What's Happened

What the hell has happened to us as a nation when a serial liar who doesn't exhibit a single, traditional, Conservative value is feted as a Messiah by many Conservatives who have quite obviously shut off their moral compasses; when the opinion of experts is derided as fake news; when palpable lies that can be debunked by a simple Google search are believed by people who are normally quite rational; when truth and fact elicit vicious invective and death threats; when the independent judiciary and politicians doing their job of scrutinising domestic policy in the interests of the country are excoriated as traitors by the right-wing press barons with vested interests?

It's as if we've gone back to Renaissance Florence when Savonarola held his Bonfire of the Vanities. It's a dark carnival - a Masque of the Red Death, an exemplar of The Emperor's New Clothes. It's madness.

When questioned in an interview about the alleged groping incident, Boris responded with, "I think what the public really want to hear about is...," and went on to wax lyrical about buses, roads, police, hospitals, etc. I guess that's why the News of the World was the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world at the time of its demise - it focused on nothing but buses, roads, police.... People do actually want to hear about his scandals, especially as he's our PM.

With a projected 6~9% reduction in GDP associated with a hard Brexit (that's an IMF estimate, and the IMF has a habit of being optimistic when compared with what actually happened), where the hell is all this money going to come from? 6% of GDP is £126bn - per year. At least Corbyn's spending promises will be based on remaining in the EU. However, you can bet your bottom dollar that the Conservatives will deride any Corbyn spending as unaffordabe. Conservative election promises, or lies? Given Boris' track record as a proven serial liar, I'd say the latter.

As regard all the bellicosity being exhibited by Boris, I think that's all bluster - he's not renowned for being an offensive prat (an incompetent prat, yes). However, you have to consider that Boris has no option but to out-Farage Farage - regardless of what his actual opinion is or what he intends to do, as he can't afford to split the Leave vote if he's to save the Conservative Party. His problem is that he's splitting and alienating the moderate Conservatives, as evidenced by the number of his own MPs who are prepared to vote against him. He's treading a very precarious path.

I was listening to the Eddie Mair Show on LBC yesterday and the results of a poll were read out. The survey was by YouGov for Santander of 1,000 British businesses with international trading links.

• 71% trade with Europe. 
• 63% have reported a material negative impact of Brexit.
• 1/3rd of businesses are not prepared. 
• 44% started trading in new markets - it must be remembered that a number of these markets have existing EU FTAs, which will be lost on a hard Brexit.
• Businesses don’t want to be forced to choose between EU and non-EU.
• 47% will hire new staff.
• 50% aim to reduce cost. 
• 33% will be laying off staff 
• Business confidence is well down from last survey.

I can't find the survey yet on the YouGov site, but will keep an eye out for it. You can, however, listen to the item on LBC Catch Up - it's in the last 5 minutes.