As the dust settles, hindsight makes the chain of events that culminated in UK’s vote to leave easier to discern

It is two months since British voters surprised themselves by deciding to end the UK’s 43-year relationship with the European Union – “independence day” to some and “the worst political decision since 1945” to others.

As a stunned political leadership on both sides of the Channel continue dithering about what to do next, it is worth looking back at the origins of a crisis the EU elite had not expected.

Continue reading…

Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2bwsFf6

No one should be complacent about racism but the story is rarely as straightforward as some commentators routinely assert

In my city neighbourhood this summer a man on the run from police custody hit a black woman in the face. Understandably, she reported it as a racial attack. Except it probably wasn’t. The runaway also hit a boy when his mother opened the door and tried to spray another woman’s hair red at a bus stop. He had mental health problems.

Not much harm done in this instance. But it’s one reason why I don’t often write about race relations in modern Britain, though I first did so 50 years ago when many aspects of them were pretty grim.

Continue reading…

Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2bpM0gP

The question takes us straight to this week’s reported news that Phil Shiner’s Public Interest Lawyers is having to close

Friends who have devoted selfless hours helping asylum seekers for decades get upset when someone suggests that many such people game the system, knowing that they will be rejected as the economic migrants they really are. Yet a veteran civil liberties lawyer I also know quickly changed her tune when she started examining appeals in detail. There is a lot of abuse, she concluded.

Tricky, isn’t it? People fight for all sorts of rights and humane procedures only to see them cynically abused by false claimants, wicked people smugglers and nimble footed solicitors.

Continue reading…

Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2aXk9Au

Condemnation is fine, but understanding where his idiotic remarks about women came from is also important

Should the rightwing Tory MP Philip Davies be suspended from the Conservative party for making idiotic remarks about women at a knuckle-draggers conference in London the other day? Some say so, but I’m not convinced he should.

The self-styled “libertarian” backwoodsman from Shipley didn’t break the law and routinely makes comments and speeches that are offensive or stupid. Rarely is a Daily Mail outrage story not rendered slightly more ridiculous by the presence of a rent-a-quote from Phil. He’s one of those MPs – they exist in all parties – whose quoted support reliably undermines a case.

Continue reading…

Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2bjv1dh

There’s a risk in tackling such problems more directly, but not doing so only makes matters worse in the long run

I’ve never been a great fan of Eric Pickles, briefly an underwhelming, budget-cutting leader of Bradford city council, later an underwhelming local government secretary whose chief contribution to “localism” was to localise the budget cuts and still tell town halls what to do. I just didn’t trust him.

But he has a point in saying the government at every level should take more seriously the sensitive issue of voter fraud, not least by requiring identity checks at polling stations.

Continue reading…

Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2bbOJr8

The temptation is obvious, but the EU referendum was enough excitement for most and there would be hurdles to clear

Will Theresa May try to call an early general election? With Labour in such obvious disarray and her own Commons majority consisting of just 12 possibly disloyal MPs, the temptation must be obvious. It’s an open goal, as Tim Montgomerie puts it in the Times^(£). He’s not the only one.

My hunch is that the new prime minister will resist that temptation and be right to do so. Contrary to what political activists believe (at least they do for a while), most voters don’t want to be dragged to the polls more than is strictly necessary. They elect other people to worry for them, and the 23 June referendum was quite enough excitement for most.

Continue reading…

Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2aYH3rY

Labour’s national executive committee, the party’s ruling body, is appealing against a high court decision allowing new party members to vote in the forthcoming leadership election

11.21am BST

Labour barrister tells the court: One of the key questions in this case, is what does it mean to define the eligibility criteria?

The question is what it means when it says NEC has right to “define” eligibility criteria, barrister says, 1/2

2/2 and his argument is that includes right to determine time limits.

11.17am BST

“The parties to the contract are … recognising that the NEC has an interpretive role,” says Labour’s barrister. He goes on to argue that where the NEC says it has a particular power, it does mean that the court should provide a degree of deference to the NEC.

11.12am BST

This tweet from Jessica pretty much encapsulates the case that the Labour NEC is seeking to make in their appeal.

McNicol barrister argues NEC is afforded by the rule book sufficiently broad powers that it can override the rules framework

11.09am BST

The barrister for Ian McNicol is arguing that “the power to impose the condition … is clear from the express words of the rule book.”

He says he has finished his preliminary submissions. Now, he is directing the court to page 405 of the rule book…

11.06am BST

My colleague Jessica Elgot is at the court of appeal watching the case and live tweeting the proceedings. It’s starting a bit slowly, from the sound of things.

Judge says: “I think we can say numbering in this rule book is *special*… The love of Roman numerals….” Lots of laughter in court…

10.33am BST

Good morning on another day set to be full of drama in the Labour party.

Today Labour’s national executive committee, the party’s ruling body, is challenging a high court decision allowing new party members to vote in the forthcoming leadership election. It comes after six NEC members, including deputy leader Tom Watson, decided to appeal against a ruling that the party had wrongly disenfranchised 130,000 members, most of whom are thought to back incumbent leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Continue reading…

Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2b0TvJu

Deputy leader’s Trotsky entryist comments have landed him in fresh trouble but the party should not and will not split

It’s hard not to read Decca Aitkenhead’s Guardian interview with an emollient Tom Watson and not feel sorry for Labour’s deputy leader as he struggles to pick his way through the debris produced by near catastrophic errors – made by other people – without making things worse.

In the present fevered climate of anger and mutual mistrust, even such a bland assertion is likely to generate snorts of derision from one side or both. Jeremy Corbyn is a “give peace a chance” man, but like many such self-styled idealists his failure to provide effective leadership piles up the rubble and risk for those around him.

Continue reading…

Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2bfA42B

Another pay rise for top execs will leave voters angry – but addressing low pay is important too

Twenty four hours after the Guardian and some other newspapers, including the money class’s own Financial Times, put the 10% pay rise for FTSE 100 chief executives on Monday’s front page, I went back to the pink ’un to check the fallout. Not much yet, except one encouraging straw in the wind. I’ll come back to that.

On this occasion the Daily Mail didn’t have much room for the High Pay Centre’s latest update. It devoted more space (yet again) to the excessive scale of gongs and goodbye handshakes being paid to David Cameron’s outgoing staff at No 10, but also to its own exposé of excessive pay, perks and long holidays of taxpayer-funded chief constables and their top teams. Roy Greenslade, tabloid editor turned professor, explains why readers love it.

Continue reading…

Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2aZpng6

The Labour leadership challenger is being misguided – a divorce would only damage all sides

Is the Labour party in imminent danger of splitting? In a Guardian interview, the leadership challenger, Owen Smith, says it may if Jeremy Corbyn remains in charge.

On Radio 4’s Today programme, the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, dismissed the warning as misguided. “There is no way I am ever, ever going to allow this party to split.”

Continue reading…

Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2aKTs4w