Same old, same old

Yesterday, Johnshon and Hunt debated each other live on ITV.

It is worth bearing in mind that voting papers were sent out over the weekend and many would have been completed upon receipt and sent back to Tory HQ.

And that, anyway, the party membership are overwhelmingly going to support Johnson, so the bebates matter little in the grand scheme of things, but do give an indication of the type of PM each would be.

Johnson failed to answer three key questions, dodging the difficult answers, and like the Kobayashi Maru scenario in Star Trek, the point is you have to make a decision, right or wrong, you cannot dither forever.

Dithering is why the UK is at the far end of Shit Creek right now, paddle-less and all at sea. Dithering might have been a good idea two years ago, but the country is now into extra time in Brexit, and will have to jump one way or another sooner or later. And the later that is left, the more severe the repercussions will be. As a country, as a part, as a Government, as a Cabinet, as a PM, the choice will have to be made between deal, no deal or no Brexit. Choosing one over the other two will upset two thirds of the party, Cabinet, Government, Parliament and country. But it will have to be done.

A PM who ducks the difficult decisions is pointless, as the clock will tick down anyway.

And when Johnson did answer, he lied. He said that the UK could "fix" the backstop during the transmission period. But, and this is basic Brexit stuff, without a backstop, there is no WA, and without a WA there is no transition. Go straight to no deal, do not pass go.

This is Brexit 101, and that hosts, journalists, rivals don't pick this stuff up is, well, beyond disappointing.

The Government's own figures on the cost of no deal Brexit is eye-watering. In terms of lost GDP, it will be between 5 and 10.3%, with an average of 7.7%. That is beyond a recession and into depression-like figures.

To finance that, the Government will have to borrow an extra £40 billion a year, or £770 a week. I don't remember seeing that written on the side of a red bus. And if we didn't want to add that to the national debt, then that would equate to a tax rise of 9 pence in the pound, for those that still had jobs, of course.

Meanwhile, Johnson still talks of poroguing Parliament so to stop either House stopping the process. Former PM, John Major, this morning promised to launch a Judicial Review on such advice if a Johnson lead Government were to offer that advice to the Queen. Remember that constitutional crisis I talked about earlier? Well, there is is.