Big Ben protests An Extinction Rebellion protestor climbed to the top of the Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben, with a bit of help from the scaffolding. Who has achieved this before? — A Greenpeace protestor scaled the tower in 2004 to protest the Iraq war. — A protestor was arrested in May last year
Home The Commons voted by 329 to 299 for a Brexit Withdrawal Bill but then stymied progress by defeating a timetable for enacting it by 31 October. Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, immediately favoured a delay for Brexit. Downing Street called for a general election. Sir Oliver Letwin had torpedoed the government’s
It has become perceived wisdom that we are heading for a ‘people vs parliament’ election. But that is a false construct. Who gets to sit in parliament is the one matter in our political system over which the people have almost total control. The battle currently underway is to limit the powers that parliament has
The unclued lights are stations along the Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh train line, the pairs being 8/9 and 29/39. The title suggested a railway version of the ‘Road to the Isles’. First prize A.T. Lymer, Edinburgh Runners-up Brenda Widger, Bowdon, Cheshire; Jeffrey Frankland, Milnthorpe, Cumbria
Boris Johnson’s bid to fast track his Brexit bill through Parliament has been defeated in the Commons. These are the nine ex-Tory independent MPs who voted against the Government: Guto Bebb; Ken Clarke; Justine Greening; Dominic Grieve; Philip Hammond; Richard Harrington; Anne Milton; Antoinette Sandbach; Rory Stewart And these are the five Labour MPs who
After a remarkable turnaround, Boris Johnson succeeded in brokering a Brexit deal with the European Union last week. Now, he has the difficult task of navigating it through the House of Commons. On Saturday, Boris Johnson pulled a vote on his deal, after MPs backed Oliver Letwin’s amendment, which forced the government to ask for
Boris Johnson has written a (signed) letter to the EU saying that a Brexit delay ‘would damage the interests of the UK and our EU partners’. To comply with the Benn Act, the Prime Minister has also sent an (unsigned) letter formally requesting a Brexit extension. Here is the full text of both letters: 10
That the DUP was going to prove pivotal in Brexit negotiations was inevitable from the early hours of 9 June 2017, when it became clear that Theresa May had failed to secure an overall majority and that no other opposition party would countenance an electoral pact with the Conservatives. In many ways, the DUP’s powerful
Parliamentary days Could one of parliament’s longest sessions be followed by one of its shortest? — The shortest was between 14 September and 25 October 1948, when Clement Attlee’s government prorogued parliament in order to forestall efforts by the House of Lords to frustrate the Parliament Bill. The ruse was successful and the bill, which
Bad sport Sir: At last a respected member of the shooting community has popped his head above the parapet. Patrick Galbraith has had the courage to express the view that many of us from the ‘bygone sporting era’ hold, but have either been too afraid of the commercial consequences, or too idle, to go public
The Brexit deal agreed with the EU is a spectacular vindication of the Prime Minister’s approach: to go back to Brussels with the genuine prospect that Britain would leave with no deal on 31 October. The EU started off by saying it would never reopen the withdrawal agreement, but with a no-deal Brexit back in prospect,
Home Brexit teetered from uncertainty to uncertainty. Parliament had been summoned to sit on Saturday 19 October to debate what Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, had brought back from a European Union summit. He had held talks before the week began with Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach of Ireland, at Thornton Manor in the Wirral, from
The unclued lights are all constructed (as opposed to natural) languages, also known as conlangs. First prize Magdalena Deptula, Eton, Berks Runners-up Trevor Burford-Reade, Harrow Mrs Ashley, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex
From The Spectator, 15 July 1922: It is true that things so small as postcards cannot give one the splendour and glory of a great statue or a great canvas; but, all the same, their smallness is one of their virtues. A man fond of such things, riding across the Syrian Desert, on the camel
Deny Remainers oxygen Sir: Your correspondent Richard Dawkins seems to have a very tenuous grasp of logic for an academic (Diary, 5 October). He excoriates a referendum on the grounds that in the run-up the voters may have been misled. There is one choice between two alternatives, and the supporters of each outcome will do
Home After a telephone conversation between Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, a Downing Street spokesman said she had made clear that a withdrawal agreement with the EU was ‘overwhelmingly unlikely’; Mrs Merkel had insisted on Northern Ireland staying in the Customs Union, which the Democratic Unionist party called ‘beyond
A slice of history Pizza Express is to undergo financial restructuring, leading to fears that it could go under. How did the pizza industry in Britain begin? — The first record of an Italian restaurant was the Italian Eating House off Leicester Square, opened in 1803, though it is not known whether or not it
The past few months have been characterised by high drama which, for all the excitement, has resolved nothing. We are back in a familiar cycle: posturing, bluster and a last-minute burst of Brexit talks. It’s possible that Boris Johnson will emerge with a deal and declare triumph by 31 October: he has always regarded this