It was freezing cold in Edinburgh this morning but that didn’t stop a crowd of people gathering to welcome the Is it Worth it? bus. Remember when Boris traversed the land with a bus with a big fat lie on the side of it during the EU referendum? Well, anti Brexit campaigners have funded a bus tour with the truth, as outlined in the UK Government’s own analysis, emblazoned on the side.
The bus spent an hour parked in the historic Royal Mile. In fact, it was parked right outside the City of Edinburgh Council’s City Chambers. This is a very different attitude than Oxfordshire’s Conservative Council which has decided to stop the bus parking in the centre of the city on Monday. Apparently they can’t have political messages on the highway. Does that mean that anyone having political posters in their cars will be banned from parking in the city centre during elections? I suspect not. Layla Moran spoke out against this ban. From the BBC:
Oxford West and Abingdon MP, Layla Moran, said the bus should be allowed and the ban “can only be seen as a politically motivated move”.
She added that both Conservative and Lib Dem buses had visited the county during the election.
The SNP’s Edinburgh South West MP Joanna Cherry said that she personally saw the arguments in favour of a “second referendum.” However, we should not assume that the party would vote for such a measure in Parliament as there’s a catch. She said that the party would be seeking a guarantee that if Scotland voted to remain in the EU, that the wishes of its citizens would be respected. As a federalist party, some might argue that we should have sympathy with that argument. After all, in the US federal system, Rhode Island has the same sway on issues like this as California. We want to bring the country together, though, not pursue yet more divisions. On the other hand, of course, all the arguments about the Irish border would be duplicated about the Scottish border. It is clearly to the advantage of the whole UK to stop Brexit.
If the SNP insists on this condition, it’s effectively a wrecking one because it is unlikely to get the support of otherwise sympathetic MPs from other parties. We need to get a majority of MPs to vote for a referendum on the deal in the Commons. It would be pretty outrageous if the SNP deprived the whole country of a parachute from this Brexit disaster.
Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m glad that last week’s “Beast from the East” has passed. Whilst here in Mid Suffolk, the snow has now pretty much melted, there are still some of you digging yourselves out, and good luck to you.
As noted this morning, Floella Benjamin had an Oral Question in the House of Lords today on the subject of childhood obesity. On a day when Simon Jenkins is suggesting that obesity is a greater threat for millennials than cannabis (add your own comment there, I suggest), the question of the health of our children is a live one.
Yes, the Lords was back after its usual February recess (think half-term but without the need for childminders), and ready to do battle with the EU Withdrawal Bill. Bearing in mind the agreement on all sides of the House that the intention was not to reject the Bill but to improve it, the Committee Stage has become a marker of the likely problems that will get a thorough airing over the coming weeks.
In a speech tomorrow, Brexit Secretary David Davis will demand that the UK’s regulatory standards are accepted across the EU post-Brexit. He will ask for “mutual recognition” and “close, even-handed co-operation”. 
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