Brexit

Sunday

Charles Moore

Brexit backsliding fears are stronger than ever

From our UK edition

In February, Matthew Parris wrote that Brexiteers seemed very anxious, despite having won. He thought this was because they were ‘secretly, usually unconsciously, terrified that they’ve done the wrong thing’. The following week, I suggested that our undoubted anxiety was more likely attributable to fear that ‘having come so far, we might be cheated of what we thought we had achieved’. Exactly a year after the referendum, this fear of being cheated is even stronger. Last week, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, came within an ace of saying in public that Britain must not leave the customs union, thereby undermining the negotiating position of the government in which he serves.

Toby Young

The writers of the Guardian’s ‘Brexit Shorts’ have swallowed Project Fear

From our UK edition

Earlier this week the Guardian launched ‘Brexit Shorts’, a series of monologues written by Britain’s ‘leading playwrights’ about the aftermath of the EU referendum. Now I know what you’re thinking: ‘What fresh hell is this?’ But bear with me. Watching the first batch of these short films, which are on the Guardian website, isn’t complete purgatory. Not because they’re much good, obviously — although one is, and I’ll come to that in a moment. But because the reason these writers are so anxious about Brexit is due to their uncritical acceptance of Project Fear. Perhaps they’ll become a little less hysterical once they’ve been introduced to some solid facts.

Saturday

John Mills

It’s vital we act now to fix the ticking time bomb under our economy

From our UK edition

The UK economy is not in good shape. We invest a lower proportion of our GDP every year than almost anyone else, which is the main reason why our productivity is almost static. We have deindustrialised to a point where we do not have nearly enough to sell abroad to pay for our imports. We have a chronic balance of payments problem financed by selling assets and borrowing from abroad. As a result, both as individuals and as a nation we are getting deeper and deeper into debt. What growth we have is driven by consumption, financed by asset inflation rather than by exports and investment. On almost every measure, inequality is growing.

Friday

Ed West

13 things we have learnt about Britain since the EU Referendum

From our UK edition

Happy Independence Day everyone (groan). One year on from that momentous day, here are 13 things we've learnt from the Brexit vote. Most people will take any argument that suits them. They will swap ideological clothing if needs be - note how many on the Left suddenly care deeply about the pound and the City, while many on the Right seem keen on huge economic risks. Most voters are ignorant. This applies to both sides, although on average Remainers are better educated. But as Dominic Cummings has pointed out, the average Remainer didn't know that much about how the EU actually works; they just looked at Nigel Farage and knew they were against that.

Thursday

The Spectator

Opening gambit

From our UK edition

The unexpected outcome of the general election has led some to hope that a weakened government will be forced to pursue a ‘softer’ Brexit. They are right to think that the emphasis of the negotiation will have to change, but they use the wrong adjective. The choice before David Davis and his team as they start work in Brussels is not and never has been between ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ Brexit; it is between an open Brexit and a closed Brexit. The former is one where Britain retains open trade with, and a high degree of free movement to and from, other EU countries — as well as taking fresh opportunities to liberalise trade with the world beyond.

Toby Young

Panic of the playwrights

From our UK edition

Earlier this week the Guardian launched ‘Brexit Shorts’, a series of monologues written by Britain’s ‘leading playwrights’ about the aftermath of the EU referendum. Now I know what you’re thinking: ‘What fresh hell is this?’ But bear with me. Watching the first batch of these short films, which are on the Guardian website, isn’t complete purgatory. Not because they’re much good, obviously — although one is, and I’ll come to that in a moment. But because the reason these writers are so anxious about Brexit is due to their uncritical acceptance of Project Fear. Perhaps they’ll become a little less hysterical once they’ve been introduced to some solid facts.

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 22 June 2017

From our UK edition

How much longer can it go on? Deaths caused by terrorism are always followed now by candlelit vigils, a minute’s silence, victims’ families/ government ministers/emergency services/clergy/imams all clustered together, walls of messages and flowers, flags at half-mast. Instinctively, I feel uneasy because the meaning of it all gradually suffers attrition, and also, perhaps, because it asserts a solidarity which isn’t quite there. Yet the fundamental cause of mourning is true and deep enough — it is first for the dead, then for a civilisation which may be dying. In these pages, on 4 February, Matthew Parris wrote that Brexiteers seemed very anxious, despite having won.

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: The Tories are in office but not in power

From our UK edition

This was a Queen’s Speech to fit the ‘sombre mood of the nation’, says the FT. ‘British politics is in a state of paralysis,’ and the government’s plan ‘was notable for what it lacked’, the paper says - pointing to the key manifesto pledges cast aside. It’s good news that some of these policies - such as a free vote on the hunting ban - are gone. But there's further good news, too, in the form of Theresa May’s ‘belated recognition of the complexity of the Brexit process’, the FT says. Indeed, ‘Mrs May’s monopoly over the terms of Brexit has also been broken’ - with Philip Hammond among those now speaking their mind more freely about Britain’s departure from the EU.

Harry Mount

Boiling point

From our UK edition

Bicycling up Regent Street in the intense June heat last week, I was cut up by a black cab driver. When I remonstrated with him, he leapt out of the cab and assaulted me, with a violent shove in the small of my back, trying to push me off my bike. It was the heat that did it. The driver wouldn’t have deserted his snug cab — and his passenger — if it had been raining. But, in the longest heatwave in more than a decade, he went stir-crazy in his confined space, as the black paint of his taxi absorbed mind-altering quantities of ultraviolet rays. He isn’t the only one who goes bonkers in this weather. When summer heat strikes the British, it morphs into summer madness.

James Delingpole

Trouble in paradise | 22 June 2017

From our UK edition

‘Riviera is the new Night Manager,’ I read somewhere. No, it’s not. Riviera (Sky Atlantic, Thursday) is the new Eldorado — except, unlike the doomed early 1990s soap opera in which Tony Holland attempted to recreate the success of EastEnders on the Costa del Sol, it has at least been glamorously relocated to Nice, Monaco, New York etc. The settings are the best thing about it.

Wednesday

Tom Goodenough

Queen’s Speech: the full guide to what’s been scrapped

From our UK edition

Today's Queen Speech was supposed to be a moment of crowning glory for Theresa May. Instead, it's a muted affair, with the Tories' plans for Government left in tatters as a result of their blown majority. 'Strong and stable' is out; in comes 'humility' and 'resolve' - and the party's manifesto has been largely binned. Here's what didn't make the cut: Donald Trump's state visit: The Queen's Speech made no mention of Donald Trump's state visit to the UK. Downing Street was insisting recently that there was no change to the schedule following Theresa May's invitation which she offered to the President back in January. It's clear this isn't the case and the visit has now either been postponed or downgraded from a state visit.

Stephen Daisley

The SNP are guilty of shocking chutzpah in their claims over a Tory ‘stitch up’

From our UK edition

I have an awkward relationship with the House of Lords. On the one hand, it regularly proves a doughty guardian of liberties against a rash, headline-chasing executive. On the other hand, it’s the House of Lords. Hereditary peers, bishops, Liberal Democrats — the clientele are a rum lot. We don’t have our constitutional troubles to seek but we might want to look at getting ourselves one of those elected upper chambers, albeit one independent of Downing Street and party managers.  Nevertheless, the Lords has its uses, and one of the most welcome is bringing experience to government. A good example is Ian Duncan, the Scottish Tory MEP who is reported to be heading for the red benches and from there to a junior ministerial post in the Scotland Office.

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: The Queen’s Speech is the Tories’ last chance

From our UK edition

Today’s Queen Speech will be a muted affair, with Her Majesty dressing down for the opening of a Parliament which will stretch the Conservative Government to the limit. Theresa May heads into the new session with no majority, precious little political clout and the huge task of Brexit looming. Can the Tories somehow make it work? It’s now been nearly two weeks since the general election - yet the ‘cloud of uncertainty’ still hangs in the air, says the Daily Telegraph. There’s no reason why this should be so, argues the paper, which says the Government messed up by claiming last week that a deal with the DUP was imminent. This premature announcement has turned talks into ‘a high-stakes act of political brinkmanship’.

Tuesday

Henry Newman

The Euro’s badly-needed reform could finally be on the cards

From our UK edition

Has Germany finally started to shift its position on the future of the Eurozone? Speaking today, at a conference for the German equivalent of the CBI, Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to open the door to a new form of governance for the 19-country bloc. Since the financial crisis, the common currency zone has bounced from crisis to crisis, surviving by kicking the can down the road at each critical moment. It has long been obvious that major institutional changes were required to ensure the currency’s long-term viability.

Monday

Katy Balls

‘Constructive’ Brexit talks get off to a shaky start for David Davis

From our UK edition

To kick the Brexit negotiations off, David Davis and Michel Barnier exchanged mountain-themed gifts, of a hiking book and walking stick. Given that the EU's chief negotiator previously warned Brexit would be a 'steep and a rocky' path, the choice seemed apt. Although the Brexit secretary said he had been encouraged by the constructive approach both sides had taken, the joint press conference hinted at the difficulties ahead. Barnier said that while it was not about 'punishment' or 'revenge', the consequences of the UK's decision to leave the EU were 'substantial' and ought not to be underestimated. The EU appear to have claimed the first victory of the talks.

Isabel Hardman

Will Theresa May become Brexit’s scapegoat?

From our UK edition

Normally in the run-up to a Queen’s Speech, Westminster watchers wonder how radical the Prime Minister feels like being - and how much political capital they have available to spend. But of course this year’s Speech is rather different, because the Prime Minister has no political capital and the negotiations with the DUP haven’t concluded. Moreover, Theresa May has never given the impression that she wants to be particularly radical, even in her honeymoon days as the Prime Minister who gets things done. Her pitch in the election was to get a bigger majority so she could have a quiet life while carrying out the Brexit negotiations. She certainly hasn’t got a quiet life, and she will have to be even less radical than she’d initially planned.

James Forsyth

The Tories desperately need new ideas to keep Corbyn out of power

From our UK edition

Every discussion with a Tory Minister or MP now ends up with a go through of the runners and riders for the leadership. But just as important as the personality is the policies. One of the major problems for the Tories at the last election was that they had almost no positive offer; what did they offer a thirty something on fifty thousand a year who didn’t stand to inherit anything? Tories can’t expect young people to be capitalists, when they have no capital. This makes the need for new ideas on the centre-right a matter of some urgency. Without them, Jeremy Corbyn—or someone very like him—will be Prime Minister at some point in the near future.

James Kirkup

It’s time to prepare voters for some tough Brexit compromises

From our UK edition

Brexit is like life. The journey matters more than the final destination. Instead of fixating on where we will, eventually, end up, pay more attention to the things that happen along the way. As Brexit talks start, there are abundant signs of a possible compromise on Britain’s exit, or at least, on the timing of that exit. Yes, the Article 50 period will, absent an agreement to the contrary, expire in March 2019 and with it Britain’s formal membership of the EU. But what follows might not look or feel like the clean break that some voters have imagined.

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Hammond undermines May over Brexit ‘no deal’

From our UK edition

Philip Hammond - No deal would be 'a very, very bad outcome' One day before Brexit negotiations get underway, Philip Hammond took to the Andrew Marr Show and announced that if the UK achieved no deal with the EU it would be a 'very very bad outcome'. This appears to be somewhat at odds with Theresa May's repeated assertion that 'no deal is better than a bad deal'... Marr: Do you think no deal is better than a bad deal? Hammond: Let me be clear that no deal would be a very, very bad outcome for Britain. But there is a possible worse outcome, and that is a deal that is deliberately structured to punish us.

Fraser Nelson

Why is Philip Hammond trying to destabilise his government’s Brexit talks?

From our UK edition

You can see why Theresa May locked her Chancellor up in a cupboard during the general election campaign. Not only was his credibility shot in his bungled Budget, where he seemed not to realise that his plan to raise National Insurance violated the manifesto upon which he was elected, but he’s now still seeking to undermine his colleagues on Brexit. The UK position is clear: yes, we’d like a good deal with the EU but if one is not forthcoming then we’d walk away and use the default World Trade Organisation rules. Hardly a leap into the unknown; the WTO rules govern the UK trade with our largest single partner, the United States. And the guidelines have already been guaranteed.