To recap, last night two amendments were voted on in the House of Commons: the Brady and Cooper amendments. Brady’s was absurd in a sickly, feverish way. The essence of it is to destroy May’s deal and force the Prime Minster to reopen discussions with the European Union so that the backstop can be changed. […]
Archives for January 2019
The “freedom clause” is just the latest painful sign of the Brexit bubble having taken over
Theresa May puts forth an agreement that allows Britain to leave the European Union on March 29th. Given it has a transition period attached, there will be no disruption to trade. However, there is a “backstop” clause in the agreement, one that says that if the UK and the EU do not come to a […]
Why does the commentariat cling to this idea of a united Labour Party?
Several myths have become dominant in Westminster since the last general election – I will only speak of two here and only one of them in-depth. The first is that Labour are certain to win the next general election. The other, which has taken longer to solidify and is even more ridiculous, is that the […]
I’ve worked out what trading on WTO terms almost certainly means: having to join the EU again at some point
James Delingpole, noted Leaver, was on Andrew Neil’s show last night. Neil decided to lay into him a little on the whole idea of the UK trading on WTO rules only (slight aside here: I really hate when people lay into Neil as being impartial given he is pro-Brexit when in fact, he’s been one […]
Why a no deal Brexit is more likely to cause civil unrest than any other result
The debate around no deal Brexit has heated up to a place I never imagined it would. I always knew pretty much what Theresa May was going to do, and I have been mostly right on that front; what I failed to see was that the hardcore Leavers on the Tory backbenches would vote down […]
What happens if the Queen has to adjudicate Brexit?
Former senior legal counsel to the government Stephen Laws QC was on the Today programme this morning. He had a very interesting take on what’s happening in parliament at the moment. He presented the notion that the Queen might be required to decide whether certain Bills that had passed the Commons should get Royal Assent […]
Why after last night’s historic loss by the government, it is Jeremy Corbyn who is in real trouble
It is a sign of the very strange times we live in that the government could lose a vote by a whopping 230 votes and still no one was surprised when the prime minister did not resign. Or that the no confidence vote to be held in its wake is expected to be won by […]
Here’s what no one knows about another EU referendum, even though everyone feels the need to bluff it
There are several accepted “truths” about what would happen if there was another referendum on Britain’s EU membership, pumped out by even the most Remainery of journalists and pundits. One, it would be more divisive and bitter than the first. Two, that it would lead to a rising of the far right the likes of […]
In trying to talk both Brexiteers and Remainers into voting for May’s deal, the government has convinced them both to vote against it
This morning’s Guardian page had two headlines directly parallel to each other. One had Jeremy Hunt saying that voting against May’s deal made no deal Brexit more likely; the other said that Hunt claimed the recent votes in the Commons made no Brexit at all happening much more likely. As you may have noticed, a […]
Brexit: The Uncivil War, reviewed
Last night at 9 PM, as almost all of you will know, Channel 4 broadcast a drama based on the events leading up to the EU referendum in June 2016, written by James Graham and starring Benedict Cumberbatch. I’m going to break this review up into two separate pieces: one, reviewing “The Uncivil War” as […]