Uk politics

Saturday

James Forsyth

Where the Brexit inner Cabinet is heading

From our UK edition

There have been two meetings of the Brexit inner Cabinet this week. But as I say in The Sun this week, the government is still making its way towards a detailed, negotiating position. Indeed, in one of the meetings this week, Theresa May emphasised that the ministers didn’t need to come to a decision that day. That may have led to a more constructive conversation. But as Jeremy Heywood delicately pointed out, taking these decisions won’t get easier with time. With the crunch EU council meeting next month, the UK doesn’t have much more time either. The longer the UK waits, the harder it will be to build diplomatic support for its preferred solutions. The Brexit inner Cabinet remains divided on the best way ahead.

Friday

Katy Balls

Michel Barnier’s spiky press conference – ‘the transition is not a given’

From our UK edition

David Davis's decision to describe a leaked EU paper suggesting Brussels could impose sanctions on Britain in a transition period as 'discourteous' had repercussions in Brussels today. In a solo press conference on Britain's transition period, Michel Barnier cut a prickly figure as he warned that a transition period immediately after Brexit in 2019 is 'not a given'. Issuing Britain with a gentle ticking off, Barnier insisted that he was not being 'vindictive' as he raised concerns over May's position. He said he has planned an update on the future relationship but this could not take place due to timetable constraints 'on the UK side'.

Steerpike

Lead Remainer suggests Cambridge vice-chancellor ‘should go back to Canada’

From our UK edition

Since leaving government, Lord Adonis has busied himself as a chief cheerleader for the campaign to stop Brexit. The Remain champion is on a mission to overturn the EU referendum result – criticising Brexit figures such as Nigel Farage for  kickstarting a 'deeply xenophobic and misogynistic' movement. However, this doesn't mean Adonis thinks everyone should be welcomed to the UK with open arms. Speaking at Cambridge University, the Labour grandee hit out at Cambridge vice-chancellor Stephen Toope over his £365,000 salary. In an interview with Varsity, the former transport secretary suggests Toope came to the UK 'because somehow he was going to be paid more than for a Canadian university'.

Steerpike

Grauniad’s Dominic Raab attack falls short

From our UK edition

The Grauniad is on a mission this week to expose the shortcomings of the government's crackdown on unpaid internships. The paper reported that Dominic Raab, the Conservative minister, had advertised an unpaid internship to support his constituency work just hours before the government published its plan to tackle unfair working practices. Only, Mr S can't help but wonder whether the paper ought to take heed of the old adage 'people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones'. After all, the Grauniad is the proud owner of the 'positive action scheme' which offers two week placements to BAME candidates... for no money. 'The scheme is unpaid, though reasonable daily travel expenses will be reimbursed.

Thursday

Theo Barclay

The ten greatest political resignations

From our UK edition

The first rule of politics is never resign. Yet hapless MPs have been forced to quit in scandals involving sex, theft, drugs, double-crossing call girls and even attempted murder. Others have staged kamikaze resignations to damage their own leaders. Then there are the canny operators who took principled stands, ending up on the right side of history. As speculation rises that the resignation of a cabinet ‘big beast’ could yet again be the catalyst that sparks a coup against the current Prime Minister, here is your guide to the best and worst of Britain’s political departures: 1) John Profumo The scandal that had it all.

Isabel Hardman

The Westminster harassment report could stop a repeat of the ugly side of #MeToo

From our UK edition

There is clearly a will in Westminster to change the culture of sexual harassment that was so horribly exposed in the autumn. Previously, there was little will and no clear way for victims to get help, despite widespread anecdotal evidence that there were quite a lot of victims out there. Today a cross-party working group of MPs, peers, staff, and trade unions published their report on how to ensure that victims don't feel ignored any more, and that there is a proper, independent process for dealing with complaints. But will the report really be a success? And how will we really know what a success looks like, when sexual harassment is, in reality, often much more complex than it first seems? One aspect of this complexity is that social mores are changing.

Isabel Hardman

Whose fault is the local government funding crisis?

From our UK edition

Local government appears to be on its knees, and it's not the usual suspects of authorities run by opposition parties who are complaining loudest. Today, Surrey County Council is revealed to have a £105 million funding gap, and this after Northamptonshire issued a Section 114 notice, which bans almost all new spending. Organisations such as the Taxpayers' Alliance argue that Surrey still managed to find additional money for its chief executive, suggesting that this is still a story about inept management of local government finances. Perhaps, but it's also worth looking back at how the funding crisis began. In the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review, one of the first departments to settle early with the Treasury was Communities and Local Government, then led by Eric Pickles.

Steerpike

Freemason fightback

From our UK edition

Here we go. This week the Freemasons have come under increased scrutiny after the Grauniad ran a front page reported that two Freemasons' lodges are operating at Westminster – which it said were for MPs and political journalists. This had led to a series of hit-pieces and criticism of the secretive society. Now the Freemasons are fighting back. The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) has placed full-page advertisements in several national newspapers – including the Times, as below – calling for an end to the 'discrimination' against their members. They insist that the organisation welcomes individuals from all walks of life but that members are 'undeservedly stigmatised'. One for Philip Davies to raise at the Women and Equalities select committee?

Steerpike

Listen: John Humphrys taken to task over Carrie Gracie row

From our UK edition

John Humphrys is usually the one who asks the questions on the Today programme. Not today. The veteran presenter was taken to task this morning for appearing to make light of the Carrie Gracie row, after leaked remarks revealed him joking with the BBC's Jon Sopel. At the end of his interview with the Lib Dem's Jo Swinson, she turned the tables on Humphrys, asking him: JS: '...and just while I have got you here John, have you apologised to Carrie Gracie for the remarks you made about her courageous stance on equal pay?' JH: 'I wrote an email to Carrie Gracie immediately after that exchange, yes I did…quite what this has to do with what we are discussing here, I fail to see.' Awkward….

Steerpike

Inside the Conservatives’ Black and White ball

From our UK edition

To the Natural History Museum, for the Conservative Black and White ball. Theresa May's Cabinet were given a chance to unwind with a glass or three of 'Brexit juice' (English sparkling wine) after a crunch meeting on the Irish border that afternoon. Guests munched on beef and kale (a pitch to metropolitan liberals?). Theresa May's speech at the annual fundraiser was well received – even if it was Rees-Mogg who was paid the most attention once in the room. Up for auction was the irresistible prospect of dinner with Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson in the Churchill war rooms. This prize was bagged by a Russian – perhaps they'll take notes on the tour.

James Kirkup

Can we have an honest debate about gender?

From our UK edition

This article is about gender and the law. When I asked several friends, politicians and journalists, about writing it, they all said the same: don’t. It will go badly for you. And that is why I’m writing this. In fact, that’s what I’m writing about: fear. The fear that persuades some people they can’t say what they think about something, or even ask questions about it. Fear that prevents proper discussion of public policy and the public interest. Fear that chills debate. I’ve been a journalist for 20 years. I belong to no party and I have no allegiances or affiliations. I don’t have an agenda or an axe to grind.

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

Theresa May makes it an unhappy birthday for Dennis Skinner

From our UK edition

The S-bomb landed on PMQs this afternoon. Suffragettes. Exactly a century and a day has passed since parliament granted women the vote. Mrs May was honouring the occasion when she heard – or pretended to hear – Labour sisters shouting ‘some women.’ ‘Some?’ she said. ‘Yes universal suffrage did come in, ten years later, under a Conservative government.’ A good hit. Quite probably she faked the ‘some women’ heckle. We got a lecture from moany, droney Jeremy Corbyn who wore a pained expression like a vegan bishop. ‘We should understand that our rights come from the activities of ordinary people doing extraordinary things to bring about democracy and justice.

Steerpike

Watch: Greg Hands’ disastrous turn on Daily Politics

From our UK edition

Oh dear. It's crunch day for Theresa May as her Brexit war cabinet gathers for the first of two meetings to discuss the type of trade relationship the UK ought to seek with the EU post-Brexit. With tensions running high in the party and Brexiteers nervous that Theresa May could be about to agree to some form of customs union (despite repeated denials by No 10). Before they even get to that, the Prime Minister must deal with the small matter of the terms of the transition period. With MPs already nervous about agreeing to a period where the UK is a rule-taker rather than a rule-maker, Greg Hands was sent on the Daily Politics in a bid to soothe tensions. Only things didn't go quite to plan.

James Forsyth

May’s indecision is not helping Tory Brexit tensions

From our UK edition

After PMQs today, Theresa May will rush back to Downing Street to chair a meeting of the Brexit inner Cabinet. This meeting will take place against a backdrop of heightened Tory infighting over Europe. This isn’t being caused by the Cabinet, who have been fairly well behaved in recent days, but the backbenches. May’s problem is that both wings of the Tory party think that her policy is, to a certain extent, equidistant between them. So, whenever one side ratchets up the rhetoric, the other feels obliged to follow suit. Since Jacob Rees-Mogg took over as chair of the European Research Group, the main Brexiteer group in the Tory party, it has taken a far more confrontational approach to the government.

Ross Clark

The Tesco equal pay claim sets a dangerous precedent

From our UK edition

I have decided that my work is of equal value to that of Claudia Schiffer and that therefore in future I should be paid the same as her. Why not? Okay, we don’t quite do the same thing, but we both get up in the morning, go out and do what we do as best we can. Yet she is paid more than I am, which is indefensible. That is pretty much the basis of the claim by 100 female Tesco shop floor workers who have launched an action against the supermarket claiming that they should be paid the same as men who work in the store’s warehouses. It is discrimination, they say, because their work is of ‘equal value’. It is estimated that, if successful, Tesco could face claims for up to six years’ of back pay for 200,000 workers – amounting to as much as £4bn.

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: A customs union is the least worst Brexit option

From our UK edition

Theresa May has been condemned for her failure to stick up for the NHS during her conversation with Donald Trump last night. The criticism comes after Trump tweeted to say Britain’s National Health Service was ‘going broke and not working’. But while we can be rightly proud of the NHS, we shouldn’t be blind to its problems, says the Daily Telegraph. Politicians have queued up to defend the institution and talk of ‘how much they love it’. ‘Only in Britain is it necessary to fetishise the way we deliver health care’, argues the Telegraph.

Steerpike

Beast of Bolsover’s broken birthday promise

From our UK edition

PMQs proved a more lively affair than usual thanks to the Beast of Bolsover. Dennis Skinner attempted to ask a question on NHS funding but John Bercow managed to distract from the message by congratulating the veteran Labour MP on his upcoming birthday. The MP for Bolsover will turn 86 on Sunday – not that he'll be celebrating. In response to the Speaker, Skinner said he had no plans to mark his birthday: 'Well, I don't know about that. I don't celebrate things like that. I don't think you should celebrate age.' Perhaps there's another reason, however, that Skinner doesn't wish for a song and dance to be made over his birthday.

Tuesday

Aine Lagan

Theresa May is what a feminist looks like

From our UK edition

Far too often in politics, women on the centre-right find themselves labeled as the ‘wrong’ sort of feminist, or even worse, told their political views aren’t compatible with the main principles of feminism. It is a general attitude which not only affects everyday women but has followed the most successful women in politics, all the way to the top and into Downing Street itself. Yes, even Theresa May, the country’s second female Prime Minister, has to put up with the accusation that her politics undermine her credibility as a feminist.

James Forsyth

Pardoning the suffragettes would be wrong

From our UK edition

On this, the centenary of some women getting the right to vote, there has been a lot of talk of pardoning the suffragettes. Jeremy Corbyn and Ruth Davidson have both said they back the idea, and the Home Secretary Amber Rudd has said she’ll look into it. But pardoning the suffragettes would be wrong. For many of them deliberately chose to be arrested and to go to jail to highlight the injustice they were fighting. The present has no right to reach back into the past and wipe their convictions, in both senses of the word, from the record. Take Christabel Pankhurst who, in 1905, deliberately assaulted a policeman, albeit only by spitting at him, with the aim of being arrested. She then refused to pay the fine so that she would be sent to prison.

Steerpike

Why Osborne was wrong to trash Auntie May

From our UK edition

When David Cameron and George Osborne were in government, the pair heralded a new 'golden era' where the UK would be China's 'best partner in the West'. However, since Theresa May moved into No 10, questions have been raised about the health of this partnership. Osborne ally Lord O'Neill has criticised May for a focus on New Zealand when the priority should be China. Meanwhile, just last week Osborne appeared underwhelmed by May's trip to China – telling the Today programme that she needed 'a plan to engage with the rest of the world like China'. Further still, the paper Osborne edits – the Evening Standard – claimed that May had held a chinese symbol for luck 'upside down'.