31 May 2018 Lens on the Week UK BREXIT: As the row within the Cabinet about Britain’s relationship with the customs union rages on, the manufacturers association EEF has said that max fac, one of the two possible approaches, is not credible. The chief executive of EEF Stephen Phipson has said in a letter to… Continue reading Issue 156: 2018 05 31: Lens on the Week
Article Category: Lens on the Week
Issue 154: 2018 05 17: Lens on the Week
17 May 2018 Lens on the Week UK BREXIT: The debate within the Cabinet over the best form of customs partnership to pursue rumbles on, the contenders being the system which combines the collection of tariffs at EU rates with a repayment of the excess over UK rates where goods are consumed here (a system… Continue reading Issue 154: 2018 05 17: Lens on the Week
Issue 153: 2018 05 10: Lens on the Week
10 May 2018 Lens on the Week UK BREXIT TENSIONS: Mrs May should have a print of the Greek hero Ulysses on her wall. It was he who, on his way back from the siege of Troy, had to sail through the straits between the hazards of Scylla and Charybdis, getting through them with the… Continue reading Issue 153: 2018 05 10: Lens on the Week
Issue 152: 2018 05 03: Lens on the Week
3 May 2018 Lens on the Week UK CUSTOMS UNION: The vexed topic of the Customs Union continues to dominate the Brexit debate. On the table for Wednesday’s cabinet was the Customs Partnership, an arrangement under which Britain would collect tariffs on imports at the EU rate and then refund the difference between those rates… Continue reading Issue 152: 2018 05 03: Lens on the Week
Issue 150: 2018 04 19: Lens on the Week
19 April 2018 Lens on the Week UK MESS OF THE WEEK: Mrs May and Amber Rudd have had a busy week apologising for the sinister mess the Government has made in dealing with the Windrush migrants who, despite having a legal right to be in the UK, have been threatened with deportation and, possibly,… Continue reading Issue 150: 2018 04 19: Lens on the Week
Issue 149: 2018 04 12: Lens on the Week
12 April 2018 Lens on the Week UK MRS MAY’S HESITATION: In the next few days Britain will have to decide whether to participate in the US’s airstrikes against Syria in response to the chemical attack in Douma. So far it has been France which has taken the initiative, egging Trump on and offering its support. … Continue reading Issue 149: 2018 04 12: Lens on the Week
Issue 148: 2018 04 05: Lens on the Week
5 April 2018 Lens on the Week UK DPP: Comments made in materials obtained by the charity, Centre for Criminal Appeals, through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Crown Prosecution Inspectorate and the Inspectorate of Constabulary reveal that the police have been routinely withholding information from defence lawyers to increase the chances of… Continue reading Issue 148: 2018 04 05: Lens on the Week
Issue 146: 2018 03 22: Lens on the Week
22 March 2018 Lens on the Week UK LABOUR DIVIDED: The election of Jenny Formby, a member of the trade union Unite, by whose general secretary she has had a child, as the new Secretary General of the Labour party seems destined to exacerbate the rift between moderates and the hard left. John Woodcock, the… Continue reading Issue 146: 2018 03 22: Lens on the Week
Issue 144: 2018 03 08: Lens on the week
08 March 2018 Lens on the Week UK BREXIT: Mrs May’s big speech on the Friday setting out the government breaks at strategy seems to have averted any immediate breach in the Parliamentary Conservative Party. WIGGINS: A report of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons states that Bradley Wiggins… Continue reading Issue 144: 2018 03 08: Lens on the week
Issue 142: 2018 02 22: Lens on the week
22 February 2018 Lens on the Week UK BREXIT HIGH NOON: The Government’s internal wrangling over Brexit is now focussed on the length of the transitional period. The European Research Group, a body chaired by Jacob Rees-Mogg and including among its members more than 60 Conservative MPs, has delivered a letter to the Prime Minister… Continue reading Issue 142: 2018 02 22: Lens on the week
Issue 141: 2018 02 15: Lens on the Week
15 February 2018 Lens on the Week UK PLASTICS: The Queen is banning single use plastics from the Royal Estates so that plastic straws will disappear from her palaces, as will plastic bottles. It is said that the inspiration came from her friendship with Sir David Attenborough but, however that be, the move is likely… Continue reading Issue 141: 2018 02 15: Lens on the Week
Issue 139:2018 02 01: Lens on the week
01 February 2018 Lens on the week UK REFERENDUM: Perhaps it is a shortage of hard news which has driven the press to focus heavily on the “increased prospect of” a further referendum on EU membership being held when the terms of the Brexit deal emerge. You would think that we had all learnt our… Continue reading Issue 139:2018 02 01: Lens on the week
Issue 138: 2018 01 25: Lens On The Week
25 January 2018 Lens on the Week UK MONEY FOR HEALTH: Rifts are beginning to open within the cabinet on health spending with Mr Johnson advocating an immediate increase of £100 million a week and the government wishing to leave the question of an increase until 2020, by which time we should know whether there… Continue reading Issue 138: 2018 01 25: Lens On The Week
