cold war was ending. }}

The only thing stopping Gove is Gove, I think they will go for a 'fresh' face, out of nowhere like John Major came out of nowhere to take over from Thatcher. I don't think the wider Conservative party will want anyone associated even remotely with Johnson and his sleazy government, I think they will want a clean break and try to improve their image. specially with someone as upright and principled as Starmer in Opposition. Gove is seen as slimy and back-stabby, I think he doesn't have a chance of PM but I could be wrong. He is back-stabby and might wriggle his way in, but just his wife should put people off big time.

They also need a new Speaker, he lets Johnson take the piss. I wish Bercow would come back, and put a stop to the outrageous lying.

this is great

wowwwwwwww! Alastair Campbell rips the Tory stooge a new one. It was sweet.     from 5.6

{{ Interesting response today on Marr from theleade rof the Scottish Tories Ross, as to what should happen if Boris is found to have lied or broken the minsterial code-

'Boris Johnson should resign if he is found to have broken government rules over his flat renovations, the Scottish Conservative leader has said.
Douglas Ross told the BBC that people expected the highest standards of those in the highest office of the land.'

This will be used aganst Boris fo course if he is found t have broken any rules. And it looks like he probably has. Or at least bent them quite a bit. It also seems from a party perpective pretty disloyal andnot showing much union with his english counterpart for a Unionist. So why say it?

Well its not without method, a big feeling about Scottish Labour and Tories in particular is that they are beholden to the main London party, more branch offices as one previous scottish Labour leader put it, than an independent party- for example Scottish Labour oppose Trident and want it removed, Westminister Labour are pro-Trident and would keep it. Westminister Labour is the one that would actually happen if Labour get elected to Uk government. Making the Scottish party policies often seem irrelevant. Its same sort of thing with the Tories. By doing this he seems to the Scottish home audience that he is not afraid to go aganst the Westminster party line. And it a safe gamble as Boris has about the same popularity levels here as Thatcher did.

The other reason is he pretty much had given himself no choice. You may remember the Scottish Tories in colab with the two other Scottish unionist parties tried to take down Sturgeon by accusing her of breaking the ministerial code and lying to parliament. Different situations but the same accusations at end of the day as Boris now faces. And the Scottish Tories led that witchhunt with the Tory pres riding alngside them, condemening and finding Sturgeon guilty day after day before she had even given her evidence to the committee.
And central to the Tory position was that if she had breached the code, even in a minor fashion it was a resigning matter and she would have to go.
Faced with the same but directed at Boris this time he had little choice but to either say the same and be consistent at least, or be an obvious hypocrite a few days before the Scottish elections.

In the political scales he gambled it might having repercusions and being dragged up if Boris is found to have broken the rules, against needing to get as many seats as possible to stop the SNP in a few days time, he choose the latter in his political scales.

But I do get annoyed at Marr often for missing the followe up question when an a politican leaves the goal open-

'he (Ross) added he would wait for the answers from the three separate investigations that are taking place.'

And Marr didnt follow up by pointing out that he didnt wait as Scottish Tory leader but called a parliamentary vote of No Confidence in the First Minister, which would have removed her from office had they won it right before an election, and they called it before the report had infact reported, exonerating her.
A missed opportunity to highlight how shameless and desperate that was, and how hypocritical his words are not when its about Boris.}}