DAVID’S DIARY

22 SEPTEMBER: All going splendidly. A few people turned up to hear the boss today. Well, no one important, but at least it wasn’t all empty seats! (I told her Friday matinees weren’t the best idea, but you know her. She always knows best.)

The old dear cackled on a bit in her usual way, and frankly, I dropped off for a bit as you do after a good luncheon. But I’m sure she socked it to Johnny Foreigner.  Told them we’d stick around for longer. Ha ha. That made them sit up. Well, those that were awake, anyway.

But we’re Brits. We’ve never felt at home with all these people speaking foreign at us and their foreign courts and, I mean look at the democratic deficit. Why, it’s a European dictatorship. No. The majority of decent hardworking British families up and down the country are jolly glad we’re putting these foreigners in their place at last.

Mark my words, they’ll run after us begging for trades deals, as will the rest of the world. And we’ll return to our rightful place at the head of the list of senior and important countries leading the world forward under Bor… I mean Theresa.

Er, we just need time, and Liam needs to get his royal yacht built… but once we’re up and running, nothing will stop us.

Leaving you some pics I’ve taken or been sent on my journeys around the world to save you decent British people from this European dictatorship.

All the best

DD

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David’s Dairy (2)

Sunday, September 3:

Monday, September 4:

 

What can I say? Brexit is Red, White, and Blue… Rouge, Blanc, et Bleu? 

(I’m indebted to “BJSAlba for the second diary entry.)

 

DAVID’S DIARY…

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Journalists, and amateur bloggers, of all political persuasions, make mistakes. (I readily acknowledge culpability).

No one is perfect and even with meticulous checking, some little errors can be left unnoticed.

However, it seems that no one ran this piece on Michelle Thomson past the most basic of fact checks.

Additionally, it seems to me that to describe property worth £1 million as an “empire”, in these days of inflated property prices, is a tad of an exaggeration.

It’s not too difficult for professionals to check on these things before they put them in print. Indeed, it is very much easier than it used to be. A few Google searches takes a great deal less time than endless phone calls or searching physically through back copies of newspapers.

Maybe our journalists should consider that.

The Herald has corrected these mistakes in a short paragraph and Michelle Thomson has acknowledged this on Twitter.

Michelle Thomson‏Verified account @MichelleThomson

Noting thanks for @heraldscotland corrections today from KMcK article printed Saturday. Online changed quickly.

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Can Munguin take this opportunity to point you in the direction of Ian Dunt’s excellent piece on today’s Customs Proposal Paper by the UK government? Guy Verhofstadt described it as fantasy.

Guy Verhofstadt has described the proposals as fantasy. Not the best of starts, but as I read Ian’s piece I became convinced that M Verhofstadt was being quite complimentary.

It seems that what they are proposing is that they spend billions to set up a complex method of replicating the customs union with unproven electronic gadgetry, and a good deal of trust in systems and personal honesty, and ending up with what we already have, but not quite so good.

“Lunatics”, “asylum” and “have taken over”, are all words that come to mind.

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Thanks, Labour. Brilliant idea.

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Has anyone seen Theresa?

Just asking because you’d think that, with a two-year deadline on her to deliver the most complex set of international negotiations undertaken by the UK in 70 years, a cabinet falling down around her ears and biting chunks out of each other, and having wasted 2 months on a pointless election, she might have thought it propitious to take a short break and return to her desk to get on with the day job.

So, if you see her, could you point her in the direction of England, lest she has become lost, or some might say, even more lost…

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SO, HOW’S IT ALL GOING IN DOWNING STREET WITH BREXIT AND ALL THAT?

According to Reuters, there are moves at the top of the Conservative Party to depose May and replace her with Hammond. Davis would be deputy prime minister.

“I think Philip is the only plausible candidate for a couple of years, with DD (David Davis) running Brexit,” the paper (The Sunday Times) quoted a serving minister as saying.

“He is a more credible caretaker than the current prime minister. The PM’s brand is so damaged it is painful. The calculation that people are beginning to make is that she is so inadequate we can’t wait two years with her in place.”

A former cabinet colleague was quoted by the paper as saying that Hammond believed he could do the job. Not all cabinet members were in agreement, however, with some backing Davis and others favouring Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

A spokesman for May’s Downing Street office declined to comment.

The trouble seems to me to be that Hammond is only “better” because he and Davis may work together a bit more harmoniously to see if we can get a softer Brexit than May was proposing.

Of course, that would be good for some of us, at least. Remaining in the Customs Union and the Single Market is essential for Scotland’s economy. The trouble is that to be a part of these, countries must accept the now famous “four freedoms”.

These are freedom of movement of goods, capital, services, and labour.

And the EU is saying, if you want one, you get them all.

And of course, there is the EUs oversight of the laws that surround all of these freedoms, by (horror)  European courts. And at a cost.

Now, that might be acceptable if they hadn’t run a campaign that vilified everyone who was foreign, and played big, with the help of the comic press, on the “send them home” rhetoric. That campaign ran pretty in tandem with “bring back control of our laws” to English courts, which played well with some people. Well, until the English High Court found against the government at which point, of course, the English courts became the enemies of the people! (Go figure!) The third part of the campaign made it clear that the savings to Brits would be enormous. Remember £350 million a week to the desperately underfunded Health Services? Who could resist that?

If that was the three-pronged attack that the campaign came up with (and won on), it’s a bit hard for it now to say, “erm… well, actually, the foreigners won’t go home; the European courts will still have sway, and we probably won’t save any money”.

Then they’d have to explain that, whilst being in more or less the same situation as before, there won’t be any more EU social or infrastructure grants, farmers will have to rely on the UK government for subsidies and finally, the UK will no longer have any veto on the regulations that it has to obey.

Some might say that Mrs May was right, no deal is worse than a bad deal…

I just wonder how long the Tory Party could hold it together if that were the outcome,  regardless of leadership, if that was what they had to put to the people in 2019.

 

Return of Farage and UKIP, backed by the EDL, DUP, Britain First,  and England’s own Marine Le Penn: Tommy Robinson?

For a more detailed (and knowledgeable) coverage of Brexit, I advise a regular read over at Terry’s blog.

NO MORE FREE MEALS FOR ENGLISH KIDS?

And, of course, this.

Now surely, all of these people aren’t really in need of a free dinner, or in IDS’s case, breakfast. If we are going to bring in austerity means testing, because we are such a broke little country, and about to be even more broke, probably people like Cameron and May should be means tested to see if they earn above the threshold for a free dinner at the expense of taxpayers.

Whit’s guid tae gie’s no ill tae tak, eh Tess?

Grateful thanks to Cllr John Edwards for the idea and some of the pics.

DON’T MAKE US LAUGH, MAY

I’m not sure whether to laugh or to be angry.

According to the Independent, Mrs May’s speech to the Tories little get together in Wales tomorrow, will talk about how Scottish independence would ruin Britain’s chances of getting a good deal from the EU in their Brexit negotiations.

In order to get the deal she wants, she thinks that Scotland must pull together with the “rest of the country”. England, I imagine she means.

She will call upon the Scots to get behind her plans (what plans?) because “we are one people”.

To assume this, given all the recent evidence to the contrary, her audacity must surely know no bounds.

In almost everything and in almost every way, we are very different peoples. In particular, over the Brexit deal she wants to get (and probably has as much of a chance of getting as Munguin has of being the next president of Botswana), we are completely different.

It seems to have completely escaped this woman’s notice that Scotland voted, not narrowly, but very conclusively, to stay in the EU. To be honest, even if we hadn’t I think there’s a fair chance we wouldn’t be backing the chaos her idiot ministers are sleepwalking into. There’s Brexit, and then there’s Brexsuicide.

She seems oblivious to the fact that we elected ONE single Tory out of the 59 Scottish MPs, to contribute to her government in London. One, and by a tiny majority. Whereas in England they managed by hook or by crook (and that might be an appropriate word) they elected  Tory government.

We are not one people Mrs May. We are two kingdoms and principality and a province, and we are all very different, with different economies and different needs. (And it might be an idea to remember that there is a British Overseas Territory which also has to be considered into the bargain.)

Whilst May’s party has set about tearing down the welfare state, removing benefits for some of our most vulnerable people, dismantling that part of the NHS over which they have direct control, making life utterly unbearable for the worst off, handing out tax reductions to some of the richest, and with plans to remove the UK from the ECHR she will have the brass neck to say: “Our Plan for Britain is a plan for a brighter future. A plan to make the most of the opportunities ahead and to build a stronger, fairer Britain that is more united and more outward-looking.” Stronger and fairer? Seriously? Fairer? Tell that to the people being assessed for PIP who are being asked why they haven’t committed suicide yet!

No, Mrs May, let me tell you, we Scots don’t believe a single word you say. Not you nor any of your hapless, self-serving amateur ministers, especially you blundering idiot of a Scottish Secretary.

We don’t want to leave Europe at any price, but certainly not under any deal that you or any of your team would ever be able to negotiate. Seriously: David Davis, Boris Johnson. Liam Fox? Liam Bloody FOX???? Please!

Scots didn’t vote for your vile cruel, self-serving, incompetent government. And we don’t want it. if you are comforting yourself that you made a small headway in our General Election, compared to your General Election a year earlier, then you should remember that it is because Labour is even more pathetic than your lot. And remember too that the improvement was largely made in list seats.

Remember standing in front of all those empty seats? Well, go look at the crowds of cheering people in Aberdeen today for OUR leader.

We won’t get behind you. We won’t back your plans(?), which almost undoubtedly mean selling Scotland out, as your predecessors did. We have friends in Europe. They like us. They like our first minister. I suspect that they don’t like you much.