For the Birds
Prime Minister David Cameron made a good job of putting down his rival for the top job by mocking Boris Johnson's plan for a No vote in the European referendum, as a pretext for further 'remain' negotiations with other EU member countries and the UK holding out for a better (Bojo-led) deal.
Cameron told his former ally that Project Boris was 'for the birds' before adding:
“I have known a number of couples who have begun divorce proceedings. But I do not know any who have begun divorce proceedings in order to renew their marriage vows.
“I am not standing for re-election. I have no other agenda than what is best for our country.
“I am standing here today telling you what I think. My responsibility as prime minister is to speak plainly about what I believe is right for our country.”
Now that's what I call plain talking, so well said sir.
"We have a right to expect such a figure to be substantial and moral, to say what they mean and mean what they say. In the hundreds of columns and thousands of speeches Boris has delivered, he has never, until now, called for Britain to leave the EU. What changed his mind?"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3457664/CHRIS-DEERIN-Boris-s-decision-doing-s-best-Boris.html
Boris Johnson exclusive: There is only one way to get the change we want – vote to leave the EU
First we had 'Project Fear' during Scotland's independence referendum, followed by 'Project Boris' it appears in the forthcoming vote to decide whether the UK's remains a member of the European Union.
But Shakespeare put his finger on the kind of overweening, personal ambition now on display from Boris Johnson, the outgoing London Mayor, with the following words from his famous 'Scottish' play:
Macbeth:
I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on th'other. . . .
Well said, sir.
So Bojo finally makes his play on Europe which is all about improving his chances of becoming the next Conservative leader, if you ask me, given what the London Mayor had to say recently in the columns of The Telegraph newspaper.
"The choice is really quite simple. In favour of staying, it is in Britain’s geo-strategic interests to be pretty intimately engaged in the doings of a continent that has a grim 20th-century history, and whose agonies have caused millions of Britons to lose their lives. History shows that they need us. Leaving would be widely read as a very negative signal for Europe. It would dismay some of our closest friends, not least the eastern Europeans for whom the EU has been a force for good: stability, openness, and prosperity."
Now that's what I call plain talking, so well said sir.
Project Hokey Cokey (23/02/16)
Boris Johnson penned an exclusive article for The Telegraph newspaper 'explaining' his decision to back 'No' in the long-awaited referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.
Apart from misjudging the political mood in Scotland (he says Scots will vote the same way as their English neighbours), Bojo suggests that a No vote will allow a further renegotiation with Europe, for a 'better deal', as opposed to a clean-break decision to leave.
So not so much 'In' or 'Out' as 'Shaking It All About' which seems a remarkable stance to take if you ask me, especially after all these years of intense debate and political argument.
Chris Deerin writing in The Mail newspaper helpfully points out that Project Boris is about as far removed from the national interest as you can get:
"We have a right to expect such a figure to be substantial and moral, to say what they mean and mean what they say. In the hundreds of columns and thousands of speeches Boris has delivered, he has never, until now, called for Britain to leave the EU. What changed his mind?"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3457664/CHRIS-DEERIN-Boris-s-decision-doing-s-best-Boris.html
Boris Johnson exclusive: There is only one way to get the change we want – vote to leave the EU
David Cameron has done his very best, but a vote to Remain will be taken in Brussels as a green light for the further erosion of democracy
By Boris Johnson- The Telegraph
I am a European. I lived many years in Brussels. I rather love the old place. And so I resent the way we continually confuse Europe – the home of the greatest and richest culture in the world, to which Britain is and will be an eternal contributor – with the political project of the European Union. It is, therefore, vital to stress that there is nothing necessarily anti-European or xenophobic in wanting to vote Leave on June 23.
And it is important to remember: it isn’t we in this country who have changed. It is the European Union. In the 28 years since I first started writing for this paper about the Common Market – as it was then still known – the project has morphed and grown in such a way as to be unrecognisable, rather as the vast new Euro palaces of glass and steel now lour over the little cobbled streets in the heart of the Belgian capital.
By Boris Johnson- The Telegraph
I am a European. I lived many years in Brussels. I rather love the old place. And so I resent the way we continually confuse Europe – the home of the greatest and richest culture in the world, to which Britain is and will be an eternal contributor – with the political project of the European Union. It is, therefore, vital to stress that there is nothing necessarily anti-European or xenophobic in wanting to vote Leave on June 23.
And it is important to remember: it isn’t we in this country who have changed. It is the European Union. In the 28 years since I first started writing for this paper about the Common Market – as it was then still known – the project has morphed and grown in such a way as to be unrecognisable, rather as the vast new Euro palaces of glass and steel now lour over the little cobbled streets in the heart of the Belgian capital.
Vaulting Ambition (22/02/16)
First we had 'Project Fear' during Scotland's independence referendum, followed by 'Project Boris' it appears in the forthcoming vote to decide whether the UK's remains a member of the European Union.
But Shakespeare put his finger on the kind of overweening, personal ambition now on display from Boris Johnson, the outgoing London Mayor, with the following words from his famous 'Scottish' play:
Macbeth:
I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on th'other. . . .
Well said, sir.
Bojo Makes His Play (21/02/16)
So Bojo finally makes his play on Europe which is all about improving his chances of becoming the next Conservative leader, if you ask me, given what the London Mayor had to say recently in the columns of The Telegraph newspaper.
"The choice is really quite simple. In favour of staying, it is in Britain’s geo-strategic interests to be pretty intimately engaged in the doings of a continent that has a grim 20th-century history, and whose agonies have caused millions of Britons to lose their lives. History shows that they need us. Leaving would be widely read as a very negative signal for Europe. It would dismay some of our closest friends, not least the eastern Europeans for whom the EU has been a force for good: stability, openness, and prosperity."
