Opinion
Government analysis proves Britain is on a self-inflicted path to destruction
Government analysis showing the UK will be poorer economically under any form of Brexit proves that we are on a self-inflicted path to destruction. Official figures revealed today say the UK economy could be up to 3.9 per cent smaller after 15 years under Theresa May's Brexit plan, compared with staying in the EU. But a no-deal Brexit could deliver a 9.3 per cent hit. Independent experts have said that 3.9 per cent of GDP would equate to about £100 billion...
Triggering Article 50 without a plan was like “putting a gun in our mouth and kaboom”
The perils of triggering Article 50 without a plan were laid bare this week after Theresa May returned from Brussels with a deal that is all-pain-no-gain for Britain and showcases the "Brexit at all costs" mentality of the PM. With future trade agreements and the economic prosperity of the country at stake there is now a once unthinkable consensus on both sides of the Brexit divide that exiting the EU will be bad for the country. May's deal has united...
This brilliant response to Theresa May’s Brexit letter is going viral
There’s no denying that Theresa May’s letter appealing for the nation to unite around her Brexit deal has not had the response she had hoped for. But perhaps the best reply we have seen so far has come from comic, presenter and veteran folk singer Mike Harding. The Prime Minister’s letter on Saturday called for Brits to “come together as one people,” “getting behind this deal." Mike Harding’s near perfect response to the PM has been shared 33,516 times so far...
If Labour really wants to help the poorest in our society they need to stop Brexit
UN Rapporteur Philip Aston’s damning report into poverty in the UK was no surprise to those who had been keeping up with events. Anyone who hadn’t developed serious social myopia over the years last eight years of grinding austerity couldn’t fail to see the results of a deliberate government policy to impoverish those at the bottom and push those already below the poverty line even further into the abyss. Partly in an attempt to end minor abuse of the welfare...
Say what you want about the tenets of Brexit, May says
Hopes of a reversal on Brexit were left dashed last night after Theresa May defiantly battled ministerial resignations and calls for her to quit in order to deliver her exit plan. With a raft of firms already set to leave the country and Britain's future prospects looking worse off under ever scenario this was a "Brexit at all costs" moment for the PM, who displayed a Churchillian resistance to the challenges ahead. But unlike the Second World War these bruises...
What is the will of the people when it comes to Brexit?
When we debate how to deal with the result of the 2016 referendum, that is the fundamental question we are grappling with, and it matters a great deal not just for Brexit but for democracy as a whole. Two years ago, the British electorate voted by a slim majority to leave the European Union. However, polls currently indicate that support for Remain has risen since then, and the data suggests that if the referendum were to be rerun now, Remain...
Poverty is a political choice. It’s time we chose to change
This week the United Nations launched an inquiry into rising levels of poverty and hardship across the UK, exploring the human consequences of austerity cuts that have ravished parts of the country under the Conservative government. Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, will spend this week and the next visiting food banks and community groups and meeting MPs, government officials, academics and families in hardship. He will gather evidence on the impact of universal...
Why are we ignoring the obvious?
I’m sure you are aware that in October of this year the IPCC released a devastating report that was picked up by media from around the world. It scared the living daylights out of us (and rightly so) for it mapped out how our future will look if we do not act immediately to combat climate change. Climate change is paving the way for more droughts and heat waves, more intense hurricanes, continuing rise of sea levels and a continuing...
Maybe it’s time the anti-vegan critics just got over themselves
William Sitwell’s resignation from the Waitrose in-house magazine last week, after making some seriously ill-advised comments about veganism, generated the usual explosion of opprobrium from those who also see vegans as the devil incarnate. Writer Selene Nelson’s Twitter feed was jumping with trolls queuing up to castigate her for robbing poor Mr Sitwell, the hunt-supporting, heir presumptive to the Sitwell baronetcy, best chum of Jacob Rees-Mogg and erstwhile MasterChef judge of his daily crust editing an in-house marketing magazine for...