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| David Davis' speech summarised by the Have I Got News for You Facebook page |
On Monday, Brexit Minister David Davis opened the batting with a statement to Parliament about 'progress' with his work which said absolutely nothing that we did not already know: that there was no plan and no clear direction. Out for a duck?
The PM, fresh from her tough time being left out at the G20 discussions and no doubt reeling from Japan's dire and unusually direct warnings about investment, confirmed that she did not feel committed to the Brexit commitments on Immigration or the NHS which were two of the main planks for the Manifesto of Lies. She has already rejected the Australian points-based system for immigration. (It is strange how newly promoted people prefer to carry on doing their old job, undermining the newly-appointed replacements.)
On Tuesday, a cameraman's long lens spotted a document about the expansion of grammar schools, a policy which had been resisted by the Cameron regime. Caught at slip off a thick edge?
By Wednesday, No 10 was publicly slapping Davis down - sorry, saying that 'he was expressing a personal opinion' - for some of his remarks while the PM confirmed that grammar schools were back on the agenda. The timing was interesting as it took the focus off Brexit.
The education industry and others predictably weighed in with thousands of reasons why grammar schools were the wrong answer and this guaranteed that the weekend news agenda would be about education and not about Davis' incompetence.
Wednesday was also the day when new Minister Liz Truss appeared before the House of Commons Justice Committee to announce ... and showed that she has not yet got her head around her agenda or brief. Prison Reform is now dead in the water. So that is Grayling, Gove and now Truss, all with different ideas and we are no further forward.
On Thursday, Donald Tusk appeared to have breakfast at No 10 and to press for an early lodging of Article 50, saying the ball was in the UK's court. This gave the headline writers a field day ranging from reference to 'balls' to questioning whether Breakfast meant Breakfast.
Friday resulted in a couple of quick wickets. The PM did her 'big speech' about the sort of society she wanted to create which included her commitment to grammar schools. Was this a late, and rather over-specific, insertion following the leak?
Liam Fox then surrendered his wicket very cheaply by saying that Britain is 'too lazy and too fat' with businessmen (sic) preferring 'golf on a Friday afternoon' to trying to boost the country's prosperity.
The balloon went up with respected notable entrepreneurs like Richard Reed of Innocent Drinks saying 'He is a representative of us, of this country, and he turns round and slags us off, calling us fat and lazy. He's talking about business people who were absolutely clear in saying that we want to export - and that's why we do want to remain in the EU...
'How dare he talk down the country that he damaged, how dare he? He's a terrible, terrible voice for British business.'
Even the normally supportive Telegraph was moved to hint that businessmen might be playing rounds of golf while they waited to see what wonderful new trading arrangements Mr Fox had arranged.
So that was pretty much all out for nil. Mind you, with the Labour Party engaged in its self-destructive election, the bowling was hardly threatening.
