Ignore Michael Gove – there’ll be no chance to edit Chequers once the ink is dry September 19, 2018 Theresa May’s ambush of her own cabinet in July by presenting the fait accompli of the proposed Chequers deal, which the EU remains unconvinced about and which will be the subject of discussion among EU leaders in Salzburg tomorrow, was for me the low point of the Brexit negotiations. That was until last Sunday, when [...]
The Salmond scandal won’t save the Union from the SNP September 5, 2018 There are quite a few people cheering from the aisles following the revelations that Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader and first minister of Scotland for seven years, is being investigated by police after complaints were made against him alleging inappropriate sexual behaviour by two civil servants. I suggest that people drop the schadenfreude and [...]
Ditch the Chequers Agreement and Hammond can scrap his ‘Amazon tax’ August 22, 2018 Thanks to the Prime Minister’s commitment to raise NHS spending by an additional £20bn, the chancellor is now in a quandary. Philip Hammond signed up to the theory that raising taxes increases revenues, which goes against the volumes of evidence that it actually depresses economic activity, encourages switching of spending to other lower-taxed areas, and [...]
Number 10 Downing Street is no place for a Brexit betrayer July 11, 2018 The UK government and parliament are fast approaching another of those thankfully rare historical episodes that are either nation-affirming or hugely humiliating. Will we witness our salvation of 1940, or our Suez of 1956? It is being brought to us courtesy of a Prime Minister doing her utmost to become possibly the worst leader to [...]
Airbus and BMW better start planning for a no-deal scenario June 27, 2018 The EU (Withdrawal) Bill has now received Royal Assent, and over the next few days the Prime Minister will be at the European Council in a far stronger position and hopefully an emboldened mood. This does not mean that the next phase of Brexit is going to be any easier than the two years since [...]
Sadiq Khan’s meddling is a bigger threat to London than Brexit June 8, 2018 Next week’s vote in the House of Commons to either accept or throw out their Lordships’ amendments to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill has all the appearance of being the defining moment for what type of relationship we are likely to have with the EU. As is usual with everything to do with Brexit, to [...]
The EU’s Italy calamity is the UK’s big Brexit opportunity March 8, 2018 One problem with Britain’s domestic focus on Brexit is that we tend not to consider, never mind discuss in any depth, what issues and conflicts currently beset the EU that could encourage its leadership to settle for a new relationship of the type the UK is proposing. The EU faces serious problems in managing its [...]
Time for Theresa May to get tough on Tory rebels like Anna Soubry February 7, 2018 Theresa May could be forgiven for wondering, how does she solve a problem like Anna Soubry? Sacked from the cabinet when May became Prime Minister following David Cameron’s decision to resign rather than see through the Brexit process (as he had promised), Soubry, the Tory MP for Broxtowe (a Leave-voting constituency), has been nothing but [...]
May 2, Sturgeon nil: The SNP has no case for a second referendum on Scottish independence March 15, 2017 If there is one thing that we can be certain about following this week’s political events, it is that Prime Minister Theresa May is not simply David Cameron in a skirt. After a significant amount of establishment and media pressure to back down on her Brexit timetable and allow many concessions and delays, she has had her [...]
With the Supreme Court ruling there is no need to consult Scotland on Article 50, are we at Peak SNP? January 25, 2017 Brian Monteith, a director at Global Britain, says Yes. Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision is the latest of many setbacks since Peak SNP was reached in 2015’s General Election. It has been downhill ever since with only the Labour Party’s worse decline giving the appearance of a buoyant SNP. Nicola Sturgeon lost her overall majority in [...]
