Time until Theresa May triggers Article 50 (announced it will be 29th March – we think it is to be 1130 BST / 1230 CET) Time until the UK crashes out of the European Union Time since polls closed in the UK’s EU Referendum ...
Theresa May
This week in the FT (€), Philip Stevens recalled the EU negotiation advice of Douglas Hurd, the UK’s Foreign Secretary under John Major. There is more to be gained from conciliation than from shouting argued Hurd, a sentiment I echo after years observing EU business. Yet this week something akin...
Sod all this cheery coming together lark. I admire Ian Dunt for trying it, but ultimately I do not think it is going to work, not least – as Richard Elwes elegantly points out – so many Remain people rightly feel what happened prior to the referendum was a swindle....
Various varieties of Brexit crop up in the British media, but it has all started to get a bit unmanageable. So here, as a sort of summary, are twenty varieties of Brexit! Soft Brexit One of the two original varieties of Brexit, Soft Brexit means the UK would leave the EU...
The amusing film of Theresa May at last week’s European Council looking rather confused and isolated drew the predictable reactions – Brexiteers saw it as the EU bullying the UK, while Remain people saw it as a symbol of Britain’s choice to isolate itself. For me the thing that was...
My first reaction to the Trump-Farage pictures last night was to be repulsed, not least because the group picture also shows Arron Banks and Raheem Kassam there with him – a nastier threesome in British politics would be harder to find. My second reaction was to think the opulent background,...
I’ve recently been pondering what happens next in Britain’s attempt to Brexit. The summer, when Theresa May looked like she had most things in hand, is now very much behind us. But at the time of writing we are still no clearer what sort of Brexit the UK government wants,...
When, in a couple of years, we look back at the car crash that was the Brexit referendum and its aftermath, 4th September 2016 ought to stand out as the day when the post-referendum problems really started. Theresa May, we better not forget, had a relatively calm summer. The Tories...
This is a sequel to the post “12 ways to make it look like Brexit has happened“ So my tongue in cheek post about ways to make it look like Brexit has happened turned out to be a huge success. Newspapers Tabloids have even repeated some of the ideas! But...
This blog entry is going to be like a red rag to a bull to some people. The focus, as readers who persevere beyond this first paragraph will see, is on the practicalities of why Brexit will not happen, not on whether Brexit is right or wrong, or what sort...
It has just been announced that Prime Minister May has appointed Boris Johnson as Foreign Minister. Reactions are not positive – see Mike Smithson, Gareth Harding, David Rennie, Antonia Mochan, Jeremy Cliffe. And I agree it’s going to look awful and indeed be awful. Johnson was already a laughing stock...
Whether (and indeed how) Scotland would remain in the EU if it became an independent state has been an issue that has risen up the political agenda over the past few months. Theresa May has weighed into the debate today, stating that border controls would have to be imposed between...