Brexit sound bites and slogans will run out
- 26 January 2020
- From the section UK Politics
Image copyright
Reuters
At the risk of sounding like one of those people you hope won't sit next to you on the bus; you know the one?
The odd-looking character muttering away with tin foil wrapped round his head as a shield against government mind probes, here's a question: Has politics gone strangely quiet since the election? Or is that just what they want you to think?
Having spent some time talking to Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay on my BBC Radio 5 Live Sunday programme, Pienaar's Politics, it seems pretty obvious both things are true.
While government ministers and those behind them in No 10 Downing Street seem keen to fend off awkward detailed questions about the UK's post-Brexit future - or at least offer mostly superficial slogans and sound bites in return - the reason may simply be that they don't know the answers. Not yet. And not for some time.
How, for example, in talks on the future relationship with the European Union, can ministers insist Britain will set and enforce its own rules and standards on such things as workers' rights and conditions, on environmental safeguards, on food safety and animal welfare, while the EU insists these rules should always conform and comply with its own?
Read full article Brexit sound bites and slogans will run out
What's the political price of honesty?
- 19 January 2020
- From the section UK Politics
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AFP
Someone wise, or at least successful, once said: "The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you've got it made."
That immortal advice has been variously attributed to the great Groucho Marx, to the 1940s US comedian George Burns, to the French diplomat and writer Jean Giraudoux but never - ever - to the Labour MP and leadership contender Jess Phillips.
The tough questions facing the UK and US
- 12 January 2020
- From the section UK Politics
Image copyright
Reuters
Suddenly, the government and opposition are preoccupied with the head-achingly existential questions: "What are we here for? And where are we going?"
These are tough questions to be sure, which probably explains why, on both sides, there's a natural inclination to bring them up and then rapidly change the subject.
Are we witnessing the birth of Johnsonism?
- 20 December 2019
- From the section UK Politics
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UKParliament
"Getting Brexit done" turned out to be a useful slogan, and no doubt it helped Boris Johnson win the election.
But almost nothing in politics is truly simple - least of all Brexit.
Read full article Are we witnessing the birth of Johnsonism?
General election 2019: Let the Labour leadership battle commence
- 15 December 2019
- From the section Election 2019
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EPA
Brave infantrymen in the muddy trenches of the Great War would hurl themselves onto the barbed wire to allow their comrades to march over their backs and advance towards the guns of the enemy.
Can you imagine doing that? No, me neither.
Read full article General election 2019: Let the Labour leadership battle commence
General election 2019: A matter of mistrust?
- 8 December 2019
- From the section Election 2019
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PA Media
Do party leaders and politicians - British ones, mind you, not just dodgy foreigners - ever lie?
Well, you could perhaps duck the question and argue that our political leaders sometimes distort the truth.
Read full article General election 2019: A matter of mistrust?
PM distancing himself from years of Tory rule
- 1 December 2019
- From the section Election 2019
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Jeff Overs/BBC
After 10 years of Conservative rule blighted by austerity and Brexit-weariness, it takes an almost breathtaking audacity - hostile critics might say the brassiest neck in the business - to campaign for a fourth consecutive Tory term in office as the face of change.
It takes, in other words, Boris Johnson.
Read full article PM distancing himself from years of Tory rule
General election 2019: Flamboyant pledges fight a tide of public distrust
- 23 November 2019
- From the section Election 2019
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PA Media
Watching Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn do what they both do best - campaigning as if was a performing art - ought to have been a bit of a treat for politics watchers this week.
But it wasn't.
Read full article General election 2019: Flamboyant pledges fight a tide of public distrust
General election 2019: A campaign unlike any other?
- 16 November 2019
- From the section Election 2019
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PA Media
Labour's latest "retail offer" of free broadband for all showed - if it still needed showing - voters are being handed a choice of rival ideologies as stark as any we've seen since Margaret Thatcher took on Labour's Michael Foot in 1983.
Younger voters may imagine this is what normal politics looks like. It isn't. Or at least, it wasn't.
Read full article General election 2019: A campaign unlike any other?
General election 2019: Leaders worried trust is at stake
- 10 November 2019
- From the section Election 2019
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Getty Images
There's nothing new about politicians trying to please the crowd, or people lacking faith in politicians.
Back in 1834, when Westminster caught fire, a large crowd turned out to cheer on the fire.
Read full article General election 2019: Leaders worried trust is at stake
