The debate about ‘levelling up’ prompts this summary of the Johnson government. The Johnson government excels at ‘sloganeering populism’: ‘Get Brexit Done’, ‘Global Britain’, ‘Freedom Day’… and now ‘Levelling up’. The rhetoric projects energy and is meant to show a governmentt devoted to ‘the people’s priorities’. Behind the rhetoric, one might hope for some substance, […]
It was all so predictable. Ending the free movement of UK and EU citizens and making the UK a less welcoming place for EU nationals was always going to lead to labour shortages in key sectors. Government were warned repeatedly but didn’t listen; or perhaps just didn’t care. They can’t avoid it now. One of […]
Whatever the result of the final of the Euros, Gareth Southgate has already won. To rise to the heights of playing for England, only to miss that penalty against Germany in the EUFA Euro 1996 semi-final, but to then pick himself up, continue to play for his country for a further 8 years, until becoming […]
I’m going to repeat the boiled frog analogy (in which no frogs will be harmed…unlike us and our democracy). The unfortunate creature (metaphorically-speaking) is in a pan of cold water which is slowly, slowly being heated up. The frog adjusts his tolerance levels as the water changes from a pleasant coolness to a mildly uncomfortable […]
Ed: We were sent this glorious piece unsolicited and loved it. The author stresses that any resemblance to current affairs in the UK is purely coincidental…! Some years ago I joined a club. (It doesn’t matter what kind of club it was because the following statements are more or less valid for all clubs.) I […]
The Brexit Show reaches its fifth birthday Why the Spanish are so pro-EU My Spanish friends and acquaintances, all Anglophiles, have watched bemused and befuddled as the UK has shot itself in the foot in what many have called ‘an act of national suicide’. Hardly surprising that the Spanish are so puzzled by Brexit, Spain […]
I’m supposed to be on a Twitter break this summer; but every weekend I check to see what the big stories are and I am constantly surprised by how relentless the sheer incompetence, gob-smacking corruption and cavalier wrongdoing of our government is. ‘Flooding the zone’ (with bullsh*t) is a well-known Trumpian tactic to wear down […]
Our prime minister is a national embarrassment – on a daily basis – but, today, he has surpassed himself. He is at Chequers for meetings with Angela Merkel and he is so convinced by his own Brexit myth-making, so sure that he can make lies truth just by repeating them, so ideologically-embedded in his Brexit […]
Baroness Thatcher would have been appalled. She would want to know why a Tory government, yes a Tory government of self-proclaimed free marketeers, was writing out a blank cheque in the name of the UK taxpayer to give to a successful, profitable Nippon car company and a Chinese Communist Party-owned firm. My politics are centre […]
Somerset residents have been warned by Somerset Waste Partnership that continued staff shortages will mean delays and interruptions to rubbish collection services across the county. The contractor, Suez, is struggling to cope with a lack of staff to drive their bin lorries and has called on people to be patient while they attempt to recruit […]
Jane Stevenson explains how you can help prevent vulnerable EU citizens losing their rights at the end of June by putting pressure on your MP.At midnight, on Wednesday 30 June, over 100,000 EU citizens in the UK will become illegal citizens in their own homes because they have not yet applied for settled status. Many […]
The Labour Party has launched a national consultation on policy which runs until 19 July. As one of those consulted, Eric Gates responds by switching the focus to the important issues the document omits rather than what it covers. Dear Sir Keir, You asked for my thoughts on a number of topics in the recent […]
“You jabber, we jab; you dither, we deliver; you vacillate, we vaccinate” . This was Johnson’s most recent well-rehearsed and grotesquely, offensively superficial response to a question about rape convictions in prime minister’s questions (but no answers…) on 23 June. The tactic has worked well for Johnson whom John Bercow recently described as having “a […]
One of the numerous benefits of being in the EU was the fact that you could move seamlessly from Britain to mainland Europe, and you would not pay any extra charges on your mobile phone beyond what you were already contracted to pay. Roaming charges on moving to another EU country had been abolished. Before […]
We are very pleased to be able to reproduce the Twitter thread from the UK Trade and Business Commission with their kind permission. The message was pretty clear: Brexit has been very damaging to a very valuable sector of our economy and to our soft power worldwide. It is also clear that the government appears […]
So, the official letter has arrived bearing the good news, I’ve crowed about it on Facebook and the champagne has been uncorked and drunk: I am now, at long last, joyfully, French. Yet in some ways this feels like a Pyrrhic victory, for which I can only summon two out of the three customary cheers. […]
You can help avert disaster! See below for what to say or write to your MP! It’s been dismissed as scaremongering by the Brexiters, but Brexit really does have the capacity to create a human tragedy that has been described as ‘Windrush on steroids‘. It has already ruined the mental and physical health, lives and […]
The In Limbo Project gathers and shares the heart-rending stories of people caught up in the Brexit crossfire. Here is one of their most recent testimonies, reproduced by kind permission. It epitomises the senseless, casual cruelty that is just one of Brexit’s toxic legacies. You can sign a petition asking givenment to extend the deadline […]
Join us on 13 July at 18:30 when we will be discussing ‘The Little Black Book of Data and Democracy’ with its author, Kyle Taylor. The event is free and whilst it would be best if you had read the short book before, it’s not a prerequisite. You’ll almost certainly want to read it afterwards! […]
In Amersham and Chesham, many who traditionally voted Conservative abandoned the party which has abandoned them and whose leadership, priorities and methods they view with increasing distaste. Instead, they voted for the party most likely to remove the Conservatives from a seat they had held since the constituency’s creation in 1974. In this instance, it […]
Blessed are the cheesemakers, for they will inherit Liz Truss’s vision of the earth. Trade secretary Liz Truss is famous for her obsession with cheese. Unfortunately this zeal does not translate into recognition of the damage done to the UK’s cheese businesses by Brexit. Instead, it manifests itself in maniacal enthusiasm for miniscule trade deals […]
Iain Duncan-Smith and TIGRR come up with some ludicrous and dangerous Tiggerish enthisiasms. Cynicism and vigilance required.
I was astonished to read today that the government is considering yet another Brexit-related backward step, this time on the “reintroduction” of the old imperial system. It’s not as if the old imperial measures have actually disappeared from this country – as one wag (James Felton) put it, he is fed up with having to […]
Johnson wrote an effusive letter to the Conservative party faithful on 15 June begging them to share the news of the Australia deal far and wide. He was no doubt trying desperately to distract from the Johnson/Delta variant Covid-19 failure which could cost thousands their lives and the revelation of institutional corruption in the Metropolitan […]
Cornwall for Europe, the pro Europe campaign group, have created a special message for world leaders as they arrive in Cornwall for the G7 summit. A huge banner has been put up on a barn at the end of the runway at Newquay Airport and they believe it will be in full view as the leaders land in Cornwall.
Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson has got himself in a muddle again. It is all very well Number 10 pretending that he only “became” Catholic — again — upon his marriage to Carrie at Westminster Cathedral on the last Saturday in May. That is not actually how it works. According to the Catholic Church, Johnson […]
Editor: There’s a saying “words are cheap” which appears to apply to almost every promise by this government. Today, Rebecca Pow, Conservative MP for Taunton Deane and environment minister, retweeted the latest Defra promise on water quality. This came in a week of bad news on the water quality front, with the UK bottom of […]
I was really upset to read a tweet from Byline Times‘ Peter Jukes saying that he had seen the vindictive side of remainers/rejoiners in their extreme and ugly reactions to Byline TV’s video on the farmers. I am as devastated and heartbroken about Brexit as any one, but that does not make me want to […]
It turns out that the first catastrophic error that Johnson made when it came to dealing with the pandemic actually took place within days of his moving in to Number 10, in July 2019. It’s a story worth remembering – of a government not even intending to be prepared. The National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) […]
Our government’s overuse of the word ‘opportunity’ in relation to Brexit is beginning to grate. At a recent meeting of the European Scrutiny Select Committee — for which a more accurate moniker would be the European Scathing Select Committee, given how dyspeptic, hostile and Brexity it is — the question of ‘opportunity’ in brave, new […]