Brexit

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

No. 10 hits back in the backstop blame game

From our UK edition

The stand-off between Downing Street and the European Union over Boris Johnson's latest proposal for the backstop boils down to a disagreement over whether the British government really cares about getting a Brexit deal at all. When Donald Tusk rejected Johnson's plan today, he all but accused him of being set on a no-deal exit, saying: 'The backstop is an insurance to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland unless and until an alternative is found. Those against the backstop and not proposing realistic alternatives in fact support re-establishing a border. Even if they do not admit it.

Steerpike

Jo Swinson riles up Corbynistas again

From our UK edition

Corbynistas are out to get Jo Swinson again after the Lib Dem leader accused Jeremy Corbyn of being a Brexiteer. 'Jeremy Corbyn didn't fight to remain in 2016, and he won't fight for remain now', said Swinson. It wasn't long before the usual suspects leapt to the Labour leader's defence. Step forward, Owen Jones: 'This is a direct lie. It's a matter of public record that Jeremy Corbyn campaigned for Remain,' according to the Guardian columnist. But Mr S isn't so sure. In the weeks before the 2016 referendum, Corbyn was asked 'how passionate are you about staying in the EU?'. Corbyn's response? 'Oh I’d put myself in the upper half of the ten, so we’re looking at seven, seven-and-a-half. Maybe seven...' Hardly a ringing endorsement.

Monday

Steerpike

Poetry competition: An ode to Brexit

From our UK edition

'Poetry makes nothing happen,' a famous poet once said. But Mr S is still disappointed to hear that the nation's official poet won't be penning some lines to mark Britain's departure from the EU. Poet Laureate Simon Armitage said he has 'no plans' to commemorate Brexit day on 31 October. Whatever does he do for his annual stipend of £5,750 and the traditional 600-odd bottles of sherry he gets as payment? Then again, maybe Leavers should breathe a sigh of relief that Armitage has chosen to deny us a Brexit-themed ballad.

Steerpike

‘Shame!’: Journalist heckled at Corbyn speech

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn has just given a speech attacking Boris Johnson as 'Britain's Trump'. But while the Labour leader is happy to dish out criticism, it seems his supporters don't like it when the tables are turned. A journalist found that out the hard way when he told Corbyn: 'It's clear that you do not have the cross-party support in Parliament to be a caretaker prime minister..' His comment was met with cries of 'Shame!' from those in the audience. It seems that for some Corbynistas, the truth hurts...

Steerpike

David Attenborough wades in on Brexit

From our UK edition

David Attenborough is something of a national treasure, but how has the veteran broadcaster managed to maintain his popularity? 'It's easy if you don’t have to do controversial things,' according to Attenborough, who said in an interview in 2017 that if he does have controversial thoughts, he simply doesn't share them. That strategy seems to have been ditched. In an interview with Italian newspaper la Repubblica, Sir David has waded in on everyone's favourite topic: Brexit. Here's what he had to say: 'I think that the irritation of the ways in which the European community has interfered with people's lives on silly levels or silly issues has irritated a lot of people ...

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn’s no-deal plan is unusually smart politics

From our UK edition

On the surface, Jeremy Corbyn's pitch to become caretaker prime minister of a government of national unity after overthrowing Boris Johnson looks like a messy failure. The Liberal Democrats have said they won't back him, two of the Tories who he wrote to have backed away too, and the Independent Group for Change (which he didn't write to) have said this evening that they will 'not support nor facilitate any government led by Jeremy Corbyn'. Instead, everyone is talking about the possibility of a government led by Ken Clarke. The former Tory chancellor today said he wouldn't object to taking over if it was 'the only way' to stop a no-deal Brexit.

Thursday

The Spectator

Where’s Boris?

From our UK edition

Before Boris Johnson became Prime Minister there was widespread expectation that his government would be chaotic. It was thought that he would be good at articulating the broad sweep of government policy, but that his administration would quickly sink into turmoil. In the event, the opposite has happened. Three weeks on, the government appears to be running with almost military precision. Preparations for no-deal Brexit seem to be well under control, to the alarm of Philip Hammond, who had thought the task impossible. Yet the Prime Minister himself seems to have gone underground. He is not on holiday — his government is working all hours. But he has not been as big a feature of it as many expected.

Lloyd Evans

Shooting star | 15 August 2019

From our UK edition

Only one thing makes Frank Skinner nervous. ‘Water. Water scares me. I don’t get nervous on stage. Just in swimming pools. I didn’t learn to swim until 2013. Avoiding water is easier if you live in Birmingham.’ The stand-up comedian’s image is plastered across the centre of Edinburgh on six-foot placards to advertise the dates of his national tour. ‘SOLD OUT’ is blazoned across the top. This seems a weird strategy — promoting a product that’s no longer available — and I ask him about it when we meet at a quietly expensive hotel near Bristo Square. ‘I’ve sold out the Edinburgh run but there are tickets available for the tour... The quick-sellers are hard to predict.’ He tells me he loves performing stand-up.

Peter Jones

Boris Augustus

From our UK edition

The Tories, allegedly a ‘one-nation’ party, are currently imposing Brexit on a divided nation. As a result, some Tory MPs will vote against Brexit, effectively abandoning the party. This raises the question of political values – the question being, what happens after Brexit? Romans faced the same problem when the republic collapsed (27 bc) and Augustus became emperor. The Roman historian Tacitus, looking back at those events some 140 years later, summarised how Augustus achieved supreme power: he charmed the army with bonuses, the people with cheap corn, and everyone with the beguiling pleasures of peace.

The Spectator

Portrait of the Week – 15 August 2019

From our UK edition

Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, proposed an extra 10,000 prison places and the expansion of stop-and-search powers. PC Stuart Outten, 28, was cut in the head with a machete after he stopped a van in Leyton, east London, in the early hours; Muhammed Rodwan, 56, of Luton, was charged with attempted murder. While trying to make an arrest, PC Gareth Phillips, 42, was run over in Moseley, Birmingham, by someone driving his own car; Mubashar Hussain, 29, was charged with attempted murder. The RAF is to allow recruits to wear beards. John Bercow, the Speaker, said that he thought parliament could stop Britain leaving the EU without an agreement.

Bernard Connolly

How to make sense of Jeremy Corbyn’s pitch to Remainers

From our UK edition

What is Jeremy Corbyn up to? The appeal in his letter to Remainers in the Commons to turf Boris Johnson out, and magically transform the Leader of the Opposition into an 'interim' Prime Minister – one who would block not just a no-deal Brexit but any Brexit at all, looks like something out of a Bulgakov novel. But there is a sensible – at least from Corbyn's point of view – purpose behind it. Few of the various ex-Labour and ex-Conservative independent MPs are likely to support the appeal. Many Corbyn-despising Labour MPs will not back it. A couple of Tories might decide to end their parliamentary careers endorsing it. But Corbyn's appeal will effectively dissuade most moderate Tory Remainers from voting against their own Government.

Alexander Pelling-Bruce

Why October 10th is Boris Johnson’s best bet for a snap election

From our UK edition

Boris Johnson thrives on risk. His political life so far has consisted of a succession of gambles that have paid off: leaving the Commons to be Tory mayoral candidate in a Labour-voting city; choosing Leave in the referendum against the odds and the establishment; resigning as foreign secretary; and then becoming Prime Minister when many thought he was a busted flush. These decisions are the marks of a man from whom we ought to expect the unexpected. And there is good reason for him to now make the ultimate bet and call a snap election. It's now widely assumed that Jeremy Corbyn will table a motion of no confidence soon after Parliament returns from summer.

Steerpike

Tory MP: PM Corbyn better than no-deal Brexit

From our UK edition

When Jeremy Corbyn put forward his proposal to MPs to help him become prime minister in order to block a no-deal Brexit, the response from the Lib Dems was clear: no. But the Labour leader's plan has had a warmer reception in an unlikely place – on the Tory backbenches. Guto Bebb told his fellow MPs that if they wanted to stop Britain leaving the EU without a deal, they should take Corbyn's idea seriously: 'I certainly take the view that a short-term Jeremy Corbyn government is less damaging than the generational damage that would be caused by a no-deal Brexit' Mr S thinks Bebb might have some difficulty persuading his Tory colleagues about that...

William Cook

Alexander Waugh is the Brexit party’s most illustrious candidate

From our UK edition

At the next General Election, the lucky constituents of Bridgwater and West Somerset will find an illustrious name on their ballot papers. The Brexit party have unveiled their latest prospective parliamentary candidates, and the candidate they’ve chosen to contest this seat is Alexander Waugh. Alexander Waugh is a first-rate writer – a shrewd critic, an astute biographer and an occasional contributor to The Spectator. He’s also the grandson of one of England’s greatest novelists, Evelyn Waugh, and the son of one of England’s finest journalists – the late, great Spectator columnist Auberon Waugh. Alexander’s writing invites comparison with his father’s writing, and his grandfather’s.

Katy Balls

Taking back control

From our UK edition

Every Friday at 6 p.m. government aides are summoned to No. 10 Downing Street for a meeting with Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s right-hand man. Here they are plied with alcoholic beverages, updated on the latest government messaging and given instructions for the week ahead. Such meetings seldom happened under the old Theresa May regime: Fridays were a bit of a non-event when ministers were in their constituencies and aides worked hard right up to lunchtime. The new end-of-week meeting register means that is no longer an option. At the most recent meeting, a handful of aides were singled out for good behaviour. Their achievement? Reporting the minister they work for to No. 10 for going off message. ‘You know who you are,’ said Cummings approvingly.

Robert Tombs

Time warp

From our UK edition

How we love bringing history into our political debates. It may seem strange in a country where so little history is taught at school, but perhaps that makes it easier. We grab hold of vague notions of the past for a Punch-and-Judy brawl. There could hardly be a better example of this than Brexit, in which we skim through the whole of our history to search for analogies to batter the other side with. The Roman empire, the Norman conquest, the Wars of the Roses, the British Empire, appeasement, the second world war, Suez… Leavers have fulminated against ‘traitors’ who deserve the Tower for flouting Henry VIII’s assertion of sovereignty. Remainers have accused Leavers of being racists, imperialists, indeed, worse than Nazis.

Wednesday

Steven Fielding

The real reason Corbynites turned on Caroline Lucas and the Greens

From our UK edition

Caroline Lucas's plan for an all-female emergency Cabinet to stop a no-deal Brexit is a fantasy, with no prospect of success. But if the plan is daft, it has provoked a revealing reaction from Jeremy Corbyn’s loyal outriders. Instead of laughing it off, many have taken it deadly seriously. Most have focused their attack on the ethnicity of the women Lucas chose to enlist: they were all white. Reasonably enough, they asked why shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, was overlooked. Recognising her mistake, Lucas apologised. But instead of giving Lucas – probably the most politically correct member of the Commons – the benefit of the doubt, the Corbynite response has been nasty and vituperative.

Robert Peston

Jeremy Corbyn’s mystifying Brexit stance continues

From our UK edition

A Labour party that goes into the looming general election campaigning for a new Brexit referendum, which Jeremy Corbyn says it will do, will delight Boris Johnson and fill EU leaders with despair. Because Johnson will think millions of British people will recoil at the idea of a general election followed by a referendum in quick succession. And Johnson will also be delighted that he would face a warring opposition, since Lib Dems, Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru are clear the UK must stay in the EU, whereas Corbyn’s Labour isn’t sure. Also EU leaders will be despondent that the UK under Corbyn’s plan may still not have made up its mind whether to stay or go by next spring, when the EU has to set its new budget.

Robert Peston

Why Boris Johnson needs an election to deliver Brexit

From our UK edition

What more-or-less all Tory MPs seem to have missed is that Philip Hammond, the ex-chancellor who has become the anti-no-deal Sandinista, agrees with Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings on the big thing that matters. Hammond loudly – and Johnson, with his consigliere Cummings sotto voce – all accept that EU leaders and negotiators do not see ANY way of negotiating a new Brexit deal on the basis of what Britain's new Prime Minister says he wants. As one Brussels official confirmed to me, even if EU leaders – and especially Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar – were prepared to do as Johnson asks and rip up the backstop, which they most definitely are not, they could not do so unless Johnson offered a detailed proposal for what would replace the backstop.

The Spectator

Full text: Boris Johnson’s ‘People’s PMQs’ debut

From our UK edition

Good afternoon. I'm speaking to you live from my desk in Downing Street for the first-ever People's Question Time, People's PMQs, and at the moment I'm afraid MPs are all still off on holiday. But I can take questions unpasteurised, unmediated from you via this machine. So I'm going to go straight away to Luther in Cheshire. And Luther says, 'I'd like to know how you intend to leave the EU on the 31st of October with no movement from the EU on their terms and still so much opposition in Parliament.' Luther, you've asked the crucial question and there's a terrible kind of collaboration, as it were, going on between people who think they can block Brexit in parliament and our European friends.