Joan Collins previously endorsed leaving the European Union but now her make-up range has been scrapped from Marks and Spencer, and she blames the instability the vote brought. STEVE ANGLESEY picks his Brexiteers of the week.
THE DAILY EXPRESS
It’s extraordinary enough that the government is spending £93 million on a new pre-Brexit advertising campaign titled ‘Let’s Get Going’, having already spaffed £61.2 million on last year’s ‘Get Ready for Brexit’ ads. Even more extraordinary is the treatment this news was given by the Brexiteers’ Pravda on July 13.
Inside the once-great Express were worthy campaigns in favour of keeping free TV licences for over-75s and fast-tracking benefits for the terminally ill. But the front page splash and most of page 2 were given over to literally describing an advertising campaign in prose so gushing it might have been dictated by Michael Gove (‘The upbeat message about the coming freedom from Brussels features a new ‘Check, Change, Go’ logo to raise awareness of the new border rules’).
This all appeared under the headline ‘Get ready! £93m splash kickstarts Britain’s EU exit’. Truly depressing stuff.
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DANIEL HANNAN
The so-called ‘brain of Brexit’ has had another important thought. ‘I had all but written President Trump off,’ he told right-wing website the Washington Examiner this week, but after watching Deplorable Don’s speech at Mount Rushmore, Desperate Dan now believes ‘he might be hard to beat’.
It’s a bold statement, given that Trump is currently down 9.4% to Joe Biden nationally and trailed Biden by 5% in two recent polls taken in the Republican stronghold of Texas, which has not voted for a Democrat since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
But then who can forget Dan’s predictions about Brexit pre-referendum (‘absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the single market’) or the coming pandemic on February 19 of this year (‘the coronavirus isn’t going to kill you, it really isn’t’)?
JOHN LONGWORTH
On December 6 last year, the then Brexit Party MEP wrote that Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement was ‘a remarkable result’. On January 29 he voted for it in the EU parliament.
But now Longworth has slightly changed his mind. In a bizarre piece for Politico, he claims the WA has ‘allowed the small-minded Lilliputians to bind us like Gulliver to the mast of the sinking ship that is the EU… The Remainers will always be shamed for shackling the country to a poison pill: the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.’
Longworth continued: ‘It is outrageous that Germany… should now seek what amounts to reparations from the UK… Would Germany give back the Pomerania region to Sweden?’ It’s a question just as valid as ‘How can we be bound to a sinking ship when we’re already shackled to a poison pill?’
JOAN COLLINS
‘Brexit is going to be very good for us,’ said the actress a few years back, but she might want to revise that opinion somewhat.
Marks & Spencer has scrapped Timeless Beauty, Joanie’s make-up range and a spokesman for La Collins told the Mail on Sunday that the B-word was to blame. They said: ‘The umbrella company that produced the line, Richards & Appleby, has had financial difficulties due in part to years of Brexit insecurity. As a result, it has been winding up many of its associations, which included us. Joan hopes a buyer will come along that has the ability to realise its full potential.’
For their part, Richards & Appleby says Brexit is not at fault and that the collection will continue to be sold online – just not in M&S.
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