U.K. PM candidate Boris Johnson brushes off questions after police called to home aft

[spaminator]

U.K. PM candidate Boris Johnson brushes off questions after police called to home after altercation
Reuters
Published:
June 22, 2019
Updated:
June 22, 2019 12:00 PM EDT
Conservative leadership candidate Boris Johnson attends a leadership election event in Birmingham, England on Saturday, June 22, 2019.Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
LONDON — Boris Johnson, the favourite to be the next British Prime Minister, said on Saturday that party members were not interested in why police were called to investigate concerns for the welfare of a woman in his home.
Early on Friday, British police were called to Johnson’s home after neighbours heard a loud altercation between him and his girlfriend.
Johnson declined to answer questions about the incident at a hustings event in Birmingham, in central England, saying that party members would rather hear about his plans for Britain than about the incident.
“I don’t think (audience members) want to hear about that kind of thing, unless I’m wrong,” Johnson said when asked about the incident, to applause from the audience.
“I think what they want to hear is what my plans are for the country and for my party.”
Police had been called to an address in south London where Johnson is living with his girlfriend, Carrie Symonds. Johnson is currently divorcing his second wife.
“The caller was concerned for the welfare of a female neighbour,” the police said in a statement on Friday evening. “Police attended and spoke to all occupants of the address, who were all safe and well.”
“There were no offenses or concerns apparent to the officers and there was no cause for police action,” the statement said.
Symonds could not be reached for comment.
The Guardian newspaper, which first reported the story, said an unidentified neighbour had heard a woman screaming followed by “slamming and banging.” At one point Symonds could be heard telling Johnson to “get off me” and “get out of my flat.”
Despite a series of scandals in the past and criticism about his attention to detail, Brexit supporter Johnson has dominated the race to replace Prime Minister Theresa May.
After a series of ballots to whittle down the race to two candidates, 160,000 Conservative Party members will now chose either Johnson and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt as their next leader – and thus the next prime minister.
Conservative leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt arrives at an LGA meeting in Westminster on Friday, June 21, 2019 in London, England. Leon Neal / Getty Images
At the event in Birmingham, Johnson said that people had a right to ask questions about his character, said that his record in office showed he had the right character to be prime minister.
Johnson, 55, who served as London mayor for eight years, has cast himself as the only candidate who can deliver Brexit on Oct. 31 while fighting off the electoral threats of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.
A neighbour of Johnson told the Guardian newspaper that they had recorded the altercation from inside their flat out of concern for Symonds.
The Guardian said it had reviewed the recording and that Johnson could be heard refusing to leave the flat and using a swear word to tell Symonds to get off his laptop. Crashing sounds can also be heard, the newspaper said.
Reuters has not reviewed the audio.
Symonds is heard saying Johnson had ruined a sofa with red wine, according to the Guardian’s account.
“You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt. You have no care for money or anything,” Symonds is quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Boris Johnson gets new boost in race to become U.K. prime minister
Brexit supporter Boris Johnson far ahead in contest to replace U.K. PM
New U.K. PM will not change Brexit deal: EU’s Juncker
http://theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/21/police-called-to-loud-altercation-at-boris-johnsons-home
http://torontosun.com/news/world/br...-pm-candidate-boris-johnson-after-altercation

 

[Blackleaf]

Smear campaign, of course. It's the usual evil that the fascist Left employ when things don't go their way.

 

[spaminator]

UK PM rival calls on frontrunner Johnson to answer 'difficult questions'
Reuters
Published:
June 23, 2019
Updated:
June 23, 2019 2:26 PM EDT
Conservative MP Boris Johnson speaks to the audience as he takes part in a Conservative Party leadership hustings event in Birmingham, central England on June 22, 2019. OLI SCARFF / AFP/Getty Images
LONDON — The frontrunner to be Britain’s next prime minister, Boris Johnson, came under renewed pressure on Sunday to explain the circumstances of a late-night row between him and girlfriend that led to the police being called to their home.
Polls conducted for the Mail on Sunday newspaper before and after Britain’s front pages were dominated by the argument showed that Johnson’s lead over rival Jeremy Hunt, the foreign minister, had evaporated amongst all voters and had narrowed among supporters of his ruling Conservative Party.
Johnson declined to answer questions about the incident at a hustings for party members on Saturday, saying to applause that the audience wanted instead to hear about his plans for Britain three years after the country voted to leave the European Union.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, who is backing Hunt, said the reports should not distract from the policy debate in the race to become the prime minister, which will be decided by 160,000 party members next month.
“I think it’s always easier to just give an explanation,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday.
“But the key thing then is how you get on to the issues; what we can’t have is it being a distraction from explanations about wider polices and where we go to and when.”
Hunt, who was campaigning in Scotland on Sunday, told Sky News that Johnson, a former foreign minister and former London mayor, “needs to show he’s prepared to answer difficult questions.”
“I think someone who wants to be prime minister should answer questions on everything,” he said.
Hunt said he was not going to comment on Johnson’s private life. “That’s for others to make their judgments on,” he said.
But he added that Johnson had to engage more in the leadership race, including taking part in more TV debates.
The clear favorite, Johnson had tried to stay out of the limelight during the campaign, and opponents have accused him of running from scrutiny to avoid the gaffes that have been a feature of his career so far.
Johnson, who has a leading Brexit campaigner in the 2016 referendum, on Saturday reiterated his desire to leave the European Union in October with or without a deal.
Hunt, who backed Remain in the referendum, said he would take the country out of the bloc without a deal on Oct. 31 if the EU had not showed it was willing to renegotiate the Brexit deal agreed with May that been rejected three times by parliament.
The EU has repeatedly said it will not renegotiate the withdrawal deal.
U.K. PM candidate Boris Johnson brushes off questions after police called to home after altercation
Brexit supporter Boris Johnson far ahead in contest to replace U.K. PM
Donald Trump backs Boris Johnson for PM, calls Duchess Meghan ‘nasty’ on eve of UK visit
LOUD ALTERCATION
Polling for the Mail on Sunday showed Johnson was seen as the best prime minister by 36% of all voters on Thursday, while Jeremy Hunt was supported by 28%.
But Johnson had lost the lead on Saturday, with 32% supporting Hunt and 29% Johnson. Among Conservative voters, Johnson’s lead fell from 55% to 45%, while Hunt’s standing rose from 28% to 34%, the polls conducted by Survation showed.
Police were called to an address in south London where Johnson is living with girlfriend Carrie Symonds in the early hours of Friday after neighbors heard a loud altercation. Johnson, 55, is currently divorcing his second wife.
All occupants of the address were spoken to and were all safe and well, police said in a statement.
Supporters of Johnson have said the action of a neighbor in releasing a recording of the row to the Guardian newspaper was politically motivated.
Neighbor Tom Penn, 29, said in a statement he had called the police because he was “frightened and concerned for the welfare of those involved.”
“Once clear that no one was harmed, I contacted the Guardian, as I felt it was of important public interest,” he said. “I believe it is reasonable for someone who is likely to become our next prime minister to be held accountable for all of their words, actions and behaviors.”
Penn said voted to remain the European Union three years ago, but that was the extent of his involvement in politics
http://torontosun.com/news/world/jo...els-debate-in-britain-over-his-pm-credentials

 

[Kreskin]

The guy has the world's worst heterosexual brexiter haircut.

 

[MHz]

That might explain his obsession with getting back with his 'X'. If he can't manage a marriage how in the hell will he run the country or does the World Bank help their goons look like they are leading??

 

[MHz]

The guy has the world's worst heterosexual brexiter haircut.

Who said he was 'hetro'??

 

[Blackleaf]

UK PM rival calls on frontrunner Johnson to answer 'difficult questions'
Reuters
Published:
June 23, 2019
Updated:
June 23, 2019 2:26 PM EDT
Conservative MP Boris Johnson speaks to the audience as he takes part in a Conservative Party leadership hustings event in Birmingham, central England on June 22, 2019. OLI SCARFF / AFP/Getty Images
LONDON — The frontrunner to be Britain’s next prime minister, Boris Johnson, came under renewed pressure on Sunday to explain the circumstances of a late-night row between him and girlfriend that led to the police being called to their home.
Polls conducted for the Mail on Sunday newspaper before and after Britain’s front pages were dominated by the argument showed that Johnson’s lead over rival Jeremy Hunt, the foreign minister, had evaporated amongst all voters and had narrowed among supporters of his ruling Conservative Party.
Johnson declined to answer questions about the incident at a hustings for party members on Saturday, saying to applause that the audience wanted instead to hear about his plans for Britain three years after the country voted to leave the European Union.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, who is backing Hunt, said the reports should not distract from the policy debate in the race to become the prime minister, which will be decided by 160,000 party members next month.
“I think it’s always easier to just give an explanation,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday.
“But the key thing then is how you get on to the issues; what we can’t have is it being a distraction from explanations about wider polices and where we go to and when.”
Hunt, who was campaigning in Scotland on Sunday, told Sky News that Johnson, a former foreign minister and former London mayor, “needs to show he’s prepared to answer difficult questions.”
“I think someone who wants to be prime minister should answer questions on everything,” he said.
Hunt said he was not going to comment on Johnson’s private life. “That’s for others to make their judgments on,” he said.
But he added that Johnson had to engage more in the leadership race, including taking part in more TV debates.
The clear favorite, Johnson had tried to stay out of the limelight during the campaign, and opponents have accused him of running from scrutiny to avoid the gaffes that have been a feature of his career so far.
Johnson, who has a leading Brexit campaigner in the 2016 referendum, on Saturday reiterated his desire to leave the European Union in October with or without a deal.
Hunt, who backed Remain in the referendum, said he would take the country out of the bloc without a deal on Oct. 31 if the EU had not showed it was willing to renegotiate the Brexit deal agreed with May that been rejected three times by parliament.
The EU has repeatedly said it will not renegotiate the withdrawal deal.
U.K. PM candidate Boris Johnson brushes off questions after police called to home after altercation
Brexit supporter Boris Johnson far ahead in contest to replace U.K. PM
Donald Trump backs Boris Johnson for PM, calls Duchess Meghan ‘nasty’ on eve of UK visit
LOUD ALTERCATION
Polling for the Mail on Sunday showed Johnson was seen as the best prime minister by 36% of all voters on Thursday, while Jeremy Hunt was supported by 28%.
But Johnson had lost the lead on Saturday, with 32% supporting Hunt and 29% Johnson. Among Conservative voters, Johnson’s lead fell from 55% to 45%, while Hunt’s standing rose from 28% to 34%, the polls conducted by Survation showed.
Police were called to an address in south London where Johnson is living with girlfriend Carrie Symonds in the early hours of Friday after neighbors heard a loud altercation. Johnson, 55, is currently divorcing his second wife.
All occupants of the address were spoken to and were all safe and well, police said in a statement.
Supporters of Johnson have said the action of a neighbor in releasing a recording of the row to the Guardian newspaper was politically motivated.
Neighbor Tom Penn, 29, said in a statement he had called the police because he was “frightened and concerned for the welfare of those involved.”
“Once clear that no one was harmed, I contacted the Guardian, as I felt it was of important public interest,” he said. “I believe it is reasonable for someone who is likely to become our next prime minister to be held accountable for all of their words, actions and behaviors.”
Penn said voted to remain the European Union three years ago, but that was the extent of his involvement in politics
http://torontosun.com/news/world/jo...els-debate-in-britain-over-his-pm-credentials

What "difficult questions"? The police were called and took no further action. It was just an ordinary domestic argument. It's the end of the matter. Or so it should be. Johnson has no need it answer daft "awkward questions."

And despite the best efforts of the Establishment to prevent him becoming PM, because he'll deliver Brexit unlike Remainer Hunt, he'll become PM next month - because there's less chance Tory members will elect Remainer Hunt as PM than I have of winning EuroMillions whilst gnawing off my arm.

 

[Blackleaf]

 

[MHz]

Hiding martial problem means he would hide what if elected??

 

[Blackleaf]

Hiding martial problem means he would hide what if elected??

Well he doesn't have marital problems. They aren't married. It was just an ordinary domestic row and the cops are taking no further action. Doesn't stop the lefty MSM from keeping running with the story, making it a bigger headline in Britain than the news of potential war between the US and Iran. It's just nothing but a smear campaign by the lefty media against the only man who can deliver Brexit and defeat Corbyn and the Brexit Party.

 

[Blackleaf]

RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: The treatment of Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds, coupled with the behaviour of their neighbours, shows we are becoming a banana republic

By Richard Littlejohn for the Daily Mail
25 June 2019

According to a made-up survey for a supermarket chain, a fifth of British people are using cooking oil instead of sunscreen.

If they’d wanted an even bigger headline, they could have claimed that half the population was frying food in Ambre Solaire. That wouldn’t have been true, either, but it would have had a more powerful ‘Oi, Doris!’ factor.

Does anyone seriously believe more than 13 million of us are rubbing cooking oil into our skin to promote a better tan?

Of course not. Mind you, it won’t be long before the Left seizes on this bogus survey to claim it is yet further evidence of ‘austerity’ Britain. Soon, food banks will be giving away sun cream to those living in ‘poverty’.

There may have been a time when some women misguidedly believed claims that judiciously applied sunflower oil would help them achieve a deep, film star’s tan. But that was before skin cancer was invented.

According to a made-up survey for a supermarket chain, a fifth of British people are using cooking oil instead of sunscreen

There was another story a few years ago which alleged that in Scotland people were using chip fat as a home-made tanning aid.

That, I can believe. This is a country, after all, which deep fries everything, including Mars bars. So why not people?

There’s so little sunshine in Scotland that folk are determined to make the most of it, even if that involves tipping the contents of a chip pan over their heads.

I can remember being in the Western Highlands one summer on a rare day the clouds parted. My fair-haired Aberdonian friend immediately pegged himself out like Gulliver for the duration. When he came down for dinner that evening, he was glowing like Chernobyl. I remarked that he’d probably overdone the sunbathing.

‘That’s the thing about us Scots,’ he said. ‘We’re either red or we’re blue!’

Just when you think the squalid Stop Brexit circus can’t sink any lower, a young woman is driven from her home for the crime of living with Boris Johnson.

Step back from the feeding frenzy and consider the kind of country we now live in.

Three years after the British people took part in the greatest democratic exercise in our history, the man who led the Leave campaign, the front-runner to become our next Prime Minister, a former Foreign Secretary and two-term Mayor of London, is forced into hiding.

Just when you think the squalid Stop Brexit circus can’t sink any lower, a young woman is driven from her home for the crime of living with Boris Johnson

Demonstrators picket the flat he has been sharing with Carrie Symonds. The street is plastered with anti-Boris, anti-Brexit posters.

Johnson is abused in the street and reported to the police by agitprop neighbours who record a domestic spat through the walls and leak it to an extreme Left-wing newspaper.

You might expect the Establishment to rally round their beleaguered parliamentary colleague — at the very least demanding that Scotland Yard provides round-the-clock protection for the couple.

Far from it. Their silence is deafening. Most of them are revelling in Johnson’s discomfort and subjecting him to synchronised character assassination.

Would the hypocritical, holier-than-thou Guardian have published a transcript of an alleged shouting match between Jeremy Corbyn and his missus? And would the BBC have amplified it all weekend? What do you think? Pictured: Carrie Symonds

Having failed, thus far, to destroy Brexit and overturn the democratically expressed wishes of the British people, they are now determined to destroy the People’s Choice to become PM.

If this was happening in a third-world banana republic, the bien pensant political class would be outraged. There would be calls for UN action, everything from sanctions to military intervention.

But in Britain 2019, this is just business as usual. Ever since the failure of Project Fear to prevent us voting to leave the EU, the Establishment have moved heaven and earth to stop it happening.

Time and again, they have demonstrated that they don’t believe in democracy, when it doesn’t deliver the right result.

First we were told they would respect the result of the referendum. Then both main parties stood in a General Election on a promise to implement Brexit, garnering 80 per cent of the vote.

Neither the Tories nor Labour had any intention of keeping their promise. With the connivance of the courts and the despicable pipsqueak Speaker Jean-Claude Bercow, the vast majority of MPs have contrived to delay and derail Brexit indefinitely.

As I have written before, there may not be tanks on the streets but be in no doubt: what we have been witnessing over the past three years is a concerted coup against the British people. We were initially told we were too stupid to know what we were voting for.

Then we were bombarded with sophistry about ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ Brexit, ‘crashing out without a deal’, the Northern Ireland ‘backstop’, blah, blah, blah.

When Theresa May failed multiple times even to get hardline Remainers to back her dismal, defeatist ‘Withdrawal Agreement’, the guaranteed departure date of March 31 was arbitrarily torn up.

Having failed to prevent Boris Johnson becoming one of the final two names put to the Tory membership as May’s successor, the opponents of Brexit are straining every sinew to stop him winning.

Having failed to prevent Boris Johnson becoming one of the final two names put to the Tory membership as May’s successor, the opponents of Brexit are straining every sinew to stop him winning

They’re now throwing their weight behind bland Jeremy Hunt, the Manchurian Candidate, a brainwashed Remainer currently posing as a born-again Brexiteer.

With Boris at bay, Hunt turned up in Aberdeen, on the bridge of a fishing boat, clutching a can of Irn-Bru and a packet of fish and chips.

Presumably, this stunt had been set up for Aberdeen boy Michael Gove. But when former Brexiteer Gove failed to make the cut, rather than waste a photo-op they gave it to Hunt instead.

Later, he joined in the character assassination, accusing Boris of cowardice. It’s a charge repeated everywhere in a plethora of ‘The Boris Who Knows Me’ pieces in all newspapers. The accusation is only because Boris refuses to play the game by the Remainers’ rules and won’t answer questions about his private life.

Why should he? Would smug Hunt like every cross word between him and Mrs Hunt smeared all over the front pages?

Would the hypocritical, holier-than-thou Guardian have published a transcript of an alleged shouting match between Jeremy Corbyn and his missus? And would the BBC have amplified it all weekend? What do you think?

This is the same Guardian which condemned tabloid reporters for listening in on celebrities’ voicemails and delighted when some were prosecuted. What’s the difference between bugging a phone and bugging a home?

We know Boris can be his own worst enemy. His shambolic private life is pretty much an open book, but still it hasn’t stopped people from voting for him.

As for accusations of cowardice, he has to suffer more abuse than any politician bar Nigel Farage. Yet until now he has insisted on cycling and walking in London without a bodyguard.

No, Boris is in the crosshairs because he is the last best hope of Brexit ever happening. If they can’t prevent him winning, they are even prepared to collapse Parliament the day he moves into No 10.

Politics is a bloodsport, but this is one step beyond.

Remoaners such as Bercow, Grieve, Soubry, Rudd and most of the British Establishment might just as well be standing on Carrie Symonds’s doorstep alongside the Class War rabble.

They have created the poisonous climate in which such intimidation is now commonplace. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Project Fear is one thing. Forcing a blameless young woman to live in genuine fear is quite another.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/...son-Carrie-Symonds-shows-banana-republic.html

 

[Curious Cdn]

Your yellow press will publish any old thing.

 

[justlooking]

Your yellow press will publish any old thing.

You misspelled red.








Carrie must be real wild one, Boris is a lucky guy................................ maybe.

 

[Blackleaf]

'The Brexit Bashing Corporation': Boris blasts the BBC over its coverage of the UK's departure from the EU as he demands corporation pay for licence fees for the over 75s

The Tory leadership favourite also tore into the broadcaster at a leadership hustings in Carlisle over its decision to strip millions of pensioners of their free TV licences. He made a direct plea to the corporation to 'look after' older viewers who face having licences means-tested from next year. Under the new rule announced by director general Lord Hall, only over-75s who receive Pension Credit will be eligible for a free licence from next year. Mr Johnson was quizzed on the BBC by Tory member Andrew Stephenson, who asked: 'The BBC has been at the forefront of the assault on Brexit for some time. They no longer make a pretence of being independent and balanced, in my opinion. So should something be done about the licence fee?' Mr Johnson nodded and provoked roars of laughter as he replied: 'The Brexit Bashing Corporation'.

 

[Blackleaf]

BORIS JOHNSON: My Brexit will unite Britain AND save the Union

He pledged to add 'Minister for the Union' to the Prime Minister's official title
Mr Johnson has set out a vision for the United Kingdom as a 'great global brand'
He also took aim at Theresa May for fear-mongering over a No Deal Brexit

By Glen Owen and Harry Cole For The Mail On Sunday
30 June 2019

Boris Johnson today wraps himself in the national flag as he pledges to change the Prime Minister's official title to add 'Minister for the Union'.

Setting out his vision for the United Kingdom – which he describes as 'the most successful political and economic union in history' – Mr Johnson takes aim at Theresa May, who has argued that a No Deal Brexit would risk fracturing England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The tub-thumping 'Minister for the Union' moniker will be added alongside First Lord of the Treasury to the formal title of Prime Minister if, as expected, Mr Johnson wins his leadership battle against Jeremy Hunt.

Boris Johnson has committed to keeping the United Kingdom together after Brexit as Prime Minister

Writing in today's Mail on Sunday, Mr Johnson says: 'Properly done, Brexit will not threaten the Union; a sensible Brexit will enhance the Union and protect it and make life more difficult for those who wish to destroy it.

'Now is the time therefore to be resolute, to get on with Brexit and to bring the whole country together.'

The Tory frontrunner describes the UK as a 'great global brand' and 'the soft-power superpower of the 21st Century'.

He adds: 'We members of this precious Union are therefore so obviously and so irrefutably more than the sum of our parts; and that is why I am a passionate believer in the Unions – all of them – and when you look at the scale of our collective achievement, I simply cannot understand why anyone would want to mutilate this country and to break it up.

Jeremy Hunt signed up former Canadian PM Stephen Harper to his team to help him seek a loose Canadian-style free trade agreement with Brussels

'So if I am lucky enough to be elected in the next few weeks, I will do anything in my power to stop that disaster, and to bring this country together.'

Mr Johnson pledges to establish a special unit in No 10 to 'stress-test every policy for the results it may bring to the Union', concluding: 'I believe that the occupant of No 10 should be not just Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service.

He or she should be Minister for the Union as well.'

His patriotic rallying call comes as:

Mrs May's Remainer Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins dramatically resigned ahead of an expected Johnson victory;

Mr Johnson's team prepared to launch a 'Day One' Brexit Blitz that will see a dramatic increase in No Deal planning and senior EU officials being invited to London talks;

Mr Hunt signed up former Canadian PM Stephen Harper to his team to help him seek a loose Canadian-style free trade agreement with Brussels;

Michael Gove disappointed Mr Hunt by refusing to back him to be Prime Minister;

Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Home Secretary Sajid are tussling to be Mr Johnson's Chancellor;

Mr Hunt was attacked by Labour for using of his grace-and-favour residence for political campaigning;

Mr Johnson was hit by a series of lurid 'dirty tricks' from Tory rivals regarding his personal life.

Last night Mr Johnson also risked controversy by heaping praise on US President Donald Trump, saying he has 'many, many good qualities'.

He told a hustings for party members in Carlisle that Mr Trump 'is a guy who, when all is said and done, has got the US economy motoring along at about 3.6 per cent growth, he's put in capital allowances for business in a way I think we should be looking at here, he's cut regulations, he's cut taxes in a way that has driven growth in the US'.

He added: 'We Tories, we Conservatives, have for too long failed to talk up the agenda of free market economics and we've failed to be positive about it and we've spent an awfully long time really sounding as though we're pretty miserable about business and enterprise.'

Despite a muted response from party members, Mr Johnson said: 'I know that not everybody agrees with everything Donald Trump says or does, but on that he is having results and we should pay tribute to that.'

A good Brexit will PROTECT the Union that puts the Great into Britain, by Boris Johnson

To understand the genius of this country, you sometimes need to see us through the eyes of others.

And having served as Foreign Secretary, I can tell you that across the world we are admired – sometimes even loved – far more than we realise.

When foreigners look at this country, they see a place that stands up for certain values and certain freedoms: democracy, the rule of law, human rights, free speech.

They see a country with fantastic Armed Forces and a globally trusted national broadcaster.

They see a place that has provided the world with its greatest explorers, scientists, inventors, poets, suffragettes and environmentalists.

And what is the name of that country? It isn't England, or Scotland, or Wales, or Northern Ireland.

It is Britain, or rather the UK: the whole composite – the most successful political and economic union in history.

It is the United Kingdom that is the great global brand, and the Union Flag that captures imaginations around the world – the amalgamated red, white and blue that sums up the soft-power superpower of the 21st Century, recently rated by one leading think-tank as the second most influential country on Earth – and only beaten by the United States, a country that is, when all is said and done, a part of the political and spiritual progeny of the UK.

It is the UK, and not its constituent components, that is defined by some of our greatest national glories: from our National Health Service to our sense of humour to the sports and games that we largely invented and codified and which help to bring the world together today. We members of this precious Union are therefore so obviously and so irrefutably more than the sum of our parts; and that is why I am a passionate believer in the unions – all of them – and when you look at the scale of our collective achievement I simply cannot understand why anyone would want to mutilate this country and to break it up.

SO IF I am lucky enough to be elected as leader of the Conservative Party in the next few weeks, I will do anything in my power to stop that disaster, and to bring this country together.

That does not mean reversing devolution. Of course not – and we should give due acknowledgment to the successes of that programme.

But devolution must not mean dissolution. Devolution should not mean decay of the vital bonds that hold us together.

We should accordingly be far more vocal in illustrating and explaining the success of the whole UK.

We will have a unit in No 10 to sense-test and stress-test every policy for the results it may bring to the Union.

When projects or funding are owed to UK investment – and not the devolved authority – we will be less bashful in claiming credit for the Government of the UK. We should actively campaign for a public understanding of the benefits of the Union, economic and strategic, for the people of all its component nations.

And why?

Because there are still passionate voices – especially in Scotland – that are campaigning night and day to break our Union up, to diminish our country. We cannot just leave the field to them, and refuse to engage in the argument.

And to protect the integrity of the whole UK, we need to get Brexit done. We need to fulfil the mandate of the people and come out of the EU, as instructed in the referendum of 2016. We need to get Brexit done sensibly and cleanly – because that is precisely the way to spike the guns of the SNP.

Think of their argument once the whole UK has left the EU.

What are the Scottish Nationalists going to say then?

Are they really going to propose to rejoin the EU as an independent Scotland? Are they going to use the euro in Scotland, to submit to Schengen rules on immigration for Scotland, and to make Scottish business and citizens bow to the full panoply of EU law – while the rest of the UK, Scotland's most important trading partner, seeks a different and more global destiny?

When the UK leaves the EU, Scotland will finally take back control of Scottish fisheries, which are among the richest in the northern hemisphere.

Are the Scottish Nationalists really going to campaign – post-Brexit – to throw that opportunity away? Will it seriously be their manifesto to hand back control of fisheries to Brussels? Of course not. Properly done, Brexit will not threaten the Union; a sensible Brexit will enhance the Union and protect it and make life more difficult for those who wish to destroy it.

Now is the time, therefore, to be resolute, to get on with Brexit and to bring the whole country together; with better infrastructure, and full fibre broadband, across all four nations.

We should be boosting Scottish fisheries; improving transport in Wales; and we should be restoring and protecting the governance of Northern Ireland, and insisting on the sovereignty of the UK – as upheld in the Good Friday Agreement.

NOW is a great opportunity to entrench and intensify our Union, and it should be an easy sell and an easy argument to make. The world can see our collective strength. We need to celebrate it ourselves, because we are the awesome foursome – far more together than we are apart.

To underscore the importance of these multiple partnerships that develop and grow richer with every year, I also propose a cost-free but symbolically important addition to the office I seek.

I believe that the occupant of No 10 should be not just Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service.

He or she should be Minister for the Union as well.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7196701/BORIS-JOHNSON-Brexit-unite-Britain-save-Union.html

 

[Blackleaf]

Boris Johnson is set for landslide victory in Tory leadership race as new poll reveals three out of four party members will back him over Jeremy Hunt

The Tory leadership candidate is closing in on the keys to 10 Downing Street as he is backed by 74 per cent of the party, with rival Jeremy Hunt on just 26 per cent, according to a You Gov poll.

 

[Blackleaf]

The Left loved a North Yorkshire firm called Heck which produces gluten-free sausages. That is until it was recently visited by the man with will become the UK's 55th PM in two weeks' time...

What the Heck boycotters can learn from Boris Johnson

Ross Clark
8 July 2019
The Spectator

You can tell a lot about the Left simply by reading the list of subjects which are trending on Twitter. Top spot this afternoon goes to the hashtag #BoycottHeck. If you are wondering what that means, Heck is a family firm based in North Yorkshire which until the weekend ran a blameless business making gluten-free sausages. Besides its traditional pork sausages, it has also established a reputation for its vegetarian sausages – winning plaudits from a great number of warm-hearted, peace-loving people of the Left.

That was, however, until Boris Johnson passed by on the campaign trail for the Tory leadership contest, and posed for a photo opportunity in a Heck-branded apron with the company’s products. Cue a Twitterstorm, of which the following two – relatively mild – tweets give a flavour:

‘I will #BoycottHeck anyone who supports a racist, arrogant, self-promoting, ruthless Trump loving arse hole deserves all they get. Hope Heck goes into liquidation now although feel sorry for the workers.’

‘F*** my old boots, I used to enjoy a heck sausage, now you’ve let this prick into the factory and I’m sure he would have contaminated everything in sight. Not buying from you again! #borisisawanker #boycottHeck’

It took me a little while to remember where I had last come across such an attitude – I had a friend at university whose family of Northern Irish Protestants insisted on driving 20 miles just so that they could avoid buying potatoes from a farm run by Catholics. Yes, a firm merely invites a Conservative politician onto its premises and it must somehow be wiped from the Earth. It’s not even as if the company sees eye to eye with Boris. It turns out that two years ago it featured in a piece in the Guardian about businesses who were worried that Brexit might bring about a loss of eastern European labour. The co-owner of Heck, Debbie Keeble, was quoted as saying that eastern Europeans were filling vacancies which the firm had struggled to fill with locals.

What company, though, would not want to seize the opportunity for a little free PR when Boris was in the area, plus an invaluable chance to discuss its concerns with a powerful political leader? I don’t know the Keeble family but I suspect they would equally happily have entertained Jeremy Corbyn had he been passing – just as have numerous other companies over the past few years including Aston Martin, Michelin and Bombardier. Funny enough, I don’t recall a campaign to boycott any of those firms on the grounds that they were somehow legitimising Corbyn’s friendship with Hamas or promotion of the IRA.

The campaign to boycott Heck fits the pattern we have seen over and over again the past few years. The first instinct of many on the Left is no longer to argue with political opponents, but attempt to delegitimise them – to get them sacked or brand them with some emotive term such as ‘racist’ or ‘denier’, to try to ruin their business. Either you agree with us, goes the philosophy, or you do not deserve to be heard.

One reason I suspect that Boris will triumph in this election and may go on to be a very popular prime minister is that he stands for the very opposite. He is the last person who would try to silence his political opponents or boycott a person or a company because he disagreed with its politics. He manages to be what so many on the Left claim to be, but in which they fail so miserably in practice – inclusive.
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/07/what-the-heck-boycotters-can-learn-from-boris-johnson/

 

[Curious Cdn]

Make him the new Ambassador to Washington!


slurp slurp slurp slurp

 

[Blackleaf]

Make him the new Ambassador to Washington!
slurp slurp slurp slurp

The British Foreign Office isn't fit for for purpose in 2019, full of undemocratic right-on Lefties who have ruined a once-great institution

This embarrassing thing with Trump follows their recent declaration that Corbyn is too old and frail and not bright enough and generally not suited to be PM.

Now I have my differences with Corbyn and the Labour Party and think they should be kept well away from power but in the world's oldest democracy I like to think it's the people who decide who will make a good PM and that it isn't the job of the Foreign Office to tell us not to vote Labour or whoever.

I'll vote for whoever the Hell I want to vote for, whether it be Labour, Monster Raving Loony, Tory, Brexit or BNP.

 

[Curious Cdn]

Yeah, what sort of lap dog ARE you guys, anyway?

SIT! ... BRIT!