The Daily Parker

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Boris Johnson has ruined Britain

So says British journalist Jenni Russell:

Britain is in this mess principally because the Brexiteers — led largely by Mr. Johnson — sold the country a series of lies in the lead up to the June 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union. They did so because neither Mr. Johnson nor his fellow leader of the Leave campaign, Michael Gove, intended, wanted or expected to win.

Because Mr. Johnson and Mr. Gove were confident that the Leave campaign was a hopeless cause, they were free to make ridiculous claims that they had no expectation of ever having to fulfill. They said that Brexit would make Britain both richer and more independent, with more money for the National Health Service, much greater control of immigration and continued friction-free trade with Europe.

Every earnest warning from the other side — about how any Brexit would damage trade, business and jobs — was dismissed airily by the Brexiteers. There were no costs or downsides in this vision of the future.

This casual dishonesty has had devastating consequences.

Russell goes on to list those devastating consequences, with devastating effect.

I'm baffled by how so many people can believe someone so obviously full of shit as Johnson. Maybe now that he's out of the Cabinet (but, tellingly, not out of Parliament) he won't be as effective in his destructive tendencies.

Comments (1) -

  • David Harper

    7/11/2018 6:15:05 AM +00:00 |

    That's a pretty accurate article.  Last Friday, before the Cabinet away-day at Chequers had ended, the Guardian published a scathing critique of the pro-Brexit faction, noting that they had offered no concrete suggestions on how to implement Brexit, nor were they willing to take responsibility for the crisis that they had created:

    www.theguardian.com/.../the-guardian-view-on-the-cabinet-brexiters-vacuous-dreary-and-incapable-of-responsibility

    Meanwhile, the Labour Party dithers and fails to fulfil its role as the opposition party in Parliament, partly because Corbyn appears only luke-warm about the EU, and partly because its MPs from parts of the country where there was a majority for Brexit in the 2016 referendum are terrified of appearing to go against "the will of the people".

    There is supposedly an ancient Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."  This is one of those times.  It's going to be good for historians 20 or 30 years from now.  It's not so good to be living through it.

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