Boris, Blunders and Battles Over Fish

 It's becoming difficult to say anything new about Boris Johnson. He is such a shambles of a prime minister, with such a lurid past, that his constant blunders attract adverse comment on a daily basis. The Daily Mirror has published a list of 25 such misdemeanours that  he has committed in the past year. As we hurtle towards a no-deal Brexit, we face the appalling prospect of the Royal Navy being deployed to defend our fishing grounds from French ships. Only a lunatic or a blimp could welcome that prospect. As Tobias Ellwood, Tory chair of the defence select committee, has said in The Guardian:

"...he (Ellwood) was concerned that the navy would be overstretched at a time when Russian submarines were increasingly operating around the UK. “Our adversaries will be smiling as the biggest European militaries spar against each other over fish.”

Mention of Russian submarines is very apt here, but we will come to that. For now, though, readers might like to know what Boris has put out on his Facebook page. It came as a surprise to learn that he had such a page; even more of a surprise that it accepted public comment. If you wish to read it, or pass comment, click on the link. Reading his latest post, you are left wondering if Boris knows what planet he inhabits. He says:

"We said we'd get Brexit done. We did, leaving the EU on 31st January this year. Whatever happens in trade talks with the EU, our new trading relationship will be in place from January 1st ... to build back better and stronger ... this Conservative government will double-down on the pledges we made to the people, the pledges we were elected on, to build a better country for everyone."

The Mirror comments here:

"The Prime Minister might yet get a Brexit trade deal with the EU at the last moment... the 11th-hour wrangling is hardly the image he projected when he pledged an “oven-ready” Brexit deal last year".

No surprise there, but there might be something else happening that is not drawing much attention. The "something else" relates to the owners of the submarines that Tobias Ellwood is so concerned about - the Russian government. By happy coincidence, the anti-Fascist magazine, "Searchlight", has just put out its latest edition, in which we find a section called "Russia Traffic" which exposes links between the present government and Russia. I already had some idea of these links, but this report reveals more. The author, Searchlight editor, Gerry Gable, says:

"Johnson will find it difficult to set aside the overwhelming evidence of Russian influence that presents a dangerous challenge to our democracy"

We learn that Boris himself is named after a Russian émigré that his parents knew. He has received support from several  Russian oligarchs friendly with Putin. These include Alexander Temerko, Alexander Lebedev and his son, Evgeny, who owns The Independent and Evening Standard. When Johnson was Mayor of London, he was planning to hold secret talks with some unsavoury Russian figures in Moscow and Switzerland.

Among other individuals with Russian links named in the article is none other than Carrie Symonds, Johnson's fiancé. Two of her former boyfriends, Oliver Haiste (a man with far-Right connections)and Harry Cole have well-documented links with Moscow. All very cosy, of course. Johnson is on record as telling the Mayor of Moscow in 2008 that he has "many happy memories of Moscow". It looks like he is not alone in this. There are others named in the article, which makes it worth reading.

The article goes on to say that the official government response to the "Russia Report", published in July, is very evasive about Russian influence on the government itself. It is also noteworthy that Boris made strenuous efforts to appoint Chris (Failing) Grayling as head of the Intelligence and Security Committee, but failed. One wonders if Johnson was expecting Grayling to keep the report secret - "in the public interest", of course.

If President Putin is happy to see two NATO countries at odds, he could not have better placed agents to help him achieve it.

Spot the turkey...