Seconds Out, Round One

Boris won 114 votes in the first round of the Conservative Party leadership contest (and co-incidentally the contest for the prime ministership of the UK. His nearest rival, the foreign secretary with the name that it’s easy to make a mess of, got a mere 43.

Mark Harper, Andrea Leadsom and Esther the Unliked, who came last with only 9 votes, were vanquished.

Scores were as follows:

• Boris Johnson 114
• Jeremy Hunt 43
• Michael Gove 37
• Dominic Raab 27
• Sajid Javid 23 (despite being backed by that well-known winner, the Colonel)
• Matt Hancock 20
• Rory Stewart 19

Eliminated: 

• Mark Harper 10
• Andrea Leadsom 11
• Esther McVey 9

It seems pretty certain that, unless he does something catastrophic and loses most of his support, Johnson will be one of the finalists.

I imagine though, that Hunt will partially catch up with him along the way. Already I can imagine that Mr Harper’s votes may largely be transferred to Hunt or Gove, McVey’s will almost certainly go to Boris, as will the majority of Leadsom’s

In the next round, I imagine that Hancock and Stewart will be eliminated, and probably Javid and Raab too. Rory’s votes likely to go to Hunt/Gove; Javid’s too. Hancock’s and Raab’s more likely to go to Boris.

My prediction (barring something really weird from Boris) is that he will go forward, against either Gove or ‘Unt, to the constituency of relatively elderly southern Tory voters, and win.

Meanwhile, Rory Stewart is threatening rebellion … (I put it down to the opium)

Ciaran Jenkins

Rory Stewart says if Boris Johnson locks the doors of parliament to get No Deal he will ‘bring him down’. 

Stewart says parliament will meet across the road at Methodist Central Hall and bring a Boris Johnson government down.

Whoever wins, I suspect that it is a fiction that the EU will reopen talks or change very much about the treaty that Theresa May signed with them, as this seems to suggest.

As the first round of voting for the @Conservatives leadership race for @10DowningStreet begins, what’s the view from Brussels of the #Brexit pledges they are making.
Credible?
Deliverable?
Some blunt words from @AgataGostynska, @piris_jc & @ph_lamberts https://t.co/P1d06sQP8e pic.twitter.com/WpwpBSlrcg

— Mark Stone (@Stone_SkyNews) June 13, 2019

BEST PLACES TO LIVE IN EUROPE

AND GUESS WHICH COUNTRIES DON’T FIGURE!

Each year, two global surveys Mercer’s Quality of Living Survey, and the Economist Intelligence Unit Liveability Index, measure metrics such as crime rates, healthcare, infrastructure, quality of water, levels of corruption, culture and education, down to availability of sporting facilities and environmental concerns. They then decide which cities in the world are the best to live and thrive in.

The top 15 are:

15 Brussels

14 Düsseldorf

13 Oslo

12 Munich

11 Luxembourg City

10 Berlin

9 Paris

8 Hamburg

7 Amsterdam

6 Helsinki

5 Geneva

4 Frankfurt

3 Zurich

2 Copenhagen

 1 Vienna

 

THIS IS WHAT’S COMIN’ ATCHA!

Thanks to Ricky for the heads up.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

It seems that Tony Blair has put himself forward as a peace negotiator between Spain and Catalonia.  Apparently the Devil is too busy.

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Oh noooooo… it seems to have happened

… there has been a schism in the UKIP. Anne Marie Waters is having a party!

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All the talk this morning seems to be about Mrs May. The pound has fallen again, even against the Euro (which is damaged by the situation in Catalonia).

 

Grant Shapps appears to be the driving force in the “plot” to remove her, which must be a comfort to her, as, to date, he’s been spectacularly unspectacular in most of what he’s ever done. Govey is fighting her corner, reminding anyone bored enough to listen that 14 million people (slight exaggeration) voted for her in the General Election. I’m not sure that Govey fighting your corner is much of an asset, but then who have to remember how close Govey is to Mr Murdoch! And Mr Murdoch fighting your corner is an altogether different kettle of fish.

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LET’S COMPARE LIFE IN THE EU WITH LIFE IN THE US

 

WELL, THE FRENCH DON’T THINK MUCH OF MAYHEM GETTING TOUGH

If you don’t accept all our leave conditions, we’ll sink (put out of business) your ridiculous little continent.

Sorry to go on and on with the same theme, but I keep finding these things and wanting to share them.

WELL, THAT EXPLAINS A THING OR TWO

There have been a variety of scary headlines in the press about the dire state of the Health Service. With the BBC and some of the papers, this means the Engish Health Service, as largely the BBC don’t make distinctions and papers that don’t bother, or don’t bother much, with Scottish Editions are the same.

Overcrowded corridors full of patients on trollies waiting for beds; all non-emergency operations cancelled; beds blocked by elderly or convalescent patients because they have nowhere to go; doctors on strike…

So, we see that since 2009, when the bankers broke the country and were punished by the removal of a knighthood, the percentage of GDP spent on the NHS has dropped with a small exception of  2016, and is set to drop again until 2020 and a general election.

For UK, read England and consequential for other nations.

 

The UK seems to come somewhere about the middle of the range for spend as a percentage of GDP, on around the same level as Finland, Slovenia, Iceland, Australia, but lower than Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and France. (These are 2013 figures and the first table shows that the spend is likely to drop. However, given that the GDP may well also drop, the question is will the percentage stay the same?) The disparity in % between the tables is likely to accounted for by the second table including private healthcare.

I WAS GOING TO…

…write something intelligent (well, by my standards) about the Scottish government’s proposals for Scotland’s future relationship with Europe, which I consider to be measured, logical and sensible.

But then I read Terry’s analysis and I decided that I really couldn’t add anything to that, so I’d direct you to his more learned comments.

I should like to add that it seems the British government produced a report on the same day with their full analysis of the situation (above). I should add that in reply to a series of questions yesterday when she point blank refused to answer whether MPs would have a chance to debate the final Brexit deal (as MEPs will), she said: “I said what I said”.

 

What Scotland thinks? Do I look like I care?

 

So now we know that Brexit means Brexit…red white and blue… and she said what she said.

Comforting, eh?

ERM, ISN’T STEALING STREET SIGNS…

…NOT JUST A CRIMINAL OFFENCE, BUT IN SOME CASES DOWNRIGHT DANGEROUS?

Because it’s far more sensible to have £:s:p, yards: feet: inches, gallons: quarts: pints, tons: hundredweights and quarters,  stones: pounds: ounces. Obviously.

Still, the Daily Mail seems to think he’s a bit of a hero, and I bet the Daily Diana is fizzing it didn’t get the story first. It would probably recommend him to the queen for a knighthood.

Oh, yes, then there was this bloke who seems to be unaware of just how utterly ridiculous Boris Johnson is, not to mention David Davis and the unbelievably hapless idiot Liam Fox, and that they are all led by someone with the well-deserved nickname “Mayhem”.

Talk about zero diplomatic know-how or ability!

Really, Prof Tomkins, have a wee word with yourself, will you? At the moment you are a liability.