I’ll admit that I am still hoping for a general election in 2019, although I think the possibility of it is fading quickly. Corbyn doesn’t want to ram it through against the will of the PLP – although I do think he wants an election, as it is the only way for him to avoid […]
The Withdrawal Agreement Bill has been “paused”. What happens now?
Last night, Boris Johnson reaped what he had sowed. The programme motion, that which would have set out a timetable for him to get the WAB voted through parliament in time for him to keep his October 31st promise to the nation if every other step had worked out for him from there, was voted […]
Why the Lib Dems should vote for the customs union amendment (probably)
Things are moving very fast in British politics at the moment, so this article may become redundant quickly. But it looks from here like the following is going to happen: Bercow will disallow MV2 on the Boris Withdrawal Agreement; Johnson will shrug and move the bill that enacts it, the problem with this being it […]
Here’s why Labour MPs in Leave seats should not vote for the Withdrawal Agreement on Saturday
I would like to address this article directly to those Labour MPs who are in seats that voted heavily to leave the EU in the 2016 EU referendum, and as a result are seriously considering voting for Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement on Saturday. I will use this space to try and talk you out of […]
What Extinction Rebellion tells you about the problems of the wider left
Last night, ITV cameras caught Extinction Rebellion protesters standing on top of tube trains on the Jubilee line at Canning Town. Judging by the footage, the protest was not a success. Prospective passengers on the platform got so angry with the protestors, one of the XR chaps got physically dragged off the top of the […]
Why Remainers should be worried if a People’s Vote comes to pass
There was a good article in the Spectator by Nick Cohen yesterday about the People’s Vote campaign and how while they have done well to advance the cause of getting a second referendum seriously considered, they haven’t done a lot of thinking about what to do if a referendum actually happens. What ideas will the […]
How Brexit being reduced to nothing whatsoever may soon become official government policy
In the 1969 film “Putney Swope”, directed by Robert Downey Snr (yes, Robert Downey Jnr’s father), the chairman of the board of an advertising company dies in the first scene. The board thus need to elect a new chairman. Putney Swope, the only black man on the board, is elected by accident – since the […]
What is Boris Johnson up to with the Irish? Here are the three possibilities
After the party comes the hangover. Following all of yesterday’s hype about “light at the end of the tunnel” and taking Leo Varadkar’s very guarded words about the possibility of a deal being reached between the EU and the UK next week as being confirmation that “Boris has done it” by certain sections of the […]
Here’s the problem with the second EU referendum before a general election idea
An extension to the Article 50 period now seems inevitable. There was never any chance of a withdrawal agreement being reached and Johnson was never serious about trying to get one, nor was the EU going to bend for anything that made things worse than the May deal from their perspective. The government is pretending […]
The reason why the Brexit project continues to fail is because it is completely empty and cannot be made real
After the EU referendum result landed in June 2016, I was deeply distraught. I had been pro-European and argued the pro-EU cause well before it was in any way fashionable. Yet once May became prime minister and laid out her Brexit stall, it became obvious to me that leaving the EU was inevitable. We had […]