Politics Archives

Sunday

22 Oct 2017

May’s disastrous dinner with Juncker: Episode II

Well, that lasted long. Although Theresa May didn’t get the green light to talk trade on her EU council summit charm offensive last week, there was a general consensus that the mood music had at least improved. The EU27 struck a conciliatory and optimistic tone – agreeing to begin internal trade discussions in anticipation of moving to trade talks in December. Angela Merkel even went so far as to say she had ‘no doubt’ a deal would be reached between the EU and Britain. However, it seems that the memo to play nice failed to reach the European Commission. Just as happened the last time May had dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker,

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Emily Thornberry says Britain is heading for ‘no deal’

Emily Thornberry – Britain is heading for ‘no deal’ The Shadow Foreign Secretary has warned that the United Kingdom is on the path to receive a ‘no deal’ outcome if the government continues to pursue Brexit negotiations in the manner it has been so far. Speaking to Andrew Marr, Thornberry was keen to stress the disadvantages that a no deal scenario would bring to the UK. However, Marr pressed Thornberry about her assertion that that there was ‘deadlock’ between the government and the EU: AM: You say there is deadlock, but directly Donald Tusk says ‘After Prime Minister May’s intervention my impression is that reports of deadlock between the EU

Saturday

21 Oct 2017

Martin Vander Weyer

No, we’re not half a trillion poorer, but foreign investment looks shaky

How did we mislay half a trillion pounds? Revised data from the Office for National Statistics has just reduced the UK’s ‘net international investment position’ from a surplus of £469 billion to a deficit of £22 billion. Downing Street dismissed this as ‘a technical revision’ — and in truth it’s not as bad it sounds, since what it tells us is that we own fewer foreign assets, and foreigners own more British assets, than had previously been recorded. Does national pride not attach to the idea that the rest of the world sees us as an investment safe haven? So why worry? Well, past miscounting apart, actual current trends in

Friday

20 Oct 2017

Isabel Hardman

Ceci n’est pas une no deal, says Macron

This post is from tonight’s Evening Blend email, a free round-up and analysis of the day’s politics. Sign up here. Is the government really changing its policy on planning for a no deal? That question isn’t simple to answer, not least because it’s not entirely clear what the government’s policy is on this matter: Philip Hammond has said the government won’t spend the necessary money until it needs to, while Theresa May says whatever money needs to be spent will be spent. But the pressure has been rising from Brexiteers for ministers to make real plans and produce real money to ensure that those plans are implemented. This isn’t just

Ross Clark

Can the Northern Powerhouse survive without George Osborne?

At a dinner at the Conservative party conference, in association with Aecom, MPs, local politicians, journalists and policy experts discussed the question: ‘Can the Northern Powerhouse still deliver?’ Guests included Esther McVey MP, Sean Anstee, Leader of Trafford Council, Andy Bounds, North of England correspondent for the Financial Times, and Richard Robinson of Aecom. The event was chaired by Fraser Nelson and the article below is a summary of what was discussed. The Northern Powerhouse was the brainchild of George Osborne, his intention being to create a better-connected super-conurbation across the North of England with the socio-economic muscle to compete as a global centre. The initiative resulted in the creation of

Steerpike

George Osborne’s revenge on civil service bean counters

Since George Osborne moved to the Evening Standard, the one-time austere chancellor has rebranded himself as a centrist darling – and a critic of Theresa May’s government. So, at last night’s Standard Progress 1000 awards at the Tate Modern, Osborne took great delight in telling the esteemed crowd – which included Diane Abbott, Matt Hancock and Grayson Perry – of how he had stood up to government bean counters when he first arrived in the Treasury: ‘In the first week of my former job, I was advised by the Treasury civil service to cancel immediately three projects because we had to save money and it was easier to save money

Steerpike

Caption contest: May goes it alone

Oh dear. Despite managing a carefully co-ordinated photo opp with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron on arrival in Brussels, Theresa May cut a solemn figure this morning. A snapper took a photo of the Prime Minister alone at a meeting table – looking glumly into the distance. It’s hardly the Brexit image that Downing Street were trying to project. Oh to be a fly on the wall in No 10… Captions in the comments.

Katy Balls

Angela Merkel throws Theresa May a lifeline

Few in Whitehall believed that Theresa May’s trip to the EU Council summit this week would result in Britain being given the green light to move onto the second stage of Brexit talks. Instead, it has all been about setting the tone and planting the seeds so that when the EU27 meet again in December, they decide that it is finally time to talk about trade. So, Theresa May ought to be able to leave Brussels a moderately happy woman today. This morning EU leaders agreed to start internal discussions on their approach to the ‘second phase’ of talks on trade and the transition period. This isn’t a green light

Ross Clark

Banking after Brexit: what does the future look like?

At a dinner on Sunday 1st October at the Conservative party conference, sponsored by Barclays, bankers, journalists, MPs and policy experts discussed ‘Brexit and the City: a future that works for everyone’. The event was chaired by Fraser Nelson and the article below is a summary of what was discussed. Banks were the popular anti-hero of the 2008/09 financial crisis. Now, there is widespread fear for their future after Brexit, as they will be required to relocate some operations in order to continue to qualify for ‘passporting rights’ needed to provide financial services in the single market. On the other hand, Brexit could free us from regulation, which in some

Thursday

19 Oct 2017

Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs threaten to rebel and vote for government policy

The talk of the Commons tearoom today is last night’s Opposition Day vote on Universal Credit. This is unusual: Opposition Day votes are non-binding and have recently been used largely for Labour to bang on about pet projects rather than hold the government’s feet to the fire. But the Opposition has sharpened up its act, and used growing Conservative concerns about the roll-out of the new benefit to good effect in yesterday’s debate. The whips had already decided that one of the ways they could make these Opposition Day debates even less politically powerful when they are operating in a minority government is to instruct all Tory MPs to abstain,

Tom Goodenough

Will the City thrive after Brexit?

Ten years on from the crash, the banks have few friends and fewer still who are willing to speak up for them. Now, with the uncertainty of Brexit looming, there are fears banks and their staff could up sticks to the continent. Like them or loathe them, this wouldn’t be good for Britain’s economy: financial services were worth £124.2bn to the UK last year and the sector accounts for three in every 100 jobs in the UK. So what can be done to make Britain a hospitable place for banks to do business after Brexit? And how can we do that without alienating ordinary people? This was the topic of

Isabel Hardman

Ministers may have to withdraw the EU Withdrawal Bill for a long time

So the EU (Withdrawal) Bill has been delayed once again, with Andrea Leadsom confirming a ‘pause’ to MPs this morning. The legislation is so weighed down with hundreds of hostile amendments that the whips daren’t take it anywhere near the Commons, and are trying to work on compromises with the many different groups of rebels in order to avoid a series of embarrassing defeats. Leadsom told the Chamber that ‘out of respect for this House, the Government are doing justice to the very significant concerns that have been raised about procedures and policy in the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, and it will come back to the House just as soon as

Steerpike

Watch: Alastair Campbell’s Brexit ding-dong with John Redwood

Alastair Campbell has made his views on Brexit loud and clear to anyone who will listen. Tony Blair’s former spin doctor is not happy about Britain leaving the EU and he wants us all to know it. It’s something of a shame then that he doesn’t give others who don’t agree with him about Brexit the opportunity to have their say. Cracking set-to between Alistair Campbell and John Redwood over the WTO. pic.twitter.com/veUDBFCDTy — Nick Hilton (@nickfthilton) October 19, 2017 Campbell popped up on Sky News this afternoon to discuss why he thought walking away with no Brexit deal would be a mistake. But when it came to Tory MP John

Steerpike

Damian Green gives Osborne the cold shoulder in Press Gallery speech

Oh dear. Although Theresa May is on a mission to unite her Cabinet after months of in-fighting, her mission appears not to extend to the party-at-large. Or if it does, that memo is yet to reach Damian Green. Today the First Secretary of State was guest speaker at the Press Gallery Lunch. Although Green is widely regarded as a safe pair of hands within government, there were a few lines that will ruffle feathers: Speaking about his predecessor – and former MP – George Osborne, Green said he normally takes ‘all his political insight’ from the London Evening Standard: ‘So I know that Theresa May is to blame for Ben

James Forsyth

A bungled Brexit could hand the SNP a new impetus

There is one thing that would absolutely guarantee that the United Kingdom could not make success of Brexit, the break-up of the Union. The immediate danger of that happening has receded. The SNP lost ground in the general election and Nicola Sturgeon now talks about independence far less than she once did. But, as I say in the politics column in this week’s magazine, if Brexit is mishandled this could change. This is why the EU withdrawal bill, which is currently paused as the whips work out how to get it through, must be changed. Clause 11 of the bill can be seen as an attempt to claim back previously devolved

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Ministers must take a Brexit ‘no deal’ seriously

Deal or no deal? Whatever type of Brexit Britain ends up with, the government should take the prospect of walking away with nothing seriously, says the Daily Telegraph. Yet the postponement of the EU withdrawal bill, which may not now come before Parliament for several weeks because of a looming Tory rebellion, does not bode well. The Telegraph stops short of echoing the warning of Labour’s Keir Starmer that the delay sums up the “paralysed” state of the current administration. But there remains ‘a palpable sense…of a catastrophe in the making’. With the Brexit stalemate unlikely to be broken this week, a Brexit no deal could end up as the

Liam Halligan

No deal is a good deal

So Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker enjoyed a ‘broad and constructive exchange’ during their working dinner in Brussels. Last time the Prime Minister broke bread with the President of the European Commission — at Downing Street six months ago — Juncker dubbed her ‘deluded’ and complained about the food. Despite better mood music, this latest supper summit was hardly positive. European Union negotiators still refuse to discuss trade or end the divisive impasse over citizens’ rights until Britain agrees to pay a stonking ‘divorce bill’ — upwards of £40-£50 billion. All the while, the Article 50 clock is ticking. The prospect of a ‘no deal’ Brexit has lately loomed into

James Forsyth

Brexit can strengthen the Union

There will be no chance of the United Kingdom making a success of Brexit if Scotland votes to break up the kingdom. And although the immediate danger of that happening appears to have passed — the Scottish National Party lost ground in the general election and Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t speak anywhere near as much about independence nowadays — this could change if Brexit is mishandled. When Britain leaves the EU then Scotland leaves too — those are the rules, and Spain, which is not too keen on the idea of secession, will insist upon them. So Brexit in itself will make Scottish independence an even bigger risk. It will knock

Robert Tombs

Lost in translation | 19 October 2017

If Michel Barnier and David Davis, in their regular dialogue of the deaf, seem to be inhabiting different mental universes, that is because they are. The British and French have often found each other particularly difficult to negotiate with. Of course, Barnier represents not France but the EU, and he has a negotiating position, the notorious European Council Guidelines, on which the veteran British diplomat Sir Peter Marshall has recently commented that ‘I have never seen, nor heard tell of, a text as antipathetic to the principle of give and take which is generally assumed to be at the heart of negotiation among like-minded democracies’. But, as a senior German

Damian Thompson

Cult classic

In Dan Brown’s new thriller, Origin, we are introduced to the Catholic church’s sinister far-right rival — a paranoid worldwide cult dedicated to undermining the reforms of Pope Francis. This toxic outfit has its own pope, who runs it from his ‘Vatican’ at El Palmar de Troya, on the Andalusian plain; hence its name, the Palmarian Catholic church. Brown describes a ‘soaring Gothic cathedral’ dominated by ‘eight towering spires, each with a triple-tiered bell tower’. Inside, members are required to attend interminable masses and pray to hundreds of freshly created saints, including St Adolf Hitler. Origin is a clumsily fashioned thriller, even by Brown’s standards, and you might imagine that