Mrs May damages the Union

It is entirely in keeping with Mrs May’s calamitous handling of government that her parting gift as PM should include Northern Ireland legislation which stokes up controversy between Leave and Remain  and is disliked by the DUP, the representatives of the majority in Northern Ireland.

She claimed to be a committed supporter of the  Union yet her words and actions gave heart to those who oppose the Union. In Scotland she seemed to encourage the SNP, out to use Brexit to weaken the Union. She rarely made the case that Brexit is a UK matter based on a UK wide referendum. She took SNP objections to  Brexit more seriously than the many Scottish voices who support Brexit.

In Northern Ireland Mrs May accepted the Republic view that the border is a problem against the view of her own allies, the DUP. She almost lost her government by agreeing to the Irish backstop in the Withdrawal Treaty without their consent.

So here is the irony. Mrs May claimed to be the champion  of the Union yet she sided with the Union’s strongest critics, Sinn Fein and the  SNP, on the EU question. Mrs May  put her loyalty to the EU above her alleged love of the Union, just as she put her enthusiasm for the EU above her democratic promise to get us out

 

 

295 Comments

  1. Pominoz
    July 20, 2019

    And there’s the legacy that she, and, sadly, us, must live with.

    It is the blatant deceit that I find most hurtful. She has been a traitor to the end and is now trying to queer Boris’s pitch.

    1. Hope
      July 20, 2019

      We,read how Hammond text minister and colleagues against the whipped vote and Mayhab, again, let him do it. Everything I ever over the last three years Mayhab slapped down Boris or any leaver for stating govts policy to leave. When Hammond spoke against govt policy she let him do so. This was not a coincidence or too weak etc. This was. Part of her devious treacherous plan. The worst and most dishonest PM is her legacy, bearing in mind her competitors Blaire with his Iraq disaster, Brown sneaking off to sign Lisbon not going the promised referendum,with his boom and bust and selling gold at an all time low, Cameron copying Blaire with his Libya disaster where civil war continues today because of him and Sarkosi acting on behalf of the EU and US to oust Gadaffi. Some competition but Mayhab wins the competition to defy the will of the people against the biggest democratic vote in history, hundreds murdered because of her preventing stop and search, insecure borders leading to two atrocities and deporting people of colour who were legally entitled to be here while vans ordered by her were driven around London to order immigrants to go home!

      Good riddance to her.

      1. Lifelogic
        July 20, 2019

        Indeed stiff competition from John Major ERM disaster and not even a sorry from the pathetic Man. But I agree May is the worst of them. Just listen to her bitter and pathetic speech on Wednesday. What a bitter & deluded fool she is.

        1. Hope
          July 20, 2019

          So why are you vexed JR? I and many others said she should have been got rid of on 9/12/2017 the day after she scuttled off at night to do her dirty deal to make leaving impossible through the Irish backstop. Why do you now speak out about it and not with the rest of us three years ago!

          Chequers was another example of her underhand dishonest behaviour and total capitulation to the EU to keep a Britain as a vassal state until the UK could fully join again.

          All the cabinet needs to be ashamed, and vocal remainers never in govt or public office ever again. Look at Tory indicative votes to make sure they are ousted.
          Judicial inquiry for dishonest Kitkatbpilicy caught on tape exposed by The Sun. All need to be arrested and investigated, including etc ed

          1. Dennis Zoff
            July 22, 2019

            Yes, this was always a mystery to me why our host repeatedly supported May?

            Reply I did not vote for her to be leader and opposed her Chequers strategy vigorously!

          2. Dennis Zoff
            July 22, 2019

            Reply to reply

            John

            I meant on this, your comment site. Many times you spoke kindly of her, when to the very many here it was obvious she was a complete disingenuous lame duck Prime Minister from day one?

        2. Hope
          July 20, 2019

          Suggest Mayhab , Hunt and other virtual signallers read Conservative Woman’s article by Melanie Phillips behind the Trump/Omar spat. Particularly the disgraceful behaviour of Omar. It is correct to dislike her for her views irrespective of her ethnic origin.

          The Trump bashing band wagon would be better served basing their comments on the facts not their prejudice. Let them justify to the public Omar’s comments about 9/11 and Jews.

          Sir Roger Scruton Tory cock up all over again.

      2. Chris
        July 20, 2019

        I agree, Hope. May has been a disaster, and she has committed the cardinal sin of betraying our country, its sovereignty, its people, and those heroes who fought for our freedom in WWI and WWII. In so doing, she has apparently made a concerted effort to destroy our democracy. Her deceit has been unparalleled and she has set a new low for the standards of behaviour in politics. What a terrible legacy.

        I see your comment today, Sir John, has received glowing praise (commenter in the D Telegraph Letters section).

        Slightly O/T:
        is it true that Boris is thinking of having Nicky Morgan in his Cabinet. The Cabinet will be the indicator of what he is going to do about Brexit, and if Morgan is on board we have been warned. There will not be a future for the Cons if Boris does not deliver Brexit truly and honestly.

        1. Lifelogic
          July 20, 2019

          Indeed I would not want Nicky Morgan near any position of power not quite as dire as Theresa May and tax to death traitor Hammond but very nearly.

          Let us hope Boris kills HS2 as soon as possible (before they wastes any more ÂŁbillions). True the moon landing all over the BBC currently make HS2 look relatively good value. Not that the BBC discuss value for money very often. I see there was a good poem by Gil Scott-Heron (about the time of the moon landings) – something like:- Can’t pay my medical bill but whiteys on the moon, going to send my medical bills to whiteys on the moon.

      3. Timaction
        July 20, 2019

        Indeed she is the worst Prime Minister……….ever. Her legacy may well be the total demise of the non Conservative Party. Unless Boris changes the voting system and roots out the radical remoaners who could ever vote for them again? They are more Liberals than Conservatives.

    2. Mike Stallard
      July 20, 2019

      I do not read her like that. I see her as a decent member of the local Conservative Association – the kind who provide sandwiches at meetings. Happily married. The life and soul of the local party. Convinced churchgoer. Knows everybody.
      How she ever got to be so high in politics is beyond me.

      1. Graham Wood
        July 20, 2019

        Your first para is clearly a contradiction in terms. For May to betray
        the aspirations of those very same Conservative Associations to leave
        the EU, as well as a majority in the wider U.K. can hardly define Mrs
        May as “nice” in any sense.

      2. A.Sedgwick
        July 20, 2019

        I read her personality differently.

      3. Fred H
        July 20, 2019

        in other words – how on earth was she catapulted to become a minister, although media always portrayed her as a listener not a do’er. Thought to be a safe pair of hands, we now know she was the ‘remainer establishment’s choice’ – totally at the whim of the EU’s wishes.
        You can fool all the people all of the time, until she was given keys to No 10. It all came crashing down. Totally, unbelievably deceitful and traitorous.
        In many countries there would have been riots in the streets.
        The Brits just take it on the chin, ripe for exploitation. Well, we have been for decades.

        1. Dennis
          July 20, 2019

          For all of the correct comments about T. May how come Corbyn never mentoned any of this at PMQs? Particularly after all the vitriol she poured on him.

        2. John McHugh
          July 20, 2019

          I suspect May was catapulted on the female quota system that does a disservicet o women in general.
          In my opinion she was weak and devous. Scared of getting it wrong and in doing so allowed the Eu to dream up the WA.

      4. A.Sedgwick
        July 20, 2019

        200 MPs kept her as PM too long creating further damage, there are only about 25 true Leave CP MPs and they should have left the party if their commitment was absolute. The CP is finished, how anyone could imagine the “entrepeneur” as PM is scary and Boris is Boris, a loose cannon. Whilst these dopey hustings were taking place the oil tanker game was underway.

      5. a-tracy
        July 20, 2019

        ‘How so high’ Because she just does what she is told.

        However as you say when she makes her own decisions they are poor and harm the reputation of small c conservative supporters, not in our name Theresa May ‘go home’ vans and not protecting our poor communities by stopping searches in areas where people carry đŸ”Ș was a mistake.

        This ‘go home’, ‘send her home’ were are hearing in the USA is distasteful. We should be asking people to assimilate in Britain if you want to make your home here, don’t expect to change it to suit yourself with your own laws that allow you to marry two people, or marry and divorce at will with the man having more rights. If you want to live in Britain and be British then live within our laws and follow and support our equality rights.

        1. Tad Davison
          July 20, 2019

          Too right! And it’s because of weakling liberal do-gooders like Theresa May that they keep getting away with it!

        2. John Fletcher
          July 20, 2019

          It’s far too late for that. The tail now wags the dog!!!

      6. Tad Davison
        July 20, 2019

        ‘How she ever got so high?’

        Scraping the detritus from the bottom of a very much depleted barrel maybe?

        The fact that May was a church-goer makes it even less tolerable. One would reasonably have thought honesty, strength of character and integrity was hard-wired into such a person. Instead, we got someone who lied and tried to deceive at every opportunity. I for one was taken in by her Lancaster House speech, and I am not a man to forgive a con-artist.

        I say again that Theresa May and her lack-lustre following including most of her cabinet, is a result of the Tory party’s very poor recruitment policy. Most of whom are goody-goodys and do not cut it with the public. We want hard-fighting grit not soft soap!

        The Tories are the chief architects of their own problems, but even at this late hour, it seems the public would give them just one more chance to ‘deliver us from evil’, so it’s all down to the new incumbent to put right the previous travesties by filling cabinet posts with solid Brexiteers and giving the lame duplicitous remainer types no quarter at all.

      7. Fedupsoutherner
        July 20, 2019

        MS. It was because she was a church goer and we thought she was a decent woman that we thought we would get a true Brexit. We did not see her as a blatant liar and one that was so against her own country. Many of us will never forgive her treacherous behaviour. The UK may never be the same again and it’s all down to her. If the vote had been honoured and democracy upheld we wouldn’t be in this mess.

      8. Caterpillar
        July 20, 2019

        ‘Convinced churchgoer’ – yep, warning bells should have been ringing.

    3. Lifelogic
      July 20, 2019

      Indeed, the only positive I can find is opt out organ donation, and even that is not in force yet. An appalling pro EU, tax and regulate to death socialist who has (together with the appalling Hammond) betrayed the nation and nearly destroyed the Conservative Party.

      1. Lifelogic
        July 20, 2019

        James Brokenshire proposing yet more red tape on housing developments in relation to ‘poor doors’. Why on earth should people buying flats subsidises other buyers at all? They pay quite enough tax already with taxes at the highest level for 50 years and absurd stamp duty rates on top too. Hopefully Boris will fire this silly, virtue signalling, red tape spewing, government knows best, socialist, plonker.

        1. NearlyDead
          July 20, 2019

          You only complain about this because it affects you personally. Perhaps its time you exit the property/landlord business. I’m all for smaller government, but you keep repeating the same boring point. Move on.

      2. Fred H
        July 20, 2019

        Only ‘nearly destroyed’? – the proof of how badly things have got will be told in the next GE. Enforced or chosen by Boris the Brexit party is sat on the Tory Establishment shoulder, rather like the vulture waiting in the tree for the collapsed animal to breathe its last, or not able to defend itself.
        If it means most of the dreadful remainer MPs and Tory establishment are kicked out, it won’t be all bad. The tree seems full of rotten apples, we wait for a gale force wind.

      3. Bob
        July 20, 2019

        @lifelogic

        “only positive I can find is opt out organ donation”

        Very worrying. Have you thought this through?

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          July 20, 2019

          Agree L/L

        2. Lifelogic
          July 20, 2019

          Yes why? Opt out if you want to if you cannot be bother then you clearly do not mind that much. Not that the NHS will cope very well.

          1. Bob
            July 21, 2019

            @lifelogic
            Think it though.
            It’s about who decides when your organs are more valuable than you are.

    4. James Bertram
      July 20, 2019

      This is BrexitFacts4EU’s verdict today:

      ‘Treason?

      We know that many readers now feel that Mrs May’s words and actions over Brexit amount to little less than treason. Others draw back from using such a word.

      Our editorial position at Brexit Facts4EU.Org has always been that we did not trust the Prime Minister, and we certainly criticised her incessantly and lost some readers in the process. Happily some of the readers we lost came back, as they started to see the reality unfolding as we had predicted.

      Now, as we enter the final days, we must reflect on what has been one of the greatest travesties and deceptions ever perpetrated on the people by a British Prime Minister.

      More on this in the coming days, as we count down the hours to the departure of this truly appalling politician.’

  2. Shirley
    July 20, 2019

    She still retains Hammond, Gauke, Rudd and co in her cabinet. She would rather destroy the UK than leave her precious EU, and damaging the UK is the one thing she appears to be very competent at. She is supposed to work on behalf of the UK, not against it! It’s time that the laws for dealing with traitorous politicians were beefed up!

    1. StephenJ
      July 20, 2019

      I believe that a qualification for joining the EU, is that the prospective member state must repeal any capital punishment for treachery that might still exist.

      The Irish had a referendum on it prior to joining.

      So that is that sorted then.

      1. Andy
        July 20, 2019

        You want the death penalty back? Who do you want the state to kill?

        1. Anonymous
          July 20, 2019

          Murderers.

          We were promised that life would mean life but this pledge has been broken. So “We don’t believe you” applies.

          1. Tad Davison
            July 20, 2019

            I’m right with you.

            I have come into contact with a few murderers in my time, one of whom staged a robbery at a building society where his wife was the key holder. He left her lifeless body in a lay-by and concocted a story in which he claimed he had been drugged and robbed in his own home, and she had been abducted.

            Another killed his eldest daughter having fathered two children by her after she threatened to go to the police. In both cases, had the death penalty still been in use, I am convinced it would have served as a deterrent.

            The modern stabbing crime-wave could also be greatly alleviated by its re-introduction, and where it fails to deter, it gets rid of nasty and dangerous scumbags once and for all, but don’t expect liberal do-gooders who infest the corridors of power to do the public’s bidding and bring it back.

            We have been telling them all along to get their finger out and get crime sorted. Instead they give us utterly useless individuals like Rory Stewart and David Gauke!

            Maybe serious crime needs to be visited upon our out-of-touch politicians before we’ll ever get change. They regard ‘understanding’ and ‘humanitarianism’ as a virtue, but in this context, that is a grave error because it is the wider public who keeps falling victim to criminals whilst this government continually fails to deal with them.

          2. Lifelogic
            July 20, 2019

            I do tend to think that the occasions where it would actually be a deterrent are rather few. Most assume they will never be caught anyway. Does death deter more than 25 years in Jail. Plus we have additional the risk that someone (knowing they will be executed if caught) then has nothing to lose by further killing to escape.

          3. margaret howard
            July 22, 2019

            Tad Davies

            ” In both cases, had the death penalty still been in use, I am convinced it would have served as a deterrent.”

            Well, Tad, many American states still have the death penalty but the US murder rate is about 5x as high as ours or any other non death penalty European nation.

            It doesn’t seem to work then.

        2. Fred H
          July 20, 2019

          Andy…..Rapist/murderers of children, policemen, psychopaths, serial killers, drug dealing killers…..that will do for a start.

        3. Lynn Atkinson
          July 20, 2019

          The state constantly kills – the NHS kills thousands each year and the state leave dangerous and convicted criminals in the community to repeat their crimes. It would be a nice change if the state sided with the law abiding and discharged it duty to protect us!

          1. Lifelogic
            July 20, 2019

            +1

        4. Lifelogic
          July 20, 2019

          How many innocents would have been executed? The Bimingham Six, Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven …..

          1. Richard1
            July 20, 2019

            Hear hear

          2. Shirley
            July 20, 2019

            How many innocents have been murdered by released murderers? If no death sentence, then life sentence, and it should be life … in order to keep the public safe.

          3. Lynn Atkinson
            July 20, 2019

            When were they declared innocent? As I recall in a review when all the witnesses were dead etc they found ‘unsafe verdict’. I don’t believe the Court should be able to review a case where the evidence is no longer available. It’s inverse double-jeopardy.

        5. Sea Warrior
          July 20, 2019

          Traitors, murderers, some sex-offenders and lots of drug smugglers!

    2. Peter Wood
      July 20, 2019

      Shirley,
      We must remember, Its not only Mrs May and her Remainer cabinet. As soon as the Chequers Deal was exposed the PCP should have understood that Mrs May planned to keep the UK semi-detached to the EU, and this should have resulted in her removal, but the PCP kept her in office. It is the many Remainers in the PCP that are the real culprit. Local Conservative associations must be allowed to de-select representatives.

      1. Shirley
        July 20, 2019

        Agreed. The Chequers debacle opened my eyes to the duplicity of May. I agree with your suggestion that local associations MUST be allowed to deselect their representatives, and allowed to choose their own candidates.

        MP’s who defect to another party must also be automatically subject to by-elections. If they are good and effective representatives of their constituents they should have nothing to fear from a by-election!

    3. Gary C
      July 20, 2019

      @ Shirley

      100% agree with every word, hopefully the electorate will have the courage to remove these perfidious MP’s at the next GE.

      1. Turboterrier
        July 20, 2019

        Sorry Gary in your dreams it just will not happen. Another GE and we will get the same old same old candidates.

        1. Shirley
          July 20, 2019

          But we don’t have to vote for them. Once upon a time, we had a choice of pro-EU or pro-EU, in other words no choice at all, but we have a bigger choice now, and some of those parties put the UK first.

        2. Fred H
          July 20, 2019

          possibly due to Central Office refusing votes of no confidence by the locals.

    4. Lifelogic
      July 20, 2019

      It is not just May but about half of the Conservative MPs are the same Libdim traitors as she is. The 200 who absurdly voted to retain her in office last year for example.

      1. Lifelogic
        July 20, 2019

        May last speech showed clearly what a pathetic, contemptible and deluded traitor and idiot she is.

        1. Lynn Atkinson
          July 20, 2019

          But so ‘caring’ – I have just discovered that millions of homes and businesses in the U.K. have water supplied via lead mains pipes. So no clean water for British people then. Only I’d you know you have lead contaminated supply and are having a baby will the water companies replace the dangerous prices free of charge.
          Pity she did not leave giving the U.K. safe water or a Parliament!

          1. Fedupsoutherner
            July 20, 2019

            Lynn, that’s OK. Let’s just keep bunging billions at overseas aid.

          2. Lifelogic
            July 20, 2019

            Lead pipes are not really much of a problem statistically, you will not live for every anyway.

      2. Bob
        July 20, 2019

        Emmanuel Macron praised Mrs May for being “incredibly loyal and respectful” to the European Union during the Brexit negotiations after an EU summit in Brussels last month.

        1. Lynn Atkinson
          July 20, 2019

          Yes – damning indeed. Thwarted thank God by the Spartans in whose debt we shall forever be. Never have so many owed so much to so few – and Mr Corbyn! Thank you Sir John.

        2. Gary C
          July 20, 2019

          “Emmanuel Macron praised Mrs May for being “incredibly loyal and respectful” to the European Union during the Brexit negotiations after an EU summit in Brussels last month.”

          Reading between the lines Macron said . . . . . . We thank you for trying so hard unfortunately your perfidy was not enough to sell your country down the river.

        3. Lifelogic
          July 20, 2019

          Indeed that is one of her huge mistakes.

  3. Mark B
    July 20, 2019

    Good morning.

    It is entirely in keeping with Mrs May’s calamitous handling of government . . .

    Please don’t tell me that now she is leaving Number 10 that you have only just found this out ? Most of us knew all this before she became PM.

    Mrs May claimed to be the champion of the Union yet she sided with the Union’s strongest critics . . .

    Yes, she often spoke of how important Scotland, Wales and Ulster were to the ‘Union’ yet, she, like so many in the HoC, failed to mention the only country in the ‘Union’ that does not have its own government and is responsible for putting her and her party were it is – in government. Now that’s IRONY !

    1. Caterpillar
      July 20, 2019

      Mark B,

      Yes huge reform is needed, at the very least

      1) An English parliament situated in central England, and
      2) Two vote mixed member proportional representation (at least for legislatures, the executive-legislature relationship needs a quick review),
      3) All senior civil servants to be moved out of London (and some moved out altogether)

      1. Tom Rogers
        July 21, 2019

        @Caterpillar

        Nooooooo!

        (1). Why do you want an English Parliament, an extra layer of political government? Why? Have you really thought this through? Let the fringe nations have their dinky little tinpot parliaments/assemblies, if they want. We don’t want it in England.

        If you need extra government – maybe a Nanny to take care of you – then go and live in Scotland.

        (2). Proportional representation would make things worse, not better. We would lose territorial representation. Candidate selection would be determined by the parties entirely. There would be no chance of revolutionary political change under PR because the major parties could all group together in coalitions. PR is a trap.

        (3). The only reason I disagree with this idea and would keep government functions in London is that I think government needs to be shrunk. I would set, as a notional objective, a 75% reduction in the size of central government. Do that, and nobody cares where the government is located. Why do you care anyway?

        1. JoolsB
          July 21, 2019

          Tom, you’re totally wrong. An English Parliament would not mean an extra layer of politicians. If anything it would mean less. For a start nowhere near 650 UK MPs would be required for the remaining reserved matters. Why do you think 650 self serving politicians are so opposed to one? Because it would mean P45s for most of them. To deny England parity with the other nations of the dis-Uk is an affront to democracy and totally unfair to England. England has no-one standing up for our young coming out of university with debts around their necks for most of their working lives whilst our taxes provide them free or heavily subsidised for the rest of the dis-UK. Or that our sick are the only ones to pay for their prescriptions and exorbitant hospital parking charges or that May’s dementia tax would only have affected England’s elderly. They get away with this discrimination because England has no-one standing up for it’s interests and demanding an end to this discrimination. Our pathetic politicians can’t even say the word England let alone stand up for it.

          Like 550 plus UK MPs squatting in English seats, you obviously think it’s okay for our young, sick and elderly to be discriminated against on a daily basis and for MPs elected outside of England to vote on and meddle in matters that only affect England.

    2. Lifelogic
      July 20, 2019

      Exactly. We have Gove’s appalling knifing of Boris to thank (for having to suffer the dire wrong on everything Theresa May) plus Leadsom’s rather pathetic backing out when attacked by May’s henchmen, thus depriving the party members of a say.

      1. Fred H
        July 20, 2019

        yes – much of the last 3 years misery is down to Gove. In my book unelectable and a horror waiting to happen if in Cabinet.

        1. Richard1
          July 20, 2019

          Give was By far the most effective minister of the coalition and Conservative period

          1. Stred
            July 20, 2019

            Gove thinks that little Greta is our conscience and that banning plastic straws will make a difference. He is a back stabbing, opportunistic incompetent who thought he could take on the educational blob and lost.

          2. Richard1
            July 20, 2019

            Gove

    3. acorn
      July 20, 2019

      If there is one thing the voters in my old Ward did not understand; even more than Brexit; the customs union; the single market and; least of all, the WTO; it was the Union.

      The so called union is anything but. Time to do away with it. Resurrect the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 which formed the Kingdom of England. Forget you ever heard of Great Britain in any of its combining forms from that date. Let Scotland and a united Ireland go there own way; in or out of the EU, their choice. 😉

      1. Anonymous
        July 20, 2019

        True, but the irony of it all.

        Germany reunifies because the BBC et al say “the *Nazis* did it”

        GB disintegrates because the BBC et al say “the *English* did it.”

        Germany absolved, the English kicked and smeared at every turn. Hollywood, universities, politics.

        No nation could survive this. EU or no. Either way it breaks up.

      2. Fred H
        July 20, 2019

        acorn ….with the passing of many years since I would have defended the Union, I can no longer. Union? Just a pretence of solidarity.

      3. Fedupsoutherner
        July 20, 2019

        Acorn,yes, yes, yes.

        1. Polmont Joe
          July 20, 2019

          You trash the EU. You’ve trashed the civil service, the judges, the media, the universities, MPs who refuse to toe your extremist line.And now you trash the United Kingdom. Tell me, is there anything about our country you have any respect for?

  4. Ian Wragg
    July 20, 2019

    Strong words John but very true.
    I hope there’s a public enquiry into the handling of Brexit with some people losing tbeir pensions etc.
    Traitor isn’t a strong enough word for these idiots.

    1. Ian Wragg
      July 20, 2019

      When will we find out who wrote the Withdrawal Agreement.

      Reply It reads like an EU draft but clearly the UK consented to it

      1. Walt
        July 20, 2019

        Was it not Sabine Weyand?

      2. J Bush
        July 20, 2019

        Reply to reply.

        With the greatest respect, the UK didn’t consent. Only May and her civil servant cohorts consented.

        1. Dominic
          July 20, 2019

          J Bush. Well said.

          The British people, both Brexit and Remain voters, have played no part in this treachery. It is a purely political construct

        2. Know-Dice
          July 20, 2019

          And Parliament didn’t “consent” either.

        3. Lifelogic
          July 20, 2019

          Indeed.

      3. Fred H
        July 20, 2019

        reply to reply…….Did anybody in May’s sphere of influence bother to read it? Events suggested they were led by the nose ‘nothing to see here, vote for May’.

      4. Andy
        July 20, 2019

        It was not written in English, that is very clear, but is a translation probably from German. Weyand might have written it or it was done for her in the Reich Chancellory.

    2. eeyore
      July 20, 2019

      Our host and Mrs May have been colleagues a very long time. He is not a severe or vindictive man. I fear it must be deeply painful to him to write as he now does about her.

      As to a public enquiry, so important is Brexit, and so calamitous and suspicious the May government’s handling of it, that surely nothing less than a full Royal Commission will suffice, with immediate police seizure of computers, phones and records.

      1. formula57
        July 20, 2019

        We don’t want a Royal Commission: too toothless and slow. And we certainly do not want to be Chilcoted.

        We need an UnBrexit Activities Committee supported by a special criminal court to try for treason those found to have a case to answer.

        1. Andy
          July 20, 2019

          Gosh – it’s like a bad form of McCarthyism. Witch hunt in the extreme.

          I would no doubt fall foul of your UnBrexit Activities Committee – because I dare to ask questions which none of you can answer.

          What do you think your special criminal court should do with me? Incidentally – you probably don’t need the court. Just the hard labour camp.

          1. Anonymous
            July 20, 2019

            For once I agree with you Andy.

            Brexiters should not be stooping as low as you Remainers in demanding to see people imprisoned. These are your ways not ours.

            And as to answering questions – that is what this blog is all about and I see you get trounced here frequently.

          2. Richard1
            July 20, 2019

            It is a silly post you are right. But how is it different from many of your’s – don’t you recognise the similarities?

          3. Fred H
            July 20, 2019

            Andy…..not at all – just free transport to the docks. Go to any other EU country, your choice.

          4. Jagman84
            July 20, 2019

            What should a special criminal court do with you? Absolutely nothing! You are not of any importance whatsoever, in the grand scheme of things. Even I would defend you from such an intrusion into free speech. However, all of our own opinions coalesce at the time of general elections and national referenda and the majority view holds sway. That is the basis of my criticism of your standpoint. You appear unable to accept this and childishly claim that those who did not excercise their right to vote automatically become supporters of your opinion. Childish but not criminal.

          5. Tony Henry
            July 20, 2019

            Andy you are not important and no one cares what you think. May on the other hand betrayed the uk to a foreign power. Now that IS important.

        2. L Jones
          July 20, 2019

          Yes – it does seem that a precedent should be set for formal enquiries. After all, as Cameron told us, this is a ”once in a generation” situation.

      2. Barbara C
        July 20, 2019

        Sadly, the old caveat, “I acted in good faith” would apply, so why waste more of our money? It worked for Blair.

      3. graham1946
        July 20, 2019

        No chance of that. The best we will get is the 30 year rule, which when due, will be extended (in the national interest) to indefinitely or the paper will be lost.

      4. Chris
        July 20, 2019

        Eeyore, re your first para, I agree. Sir John’s statement above is hugely significant. Nothing has demonstrated more clearly than Brexit who the “few good men” are, and Sir John is one.

        The chicanery and deceit employed in the whole Brexit debacle with May will have a lasting and decisive effect on the politics of this country. Good will come of this is provided the good people stay united and firm in the face of the relentless and fierce attacks of the Left engineered to divide and destroy us.

        The Left includes those “Tory” Remainers who seem to be acting as globalist puppets, with the view of imposing One World Government on us, which necessarily entails destruction of sovereignties, and the imposition of a regime apparently based on Marxist principles. See UN Agenda 21 and 2030 for starters. The OWG aka New World Order zealots are deadly serious and it explains why we are facing such ferocious opposition to leaving the EU.

        We sorely need President Trump, and if Boris is wise enough to forge a strong relationship with P Trump and to heed his advice then the UK will have a great future.

        1. Anonymous
          July 20, 2019

          The truth is that you cannot impose sudden swingeing cultural changes in order to transform zeitgeist without causing the destruction of the establishment which does it. So here we are. The EU copped the blame.

          From LGBTQ to the veneration of Grime and Gangsta rap and misogynistic religion – it is no longer acceptable to be tolerant, one has to be openly enthusiastic of it.

          Anything goes and is beyond critique so long as it is not staid, white, older and English.

          It’s been a lot to take in psychologically – its impact has destabilised established norms which gave us mental security and we have registered our misgivings in the correct manner, through the ballot box.

          For this they have unleashed wrath.

        2. Mitchel
          July 20, 2019

          The anglo-american concept of One World Government(largely through control of the financial system) is dead.Russia and China have seen to that-watch as the debauched western system is replaced over the next decade or so by Asia-based institutions-it is already being sorely challenged.

          1. hefner
            July 20, 2019

            A very good book (at least for me) along your lines is “We have been harmonized” by Kai Strittmatter, Old Street Publ, 2019. Whether the Chinese ways can be imported as such in the West can be discussed, but the surveillance state is already well developed here in the UK towns.

          2. Chris
            July 20, 2019

            Mitchel, the UN and the “required” supra national blocs such as the EU certainly do not think the globalists of the NWO/OWG are dead (see UN Agenda 2030), but President Trump is challenging them fiercely. That is why NAFTA (which was meant to result in US/Canadian/Mexican borders being dissolved and free movement of labour overall) was completely revamped by Trump into a completely different structure, preserving US sovereignty, keeping a secure border, and controlling immigration, among other things.

      5. NearlyDead
        July 21, 2019

        I’m fine with this as long as it can be applied to all, no matter how they voted.Good for the goose good for the gander.

    3. J Bush
      July 20, 2019

      I fully agree. Sadly if there was one, the establishment parties would ensure a whitewash conclusion, as they are all (with a few exceptions) also equally culpable.

      An honest enquiry will have to wait until a new party is in government, with all the current ‘painters’ removed from the decision making process.

      One thing I would like to see happen is that all those who are, directly or indirectly, in receipt of EU funding/foreign ‘donations’ are not allowed to vote on any matters concerning any aspect of the EU.

      And finally, political correctness banned and all common purpose graduates banned from holding any public office.

      Or in a nutshell, drain the swamp.

      1. Dominic
        July 20, 2019

        Again , I agree. Purging the British State of pro-EU and pro-Labour employees is essential to the efficient and normal functioning of our constitution, our political nation and our civil nation

        Common Purpose is real and it is a cancer in our nation. It has infected the BBC, civil service, police, education, CPS, the list is endless and the entire edifice created by Labour since 1997 needs total and absolute demolition.

        Identity and PC politics must be flushed away. It is corroding our freedoms and being deliberately used to silence debate even debate by politicians. See BJ and his comments regarding the niqab

        I want to hear them squealing for the damage they have inflicted

        1. steve
          July 20, 2019

          Dominic

          “….deliberately used to silence debate even debate by politicians.”

          Exactly.

          The strange thing is, most of us are unafraid to confront political correctness wherever we see it, but politicians seem terrified of it.

        2. Everhopeful
          July 20, 2019

          Dominic
          Yes Common Purpose has infiltrated every institution.
          Things like “Leading beyond authority” and the belief that there is no such thing as failure must have done untold harm.
          I have read that many politicians have attended courses ..no doubt at public expense. Loads of dosh to be made?
          The denial of failure is what leads to people, who in saner times would have been dismissed having fouled up …being promoted!
          I always ask local councillors whether they are Common Purpose and they invariably say… “ What’s that?” very innocently.
          There are supposed to be records of who has been CPed but I have never found a really comprehensive one.

          1. Stred
            July 20, 2019

            Many employees of public services such as universities and councils are sent on CP courses and come away perplexed and deciding that the course was a lot of phsycho balls. Then they drop out. The weak and malleable carry on and become cult members.

  5. oldtimer
    July 20, 2019

    At the start of her term as PM I gave Mrs May the benefit of my doubts about her. At its end my conclusions are that she has been as dishonest and duplicitous as she has been incompetent. I believe that the UK government, under Cameron,, had no plan to leave the EU because he did not expect to lose the vote. May had no plan because she had no intention to do so. In this she was aided and abetted by the majority of MPs, the civil service, the BBC and much of the media. Her imminent departure does not mean such forces will give up. They will redouble their efforts to frustrate her successor in his aim to leave. It will be a fight to the finish. Along the way he would be well advised to contrive three line whips to get rebel MPs in line or to fire them from the party so that actual supporters can be selected for the next GE. The chances that this will come sooner than later must be very high.

    1. L Jones
      July 20, 2019

      I think many of us felt the same way about her – ready to give her a chance, and taking her at her word, believing she was honest and had the welfare of our country at heart.

      She must have known about this goodwill, yet she blatantly and arrogantly rejected it. I wonder how she feels now that she is held in such contempt – or perhaps no-one ever tells her and she is too conceited (or too closely in thrall to her EU masters) to take any notice of the little people now her ‘job’ is nearly done.

      1. Anonymous
        July 20, 2019

        No.

        I knew it was over as soon as she was appointed. A disastrous, left wing home secretary, doing the exact opposite on knife crime that was needed, and lo.

        A Remainer.

        What could possibly go right ?

    2. James1
      July 20, 2019

      Boris needs to do and hopefully will do a bumper amount of firing, starting with virtually the entire current cabinet, and the removal of huge numbers of senior civil servants. As for Mrs May, if she seeks to stay on as an MP it would be thoroughly justified if her local party members voted to deselect her

      1. Gary C
        July 20, 2019

        “Boris needs to do and hopefully will do a bumper amount of firing, starting with virtually the entire current cabinet, and the removal of huge numbers of senior civil servants. As for Mrs May, if she seeks to stay on as an MP it would be thoroughly justified if her local party members voted to deselect her”

        Absolutely agree yet I would add many should be taken to court and tried for treason.

    3. Mark B
      July 20, 2019

      . . . she has been as dishonest and duplicitous as she has been incompetent.

      She was like this when HS. So I struggle why people are so surprised.

  6. Alan Jutson
    July 20, 2019

    You have to face facts John that Mrs May was a walking disaster, not just for the Conservative Party, but for the Country.

    She went to war with the police when Home secretary, failed to do anything constructive about immigration, Lied to her own Brexit department and was negotiating with the EU behind closed doors, failed to sack a Chancellor who had his own agenda, wrecked the diesel and car industry with stupid emissions legislation, in effect lost the conservative majority at the last election with a dementia tax social care type policy, which excluded anyone from any help if you owned your own home, has proved absolutely useless at negotiation with the EU by not putting forward any demands at all it would seem from recent interviews.
    Put forward a disaster of an agreement for the UK three times which was rightly rejected (but still cannot see what’s wrong with it), clearly is completely unaware of human nature and personal reaction to circumstances, and lied or completely misunderstood her own speech content.
    In the end she went on the largest spending splurge of all, with her stupid climate change legislation that will kill off much of our businesses with increased costs.
    Her legacy such as it is, will be of complete failure and certainly the worst Prime minister in my lifetime.

    Like her I could go on and on, but what is the point.

    1. Stred
      July 20, 2019

      Going to zero CO2 in 30 years using wind and solar is likely to kill off the poorer population as well as industry. The CCC says that the taxpayers and consumers should pay for the thousands of turbines and hydrogen reformers, reorganised industrial hubs, gas and electricity grids, electrolysis, making the housing stock into eco homes and finding the lithium and cobalt to make 35 million electric vehicles with charging points.

    2. Lifelogic
      July 20, 2019

      +1

  7. agricola
    July 20, 2019

    Yes she was an unmitigated disaster in the Home Office and as PM. It is to the shame and cost of the Conservative party that she was allowed into office in any capacity. Not only was she incompetent, but since Chequers, maliciously incompetent. She has encouraged some 30 acolytes led by Hammond to act as a Trojan Horse in the midst of the next government and cause maximum difficulty while they sort out the mess she has left in her trail.

    1. Sir Joe Soap
      July 20, 2019

      The question still in my mind is whether she’s malicious or just plain stupid. Why even belong to the Conservative party if you act against its interests maliciously?

      1. agricola
        July 20, 2019

        She is a woman scorned by way of explanation of why she has acted the way she has. The fact that she was incompetent was coincidental. Many of us wonder why the parliamentary conservative party contains so many Blairites and Lib/Dems. It was possible that they were collected on the journey of apology from being the fantasy nasty party, identified by May. She succeeded in making the party feel guilty while she got on with undermining it. Individuals are nasty not whole parties, witness the current Labour party.

      2. L Jones
        July 20, 2019

        Sir Joe – I suppose it will be interesting to see what course her ‘career’ takes now. There seems to be no reason for her working to destroy the reputation of her Party so conclusively, unless she really is a double agent. If so, that ‘career’ would have begun long ago, and would explain her duplicity and malice.
        Perhaps she is just plain stupid, then, but as she passed the eleven plus she didn’t start out that way.

        1. John O'Leary
          July 20, 2019

          Is passing the eleven plus sufficient qualification for the post of Prime Minister?

      3. Anonymous
        July 20, 2019

        Soft lad.

  8. bill brown
    July 20, 2019

    Sir JR

    Mrs May has been back stabbed by her Conservative Party colleagues and the Party members as we know cares less about the Union according to opinion pools than Brexit.

    So making these accusations at this late stage is just out of order and distasteful party politics

    1. formula57
      July 20, 2019

      She was stabbed in the front.

      The accusations (all proven) appropriately arise now surely for the reason stated in the opening paragraph, being “her parting gift as PM should include Northern Ireland legislation which stokes up controversy between Leave and Remain and is disliked by the DUP…”

      Even in the final few days in office T. May vividly demonstrates her failure and unsuitability. It is a duty rather than being unsuitable to point this out.

    2. Mark B
      July 20, 2019

      I agree with your last sentence. Let history decide on her, not her friends and colleagues.

  9. Alex
    July 20, 2019

    When someone continually claims to be in favour of something or a believer in something yet every time proves by their actions that they are not you are forced to the conclusion that they are a pathological liar. May is completely unsuitable for every government role as she is not only a liar but an authoritarian that is bereft of principle. In reality she should not have been in charge of No 10 but etc ed

    1. Mark B
      July 20, 2019

      Yet she achieved high office and remained PM for three years. Only after the disastrous local council elections and then the Europarl elections, which we should not have taken part in, did the MP’s finally realise that she had driven them to their electoral doom. That is when self preservation kicked in and she was persuaded to leave.

    2. Lifelogic
      July 20, 2019

      True Cameron said gave us his Cast Iron lie, said he was a Eurosceptic and even a low tax at heart Conservative – he was non of this had he been he could have been a great PM he had a huge open goals. But alas he too was lying.

    3. bill brown
      July 20, 2019

      Alex

      To me it sounds as if you are describing the Conservative party?

  10. BCL
    July 20, 2019

    I am so very disappointed by Mrs May. She said much of what I wanted to hear in the early days. If she’d kept to her “promises” (no deal is better than a bad deal and those infamous red lines which were soon painted over) she might still be PM and we’d be out of the EU already. I just hope that Boris does as he says. At the moment I believe him but only time will tell. If nothing else he is cheerful and optimistic and that at least is welcome and a change.

    1. Sir Joe Soap
      July 20, 2019

      One could pontificate that she followed her EU masters at every turn. Not a mind of her own?

    2. Mark B
      July 20, 2019

      She said much of what I wanted to hear in the early days.

      But that’s her job ! And I think you will find that her replacement, whoever he is, will be no better.

      Stop setting yourself up for disappointment. Judge them by what they do, not what they say !

      😉

  11. Tory in Cumbria
    July 20, 2019

    Scotland voted Remain. Northern Irealnd voted Remain. It is the arch Brexiters, forcing a no deal Brexit on voters who clearly oppose it, who are harming our precious Union.

    Reply A clear majority want Brexit.

    1. Bryan Harris
      July 20, 2019

      INDEED…!
      So just what does this make her? Certainly not a PM of quality or patriotism – She is a true child of the EU with all the inherent inadaquecies we expect of the EU…

      We did very well as a United kingdom – at least most of us spoke the same language and had similar goals

      1. Lifelogic
        July 20, 2019

        The UK is a sensible Demos for a democracy. The EU is not at all a coherent Demos at all.

        1. margaret howard
          July 20, 2019

          Lifelogic

          Once again with feeling:

          The UK is a country while the EU is a trading bloc consisting of 28 independent countries with their own governments.

          However we don’t get much demos at the moment with a few establishment tories in the shires about to elect our prime minister for us. Aren’t we lucky.

          1. Lifelogic
            July 21, 2019

            It is the Demos for European Parliament’s MEPs, though even this is not done on a fair 1 MEP per x thousand voters basis.

    2. agricola
      July 20, 2019

      Not only did a clear majority in the UK vote for Brexit. If a no deal becomes the default position it will be because, when the UK leaves on WTO terms and offers the EU a FTA plus stability of ongoing trade under Art 24 of GATT, the reaction of the EU is rejection. The EU will have brought it upon themselves. It is not the UK’s choice. The UK will leave on 31st Oct, the EU will have to decide whether to accept our offer or not.

      1. NearlyDead
        July 21, 2019

        I can guarantee they won’t accept such a terrible deal.Remember its better to have a no deal than a bad deal.

    3. Grist
      July 20, 2019

      In a democracy, it is a feature of the system that the majority “force” something on the minority. If you prefer the reverse, you’d best prepare for Mr McDonnell to rule.

    4. Barbara C
      July 20, 2019

      Tory in Cumbria. Put simply, democracy requires the losers to concede. No what ifs, no buts.

      1. Polmont Joe
        July 20, 2019

        Barbara, democracy REQUIRES EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. The whole point of democracy is allowing disagreement, debate and change of mind.

    5. JoolsB
      July 20, 2019

      “Scotland voted Remain. Northern Irealnd voted Remain. ”

      And Scotland voted to remain a part of the UK and NI have always wanted to stay in the UK and the UK VOTED LEAVE. Which part of that is not clear?

      If the Scots and NI don’t like it, I for one would not be upset to see them go their separate ways. Unlike the devolved nations, Brexit was the one and only time England has been consulted on it’s future and the answer was very clear. Instead of our pathetic Unionist MPs being afraid of upsetting the pampered Scots and elsewhere, who are going nowhere thanks to the largesse of the English taxpayer, they should be more worried about the English saying they have had enough of this so called union which seems to benefit everyone except the English.

      1. Anonymous
        July 20, 2019

        If the Scots were serious about independence they should have let the English join the vote on it. They’d probably have been independent by now.

        1. Mark B
          July 20, 2019

          Independent and part of the EU. Oh (as we are in to this thing) the irony.

        2. JoolsB
          July 20, 2019

          Exactly, our deluded politicians beg them to stay on who’s behalf? Certainly not mine.

        3. Fred H
          July 20, 2019

          Anon ….Not probably – CERTAIN.

        4. Lifelogic
          July 20, 2019

          Indeed.

      2. Fedupsoutherner
        July 20, 2019

        Jools. Never a truer word spoken. Life in Scotland is so much cheaper and we are paying for it when a lot of them hate our guts. I’ve seen it first hand as I lived there for 15 years. So glad to leave the miserable place.

    6. Anonymous
      July 20, 2019

      TIC

      It really is no good setting out those geographical distinctions after a referendum in which is was agreed by all participants that we were voting as Great Britain (after an independence referendum too.)

      Remain have done nothing but stoke up national and generational divisions since they lost. I blame you for all of it and I blame you for all the ensuing troubles.

    7. Mark B
      July 20, 2019

      And the whole of the UK, in a UK wide election, voted LEAVE !

      What is it about a National Referendum you do not, or refuse to understand ?

  12. agricola
    July 20, 2019

    Appro pro of events in the Gulf, where is EU foreign policy, military policy, or for that matter the presence of the Italian,French, Spanish, Portugese,Dutch, or German navies. Makes you realise what a hollow vessel the EU is and why we are best out of it. Ironically the much maligned Trump is the first to step up in support of the UK. Bare in mind it was our action at Gibraltar in support of an EU sanction that kicked off this sequence of events. The EU are a fart in a bottle when action is required.

    1. Alan Jutson
      July 20, 2019

      Agricola

      The Spanish Navy would much rather play loud music to the Gibraltarians as provocation, than ever think of putting themselves in harms way.

      So sad that a few speed boats with machine guns mounted on them can outwit the worlds most expensive war ships, which cost hundreds of ÂŁmillions each.
      Just like our protection vessels cannot stop rubber dinghies from crossing the channel, when who knows who’s on board ????

      Meanwhile Navy’s of many Countries still ferry people across the Mediterranean under the guise of, safety for refugees.

      Really does make you wonder about the priorities of todays Politicians/Governments..

      1. Anonymous
        July 20, 2019

        And there has been a news blackout on all that. Helping with any rise in popularity of the EU in the polls, no doubt.

    2. Caterpillar
      July 20, 2019

      It also makes one seriously question the number of platforms/ships the navy have available for protecting UK interests. It makes one wonder whether rules of engagement are clear. All countries around the world now know UK is soft touch target, words only; it will take some correcting.

      But it certainly makes clear that a close relationship with US is where to be.

      1. Caterpillar
        July 20, 2019

        ‘Soft’ could be widely used – Soft on knives, soft on crime, soft on borders, soft on classroom.behaviour, soft on degree grades, soft on climate (so-called) protestors.

    3. forthurst
      July 20, 2019

      Of course Trump supports us; he is determined to provoke conflict with Iran. The first action of Johnson must be to sack Hunt and then try to defuse a situation which is totally unnecessary and deeply damaging of our national interest as well as being a most unwelcome diversion when we are trying to extricate ourselves from the EU.

    4. margaret howard
      July 20, 2019

      agricola

      “or for that matter the presence of the Italian,French, Spanish, Portugese,Dutch, or German navies.”

      They have realised a long time ago that sending in the gun boats to threaten small nations has long gone. We however still like to play the big empire part.

      Where does that lead us now? After the disaster of Iraq are we about to follow the American’s in yet another one of their reckless adventures?

  13. Mick
    July 20, 2019

    Mrs May isn’t the sole cause of no Brexit, after all the years of watching and listening to the debates and committees on the matter I’ve come to the conclusion that your all a bunch of kids squabbling in the school yard, the sooner we have a General Election so we the people can drain the swamp of Westminster and put mps in place who will carry out our will to leave the dreaded Eu , End of

  14. Bryan Harris
    July 20, 2019

    INDEED…!
    So just what does this make her? Certainly not a PM of quality or patriotism – She is a true child of the EU with all the inherent inadaquecies we expect of the EU…

  15. Nigl
    July 20, 2019

    Michael Gove has a lot to answer for stabbing Boris last time round and all your MPs who voted for her purely to stop Boris. She was and is a humourless, visionless mendacious machine politician.

    You now need a tough party chairman or woman to deselect the quislings and get new real,Tory candidates to refresh the party ready for the inevitable general election.

    Ps And I see an extra two billion plus has been paid to the EU this year as we continue to get penalised by their success ratchet.

    Maybe I cannot set out any thing positive about the EU Andy and his pals can confirm they are happy with that and deny the increasing amounts we are handing over would be better spent in the U.K.

    1. Christine
      July 20, 2019

      “You now need a tough party chairman or woman to deselect the quislings and get new real, Tory candidates to refresh the party ready for the inevitable general election.”

      This is the root of the problem with the Tory party. For years, candidate selection has favoured the Europhiles. It’s not a coincidence that parliament is so heavily remain. Look at the trouble constituencies are having in de-selecting their remainer MPs. They are protected by your party chairman. Look how difficult it was for Jacob Rees-Mogg to get his selection approved.

      There’s no point in us having a General Election if our choice of MPs are as dire as the current bunch. This is why The Brexit Party will be successful as they are recruiting real people who care about the country rather than themselves.

      1. Shirley
        July 20, 2019

        Well said Christine. That’s the point I’ve been trying to make, that the party itself has foisted pro-EU MP’s upon us for decades. I especially like the Brexit Party, as they come from the real world outside the Westminster bubble!

        1. Timaction
          July 20, 2019

          +1

  16. Mike Stallard
    July 20, 2019

    Sir John, it is now obvious that Mrs May was utterly the wrong person to be PM. She has been, as you say above, calamitous. I suspect that, as with the current President of the EU Commission, she was at least partly chosen was because she is a woman. Certainly in the past she has stressed this herself.
    I could give a list of outstanding women who have led our very successful country. Shall I start with Queen Victoria? Or Queen Elizabeth (I or indeed II?) Golda Meir, Mrs Nehru, Angela Merkel

    Mrs May does not come near them.
    So can we please start choosing people regardless of their sex? This also goes for things like the Metropolitan Police, the CPS, the Fire Service, MPs on short lists


    1. sm
      July 20, 2019

      Oh Mike, Mrs May was not chosen, she was the only candidate left standing after the other candidates – let’s be polite – ‘dropped out’.

      I agree with the rest of your post – selection in any field should be based on merit and nothing else.

    2. Barbara C
      July 20, 2019

      I believe you mean ALL public servants should be chosen on merit, Mike.

      In the real world, no privately run organisation would employ someone for a post based solely on meeting sexual equality criteria. Indeed, senior posts require relevant qualifications, experience and a proven track record so they’re assured of a level of success.

      On the other hand, Parliament, an extraordinarily large and complex organisation, thinks it’s a totally irrelevant requirement for managing the resouces of UK plc; I presume an ability to deliver empty rhetoric, bluff and bluster are the only skills required, but even this raises questions about the suitability of May.

      Is it any wonder our parliamentarians create such havoc in their wake?

    3. JoolsB
      July 20, 2019

      “I could give a list of outstanding women who have led our very successful country. Shall I start with Queen Victoria? Or Queen Elizabeth (I or indeed II?) Golda Meir, Mrs Nehru, Angela Merkel
”

      When did Golda Meir or Mrs. Nehru lead our country? And haven’t you missed out the most successful female leader of our country in recent times, the likes of whom the Tory party have been devoid of ever since – Mrs. Thatcher.

    4. John O'Leary
      July 20, 2019

      Errm, @Mike Stallard. Jean-Claude Junker is the current President of the EU Commission and won’t be replaced until November. You can call Jean-Claude many things, but a woman isn’t one of them.

  17. Leaver
    July 20, 2019

    Scotland is full of Remainers. I say we’re better off without them. Let them rush back to their precious E.U.

    1. Alan Jutson
      July 20, 2019

      Leaver

      I wonder how much we should charge them to leave, given they are responsible for some of the National debt etc, etc.

      1. steve
        July 20, 2019

        Alan Jutson

        Also since we outnumber them 10:1, anything in Scotland that was built with taxpayer’s money is nine tenths paid for by us.

        Perhaps we ought to take our 9/10ths share back ?

        1. Shirley
          July 20, 2019

          Just let them go, and fund their own way in the future. Sometimes it’s cheaper to cut your losses and save yourself a boatload of future costs and aggravation along with it. Let them be somebody else’s problem for a change.

          However, I don’t believe all the SNP spin. I honestly doubt they will vote to leave the UK in order to rejoin the EU. If they do, then good luck to them. They will need it.

          1. JoolsB
            July 20, 2019

            Absolutely – I am sick of UK Governments of all colours, this Tory one to their eternal shame included, uttering not one word of protest whilst Scotland receive free tuition fees, free prescriptions, free hospital parking, free dental and eye checks and free personal care for the elderly – all courtesy of the English tax payer who are denied these things on grounds of cost. Meanwhile our young are saddled with eye watering life long debts and our elderly are being robbed of their homes to pay for their care. The silence of UK MPs squatting in English seats on the matter is deafening.

            England would be much better off on it’s own and we could give all the current bunch of EU loving England hating MPs their P45s and put some English patriots in their place for a change in an English Parliament. All standing up for England’s interests, unlike now where not one of them could give a stuff about the rotten deal England gets from this so called union.

          2. steve
            July 20, 2019

            Shirley

            “I don’t believe all the SNP spin. I honestly doubt they will vote to leave the UK in order to rejoin the EU. If they do, then good luck to them. They will need it.”

            For starters they’d soon find themselves under the rule of a real unelected dictatorial regime.

            And they’d lose the oil, territorial waters, shipyards, and all the utilities call centres – HMRC etc.

            They’d, lose the UK NHS, and of course free prescriptions and all the racist benefits they currently receive for no other reason than they’re Scottish.

            HM dockyards would also have come south of the border, possibly to Wales.

            So fine, if they want to let a bunch of racist gobs in the Scottish assembly take them out of the union, let them get on with it.

            Oh, almost forgot – if the Scotts leave us and join the EU, there would have to be a hard border.

            I don’t think they would be stupid enough to leave the UK.

    2. James1
      July 20, 2019

      In excess of a million people, (nearly 40% of the voters in Scotland) voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. I believe that even more would vote the same way today, as like England they believe in democracy.

  18. Everhopeful
    July 20, 2019

    When firm promises are made with regard to actual dates how can one avoid being discovered in a lie when deadlines aren’t met?
    Very odd and very psychologically damaging to voters considering that the false promises came from a woman who apparently cared so much about “hurt feelings”. Not to mention her claim of wanting to heal the divided country!!!
    Apparent appeasement of every faction did not work for Mrs M…she possibly misjudged the situation and imagined that Brussels would lend her far more support in tricking us into remaining than it was prepared to.
    With regard to parting gift(s) it is hard to avoid the thought that we are being “screwed over”..again. Scorched earth.

    1. steve
      July 20, 2019

      Everhopeful.

      I think more a case that the quisling thought the country was dumb enough to accept the EU’s surrender document, and with the intent that when the scam was eventually realised she’d be well away on a cushy number at Brussels.

      She tried it on with us, it didn’t work. Serves her right.

      She’s going down as the best example of infamous British PM’s.

      1. Everhopeful
        July 20, 2019

        Steve
        Agree wholeheartedly!

  19. Dominic
    July 20, 2019

    I wonder what she sees what she looks in the mirror in the morning?

    I don’t think I could live with myself knowing that I had spent my entire career as PM and indeed before that constructing a tissue of lies while deliberately forming a constitutional web of imprisonment that has led to this point

    All of her actions have been deliberate and planned. Wilful destruction of our nation and our personal freedoms. Gleeful in parts. Mendacious throughout as per the Panorama programme. Contemptuous of democracy and the British people

    Unfortunately, I can’t say what I really want to say as I don’t have the necessary vocabulary but I shall leave it to those whose grasp of our great language exceeds my own to compose a suitably damning obituary of a PM that is without question, with the damning exception of the odious Blair, the most nefarious, iniquitous and contemptible leader this great nation’s ever known

    The next PM must be everything May wasn’t or else he’ll catapulted into oblivion

    1. Sir Joe Soap
      July 20, 2019

      The mirror shows the face of a person under siege somehow. Not able to construct a consistent line for herself, she follows whichever one leans on her the hardest.

    2. steve
      July 20, 2019

      Dominic

      “I wonder what she sees when she looks in the mirror in the morning?”

      Dominic, did you have to ? I’ve just eaten my sausage sandwiches. Thanks a lot mate.

    3. Anonymous
      July 20, 2019

      Wicked is the word you’re looking for.

    4. Fred H
      July 20, 2019

      Dominic…….I suspect she sees a sort of modern day Saint. Frightened to smile back in case the mirror cracks.

    5. Mark B
      July 20, 2019

      Nothing, one might suppose.

  20. formula57
    July 20, 2019

    There will never be any redemption for T. May, will there? No politician in a democracy in living memory has been shown to be so rotten.

    1. Pete S
      July 20, 2019

      ‘never been shown to be so rotten’; true and she has very stiff competition in Bliar and Brown, but still wins by a head.

      1. Chris
        July 20, 2019

        Pete S, that is my view too. I had thought originally that no one could beat Blair, Mandelson and Campbell, but now another can claim that title.

    2. steve
      July 20, 2019

      Formula57

      I guess so, and I don’t think it will just be Theresa May. In fact I anticipate quite a few of these traitors having to do a runner.

      I think their days in office are numbered. People simply won’t vote for a party which has them. Conservatives should take note.

  21. Andy
    July 20, 2019

    The DUP do not represent the majority in Northern Ireland. At the last Stormont assembly elections less than 30% voted for them.

    They are, just, the biggest party in NI politics but it is wrong to pretend they represent anything other than a minority view.

    The DUP also demand to be treated like the rest of Britain. So in updating Northern Ireland’s antiquated laws we are simply helping them.

    If the DUP do not like it – tough. They secured less than 1% of the total vote at the last general election. Far less the Greens and Lib Dems. We do not care what the dinosaurs think.

    1. a-tracy
      July 20, 2019

      Are you suggesting minority views should just be completely ignored Andy?

      Also if the greens had got 12 seats maybe the Conservatives would have approached them to form the government however that is not how things worked out. It is a good thing the DUP were there because Mays WA concerns them and their supporters the most, maybe these people did stop a catastrophe after all.

      1. margaret howard
        July 20, 2019

        Well a-tracy, nearly half of us remain voters should be ignored according to fervent Brexiteers.

        1. a-tracy
          July 21, 2019

          Margaret, how on earth can you claim the losing side have been ignored?!

          May’s WA was a remain fix to keep us in without any control, the EU reps were seen bragging we had been reduced to a Colony with it.

          For the past three years the remain side have held the media and reporting controls, I can’t watch C4 news anymore because of the Remain hatted man shouting and ruining every interview done outside, the complete bias of it. To me it was C4 and C5 and BBC documentaries that won Brexit more than Farage. Night after Night, day after day the UK public were told about benefit Britain that we were powerless to do anything about, people not paying their private rent and keeping Landlords in court for months on end until the Council then give them priority Social Housing over poor Brits patiently and in poverty waiting their turn on the housing lists and paying their bills.

          Calais camps, where people were safe in France, but wanted to leave because the benefits, housing and jobs weren’t as easy to get as they were in Britain and we were becoming a benefit based cul-de-sac.

          That we were being taxed billions by the EU for things we weren’t receiving tax on such as prostitution and drugs and there was nothing we could do about it. We had to take in and resettle all immigrants many not born in the EU but whom were given fast-track residency in other EU countries which gave them an open passport to come to England and our Cities which the British are becoming a minority in. That is the impression our tv media was giving people.

          The English were told your children have to start paying fees and then triple high fees for their higher education and living grants and it will be taken as a 9% graduate tax on earnings (15% if you do a Masters), but the Europeans that were given UK student loans aren’t paying them back because we can’t tax their earnings when they go back to the EU and we have to write it off because it’s too difficult to chase. All those EU students going into Scottish Universities don’t have to pay any fees but the English do.

          That we don’t bill or chase EU citizens reciprocal healthcare costs for treatment in the UK but the EU countries do get their spending back off the UK.

    2. steve
      July 20, 2019

      Andy

      Done a U-turn have we ? One minute you say the minority should overrule the majority, now you say the minority shouldn’t be considered.

      Typical of a Liberal hypocrite….will bat either way depending on what suits HIM.

  22. Andy
    July 20, 2019

    As for Scotland – Scotland loathes Brexit. It is very much a minority view there with very little support.

    Scots (and Londoner) could have probably been brought on board with an EEA Norway type
    Brexit. The type Farage, Paterson, Hannan and others spoke about before the referendum
    – before they knew what it was.

    But that no deal mess now be espoused by the clueless Brexiteers will inevitably lead not only to Scottish independence but also, very like, civil unrest in the rest of the country.

    I am not sure the angry Brexit backing pensioners on their mobility scooters will have much chance.

    1. sm
      July 20, 2019

      If the Scots leave the United Kingdom at some point after Brexit, they will not be independent, they will become a subsidised pawn of the New Holy Roman Empire.

      Assuming of course that, without the increasing ÂŁbillions currently paid by the UK to Brussels, the EU will in fact be able to subsidise Edinburgh.

      1. Mitchel
        July 20, 2019

        When Andrew Marr went to a press conference at the Russian Black resort of Sochi,ahead of the Winter Games held there and just before the Scots Independence referendum,he was allowed to ask President Putin one question.

        Of all the questions he could have asked,he chose to ask whether an independent Scotand would be allowed to join Mr Putin’s Eurasian Economic Union.The latter repled :”I wouldn’t rule it out.”!

      2. bill brown
        July 20, 2019

        sm

        what do you actually know about the former Holy Roman Empire>
        /

        1. sm
          July 20, 2019

          Well, would you like the section dealing with Charlemagne and his quest for widespread European power, or the Spanish Hapsburgs and their quest for widespread European power, or the gradual collapse in the C19th as nations demanded their independence from the remnants of the HRE/Austro-Hungarian Empire (or should that movement be termed ‘vile populism’ in the C21st?).

          1. bill brown
            July 21, 2019

            SM

            Well done you have done your home-work , so I surprised you confuse the two ?

      3. NearlyDead
        July 21, 2019

        Leaving the UK does not mean joining the EU. Scotland could leave the UK and trade as an independent country with England, Wales, Northern Ireland and make trade deals with the rest of the world including the EU.

    2. formula57
      July 20, 2019

      Why single out Brexit for under the SNP Scotland loathes everything, whinging having become its national pastime?

      1. steve
        July 20, 2019

        formula57

        You omitted to mention; morbid obesity, continuous smoking, consuming vast quantities of beer etc.

    3. henry
      July 20, 2019

      You really should refrain from commenting on something that you clearly have no clue about.

    4. a-tracy
      July 20, 2019

      President Supporter

    5. Richard1
      July 20, 2019

      That’s the spirit – if I can’t get my way through democracy and win the argument through logic and rational argument, then threaten violence (and imprisonment I think you favour?) for those I don’t agree with. We see the same with the ridiculous hippies of extinction rebellion, now rightly identified as a threat to liberal democracy. They are also quite unable to win by reference to facts and rational argument, and thereby secure what they want at the ballot box. The millions who voted Remain but accept democracy reject your absurd threats and bleatings.

      1. Chris
        July 20, 2019

        Well said, Richard1.

      2. Anonymous
        July 20, 2019

        Indeed.

        When did civil disruption become more powerful than the ballot box ?

        When it suits the establishment. That’s when.

      3. steve
        July 20, 2019

        Richard1

        “The millions who voted Remain but accept democracy reject your absurd threats and bleatings.”

        Odd, I don’t recall any remainers defending democracy, all the one’s I’ve seen seem to think democracy is minority rule. They also make a lot of threats and constantly whinge.

    6. steve
      July 20, 2019

      Andy

      “Scotland loathes Brexit”

      Wrong. The SNP loathes brexit.

    7. L Jones
      July 20, 2019

      Andy – why do you always cheapen any comment you make by finishing it off with such a puerile insult?

      (Not that the comments are much to begin with. The phrase ”sets low standards and fails to achieve them” springs to mind.)

    8. Fred H
      July 20, 2019

      Andy…..since our host will not publish my first response, I’ll try again.
      ‘the angry Brexit backing pensioners on their mobility scooters’ sums up your view of anyone having the temerity to oppose your selfish opinions. Do you write on here because you have become ‘Andy no mates’?

      1. margaret howard
        July 20, 2019

        Fred H

        You can’t denythat the voting figures were age related:

        Under-25s were more than twice as likely to vote Remain (71%) than Leave (29%). Among over-65s the picture is almost the exact opposite, as 64% of over-65s voted to Leave while only 36% voted to Remain. Among the other age groups, voters aged 24 to 49 narrowly opted for Remain (54%) over leave (46%) while 60% of voters between the ages of 50 and 64 went for Leave.

        Neither can you ignore educational influences.

        70% of voters whose educational attainment is only GCSE or lower voted to Leave, while 68% of voters with a university degree voted to Remain in the EU.

        Reply I am glad democracy give us each one vote. There is mo guarantee the young and well schooled will make better judgements than others. We are all entitled to our view and say. A 60 year old may have another 40 years to live and a 20 year old may be run over tomorrow. A well educated person may believe official forecasts whilst a less well educated person may rightly see they have been hopelessly wrong

        1. a-tracy
          July 21, 2019

          Margaret, please quote your source and sample size for this fact ”70% of voters whose educational attainment is only GCSE or lower voted to Leave, while 68% of voters with a university degree voted to Remain in the EU.” you say you’re quoting. Also how was the sample of people selected?

          1. hefner
            July 23, 2019

            Analysis of the EU referendum results 2016, published 29/06/2016, available from researchbriefings.parliament.uk

          2. hefner
            July 23, 2019

            Another interesting bit: people educated in the 40s, 50s, 60s (and even some later on, particularly in public schools) are/were more likely to have been educated/fed with the greatness of the British Empire without “it’s dirty bits”. Rule Britannia, 2019, Dorling & Tomlinson, Biteback Publ.
            As for Brexit: “The years of the long recession have brought with them a nostalgia for a time when life was easier, and Britain could simply get rich by killing people of colour and stealing their stuff. All of this is made possible by lies: the lies many of us were told about what our great-grandparents were up to India, the lies we told ourselves when we decided not to look too closely, the lies we told the people we subjugated: Britain is a country built so firmly on deceit, dishonesty and backstabbing that the symbol on our flag is not just a double-cross, but a triple”.

    9. Little Englander
      July 20, 2019

      Two Gites git: try to keep up ! That’s the next project – clear the Scots, Welsh and NI out of an English Parliament. Can be done and one day will be done.

      1. JoolsB
        July 20, 2019

        Totally agree. Why the English haven’t demanded this before now is a mystery. Sadly the majority of UK MPs squatting in English seats, our host included, do not believe in England having the same rights to self determination as the rest of the disUK i.e. an English Parliament. They don’t want to upset the Scots by demanding England, the only net contributor to the UK coffers, be treated equally either financially or constitutionally.

  23. Brian Tomkinson
    July 20, 2019

    Mrs May excels in duplicity and mendacity.

    1. Lynn Atkinson
      July 20, 2019

      And treachery!

    2. Ian!
      July 20, 2019

      Then again she did condemn those that say things often and long enough, resulting in they believe in what they are saying. I wonder who she was talking about?

      Irony!

  24. Kevin
    July 20, 2019

    Then there is the imposition of an abortion law on Northern Ireland by the MPs
    of Great Britain. The Remain Parliament, which rejects the democratic
    mandate to take back control of UK laws from Brussels, just made an imperialist
    move on the province. Why the rush? Are devolved Scottish matters now in
    your sights? How about legislating for Canada and Australia?

  25. John Sheridan
    July 20, 2019

    Mrs May has decided to “…not go gentle into that good night” as her disastrous premiership comes to and end. God knows what she will be like on the backbenches.

    1. JoolsB
      July 20, 2019

      She’s not gone yet John. Dread to think how much cash she will try and squander in her final days to secure some sort of ‘legacy’.

    2. Fred H
      July 20, 2019

      my guess would be totally ignored.

    3. steve
      July 20, 2019

      John Sheridan

      “God knows what she will be like on the backbenches.”

      A laughing stock, I should imagine.

  26. Iain Moore
    July 20, 2019

    May is doing everything she can to leave a political wasteland for her successor. She wiped out the Conservative majority, she has injected poison and rancour in the EU negotiations. She has conceded the Socialist agenda on climate change. There are many slow burning fuses on policies that can blow up in her successor’s face. In the last few days she allowed the NI Bill to be hijacked by Remainers, and she has left Hammond , Gauke, Clark and co in place to resign en-mass to damage Boris, when they should have been sacked for ignoring a three line whip.

    When May took office we heard Feminists say that it was left to a woman to clear up the mess made by men, well I don’t think that is an argument we will be employed again anytime soon after May’s disastrous tenure in office.

  27. Christine
    July 20, 2019

    The best way to protect our union is to get Brexit over the line. Once we are out it will be very difficult to sell the option of re-joining to the people of Scotland. They would need to commit to Schengen, the Euro, giving up their fish and passing more and more control to Brussels. Whilst they have a chance of overturning the referendum result, they will keep on fighting. There’s a reason why small countries like Norway, Switzerland and Iceland choose not to join the EU and that’s because the cons outweigh the pros. It will be exactly the same for Scotland.

    1. James1
      July 20, 2019

      Christine, I believe you are right. Leaving the EU is the best way to safeguard the Union. Hopefully we will be out of the EU soon, in which event there really is no way that the Scottish electorate will not wish to rejoin the EU, adopt the Euro and all the other paraphernalia and absurdity. The SNP is a minority executive in the Scottish Parliament, and their influence will also gradually wane.

      1. James1
        July 20, 2019

        The Scottish electorate will not wish to rejoin the EU

  28. Barbara C
    July 20, 2019

    Everything goes back to the quality of the management, and in years to come May will be used as a fine example of how not to manage an organisation.

    When the pressures of the role took hold, May gave power to those keen to “help” without being aware there was a strong possibility they were working to their own agenda. She not only delegated tasks, but by favouring “experts” whose experience was just as narrow as her own, she also abdicated responsibility.

    It’s a common scenario that’s always destined to take scalps. The leader doesn’t have the strength, confidence or knowledge to listen to the team they’ve recruited, which devalues their role and diminishes loyalty, so they walk away. The dynamics of a balanced team soon becomes a coterie of self-interested 2nd-raters drunk on power, aggrandisement and notoriety.

    Their selfish endeavours mean their sole focus is on acquiring and keeping power, usually by trading favours, when it should always be focussed on working in harmony with the overall purpose and objectives of the organisation, i.e. the anchor binding a disparate group of people together. When the anchor comes adrift (a la Bercow’s appalling rulings) and the power-hungry can no longer offer enough sweeteners, it’s the leader who will be sacrificed as a final chest-thumping show of strength.

    It’s exactly the same situation being played out by the power-brokers in the Labour Party, and indeed, the EU. They simply haven’t reached the stage of toppling their leaders yet. I look forward to both.

  29. Shieldsman
    July 20, 2019

    How does the Conservative Party plan to discipline its pro-EU MP’s and prevent them from bringing their own Government down?
    Probably only by holding a GE and deselection.
    The leave vote in the referendum had a bigger majority than the Commissions new President, Ursula von der Leyen, Andy and Newmania should note.
    The BBC in their 10 things that stopped Brekit omitted the only one that counted in the end. Gina Miller removed the prerogative from the PM and gave it to Parliament. MP’s for reasons best known to themselves found the Withdrawal Agreement unacceptable. End of WA.
    Barnier and his team having written the 585 page Withdrawal Agreement are sticking with it. The WA was not a negotiated settlement of our future relationship with the Union. That was yet to come.
    Lord Kerr’s interpretation : “We needed a time limit in order to reassure the departing state that it could really depart — it would get out, it couldn’t be enmeshed forever in endless negotiation, it could escape.”
    The default position was and still is that the Treaties cease to apply to the UK after two years (29th March 2019) or the extension to this period (the time window/lock) made and ending on 12th April 2019.
    This was Lord Kerr’s ‘get out of Jail Card’.
    The current extension is achieving nothing? Parliament won’t accept the WA as it stands and Barnier wont amend it. What else could Barclay say other than it is stasis (dead.)

  30. Caterpillar
    July 20, 2019

    A clear and impartial investigation is needed to determine whether May is merely an incompetent scapegoat, or whether deeper powers are at play. One is reminded of the journalist Milne’s observation when writing a decade on from the miners’ strike,

    “Britain’s secret state remains a dangerous political and bureaucratic cesspit, uniquely undisturbed by any meaningful form of political accountability”.

    1. Fred H
      July 20, 2019

      Seamus or Alasdair? – either way , he got it right.

      “Britain’s secret state remains a dangerous political and bureaucratic cesspit, uniquely undisturbed by any meaningful form of political accountability”.

      Fits recent events perfectly.

  31. Lindsay McDougall
    July 20, 2019

    Is it not possible for BoJo to drop the current Northern Ireland governance bill as soon as he takes office? Could we do better?

  32. J.A. Burdon-Cooper
    July 20, 2019

    The superior smile on her face when she chastises a senior Brexiteer in the Commons says it all…. She thinks she is clever….. Well, words fail me!
    Equalled by that horrible “aren’t I clever and right” smile (or leer might describe it better) on the face of Philip Hammond ….

    1. L Jones
      July 20, 2019

      Back in April, when Sir Bill Cash asked her (in a very statesmanlike and measured way) if she would resign, she actually LAUGHED at him.
      Yes – she’s certainly always displayed delusions of adequacy.

  33. David Langley
    July 20, 2019

    I have searched the Conservative Constitution and Rule book, but, I can’t find anything that would enable the new PM to throw out of Parliament all the Members that are going to rebel against the new Cabinet.
    Withdrawing the whip might suffice but the sight of the malodorous anti Brexiteers infesting the back benchers looking for any chance to upset the apple cart is deeply upsetting.

  34. BOF
    July 20, 2019

    Absolutely right Sir John. I am convinced that Mrs May is a vindictive person and this would fit well with the fact that the DUP were implacable opponents of her WA.

    It is a travesty that May has been allowed to remain in office to damage the union, the country and the Conservative Party. Now I cannot bring myself to vote for the Conservative candidate in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election purely because he supported Mrs May and her W/A.

  35. henry
    July 20, 2019

    To be honest, May was very strong on the union. It’s the only reason the Conservatives were able to get a minority government in place. If she had,’t been seen to be strong on the union then those Scottish Conservatives wouldn’t have happened and we would probably be in a bigger mess than we seem to be just now.

    I also know for a fact that she got detailed analysis from people who actually know about Scotland and who live here and fight the conservative and unionist fight.

    I’m a bit uncomfortable listening to people like John speaking about things in this way. And when you consider that a large portion of conservative members seem willing to break up our fantastic country over brexit then we are on a rocky path indeed.

    There were over a million folk up here (me included) who voted to leave the EU. As I understood it, I was voting as an individual Uk citizen. Not a constituent. The votes should have been collected and carted off to the NEC and counted there rather than allowing regional nationalists the chance to whine.

    May had her faults, but she was most certainly a unionist and she wasn’t arrogant enough to think she understood the lie of the political land in Scotland better than the people up here either. Something for Boris to mull over I would hope.

  36. Stred
    July 20, 2019

    Northern Irish farmers can’t be too pleased to have zero % tariffs on beef and dairy from the rest of the world and the EU when the Southern Irish have tariff protection and so does the rest of the UK. Vardakar has given up on saying that the previous plans to use cameras at the border is impossible and now there is no need for a hard border. Who thought this one up?

  37. Dave Andrews
    July 20, 2019

    Everyone supposes SNP supporters are pro-EU, because the leadership is. What they fail to notice is that a large proportion of SNP supporters want Scottish independence and then keep it, not to then surrender it prostrating themselves at the feet of Brussels.
    The media and politics have lost a trick here. When it comes to solving the NI border question, they should ask Nicola Sturgeon her solution for the Scottish border when the UK leaves the EU, Scotland leaves the UK and then applies for EU membership. Does she advocate rebuilding Hadrian’s Wall a few miles north?

  38. graham1946
    July 20, 2019

    I have said here several times over the years that when a PM is in full pomp MP’s suck up for all they are worth hoping for preference – they call it loyalty. When a PM goes down they suddenly find out what we, the paying public knew all along. The cock crows three times.

    Reply I have consistently opposed the Withdrawal Agreement and explained why it would prove to be a disaster

    1. graham1946
      July 20, 2019

      Reply to Reply.

      I know that. I am a fan of yours, not the modern Conservative Party. I am what was once called a One Nation Conservative which is now unfashionable and you have consistently supported Mrs May otherwise. A friend sometimes needs to hear things they don’t want to.

  39. John Murphy
    July 20, 2019

    Over one million people in Scotland voted to leave the EU in 2016, which I would contend considerably helped the UK leave vote over the line. The last 3 years has highlighted the many, many failings of the EU, and from my conversations with some who voted for independence in 2014, they will not do so again if going back into the EU is on offer. I well understand why England is keen to see Scotland cut loose as all you see is the constant carping of the SNP in Westminster. I certainly agree that Treason May is a pathological liar.

    1. John S
      July 20, 2019

      You need not contend. Scottish and Northern Irish Leave votes were an essential constituent in delivering the UK Leave win.

      The UK Leave majority was 1,269,501. The Scottish Leave votes were 1,018,322 and those in Northern Ireland were 349,442. Deduct these votes from the UK Leave majority and you have 98,263 in favour of Remain.

      Leave votes from all four constituent Nations produced the UK Leave win.

      1. Jagman84
        July 21, 2019

        So what? Remove all of the remain votes and you have an even more comfortable leave win. The result was what it was. The problem is that one side of the argument refuses to accept that result, as it puts a large spanner in the works of their dream of a united European state. The EUSSR may take a little longer than they had hoped.

  40. Dan R
    July 20, 2019

    I’d thought for a long time she was delusional, and here tears in departing confirm just that.

  41. Ian!
    July 20, 2019

    To change society you have to first smash it to pieces. Then it will accept totalitarianism of any shade.

    That is the Corbyn mantra clearly supported by May and Hammond.

    As Hammond has stated through out the MSM yesterday to save the country he must bring down the Government. May in her speeches this week intimated she was of a the same mind.

    May and Hammond have shown their hands as Trotsky supporters and are pushing for a Corbyn Government at any cost. There is no other way they can bring about the EUSSR.

    It has been said in speeches by their leaders in the EU that Democracy has no place in government or society.

    Just reflect on how the rule of law, free speech, and other modes of control freakery have entered into our life during her reign.

    Parliament against the People

  42. Anonymous
    July 20, 2019

    And such as knife criminals, who choose that life despite living free in the jobs capital of Europe are the victims. Victims of “burning injustices” according to her.

    She has stirred up all sorts of racial and gender hatred. Hatred by them towards the majority.

    Wicked, wicked woman.

    When will she be gone ? Too late. She’s already lit the fuses.

  43. JoolsB
    July 20, 2019

    John, totally off topic but could you please explain why despite the oil tanker captured by the Iranians being Swedish owned and there not being any British crew or anyone British onboard, why it was flying with a British flag. I am confused.

    Why is our Government and not the Swedish Government getting embroiled in this?

    1. Martyn G
      July 20, 2019

      From what has been said in the press, it is registered in the UK and, as such, would be flying the usual ‘Red Duster’ ensign showing its country of registration.

    2. hardlyever
      July 20, 2019

      JoolsB- because the Swedish owners are using the British flag as a flag of convenience and with no British personnel on board we can see the true face of International shipping today- it all means low pay, long hours of work, and poor conditions- ie. the race to the bottom.

  44. MB
    July 20, 2019

    May, and her soggy centrist so called Conservatives, were responsible for the admittance of terrorists to England, and the subsequent Manchester bombing. London people virtue signalling, and then sending their immigrants to the north of England.
    I’m with Trump on this.
    I knew what she was like after hearing her ridiculous “nasty party” speech, so why was she ever voted in as PM.
    May and her like minded colleagues are an utter disgrace., and should all be sacked at the next general election.

    1. Chris
      July 20, 2019

      May is not simply a soggy centrist but is of the Left. Many of her policies seem to have been guided by cultural Marxism. I believe she has been a real danger to democracy in our country, and has been responsible for attempting to mould our country into a powerless and pliable unit, suitable for absorption into, and domination by, a European superstate

      1. L Jones
        July 20, 2019

        Chris – Once upon a time, not so long ago, you’d have been ridiculed as a conspiracy theorist. Sadly, most of us recognise that all you say is very likely true. Everything about the EU and its direction, as well as its methods of control and coercion, point to its being well on the way to full-blown communism.

        And wasn’t it Gorbachev who said: ”The most puzzling development in politics during the last decade is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe.”?

        1. bill brown
          July 20, 2019

          L Jones

          please define communism?

        2. Stred
          July 20, 2019

          I’m in Spain and on the news last night they were covering to LGBT education of school children. It seems to be an EU policy that the UK is following, even though we are leaving. No doubt most of British teachers agree with it.

          1. hefner
            July 24, 2019

            Wrong, Stred, the EU LGBT education directive, although supported by the EU Parliament was stopped by the Council, so whatever presently happens in the UK is essentially a UK effort on those matters.

  45. Amanda
    July 20, 2019

    Mrs May has been dreadful – but, things have moved on. There is more understanding of the issues, and her actions have exposed and dragged into the light bigger questions of consitution, union and democracy (and the BBC). So, we must thank her for some benefits. Hopefully , a Boris Government will now publicise the positive side of Brexit.

    In addition, the EU has also moved on. The ‘People’s Vote’ campaigners have to remember that in 2016 the vote was between
    1)Leave 2) Remain in the EU

    However, with the declaration of the new German EU Presidents for a more federal EU, and army etc, any further vote would be between
    1) Leave the EU to become an Independent, Sovereign, Democracy
    2) Submit Great Britain to become part of a non-democratic country called the European Union.

    Remain is no longer an option on the table, thanks to Mrs May’s stalling !!

  46. SecretPeople
    July 20, 2019

    Dear Sir John, though you don’t feature in the article, below in the comments the people are once again calling for you to become the next Chancellor:
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/07/19/david-davis-tipped-shock-cabinet-comeback-boris-johnson/

  47. Gareth Warren
    July 20, 2019

    She was the worst prime minister the country has suffered and I say worse than Neville since he was quite good at home politics.

    Instead she on many occassions has vigourously signalled her virtue over Trump tweets making me suppose that she must be okay with “some people did something” as a description of 9/11.

    She pushed big government at every turn despite the evidence of more government not working, her greatest betrayal though is the loss of trust many brexiteers have for remainers.

    This will not be solved in a year, before I could accept a remainer in a government position, now I question who they work for and their motivation. My MP I note was one who abstained and allowed that latest peice of trickery through parliament, I shall not be voting for him at the next GE and likely will give the local brexit candidate a hand.

    I still wonder if joining the conservative party to deselect him would be good, the fact that the country has been so willfully betrayed pushes a lot of people to be active in politics.

    On a different note we are reaping the benefits of a smaller navy, really an escort would not have been excessive while we have the Iranian tanker. We also get a flavour of mr Hunts negotiating strategy where he rules out any military action, I do not see why we should be so helpful to them.

    Still as NATO members we could call on help from our allies, the Germans esecially could not get anything afloat, only the US have a significant navy which underlines Trumps unhapiness with many NATO members.

  48. Anonymous
    July 20, 2019

    The language from Boris isn’t good.

    “You can’t go into a negotiation without saying No Deal is a possibility.” A paper tiger.

    What would be far more convincing is “We’re leaving next month. We’ll deal later.”

    May Mk II

    1. Dominic
      July 20, 2019

      It is quite simple. If Johnson doesn’t deliver on the demand of the 52% the Tory party will be crucified

      He really mustn’t think he can betray the Brexit victors. We’ve had three years of this purgatory

      It is leave and then negotiate a FTA or some other trading arrangement. Nothing else will do and anything other than ‘Leave and then negotiate’ is a PURE BETRAYAL of the British democracy

      We’ve had enough of this crap

  49. BR
    July 20, 2019

    Further to my post above…

    Am I the only one who thinks that NI legislation was entirely unnecessary, especially at this stage of her tenure?

    Therefore, looked at in the light of Remoana May… the intent seems to me to be nothing more than to present the Grieve cabal with an opportunity for amendments to something, anything related to NI.

    Hammond has been exposed as an arch remainer, I suspect it won’t be long before we see what we’ve really had as PM for 3 years. It will not be a good advertisement for the Conservative party.

  50. margaret howard
    July 20, 2019

    JR

    ” She rarely made the case that Brexit is a UK matter based on a UK wide referendum”

    So you think it right to cite the 52/48 Brexit vote as a democratic duty to leave the EU but accuse Mrs May of disloyalty for trying to uphold the democratic right of Scotland who voted remain by a huge margin of 62/38.

    In other words the good old English ‘give and take’ is still in place: you give we take. It won’t wash this time.

    1. Edward2
      July 20, 2019

      But how does this give and take work on a binary decision?
      Consensus politics can work on some political topics but you are either a member of the EU or you are not.

      1. Fred H
        July 20, 2019

        not so sure about that……the WA sort of states we are in, but we are not!

        1. Edward2
          July 21, 2019

          Which is the main reason the Withdrawal Agreement has proved unpopular with voters and been firmly rejected three times by Parliament.

    2. Jagman84
      July 20, 2019

      You really do have a hatred of England don’t you? The EU referendum was a U.K.-wide vote. Seeing as England contains ~84% of the Population, it’s hardly a surprise that the English influence on the result would be greatly affected by this. The place of residence of voters was immaterial in this case as the splitting of the individual nations/regions for the count was for logistical purposes.

      1. steve
        July 20, 2019

        Jagman84

        “You [MH] really do have a hatred of England don’t you?”

        Some might say it’s racism.

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      July 20, 2019

      MH. How can I say this in simple enough terms? They cannot chose to be part of the UK and then want something different. They are already milking the English for all they are worth. Enough is enough. Go if you don’t like it.

    4. Yorkie
      July 20, 2019

      Scotland is not one nation.

  51. Yorkish
    July 20, 2019

    So, the Electoral Commission has lost a court case in regard improper spending of a component of the larger Brexit campaign.
    How do members of the committee wish to repay their debt to the tax-payer, Direct Debit from their personal bank accounts, deductions from their salaries, credit card payments, cash?

  52. Martin
    July 20, 2019

    the DUP does not represent the majority in NI- only about 25 per cent of the voting population. Their vote total at the last GE was 290,000 plus but has probably now fallen to about 260,000 270,000 especially after they sided with the Tory ERG against the Ulster farmers interests and so very soon to be overtaken by Sinn Fein- as an Irishman, not a supporter of Sinn Fein, I say that with a heavy heart.

  53. dixie
    July 20, 2019

    Is very clear that the pro-EU groups will do anything to destabilize our country and economy. In that objective they are obviously looking to undermine the union and will no doubt continue to be aided by their friends and controllers in the EU.

    1. margaret howard
      July 20, 2019

      dixie

      The union is being undermined by those who voted Brexit and are now insisting Scotland’s and Ireland’s strongly pro EU membership vote is being ignored. All because a small nationwide English majority voted Leave.

      It will split the union and leave a rump England with about as much influence in world affairs as Liechtenstein.

      1. Edward2
        July 21, 2019

        You keep repeating this nonsense Margaret.
        It wasn’t a small English majority.
        England is not a rump with 85% of the population and 85% of the taxation revenue.
        Without financial support from Westminster the other parts of the UK would see real austerity.
        And as usual you fail to mention Wales.

  54. Little Englander
    July 20, 2019

    The Vicar’ daughter: curtsied to the Queen every week in dutiful respect then kowtowed to the EU at every opportunity bringing National shame and humiliation to the Country she loves? Godspeed to you Mrs and “ON OUR BIKE”

  55. Fedupsoutherner
    July 20, 2019

    I have just read that Boris is determined to have Truss and Morgan in the cabinet. If this is true then it shows me he is not serious about leaving and I won’t be voting Tory ever again. You couldn’t make it up.

    1. JoolsB
      July 20, 2019

      Add the awful Amber Rudd to that list Fedupsoutherner. Let’s hope it’s nothing more than a nasty rumour.

  56. Ignoramus
    July 20, 2019

    With luck we will stop talking about Mrs May soon. Her departure reveals what a shallow and ungenerous person she is.

    When she invited the England cricket team to No10, and wallowed in their success, she should also have invited the New Zealand team. A real cricket lover would have done that.

  57. BillM
    July 20, 2019

    We can always learn from history, which is probably the reason we are told by Remainers that us Brexiteers “live in the past”! Of course, these elitists do not want anyone else to learn anything. No wonder they are afraid of us.
    Mrs May, her Cabinet and too many of her remainers MPs did not learn anything from the mistakes of Parliament in the mid 17th Century when Oliver Cromwell took charge to return democracy to the people. He made the following statements:-
    Regarding Ireland –
    “Catholicism is more than a religion”. He did not believe there would ever be peace in Ireland. However, he was wrong there.
    There is, at last, a peace in NI thanks to the goodwill of the people and the Good Friday Agreement. Yet May, PM (in name only?), wants to tear up the deal, signed by Eire, UK and USA, in favour of an EU dictate! Also, he said –
    “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go”.
    I say, for the sake of Britain, all of you remainers, GO!!
    Now we will have to put our faith in a new leader with a new Brexit Cabinet, fully supported by Brexit Tory MPs and trust we shall finally get what we voted for.
    Cromwell again ” A few honest men are better than numbers”.
    And that is all we need, a few honest men and ladies in Parliament to bring down those who do not believe in Britsh democracy.
    Let’s get OUR Country back under our control – if Parliament will allow it.

  58. Dominic
    July 20, 2019

    Darren Grimes. The true face of Brexit bravery in the face of Remain establishment intimidation and an EU infected political state determined to crush all public opposition young or old

    ÂŁ500k of your money spent to crush a young voter.

    A Stalinist purge of all our infected public bodies is way overdue

  59. hardlyever
    July 20, 2019

    Tit for Tat- John Bolton Security Adviser to President Trump pushes the British to intercept and arrest the Grace 1 and so now the Iranians have responded and we act surprised.
    Meanwhile the Gibraltar Government must be scratching its head thinking about how to get rid of this ship from their waters- but they couldn’t possibly release it now? or could they? it would look too much like giving in to the Iranians? and then Spain now has to be worried as well about the beaches in Summertime if something should go wrong. Wow! what a mess- it’s just one thing after another- British 19th century diplomacy trying to catch up with the 21st century.

  60. Fred H
    July 20, 2019

    so does the moving van remove her bits and bobs on Monday?
    I’d give anything to see her go round No 10 wearing a pinny and doing the dusting.

  61. Ian!
    July 20, 2019

    OT, very slightly

    Steven Edginton in The Daily Mail if he is to be believed, appeared to be confirming the bulk of what contributers here suspect.

    The direction of May and her civil servants only had remain on the agenda

  62. Milkyway
    July 20, 2019

    The Roman Empire lasted only about six hundred years. The British Union is in place now about three hundred years- all of these things work in cycles, they have a life span and then they disintegrate- the EU will probably last a hundred years or so before morphing into something else, probably something much bigger like the League of the Northern Hemisphere, or World Government- but it be long after our time so no need to be concerned.

  63. Nicky Roberts
    July 20, 2019

    What I find unbelievable is that the Conservative party encouraged the wickedness of May and allowed her to survive a vote of confidence called by JRM. Knowing full well what she was doing they preferred to keep this offensive, treacherous person in place, and bolstered up her attempts to deny democracy, to sell us out to a foreign organization, and keep us shackled indefinitely to the EU.

    I find it bizarre that the ERG and others sympathetic to this group did nothing to prevent this happening. John Redwood who I admire was also very late in calling this treachery out. He was chivalrous to the letter as was JRM, but it did no good. We are now having to try and clear up this mess. We have been brought to the brink by May who has the nerve to tell Boris to be careful of promises he cant keep. The whole thing is desperate, and I can only hope Boris sticks to his guns.

    1. Pam Brennan
      July 21, 2019

      Boris stick to his guns? You REALLY have not been paying attention to the man’s behaviour. He has played the ERG like a fiddle

  64. margaret howard
    July 21, 2019

    JR

    “She took SNP objections to Brexit more seriously than the many Scottish voices who support Brexit.”

    You mean the 62% to 38% for Remain? As against the barely half who voted Leave UK-wide? But here you call these overwhelming figures “SNP objections”? So what would you call the UK Brexit figures? Not to be taken seriously?

    1. Edward2
      July 21, 2019

      You knew the rules prior to the vote margaret.
      It was a whole UK vote.
      Scotland had their own chance to leave the UK but then, as now, there was no majority to leave the UK.
      They realise how much money transfers to them every year from London.
      The UK voted to leave.
      Simple as that.

      1. margaret howard
        July 22, 2019

        Dear Edward, you know full well that that Scottish vote was before the EU referendum. As the Americans might say: “We are now in a totally different ball game”

        1. Edward2
          July 22, 2019

          Still no majority in Scotland for independence and the SNP are less popular now than they were back then.

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