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In the film “Mrs Brown” there is a scene in Parliament where MPs are passing around a Tomahawk cartoon showing an empty throne captioned “Where is Britannia?” It’s a reference to widowed Queen Victoria’s long self-imposed isolation and its effect on good governance and support for the monarchy. A similar criticism could be made now – not of her great-great-grand-daughter – but of Parliament. During the biggest combined health and economic crisis of recent times, where is Parliament? Some Tory…

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Let me be blunt. Sunak’s package does not help the hospitality sector, certainly not its small businesses. Perhaps he never intended to. Perhaps he has taken the view that the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, VAT cut (of no use to those on the fixed rate scheme) and other help was enough. Or that there is not enough money left. Or that it does not matter – being unskilled, low value and unnecessary in a post-Covid world. If this…

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That rather depends on what the aim is But first, what does it actually do? The government’s compromise with Sir Bob Neill on his amendment does the following:- It gives the House of Commons (but not the Lords) the right to vote before the government triggers the clauses disapplying the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement and the Act implementing it. It might even be (but hasn’t been – yet) called a Meaningful Vote. In a week when: – (a) regulations…

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