Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has played his long-standing blackmail card: he opened the gates to refugees and migrants to Greece and Europe.Turkish television channels have been broadcasting footage showing Syrian refugees and migrants from other countries walking towards Greece and Europe, after the Turkish Gendarmerie opened the Syrian gates in the night from Thursday to Friday. The videos allegedly show two groups of Syrian refugees on their alleged way to Europe: one group in north-western Turkey, walking to the Evros land border with Greece. Another group is apparently in the Avalik area on the west coast in an effort to reach the island of Lesvos. Both groups are reportedly consisting of 300 people, mostly young men but also families with children. It seems that that the ‘refugees’ are not only from Syria but also from Iran and Afghanistan and migrants from African countries, like Morocco. Speaking to Turkish media, they said that they were told by border guar...

Plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport have been ruled illegal by the court of appeal because ministers did not adequately take into account the government’s commitments to tackle the climate crisis. The ruling is a major blow to the project at a time when public concern about the climate emergency is rising fast and the government has set a target in law of net zero emissions by 2050. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, could use the ruling to abandon the project, or the government could draw up a new policy document to approve the runway. The government is considering its next steps but will not appeal against the verdict. The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said: “Our manifesto makes clear any Heathrow expansion will be industry-led. Airport expansion is core to boosting global connectivity and levelling up across the UK. We also take seriously our commitment to the environment.” Johnson has opposed the runway, saying in 2015 that he would “lie down in front of tho...

The EU has published its draft  negotiating objectives  and the UK has set out its own opening position in a  written ministerial statement . This explainer compares these opening positions (both published on 3 February 2020).  Read our summary of the  Political Declaration  agreed in October 2019.  For An Easy read Format - see here https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/uk-eu-future-relationship-negotiations-opening-positions Area UK statement EU draft mandate What does this mean? Coverage and format The government wants a balanced agreement that: is in the interests of both sides takes account of shared interests respects the legal orders. The UK wants a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) covering substantially all trade, an agreement on fisheries and an agreement to co-operate in the area of internal security. It also wants some more technical agreements covering areas such as aviation or civ...

No 10 has accused the EU of trying to give the UK a worse trade deal than those offered to the US, Canada and Japan, as the two sides clashed ahead of crucial talks scheduled to take just 40 days. With the opening round of talks due to start on Monday, Downing Street publicly rejected the EU’s opening offer for a trade deal and said it did not recognise the need for a “level playing field” for competition. It said Brussels was trying to impose “onerous commitments” that would undermine the UK’s legal autonomy and right to set its own regulations. “The EU has respected the autonomy of other major economies around the world such as Canada and Japan when signing trade deals with them. We just want the same,” a No 10 spokesman said. “We agree the UK’s trade with the EU is significant. The US’s [trade] is on the same scale – yet that did not stop the EU being willing to offer the US zero tariffs without the kind of level playing field commitments or the legal oversight they have put...

The Labour leadership vote is at last under way. Let no future contest hold such a purgatory of hustings, forcing candidates to say something new every day: Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey fell into the trans thorn bushes, while Keir Starmer may have overpromised. Outsiders, puzzled by the contenders’ misleadingly similar pitches, should remember what a peculiar electorate they are addressing. Belonging to a party is a niche hobby: the tiny electorate of white male shire Brexiteers who chose Boris Johnson were the oddest. But YouGov revealed Labour members’ eccentricities. Asked for their most admired leaders, Corbyn topped the poll at 71%, with Tony Blair, their three times victor, trailing at 37%. When Rebecca Long-Bailey awarded Corbyn 10 out of 10 for leadership, she knew her voters. Nonetheless, YouGov also suggested a Starmer win by 63% to 37% if there was a final run-off against Long-Bailey. Labour members may yearn for everything the 2019 manifesto promised, with no ...

After the vote for Brexit, it was often said that our departure from the EU was most likely to harm the very people who voted for it: the industrial workers of the Midlands and North. Didn’t they know that a vote for Brexit would, in itself, lead to 500,000 more job losses? Couldn’t they see that Nissan was bound to wind down its operations in Sunderland and move business to mainland Europe? Almost four years on, it’s safe to say that most of the economic doom-mongering was nonsense. This week’s figures on jobs and earnings show that, since the referendum, employment is up by one million — and it is rising still. Unemployment in the UK is at its lowest since 1974. Unemployment in Wales is at its lowest since records began. Leaked internal reports from Nissan have revealed that, if the current round of Brexit talks fail, it could move production of Micras from France to Sunderland, aiming to capture a bigger share of the UK market. This week’s figures also explain why Jeremy Cor...

It is many unhappy returns to the Labour party, which has just celebrated its 120th birthday. In all that time, it has only managed to produce three leaders capable of winning a parliamentary majority. Two of those leaders are deceased. The other is Tony Blair, who is sometimes wished dead by unpleasant people on the left of the party he once led. Before him, the party lost four consecutive elections. Under him, the party won three in a row, two by landslides. Since him, the party has reverted to its losing ways, going down to another four defeats on the trot. FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL BLAIR BLAIR BLAIR FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL. Were we talking about any field of endeavour other than Labour politics, were we talking about football management or medical research or space exploration or novel writing or film-making, Mr Blair would be hailed as a genius, the more so for being the sole winner amid so many losers. Yet he is disdained or denounced by much of the party to which he delivered so muc...