Monthly Archives: September 2022

Politics in Britain is again marching to strange rhythms. Officially, nothing much has been happening this month, because of an all-important period of national mourning. But in reality Whitehall has been busy, even frantic. The Treasury has been purged of its most senior civil servant and given a new, pro-growth mission. The latest emergency budget is being drawn up, thinly disguised as a fiscal event. And a new, potentially very risky government has been settling in. Yet another Conservative experiment on the country is being prepared, largely unscrutinised.

Much of our politics has had this simultaneously stuck and manic quality since at least the EU referendum. Brexit deadlocks and cliff edges, the pandemic, Tory leadership contests, the cost of living crisis, the invasion of Ukraine and now the Queens death each has accelerated or paralysed politics, making a mockery of the once common idea that British democracy is about steady progress.

These seemingly never-ending shocks and disruptions have in some ways been very challenging for a Tory government that increasingly lacks capable people. As well as the administrative headaches, orthodoxies about the size of the state, levels of taxation and the partys relationship with business have had to be reexamined, argued over and, at least temporarily, abandoned. Once promising Tory politicians such as Rishi Sunak have become casualties.

But in other less noticed ways, the chaotic rhythm of the past six years has helped the Tories. Never allow a good crisis to go to waste, President Barack Obamas chief of staff Rahm Emanuel famously told the New York Times in 2008. Its an opportunity to do the things you once thought were impossible. For the Conservatives, applying this principle used to mean using periods of turmoil to rethink their policies and how the party presented itself to the public, such as during the turbulent 1970s before Margaret Thatcher took power. In unstable times, the self-styled party of order would offer new ways to make the crisis stop.

Yet, since Brexit, the Tories approach has changed. Often, they hide behind crises, and use them to play for time. For months, Conservative ministers and MPs argued that the situation in Ukraine meant the world was too dangerous for the party to change its leader, however unsuited to that position Boris Johnson became.

At other times, the Tories tried to use Ukraine and the pandemic in a different way: to give the government qualities it lacked. In broadcasts and press conferences, Johnson sought to affect a Churchillian steadfastness and gravitas, and an almost apolitical, father of the nation persona opposite to the feckless, divisive person he is in reality. Crises also suit a modern Conservatism more comfortable with fiction than facts. When voters are frightened and looking for reassurance, big promises, fantasies and storytelling can resonate more, at least at first, than what a government is actually achieving.

And while a national crisis makes prime ministers more visible, especially to those crucial voters who dont usually follow politics, it can also make them less accountable. Like Johnson, Liz Truss avoids scrutiny where possible. During her long leadership campaign she did not give a single in-depth broadcast interview until the voting had finished. As prime minister, thanks to the suspension of parliament after the Queens death, she may not start facing regular Commons examinations until mid-October six weeks after taking over Downing Street.

For an unpolished new premier, who has so far given only short, rudimentary speeches while constantly looking down at her notes, this breathing space could be valuable. Meanwhile, the opposition parties will have fewer chances than usual to define and damage the government while it is still young and at its most vulnerable or at its most threatening, if voters grant it a honeymoon.

For Keir Starmer, who likes to build a case in the Commons, the frequent absence from there of Tory prime ministers has been a problem ever since he became Labour leader. Britains almost permanent state of crisis has reduced interest in the opposition and its room for manoeuvre, forcing it to appear less party political and more constructive. When voters are worried about dying from Covid or not being able to heat their houses in the immediate future, a change of government at an election, which may be years away, can be mistaken for a luxury.

Big crises have a drama that can make politics look small. By contrast, when Tony Blair was such a successful opposition leader from 1994 to 1997, Britain was much calmer: voters and journalists could consider his offering without many distractions. They could also see with growing clarity that a long period of Tory rule had in many ways failed the country. The partys record in office since 2010 is worse, but it has often been hard for voters to focus on that. The ongoing failure of Brexit, for example, rarely makes the news.

With the official period of mourning over, its possible political life will return to more normal patterns. But given that politics hasnt been normal for at least six years, and given that so many of Britains most pressing issues remain unresolved, further turmoil feels more likely. I grew up politically during the 1990s, when our politics seemed to move in slow cycles and the country seemed much the same from one year to the next. That world feels so distant now, and the nervous systems of many journalists, politicians and voters have adjusted: they expect perhaps even want regular shocks.

If Labour does win the next election and somehow provides a stabilising government, expect some people to call it boring. But if we continue to lurch from one emergency to the next under Prime Minister Starmer, different rules will apply to those now. When the Tories are in power, times of crisis are often seen by the press and parliament as a reason to get behind the government. But when Labour is in power, crises are usually seen as a reason to get rid of it, as premiers from Jim Callaghan to Gordon Brown have discovered. Until Labour governments are able to or allowed to duck and weave through chaotic times as Tory ones do, Labour will remain stuck as the second party.

See the original post:

From Brexit to the cost of living, Tory governments exploit crises to evade scrutiny | Andy Beckett - The Guardian

Britain may not strike a free trade deal with the US for years, Liz Truss has admitted ahead of her first bilateral meeting with Joe Biden.

The new prime minister conceded that talks were unlikely to start in the medium term as she travelled to New York on her first foreign trip since entering Downing Street.

In a move likely to disappoint Brexiters, she downplayed expectations that any trade agreement was imminent amid concerns that overpromising but then failing to get talks off the ground would damage her nascent administration.

On the plane to the US, Truss admitted to reporters: There arent currently any negotiations taking place with the US and I dont have any expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term.

It is the first time the government has conceded there is virtually no chance of getting agreement on an early bilateral trade deal with the US, Britains biggest trading partner, despite it being coveted by Brexit supporters as one of the major potential benefits of leaving the EU.

Instead, the new prime minister said her priorities would be joining the trans-Pacific trading partnership of 11 countries, including Australia, Canada and Singapore, as well as striking deals with the Gulf States and India.

She added that her number one focus in talks with Biden at the UN on Wednesday would be global security, especially working with the US and European partners to deal with Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Trusss relations with the US president have already been strained by her threats as foreign secretary to rip up the post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland.

Biden has warned that peace in the region should not be undermined by the row and has been reluctant to strike a trade deal with the UK as a result.

UK officials have tried to decouple the two issues and highlighted mini trade deals signed with individual states, including Indiana and North Carolina, to boost transatlantic trade.

At the White House last year, Boris Johnsons hopes of an early post-Brexit trade deal were dashed after Biden made clear publicly that it was not on the cards.

The former prime minister was left talking up solid incremental steps achieved on trade after the US started allowing imports of UK lamb for the first time in decades.

In contrast, former president Donald Trump had promised a massive trade deal to support Brexit, although Washington insiders had warned he would expect concessions in return.

Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning

During Trusss two-day trip to New York, she will hold a series of bilateral meetings with other key leaders including the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

It will be the first official meeting between the pair since Trusss comments during the Tory leadership race that the jurys out over whether Macron was friend or foe.

In what appeared to be a softening of her stance, Truss told reporters she wanted to have a constructive relationship with France, working with Macron on migration, Brexit, energy security and Ukraine.

However, it is understood that the prime ministers tone simply reflected her wish to be diplomatic on the day of the Queens funeral.

Link:

No US trade deal on the horizon, admits Truss as she flies in for Biden meeting - The Guardian

Press play to listen to this article

LONDON Liz Truss is poised to make her first big move as U.K. prime minister in the Brexit row over Northern Ireland. It looks likely to be a call for more of the same.

Despite punchy rhetoric on the campaign trail about taking tougher action against Brussels, the PM is ultimately expected to push for existing grace periods" which waive a host of post-Brexit checks at Northern Irelands ports to continue.

The call will come in a letter to the European Commission in the coming days, as the U.K. responds to legal action by the bloc.

Such a move would mark a step back from more aggressive action which might have intensified the rift between the two sides as the U.K. mourns Queen Elizabeth II. That doesn't mean, however, that it will receive an enthusiastic public welcome from the European Union. A longer-term fix to the dispute remains elusive.

What weve told them informally is that the better thing [that] can happen is for us not to respond to such a letter, an EU official familiar with the discussions said. The Commission cant simply reply saying oh, very well, carry on.

London and Brussels have long been at loggerheads over the Northern Ireland protocol, a painstakingly negotiated part of the Brexit divorce deal. The U.K. argues that the arrangement, intended to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, is overly bureaucratic and stoking anger among Northern Ireland's unionists. Brussels counters that the U.K. willingly signed up to the deal, and pitches it as the only realistic way to preserve the integrity of its single market after Brexit.

The U.K. has so far managed to avoid implementing most of the checks on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland demanded by the protocol by repeatedly extending so-called grace periods ahead of their full introduction, with the reluctant acquiescence of the Commission.

The U.K.s push for a further extension of the grace periods is expected to come in its formal response to legal proceedings lodged by the Commission back in June, in an attack on London's failure to fully implement the agreement. Some of those proceedings require a formal response by Thursday; others by September 22.

A U.K. official said Britain has now finalized its response, but that delivery of the letter might be delayed because formal government business has been paused during the mourning period for the queen.

The EU official confirmed the U.K. has not yet requested any extension of Thursdays deadline but that the Commission is likely to grant one if London does ask, given the extraordinary circumstances.

Over the summer, Truss and her team had flirted with a much more drastic response triggering Article 16 of the protocol, the emergency clause allowing either side to temporarily suspend parts of the agreement. The U.K. argued it might need to use Article 16 because the EU's ongoing legal action could wipe out legal grounds for the current grace periods continuing.

The new letter stating that Britain instead plans to maintain the existing grace periods is likely to be presented to Brussels as a British alternative to invoking Article 16.

The same EU official said it would be unthinkable for the Commission to openly agree to the request, because doing so would hinder its legal case.

There could be more trouble ahead, too. The EU is also likely to take a decision in the next three weeks on whether to ramp up its legal action by taking Britain to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), the final arbiter in disputes concerning the Brexit agreements, the EU official added unless the U.K. withdraws its controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, or unless there is a political intervention by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

A first phone call between von der Leyen and Liz Truss, the new British prime minister, is yet to take place. Von der Leyen is thought to be more conciliatory than Commission Vice President and Brexit point-man Maro efovi, who in the past has privately argued against extending the grace periods indefinitely, the EU official said.

We will keep the door open and the hand extended, the official added. We will continue speaking with them [the U.K. government] to try to find solutions. If we reached solutions, we would withdraw the proceedings, and they would withdraw the bill. I believe it is feasible.

On Monday, efovi urged Truss to resume political talks on the protocol which were paused at the end of February and drop the bill.

He told the Financial Times that the EUs own ideas for reforming the protocol, first set out last October, would ultimately mean checks on just a couple of lorries a day.

Key to achieving such a scenario would be the granting of access to EU officials of comprehensive, real-time data from U.K. authorities on shipments from Great Britain to Northern Ireland an area where there has been slow progress over the past year, but on which some officials believe a solution could be found relatively soon.

efovi said he was encouraged by Truss comments in the House of Commons Wednesday, when she told lawmakers she wants a negotiated solution to the row.

Privately, however, EU officials are a lot more pessimistic, and not just because Truss also warned in her first Commons debate that an agreed solution must deliver all the things the U.K. has demanded before.

Either way, the window for further talks is fast closing.

The U.K. government has set October 28 as the deadline for a new Northern Ireland Executive to be formed. The Democratic Unionist Party, deeply opposed to the protocol, continues to block the formation of a devolved executive, and failure to resume power-sharing in Northern Ireland would trigger another election kicking the prospect of protocol talks further into the long grass.

This article is part ofPOLITICO Pro

The one-stop-shop solution for policy professionals fusing the depth of POLITICO journalism with the power of technology

Exclusive, breaking scoops and insights

Customized policy intelligence platform

A high-level public affairs network

See the original post:

Brexit fudge back on the menu as EU deadline looms for Truss - POLITICO Europe

Joe Biden ally Nancy Pelosi has once again intervened in a Brexit row despite hopes of a resolution between the UK and EU. The Speaker of the US House of Representatives flew to Ireland to hold talks on the Northern Ireland Protocol.

She landed at Shannon Airport yesterday to hold a meeting with US Ambassador Claire Cronin.

The Democrat used the talks to once again warn the UK against taking unilateral action to resolve a row over Brexit customs checks imposed on goods crossing the Irish Sea.

Under the terms of the Protocol in the 2019 EU withdrawal agreement, checks must take place on most goods travelling to the province from Great Britain in order to prevent a border on the island of Ireland.

Unionists warn the deal has undermined Northern Ireland's place in the UK.

READ MORE:Brexit Britain ready to rip up EU rules on bankers' bonuses

Ms Cronin said she had discussed "the importance of the UK and EU reaching a negotiated solution on the Northern Ireland Protocol" with Ms Pelosi.

She added: "A resolution would be a net win for the regions economy and political stability in the long-term - for all its communities."

The latest intervention warning the UK to reach an agreement with Brussels comes despite hopes over the past fortnight that both sides can find a compromise.

Last week European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic said Brussels was ready to slash the number of checks taking place on goods crossing from the mainland to Northern Ireland to just a few lorries a day.

He claimed under his proposals the trade border that has effectively been imposed down the Irish Sea would be "invisible".

"If the data are downloaded into the system, when the goods are put on the ferry from Britain...I believe that we can remotely process them while sailing to Northern Ireland, Mr Sefcovic told the Financial Times.

DON'T MISS:Brexiteers demand 'Remoaner' mandarin is sacked from NATO job[UPDATE]'Time to bite the bullet' Liz Truss urged to trigger Article 16[REACTION]Queens passing has even thawed EU-UK relations for the better[COMMENT]

"It could be resolved very, very quickly if we get the input from our UK counterparts."

At the same time, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told the King that he was optimistic matters would "progress".

The US has repeatedly intervened in Brexit since Mr Biden became President, issuing a series of threats to the UK.

It has warned it will not sign a trade deal with Britain if the Good Friday Agreement is put at risk.

But last night Prime Minister Liz Truss put a trade deal with Washington on the back burner to stop it from being used against Britain.

She told reporters: "There arent currently any negotiations taking place with the US and I dont have an expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term."

Ms Truss is set to meet the President tomorrow for talks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

She said: "The number one issue is global security and making sure that we are able to collectively deal with Russian aggression and ensuring that Ukraine prevails and that Putin doesnt have success in Ukraine."

Continue reading here:

Pelosi intervenes on Brexit with fresh warning to UK after flying to Ireland for talks - Express

LONDON The U.K. will continue not implementing post-Brexit checks on agri-food and other products entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, it told the EU in a letter.

The British government replied Thursday to European Commission action over alleged breaches of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a key part of the Brexit divorce deal regulating the arrival of goods in the region from the rest of the U.K.

In a letter, delivered by the U.K.s mission to the EU, the government set out its unilateral decision to carry on with the status quo, a U.K. official said. British ministers had argued the so-called grace periods were threatened by the Commissions legal action.

The move stops short of a threat the U.K. had flirted with over the summer triggering Article 16 of the protocol, an emergency clause allowing either side to suspend parts of it.

The U.K. continues to argue that maintaining the status quo is necessary to allow talks to proceed with the EU on the long-running protocol dispute. It is meanwhile refusing to withdraw its controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which would eventually allow ministers to impose the U.K.s unilateral approach permanently.

Following the introduction of that bill in June, the Commission triggered a host of infringement proceedings, taking aim at the way the U.K. is handling the protocol. London argues that the post-Brexit arrangement for Northern Ireland is overly bureaucratic for businesses, and points to deep opposition among unionist politicians in the region. Brussels points out that the U.K. signed up to the arrangement, which was intended to avoid checks at Northern Irelands border with EU member state Ireland while protecting the blocs single market.

London has also requested a meeting next week to discuss Britains frozen accession to EU schemes such as Horizon Europe and Copernicus, as part of the U.K.s formal dispute proceedings against the Commission over the matter launched last month.

The British government has declined to publish the letter or make any statements on its content as politics remains paused during the 10-day period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II.

A Commission spokesman confirmed receipt of the letter Thursday morning. We will analyze the reply before deciding on next steps, he said.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit London to attend the queens funeral Monday, but it remains unclear whether she will meet new Prime Minister Liz Truss before heading to New York for the U.N. General Assembly.

This article is part ofPOLITICO Pro

The one-stop-shop solution for policy professionals fusing the depth of POLITICO journalism with the power of technology

Exclusive, breaking scoops and insights

Customized policy intelligence platform

A high-level public affairs network

See more here:

UK tells EU it will keep waiving Northern Ireland Brexit checks - POLITICO Europe

IN MADRID Britons have planned protests outside the British embassy in Madrid next week as anger mounted over the failure of diplomats to reach a deal over the ban on UK driving licences in Spain.

Thousands of Britons in Spain who did not convert their UK driving licences to Spanish versions by the deadline of December 2020 are currently not allowed to drive after post-Brexit talks post down.

An extension to allow British residents to use their UK licences has expired but this does not affect tourists or hauliers.

After five months of talks, Spanish and British diplomats have failed to reach a deal.

A Facebook page called Invasion of the British Embassy in Madrid for the driving licence has been set up to articulate the anger of those who cannot take to the road.

After angry Britons said they would stage a protest last week, the British embassy issued a statement saying that it was urgently trying to reach a deal.

In response, Pascal Siegmund, one of the protest organisers, wrote: We are writing this post following the useless (British) Embassy update. The embassy update didnt satisfy any of us. We are going to go further (and) organise a protest.

He said a demonstration may take place on Thursday 22 September in Madrid outside the British embassy and the Spanish Ministry of Transport.

Deb Lee, 63, who is originally from Oxford but now lives on a campsite in Catral near Alicante on the Costa Blanca, has been stranded for the past five months because she is unable to drive.

I lived in a remote finca but had to move to a campsite where there was a supermarket nearby. I have wasted about 500 (434) in wasted car insurance and tax while my car sits in the drive, she told i.

This has been a disaster for me and thousands of others but the diplomats cannot seem to reach a deal.

Mrs Lee, whose husband still works in Britain as a lorry driver, moved permanently to Spain in 2020.

After bad advice from an adviser about changing my licence, I missed out on the deadline. Now I dont want to sit the Spanish driving test on principle, she said.

I have been a safe driver for over 40 years, without a point on my licence. How is it fair that an 18-year-old British tourist can come over here and rent a car at an airport, but I cannot drive.

She said she has suffered stress because she has been left stranded by the licence ban.

Mrs Lee needs dental work, but taxi fares to the nearest surgery are about 50 every time she goes for treatment.

The British embassy in Spain tweeted: We recognise that negotiations are taking longer than anticipated and longer than either you or we want.

We are genuinely making progress on the outstanding points but, for reasons we have explained before, we cannot be definitive about the timescale.

British diplomats urged those who must drive to consider taking a Spanish driving test but acknowledged this may not be easy.

The embassy added: We know that this is frustrating to hear and we dont underestimate the impact on those of you who are affected.

The Spanish Ministry of Transport did not reply to a request for comment from i.

See the article here:

Britons in Spain to protest over Brexit change to licence rules that has left them stranded - iNews