Eu

Thursday

Timothy Garton Ash

Diary – 21 July 2016

These days, you only need to turn your back for five minutes and you’ve missed another horror. The Turkish coup may have been foiled by incompetence, Facetime and people power, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seizing the chance to consolidate his increasingly authoritarian regime. My friend Ayse Kadioglu, one of Turkey’s brave, embattled liberal intellectuals, compares the bombing of the parliament building in Ankara to the Reichstag fire of 1933 — not in the sense of being a put-up job, but as a pretext for strangling democracy. Our new Foreign Secretary needs to produce more than a rude limerick in response. In the last fortnight I have made my

Peter Jones

Sophocles vs the luvvie Remainers

Is the Labour leadership hopeful Owen Smith, who longs to reverse the obviously undemocratic outcome of the recent referendum, aware of the company he is keeping — artists, writers, pop singers and other riffraff? Plutarch would not have rated these know-alls as especially useful allies. Plutarch (c. AD 100) mused on whether classical Athens gained its reputation more from its military or cultural achievements. He agreed that Athens was the ‘mother and well-disposed nurse’ of many arts, inventing some and burnishing others. But it was all a matter of priorities. Take historians and painters: since they lifted their subject matter from military leaders’ famous victories, they had little to add.

The Spectator

Theresa’s first mistake

This week’s lead article, as read by Lara Prendergast Helga Hunter met her husband Michael when he was a Scots Guardsman serving in Münster in 1968. She moved back with him, and they have lived in Britain ever since. Last week, she was astonished to receive a letter from the Scottish National Party saying that she is still ‘welcome in Scotland’ and faces ‘no immediate changes’ to her status due to the Brexit vote. But as a German national, she now faces ‘great uncertainty over how events will unfold’. To the SNP’s enemies, this seemed a deplorable scare tactic intended to fuel indignation and stoke demand for a second independence

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Theresa May gets a warmer than expected reception in Paris, and a pledge on the border

Paris was meant to be the more difficult leg of Theresa May’s first European tour as Prime Minister. But May’s press conference with Francois Hollande was far more cordial than expected. The French President was at pains to stress all the forms of cooperation that would continue between the two countries after the UK  left the EU. He continued to back the Le Touquet agreement which keeps the UK border at Calais.  However, he still wants Article 50 served quickly; ‘the sooner, the better’ was how he put it. There was, though, a tiny bit of softening on the question of talking about things before then. May, for her part,

Elif Shafak

Turkey’s continental drift

In Turkish the word ‘yurt’ has two definitions. It means ‘place’, ‘land’, ‘territory’, ‘homeland’. It could also indicate a round, portable tent, the likes of which have been used by nomadic tribes for centuries. In my imagination I have always liked to combine the two definitions, wondering if motherlands could be just as peripatetic as their people. I know, for one, that no matter how itinerant I might have been all my life, it follows me like a shadow, this sad motherland of mine. Turkey’s many problems occupy my mind, crush my chest, weigh down my soul, invade my dreams. Not only me, of course. There are so many who

Liam Halligan

The bust that wasn’t

It has been a month since the UK voted to leave the European Union — but something is missing. Where is the economic collapse? What of EUpocalypse Now? Where is the Brexageddon that we were promised? To the shock of many — not least business titans who bankrolled the Remain campaign — the instant collapse doesn’t seem to be happening. The UK economy is, for now at least, taking Brexit in its stride. The oft-predicted job losses? During the three weeks from 23 June, job listings were up 150,000 compared to the same period last year according to Reed Group, a recruitment consultant. ‘That’s an 8 per cent rise,’ says

Frances Robinson

Never gonna give EU up

June the 24th was a grim morning for Remain voters, and we’ve been working through the seven stages of grief ever since. Given that nobody has the faintest idea when, how or even if the UK will actually leave, acceptance is still some way off. But Remainers are a pragmatic bunch and many have now worked out that their own personal Brexit can be deftly avoided by taking another EU nationality. Likewise, UK citizens living in the EU, who have found to their horror that they are pawns in a very complex game of migrant chess between Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker, are concluding that now is a wise moment

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Don’t knock ‘secret deals’. We’ll need one soon

As a founder member of the Guild of Blair-Bashers, someone who reacted strongly against him from our first encounter at dinner when he was only an opposition spokesman, as a commentator who railed against the invasion of Iraq the moment the idea was mooted and right through to the end, and as a journalist who throughout Tony Blair’s time at No. 10 beat my tiny fists against the imposter I always thought him to be, perhaps I may deserve your attention now, after Chilcot, that I have something to say in Mr Blair’s defence? I don’t believe that in any important way the former Prime Minister lied. And I don’t

Tuesday

Gavin Mortimer

France is fed up with terror – and bureaucracy

Living in France is a lottery. The chances of getting a losing ticket are very slim, but a chance it is all the same. Twenty four hours before the slaughter in Nice, I took my daughter to the Bastille celebrations in the southern suburb of Paris in which we live. The centrepiece of the celebration was a parade through the town centre finishing in the town square. On arrival the kids in the parade leapt up on stage and sang La Marseillaise before trooping off into the embrace of their parents. Next up on stage was a pop band, and as they launched into their first number my 11-year-old daughter

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Inflation is up. But don’t panic, it’s nothing to do with Brexit

Inflation is up: between May and June it jumped from 0.3 per cent to 0.5 per cent. But before the doomsayers blame Brexit, it’s worth remembering that these latest Consumer Price Index figures are nothing to do with the EU referendum. Instead, the numbers behind today’s inflation rise were collected in the middle of June, before the Brexit vote took place. So what’s going on? The short answer is that there’s nothing to panic about. The rise was almost wholly brought about by a leap in the cost of air fares – particularly those to European countries. Here’s what the ONS, who released the numbers, said: ‘The 10.9 per cent

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Labour’s dismal showing gives Sajid Javid a gentler first day in the job

Theresa May’s new government gets to work today, and first to face the heat of the Chamber was the Communities and Local Government frontbench. Unfortunately, the Chamber turned out to be rather cool, as very few Labour MPs had managed to turn up, giving Sajid Javid and his team a rather gentler introduction to their new jobs. One of them, Andrew Percy, told the Chamber that ‘I share the House’s surprise!’ on this appointment as he rose to take his first question. But largely the questions that were asked were not a surprise for the frontbench. Some Tory MPs were anxious for a renewed commitment from the new ministers to

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Boris’s EU summit debut shows why he is the perfect pick for Foreign Secretary

After a bit of initial drama involving an emergency plane landing, Boris Johnson is in Brussels. There’s been a lot of social media chatter about why Boris is the wrong choice for Foreign Secretary and how he’s going to embarrass Britain in his new role. Some are quoting Boris’ past articles to prove he is only going to upset those he meets on the world stage – and Boris’ prize-winning President Erdogan poem in the Spectator has also gathered much interest. But for all those worrying about the ‘damage’ Boris is going to do, look instead to the huge interest in his debut at the EU summit to see why

Saturday

Charles Moore

Is Jean-Claude Juncker the ‘Sepp Blatter of the EU’?

A friend, himself a Remainer, describes Jean-Claude Juncker to me as ‘the Sepp Blatter of the EU’. It is a brilliant comparison — although I hasten to assure Mr Juncker’s lawyers (and indeed Mr Blatter’s) that I repudiate any suggestion of corruption against either man. It captures that unmerited sense of ownership, that confident unaccountability, those menacing, charmless jokes. It also captures the nature of the two organisations as currently run and reminds us that, precisely because their leaders do not recognise it, they must change. This is an extract from Charles Moore’s Notes. The full article can be found here. 

Friday

Tom Goodenough

Is Theresa May rowing back on ‘Brexit means Brexit’?

Theresa May has told us repeatedly that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and Philip Hammond has been at it too: just in case you weren’t aware, Brexit really does mean Brexit. Whilst it’s a catchphrase which is meant to reassure those who want Britain to leave the EU (and those who don’t, but respect the outcome of the vote), it’s actually pretty vapid. And on her trip up to Scotland today, the PM may have shown how her phrase could easily unravel. Theresa May said she was ‘very clear’ about involving the Scottish government in the Brexit negotiations and that she was eager to ‘get the best possible deal for the entire

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Theresa May faces an impossible test over Scotland and Brexit

For some time now, and especially since September 2014, the SNP administration in Edinburgh has been inspired by a single, powerful, notion: govern as though you were enjoying the early days of a newly-independent state.  Of course, Scotland is not – or not yet – an independent state and, for the time being at least, still has two governments, one in Edinburgh and another in London. But in attitude and demeanour, the SNP behaves as though independence has already arrived in everything except the formal recognition of that fact. This is a matter of mood and framing, for sure, but it’s also something which has consequences. It’s why Theresa May’s visit

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 14 July 2016

Lurid about Leavers Sir: Matthew Parris has spent much of the past few months denigrating those of us who want to leave the EU, but his latest article (‘For the first time, I feel ashamed to be British’, 9 July) really does go too far. It is simply untrue to claim that the leaders of the Leave campaign relied on hatred of immigration, and that this won it for Leave. As Brendan O’Neill pointed out (‘Not thick or racist: just poor’, 2 July), a majority of Leave voters (including me, for what it is worth) rejected the EU primarily for sovereignty reasons. But whatever Mr Parris may feel, there is nothing immoral

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Watch: Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Boris – ‘he isn’t the man you want driving you home’

Amber Rudd didn’t pull her punches during the referendum campaign when she aimed her fire at Boris Johnson. During a heated ITV debate, she said this about Boris: ‘Boris? Well, he’s the life and soul of the party but he’s not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening. This is a very serious choice you have to make.’ Of course, when Rudd said those words it would be difficult to imagine the events that would play out over the next few weeks. And now, just a month later, Britain is heading out of the EU, Theresa May is our new PM and Rudd and

James Delingpole James Delingpole

Brexit won the battle. But now we’ve lost the war

When Jonathan Swift wanted to mock the immeasurable superficiality of British politics, he imagined it as a contest between the Big–Endians and the Little-Endians. That is, between those who believed fervently that the only way to open a boiled egg is at the pointier end; and those certain that the only proper way to attack it was from the larger, more rounded end. But that was in the 1720s and Swift was joking. Not in his most extravagantly cynical fantasies, I dare venture, could our greatest satirist have conceived that 300 years on a British prime minister would be chosen on the basis of the following question: ‘Do you think

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Theresa May has just shown she really is serious about Brexit

‘Brexit means Brexit’ has been Theresa May’s message since she started running for the Tory leadership. But Brexit could mean a whole variety of things. For example, a Norwegian-style deal with the EU would, technically, be ‘Brexit’. But now, Theresa May has shown real intent. She has demonstrated that she really is serious about this. She has appointed three leavers to the key Brexit-related jobs in government. David Davis will be Secretary of State for exiting the EU, Liam Fox gets the International Trade job and Boris Johnson the Foreign Office. The David Davis appointment is particularly striking. He resigned, unexpectedly, from David Cameron’s shadow Cabinet. Putting him in charge

Tuesday

Tom Goodenough

Second EU referendum petition gets debate go-ahead. But what’s the point?

Signing a petition calling for a referendum re-run might seem rather futile after the Brexit vote was done and dusted. But it seems that the four million people who did just that and put pen to paper haven’t completely wasted their time after all. The petition, which said that the Government should hold a re-run if ‘the remain or leave vote is less than 60 per cent based on a turnout less than 75 per cent’, has jumped its first hurdle. Putting aside who decided that this precise percentage was the exact bar which needed to be reached, Parliament will now discuss the petition in Westminster Hall on September 5th. In