Uk politics

Wednesday

Gavin Mortimer

Social media is the propaganda tool the Nazis could only dream of

Last month, the venture capitalist Roger McNamee drew parallels between the persuasive powers of Facebook and those of Joseph Goebbels. McNamee made a mint from early investment in the social media site but he believes Facebook has since adopted the techniques of Hitler’s spin doctor to create a climate of ‘fear and anger’. It’s not just Facebook, of course, it’s the internet in general that has contributed to this new golden age of intolerance. In a recent interview with the Times, Silicon Valley guru Jaron Lanier, the man who coined the phrase ‘virtual reality’, said the way internet companies monitor our behaviour gives them the power to: ‘…change people’s character…to corral

Katy Balls

Brexit draft agreement leaks

Theresa May is having a tough week after her plan to agree ‘sufficient progress’ with Jean Claude-Juncker in time for the crucial EU council meeting was brought to a stop by the DUP. The DUP are now dragging their feet over whether or not they can back or amend the government’s ‘solution’ to the Irish border – a promise of ‘regulatory alignment’ in relation to areas covered by the Good Friday agreement (and perhaps beyond). Meanwhile, the eurosceptic wing os the party is seeing red over any agreement involving UK-wide regulatory alignment on the basis that it could hinder their vision of a clean Brexit which would allow the country to

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: May should ditch her plan to leave the single market

17.4million people backed Brexit, but only two – at least one of whom campaigned for ‘Remain’ – decided that leaving the EU should also mean a departure from the single market, the customs union and the European court of justice, says the Guardian. The pair were, of course, Theresa May and her former aide Nick Timothy, who made what the paper describes as ‘fateful national decisions’ based on ‘personal interpretations of the vote’. This was a ‘reckless’ and ‘foolish’ act, says the Guardian, and nowhere is this seen more obviously in the Irish border row which has been spilling out this week. Here, the decision to leave the customs union collides

Tuesday

Tom Goodenough

Could the Manchester Arena bombing have been stopped?

Today’s report into the Manchester and London terror attacks makes for devastating reading, spelling out as it does the horrors of the murderous events in which 51 people lost their lives. The details are further daunting for making it clear just how great the threat facing Britain from Islamist terror continues to be. Much of the focus today though has rested on a question: could the attacks have been prevented? The answer is not clear but there are certainly reasons to think that at least one of the attacks could have been stopped. While there is little evidence to suggest that the Westminster Bridge attack could have been thwarted, the

Katy Balls

David Davis suggests regulatory alignment will apply to whole of the UK

A government minister has just appeared at the despatch box to discuss the state of the EU negotiations. Unfortunately for Theresa May, it wasn’t the victorious address No 10 had in mind when they earmarked time in the Chamber for today. Instead, David Davis was summoned to Parliament to answer an urgent question from Labour’s Keir Starmer on the state of the EU negotiations ahead of this month’s EU council meeting. After May’s efforts to agree ‘sufficient progress’ in Brussels yesterday were torpedoed by concerns from the DUP over concessions on the Irish border, the shadow Brexit secretary accused the government of giving new meaning to the phrase ‘coalition of chaos’.

Alex Massie

The Tories are playing a dangerous game with the Union

It is a measure of devolution’s success that politicians, provided they are of sufficient stature, can make waves and news even though they are not members of the House of Commons. In their different ways – and with their very different destinations in mind – both Nicola Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson demonstrate as much. The United Kingdom – for such it just about remains – is better for this.  For some time now, we have been waiting for Davidson to make a Brexit intervention. This morning she obliged. Addressing yesterday’s near-fiasco on the other side of the north channel, the Scottish Tory leader released a statement demanding that: ‘If regulatory

Ross Clark

Nick Clegg is right: we need a second Brexit referendum

I didn’t think I would ever see myself write this, but I think Nick Clegg is right: we need a second referendum on the EU. I come to this conclusion not because – like some Remainers seem to do – I think 52 per cent of the British population are too thick to make decisions affecting the future of the country and need to be made to vote again so that they can come up with the correct answer. I have come to it because it is the only way that Theresa May and her government are going to survive the next 15 months. As is clear from polls at

Stephen Daisley

Now we know just how much Theresa May is willing to give away to secure Brexit

The thing to appreciate about the Conservative and Unionist Party is that the only principle it understands less than Conservatism is Unionism. The Tories have convinced themselves that these concepts mean their perfect opposite, so that Conservatism is a counsel of market dogmatism and social reaction; and Unionism is the English national interest with brief interludes from Glasgow and Belfast, like a constitutional Last Night of the Proms.  The Tories’ Unionism has always been more honoured in the breach than the observance. If their handling of the Scottish referendum result was not confirmation enough, their pursuit of a hard Brexit has put it beyond all doubt. Tory Brexiteers were warned

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: How will May sell her fudge pudding to the DUP?

Theresa May’s plan to wrap up an agreement on the first stage of Brexit talks was scuppered at the last minute yesterday. Good, says the Sun. The paper argues that yesterday’s deadline was ‘always going to be a moveable feast’, and that ‘the Prime Minister is right not to agree a deal to meet a made-up deadline’. OK, it’s ‘disappointing’ that the PM will now need to do it ‘all over again later this week’. But the paper says May should remember that there is only one deadline that must be met: March 29th, 2019. Brexit is a process ’that will decide the future of our once-again sovereign country for decades

Steerpike

Battle of the Maybots

Unfortunately for Theresa May, her working lunch on Monday with Jean-Claude Juncker didn’t work when it came to agreeing ‘sufficient progress’ with Brussels. However, as the Prime Minister works to solve the negotiations deadlock with the DUP – and subsequently the EU, she can at least find some light relief in the abundance of Maybot sketches now doing the rounds. In a sign that Theresa May is making an impression on Americans, May made a special appearance on Saturday Night Live over the weekend – with Kate McKinnon doing her best Maybot impression: Should that one not appeal, Tracey Ullman’s Theresa May is also a strong contender for best Maybot.

Monday

Robert Peston

To prevent an Irish Sea border, Theresa May will align UK regulations with the EU

So it turns out there is something Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party fears and loathes more than the possibility of a government led by Jeremy Corbyn. They would be prepared to sink Theresa May and her government to prevent even the remotest prospect of a border being introduced in the middle of the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Which is why the prime minister has to be quadruply clear that any regulatory alignment she offers to the EU to prevent the re-establishment of a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic has to be alignment that applies clearly and equitably to the whole of

Katy Balls

No 10 calls briefing meeting, says nothing

Following Theresa May and Jean Claude Junker’s press conference to announce that no deal has been reached (yet), Tory MPs were summoned to the Committee room corridor to be given a briefing on the progress – or lack there of. Only the meeting’s organisers, Gavin Barwell and Steven Baker, didn’t appear to have all that much to say – telling MPs that both sides were working hard to iron out the final issues holding up ‘sufficient progress’. Or, as one MP puts it, ‘what we were told is nothing has been agreed and nothing has been ruled out’. One Tory walked out with their hands in the air – though a more

James Forsyth

How will the Irish border issue be solved in time?

Jean-Claude Juncker and Theresa May have just emerged from their lunch. But there is no white smoke over Brussels this evening. Juncker said that it was ‘not possible to reach complete agreement’. So, there’ll be no recommendation of ‘sufficient progress’ today. However, Juncker declared that he was still confident that the UK and the EU can reach sufficient progress by the December EU Council to move on to the next stage of the talks. Neither May nor Juncker set out which areas are still causing trouble, but all the talk today has been about the Irish border. The leaked text which talked about ‘continued regulatory alignment’ between Northern Ireland and the

Isabel Hardman

Why Number 10 needs to calm some Tory nerves this afternoon

In the midst of the confusion over whether the UK and Ireland have agreed for Northern Ireland to remain in the customs union, Tory MPs have been invited to a party meeting this afternoon at 4. Some backbenchers who are particularly interested in scrutinising Brexit had requested that they be given the same sort of off-the-record briefings on policy and developments as are offered on a regular basis by the Ministry of Defence, so this may well be one of those meetings. But the presence of Gavin Barwell, Theresa May’s chief of staff, suggests that it’s not just an off-the-record update from Brexit minister Steve Baker. The chances are that

James Kirkup

Here’s how Theresa May can show she is still serious about social mobility

As someone who cares about – and has experienced – social mobility, I’m sad to see Alan Milburn, Gillian Shephard and their colleagues leave the Social Mobility Commission (SMC), and I hope Theresa May is serious about finding the best possible ‘new blood’ for the commission. I have a few suggestions for who should try to fill Alan’s shoes (Sir Terry Leahy would be a good start), though obviously ministers will have to work hard to assure any new commissioners that the ‘bandwidth’ needed to make Britain more socially mobile will actually be available in a Brexit-fixated Whitehall machine. Before ministers even start trying to rebuild the SMC, they should do something

Katy Balls

Lots of Irish questions, but no answers – yet

As Theresa May sits down to lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker to try and persuade the EU Commission to give Britain the green light to talk trade, confusion reigns over what concessions the UK government is making in order to do this. There are reports that a solution to the Irish border has been found.  A draft version is said to promise ‘continued regulatory alignment’ – if no solutions are found: ‘In the absence of agreed solutions the UK will ensure that there continues to be continued regulatory alignment with those rules of the internal market + customs union which, now or in the future, support North South cooperation +protection of

Brendan O’Neill

Ireland, the EU is playing you like a fiddle

The EU has no shame. It is a completely shame-free zone. How else do we explain the grotesque spectacle of EC President Donald Tusk cosying up to Ireland this weekend, and claiming to respect Irish sovereignty, as if the past 15 years of Brussels treating Ireland as a colonial plaything had never happened? As if the EU hadn’t time and again overridden the Irish people’s democratic wishes? As if the EU didn’t just a few years ago send financial experts to run the Irish economy above the heads of the apparently dim Irish demos? Tusk claiming to be a friend of the Irish takes EU chutzpah to dizzying new heights.

Ross Clark

The government must learn its lesson from Alan Milburn’s resignation

There is a simple lesson the government needs to learn from Alan Milburn’s resignation as social mobility czar: employ a GOAT at your peril. A ‘GOAT’  – the acronym derives from Gordon Brown’s phrase ‘Government Of All Talents – is a figure appointed to a government job, either as a minister or an adviser, even though he or she has a political persuasion. Presumably, what was going through David Cameron’s mind in 2012 when he appointed Milburn to the job driving Tory social mobility policy was that it would make his government look broad-minded and caring. That was, after all, what Cameron was all about – he was above all else

Ed West

All conservatives should support Michael Gove’s green crusade

‘The sea is in my blood. My father made his living as a fish merchant, as did his father before him. Generations of Goves have gone to sea, harvested its riches and fed families with the healthiest — and most renewable — resource on the planet, our fish.’ So begins Michael Gove’s passionate call to arms, inspired by Blue Planet II, to save the oceans from mankind. Gove is one of the most intellectually original people in politics, and a very likeable man. But if British politics is a box set series, he also has the best character arc of any politician – like Jaime Lannister after he loses his hand

Are companies that buy back their own shares manipulating the market?

Last week’s white paper on industrial strategy put forward a few useful ideas but ignores the main structural problem we face: the ‘financialisation’ of the economy. At a time when we urgently need to invest to raise productivity, PLCs have been putting over half their profits into buying back their own shares. This practice used to be against the law. Under common law it was treated as a kind of market manipulation. Company law, including the 2006 Companies Act, still has some hallmarks of this assumption but a radical change was made in the Companies Act of 1981. Before that, British companies were not permitted to purchase their own shares. Reliable estimates