Brexit

Friday

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: The Great Repeal Bill is the ‘blueprint’ for taking back control

The Great Repeal Bill has been unveiled - and Whitehall is already alive with the sound of copying and pasting as bureaucrats scramble to carry over EU law on to the statute book. With the Brexit clock ticking, is the Government up to the task? Make no mistake, this bill is the ‘the blueprint for restoring the supremacy of Parliament,’ says the Daily Mail. For nearly 50 years, ‘the unelected judges of the European Court’ have been in control of our legal system. But no more: ‘This Bill puts legislative power back where it belongs – in the hands of British MPs and British judges’. Of course, the process of doing so will be no mean feat.

James Kirkup

Remainers must learn from the optimism of the Brexiteers

In an age when people pride themselves on their cynicism, it's almost touching to remember that one of the most powerful forces in politics is still optimism. We may routinely dismiss politicians as self-serving vermin, but when the time comes, we generally choose the self-serving vermin who tell the best story of a brighter tomorrow. Better a smiling cockroach than a gloomy one. Optimism is one of the great fault-lines that run beneath the Brexit debate, one that helps explain why the Brexiteers are making the running and why those who still stand opposed to Brexit still have a lot to learn. Simply, the Brexiteers are setting the pace because they realise people want to hear good news, want to be told a story of improvement and success.

Thursday

The Spectator

Moving on | 30 March 2017

Most people are glad to see the end of a referendum campaign, but the losing side always wants to keep going. Nicola Sturgeon has this week demanded a second vote on independence, in defiance of public opinion. And as Brexit talks begin, the country is still divided, with many people wishing to see the negotiations break down and the referendum result be overturned. The Prime Minister will need to fight these two battles in different ways. In Scotland, she must take care not to fall into the nationalists’ traps. Ms Sturgeon ran for office promising not to call a second referendum unless it was ‘clear’ that a ‘majority of people wanted a referendum’. At the time, the SNP expected support for independence to rise.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 30 March 2017

Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, wrote a letter to Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, with formal notification of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. If no agreement is made sooner, Britain would cease to be a member in two years. The other 27 member states had celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. Asked by the BBC if Mrs May would be the ‘elephant in the room’ at the shindig, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said: ‘She’s not an elephant.

Richard Ekins

The Great Repeal Bill will bring both continuity and change

The Government has set out the White Paper in advance of its proposed Great Repeal Bill.  The Bill is not necessary for the UK to leave the EU.  The Prime Minister has triggered Article 50, relying on the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017, and the UK is now on its way out of the EU.  When the Article 50 process ends, the EU Treaties will cease to apply to the UK.   The expiry of the Treaties will change UK law in significant ways.  The Great Repeal Bill is intended to minimise legal discontinuity and to maximise certainty for business and citizens.

Freddy Gray

Watch: Jean-Claude Juncker threatens to promote the break-up of the USA

He’s unstable. He’s an irrational hothead who is by some freak a president. And his inability to control his mouth is endangering world peace. I’m talking about Jean-Claude Juncker, of course, who just said that if Donald Trump carried on supporting Brexit, he would ‘promote the independence of Ohio and Austin, Texas, in the United States of America.' Wow, as they say on Twitter every time Trump says something silly, just wow. Juncker’s defenders, like the Donald’s defenders, will say he should be taken literally but not seriously -- he’s just kidding. But at some point the joke goes too far. Here's what Juncker said in full: 'Brexit isn’t the end.

Tom Goodenough

Is the Government heading for trouble with its Great Repeal Bill?

Britain’s biggest exercise in copying and pasting has begun in earnest. The Government has published its Great Repeal Bill White Paper, which it says is vital to ensuring that whether we end up with a ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ Brexit (or any other type of Brexit), it’ll be a ‘smooth’ Brexit. The scale of the task is no mean feat. The Times reported this morning a study by Reuters identifying 53,000 laws affecting those in the UK that originated in Brussels since 1990. All of these will need to be dealt with and passed over into UK law. But even that estimate could be downplaying what the Government needs to do. In its White Paper, we learn today that: ‘There is no single figure for how much EU law already forms part of UK law’.

Pádraig Belton

How to write the perfect break-up letter

Yesterday, Sir Tim Barrow placed into Donald Tusk's hands the letter giving notice the UK will begin divorce proceedings with the EU. This missive now takes its place among the great relationship-ending letters of history. Today, Downing Street has said that European leaders appreciated the ‘warm, constructive’ tone of the Article 50 letter. But what makes for a good break-up letter?  And when you look at the most memorable break-up letters of history, what do they have in common? Lucy Hume from Debrett's says a relationship-ender should first of all reflect the relationship. 'The letter need not be very long but should be handwritten on writing paper, well-thought-out and appropriate to the relationship,' she says.

Nick Hilton

The Spectator Podcast: A new Europe

On this week’s bumper episode, we say farewell to the EU, look at the most high-profile mismatch in boxing history, and speak to two living legends: actor and director Simon Callow and explorer John Hemming. First, with the trigger pulled on the Brexit starting gun, we gathered to reflect on the process so far and how divorce proceedings are likely to go. In this week's magazine, James Forsyth advocates for 'a Brexit that works for everyone' and he joins the podcast to discuss this, along with Fraser Nelson and Hugo Dixon, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Remain-supporting InFacts.

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Theresa May’s pitch-perfect start to Brexit

We’re off! The two year countdown until Brexit has begun. Theresa May’s triggering of Article 50 has been met with unanimous praise in the press, with the newspaper editorials saying the PM hit all the right notes in her letter. But there was controversy too. Some are saying the inclusion of a message suggesting Britain’s co-operation on security matters is at stake is an unhelpful threat to Brussels. Here's what the papers are saying about a historic day for Britain: Theresa May’s Article 50 letter was ‘pitch-perfect’, says the Sun, which argues that the Prime Minister succeeded in balancing generosity with a ‘flash of steel’. The onus now, the paper says, is for the EU to follow in May’s footsteps.

Fredrik Erixon

There will be a trade deal

Most diplomats in Brussels will tell you that Theresa May has just embarked upon a fool’s errand, that Britain might wish for a free-trade deal with the European Union but will have to learn that it can’t cherry-pick. Anyway, they say, nothing of any value can be agreed in two years. This received wisdom can be heard, under various iterations, in most capitals in Europe — and it’s natural that the EU will be sore, perhaps a little defensive. But there is a free-trade deal to be struck. First, a declaration: I didn’t want Britain to leave the EU. I’m a Swede running a free-trade thinktank in Brussels and can tell you that the UK’s absence will be sorely felt by all of its allies.

James Forsyth

The friendly alliance

On 29 March 2019 the Queen should have a state dinner and invite the European Union’s 27 heads of state and its five presidents. The evening’s purpose would be to toast the new alliance between the United Kingdom and the EU: one based on free trade, security cooperation and shared democratic values. This celebration of the new alliance will be especially welcome after two years of negotiations which are bound to be fraught and, at times, ugly. The complexity and the sums of money involved pretty much guarantee this. There is, though, a particular onus on Britain to keep things civil. We have chosen to end this failed relationship, so we should brave the insults and not feel the need to respond to every Juncker jibe.

Rod Liddle

Brexit brings us endless little beakers of joy

The thing that got me about the photo-graph which prompted the Daily Mail’s harmless but now infamous headline ‘Never mind Brexit — who won Legs-it!’ was what I shall call the Sturgeon Lower Limb Mystery. In the photograph, the SNP leader seemed to be possessed of two slender and very long legs indeed. Whereas we know from television news footage that her legs are only seven inches long from her toes to that bit where they join the rest of her body. Walking to Downing Street for meetings, or being interviewed on the hoof by camera crews, Nicola Sturgeon usually resembles a slightly deranged Oompa--Loompa, or, as many have commented before, Janette Krankie.

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

Jeremy Corbyn looks lost at the despatch box

Tactics! At long last. Jeremy Corbyn actually used tactics at today’s PMQs. For the first time ever he divided his six questions into two three-ball overs. He spent the initial trio on last week’s terror attacks. Then, after an unsettling delay, he used three more on Mrs May’s fibs about school budgets. She says they’ve been ‘protected’. He says they’ve been ‘cut’. Protected. Cut. Cut. Protected. On it went. Mr Corbyn had a superb ally in the Public Accounts Committee which seems to support his view. The exchange might have been tricky for Mrs May but Mr Corbyn still can’t ram home a simple advantage. Rather than forcing her to repudiate the committee and its grandees he brought in a new, and far weaker, witness.

Stephen Daisley

Parliament must take back control of Brexit

In the early, sunlit days of New Labour, the left-wing comedian John O’Farrell had a skit on how the Tories, after a generation of dominating British politics, found their party and its principles rejected by the electoral mainstream. ‘Now the Conservatives are like a lunatic fringe party,' he said. 'Soon we can expect to see them outside Woolworths next to the Socialist Workers on a Saturday afternoon shouting "Daily Telegraph! Get your Daily Telegraph! Britain out of Europe!"'  A generation on, the Tories are in power, Woolworths is gone, the Socialist Workers are running the Labour Party, and Britain is indeed coming out of Europe.

The Spectator

A generous, globally-minded Brexit could reunite a divided country 

Public opinion on Brexit remains evenly balanced, and there’s no point in any Conservative pretending otherwise.  About half the nation did not want their Prime Minister to trigger Article 50 today, and Theresa May should primarily concern herself with her fellow Remainers – especially in Scotland. Many of them will see, in Brexit, the triumph of ugly nativism or a nostalgic isolationism. Her Lancaster House speech in January laid out a compelling, globally minded vision of Brexit. Emphasising that message will be key to addressing the worst fears of Remain voters.  The triggering of Article 50 represents a great opportunity. We can now move on from whether Britain should or should not leave the EU: Article 50 has served irrevocable notice of our doing so.

James Forsyth

Theresa May’s Article 50 letter strikes the right tone

Theresa May is trying to play the role of the great conciliator today. She has avoided any hint of triumphalism or saying anything that the European Union would instantly reject. Instead, she has emphasised her desire for a ‘deep and special partnership’ with the European Union and that the UK wants to be the ‘best friend and neighbour’ to the EU. She has not repeated her Lancaster House message that she thinks ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’ or threatened to change the UK economic model if no free trade agreement with the EU can be struck. The Article 50 letter that May has sent to Tusk also strikes a conciliatory note.

The Spectator

Theresa May’s full Article 50 speech: ‘A day of celebration for some and disappointment for others’

Mr Speaker, Today the Government acts on the democratic will of the British People. And it acts, too, on the clear and convincing position of this House. A few minutes ago in Brussels, the United Kingdom’s Permanent Representative to the EU handed a letter to the President of the European Council on my behalf, confirming the Government’s decision to invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union.   The Article 50 process is now underway. And in accordance with the wishes of the British People, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union. This is an historic moment from which there can be no turning back. Britain is leaving the European Union. We are going to make our own decisions and our own laws.

The Spectator

Article 50 letter: full text

On 23 June last year, the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.  As I have said before, that decision was no rejection of the values we share as fellow Europeans.  Nor was it an attempt to do harm to the European Union or any of the remaining member states.  On the contrary, the United Kingdom wants the European Union to succeed and prosper.  Instead, the referendum was a vote to restore, as we see it, our national self-determination. We are leaving the European Union, but we are not leaving Europe – and we want to remain committed partners and allies to our friends across the continent.

Hugo Rifkind

The best thing about Brexit? None of it is my fault

Brexit Britain fills me with calm. Six weeks on, there’s no point pretending otherwise. Losing is far better than winning. I am filled with enormous serenity at the thought of this terrible, terrible idea being not my fault at all. I didn’t expect to feel this way. Although there were signs, now I think back, on the night of the vote. I was at Glastonbury, obviously. (‘Of course you were!’ cried Rod Liddle, when I saw him a few weeks later.) Of course I was. There, with the rest of the metropolitan, liberal, bien-pensant yadda yadda. I found out at about 2 a.m., after a pleasant evening doing pleasant Glastonbury things. I’d wandered backstage, to meet a journalist friend who had secured access to Wi-Fi and a television.