The actions of Dominic Cummings in breaking the lockdown rules is the big news story of today. It will also have a long-term impact on politics and on the Tory party. The sad truth is that politicians lie all the time. In this respect they are not so different from all other people, who mostly also lie on a daily basis. Many of these are harmless and inconsequential untruths, and generally designed to avoid social awkwardness. In our normal lives we rarely give every scrap of

Why should Brexit be cancelled? Here's all the reasons, from one to nine. A People's Vote is the name for a 'ratification referendum'. Since there was no real clarity in 2016 what the vote to leave meant, it makes sense that once negotiations are concluded the final decision goes to the people. In such a referendum there must be the option to remain in the EU. Article 50, which triggered the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, is fully revocable. Here are 9 reasons why Brexit s

The Conservatives are floundering. They are fighting amongst themselves, proving unable to deal with the task of Brexit negotiations and their membership & voters age steadily. In an attempt to breath some life into her party Theresa May is making an extended pitch for more support. She, and her advisers, are trying to reposition the Conservative Party as moving into the mythic 'centre ground' of British politics. This is where, famously, British elections are won and lost. D

Can the party survive in its current form, or will Brexit send it spinning into the political abyss? As the Conservative Party meet for their annual conference, this year in the Midlands city of Birmingham, a question is hanging over the whole affair: are the Tories doomed? Britain all but invented political parties, in their modern form. The precursor to the Conservative Party (or Conservative and Unionist Party, to give it its full name) was the Tory Party. The Tory party a

Is democracy actually in worse shape in the UK than the US? The US has some serious political problems. Donald Trump is an incompetent and populist President with the potential to do real and lasting harm to his own country, as well as to the rest of the globe. He mocks disabled people, lies about nearly everything, cosies up to dictators and is a racist, misogynist dunce. His administration is under investigation relating to allegations of collusion with the Russian governme

In the space of 24 hours David Davis and Boris Johnson resigned from Theresa May's government. Why? The loss of two of the most senior ministers in her government constitutes a serious blow to May's already dented authority. Cabinet ministers rarely resign without good reason, and quite often the reason is that they are being forced out for some failure, either personal or professional. Former Home Secretary Amber Rudd tried to cling on for a week until it became clear she co

The terrible handling of the Brexit negotiations are making a 'no-deal' scenario more likely In the Commons today David DavisI said the argument over the 'Brexit bill' is likely to go on for the "full duration of the negotiation". If this is true it means that the UK is heading for 'no-deal', i.e. crashing out of the EU. Michel Barnier has made clear, and has been backed to the hilt by every one of the 27 countries involved, that there are 3 separation issues that must be sor

Whose decision is it whether the British military is sent to intervene in the Syrian civil war? There is credible evidence that the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad has used more chemical weapons against the town of Douma. This has led to renewed calls from many British journalists and British politicians to take military action in Syria. This also brings back into the spotlight a question central to the exercise of democracy in the UK: is it the government or parliament who

After Brexit, decision-making power might return to London, but much influence and political power will be lost in the process. There's an excellent long article by Sky News's political editor Faisal Islam published today. I've clipped a short section which I think illustrates my point better than I could. (1) If Brexit really does happen, there will be a lot of choices which will be dressed up as having been made in London but that just-so-happen to be the carbon copies of

Brexit Secretary David Davis has said the UK is not prepared to honour budget contributions after Brexit How very un-British! In the press conference that Brexit Secretary David Davis gave with Michel Barnier on 31st August he set out a very eye-opening aspect of the UK's negotiating stance on Brexit. Elements of the EU budget we promised to pay for in 2016, say, but wouldn't need to actually be paid for until 2020, we would duck out of paying. This is a really bad, stupid po

Given the opportunity to actually decide the legal direction of the country, the Brexiteers are clueless 'Take back control'. It's a powerful slogan that evoked a sense of the frustrated ambition, and a yearning for justice. A lot of debate during the 2016 referendum campaign focused around issues of legal sovereignty and the democratic deficit that membership of the EU entailed. Although most of the people who voted leave doubtless cared little for the constitutional dilemma

The EU expects the UK to pay billions to leave - because those are our dues Newspapers report today that the UK government is willing to stump up something in the region of £36bn to leave the EU. The figure comes as a potential surprise because of the bullish stance taken by the Brexit secretary David Davis, as well as Boris Johnson and others in the government who had claimed the UK would pay little or nothing to leave the EU. The Union's negotiator had claimed a figure near

We're looking backwards, when we need to be looking forwards. The post-Brexit choice are currently presented is as Option A, and Option B. Are you backing the 52%, or the 48%? What is needed is an approach that addresses the needs and desires of the 100%, or at least tries to. Option A is an extreme Tory Brexit, an attempt to conjure up the world of pre-1972 before Britain joined the EEC. Option B is to try to go back to before June 2016 and pretend that the referendum hasn't

Gina Miller's victory in the Hight Court highlights the failings of politicians, not the judiciary. The decision handed down by the High Court today could not have been clearer. In the ruling summary the judges lay waste to the government's position: The court does not accept the argument put forward by the government. There is nothing in the 1972 Act [the 1972 European Communities Act] to support it. The outcome was wholly predictable. The outrage at the ruling from the Mai

Brexiteers camapigned saying parliament should have control - but are reluctant to make good on that promise. One of the key messages that the Leave campaign pushed during the referendum campaign was the British parliament was 'taking back control'. This was always a misrepresentation of the nature of British parliamentary sovereignty. Parliament - which constitutionally is composed of the House of Lords, the House of Commons and the Monarch-in-Parliament - is the all-powerfu

The Conservatives are in government, but not in power. How long can this carry on? The Conservative Party Conference returns to Birmingham at the beginning of October, only a couple of year since it was last here. In the interim much has changed. The Conservative Party is, like all the others, a coalition of interests bound together by the vagaries of our First-Past-the-Post electoral system. Under what other electoral circumstances would slipper wearing jazz-bothering europh

Brexit has taken a hammer to our political norms. Where damage has been done to the different political parties? The dust has started to settle on the referendum vote on Britain’s relationship with the EU. At this point it seems appropriate to reach for the hyperbole – a most historic moment in British history, a decision that changes everything, a revolution, even. The referendum vote is undoubtedly a marker, and a significant political event. There were numerous reasons for