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An IDIOT & BUFFOON blunders in to Brexit…

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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« on: June 25, 2016, 08:36:25 pm »


from The Washington Post....

As markets roil from Brexit, Trump holds a ribbon-cutting at his golf resort

By JENNA JOHNSON and JOSE A. DELREAL | 6:39PM EDT - Friday, June 24, 2016

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump poses with a piper, at his Turnberry golf course, in Turnberry, Scotland. — Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump poses with a piper, at his Turnberry golf course, in Turnberry, Scotland.
 — Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters.


TURNBERRY, SCOTLAND — Arriving here on Friday for his first trip abroad as the likely Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump did not seem to understand the gravity of the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union.

As the value of the pound collapsed in the morning and stock markets around the globe plummeted, Trump attended a surreal ribbon-cutting at his luxury golf resort in this seacoast village and barely mentioned the global news until reporters pressed him to do so.

For a candidate who has struggled to show that his grasp of foreign policy matches that of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, Trump could have used the moment to prove his critics wrong. Instead, he staged a widely broadcast infomercial for his newest luxury property, Trump Turnberry.

He landed by helicopter, sporting a white cap bearing his presidential campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again”. The theme was tweaked on red caps worn by resort staffers: “Make Turnberry Great Again”. At a news conference later, Trump stood in front of a bagpiper and continued to speak after a prankster threw several dozen red golf balls bearing swastikas onto the grass.

As reporters pressed him on the referendum to leave the E.U. known as Brexit, Trump declared the vote “fantastic” and “great” because it reflected the anger of voters — even though Scots voted overwhelmingly to remain. He said that “the result might have been different” if President Obama had not urged Britain to remain in the E.U. And he suggested that a falling pound could benefit both the United Kingdom and his property here.

“I think it's a great thing that happened,” Trump told reporters shortly after his helicopter landed. “People are angry, all over the world. People, they're angry.”

He added later, “When the pound goes down, more people are coming to Turnberry, frankly. For traveling and for other things, I think it very well could turn out to be a positive.”

Trump also suggested that running a golf course was comparable to running a nation. “You'll be amazed how similar it is,” he told reporters. “It's a place that has to be fixed.”




Trump's two-day visit to Scotland was scheduled — with much fanfare — strictly as a business trip. That could have insulated him from the kind of scrutiny that attended past gaffe-riddled visits abroad by presidential candidates such as GOP nominee Mitt Romney and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (Republican).

Instead, strategists said, Trump's awkward and tone-deaf response to the Brexit vote left him more vulnerable to criticism from Clinton.

“This is an opportunity to showcase yourself as a world leader and as a potential commander in chief,” said Kevin Madden, a veteran GOP operative who advised the 2012 GOP nominee, Romney. “So when the images being seen back home are at a golf course, that's a missed opportunity.”

Clinton's chief policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, called Trump's Scottish news conference a “spectacle” that should worry voters. He said Trump “put his golf course interest ahead” of U.S. interests and failed to understand that American households could be hurt by the Brexit vote.

“Donald Trump has consistently shown disregard for our friends and allies across the world and talked about a weaker, less confident America,” Sullivan said. “Donald Trump proves again he is temperamentally unfit for the job.”

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures following a news conference, at his Turnberry golf course, in Turnberry, Scotland. — Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures following a news conference, at his Turnberry golf course,
in Turnberry, Scotland. — Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters.


When asked if he was traveling with his foreign policy advisers or consulting them, Trump said he had been in contact with them but “there's nothing to talk about.”

In answering questions, Trump repeatedly pressed the point that there were similarities between the Brexit vote and his own unexpected rise in the U.S. presidential race.

“I really do see a parallel between what's happening in the United States and what's happening here,” Trump told reporters. “You just have to embrace it; it's the will of the people.”

Outside the event, a couple of hundred protesters and a handful of supporters gathered along the road in front of Turnberry. The protesters chanted slogans that included “Trump go home!” and “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here!” An organizer on a megaphone belted out: “Trump always plays the racist card at all times!”

While many of the protests at Trump's political rallies in the United States have focused on his controversial comments on illegal immigrants from Mexico and Muslims, the protesters here called for compassion for refugees, who have been pouring into Europe from Syria and other war-torn countries.




Robbie Easton, 29, traveled on a bus from Glasgow to Turnberry so that he could challenge Trump's “poisonous rhetoric”.

“Scapegoating whole religions of people, scapegoating whole populations of people fleeing war zones and destitute people, families drowning in the Mediterranean and referring to these people as cockroaches?” asked Easton, a student who voted Thursday for Britain to remain in the E.U. “I see this getting worse throughout the world…. It's really quite frightening.”

Just as Trump started to speak at the news conference, he was interrupted by a man with unruly hair wearing a Turnberry sweater who made an announcement. Comedian Simon Brodkin — who often plays a character called Lee Nelson — said he forgot to pass out a new series of golf balls to guests and tossed out the red balls featuring swastikas.

“Get him out,” Trump said as security surrounded Brodkin and led him away.

Trump proceeded with the news conference, still surrounded by the golf balls.




In addition to the protesters, there was a handful of Trump supporters and curiosity-seekers who gathered to watch Trump's helicopter land on the lawn.

Mike Ross, 48, wore a T-shirt featuring Trump's face with the message: “Donald Trump, Making Ayrshire Great Again,” referring to the Scottish region where Trump opened his golf course and hotel. Ross carried a sign with the same image and slogan.

“I like him. I like the way he's changing politics and the stuffy political correctness,” Ross said. “He's breaking all of the protocols. The leave vote was part of that.

“People are fed up.”

As Ross talked with a reporter, a protester walked by and shouted: “Are you a racist as well, man?”

In addition to Turnberry, Trump is expected to visit a golf resort he owns near Aberdeen on the eastern coast. Scotland is the birthplace of his mother, who immigrated to New York as a teenager.


DelReal reported from Washington. Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

• Jenna Johnson is a political reporter who is covering the 2016 presidential campaign for The Washington Post.

• Jose A. DelReal covers national politics for The Washington Post.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • Donald Trump's Brexit press conference was beyond bizarre

 • In Scotland — and everywhere else — Trump mixes politics and profits

 • Trump's top example of foreign experience: A Scottish golf course losing millions


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-markets-roil-from-brexit-trump-holds-a-ribbon-cutting-at-his-golf-resort/2016/06/24/060a9ad8-3a23-11e6-8f7c-d4c723a2becb_story.html
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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2016, 04:18:07 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Donald Trump's Scottish golf swing:
A chaotic two-day trip across the green


By JENNA JOHNSON | 8:00PM EDT - Saturday, June 25, 2016

Donald Trump visited his Aberdeen, Scotland, golf course on Saturday. — Photograph: Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg.
Donald Trump visited his Aberdeen, Scotland, golf course on Saturday. — Photograph: Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg.

BALMEDIE, SCOTLAND — Donald Trump capped off his two-day overseas tour in a golf cart Saturday afternoon, zooming around the golf course he built on top of sand dunes. Running the country won’t be much different than building a resort like this, he told the pack of political reporters who followed in maintenance carts — “just a lot bigger.”

Amid the chaos of the day, Trump seemed to dramatically shift on two of his major policy proposals, although it was unclear if he meant to do so and his staff provided no clarification.

Some of Trump's comments led his spokeswoman to confirm via email that Trump's ban on U.S. entry by foreign Muslims would only apply to those from countries rife with terrorism, instead of all Muslims. Later, over fish and chips at the clubhouse, Trump told a Bloomberg Politics reporter that he doesn't consider “mass deportations” a part of his immigration plan, although he didn't specify what that meant.

Trump's goal for the trip was to promote two of his golf courses, not wade into foreign-policy discussions. But as Trump's plane crossed the Atlantic, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union — and the swarm of political reporters who traveled there with him wanted to know how he would address the situation.

When Trump arrived at his newly opened resort in Turnberry on Scotland's western coast on Friday morning, it seemed like an image reboot was in the works. After weeks of struggling to implement a general-election strategy, he fired his campaign manager on Monday, gave a carefully scripted speech attacking Hillary Clinton on Wednesday and suddenly adopted a more polished voice on Twitter.

There was great anticipation as Trump stepped up to the microphone at a press conference on the ninth hole of the course, close to a cliff. Before he could say anything, a man wearing a Turnberry sweater jumped up to apologize for having forgotten to hand out golf balls to the crowd — then tossed dozens of red golf balls featuring a black swastika in Trump's direction. Secret Service agents surrounded the man, British comic Simon Brodkin, and escorted him away.

Trump then spoke to the world, standing in a sea of Nazi golf balls.

“This is an amazing honor; it's an amazing day — very historic day for a lot of reasons, not only Turnberry,” Trump said in a monotone voice, with a white campaign hat pulled down low, just above his eyes. “This is one of the big votes in the history of Europe and Scotland and everywhere … I think that it is purely historic, and what is happening is historic.”

He didn't dwell on that history. Instead, Trump told the crowd that his mother was born in Scotland and adored the queen. He promoted his hotel suites, alluded to zoning changes and let everyone know that the golf course's new sprinkler system is of “the highest level.” Trump recognized the previous owners of the resort, “friends of mine from Dubai” who he said “didn't understand this golf thing.” He also marveled at his son Eric Trump's ability to oversee the project.

He may have been jetlagged or unnerved by the swastika-covered golf balls at his feet, but Trump appeared to lack his usual energy that morning. He leaned heavily on the lectern, rarely seeming excited about the words coming out of his mouth. At one point, he accidentally mixed up “Scotland” and “Florida”, the critical swing state where he owns a number of golf courses and where Clinton just passed him in a poll.

He couldn't avoid the day's headlines, as reporters pressed him to weigh in on the day's developments beyond Turnberry.

“People want to take their country back,” Trump said of the Brexit vote. “They want to take their borders back. They want to take their monetary [sic] back. They want to take a lot of things back. They want to be able to have a country again. So, I think you're going have this happen more and more. I really believe that, and I think it's happening in the United States.”

Trump said that as president he would “embrace” Britain leaving the E.U., but also “see how it plays out.” He mused that the falling value of the pound “could very well turn out to be a positive,” benefitting the travel industry and his resort. He wouldn't take a position on Scotland's renewed quest for independence — as its voters sharply disagreed with England and Wales, voting to stay in the E.U. — and he criticized President Obama for taking a stance on the referendum, breaking the informal tradition of not taking aim at a sitting president from overseas. He also mentioned his foreign-policy advisers.

“I've been in touch with them,” he said, “but there's nothing to talk about.”

At one point, Ewen MacAskill of the Guardian listed prominent British leaders who refused to meet with Trump because he is “regarded as toxic.” Trump called the reporter a “nasty, nasty guy.”

The next day Trump flew to Scotland's opposite coast, to the golf course he built on sand dunes north of Aberdeen, then had dinner with media giant Rupert Murdoch. At the gate of the Trump International Golf Links, security turned away journalists from The Washington Post, which has been banned from all of Trump's events for nearly two weeks, BuzzFeed and Politico, along with MacAskill.

Those who were allowed inside followed Trump on a tour of the course, stopping at holes 10, 13, 14 and 18 for questions.

Speaking on the green, Trump was asked if a Scottish Muslim would be welcome in the United States under his restrictive entry policy. For the first time, he said that his proposed ban on Muslim entry only applied to those from “terror states”. His spokeswoman confirmed in an email that Trump's proposed ban on Muslims entering the country would apply just to those coming from countries with heavy terrorism, although she didn't provide any additional clarification on precisely which countries. In an interview with Bloomberg Politics after he left the course, Trump criticized Obama for deporting “vast numbers of people” and seemed to retreat somewhat from his own plan to deport 11 million illegal immigrants.

“I would not call it mass deportations,” Trump said of his immigration plan.

A spokeswoman did not respond to a request for clarification.




The Brexit vote came up again. “There's always turmoil” in the markets, said Trump, who added that Americans have nothing to worry about.

“This shouldn't even affect them,” Trump said. “I mean, frankly, if it's done properly. If we had proper leadership.”

When asked about George W. Bush treasury secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., a Republican, endorsing Clinton, Trump responded: “Don't know anything about him.”

Three of the Trump golf course's five immediate neighbors in Aberdeen were flying Mexican flags on Saturday in protest of his visit and his controversial comments about immigrants. For years, Trump and his associates have tried unsuccessfully to buy these properties or force the residents out.

“Most neighbors love us — I have one or two that are a little contentious, which is fine because they lost,” Trump said. “It's like some of the people I beat in the primaries — they're not exactly in love with me. Well, I have one or two neighbors that we beat, and they're not exactly in love with me.”

He again brushed away questions about foreign-policy advisers, saying that “most of them are no good.”

He then abruptly changed the topic back to golf.

“Let's go to the 14th,” he said.


• Jenna Johnson is a political reporter who is covering the 2016 presidential campaign for The Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trumps-scottish-golf-swing-a-chaotic-two-day-trip-across-the-green/2016/06/25/296bfe40-3af5-11e6-9ccd-d6005beac8b3_story.html
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« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2016, 10:27:57 am »


from the Los Angeles Times....

Trump offers the kind of simplistic fixes that ‘Brexit’ supporters sought

By DAVID HORSEY | 8:30AM PDT - Thursday, June 30, 2016



I WAS on a ferry making passage to Athens from a remote island in the Aegean when I learned that a 52% majority of British voters had chosen to pull their country out of the European Union. It was ironic to get this news in Greece because, just a year ago, the Greeks, not the Brits, seemed the most likely to part ways with their European brethren.

Donald Trump was also in Europe that day. He had flown to Scotland to open a new golf course while his campaign for president listed like a ship without a captain. There was irony in Trump's locale, as well. He was calling the “Brexit” vote “a great thing,” even though Scots had cast an overwhelming vote in favor of remaining in the EU.

In a news conference near the ninth hole of the Turnberry links, Trump, once again, revealed the profound shallowness of his understanding of global affairs. The man who wants to be leader of the free world rambled on about his golf resort for a quarter of an hour before finally commenting on Brexit. Trump claimed to have conferred with his foreign policy advisors (whoever they are) and, from that alleged discussion, concluded that Brexit is not a big deal (even though many others think it may lead to a dissolution of the United Kingdom, the fracturing of the EU and serious foreign policy problems for the United States).

Trump was closer to the mark when he interpreted the Brexit vote as a manifestation of the same populist, nationalistic, anti-immigrant sentiments that have empowered his American presidential campaign.

“People want to take their country back,” Trump said, echoing the language of many fearful, white, non-urban voters in the U.S.A., as well as that of the many fearful, white, non-urban voters in England and Wales who gave Brexit a majority. “They want to have independence in a sense, and you see it with Europe, all over Europe. … People are angry. All over the world, people, they're angry. They're angry over borders. They're angry over people coming into the country and taking over; nobody even knows who they are. They're angry about many, many things.”

Trump declared that he would fix America's problems the way he has renovated the Scottish golf course. When a reporter pointed out that a country is not the same as a golf course, Trump said, “No, it's not, but you'll be amazed how similar it is. It's a place that has to be fixed.”

Interesting logic; if two things need fixing, that makes them very much the same. Well, among the places that need to be fixed is Greece, but whether the fixing would be better accomplished outside the EU, rather than in it, is the heart of an ongoing debate. The Greeks managed their economic affairs so poorly in recent years that they had to be bailed out by the EU and forced into severe austerity measures. Many Greeks would love to escape austerity by jumping off the European ship, just as the Brits have done, and “take their country back.”

I remember traveling through the country they once had. I was a 20-something wearing a backpack, and it was just five years after a ruthless military junta had been overthrown. The countryside felt backward and remote. The capital, Athens, was dusty and chaotic. The airport was tiny. Taxis were jalopies.

On my latest visit, I flew into a big, modern airport. The taxis were mostly spotless Mercedes-Benzs. Highways were in far better repair than stretches of the 5 Freeway running through Burbank or roadways in much of America. Yes, the country is in the throes of a terrible economic crisis, but, obviously, in the years between my earlier visit and this one, there had been good times. And one major factor in bringing about those more prosperous, democratic days in Greece was membership in the EU.

The European Union is not perfect, but the non-democratic regimes and vicious warfare that plagued Europe for centuries were far worse. Organizing the politics and economics of a continent is not a simple task. Right now, many people seem more fixated on the annoyances than the benefits of working together. Voters looking for a quick fix and simple answers are enjoying a surge of influence. They pulled Britain out of the EU and are pushing for a similar exit in France, the Netherlands and Greece.

Meanwhile, in the United States, they have rallied around a man who, day after day, reveals how little he knows about complex things — and they seem to love him for it. The world can seem a happier place if you choose to believe a country and a golf course are more or less the same.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-trump-brexit-fix-20160630-snap-story.html
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« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2018, 04:19:05 pm »


from The Washington Post…

Boris Johnson and ‘Brexit minister’ resign,
leaving Theresa May's government in disarray


Hard-line backers of Britain's split with the European Union claim that the British
government is reneging on promises for a clean break from the bloc.


By WILLIAM BOOTH and KARLA ADAM | 5:06PM EDT — Monday, July 09, 2018

In this image from TV, Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May gives statement in the parliament on Monday July 9, 2018. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson resigned on Monday, adding to divisions over Brexit that threaten to tear apart Prime Minister Theresa May's government. — Photograph: British Parliamentary Recording Unit/Associated Press.
In this image from TV, Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May gives statement in the parliament on Monday July 9, 2018. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson
resigned on Monday, adding to divisions over Brexit that threaten to tear apart Prime Minister Theresa May's government.
 — Photograph: British Parliamentary Recording Unit/Associated Press.


LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May struggled on Monday to keep her government from imploding after the resignations of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a tousle-haired frontman for Britain's campaign to leave the European Union, and David Davis, her once-loyal “Brexit minister” in charge of negotiating the country's split from the bloc.

Ever since May bungled the 2017 election, losing a majority in Parliament, there has been speculation over how long she would hold the top job. That question has never been more urgent.

As May prepares to meet this week with President Trump in his first official visit to Britain, hard-line Brexiteers are openly debating a no-confidence vote that could sweep her from power.

Johnson, a flamboyant politician and former mayor of London, once said, “My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars.” He is divisive, and his stock has fallen lately. But the Whitehall mandarins and British political class have long assumed he covets the keys to 10 Downing Street. His departure hints at a possible leadership challenge within May's Conservative Party.

In his resignation letter, Johnson wrote that the Brexit dream “is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt.” He said that Britain was “headed for the status of colony — and many will struggle to see the economic or political advantage of that particular arrangement.”

“I am sorry — and a little surprised,” May wrote in reply.

Johnson's allies say he did the honorable thing by resigning. His critics see selfish maneuvering.

May replaced Johnson on Monday with Jeremy Hunt, formerly the health secretary, who successfully secured a big bump in spending for the underfunded National Health Service. Hunt campaigned to remain in the E.U. but later said he had changed his mind. May named as Davis's successor 44-year-old Dominic Raab, a leading pro-Brexit campaigner who served as her housing minister.

But the bombshell resignations expose May to further confrontations with restive Conservative Party members outraged over what they see as the prime minister's plan for a “soft Brexit” that keeps Britain tied to many E.U. rules and regulations after it leaves the bloc in March 2019.


Anti-Brexit, pro-EU supporter Steve Bray holds placards on Abingdon Green across the road from the Houses of Parliament in London on Monday, July 9, 2018. Former U.K. Brexit Secretary David Davis said on Monday that he won't seek to challenge Prime Minister Theresa May's leadership after resigning from her Cabinet, but will aim to pressure her to toughen her position on Britain's departure from the European Union. — Photograph: Matt Dunham/Associated Press.
Anti-Brexit, pro-EU supporter Steve Bray holds placards on Abingdon Green across the road from the Houses of Parliament in London on Monday, July 9, 2018.
Former U.K. Brexit Secretary David Davis said on Monday that he won't seek to challenge Prime Minister Theresa May's leadership after resigning from her
Cabinet, but will aim to pressure her to toughen her position on Britain's departure from the European Union. — Photograph: Matt Dunham/Associated Press.


Backers of a hard Brexit, who want a decisive break from Brussels, are now in revolt. They denounced May's latest road map as a fudge, a timid capitulation, a “Brexit in name only” that ignores the 52 percent of voters who opted in June 2016 to leave the E.U.

Tim Bale, a political expert at Queen Mary University of London, said that although May is in a difficult spot, “I don't think it's necessarily fatal for her — at the moment anyways.”

He said the Conservative Party doesn't really have the appetite for another general election — because of the ongoing Brexit negotiations and because Tories haven't coalesced around a candidate to champion.

Johnson has “still got a bit of a fan club, but I'm not sure he's the pin-up that he once was,” Bale said. While some see an English original, others see a clown.

May paid tribute to Davis and Johnson in Parliament on Monday, even though “we do not agree about the best way of delivering our shared commitment to honor the result of the referendum.” When she praised Johnson for his “passion,” jeering erupted in the chamber. When she said Brexit had generated “a spirited national debate,” there were guffaws.

May said she had listened to every possible idea and concluded that hers was the right one to pursue. She urged Brussels to seek compromise. “If the E.U. continues on this course, there is a serious risk it could lead to no deal, and this would most likely be a disorderly no deal,” she said. “A responsible government must prepare for a range of potential outcomes.”

Where May's Brexit plans go now is an open question. Business leaders in Britain who run companies that make airplanes and automobiles are clamoring for answers and warning that Brexit is drifting toward the rocks.

The pound sterling slid after the Johnson resignation, while the markets ticked up.


Boris Johnson at Downing Street earlier this month. — Photograph: Andy Rain/European Pressphoto Agency/Shutterstock.
Boris Johnson at Downing Street earlier this month. — Photograph: Andy Rain/European Pressphoto Agency/Shutterstock.

Across the English Channel, reaction was muted.

“Politicians come and go, but the problems they have created for their people remain,” European Council President Donald Tusk said on Monday of Davis's exit, just before being informed of Johnson's resignation. He said the same sentiment extended to Johnson as well.

Tusk added: “The mess caused by Brexit is the biggest problem in the history of E.U.-U.K. relations, and it is still far from being resolved.”

Trump is scheduled to arrive on Thursday for a visit that will be closely watched for any comments on Brexit and U.S. relations with the E.U. On Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement, “The president continues to look forward to his working visit with the Prime Minister on July 13, and further strengthening the U.S.-U.K. special relationship.”

Last month, Johnson told an audience at a private gala dinner that he thought Trump would do a much better job at negotiating Brexit than his prime minister.

“Imagine Trump doing Brexit,” Johnson told his audience of Tory activists. “He'd go in bloody hard…. There'd be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think he'd gone mad. But actually you might get somewhere. It's a very, very good thought.”

One of the leading campaigners for leaving the E.U., the radio show personality and European parliamentarian Nigel Farage, said on Sunday: “For Brexit to succeed we must get rid of this awful, duplicitous PM.”

If May refuses to toughen her Brexit plan, angry Tories could seek a no-confidence vote. At least 48 Conservative members of Parliament would need to write letters to trigger it. Then May would need to win over the majority of Conservative lawmakers to stay in power.

Many commentators think she has the numbers to win such a vote. If she failed, a leadership contest would ensue — and in might step Johnson, among others.


Britain's former chief Brexit negotiator David Davis poses at Westminster. — Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/Press Association/via Associated Press.
Britain's former chief Brexit negotiator David Davis poses at Westminster. — Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/Press Association/via Associated Press.

In his letter of resignation late on Sunday, Davis suggested that May's promise that Britain and its Parliament would “take back control” from Brussels was hollow. He warned May that her approach would lead to further demands from Brussels and give Europe control of large swaths of the British economy.

For two years, chief negotiator Davis had been the white-haired, ruddy-cheeked face of Brexit. But talks in Brussels were notoriously slow, because May's government could not — and still cannot — agree on what kind of future relationship Britain wants with Europe on trade, immigration, law, tariffs and border checks and security.

Recently it was revealed that Davis had attended only four hours of talks in Brussels this year, going as long as three months without meeting the E.U.'s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.

David Lammy, a prominent member of the opposition Labour Party, derided Davis as “a man who can't take responsibility. For two years he's been in charge of Brexit. No one in the world is as much to blame for this monumental mess as himself.”

The prime minister had appeared to win over her fractious cabinet at a retreat on Friday, and a lengthy white paper staking out Britain's vision for future relations with Europe was due to be published as soon as this week.

While May's plan for exiting the E.U. has not been fully revealed to all members of her party — let alone to Parliament, the business community or the public — a brief outline shows that she supports a middle way of compromise with Brussels, keeping Britain closely aligned with Europe on standards, “a common rule book for industrial goods and agricultural products.”

That, her critics say, would shackle Britain and make it “a rule taker versus a rulemaker.”

In Parliament, hard-line Brexit supporters are the most vocal but are not the majority. A compromise exit is supported by moderates across Parliament, including those in the Conservative and Labour parties, among others.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader, mocked May on Monday, saying it had taken her two long years to come up with a Brexit plan and only two days for that plan to unravel.


__________________________________________________________________________

Michael Birnbaum in Brussels contributed to this report.

William Booth is The Washington Post's London bureau chief. Booth served as bureau chief in Jerusalem, Mexico City, Los Angeles and Miami, and as pop culture correspondent for the Style section. He has covered upheaval and transformation in Catalonia, Ukraine, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Haiti, Honduras and the Balkans. In Mexico, his work focused on drug trafficking and the state response. In the Middle East, he covered the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Before coming to The Post, Booth wrote for Science magazine. He was a Vannevar Bush Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated from the University of Texas in Austin. He was on The Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-finalist team that covered the Fort Hood shootings.

Karla Adam is a reporter in The Washington Post's London bureau. Before joining The Post in 2006, she worked as a freelancer in London for The New York Times and People magazine. She has degrees from Queen's University in Canada, Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and the London School of Economics.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • VIDEO: British lawmakers laugh as May addresses Boris Johnson's resignation

 • Boris Johnson quits UK government in mounting Brexit crisis

 • Britain's Brexit secretary suddenly resigns

 • How the ‘Bad Boys of Brexit’ forged ties with Russia and the Trump campaign — and came under investigators' scrutiny

 • ‘The decision of a lifetime’: Protesters in London call for another Brexit vote


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/theresa-mays-government-in-disarray-after-shock-resignation-by-brexit-minister/2018/07/09/b86533da-8357-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html
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« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2018, 05:33:57 pm »


from The New York Times…

EDITORIAL: Good Riddance, Boris Johnson

The resignation of Britain's foreign secretary could make it easier for Prime Minister Theresa May
to reach a more reasonable agreement on Brexit.


By THE EDITORIAL BOARD  | Monday, July 09, 2018

Boris Johnson outside 10 Downing Street in London last week. — Photograph: Andy Rain/European Pressphoto Agency/Shutterstock.
Boris Johnson outside 10 Downing Street in London last week. — Photograph: Andy Rain/European Pressphoto Agency/Shutterstock.

BRITAIN's foreign secretary and its chief Brexit negotiator caused quite a stir when they resigned within 24 hours because they considered Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit proposal too accommodating to Europe. But if her government weathers the resulting storm, their departures could help resolve the tortuous divorce negotiations with the European Union, which are approaching crucial deadlines.

This crisis took shape after Mrs. May summoned her ministers to her official retreat at Chequers on Friday and hammered out what she called a “responsible and credible” proposal far short of the clean break she previously mooted. Though details are still to come, the plan would have Britain try to enter into a free-trade agreement with the bloc by a “common rule book for industrial goods and agricultural products,” and accept partial jurisdiction by the European Court of Justice.

Not surprisingly, Mrs. May's chief Brexit negotiator, David Davis, a proponent of a “hard Brexit,” quit on Sunday, along with his deputy. The greater shock came on Monday, when the flamboyant foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, followed suit after declaring with typical cheek that selling the prime minister's Brexit plan would be akin to “polishing a turd.” Mr. Johnson had been a fierce advocate of a total break with the European Union, and during the Brexit referendum campaign he notoriously spread the false claim that Britain would save more than 350 million pounds a week if it left the union.

The resignations immediately set off speculation about more defections, the potential fall of Mrs. May's government and even new elections. All that could happen. But it is doubtful that hard-line Brexiteers in Mrs. May's Conservative Party can muster the 48 votes that party rules require to force a vote of confidence, much less the votes needed to force her into a leadership contest (in which Mr. Johnson would be a potential candidate).

A greater certainty is that Mrs. May cannot continue to spin her wheels on Brexit, as she has been forced to do by the sharp divide in her own party and government. Britain will officially leave the union next March, but for the exit not to be a total disaster for Britain, the two sides need to agree on a broad range of issues by October, including the terms of transition, customs arrangements and the basic shape of a future trade relationship. The deal, moreover, needs the approval of the British Parliament and 27 European Union members. Time is running out.

Deliberately or not, therefore, Mrs. May called the hard-liners' bluff at Chequers. Now if she survives the ensuing storm, she will no longer have to please Tories who ideologically oppose adherence to all of the union's laws and regulations. That does not mean an agreement with the union is imminent or easy. Mrs. May's new package is still far from anything the union can accept. And the hard-liners will not relent.

Yet an injection of common sense is welcome in a political fray that has defied all warnings, many of them from industries, of the enormous damage that would come from a break with the European Union, and especially of an abrupt and uncontrolled break. It raised the possibility of an extension of the Brexit deadline, and, among ardent opponents of a break, even hopes of a new referendum (rejected, for now, by Mrs. May).

“I can only regret that the idea of #Brexit has not left with Davis and Johnson,” tweeted Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council. “But … who knows?” A slight uptick in financial markets suggested a similar glimmer of hope.

President Trump, who arrives in London on Thursday, is unlikely to give common sense a greater boost, but … who knows?


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The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/09/opinion/editorials/britain-brexit-boris-johnson.html
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