The pause on the Repeal Bill, a piece of legislation that will take the 1972 European Communities Act out of commission, has been lifted. The Committee Stage of the Bill roared to life yesterday and will continue for the next seventeen years (I exaggerate slightly). A host of twenty Tory MPs are threatening to rebel […]
Okay, I didn’t like “La La Land”. Like, at all. Here’s why
For a start, I know I’m somewhat late to this debate. However, I’ve only just seen “La La Land”, and I didn’t like it, in fact I found it crushingly dull, and I think I can explain why this is in terms that I haven’t read elsewhere. There have been many people who have critiqued […]
Tory MPs cling to May as leader for fear of something worse. So should we all
At the end of the summer, I reviewed whether or not Theresa May remaining as leader of the Conservative Party was the best thing for that particularly party. Now I feel the need to consider whether or not her continuing as prime minister is in the best interests of us all, paying particular attention to […]
The 350 million pound problem with referenda and its consequences
Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS, is going to make a speech today alluding to the idea that the government should live up to its promise, one made during the referendum, of an extra 350 million pounds a week that is supposed to be spent on the National Health Service in the event of […]
Theresa May is hazy about when Brexit transition plans will be finalised, which is worrying
Theresa May made a speech this morning at the CBI conference which was centred on sexual harassment and Westminster. The Prime Minister sounded a lot more confident on this topic than on Brexit, which popped up in the questions afterwards. Asked when the public would get to know if the transitional deal with the EU […]
Theresa May should just release the Brexit impact studies – for these three reasons
The government has tried desperately to withhold publishing the Brexit impact studies, even from relevant parliamentarians such as the Exiting the European Union select committee. The answer they give as to why that is comes down to the idea that releasing them will negatively affect our negotiating position with the EU. It is hard for […]
Theresa May just missed a big chance – and it suggests she’ll miss the next one, should it come along
The sexual harassment scandal currently engulfing Westminster is the very last thing Theresa May needed. Although it does not represent a threat to the government nor to Brexit to the extent many pundits are (rather over hopefully) predicting, it has placed the prime minister in a tricky position at a time when she already had […]
This is what my problem with the government spending half a billion preparing for Brexit is
On Twitter this morning, I mentioned that I had a problem with the government spending half a billion pounds (which is what Davis revealed yesterday in terms of what the government is planning to spend in preparation for Brexit) on a procedure that was supposed to give us £350 million a week back. I got […]
The problem with British politics? We no longer have either a Conservative or a Liberal party
I have written on several occasions already about how pushing for a “no deal” Brexit – or “clean” Brexit, if you like – is the least conservative thing any government has considered doing at least since the end of the war. But this unconservative streak in regards to Brexit and the Tories runs deeper. The […]
Brexit trumps everything: how the Right have begun to critique fiscal conservatism in earnest
In the latest turn in the soap opera which has become Britain’s attempts to leave the European Union, witness right wing Brexiteers within the Conservative Party imploring the Prime Minister and her Chancellor to spend more public money “preparing” for a “no deal” Brexit. In other words, fiscal conservatives are asking that a Tory leader […]