BREXIT. Undoing (some of) the damage. Part 2: From Principles to Policies

BREXIT. Undoing (some of) the damage. Part 2: From Principles to Policies

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pic YouTube In Part 1 of this article, I proposed six principles which a future UK government should apply to the problem of improving future trade and political relations with the EU.  Those were: 1 No Fantasy; 2 Urgently restore friendly relations; 3 Understand the EU’s position; 4 Prioritise mitigating the most damaging of the new barriers; 5 Go for the easy wins in domestic political terms; 6 Move on from the obsolete framing of ‘Remainers’ and ‘Leavers’; 7 Be…

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May 6th – the return of real elections and lots of data for political nerds to get stuck into

May 6th – the return of real elections and lots of data for political nerds to get stuck into

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It has been a long wait but it looks almost certain that Thursday May 6th will see local and mayoral elections taking place once again. This will be in addition to the elections for the devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales. The pandemic meant that no elections took place last May and none of the hundred of local council vacancies have been filled because by-elections have been covered as well. As a result this looks set to be just about…

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BREXIT: Undoing (some of) the damage. Part 1: The Principles

BREXIT: Undoing (some of) the damage. Part 1: The Principles

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Just a few weeks in, and the practical effects of re-erecting the trade barriers which the UK spent 40 years helping to dismount are becoming more obvious by the day. Remarkably, it seems to have come as a complete surprise to the government that the EU rules which it had itself been enforcing up until Dec 31st in respect of imports from ‘third countries’ now apply to us.  Every day, new stories emerge of businesses cruelly throttled by the extra red…

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The Tories biggest challenge at the next general election: Starmer isn’t Corbyn

The Tories biggest challenge at the next general election: Starmer isn’t Corbyn

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The main driver of the GE2019 “red wall” gains was the then LAB leader One of the key factors about Johnson’s electoral successes is that they have happened when he’s been up against LAB opponents who subsequently became massive negatives for their party. Thus Boris beat Ken Livingstone for the London Mayoralty in 2008 and 2012 and his 2019 general election victory was against Corbyn who by then had been hugely discredited. If as looks increasingly likely neither the Tories…

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With the US Senate about to start the Trump impeachment process the latest tally has the ex-President surviving

With the US Senate about to start the Trump impeachment process the latest tally has the ex-President surviving

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My guess is that we will be checking back to this graphic in the Washington Post a fair bit in the next few days as the process to impeach former President Trump starts in the US Capitol building – the scene of the Trump inspired riot just 34 days ago that left five people dead. Each red block in the chart represents the view of a GOP Senator with yellow indicating position unknown. The Blue blocks are Democrats. At the…

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The Future Now – the biggest impact of COVID

The Future Now – the biggest impact of COVID

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Arguably the most significant science development of the last half century It’s always hard to know how the future will judge the present. Events which utterly dominated government policy and public discourse can be forgotten in a matter of years. Other events were passed by almost unnoticed at the time, and yet – in retrospect – seem incredibly important. So, here goes. 2020 and 2021 will be seen as a turning point. They will be considered watershed years: Before CV…

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