George Eustice says rival Rishi Sunak has made clear there will be no compromise on welfare standards
Liz Truss has refused to recognise the importance of animal welfare in post-Brexit trade deals, the environment secretary has said.
George Eustice was speaking at the Conservative Environment Network Tory leadership hustings on behalf of Rishi Sunak, and said he faced “challenges” in trying to get Truss to enshrine animal welfare in trade deals.
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Meryl tempts our taste buds with a delicious offering of Gateau from Basque Country - with cream or cherries?
Yorkshire Bylines Local News: A slice of Gateau Basque
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It’s their first time sitting national exams, after several years of covid disruption, and now their A-levels could be downgraded
Yorkshire Bylines Local News: A-level students told to prepare for disappointment: when will these students catch a break?
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Adrian asks if Johnson knew - or his successor will know - how to drive a car properly or run the country fairly.
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A conversation at a Scarborough cricket match turns to the question of how we ‘elect’ prime ministers in the UK
Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Who was the most recent prime minister to be elected in to and out of office at a general election?
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A multi-sports taster event by York Sight Loss Council is taking place to allow blind and partially sighted people to get involved in sports
Yorkshire Bylines Local News: York multi-sports taster event for blind and partially sighted people
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Lord Frost's vision of the future is one of deregulation, free-market economics and a dramatically reduced welfare state
Yorkshire Bylines Local News: David Frost’s chilling vision
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Over a year ago, on 19 July 2021, the Johnson government proclaimed “Freedom Day” and laws in England requiring masks to be worn in shops and other indoor settings lapsed, along with capacity limits in bars and restaurants, and rules limiting the number of people who can socialise together. This was in no way supported […]
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Hull could soon be bidding farewell to Tecoil Polaris, a ship with one of the most colourful recent histories of any currently in its waters
Yorkshire Bylines Local News: From Russia to Hull and on to Turkey: the curious case of the Tecoil Polaris
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Farming union chief says situation ‘nothing short of a travesty’, as crops also hit by drought and record heat
As much as £60m of food has been wasted on farms because of a labour shortage, according to the National Farmers’ Union, which found at least £22m of fruit and vegetables had been wasted so far this year.
The NFU said 40% of respondents to a survey of its members said they had suffered crop losses as a result of labour shortages, with farms 14% short of the size of the workforce they needed on average. The problems were worsened by some staff not turning up for work or quitting early.
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It used to be fun holidaying with the French, but now the rest of Europe doesn’t seem to know what to make of us
It used to be a reliable middle-class hack: if you wanted a zero-effort holiday, with no decisions except whether to have a pina colada or a beer, you went somewhere French-run and all-inclusive. The business model relies upon a large number of abstemious French people who prefer aqua aerobics, and a small but noticeable number of quietly extravagant British people. Then you would chat to them in halting French, and they would take over in much more expert English.
French parenting is incredibly harsh, and the swimming pool resounds to the sound of: “Non, crétin!” Who knows what this does to the long-term adult prospects of the three-year-old miscreants, but it makes the bar incredibly peaceful and nice, since only the kids who aren’t carrying on are in there. This is the way it’s been for years.
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Who is Liz Truss? So bad she’s funny, or a wolf in Thatcherite clothing? Whatever she may be, she’s likely to be bad news for the UK
Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Dizzie Lizzie: the baffling, shapeshifting rise of the politician poised to become Britain’s next prime minister
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By Daniele Archibugi, Rinaldo Evangelista and Antonio Vezzani Since the release of the Lisbon Strategy in 2000, fostering science, technology, innovation, and human capital have been considered key ingredients of all subsequent EU strategies aimed at achieving a cohesive and competitive European Union. In recent years, regions have steadily increased their relevance as key spatial […]
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UPDATED. David Davis famously said there would be no downsides to Brexit only considerable upsides. Here we keep a tally.
Yorkshire Bylines Local News: The Davis Downside Dossier
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The Tories need to kick their blame habit; it’s making the rest of us sick.
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AB Wyze shares his shopping strategy
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Members of a group known as the North Atlantic Fellas Organization have been raising money for Ukraine while countering Russian propaganda
Yorkshire Bylines Local News: The doges of war: how a Twitter meme is helping fight the Russian war in Ukraine
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Data shows just 43,000 EU citizens received visas for work, family, study or other purposes in 2021
The number of EU citizens moving to the UK has plunged since Brexit closed the doors to low-paid workers, according to a report.
The dramatic decline in migration from the EU has hit hospitality and support services hard. But the Migration Observatory (MO) at the University of Oxford and ReWage, a group of independent experts, have said that while Brexit “exacerbated” chronic labour shortages in Britain, it was not the only cause.
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Last year, Ukrainians helped plug post-Brexit labour shortages. With the focus now on Asia, it’s unclear who should police issues such as illegal broker fees
As a Guardian investigation reports that Indonesian workers picking fruit for leading UK supermarkets have ended up with debts of up to £5,000 for a single season, we look at what is driving a crisis in British agricultural labour and how exploitation can be avoided.
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As farms look further afield for labour, investigation finds Kent pickers saying they struggle to pay fees charged by unlicensed brokers
Indonesian labourers picking berries on a farm that supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco say they have been saddled with debts of up to £5,000 by unlicensed foreign brokers to work in Britain for a single season.
Pickers at the farm in Kent were initially given zero-hours contracts, and at least one was paid less than £300 a week after the cost of using a caravan was deducted, according to payslips and other documents seen as part of a Guardian investigation.
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Time has run out: the ice caps are melting, forests are burning and cities are running out of water. The attention of Parliament and the media is elsewhere, totally uninterested in the Climate Emergency. If we are to face this challenge we must address the lack of representation and accountability in Parliament. This article builds […]
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Sheffield and Leeds join Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham as candidates to host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest
Yorkshire Bylines Local News: Could the Eurovision Song Contest be coming to Yorkshire?
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Transferring critically endangered species within Europe to broaden the gene pool is more difficult with Britain outside the EU
Breeding programmes designed to save critically endangered species are being jeopardised by Brexit, with zoos warning they are being prevented from transferring animals such as rhinos and giraffes by red tape created by the UK’s departure from the EU.
The animal health regulation was passed in 2016 before the EU referendum, but came into force in April 2021. There have been no reports that the UK dissented from the regulation.
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Rishi Sunak is a very wealthy man. As a candidate for Prime Minister, this means he’s detached from the consequences of his actions.
The post Rishi Sunak’s ignorance of consequences is dangerous appeared first on Central Bylines.
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The Conservative leadership hustings move to Belfast next week. It will be time to choose between pragmatism and dogmatism
There are three reasons why Northern Ireland has not rated many mentions in the Conservative leadership contest so far. The first is that the standoff with the European Union over the Brexit Northern Ireland protocol is currently dwarfed by the severity of the energy price crisis. The second is that most Tory party members, who are overwhelmingly English, are not interested in Northern Ireland. The third is that Rishi Sunak does not want to let Liz Truss turn the issue into a test of Brexit zealotry that she would win.
Next week, however, the evasions will end as the leadership hustings move to Belfast. In less than a month, the new prime minister will also need to engage with Northern Ireland issues, whether they want to or not. That’s because the stalemate is damaging the Northern Ireland economy. It is also holding the power-sharing governance of Northern Ireland hostage. It is souring relations between the UK and the Irish Republic; helping, perhaps, to boost Sinn Féin in the south. And it is standing in the way of a practical post-Brexit relationship with the EU and the Biden administration.
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In this sixth instalment of her diary, Lynda Tavakoli writes about her endeavours in the kitchen
The post This writer’s life: a diary. Part 6: Anyone for carbonara? appeared first on Central Bylines.
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The two candidates are bidding for support from Conservative party members ahead of the final vote for the next PM
Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, has used an article in today’s Guardian to propose that the government should halt the increases in the energy price cap planned for later this year and next year and, if necessary, take energy companies into public ownership to ensure that they keep prices down.
Alongside the Lib Dem plan, with which it has some similarities (they also want a price cap freeze, and more money raised through a windfall tax), it is the most radical and ambitious proposal on the table to tackle the energy bills crisis.
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Michael O’Leary warns of rising cost of fuel and says policymakers need to get inflation back to about 2%
The boss of Ryanair has warned the era of ultra-low airfares is over and said Brexit is partly to blame for a shortage of airport workers that has created chaos during the peak holiday period.
The airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said surging oil prices would make it impossible to keep offering promotional tickets for less than €10 (£8.50). He added that Ryanair’s average fare would rise from about €40 towards €50 over the next five years as the company adjusted to rising inflation.
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As the attention of the European public opinion has turned to Ukraine, it is our duty and responsibility not to leave the accession plans for the Balkans fall into oblivion, writes Marilena Koppa. Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash. Nineteen years after the Thessaloniki Summit that offered an accession perspective to the Western Balkans, the […]
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Local activists will use the Tory Party Hustings at Cheltenham Racecourse to publicisethe appalling rise in the need for Food Banks. They are inviting local people to bringfood bank donations to a collection point at the Cheltenham Racecourse entrance tothe Hustings at 6.00pm on Thursday 11 August. Donations will then be distributedurgently to food banks […]
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Groups such as Walt Disco are struggling to make ends meet – or giving up – because of new obstacles, a musicians’ charity says
Night after night, the Beatles honed their harmonies in the clubs of Hamburg.
But now, British bands trying to fine-tune their sound by playing in Europe are struggling to make ends meet – or giving up entirely – because of the barriers created by Brexit, a charity for musicians has said.
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A poem from Shirley Martin
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Analysis: Conservative contest has featured number of changes and clarifications by Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak
Party leadership races often involve candidates adjusting policies on the hoof, and so tend to have more than the usual share of U-turns. . Here are some highlights.
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I see Boris Johnson has finally celebrated his wedding - how many’s that now?
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Mark Vaughan interviews Cat about living with myalgic encephalomyelitis and looks at funding and treatment issues.
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Meanwhile £700m of support funds in business rates relief remains unpaid by local councils
Debt repayments, staff shortages and rising energy bills have pushed almost two-thirds of the UK’s top 100 restaurants into the red, according to research that reveals the impact of the pandemic, Brexit and the cost of living crisis on the hospitality sector.
With a recession looming and further increases in energy bills weighing on businesses, a separate report found that £700m of business rates relief remains unpaid with only half of English councils paying out the support funds.
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There is a now a strong case for radically transforming the relationship between Government and the Private Sector, so that the partnership is much more one between equals, where the Civil Service is strengthened, risks are shared more equably, and societal objectives and national interests, not just private profit, take a prominent place at the front of partnerships and contracts with the private secto
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Ministers and public bodies have been forced to change course by the courts in a range of major policy areas
Judicial reviews have been used to successfully challenge decisions made by the government and other bodies in key areas. Here are some examples of recent ones.
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The Tory leadership contenders are pursuing a dangerous nirvana of low taxation while ignoring the damage inflicted by leaving the EU
Britain is rapidly entering its worst economic crisis since the 1970s, but it is a crisis hardly discussed by the two rightwing Conservative politicians vying for the premiership.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) and the Bank of England have both pronounced that we are entering a recession that could last for much of next year. This will serve to aggravate already serious economic, industrial and social problems, with goodness knows how much public unrest.
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We’ve all been there. Somehow, seeing somebody else struggling with a problem convinces us that we could solve it. Brexit is a problem which we are about to see our fourth Tory prime minister in six years try to solve. What is noteworthy about the latest contenders, and their predecessors, is that they bid to […]
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British pedigree livestock breeders may have to invest in their own ‘red tape’ facilities in France to reach EU market
British farmers exporting livestock to the continent are trying to set up facilities for “red tape” checks by vets in France costing millions of pounds – and may even pay for it themselves.
Breeders in Britain are unable to export their pedigree cattle, sheep and pigs to the EU because no one has built any border control posts where vets can check the animals before they enter the single market.
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Trevor Russel discusses a recent report by the Charity Commission on whether we can trust charities with our money or not.
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As a wheelchair user there was quite a lot of work involved in my going to watch the Commonwealth Games. Rearranging my carer so I could leave early enough. Booking assistance with a ramp for the train. Hoping they’d actually turn up with the ramps at all the stations. Building in extra time in case […]
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The Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, Khalid Mahmood, has been found by an employment tribunal to have unfairly dismissed his parliamentary aide and former lover.
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The Astley Walk library in Newcastle-under-Lyme will be launched by a three-day event, featuring arts events for all the family.
The post Fabulous Fancies brings former shop back to life as a community library appeared first on Central Bylines.
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We observe an arrogant and entitled superiority from Government ministers, MPs, and their supporters, dismissing alternative views and belittling them as of no consequence – or as originating from some malign intent. They are not fit to govern. The Tory Party has forgotten that in Government its responsibility is to all the citizens of the […]
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Take it from someone who grew up with a ‘low-ranking’ passport – Brexit has made international travel inherently more chaotic and stressful
Whenever I’m flying with someone who is a relaxed traveller – someone who arrives just before check-in closes, then has a full sit-down breakfast while I approach meltdown – I tease them about something I call “border privilege”. Chances are that relaxed traveller was born with access to a passport that has a high “power ranking”.
If you don’t know what that is, lucky you, for you are probably a holder of a passport that is high on the Henley passport index – a global ranking of countries in terms of the travel freedom their passports enjoy. The higher your passport ranks, the more “border privilege” you have – that is, the ability to cross national boundaries with, at best, a sense of excitement and, at worst, mild annoyance at the inconveniences of travel.
Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist
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Tory leadership candidates have clashed bitterly but many pressing matters have been overlooked
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have clashed vehemently over tax and spending, immigration and the UK’s stance on China in their acrimonious battle to become prime minister – but have had little to say about many other pressing issues. Here are some largely overlooked key issues of the contest so far.
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In most historiographic accounts of European integration, the Maastricht Treaty marks an important step forward on “the long road to unity”.
The post The Maastricht Treaty and the End of Integration Through Law: Bits and Pieces of a Legal Ideology appeared first on Ideas on Europe.
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Johnson's resignation fired the starting pistol for a race to the bottom. Liz Truss is the bookies' favourite. The question before us is: why oh why?
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The chaos in Kent may have eased for now, but the problems it revealed are far from being solved
The worst of the chaos of the last few days at the Kent border towns of Dover and Folkestone thankfully appears to be over. But tens of thousands of British tourists have had the start of their holidays seriously disrupted, while HGV drivers waited for up to 18 hours to cross the Channel as sections of the M20 were turned into a lorry park. Huge queues for ferries at Dover eased first, followed by those for the Eurotunnel at Folkestone. But, amid warnings that the problem may recur as soon as this weekend, questions about what caused it need urgent answers.
Ministers including Liz Truss, the foreign secretary who wants to be prime minister, should provide them. It is almost four years since Dominic Raab, then Brexit secretary, said he hadn’t grasped “the full extent” of the UK’s reliance on the Dover-Calais crossing. But more than 18 months since the withdrawal agreement took effect, there has been plenty of time to put in place arrangements to ensure the British port’s smooth running. Because of Covid restrictions on foreign travel last summer, it was widely predicted that the crunch would come after schools broke up this July. Yet the events of the weekend show that, once again, Britain was poorly prepared.
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Tory leadership candidates, as they spout their pseudo-Thatcherite cliches, lack the guts to admit Brexit is not working
The Brexit slogan “Take back control” was always a lie. Boris Johnson, in a long boast about his so-called achievements in the Sunday Express yesterday, wrote that he “took back control of our borders”. Perhaps he should have visited the M20 in Dover, where thousands of immobile lorries are stacked up, and repeated this claim to their drivers. Under the EU, Britain’s borders were an issue negotiated with its neighbours. Under Brexit, the border at Dover is now controlled by France – and there is not a thing Britain can do about it. When we left the EU we lost all control.
The movement of people, goods and services across borders is always a matter of mutual advantage, of negotiation, of give and take. The prosperity of the British Isles since the Industrial Revolution has been rooted in ever-freer trade with the outside world. Membership of the EU made Britain’s products competitive, its banks rich and its labour market open to all talents. This gain reached its climax when in 1986 Margaret Thatcher signed the Single European Act, initiating a quarter-century of sustained growth. This era ended in 2019 with Johnson’s hard Brexit. The government’s own statistics estimate that it will reduce Britain’s growth by as much as 4%. The Tories have gone from being a free market party to a protectionist one, and it will cost the UK dear. Tory leadership candidates, as they spout their pseudo-Thatcherite cliches, lack the guts to admit this.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com
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The parliamentary election in France in June 2022 radically altered the balance of power in French politics. But how did it alter the power of women MPs? This article looks at five of them. Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble coalition is now down to 245 seats and so loses its absolute majority, making it much harder for […]
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With roads to Dover and Folkestone gridlocked, it was a miserable start to the holidays for many
Travel gridlock hit the Kent roads around Dover and Folkestone again over the weekend as British tourists were confronted with the realities of travelling to the EU during a busy period for the first time since Brexit came into force in January 2021.
It was a miserable start to a holiday on the continent with queues of five to six hours, and travellers were warned the disruption is set to continue through the summer.
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Ministers have pointed to a shortage of French border officials, while Paris says it is not responsible for Brexit
Doug Bannister, CEO of the Port of Dover, blamed border control officials, Police aux Frontières, for failing to provide sufficient numbers to staff the passport booths.
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Aerial footage shows thousands of lorries queueing on the main road towards the port of Dover on Saturday, with UK authorities blaming French officials for the chaos – a claim France has denied. A major incident was declared as a second day of travel disruption consumed the key port amid additional post-Brexit checks. It comes as most schools in England and Wales broke up for the summer holidays, marking the start of one of the busiest periods for foreign travel
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Huge queues heading for the Eurotunnel in Folkestone formed on Friday after severe staff shortages caused by 'juxtaposed controls', where travellers clear French entry requirements in the UK before crossing the Channel. Holidaymakers also faced long queues at Heathrow, Manchester and Bristol airports in an extremely busy day for air and road travel
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As COVID-19 gripped the globe in March 2020, politicians suddenly started discussing the EU’s trade policies in a way that would have been deemed lunacy just a few months earlier.
The post Discourse Theory and the EU’s Trade Response to COVID appeared first on Ideas on Europe.
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Liz Truss’s claim that tax cuts will reduce inflation are eerily reminiscent of Boris Johnson’s infamous style
Boris Johnson was a liar and had to go. It appears they are allowed to say that even in the Palace of Westminster, in certain circumstances, where dignity has traditionally banned such offensive words. Johnson might have thought he could roar and primp and bluster a few more months into the safety zone of another general election, as he half-implied at his last, raucous question time in the Commons on Wednesday. His favoured weapon, his tongue, might enable him to fight another day. But he had told a lie too many. He was doomed.
I still feel historians will find the swift fall of Johnson puzzling. Politics has long been a conspiracy of mendacities. Johnson seized power through telling lies about the benefits of freeing Britain’s economy from the EU’s single market. Since Brexit the Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated a 4% drop in UK growth, which the FT calculates as £40bn in lost tax revenue every year owing to Johnson’s hard deal. Just over half the electorate now think leaving the EU was a mistake. History might imagine this played some part in Johnson’s departure. But no – he is going because of lying about parties and what he knew of the misbehaviour of a whip.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
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Ever since Hungary and Poland started backsliding on democracy and the rule of law in 2010 and 2015 respectively, academics and practitioners alike have racked their brains over one central question: How can the European Union make noncompliant governments enforce European core values such as democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights?
The post Talking or Punishing? The European Commission’s Approach to Democratic Backsliding appeared first on Ideas on Europe.
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This article argues that soft balancing offers a useful framework to interpret the EU’s approach, as well as to reconcile its geopolitical narrative with its lack of hard security instruments, and its self-perception as a principled security actor.
The post Economic, Normative, and Diplomatic (Soft) Balancing: Making Sense of the EU’s Responses to China’s Rise in Asia appeared first on Ideas on Europe.
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In recent years, political debate in many European countries and across the Atlantic has been characterised by the rise of populism, appeals to identity politics and frequent recourse to political myths.
The post Populism, Identity Politics and Political Discourse in Europe appeared first on Ideas on Europe.
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Analysis: Figure is being generated by factors outside Britain, and households and firms can do without burden of higher interest rates
A rise in the rate of inflation to 9.4% is a blow to City analysts who had predicted it would nudge up to only 9.3%. But their bruised egos are irrelevant compared with the financial shock experienced by households and businesses facing the highest annual cost of living increase since 1982.
For the last nine months, food, fuel and energy prices have pushed inflation higher. In June, petrol was the main culprit again, rising by more than 20p a litre and making transport costs eye-wateringly high for the owners of cars, trucks and trains.
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With support from the UACES Microgrant, I was able to cover the cost associated with participating in the Central and East European International Studies Association (CEEISA) 2022 Bratislava Convention.
The post Participation in the CEEISA Convention – A UACES Microgrant Report appeared first on Ideas on Europe.
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Deep within the Northern Ireland protocol bill, ministers are making a sinister grab for yet more unchecked powers
Boris Johnson’s term in office has been notable for repeated abuses of power and attempts to quash opposition – from proroguing parliament to clamping down on the right to demonstrate. But even though he is on his way out and the Conservative party is gripped by its leadership contest, his plans to erode our democracy are continuing below the radar.
The starkest example is the Northern Ireland protocol bill, proposed by the leadership hopeful Liz Truss, that is still making its way through parliament and currently in the committee stage. Much of the attention, and the condemnation, has rightly been on how it could break international law by invoking article 16 of the protocol. But, far less widely reported, there are sinister clauses in this bill that again amount to blatant power-grabbing domestically.
Gina Miller is a transparency campaigner and leader of the True and Fair party
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COVID-19 put health policy in the European Union (EU) high up on the political agenda. Since the pandemic hit Europe, heads of states, health ministers and experts have increased their collaborative efforts to mitigate its effects. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen announced closer collaboration among EU countries to “work together to detect, prepare and respond collectively” and proposed a stronger European Health Union.
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What issue takes most of political representatives’ time and attention? Agenda-setting is important because there is no further political debate, policy formulation or decision over a particular issue without this stage of policymaking.
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Candidates are abandoning the ‘levelling up’ agenda – offering Starmer the chance to claim the strategic ground over Brexit
One way of making sense of current events within the British Conservative party is to think of them as the unravelling of the changes that Boris Johnson had wreaked. It’s true that the repudiation of the Cameron era in the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum in 2016 opened the door to reheated Thatcherism, the much hoped for Singapore-on-Thames as Britain’s post-EU future. At the same time, there was an awareness among some, including Theresa May, that the 2016 vote signalled something far more profound: a revolt by voters against a political class that had abandoned them. This called for a more interventionist state, tackling searing regional inequalities, finally trying to fix the mess of British vocational training – themes and policies quite alien to the soul of the Tory party.
The Johnson-Cummings-Gove team in operation from the summer of 2019 pursued this second agenda, with dramatic effect when Johnson won an enormous majority in the December election. The neo-Thatcherites did not disappear; indeed, they formed a core part of Johnson’s government. But they were ideologically isolated, forced to swallow the political pivot towards “levelling up” and the Tory party’s electoral embrace of working-class northern voters.
Chris Bickerton is a professor of modern European politics at the University of Cambridge
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PM’s repeated flouting of uncodified rules highlights the need for a trustworthy, future-proofed system
In keeping with his entire tenure in No 10, Boris Johnson’s departure from the premiership is proving a test of the UK constitution’s heavy reliance on convention and principle. His final weeks or months in the job provide yet more questions about what the UK does with its constitution in the post-Johnson era.
Before the 2010 general election, the House of Commons justice committee met constitutional experts and the then cabinet secretary, all to discuss whether the UK needed to set out rules for any “caretaker government”. The worry then was if the general election produced a hung parliament it could take time before a government was formed, and the rules for any interim government should be set out in advance. Though there were some principles and precedents about what should and should not happen, it wasn’t explicitly set out anywhere.
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Metropolitan police officers seized the equipment of Steve Bray, the activist known as Stop Brexit Man, on the same day a new protest law came into effect. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act introduced an offence of intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance, in an effort to crack down on disruptive guerrilla protests. These are the sort of tactics that have been used by climate change protesters who have taken their campaigns to the streets
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Brexit is based on blatant mistruths and lies. Every reason given to leave was a stinking falsification. When, one day, there is a public inquiry into how our country was conned, there will be gasps into how conniving, cunning politicians managed to get away with it. Lies, lies and more lies. Thatâs how Leave won. […]
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Speaking in the Commons, Theresa May told MPs that the government's proposals to modify the Northern Ireland protocol would 'diminish' the UK's standing in the world and she 'cannot support it'. The bill proposed by the government, she said, is not 'legal in international law'.
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The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has described the government's attempt to modify the Northern Ireland protocol as 'both necessary and legal' during a debate in the Commons. However, Labour's shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, told MPs that the government's proposal would violate the UK's commitment to international law, and urged Truss to reach a negotiated solution
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The UK's former chief Brexit negotiator defends Brexit on the sixth anniversary of the EU referendum, when Britain voted to leave the EU. Speaking at the annual conference of the UK in a Changing Europe organisation, David Frost said: 'The view that Brexit is hitting us from an economic and trade perspective ... cannot be supported by any objective analysis of the figures.' His comments come a day after a report by the Resolution Foundation thinktank said Brexit was damaging the competitiveness of UK exports and making the cost of living crisis worse for households
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Hundreds of suitcases were piled up at Heathrow after issues were reported with the baggage system.
Staff created a sea of luggage as many people were forced to travel without their belongings and told they may not get them back for up to two days.
It is the latest incident of travel disruption at UK airports, which entered the busy summer season with heavy staff shortages leading to hundreds of flights being cancelled.
The industry has been accused of failing to anticipate demand after two years of disruption caused by the Covid pandemic
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Disputes over customs checks and trade data are being intensified by the NI protocol bill’s proposed breach of international law
The European Commission has described a UK bill to scrap post-Brexit checks and controls in Northern Ireland as “illegal”, “extremely damaging” and casting a shadow over British-EU relations. On Wednesday, it set out its response.
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The EU's Brexit commissioner has confirmed the body has decided to take fresh legal action against the UK over its new legislation bypassing sections of the Northern Ireland protocol. Along with reviving the infringement process it launched in 2021, the EU is initiating two more processes – accusing the UK of failing to comply with provisions in the protocol relating to controls at border posts and the sharing of data
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The EU will not renegotiate the Northern Ireland protocol agreement, the European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, has said in response to Britain's decision to override some post-Brexit trade rules for the region.
'Renegotiating of the protocol is unrealistic,' he said. 'Any renegotiations would simply bring further legal uncertainty for the people and businesses in Northern Ireland. For these reasons, the EU will not renegotiate the protocol'
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The foreign secretary has said the legislation would fix issues with the post-Brexit protocol by easing checks for firms selling goods from Great Britain destined for Northern Ireland rather than the EU. But the EU, legal experts and even some Conservative MPs have said the move breaches international law
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Brexit has Putinâs fingerprints all over it. Weâve increasingly been suspicious of this for some time, but the evidence is mounting. Motive is the key incentive for any crime. There have never been any benefits for Britain doing Brexit. Not even one. Any apparent motive for leaving the EU was based on a pack of […]
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If the EU did not exist, it’s highly likely that the countries and continent of Europe would now be in a far worse situation. For hundreds of years, European countries were more used to resolving their differences by violence, war, and subjugation. There was no easy, let alone democratic, means to decide the running and […]
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After the EU referendum, many of us were suspicious about the role of Russia in clinching the narrow âwinâ for Brexit. Evidence was mounting that there had been deep involvement and interference by Russian âagentsâ whose aim was to destabilise the EU by enabling Britainâs departure from it. It was no secret that Russiaâs Prime […]
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Just 24-hours after the EU referendum on 23 June 2016, I posted this on my blog: âJust over half of those who voted bought manky lies dressed up as a better life after Brexit. They were told theyâd get their country back. Their lives would be transformed. ‘More jobs, homes, schools and hospitals. Less migrants. No […]
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I need some work done at home and invited firms to quote. âThatâs a smart van,â I said in passing to the managing director of a limited company that visited last week. âOh, weâve got six of those,â he replied. We went through the project. In the past, companies had sent me quotes with the […]
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Boris Johnson is ânot a complete clownâ, his new communications director, Guto Harri, said this month adding, âheâs a very likeable character.â Really? I would say instead that Boris Johnson is a completely dangerous clown, and nothing heâs done for the country is at all likeable. Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, questioned the seriousness […]
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The EU referendum was entirely flawed according to criteria set by former Brexit Secretary and ardent Brexiter, David Davis, on how referendums should be “done properly”. In July 2016, Tory MP, Mr Davis, accepted the result of the EU referendum and the dual-role of Brexit Secretary and Chief Brexit Negotiator in Theresa May’s new government. […]
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Brexit used to sit on the far side lines of politics. Indeed, the word ‘Brexit’ was only invented in 2012, and until the referendum, most people didn’t know what it meant. (Now it’s in the Oxford English dictionary.) Prior to 2011, tabloids such as the Daily Mail and Daily Express were more fixated on false […]
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They want to see the end of the EU altogether. Thatâs been the aim of prominent Brexiters from the start. And itâs certainly the aim of the guy who started Brexit: former UKIP leader and MEP, and now President of the Reform Party, previously the Brexit Party, Nigel Farage. In September 2017, Mr Farage received […]
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