Brexit.

[Innula Zenovka]

‘We’ve got no plan … Holy crap’: What Boris said after Brexit vote

By the time Boris Johnson graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, at the age of 23, his irrepressible character had been largely forged, a character that would

www.thetimes.co.uk

Evernote link

The referendum result was declared at 7.20am on June 24. Cameron and Osborne had been right to see Johnson as the trump card. With the margins so tight, his backing they believed “without question” carried Vote Leave over the line because, says Osborne, “Boris made it respectable for middle of the road people to vote Brexit”. Most in the UK and across the world were shocked by the result.

Just after 8am that Friday, Cameron with his gin-reinforced wife Samantha by his side announced on the steps of Downing Street: “I do not think it would be right for me to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination,” finishing, “I love this country.”

Johnson was finding it hard to think straight. He had been up all night watching the television at his Islington home. Only towards dawn did he realise that Vote Leave would actually win. He disappeared to bed for 20 minutes but came back and paced around in a Brazilian football shirt and misfitting shorts looking ashen-faced and distraught. “What the hell is happening?” he kept saying. Then a pang of guilt struck him when he saw pictures of Samantha on the television looking utterly distraught. “Oh my God. Look at Sam. God. Poor Sam.” Soon after, stopping in his tracks, a new thought struck him: “Oh shit, we’ve got no plan. We haven’t thought about it. I didn’t think it would happen. Holy crap, what will we do?” Still muttering, he went off to write the speech he knew he would in no time have to deliver.

Those who knew Johnson intimately say they had never seen him more frightened and dismayed than at this moment of triumph. Crowds were shouting angrily outside his house: “People who had patted him on the back when he had been mayor were now screaming at him.” He made it out to the car and his driver shot off down the road but had to stop at a red traffic light at the end. Aides by his side screamed for the driver to shoot straight through the lights, but he refused. “The crowds began banging angrily on the windows and roof. Boris looked terrified. He stared dead ahead, sensing that from this moment on, everything had changed.”

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Britons ‘need to accept’ they’re poorer, says Bank of England economist

“If the cost of what you’re buying has gone up compared to what you’re selling, you’re going to be worse off,” he said.

“So somehow in the UK, someone needs to accept that they’re worse off and stop trying to maintain their real spending power by bidding up prices, whether higher wages or passing the energy costs through on to customers.

“And what we’re facing now is that reluctance to accept that, yes, we’re all worse off, and we all have to take our share.”

 

[Govi]

Time for another "belt-tightening" speech from the current PM?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

‘People can’t just get used to it’: Wolverhampton reacts to Bank of England comments

Karen Trainer, the manager of the Big Venture community centre and shop in Wolverhampton, could barely contain her anger as she watched the news on Wednesday morning.

She was hearing about the comments of the Bank of England economist Huw Pill, who said Britons should stop seeking pay increases and “accept” they are worse off in order to prevent prices rising further.

His choice of language has riled those who come face to face with the reality of the cost of living crisis on a daily basis.

Trainer said: “It feels like people don’t live in the real world. They need to come and spend a day here and see what’s going on. How can people ‘accept’ the fact they can barely afford a loaf of bread? People are in real poverty.”

 

[Chin Rey]

‘People can’t just get used to it’: Wolverhampton reacts to Bank of England comments

It's all good points of course. But to see it from another, more proactive, point of view, acceptance is always a necessary step for solving a problem. It's only when you understand the situation you can start doing something about it... like overthrow the useless government.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Is it time for Britons to accept they are poorer? | The Week UK

Remark from Bank of England’s Huw Pill condemned as ‘tin-eared’

www.theweek.co.uk

 

[Innula Zenovka]

‘Brexit has been an utter disaster’: the royal heritage firm that can’t sell its wares abroad

“We have to pay a fee to get the parcel out of this country … something like £3,” said Shaw.

“Then, when it gets to their end, they have to pay a processing fee. Then customers are told there is a VAT charge on that parcel. They then refuse the parcel, which has to be returned to us – and, to cap it all, we have to pay import duty to get it back again.

“It is an administrative nightmare for us and the customers. None of this happened before we left the European Union.”

Shaw said he recently received an order from the National Trust in Northern Ireland. Even this transaction involved post-Brexit form-filling, despite Northern Ireland being part of the UK, and London and Brussels spending much of the past two years trying to make intra-UK trade across the Irish sea easier. “It is just unbelievable,” he said.

 

[Sid]

Ah well, The UK has bigger concerns at the moment.
For instance, will King Charles wear an uniform like on his mothers funeral or will he appear in stockings like his grandfather did?
I hope for the latter.
I'm always in for a good laugh.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Rishi Sunak is under pressure, since the Tories have lost over 1000 council seats in the recent local elections.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/05/rishi-sunak-under-pressure-dire-tory-losses-leadership-threats

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Amsterdam launed a Stay Away Campaign targeting men from the UK. The Dutch want to get rid of young, party hungry Brits that way, which don't behave and became a nuisance to the people.

Amsterdam prepares to launch Stay Away campaign targeting men from the UK

A "Stay Away" campaign is prepared to launch this week targeted at young British men, warning them not to come to Amsterdam if they won't behave.

dutchreview.com

 

[Sid]

Amsterdam wants to get rid of as much tourists as they can. Not only the British.
The people have had it with all these airBNB's that distroy the housing market in the city center and the social life in streets that were originally meant for housing and everyday life of the citizens.
There are even serious plans to shut down the world famous red light district De Wallen, to bring back more housing facilities and make the city center more enjoyable for those who permanently live in Amsterdam. A lot of residents go only very seldom to their city center to avoid the tourist crowds.
Amsterdam's city center is basically to small for the number of tourists that visit the city every year.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

New Brexit red tape could see more empty supermarket shelves, food chiefs warn (msn.com)

 

[Sid]

[sarcastic mode]
Isolating oneself from ones main business partners has its flaws.
And not repairing the problems even more.
Who would have thought? Amazing.
[/sarcastic mode]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

It was always obvious that this was going to happen -- the Retained EU Law Bill, introduced by Jacob Rees-Mogg during his brief tenure as Business Secretary during Liz Truss' insane administration, which was going automatically going to repeal by the end of the year 40 years' worth of retained EU legislation unless the Government explicitly chose to keep it, was so obviously a non-starter that would have to be pulled sooner or later (I can only imagine that Truss and Rees-Mogg wanted the Lords to throw it out so they could complain about the unelected Remainer lords frustrating the Will of the People) -- but it's reassuring to see it officially announced.

It's smart of Sunak to have given hardline Brexiteers like Badenoch and, with the Northern Ireland Protocol, Steve Baker, ministerial jobs that mean they had either to pull insane anti-EU legislation themselves or be responsible for the consequences if it passed.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

The Fifth Horseperson of the Tory Apocalypse

Kemi, meet Reality

davidaaronovitch.substack.com

 

[Free]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

He provides plenty of aid to beleaguered British PMs.

Boris Johnson rapidly discovered that one way of providing a distraction from unwelcome publicity at home was to arrange a visit with President Zelenskyy (or at least a phone call) and announce some more military assistance for Ukaine.

The Conservatives are recovering from extremely bad local election results, followed by one conference of very unhappy Tories this weekend who want to bring back Boris, followed by another one that started today of right-wing Tories expressing their enthusiasm for something called "National Conservatism," with Suella Braverman (whose parents really did name her after Sue-Ellen in Dallas) starting her campaign to take over from Sunak after he loses the next election.

What better way to upstage them than by inviting President Zelenskyy over to offer to train Ukrainian pilots on British fighters, after last week's announcement about providing him with cruise missiles?

If things carry on as they are, I wouldn't be surprised if Sunak hasn't given him a couple of aircraft carriers by the time the next election comes round.

(I'm not complaining -- it's all in a good cause, after all, but that's why Zelenskyy is such a welcome visitor in Downing Street).

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Well this would be very generous gift considering the fact that the UK has only two aircraft carriers in service and none under construction right now, so giving Ukraine a couple of aircraft carriers would mean giving away both aircraft carriers the Royal Navy has in service right now with support flotilla and jet fighters.

I am pretty sure the UK's public would just love that!

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Vauxhall-maker warns Brexit may force it to close UK factory

Vauxhall-maker Stellantis is calling on the government to renegotiate some Brexit rules or risk losing electric

www.bbc.co.uk