John Bolton.This super-hawk who terrifies even hawks, should never have been appointed in the first place. Since he became NSA almost everything in US Diplomacy has failed. Iran, North Korea, Israel and the Palestinians, Afghanistan, China Trade War, the list goes on. Promises, expectations and many, many tweets but so little actual progress anywhere. The […]
We seem about to embark on a peculiar and entirely unnecessary democratic conflict which pits parliament against the people. But that is itself impossible because parliament IS the people. It is the only part of the whole structure of central government which is elected by the people, who send their representatives to Westminster to protect […]
The much vaunted Number Ten machine, made up of No Deal and Brexit fundamentalists, who believe themselves invincible, has suffered a catastrophic set of reverses. It has bust their brand, showed Johnson to be useless, handed control of the Commons to an unlikely alliance, which includes former Tories kicked out in a tantrum, led by […]
Apparently the young Boris Johnson, I am not certain how young, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, aimed high and replied World King. Well PM of GB is the closest he will get to his ambitious fantasy. Six weeks in and four days into his first encounter of parliament as […]
After what appeared to be a promising start, Boris has turned out to be what so many claimed he was, egocentric, shallow, unable to seek consensus, bullying and divisive. In other words an appalling prime minister. His whole game plan is in ruins and his government paralysed by an opposition alliance led by Corbyn, much […]
The Ruling that the government has not broken any law by its prorogation of parliament is in line with this blog’s position that this is a political, rather than a legal issue. An uncodified constitution which relies on convention, practice, precedent and some statutes, is hard to pin down in closely balanced disputes, of which […]
At first it looked quite good. A decisive, focused government, a prime minister with a mission, willing to take control and make decisions, a charm offensive at the G7, positive noises around Europe and the promise to listen by the EU, to any new GB proposals on the backstop and not least, the proclamation by […]
This is a holding blog in the middle of mounting commotion in the media, in Westminster, on the streets and in the courts. There is no doubt that the move to prorogue parliament to pave the way for a Queen’s Speech took the opposition by complete surprise. But it is also true that the strength, […]
The suspension, or proroguing, of parliament by the Queen would never have been approved by her, if it violated the constitution, because her many advisers and lawyers would have cautioned against it. Moreover it is following precedent and practice appropriate to the formation of a new government at a time of year when it is […]
Like the German smash through the Ardennes in 1940, scattering the Allied armies hither and thither which nobody saw coming, this proroguing of parliament followed by a Queen’s Speech establishing the new government’s credentials and programme for the country post Brexit, has caught all Westminster on hop. With a punch which makes the combined opposition, […]