15 September 2016

Week in Brief: UK

Foreign Affairs

LIBYA: A report of the House of Commons Defence Committee has heavily criticised David Cameron’s role in the 2011 bombing campaign in Libya. Stating that the then Chief of Defence Staff, Lord Richards, disassociated himself from the claim that the operation was in the national interest, the report accuses Mr Cameron of allowing a humanitarian mission to morph into a campaign for regime change on the basis of flawed intelligence and without a plan for how Libya would be administered after the removal of Gaddafi. The latter point has also been made by President Obama. Among failures identified were a lack of awareness that there were Islamic extremists among the rebels, a failure to pursue diplomatic options, and the failure to secure the outgoing regime’s weapons despite Liam Fox, then Defence Secretary, stating that this was a priority. The Committee, which has a Conservative majority, has called for a review of the National Security Council, a body set up to prevent mistakes made in Iraq from being repeated.

JUNGLE: France is to disperse the inhabitants of the Calais jungle to a series of centres around the country.  Once there, consideration will be given to whether they are entitled to reside in France, should be returned to the countries at which they first arrived in the EU or should be deported. The total number of people living in the jungle at Calais and Dunkirk is estimated at 12,000.

BREXIT: David Davis, who is to lead the Brexit negotiations with the EU, has said that the government will not be able to outline its thinking on its negotiating position in full before the Article 50 notice is served early next year.  To do so would undermine its negotiating position.

FREE MOVEMENT: Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond has told the House of Lord’s Economic Affairs Committee that European financiers will be exempt from curbs on the free movement of workers. He is anxious to reassure the City that it will be allowed to continue to do business much as before.

FOX INSULT: Liam Fawkes has been recorded telling activists that British businessmen have become fat, lazy and more interested in playing golf than creating markets.  Critics suggest that he is trying to pass the blame for any economic downturn which results from the Brexit decision (for which he campaigned) to someone other than himself. See feature Wrong Diagnosis and Wrong Prescription, Dr Fox.

Mr Fox is also said to have clashed with Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, over whether his department or the foreign office should deal with economic diplomacy, his view being that the latter is insufficiently mercantile.

Home Affairs

CYBER SECURITY: A new National Cyber Security Centre is being set up by GCHQ to provide firewalls to guard against cyber attack. It is planned to block malware and also sites which mimic those of the government and respected institutions. Once the system has been trialled it will be offered to consumers.

HINKLEY POINT: Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, has suggested that it may be possible to proceed with Hinkley point without also backing a reactor at Bradwell on Sea, Essex, which would use Chinese technology. Concern about the Bradwell deal has been seen as a major obstacle to government approval of Hinkley point.

TAX CREDITS:  The contract under which HMRC employs the American outsourcing firm Concentrix to stop fraudulent claims for tax credits will not be renewed when it comes to an end next year. 6000 people had their tax credits incorrectly stopped in the last six months.

BBC: Rona Fairhead, head of the BBC trust, will not be applying to become head of the corporation’s board. Originally she had been asked to take the role by Mr Cameron but Teresa May has said that she would have to apply for it.

CAMERON RESIGNATION: David Cameron has announced that he is to stand down as an MP, relinquishing his seat of Witney, where he has a 25,155 majority. He is to write his memoirs but has decided not to take up directorships in the private sector.

DEPORTATION: The European Court of Justice has ruled that Britain cannot deport the daughter-in-law of hate preacher Abu Hamza, convicted of trying to smuggle a sim card into a high security prison, unless she constitutes a “genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat” because she is the sole carer of her son who is an EU citizen.

Parliament

BOUNDARY CHANGES: Under proposals published by the Boundary Commission, the number of seats in the House of Commons will be cut by 50 to 600 at the next general election. The plans, on which there will be a vote in 2018, are designed to equalise the size of constituencies so that each is within 5% of the average of 74,769 voters.  It is estimated that Labour would lose twenty-five seats under the proposals and the Conservatives about ten seats.  The changes will leave the number of MPs below the number of peers eligible to sit in the House of Lords which will boost calls for Lords reform. The inevitable reshuffling of constituencies should also make it easier for the Labour Party to deselect MPs whose views are not in line with party policies.

Criticism of the proposals focuses on the fact that the data used is that for December and does not take into account those who registered to vote this year in the run-up to the Euro referendum.

PARLIAMENT: A committee co-chaired by Baroness Stowell of Beeston has recommended that the Houses of Parliament should be closed for six years from 2022 to allow renovation.  During this period the House of Commons would move to Richmond House and the House of Lords to the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre.  The level of asbestos in the Houses of Parliament has added greatly to the work required and has helped to persuade the committee that vacating the premises is essential.

Education

SCHOOLS REFORM: The government has published a consultative document proposing to lift the ban on the creation of new grammar schools which has been in place since 1998 [see comment Grammar Schools].  It also proposes to remove the requirement that Faith Schools which are academies or opened under the free schools programme must offer 50% of their places to non-faith applicants.  That restriction has never applied to voluntary-aided faith schools and is regarded as ineffective.  Instead there will be a series of requirements, such as twinning with non-faith schools, designed to ensure an open education.

As a further part of the suggested package, private schools, in return for charitable status, and universities, in return for the ability to charge pupils fees exceeding £6000 a year, will be expected to assist the state school system by sponsoring academies, providing bursaries, giving help with teaching, providing expertise and facilities, etc.

General

DRUG DEATHS: There were 3674 deaths from drug poisoning in England and Wales last year, a record figure. About two thirds of those involved illegal drugs. It is thought that increased purity of drugs may be a cause of the increase.

SNORTING: It turns out that an officer of the Coldstream Guards, who was photographed snorting powder off his sword in the mess, was merely taking snuff.  The mess snuff box is made from the hoof of Marengo, the horse ridden by Napoleon in Russia and at Waterloo.

BAKE OFF: Channel 4 has outbid the BBC by offering to pay £25 million per series for “The Great British Bake Off”. However Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc, who host the show, have said that they will not follow it to Channel 4 and Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood have yet to make their positions clear.

CRICKET: Eoin Morgan and Alex Hales have withdrawn from the one-day cricket team’s tour of Bangladesh because of concerns about security. The remainder of the team are going and it is expected that wicket-keeper Joss Buttler will captain the side. The decision to withdraw has been criticised by former players including Michael Vaughan, but Buttler and other players say that they respect the decision and hope that Morgan will return to lead the team to India.

 

If you enjoyed this article please share it using the buttons above.

Please click here if you would like a weekly email on publication of the ShawSheet