Displaying items by tag: Government
Brexit: results of Supreme Court’s decision
On Tuesday the Supreme Court gave the responsibility for Brexit back to Parliament. The consequences of that ruling are making themselves felt, the most important being the bill on triggering Article 50 that the Government published yesterday. Yet the bill is not the very first fruit of the court’s constitutionally unanswerable decision. Until she stood up at Prime Minister’s questions on Wednesday, Theresa May was also insisting there would be no white paper on Brexit goals either. Yet, faced with a newly empowered House of Commons, Mrs May has been forced into a U-turn on that refusal too. Within 48 hours, the Government has been compelled to take Parliament more seriously. Mrs May changed her mind because of parliamentary numbers. This Government has a working majority of only sixteen: if the main opposition parties can find common cause with pro-remain Conservative MPs, that majority is threatened. Note: Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland now have no formal power of veto over withdrawal.
PM refuses to comment on Trident
It has been reported that Theresa May was told about the test of a Trident missile that misfired less than a week before she held a House of Commons vote on renewing the £40bn nuclear system. This week she repeatedly refused to deny reports that a serious malfunction had occurred, saying the Government would not get into operational details. Downing Street is facing growing accusations of a cover-up, because on 18 July the Prime Minister stood up in the Commons to ask MPs to vote for the renewal of the Trident programme without telling them about any possible problems. In that debate, Mrs May said she would be willing to authorise a nuclear strike that could kill 100,000 people, and the Commons voted overwhelmingly to replace the programme.
Reactions to PM’s Brexit speech
In a confident and hard-hitting speech on Tuesday, Theresa May spoke of a ‘bold’ approach to the UK’s Brexit negotiations. She said that the UK will leave the European single market, retake control of immigration, strike its own trade deals, and refuse to be bound by rulings from the European Court of Justice. She also confirmed that MPs will put the final deal to a vote in both Houses of Parliament. In reaction to her speech, which one commentator described as ‘some of the most important words she will ever utter’, the value of the pound jumped sharply as traders were reassured that a firm strategy is now in place. However, others were much more critical, with a number of European leaders accusing the PM of attempting to ‘blackmail’ the EU. Also, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that a second Scottish referendum on independence is now ‘all but inevitable’; her government has repeatedly stressed its desire to stay in the EU single market. See
Monitoring Sunday schools?
An outcry by Christians over plans to register and inspect Sunday schools is forcing the Government to ‘tread carefully’ over the matter. A recent consultation of this matter received 18,000 responses. The Christian Institute, CARE, Christian Concern, Evangelical Alliance and Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship have been raising awareness about the proposals, and urged supporters to respond to the consultation when it was announced. The Government’s controversial plans were engineered by former education secretary Nicky Morgan in the wake of the Trojan Horse affair, and are part of a wider counter-extremism strategy. They propose giving Ofsted the legal power to investigate any setting in England that provides instruction to children for more than 6 to 8 hours in any week. This could include Sunday schools, youth groups, or one-off events such as holiday Bible clubs. They would also apply to a whole host of secular settings such as music lessons and drama groups.
Northern Ireland election likely after McGuinness quits
It seems almost inevitable that there will be an election in Northern Ireland, following deputy first minister Martin McGuinness’s resignation on Monday. This was after first minister Arlene Foster refused to step aside temporarily while an inquiry took place into the controversial ‘cash for ash’ renewable heat incentive scheme, which has turned out to be much more expensive than expected. Unless Sinn Féin nominates a replacement for McGuinness, which it has refused to do, an election has to be called. It is not certain if McGuinness will be a candidate in the expected elections: he has been diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called hereditary ATTR amyloidosis, which affects the nervous system and the heart to varying degrees. Medical experts say the disease progresses slowly.
EU ambassador’s surprise resignation
Sir Ivan Rogers, the British representative to the EU, has resigned from his position without warning, following disagreements with Theresa May’s team. His resignation leaves the Prime Minister without a senior experienced European negotiator, only weeks before Brexit talks are due to begin. One of the country’s most senior retired civil servants, Lord Macpherson, said that this sudden decision highlighted the Government’s ‘wilful and total’ destruction of its EU expertise. In a farewell message Sir Ivan, who had been criticised for being pessimistic about Britain’s future outside the EU, called on the staff of Britain’s mission in Brussels to ‘continue to challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking’. The Government has acted swiftly to deal with the crisis by appointing Sir Tim Barrow (former ambassador to Russia) as Sir Ivan’s successor. See:
Is UK aid ‘exporting the dole’?
Tory MP Nigel Evans has harshly criticised a foreign aid programme that hands money directly to Pakistan’s poorest people. Britain currently helps fund the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), which offered cash support to over 235,000 families across Pakistan in 2012 and could be helping 441,000 by 2020. The Department for International Development (DfID) argues that offering just over £10 a month to these families cuts out middlemen, reduces the risk of fraud, and minimises the cost of the programme. The budget for the transfers, which help people who live on less than £1 a day, has risen from £53 million in 2005 to an annual average of £219 million in the period 2011-2015. However, Evans has called on DfID to launch an urgent examination of the process, saying, ‘This should only be a temporary measure, but it seems as if we’re exporting the dole to Pakistan, which is clearly not a clever idea.’