Uk

The new president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen made a speech to the London School of Economics earlier today. During the speech, von der Leyen said: 'Without an extension of the transition period beyond 2020, you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership. We will have to prioritise.' You can listen to the speech and read the full transcript below: Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to be back here at the London School of Economics – a place which brings back so many happy memories for me. The year I spent here taught me so much – both in and out of LSE. As anyone who knew me at the time will tell you, I spent more time in Soho bars and Camden record stores than I did reading books in Senate House Library.

Maybe I should really give it a few more hours, but I can’t help noticing the lack of headlines this morning along the lines “UK economy growing faster than Eurozone”. Goodness knows we had enough headlines drawing attention to the opposite, when that was the case. There was the Guardian’s “Eurozone Grows Twice as Fast as UK after GDP Rises by 0.6 percent” from 1 August last year, the Independent’s “UK economic growth dwarfed again by Eurozone in third quarter” from 31 October last year, and the BBC’s “Eurozone Growing Faster than UK” from 2 May this year. But now that the economic boot is suddenly on the other foot – and none of these news outlets seem to want to draw attention to that fact.

A  ‘bill’ is not commonly subject to negotiation. It arrives after a customer has contracted for the purchase of goods or services, whose price — with the unique exception of American health care bills, which are more like muggings by gangs on mopeds — has been established in advance. For the average upstanding Briton, a bill is not a starting point, subject to haggling. It is something you pay. The Lisbon Treaty’s Article 50 makes no mention of paying financial liabilities in order to leave the EU. Once the post--referendum conversation turned immediately to the ‘divorce bill’, the May government’s big mistake from the off was bickering about its size. A better opening strategy would run not ‘How much?

Let us consider the case of the Ashers family bakery in Belfast which, in 2014, refused to make a cake. Or as some would have it, a ‘gay cake’, although that’s obviously ridiculous because all cakes are quite gay. This one, though, was requested by Gareth Lee, a local gay rights activist, who wanted it to have a picture of Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street on it, under the slogan ‘SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE’, as the centrepiece of an event organised to do just that. On the basis that they were devout Christians, however, the family running this family bakery refused. And so, sore affronted, Lee sued.

Great progress has been made in open data over the last few years, with most important facts and figures now available online. The quality of the UK economic debate has been enhanced by the creation of the Office for Budget Responsibility, which publishes forecasts in a non-tricksy way. The journalist is spoiled for choice. But, still, you don't tend to see such forecasts republished: the BBC doesn't share them and even the FT's 'economy at a glance' restricts itself to historic data – and static graphs, which you can't interrogate. At The Spectator, we've been using dynamic graphs for a while. Now, we're moving up to the next level using HighCharts, a more versatile Norwegian graph-making engine. The below graphs are part of it.

When world leaders met in Paris to launch the latest UN climate conference, much of the talk behind closed doors did not focus on global warming. Instead, the Paris conference has been overshadowed by more pressing and less contentious security concerns: the war in Syria, Europe’s refugee crisis and the growing threat of Islamist terrorism in the wake of the Paris massacre. The Copenhagen summit six years ago was a massive event; this year’s climate conference barely merits a mention of the front pages. The Paris meeting is not even attempting to achieve what the 2009 Copenhagen summit failed to do: reach a legally binding treaty on cutting CO2 emissions.

This weekend the masters of the universe will gather at the annual Bilderberg conference. The secretive summit, which is being held in Austria, sees heads of banks and company CEOs mix with political heavyweights including the former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, US pollster Jim Messina, George Osborne and... Ed Balls. No notes are taken, no media are invited to cover the event, and the outcome is never revealed which has led conspiracy theorists to go into overdrive. Theories range from plans for a New World Order to world domination by lizards.

The phrase ‘Britain will never be the same again’ is overused. But today its use is justified. The Smith Commission proposals on further devolution for Scotland are a huge step towards a federal United Kingdom. All income tax, with the exception of the personal allowance, will be devolved to Scotland—so north of the border there could be different bands and rates. With more devolution to Scotland, the West Lothian question becomes more acute. So, David Cameron has been quick to stress this morning that he will bring forward his proposals on English votes for English laws before Christmas. The fundamental question is whether this move to federalism will save or destroy the Union. On balance, I’m hopeful it will save it.