Here we are, then, on the last day of the UK’s membership of the EU. We fought, we lost, and now we’ve got to live with the consequences. Which won’t really start to take effect until the start of next year, of course, because we’ll be in the transition period …
I’ve been feeling kind of sorry for Jo Swinson today. Also for myself, and the whole country, especially underprivileged people, people with disabilities, the young, the old, minorities, the marginalised… Anyone who’s going to suffer under the new regime. But Swinson lost her seat by just 149 votes, which must …
I don’t fully understand the rationale of the Lib Dems and SNP pushing for an election at this point. No-deal is still firmly on the table, it seems to me, and if the Tories get a big majority — or even just an actual majority — then we remainers are …
I hope everyone’s not petitioned out, because we need this: To establish a Public Inquiry into the conduct of the 2016 EU Referendum.
There will be a public enquiry about Brexit and how it was mishandled, eventually. But it could be years from now. Sooner is better.
It’s sad when even pro-European organisations get things wrong about us. Last week I signed up for, and tweeted about, a programme designed to encourage people to vote in the EU parliamentary elections: The European Parliament’s outreach team (or “institutional, non-partisan communication action”) is encouraging us to sign up at …
The other day I was explaining to my daughter why I thought a second referendum would be right and democratic. I reached for an analogy, and came up with the idea that you don’t (usually) do something as serious as deleting a file without getting a confirmation dialogue to confirm …
Parliament has again voted against May’s deal — the only one on offer. If, as is highly likely, they vote tomorrow against leaving the EU without a deal, doesn’t that leave only one option? The one we’re all hoping for: revoke the triggering of Article 50. Or at the very …
You could spend a lot of time wondering what makes Theresa May tick. She says she supported remain and voted to stay in the European Union. So her increasing fervour for Brexit has been one of the most confusing factors in British politics over the last two and a half …
Rafel Behr analyses our national condition:
It looks like British social awkwardness elevated to the scale of a constitutional meltdown. It is the stiff upper lip chewing itself to pieces rather than name the cause of our suffering: not the deal, not the backstop, not the timetable, not Brussels, but Brexit. The poison in our system is Brexit. We need a path to recovery, not May’s frantic hunt for a stronger, purer dose.
Suppose your family lives in a flat that’s rented from a housing association. And you have come to feel (rightly or wrongly) that it’s not a very nice flat, and that the association interferes too much. So you discuss it as a family, and you think about all the lovely houses out there that you could live in, and eventually you decide to leave. So far, so good.