Many were gripped by the shenanigans in parliament on Monday, and as the details unfolded so too did the government’s dilemmas. While I doubt they’re talking much about the internal market bill down the Dog and Duck, it’s certainly giving the government a headache – and one very much of its own making. The political […]
Imagine that you could put yourself in Theresa May’s shoes for a short while. I realise that this may not be easy for those of you who don’t normally favour designer kitten heels, but stick with me for a while as it is worth the effort. It is a year ago and you are the […]
As Anthony Robinson (no relation) highlighted on the 14 September, the UK government announced last week that they intend to break international law. Perfectly stated by David Allen Green, “the government of the United Kingdom is proposing to enact legislation that is deliberately intended to make it possible for ministers to make regulations that would […]
Unless you’ve just splashed down from Mars, you’ll have noticed that the government has got itself into a great deal of hot water over the internal market bill. Former prime ministers, of various hues, have lined up to express their horror at its cavalier, casual dismissal of international law and repudiation of a treaty that […]
Ester Weber, reporter at The Times told twitter this morning: “One Tory MP in a big Leave constituency tells me: ‘In a patch like mine I think almost anything would be tolerated in the name of Brexit … Except fly-tipping.’” This may well be true, and the expectation that the government is about to fall […]
The furore about the UK proposing to break international law has every potential to grow into a full-blown constitutional crisis. If the UK internal market bill, which will override Johnson’s EU withdrawal agreement, passes the Commons this week it may well be blocked by peers, setting the two chambers against each other. However, the extraordinary […]
I voted to leave the European Union in 2016, but I have been horrified at what our country is becoming ever since. Rather than the sunlit uplands we were promised, the United Kingdom is becoming a lonely, isolationist state prepared to break international law in order to fulfill an ideological project. When I voted to […]
Even before the latest threats to the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement Act 2020 were made public, Britons living in Europe were becoming increasingly nervous about their futures. For those relying on protections afforded us by this ‘deal’, those concerns were heightened this week by the introduction of the UK internal market bill. British citizens, both in […]
During the 1990s, the Conservative government was dogged by the fallout from the infamous ‘cash for questions’ scandal. Lessons were learned, or so we are always told. However, the release of the Russian report highlighted that those lessons may now have been forgotten again. A leading player in political donations and a good friend of […]
One of the many aspects of British law on which I’ve found the public is unclear, is their right to live in their own country with a foreign spouse or partner and any children they might have. I’ve long lost track of the number of times when I’ve raised this issue, and people have said […]
Following hard on the heels of the government’s announcement on Tuesday that it intends to break international law by allowing the UK internal market bill (UKIM) to supersede parts of the withdrawal agreement, EU Vice President Maroš Šefčovič flew to London earlier today. In a meeting with Michael Gove, he read him the diplomatic equivalent […]
In 1956, prime minister Anthony Eden conspired with France and Israel to invade Egypt and recover control of the Suez Canal, which had been seized by president Nasser. It was an act of monumental hubris and Britain was eventually forced to withdraw under pressure from the USA and Russia. It was a seminal moment and […]
At around 1am on the 14 June, 2017, an apocalyptic inferno engulfed a residential apartment block in unimaginable horror. The block was Grenfell Tower, a 23-storey building. An electrical fire that began in a flat on the fourth floor quickly consumed the entire structure. Some 72 people died that night. The primary reason for the […]
Alarm bells rang yesterday when Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis confirmed that the government intended to break international law – in a specific and limited way – with changes to the Withdrawal Agreement Act. Incredibly, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, surpassed this today with his claim that the proposed changes were in fact […]
The Telegraph claimed in a banner headline this morning that the prime minister is to tell the EU that the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) he renegotiated and signed last year “never made sense”. A senior government source is quoted as saying some of the consequences “were not foreseen” at the time. Simon Nixon, chief leader writer […]
As a lawyer, I enjoyed the English legal system because of its inherent commitment to fairness and justice, even though I accept that at times it might not appear to achieve that to court users. It was a privilege to have been part of that system. It comes as no particular surprise to me that […]
Fighting a global pandemic is rather like fighting a war. If you are naïve about your tactics or indulge in wishful thinking you tend to meet with some very nasty surprises. Many people who are from the right of centre have been busy indulging in the fantasy that the covid problems are going to be […]
Can you afford to die? The price of a funeral is high, costing on average around £4,271 (2020) – a huge amount for a normal family, especially when they are grieving. For poorer families, the expense is even more distressing. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more poor working families have turned to crowdfunding on sites […]
“We request that our elected representatives speak out about foreign interference in our democracy and take a stand against the government’s ongoing attacks on our democratic safeguards. Through peaceful means, we intend to hold all of them to account for their cowardice.” This is the message from Three Point Five Percent, a movement devoted to […]
The regular monthly survey of party members carried out by the website Conservative Home shows Boris Johnson’s satisfaction rating slumping into the bottom third of his own cabinet. The prime minister is not so much first among equals as nineteenth out of twenty-six. In a cabinet stuffed with mediocrities and incompetents he doesn’t even make […]
Just about everyone is aware of the huge increases in government spending in the last seven months, as the government bankrolls the economy in a world where many workers have been furloughed or made redundant. Not only has government expenditure increased, but the 20 percent reduction in economic activity means that tax receipts have fallen […]
Childcare for working families is one of those perennial problematic societal issues, such as youth unemployment and domestic violence, which has not been created by covid but simply exacerbated by it, as it relentlessly picks at existing fault lines in our society. Antonia Bance, head of communications at the TUC, recently picked up the baton […]
As a Lancastrian European, let me begin by taking my hat off to ‘Leeds for Europe’ for recently getting the EU flag hoisted over Leeds Town Hall. However for any ‘rejoin’ campaign to gain traction, those who wish to have remained members of the EU must surely realise that even if Brexit proves to be […]
Freight industry trade bodies have written a joint letter to cabinet office minister Michael Gove calling for an “urgent roundtable meeting” to express growing concern about the state of nation’s preparedness to deliver a “functional operating border” for traders next year. In a Tweet, the FT’s Peter Foster characterises it as the industry sending up […]
One thing we have all learned in lockdown is that where you live really matters. Being told to stay at home in a lovely house in the country is not the same as being told to confine yourself in a shared damp flat at the top of a high rise in an inner city. So […]
Something stinks and it’s not just the fish. Britain is rotting from its heart, as its democratic institutions and processes are eroded from within. It’s not just individual things, like cutting the number of days parliament sits, and thereby cutting the time available for MPs to make the government publicly accountable (we know that if […]
By consensus, even among right-wing commentators, the prime minister was systematically dismantled by Keir Starmer at yesterday’s prime minister’s questions (PMQs). It was his worst performance in a series where he has consistently struggled against the new Labour leader and former barrister. John Crace, in an excoriating piece for The Guardian, says many Conservative MPs […]
In 2016, many people voted for Brexit in the hope of “taking back control” of their lives. It was an impulse I understood and continue to understand. Politics has been done to the people of the UK, rather than being something they’ve been able to do, and by the date of the Brexit referendum, the […]
The Brexit clock is ticking and the Home Office and Priti Patel are in a hurry to return asylum seekers to EU countries of entry, before the Dublin III provisions end on 31 December. On 26 August, the Home Office cancelled a flight, due to depart the next day and destined to return 23 asylum […]
You can tell it’s the start of a new term for the rich kids when they turn up in smart new uniforms at the gates. Dominic Cummings’ first day back saw him enter HQ in a suit; something of a first, which makes you wonder if he finished last term with a note to his […]