Johnson told The Daily Telegraph that the prospects of a year-end deal to avoid an abrupt Brexit separation "are very good if everybody just exercises some common sense and looks at the deal that is there to be done". But the strongly eurosceptic Daily Express accused MPs of voting "to betray Brexit" and called Tuesday's vote "another shameful day in our so-called democracy". Brexit talks to continue as Johnson and EU agree to 'go the extra mile' – The Guardian NEWS | 12/13/2020 1:38:18 PM GMT | By Dhwani Mehta Given the ferocity of the emotions that Brexit will always arouse, this deal may prove a much bigger risk than anyone, including Johnson, yet realises. This article is more than 2 months old. Move threatens to collapse talks that PM has said must be completed within weeks. In thrall to a Brexit ideology that despises expertise, Johnson and Cummings were bound to botch the pandemic response, Last modified on Fri 2 Oct 2020 16.29 EDT. Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist. Boris Johnson ‘a clown’ with no diplomacy skills, says ex-deputy in diaries Published: 7:00 AM For Alex Salmond and his new Alba party, the prospects are not looking good (There can surely be no other explanation for that one.). (BBC) he serial incompetence of Boris Johnson’s government is not an accident. The Brexit … The serial incompetence of Boris Johnson’s government is not an accident. That’s why this government has room for Gavin Williamson and Dominic Raab, but cast out the likes of David Gauke and Dominic Grieve. Why might that be? It may look like haplessness, but that is to mistake the symptom for the cause. "Humiliation for Johnson as Tory rebels turn against him," read the front page of the left-wing Guardian newspaper, while The Independent wrote: "Johnson loses control". That problem has been partially fixed now, but it was par for what has been a very bumpy course. 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An app with NHS branding all over it would only accept results done outside the NHS, by private, outsourced companies. Even the prime minister’s admirers don’t pretend that he’s a details man, across policy and process. Perhaps that’s an easy mistake to make, considering the ever-shifting nature of the advice, best captured by that short video of Matt Lucas channelling the PM as he tells Britons, “Go to work, don’t go to work. The European Union is preparing to offer Boris Johnson, the favourite to be Britain's next prime minister, a no-deal Brexit extension beyond Oct. 31, the Guardian newspaper reported on Friday. Boris Johnson has given the green light for pubs, shops, hairdressers and gyms to reopen across England from next Monday, Your support powers our independent journalism, Available for everyone, funded by readers, Boris Johnson has not said how soon campuses in England can fully reopen, Prime minister says easyJet boss right to ask whether it would be possible to use lateral flow tests for some returning travellers, Exclusive: equality campaigners say review downplays discrimination faced by minority communities, The UK government is planning to offer millions of free rapid Covid tests, twice weekly, for everyone in England, PM says pubs, hairdressers, shops and gyms can open, but resumption of foreign travel next month remains in doubt. Put aside the reflexive sexism and absorb a work ethic so lax it regards Notting Hill’s king of chillax as a relentless Stakhanovite. “Johnson’s handling of Brexit has been disastrous and these reckless comments are just further evidence of his incompetence,” the Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said, as reported by The Guardian. It has revealed both for what they are. It was scrapped in June after trials found it didn’t work, and relaunched last week – only for it to be exposed as carrying a pretty major bug. Cummings poses as the great libertarian decentraliser, but because he trusts no one but himself and his handpicked circle, he centralises ever more power to himself and what one insider calls “his spad boys in No 10”. Johnson and Cummings were bound to botch the pandemic response. But this is not just bad luck, an unfortunate coincidence that saw a global health crisis collide with a set of ministers sadly unsuited to the task. It turned out that users of the NHS Covid-19 app who had been tested in NHS hospitals couldn’t enter their results. Johnson has assembled a team of social conservatives and Brexit hardliners who argue that leaving the EU after 46 years without an agreement will be less painful than economists warn. Determined to rid the party of its historic association with economic failure, culminating in the IMF bailout and the “winter of discontent”, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown prized efficiency – sometimes to a fault – promoting the quiet and technocratic over the loud and inspiring. “At the heart of the project,” says one Conservative former minister, “is this insurgent, anti-government, anti-establishment zeal, but guess what: you can’t govern if you don’t believe in government.”. This article is more than 2 months old. So this government will keep messing up, of course it will. Covid has ripped the mask off the man who leads it and exposed its driving purpose. But Brexit plays a deeper role than mere loyalty test. Governments don’t just happen to be incapable – or capable, for that matter. Brexit: Johnson, then and now, in the press; ... he had been to a different event from the one we were at,” former German TV correspondent Rolf-Dieter Krause told the Guardian. Early Tuesday morning in Asian, The Guardian releases a news report quoting a well-informed EU source that mentions the bloc leaders’ refrain from renegotiating the Brexit … Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist, ‘Even Boris Johnson’s admirers don’t pretend that he’s a details man, across policy and process.’. Recall last year’s revelation of a scribbled note referring to his predecessor as “girly swot Cameron”. 14.50 EST. The approach of a Brexit deadline in confusion and crisis is … They’re in thrall to a Brexit ideology that despises expertise, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland On the contrary, if you want competence, competence has to be prized. Oh, just a joke, said his friends. Mr. Johnson, having threatened to do exactly that — and having distanced himself so thoroughly from his predecessor — has given himself the political space with Brexit … Boris Johnson tells UK: prepare for a no-deal Brexit (Guardian) UK PM Johnson says it's time to prepare for no-trade deal Brexit (Reuters) What is a 'Canada-style' trade deal? Brown apart, its longest-serving cabinet minister was Alistair Darling, never happier than when making no news. But the world where we took such things for granted is not the one into which we now gingerly emerge. Reminders of our rulers’ clumsiness arrive with such regularity that it’s easy to become inured. But it hardly excuses the repeating pattern of errors that has blighted the government’s response to coronavirus from the start. For Dominic Cummings in particular always conceived this mission as less about breaking from the European Union than remaking the British state. How would a UK traffic light system for international travel work? All institutions ultimately reflect the personality and priorities of the person in charge, governments especially. The Guardian view on the dash for a deal. The infinite patience of EU negotiators never flags, as they wait for him to succumb to the inevitable, like adults waiting for a child having a tantrum to calm down. In the interview, Johnson sought to portray the deal as the ultimate conclusion of Margaret Thatcher’s 1988 speech in Bruges, in which she railed against the idea of a “European superstate”, calling Thatcher’s address “prophetic”. Take the last Labour government, particularly in its first term. We are grateful for small emancipations, counting the days to shopping and beer gardens. Out would go the elitist experts – who, as Cummings’ first patron, Michael Gove, memorably remarked, the country had had enough of – and in would come a gang of anarchistic tech-wizards armed with supercomputers and reams of data. Editorial. For this is the defining ethos of the Cummings-Johnson, Brexit administration: to purge expertise and tear down what works. Editorial – The Guardian. Joseph Edmund Johnson, Baron Johnson of Marylebone (born 23 December 1971) is a British politician who served as Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation from July to September 2019, as well as previously from 2015 to 2018. The European Union on Sunday rejected an incendiary claim by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the bloc is plotting to destabilise the UK as another week of Brexit … A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Orpington from 2010 to 2019.His older brother, Boris Johnson, has … Boris Johnson has formally signed the EU withdrawal agreement, smiling as he described it as a “fantastic moment” for the country. Instead this government’s ineptitude is a function of both the character of the man at the top and the defining creed of his administration. The result is that the UK has managed to score a rare double: notching up the highest death toll in Europe along with the severest economic slump in the world. This week we had the prime minister “misspeak” as he botched an attempt to explain the new regulations imposed by the government he leads. The mantra of the age was “what works”. Britain is heading into a new chapter in its relationship with the rest of Europe with Boris Johnson vowing to pit the country against the EU in a race for economic success.. After nine months of tortuous talks, a Brexit deal was secured at 1.44pm GMT on Christmas Eve, avoiding a no-deal exit from the transition period with just a week to go. One only has to survey the cabinet to see that he rates fidelity to Brexit as a greater virtue than even rudimentary aptitude. Luckily, Johnson has his enemies within the present, largely godforsaken, Conservative-Brexit party and this remark was immediately leaked. Even … Boris Johnson may drag out his excruciating psychodrama a few days longer, postponing the moment his Brexit is exposed as a sham. You’ll recall the contact-tracing app that Matt Hancock hailed as a crucial weapon in the fight against the pandemic. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Still, Johnson’s character surely matters less than the animating project of his government: Brexit. Instead this government’s ineptitude is a function of both the character of the man at the top and the defining creed of his administration. The Guardian view on Boris Johnson in Brussels: not to be trusted. The Red Wall test: Labour fights to regain trust in its heartland. The comments came ahead of a videoconference with von der Leyen to take stock of progress made in the latest round of talks. One colleague says of Johnson’s earlier spell as the capital’s mayor: “He was basically chaotic, shagging his way around London, writing articles,” leaving the actual work to his staff. What does ‘returning to normal' mean with a prime minister like Boris Johnson? The proof is the six Whitehall permanent secretaries driven out this year, or the never-ending efforts to hobble the BBC. No wonder Britain has failed to get a functioning test-and-trace system in place while the data and decision-making is jealously hoarded at the centre, rather than allowed to sit with those on the spot. The result is not just incompetence but also a curious contradiction. All rights reserved. One should never forget that, among all his many qualities, Johnson is a compulsive political risk-taker. His enthusiasm came in sharp contrast to the sombre tone of EU officials, who earlier added their signatures to the document before it crossed the Channel. Boris Johnson broke rules by criticising Sadiq Khan, says Labour, Ben Jennings on the Tories’ flag-waving distraction from Covid toll – cartoon, UK Covid: Van-Tam says AstraZeneca vaccine’s risk v benefit is finely balanced for younger people – as it happened. Johnson’s administration places no such premium on good governance. The Guardian - The pandemic has been going on long enough that it makes little sense to speak of a return to normal. That’s why its choice to head parliament’s intelligence and security committee was Chris Grayling. First, look to the top. Prime Minister Boris Johnson headed to Brussels on Wednesday, with hopes for a post-Brexit trade deal hanging on crisis talks with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday vowed to go the "extra mile" for a Brexit trade deal but instructed his government to prepare for Britain to … Opinion Brexit. Brexit: Boris Johnson to override EU withdrawal agreement. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday said Brexit was a "massive economic opportunity" but had been treated under his predecessor Theresa May … For Boris Johnson, 31 October is a sacred date, beyond which Britain must not still be a member of the EU.But before 31 October, there was 12 April, and 29 March before that. It may look like haplessness, but that is to mistake the symptom for the cause. Go outside, don’t go outside.”. Instead of cherishing the experienced public servants the nation needs to get us through this crisis, it regards them as the “enemy within”, who will face a “hard rain”. From those critical seven days that were wasted before a clearly inevitable national lockdown was imposed in March – a delay that Prof Neil Ferguson, then on the Sage committee, estimates to have cost 20,000 lives – to the multimillion-pound contracts handed to pals to supply PPE that turned out to be useless against Covid, Johnson and his team have blundered at every turn. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet EU chiefs by video link Monday to try to breathe new life into stalled post-Brexit trade talks, with both sides entrenched in long-held positions.