Naked Into The Conference Chamber

Writing as an old negotiator of big, drawn-out deals (I'm working on one now, which explains the lack of posting) I can only laugh in disbelief.  I'm sure everyone else is laughing, too, though there's precious little non-ironic pleasure to be had.

What does May think she's achieved?  In full public gaze she has wrung out of her Cabinet their collective absolute-worst-we-could-possibly-accept-fallback position, delivered it to the other side - who won't agree even to that!  And why should they?

There are plenty of *successful politicians* who make it to the top without any understanding of the ways of the world.  Corbyn is a pretty extreme example, but there's a rich field to pick from on all sides.

http://www.cityunslicker.co.uk/2016/07/the-genius-that-is-gove.html

Ordinarily you'd expect ideology-bound Labour would suffer from this more than business-oriented Tories; but in the good old days there were plenty of Union types in their ranks who know a thing or two about the ways of the smoke-filled room.  Even Nye Bevan, apparently an ideologue of the first water, had done a bit of negotiating in his time, and "astonished his supporters by opposing unilateral nuclear disarmament" (Wiki) with his famous one-liner**.

Interesting to see David Davis resigning this morning - he was always a resigner, so no surprises there.  Johnson was never what anyone would think of as principled ...  and remind me, why has anyone, ever, seen anything in Gove??

I'm guessing the odds on Corbyn in No.10 before Xmas has shortened a bit.

ND

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**"It is not a question of who is in favour of the hydrogen bomb, but a question of what is the most effective way of getting the damn thing destroyed. It is the most difficult of all problems facing mankind. But if you carry this resolution and follow out all its implications ... you will send a British Foreign Secretary, whoever he may be, naked into the conference chamber."

from Capitalists@Work http://www.cityunslicker.co.uk/2018/07/naked-into-conference-chamber.html