BEST
FOR BRITAIN'S
WEEKEND WIRE
Dear John,
Major breakthroughs could be on the
horizon, and we’re not just talking about Michael Gove’s probable book
deal. Let’s take a journey through all the excitement.
Northern Ireland Protocol talks
near resolution
Rishi Sunak travelled to Belfast this Friday to sweeten
Stormont’s largest parties on the Northern Ireland Protocol deal that
the UK and EU have gotten tantalisingly close to sealing. Now, he
faces the most delicate task of all: avoiding getting
DUPed.
With the EU and UK reportedly
having reached an agreement on customs data sharing, red and green lanes for
goods travelling to the Republic and remaining in the UK, and a
provision for Northern Irish courts to request intervention from the
European Court of Justice, the Prime Minister must now sell it to
hard-Brexiters in his own party’s right and, more importantly, the
DUP. It won’t be easy; the DUP’s former deputy leader, locked in a
titanic battle with self-awareness, recently claimed that any European
court’s presence in Northern Ireland constitutes “colonisation”.
A full agreement, if the rumour
mill is to be believed, could be announced early next week–if Sunak
can successfully navigate Belfast’s political maze.
For an exhaustive,
no-question-too-basic explainer of the Northern Ireland Protocol,
check out the blog penned by B4B’s Director of Communications, Niall
McGourty.
Sturgeon to
resign
We were dealt a major surprise on
Wednesday when First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon announced that she would step down after over eight
years in her posts.
Sturgeon has been in office since
shortly after the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, and she led
the SNP to become Westminster’s third-largest party. She brushed aside
reports that recent political challenges forced her hand in resigning,
instead declaring that she wanted the political case for Scottish
independence to be decoupled from her own leadership.
Sturgeon’s departure leaves a wide-open field to succeed her as SNP leader, with no
candidate claiming a clear advantage. John Swinney, Humza Yousaf, Kate
Forbes, and Angus Robertson have been among the names floated, but a
recent poll showed a staggering 69% of voters reporting ‘don’t
know.’
Double-Gove-Seven, (not)
licenced to kill
The world’s lamest spy thriller
debuted over the weekend when reports revealed that Michael
Gove–without the Prime Minister’s
knowledge–attended a secret
summit which was organised around a central question: how can we make
Brexit work better?
With all the slithery tact of,
well, a politician who helped lead the campaign that set off the very
economic disaster he has now appointed himself to fix, Gove allegedly
struck a conciliatory tone at the Ditchley Park summit. According to
reports, Gove was “very honest” about the fact that the Brexit he
championed has “shortcomings.” With the Daily Mail decrying a “secret plan to unravel Brexit,” one can only guess this
means Gove has belatedly acquired some sense in order to save his own
political skin.
Read Best for Britain’s blog on Gove’s attendance at the Ditchley Park summit.
Electoral strategy for
30p
The Tories’ new Deputy Party
Chairman has wasted no time breaking into his new leadership role, and
he’s got a plan to offset a 25-point poll deficit, pound-shop former and wannabe PMs
running their mouths, and business leaders defecting to Labour in
droves.
According to Lee Anderson, winning
the next election is as simple as 1,2,3.
1. Spread scaremongering misinformation about
transgender people. 2. Make impossible and self-defeating promises
about reducing immigration. 3. Accuse a food bank operator of bribery
and get sued.
Sorry, that last one was swapped
from Lee’s personal to-do list. We have faith he’ll get back to us
with more sage advice soon enough.
There’s no place like home?
We know, that’s why we’re going to Oz
Ever had one of those moments at
work when you’re so fed up that you’re tempted to stand up, walk out
the door, go straight to the airport, and never return? If you’re a
doctor, teacher, or cop, Western Australia is hoping so.
Considering…everything…they may well be onto something.
The Australian state is sending a delegation to the UK in the coming weeks,
tasked with recruiting 31,000 public and private sector workers weary
of the UK’s stagnating wages to head Down Under and boost the
population and economy in the country’s largest and most
sparsely-populated state.
With the exodus of NHS doctors to
Australia already well-documented, this new recruitment push could signal a
wider-ranging rush of essential workers out of the UK. When it’s a
choice between better pay and lower cost of living and being accused of faking illness to skip out on work like
you’re in secondary school, it’s hard to fault anyone for
leaving.
Friction
hurts
DWP Secretary Mel Stride could do
with some skills development training (if he’s not cut that yet),
because his performance on BBC World at One betrayed a serious lack of
effective spin.
Struggling to find a retort to
former CBI chief Paul Drexler’s claim that Brexit has shattered the
UK’s reputation as a place to do business, Stride admitted that the EU withdrawal had created “frictions” with the EU that
are affecting the UK’s economic performance. Never fear: Stride was
equally eager to point out that he could see benefits “coming
through”.
Where those benefits are
delivering, what they are, and who they’re helping? Less
clear.
Best for Britain CEO Naomi Smith
said Stride’s comments would have “a bitter taste for the
public”.
Not-so-Braverman, are
we?
Suella Braverman’s quest to rid the
UK of the scourges of international students, child refugees, and, in this case, 2.5 million EU citizens
living and working here received a welcome setback this Thursday when the
Home Office climbed down from a pledge to appeal the High Court’s
ruling in favour of EU citizens at risk of being deemed ‘illegal
overstayers.”
Before the formal withdrawal from
the EU, EU citizens who’d been in the UK less than five years were
told to apply for “pre-settled” status and then to reapply for
permanent residency. Those who did not reapply in time were at risk of
losing their rights to work, housing, and benefits, which the High
Court ruled unlawful.
The Home Office had planned to appeal the ruling, but this week
Braverman climbed down. Perhaps someone told her that booting millions
of people out of the country with a labour shortage of over 330,000 workers doesn’t exactly
project economic confidence or roll out the welcome wagon. Imagine
that!
With a major storm bearing down on
the UK as we head into the weekend, we’re hoping with bated breath
that the O2 Dome survives, and that 30p Lee’s subpoena doesn’t blow
away. Bye for now!
Best
wishes,
Tommy Gillespie
Press Officer, Best for Britain
