Brussels ups the ante over the Johnson/Cummings EU deal override move
Senior CON MPs threaten not to back the PM
Why the Johnson/Cummings “ignore the treaty” move sets bad precedents
My son, Robert, posted this comment on the last thread which nearly sums up the dangers and I think deserves greater prominence. He wrote: “1.It’s bad for Northern IrelandBoris Johnson can’t walk back on his plans to abrogate now, without causing an enormous problem with the Unionist community in Northern Ireland. It’s creating another “stabbed in the back” myth. On the other hand, if you do abrogate, and we walk away from the Withdrawal Agreement, then it will create equally…
Fisking the PM – examining the background to his controversial EU move
There used to be (may well still be) an enjoyable pastime for readers of Robert Fisk’s articles: a point by point rebuttal of the factual errors and other idiocies contained in them. Other journalists can be fisked with equal pleasure. At one point there was a veritable cottage industry dependant on Polly Toynbee’s output. So on a rainy day starting a new week of political fun and games, it is time to revive this practice and apply it to another…
If Leaving the EU was easy
When it comes down to it, most articles only have one point at their heart. They can be tricked out with lively language or illustrated with telling examples (or they can be pedestrian plods through the topic). Nevertheless, that one point is usually missed by most readers. So let me sum up the point of this article in one plain paragraph. The EU can choose the terms of a deal with Britain that it wishes to offer. Britain in turn is…
No 10 is once again going to have to choose between No Deal and a Bad Deal
Brexit has not gone away; far from it Gavin Williamson is a lucky man. In any ordinary government he would have been sacked over the exams fiasco this month, ex-Chief Whip’s book or not. This, however, is not a normal government. It’s not normal in part because it simply doesn’t play by the conventions of the game and is happy to brazen out scandals or tolerate failure that generally wouldn’t have been accepted in the past. It also has the…
It is beginning to look that a no-deal Brexit could be off the agenda
While the media has been almost totally focused on the pandemic the time is running down on the transition period for the UK’s exit from the EU at the end of the year. This might change following the latest reports emanating from Brussels and Downing Street that suggests a deal is looking a bit more likely. A big issue is fishing where until now Brussels has EU demanded that Britain must respect the right of fleets from EU countries to…
Submission or No Deal: where do the Brexit talks end up this year?
It’s hard to see how there can be a bespoke agreement by December If it was going to happen, it would have done so months ago. Confirmation yesterday that Britain would not exercise its right to request an extension to the Brexit transition period was one of the more predictable events of 2020. Despite the ravages wreaked on the UK economy by the Covid-19 pandemic and the shutdown it necessitated, the danger of a No-FTA exit creating yet more barriers…
Who loves Dom?
Cummings has burnt too many bridges to survive committing the cardinal British political sin: hypocricy 25 January 2016 is not a date that has gone down in history. Despite that, the events of that day were critical to Britain voting to leave the EU, with all that’s meant since. That morning, Dominic Cummings was summoned to a meeting that was intended to remove him from running the Vote Leave campaign. The meeting did not turn out as its board intended….