‘Clowning Street’: UK election day newspaper round-up
British voters woke this morning to a rash of headlines telling them who to vote for before visiting the ballot box.
Jacob Rees-Mogg should NOT become Prime Minister says his Brexit Party MEP sister
“That is going to be in people’s brains as the date we must absolutely leave the European Union.
“I saw Boris yesterday saying ‘oh if I am leader we are leaving on October 31’.
“I tell you what if Boris wins and he marches his troops to the top of the hill with the expectation we are leaving on October 31, and then we don’t and march back down again.
“I think in those circumstances, I think in a future general election, the Brexit Party would produce a result, even more stunning than it did in the European elections.”
He finished by saying: “It really is in their hands.”
It really is in their hands
Mr Farage was also asked if he was tasked with the job, how the UK can deliver Brexit “given the way Parliament is structured”.
He replied: “I think you had a clue what a brand new party, that was six weeks old, won the Elections getting 50 percent more votes than any other party. If I could do that with the Brexit Party in six weeks, it shows you what the potential is.
“There is no question that if we are going to leave on October 31, we need a leader who has got vision.
“A leader that says ‘the withdrawal agreement was rubbish, we are getting rid of it’, giving notice to Brussels, taking control of the negotiations, and making it clear, we are leaving on whatever terms they may be on October 31.
CRIMSON TAZVINZWA//’Brexit!’ – if it were a foolishly memorised moment/event of utter stupidity bordering on lunacy, it would be this one for me to be fair; it’s not ‘how high you can jump’/ except something else just as ordinary as it can be; thinking about it, even amoeba brains can easily cope with – given their capacity.
The story. Years ago when I was little – little over eleven; while my uncle Andrew and I were tending our grandfather’s cattle; he came up with a little quiz, a puzzle which he still tags genius to this day.
“Surely you cannot stand with your feet on the ground while hands in the air?” He queried me. Of course, as he said this, he points his head on the dirt bobbing … A prompt. A challenge?
“What? I exclaimed.
Do you see? I consider myself physically fit while nimble; agile and flexible, and have bespoke yoga routines at my place. And this little challenge was just but a spring walk in the park.
To demonstrate the feat I went with my hands ‘tot-like’ straight aimed for the ground with my legs shooting gracelessly into the air.
Seeing this Andrew broke into a guffaw; uncontrollable feats of laughter and shouting;
“I said you cannot stand on your feet not hands. You ‘doughnut’!
We all then laughed at my expense.
Farewell to the worst prime minister bar none – until the next one –
Polly Toynbee
US President Donald Trump asked Prime Minister May if she were confident and capable of negotiating a good deal for the United Kingdom; the president even went as far as offering some assist … reports say – Trump confirmed she declined the American leader at his offer; claiming outlandishly the process was in solid, good hands.’
In a scathing assessment thereafter, the US President said the Brexit process “should have gone smoothly” and that he hates to see Britain being “ripped apart”, as attempts by MPs to break the impasse ahead of the 29 March resulted in rescheduling/delay Article 50 of The Lisbon Treaty.
“I’m surprised at how badly it’s all gone from the standpoint of a negotiation, but I gave the Prime Minister my ideas on how to negotiate it and I think you would have been successful,” he told reporters during a White House press conference.
“[Theresa May] didn’t listen to that and that’s fine, I mean she’s got to do what she’s got to do, but I think it could have been negotiated in a different manner frankly.”
President Trump added that he did not believe a second referendum on whether to leave or remain in the EU was “possible” and that it would leave those who voted for Brexit in 2016 aggrieved.
“I hate to see everything being ripped apart right now,” he added.
“I don’t think another vote would be possible because it would be very unfair to the people that won. They’d say ‘what do you mean you’re going to take another vote?’, so that would be tough.
“But I thought [Brexit] would happen, it did happen and both sides are very, very cemented in so it’s a tough situation, it’s a shame, frankly it’s a shame.
“There was no reason for that to happen, they could have had the vote and it should have gone smoothly, unfortunately it didn’t.”
The commander-in-chief went on to suggest that an extension to Article 50 (already happened) was likely, adding: “Well I think they’re going to have to do something.
“Because right now they are in the midst of a very short period of time, the end of the month and they’re not going to be able to do that”.
Apparently, Trump was right all along; which tempts me to ask him if he thinks the ‘real deal’ happens during Prime Minister Theresa May’s Premiership tenure.
Theresa May has admitted the UK Government is “in crisis” as she prepares to write to European Council president Donald Tusk in relation to an extension of the Article 50 withdrawal process.
John Bercow provoked uproar at Westminster on Monday when he ruled that the Government could not bring the Prime Minister’s deal back for a third “meaningful vote” unless there were substantial changes.
May voiced her “absolute determination” that MPs should have another chance to vote on her Brexit deal, despite the bombshell intervention of the Commons Speaker.
May’s spokesman said the Prime Minister had made clear if her deal was voted down in the second “meaningful vote” – as happened last week – they would be “in crisis”.
He said events on Monday suggested “that situation has come to pass”.
The spokesman said that May would now be writing to European Council president Donald Tusk ahead of Thursday’s EU summit in Brussels in relation to an extension of the Article 50 withdrawal process.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “What you can see from the Prime Minister and her colleagues is an absolute determination to find a way in which Parliament could vote for the UK to leave the European Union with a deal.
“The Prime Minister has been very clear throughout that she wants that to happen as soon as possible.”
Nevertheless, there was said to concern among some ministers that Brexit appeared to be slipping away.
The Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom is understood to have told the meeting: “This used to be the Cabinet that would deliver Brexit and now from what I’m hearing it’s not.”
In a further blow to May, the government’s talks with the DUP, which has 10 lawmakers in parliament, have reportedly stalled and a breakthrough is unlikely at the moment.
The Prime Minister previously said if the deal was defeated in last week’s vote there would have to be an extended delay to Brexit, with the UK staging elections to the European Parliament in May.
However the spokesman said: “She has said in the House of Commons that she does not want there to be a long delay and that she believes asking the British public to take part in European elections three years after they voted to leave the EU would represent a failure by politicians.”
Downing Street confirmed discussions were continuing with the Democratic Unionist Party – which props up the Government at Westminster – in an effort to build support for the deal after last week’s 149-vote defeat.
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson – one of the most strident opponents of the Withdrawal Agreement – was also seen entering the Cabinet Office for talks.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “She is speaking with and having meetings with colleagues and a lot of those meetings have been focused on Brexit.”
Earlier, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay acknowledged Bercow’s ruling made it “more unlikely” there would be an attempt to stage another vote before May heads to Brussels, as No 10 had hoped.
However, he insisted that May’s agreement remained “the only deal on the table”.
“What we need to do is secure the deal,” he told Sky News.
“This is the only deal on the table. The EU is clear it is the only deal on the table. Business needs the certainty of this deal and it is time that Parliament comes together and gets behind it.”
While Bercow cited previous rulings dating back to the 17th century in his Commons statement, Barclay said he had previously made clear the House should not necessarily be bound by precedent.
“What the Speaker has said in his ruling is there needs to be something that is different. You can have the same motion but where the circumstances have changed,” he said.
“So we need to look at the details of the ruling, we need to consider that in the terms of earlier rulings that don’t particularly align with yesterday’s.
“The fact a number of Members of Parliament have said that they will change their votes points to the fact that there are things that are different.”
With less than two weeks before Britain is still formally due to leave on March 29, there was exasperation among leaders of the remaining EU 27 over the continued deadlock in Westminster.
Arriving for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Germany’s Europe minister Michael Roth said they needed “clear and precise proposals” from the UK regarding any Article 50 extension.
“Dear friends in London, please deliver. The clock is ticking,” he said.
“It’s not just a game. It’s an extremely serious situation.”
Meanwhile, Irish premier Leo Varadkar has held talks in Dublin with Tusk ahead of the Brussels summit.
The Irish government has been adamant it will not accept changes to the Northern Ireland backstop – intended to ensure there is no return of a hard border – which remains the main stumbling block to an agreement for many MPs.
