Gove Offered Brexit Secretary Job...

[vetuste_ennemi]

... just seen on a news channel.

Apparently his price for accepting the poisoned chalice is to regenotiate the current deal.

May can't accept those terms, can she?

Anybody got more details?

[jim360]

You'll no doubt be relieved to know I was thinking of JRM's own personal vision of what Brexit would be like -- which is to say, nonsense -- as opposed to buses.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I didn't vote for Brexit because I thought I would be better off, or even because the nation would be better off. I had no idea (any more than anybody else) of the immediate effects of leaving the EU might be, although (on the topic of "promises") we didn't see the Armageddon predicted to follow immediately on the heels of a Leave vote.

Will No Deal Brexit cause severe economic damage? It might, but I'm not about to believe that because the haruspices on the Remain side have been poking around in the entrails of cattle.

[Jackdaw33]

The more I hear of JRM the more I warm to him. He may not wish to be PM but he would make a bloody good one.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I think the serious Brexiteers like Rees-Mogg have argued mainly for Leave on the issue of sovereignty (or if you're a "populist" like Farage "Taking back control"), not a Utopian dream. I think you're misrepresenting him, Jim.

As for the responsible pragmatists you admire, well, I'd like to quote
"I think foul scorn of Spain or any prince of Europe", but I can't think of anybody who rhymes with "Spain".

[vetuste_ennemi]

Oh, and the rising clamour for a "The People's Vote" (as in "this can only be resolved by....". What will the electorate be asked?

These options, perhaps:

1. Accept the deal.
2. Leave without a deal.
3. Remain.

As options 1 and 3 differ only in that we lose our representation in the Commission etc in the first case but retain it in the other, it is just possible that the "people" may be stupid enough to vote leave with no deal. What happens then?

Or do we save the stupids from themselves by omitting option 2?

[Old_Geezer]

It not spelt s t u p i d
It's spelt s e n s i b l e
And I think you've mixed your numbers up. We're already leaving so your third option is invalid.

[Togo]

Option 3? The law as it stands says we are leaving. Article 50 is ratified and through the house. Now option 1. Not a draft agreement, but it is proposing a daft agreement. Which of course leaves option 2. The option that every Brexit voter was in favour of from day one.(I can count too) Nice. Read it and weep remoaners. You didn't make it better, you made it worse. :))

[douglas9401]

Deary me. :-)

[Togo]

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

[Togo]

The daft issued by May was likely written by Meerkat in the first place. Consider this.
"On 18 July 2018, the German Department of State distributed to associations in Germany, a first ministerial draft of a German Federal Brexit Implementation Act, Brexit-Übergangsgesetz (BrexitÜG), for consultation by 8 August 2018.
The draft Act provides that the UK shall, during the proposed transition period from 30 March 2019 to 31 December 2020, be deemed to be a member state of the EU for all purposes of German Federal Law."

Sieg Heil?

[anneasquith]

It's a fine mess the torys have us in, is it not ? :-)

[Bigbad]

Good grief!
Mrs May looks awkward, uncomfortable, and embarrassed, and has ‘tripped over’ the start of so many sentences today, yet seems to have the hide of a rhino.
You could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who have said anything in her favour today, and still she clings on to the belief that she is right

I also like Mr Rees Mog. He’s been hovering in the background for too long, I hope if there is a leadership challenge, he throws his hat in the ring.

[whiskeryron]

Isn't belonging to the EU Club the same as belonging to any other club ? When you've had enough YOU LEAVE.

[Peter Pedant]

// A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.//

you er cant have treason from outside - I think it is called invasion or something. What Putin was doing to Trumpo or Hillary wasnt treason - he's Russian.
when trumpo really said to Putin - ya didnt infiltrate us didja? The FBI and CIA say you did but I really dont think it can be true....
and Putin said - nyet - of course not ! ze very thought !

that was described as treasonous, but the 'merican involved forgot ( oh god dont they? ) article III of their own constitution:
"No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court".

O god this thread is a pile of crap

[jim360]

JRM has already ruled himself out definitively, so you may yet get him as PM. But, just as there was excitement about the tone May held early on,, you wouldn't have to wait long before the Moggster too gave up on his lofty post-Brexit visions.

[jim360]

Have you asked all 17 million Brexit supporters what they wanted, Togo, or are you just projecting your own views onto them?

Hint: it's the t̶h̶i̶r̶d̶ second one.

[Togo]

@ 20.52
I see that ABs very own Nigel Molesworth has popped in to preen and pontificate without any meaningful insight, apart from denigrating opinions that do not meet the high standards displayed in his own "reflections". Still reputations must be maintained.

[Togo]

Haha made myself laugh^^. Off to start my new present to me. Pratchett's Raising Steam. At least he was intentionally ridiculous.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Good God, he's arguing with the great Tully now. Only yesterday he was quoting him.

[jim360]

I wonder if the fact that Tully backed the losing side in the end is also vaguely relevant.