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Andy Gregory
17 June 2020 15:10
48 minutes ago
Boris Johnson to spend nearly 1m on turning 'Brexit jet' red white and blue
The RAF Voyager aircraft, which is currently a shade of grey, is being refurbished at an airport in Cambridge, our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports.
Downing Street say the final cost of the rebrand, designed to promote the UK around the world, will be around 900,000. Opposition MPs accused the prime minister of an utterly unacceptable use of public funds.
The move comes two years after Mr Johnson questioned the colour of the Voyager and said he needed his own plane to aid the UKs post-Brexit trade deals.
Get Brexit Jet Done!
I will regret saying this - but the 2019 General Election saw just 67.3% of the electorate vote - and of those under 46% supported parties that wanted to 'get Brexit done'. No doubt Brexit was the biggest single issue in the election - and most parties (not Labour) had a clear and partisan position, but it wasn't the only issue. It was not a new referendum, despite attempts to portray it as such.
Your last sentence has surely been lifted from the Daily Express? A strange mixture of naivety, British exceptionalism and victimhood.
Brexit has to be a higher priority, surely?
We're talking about something affecting the entire nation for the long term against a relatively short term pandemic. Yes, deaths are obviously sad but no government can just drop everything and focus solely on the pandemic. End up with a massive backlog of things to then do afterwards.
They are getting through the really important stuff pretty quickly - repainting the Prime Minister's plane (900k and rising), abolishing the Dept of International Development, and claiming that no one in government knew anything about the case for extending kids' food vouchers into the summer holidays until Matt Hancock tripped over a 'Daniel' Rashford tweet yesterday! Impressive stuff!
Meanwhile.
Health minister says NHS coronavirus contact-tracing app is "not a priority" and he is not sure it will be out by winter https://t.co/ysv6zaMS4E
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) June 17, 2020
You can argue however you like about the 2019 election. All who were entitled to vote could have. Everyone knew the rules, a lot decided not to vote, maybe because they didn't care. Who will ever know.
But we live in a democracy, although some might prefer a benevolent autocracy, but glad to say that's not in place just yet.
If we forget Brexit will it bring the 50,00 back? If it did Id go for it.
But it won't. You write as if its a choice ..either or...Of course it's not. Both things need to be managed
And do you really think more time and effort recently has been spent on Brexit than Covid?
Frankly I find it astonishing that people are comparing Brexit to the virus and arguing that the former is an equal, or even higher, priority - 50,000, probably more, have died and who knows how many more could do, that should be the priority while there is not a vaccine or a treatment available that greatly reduces the number of fatalities.-
You are absolutely right and thats an indication of just how stupid the British public is, unfortunately.
I think Im right in saying you voted for Brexit, and then for Boris and his cabinet of fools. Indeed, wed almost certainly never have had the latter without the former, so well done you. Good choices. Its all working out so well.
Nobody will ever know if another PM would have been our saviour but what we do know for certain is that this Johnson bloke is a complete failure, we’ve nothing else to go on but I reckon we have the knowledge that it would be damn hard for anyone in the hot seat to be any worse, the evidence is plain to see.
If you voted brexit then you might aswell have voted Tory anyway, the Tories played on this slim majority to great affect to win the election. Turning over labour strongholds who decided they wanted brexit so turned. Which is why I voted to remain and didn’t bother for the election, it was a forgone conclusion....I guess you reap what you sow.
Is this the public totally aware that a pandemic was coming or a different one? The government has the opportunity to focus on the health and economic consequences of the virus but has decided to maintain the position that it will leave the transition period as planned with or without a deal. I guess you are comfortable with that but many others think it's a fools errand.
The government could extend for a year, two, three or more and you would want another extension after that no doubt. Because the EU would be quite happy to string us along for as long as it takes for us to submit. Negotiations need deadlines, and sometimes there is no point in extending them.
With or without the pandemic the EU stance has not changed, Barnier is talking in the same tones as he was when Theresa May was floundering
EU seems determined, even at this stage, to read us like a colonial outback, subservient to them and their laws.
Which laws are so important to you that can't take a back seat to managing the health and economic impacts of Covid without layering the impacts of ending the transition period?