13 October 2016
Week In Brief: UK
Government politics
BREXIT TERMS: A cross party group of MPs including Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband, Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer, Nicky Morgan and Anne Soubry is pressing for Parliamentary scrutiny of the Brexit terms. This would be a practical problem for the government who are anxious to keep their negotiating position secret, not something easily married to a Parliamentary debate. Mrs May claims that she can use the Royal prerogative, under which the government of the day has power to deal with international relations, to do a deal with the EU. Next week the courts will hear an application for a ruling that David Davies cannot give notice under article 50 of the Lisbon Agreement without Parliamentary authority. Those calling for scrutiny cite the need to comfort foreign investors by keeping them briefed on the progress of discussions.
AN ORTHODOX VIEW: Views are divided on whether it is right for the Queen to give a reception for Patriarch Krill when he visits the UK on Saturday. On a formal level, one would expect Her Majesty, as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, to entertain the Russian Orthodox leader on his first visit to Britain. The trouble is that he is something of a cheerleader for President Putin, himself Russian Orthodox, who is out of favour with Britain at the moment. Some, such as John Woodcock, who chairs Labour’s backbench defence committee, think that it is wrong to officially entertain the Putin adherent at the moment. Others believe that any form of diplomatic dialogue with Russia is worthwhile.
NAMING NAMES: Political and business leaders fell over each other to condemn Amber Rudd’s unfortunate suggestion the businesses relying heavily on foreign workers should be named and shamed. Education Secretary, Justine Greening has said that the data will not be published. Carolyn Fairbairn of the CBI says that attracting the best talent from around the world should be a source of pride and not shame.
THE JUDGEMENT OF GOVE: Michael Gove has compared his own behaviour to driving into a brick wall at 100 miles an hour and now regards his backing and subsequent knifing of Mr Johnson, the latter as part of his own attempt to snatch the party leadership, as an error of judgement. Perhaps no greater error, however, than talking about it.
SYRIAN TWITTER STORM: The Russian Embassy has responded to a call from Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for demonstrations against Russian bombing in Syria with a tweet asking what Britain had contributed to the conflict. Mr Johnson, in the course of a House of Commons emergency debate has refused to rule out supporting a no fly zone but has said that we could only commit to it if we are prepared to shoot down Russian aircraft. That is probably a “no” then. Mr Johnson asked why the “Stop the War Coalition” was not criticising Russian actions.
FRACKING: The grant of a licence to Cuadrilla to drill in Lancashire near Blackpool has run into vocal local opposition. Four exploratory wells are currently proposed. Local opponents claim that fracking could causes earthquakes, cancer and pollution despite scant evidence.
STUDENT LOANS: The Government has announced that EU students applying to study at British Universities next year will be eligible for student loans.
Party Politics
PUNCHING ABOVE THEIR WEIGHT: Nigel Farage is right to say that the fracas between Stephen Woolfe, pretender to the UKIP leadership crown, and Mike Hookem, their defence spokesman, “shouldn’t have happened”. Apart from anything else, British politicians scrapping in Strasbourg sets a bad example for the continentals. Still, one shouldn’t be too unsympathetic. UKIP must be destined for extinction now that its principal object has been achieved and those looking to abandon the sinking ship must expect angry flak from colleagues proposing to remain at their posts. That is why Woolfe’s flirtation with the Tories has caused so much upset, and the fact that Douglas Carswell, their one MP, is probably looking in the same direction can do little to ease the pain. Losing him would be like Leicester City losing Vardy.
From the other side of the chasm, Mrs May must see an opportunity. It isn’t just that defection by Carswell would increase the government’s slim majority by two, but more that if he defected to the Tories he might bring with him a substantial part of the vote from UKIP-land. If she could follow that by seducing some of the moderate Labour MPs with her reformist agenda, she could refresh her party without any need for a general election and reduce the influence of the Remain awkward squad. Still, no doubt there would be a price, a dowry to be paid.
SHUFFLING THE CARDS: Mr Corbyn has strengthened his grip over the Labour Party with a reshuffle which saw Diane Abbott promoted to shadow Home Secretary and Baroness Chakrabarty to shadow Attorney General. Out went Rose Winterton, the popular chief whip, despite support from Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband. Sideways went Clive Lewis, fresh from having his speech to conference on Trident altered on the autocue. He moves from defence to business. Moderates say that the reshuffle has reduced the chance of a negotiated peace within the party but there seemed little chance of that anyway as their views are fundamentally different from those of Mr Corbyn. In a surprising twist Mr Blair said that he believes that the centre ground will re-establish itself and has not ruled out taking a role to help the process along.
Two MPs have resigned from the whips office in protest at Mr Corbyn’s treatment of Rosie Winterton. Meanwhile Baroness Chakrabarty has told ITV that she lives in a nice big house and eats nice food but that her neighbours are homeless and go to food banks. Apparently she lives in Lambeth.
Health
NHS RESOURCES: Harrogate clinical commissioning group is proposing to defer hip and knee replacements for those whose body mass index exceeds 30 or are smokers. The delay of some six months is intended to let them lose weight or quit smoking and they would be offered help to do so. The proposals fly in the face of the response by NHS England to similar proposals from the Vale of York clinical commissioning group following a public outcry. It has also been criticised by the Royal College of Surgeons.
CARE HOMES: increasing costs, partly attributable to the introduction of the national living wage, have increased the costs, and reduced the profitability of, local authority care homes with the result that the number of beds has fallen to 235,799 from 255,289 in 2010. The Department of Health commented that more money was coming in through the Better Care Fund. Also councils may now increase council tax by 2% to help fund social care. Critics say it is not enough.
PERCY PAY OFF: NHS Improvement, the body charged with restructuring Southern Health, which failed to look into the unexpected deaths of 1000 disadvantaged people over four years, has authorised a payoff of £190,000 to ex-chief executive, Katrina Percy. Ms Percy was given an advisory role worth £240,000 a year after stepping down from the leadership of the trust. The regulators say that they had no choice but to pay the money to buy her out of that contract.
Miscellaneous
TRAINS WORSE: Commuters who use Southern Rail are suffering disruption as a result of a strike by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union. The union is objecting to the rebranding of conductors as on-board supervisors and the operation of the train doors being carried out by the drivers. The sticking point is, of course, proposals to introduce single operator trains and the union is seeking confirmation that there will always be two staff members aboard, citing safety grounds
CUT OFF: A man who snatched twenty-one phones in an hour has been sent to prison for more than three years. The snatching of mobile phones from pedestrians by thieves on motor scooters and bicycles has escalated, with 4136 recorded incidents in London in six months. That is an increase of almost 80% over the rate for last year.
TEST LOSS: Bangladesh beat England by 34 runs in the first game of a three test series.
