Brexit

The UK and the EU are playing a dangerous game of chicken over the Irish border, I say in The Sun this morning. There has been almost no progress on this issue over the summer and without a deal on it, there can’t be a withdrawal agreement. One of those involved in the negotiations on the British side tells me, the EU ‘believe we will blink first’. But that won’t happen. One Brexit red line that Theresa May is adamant she’ll never cross is her insistence that no British PM could sign the EU’s proposed text on the Irish border, which would see Northern Ireland become part of the customs

Is Tommy Robinson a political martyr? Some Ukip supporters think so, and want the former English Defence League leader to be allowed to join their party. A motion set to be debated at Ukip’s conference this month could now decide the issue, with the party’s ruling body debating this weekend whether it should be up to its members to have the final say on whether Robinson should be welcome in Ukip’s ranks. If the ban on Robinson’s membership is lifted, then the smallest fig leaf separating the party from the EDL will have finally been removed. Under Ukip’s latest leader, Gerard Batten, this seems to be the direction in which the

If as a country we cannot take a big decision about whether or not we should be in the European Union, which is based on sovereignty, which is based on controlling our borders; there are arguments on both sides. We ought to be able to have a reasonable and civilised debate on that, and then have a vote. What we are now getting is not a reasonable or civilised discussion. It is a discussion where both sides seem to be throwing insults at each other. And I find that deeply depressing; and frankly, if a government cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes – whatever position you

Funnily enough, MPs across the Commons were today very keen to welcome Jeremy Hunt to his position as Foreign Secretary and suggest that he might garner more praise from them than his predecessor. At his first departmental questions in the new role, Hunt also had to address one of the messes left by Boris Johnson – and explain what his priorities were for the aspect of the portfolio that Johnson resigned over: the EU. The priorities of a Secretary of State can often be divined from which questions he or she chooses to answer at these sessions, and which ones are farmed out to his junior ministers. Hunt answered questions

C.S. Forester, creator of Hornblower, a great student of Anglo-French relations, wrote a now often overlooked exhortative novel titled Death to the French. Contemporary readers might consider it triggering if not racist, yet it captures well a traditional British reaction when angry Frenchmen start throwing missiles at us. Here in the south of France we are some distance from the troubled waters of the Guerre de Coquilles Saint Jacques. On the shores of the Mediterranean, oysters are favoured and war fever muted, although nobody at Chez Trini’s café doubts that the perfidious English are up to their usual conneries. I tend to agree, but then I’m applying for an Irish

The International Trade Secretary says he is going to turn Britain into an ‘exporting superpower’. To which countries did we export the most goods in June? Exports / Year change US £3.99bn / +12% Germany £2.95bn / -8.1% Switzerland £2.41bn / +184% China £2.16bn / +71% Netherlands £2.14bn / +13% France £2.10bn / -0.6% Ireland £1.68bn / -1.4% Source: HMRC