Perhaps a little vulgar ...

The Times reports:

The Russian oligarch, in London with his wife, Aleksandra, 39, a former model and pop singer from Serbia, chose to moor his superyacht in the most eye-catching spot on the Thames, tying up next to HMS Belfast against the backdrop of Tower Bridge.

The bridge had to be raised to allow Motor Yacht A, a 120m boat created by the French designer Philippe Starck and worth £225 million to pass through. The craft is currently up for sale.

Mr Melnichenko, who started out in banking before diversifying into energy, mining and other industries, is estimated to be worth £8.4 billion, according to Forbes.

His boat is inspired by a submarine and boasts three swimming pools, seven cabins, a helipad and bombproof glass. It sleeps 14 and has a crew of 42.

Its masts are almost 100m tall, it has a top speed of 23 knots and is the 21st largest yacht in the world. Two speedboats are concealed within its sloping stern. Tables are encrusted with Baccarat crystals and the walls lined with white stingray skins.

There is an all-white, 230 sq m master bedroom suite with a rotating king-sized bed. There is also a bedroom with a circular bed that is located behind two glass panels and has a flat screen TV on the ceiling. Employees have dubbed it the “nookie room”.

What a show-off ...

   

Brexit means ... never having to say you're sorry

Things are not becoming clearer.  The Independent sums up the state of play:

Does Brexit mean leaving the single market entirely, mostly, a fair bit, or not really at all? Who can say? Does it mean ending, partially restricting or barely tinkering with freedom of movement? Not a clue. How long will it take to negotiate trade deals with the EU, the US and other nations, and how punishing might the terms be? Go figure. Will British expats retain the right of residency in EU countries? Beats me.

There are scores of other intriguing questions raised by the June vote, and to all of them the official reply may be paraphrased as follows: you might as well ask Larry, the Downing Street cat.

It is now 10 or 11 weeks since the referendum and there are not even the vaguest outlines of what the government thinks Brexit means ...


   

Too smarmy by half

It is always the little details that add to the ridicule:

The MP is alleged to have told the men that his name was Jim, adding that he was a washing-machine salesman.

   

Nothing is ruled in and nothing is ruled out ...

Does the Prime Minister have a cunning plan?  The Guardian reports:

Asked about bringing in a points-based immigration system, May said: “A lot of people talk about points-based systems always being the answer in immigration. There is no single silver bullet that is the answer in terms of dealing with immigration.”

When pressed on whether failing to bring in such a system would not respect the reasons people voted for Brexit, May said: “People voted, I think, for control. What they wanted to see was control of the freedom of movement of the European Union countries into the United Kingdom.”

During the referendum campaign, in which she backed remain, May had appeared to be negative about the idea of a points-based system but this is her first steer on the subject since the vote.

She was also asked about whether she would hand more money to the NHS, and scrap VAT on energy bills using funds saved by leaving the EU. These were two more promises made by Vote Leave, whose senior politicians toured the country in a bus saying £350m a week sent to the EU could help fund the NHS instead. Shortly before the vote, this was refined by Vote Leave to a promise of £100m a week more for the NHS out of money saved from ending contributions.

Asked whether she would work towards these goals, May would not commit to either pledge. She also would not rule out giving any contributions to the EU budget or retaining full access to the single market, which many Eurosceptic Conservative MPs and Ukip figures would find unacceptable.

Or is she simply floundering about?

 

Music of the week

 

Quote of the day

Ed Balls, hoofer and ex-senior Labour politician, in The Guardian (here):

He says Blair regarded him as insolent, a young punk babbling nonsense. “But it wasn’t nonsense. And if you don’t say what you think, what’s the point of being in the room? He told me to wash my mouth out once. It was very early on, ’96, before the ’97 election. There were the typical Gordon/Mandelson tensions going on about who was running the election campaign, there were about 12 people in the room, and Tony said: ‘I think we should make a commitment not to raise the tax burden’. I then said, in front of everybody, ‘You can’t do that’, and he said why, and I said: ‘Because then when we raise the tax burden you’ll have broken your promise.’ He said: ‘Wash your mouth out young man.’”

   

Is Trump channelling Shakespeare?

Can a wall be beautiful?  Trump thinks so:

Donald Trump has again seized the mantle of immigration hardliner, gambling that he can win the White House with rhetoric as unyielding as the “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful” wall that he has promised to build across the southern border.

Perhaps he sees himself as Pyramus addressing Wall in Midsummer Night's Dream

O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!;

O night, which ever art when day is not!

O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,

I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!

And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,

That stand'st between her father's ground and mine!

Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,

Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!

Wall holds up his fingers

Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!

But what see I? No Thisby do I see.

O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!

Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!

And so, it will end in tears for all concerned ...

    
   
  

Hard and soft borders?

Seems clear enough, maybe?  The Guardian reports:

David Davis, the Brexit secretary, has promised there will be no return to any “hard” border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic when the UK leaves the European Union.

On a visit to Belfast on Thursday, Davis vowed there will be “no return to the past” in terms of armed checkpoints and border checks along the UK’s only land frontier with an EU state.

...

Writing in the Belfast Telegraph, Davis made his vow about not returning to the past in terms of armed checkpoints and border checks. He wrote: “We had a common travel area between the UK and the Republic of Ireland many years before either country was a member of the European Union.

“We are clear we do not want a hard border – no return to the past – and no unnecessary barriers to trade. What we will do is deliver a practical solution that will work in everyone’s interests, and I look forward to opening the conversation about how that should operate with my colleagues today.”

I look forward to Mr Davis' explanation of how he intends to prevent the free movement of East Europeans into Ireland and thence - unhindered by border checks - into the UK.

But, as Dr Pangloss might have put it, perhaps all is possible in this best of all possible brave new worlds.  Alternatively, Mr Davis has not quite thought it through ...

   

Is the Cabinet living in fantasy land?

I'm beginning to think so.  The Guardian reports on yesterday's Chequers pow-wow:

Theresa May has agreed with her cabinet that restricting immigration will be a red line in any negotiations with the EU, in a move that experts claim will end Britain’s membership of the single market.

The prime minister and her team, who met at Chequers – the PM’s country retreat – also confirmed that MPs will not be given a vote before the government triggers article 50, beginning the two-year countdown to a British exit.

“There was a strong emphasis on pushing ahead to article 50 to lead Britain successfully out of the European Union – with no need for a parliamentary vote,” May’s spokeswoman said, before setting out how restrictions to freedom of movement would be at the centre of any Brexit deal.

“Several cabinet members made it clear that we are leaving the EU but not leaving Europe, with a decisive view that the model we are seeking is one unique to the United Kingdom and not an off-the-shelf solution,” she said.

“This must mean controls on the numbers of people who come to Britain from Europe but also a positive outcome for those who wish to trade goods and services.”

When will they learn that they cannot have restrictions on immigration as well as membership of the single market?  If the EU were to accept a deal of such a nature, other EU states would claim something similar and the free movement of labour pillar would crumble away.

Music of the week

 

Photo of the day

 

Shambles

They have had months to sort it out but no go.  The Guardian reports:

The security firm G4S has ruled out a last-minute deal to guard Labour’s annual conference, leaving the party without security just weeks before the event is due to open in Liverpool.

The result of the Labour leadership contest is due to be announced on 24 September, just before the party’s annual conference, but without security in place neither event can go ahead.

...

The party is no closer to clinching a deal to provide security for the conference, with the event facing cancellation if no contract is made. G4S, which had been subject to a Labour boycott, has said it is now too late to do a deal.

Last year the party’s national executive committee (NEC) voted to boycott G4S but the GMB union has threatened to stage a picket if Labour contracts an alternative provider, Showsec, which does not recognise trade unions. Showsec was the only provider to have bid for the contract.

 G4S has now said it will not step in to provide security, even if the party’s executive drops its boycott of the company.

Eric Alexander, managing director for G4S events, said the company would usually start planning for such a large and complex event up to a year in advance. “Safety for delegates and our staff is our priority and at this late stage and with our teams committed elsewhere, we are not in a position to step in and provide security for the conference,” he said.

“Security officers need to be cleared and accredited to work, detailed risk assessments made, safety and security plans with the Home Office and local police forces drawn up and supporting logistics, such as security equipment and staff accommodation, put in place.

Sadly, it rather sums up the state of the Labour Party.

 

Worth a smile

h/t Jennifer

What's he talking about?

I am perplexed.  The Independent reports:

The row over whether Jeremy Corbyn had to sit on the floor of a Virgin train has taken a new twist after passengers on the service disputed the company’s version of events.

Earlier this month Mr Corbyn released a video of himself sitting on the floor of a Virgin East Coast train arguing that “this is a problem that many passengers face every day”.

The train company, however, has released CCTV stills showing Mr Corbyn finding a seat on the train, saying that it “clearly wasn’t the case” he could not find somewhere to sit. Though Mr Corbyn did not claim that there were no seats on the train, he said it was “ram-packed”.

Why "ram-packed"?  Did he mean jam-packed?  A ram pack is something you used to attach to a computer to provide additional memory.

 

Lookalikes

Jacques Delmas, Toulon rugby coach:

Sean Connery, actor:

    

The booze

So the government will once again amend the drinking guidelines.  The Sunday Times reports:

Adults will be told it is fine to drink in moderation in new guidelines on alcohol intake unveiled by the govern­ment — in a slapdown of Britain’s top doctor.

The rules, to be announced soon, will set the recommended weekly limit for both men and women at 14 units, a reduction of seven for men, and explain that every drink comes with a small health risk.

However, in a move away from “nanny state” pronouncements Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, will make clear that the risks are no higher than other everyday activities such as driving a car and people should feel free to enjoy a drink.

I'm not sure than anybody still pays attention - but perhaps it's the company I keep ...

Music of the week

 

Quote of the day

Treneman's remarkable powers of observation on her visit north of the border:

I couldn’t help but notice that there are a lot of Scots in Scotland.

Who'd a thunk it?

   

Shambles

The gravy train puffs along.  The Times gives a rough indication of where the civil service is going with Brexit:

Many of the British experts who would be best at brokering a deal are working for the European Commission. Some in Whitehall are keen to bring them back, but Eurosceptic ministers are suspicious of their motives.

Instead, lawyers, trade negotiators, economists and management consultants are being hired at huge expense from the private sector. City firms including Linklaters, PwC, KPMG and EY have been approached about filling the skills gaps. A whole Brexit industry is springing up, with Whitehall ready to pay up to £5,000 a day for lawyers and £1,000 for management consultants. Insiders estimate that the additional salaries alone will amount to at least £5 billion over the next decade.

It’s not just the new departments that are recruiting. The Treasury is advertising for an expert to lead its Brexit negotiations on financial services. Defra will need experts to negotiate deals for farmers and fishermen. The global budget is also spiralling. Dr Fox is planning to set up trade offices all over the world. Nobody in his department could tell me how much that will cost, but with embassy funding slashed to the bone there will be little scope for relying on existing staff and facilities. In addition, the three cabinet Brexiteers will no doubt have hefty expense accounts to jet around the world, staying in top hotels with a coterie of officials. That’s not going to go down well with the “left behind” voters who backed Brexit because they were so angry about a perceived wealthy elite.

They never told us about this during the referendum campaign ...

 

The man with no neck

If I were Inverdale, I would try to avoid upsetting Steve Redgrave:

The tension between Sir Steve Redgrave and John Inverdale continued yesterday when the former rower interrupted the BBC presenter as he tried to interview the New Zealand winner of the men’s single sculls.

The apparently frosty relationship between Redgrave and Inverdale has amused and intrigued viewers. As Inverdale began talking to Mahé Drysdale, Redgrave said the New Zealand media should get to interview him first.

“Let him go and do New Zealand TV. I’m sorry I can’t allow that to happen,” Redgrave said. “The Kiwis should get in first.”

Viewers soon took to social media. “And it’s day 6 in the When Will Steve Redgrave Thump John Inverdale competition,” tweeted Andrew Brooks.

 

This year, next year, sometime, never ...

There's always an excuse to postpone apocalypse.  The Sunday Times reports:

Britain could remain in the EU until late 2019, almost a year later than predicted, ministers have privately warned senior figures in the City of London.

Theresa May has been expected to enact article 50 in January, setting in train the formal two years of negotiations before Brexit.

Despite great political pressure to stick to that timetable, she may be forced to delay because her new Brexit and international trade departments will not be ready, City sources said.

French and German elections are also being cited as a cause for delay. Britain might not invoke article 50 until France has voted next May or even until after the German poll in September, ministers confided to senior City contacts.

“You can’t negotiate when you don’t know who you’re negotiating with,” said a City insider. And a cabinet minister confirmed to The Sunday Times that there were “some challenges” in the French and German electoral timetables.

The prospect of a year’s delay will anger hardline Eurosceptic Conservative MPs and “leave” voters who expected a speedy Brexit.

And, by next September, there will likely be another excuse ...

 

Music of the week

 

3 am call

 

Not very fair?

The Independent reports:

Hugh Grosvenor is to become the next Duke of Westminster and Britain's youngest billionaire after his father Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor died aged 64. 

The billionaire philanthropist and third richest man in the UK fell ill on his Abbeystead Estate and died at the Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire. 

As the only male among four children and heir to his father’s dukedom, Earl Grosvenor is set to inherit his father’s estate, worth an estimated £9bn. 

A bit rough on his three sisters, two of which are older than he is.  Still, I don't suppose Lady Tamara, Lady Edwina and Lady Viola are short of a bob or two ...

 

Getting blood out of a stone

Savers suffer.  The Guardian reports:

Fears have been raised that banks and building societies were preparing to cut rates for savers by more than last week’s reduction to 0.25% by the Bank of England, after First Direct became one of the first major firms to take the axe to savings rates.

Threadneedle Street’s move on Thursday to cut interest rates to a new historic low has forced all lenders and saving institutions to embark on urgent product reviews....First Direct, owned by HSBC, is cutting the rate on its cash Isa from 1.3% to 0.9%, while the rate on its bonus savings account will be chopped from 0.75% to 0.4%. A range of other accounts will be subject to a 0.25 percentage point cut. HSBC said it had cut rates on a number of its accounts, but none by more than the base rate reduction.

If before they were only paying peanuts, savers will now get even fewer peanuts.

   

So long, Marianne

Leonard Cohen's Marianne has died.  The Times reports:

Leonard Cohen wrote a farewell to the woman who inspired some of his finest songs just before she died, paying tribute to a friendship that stretched across five decades.

Marianne Ihlen, 81, was the subject of songs including So Long Marianne,Famous Blue Raincoat and Bird on the Wire, ballads that helped to cement Cohen’s status as one of the most incisive lyricists in popular music.

They met on the Greek island of Hydra in the 1960s, shortly after her first husband left her following the birth of their son and before Cohen had released a note of music. The poet and aspiring musician eventually invited them to live with him in Montreal, and the couple were together for seven years.

Jan Christian Mollestad, a documentary film-maker and friend of Ms Ihlen, learnt last month that she was dying of leukaemia. He visited her in hospital in Oslo, where she asked him to tell Cohen, also 81, what was happening.

“So I sent him a letter telling him that, unfortunately, it seems like Marianne only has a few days to live,” Mollestad told Canadian public radio. “It took only two hours and in came this beautiful letter from Leonard to Marianne. We brought it to her the next day and she was fully conscious and so happy.

“It said, ‘Well Marianne it’s come to this time when we are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon. Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine.

“I just want to wish you a very good journey. Goodbye old friend. Endless love, see you down the road’,” Mollestad said.

“When I read her the line ‘stretch out your hand’, she stretched out her hand.”

Ms Ihlen died two days later on July 29.

Picture of the day

The Camerons in Corsica:

Looking a bit paunchy, Dave ...

Music of the week

 

It ain't easy being a presidential candidate ...

From the Donald's diary (here):

Wednesday    I’ve just been in a TV studio where the host kept asking me to endorse the Republican candidates John McCain and Paul Ryan, who are fighting primaries. And I refused.

“Feel like telling me the strategy there?” says my campaign chief, afterwards.

“Not really,” I tell him.

“Is it because McCain refused to say he was comfortable with you controlling the nuclear arsenal?” says my campaign chief.

“No,” I say.

“Is it because you feel Ryan represents an aloof Republican hierarchy?” he says.

“No,” I say.

“Is it because you momentarily forgot whether you were a Republican or a Democrat?” he says.

“It might be,” I say.

   

Looks a bit dodgy to me

And what if you live in a flat?

 

Rueful smile of the day

Here

"You're more than a number in my little black book"

What kind of paranoid idiot writes down the name of his enemies in a little black book?  And what kind of idiot then tells the newspapers about it?  The President of the European Commission, that's who.  The Guardian reports:

There is no shortage of people who could make it into the bad books of the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker.

...

While the true list of his enemies remains secret, Juncker has revealed he keeps “a little black book” to note down the names of people who cross him. “I have a little black book called Le Petit Maurice where for the past 30 years I have noted when someone has betrayed me,” the EU president told the Belgian newspaper Le Soir.

Juncker explained it wasn’t very full, because people “rarely betray me”. He added: “I am not vengeful, but I have a good memory.” Juncker’s black book was a constant companion during his 18 years as prime minister of Luxembourg. He would tell people attacking him: “Be careful. Little Maurice is waiting for you.”

Bizarre ...

The last refuge of the bureaucrat

When you cannot find a decent reason not to do something, you can always rely on the tried and tested.  The Guardian reports:

Theresa May will not intervene in the official process of approving David Cameron’s resignation honours list because it would “set a very bad precedent”, Downing Street has said.

It's nonsense of course.  Would anybody mourn the loss of the ability of an outgoing PM to reward his friends and cronies?

 

Music of the week

 

The plot thickens

So my old boss from my time in Brussels, Michel Barnier, has been appointed as the European Commission's Brexit negotiator.  The Guardian reports:

A veteran French politician and experienced Brussels insider who has repeatedly clashed with the City of London over financial services reforms is to lead talks on Britain’s exit from the EU.

The president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said he had wanted an experienced politician for an “important and challenging job” as he announced the appointment of Michel Barnier, a former EU commissioner. Barnier would “help us develop a new partnership with the UK”, he said.

A member of France’s centre-right Les Républicains (formerly UMP) party, Barnier, a former French cabinet minister, will take up his post on 1 October. He said in a tweet he was “honoured to be entrusted” with such a demanding task. The appointment will be viewed with some apprehension in London.

All very well, but a quick glance at Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty suggests that it is the European Council, rather than the European Commission, which is mainly responsible for the negotiations.  Possibility of a turf war between Tusk and Juncker?


   

Go figure ...

The FTSE 100 has risen by 20 points to 6744, a level last seen in August 2015.

Now over 6761.

   

And the Fairy Queen offered three options to Prime Minister May ...

Option 1

Go for a hard Brexit, securing controls on immigration but abandoning hopes of access to the single market.

The likes of Liam Fox, Andre Leadsom and Priti Patel would cheer but the business lobby (and the bulk of Tory donors) would disapprove, not to mention London, Scotland and Northern Ireland.  And there might be nasty economic repercussions.  Would it command the support of the Commons?

Option 2

Go for a soft Brexit, securing access to  the single market but at the expense of free movement of labour (perhaps with minimal concessions) and payments into the EU, some kind of arrangement not dissimilar to Norway or Switzerland

The Tory right wing would scream betrayal, endangering the already slim Tory majority. And the people might ask what was the point of the whole exercise.

Option 3

Keep on delaying the invocation of Article 50 in the hope that something - a general election? the collapse of the euro?  Jean-Claude Juncker falling under a bus? - turns up.  In other words, kicking the can down the road.

Nobody would be happy, particularly in the light of the continuing uncertainty, but they might be less unhappy than would otherwise be the case.

No easy answers then.  But sooner rather than later, Mrs May will have to choose.


   

See bankers!

The customer is a sponge that you keep on squeezing.  The Guardian reports:

A major high street bank has paved the way for the introduction of negative interest rates for the first time in Britain by warning customers it may have to charge them to accept deposits.

The warning by NatWest was made in a letter changing the terms and conditions for the bank’s 850,000 business customers, which range from self-employed traders, charities and clubs to big corporations.

It could mean that an account holder with £1,000 in a NatWest account could see that shrink to £999 or less the following year as the bank charges a negative rate of interest.

Well, it's obvious.  They are not making enough from the charges associated with overdrafts and mortgages (no chance of those interest rates falling anywhere near zero).  Nor from their gouging on exchange rates for foreign currency.  Besides, they have to keep paying exorbitant remuneration to their top executives.

   

Music of the week

Quote of the day

Humility squared.  From  The Times (here):

Donald Trump is now the official Republican candidate for the presidency. Even when he is trying to be modest he has to outdo everyone else. Interviewed by CBS at the party convention, Trump disagreed with the suggestion that he is smug. “I think I am humble,” he said. “I’m much more humble than you would understand.”

   

Smoking and France

From time to time, I  have indulged in a French ciggie or two.  The romance, the Left Bank chic, the je ne sais quoi, they have all seduced me into endangering my health.  But now the health fascists are going to  put a stop to it, by banning those brands seen as cool.

The Guardian bewails these developments:

Serge Gainsbourg and his daughter Charlotte, Brigitte Bardot, Django Reinhardt, Albert Camus, Alain Bashung, Jean Paul Sartre, Catherine Deneuve, Béatrice Dalle.

All are a bit sullen. All are a bit broken – all a bit twisted, a bit nihilistic, a bit dark. All have been known for their chain-smoking. You light a cancer stick, and you get to meditate on your own life going up in smoke. It may be appalling, but this aesthetic – just in case you’ve never seen our arthouse movies – feels very French.

To make matters worse, it also neatly embodies the rejection of a broader society constantly promoting self-betterment – which, judging by the output of “life coaches” and other charlatans everywhere, has never been conducive to good art, let alone a jovial debate between friends at a terrace with a pastis and a few smokes. And – did I mention? – French people don’t like to be told what to do.

Moi, non plus, even if I received clearance yesterday that, following a CT scan, my lungs were OK.  So from time to time I may buy a pack of Gauloises (sans filtre obviously) ...

   

   

A week is a long time in politics

11 July: Theresa May says that the government will block takeovers of key UK companies.

18 July: Government Ministers welcome takeover of Arm, one of the UK's most important technology companies

    

Music of the week

 

Smile of the day

Here


   .

Culling the deadbeats

She's enjoying herself:

Theresa May bounced into her Westminster office. She could have just sacked the dead wood over the phone like most prime ministers have done, but why deny herself the pleasure of doing it in person? First in the queue outside her door was Michael Gove.

“Hello, you treacherous little shit,” she said, evenly. “I’ve never liked you. Let alone trusted you. You’re fired.”

“Please don’t,” Mikey whimpered. “Sarah will kill me if I come back with nothing. I’ll do anything. Junior minister in transport...”

“Next.”

Next was Nicky Morgan. “Can you give me one good reason why I shouldn’t get rid of you?” Theresa snapped. Nicky’s mouth opened and closed without saying anything. Same as it always did.

“Next.”

In came Oliver Letwin. “You’re sacked.”

“Really? I didn’t even know I had a job.” Oliver had never been the most worldly of politicians.

   

A ticking timebomb

The point about a timebomb is that it is set to go off at a specific time.  Boris, on the other hand, teeters along the high wire, likely to fall off at any moment.

A foreign secretary with a lust for self-destruction?  I doubt if he will last until Christmas.

   

Just a thought

   h/t George

Smile of the day

Here

   .

Quote of the day

From Ruth Davidson (here):

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson, made fun of former party leadership hopefuls Andrea Leadsom and Boris Johnson during a lighthearted speech to journalists in Westminster.

Drawing on the turbulent politics of recent weeks, Davidson, who is hugely popular in her party, told reporters that she was glad to be still standing as everyone in politics was either “resigning, getting knifed, bottling it, withdrawing, failing, declaring, or falling on their sword”.

“I think the mad thing in all of the last few weeks is that the last man standing is Jeremy Corbyn,” she said, joking that Labour was now putting forward a “unity candidate” to take on their original “unity candidate”.

“Thats the difference between our two parties: Labour is still fumbling with its flies while the Tories are enjoying their post-coital cigarette. After withdrawing our massive Johnson,” she added, making the room full of reporters, politicians and advisers, burst out laughing.

  

Hyperbole

Some people are getting very upset about the failure to exclude Jeremy Corbyn from leadership election.  The Independent reports:

A former special advisor to Tony Blair says a decision to allow Jeremy Corbyn the automatic right to defend his leadership will be the death of the Labour party.

John McTernan is a long-time critic of Mr Corbyn and said if the leader "had any shame" he would have walked away some time ago.

He told BBC News in the wake of the NEC's secret ballot decision: "Today was the day the Labour party was stabbed in the heart and killed by the Labour National Executive Committee.

"Jeremy Corbyn may have won this vote, but he has destroyed the Labour party," he said. 

I disagree.  If Corbyn had been excluded, a large proportion of the Labour Party would have regarded it as a stitch-up and would never have forgiven those responsible.  This way, there is at least a chance that the party can be re-united, either under a new leader or under Corbyn.  Not a very big chance, but a chance nonetheless.

 

Quotes of the day

Just another manic Monday:

Only the Conservatives can combine the brutality of a Stalinist purge with the low comedy of a Carry On film. It had trusted the country to reach the right decision in the referendum campaign and it wasn’t going to make the same mistake again by giving the untamed fringes of the Tory party a say.

Then there is Andrea:

“It has only just come to my attention I have the support of just 25% of Conservative MPs,” she continued, forcing the words through the fixed smile, “and that, in these uncertain times, the country doesn’t need a nine-week leadership campaign.

“I’ve also taken a look at the people around me and decided most of them are an electoral liability. So I have decided to withdraw my name from the contest and let Theresa May be prime minister. Sorry to have made such a nuisance of myself. I’m now going to lie down in a dark room for several years. Thank you for coming.”

Oh, and David:

Back at No 10, David Cameron was on the phone to his therapist trying to deal with his self-destructive issues when he heard that Theresa was going to be moving in a great deal earlier than anticipated. “Bugger it,” he yelled. It just wasn’t fair. Now he wouldn’t get to fly in his brand-new Dave Force One plane to Africa. Now he’d miss his last G20. Now he’d have to find somewhere to rent as he’d given his tenants notice to leave in September. The way the day was going, George would forget to bring back a suitcase full of dollars from New York.

   

Conspiracy? Blackmail?

One way or another.  You can't take on the Establishment and win:

Andrea Leadsom has withdrawn from the race to be leader of the Conservative party, leaving Theresa May apparently uncontested for the job of next prime minister.

The dramatic development came in a statement issued by Leadsom, the energy minister, shortly after midday. She admitted that she has been left “shattered” by the contest in which she has faced an outpouring of anger following her comments about motherhood.In a statement read out in London, Leadsom said she did not believe she had sufficient support to form a strong and stable government after coming in second place behind the home secretary in the ballot of Conservative MPs.

She added “I wish Theresa May the greatest success”, and promised the only remaining candidate her full support.

     

Pointless?

OK, so he gets to do some travelling before he gets the bullet, but is there any valid objective?  The Independent reports:

George Osborne will travel to New York for talks with major investors in an effort to strengthen US-UK trade links after the vote to leave the European Union.

The Chancellor said improving ties with the US is now a "top priority" and he will urge leaders from some of America's biggest investors to stick with the UK after the Brexit referendum result.

...

Mr Osborne said: "While Britain's decision to leave the EU clearly presents economic challenges, we now have to do everything we can to make the UK the most attractive place in the world to do business.

"Britain and the US have been at the forefront of open trade in the last 200 years and pursuing a stronger relationship with our biggest trading partners is now a top priority.

"That's why I am travelling to the US, China and Singapore in the coming weeks and why my message to the world is that Britain may be leaving the EU, but we are not quitting the world.

And the first question he will be asked is whether the UK will retain access to the single market.  He does not know the answer.

 

Music of the week

Nice story

From The Guardian (here):

It has no buffet car, the waiting room is a garden shed and only one of its three hand-built carriages is fully glazed. But for one week only, the train from Leadhills to Glengonnar Halt has become an essential addition to the UK’s rail network.

In a rare, perhaps unique, moment in British railway history, a replacement train service has been put on to make up for a closed road. It is normally the other way round. And this service is run by amateurs.

Launched 30 years ago by a small group of single-minded rail enthusiasts high on the barren, rocky moors of south-west Scotland, the Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway (L&WR) is ordinarily a weekends-only summertime attraction for tourists.

Then South Lanarkshire council decided to resurface the only road connecting the two villages that vie for the title as Scotland’s highest.

...

So for five days this week, while road builders re-laid and repainted the B797, the L&WR has run a full weekday timetable for the first time in its history. With ticket prices cut from £4 to £1, it has put on 18 services a day between its two stations, with seven trains timed carefully to meet buses in Leadhills running north east to and from Lanark, and its scheduled rail connections to Glasgow.

...

Its workhorse locomotive, a stubby, blue-painted diesel-powered engine called Clyde, rattles and judders over the single narrow-gauge track at a stately five miles an hour; it hits 8mph on its downhill run back to Leadhills.

There is still goodness in this world.

   

   

Dog whistle time

Maybe she really  is disgusted.  Maybe not.  The BBC reports:

Andrea Leadsom says she is "disgusted" by a newspaper article saying she suggested being a mother gave her an advantage over Conservative leadership rival Theresa May.

The Times quoted Mrs Leadsom as saying having children gives "a very real stake in the future of our country".

But the mother of three tweeted that the way the interview was reported was "the exact opposite of what I said".

Earlier Mrs May, who has no children, called for a "clean campaign" pledge.

The paper headlined its front-page lead story "Being a mother gives me edge on May - Leadsom."

But the story is on the front pages, whether by accident or design ...

     

Quote of the day

From The Times (here):

Mark Durkan (SDLP, Foyle) even mocked what should be regarded as one of Mr Blair’s achievements. “This is not a day for soundbites,” he said, echoing Mr Blair’s comment at the Good Friday agreement. “But does the prime minister not agree that the hand of history should be feeling someone’s collar?”

Almost a century ago, contemplating the senseless waste of human life, lions led by donkeys, Kipling wrote in his Epitaphs of the War: “If any question why we died/ Tell them: because our fathers lied.”

What will be Mr Blair’s epitaph? Perhaps six words that he wrote in July 2002 to George W Bush: “I will be with you, whatever.” It was Mr Bush’s 70th birthday yesterday. No one asked Mr Blair what he had given his friend as a present but the answer was clear: his reputation.

   

Pathetic

I wonder if this is somebody who could be a Prime Minister.  The Observer reports:

Today the Observer reveals that Corbyn’s private office is reluctant to allow the leader to speak to the Labour party’s democratically elected deputy, Tom Watson, on his own.

A senior source close to Corbyn explained: “They want Watson to be on his own with him so that he can jab his finger at him. We are not letting that happen. We have a duty of care here. He’s a 70-year-old man [sic]. This is not a one-off. There is a culture of bullying, maybe it’s a Blairite/Brownite thing. But while they see two old men [Corbyn and McDonnell], they don’t see the 250,000 people behind them.”

If Corbyn's staff cannot trust their man not to be bullied by the Deputy Leader, then the Labour Party is in considerable trouble.

For the record, Corbyn is 67.

 

Music of the week

 

Quote of the day

From The Independent (here):

.. the final reveal still had the power to shock. For a politician who made his name as the court jester, only to strive for the crown, Boris teed himself with a fitting phrase. After setting out what would have been his manifesto for leadership, he said: “That is the agenda for the next Prime Minister of this country.

“But I have to tell you my friends, you who have waited faithfully for the punchline of this speech, that having consulted colleagues and in lieu of the circumstances in Parliament I have concluded that person cannot be me.”

The clown of Westminster had delivered his final punchline. As he departed the stage, behind him lay the wreckage of his party’s unity, his country’s economy and the hopes and dreams of the architects of the European Union. Like a restaurant after a visit by the Bullingdon boys: a mess for someone else to tidy up.

And what a mess ...