The Delightful Mrs May, after effortlessly vanquishing her foes after Wavy Davey’s spectacularly underwhelming collapse, has made great progress in cleaning up the slimy mess he left behind. George Hoes and Blow is decaying in the back benches and will hopefully follow Davey’s sally PDQ. After all, after his utter implosion in June it’s somewhat difficult to see how he could ever regain any credibility at Whitehall.
And now, the Delightful Mrs May has shown her hand at last. Article 50 will be triggered at the Queen’s Speech. By doing so, Britain will retain control over the timing and tone of negotiations. It will not be done in a typically wog manner, chaotic and sleazy, but in an eminently British way. The regular parliamentary schedule will be followed indicating that the Mother of All Parliaments, not the most useless, will be prepared to debate and criticise any proposals spewing forth from the busted sewer that is Brussels.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Yes, but for her shoe fetiche, I’d call her fragrant. There will of course be controlled and uncontrolled leaks before March, implicating the Terrible Trio in dark deeds, but Brexit will be Brexit despite the Bremainers. The Frogs ‘n Huns will be obsessing about their own gubmints, the Magyars rebelling and the Club Med getting out their beach gear. Ho hum.
Well, Janus, politics is never pretty. I have a suspicion that the Terrible Trio will serve their purpose. By having over-lapping positions, they won’t be able to overwhelm the Delightful One. However, their presence serves as a sop for more ardent Brexiteers and they bring not insignificant talents with them. David Davis is an infamously tough negotiator with no shortage of experience dealing with wog-types like Juncker, Barnier or Verhoftstadt. Fox is a nasty piece of work who is similarly not well liked. Johnson, of course, has a surprising many talents and could well be the “good cop” to the Davis/Fox “bad cops”.
The Hungarians are not alone. The Poles, Czechs and Slovaks are similarly proving to be difficult to handle. Bulgaria might also eventually prove hard to handle as there is not insignificant fondness for Russia. As elsewhere in the former Warsaw Pact states, there’s a growing sense that the EU has not lived up to its promise of helping them escape the lingering legacies of their communist pasts. France will be increasingly difficult to manage and Germany will be lucky to see the “Grand Coalition” returned with an extremely reduced majority. There’s a risk that no government can be formed or that an unwieldy coalition will have to be cobbled together — be it Black/Red/Yellow, Red/Green/Yellow or Red/Red/Green.
Backside’s Schadenfreude is getting out of hand. Excuse me while I remind him it is only a British quality AFTER we’ve won. Sorry, where were we? Oh yes, come on you Brits!! 😎
Janus: There is another phenomenon occurring in parts of the EU that are almost as damaging as Brexit. Namely, internal withdrawals. The Visgorod Group are the most (in)famous, but the Nordic Trio are growing increasingly remote from the centre of political developments. Denmark voting “no” to ending its opt-outs, Sweden re-imposing border controls and doing everything in its power to make its asylum policies look like Denmark’s without sharing the tone and Finland effectively telling Juncker to get stuffed and enforcing their own migration policy with brutal efficiency. With Wilders in the pole position in the Netherlands, the EU can’t even entirely rely on its centre holding…
Meanwhile, Eire doesn’t want its NI-border back, the Caviar Queen in Embra wants everything as usual…..and your mate Alex wants her job.
There is really no support for re-establishing border control in either Belfast or Dublin. The current situation is a muddle, but it’s one that most find tolerable. The only threat to that is the EU’s spiralling stupidity. The Caviar Queen (I like that, why didn’t I think of it myself?) is of course an ego-maniac with delusions of grandeur. She’s helplessly out of her depth, but still tries to survive on her reputation for being a good street-fighter. More a political gutter rat, really, but there are increasing signs that our northern British brethren are becoming very aware of this. Our hero is last week’s man. He has less political capital than Pedro Sanchez.
Now, Christopher, I realise I’m your last remaining playfellow in this Ancient British playground but I have to leave you alone and desolate while I conduct the regular census of the clan in Olde Englande. Seeya! 😎
Enjoy your sojourn to England, Janus and Backside! I will keep an eye out for any other Britishers. I will attempt to lure them in with a post about sheep!
Not so fast there! Some of us are still watching from the shadows.
Seriously, although we may make light of the current political situation it cannot be denied that some still do not accept the democratic will of the British electorate and will do their best to frustrate it. I refer not only the the talking heads within the EU edifice itself, nor to the leaders of almost every national institution and political party within the UK (UKIP being almost the sole honourable exception), nor even to the Londonistan orientated scribblers of the fourth estate and the national broadcasters. As Boris mentioned yesterday, any broadcast of ‘good news’ figures (lower inflation, a drop in unemployment, etc.) is invariably prefaced by, for example, “Despite Brexit, employment has fallen to its lowest level since…….”
I refer particularly and specifically to the fifth column of high ranking civil servants, diplomats and sundry Establishment functionaries recruited via The Guardian yet who are still in office, growing fatter and yet more complacent during their careers shuttling between London, Brussels and Strasbourg, schmoozing like-minded career bigwigs from the Continent and drooling over the European dream. Such individuals cannot be trusted to fight Britain’s corner with even the slightest degree of enthusiasm: on the contrary they can be relied upon to do their level best to sabotage our Brexit negotiations for the wider, wilder dream of the Federal Europe they so avidly espouse, assuring their colleagues that the referendum result is but a minor digression from the path to glorious European Unification and that the ‘little people’ will soon be put in their place.
As an aside, here in Portugal there is a front page headline in the current edition of an English language weekly much read by the “I say, you there! Bring me a beer!” type of expat in their insulated compounds. The headline reads, ‘Portugal, home to the European football champions, is looking to build on an excellent tourism year by ensuring that Britons continue to travel here irrespective of the potential negative repercussions of Brexit‘. (My bold.) Would it be too much to ask that the emphasis be changed so that ‘Portugal, home to the European football champions, is looking to build on an excellent tourism year by ensuring that Britons continue to travel here irrespective of the many more worldwide destinations clamouring for their business in the aftermath of the historic Brexit vote‘?
OZ
The Visegrad group and some Finns have been saying true but unpleasant things about the EU. A Czech was particularly outspoken about Verhofstadt and what a deadweight he’ll be in Brexit negotiations while Timo Soini was telling some home truths to the europrats. But I think there’s no possibility of any reform and as for the idea of listening to the people … And the migrant situation gets worse while the EU twiddles its fingers. They make Nero look positively useful.
I read an article about a young Afghan lad, resident of the Jungle, who died while trying to jump on a lorry going to the UK. His body was returned to his family in Afghanistan. Why can’t other young, unaccompanied illegals also be returned to their families while they’re still alive?
Janus, enjoy the gathering of your clan.
Oz: Quite so.However, much like the old Soviet Bloc, once the fabric starts to unravel it will be very hard to prevent it from disintegrating. The EU’s crisis of legitimacy moment came and went with the rejections of the Treaties of Nice and Lisbon and the failed EU Constitution that was rammed through, anyway. The UK’s departure is similar to Hungary opening the border with Austria in 1989. There is no more legitimacy, there is little enthusiastic public support and a country has chosen to leave. The likes of the BBC are making their blatant bias unavoidable. People no longer need “traditional” news sources and many reluctant remainers have complained that the London Establishment and Media approach have turned them off. Let them keep talking, they will only make themselves more hated. Even in Hunland people are now openly questioning the EU and what “Europe” means for their way of life — and savings!
Sheona: When Deng Xiaoping sent officials to negotiate with the British Government over the betrayal of Hong Kong, he specifically ordered them to be as flexible about the details as possible so long as China’s goal of full sovereignty could be assured. As a result, while at times tense, negotiations could be conducted in such a manner as would ensure a fairly civilised muddle in which neither side would lose face. The EU has taken the exact opposite approach. They will only come back with nothing.