Wow. That crash will be something to see.

Johnson Tells Merkel U.K. Is Ready to Go Without an EU Trade Deal

Boris Johnson warned Germany’s Angela Merkel that the U.K. is ready to do without a trade deal if the European Union wasn’t prepared to compromise.

The prime minister spoke to the chancellor Tuesday, as Brexit negotiators held informal talks over a private dinner. 

Negotiations are stuck over questions including fishing rights, the future influence of EU courts in U.K. laws, and how far Britain will be able to loosen its rules and still enjoy access to the single market.

Yet another proof of the folly of allowing a constitution to be changed by a single, simple majority plebiscite

David Campbell stupidly blew the UK out of the EU with such a plebiscite.

This is just way too foolishly democratic.

I am terrified at the thought of what American voters might do with such power, and you should be, too.

Russian voters overwhelmingly back a ploy by President Vladimir Putin to rule until 2036

He has already been in power for about twenty years.

Brit Populist leader seems to have learned from personal experience

Boris Johnson Gives Lockdown Warning In First Speech Since Recovering From COVID-19

Has it been a while since Trump said anything good about him?

Since he said anything good about Trump?

I think.

Look how few have been the infections and deaths in the UK.

And still Boris is trying to put the brakes on the movement to rollback precautions and physical isolation.

Compare that with our own populist leader's position.

Boris Johnson has used his first public appearance since recovering from COVID-19 to warn that lifting the coronavirus lockdown too soon would risk “a new wave of death and disease.”

Speaking in Downing Street on Monday morning hours after his return to work, the prime minister said the UK was “beginning to turn the tide” against the virus.

But he said this was “the moment of maximum risk” and not the time “to go easy” on social distancing as it would “throw away all the effort and sacrifice of the British people” and risk a second peak. 

Drawing on his own battle with the virus, which put him in intensive care, he said: “If this virus were a physical assailant, an unexpected and invisible mugger – which I can tell you from personal experience, it is – then this is the moment when we have begun together to wrestle it to the floor.

“And so it follows that this is the moment of opportunity, this is the moment when we can press home our advantage. It is also the moment of maximum risk.

. . . .

Sientists advising the government have warned any relaxation risks a renewed flare up just as the number of patients in hospital with the disease is beginning to fall.

Over the weekend, ministers highlighted a warning by Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey about the economic devastation a second wave of the disease would cause.

Johnson has less than a fortnight before the next major decision point comes up, with a three-week review of the lockdown restrictions due on May 7.

The UK has seen more than 154,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 20,000 deaths.

Maggie T must have turned over in her grave.

In Boris Johnson's video release he says the NHS is the UK's "greatest national asset."

It is "the beating heart of this country."

He insisted on the need to "protect the NHS" from being overrun by too high a virus wave.

And that the lockdown is absolutely necessary, an absolute lifesaver that must go on.

Then he lavished thanks upon his personal caregivers and especially his ICU nurses by name.

Mr Johnson, 55, was taken to London's St Thomas' Hospital on Sunday - 10 days after testing positive for Covid-19.

He spent three nights in intensive care before returning to a ward on Thursday.

He said in a video on Twitter that he had witnessed the "personal courage" of hospital staff on the front line.

Mr Johnson said two nurses - Jenny from New Zealand and Luis from Portugal - stood by his bedside for 48 hours at the most critical time and named several other hospital workers who cared for him this past week that he wanted to thank.

He said NHS workers "kept putting themselves in harm's way, kept risking this deadly virus".

"It is thanks to that courage, that devotion, that duty and that love that our NHS has been unbeatable," he said.

. . . .

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was "delighted" the PM was out of hospital and continuing his recovery at Chequers.

He added that staff at St Thomas' would "have cared for him as they would have cared for anybody in this country," which was "one of the things that makes me so proud that the NHS is there for us all".

. . . .

Dr Ian Abbs, chief executive at Guy's and St Thomas' hospital, said: "It is a great credit to the exceptional professionalism of clinical teams, as well as everyone in the wider organisation, that we have been able to care for the prime minister so effectively, whilst continuing to deliver equally high standards of care to all of our patients.

"While it is right that we celebrate this good news, our thoughts turn immediately to those who still need our help at this time.

"On behalf of everyone at Guy's and St Thomas', I'd ask that people stay home to help us save lives and protect the NHS."

Mass politics

It could be said that an essential attribute of a successful regime in the age of mass politics is vulgarity.

But there is a considerable difference between the mere vulgarity of style and propaganda of the liberal regimes and the profound vulgarity of values of authoritarian and, even worse, fascist, racist, or Nazi regimes.

And right now many leading Western nations are sliding from the former toward the latter.

Are regimes, parties, or movements of the further left also committed to vulgar values?

Or is that another difference between them and regimes of the vicious right, from the merely authoritarian even to the totalitarian?

Questions that arise while watching on Amazon video Detective De Luca.

Russian interference?

Not a bad guess.

Russia strongly favors Brexit and anything that undermines institutions of Western supra-national unity.

Hackers hit UK Labour Party with back-to-back cyberattacks

OK, he's not always right. But this is right. This is the point of Brexit for Farage and Johnson and the Tories and the hard Brexiteers

NHS, workers' rights and safe food all at risk from Trump/Farage/Johnson alliance, claims Corbyn

Perfectly true.

Trump at the UN

From a hospital waiting room.

A national disgrace, a fool, and a drivelling ass reiterates every nationalist stupidity and lie at the heart of his "America First" agenda, about which he crows and crows as he denounces globalism and global institutions.

It's a campaign speech full of offensive nonsense and lies about defense, trade, and everything he touches on.

Not excepting Brexit and the European Union.

He even suggested China ought to be kicked out of the WTO and denied the status of a developing country.

And addressing the global phenomenon of mass, unauthorized migration, he repeatedly attacked the migrants as unfairly burdening the countries they go to.

Using Venezuela to attack socialism, for domestic consumption.

Not one moment's applause, and he's been speaking for a while.

Stoney silence through the whole thing.

Even when he lies that his administration supports things that his UN audience might support.

Democrats edging toward impeachment.

Warren now ahead of Biden.

Perhaps all to the good.

Perfunctory applause at the end, only.

Extraordinary.

Pat Buchanan continues his long, slow slide to almost fascism

Although not quite.

Anyway, not yet.

If you think that what, about supranational institutions like the EU, the UN, or even NATO, bothers the new nationalists of Europe and America in part is their democracy deficit you are a fool.

And if you think they are even in part moved by concern for the political position of the world's eurowhites, or the rayonnement of their civilization, the much touted and much damned Western Civilization, you are again a fool.

Their increasingly evident love for authoritarian nationalism wherever it is to be found, while strengthening racism and racist policies within infected states, undermines both.

Let Them Howl, Boris!

PB here continues to celebrate stupid things ever less compatible with the rule of law, with republicanism, with responsible representative government.

Boris refuses talks

Johnson refuses to meet EU leaders unless they scrap backstop

Trying to scare them with the prospect of a no-deal Brexit?

Or does he crave a no-deal Brexit?

A bit of both?

Playing chicken? Or does he just want to shove the blame onto the EU?

UK on course for no-deal Brexit as Johnson rejects EU agreement

God knows what will happen if he calls an election in the fall.

That jackass in charge of Labour is also pro-Brexit, though his party mostly is not.

If both Labor and the Conservatives run as pro-Brexit this could be the end of the era of their political dominance, perhaps putting the Lib-Dems in place of the Tories but whom in place of Labor?

Resurgent nationalism

We are told it's about racist and ethno-nationalist reaction to mass immigration from outside Europe and the lesser migrations of Europeans among the nations of the EU.

The ethno-nationalist right believe they can do a better job maintaining national identity - and that's not just about keeping out the blacks - outside the EU than in.

That's a big part of it.

And they are probably right.

We are told that, in most European countries where nationalism is resurgent, it's about the right believing they can keep economies more business-friendly out of the EU than in it.

That's part of it.

But it's all a bit dicey, since some of the left notably think exactly the opposite, that they could take their societies further left outside the EU than in.

And anyway the whole trade picture makes it all a bit foggy; broadly speaking, free trade among the states of the EU is better for business than dealing with a lot of real borders and the various forms of trade restrictions that accompany them.

Last, a really big part of it that seems under-reported is resistance to the cultural revolution taking place in all Christian and post-Christian lands, perhaps only excepting Africa.

The soft spot in the heart of the American right for Putin is all about that.

So it's about abortion, yes, but also gay marriage and other offences against the traditional European morality, which is, of course, the traditional Christian morality.

It's about lots of people believing that they can keep their laws and their culture more in tune with traditional European morality out of the EU than in it.

And how far that is true may vary considerably by country.

PS. Didn't the left media used to rage it was all about Islamophobia?

There was truth to that, too, though it's not as though there wasn't plenty of reason to fear Islam.

Haven't heard much about that in a while, at least in the US.

Boris starts right in

Both yesterday and today, EU leaders told Boris the only deal that is, was, or ever will be available to the UK is the deal offered to May long ago.

And he has insisted it will be either no deal or a new deal, and the new deal must not include the Irish backstop.

This ballocks will continue until October.

Brexit: Boris Johnson mis en garde par Paris et Dublin

Take it or leave it, they said.

The most disgraceful PM, ever

Boris Johnson becomes PM with promise of Brexit by 31 October

New prime minister claims he can reach agreement with EU but will prepare for no deal

The slow ruin of the Tory Party

The Tories are split between the pro and anti Brexiteers.

Anti Brexit Tories, when dismayed their party is going to pull the plug for real, defect to the Lib Dems.

Lib Dems: Jo Swinson elected new leader

Pro Brexit Tories, when dismayed their party is going to stall indefinitely and never pull the plug for real, defect to a different place.

Brexit Party MEPs tear into Remainer 'EU peace' claim with key point - 'EU army threat'

Sounds like Chamberlain in Munich, eh?

So, feel safe, tankers?

UK defence minister rebuffs criticism over tanker seized in Gulf

Think of the costs of such a loss and consider how long commercial tankers will be able to continue in these waters, so clearly unprotected.

What does it tell you when even the hawks seem more afraid of war than of the message sent by their inaction?

Or are they?

Britain must seek to reduce tension but its first duty is to protect ships and crews

Phooey.

Bravado belied by the rest of the content of this op-ed.

While Britain alone cannot afford any longer to be anything like a real global power, the EU could and can.

Another proof the idiot Tories and Brexiteers are stupidly going in exactly the wrong direction.

And while all this goes on American media continue with their utter fixation on partisan propaganda, most of them pouring the most vile, lie-based hatred and outrageous vilification on Trump and the Republicans.

Oh, so that's how this "responsible government" thingee works, huh?

U.K. Voters’ Frustration High as 99% Are Sidelined in Prime Minister Election

A small slice of party members within each party chooses that party's leader.

That leader is the person who will be PM, head the government, if the party is called upon to form a government.

That happens if the party has or gains a majority, or leads a coalition making up a majority in the Parliament.

The Tories have since since the parliamentary election of 2017 led a coalition majority with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland, and that has not changed just because Theresa May has resigned her post as Tory party leader and so as PM.

There isn't going to be another parliamentary election until 2022 unless an early election motion [is] passed by a super-majority of two-thirds in the House of Commons or a vote of no confidence in the government is passed which is not followed by a vote of confidence within 14 days.

The replacement of May involves only the party choosing for itself a replacement in the role of party leader, a replacement who, given the situation, will step into the role of PM of the UK.

Looks like it's going to be Boris Johnson, and it looks like he's going for a no-deal Brexit.

Something only a smallish minority of Brit voters actually want, though a majority of Conservatives support it.

No deal Brexit is coming

Or anyway so it appears.

Boris Johnson 'not bluffing' about quitting EU on 31 October with no deal

A position that absolutely terrifies most Britons will make him PM.

Representative government in the land of the Mother of Parliaments

The 0.3% of U.K. Voters Who Will Pick the Next Prime Minister

Some 160,000 members of the Conservative Party will make the choice.

This sliver of the population, just 0.3 percent of registered voters, is mostly white, aging and male. And it is poised to use its new clout — the party’s grass roots have never before picked a prime minister — to catapult Boris Johnson into Downing Street, potentially cleaving the world’s oldest and most successful political party as it sends Britain on the path to what could be a tumultuous Brexit.

As the Brexit mess has unfolded, Conservatives have grown ever more impatient, ever more fixated on leaving the European Union, come what may. 

Most members said in recent polling by YouGovthat leaving the bloc was worth enduring significant damage to the economy, secession by Scotland and Northern Ireland and even a shattering of the Conservative Party itself.

. . . .

Conservative membership has plunged since the 1950s, leaving behind a small core of politically active and increasingly right-wing supporters. 

Once effectively a social club where the upper classes mingled with their representatives and perhaps met a spouse, the party has remade itself as class-based politics fragmented and voters realigned themselves by education levels and age.

. . . .

One of the great concerns among Conservatives is the rise of the Brexit Party under Nigel Farage, the former leader of the anti-immigrant U.K. Independence Party. 

The Brexit Party crushed the Conservatives in the European elections last month with its message of Brexit at any cost. 

Mr. Johnson is seen as far and away the best equipped to blunt that charge.

. . . .

A no-deal Brexit, seen as the salvation of the party by some members, looks to others like its ruin. 

Economists warn it could drive up food prices, cost jobs, choke off the supply of medicines and badly disrupt British industry.

“It scares my mum, and I don’t want anything that scares my mum,” Jo Bartley, 49, a Conservative in Canterbury, said. 

“I think as a party, we should avoid things that scare people.”

Ms. Bartley is in the minority, with two-thirds of members preferring a no-deal Brexit.

Roughly 40 percent of the party’s members are older than 65, according to research led by Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, whose coming book on the members is called “Footsoldiers.” 

And they are disproportionately wealthy.

Not exactly an open door, eh?

It has been noted before that the Brexit movement is a development of specifically English nationalism.

Boris Johnson Says Immigrants to U.K. Should Be Forced to Learn English

Boris Johnson, the front-runner to succeed Theresa May as Britain’s prime minister, has said he would require immigrants to Britain to learn English, echoing remarks made by Nigel Farage, the former leader of the populist U.K. Independence Party.

“I want everybody who comes here and makes their lives here to be and to feel British, that is the most important thing. And to learn English,” Mr. Johnson said on Friday at a gathering of Conservative association members, who are voting in a contest between Mr. Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary.

“Too often there are parts of our country, parts of London still and other cities as well, where English is not spoken by some people as their first language,” Mr. Johnson said. 

“And that needs to be changed.”

BJ is a Brexiteer who has openly favored a no-deal Brexit.

Mr. Johnson’s remarks were greeted with anger by lawmakers from Scotland and Wales, who represent areas where voters speak Gaelic and Welsh.

A legislator from the Scottish National Party, Angus MacNeil, derided Mr. Johnson as “moronic and clueless,” and compared his remarks to “arrogance of centuries past” that put down “native Celtic languages for the Germanic import.”

. . . .

Mr. Johnson, also a hard-liner on Brexit, seems poised for a landslide victory when roughly 160,000 Conservative Party members vote for a new party leader, and by default, the next prime minister. 

He has the support of 74 percent of party voters, compared to the more than 26 percent backing Mr. Hunt, according to a poll by YouGov for The Times of London. 

Ballots are being sent by mail to the members, who must return them in time for the end of voting on July 22.

The voting, already heavily criticized for being open only to 0.3 percent of British voters, faced fresh attacks on Saturday when it emerged that more than 1,000 Conservative Party members had received duplicate ballots. 

. . . .

Mr. Johnson has tacked to the right during the contest, reflecting the right-wing views of the Tory grass-roots members, who are — compared to the electorate as a whole — older, more likely to be white and male, and concentrated in the prosperous south of the country.