Month: August 2019 News
Stories of the week 4 August
Boris Johnson and his Cabinet are pressing ahead with the No Deal threat refusing to speak to EU leaders until the Irish backstop is withdrawn. The only thing is that they’re not listening to Johnson because they say the deal is done and negotiations will not be reopened.
Food shortages, raised illegal immigration, panic buying are just some of the things predicted with No Deal and, as usual, Brexiters are in denial over the impact No Deal will have. The head of BMW and other business leaders are pleading with Johnson to listen to business to avoid an economic catastrophe with huge job losses. He’s not listening.
Donald Trump calls Boris Johnson my ‘mini me’. Both Trump and Johnson have talked up a great UK-US trade deal ahead. But wait. All is not as it seems. First of all, Congress say they will not pass any trade deal if peace in Ireland is jeopardized in any way. A major block for Johnson’s ‘drop the backstop’. Secondly, Trump himself won’t allow a deal unless the UK drops its plans to tax digital giants like Google, Microsoft and Apple. The question is will Johnson stand up to Trump?
Bad news already for the new Prime Minister. Tory rebels are already threatening Johnson’s No Deal promise threatening to cross the floor and join the Liberal Democrats or stand as independents. As many as 24 Conservative MPs are ready to jump ship. That’s not all. Johnson was jeered for the third day in a row as he visited Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It seems he’s disliked everywhere but England.
In a nightmare for Brexiters, Remain parties formed an alliance to win a by-election and reduce the Tory’s previous 8,000 majority. Boris Johnson does not have a legitimate franchise and the Conservatives have an untenable majority of one.
In grim news this week it emerged that almost 5m people in the UK are in working poverty with 4 in 10 children living in child poverty. What’s even worse is that the summer school holidays, usually a wonderful time for children, will see millions of children go hungry as schools shut and school meals are no longer available.
Political ideologies continue to collide as protests in Hong Kong continue. China is taking an increasingly hard line against activists and protestors with more arrests and more strong-arm tactics used.
The remarkable Greta Thunberg is sailing across the Atlantic in a yacht to a UN Climate summit to live by what she preaches and refrain from carbon causing travel.
