Gove says one thing and Boris says another on Brexit

Well I really thought that after Boris had manufactured a cabinet of Boris think-alikes, the message from Number 10 and throughout Whitehall on the Brexit issue would be exactly the same, based on the same script. But ho ho just a few days into the Boris era - it may only last a few months - and the Brexit message is already confused. Michael Gove who normally knows how to follow a script even when he disagrees with the message, wrote an article in the Sunday Times this weekend in which he said that the "assumption" in the government was that there would not be a deal and that we would have to go headlong for a no-deal Brexit. And he is in charge of no-deal. But then up pops Boris in bonnie Scotland and declares that the "assumption" is that the EU and UK will agree a new deal before October 31. Then he adds that as a safeguard full planning is steaming ahead to be ready for a no-deal October 31. I think we can all now safely make the "assumption" that we are as confused as ever. Which assumption is the correct one, the Gove one or the Boris one? It probably doesn't matter because the clear aim of this tough talk is to confuse and dismay the EU to force them into talking deals. But I think it would be wise if Boris and Gove got their message onto a similar track if only to reassure us humble mortals and taxpayers that the government knows what the hell it is doing. Basically it's a negotiating tactic. Tell the EU that the UK is now so far advanced in planning for a no-deal Brexit that they have to "assume" that that is what will happen. But the apparent olive branch from Boris in Scotland is supposed to titilate them into thinking that the new prime minister is after all not all that bad and they should be nice to him to avoid a no-deal. The only issue that Boris has raised so far in terms of the sort of deal he wants is the Northern Ireland one. He says categorically that the so-called Irish back-stop - the EU's insurance policy to ensure that North and South will continue to be part of the customs union in order to avoid checks on the border - is dead and buried. He hasn't said what he wants in its place but there will be no deal of any kind unless the Irish backstop is scrapped. So come on Michel Barnier, get your thinking cap on and produce an alternative to the backstop. In the past the EU's chef negotiator has said this is out of the question - and so has the Irish prime minister. But we're in the Boris era now, not dear Theresa, so be real, EU, and think out of the Irish backstop box. If they don't, then Michael Gove's "assumption" that a no-deal Brexit is confronting us all, will be right. But Boris's Scotland declaration has given me a ray of hope!