Failure in North Korea leads to execution

It's not a proven fact as yet but some of the key North Korean officials involved behind the scenes in the aborted summit in Hanoi between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have apparently been executed! Failure is a crime in North Korea. The only one named so far is the very ordinary-looking Kim Hyok Chol, former North Korean ambassador to Spain and a nuclear deterrence expert. He was a special envoy to the US for the denuclearisation talks between the two leaders. He was executed, so it is reported, at a North Korean airport. Was he perhaps attempting to leave the country and was stopped after passing through security, or does this airport have two functions? Whatever the truth, this poor man who was apparently a brilliant scriptwriter for summit chats, has met his end because Trump walked out of the Hanoi summi without any sort of deal, claiming that Kim Jong-un was asking for too much. The North Korean leader wanted all sanctions lifted before doing anything about dismantling his nuclear weapons programme. So had Kim Hyok Chol gone too far in his script for Kim Jong-un? Was it his fault that Trump walked out or is that just the way it goes in North Korea? The Hanoi summit failed so someone must be executed. I wonder how Trump feels and whether he might think twice about trusting his North Korean friend. Kim Jong-un has spent mucb of his formative leadership years executing people. Unless Kim Hyok Chol suddenly reemerges it has to be assumed that the reports are correct. So what will Trump and co do in future talks. Will Trump say to himself: "I can't walk out this time, otherwise some other poor mug is going to get killed." Oh my God, I've just realised. That's exactly why the former ambassador to Madrid, as well as about four other officals, were executed. It was Kim Jong-un's crafty plan to deter Trump from ever walking out again. It's brilliant!

Impeachment of Trump looks like a dead horse

The Democrats are getting all excited at the prospect of impeaching Donald Trump after convincing themselves that Robert Mueller, who resigned yesterday as special counsel having completed his Russia/Trump collusion investigation, had given his implicit blessing for Congress to start an impeachment process against the president. I seriously believe this is just wishful thinking on the part of the Democrats. I don't think Mueller did any such thing despite what most of the American newspapers claimed today. All Mueller said was that under US Justice Deparment regulations he was never in a position to say whether the president had committed a crime or not. This was not part of his brief and he had no authority as a special counsel to decide whether Trump was guilty of a crime of obstructing his investigation. His report concluded negatively - that he did not feel there was sufficient evidence to mount an obstruction case. Mueller repeated this in his statement on Wednesday. What he didn't say was what the US newspapers seem to be saying today which is that he felt there WAS a case to be made against the president and it was up to Congress to start impeachment proceedings. That was the interpretation made by most people but I don't think Mueller stood up to make his statement in order to pass the impeachment baton to Congress. That would have been highly presumptuous and outside his remit, and Mueller is a remit man. That's not to say of course that Congress, or at least the Democratic-run House of Representatives, won't now go ahead and initiate an impeachment inquiry and claim that Mueller had signalled this was what he wanted. Aware of this, Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer, has in his usual way rushed to defend his master and has denounced Mueller. But actually all Mueller did was to lay out the facts in a very straightforward way. There was nothing new in his statement. But interpretation is everything and the Democrats have now got fire in their belly. I think they have to step very carefully. Rushing to try and impeach Trump based on what they think Mueller was really saying is a risky path to take, especially with only 18 months left before the 2020 presidential election. If impeachment becomes the only issue in the Democratic campaign, I suspect Trump will waltz back into the White House for a second term.

Robert Mueller wants peace and quiet

The name Robert Mueller has been in the big-time news for so long that almost every word he writes or utters is examined and interpreted and analysed as if it will provide new revelations about Donald Trump, the Russians and everything else that has turned this administration into one of the most controversial for decades. But actually Mueller is a quiet, rather unassuming and very precise gentleman who nearly always disappoints when he speaks because he does what he can not to be theatrical or hyperbolic. He likes to be correct in every sense of that word. So his statement today was entirely correct and precise and uncontroversial... and totally disappointing for the reporters who gathered to hear him speak. In his first public words since his report on the Russian/Trump campaign collusion allegations, Mueller went over all the known ground, emphasising with ultra-careful precision that he had acted as special counsel in accordance with Justice Department regulations and in accordance with the constitution. Then, with reporters waiting impatiently to shower him with questions, to try and draw him out of his shell, he said he would not be taking any questions and furthermore he did not want to appear before Congress. Basically, having done his bit for more than two years investigating the Russia collusion drama, he just wants to return to private life and to obscurity. There will be some in Congress, especially among the Democrats, who will want to subpoena him to appear before them so they can ask questions to find out what they think is the real story, whatever that is. But I reckon even if he is forced to appear he will speak rather like he spoke today during his statement. He will not veer from the language of his report and will certainly not give any hint of his personal views about the president. Maybe he does know things about Trump which he hasn't revealed but if it's not in his report he is not going to divulge it to an eager Democratic member of the House Justice Committee. Mueller is a methodical man and I think an honourable man with a distinguished career as FBI director behind him. He's not going to damage his reputation by resorting to the sort of blockbuster revelations put out by his successor Jack Comey. Mueller has done his job and now wants privacy. I can't blame him and I believe he is right to remove himself from the limelight. These days, that's pretty rare. Trump I'm sure will be delighted and relieved.

Everyone is bending the knee to populist Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage has always been seen as a sort of joke by all the political parties in the UK, and also by newspaper cartoonists. He is generally seen as someone with that ridiculous froglike smile, holding a pint of beer and wearing some dreadful tweedy-style jacket or suit. Yes, a joke. Well now, after snatching the majority of the votes in the European election, Farage has suddenly become a force to be reckoned with and all the candidates to succeed Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister, are being urged to take him seriously for the first time. In my personal view, a successful populist he may be but he espouses the kind of Britain which I would not want to live in, and the Tory leadership candidates should stop thinking of him as a rival. Remember, he doesn't have a single MP in the House of Commons. He used to be leader of UKIP, a now totally disparaged political movement. He's a friend of Donald Trump! Yet Farage appears to have got under everyone's skin. The Tory leadership candidates are afraid of him. So what do they do? They come out with Farage-like statements to try and show that they are as populist as him. A whole bunch of them have now stated that the UK MUST leave the EU by October 31, even if there is no deal. A no-deal Brexit is now on all their lips as if it's a brilliant solution. It's the Farage solution. And they are copying him because they are scared that if there is a general election, Farage will find candidates to stand in every constituency and before you know where you are, Prime Minister Nigel Farage will be walking through the door at Number 10. OK, I know this is too far-fetched but this is what is in the back of everyone's mind. And if not Farage, then Jeremy Corbyn. Either way, disaster for this country. What we need more than anything from the Conservative Party is a politician with guts and commitment and style and charisma who will ignore the likes of Farage and Corbyn and just set out a positive and politically deliverable way forward on the EU. I would love just one candidate to have the courage to say the UK must after all stay in the EU. But no one will dare say that. Not from the Conservative Party anyway. Two people in the Labour Party HAVE said that and have urged Corbyn to campaign for the UK to remain in the EU. They are Emily Thornberry, shadow foreign secretary, and Tom Watson, deputy leader of the Labour Party. Good for them. But then if you support Labour because of the courageous views of Thornberry and Watson, you still get Corbyn in Number 10. It's a hopeless dilemma.

The United Kingdom is as disunited as ever after the Euro elections

No matter what Nigel Farage says - demanding to be involved in the Brexit negotiations with the EU (HA!) - the only relevant fact that has emerged from the disastrous European parliamentary elections is that the United Kingdom remains totally divided. But now the division is not between Remainers and Leavers but between No-deal Leavers and Revoke Article 50 Remainers. Farage and his six-week-old Brexit Party beat everyone and reduced both Conservative and Labour parties to ruins. But that doesn't make him a power in the land. It just shows to the future Tory prime minister and to Parliament that the voting population - well about a third of them who bothered to vote - is split as much as ever except now it has got nasty. Now the majority want to follow Farage out of the EU without a deal and to hell with the consequences. And not that far behind, those who want to stay in the EU voted for the Liberal Democrats or the Green Party both of which campaigned to remain in the EU. Neither the Liberal Democrats nor the Brexit Party are going to take over governing the UK. Farage and co don't have any MPs in the House of Commons and the Greens have one. But their message was loud and clear. OUT whatever the consequences with the former and IN for ever with the latter.The Conservatives and Labour were beaten to a pulp because they never gave the leadership that was required. Theresa May tried hard but she spent her whole time tryng to appease the bad boys in her party, just as David Cameron did before her, and ended up pleasing no one. And Labour under Jeremy Corbyn just flounced around pretending to have a policy but actually had no such thing. Did Corbyn and his henchmen want to stay in the EU or leave it, did they want a second referendum or not, did they want a softly sofly Brexit or a tough one? No one had a clue, least of all Corbyn. So the voters spat on them - Tories and Labour - and went for the parties who had made up their mind what they wanted and told everyone from day one. It convinced me all right. I voted Liberal Democrat, joining two unlikely political heavyweights, Michael Heseltine (Lord Heseltine), former defence secretary under Maggie Thatcher, and Alastair Campbell, former high-profile director of communications for Tony Blair, both of whom declared they had deserted their life-chosen parties and had switched to Liberal Democrats. So I'm in good company. How on earth the successor to Theresa May is going to sort out this nightmare I have no idea. And I suspect none of them do either!

No-deal Brexit is back on the table!!

So at least two of the Tory leadership candidates who want to enter 10 Downing Street as prime minister when Theresa May leaves are quite prepared to exit the EU with no deal and take whatever the economic consequences will be. Boris Johnson we knew about. He never minded the idea of leaving the EU without any sort of deal. In fact he positively espoused it. Now Dominic Raab who, amazingly, for a relatively short period before he resigned, was the Brexit Secretary, in charge of negotiating a deal with the EU, also wants the no-deal back on the table. Perhaps he was all the time hankering after a no-deal end to the Brexit. If so, why did he accept the cabinet appointment in the first place? So two of the eight (so far) candidates for Number 10 should immediately be crossed off the list of potential prime ministers in my view. In their case, I don't think it's a cunning negotiating plan to force the EU to give us more concessions because they are so scared of a no-deal UK crashing out of the EU. Theresa May had the no-deal card as well but everyone knew she didn't want it because in the 2016 referendum she voted to remain in the EU. The very sad thing is that none of the eight would-be Tory leaders has dared to come out and say: "You know, I think we should stay in the EU, never mind what the majority voted for in 2016. Vote for me and vote for a stable and peaceful and flourishing future." No one has the courage to say that, and if they did, none of the Tory MPs would have the courage to support him or her for the leadership. Instead, we have Michael Gove, Environment Secretary an the latest declared leadership candidate, promising to "deliver" Brexit to the nation. Now when did we hear that before? We heard it a million times from Theresa May, and her Brexit deal was approved by Michael Gove as part of her cabinet. So what magic trick has he got up his sleeve? There isn't a magic trick. The EU has already said that whoever replaces Theresa won't be able to negotiate anythng new. The Brexit deal is the Brexit deal full stop. Poor Theresa has had an absolute hammering in the press, described as possibly the worst prime minster in British history and a total failure without anything to show for her legacy. Wow, I hope she hasn't been reading the papers. If she has, I'm sure there will have been more tears. Why does anyone actually want to be her successor because they will fail too. Jeremy Corbyn must be lapping this up. All he has to do is promise to hold a second referendum, to give the Remainers another chance, pledge once again to scrap university tuition fees and he'll be prime minister when the new Tory leader out of desperation announces a general election. Labour will win by a huge majority and the Tories will be finished for years and years.

Is Boris going to walk it to 10 Downing Street?

At the moment it looks as if Boris Johnson, former flamboyant Mayor of London and former flamboyant foreign secretary, is a few weeks away from becoming the next prime minister. He's very popular among Tory voters, he's worshipped by quite a lot of Tory MPs and he's, well, flamboyant, charismatic, funny and often outrageous, none of which qualities describe the outgoing Theresa May. The Tory MPs and party membership will almost definitely vote for someone totally different from Theresa, and Boris is probably the answer. But in the weeks ahead he is going to have to keep a very steady pace, keep his wilder thoughts to himself and try not to say something which will give him unwelcome headlines. He also needs to be absolutely clear how precisely he thinks he can deliver a Brexit deal. He hasn't started well. He has already said that whatever happens, deal or no deal, the UK will leave the EU on October 31. That must have pleased his fellow Brexiteers, certainly the ones who have never discounted a no-deal solution. But Remainers in the Tory camp will have grave doubts about selecting a man who doesn't seem to care whether he gets a decent deal or not. Much more in this vein and Boris could find himself falling rapidly down the favourites' list. But he's a canny fellow, Boris. He thinks a remark like that will wake people up and stir the leadership pot. He also knows that the great British public is so fed up with the word Brexit that if the UK really is going to leave the EU on October 31 come what may, there are going to be some Vote for Boris posters going up around the country. Nevertheless, if he gives the impression that he's just doing his usual stuff and shooting from the hip without demonstrating he has put a lot of thought behind his Brexit remarks, his colleagues in the Tory party might come to the conclusion that it would simply be too dangerous to vote for him. The key thing now is to watch who else steps forward to try for the leadership of the Tory party. So far, we have Boris, Esther McVey, a former minister, Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, former Brexit Secretary, and a real outsider, Rory Stewart, International Development Secretary and the only cabinet minister to have walked across Afghanistan. None of them are going to cause Boris much trouble. But what if Michael Gove, the very brainy Environment Secretary, steps forward? Could he be a serious challenge to Boris? Remember he knifed Boris in the back the last leadership race, initially acting as kingmaker to the blond bombshell and then announcing to the world on television that he had changed his mind because he didn't think Boris was up to it, and offered himself instead. Wow, that was a serious bit of treachery, and it did Gove no good at all because Theresa May was the leadership winner, not him. In the popularity stakes, Gove is far behind Boris. But he is a Brexiteer and he might become the sensible, pratical option.