Some housekeeping first: looks like the 48 letter challenge to May’s premiership has stalled, rather embarrassingly for the main cheerleaders involved. Meanwhile, Spain is threatening to bring down the whole deal from the EU side over provisions covering Gibraltar – remember, the deal still has to be ratified by the EU27. There are still a […]
My view on Shami Chakrabarti on Marr, for what it’s worth
Social media has been filled with opinions on how Shami Chakrabarti’s interview on the Andrew Marr show went this past weekend. A large chunk of left-wing opinion seems to feel that Marr was bullying towards her in a way that may possibly have been sexist or even mysogynistic. Having watched the interview a few times […]
My takeaways from yesterday’s, uh, events
It really hit the fan yesterday, huh? We all sort of knew it was coming, yet that didn’t stop it being somehow spectacular when it finally unfolded. There has been a massive amount of comment on what happened yesterday with the various resignations and so forth; here, I’m only going to try and cover the […]
Could Keir Starmer’s big moment be close at hand?
At long last, the “deal” has landed, bringing with it opprobrium from both Leavers and Remainers. Speculation today has mostly been centred on which cabinet members will resign shortly (so far, none have) and whether May has any hope of getting this “deal” through parliament. Thinking ahead, however, a much more interesting question emerges, this […]
An article in which I attempt, as best as possible, to summarise the current state of play
All week I have had at the back of my mind the idea of writing something about where we are – on Brexit, on everything in UK politics at the moment – without really knowing what to say. Everything comes down to “the deal” – which is not, amazingly enough, going to be a deal […]
Looking at the Arron Banks on Marr interview in relation to election spending rules
Many people are upset about Arron Banks being given a slot on the BBC’s prime weekend politics programme yesterday morning to try and plead his innocence over the airwaves; I will not get into that matter within in the content of this article. Nor can I make any comment on anything Arron Banks has done […]
Here are my main takeaways from yesterday’s budget
Although these things are somewhat subjective, yesterday’s budget could probably be considered a hit in pure political terms. Yes, some pundits, particularly on the left, have critiqued elements of it, such as the tax giveaways to the middle-classes. Yet there is no sense of danger here, of something on the level of the 2012 “omnishambles” […]
Interpreting John McDonnell’s latest interview on Brexit – yes, I do go beyond “It’s laughably crap”, don’t worry
So, what is there to say about Brexit anymore? We’re all just waiting for the May-EU drama to play out, for the prime minister to present the deal to parliament – and then the actual unknowable, namely will such a thing get a majority in the Commons or not. As has been obvious for a […]
A brief history of how we got to where we are, Brexit, Corbyn, everything. In less than a thousand words
Perhaps the biggest theme of this era across the West is that politics has become completely polarised; that Left and Right have gone to further extremes, with the Centre being ignored by the electorate. I’m going to try and explain here, in the simplest terms I can, why this happened. Again, I will be simplifying […]
How Theresa May’s Brexit negotiation is reaching its inevitable conclusion
There is said to be cabinet “unease” around the latest May proposal for dealing with the backstop issue the UK seemingly unwittingly signed up to in December 2017. Namely, that until a super-whizz bang trade deal between the UK and the EU can be agreed and implemented, the UK essentially stays in the Customs Union. […]