tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post6941879477244660752..comments2024-02-06T16:17:25.826+00:00Comments on THE GRØNMARK BLOG: Well, that went well! So who next to lead the Tories and (probably) become Prime Minister?Scott Gronmarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-21688148456033496262017-07-14T14:16:55.525+01:002017-07-14T14:16:55.525+01:00If Mrs. May had secured a 100+ majority, a "c...If Mrs. May had secured a 100+ majority, a "cards close the chest" strategy and an informational black-hole regarding the negotiations would have been fine - she could have gone on Brexit Means Brexit-ing till the cows came home. But an impression of division, incompetence, muddle and cluelessness from a minority government staggering punch-drunk towards the summer recess will prove fatal to both the Tories and Brexit. I thought the Maybot could just about get through to the party conference in October. But, in order to do that, she needed to switch to a different "mode"asap: it seems she only only has the one. I wonder if the Tory Party still has "men in grey suits" who can pay her a visit with the decanter of single malt whiskey and the (figurative) revolver (resignation speech). But most senior Tories these days would appear to be cheese-eating, Eurofanatic surrender monkeys. When you have Damian Green standing in for the PM at PMQs, one feels the game is up. <br /><br />Yes, we must leave - but it feels less and less likely to happen. Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-75095865676812274622017-07-14T13:49:45.531+01:002017-07-14T13:49:45.531+01:00Re Brexit, the UK civil service doesn't know w...Re Brexit, the UK civil service doesn't know what it's doing, or so it appears, and that's at least partly because our politicians don't know what they're doing, or so it appears – the UK has lost the ability to govern itself.<br /><br />That could be because we gave up the power to do so to the EU for 44 years. It will take time but we need to retrieve it.<br /><br />In the meantime, every demonstration of the administration's buffoonish incompetence is another reminder of the need to leave the EU.David Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-16247753877339582802017-06-10T15:23:55.986+01:002017-06-10T15:23:55.986+01:00I doubt if she'll last until the summer recess...I doubt if she'll last until the summer recess - it depends entirely on whether Tory MPs rally round. But even if they do she simply has to be gone in time for the party to elect a new leader in time for the annual conference. 2/3rds of party members want her gone now. The papers - and bookmakers - always mention Boris, but last year we were being told he didn't have a support base among Tory MPs. I wonder if he's been busy putting that right since becoming foreign secretary. Given Hammond's brilliant budget attack on the self-employed - and the subsequent U-turn - and that he's another anal retentive without a personality, picking him would be astonishingly stupid. Doesn't mean it won't happen, of course.<br /><br />Agreed - a bleedin' mess. The fact that it was entirely self-inflicted is what makes it so infuriating. <br /><br />Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-53189298727648387762017-06-09T22:36:39.554+01:002017-06-09T22:36:39.554+01:00The Tories have got exactly what they deserved, a ...The Tories have got exactly what they deserved, a bloody good hiding. Unfortunately the rest of us have also been punished for their arrogance and incompetence.<br />I can understand the attraction to youngsters for Corbyn's simplistic rhetoric because at their age I was a Michael Foot supporter. But we were safe because Foot was up against Maggie who utterly annihilated him. Thank God! Theresa May has been exposed as being weak and indecisive. When the going gets tough she bends and buckles. This is not the person we want to negotiate our exit from Europe. i can't see her lasting 6 months. Then who? Boris, David Davis. For the love of God, not Hammond!<br />Christ, what a bleedin' mess.Biased BBChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08419186809182839053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-3238055640787132342017-06-09T17:38:13.696+01:002017-06-09T17:38:13.696+01:00Many disgruntled Tory supporters have commented th...Many disgruntled Tory supporters have commented that the DUP might reacquaint the Tories with some basic conservative principles. Which would be good. Meanwhile, I don't know if you've seen this blistering piece by Graeme Archer on CapX: <br />https://capx.co/theresa-may-must-go-and-go-now/<br /><br />Here's a taster:<br />"When I worked for Greg Clark, his Communities & Local Government ministry shared a building with Theresa May’s Home Office. I used to joke about how “Theresa May” didn’t actually exist, but was just some cement creature; an icon carved in stone, that her Spads would wheel into meetings to glare silently at officials, until after an hour of embarrassed fumbling they’d agree to turn the Spads’ ideas into policy.<br /><br />At least, I thought I was joking. It turned out that beneath that mask of granite lies a brain of pure stone, as the horror show of this election made clear. Watching the cement creature being wheeled around the country to glare at party activists, while voters were kept well back behind the tape (“Sorry mate, you’re not on Nick’s list”), you could feel the Tory majority leaching away.<br /><br />Compare that with the Scottish Tory experience. Ruth Davidson never spouts cliches, is the opposite of a caricature, and has just won seat after seat from the SNP, including those of their Westminster leader Angus Robertson, as well as the ghastly Alex Salmond’s.<br /><br />Ruth’s not a Westminster MP, so she cannot become leader of the national party — though can there be any doubt that were matters otherwise, she would be? She underlines the fact that it isn’t actually necessary for Conservatives to lose. Imagine what Ruth Davidson would have done to Jeremy Corbyn."<br /><br />Interesting.Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-65434558725914350962017-06-09T12:27:46.455+01:002017-06-09T12:27:46.455+01:00"It sounds like hindsight now - but I was goi..."It sounds like hindsight now - but I was going to …"<br /><br />Me, too. Many paragraphs about the abysmal campaign and the threat to our ability to negotiate BREXIT were deleted from my earlier <a href="http://scottgronmark.blogspot.com/2017/06/as-for-tomorrow-im-really-hoping-stand.html?showComment=1496933722362#c3376243843231338507" rel="nofollow">comment</a>.<br /><br />Churchill on <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/10/lenins-long-train-ride-into-history/" rel="nofollow">Lenin’s safe passage to the revolution</a>:<br /><br /><i>They transported Lenin in a sealed truck like a plague bacillus from Switzerland to Russia.</i><br /><br />Corbyn is a plague bacillus and Theresa May nearly gave him safe passage, with crowds of ululating useful idiots.<br /><br />Perhaps the DUP will save us from that disease. That's the top priority requiring total concentration.<br /><br />Then there's rescuing the BREXIT negotiations, if possible, which includes getting a new leader.<br /><br />My deleted paragraph on the failings of the UK Border Force seems quaintly irrelevant now. It seemed germane to point out that the intelligence services shouldn't take all the flak for letting terrorists in and out of the country. But that was yesterday.David Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-77558938249751928482017-06-09T12:20:21.167+01:002017-06-09T12:20:21.167+01:00A fine and comforting post on a truly horrible mor...A fine and comforting post on a truly horrible morning.SDGnoreply@blogger.com