Posted on 06/30/2016 4:46:31 AM PDT by monkapotamus
Ex-London mayor Boris Johnson has ruled himself out of the race to be the next Conservative leader and prime minister.
In a speech in London - billed as his campaign launch - Mr Johnson said he did not believe he could provide the leadership or unity needed...
Addressing reporters in a new conference just moments before the deadline for nominations passed, Mr Johnson said the next Conservative leader would have to unify his party and ensure that Britain stood tall in the world.
"Having consulted colleagues and in view of the circumstances in Parliament, I have concluded that person cannot be me," he said.
BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said it was an "astonishing turn of events".
Mr Gove - who has pitched himself as a candidate that can offer "unity and change" and deliver the Brexit result- had been expected to back Mr Johnson for the leadership.
But he said he had concluded that "Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead".
Justice minister and Leave campaigner Dominic Raab, who switched sides from supporting Mr Johnson to Mr Gove, said the former London mayor's "cavalier" attitude had scuppered the plan...
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
According to a British Freeper this is a good thing. Gove is much better.
The task ahead is pretty large. Boris is more of a show-pony, not so much a workhorse.
If you look at the cards stacked up for the next two years and this exit treaty episode....it makes no sense to raise your hand and be the “temp” leader. Whoever gets the job....will be there two to three years...have a heck of a time with the EU for the exit deal....and watch Scotland vote and walk away from the UK, then have to deal with Northern Ireland and London-City who might want to exit as well.
I’d wait this out and look at the job in a couple of years when the mess has cleared.
I’ll even make this prediction...that if the treat isn’t worked up quickly and they only start to exit by the fall of 2018...there’s the EU parliament election in the spring of 2019, and lots of possibilities of right-wing types from the 27 member states that might arrive at the EU, and then all heck breaks loose.
What a bleak picture you paint.
Glad there are stalwart souls who have a more encouraging vision and the will to effect it
Gove seems to be a nice guy. He wrote in his book Celsius that Islam is like Nazism and Communism. Rare common sense these days. I wonder if the mayor of London will declare jihad against him like he did against Trump.
“I’d wait this out and look at the job in a couple of years when the mess has cleared.”
Well, according to your predictions, and I believe they are correct, there won’t be a UK when the dust settles.
The task ahead is pretty large. Boris is more of a show-pony, not so much a workhorse.
He didn’t expect to win, IMO. I’ve thought for a while that many of the professional politicans in the Leave camp really didn’t want to leave. It was all kabuki. Leave wasn’t supposed to win. Then BOOM. Brits unexpectedly took their country back.
Boris Johnson is no Margaret Thatcher. ;-)
I think you’re exactly right.
The UK has existed since 1707. It’s hard to see how Scotland avoids finding enough votes to exit on this next referendum vote. What ought to bother them to some degree is that some districts of Scotland aren’t exactly fired up to be part of this new Scottish republic. So my other prediction is that after the independence vote occurs with Scotland....note that two or three districts of the region demand to have a referendum of their own....to exit Scotland. An enclave here....an enclave there, joining back with England.
So there’s three-quarter Scotland existing and thinking they will quickly get into the EU. Shockingly...the paperwork and animosity involved...delays their entry for months and months. There’s going to be questions over their financial ability....accusing them to be another Greek basket case. Meanwhile, Scots will wake up and realize that they have a fair amount of taxation involved now to pay for all the services and infrastructure of their new state. A year into this new land....anticipate that a quarter of the population are frustrated and angry because things are going as planned.
London-City and their anticipated exit referendum? Same deal. They might find 65-percent of the public to support their enclave city-state outside of the UK. But who will pay the taxes? And if you have neighborhood after neighborhood demanding an exit referendum of their own from London-City back to England...how will that enclave gimmick survive?
Is a union between the Republic of Ireland, Ulster and the exiting parts of Scotland beyond imagining?
Where is Northern Ireland gonna go? The Irish republic? The Prots. in N. Ireland would howl with rage. Or would they throw their lot in with the Scots?
CC
Zero chance.
I think Scotland will find the votes to go do their republic thing and invent some paperwork for the EU entry.
Northern Ireland? Zero chance of some relationship to Scotland other than trade or commerce. And same deal for Ireland itself. Even if they did put up a referendum for independence from the UK...I’d give it 50-50 at best.
Cyrus is able to survive on it’s own as one single little state. Maybe Northern Ireland could work up something like that but where would the currency come from? The Euro? Imagine taxation for country like this.
If they get that far on a referendum, I can’t see a relationship with Scotland or Ireland....other than some trade/commerce/travel deal.
With a population of 1.8 million? Maybe they ought to go and see they can be some state off Germany or France (sarcastically spoken of course).
All of this just leads to a bunch of unhappy campers who all want their own independence deal. You could be opening up some European mess with 60 odd regions asking for their own government. Go look up the map of Europe in 1800....300 separate kingdoms, city-states, empires, and countries.
You’ve got it right.
Nigel Farage means it (he isn’t a Tory), the rest can’t be trusted as honest players, just people say the right thing to win the election, then govern different.
The Paul Ryan’s and Marco Rubio’s are running the “Conservative Party” in the UK.
I think Scotland will find the votes to go do their republic thing and invent some paperwork for the EU entry.
Doubtful. Not with Merkel reeking havoc. No way Scots trade London for Berlin which is defacto what they would be doing.
Thus far, Germany doesn't seem too keen on adding a Gaelic Greece to the EU roster.
Scotland in the EU would put Catalonia on the front burner. Nobody wants to deal with that, IMO.
‘We’ve got to stop Boris’: Tories warn that handing Johnson the keys to No 10 after Brexit will be like riding the ‘big dipper’ as Cameron plans his final 100 days
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3659711/We-ve-got-stop-Boris-Tories-warn-handing-Johnson-keys-No-10-Brexit-liking-riding-big-dipper-Cameron-plans-final-100-days.html
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