Boris makes his debut

Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian:

The Queen’s first prime minister was Winston Churchill. Her 14th is a Winston Churchill tribute act. So perhaps it’s no surprise that Boris Johnson’s debut performance as prime minister included a sub-Churchillian riff, extolling Britain’s readiness not to fight the Nazi menace but to cope with a no-deal exit from the European Union. “The ports will be ready and the banks will be ready and the factories will be ready and business will be ready and the hospitals will be ready,” he said, until one half-expected him to declare that we shall be ready on the beaches, we shall be ready on the landing grounds, we shall be ready in the fields and in the streets and in the hills.

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Boris then announced a cabinet full of Brexiteers, mainly from the hard right Brexit camp. So now there is no one else to blame. If they cannot deliver Brexit, they cannot blame it on “lily-livered Remainers”. And if they deliver a chaotic no-deal Brexit, they will be the ones held accountable. Including Victorian Jacob Rees-Mogg, now the 
“Leader of the Commons”.  And former Johnson betrayer Michael Gove, who will be “Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster”. What the hell is that? The guy who takes care of King Arthur’s sword?

A Guardian commenter put it best - Johnson has got rid of the mediocre and replaced them with the execrable.

Among them,  Priti Patel, famous for being the last European mainstream politician who supports the death penalty. If Johnson’s govt falls, which is not unlikely, maybe Priti can move over to the US and get a job with Dotard.

On the other hand, you have to give Boris credit for appointing an Indian-origin and a Pakistan-origin (Sajid Javid) to 2 of the 3 most important Cabinet posts. Maybe History will look at that as the start of reverse colonialism.

17 members of May’s cabinet were sacked. The Sun front-page called it “The Night of the Blonde Knives” - illustrating it with a picture of Boris’ girlfriend (also blonde) with whom he had a famous night, with or without knives, 2 weeks ago. The Times called it Carnage, while The Guardian called it Boris’ Revenge.

In any case, now all the supporters of the “GBP 350 million per week for NHS” bus have all the power to show how they are going to do that. But just like the GOP/Trump fantastic health care plan, its likely to turn out to be just fantasy.

As for me, besides all the Boris Bluster, I will stick to my 3 year old prediction - there will be no meaningful Brexit, and the UK will stay in the Customs Union, and maybe even the Single Market. Boris has been outspoken about leaving, but like Trump he is shameless and has no problems with lying and with reversing course and claiming his new stance was what he had always said. 

And if there is a no-deal exit on Oct 31st, the UK will be clamoring in Brussels within a week to reverse the whole thing and return to the status quo.

Another possible scenario is that after failing to get the EU to meaningfully change May’s deal, and Parliament blocking No Deal, Boris calls a snap election in October, campaigning on No Deal. A major gamble, that could well backfire, just like May’s election gamble. That would leave Boris the distinction of being the British PM with the least time in office. But like Trump, he may still trumpet that he set a new record.

Summary - the Brexit mess is as messy as ever.