All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
It’s not just the government who have been caught by surprise at Bercow’s vote announcement yesterday, it raised eyebrows in Germany too. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted this morning ‘I must confess I was not familiar with the rules of order of the British parliament from the 17th century’. Of course, Mr S, a
As we wait for the text of Theresa May’s letter requesting an Article 50 extension, it is worth remembering that once the UK government and the EU have agreed an extension then the UK will continue to be an EU member under international law—and international law trumps domestic law. A Department for Exiting the European
An advertising boycott is attacking the finances of fake-news sites. Major brands are pulling out, and panic is spreading among the propagandists whose work has fed the Corbyn movement, Tommy Robinson and the new-look Islamophobic Ukip. The Stop Funding Fake News Campaign is targeting the far left and far right in equal measure. It says,
It is the morning after the Bercow before, and it seems pretty much certain that there won’t be a meaningful vote 3 until after the European Council. Whatever is decided there on an extension, should be enough for the government to say that the package is different enough to justify bringing it back for another
As Westminster descended into chaos last night, with the Speaker’s announcement that he would block Theresa May’s meaningful vote, and with only eleven days until Brexit, where else would politicos be except the British Kebab Awards – which celebrate all that is good about the humble kebab shop. There was a serious moment at the
It would only encourage irresponsible lending. Deficits would run out of control. The rules of the single currency would be undermined, and voters would lose faith in the euro. Over the last few years, the Germans, the European Central Bank, and the EU itself, have been adamant that banks shouldn’t be bailed out inside the
When Theresa May asks the EU’s 27 government heads for a Brexit delay on Thursday, they will reply ‘what’s it for, Mme Prime Minister?’ And the problem she’s got — we’ve got — is she doesn’t know, as the junior Brexit minister Kwasi Kwarteng made crystal clear when questioned in the Commons yesterday. All she
Comic Relief have reported an £8 million plunge in year-on-year donations following the recent row ignited by Labour MP David Lammy accusing the charity of propagating the ‘white saviour’ complex. To be clear, there is no hard evidence proving the shortfall a direct fallout from Mr Lammy’s critique. It is, however, hardly conceivable the negative
The killing of 49 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand, was a very modern massacre. Pacing through the Mosque, the terrorist live-streamed his killings in the style of Call of Duty, with a head-mounted camera that allowed his viewers to see the world from his deranged point of view. The terrorist was the most loathsome
A frequent complaint heard from Muslim communities in recent years has been irritation and anger over any suggestion that Muslims – as a whole – need to apologise for attacks carried out in the name of their religion. I have sympathy for this irritation, tying as it does innocent people to the actions of guilty ones. But
Today, the Speaker John Bercow dealt a harsh blow to the government’s Brexit strategy after announcing that he would block a third vote on Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, unless it changed in a substantial way. Not content though with just one attack on the government, the Speaker also found time to launch a dig at
No. 10’s strategy to win over the DUP and the Brexiteers to Theresa May’s deal in time for a third vote has hit a wall. It’s not that the talks have stopped – if anything they’re going fairly well. Instead, the Speaker of the Commons has thrown a spanner in the works by suggesting that
I don’t know how religiously John Bercow reads Coffee House, but I am pleased that he has taken the advice I gave here on Saturday to use his powers to block a third ‘meaningful vote’ on Theresa May’s deal. This afternoon, the Speaker has made a statement to MPs that he intends to use his
Allies of Theresa May have long talked about how she wants her legacy to be about more than Brexit. But the brutal truth is that there is no such legacy available to her. Rather, her choice is between being the Prime Minister who got a withdrawal agreement through or the one who had to ask
Nigel Dodds of the DUP has not yet agreed a deal with Theresa May to bring his troop of ten MPs – and some of their Tory ERG Brexiter allies – into her camp for that momentous and precedent-smashing third “meaningful vote” on her Brexit deal. This means as of now the third “meaningful vote”
Where is Fiona Onasanya, and will she fight to remain as an MP? This has been the question on everyone’s lips ever since the courts rejected the former Labour MP’s appeal against conviction for perverting the course of justice. Onasanya has been spotted in the voting lobbies since the decision — possibly becoming the first ever
Only last night, it was reported that Tory rebels – including a former cabinet minister – were refusing to back May’s Brexit deal unless she promised to resign. Well it seems like they may have moved up their schedule. This morning, a removal van was spotted parked at the back of 10 Downing Street: Mr S
Boris Johnson was given an angry lecture by a minister in the voting lobbies about his comments that money had been ‘spaffed up a wall’ for investigating child sex abuse, I understand. The former Foreign Secretary upset survivors of the crime by using the term during radio interview last week. He told LBC that ‘you,
As Sir Stephen Laws QC, Richard Ekins and I explained in a paper published by Policy Exchange this Friday, the good faith and best endeavours obligations in the Withdrawal Agreement and Northern Ireland Protocol (the backstop), in addition to the Joint Instrument agreed at Strasbourg, offer the UK far greater legal comfort than seems to
Any extension to the Article 50 process would have to be unanimously agreed by the EU 27. This has led to some speculation that there might be a veto. But this strikes me as highly unlikely. One of the EU’s priorities in this negotiation has been to try and avoid blame, which explains Michel Barnier’s
Back in December, Emmanuel Macron was a man on edge. His poll numbers were spiralling down the toilet; hundreds of thousands of French who felt alienated from their government were taking to the streets to shout down the French elite in cities and towns across the country; and fires were burning all around Paris. Police
‘Kill Angela Merkel. Kill Erdogan. Kill Sadiq Khan’ were the demands of the white supremacist terrorist who killed 49 innocent worshippers at a mosque in New Zealand. France’s President Macron, he wrote, was ‘an ex-banker’ who was a ‘globalist’ and ‘anti-white people’. Make no mistake: the Australian man who gunned down innocent worshippers had political
The nation certainly needs optimism this week, so what better moment to start building our ‘UK Optimist Fund’ of shares with exciting prospects for the post-Brexit era, for which I invited suggestions last week? I’m grateful to all respondents but was particularly glad to hear from former minister Edwina Currie — whose stock picks show
Is this the week Theresa May sets out an exit date for her departure from No. 10? There is hope in government that this will be the week the Prime Minister passes her Brexit deal. However, the price of her doing so could include a promise to resign before the second stage of negotiations begin
The prime minister’s frantic last attempt to persuade Northern Ireland’s DUP to back her third meaningful vote on Tuesday involves a promise that if the controversial backstop is ever triggered, Great Britain would adopt any new food and business rules that could be forced by the EU on Northern Ireland. This is a high risk
Philip Hammond: Leaving the EU on 29 March ‘now physically impossible’… This morning, the Chancellor sat down with Andrew Marr following a week in which his Spring Statement was overshadowed by other events, including a series of critical Brexit votes in the Commons, and an appalling terrorist attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The seed for this week’s task, to put your own spin on a weather forecast, came from the Master Singers’ take on a weather report, soothingly intoned in the style of an Anglican chant. But one competitor accompanied his entry with a note reminding me of that comic gem from the 1970s, courtesy of the
Scarcely a week passes without a privately educated young woman with a successful career in journalism publishing a book about how ‘oppressed’ women are. Names that spring to mind are Laurie Penny (Brighton College), Zoe Williams (Godolphin and Latymer), Laura Bates (King’s College), Afua Hirsch (Wimbledon High School) and Grace Blakeley (Lord Wandsworth College). Indeed,
A besetting sin in this process has been over-cleverness. As so often in our history, the ‘stupid’ people are right. The Brexit question is a classic example of something which is simple but not easy. It is ‘Do you want to be ruled by those you can choose, or by those you can’t choose?’ Voters understood
Washington, DC Republican strategists have long complained about how, every election, the Democrats mobilise minority groups against them. Now they’re trying to turn the tables. Right-wing social media warriors, encouraged by @realDonaldTrump, have spent months talking about ‘Blexit’: a black voter exit from the Democratic party. This week, the President and others have begun calling
As New Zealand comes to terms with the most deadly terrorist attack ever carried out on its soil, leaders from around the world will be asking their security advisors whether this marks the start of an escalation of right-wing threats and whether their current strategies for defeating this form of extremism are fit for purpose.
Although the prime minister wants to hold another ‘meaningful vote’ on her Brexit plan next week, it is by no means certain that, when it comes to the crunch, she will choose to do so. I am told by her close colleagues, that two conditions must be met for her to go ahead with the
Not for the first time the Speaker of the House of Commons appears to hold the Brexit process in his hands. There has been speculation this week that John Bercow has the power to prevent a third vote on Theresa May’s deal by resorting to a parliamentary convention which prevents a motion being debated in
The relationship between Tory MPs who want a softer Brexit and local Conservative members has been strained for some time. This morning things came to a head. The backbench MP Nick Boles, who has been campaigning to stop a no-deal Brexit, announced that he was resigning from his local Conservative association. Boles will still remain
