The never-ending mystery of Theresa May’s leaving date just keeps on trucking. There’s still no definite date but maybe a ‘timetable’ of departure if and when something happens down the road. Not that any of the alternatives are exactly enticing – Boris, Corbyn, Farage – all too depressing to contemplate. The cross-party talks with Corbyn … Read more
Keir Starmer, the UK Opposition spokesman for Brexit, comes across as a steady pair of hands. He was formerly a defence lawyer with an interest in human rights and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service. He only became an MP in 2014 and declined to stand in the leadership contest because of his … Read more
In the faint hope of finding a nugget of helpful info in the carnage of Brexit – Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, definitely a soft Brexiteer (if it happens at all) is looking decidedly agitated from mid this month and more so in the first three weeks of May with tr Uranus square his … Read more
Theresa May has her fans who see her as diligent, earnest, dutiful and straight, landed by fate with a poisoned conundrum that no one could have been expected to solve. There again there are those who reckon she’s part of the problem, indeed in the words of one despairing minister the “sole architect” … Read more
A blast from the past has reappeared to add a much-needed dash of comedy to the Brexit fiasco. Uri Geller, psychic and spoon bender, has promised to stop the process telepathically since he intuited that most Brits were against it. His track record is a touch spotty when it comes to claims of … Read more
The Good Friday Agreement which lies at the heart of the Irish backstop problem was the peace agreement between the British and Irish governments, and most of the political parties in Northern Ireland, on how Northern Ireland should be governed; and relations between the North and the South and the British government. It guaranteed an … Read more
John Bercow, Speaker of the House, threw a spanner into the Brexit works yesterday by denying a further (third) vote on Theresa May’s deal unless it was substantially different from the previous one. Which seems reasonable since it’s been heavily defeated twice but his action has raised an almighty furore. And this despite … Read more
The first three defectors from the Tory Party – Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen, Sarah Wollaston – timed their exit for maximum impact on Theresa May just before PMQ and (yet another) Brussels visit. Soubry was trenchant in her criticism of Theresa May and her handling of Brexit. “I think she is in … Read more
A breakaway group of 7 MPs have abandoned the Labour Party because of concerns over Corbyn’s handling of Brexit, far-left bullying and anti-Semitism. They have set themselves up as an independent group with Chuka Umunna saying that the old, tribal politics were broken and inviting others across party lines to join them. He … Read more
An astro-quickie on Olly Robbins, Theresa May’s favourite civil servant, who’s been spearheading the Brexit negotiations in Brussels. In an extraordinary lapse of judgement (or was it?) he gossiped about the UK government’s strategy over a late-night drink in a bar earlier this week and was overheard by the ITV journalist Angus Walker. … Read more