Corbyn wants to beat the Tories. The way to do that is to back a vote on the terms of May's Brexit deal. I understand Jeremy Corbyn's unwillingness to seek nothing less than a general election. He wants his party to be in government and therefore keeps pushing May to resign. Unfortunately that won't work. Ministers or Prime Ministers don't resign just because you keep telling them to. Perhaps Jeremy Corbyn thinks badgering the government about an election is pressure; it's no

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

Vote Leave broke the law. So did some fracking protesters. Who goes to prison speaks volumes about UK politics This tale of two crimes tells us much about the current state of politics in the UK. There are two fundamental principles to the constitution in the UK. One is that the Westminster parliament is the land's sovereign political authority. The other is that the rule of law applies equally to everyone, irrespective of social status, religion or political beliefs. The arr

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

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

What is the point of Labour's position on Brexit? It's hard to tell what Labour really thinks about Brexit. Or at least it's been hard to tell, until Barry Gardiner let slip that the Labour's stated policy position is "bollocks". That situation is that while (1) the Labour Party campaigned to remain in the EU, (2) the referendum vote went against them. What has been tricky has been reconciling these two opposing realities. Leaving the EU will be detrimental to the country as

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 the potential to ground the Labour Party for good. The Labour Party has fared worse from the vote to leave the EU than any other party. That might seem like hyperbole considering that the Conservatives had their Prime Minister resign less than a year after winning a first election victory for 18 years. Yet political power has a curiously cohesive quality and the Tories are still united - in public at least. The Labour Party faces an existential crisis for which the

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