#dimdom

The Foreign Secretary clearly isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he might have shown just how useless he really is.

Yesterday he made a statement that the EU is forcing a border down the Irish Sea.

This regulatory border is what Boris Johnson agreed with the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, the Northern Ireland Protocol, as part of the Withdrawal Agreement in October 2019.

This has always been the case, and it was pointed out that this was the case in the run up to the December election that year, that Johnson's "over-ready" deal actually broke the UK single market.

That was denied by Johnson and even the Minister of Northern Ireland was denying in January of this year that there was a border in the Irish Sea, even as infrastructure was being built to facilitate this.

What I find astinishing is that this is clearly the case, and yet it is repeated breathlessly by the BBC and compliant print media what Raab ssaid, not what the actual facts were.

DAG blogged yesterday about the Geneva Convention on Cnventions, and the very first line mentions "good faith". In Raab's case it is easy to think he is as stupid as he looks, that he did not know what he voted to support as a member of the Cabinet and in the Lobby in January this year when the TCA was ratified, or a year ealier when the WAB was passed.

We have to come to the conclusion that either Johnson, Raab et all either were too stupid to understand what they agreed to or intended to break the terms of the WA, NIP and TCA, which is pretty much the definition of bad faith.

Meanwhile, Johnson seems to have decided that the UK should try to be a power in the Indo-China/Pacific region, in trying to join the trade organisation there and projecting hard power by sending 50% of our aircraft carriers, i.e. or ONE, there. In addition, the UK is to increase it's nuclear arsenal by 40%. Unclear how this is to be done, then if by buying new ones will be very expensive or by refurbishing life expirary ones. Either way, the US has the launch codes.

That the UK could project hard power halfway across the world, to threaten China or any other state with the state of the UK economy is stupid. It could do it a century ago thanks to the support of the Empire. But the now called Commonwealth countries really don't want that much to do with the Mother country, even if the current PM bemoans the factt hat Africa would be better if Britain was still in charge. That is something that would not go down well.

Where the UK punches, or punched, above its weight was in soft power, using cutlure and aid to shape countries to be more democratic. How can the UK, in all seriousness, complain that China is banning Hong Kong residents from demonstrating, while passing legislation that does the same back home? Should we declare economic sanctions on ourselves? Oh, we did that already with Brexit.

Money for nukes but none for nurses.

I don't remember seeing that on the side of a bus.

What a shit hole this country is turning into.