Uk politics

Martin Selmayr’s power grab, elevating him to the post of Secretary-General and putting him in charge of 33,000 staff, was a brilliantly-executed Brussels coup. As Jean Quatremer reveals in The Spectator, the double promotion of Juncker’s chief of staff was over in nine minutes flat, and was described by one of those present as an 'impeccably prepared and audacious power-grab'. So how did he do it? And how can such skullduggery be covered up? On Friday, the European Commission slipped out the minutes for the meeting on February 21st at which Selmayr earned his promotion. Early in the meeting, we learn that the job of Deputy Secretary General was vacant: But then – surprise! – Selmayr wasn't finished there.

Theresa May came under fire last year when she appeared to dodge a question on whether – if there was a referendum tomorrow – she would now back Brexit. Since then, the Prime Minister managed to set tongues-wagging once again when asked in a Q&A after her big Brexit speech whether Brexit was worth it. May swerved the question – opting to confirm that she will deliver the will of the people. So, Mr S nearly choked on his tea this morning when the Eeyore-esque Chancellor appeared to enthusiastically say that Brexit was worth it, on the Andrew Marr show: AM: Is it worth it? PH: Yes.

The moment that has defined my approach to politics came when my mother told me the proudest moment of her life: buying her council house.  Growing up in Consett, a former steel town in the north east, that house seemed to be like any of the other identikit terraced properties in the area. But to my mother, it was an asset she now owned and was able to pass on to me and my siblings. Later in life, I realised that Right to Buy had opened up new avenues for my mother, beyond having a roof over her head: it gave her choice, security, and a sense of achievement and self esteem. Especially as a single parent with three kids.

There are plenty of things you could say about Labour’s All-Women Shortlists (AWS). Tony Blair called them 'not ideal at all' in 1995. In 1996, Peter Jepson and Roger Dyas-Elliott – two men who’d been rejected as Labour candidates – called them sex discrimination. An industrial tribunal agreed with them, and Labour was forced to suspend the policy until 2002, when it was able to bring in the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act, permitting positive discrimination in candidate selection. In 2002, Owen Jones called them 'most successful at expanding the career options of a tiny elite of professional, university-educated women', Blair’s hesitancy forgotten and AWS rewritten as a tool of centrist hegemony.

Jezza was on spectacularly dreary form at PMQs. He droned through a communique about International Women’s Day which made the celebration sound inexpressively dispiriting. The movement is all about ‘how far we’ve come and how far we have to go,’ he moaned. He sounded like an Arctic explorer giving a live commentary as he slices off his frost-bitten toes, one by one, with a pen-knife. May hadn’t mentioned Women’s Day. And Corbyn, by bringing it up, had laid himself open to attack. It was swift and deadly. And beautiful in its way. ‘Thank-you for telling me it’s International Women’s Day tomorrow,’ said May in a voice that was full of blades. She turned towards him, both lasers on full beam.

Why on earth would we want to put up a statue of Margaret Thatcher in Parliament Square? That's the question that a number of politicians are asking after the possibility arose once again at the weekend. 'Steady on,' said Nicola Sturgeon. Labour's Chris Bryant was (unsurprisingly, perhaps) rather more verbose. 'What Mrs Thatcher did to communities like the Rhondda deserves recognition in the annals of callousness; not another statue.' Down with the Tory fool behind the suggestion who just cannot stop reminiscing about the 1980s. Except the suggestion came not from a Conservative but a Liberal Democrat MP. Jo Swinson wrote a piece in the Mail on Sunday in which she describes witnessing the very policies that Bryant is so angry about: 'I grew up in the West of Scotland during the 1980s.