It has been a good week for the SNP. On two major issues – due to their own clarity of thought and the errors of others – they have banked clear political wins. On both issues the Labour Party by contrast looks contorted and confused. First the UK-EU Deal. Here […]
Tag: Keir Starmer
There’s no way to avoid it: the EU question is going to be on the agenda at the 2024 UK General Election, and so Labour can’t wish away the EU question
On page 218 and 219 of the UK-EU Trade Deal (full PDF here) is the following paragraph (emphasis is mine): In order to ensure an appropriate balance between the commitments made by the Parties in this Agreement on a more durable basis, either Party may request, no sooner than four […]
Why – if there is a Brexit Deal – Labour MPs should abstain
(The original version of this blog post assumed how ratification would proceed was known and clear – thanks to this excellent discussion with George Peretz QC, Nick von Westenholz and Brigid Fowler it seems that is not completely clear, and parts of this blog post have been adjusted accordingly. This […]
Starmer’s steady stability – I’m not sure this is enough
Back in April when he was first elected, I wondered how Keir Starmer – an essentially normal politician – would manage as leader of the UK Labour Party in extraordinary political times. Now we are starting to find out, and the picture is a mixed one. At one level all […]
UK politics: not normal
A Minister who had presided over a fiasco as major as Gavin Williamson has with the A-Level results algorithm problems would – in normal times – have either resigned or been sacked. A Special Adviser who had admitted a major breach of lockdown rules would – in normal times – […]
If Labour were to have a position on Brexit in the UK right now, what should it be?
Even the original timetable for Brexit was ridiculously tight – out by the end of March 2019, and then the future relationship to be concluded 21 months later, by the end of December 2020. Remember that trade negotiations with third countries generally take more than 5 years, sometimes as much […]
How does an impeccable but essentially typical politician cope in extraordinary times? With Keir Starmer we’re going to find out
A 57 year old straight white man, an ex-lawyer and ex-Director of Public Prosecutions, has been elected as leader of the Labour Party. He is married with two children. He is himself one of five, his father was a toolmaker, and he worked his way up the legal profession, and […]
The political paralysis route to rejoin the EU
While I am still sceptical as to whether the UK would be ready to rejoin the EU any time soon, and likewise not convinced the EU should even have it back, an idea has been in the back of my mind as to how there could indeed be a route to […]
Labour should back a People’s Vote, but need not explicitly back Remain
Back in December I wrote that trying to break UK party politics was not the way out of Britain’s Brexit conundrum. The events of this past 7 days underline this even more. Back in December, 117 Tory MPs voted to No Confidence May as Tory leader. 118 voted against her […]
Labour’s Brexit pledge card (fictitious, but could the idea catch on?)
Ask any Brits whose formative political years were the 1990s and they can answer you this question: “When will Britain join the Euro?” The answer, of course, is: “When the five economic tests are met!” The thing was that no-one could ever remember what the five tests were (they are here […]
Short term anti-Brexit tactics: just oppose, oppose, oppose
I am often confronted with the line of argument that because something or other may or may not happen sometime into the foggy future, opposing Brexit is hopeless now. A Twitter conversation with Rachel Heyburn and A C Grayling this morning was a case in point. Now I am always someone who wants […]
The UK government has promised a Brexit plan. But what does that mean?
Yesterday was a significant day for those who follow the minutiae of Brexit, for those of us who try to ascertain what is actually going despite the cloud of obfuscation and media distortion. For months the answer to what Brexit means has been “Brexit means Brexit“, and when Theresa May has […]