May Day in Brexistential Breakdowns

I had a session of physiotherapy yesterday, and I think my relationship with my physio has changed. During the first few sessions my focus was very much on not screaming, but more and more recently all I can think is hurt me more. It’s incredibly exhausting (to the point where it’s hard to stay awake for more than about three hours afterwards), and incredibly satisfying: for now, at least, this is the closest thing to having a workout at the gym that I can get, so I’m going to enjoy it the same way.

Also my physio voted Remain, so we had a nice moan about the possibility of either Prime Minister Johnson or Prime Minister May.

Because the deadline for nominations for Tory party leadership is today, and those are the two front runners. There are a few others, of course; some notable potential leaders being alleged homophobe Stephen Crabb running with Business Secretary Sajid Javid, Liam Fox - a cabinet member so bad he’s already had to resign once before, and the man they trusted with the NHS Jeremy CunHunt is still “seriously considering” a run but hasn’t confirmed either way, along side a couple of others whom I can’t be arsed dealing with. Those are probably the biggest players right now, anyway, and of those the biggest two are Johnson and May.

Johnson is running alongside fellow Leave campaigner Michael Gove, a fact that was wonderfully reiterated yesterday when Gove’s wife Sarah Vine accidentally sent an email to a member of the public instead of him. In the email, she reminded him “you MUST have SPECIFIC assurances from Boris OTHERWISE you cannot guarantee your support”, prompting speculation that she thinks Gove is somewhat incompetent. Breaking news: Lol no, Gove’s standing by himself, which means this needs posting again:

Perhaps far more interesting content lies just two lines down, where Sarah points out that “the membership will not have the necessary reassurance to back Boris, neither will [Daily Mail editor Paul] Dacre/[The Sun owner Rupert] Murdoch, who instinctively dislike Boris but trust your ability enough to support a Boris Gove ticket.” This is incredibly telling as yesterday, after the devil Rupert Murdoch revealed he was pro-Brexit, the Sun backed Boris in the leadership race:

Expanding further inside:

As was swiftly pointed out, the problem with those promises is that both points 1 and 3 contradict 4, a fact that is consistently being reiterated by the EU itself. Public displays like this always run the risk of coming back to haunt the politician that makes them, as opportune pictures often do, and it’s worth remembering that the Sun is the paper that killed an election campaign with just a single photograph, such is the power they hold. Sarah Vine’s comment about Murdoch’s instinctive dislike of Johnson casts a new light on this support, and it’ll be interesting to see how strong it is, and how quickly it might be withdrawn should Gove and Johnson have a public disagreement.

Even though the thought of Prime Minister Johnson is rightly utterly terrifying, we should remember that this is still a frying pan or fire situation. Theresa May has been a downright authoritarian home secretary, who wanted to scrap the human rights act (and has not changed her mind in the years since), has consistently clashed with the Police Federation, was totally okay with mass-surveillance and bulk data collection of the general public’s internet use, repeatedly pushed for wider powers for intelligence agencies, and has consistently been unbelievably anti-immigration through her career. Due to her campaigning for Remain, she will now be painted as a “compromise” choice, her record as home secretary serving to soften resistance many in the party may have to a pro-EU candidate, and when someone like her is being considered as the “moderate” choice, our political climate is beyond fucked up.

Not that that revelation should come as any surprise…

BONG!

Footage emerges of Jeremy Corbyn walking into Labour Party HQ as the number of people calling for him to step down continues to grow:

with Corbyn having now lost the support of three previous Labour leaders, over 200 Scottish Labour members, even David Cameron reckons he should call it quits (though, frankly, I’m of the opinion that if Cameron’s telling you to quit, you’re doing something right). Tony Blair has also said some things but nobody gives a fuck: Blair and Corbyn don’t see eye to eye given that Corbyn’s called Blair a war criminal and stood by his statements. Indeed, some believe this whole debacle is a desperate move by the remaining Blair supporters to deflect attention away from the imminent release of the Chilcot report, the government’s inquiry into the country’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which is expected to utterly savage Blair and his government at the time (Jack Straw especially is in for it).

But the Blairites finally began to fight back last night, with former Shadow Business Secretary Angela Eagle stepping up to take Corbyn on. Angela Eagle, for what it’s worth, ignored the wishes of her local Labour party members by opposing him, and has also voted for the iraq war, against the inquiry into it, and was okay with bombing Syria too, which may be a bit of a problem with the Chilcot release looming large. Meanwhile, a pro-Corbyn rally is cancelled due to “overwhelming public demand” so, y’know, business as usual in the Labour camp.

BONG!

Nicola Sturgeon visited Brussels yesterday to discuss the situation Scotland has found itself in following the referendum result, and found an almost-overwhelmingly positive reception awaiting her. Not seeking to officially start any formal negotiation just yet, she still sought to explore all possibilities that would be open to her once official negotiations start with the UK as a whole. I said almost overwhelmingly positive, a very prominent opponent was Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who said “I believe everyone is extremely against it”.

He obviously hasn’t seen this,

It might seem a little odd for Spain of all nations to oppose Scotland’s continued EU membership, but Spain has consistently been against other nations seceding from domestic unions, mainly because it’s fighting against exactly that happening in Catalonia. Given what else is going on in the UK, Rajoy’s probably not looking forward to the Brexit negotiations.

The Republic of Ireland has sent some love to Scotland, a show of solidarity and support that’s not unexpected given their own worries about the border with Northern Ireland, worries the UK’s Northern Ireland Secretary isn’t doing much to assuage. Also, Wales is totally fucked now.

BONG!

SERIOUSLY FUCKING BREAKING NEWS: Boris drops out. Happy, but FFS I haven’t even finished this entry yet, you floppy haired toff!

Still, that Sun piece, eh?

BONG!

Hate crimes are still a thing, despite seemingly everybody condemning them, with safety pins being the way the public chooses to show solidarity. Manchester does a great job showing some love, though, which makes me feel a little less shit inside. Also, Britain First continue to be twats, in their own inimitable way…

BONG!

EVEN MORE BREAKING NEWS: BBC are now reporting that Angela Eagle WON’T be standing against Jeremy Corbyn, at least not yet, so that’s that paragraph buggered as well. Still gonna leave it in though, because she’s not definitively ruled herself out, she’s just not announcing it today if she is, so her being a warmongering Blairite is something that’s worth remembering.

BONG!

And that’s it for today, and yesterday too, now that the leadership campaigns have kicked up a gear things should get interesting, though to be honest I think most of the country’s just going to spend the rest of the day breathing a collective sigh of relief that “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr. Boris Johnson” is now a sentence that will never be spoken by anybody ever.

And that’s probably the best thought any of these entries will ever end on.

Last updated June 30, 2016