In other appointments, Philip Hammond also became Britain's new Finance Minister, replacing George Osborne, who quit government after Ms May's appointment.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-14/theresa-may-takes-over-as-britain-brexit-pm/7627528

See also: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-14/boris-johnson-foreign-secretary-history-of-undiplomatic-gaffes/7627564

Europe has reacted furiously to Boris Johnson’s appointment as the UK’s foreign secretary, with the French and German foreign ministers respectively calling him “a liar with his back to the wall” and someone whose behaviour has been “outrageous”. 

Senior European politicians made little effort on Thursday to hide their disgust at Johnson, whom they blame for Britain’s vote to leave the EU. Their anger is fuelled by the widespread perception that he cynically lied to the British public about Brexit and dodged responsibility in the immediate aftermath.

The Boris Johnson question: how the UK's foreign secretary is viewed abroad

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, who met Johnson when the two men were both mayors, was asked on French radio if he was surprised by Johnson’s appointment. “I don’t know if it surprised me,” he said. “It’s a sign of the British political crisis that has come out of the referendum vote.”

He said France needed a partner it could negotiate with who was “clear, credible and who could be trusted”. The Europe 1 radio interviewer told Ayrault: “I’ve got the impression you’re scared of being faced with the fanciful Boris Johnson?”

Ayrault replied: “No, I’ve got no worries at all about Boris Johnson. But you know very well what his style and method are. During the campaign, you know he told a lot of lies to the British people and now it is him who has his back against the wall. He is up against it to defend his country and also so that the relationship with Europe is clear.”

Ayrault said Brexit must now happen in the best conditions possible “and not to the detriment of the European project”. He added: “We cannot let this ambiguous, blurred situation drag on.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/14/french-foreign-minister-boris-johnson-is-a-liar-with-his-back-against-the-wall

Moscow congratulates Johnson on UK foreign secretary post, says it ‘won’t miss Hammond’

Moscow has issued its congratulations to former London Mayor Boris Johnson on his new posting as British foreign secretary, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.“Turning a new page in Russian-British relations has long been overdue,” she said at a briefing. “If the new head of the British Foreign Ministry shows support for doing so with appropriate intentions and actions, we shall consequently reciprocate,” she added. “We won’t miss Mr. Philip Hammond,”Zakharova said of the former minister.

To get a sense of where the UK’s reputation in the rest of Europe is heading, go to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) website and type in the name of the British foreign minister. Then think of what an ordinary German reader will make of these search results:

“How Boris Johnson makes a fool of himself in an interview.”

“New Zealand: Boris Johnson makes jokes about the Maori indigenous people.”

“Boris Johnson whistles – editorial.”

“Boris Johnson: the EU should pay for Britain’s departure.”

“Boris Johnson, the man who never believes his own sentences.”

And so on. Arguably the most serious newspaper in Europe (it only introduced colour photographs on the front page in 2007), the FAZ is extremely critical of eurozone policies and of Angela Merkel. It is in favour of strong ties with the anglophone world, and with its economically liberal, free-trade outlook the newspaper should have among its readers many who think of themselves as allies, friends or even admirers of Britain.

But perhaps that last sentence should now be in the past tense. These are increasingly trying times for Britain’s allies and friends in Europe. Imagine you have been a European anglophile all your life, presenting Britain to your friends and family as the country of democracy and the rule of law.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/21/liar-boris-johnson...

As an aside, Gus has lobbied his German friends for a long time now to boot the Poms out of the EU and to distrust NATO and its empire building hydra, the USA. The "Five Eyes" has been an instrument to sow discord into what could be a powerful union — the EU. The USA has always wanted a weak EU — easy to control.

Read from top...

Theresa May has dismissed the EU's draft option for Northern Ireland after the EU published its proposed text of the Brexit agreement. The draft bill proposes establishing a “common regulatory area between the Union and the UK in respect of Northern Ireland” in effect keeping Northern Ireland in the customs union after Brexit.

Sputnik discussed the EU draft on the Brexit deal with Rodney Atkinson, founder of freenations.net website, one of Britain's most successful political economists and a former advisor to ministers.

Sputnik: The Brexit treaty stated that Britain must commit to the possibility of Northern Ireland staying in the EU customs union and the European Court of Justice, how likely is that Britain will agree to this?

Rodney Atkinson: No likelihood at all. Even mushy Mrs. May, who's not used to saying things in a clear and strong way, has completely ruled it out. Of course, the European Union is not saying that must be the case, it's saying that it's one of the options. There isn't really a Northern Irish problem here, anyway, as it has been stated by the British Inland Revenue service, by the British ministries dealing with agriculture, they both said they could envisage no scenario in which it was necessary to have a real hard border between North and South in Ireland. Also, of course, if there was any form of customs union, as the Labour Party is suggesting, then of course, we couldn't negotiate free trade agreements with other countries, so that is out, and the other thing, of course, that they forget about Ireland, is that there's lots of tax duties and indirect taxation differences between the North and the South. It's nonsense to say there's a problem, and it's nonsense to say that Britain would ever agree in any way to dividing Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom.

READ MORE: New UK-EU Customs Union Would Be Betrayal of Brexit Vote — May

Sputnik: The European Union draft stated that the Brexit transition period would end on December 31, 2020, the final day of EU's current long-term budget plan, what impact could this have on the UK's budget contributions to the European Union? And what impact will it have on the Brexit negotiations between London and Brussels?

Rodney Atkinson: Well, of course, we have all already in principal agreed to a substantial exit settlement of up to 50 billion euros, of course, this is only part of the agreement and as we say nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Also, of course, we are insisting that if there's a trade agreement, which we are offering, then it must also include financial services in which, of course, Britain and London particular are pre-eminent, so all these things have got to be agreed, and a lot of these things are red lines for the British side, it's just that our negotiators are not as strong in shouting from the rooftops as Mr. Barnier (Michel Barnier — EU chief  Brexit negotiator) and his friends are, but the EU has got a lot of work to do in order to come to an agreement which will satisfy German and French carmakers, wine producers and all the others who would be seriously affected if there was no free trade agreement.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201803011062104126-britain-northern-ire...

Read from top.

“He is a nice young man. He probably wants to get a place in history by making bold statements,” he suggested. “[UK Prime Minister] Theresa May now has ‘highly possible’ as her main argument backing Russia’s alleged guilt. He has ‘Russia should go away and shut up.’ Well, I don’t know. Maybe he lacks upbringing.”

Lavrov said he cannot recall a time in his long career as a professional diplomat when the West used that kind of language against Russia, but said that Moscow was not offended. “We have long stopped paying attention to this and neither do we get excited by the rolling out of new sanctions against Russia,” he said.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/421477-lavrov-williamson-shut-up/

The basic problem Leave has had is that the job of implementing the referendum result has been left to politicians who in the main wanted Britain to stay in the EU.

READ MORE: Britain May Not Get Brexit Deal With EU — Trade Minister

Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, could and should, you might argue, has been sent off on the morning of 24th June 2016, as indeed Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader called for. But it wasn't. It was actually only invoked on 29th March 2017, a clear sign that the government for all the 'Brexit means Brexit' rhetoric, was dragging its feet.

The delay enabled Remain to regroup after a bad 'first-half'. They came out after the interval, with their finances boosted and determined to take the game to Leave. If it became a war of attrition and went to extra-time, then so much the better.

The trouble was the star players of Leave had left the pitch, champagne glasses in hand, convinced that the match had already been won. Nigel Farage after his 'great triumph' had stepped down as leader of UKIP and was pursuing a lucrative career in the media. In his absence, UKIP fell apart, with a succession of short-lived leaders. The party that had come top in the 2014 European elections, collapsed in the polls.  Farage announced he would 'relaunch' a new Brexit campaign in August 2018, but vital time had been lost.

Having told us that the Establishment wanted Britain not to stay in the EU during the referendum campaign, Leave should have anticipated what was likely to happen after 23rd June. Instead, there was too much complacency and ‘We won, you lost' style exchanges with Remainers.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201811121069729760-brexit-referendum-...

The three main things that Europe needs to get from the Poms, before watering down the hardship of any relationship with Britain is for the Brits to :

— join the Eurozone and ...

— clean up the secretive "City of London" affairs with tax evasion haven.

— abandon the Five Eyes spy network

Until then it's like playing soccer with three balls on the pitch...

Read from top. See also:

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/35274

and 

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33757

Theresa May chose to ride the tiger of her party instead of protecting the interests of her country. Blundering at every point, she made a very bad situation worse. Why trigger article 50 with no plan, no preparation, no strategy? Why promise undeliverable red lines, without warning of inevitable compromise? Why agree a meagre 21-month transition, when a complex trade deal takes years?

May has wasted 28 months, with the great boulders of Ireland and frictionless borders still where they were on day one. Nothing has changed, in her immortal words, with only weeks left before agreement must be made for all 28 countries to ratify. All that has happened is the crystallising of Brexit’s great impossibilities.

There may yet be no deal, as the European Union stands where it always did on its rules. When Michael Gove, serial Brexit referendum dissembler, said Britain “held all the cards”, we find the UK’s 66 million citizens have rather less heft than the rest of the EU’s 442 million. If May does get her deal, the fractious cabinet hardly needs Boris Johnson’s call for “mutiny”. This ship of fools running and ruining the country will calculate their personal advantage, as, inexplicably, most vie for the poisoned cup of leadership. But if they do grudgingly nod it through, what then?

This is where Labour holds sway, a rare moment for a hungry opposition. Headcounters say May needs at least 30 Labour MPs to defect – which is why the Labour leader’s words matter. What was Jeremy Corbyn doing, denying in an interview that Brexit could ever be stopped? Did he want it stopped? “Not really. No,” he replied as if he barely cared about the crucial issue of our era. Labour shadow ministers scurried everywhere on Monday to damp down alarm in the party, unsure whether to say he misspoke, he didn’t mean it, he was not really concentrating – anything to deny his 1970s Brexit instincts had erupted.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/12/brexit-fanatics-se...

Read from top.

Isle of Madness

A Series of Miscalculations Has Brought Britain to the Brink

Brexit was to allow the United Kingdom to reclaim its former glory. Instead, the country's leaders have bumbled their way into catastrophe. Built on a false premise from the start, the UK's move away from the EU has been dominated by mistakes and miscalculations.

On Saturday of last week, the sun was rising over London when a blue bus set off along the shore of the Thames. Lucy Swale and Matilda Allan were on board, one with red hair, the other brunette. They managed to get themselves out of bed at 5:45 a.m. and jog through half the city from Islington to catch the double-decker. The bus, they believed, would carry them into the future.

"Dear MPs," its exterior read, "77 percent of us don't want Brexit -- signed, Young people." Lucy and Matilda will turn 18 in December. For their birthday, they want a vote. It would be their first.

And perhaps also the most important of their lives. 

"We have to live with this the longest time," says Matilda. "But nobody asked us." She was 15 years old when a narrow majority of her compatriots voted to try their luck outside of the European Union. Several members of Matilda's family voted for Brexit. But "not everybody understood what they were voting for," she says.

She claims that it is only now, two-and-a-half years later, that many people realize the degree to which they were misled, lied to and manipulated. She argues that not only her, but also the almost one-and-a-half million young people who have reached adulthood since the referendum, have earned the right to a new vote. And Matilda is certain what the result would be. "I am angry." 

That sentence can currently be heard, in different variations, across the United Kingdom. If there's anything uniting the generally indulgent Brits right now, it's anger. 

For some it's anger at a political class that has made so many promises and kept so few of them. For others, it's anger at the nationalist tempters gambling away the country's future in a quest to reclaim past glory. There is anger at a government that no longer has the power to solve critical social problems. Anger that it's not over yet. And yes, also, self-directed anger.

Read more:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-mistakes-that-led-to-brex...

Read from top though Johnson isn't in charge of paddling these days, but of swimming solo through the rat infested sewers...

But before understanding what this all means, one needs to read a bit of history:

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33757

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/35134

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34754

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34436