Brexit discussion thread XIV (Please read OP before posting)

Yes, I think their lack of a written constitution and their disastrous FPTP system leaves them extremely vulnerable. Virtually everyone in the Brexit wing of the Tory Party and those who write for and control the right wing press is a wrong 'un and not to be trusted. British democracy could remain secure only as long as fairly decent and respectable people remained at the helm.....this shower are dragging it down to never seen before depths.

Being reported that David Frost has quit the UK government. Quite the shock, be interesting to see how this develops. Presumably his successor will be one to really shake up the EU and make them see sense (as the Express will doubtless declare)

Brexit minister Lord Frost walks out on Boris | Daily Mail Online

He made a speech a couple of weeks ago decrying the high tax direction of the govt and extolling regulatory independence; he is very popular with the party members due to his aggressive approach and I would not be surprised to see him look for the next safe seat (he would have fancied this week's one); I suspect he has his sights set on the top job

Doubt it. Frost is Johnsons Brexit lead. He was able to run Brexit with little or no scrutiny.

This is a major blow for Brexit. Frost, if one recalls, was appointed because TM and Ollie Robbins had been too eager to please the EU and Frost was going to hammer them. And he was clearly very anti EU.

IMO Johnson or someone close, has seen the dead end they are facing and looking for a bit of back tracking, and that would have gone down badly with Frost.

While no doubt this will be spun as something different, and I see the excuse is Covid reg and tax rises, Frost was in the cabinet for one reason only, he should have no position on those things as, according to his own Tory colleagues, he should be ignored as he wasn't democratically elected.

His replacement, and how fast they line one up, will be very telling in which direction Johnson is planning on going.

Ladies and gents, font be getting to excited over frosty resignation letter, I am betting he turns up in Brussels next Jan as the british brexit negotiator claiming the resignation letter that frosty wrote and peppa accepted needs to be withdrawn immediately as it was a bad resignation letter.

The EU suspect the resignation letter has been written in bad faith, and are reserving judgment until they actually see frosty has actually resigned

Get a load of this : a leaked WhatsApp conversation this evening from what appears to be the ERG, discussing Frost's departure.

https://twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1472331053775958016

Fantastic tweet from Ken Clarke:

Schadenfreude comes to mind …

Please please please let his replacement be Steve Baker or Marc Francois.

Glad to hear he's gone. Not sure his replacement is going to be much better all the same. There seems to be a strategy of having a 'bullish' Brexit minister that does his best to destabilise matters in the public eye. I'm not convinced that approach is going to change because I don't think they have any other idea what to do other than stamping their feet about how the protocol - which they helped negotiate and won an election on - is so unfair.

I assume it will be rinse and repeat, whoever Johnson will appoint will be promised Johnson's full backing etc. etc. etc. and when the next showdown appears Johnson won't press the nuclear button and they'll end up like Frost, having promised to give the mighty EU a good kicking from plucky global Britain, they too will have to quietly drop the big threats.

It's really hard to see how they will climb down from where they have placed themselves. They're spinning this totally unattainable version of Britain, as global leaders, as the most desirable place in the world, the way they spin it, it's the only place illegal immigrants want to be.

The narrative is there in all their policies, controlled immigration under almost impossible conditions because Britain is such a desirable place to go to do all the menial tasks that no-one else wants to do. Right now it's talk of Daffodil picking next spring.

There's several industries where the workforce are almost exclusively immigrant, Meat processing, lot's of the intensive agricultural labour, waste collection and sorting etc. A huge amount of the takeaway industry is first and second generation immigrants.

The difference there is that so many immigrants that came to Britain in the post war era came to build lives not just to work double jobs because they loved doing what the locals didn't want to do.

The Brexiteers love the narrative that potential immigrants are queuing round the block and when the great and mighty Global Britain whistles they'll come running on whatever terms and conditions that Britain offers, like emergency truck drivers, you can come but be gone by Christmas eve.

It hasn't been widely reported yet but it appears that the UK is now seeing net 'migration' of EU citizens and workers i.e. more EU citizens are leaving than arriving.

Did they honestly expect anything else though? Five and a half years of EU / Europe bashing from the Govt, the media and the English public, with the message going out that EU citizens were most unwelcome and considered a burden and a drain on the country.

holy moley :

This is just astonishing. Is it Johnson getting rid of a political opponent ?

More like handing the EU an early Christmas present. Reports of gunfire in Brussels this evening turned out to be the popping of champagne corks...