Here’s a collage of two of them…
Except the one on the right was very successful in his field.
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“Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the single market”. Daniel Hannan, 12/5/15.
“The day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want”. Michael Gove, 9/4/16.
“British people will still be able to go and work in the EU; to live; to travel; to study; and buy homes and settle down. There will continue to be free trade and access to the single market”. Boris Johnson, 26/6/16.
“Getting out of the EU can be quick and easy - the UK holds most of the cards”. John Redwood, 17/7/16.
“There will be no downside to Brexit, only a considerable upside”. David Davis, 10/10/16.
“The free trade agreement that we will have to do with the European Union should be one of the easiest in human history”. Liam Fox, 20/7/17.
“Most of the EU states are very sympathetic to our view”. David Davis, 15/5/17.
“I believe that we can get a free trade and customs agreement concluded before March 2019”. David Davis, 18/1/17.
“Within two years, before the negotiation with the EU is likely to be complete, and therefore before anything material has changed, we can negotiate a free trade area massively larger than the EU … The new trade agreements will come into force at the point of exit, but they will be fully negotiated”. David Davis, 14/7/16.
“There is no plan for no deal, because we’re going to get a great deal”. Boris Johnson, 11/7/17.
“But we didn’t vote to leave without a deal. That wasn’t the message of the campaign I helped lead. During that campaign, we said we should do a deal with the EU and be part of the network of free trade deals that covers all Europe, from Iceland to Turkey. Leaving without a deal on March 29 would not honour that commitment. It would undoubtedly cause economic turbulence.” Michael Gove, 3/3/19.
“I’ve looked carefully at ‘no deal’. That outcome would be a failure of statecraft”, Boris Johnson, 9/9/19.
"I can indeed assure the hon. Lady that there will be no crashing out, because we will negotiate a great new friendship and partnership within the timescale. I know that hon. Members on both sides of the House have every confidence in the Government to do that. " Boris Johnson, 22/10/19.
“We have an ‘oven ready’ deal, let’s put it in the microwave, as soon as we get back after the election on 12 December." Boris Johnson, 31/10/19.
“Our deal is the only one on the table. It is signed, sealed and ready. It puts the whole country on a path to a new free trade agreement with the EU. This will be a new relationship based on free trade and friendly cooperation” Conservative Party Manifesto, 24/11/19.
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Great list Geof, but how come Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail readers can’t see that? I’m sure there’s some psychological explanation about it being difficult to admit you’ve been a complete and utter idiot led by the nose by unscrouplous liars. But how long does this denial last for? Indefinitely?
I just posted you list into the comments on the Torygraph. Let’s see home long it lasts.
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Unfortunately some of those “promises” were not promises at all - the problem being that the average punter does not have the intellect and the scepticism to look through the words.
E.g.
Technically this is true - Johnson, if he is good at anything, is good at choosing language that appears to say one thing, but actually says something else, or nothing at all, in which case what is unsaid is normally more important than what is said.
In this case it leans towards nothing at all - of course we can still do all of these things. What was unsaid was that they will be much less easily and with a lot more paperwork - to the point that many will be prevented from doing them at all.
Fox has recently sought to defend this comment based on the conditional “should”, in this case don’t buy it - it was never going to be easy. Normally trade agreements seek to increase alignment between two markets, the UK-EU FTA specifically seeks to allow divergence and, in this sense, is unique; hardly surprising that it has proven difficult.
I’m not sure how to deal with this and similar comments, was it a lie, or was it delusion? It was, however, clear that it was incompatible with the contemporaneous claim that we would “control our borders” and “control our laws”. In fact this incompatibility, as much as any vested interest, that persuaded me that a Leave vote was to vote for the unknown (and, on that basis, unwise).
Again, insertion of that word “believe”, providing a get out clause.
In some ways this embodies the whole problem with Brexit - the self-delusion and refusal to face reality that has characterised the whole debate.
We now face the logical conclusion of all of this - that no version of Brexit could satisfy all parties so we have been driven inexorably to the worst possible version - the failure of political process and negotiation.
I think no-deal is going to be quite a shock to the UK - if only because it changes our trading position overnight, itself a destabilising change even if, had we never been in the EU we would ultimately be fine outside the SM and CU.
The important thing in the short term is that the apportioning of blame is reliable in identifying the real culprits and that people do not think it is all the EU’s fault, or the fault of Remainers, or Theresa May for not being “robust” enough. There will be a concerted campaign to deflect blame from the Tories, Farage, Cummings and all the other protagonists of the Leave campaign.
Unfortunately, as we saw with the referendum campaign itself - these people are better at manipulating the media than we are.
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I want to like your comment and it is great how you and @Geof_Cox have laid all this out. I can’t like it though as sadly it accurately describes a complete horror show led by gurning idiots.
See photo below of the person elected to lead the country. Still if you haven’t yet read it at least Marina Hyde is on hand to cheer us up.
The absurdity of this is of course that the talks have to continue beyond the end of the year, even with ‘no-deal’ planes will still fly back and forth to the UK and ferries will still run for at least six months until some sort of long term arrangement is made. Today is just yet another deadline that will just melt away to be followed by the next one etc, etc.
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Article is behind a paywall…
Is it? Sorry. I did mention here or on some other thread that I’m investing in a £2 a month basic subscription so that I can outrage myself and feel superior every now and then.
Why not take out a month’s free trial (if they have one). The comments over the next month will be hilarious. I’d share my password on here but I’ve used my real name and I’d be afraid someone might post a comment even more outrageous than I do (or worse still, conciliatory) and ruin my rep 
The misguided passion of Telegraph commentators is funny (and tragic). It give excellent insight as to how Johnson and his pals lies have stuck. The current consensus seems to be that big, brave, about to take on the World Britain is being bullied. My latest contributions have focussed how, if Johnson can’t handle a friendly EU, he will fare with the US (under Biden and Pelosi) and China.
There was no comment on Geof’s list before I went to bed last night (I think it was too factual for them) and I’m going to have to work myself up to having a peek later today. It’s a bit like opening an old tin of paint and getting a surprise because it’s full of spiders.
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Trouble is they wear blinkers so tight fitting, your words and sentiments may be quite incomprehensible to them. Good sport though.
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In days gone by I used to get a paper copy from time to time as so e of the journalism was very good. But I don’t want to boost their subscriber numbers…
Oh I know Michael. They are resolute.
I like your avatar. My daughter (age 30¼) and I (67½) love Gromit. My wife (classified) and I had our photo taken with Shaun the Sheep in land’s End in 2017. Possibly the highlight of our trip 
We also stayed in the pub in Doc Martin’s village (unknowingly). Our thirst for culture is insatiable
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In the case of no-deal I thought that the EU was going to fall back on the unilateral measures that had already been announced, which were quite restrictive IIRC
Let’s face it - for too many years the British people have been woefully ill-served in the quality of politicians, of all complexions, inflicted upon us. I see no-one, anywhere, with anything resembling the qualities of leadership, wisdom and statesmanship needed to square this mess…
Where’s Batman when you need him? 
There are decent ones, the problem is that the Tory Party don’t want them any more, so they have banished them.
We will to see how Keir Starmer gets on.
I agree that talks will likely not be turned off by the EU. But the EU’s unilateral mitigation measures, for planes for example, require the UK to make reciprocal arrangements.
You think that only the UK has suffered from poor leadership for years?
No, I didn’t say that. However, it’s their performance that affects me more than other nations’ politicians.
So you don’t live here then?
Yes. My income, and my childrens’ and grandchildrens’ welfare in the UK, depend entirely on the performance of the UK Govt, so I naturally have an interest in matters there. I have an interest in matters here, too but don’t feel the need to comment or make comparisons about them in this thread.
Do you always infer negatively about any comment made here, I wonder?
Just want some balance on a forum that should primarily be about France. I too have income, family and friends in the UK but Mr Macron and the French government control my day to day life so I’m more concerned about the decisions they make rather than those made by Boris Johnson.
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