,
13 tweets,
3 min read
Read on Twitter
Johnson up in Commons. Chamber weirdly half-full and muted - perhaps in deference to John Bercow, who’s lost his voice. Not sure if I can last more than a few minutes of this but here we go
PM says he cares deeply about GFA, even though he once compared a border which killed 3000 people to boundaries of two London boroughs. Then claims he wants to uphold all existing areas of cooperation, even though his proposal junks all-Ireland economy. He doesn’t give a damn.
Says, with a straight face, that he has shown ‘flexibility’, and threatens EU with no-deal if they don’t show such flexibility - as though Northern Irish lives and peace are somehow comparable to Johnson’s desire to strike a trade deal with New Zealand. This is sick.
Corbyn correctly notes that while gov initially promised no borders, now it promises two. Further notes that the proposal is a cynical attempt to deflect blame for the inevitable failure on EU. Asks whether PM will obey the law. Take a step back and reflect how shocking that is.
Only good thing I can think of is that Johnson is delivering his remarks soberly and respectfully, and at a considerably less breakneck pace than yesterday, as though he might actually be in the House of Commons and not the Oxford Union in 1986
But Johnson still can’t confirm that he will obey the actual law and prevent medicine shortages as parliament has decreed - so there’s that.
Jo Swinson notes genuine fear of people on Northern Ireland border and asks him to actually go there and talk to them. He responds with whataboutery on a Lib Dem letter to Juncker. To repeat for those at the back: he doesn’t give a fuck about Northern Ireland or its people.
Tory benches still only half-full for a major address by the PM. Am I missing something? This is weird.
.@Anna_Soubry hits the nail on the head when she notes Johnson has struck a deal not with the EU but with the ERG and DUP. It’s all that needs to be said.
Sylvia Hermon is searing. Accuses Johnson of not understanding NI, notes the DUP don’t represent NI, points out NI voted Remain, and demands to know how the imposition of two borders will help anyone. Johnson is polite but of course he has no answer to any of it.
Tory MPs’ delusion is stratospheric and unchanging. They hear what they want to hear, ignoring EU’s objections and EU’s leverage, asserting we’ll get what we want because we’ve ‘compromised’. It’s all we’ve heard for 2.5 years. The déjà-vu is palpable and depressing.
PM still offers next to nothing to EU, still talks only to a domestic audience, still implicitly promises to break law to take us out on 31 Oct. Johnson can be as polite as he likes but when it comes to it, all we need is the mantra of Theresa May: nothing has changed.
And with that I’m off to scribble some words about how shit he is.
