The Idler, Monday, Augyst 12, 2019

Bojo takes

to the

high wire

THE Brexit circus becomes a high-wire act. Bojo declares Britain will leave the EU on October 31 deal or no deal, come what may. His government is putting in place measures reminiscent of wartime to cope with the chaos.

He has a theoretical majority in the House of Commons of one. Everyone knows though that a significant group of his own MPs oppose no deal. Also, the Commons has already voted against a no deal Brexit.

This is what makes it a high-wire act. When the MPs return from their summer recess Bojo will almost certainly face a vote of no confidence which he could lose.

He is not fazed. They say even if he loses a vote of confidence he'll hang on until Brexit. He doesn't deny that the resulting election could be a couple of days after Brexit.

So you could have a new prime minister having to pick up the pieces after a no deal Brexit

Can Bojo frustrate the will of the House of Commons? Britain doesn't have a written constitution. Will Queen Elizabeth have to intervene? And in what way?

It's a constitutional crisis not seen since … er, maybe not since Cromwell.

Those with an affection for Blighty look on with sadness at the spectacle. Those who see in it another deliberate unravelling of the international cohesion that has kept the peace for more than 70 years find it scary.

 

 

 

Tailpiece

 

How many politicians does it take to change a light bulb?
Two - one to change it and another one to change it back again.

 

 

Last word

 

Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are such fools to begin with, that it's compounding a felony. - Robert Benchley

re is also the risk of accidents and pipeline failures that could release toxic copper concentrate or diesel fuel into salmon streams or wetlands, the EPA said.

"Our report concludes that large-scale mining poses risks to salmon and the tribal communities that have depended on them for thousands of years," Dennis McLerran, the EPA's regional administrator in the Pacific Northwest, said in a statement.

The report, which concludes a three-year study and follows two drafts that also warned of widespread ecological damage from mining, does not recommend policy or regulatory decisions.

nerals Ltd's Pebble project would develop an open-pit mine in the region, which has one of the world's largest copper-gold deposits.

The Vancouver-based company was swift to condemn the report, and said the EPA had repeatedly failed to meet its own guidelines and policies for watershed assessments, risk assessment and peer review.

"We believe EPA set out to do a flawed analysis of the Pebble Project ...," Northern Dynasty Chief Executive Ron Thiessen said in a statement.

 

."

The company vowed to press on with the project, located some 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. Northern Dynasty lost its project development partner last September when mining group Anglo American pulled out of the venture.

(Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Additional reporting by Steve Quinn in Juneau, Alaska; Editing by Toni Reinhold)

stine corner of southwest Alaska, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a report released on Wednesday.

 EPA said a mine could destroy up to 94 miles of salmon-supporting streams and thousands of acres of wetlands, ponds and lakes. The report focused on the impact of mining in an area where a Canadian-based company wants to build a large copper and gold mine.