The big news this week: Jeremy Corbyn is ready to do a deal with Theresa May. Well, sort of – one of the red lines in his proposal is that we join a customs union but still have a say on trade deals, which is not something that May is going to get the EU […]
This is the biggest mistake the People’s Vote campaign has made
I, like many Remainers, are a little weary about the idea of a second referendum and do not possess the confidence some younger pro-EU campaigners have about victory the next time out. Still, they have been pretty much the only game in town if you hold out any hope that Brexit can somehow be thwarted, […]
Never has so much bollocks been spoken about one evening in parliament as we’re seeing today
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. […]
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 […]
We are on the verge of a whole new political era, no matter what happens. So why doesn’t it feel like it?
This is a very, very strange time for British politics. The Article 50 period runs out in a mere 81 days. Having thought it through, I don’t see how we’re not on the verge of a new political era, very different even to the one we’ve inherited since June 24th of 2016. Yet it doesn’t […]