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Newslinks for Friday 31st March 2017

Brexit: Davis says Britain will scrap EU ‘Charter of Fundamental Rights’…

Brexiteers Davis

Brexiteers Davis

“EU rules blamed for making it harder to keep out foreign criminals and terror suspects are to be axed as part of a bid to restore sovereignty to the UK. David Davis told MPs that the vast majority of EU laws would be transferred on to the statute book in a Great Repeal Bill designed to ensure a ‘smooth and orderly’ Brexit. But he said ministers would take the opportunity to ditch the controversial Charter of Fundamental Rights, which has been blamed for hampering the fight against crime and terrorism.” – Daily Mail
  • Brexit Secretary accused of ‘power grab’ over EU law – The Times (£)
  • Ministers and businesses line up against ‘bonfire’ of rules – FT
  • Top judge warns that Government may get dragged back to the Supreme Court – The Independent

Opposition:

  • Remainers plan ‘legislative warfare’ and fresh legal challenge to Repeal Bill – Daily Mail
  • May faces battle with Remoaners over fate of EU legislation – The Sun
  • Sturgeon threatens to block Bill if powers aren’t devolved – Daily Telegraph

Law:

  • Legal battles will rise after ‘copy and paste’ of statutes – The Times (£)
  • European Court of Justice rulings will still carry weight – FT

Analysis:

  • The Repeal Bill white paper is not bad, but flimsy – David Allen Green, FT

Editorial:

>Yesterday:

…as Fox ‘seething’ at exclusion from inner circle

“Liam Fox has been locked out of Theresa May’s inner circle on Brexit negotiations, No10 announced last night. The International Trade Secretary has not been asked to join the PM’s new Cabinet committee on how to carry out the high stakes ‘Article 50’ exit talks over the next two years. Dr Fox was said by one Whitehall insider to be “seething” about the decision last night.The prominent Leave campaigner is the only one of the Three Brexiteer Cabinet ministers with specific EU exit-related jobs to be excluded.The PM will chair meetings of the ultra-tight group of five, officially known as the EU Exit and Trade (Negotiations) sub-committee.” – The Sun

  • May celebrated Article 50 by dining with Johnson – The Times (£)
  • Prime Minister writes in EU newspapers – The Sun
  • Britain calms nerves over security cooperation – The Guardian

Europe:

  • Hollande backs Merkel’s snub to trade talks – The Times (£)
  • EU blasted for failing to deal with worsening migrant crisis – Daily Express

Analysis:

  • Wishful thinking won’t deliver the deal there is to be done – Tim Harford, FT
  • If May pays the EU £50bn, the backlash will drown out the deal – Asa Bennett, Daily Telegraph
  • Tough EU line undermined by ‘neighbourliness’ rule – Patrick Christys, Daily Express
  • London will remain Europe’s financial capital despite Brexit – Nils Pratley, The Guardian

>Today:

>Yesterday:

…and Soubry says to ‘get on’ with setting up a new party

Lib Con 1

Lib Con 1

“A pro-Remain Tory MP has indicated she may be open to joining a “moderate, sensible, forward-thinking” new party. Anna Soubry, a former business minister, has been a vocal opponent of the government’s handling of Brexit and its decision not to keep Britain inside the EU’s single market. Asked about the prospect of a political realignment by the New Statesman, she said: “If it could somehow be the voice of a moderate, sensible, forward-thinking, visionary middle way, with open minds – actually things which I’ve believed in all my life – better get on with it.” Nick Clegg, who was seen chatting on the Labour frontbench yesterday, also declined to rule out a new party.” – The Times (£)
  • UK customs risks being swamped by Brexit surge – FT
  • Former senior UK diplomat to EU takes lobbying role – The Guardian
  • Adams urges Irish government to publish ‘negotiating position’ – Belfast Telegraph
  • Argentina tries to use Brexit to threaten Falklands – Daily Express

Comment:

  • May offers a lifeline to we Remainers who forgot how ordinary people live – Tina Stowell, Daily Telegraph

Julian Jessop: The ‘Great Repeal Bill’ won’t repeal anything without sunset clauses

“In this case, British laws based on EU directives could simply cease to apply after, say, five or ten years, unless they are specifically reaffirmed through the UK legislative process. This would put the burden of proof firmly on the shoulders of those who wish to retain regulation. It would allow parliament to debate and change legislation later if desired, addressing the concerns about sovereignty. And it should still provide the reassurance to households and business that worthwhile regulations will be maintained.” – Daily Telegraph

  • Now is not the time to cut the number of MPs – Tom Harris, Daily Telegraph
  • Six ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you – John Rentoul, The Independent

Sketch:

  • MPs set to work… but what was Clegg whispering about? – Quentin Letts, Daily Mail
  • Watch out Davis, or the backbench Brexiteers will get you – Michael Deacon, Daily Telegraph

Ministers 1) Tech companies agree to get tougher on terror after Rudd summit

Computer

Computer

“Technology giants have pledged to join forces in efforts to tackle terrorist content online following a summit with the Home Secretary. Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft committed to explore options for a cross-industry forum and step up collaboration on technical tools that aim to identify and remove extremist propaganda. The plans were announced after a meeting between senior executives from the four firms, as well as figures from other companies, and Amber Rudd.” – Daily Mail
  • The Home Secretary’s tough talk to tech firms is a PR win for both – Alex Hern, The Guardian
  • Israel can teach us how to counter the new terrorism – Will Quince, Times Red Box

Ministers 2) Greening insists that new grammars will help bright, poorer children catch up

“A wave of new grammars will help stop bright poor children going on to earn less than dimmer wealthier classmates, Justine Greening said yesterday. The Education Secretary added that more selective schools could transform the lives of deprived pupils by giving them the same access to academic excellence. In a speech on social mobility, she spoke of the unfairness that clever deprived students are around a third less likely to earn a high wage than less intelligent richer peers. Ministers plan to overturn a ban on opening grammars imposed by Labour in 1998.” – Daily Mail

  • Pupils from wealthy homes tend to earn more – FT

More education:

  • SATs for seven-year-olds to be scrapped after u-turn by ministers – Daily Mail

>Yesterday: Local Government: Restoring order to the classroom

Ministers 3) Grayling has ‘absolute confidence’ in HS2 as project ‘plunges into chaos’

high-speed rail

high-speed rail

“High Speed 2 was plunged into chaos today as its top boss walked out amid a sleaze scandal and furious MPs demanded a public inquiry into the Government’s £55 billion project. Director General David Prout quit just hours after a dodgy £170 million contract to build part of the track was pulled because it had been awarded to a company with close ties to senior HS2 execs. Furious MPs demanded a public inquiry into the mess, but Transport Secretary Chris Grayling hit back claiming it was “not a massive issue” and claimed to have “absolute confidence in the project.” Tonight snubbed engineering firm Mace threatened to Judicially Review the decision.” – The Sun

Ministers 4) Truss launches review of new car insurance rules

“A major review was launched yesterday into a controversial personal injury compensation scheme after anger that it is penalising millions of drivers. Liz Truss unveiled an urgent consultation following a backlash over a new formula for calculating payouts for victims that added up £300 to the premiums of older drivers. Despite insisting she will not reverse the shake-up in the short-term, the Justice Secretary unveiled a wide-ranging review of the rate for deciding cash claims in future. She suggested the current system was ‘not fit for purpose’.” – Daily Mail

>Yesterday: Profile: Elizabeth Truss, who does not quite know how to talk to the judges, and vice-versa

Sturgeon formally requests a second referendum

SNP logo white background

SNP logo white background

“A letter formally requesting a second Scottish independence referendum signed by Nicola Sturgeon and dispatched to Theresa May is expected to arrive at Downing Street later. The Scottish Government tweeted a picture of the First Minister with her feet on a couch in her Bute House residence writing the Section 30 letter on Thursday evening. MSPs voted by 69 to 59 this week in favour of seeking permission for an independence referendum to take place between autumn 2018 and spring 2019. Ms Sturgeon said her mandate for another vote was “beyond question”, and warned it would be ‘’democratically indefensible and utterly unsustainable’’ to attempt to stand in the way.” – The Scotsman
  • A permanent cacophony of grievance from the SNP – Brian Wilson, The Scotsman

Philip Collins: May needs to distribute power around the country

“It is no wonder that regional inequality in Britain is vastly greater than it is in any other European nation. All the big decisions in politics, economics, law and the media are made in one place. A poorly located city in the country’s southeast corner is the entry point for most visitors. When Disraeli was extolling the virtues of Manchester, the economic powerhouse was in the north and the political powerhouse was in the south. Theresa May has been accused of wanting to turn the clock back to the Fifties. As long as she means the 1850s there is nothing wrong with that.” – The Times (£)

News in Brief:

  • Armed Forces face £10bn shortfall after costs soar – The Times (£)
  • NHS plans weekend GPs for everyone by 2019 – Daily Mail
  • Trump’s fired national security adviser seeks immunity to testify – Daily Telegraph
  • Ofcom to introduce price controls on fibre products – FT
  • Low-income worker priced out of property market in most of England – The Sun
  • Anti-Semitism allegations putting almost a third of voters off Labour – The Independent
  • Dozens of alleged hacking victims join action against Sun publisher – The Guardian
  • Royal Marines may be sacrificed to keep struggling Navy afloat – The Times (£)
read more

Conservatives

Iain Dale: May moves Article 50 – and the BBC plunges into a period of national mourning

Iain Dale is Presenter of LBC Drive, Managing Director of Biteback Publishing, a columnist and broadcaster and a former Conservative Parliamentary candidate.

Listening to the BBC coverage of triggering Article 50 earlier this week, you’d have thought that we were entering a period of national mourning.

It started with the Today programme, which relished interviewing anyone who had anything negative to say – and believe me, most of their carefully-chosen guests did. In the section I listened to they had one pro-Leave business guest. She was given all of two minutes to make her case. The five or six Remainers were left to witter on with hardly a challenge from the presenters.

We’re going to have two more years of this. But the die is cast. Article 50 has been triggered; there is no going back. I had hoped that there would be a realisation from the likes of Nick Clegg and Hilary Benn that the course to take now is unite behind Brexit, and make the best of it. I suppose it was always a forlorn hope. Clegg seems to have cast himself as Remainer in Chief, having declared that “the phoney war is now over”, and that Brexiteers must be held to account “for their false promises”.

If he wishes to go to war with the British people over the way they voted, that’s up to him. We should admire those who stick to their principles – but we shouldn’t have any truck with politicians who fight the battles of the last war. Everyone’s attentions should now be directed to how we make a success of Brexit – or if you are of a less optimistic persuasion, make the best of a bad job.

– – – – – – – – – –
It says a lot about the state of the British media that on the day before Article 50 was triggered, all we could talk about were the respective legs of the Prime Minister and the Scotland First Minister. Who’d have thighed it?

– – – – – – – – –

I wonder when Keir Starmer looks himself in the mirror – and with that gelled hair, he must do so quite often – does he see the reflection of John Moore staring back at him

– – – – – – – – – –

A lot has been written about the rise in inflation during the last few weeks. Those who know nothing about economics appear to attribute it all to Brexit and the fall in the pound.

The truth is more simple. Since Brexit, the price of oil has risen by about 60 per cent, and the effect has now begun to come through in the inflation figures.

Were the rise in inflation all connected to Brexit, the rate would be far higher. In fact, it’s only 0.1% higher than Germany’s rate, and on a par with that of most of the rest of the main EU economies.

– – – – – – – – – –

Alex Salmond is a genial cove. I host him every Wednesday afternoon for a half-hour phone-in on LBC. He and Nicola Sturgeon are adamant that Scotland should have its own deal, since voted to Remain by 62 per cent to 38 per cent.

I am sure that Salmond genuinely believes the case he is making. And of course, I am also sure that if Dumfries & Galloway or the Borders vote in a second Independence referendum vote to remain in the UK, he’d also allow them their own special deal to stay in the UK. And pigs might fly.

– – – – – – – – – –

There were two new books out this week which may be of interest to ConservativeHome readers. Sayeeda Warsi has written a book called The Enemy Within, which is allegedly how some people described her when she was a minister in the Cameron government.

It’s certainly not a kiss-and-tell account of her time in government.  Instead, it’s a thoughtful tome about the place of Muslims in Britain today. It’s incredibly well-researched (and heavily footnoted), and I hope it gets a much wider readership than simply Muslims who are interested to read about the views of Britain’s first Muslim cabinet minister. It deserves to.

Douglas Carswell has also written a weighty tome called Rebel. It’s a call to arms to overthrow what he calls the oligarchs and political interests that control our society. It’s a powerful polemic, and ought to have a readership across the political spectrum. It’s certainly not a right-wing treatise; indeed, at times you think you’re reading the words of someone on the far left.

Some of his solutions for dealing with out-of-control capitalism could come from the pen of Jeremy Corbyn. Indeed, if the latter has any sense, he will read this book and adopt a lot of its conclusions. But as I say, the key phrase there is “if he has any sense”. No doubt he and his little helper Seumas Milne couldn’t bring themselves to read a single word of a book they would regard as being written by someone on the extreme right. And therein lies their problem. Carswell is far more in tune with the views of the ordinary Brit than they ever will be.

– – – – – – – – – –

I like interviewing Amber Rudd, although I don’t do it that often. On Wednesday, she was on my LBS show talking about triggering Article 50. I asked her if she thought that people on both sides should moderate their language and stop the insults.

“Yes,” she said: “they should”. I immediately retorted, “Well, that’s enough about you and Boris.” She giggled and said: “Well, I rather let myself in for that one, didn’t I?” Good on her. It’s a pity that more politicians don’t react in the same way rather than go all hoity-toity.

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Conservatives