Brexit

Monday

William Cook

Thanks to Brexit and Trump, Austria lost its appetite for political upheaval

Austria’s presidential election has been overshadowed by Matteo Renzi’s dramatic defeat in the Italian referendum, but Alexander Van der Bellen’s victory is significant nonetheless. It confirms there are now two Europes, north and south. Southern members like Italy are becoming increasingly hostile towards the EU, while northern members like Austria will do (almost) anything to keep the EU on track. So why did Austria buck the American trend, and chose a Euro-friendly head of state? Churchill said Russia was a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. He might have been talking about Austria today. The Austrian capital, ‘Red’ Vienna, has always been socially liberal and politically leftist. The

Tom Goodenough

Spectator live blog: The Supreme Court’s Brexit hearing, day one

Today’s Supreme Court hearing did, for once, live up to its billing as being a ‘landmark case’. The court’s 11 judges – sitting together for the first time – will hear four days of evidence before ruling next month on the government’s appeal against the decision that Parliament must be given a say on triggering Article 50. Here’s the full coverage from today’s Supreme Court case: 4.30pm: Eadie finishes off his argument with a simple point. He urges the Supreme Court judges to measure their decision based on a test of asking the ‘man in the street’. Would the average person think that the referendum outcome gave the Government the right to kick start

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: The Supreme Court’s Brexit case

Today’s Supreme Court hearing on Brexit is undoubtedly the most controversial in the court’s seven year history, says the Times. The case will examine the Government’s appeal against the earlier High Court ruling that Article 50 cannot be triggered without the say-so of Parliament. But what’s most remarkable about today’s hearing is the fact Theresa May allowed it to get to this position in the first place, the paper says. The Times suggests that ‘at any point since Theresa May entered Downing Street in July she could have called and easily won a parliamentary vote mandating her to deliver Brexit’ – but in choosing not to it shows ‘an early

Fraser Nelson

Beppe Grillo says he’s ready to govern after Renzi resigns

It started with a blog, and it could end up with a new Prime Minister. Beppe Grillo’s 5-Star movement, which wants Italy out of the Euro, has called for an election within a week – to pick up on the momentum which saw Matteo Renzi lose the referendum by a margin of almost 20 points, far bigger than that indicated by the polls. On his blog, he had this to say:- Hooray! Democracy won! The regime’s liars and its propaganda are the first losers in this referendum. Times have changed. Sovereignty belongs to the people, now we start to really apply our Constitution. The first winners are the citizens who raised their

Sunday

James Forsyth

Renzi concedes defeat in Italian referendum and resigns as PM; the Eurozone is heading for a fresh crisis

Matteo Renzi has conceded defeat in the referendum he called on his constitutional reforms and announced that he is resigning as Prime Minister. NO are on course for an overwhelming victory, they are ahead by a close to 60-40 lead in the count at the moment. Needless to say, this referendum result has profound implications for the Eurozone. The market was supposed to have priced in a defeat for Renzi, but the euro has fallen to  $1.05 earlier this evening – down 1pc from Friday’s close. Defeat will lead to calls for early elections, next year and there is a chance that these elections could lead to the Eurozone’s first anti-single currency government.

Steerpike

Nick Clegg loses his enthusiasm for a Lib Dem rebrand

In 2011, when the Liberal Democrats’ poll ratings had fallen to 10 per cent, Nick Clegg ordered a rebranding exercise, even looking at whether the party’s name should be changed to distance the Lib Dems from their betrayal on tuition fees. Today, the Lib Dems are still polling around 10 per cent (on a good day). But what about the name change? On the Sunday Politics Clegg offered up a vision of Brexit that would mean staying in the single market and the customs union, paying into the EU budget, keeping free movement and accepting the supremacy of the European Court of Justice – prompting Andrew Neil to say: ‘Your party’s called the Liberal Democrats. Many people

Saturday

James Forsyth

Austria and Italian voters could plunge the EU into crisis

Voters in Austria and Italy head to the polls tomorrow and could plunge the EU into a political and economic crisis, as I say in The Sun today. In Austria, the candidate of a genuinely far-right party—its first leader was a former SS officer—could become president. If the Freedom Party’s Norbert Hofer does win, and the race is too close to predict with any confidence, it’d show that the very extremist forces that the European project was meant to crush are now on the rise—and in part, because of the EU’s own failings. But it is the Italian referendum that could have the more immediate consequences. Italy bans polls just

The High Court’s Brexit ruling is a product of our ‘post-truth’ age

In November the High Court decided that the Government had no power to give notice to leave the EU under Article 50. Leaving the EU would entail changes in the law that embodied the rights of citizens and such changes could not be brought about by the prerogative power but only by primary legislation in Parliament. The court considered the referendum only advisory, even though in the Parliamentary debate it was made clear that the decision would be implemented by the Government. Moreover, the Government had circulated a leaflet to all households giving a solemn undertaking to honour the decision. On 5 December the Supreme Court will hear an appeal

Friday

Steerpike

Nicholas Soames tries to woo Brexiteers with champagne

Throughout the EU referendum campaign, Nicholas Soames stood firmly on the side of Remain — warning that a vote to Leave would be a ‘terrible mistake’. Since the nation plumped for Brexit, Soames has called on the hard Brexiteers to keep their options open with regards to the deal. When Iain Duncan Smith penned a ConHome blog critcising Remain-ers for demanding the UK stay in the single market, Soames likened it to ‘watching an arsonist return to the scene of his crime because the flames aren’t big enough’. So, Mr S was intrigued to be passed an invitation from Soames to his fellow MPs. He has asked any comrades who think Britain should

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 1 December 2016

Irrational EU Sir: James Forsyth’s otherwise excellent piece on Brexit talks (‘Britain’s winning hand’, 26 November) suffers from the flaw of most British analyses of the EU: the presumption that the EU is a rational actor. If that were so, Greece would not be in the euro, Europe’s borders would not be guarded by Turkey, and David Cameron would have returned from his talks with a deal enabling the EU to keep one of the world’s most successful countries in the union. The recent EU history of perversity and intransigence suggests that whatever aces Theresa May holds, she should prepare to walk away from the table as empty-handed as her

The Spectator

Brexit strategy

For months, now, a hunt has been on for the government’s Brexit strategy. Theresa May has quite rightly refused to disclose it. She knows that the European Union needs to be seen to make Britain suffer. She will have to ask for for a lot, only to back down so the EU can have its pound of British flesh. The hope is that she can then emerge with what she wanted all along. So a game of bluff is under way. This has created a rather unsatisfactory situation where Parliament wants to know where she will draw the line, and she refuses to say. Her every word is scoured for

Joshua Rozenberg

Brexit in the balance

For once, a cliché is justified: the government’s appeal to the Supreme Court next week really will be a landmark case. The underlying issue could not be greater: the political future of the United Kingdom and its relationship with the European Union. The number of judges could not be greater either: 11 is the largest panel to have heard a single appeal, not just since the court was created seven years ago but since its predecessor was established in 1876. But perhaps the greatest issue at stake is the reputation of the judiciary, at a time when judges are under attack as never before. Nigel Farage had threatened a 100,000-strong

Andrew Green

Where are the government going on immigration?

Today’s net migration figures are still at their record level of just over a third of a million a year. This reinforces the need for the government to approach the forthcoming Brexit negotiations with a clear set of objectives. EU migration is now running at 190,000 a year and accounts for half of total non-British net migration. The referendum made all too clear that the British public want to see EU migration substantially reduced. Furthermore recent polling finds that more than half of Remain voters agree. Brexit is an opportunity that must not be missed. That is why we have published a clear set of UK objectives on immigration. We

Isabel Hardman

Immigration reaches record high – but what does that really tell us about Brexit Britain?

How much do the net migration figures mean these days? The Office for National Statistics released its latest migration estimates today, which put immigration to the UK in the year to June 2016 at a record high of 650,000 – up 11,000 on the previous year. Net migration was at 335,000. That figure comprises 189,000 EU citizens and 196,000 non-EU citizens who came to Britain, and 49,000 Brits who left this country. But these figures mostly cover the period before the EU referendum. The ONS includes three months of data following June’s vote in today’s release. And the estimates for the year that follows will also reflect Britain’s current immigration

Nick Hilton

The Spectator podcast: Brexit on trial

On this week’s Spectator podcast, Isabel Hardman talks about the landmark Supreme Court ruling and whether it is putting ‘Brexit on trial’. She’s joined on the podcast by Joshua Rozenberg, who wrote this week’s cover story, and Timothy Endicott, Professor of Legal Philosophy at the University of Oxford, who says that: “Where we’ve got to is an instant classic of constitutional law from the divisional court. A judgment that the government does not have the authority to trigger Article 50 because that would result, presumably, in Britain leaving the European Union. That would deprive you and me of rights that we have. We have those rights because parliament gave them to

James Forsyth

Europe: the Next step

It often seems like the European referendum campaign never really ended. Everything from budget forecasts to Britain’s Olympic performance is simply the cue for another round of In-or-Out arguments. But Simon Wolfson, the mild-mannered chief executive of the high street fashion chain Next, is trying to move things on. Having been one of the biggest business names in favour of leaving the European Union, his aim is to form a coalition between Leavers and Remainers to forge a certain type of Brexit. ‘There is a natural alliance between those people who voted Out but who believe in an open, free, tolerant economy and those people who voted to remain.’ Wolfson

Stephen Pollard

Algerian winter

It is more than possible that before any Brexit deal is discussed, let alone concluded, the EU will have effectively collapsed. And the key factor could be the demise of Algeria’s leader of 17 years. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is 79 and has needed a wheelchair since having a stroke in 2013. ‘His mind is even more infirm than his body,’ one observer tells me. Bouteflika returned home recently after a week’s stay at a private clinic in France. His prognosis isn’t good. Officially, Bouteflika underwent standard ‘periodic medical tests’ in Grenoble. But no one believes this. Among people who know Algeria well, there is little doubt that he is severely

Tuesday

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Labour’s Ukip nightmare

After being made Ukip leader yesterday, Paul Nuttall wasted no time in making it clear who he had in his sights: the Labour party. Nuttall said he wanted Ukip to ‘replace Labour’ within five years. And in its editorial, the Times says this threat spells a ‘nightmare’ scenario for Labour. The paper says that while ‘healing’ Ukip’s own ‘wounds’ won’t be easy following a fractious and divisive few months, ‘the rewards could be historic’; it says that a two per cent swing towards Ukip would lose Labour 13 seats, while Labour ‘would lose 19 more’ seats if one in five Labour voters sided with Nuttall’s party. But can Ukip pull it

Monday

James Forsyth

Trump and Fillon mean that Britain matters far more to Eastern Europe

By next summer, Britain could be the only one of the three major Western military powers unequivocally opposed to the idea of Russian domination of its near neighbours. For François Fillon, the Republican candidate for the French Presidency and the favourite to win, has — as UK security sources point out — pretty much the same view of Russia as Donald Trump does. Fillon favours allying with Russia in Syria and seeking Vladimir Putin’s help to defeat both Islamic State and the broader Islamist terrorist threat. Fillon also wants EU sanctions on Russia, imposed because of its annexation of Crimea and broader interference in Ukraine, lifted. This shift in world

William Cook

Martin Schulz’s return to German politics will make Brexit more bitter

Shock news! Hold the (virtual) front page! Martin Schulz, arch bogeyman of every British Brexiteer – and even a few Remainers – is leaving the EU. No, Schulz hasn’t renounced his support for ‘ever closer’ European Union. Rather, he’s stepping down as President of the European Parliament to stand as an MP for the SPD, Germany’s Social Democrats. Why should British voters care? Because Schulz has been widely tipped as a potential leader of the SPD, the only party with a real chance of beating Angela Merkel’s CDU in next year’s Bundestag elections. And the winner of that election will steer EU policy throughout the Brexit process, and beyond. Second