Boris Johnson, the colourful ex-Mayor of London and foreign secretary, swept in to annual Conservative Party conference on Tuesday to address an adoring crowd but the speech fired barbs in every direction, leaving the audience with mixed emotions.
Having taken a stand to oppose Mrs May’s drive to secure a Brexit compromise with Brussels, Mr Johnson has sought to mark out a right-wing vision of a free-trading nation seeking deals with the world while reducing taxes at home.
With the clock ticking before a March deadline for Britain to leave the EU, a hard-core of Conservative Party activists clamour for Mr Johnson to oust Mrs May and deliver his vision from No 10 Downing St.
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Read more:
Tories gather for conference amid gloom and unfolding chaos
Brexit has cost Britain £500 million a week, study claims
Theresa May fights back after European rebuff
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The Tory faithful had begun queueing for the event more than two hours before it began and an extra tier in the auditorium had to be opened to seat the 1,500 activists who turned up.
“I can’t see what they’re waiting for,” an activist told The National said, “why don’t they just get rid of her?”
The assault on Mrs May centred on Brexit, calling her plans an “outrage” that would leave Britain half-in, half-out of Europe.
Known as the Chequers deal, for the August meeting at her country house that backed the plan and triggered Mr Johnson’s resignation, Mrs May had proposed locking the country into the “tractor beams of Brussels” and a “politically humiliating” dead-end for global trade ambitions.
But while attacking the deal frequently, he signally failed to call for Mrs May’s head.
Instead he praised and professed loyalty to the original Lancaster House principles she had set out in January 2017, in which she vowed to take Britain out of the Single Market.
Mr Johnson then laid into opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn with some fairly predictable and well-received jibes about his Marxist views.
He bemoaned that Britain had lower rates of owner-occupation of private housing than in France or Germany, and he staked out his Thatcherite principles with a call for the party to re-energise the house-building sector.
He flirted with populism, be declaring that it was “a disgrace” that no banker went to jail for 2008 crash, to approving applause, and he took a light pop at the utility companies for “ripping off” consumers, but claimed that these few failures don’t mean the free market doesn't work..
And he ended his speech “urging our friends in government to deliver what the people voted for, to back Theresa May in the best way possible, by softly, quietly, and sensibly backing her original plan. And in so doing to believe in conservatism and to believe in Britain.”
Instant reaction after the event was muted. “It was a damp squib really,” a young activist told The National. “I was expecting something much more exciting.”
An older member when asked if it was the speech of a leader in waiting said “No. It had entertainment value, [but he’s] not leadership material.”
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder MHEV
Power: 360bhp
Torque: 500Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh282,870
On sale: now
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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