# David Davis resigns as Brexit secretary **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 8, 2018, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538 "2018-07-08T23:13:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/1 "2018-07-08T23:13:57Z")
Well, this is going to make the Brexit negotiations even more interesting. It looks like the hard Brexiters really are preparing to stand up to Theresa May and potentially launch a leadership challenge. It’s midnight in the UK right now, so I wonder if we’ll be seeing any more resignations or signs of rebellion a few hours later? > **[Brexit secretary David Davis resigns plunging government into crisis](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/08/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary-reports-say)** > > Secretary of state’s resignation followed by two other Brexit ministers, forcing a reshuffle ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/2 "2018-07-09T01:44:53Z")
Reading that article triggered some of my PTSD about debates over “sovereignty-association” … ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/3 "2018-07-09T06:14:42Z")
Is there anyone who still thinks Brexit isn’t going to be a disaster? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/4 "2018-07-09T06:40:08Z")
> [@Malden\_Capell](#): > > Is there anyone who still thinks Brexit isn’t going to be a disaster? > Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Jacob Rees-Mogg ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/5 "2018-07-09T07:05:39Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Jacob Rees-Mogg He doesn’t ‘think’, technically speaking Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/6 "2018-07-09T07:11:46Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > It looks like the hard Brexiters really are preparing to stand up to Theresa May and potentially launch a leadership challenge. Yes, they should totally do that. Nothing but great things will come of it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/7 "2018-07-09T08:18:24Z")
BBC reporting Davis at least isn’t going to launch leadership challenge. So there’ll be a leadership challenge soon, then. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/8 "2018-07-09T08:34:50Z")
How many more changes of PM before the UK starts approaching Italian levels of “stability”? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/9 "2018-07-09T08:47:19Z")
> [@Malden\_Capell](#): > > Is there anyone who still thinks Brexit isn’t going to be a disaster? The Brexit May seems to want seems to be complete fudge and a disaster. > [@Malden\_Capell](#): > > So there’ll be a leadership challenge soon, then. But not by Davis. I’m looking at Javid, though I think he’s too canny to initiate it himself. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/10 "2018-07-09T09:01:17Z")
This is Davis leaving because the Brexit negotiations are a fucking disaster and he doesn’t want to be there when this manifests itself fully. Mind you, he’s part of the reason that Brexit negotiations are a disaster but the larger reason is simply that the government can’t deliver what was originally promised during the referendum (because it wasn’t reality-based) and still hasn’t fully decided what it CAN deliver and will work toward, despite the clock continuing to tick down. If anything, May is safe from a leadership challenge simply because no one else wants to take over the current mess. Better to wait until after March of next year, then blame everything on May after the fact. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/11 "2018-07-09T10:04:17Z")
For those interested, the Brexit statement is [here](http://lawyersforbritain.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/CHEQUERS-STATEMENT-FINAL.pdf) (pdf). ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/12 "2018-07-09T10:13:58Z")
I’m reminded of David Cameron’s immortal pre-election tweet of 3rd May 2015: > [@](#): > > Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice - stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband > The gammon-faced arsehole walked away from this shit-show, whistling to himself. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/13 "2018-07-09T10:58:15Z")
> [@Malden\_Capell](#): > > BBC reporting Davis at least isn’t going to launch leadership challenge. > > So there’ll be a leadership challenge soon, then. Never believe anything until it’s been officially denied. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/14 "2018-07-09T10:58:17Z")
One more way in which our great nations are similar. [John Boehner gets while the getting is good](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLqkJnCRhXM). ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/15 "2018-07-09T11:21:12Z")
> [@Malden\_Capell](#): > > He doesn’t ‘think’, technically speaking It’s foolish statements like that that have let him get so far. Don’t underestimate him. Mogg has a better brain by far than many - you don’t get an Upper Second at Cambridge without brains - and you underestimate him at your peril. Don’t be fooled by his accent: just as Boris plays the fool, so he plays the toff. But like Boris he’s as cunning as a weasel. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/16 "2018-07-09T11:49:19Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > It’s foolish statements like that that have let him get so far. Don’t underestimate him. Mogg has a better brain by far than many - you don’t get an Upper Second at Cambridge without brains - and you underestimate him at your peril. Don’t be fooled by his accent: just as Boris plays the fool, so he plays the toff. But like Boris he’s as cunning as a weasel. Much as I dislike Jacob R-M, I have to agree that he’s cunning - like many Brexiters he’s good at hiding his ideological (and, it has been suggested, personal financial) reasons for supporting it behind the mildewed fig-leaf of Patriotism. As for Davis et al resigning in protest at too soft a Brexit - seems the perfect way for them to get _a_ Brexit, then blame its shortcomings on the ‘Remoaner’ saboteurs. ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/17 "2018-07-09T12:51:32Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > It’s foolish statements like that that have let him get so far. Don’t underestimate him. Mogg has a better brain by far than many - you don’t get an Upper Second at Cambridge without brains - and you underestimate him at your peril. Don’t be fooled by his accent: just as Boris plays the fool, so he plays the toff. But like Boris he’s as cunning as a weasel. Oh, this I do not doubt. He’s very intelligent, but has the intellectual depth of a puddle. Not a single Brexiter has offered a workable solution that allows Britain to Brexit without damage to the economy, as was claimed in the referendum. By insisting on diamond-hard Brexit, they’ve written themselves out of the picture. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/18 "2018-07-09T12:52:02Z")
> [@Malden\_Capell](#): > > Is there anyone who still thinks Brexit isn’t going to be a disaster? > Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk I’ve never thought it would be a full monty disaster, because I’ve never thought a hard Brexit would actually happen in any meaningful sense. Davies slinking off, a beaten man who has been completely marginalised, seems to underline this? Driving real brexit through against an intrangient army of Sir Humphreys, contrary to the interests of the UK establishment, is a job for a Statesman. Not this collection of has-beens and con-men. Davies himself gave the impression of barely being arsed with getting to grips with the nuts and bolts of it. Not to downplay the disaster of Brexit in the here and now - clearly it will go down as one of the great political missteps in British history, and the upheaval it’s already caused to the economy, sucking all the oxygen out of government etc is extremely serious. But in the wider picture I think it will be absorbed and dissipated into little pieces of compromise that collectively won’t add up to much. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/19 "2018-07-09T12:54:11Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > It’s foolish statements like that that have let him get so far. Don’t underestimate him. Mogg has a better brain by far than many - you don’t get an Upper Second at Cambridge without brains - and you underestimate him at your peril. Don’t be fooled by his accent: just as Boris plays the fool, so he plays the toff. But like Boris he’s as cunning as a weasel. The bathos of this post is hard to interpret, but he got his 2:1 at Oxford, reading history. At least it wasn’t PPE. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538/20 "2018-07-09T13:34:50Z")
> [@Malden\_Capell](#): > > Not a single Brexiter has offered a workable solution that allows Britain to Brexit without damage to the economy, as was claimed in the referendum. Now now. Thats like expecting them to build an artificial star out of toothpicks. Technically possible, but… > [@](#): > > By insisting on diamond-hard Brexit, they’ve written themselves out of the picture. Lets face it, Brexit is going to be hard enough to make a porn star blush. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-davis-resigns-as-brexit-secretary/817538.md?page=2)