[Andy McDandy]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... devolution

Marina Hyde on Johnson's SNP remarks. I loved:

He continues to play Falstaff to his own Prince Hal.

[youngian]

Priti Patel is all for 'personal responsibility' – unless you're home secretary

Meanwhile calls for tougher sentencing are growing, after a repeat offender was let off with a warning despite having been found guilty of another serious breach. The case will add to a sense that the UK is a “soft touch” country where recidivists are not simply allowed but effectively encouraged. In a move likely to cause outrage, activist do-gooders further insisted that an offence being possibly “unintentional” means it didn’t count. The implications of that remark for the wider justice system are “catastrophic and a scandal”, says whichever rentaquote Conservative backbencher answers the phone first. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... are_btn_tw

[Andy McDandy]

Happy Friday, everyone.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ier-system

[Andy McDandy]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... covid-tier

On the current absurdity. Good as ever.

[Boiler]

From the comments:

Canary Wharf - London would be teeming with EU medicines know how if Brexiteers had not shot the UK in the foot and drove European Medicines Agency (EMA) packing from the UK so that they can talk about bloody Fish.

Lance Forman's gaff ain't too far away from there though.

[Samanfur]

Only an idiot would claim the vaccine triumph was a vindication of Brexit

In fairness to Gavin, if you actually listen to the clip, it does seem as if he was attempting a joke. And again, in fairness to him, it does seem that he was also attempting some kind of joke back when he made his famous suggestion that Vladimir Putin’s Russia should “go away and shut up”. On these pieces of evidence, then, the results are in. The statement “the secretary of state was attempting a joke” belongs in the same category of outcome as “the secretary of state was attempting to bath a toaster”. Don’t do it, Gav. It ends badly.

I want to say there’s a fine line between national pride and national boastfulness that’s almost designed to get you a slap … But there isn’t. There’s a very thick, very heavy line between these two ways of acting. It’s both incredible and wearyingly credible that we contrived to end up on the wrong side of it.

I hope someone in the new, touchy-feely Downing Street rang up every offending minster and screamed: “You’re only supposed to dead-cat BAD NEWS, you absolute braindead amateurs!”

[Boiler]

And yet, if that’s the case, explain how our education secretary is Gavin Williamson?

[The Weeping Angel]

So that explains why Gavin thinks so then.

[davidjay]

Every week she seems to be getting better.

[Kreuzberger]

Every week she seems to be getting better.

Agreed. She lights up the sky like a two-bob rocket.

[Andy McDandy]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... est-brexit

Marina! You gotta see her, etc.

[Kreuzberger]

All right, I can see the broken eggs. Now, where is this omelette of yours?”

Breathtakingly good.

[Andy McDandy]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... land-dover

All of it good and bleakly funny.

Ah, the old Johnson charm. If I had to alight on its defining characteristic, I’d plump for “doesn’t travel well”. The prime minister is like one of those trolleys that stops working once you reach the perimeter of the supermarket car park. As soon as he passes the white cliffs of Dover, Johnson no longer functions as the repository of a hundred buy-one-get-one-free delusions about Merrie England, and becomes useless.

[Boiler]

I liked

I say largely – the relevant box to tick on the nursery admissions form is the one that reads “can use the toilet independently but sometimes has accidents”.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

True story.

I mean, honestly, call up a photo of the current cabinet. Look at their little faces. They are simply the lowest calibre things ever assembled round that table – including the chairs. There are seats of button-backed mahogany in that room that have given deeper thoughts to the implications of no deal than Priti Patel – and if the home secretary doesn’t like that assessment of her incapabilities, she’s welcome to come round and throw one at me.