Politics

Karen Bradley, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, would not, perhaps, win prizes for her in depth knowledge of sectarian politics in her patch – in an interview for the House magazine she said she had never realised that nationalists don’t vote for unionists, and vice versa (though that, actually, may change, given how Sinn Fein’s pro abortion, pro gay marriage gives Catholic voters the creeps) – but she’s on the ball in one respect. The Northern Ireland Assembly has been out of action since last year on the basis of a standoff between the DUP and Sinn Fein based on one comprehensible issue (SF took a dim view over

After the long summer recess, it was back to school for Dominic Raab and Olly Robbins as they appeared together before the European Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday. The meeting couldn’t be described as ideal timing for either thanks to an unfortunate set of circumstances. With the government’s Brexit plan slammed by Brexiteers and Remainers alike, Raab and Robbins – the Government’s two most senior negotiators – had to defend a plan which has been heralded as less popular than the poll tax. The second underlying tension of yesterday’s meeting was the tricky relationship between the Brexit Secretary and the PM’s Europe advisor. Only two weeks after Raab was appointed in

If as a country we cannot take a big decision about whether or not we should be in the European Union, which is based on sovereignty, which is based on controlling our borders; there are arguments on both sides. We ought to be able to have a reasonable and civilised debate on that, and then have a vote. What we are now getting is not a reasonable or civilised discussion. It is a discussion where both sides seem to be throwing insults at each other. And I find that deeply depressing; and frankly, if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes – whatever position you

There aren’t many EU politicians with a high profile, but Federica Mogherini, the former Italian foreign minister and, since 2014, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, is one of the exceptions.  Mogherini’s five-year term is up next year. Where she will go after her time expires – back to a fractious and circus-like Italian political scene, or somewhere else in the EU structure – is anyone’s guess. But if her address at yesterday’s EU Ambassador’s Conference is anything to go on, she intends to use the twilight of her tenure as Europe’s top foreign policy official to drill home a central point: multilateralism is not a dead or dying concept worth discarding.