Uk politics

Tuesday

Steerpike

Tory MP who criticised early recess plans leaves Parliament early to ‘mess about in boats’

When No 10 attempted to bring recess early so that Parliament rose last Thursday rather than this Tuesday, there was widespread outrage – even on the Conservative benches. So much so that the Whips eventually reneged on the idea and scrapped the plans. One of the most indignant Tory MPs at the time was George Freeman. Freeman took to Twitter to slam the government's proposal as a 'silly idea' because 'Parliament has important business to do'. 'Here here', Freeman said (presumably meaning 'Hear Hear'): https://twitter.com/GeorgeFreemanMP/status/1019311942270365696 https://twitter.com/GeorgeFreemanMP/status/1019310680372137985 Only, it seems that when it comes to the 'important business' Parliament must do today, Freeman stops short of being around for it himself.

Steerpike

John Bercow gets another tennis freebie

John Bercow wasn't spotted in the Royal Box at Wimbledon this year but Mr S is pleased to report that the Speaker still managed to get his tennis fix this summer. Bercow accepted two free tickets worth £630 to attend the final of Queens in June, according to the register of members' interests. The jolly – which included hospitality – came just two days after Bercow passed his self-imposed deadline to step down as Speaker. Yet while tennis fans would love to get their hands on tickets to Queens, the trip is still something of a step down from what Bercow is used to. Since 2015, he’s managed to get his mitts on £8,000 worth of free tickets to Wimbledon. Perhaps Bercow is preparing for life after his departure as Speaker...

Simon Marcus

Could this summer see a repeat of the 2011 riots? | 24 July 2018

The heatwave is on and reports of London's crime wave are widespread, with crime up dramatically in the last year: could a repeat of the 2011 riots be on the cards? Predicting riots is tricky but sometimes there are clues: the weather plays a part; and so too does the economy, community cohesion, social morals and other factors that can combine to lead to outbreaks of widespread disorder, just as they did seven years ago on the streets of the capital. Of course, 2011 wasn't the only time people intent on violence have taken to the streets of Britain in recent years.

Monday

James Forsyth

Theresa May must work on her Brexit sales pitch

Regional Cabinets are always a bit gimmicky. The idea that putting ministers on a train to somewhere outside of London would make them take different decisions has always struck me as somewhat absurd. But today’s, as Katy said earlier, has taken on a particular significance because it marked the beginning of Theresa May’s attempt to sell her Brexit plan to the public. This plan needs some selling. Polling for the Sunday Times showed that only 12 per cent of voters think it would be good for Britain, compared to 43 per cent who disagree. May’s appearance today, though, is unlikely to have moved the dial much. There’s no clear top line from it.

Steerpike

Watch: Return of the Maybot

The Maybot is back. The Prime Minister has just been doing a Q and A with workers in Newcastle when she was asked how she likes to unwind. Here's what she had to say: 'There are several things I like to do. I like walking...I enjoy cooking, which has a benefit because you get to eat it as well as make it. I have over 150 cookbooks, so I spend quite a lot of time looking at cookbooks. And...I quite like watching NCIS when I can.' Time for a reboot?

Isabel Hardman

The trouble with social prescribing for mental illness

It's a measure of how much the debate around mental health has changed that Matt Hancock's latest announcement on social prescribing for mental illness isn't being written up as mere quackery. The Health and Social Care Secretary today pledged a £4.5 million fund for these schemes, which include gardening, arts clubs, running and so on. Hancock is worried about possible over-prescription of anti-depressants and the associated risk of diagnosis creep, whereby people who are not depressed but quite understandably struggling with life events such as a bereavement are given a medical diagnosis and handed pills that aren't really going to help them.

Steerpike

Ex-Tory MP: Theresa May blocked Brexit ‘no deal’ planning

Theresa May has always said 'no deal is better than a bad deal', but how much has her government actually prepared for the possibility of walking away from the EU if talks do break down? Not a lot, if the claims made by David Davis' former chief of staff, Stewart Jackson, are anything to go on. Speaking on the Daily Politics, the former Tory MP said that the Prime Minister had actually blocked attempts to prepare for no deal: “David Davis pushed on producing an early white paper, pushed on getting officials out in Brussels doing granular technical negotiations six months ago, pushed on the Irish protocol putting legal text to the Irish government. All these areas.

Brendan O’Neill

Don’t blame the Tories for a Brexit ‘no deal’ | 23 July 2018

Remember when leftists and liberals were against capitalists throwing their weight around in the political sphere? ‘Just because you’re filthy rich doesn’t mean you should have more clout than the rest of us’, they might say. No longer. Now they love it when the boss class tut-tuts about democracy and wonders out loud if we should just ignore the little people and shape politics so that it suits us, the moneyed and powerful. Consider the glee with which some leftish Remainers have lapped up Amazon’s dire warnings about a no-deal Brexit.

Isabel Hardman

Forget the ‘Beatles’: here’s what happens to most British jihadi suspects | 23 July 2018

What happens to Brits who've returned from fighting for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq? Most would expect that they'd immediately fall into the criminal justice system, and wouldn't then emerge for a very long time. Today it emerged that Home Secretary Sajid Javid had dropped Britain's blanket opposition to the death penalty so that two Isis fighters from the group dubbed the 'Beatles' could be sent to the US. But in most cases, the question isn't where someone will face justice, but whether they can face justice at all. We know that there are hundreds of people who have returned from fighting for Islamic State. But what is less well-known is what happens when these individuals get back to Britain.

Ross Clark

It isn’t anti-Semitic to say the creation of Israel was a mistake

You don’t have to read too much of the tweets and other comments directed at Margaret Hodge and other Jewish Labour MPs to appreciate that Labour has a very big problem with anti-Semitism. But is the party’s refusal to adopt the full working definition of anti-Semitism produced by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance an example of its failings? Absolutely not. Firstly, on a general point, it is never a good idea to allow pressure groups – however worthy their intentions – to lay down the rules on language.

Sunday

Stan Labovitch

Brexit is an ideological civil war that will never end

I disagree with Robert Tombs that Brexit has played a greater role in determining English identity and a sense of national self-confidence than sport. The diverse makeup of the English team and its feisty performance in Russia has united people of every political persuasion — at least temporarily — under the same flag. Brexit, for all its claims of gaining back control, has torn this country apart, dividing family and friends in a never-ending and deeply unsavoury ideological civil war which shows no sign of ever being resolved.

Steerpike

Vince Cable’s missed opportunity

This week the government narrowly avoided defeat on two government-backed amendments tabled by the European Research Group. In the end, the government squeaked through by just three votes. So, it didn't go down particularly well with the pro-EU crew that neither the former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron or his successor, Vince Cable, bothered to turn up to vote. And the reason for the Lib Dem leader's absence? It turns out Sir Vince was busy discussing the creation of a new anti-Brexit centre-ground party at a secret dinner, as The Sunday Times reports. Instead of trying to start a new 'stop Brexit' party, Cable could have got closer to stopping Brexit by just doing his day job. Who knew?

Saturday

James Forsyth

Theresa May should enjoy her summer break, for the autumn will be her toughest time yet

‘She’s safe until September’. That’s the verdict on Theresa May of one of those who knows the Tory parliamentary party best, I write in The Sun this morning. Number 10 want to use the summer to try and turn opinion around on Mrs May’s Chequers plan. Under consideration, is a plan for her to do events at various venues around the country to try and convince voters of the merits of it. Every Cabinet Minister has been told that they must devote one day over the summer to selling Chequers, including doing broadcast interviews on it. Ministers are already watching closely to see how Esther McVey, the Welfare Secretary, and the Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt, who are known sceptics of the scheme, handle this request.

Charles Moore

There is no such thing as a Brexit ‘no deal’

The collapse of Mrs May’s Chequers plan, followed by Tuesday’s failure of the Tory Remainers to defeat the government, creates a new situation. Mrs May greatly underestimated the threat to her from the ‘betrayal’ narrative which her plan invites. Two years of getting nowhere have made people long for decision and furious at Brussels dogmatism. There is a new appetite for no delay and for no deal. ‘No deal’ however, is not the right phrase. There is a deal — and we and the member states of the EU are already signed up to it. It is called World Trade Organisation terms. The clue to its nature is in the name: it allows the world to trade.

Friday

James Kirkup

Are female prisoners at risk from transgender inmates?

Earlier this week, it was reported that an inmate in HM Prison New Hall, a women’s prison, had been charged with sexually assaulting four female inmates. According to the Sun, the inmate is transgender. Born male and still possessing male anatomy including male genitals, she now identifies as female. Because of that “identification”, the inmate was housed in the female prison estate; in broad terms, the Ministry of Justice says that transgender prisoners should be housed in the part of the prison system that corresponds to their gender identity.  That policy has many implications, one of which is that it is possible for a person with male anatomy, hormones and outlook, to be confined in prison with inmates who are anatomically female.

Katy Balls

Michel Barnier’s pointed questions suggest no deal

Michel Barnier's press conference responding to the UK government's Brexit white paper will have been music to the ears of 'no deal' Brexiteers. After Theresa May pushed her Cabinet and premiership to the point of near collapse with her Chequers proposals for a softer Brexit, the EU's Chief negotiator has today responded to her efforts with a heavy dose of scepticism. Barnier began by trying to play nice. He said he welcomed the development of the UK government's position – he understood that it was the result of a debate and, for some, that debate is still ongoing. He said that the proposals from May contained several things Brussels could get on board with and singled out security as one such.

Isabel Hardman

Julian Smith and the political art of not-lying

Theresa May's defence of Julian Smith this afternoon hasn't gone down amazingly well. The Prime Minister stuck to the line that Smith's instruction to Brandon Lewis to ignore the pairing arrangement he had with Lib Dem Jo Swinson and vote on two key Brexit divisions was an 'honest mistake'. This seemed somewhat implausible before the Times reported that Smith had in fact asked other paired Tory MPs to vote, and that he had also admitted to a chief whip from another party that he had instructed Lewis to vote. But the Tories now look dangerously as though they are sticking to a lie. Of course, this being politics, Labour has accused the Prime Minister of offering 'blatantly untrue excuses' rather than the straightforward word 'lying'.

Thursday

Steerpike

Olly Robbins’ Brexit bonus

Theresa May's Brexit plan is going down badly and the EU is telling members states to step up preparations for 'no deal'. You'd be forgiven for thinking that Brexit isn't going entirely to plan. But this mess didn't stop the Prime Minister's Brexit guru Olly Robbins getting a bonus last year. Robbins was rewarded with a payment of between £15,000 and £20,000, according to figures released by the Department for Exiting the EU. As if that wasn't enough, Robbins also earned a salary of at least £80,000 before his transfer from the Brexit department to No.10. Whatever happens with Brexit, Robbins, at least, has plenty to smile about...

Theresa May’s Brexit fear is selling Britain short

The EU is afraid of us, but we’ve got a prime minister who is afraid of the EU. The declaration by the European Commission that member states should prepare for ‘no deal’ is a powerful reminder that EU oligarchs are petrified that we will make a success of independence and expose the flaws in their dream of domination. They fear that we will reform our taxes and update our regulations to raise productivity and take market share from them. Their reaction is not to start improving their own competitiveness but to try to suppress our ability to compete, unfortunately with the willing compliance of the Chequers agreement and its anti-competitive ‘common rulebook’. Competition frightens the EU because it knows only too well what kind of people we are.

Steerpike

Kate Hoey on Jo Swinson vote pairing row: ‘she was okay to go on an anti-Trump demonstration’

Although the government managed to win the crunch customs union vote this week, the victory was short-lived thanks to a row over the fact Brandon Lewis voted despite being on a pairing arrangement with Lib Dem Jo Swinson – who missed the vote after recently giving birth. Today the Times reports that despite claims from the Chief Whip that it was all an 'honest mistake', two other Tory MPs were told by Julian Smith that they should vote on Tuesday despite being paired. On Wednesday, Kate Hoey waded into the row. Only the Labour MP – who voted with the government on Tuesday – has questioned the behaviour of not just the Tories but Swinson too.