And then there were two …
Phew. The Tory MPs have spoken: the two finalists in the May Successor Race are Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt. It’s now for the Tory Party members to vote for ‘The One’. From tomorrow onwards, Johnson and Hunt will attend hustings and on July 22nd we’ll know the winner.
If you think we’ll now have four weeks of peace and quiet – sorry, that ain’t gonna happen. Obviously, the result of this election will have a huge influence on how Brexit is going to be ‘delivered’. Equally obviously, the shenanigans of the Remainers in the Tory Party and even more so in the MSM need to be watched carefully. This will provide much welcome material to document their bias, illustrating the way they work in concert. More on that below, first some Brexit ‘news’.
Yesterday, the EU ‘bosses’, i.e. the Leaders of the EU member states met in Brussels to decide who will get the top job. After all, it’s good-bye, M Juncker … Not only was it not plain sailing for the Macron-Merkel duopoly, no decision was reached:
“The European Union was deadlocked over who should replace Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday night, with Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel at loggerheads over who should be the president of the European Commission for the next five years. As she arrived for an EU summit in Brussels, Germany’s Chancellor insisted that Manfred Weber, the lead candidate of the centre-Right European People’s Party, should be appointed in line with the Spitzenkandidat process. Mr Macron, who is affiliated with the European liberal party, is the most influential EU leader looking to ditch the Spitzenkandidat system and reassert the right of EU leaders to choose the commission president.” (paywalled link)
M Macron, it seems, wants to ‘ditch’ this system to get his preferred candidate through – the Danish Commissioner Ms Vestager (no, I’ve never heard of her either). It’s indicative for the way the EU Leaders are happy to move goalposts in order to get what they want. Remember – these are the people who insist that May’s WA is cast in stone and cannot be renegotiated! Next:
“That system, which was used for the first time to appoint Mr Juncker in 2014, ties the commission presidency to the results of the European elections. The European Parliament, which must approve the appointment, insists the system must be respected.” (paywalled link)
Indeed it must – but then, until October 31st (we hope!), this new EU Parliament suffers from the unbearable presence of the UK MEPs, the majority of whom are members of the Brexit Party. That makes M Macron’s attempt to ditch the system a bit more understandable, non? See this:
“Antonio Costa, the prime minister of Portugal said the “fundamental question” was whether or not to respect the Spitzenkandidat process. He warned that MEPs could withhold their approval of any non-Spitzenkandidat candidate, raising the prospect of political paralysis in Brussels. The choice of commission president will have a knock-on effect on the appointment of the heads of the European Council and Parliament, as no pan-EU party can traditionally hold more than one top job.” (paywalled link)
Political paralysis in Brussels? Blimey! Whatever next! Sadly, we’ve been denied spin and ‘source’ briefings on this meeting so far:
“EU leaders, including Theresa May, were still locked in highly secretive talks last night. Mobile phone signals were jammed to ensure there were no leaks of the names under discussion.” (paywalled link)
I am sure there will be some leaks to entertain us in the weekend MSM! And never fear, these lovely people will meet again:
“Late on Thursday night [Tusk] said EU leaders would meet again on June 30 to discuss the allocation of the bloc’s top jobs, after no majority could be reached on any candidate.” (paywalled link)
Keep in mind that these are the same ‘leaders’ who have to decide on whatever ‘new’ Brexit plan our next PM will present them with. The Taoiseach emphasised again that there won’t be an extension (link, paywalled) – he’s making himself look like the official EU ‘Speaker for Brexit’, but Ireland has only one vote in that august meeting.
Our esteemed MSM however, Remain to the core, will do their very best to make it look as if we must accept the May Vassalage Treaty by supporting the Remain candidate, Jeremy Hunt.
Those of us who watched SKY TV yesterday could not have failed to note that their presenter, Beth Rigby, tried her utmost to get Tory MPs to acknowledge that Mr Gove ‘wuz robbed by dirty tricks’. The word ‘psychodrama’ was also used many times.
Unsurprisingly, ‘psychodrama’ and ‘dirty tricks’ made it into today’s headlines, see e.g. here for a report drooling over ‘dirty tricks’, or here (paywalled) about Tory MPs rejecting the expected ‘psychodrama’ of a Johnson-Gove fight:
“Five MPs who had backed Sajid Javid in the previous round declared that they were backing Mr Johnson, yet his tally increased by only three. This fuelled accusations, denied by Mr Johnson, that he had “lent” supporters to Mr Hunt to manipulate the outcome. Mr Gove’s allies claimed that there had been a plot to ensure that Mr Hunt, who supported Remain, would be the one to face Mr Johnson in the month-long poll of 160,000 Conservative Party members that starts today.” (link, paywalled)
Reading these remarks from Tory MPs who had nothing better to do than to ‘brief’ RemainCentral reporters, one can’t help but feel disheartened about the forthcoming leadership campaign designed to stop Johnson:
“MPs levelled extraordinary allegations against Mr Johnson’s team. One said they had seen a text sent to a junior minister who was still backing a non-Johnson candidate yesterday morning that said: “How are you enjoying your job? Do you want to carry on?” (link, paywalled)
There’s more, but let me remind you that ‘one source’ is only hearsay, there’s no proof. As this is the beginning of the ‘dirty campaign’ to get the Remain candidate Hunt into 10 Downing Street, expect more of the same:
“A source on a rival campaign claimed that their supporters had been threatened by MPs supporting Mr Johnson. “People have been told that they’ll never get a job unless they switch sides. One was even threatened that their private life would be exposed. It’s pretty disgusting stuff.” (link, paywalled)
The implications are of course not to vote for BoJo because: “dirty”. A writer for The Times concludes:
“The final day of voting at Westminster will do little to help to unite the deeply divided Tory party, whatever the outcome of the members’ vote.” (link, paywalled)
But isn’t that disunity exactly what Remain wants and thrives on?
The next four weeks will be dirty and hot – ok, not hot but probably wet, this being Britain, thus creating lovely mud to sling … The MSM will do their very best to support the Remain candidate, Hunt, and damage the Brexit candidate, Johnson.
They would do well to heed the warning from Sir John Redwood who concludes his Diary entry for today:
“The media who seek to thwart us will lose more audience as a result of their craven servitude to the EU government. The more they shove out the Remain and EU spin lines, the more many voters think they do not speak for them. If they want to show they are better edited and disciplined than social media, they need to return to being fair and balanced, and to accept there are many sensible people saying there is a great future for the UK outside the EU” (link)
I don’t need no crystal ball to predict that this Leadership campaign will provide us with the disgusting spectacle produced by the Remain MSM to get ‘Continuity May’ (a.k.a. Hunt) over the line. Never mind undermining the standing of the probable winner, Johnson, both nationally and internationally, by dishing any dirt they can find.
One side effect though will be the increasing disgust of us Leaver out here, disregarded by the Metro-Elite, with that whole Westminster set-up, that cosy and incestuous relationship of politicians and MSM.
It needs to change, and we can change it. Meanwhile, as always, don’t let ‘them’ get away with it and
KBO!
Late reading yesterday’s articles but it’s all kicking off against Boris today (Saturday). I smell a rat!
Only one?
I can smell hordes of rats – thousands of them …
So its down to the Tory membership to choose between Johnson or Hunt. Some choice.
Boris looks like a sure bet. It wouldn’t surprise me if in the next week or so, the grubby hawks in the media dig up some dirty revelations which will destroy his credibility and ‘force’ him to withdraw from the leadership ‘challenge’, thus resulting in Mr Hunt winning by default. Just as his predecessor did.
Like this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48721211
Haha, its becoming far too predictable isn’t it? 🙂
I see BoJo is doing a wobble on 31 Oct leaving date.
Are we to be s4it on again by the Tories?
Where is any hope of change? let alone a real Brexit. Both finalists, Bojo and Hunt, represent continuity Maybot.
Yesterday, on Political Live – AKA Loose Women – Brillo spent many questions roasting Bojo’s spokesman about his, Bojo’s, Brexit plan. It was excruciating to watch, but the result was that all Bojo wants is some tinkering with the NI backstop before representing the Maybot surrender document. So for both candidates it is the same BRINO they are looking to.To me, it has been clear for some time that we shall not leave properly until we have voted out the current Parliament. The only way is TBP.
‘I don’t need no crystal ball’ – please correct, I’m sure you are not a product of trashed British education.
Watched some tv last night. MSM in full anti BoJo mood.
I wondered where they had got all the black and white film of him.
The other candidate – irrelevant, he’s not BoJo.
Today it is how awful that nasty man was, throwing out a protester. More false outrage unbounded.
Peter Bottomly was interviewed on the subject on Sky and Sky got no change for their two penneth.
PB laid out the law and said he would have done the same. Have to say I would have done the same.
If she had a blade – they dont have to be metal, ceramic doesn’t set the bells off – the MSM would have been all over the audience, ‘why didn’t you do something?’.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
As someone said recently, if Pres Trump found a cure for cancer, the MSM would be up in arms as the President was putting surgeons out of a job.
Negativity rules OK!
Actually on a point of detail . . . according to the Met Office (https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2019/hot-spell) next week will be both hot and wet. And the weather will be coming north from Europe! Make of that what you will.
Politicians might wear collars and ties. But politics is a dirty business. So “washing hands” seems to be an essential element of the political process.
John Redwood makes a good point. The blatant Remain bias of the MSM may be working to our advantage at the moment. Just hope they can keep it up until October.
Changing the rules:
The EU establishment is struggling to change the Spitzenkandidat process to have a candidate they like during the selection.
Conservatives changed their selection rules to “speed up the process” during the race.
The electoral commission now is asking to check all TBP (and as I understand other parties) donations below £500 to ensure all are legal despite that was not in the rules last week (requirement to report them to the EC).
The law should not be changed for short term gains and cannot be imposed on past events – “Lex retro non agit”.
This law chaos will further degrade the country. Civilized society need laws to keep order – looks like we are pushed toward a barbaric, authoritarian and theocratic society.