Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Josquius]

I look forward to the inevitable faux-John Lewis christmas ad on this story.

[Tonitrus]

Meanwhile, in 'Merican coverage of UK politics...

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/28/uk/tony-blair-mullet-interview-scli-gbr-intl/index.html

Tony Blair has a mullet now, and it's disturbing Britain

[Sheilbh]

I look forward to the inevitable faux-John Lewis christmas ad on this story.

Their social media team has been enjoying this:

John Lewis & Partners
@JohnLewisRetail
20h
Phew, the John Lewis social team have just finished an all day brainstorming session to find ways for people to talk about us on Twitter..... Have we missed anything?

John Lewis & Partners
@JohnLewisRetail
3h
Time for an interiors refresh?
We pride our Home Design Service on having something for *almost* everyone 

John Lewis & Partners
@JohnLewisRetail
1h
Good thing we have a recycling service for old pre-loved furniture

[Sheilbh]

Meanwhile, in 'Merican coverage of UK politics...

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/28/uk/tony-blair-mullet-interview-scli-gbr-intl/index.html

Tony Blair has a mullet now, and it's disturbing Britain

First of all - that's not a mullet. Mullet is short at the sides and possibly on top but long at the back

Twitter had a very fun day coming up with captions (including the LBJ post-presidency comparisons). I think my favourite was "Tony Blair, who led three separate countries to Africa Cup of Nations Glory 1988-2010"

[Richard Hakluyt]

I expect to see Gove and Sunak pictured in impeccably middle-middle class interiors very soon. Gove might even live like that anyway for all I know, Sunak can buy one made-to-measure out of his petty cash.

[Duque de Bragança]

Meanwhile, in 'Merican coverage of UK politics...

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/28/uk/tony-blair-mullet-interview-scli-gbr-intl/index.html

Tony Blair has a mullet now, and it's disturbing Britain

First of all - that's not a mullet. Mullet is short at the sides and possibly on top but long at the back

This demands a mullet poll! Mullet means party in the back and (possibly?) sides business in the front. 
As for the sides, it's cut, not combed over à la Patrick Swayze in Road House. 

[The Brain]

Does CNN ever fact-check their stories?

[Jacob]

Some details of individual costs are emerging, wallpaper at £840 a roll for example.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/27/drafted-in-to-say-nothing-about-anything-therese-coffey-finds-her-forte

This will go down badly.

They can't even say that "Corbyn would have been even worse" on this occasion; everyone knows that Corbyn would just have put up a poster of Che Guevara (costing a mere £10) and that would have been that.

The Che Guevara image is free for use (but not licensed for commercial products), so Corbyn could've gotten the poster for the cost of printing. Alternately, he could've spend several thousand dollars for a fancy licensed print from the artist (which could've turned into a scandal after all).

Che Guevara Poster Print
In 1967 I was outraged by the manner of Che Guevara's execution while a prisoner of war in Bolivia and it led me to create this now world-famous image.

I have now also made this image available for free download so that it can be used by everyone -including those who cannot afford my prints or canvas of El Che: the unemployed, the oppressed, the victims of banker-imposed austerity here in Ireland, the EU and elsewhere, those who fight against the legal/political elite and the corrupt banker cartels who think they rule us -and those who rage against injustice.

This image is yours. Use it!

No resale or commercial usage please -it has been exploited enough.

LEGAL NOTICE: Please remember I do NOT ever license this image for commercial usage.

https://jimfitzpatrick.com/product-category/che-guevara-poster-print/


... also, it seems a missed opportunity for languish not to have a Che emoticon.

[Jacob]

Yeah that's not a mullet even remotely. It's just long hair brushed back.

[Maladict]

Meanwhile, in 'Merican coverage of UK politics...

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/28/uk/tony-blair-mullet-interview-scli-gbr-intl/index.html

Tony Blair has a mullet now, and it's disturbing Britain

I think it's a nod to Alan B'Stard. RIP

[Syt]

 

[Sheilbh]

Early favourite for new DUP leader and First Minister is Edwin Poots who is hardline on social issues and Brexit. He's a young earth creationist who's against almost every piece of gay rights legislation and abortion. It really is a very different country in many ways

He's also been the Agriculture Minister in Northern Ireland so responsible for a lot of the implementation of the NIP - which, broadly, he has resisted. Every step he fights for example stopping hiring staff for the BCPs. This has led to a tonne of correspondence between him and the UK agriculture ministry setting out his responsibilities for practically implementing a lot of these measures which they "look to you to do without delay". Basically he's either not done what's set out in the NIP and to the extent he has, he's made sure there's an extensive paper trail of London ordering him to do it. I suspect a lot of that was precisely because he was expecting a leadership run and, despite running a very implicated department, can have clean hands on Brexit.

I feel/hope that he might be too extreme on social issues even for the DUP - if not, I wonder if it will prompt a re-alignment of unionism to create a more modern/socially progressive strand of unionism.

[Sheilbh]

Papers aren't great for Johnson - my favourite front page:


The Mail taking credit and naming it Wallpapergate (I personally preferred cash for cushions):


Meanwhile the Star is continuing to always put Johnson (Bozo) in a clown costume as they have for the last year:


Edit: The Star's cut out fancy wallpaper


Edit: And the only Tory MP on Newsnight tonight was Andrew Bridgen. Again it feels bad when the only person the PM can get to defend him on TV is a sub-Mark Francois backbench MP.

[Sheilbh]

Boris Johnson's latest press availability where he says this is all a flap about nothing and that he loves John Lewis

Kate McCann
@KateEMcCann
In the latest PM clip Boris Johnson says he loves John Lewis and it's the 'one thing in all of this' that annoys him. Pressed on the claims over flat refurb and Electoral Commission investigation he said "I don't think there's anything to see here or anything to worry about"

This is entering into Emily Thornberry in Rochester territory, with stories like this:

Ed Miliband on relating to working-class voters: 'I feel respect when I see a white van'

Edit:

I expect to see Gove and Sunak pictured in impeccably middle-middle class interiors very soon. Gove might even live like that anyway for all I know, Sunak can buy one made-to-measure out of his petty cash.

Speaking of this - a Daily Mail story today:

Chancellor Rishi Sunak redecorated his Downing Street flat 'entirely at his own expense', Treasury reveals

Edit: And, inevitably, we're at the Keir Starmer visiting John Lewis to look at wallpaper stage of things:

[Tamas]

OMG 127 thousand deaths, who knows how many contracts given to chums, Northern Ireland in flames, but its not finding John Lewis posh enough that's going to be Boris's downfall