The UK Brexit vote to leave the EU

[greybeard]

Vince Cable: Now a 'clear majority' who want to stop Brexit
ITN ITN Mon, 27 May 16:33 BST

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/vince-cabl...152902437.html


Leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Vince Cable has said there is now a "clear majotity in the country who want to stop Brexit" after the party came in second in the European elections winning 16 seats. .

[greybeard]

Former Labour ministers dare Corbyn to expel them from party in solidarity with Alastair Campbell
The Independent Rob Merrick,The Independent

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/former-lab...070912731.html

Jeremy Corbyn is facing a mutiny from former ministers, who are daring him to kick them out of the party in solidarity with the expelled Alastair Campbell.

Charles Clarke, the former home secretary, led the revolt – announcing he, like Mr Campbell, voted Liberal Democrat in a Brexit protest at last week’s European elections, in breach of party rules.

He was swiftly followed by Bob Ainsworth and Fiona Mactaggart, who invoked the famous slave revolt against the Romans by saying it was “time for all of us to declare ‘I am Spartacus’.”

The tactic piled pressure on the Labour leader to show similar ruthlessness, but at the risk of fuelling the anger of huge numbers of members who deserted the party to demand a Final Say referendum.

There are signs that Mr Corbyn is preparing to back down, as his office refused to say the trio would be expelled – despite acting swiftly to remove Tony Blair’s former spin chief.

Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, also stepped into the row, calling for “an amnesty for members who voted a different way last week”.

“It is spiteful to resort to expulsions when the NEC [National Executive Committee] should be listening to members. We should be listening to members rather than punishing them.”

Labour rules say expulsion is automatic for any members “who joins and/or supports a political organisation other than an official Labour group or other unit of the party”.

Mr Clarke, a cabinet heavyweight under Mr Blair, called for Mr Campbell to be reinstated immediately, calling his removal a “disgrace” that “only compounds Labour’s current political difficulties”.

“I also voted Liberal Democrat. This was a one-off decision because of the hopeless incoherence of Labour’s position, particularly that of Jeremy Corbyn, on Brexit,” he said.

“I have been a Labour Party member for 47 years and have never before voted anything but Labour. I was chair of the Labour Party in 2001-2.

“I have consistently argued against those who, often in understandable despair at the Labour leadership’s abandonment of Labour’s fundamental values, have either resigned from the Labour Party or joined another party.”

Mr Ainsworth, a defence secretary under Gordon Brown's government, followed suit, revealing he had backed the pro-second referendum Greens last week.

“Having recently voted Labour in local elections, I voted Green in the Euro elections having never voted other than Labour before in my entire life,” he told BBC Coventry & Warwickshire

“I didn't intend to make this public, but now Alastair has been expelled for doing the same I feel obliged to do so.”

Charlie Falconer, another former cabinet minister who probed Labour’s handling of antisemitism, said it was “inconceivable” that the decision was not taken “high up the chain” in the party.

Asked about the protest, the Labour party insisted it did not “comment on individual memberships”. It appeared they might be dealt with less harshly, because their comments – unlike Mr Campbell’s – were not made on TV.

[greybeard]

Brexit: EU breaks up team that negotiated May's deal in latest sign it will never re-open talks
The Independent Jon Stone,The Independent

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/brexit-eu-...095700787.html

Brussels is moving to break up the team that negotiated Theresa May‘s Brexit deal, in the most concrete sign yet that the EU has absolutely no intention of re-opening talks on the treaty.

Sabine Weyand, the brains behind the withdrawal agreement, will be leaving the Commission’s Article 50 taskforce next week to start a new job running the EU’s trade department.

Ms Weyand’s departure comes as Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, was named by French president Emmanuel Macron as someone who might make a good next president of the European Commission – suggesting that he too may also soon be moving to a different role.

While EU officials say “Taskforce 50” has not been officially disbanded and still exists, the departure represents a move of resources to other areas. It is understood that there is no plan to replace Ms Weyand, who was deputy chief negotiator and who has an intimate working knowledge of the negotiations.

On Tuesday evening Jean-Claude Juncker said he was “crystal clear” that there would be no more renegotiation, reiterating a Commission line that has held since October last year – but apparently fallen on deaf ears in Westminster.

But despite the unambiguous message emanating from Brussels, most Tory leadership candidates are still standing on platforms of reopening negotiations on the withdrawal agreement, which MPs rejected three times. An attempt by Theresa May to bring the deal back for a fourth vote in Commons set in motion a chain of events that resulted in her announcing he resignation – precipitating the current leadership contest.

The move of Ms Weyand to be the new boss of the Directorate General for Trade, means that were the UK to accept the withdrawal agreement, it would also face her in negotiating its future trade deal with the EU – the next phase of talks. She will also oversee the negotiation of trade deal with the rest of the world in the post, however, as the post is not Brexit-specific.

Mr Barnier said: “Congrats to Sabine Weyand on her appointment as new Director-General of Trade! Thanks for your hard work and commitment throughout these extraordinary Brexit negotiations. Working together with you has been a privilege. Our team continues work on UK’s orderly withdrawal.”

A spokesperson for the European Commission said: “The taskforce remains operational. Michel Barnier remains our chief negotiator for Article 50 and there is no ongoing procedure for appointing anyone else in Sabine’s place.”

[Billy]

Nigel Farage speaks after the EU elections results and on Brexit.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LQ-SzmLgbBY

[greybeard]

Six times Boris Johnson has been economical with the truth... at best
Yahoo News UK Will Metcalfe,Yahoo News UK

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/from-kille...155646406.html

File photo dated 10/01/19 of Boris Johnson who will be summonsed to court to face accusations of misconduct in public office for comments made in the run-up to the EU referendum, District Judge Margot Coleman ruled.
Boris Johnson who will be summonsed to court to face accusations of misconduct in public office for comments made in the run-up to the EU referendum, District Judge Margot Coleman ruled.

He’s the front runner to win the Tory leadership and step into 10 Downing Street next month.

But Boris Johnson doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to being open and honest.

The former journalist has been sacked from a number of roles for both political, and otherwise, for being economical with the truth.

Here are some of his biggest porkies.
File photo dated 12/05/16 of former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who will be summonsed to court to face accusations of misconduct in public office over claims he was lying when he said the UK gave the EU ??350 million a week.
The bus wasn't Boris' first lie
He claimed the UK sends £350m a week to the European Union

Now subject of a landmark private prosecution, Boris repeatedly claimed Britain sends £350m a week to the EU during the Brexit campaign.

If found guilty of misconduct in a public office he faces more than six months in prison.

The claim was refuted by the UK Statistics Authority - along with a number of independent fact checkers. However, the myth has stuck with some people still believing the government sends hundreds of millions into EU coffers on a weekly basis.
Boris Johnson responds after Prime Minister Theresa May made a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, London on her new Brexit motion.
As a journalist he made up a quote, from his godfather.
He got fired for ‘making up quotes’ as a journalist

Boris began his media career long before his spells as a guest on Have I Got News for You.

However, they were similarly shambolic.

His first frontpage story was a story about the discovery of Edward II’s Rose Palace, who famously had a same-sex lover.

Speaking to the Independent in 2002 he claimed the tale was his “biggest cock-up”.



He said: “The trouble was that somewhere in my copy I managed to attribute to Colin [Lucas - Boris’ godfather] the view that Edward II and Piers Gaveston would have been cavorting together in the Rose Palace.

“Unfortunately, some linkside don at a provincial university spotted that by the time the Rose Palace was built, Piers Gaveston would long have been murdered. It was very nasty.”

He followed up his cock-up with another story: “I made matters worse,” he wrote. “I wrote a further story saying that the mystery had deepened about the date of the castle.”
Boris Johnson is followed by media after leaving the Cabinet office in Westminster.
He's repeatedly lied about Europe
He created EU myths

After his short spell at the Times he moved to Brussels as the Telegraph’s man on the ground from 1989 to 1994.

Here he proceeded to write a series of stories including “Threat to British pink sausages” and “cheese row takes the biscuit”.

Chris Patten later described Boris as "one of the greatest exponents of fake journalism".
Boris Johnson arrives at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster on the day that MPs will be asked to consider a range of alternative Brexit options after Parliament seized control of the Commons agenda to force a series of
He denied a long-running affair
He lied about an affair

In 2004 it was reported Johnson had been having an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt which resulted in two terminated pregnancies.

At first he called the claims “piffle” but once proven he was asked to resign by then Tory leader Michael Howard.

Johnson refused and was sacked as vice-chairman of the Tory party and shadow arts minister for his public lies.

He claimed Obama had an "ancestral dislike" of Britain
Obama doesn’t like Britain - apparently

Johnson claimed Barack Obama removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval office because he was “part-Kenyan”.

His actual phrasing was an “ancestral dislike” for the UK.

Churchill’s grandson, and Johnson’s fellow Tory MP, Nicholas Soames said the claims were “appalling”.
File photo dated 10/01/19 of former UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson speaking at the Pendulum Summit at the Dublin Convention Centre last month, a speech for which he was paid more than ??51,000.
Lies, damned lies and...Boris Johnson.
Bending the truth about buses

During Boris’ 2007 London mayoral campaign he vowed to get rid of bendy buses in London.

He claimed: “They wipe out cyclists, there are many cyclists killed every year by them.”

From their introduction in 2001 to their abolition in 2011 not a single cyclist was killed by a bendy bus.

He said he got arrested

Johnson claims he and David Cameron were arrested and spent a night in the cells after the Bullingdon Club threw a flowerpot through a restaurant window.

However, both he and Cameron escaped before police arrived - according to the Financial Times.

However, depending on the outcome of the private prosecution he may experience what it’s like behind bars soon enough.

[Clear Light]

Posted by greybeard (here)
The claim was refuted by the UK Statistics Authority - along with a number of independent fact checkers. However, the myth has stuck with some people still believing the government sends hundreds of millions into EU coffers on a weekly basis

Ah, thanks Greybeard, and for anyone interested here's the link to the letter from the UK Statistics Authority : Letter-from-Sir-Andrew-Dilnot-to-Norman-Lamb-MP-210416.pdf

Snippet :

As set out in the attached note, the gross contribution to the EU in 2014 was £19.1 billion. After the rebate, the contribution was £14.7 billion and the net contribution by the UK public sector was £9.9 billion. Taking an estimate of receipts to non-public sector bodies into account produces an estimated average of £7.1 billion for the period 2010-2014

So in other words the actual annual "Net Figure" is much reduced from Boris' claimed amount of £18.2 billion (52 * £350m) to £7.1 billion or approximately £136m per week !!!

Gosh, a Politician being "economical" with the "Facts" ... who'd have thunk it eh ?

[scanner]

Posted by greybeard (here)

Six times Boris Johnson has been economical with the truth... at best
Yahoo News UK Will Metcalfe,Yahoo News UK

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/from-kille...155646406.html

File photo dated 10/01/19 of Boris Johnson who will be summonsed to court to face accusations of misconduct in public office for comments made in the run-up to the EU referendum, District Judge Margot Coleman ruled.
Boris Johnson who will be summonsed to court to face accusations of misconduct in public office for comments made in the run-up to the EU referendum, District Judge Margot Coleman ruled.

He’s the front runner to win the Tory leadership and step into 10 Downing Street next month.

But Boris Johnson doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to being open and honest.

The former journalist has been sacked from a number of roles for both political, and otherwise, for being economical with the truth.

Here are some of his biggest porkies.
File photo dated 12/05/16 of former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who will be summonsed to court to face accusations of misconduct in public office over claims he was lying when he said the UK gave the EU ??350 million a week.
The bus wasn't Boris' first lie
He claimed the UK sends £350m a week to the European Union

Now subject of a landmark private prosecution, Boris repeatedly claimed Britain sends £350m a week to the EU during the Brexit campaign.

If found guilty of misconduct in a public office he faces more than six months in prison.

The claim was refuted by the UK Statistics Authority - along with a number of independent fact checkers. However, the myth has stuck with some people still believing the government sends hundreds of millions into EU coffers on a weekly basis.
Boris Johnson responds after Prime Minister Theresa May made a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, London on her new Brexit motion.
As a journalist he made up a quote, from his godfather.
He got fired for ‘making up quotes’ as a journalist

Boris began his media career long before his spells as a guest on Have I Got News for You.

However, they were similarly shambolic.

His first frontpage story was a story about the discovery of Edward II’s Rose Palace, who famously had a same-sex lover.

Speaking to the Independent in 2002 he claimed the tale was his “biggest cock-up”.



He said: “The trouble was that somewhere in my copy I managed to attribute to Colin [Lucas - Boris’ godfather] the view that Edward II and Piers Gaveston would have been cavorting together in the Rose Palace.

“Unfortunately, some linkside don at a provincial university spotted that by the time the Rose Palace was built, Piers Gaveston would long have been murdered. It was very nasty.”

He followed up his cock-up with another story: “I made matters worse,” he wrote. “I wrote a further story saying that the mystery had deepened about the date of the castle.”
Boris Johnson is followed by media after leaving the Cabinet office in Westminster.
He's repeatedly lied about Europe
He created EU myths

After his short spell at the Times he moved to Brussels as the Telegraph’s man on the ground from 1989 to 1994.

Here he proceeded to write a series of stories including “Threat to British pink sausages” and “cheese row takes the biscuit”.

Chris Patten later described Boris as "one of the greatest exponents of fake journalism".
Boris Johnson arrives at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster on the day that MPs will be asked to consider a range of alternative Brexit options after Parliament seized control of the Commons agenda to force a series of
He denied a long-running affair
He lied about an affair

In 2004 it was reported Johnson had been having an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt which resulted in two terminated pregnancies.

At first he called the claims “piffle” but once proven he was asked to resign by then Tory leader Michael Howard.

Johnson refused and was sacked as vice-chairman of the Tory party and shadow arts minister for his public lies.

He claimed Obama had an "ancestral dislike" of Britain
Obama doesn’t like Britain - apparently

Johnson claimed Barack Obama removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval office because he was “part-Kenyan”.

His actual phrasing was an “ancestral dislike” for the UK.

Churchill’s grandson, and Johnson’s fellow Tory MP, Nicholas Soames said the claims were “appalling”.
File photo dated 10/01/19 of former UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson speaking at the Pendulum Summit at the Dublin Convention Centre last month, a speech for which he was paid more than ??51,000.
Lies, damned lies and...Boris Johnson.
Bending the truth about buses

During Boris’ 2007 London mayoral campaign he vowed to get rid of bendy buses in London.

He claimed: “They wipe out cyclists, there are many cyclists killed every year by them.”

From their introduction in 2001 to their abolition in 2011 not a single cyclist was killed by a bendy bus.

He said he got arrested

Johnson claims he and David Cameron were arrested and spent a night in the cells after the Bullingdon Club threw a flowerpot through a restaurant window.

However, both he and Cameron escaped before police arrived - according to the Financial Times.

However, depending on the outcome of the private prosecution he may experience what it’s like behind bars soon enough.

Alongside the other 599 of them, imho

[greybeard]

The public are conned big time by politicians.
Most dont care to cross check statements.

Chris

[scanner]

Posted by greybeard (here)
The public are conned big time by politicians.
Most dont care to cross check statements.

Chris

It goes much deeper than that Chris. Windrush, Grenfill Towers, and selling of Arms to ME countries, to name but a few of their misdeeds. Many people are dead because of them in Parliament. If it was any of us, we'd be in the Tower waiting the hangman, I'm sure of that.

[Clear Light]

Posted by greybeard (here)
The public are conned big time by politicians.
Most dont care to cross check statements.

Chris

Yet another case of Political "Spin Doctoring" LOL !!! 🙄

[greybeard]

There is a comedy TV show "Would I lie to you?
One of the reasons I post on this thread is to expose the deceit.
Which politician is innocent of being economic with the truth I wonder!!!!
People hear what they want to hear.
The Europeans are consistent--no further negotiation possible--who hears that?
Parliament will not allow exit without a deal--what are you left with?

Chris

[greybeard]

After last week's elections, how can the EU be called undemocratic? Now listen to the people one more time
The Independent Vince Cable,The Independent Wed, 29 May

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/last-weeks...065025439.html

“Brexit has won the day” was an inevitable narrative after Sunday evening's European election results. There is only one problem with this analysis: it is complete nonsense. A little under a third of the vote going to Nigel Farage is not an "overwhelming victory" any more than the process of leaving the EU has proved “the easiest in human history”.

In fact, the Brexit Party increased only very slightly the vote that Ukip, the leader's former party, achieved five years ago. The Remain parties, however, were indeed the beneficiaries of a substantial boost: my own party scored its best result in a national election for a decade, with 3.4 million votes.

Taken together, the clear Remain vote – for the Liberal Democrats, Green Party, Change UK, the Scottish and Welsh Nationalist parties, Sinn Fein and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland – totalled 6.8 million, whereas the hard Brexit vote – for Nigel Farage and Ukip – was only 5.8m. Factoring in the likely allegiances of Conservative (80 per cent Leave) and Labour (60 per cent Remain) voters still leaves Remain well ahead.

Despite all this, I am still berated regularly by those who say calling for a People’s Vote is a disgraceful "betrayal of the will of the people".

The Leave campaign having clawed its way to a mendacious victory three years ago demands that the views of the public must be frozen in aspic. The real guardians of the "will of the people" are those of us who are interested in what people think today.

There are two immediate preoccupations for pro-Europeans now, one in the EU and one at home.

The first is the question of what direction Europe as a whole should take. It is popular folklore to say that the EU is hopelessly undemocratic, yet 403 million people were entitled to vote in last week’s election – the biggest pan-continental democratic exercise anywhere in the world (only India beats in sheer size), and the outcome really matters.

Votes in the European Parliament – which will sit first in July – are critical to who becomes the president of the European Commission, and what their programme will be.

Chosen in concert between the Parliament and the Council (which composes 28 elected prime ministers), whoever heads up the Commission will have a clear effect on the Union’s approach to everything from agricultural policy to climate change, to reform of its own institutions. We will be pushing for a Liberal commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, to take the helm.

At home, Remain MPs will need to be fleet of foot in preventing a no-deal Brexit, despite the wild ebb and flow of Conservative politics over the next few months.

There is plainly no majority in Parliament for just slipping out of the EU one wet October evening, without any conclusion on what the terms of departure should be. To do so would promise chaos at ports and catastrophe for the economy.

But the parliamentary mechanisms to stop that happening are, at the very least, more limited than they were at the time of May’s first series of “meaningful votes” on her Brexit deal. Critical to the political pressure necessary will be the courage of remaining sensible Conservative MPs; many of them realise that sitting on their hands would be an unacceptable dereliction of duty.

The Liberal Democrats led the "Stop Brexit" cause in the recent elections and we will continue to lead efforts in the UK and European Parliaments, working across party lines to end the Brexit mess.

The Labour Party now looks like its constructive ambiguity may finally become a touch more constructive and a little less ambiguous. It too must surely recognise that the prospect of a no-deal Brexit as a prime ministerial option of choice makes putting the final outcome back to the public in a Final Say referendum all the more important.

Sir Vince Cable is leader of the Liberal Democrats

[greybeard]

Chancellor Philip Hammond could try to bring down next government to block no-deal
Sky News Aubrey Allegretti, political reporter,Sky News



Chancellor Philip Hammond has suggested he could try to bring down the government to block a no-deal Brexit.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News, he left open the option of backing a no-confidence vote against the next prime minister to stop them pursuing something "not in Britain's interests".

Mr Hammond admitted it is not a move he would make "lightly or enthusiastically", but warned that "national interest trumps the party interest".

Tory MPs vying to replace Theresa May have been jockeying over whether they would ensure the UK leaves the EU on 31 October regardless of whether or not parliament passes a withdrawal agreement.

Three former cabinet ministers have committed to doing so - Esther McVey, Dominic Raab and Boris Johnson.

Mr Hammond said he was meeting all the candidates this week to decide who to back.

"I would not support a policy of no-deal by choice," he told Sky News.

"That is not in Britain's interests, it would be taking huge risks with the unity of our country, with our security and clearly with our economy.

"I couldn't support a government policy stance that said as a matter of choice we are going to pursue a no-deal exit."

Asked if he would vote for or against the next government in a no-confidence vote if it pursued no-deal, Mr Hammond said: "I've been in parliament for 22 years.

"I have never once voted against the Conservative whip, so it is not something that I would do lightly or enthusiastically.

"But I am very clear that the national interest trumps the party interest.

"And if I am presented with a difficult choice, I will act in what I believe is the best interest of this country."

He previously told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "I don't want to have to start now contemplating such a course of action."

It comes after Commons Speaker John Bercow suggested MPs would thwart any plan by the next Tory leader for a no-deal divorce from the EU.

"The idea that parliament is going to be... evacuated from the centre stage of debate on Brexit is unimaginable. It is simply unimaginable," he said.

Britain is on course to leave the EU in five months' time, with the leadership contest for a new prime minister expected to wind up by the end of July.

[greybeard]

News
Brexit happened out of 'nostalgia' for 'global powerful Britain'
Yahoo News UK Laura Mowat,Yahoo News UK
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/michel-bar...113602776.html


EU negotiator Michel Barnier has blamed “nostalgia” for Brexit saying it serves no place in politics and claiming people voted to leave the European Union in the “hope for a return to a powerful global Britain”.

In an interview with The New York Review of Books Mr Barnier said the deal already offered to the UK government by the EU is the only deal available.

This comes after Theresa May has given a resignation speech following her three failed attempts to get an EU withdrawal deal passed by MPs in the House of Commons.

Regarding what will happen from now with the deal, Mr Barnier said: “There are three options: a deal based on the agreement finalised six months ago; withdrawal without a deal; or no Brexit.


“It will have to be the choice of the UK. During the last three years, we have delivered what the UK wants: leaving the EU, leaving the single market, leaving the customs union [after the Irish “backstop” is resolved].

“Even if we regret their decision profoundly, it is their sovereign decision and we have to respect it.”

The EU bigwig said there were some people voting for Brexit in the UK as they did not want to accept the EU’s rules.

He said: “But there were, also, people voting for Brexit who simply don’t want to accept rules.

Read More on Yahoo News:

Jeremy Corbyn moves closer to second referendum as ‘only way out’ of Brexit crisis

Jeremy Hunt is winning the race to be the next prime minister among Tory MPs

“Some based in the City of London voted to leave, as they don’t want to accept the Union’s regulations on their trading; they want to speculate freely and the Union doesn’t allow them to do so.”

Mr Barnier said he wants the UK to remain a partner, friend and ally of the EU and so the relationship between the two parties must be “constructive”.

The chief EU negotiator said the main problem in Ireland today is Brexit due to “contradictions in the demands of the Tories”.

He said: “You cannot leave the single market and customs union without introducing border controls.”
Conservative MP Boris Johnson leaves a house in London on May 30, 2019. - Boris Johnson, considered the frontrunner to become Britain's next prime minister, must appear in court over allegations that he knowingly lied during the Brexit referendum campaign, a judge ruled Wednesday. Johnson, the former foreign secretary, will be summoned to appear over allegations of misconduct in public office, judge Margot Coleman said in a written decision, without specifying the date

Conservative MP Boris Johnson has said he will deliver on Brexit if he wins the leadership contest.

Nigel Farage has now demanded a seat at Brexit negotiations after his new party swept to victory in the United Kingdom’s European Parliament election.

The leadership contest is underway in the Conservative Party with Boris Johnson leading the way in the polls.

MPs, Jeremy Hunt, Dominic Raab and Mr Johnson have all said they would renegotiate the backstop if they were to replace Mrs May.

Mr Raab said he would tear up the backstop and pursue plans to put alternative arrangements in place to avoid a hard border.

Mr Hunt has also said he wants to replace the Northern Irish backstop with “alternative arrangements”.

[greybeard]

Tory members are overwhelmingly white, male and old – we can't let them decide our future
The Independent Jenna Norman,The Independent

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/tory-membe...111300246.html

With a week to go until Theresa May formally ends her disastrous premiership, all eyes are on her potential successor. And what an embarrassment of riches there are to choose from. By my count, we’re currently at twelve candidates: from the old favourites like Michael Gove and Boris Johnson to the new faces of cliff-diving Conservatism, Esther McVey and Dominic Raab.

Many of the candidates will place democracy front and centre of their campaigns, promising to fulfil the hollow promises made in 2016 as a matter of integrity and duty to the “British people”. And yet, whoever takes over from May will ultimately be decided by the Conservative membership who are 71 per cent male, 97 per cent white and 44 per cent aged over 65.

In fact, research from Queen Mary University in 2018 shows that just 0.75 per cent of the Conservative party membership are young women: 5 per cent of members are aged 18-24 and just 15 per cent of them are young women. A bunch of male, pale and stale card-carrying Conservative voters will be the ones to decide the future of this country. What was that about democratic deficit?

The choice of Tory party leader will be unrepresentative and undemocratic. And yet this prime minister could be the one to lead us back into or out of Europe. They could also preside over a crucial process of healing the country but a glance to their history with tackling inequality doesn’t bode well. Those posturing for leadership don’t exactly have the strongest records on women’s rights. Let’s take a closer look at some of the leading candidates.

First up, Boris Johnson. It’s hardly a hot take to suggest that Boris’s class clown act is a clever guise for what is really a conniving and ruthless long game to secure the keys to Number 10 but has his time finally arrived? Let’s hope not. Just last year Johnson was reported to the Equality and Human Rights Commission for describing women who wear the Niqab as “letter boxes” and “bank robbers”.

His past comments on women also include: women go to university because: “they’ve got to find men to marry” and a personal favourite“voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW”.

I’d love to tell you things get better from here but alas, Raab is infamous for his hostility to women’s rights. He famously declared in a PoliticsHome article in 2011 that “feminists are now amongst the most obnoxious bigots”. Then, in what is truly a show of own-goalsmanship, defended this claim live on The Andrew Marr Show this week. Despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary – including the glacial pace of closing the pay gap and ending violence against women – Raab thinks it is in fact men who have got a “raw deal”.

Raab’s attitudes towards food bank users as those with a “cash flow problem” and disabled children having “wish lists” have been widely publicised elsewhere, but it’s worth noting that a 2018 study found that women make up 56 per cent of food bank users and 73 per cent of those receiving carers allowance. Turns out elitism isn’t gender neutral.

Then there’s Michael Gove, the infamous Education Secretary who increased teachers’ workloads and decreased their salaries, while spending per pupil fell 8 per cent between 2010 and 2018. Almost three quarters of school teachers are women meaning that it is women who have been predominantly hit by these cuts.

Dare I even ask about Jeremy Hunt? Best not to be honest. After all this is the man who confirmed to The Times in 2012 that he was in favour of halving the abortion limit. “I voted to reduce the time down to 12 weeks. I still have that view,” he said.

Sticking with health, all major medical bodies passed no confidence motions on our former Health Secretary - and no surprise. On his watch, waiting times for cancer care and A&E increased, thousands of nurses (89 per cent of whom are women) resigned due to poor working conditions and pay, and the social care sector has been ravaged beyond compare. Approximately 1.2 million people aged 65 and over in England (1 in 8) have unmet care needs, an increase of 48 per cent since 2010.

As Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has described Saudi Arabia – a country where women must obtain permission from a male guardian to travel abroad or obtain a passport and the death penalty still stands – as a “very important military ally”. He also suggested Singapore, a country where there is no anti-discrimination legislation and which ranks 147 out of 159 in Oxfam’s Inequality index, as a model for post-Brexit Britain.

All in all it’s not looking good. We are now in a position where a new prime minister, elected by old white men, will enter office only to carry on with whatever Brexit they care to pursue regardless. With these ideologues lining up to follow May as PM now is hardly the time to be complacent about the status of women. We’ve already seen just how easy it is for populist misogynist to gain national credence elsewhere in the world.

The Brexit we were promised in 2016 looks nothing like this Tory catastrophe. And if the EU election results show us anything it's that the UK is collectively pro-Remain — and certainly that there is no mandate for No Deal. A People’s Vote is therefore now a democratic imperative. We cannot afford to leave it to the boys.



Jenna Norman is a campaigns co-ordinator at Women for a People's Vote

[greybeard]

Brexit Party supporters joining Conservatives to vote for anti-EU leadership candidates, analysis reveals
The Independent Benjamin Kentish,The Independent

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/brexit-par...170200544.html


Brexit Party supporters are flocking to join the Conservative Party to help elect the next prime minister, new analysis has revealed.

A study of social media posts found dozens of supporters of Nigel Farage’s party boasting that they had joined the Conservatives to support Eurosceptic leadership candidates.

They include people who had previously been reported to the Conservative Party for alleged Islamophobia, including one who endorsed the idea of “a total ban on Muslim immigration” and another who shared a joke about Muslims being wiped out in America.

The dossier, compiled by the People’s Vote campaign and seen by The Independent, revealed dozens of Facebook posts from Brexit Party supporters who had successfully signed up to join the Conservatives.

A YouGov poll last week found that 59 per cent of current Tory members voted for Mr Farage’s party in last month’s European Parliament elections.

But the revelation that Brexit Party supporters are actively signing up as Conservative members to vote in the leadership contest is likely to fuel fears of “entryism” – an issue that has already been raised by several prominent Tory MPs.

Conservative Party rules state that members must have been in the party for at least three months to be eligible to vote, but many Brexit Party supporters claimed they had signed up for Tory membership months ago in anticipation of a leadership contest.

One wrote on Eurosceptic ringleader Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Facebook page: “I joined so I could vote when the time came.”

Another said they had signed up “just to be able to have a voice in who I want as next leader”. One said: “I joined the Conservative Party to get rid of May and her cronies.”

Phillip Lee, the former justice minister and a supporter of the campaign for a second referendum, told The Independent: “I have long since feared that some are joining [the Conservatives] now at the instigation of rivals now who do not have either our party’s interests or those of our country at heart. This dossier makes disturbing reading for all of us who love the Conservative Party.

“Our party members, most of whom remain some of the most sensible and decent people in Britain, will have the chance to pick not only our next leader but our next prime minister. It is vital that we choose someone who represents our party’s great traditions, who will fight for business and families, not the extreme and entryist agenda of the narrow nationalists behind Nigel Farage.”

On Saturday, Dr Lee was the subject of a no confidence vote by Tory members in his Bracknell constituency. He has previously claimed that more than half of those behind the move had only joined his local party in the last year.

Last year, Leave.EU chairman and former Ukip donor Arron Banks said he wanted to use his group’s 90,000 members to “recruit” 50,000 new members to the Conservatives to “make a real difference ... and help install a true Brexiteer such as Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg to the top job”.

Since then, Leave.EU has spent thousands of pounds on online adverts urging its supporters to join the Tories.

Despite widespread anger at the government’s handling of Brexit and the party plummeting in opinion polls, the Conservatives’ membership increased from 124,000 in March 2018 to more than 160,000 today.

The party has claimed this was a result of a recruitment drive introduced by Brandon Lewis, the party chairman, but the new analysis is likely to lead to concerns that it is also a result of entryism.

The Conservatives have been contacted for comment.

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Nigel Farage's Brexit Party takes general election poll lead for very first time
The Independent Adam Forrest,The Independent

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/nigel-fara...220853791.html

The Brexit Party has topped a general election voting intention poll for the very first time, according to a new survey.

Nigel Farage’s insurgent outfit was found to be the most popular party on 26 per cent, ahead of Labour on 22 per cent, in the poll asking voters how they will cast their ballots at the next Westminster election.

The Conservatives are third on just 17 per cent, with the Liberal Democrats on 16 per cent and the Greens on 11 per cent, according to the poll carried out by Opinium for The Observer.

The results suggest pro-Leave voters are not ready to abandon Mr Farage’s party at a general election after granting him victory at last week’s European parliamentary elections.

The Brexit Party has increased its backing by two points since the last Opinium survey two weeks ago, while Labour and the Conservatives have seen support fall by seven and five points respectively.

The latest polling does show a significant boost in support for the pro-Remain parties, however. The Greens are up eight points and the Lib Dems up five since the since the company’s last survey.

There was bad news for Change UK, however, with support for the independent MPs’ group down two points to just 1 per cent.

The results would, hypothetically, give the Brexit Party 306 seats in the House of Commons, according to the Electoral Calculus website. Labour would be on 205 and the Tories would be left with just 26 seats.

Launched only six weeks ago, Mr Farage’s party has rapidly absorbed the support of millions of voters angry over Britain’s failure to leave the EU. After winning 32 per cent of the vote and gaining 29 MEPs at the European elections, the former Ukip leader insisted his new organisation had the capacity to “stun everybody in a general election too”.

On Saturday Mr Farage has said winning the upcoming Peterborough by-election would be “even bigger” than the European results. His party is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the seat on 6 June.

The new poll comes as Donald Trump make his second dramatic intervention in British politics in as many days, calling on the UK to leave the EU without a deal if Brussels refuses to meet its demands, and urging the government to send Mr Farage into the negotiations.

He told the Sunday Times it was a “mistake” not to the involve Brexit Party leader Mr Farage in talks, saying he has a “lot to offer” and is someone he likes “a lot”.

Despite current excitement and fear about the Brexit Party, several leading experts have predicted success at a general election would be a much tougher task for Mr Farage’s group.

“When you’re fighting a general election with 650 constituencies, you need an organisation with grassroots organisational zeal,” Liverpool University’s professor of politics Andrew Russell told The Independent.

“The Brexit Party just don’t have that. It is always going to be difficult for them to win from a standing start. It’s very difficult to see them getting more than one or two seats.”

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Donald Trump calls Sadiq Khan a 'stone cold loser' as he lands for three-day UK state visit
Yahoo News UK Ross McGuinness,Yahoo News UK

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/donald-tru...065237522.html


Donald Trump called Sadiq Khan a “stone cold loser” just minutes before he landed in the UK for a three-day state visit.

The US president tweeted his latest attack on the mayor of London as Air Force One landed at Stansted Airport just before 9am on Monday.

Mr Trump said Mr Khan has “done a terrible job” as mayor, and said he was “foolishly nasty” to him.

He then called Mr Khan “a stone cold loser” and made disparaging comments about his height.

Mr Khan responded by accusing the US president of “childish insults”.

Mr Trump tweeted: “Kahn reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job - only half his height.”

A spokesman for Sadiq Khan said: "This is much more serious than childish insults which should be beneath the President of the United States.

"Sadiq is representing the progressive values of London and our country, warning that Donald Trump is the most egregious example of a growing far-right threat around the globe, which is putting at risk the basic values that have defined our liberal democracies for more than 70 years."

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Corbyn’s destructive ambiguity on Brexit has failed
The Guardian William Keegan,The Guardian Sun, 2 Jun

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/corbyn-des...060031203.html

I am told that, shortly before the elections for the European parliament, Jeremy Corbyn was flirting with the idea of being less hostile towards the Remain campaign. Even he could read the opinion polls. However, according to my informant, he was immediately sat upon by his spin doctor, Seumas Milne, and other members of the politburo of what passes for the modern Labour party.

The policy of so-called “constructive ambiguity” remained in place, with all too predictable results at the polls. This approach was tested to destruction, thereby proving what had been obvious for some time: that it was, in truth, a policy of destructive ambiguity.

So what do Milne and his close colleagues do? They terminate the party membership of the previously influential Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell, for admitting – perhaps even boasting – that, as a staunch Remainer, he had, like many of us, voted Lib Dem.

Things have come to a pretty pass when that prominent supporter of much that Labour wishes to achieve, the journalist and broadcaster Paul Mason, calls for the removal of Corbyn’s inner politburo, who have fomented their leader’s worst Eurosceptical instincts, and achieved such an electoral disaster. Apart from anything else, with the present Conservative government an international laughing stock, it is a remarkable achievement to have become such a self-destructive opposition.

I could hardly agree more with Mason’s call for Labour to “scrap Brexit and rebuild Britain instead”. In which context, people who have been asking me “where is Gordon Brown?” should be pleased to hear that he is now playing a prominent role in the counterattack on that notorious snake-oil salesman, the egregious Nigel Farage.

Brown takes Farage seriously. He speaks of “a new battle for Britain”: “This is a battle against intolerance, prejudice, xenophobia and the manufacture of distrust and disunity.” Incidentally, while cynically continuing to draw an income from the European parliament, Farage, with a characteristic mixture of ignorance and prejudice, proposes to ban university courses in European studies.

I wonder if Lavery is aware that, in his contempt for intellectuals, he is sneering at great Labour figures of the past

Like Corbyn’s disappointed disciple Mason, Brown recognises that, while trying to disabuse the “left behind” of the fantasy that Brexit would mysteriously improve their lot, Labour must address “the fears surrounding immigration, sovereignty, the state of our towns … and Britain’s now rampant poverty and inequality”.

Now, the good news about the British EU election result – the counterpart of the Labour party’s humiliation – was that the combined vote of all the Remain parties easily outshone the Brexit vote. Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, and Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, have been espousing the cause of another referendum for some time, and have now been joined by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry.

But, according to the Labour party’s chair, Ian Lavery – another member of the politburo – those of us who believe the country should have another look at the prospect of Brexit are “leftwing intellectuals” sneering at “ordinary people”.

Oh dear. I wonder if Lavery is aware that, in his contempt for intellectuals, he is sneering at the memory of, among many others, such great Labour figures of the past as Sir Stafford Cripps, Hugh Dalton, Hugh Gaitskell, Tony Crosland, Michael Foot, Denis Healey – I could go on. Moreover, the Stalinists and Trotskyists who are said to be such influences on Corbyn’s politburo liked to think of themselves as intellectuals.

Meanwhile, we have a Conservative party in power whose candidates for the succession to Theresa May are, with honourable exceptions such as Philip Hammond, making fools of themselves in competing to out-Farage Farage by championing the cause of any kind of Brexit – to the extent, in some cases, of being prepared to leave the EU on 31 October “without a deal”.

Such an outcome – involving the termination of decades of regulatory agreements and contracts, and chaos at the docks and airports – would almost certainly bring the economy close to a halt, and threaten goodness knows what in the streets.

Ministers talk of “delivering Brexit” as if it were as simple as delivering groceries. If they delivered a so-called “hard Brexit”, they would foul up the delivery of many staple requirements. As the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy recently told a British audience: “Please don’t go. Brexit will be a disaster for the UK. Stay!”

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Trump says Brexit 'can and should happen' as he dismisses Corbyn and protesters
Yahoo News UK Ross McGuinness,Yahoo News UK

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/president-...064650874.html

( a lot more on the link)

- Donald Trump says Brexit ‘can and should happen’

- President turned down a meeting with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

- Baby blimp flied for two hours in front of President's motorcade

- Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt invited for meetings with Trump

- Boris Johnson and Trump speak on phone for 20 minutes

- President says selling off NHS is ‘on the table’ for trade talks

Donald Trump has said Brexit “can and should happen” and claimed he had turned down a meeting with Jeremy Corbyn during his state visit.

The US president emerged from talks at Downing Street with prime minister Theresa May in typically bullish mood.

Speaking at a joint press conference at the Foreign Office, Mr Trump said of Brexit: “It will happen and it should happen.

“This is a great country which wants to have its own borders and its own identity. The prime minister has brought it to a very good point where something will take place in the very near future.”

He paid tribute to Mrs May, saying to her: “That deal is teed up. They have to do something. You deserve a lot of credit, you really do.”

He said it was a “true honour” working with Mrs May, telling her: “You are a tremendous professional and a person who loves her country dearly.”