The U.K. is proposing a new plan to kick-start stalled Brexit talks and make progress on the vexed issue of the Irish border as negotiations resume in Brussels this week. Brexit Secretary David Davis said he wanted to “move quickly” when talks restart Wednesday in order to reach a solution to avoid a hard land border with Ireland once the U.K. withdraws from the bloc. Prime Minister Theresa May’s team of negotiators have drafted a new template for how the U.K. and the EU should work together on Britain’s two favored options for addressing the border question, according to a person familiar with the matter. Any solution will also aim to bridge the divide between warring factions in May’s cabinet. “We’ve put forward proposals on the future and look forward to making progress this week,” Davis said Monday on Twitter. “Our solutions must respect the EU single market and the integrity of the U.K.” Why Ireland’s Border Is Brexit’s Intractable Puzzle: QuickTake Speaking close to the Irish border Monday, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier promised to work “day and night” for a solution in the weeks leading up to the June summit of EU leaders. Davis said he agreed with Barnier on the “need to move quickly in discussions’’ and the “importance of a workable backstop.” The U.K.’s preferred solution -- known as Option A -- is to use a sweeping new free-trade agreement and customs deal with the EU to avoid the need for tariffs and goods checks at the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. If this can’t be agreed in time, Option B would be to use technological solutions and “trusted trader” schemes to minimize checks on goods at the border, under the British plan. Two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named, said the U.K.’s new plan involved working on options A and B together, a move which could help end the deadlock for May in London as she seeks domestic support for her negotiating stance. Parts of Option B could enhance Option A, according to the plan. Backstop or Plan AThe EU insists there must be a “backstop” in case the U.K.’s plans don’t work -- and EU officials in private say they expect the backstop will end up being used as they don’t think options A or B are feasible. May has previously said she wants to keep the whole U.K. aligned with all those EU customs and single market rules that would help avoid a border infrastructure, as a “backstop” option. The EU has rejected this, saying any solution must only apply to Northern Ireland, and that the backstop should see the region remain part of the EU’s customs zone. May, in turn, has explicitly rejected that outcome, warning it would effectively result in a new goods border in the Irish Sea, splitting Northern Ireland from the British mainland, and undermining the country’s constitution. Read more: May Loses Ally at Critical Time for Brexit With Cabinet Divided This week’s talks come at a delicate time for May’s government, which is engulfed in a controversy over targets for removing immigrants. Amber Rudd quit as home secretary Sunday night after two weeks of pressure over the issue, exposing her predecessor in the role -- Prime Minister May -- to more scrutiny over her record. There are concerns on the EU side that the furor, and local elections Thursday, are distracting May’s team from focusing on making progress on Brexit, according to a diplomat familiar with the European side of the talks. The diplomat said the U.K. is working up a more detailed version of a close customs deal to avoid the need for frontier checks, but no firm offer has yet been proposed. May’s top team of cabinet ministers -- including Rudd’s replacement, Sajid Javid -- will meet Wednesday to discuss which of the customs options the U.K. should choose. May is said to favor a close customs partnership, which she sees as fitting with Option A for the Irish border, but Brexit supporting ministers including Davis, Trade Secretary Liam Fox, and Environment Secretary Michael Gove are said to believe it won’t work. These officials want May to adopt a looser overall U.K.-EU customs arrangement, aligned with Option B, which would involve minimizing border checks through the smart use of technology.
0 Comments
The lone non-Asian trade minister at last week’s Southeast Asian leaders’ summit in Singapore, U.K. Trade Minister Greg Hands had plenty of room to make the case that Brexit won’t interfere with his country’s ambitious plans in the region. As it scrambles to roll over some 40 European Union trade deals into individual agreements with the U.K., London has its eyes on plenty of additional negotiations. Growth-blessed Southeast Asia, with which it traded 32 billion pounds’ ($44 billion) worth of goods and services in 2016, is a priority. “It’s really important, particularly in the Brexit context, to see that Britain is remaining the same outward-looking, engaged country as it always has been,” Hands said in an interview Sunday in Singapore. “There’s a lot more we could be doing – our trade with, say, Indonesia is quite low.” The U.K. already has ramped up resources to boost its trade with Southeast Asia. Fresh intellectual property attachés in major capitals are adding to the 90 U.K. officials dedicated to trade in the region, said Hands. Fellow Tory MP Ed Vaizey was recently appointed as a trade envoy to the region, with particular focus on Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Hands’s meetings on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders’ summit included talks with Koh Poh Koon, Singapore’s senior minister of state for trade and industry, as well as Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita. He also met with trade representatives from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, while warning that “obviously we cannot conduct trade entirely independently of politics and humanitarian crises,” referring to the possibility that the ongoing Rohingya crisis in Myanmar could imperil burgeoning trade prospects. The Asean leaders’ meetings, following the finance ministers’ gathering earlier this month, represented another occasion for the region to emphasize its staunch pro-free trade position. “More and more countries are feeling that we need to be advocates for trade,” said Hands. “If countries like the U.K. and Singapore aren’t making the case for trade, then we really would be in trouble.” At the same time, Hands said he doesn’t think a “trade war” is brewing between the U.S. and China. “Obviously there are a number of trade disputes around the world, as there always are,” he said. “I think we’re concerned about the position of trade around the world, but I wouldn’t use language like that.” Hands was also tasked with doing his best to convince trade partners in the region that Brexit won’t alter the U.K.’s existing trade arrangements with Asean economies, or impede negotiations for new deals. Some U.K. lawmakers have been skeptical that Prime Minister Theresa May’s government will be able to transition those E.U. deals when the Brexit negotiation period begins in March 2019, with any new agreements effective from the start of 2021. Two of those E.U. agreements are with Singapore and Vietnam. Brexit is helping to drive big year for U.K. mergers. Dealmaking by U.K. companies such as J Sainsbury Plc, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Sky Plc is poised to hit a record this year amid a surge in foreign takeover interest and domestic consolidation as local businesses brace for Brexit. Acquisitions involving British firms have soared to more than $275 billion this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, helping power an acceleration in global deals. Sainsbury’s pact Monday to acquire smaller grocery chain Asda Group Ltd. capped a hectic four months that saw a Japanese drugmaker pursue biotech Shire Plc, while aerospace and defense contractor GKN Plc succumbed to a hostile takeover and Britain’s largest pay-TV company Sky juggled multiple suitors. “We continue to see wide-ranging interest in M&A across different sectors of the U.K. market and expect activity to continue to be strong through the rest of the year,” said Ian Hart, co-chairman of U.K. investment banking at UBS AG. “It could make 2018 a record year.” This year’s flurry of deals reflects local companies’ efforts to bolster defenses before the U.K. exits the European Union, advisers say. It also illustrates that their concerns about long-term economic prospects are abating after a transition deal was struck last month. Volatility in equity markets has also helped dampen expectations around asset prices that had ballooned following years of access to cheap credit. Meanwhile, U.S. acquirers -- particularly ones with lots of cash overseas -- are showing confidence to buy following last year’s tax reforms. EU FootholdU.K. companies concerned about growth and business prospects in post-Brexit Europe are taking steps to get a foothold in the EU, according to Tom Whelan, global head of private equity at the law firm Hogan Lovells LLP. Some are doing that by striking deals on the continent. London-listed power generator ContourGlobal Plc agreed to buy five solar thermal plants in Spain from Acciona SA for $1.4 billion in February. A month earlier, DCC Plc said it would purchase an LPG and refrigerant gas distribution business in Germany from Linde AG. “If the wave of optimism from U.K. businesses feeling bullish about global growth continues, then we should see this translate into greater deal volume for the rest of this year,” Whelan said. M&A is a tested tool for driving returns for companies struggling to grow by selling more goods and services, said Henry Stewart, head of U.K. investment banking with Morgan Stanley, the No. 1. adviser in U.K. mergers so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Cheap FinancingBoards also want to do deals that make sense now before the era of historically cheap financing ends, Stewart said. His colleagues across the Atlantic have been busy too. U.S. M&A is off to an energetic year after concerns about tax reform and regulatory changes made for a rocky 2017. To read more on the global M&A deals push, click on this link. U.S. companies so far this year have been involved in deals totaling nearly $700 billion, or about one-fourth more than a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Eleven companies have announced deals worth at least $10 billion, including T-Mobile U.S. Inc.’s $26.5 billion combination with Sprint Corp. and Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s $23.3 billion acquisition of refiner Andeavor on Monday. The best year for dealmaking in the U.K. since the 2008 financial crisis was 2015, when companies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland announced about $570 billion in transactions, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Activity for the rest of this year will hinge on companies’ access to new growth opportunities, asset values and changes in the competitive environment, according to Hart, the banker with UBS. (The combined total of U.S. deals was corrected in an earlier version of this story.) — With assistance by Matthew Monks Peers have voted to give Parliament a potentially decisive say over the outcome of Brexit talks. An amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill giving MPs the power to stop the UK from leaving without a deal or to make Theresa May return to negotiations was approved by 335 votes to 244. Its supporters said Parliament, not ministers, must "determine the future of the country". The government will now try to persuade MPs to strike out the change. Ministers said giving Parliament such a power risked "weakening" the UK's hand in negotiations. But Labour said the vote marked a "hugely significant moment" in the fight to ensure Parliament has a "proper role" in the Brexit negotiations and a no-deal situation was avoided. The UK is due to leave the European Union on 29 March 2019. Both sides hope to negotiate the UK's withdrawal agreement by this October in order to give the UK and European Parliaments enough time to debate and vote on it before the moment of departure. Analysis by the BBC's Alex ForsythSo far, the government has framed Parliament's vote on a final Brexit deal as a stark choice; take it or leave it. The implication - if MPs reject whatever terms are negotiated - the UK would leave the EU without a deal on future relations. But this amendment agreed by the House of Lords could prevent that, by giving Parliament the power to decide what happens if MPs turn down the final agreement. The result will embolden those pushing for a greater role for Parliament in the process. The bill will return to the Commons before anything is finalised - and with some Tory peers again proving their readiness to defy their party vote with the opposition, the question is how many Conservative MPs are prepared to do the same. The government, which does not have a majority in the Lords, has already lost a number of votes on its main Brexit legislation. MPs have already defeated the government once on the issue of a meaningful vote and the issue will now return to the Commons for it to be decided once and for all. The amendment proposed by Conservative Viscount Hailsham would allow Parliament to determine the government's course of action if MPs rejected the deal or if the UK and EU were not able to reach an agreement of any kind. It would also give Parliament control of the process if the legislation enshrining the withdrawal treaty promised by ministers was not approved by 29 March 2019. Please upgrade your browser Your guide to Brexit jargonThe peer, who as Douglas Hogg was an MP for many years, told the House of Lords the principle of parliamentary sovereignty was "fundamental to our liberties and must not be betrayed" when it came to Brexit. "Whatever our party affiliation, our duty as parliamentarians is to our country and our conscience," he said. But former Conservative leader Lord Howard said the idea of effectively giving Parliament a veto over Brexit - which the public voted for in a 2016 referendum - was "fundamentally misconceived". "I'm afraid it reveals the appalling lengths to which the die-hard Remainers are prepared to go to achieve their aims," he said. During the debate, government spokesman Lord Callanan said Parliament's vote would be binding and if it did reject the deal, the Article 50 process - determining the timetable for leaving - would "kick in" and the UK would leave. Speaking afterwards, he said ministers would consider the implications of the vote. "What this amendment would do is weaken the UK's hand in our negotiations with the EU by giving Parliament unprecedented powers to instruct the government to do anything with regard to the negotiations - including trying to keep the UK in the EU indefinitely." In December, MPs voted in favour of a legal right to have their say on the withdrawal deal. Last week Brexit Secretary David Davis said the motion to be considered by MPs on the final deal would be amendable - raising the prospect of MPs having greater influence over the process. Read again Brexit: Government defeat in Lords over terms of meaningful vote : https://ift.tt/2HEkIA9LONDON — The British government faced pressure over Brexit at home and abroad Monday, including a defeat in Parliament over who gets the final say on an exit deal with the European Union. By 335 votes to 244, the House of Lords backed an amendment to the government's key Brexit bill to give Parliament decision-making power on the outcome of negotiations with the EU — including the power to call off the divorce. The government said it was disappointed. Brexit Minister Martin Callanan said the decision would "weaken the U.K.'s hand in our negotiations with the EU by giving Parliament unprecedented powers." It's not clear whether the amendment will be approved by lawmakers when the bill goes back to the elected House of Commons. Meanwhile the EU's chief negotiator urged faster action on the fraught problem of the Irish border, saying there needs to be agreement by June on a way to keep it barrier-free after Brexit. The Northern Ireland-Ireland border will be the U.K.'s only land frontier with the EU after Brexit. Britain and the bloc agree there must be no customs posts or other infrastructure along the currently all-but-invisible 310-mile (500-kilometer) border. But Britain also says it will leave the EU's tariff-free customs union. Officials from the two sides are trying to find a way to reconcile the two positions. Britain rejects the EU's suggestion, which is to keep Northern Ireland inside the bloc's customs union. The EU says the U.K. has yet to propose a workable alternative. On a visit to the border region, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said "we need to agree rapidly by June on the scope of all-island customs and regulations, the safety and controls that we need to respect the single market." Britain and the EU want to strike an overall Brexit agreement by October, so EU parliaments have time to ratify it before Britain leaves the bloc on March 29, 2019. Read again UK government suffers Brexit defeat in House of Lords : https://ift.tt/2w3U3vmThere can be no Brexit withdrawal agreement without a "backstop" option for the Irish border, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator has said. Michel Barnier said the Republic of Ireland has the full support of all EU member states and all EU institutions. The backstop would involve NI, or the UK as a whole, aligning with the EU rules required to support North-South cooperation and an all-island economy. Mr Barnier was speaking at the start of a two-day visit to Ireland. The UK has accepted the need for a backstop to be written into the Brexit withdrawal agreement. But it has not agreed what EU rules it should cover. At the beginning of the all-island Brexit forum in Dundalk, County Louth, Mr Barnier said he knows that the so-called backstop has been the subject of "heated discussions in the UK". "To be clear: without a backstop, there can be no withdrawal agreement," said Mr Barnier. "This is an EU issue, not only an Irish issue." Analysis: Jayne McCormack, BBC News NI political reporter, in DundalkIt almost became Brexit bingo - as journalists lost count of how many times Mr Barnier referenced the "backstop" option for the Irish border. The backstop would mean that in the absence of any other solution, Northern Ireland, or the UK as a whole, would align with EU rules required to support north-south cooperation and an all-island economy. While in principle the UK signed up to this option, precise detail on it has yet to appear. Mr Barnier's three points were:
In brief - the backstop was agreed - so let's get on with it. Mr Barnier also denied claims from Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), that he has been "aggressive" towards Northern Ireland unionists in the Brexit talks. The DUP leader said earlier that Mr Barnier did not understand the dispute and was not an "honest broker". In response, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator said he was not ready to engage in "polemics" with Mrs Foster. Mr Barnier's visit comes amid rising tensions over the future UK-Ireland border. He told a press conference in Dundalk at the beginning of the all-island Brexit forum that his "door is open" to Mrs Foster and the DUP. He said he had not approached the negotiations in a "spirit of revenge". He added that he regretted the UK had voted to leave the EU, and said he was determined to work with the UK to find a solution to the Irish border issue. The all-island Brexit forum is being hosted by the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar and his deputy, Simon Coveney. Broker or negotiator?On Sunday, Mr Barnier said the UK was contradicting itself over its Irish border policy. But Mrs Foster said she believes Mr Barnier does not understand the dispute and is "not an honest broker". In return, he said that Mrs Foster needed to respect that his role was to negotiate on behalf of the EU and not to act as a mediator. Meanwhile the Taoiseach again there needed to be "meaningful progress" on the border issue by the June EU summit. Mr Varadkar said otherwise it would be difficult to get the withdrawal agreement in place by October. In December, the UK and EU reached a political agreement in which the UK committed to protecting north-south cooperation on the island of Ireland. It also guaranteed there would be no hard border, including physical infrastructure or related checks and controls. However, the EU's proposed backstop solution to avoid a hard border - keeping Northern Ireland in the customs union after Brexit - continues to be at odds with what the UK government and the DUP say they would accept. Mrs Foster told BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg the DUP would not accept Northern Ireland being treated differently to the rest of the UK. She said: "Michel Barnier's trying to present himself as someone who cares deeply about Northern Ireland and if that is the case he needs to hear the fact that we are part of the United Kingdom [and] will remain part of the United Kingdom constitutionally, politically and economically. "Therefore his proposal of us being in an all-Ireland regulatory scenario with a border down the Irish Sea simply does not work. "It does not work constitutionally, politically and it certainly does not work from an economic perspective." Mrs Foster added: "We've tried to get him to understand the unionist position for the people of Northern Ireland but he hasn't really responded and I'm disappointed about that. "I don't think he does understand the wider unionist culture of Northern Ireland." The DUP is also expressing annoyance that Mr Varadkar is visiting Northern Ireland later without giving notice. Mr Barnier is due to meet Mr Varadkar on Monday and will also speak to business leaders on both sides of the Irish border during his trip. Read again Barnier warns of no Brexit deal without border backstop : https://ift.tt/2radNHQThe U.K.’s upper house sought to make it harder for Prime Minister Theresa May to take Britain out of the European Union without a deal by defeating her for a seventh time over the government’s flagship Brexit legislation. The House of Lords voted 335 to 244 in favor of an amendment to the government’s European Union (Withdrawal) Bill to give Parliament a vote before May can walk away from negotiations with the EU without a deal. It was sponsored by peers across the political spectrum: former Conservative Cabinet minister Douglas Hogg, Labour’s Dianne Hayter, William Wallace of the Liberal Democrats, and David Hannay, an independent. “Whatever the outcome, terms, or no terms, this country’s future should be determined by Parliament, ultimately by the House of Commons, and not by ministers,” Hogg told peers on Monday. The defeat is yet another headache for May, coming less than 24 hours after Home Secretary Amber Rudd resigned for “inadvertently” misleading lawmakers over immigration targets -- depriving the prime minister of a key ally on Brexit. Brexit Minister Martin Callanan told the Lords that the “true motivations” of many of the amendment’s supporters was “thwarting Brexit.” ‘Perverse’“This amendment will bolster those who wish not to secure the best deal with the EU, but rather who wish to frustrate Brexit altogether,” he said. “It would create a perverse negotiating incentive for the EU to string out negotiations for as long as possible. It is not in the U.K.’s interest to hand the EU negotiators a ticking clock and the hope that the more they delay, the more they can undermine the position of the U.K. government.” Monday’s amendment builds on one put forward in the House of Commons by former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, May’s sole defeat on the legislation so far in the lower chamber. ‘Rebel Commander’ Grieve’s Case for Second Referendum on Brexit A dozen Tory lawmakers -- dubbed “mutineers” by the pro-Brexit press -- rebelled on that vote, showing there may be appetite in the lower chamber to support the Lords amendment as well. “We and others seek to ensure our country’s future should be determined by Parliament,” Hayter, Hannay and Wallace wrote in the Independent newspaper on Monday. “It seems extraordinary that we should even have to argue that case. Even more so that we should be called mutineers or saboteurs for upholding democratic principles.” No ProtectionLeaving the EU without a deal would mean no protection for U.K. citizens living in the bloc, no rights for EU citizens living in Britain, a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and “immediate customs duties on the flow of goods,” the three peers wrote in the Independent. “Any such outcome must be taken by Parliament, not just ministers.” Hogg went even further, saying that without Monday’s amendment, “Parliament will not have a genuine, meaningful vote” on the Brexit deal. He argued that Parliament should be able to vote on whether to leave the EU on May’s terms, and if it rejected them, there would be three options: instruct her to renegotiate a new deal, choose to stay in the bloc on current terms, or leave the EU without a deal. As with May’s previous defeats in the upper chamber, the amendment can be overturned when the bill returns to the House of Commons at a date yet to be specified. The earlier amendments include:
Monday’s session was the fourth of six in the House of Lords on May’s Brexit bill, with further debates on May 2 and May 8. Hayter has said she can also envisage defeats for the government on Northern Ireland and removing the government’s fixed Brexit day of March 29, 2019 to give added flexibility. Read again UK Lords Defeat May on Brexit, Making 'No Deal' Less Likely : https://ift.tt/2I62oUcLONDON — The British government faced pressure over Brexit at home and abroad Monday, including a defeat in Parliament over who gets the final say on an exit deal with the European Union. By 335 votes to 244, the House of Lords backed an amendment to the government’s key Brexit bill to give Parliament decision-making power on the outcome of negotiations with the EU — including the power to call off the divorce. The government said it was disappointed. Brexit Minister Martin Callanan said the decision would “weaken the U.K.’s hand in our negotiations with the EU by giving Parliament unprecedented powers.” It’s not clear whether the amendment will be approved by lawmakers when the bill goes back to the elected House of Commons. Meanwhile the EU’s chief negotiator urged faster action on the fraught problem of the Irish border, saying there needs to be agreement by June on a way to keep it barrier-free after Brexit. The Northern Ireland-Ireland border will be the U.K.’s only land frontier with the EU after Brexit. Britain and the bloc agree there must be no customs posts or other infrastructure along the currently all-but-invisible 310-mile (500-kilometer) border. But Britain also says it will leave the EU’s tariff-free customs union. Officials from the two sides are trying to find a way to reconcile the two positions. Britain rejects the EU’s suggestion, which is to keep Northern Ireland inside the bloc’s customs union. The EU says the U.K. has yet to propose a workable alternative. On a visit to the border region, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said “we need to agree rapidly by June on the scope of all-island customs and regulations, the safety and controls that we need to respect the single market.” Britain and the EU want to strike an overall Brexit agreement by October, so EU parliaments have time to ratify it before Britain leaves the bloc on March 29, 2019. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read again UK government suffers Brexit defeat in House of Lords : https://ift.tt/2KlZicG[unable to retrieve full-text content] What does Sajid Javid’s appointment as Home Secretary mean for the UK government’s approach to Brexit? After the overnight drama following Amber Rudd’s resignation, the implications are front and centre of discussion at Westminster. The trigger for Ms Rudd’s departure was, of course, her failure to deal effectively with the Windrush scandal. But her resignation comes at another critical moment in the Brexit saga and could have an impact on the direction of events. Here are four questions raised by the change at the Home Office. First, does Mr Javid’s appointment shift the balance in the Brexit subcommittee between Leavers and Remainers? Mrs May’s ministerial committee on Brexit is split 5-5 between pro-Europeans and hard Brexiters, with Mrs May holding a casting vote. Ms Rudd was one of the most committed Remainers in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Although Mr Javid was also pro-Remain, he is a much less enthusiastic pro-European than his predecessor. For now, it is hard to see Mr Javid’s appointment changing the balance in the committee much. An important early test will come on Wednesday, when Mrs May is determined to get her committee to back her “customs partnership” proposal — one drawn up by her top civil servants but intensely disliked by hard Brexiters, including those in cabinet. This is the next big Brexit “moment”. What does Mr Javid’s appointment mean for the government’s policy on migration from the EU? Although Amber Rudd has set out most of the details on “settled status” for the 3.2m EU expats in the UK, no decisions have yet been taken on future immigration policy. This delay has been widely criticised and it may well fall to Mr Javid to set out the plans later this year. The key question is whether EU migrants will get preferential access to the UK over and above those from non-EU states. Mr Javid has said little on the topic. But he is expected to demonstrate a reasonably liberal approach to immigration, not least because of its net economic benefits. As communities secretary, he notably said any new immigration system for EU workers such as “work visas” would be designed to ensure that “the building sector has got whatever it needs to reach my ambition” of building 1m homes by 2020. Will Amber Rudd join pro-Europeans on the Conservative backbenches? The Commons is heading for a series of crucial votes on the customs union and on the final deal that Mrs May brings back from Brussels. If Ms Rudd were to lend her support to pro-European MPs like Anna Soubry and Dominic Grieve, that could be a significant development. However, Ms Rudd may find it hard to criticise government policy, having been at the centre of Brexit decision-making for so long. Other pro-Europeans who have left the cabinet, Damian Green and Justine Greening, have been notably quiet. And Ms Rudd may be calculating how to make a comeback. Final question: has this politically damaged Mrs May? The prime minister is under fire for having been the true author of the “hostile environment” policy that led to the Windrush debacle. Now that Ms Rudd has gone, opposition attacks on the PM herself could intensify. Mrs May will almost certainly survive in post until after the UK leaves the EU in March 2019. But damage to her leadership over the Windrush debacle comes at an unfortunate moment — just as she is about to confront the hard Brexiters over her plans to implement a “customs partnership”. Further readingLabour exit bill proposal will not give Brits the Brexit they deserve“Those who want to overturn the result of the Referendum have been calling for a ‘no Brexit option’ for months, and this amendment would grant it to them. This is not what the British people want, and it is not something that we can accept.” (Brexit secretary David Davis, in The Sun) Leaving Spaceship Europe: British space policy after Brexit“Britain’s commercial, industrial, and scientific success is threatened by Brexit: 50% of satellite exports go into the single market, and construction costs are kept low because of the tariff-free trade to import and export components among the EU’s space industry which is dotted across the continent.” (Bleddyn Bowen, Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Leicester, on the LSE politics blog) Divided but influential? The Exiting the EU select committee“Divisions may be damaging, but it does not necessarily follow that the committee is ineffective. Previous research on select committee influence shows how it varies from government implementation of committee recommendations, to drawing attention to issues, acting as a source of evidence, and holding ministers to account.” (Philip Lynch, Associate Professor of Politics at the University of Leicester and Richard Whitaker, Associate Professor of European Politics at the University of Leicester, on The UK in a Changing Europe) H(ans)ard numbersMany more people continue to agree rather than disagree that referendums should be used more often to determine important questions: 58 per cent to 36 per cent, according to the Hansard Society’s latest Audit of Political Engagement: “As Figure 6 shows, the number of people supporting more referendums has fallen again this year but only by three points, while the number opposing more referendums barely moved, rising by just one point. After the number supporting greater use of referendums fell by 15 points last year, in the immediate aftermath of the EU vote, this year’s result suggests some stabilisation in this indicator. This might in turn suggest that people are not engaging in any longer-term reflection on the 2016 referendum that is significantly altering their attitudes." Read again Brexit and the change at the Home Office : https://ift.tt/2HZkVkS |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2018
Categories |