Tag Archives: theresa may

The Voice

Lib Dems react to Theresa May’s Florence speech

By The Voice | Fri 22nd September 2017 - 8:03 pm

Vince said that it was no wonder the Brexiteers were terrified of giving the people a say on the deal:

Both the Conservatives and Labour have now essentially converged on the same position, which is to kick the can down the road and simply delay the economic pain caused by an extreme Brexit.

Neither are prepared to fight to keep Britain in the single market and customs union or to offer people a chance to exit from Brexit

Voters were promised £350m a week for the NHS, instead Theresa May is admitting the UK will have to pay a hefty Brexit bill worth billions of pounds.

No wonder the Brexiteers are terrified of giving the British people the final say through a referendum on the facts.

Willie Rennie said the “delinquent’ May was trashing our relationship with Europe.

Theresa May is kicking the can down the road. Sixteen months on from the Brexit referendum this delinquent Prime Minister is trashing our relationship with Europe.

She seems incapable of deciding what kind of relationship she wants with Europe and that prolonged uncertainty is causing economic damage.

We were promised Brexit would be an easy negotiation and that £350 million each week would be invested in the NHS. Neither are true.

This makes the compelling case for a Brexit deal referendum even stronger.

Yesterday, the Lib Dems laid out seven tests for Theresa May’s speech. Tom Brake said that only one of them was even slightly met. 

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 39 Comments
Bill Fowler

Vince Cable, the next PM?

By Bill Fowler | Tue 25th July 2017 - 10:15 am

 

As a fan of Mrs Thatcher it might seem odd that I have just joined the Liberal Democrats. However times change, hard right policies are more likely to drive the large number of people depending on in-work benefits or working in the government into the hands of Mr Corbyn.  Labour, who shout loudly about democratic mandates, are likely to have another go at bankrupting the country as well as bring democracy into disrepute by promising endless giveaways.

The worst possible case for the UK is to have a Labour government and be outside the EU. Labour want out of EU because they can then rape and pillage the slightly rich – anyone who cannot bite back. Given the pasting that the EU gets from our press it is actually surprising that, as far as citizens’ rights go, it actually does work – and seems to be improving in many areas. It would be ironical if Brexit forces them to reform further in the interests of its citizens rather than its bureaucrats.

I would probably have not joined up had not Vince Cable become leader; he at least talks some reasonable sense – most of the time. Now he has the amusing task of saving the country from itself. The current fickleness of the British voting public means just about anything is possible but it will mean swallowing some liberal pride to get there. Looking from the outside, there is one little trick that might placate half the Brexiteers and that is a very strict residence test before there is any access to benefits, social housing, in-work benefits and possibly the personal tax allowance. By strict I mean at least five years…

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 101 Comments
The Voice

This lady is for turning

By The Voice | Tue 11th July 2017 - 9:22 am

Our lovely friends in the Lib Dem Press Office have been keeping tally. They have found twenty policies that the Government has U-turned on in the last year.  And here they are:

  1. Northern Powerhouse: It was reported last August that Theresa May had decided to ditch the Northern Powerhouse from her plans for an industrial strategy, she later back-tracked and made clear she was fully behind it. 
  2. EU nationals: Theresa May reversed her stance towards EU citizens living in Britain (£), after her rivals accused her of treating them as “bargaining chips” in exit negotiations.
  3. Hinkley Point: The PM

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | 15 Comments
Paul Walter

Is this why there is no rush to make Boris Johnson Prime Minister?

By Paul Walter | Sun 9th July 2017 - 11:02 am

Theresa v Boris: How May became PM is highly recommended viewing. It’s available for the next ten days on BBC iPlayer. Made for BBC2, it is an attractive mix of key player interviews, contemporaneous news footage and dramatised scenes.

Theresa May is played very well indeed by Jacqueline King (who I might gratuitously point out is well known to the legions of Lib Dem Doctor Who fans!) and Boris is captured brilliantly by Will Barton, even though his hair and nose make him look more like Michael Fabricant.

Continue reading »
Posted in TV and film | Also tagged , and | 12 Comments
Paul Walter

What is the government’s exact majority?

By Paul Walter | Mon 3rd July 2017 - 10:58 am

Since June 9th, I’ve been keeping a little spreadsheet to show the exact majority of the government.

First of all, the question arose: ‘What is the working majority of the government?’ That is, if the DUP don’t vote with the government but simply abstain (because they don’t want Jeremy Corbyn to become Prime Minister). My calculations suggest this working majority is four, based on the following assumptions:

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 20 Comments
The Voice

Tim Farron on the Conservative/DUP deal

By The Voice | Mon 26th June 2017 - 2:27 pm

Tim Farron has responded to the deal between the DUP and the Conservatives. He said:

The public will not be DUPed by this shoddy little deal. The nasty party is back, propped up by the DUP.

While our schools are crumbling and our NHS is in crisis, Theresa May chooses to throw cash at ten MPs in a grubby attempt to keep her Cabinet squatting in No 10.

It would be better for the people of Northern Ireland for the DUP to buckle down and focus on the talks process to restore devolved Executive at Stormont, to bring the political stability that is needed for inward investment and growth, rather than demanding cash injections from the Treasury.

Theresa May must make all the details of this agreement public immediately, so we can judge for ourselves if she is acting in the best interests of the country or of her own party.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 18 Comments
Bernard Aris

The narrow-mindedness of Theresa May as prime minister in a transforming world

By Bernard Aris | Fri 16th June 2017 - 3:33 pm

While watching the Theresa May profile by Tory and newspaper “sketch” writer Matthew Parris on BBC Newsnight on the eve of the General Election  I was alarmed by hearing various people interviewed by Parris repeating objections to May’s breath of knowledge and policy interest I had earlier encountered in the Economist editorial and Bagehot column about her.

In his column in The Economist of 27th May,  Bagehot writes that in the social care U-turn fiasco, two worrying trends in May’s approach of being (prime) minister and politician came together with an aspect of her policy interests and knowledge.

Firstly, he says it is an “established impression” that May knows “precious little about business and economics”, and doesn’t mind that omission, doesn’t try to remedy it.  In the Economist editorial endorsing not the Tories or Labour but us Lib Dems  the paper also mentions her ignoring the economic aspect (“starving the economy of the skills it needs to prosper”) of a purely numbers-based restriction of immigration.

In the Newsnight profile, the point about economics was brought forward both by her former Cabinet colleague Nick Clegg, and by baroness Camilla Cavendish, ex-McKinsey consultant and prominent journalist with The Times before being in Camerons No. 10 Policy unit (2015-‘6). Clegg said he was struck by her lack of interest in economic aspects of for example immigration policy, while obsessing about immigration numbers. Vince Cable, former business secretary, made the same point  in this campaign, criticizing May’s cavalier pushing of a hard Brexit in spite of the thousands of jobs in London in branches of companies whose HQ is on the EU continent.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Paul Walter

Norway option, at least in the interim, offers the only sensible route out of this mess

By Paul Walter | Sat 10th June 2017 - 7:25 pm

The Conservative party likes to boast that it, combined with our FPTP electoral system, provides strong and stable government.

Well, a fat lot of strength and stability the Tory party and FPTP system have given us in the last two years!

We’ve had two Prime Ministers, Cameron and May, who will have historians squabbling for years as to whether they are the worst or second worst or third worst Prime Ministers in the history of this country!

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 40 Comments
Martin Thomas

Lord Martin Thomas writes…The moment the election turned

By Martin Thomas | Fri 9th June 2017 - 7:40 pm

On the morning of Monday, 22nd May, we were tipped off that Theresa May was coming to the Memorial Hall in Gresford, an old mining village just outside Wrexham where we live. My wife, Joan (Baroness) Walmsley, and I headed off immediately to be part of this unusual and unheralded event – the last PM in Gresford was Ted Heath in 1970.

The entrance to the hall was manned by anonymous young men in dark suits and unsurprisingly our names were not on the printed list of expected attendees from the local Tory faithful. However, I pointed out that I was President of the Trust which built and owned the building and they obviously thought there would be more trouble if we were excluded. The local Tory candidate reluctantly agreed.

Joan was clued up about the dementia tax, since she had been debating it with Jeremy Hunt at Alzheimer’s Society meeting in London four days’ earlier. We thought we might raise the issue with Mrs May.

For the first fifteen minutes, the PM attacked Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and Diane Abbot in highly personal and insulting terms. The election was apparently between her personally and these reprobates. She was still in “strong and stable” mode. There was no “conservative” on the back cloth.

And then something surprising happened.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 17 Comments
The Voice

LibLink: Tim Farron on Theresa May and counter-terrorism policy

By The Voice | Mon 5th June 2017 - 12:30 pm

Under the heading “Theresa May can’t be trusted to get it right on counter-terrorism policy” Tim Farron writes in the Guardian today:

Theresa May set out her position on Sunday, stating, “Enough is enough.” It was a highly political speech that set out the choices she intends to make that will affect all of us: our security, our freedoms and the way we live our lives. These are important choices with important consequences. But the real choice is between what works and what doesn’t.

…

Theresa May accused the police of crying wolf over the impact of cuts to their numbers, and their concerns that the public were being put in danger. However, the blunt reality is that the one decision she could take that would have the single biggest impact is to reverse those cuts.

Whilst acknowledging the challenges that the Internet brings he criticises her for wanting to control it:

If we turn the internet into a tool for censorship and surveillance, the terrorists will have won. We won’t make ourselves safer by making ourselves less free.

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | 20 Comments
Paul Walter

If you read one thing today, read this: “Britain is being led to an epic act of national self-harm” – by Will Hutton

By Paul Walter | Mon 5th June 2017 - 8:55 am

Well done to Will Hutton, in the Observer, for marshalling the words to brilliantly sum up what I have been thinking since June 24th 2016.

I am not one of those who feel despair about our country. But I am old enough to have experienced what economic hardship and chaos feels, to an extent. This isn’t going to be pretty. Numbed by the valium of insane and misplaced national pride we are sleep-walking to the most awful economic disaster.

Here’s a sample of what Will Hutton says today:

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 65 Comments
Nick Hopkinson

May’s Brexit will create a weak and unstable United Kingdom

By Nick Hopkinson | Mon 15th May 2017 - 9:32 am

Voters in next month’s general election are being asked to support Theresa May’s ‘strong and stable’ leadership in the Brexit negotiations. What voters may in fact be choosing is a weak and unstable United Kingdom. Inflation, first prompted by the 15% fall in sterling after last year’s vote to leave the European Union (EU), will continue to erode real standards of living. The drip drip of foreign firms reallocating future investment and jobs outside the United Kingdom will continue. As a result Government tax revenue will decline and Tory austerity will last longer. The Scottish Government will progress a second …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 21 Comments
Katharine Pindar

The country goes a-Maying now, but is being led a merry dance

By Katharine Pindar | Mon 8th May 2017 - 7:54 pm

England has a long tradition of May Queens, but never before had a May who sometimes acts like a queen. ‘This is the most important election in my lifetime’ she insisted to Andrew Marr on one of his Sunday-morning BBC 1 shows.  ‘It’s about the future of the country and about the national interest’. She made plain her belief that to get the ‘tough’ Brexit negotiations right the country needs her in charge, which will also ensure a strong economy and ‘a country that works for everyone’.

She put over the same message even more explicitly on a visit to Scotland on April 30, stating that ‘every vote for me and my team will strengthen the Union, strengthen the economy, and the UK and Scotland together will flourish’.

Her messages are evidently working, as the local election results seem to show. The tide of approval and trust evidenced by comments of ordinary people who may never have voted Tory before almost suggests a developing cult status for her. When she held that queenly audience outside No.10 to announce that ‘some in Brussels’ want to sabotage Brexit, try to affect the election result and harm the UK, she was not noticeably received with incredulous laughter. Her words were not generally regarded either as paranoid or manipulative, but instead brought solemn head-shaking about our erstwhile friends apparently becoming enemies, in a newly Manichean view of Europe.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 27 Comments
Stuart Laycock

Strong and stable

By Stuart Laycock | Mon 8th May 2017 - 5:06 pm

Strong and stable

Theresa’s been
given her lines.
Yes, Strong and Stable
it’s on the table,
not fact but fable,
it’s just a label,
hopeless, not able,
propaganda Babel.

Continue reading »
Posted in Poetry | 4 Comments
The Voice

WATCH: When Tim and Theresa meet the public

By The Voice | Thu 4th May 2017 - 9:16 am

The party’s digital people are really on form at the moment. Within hours of Tim Farron’s friendly argument with a voter yesterday, they had this out on social media contrasting what happens when Tim and Theresa go out in public. Tim chats away to anyone and came out of that experience with Malcolm very well. Theresa, well, doesn’t really meet ordinary people. This is important because in a democracy, people need to see their leaders under intense public scrutiny. No idea should go unchallenged.

Anyway, enjoy.

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Catherine Bearder

“Dear Mrs May…”, an open letter from Catherine Bearder

By Catherine Bearder | Sat 29th April 2017 - 8:23 pm

Dear Mrs May,

You called an election last week so that British voters can, you claim, by electing a large Conservative parliamentary majority, give you the “strongest hand” possible in the Brexit negotiations. But I am afraid Mrs May you have already decided on the direction you are taking this country in and I think you already know that.

Today the leaders of the 27 EU countries will meet to finalise their negotiating guidelines, for what Guy Verhofstadt described to Liberal MEPs this week as probably the shortest Council meeting ever. Why? Because …

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International | Also tagged , and | 20 Comments
Paul Walter

Easter egg hunt furore – something of the ridiculous?

By Paul Walter | Wed 5th April 2017 - 9:56 am

Can you see the word “Easter” in the image above? The image is a screenshot of the National Trust website for its Easter activity.

Yet, Theresa May saw fit to interrupt her visit to Saudi Arabia to criticise Cadbury’s and the National Trust for calling the activity an “Egg Hunt” rather than a “Easter Egg Hunt” – even though Easter is emblazoned above the title.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 15 Comments
The Voice

Tom Brake on human rights in Saudi Arabia

By The Voice | Mon 3rd April 2017 - 7:39 pm

Tom Brake has written a letter to the Prime Minister urging her to raise human rights issues in her meeting with Saudi Arabia.

Here is the letter:

Dear Theresa,

I am writing in advance of your visit to Saudi Arabia tomorrow, to ask you to raise urgently with the regime a number of serious human rights concerns.

1. The targeting of civilians in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition
According to the United Nations, over 7,600 people have been killed and 42,000 injured since fighting began in March 2015, the majority in airstrikes led by the Saudi coalition. The conflict and a blockade imposed by the coalition have also triggered a humanitarian disaster, leaving 70% of the population in need of aid, including millions on the verge of famine.

The Saudi coalition, in contravention of humanitarian law, has repeatedly targeted civilians, including at funerals, weddings and in market places.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
The Voice

The Observer on a hard Brexit

By The Voice | Mon 27th March 2017 - 4:45 pm

 

We don’t usually cover newspaper editorials, but the one yesterday in The Observer was extraordinarily angry and intense. The subeditors and author seemed to have had second thoughts about how it should be titled. The online version was originally headed “The triggering of article 50 jeopardises 60 years of unparalleled peace” – a quote from the piece, and a strong enough sentiment, but it does not do justice to rest of the hard-hitting post which begins:

Like sheep, the British people, regardless of whether they support Brexit, are being herded off a cliff, duped and misled by the most irresponsible, least trustworthy government in living memory.

By the time it appeared in the print version it had become “Hard Brexit is an epic act of self-harm – only reinforcing rancour and division”.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 18 Comments
Martin Roche

Electoral expenses allegations may have deep and game-changing implications

By Martin Roche | Mon 20th March 2017 - 11:05 am

 

Last week we heard that 12 English police forces have sent papers to the CPS, in response to concerns about electoral expenses matters in up to 20  seats won by the Conservatives at the 2015 General Election. Four other forces, including Kent Police, which is investigating what happened during the election in the Thanet constituency, have yet to say where their investigations have led them.

Thanet was won by the Conservative’s Craig McKinley, much to the disappointment of UKIP’s candidate, Nigel Farage.

So, and allow me to indulge in pure wishful thinking, what would happen if the courts said that some or all of these contests must be re-run? Would that not go straight to the heart of the legitimacy of the Conservative government and any legislation passed since that administration was formed?

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 23 Comments
NewsHound

LibLInk: Alex Cole-Hamilton: On selling our souls for a US trade deal

By NewsHound | Sun 5th February 2017 - 10:56 am

Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton is a vocal opponent of Donald Trump. He’s always had a massive interest in US politics. In 2008, he and his best friend Kevin Lang went out to Virginia to campaign for Barack Obama.

He’s written for the Scottish Lib Dems website to talk Trump and trade deals – specifically why we mustn’t allow our commitment to human rights to be diminished.

Many have watched in horror as the progressive legacy of Barrack Obama has been comprehensively devoured in the early days of Donald Trump’s post-truth presidency and with it, a cold awakening to a new kind

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 7 Comments
Katharine Pindar

Is this the beginning of the end for May’s Government?

By Katharine Pindar | Mon 30th January 2017 - 7:00 pm

 

In this age of the image, when pictures are flashed around the world in an instant, I believe the image of a smiling Theresa May hand-in-hand with President Trump may be the most iconic of her Premiership, and, because of the power of images, will hasten her decline.

This was a catastrophic mistake of image presentation by the Prime Minister. To be pictured smiling in the company of this President who is so widely disliked, condemned and feared in this country, and to be recorded admiring and praising his victory, was bad enough. These were cringe-making, teeth-gritting sacrifices, perhaps, for the necessity of the continued international leadership of Britain and the USA.

But to hold hands with someone in public identifies you with them. It signifies friendship, closeness and shared values. British values do not appear compatible with some of those already declared and now being acted out by President Trump. Within hours of his meeting Theresa May, the President was signing the Executive Order imposing a three-month ban on entry to the USA of refugees and other incomers from seven countries with mainly Muslim population.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 45 Comments
Chris Key

The refugee ban harms not just our reputation, it will harm our armed forces too

By Chris Key | Mon 30th January 2017 - 11:25 am

 

Yesterday, Tim Farron quite rightly called out the desperate situation in which Theresa May now finds herself. Like a door to door salesman selling their wares she is now desperate in terms of who she will deal with on the world stage.

The refugee ban imposed by Donald Trump goes against all of the British values we stand for as a party and has even resulted in a Conservative MP being banned from visiting the US.

The primary duty of any Prime Minister is to defend British citizens. Yet when quizzed at the press conference in Turkey she claimed it was for the US to determine the refugee policy of the United States. Imagine if Churchill had said the same about Nazi Germany in 1940 when it came to the treatment of Jews.

Secondly there is the impact this ban will have on our armed forces. Among those detained at a US airport was an Iraqi who had been a translator for the US army. He was held in handcuffs and quizzed for 17 hours before being released. If that’s how the US treats those who work for their military risking their lives it is much less likely that Iraqis or others for that matter will step forward to help. Would you do so if you knew safe passage to the US could not be guaranteed?

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
Mary Reid

Tom Brake challenges May to stick up for Mo Farah and other Muslims

By Mary Reid | Mon 30th January 2017 - 9:18 am

 

The news that everyone’s favourite athlete – Mo Farah – may not be able to return to his family in the US has encapsulated the impact of Trump’s vicious travel ban. He was, of course, born in Somalia, one of the banned countries, although he is a British citizen and does not hold dual nationality. He is currently at a training camp in Ethiopia.

Mo Farah wrote:

I am a British citizen who has lived in America for the past six years – working hard, contributing to society, paying my taxes and bringing up our four children in the place they now call home.

Now me, and many others like me, are being told that we may not be welcome.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 5 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Farron attacks Theresa May for failing to condemn Donald Trump’s Muslim ban

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 28th January 2017 - 11:03 pm

We might have hoped that someone sensible would have managed to talk Donald Trump out of actually banning Muslims from the US. After all, even one of the more hawkish Republicans, George HW Bush’s Defence Secretary and W’s Vice President Dick Cheney had condemned it previously. Even Trump’s Vice President was against it before he was for it. He doesn’t seem to listen to reason, though, so today’s news, however disappointing, is not surprising.

What we should expect, though, is for our own Government to condemn something so blatantly discriminatory, e especially when it affects British citizens. One example on tonight’s news was Mo Farah who holds dual nationality with Somalia but who trains in Oregon.

Refusing entry to people if you have evidence that they are actually a threat is one thing, refusing entry to a group of people just because they follow a particular religion or come from a particular country is beyond the pale.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 13 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Sarah Olney: Theresa May’s visit to Turkey betrays our liberal values

By NewsHound | Sat 28th January 2017 - 11:00 am

Fresh from her meeting in Washington with a man who has extolled the effectiveness of torture, admitted sexually assaulting women and who thinks building walls between nations is a good idea, our Prime Minister heads today to meet the leader of a so-called democracy where human rights mean nothing and journalists are imprisoned.

Sarah Olney has written a blistering article in the Guardian, attacking the PM for betraying our liberal values instead of safeguarding our trading relationship with the democracies on our doorstep.

This tawdry tour shames Britain. This is a defining period on the international stage and we must consider to what extent this new course is safeguarding both our interests and values around the world.

In an age of “alternative facts”, there is no doubt about the realities of the Erdoğan regime. Even before last July’s failed coup, Erdoğan had begun systematically dismantling Turkey’s democratic institutions. Since the coup, he has embraced full-frontal authoritarianism. He is not only locking up journalists, but teachers, professors and policemen – all without due process. Not quite the outfit you’d have in mind for a regime described yesterday as an “indispensable partner” by Theresa May.

>Indeed, turn the clock back eight months and our now foreign secretary was slating the Turkish president. Yet Boris Johnson has fallen unusually silent – refusing to call Erdoğan out on his shocking crimes. There is a pattern here: ministers pursuing business deals on the international stage at odds with Britain’s best traditions and values.

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , and | 30 Comments
Tom Arms

That extra special relationship

By Tom Arms | Fri 27th January 2017 - 10:25 am

The Anglo-American Special Relationship is becoming the EXTRA Special Relationship – and not for the right reasons.

The Special Relationship is based on a shared historic, legal, cultural, and philosophical root buttressed by military and political alliances, a shared outlook of the world and intelligence services which are joined at the hip and just about every other part of the political anatomy.

The Extra Special Relationship is based on a shared pariah status, siege mentality and Britain and America’s  common need for friends in an increasingly friendless world.  The Brexit vote has isolated the UK from its former partners in continental Europe. Trump’s style plus his anti-Islamic, anti-EU, anti-free trade, anti-Nato, anti-Chinese and pro-Russian and pro-Israeli rhetoric has done the same.

On top of that, Prime Minister Theresa May needs a big trade deal to show that Brexit can work to Britain’s advantage. Trump is offering a massive bribe—the trade deal.

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 6 Comments
Katharine Pindar

Maybe not! We must not let Theresa get away with it.

By Katharine Pindar | Mon 23rd January 2017 - 3:07 pm

We have two by-elections to fight within five weeks, so this is urgent.

It was bad enough that Prime Minister May declared on January 17th her intention for Britain to leave the single market and make a definite break with the EU. But it was also made clear subsequently that, when the negotiations on terms of leaving are completed, the options she intends to put to Parliament will be to either accept them, or reject them and leave without a deal.

The option of rejecting the deal, but also deciding to remain in the EU, will not be offered.

Of course, Parliament could refuse to endorse this, probably involving a vote of no confidence and an early General Election, but that looks unlikely. The Liberal Democrats alone demand that the final decision should be between leaving with the negotiated terms or staying in, and that this should be decided by the people in another referendum. We maintain that what voting out in the first plebiscite on June 23 would mean for the country was not fully explained or foreseen, and when the full consequences for Britain’s future out of the EU have become apparent in two years’ time, the people should have the final right to decide.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 57 Comments
Mary Reid

LibLink: Tim Farron writes “May’s Brexit intentions will betray the values promoted by Churchill”

By Mary Reid | Mon 23rd January 2017 - 11:29 am

Tim Farron has written an article in The New European. He starts:

If 2016 felt like a never-ending cycle of shocks and surprises, then 2017 already shows no sign of relenting.

…

I, like all other ‘Remoaners’, get constantly criticised for being too negative about the prospects of Brexit Britain. Yet right now, it is not my confidence in the government’s direction that is significant, it is the markets, displayed so clearly in the pound slumping to a fresh 31-year low on Monday.

The prompt for this had been the impending sense of gloom in anticipation of Theresa May’s Brexit speech on Tuesday, which outlined her plans for the UK to quit the single market, before even entering into negotiations with the EU.

Staggeringly, the PM, increasingly characterised as ‘Theresa Maybe’, has chosen her only act of decisiveness to be on leaving the single market – a British invention that she and her own cabinet have spent their careers recognising as being so fundamental to our public life and economic wellbeing.

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 14 Comments
Mark Goodrich

Why Theresa May’s speech is good news

By Mark Goodrich | Wed 18th January 2017 - 1:32 pm

Theresa May’s speech today was a mixture of vacuous soundbites and ominous indicators of the direction of travel.  Shorn of the window-dressing, it is clear that she leads a government of the Hard Brexit.  She concluded with a nauseous section suggesting that the country is “coming together” after June’s referendum.  As one wag put it on Twitter, that is like setting a fire, burning the house down and expecting those who queried what you were doing to “come together” in the rebuilding project.  More seriously, by opting for a Hard Brexit, exiting the single market (ironically, an achievement of Margaret Thatcher) and almost certainly the customs union, she is demonstrating no respect for the 16 million people who voted Remain.

So, why do I think the speech is good news? The clue is today’s YouGov poll. This shows that the population currently splits as follows:

39%  – Hard Brexit

25% – Soft Brexit

23% – Remain in the EU after all

13% – Not sure

Pursuing a Soft Brexit would have been risky for May but not as risky as Hard Brexit.  For the first time, she has clearly put herself in backing a position supported only by a minority of voters.  This allows the divided Remain side to unite around opposition to the UK coming out of the single market (with much historic material from Dan Hannan and Boris Johnson to support them!).  It also allows them to peel off those Leavers who wanted to maintain single market access.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 69 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Hywel
    Paul - what was this. It isn't on the wikipedia page of polls. Not surprised by the lack of commentary - the slow but noticeable down-tick in reform poll rati...
  • paul barker
    A note on Reform, we have just seen the 2nd Poll showing Reform losing their lead. You might think that would attract some notice by Journalists or The Commenta...
  • Peter Chambers
    > Clearly the aircraft carriers were a pork barrel for Gordon Brown’s constituency. Doubtful. More to do with the US "pivot to Asia". The UK does not have...
  • Mark ValladaresMark Valladares
    @ Matt (Bristol), You use the word “vanguardism” as though politicians don’t have an obligation to lead, rather than merely following the loudest voice...
  • Mark Smulian
    I first worked with Michael on his three pamphlets published in the mid-1980s by Liberator and mentioned above by Geoffrey Payne. He was, obviously, an effectv...