Uk politics

The angrier, snootier sections of the Remain camp have done many bad things since 23 June. Some have suggested Brexit should be overthrown. Others have issued terrible libels against Leave voters, branding them ‘low information’ and xenophobic. Witness Nick Clegg in this Guardian video published this week having a good old laugh at Sheffield people who voted for Brexit after apparently falling for the ‘emotionally pungent’ claims of Leave leaders. But worst of all has been their sly rewriting of history. They’re engaged in a campaign to misremember the referendum, to depict it as a time of lies and idiocy, of racism unleashed. They’ve cranked up the memory holes, sharpened

The earliest members of Alcoholics Anonymous offered their famous Twelve Steps, which the drunkard must take in order to recover, born of their own experience. The Twelve Steps are still the foundation of AA. They work because they are taken by people who have hit rock bottom and realise it. The first step says, ‘We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.’ Theresa May’s Twelve Objectives, announced in her outstanding speech at Lancaster House of Tuesday, play a similar role for national recovery, substituting the words ‘European Union’ for ‘alcohol’. Until the June referendum, Mrs May, like millions of others, barely even admitted there

Kipling wrote about Brexit first, you know: “It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation, To puff and look important and to say: Though we know we should defeat you, We have not the time to meet you. We will therefore pay you cash to go away.” That, in essence, was David Cameron’s approach to the eurosceptics within his own party. Promise to pay just enough to keep them satisfied in the hope they would not then be emboldened to come back for more. But, as Kipling knew: “And that is called paying the Dane-geld; But we’ve proved it again and again, That if once you have

So, ‘global Britain’ eh? This, we are told, will be the leitmotif for Theresa May’s Brexit speech tomorrow and, indeed, for her approach to international affairs more generally. And who could disagree with any of that? The argument will, of course, be couched in economic terms. The spirit of Britannia will be unleashed to sail the world’s oceans. Britain is back, you know. We shall show the doubters what we’re made of and by jove we’ll make a success of Brexit. Well, let us hope so. There are many kinds of internationalism, however, and I’m not sure – at least not sure yet – the buccaneers really appreciate, far less

Michael Gove has landed the first British interview with Donald Trump for The Times (where he is, now, a columnist). This is his first interview since he spoke to Justin Welby for The Spectator – it’s online and as good as you’d expect. The ability to build such bridges won’t hurt Gove should he want to return to government. Here are the main points:- Trump congratulates Britain for Brexit.. He says: “People don’t want to have other people coming in and destroying their country. I thought the UK was so smart in getting out [of the EU]… Obama said: they’ll go to the back of the line [queue]… that was

  Mark Lyall Grant, the Prime Minister’s national security adviser, is leaving. As I report in The Sun today, the 60 year-old Lyall Grant is to retire later this year. The hot favourite to replace Lyall Grant is Mark Sedwill, the permanent secretary at the Home Office. Theresa May knows Sedwill well from her time as Home Secretary, they worked together for three years. Having him in Downing Street will mean that she has foreign policy advice from an official with whom she has developed a strong working relationship with. ‘She likes people we know and trust’, says one senior figure involved in discussions about the move. Sedwill, a former