Brexit

Saturday

Martin Vander Weyer

The Big Bang did more harm than good

As the 30th anniversary of Big Bang loomed, I found myself back at the scene of my City demise. Ebbgate House — headquarters of BZW, the investment banking arm of Barclays where I worked until one fateful morning in 1992 — fell deservedly to the wrecking ball a decade ago. It was replaced by Riverbank House, and there I was last week, hovering above where my desk used to be, talking about ‘why no one listens to the City any more’ and reliving the P45 moment that released me into the happier world of journalism. Personal echoes apart, this was also a moment to revisit Big Bang, the Thatcherite reforms

Friday

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Nissan’s Brexit boost for Britain

Theresa May hailed Nissan’s decision to stay put in Sunderland and build its new Qashqai and X-Trail models at its plant in the north-east as a ‘vote of confidence’ in the UK. But was this just the PM drumming up the deal or is it really such good news for Britain? The Times suggests the agreement may have come at a price. The newspaper says a ‘written promise’ was made to the company that it wouldn’t lose out from Brexit. Some have said it smacks of a sweetheart deal between the Government and the carmaker – something business secretary Greg Clarke, who insisted no cheque book was waved at the

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 27 October 2016

Bear baiting Sir: I couldn’t agree more with Rod Liddle’s exposé of western politico-militaristic hypocrisy (‘Stop the sabre-rattling’, 22 October). We’ve already poked the Russian bear way too hard — unnecessarily so. What Rod could have also highlighted was that Nato has spread so far eastwards that it’s a blessed surprise the next world war hasn’t already started. It almost did in 1962 when Khrushchev tried to move nuclear missiles into Cuba. The same principle applies to what ‘we’ are doing now — frontline, aggressive technologies, nuclear-implied, established in the old Soviet states of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and even Poland. In Moscow, the memory of 20 million dead Russians and their

Alexander Chancellor

Long life | 27 October 2016

I may have made the odd disparaging remark about Brexiteers during the heat of the referendum campaign, but I have been the perfect gentleman since. Although a Remainer, I have accepted the referendum result with good grace and treated the winners with courtesy and respect. I’ve never called them swivel-eyed, or xenophobic, or racist (or ‘deplorable’, as Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump’s supporters). I regard them as normal human beings. I don’t even dismiss them as angry working-class rebels, driven by resentment of a heartless ruling elite. They come from every part of society. If there is a class war, it is going on in America, not here. I have

The Spectator

Barometer | 27 October 2016

Folio society A new collection of Shakespeare’s work credits Christopher Marlowe as co-author of the three Henry VI plays. Some other candidates claimed to have written Shakespeare plays: FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626). His poems are said to share a similar structure. But lacks motive to use Shakespeare as a pen name. WILLIAM STANLEY, 6th EARL OF DERBY (1561-1642): A Jesuit spy claimed he was secretly writing plays. EDWARD DE WERE, 17th EARL OF OXFORD (1550-1604): Theatre patron said to have used pen name because an aristocrat could not take credit for public plays. Dead for the last 12 years of Shakespeare’s life. ROGER MANNERS 5th EARL OF RUTLAND. Said to have

Steerpike

Watch: John McDonnell’s ‘chaotic breakfast’ Brexit gaffe

Spare a thought for John McDonnell. The shadow chancellor was up and about early this morning to criticise Theresa May on the airwaves for her stance on Brexit. But while McDonnell was eager to get his message across, Mr S wonders whether he might have forgotten something before he left the house. It seems by the time he got around to delivering his actual speech this morning, it was breakfast, rather than Brexit, which was on his mind. Here’s what he said: ‘The Government is hurtling towards a chaotic breakfast that will damage our economy and hurt the poorest and most vulnerable most of all.’ Still, at least McDonnell can console himself

James Forsyth

Nissan’s boost for Brexit Britain

Nissan’s announcement that it will build the new Qashqai in Sunderland is a boost to Brexit Britain. If the decision had gone the other way, critics would have been quick to claim this was proof that Brexit was going to total the British car industry and that the people of Sunderland had self-harmed when they voted to leave. But Nissan has decided to not only build the new Qashqai in Sunderland—as we reported it would on Saturday—but also the X-Trail SUV. Theresa May has been straight out of the traps to hail the decision as a ‘vote of confidence’ that ‘shows Britain is an outward looking, world leading nation’. This

Louise Gray

Why Brexit could be a boon for GM crops

Genetically modified crops could be grown in England following a split from the European Union. But will it be good for Britain to forge ahead with a science that many consider to be dangerous for the environment, and potentially our health? George Eustice, the agriculture minister, revealed in a written parliament answer that as part of plans for Brexit, the government was looking at the regulation of genetically modified crops.  It has come as no surprise to the farming world, which has been campaigning for years for a more relaxed approach to GM. Many in Westminster already support the planting of GM crops on a commercial scale – although the situation is different in devolved

Ross Clark

Today’s GDP figures show the ‘inevitable’ Brexit recession wasn’t so inevitable after all

So now we know. The recession that we were told would be ‘inevitable’ if we voted to leave the EU was not quite so inevitable after all. In fact, it hasn’t happened at all. The Office of National Statistics’ first estimate of economic growth for the third quarter has the economy growing by 0.5 per cent. Though this is just an early estimate and could well be revised – revision upwards or downwards of 0.1 to 0.2 per cent are perfectly normal – it is certainly not indicating a recession, which would be two quarters of negative growth. It is pretty much in line with how the economy was growing

Fraser Nelson

GDP data shows strong growth in UK economy after Brexit vote. Who’d have thunk it?

After the Brexit vote, the Financial Times summed up the general mood in the City by running a weekly doomometer, which was expected to chart the impending economic collapse in real time. But after a brief wobble, the economy got back to normal fairly quickly. Soon, the weekly data started to rather contradict the mood of panic – which baffled the various experts, many of whom had by then forecast an immediate recession. Pieces of good economic news were dismissed as deceptive snapshots. And when Q2 GDP came in looking very strong – 0.6 per cent (it was revised up to 0.7 per cent today) – that was dismissed as containing

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: May’s Brexit plan and EU leaders’ ‘rudeness’ towards Britain

Theresa May was widely praised in yesterday’s papers after the Government backed a third runway at Heathrow. And there are more plaudits for the Prime Minister in today’s editorials. The Sun says that yesterday’s figures showing the wages of the poorest rose faster than for any other section of society made it clear that it wasn’t true the Tories only care about the rich. It says the Government’s plan to reduced the balance of inequality contrasts strongly with the ‘fevered minds of Jeremy Corbyn and his deluded followers’, who try and paint Britain as ‘an unfair society plagued by gross inequality’: a picture which it says isn’t true. But The

James Delingpole

The lying game | 27 October 2016

‘Adam Curtis believed that 200,000 Guardian readers watching BBC2 could change the world. But this was a fantasy. In fact, he had created the televisual equivalent of a drunken late-night Wikipedia binge with pretentions to narrative coherence…’ You really must watch Ben Woodhams’s brilliant 2011 Adam Curtis-pastiche mini-documentary The Loving Trap, which you’ll find on YouTube. It’s so devastatingly cruel, funny and accurate that when I first saw it I speculated that Curtis would never be able to work again. But this was fantasy. Of course, I knew that Curtis would be back, not least because to be parodied in this way is not an insult but a sure sign

Martin Vander Weyer

Despite what Big Bang destroyed, there’s still nowhere quite like the City

As the 30th anniversary of Big Bang loomed, I found myself back at the scene of my City demise. Ebbgate House — headquarters of BZW, the investment banking arm of Barclays where I worked until one fateful morning in 1992 — fell deservedly to the wrecking ball a decade ago. It was replaced by Riverbank House, and there I was last week, hovering above where my desk used to be, talking about ‘why no one listens to the City any more’ and reliving the P45 moment that released me into the happier world of journalism. Personal echoes apart, this was also a moment to revisit Big Bang, the Thatcherite reforms

Hugo Rifkind

Free speech and the right not to bake a cake

Let us consider the case of the Ashers family bakery in Belfast which, in 2014, refused to make a cake. Or as some would have it, a ‘gay cake’, although that’s obviously ridiculous because all cakes are quite gay. This one, though, was requested by Gareth Lee, a local gay rights activist, who wanted it to have a picture of Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street on it, under the slogan ‘SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE’, as the centrepiece of an event organised to do just that. On the basis that they were devout Christians, however, the family running this family bakery refused. And so, sore affronted, Lee sued. Really, if anybody

Wednesday

Ross Clark

The Project Fear backtracking isn’t over yet

Another day, another backtracking in the doom-laden predictions of what would happen as a result of a vote for Brexit. Back in May, World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Roberto Azevedo told the Financial Times that Britain would not simply be allowed to ‘cut and paste’ its terms of membership with the WTO. We would, he suggested, effectively have to negotiate from scratch – a process which could take years, as it did when Liberia joined. Today he has recanted, somewhat. ‘The UK is a member of the WTO today, it will continue to be a member tomorrow,’ he told Sky News. ‘There will be no discontinuity in membership. They have

James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn lets Theresa May off the hook again at PMQs

Today’s PMQs could have been a tricky affair for Theresa May. Her decision on Heathrow has seen one Tory MP resign his seat and the Guardian’s story about a private speech she gave to Goldman Sachs during the EU referendum campaign clashes with her conference speech rhetoric about being the scourge of unaccountable global elites. But May got through the session fine, Heathrow wasn’t raised until well after 12.30 and no one mentioned her behind closed doors, Goldman’s address. Corbyn’s delivery at PMQs has improved. But he still can’t go through the gears. He started off using the frustration of the devolved First Minister following their meeting with May on

Tom Goodenough

Is the Guardian’s leaked tape of Theresa May really so shocking?

The Guardian’s splash today looks like bad news for the PM. ‘Leaked recording shows Theresa May is ‘ignoring her own warnings’ on Brexit’, the paper says on its front page. The story centres around a recording of May giving a speech at Goldman Sachs in the run-up to the referendum. In the tape, which was recorded in May, the future PM tells bankers that:  ‘I think the economic arguments (of staying in the EU) are clear. I think being part of a 500 million population trading bloc is significant for us. I think one of the issues is that a lot of people will invest here in the UK because

Tuesday

Nicholas Farrell

Sooner or later, the Calais ‘Jungle’ will be back – and the British left can’t wait

The massive operation by 1,200 French riot police and gendarmes to bus the migrants in the ‘Jungle’ at Calais to reception centres elsewhere in France and to raze the illegal camp to the ground has begun. Allelujah. You might think that the destruction of this crime-ridden and rat-infested shantytown, where up to 10,000 mainly African and Afghani migrants live in shacks and tents without running water or mains electricity, was good news. At last, those poor migrants will have a decent roof over their heads while they finally get round to applying to the French government for asylum, as nearly all are required to do by the law. But no. Instead, the

Monday

James Forsyth

Theresa May’s Brexit plan slowly trickles out

A pattern is emerging in the Government’s statements on Brexit to the House of Commons. The initial statement, today by Theresa May on the European Council, says little. But then, in answer to questions, some information slips out. Today’s most interesting nugget was May’s response that staying in the customs union is not a yes or no question. This will add to the sense in Westminster that the Government is looking to stay in the customs union in certain sectors, for instance-car manufacturing, while leaving it in most areas. It is also worth noting when Gisela Stuart, the Labour co-chair of Vote Leave, asked about a 2020 deadline for being

Ross Clark

The EU would be mad to start a trade war with Britain. Here’s why

So far, the debate over what happens to UK-EU trade after Brexit has been conducted around a rather odd premise: that the EU will be out to punish Britain by cutting us off unless we sign up for continued membership of the single market, with free movement of people and contributions to the EU budget. Certainly, this is the impression which many EU leaders have been keen to create, and one which the ‘Remain’ lobby is more than happy to promulgate. Yet it sits rather uneasily with reality. As the Leave campaign consistently pointed out before the referendum, the EU would be mad to start a trade war because the