Comments on: “There are liars and then there’s Boris Johnson and Michael Gove”

By: C Camilleri

C Camilleri — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 13:24:00 +0000

Well, I guess that applies to Joseph Muscat the ex-Super 1 journalist too.

By: Joe the Lion

Joe the Lion — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 09:13:00 +0000

No, David Cameron did the right thing. Since Britain joined the EU, there have been Tory politicians of all shapes and sizes snapping at the heels of their leaders to do a referendum.

It could be very debilitating handling this type of internal strife continously. Obviously Cameron thought he would win it (who thought not? – even BJ thought he’d lose) and wanted to put this issue to rest once and for all.

By: La Redoute

La Redoute — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 08:44:00 +0000

Muscat’s PM.

By: T Borg

T Borg — Sun, 26 Jun 2016 10:22:00 +0000

Cohen says about Johnson and Gove: “If you think rule by professional politicians is bad wait until journalist politicians take over. Johnson and Gove are the worst journalist politicians you can imagine: pundits who have prospered by treating public life as a game. Here is how they play it. They grab media attention by blaring out a big, dramatic thought. An institution is failing? Close it. A public figure blunders? Sack him. They move from journalism to politics, but carry on as before.”

A very precise description of Joseph Muscat when in Opposition. Now that he is PM, we can confirm what an abysmally bad (journalist) politician he is.

By: GerrG01

GerrG01 — Sun, 26 Jun 2016 09:50:00 +0000

This contribution in The Guardian’s comment section is doing the rounds. Johnson most certainly isn’t acting out to be the victor.

If Boris Johnson looked downbeat yesterday, that is because he realises that he has lost.

Perhaps many Brexiters do not realise it yet, but they have actually lost, and it is all down to one man: David Cameron.

With one fell swoop yesterday at 9:15 am, Cameron effectively annulled the referendum result, and simultaneously destroyed the political careers of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and leading Brexiters who cost him so much anguish, not to mention his premiership.

How?

Throughout the campaign, Cameron had repeatedly said that a vote for leave would lead to triggering Article 50 straight away. Whether implicitly or explicitly, the image was clear: he would be giving that notice under Article 50 the morning after a vote to leave. Whether that was scaremongering or not is a bit moot now but, in the midst of the sentimental nautical references of his speech yesterday, he quietly abandoned that position and handed the responsibility over to his successor.

And as the day wore on, the enormity of that step started to sink in: the markets, Sterling, Scotland, the Irish border, the Gibraltar border, the frontier at Calais, the need to continue
compliance with all EU regulations for a free market, re-issuing passports, Brits abroad, EU citizens in Britain, the mountain of legistlation to be torn up and rewritten … the list grew and grew.

The referendum result is not binding. It is advisory. Parliament is not bound to commit itself in that same direction.

The Conservative party election that Cameron triggered will now have one question looming over it: will you, if elected as party leader, trigger the notice under Article 50?

Who will want to have the responsibility of all those ramifications and consequences on his/her head and shoulders?

Boris Johnson knew this yesterday, when he emerged subdued from his home and was even more subdued at the press conference. He has been out-maneouvered and check-mated.

If he runs for leadership of the party, and then fails to follow through on triggering Article 50, then he is finished. If he does not run and effectively abandons the field, then he is finished. If he runs, wins and pulls the UK out of the EU, then it will all be over – Scotland will break away, there will be upheaval in Ireland, a recession … broken trade agreements. Then he is
also finished. Boris Johnson knows all of this. When he acts like the dumb blond it is just that: an act.

The Brexit leaders now have a result that they cannot use. For them, leadership of the Tory party has become a poison chalice.

When Boris Johnson said there was no need to trigger Article 50 straight away, what he really meant to say was “never”. When Michael Gove went on and on about “informal negotiations” … why? why not the formal ones straight away? … he also meant not triggering the formal
departure. They both know what a formal demarche would mean: an irreversible step that neither of them is prepared to take.

All that remains is for someone to have the guts to stand up and say that Brexit is unachievable in reality without an enormous amount of pain and destruction, that cannot be borne. And David Cameron has put the onus of making that statement on the heads of the people who led the Brexit campaign.

By: La Redoute

La Redoute — Sun, 26 Jun 2016 09:14:00 +0000

In reply to Mr. Tibbs. Be specific: you mean Joseph Muscat.

By: anthony

anthony — Sun, 26 Jun 2016 08:54:00 +0000

I have no intention of exonerating Johnson and Gove as prime culprits in this unprecedented debacle. However Jeremy Corbyn aided and abetted these two rascals in no uncertain manner.

He purposely failed to bring out the remain vote from Labour’s core regions. He remains an unreconstructed Trotskyite. He feels more at ease dealing with Putin than with Merkel. A huge portion of the blame for what has happened will be laid at his feet.

His downfall is unfolding as I write.

By: Edward

Edward — Sun, 26 Jun 2016 08:44:00 +0000

“They grab media attention by blaring out a big, dramatic thought. An institution is failing? Close it. A public figure blunders? Sack him. They move from journalism to politics, but carry on as before”

Sounds like our Joseph, really.

By: Mr. Tibbs

Mr. Tibbs — Sun, 26 Jun 2016 08:22:00 +0000

There are a lot of points raised in the article that are unnerving in their familiarity to what happened and is still happening in Malta. Two telling words, “journalist” and “politician”.