image_pdfimage_print

Author Archives: GovWorldMag

Green Party responds to Theresa May’s statement on triggering of Article 50

29 March 2017

The Green Party has responded to the prime minister’s statement in Parliament, following the delivery of the letter triggering Article 50 to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council.

Molly Scott Cato, MEP for the South West and Green Party EU spokesperson, said:

“Theresa May’s talk of a fairer society stands in stark contrast to her actions. Charging ahead with an extreme Brexit while dragging the rest of the UK with her is no way to ensure an equal Britain that has a productive relationship with its European neighbours.

“May’s blustery optimism about her ambitions for the UK after Brexit cannot mask the incredible challenges we face. She failed to even mention the environment or climate change, despite it being the largest shared threat we face.

“The statement repeatedly referenced the potential benefits for our children and grandchildren but the next generation has the most to lose as we hurtle towards an unknown future outside the EU. The Green Party will keep standing up for the environment and freedom of movement, and fighting to stop the UK being turned into a tax haven.”

 

Tweet

Back to main news page

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

read more

Green Party •

Instead of deflecting and ducking the Justice Secretary should accept that she failed her first test in the job and apologise – Richard Burgon

Richard Burgon MP, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, responding to recent comments from Lords Neuberger and Thomas before the Lords Constitution Committee, said:

“Liz Truss encouraged the judiciary to speak out and now two of them have – both to criticise her failure to defend the job they do. Instead of deflecting and ducking, the Justice Secretary should accept that she failed her first test in the job and apologise.”

read more

Labour •

Andrew Gimson’s Commons sketch: May renounces cherry-picking and promises to be a good Unionist

There will be no cherry-picking. We will respect the European ban on that delightful but unrealistically self-indulgent activity. So said Theresa May, in a statement which was clearly intended to show the Europeans, and the Scots Nats, that she can be relied on to negotiate in good faith.

The position on cake is not yet quite so clear. As Jeremy Corbyn observed, in a the course of a reply which was well above his usual standard, the Foreign Secretary thinks we can have our cake and eat it, while the Chancellor says we cannot have our cake and eat it.

Corbyn is right to say that although the language used is “flippant”, the difference in outlook is genuine. The Prime Minister seems to lean towards the Chancellor’s view: not for her the ebullitions of evasive optimism behind which Boris Johnson sometimes conceals his real opinions.

And yet she is, in the end, an optimist. She believes Brexit will work, and knows what is needed to make it work, namely a settlement which works for every part of the United Kingdom.

How platitudinous that statement sounds. But May will stand or fall as a Unionist, and by her frequent heartfelt references yesterday to the UK she confirmed that she knows this.

She can only beat off the challenge from the Scots Nats by demonstrating that life is better and richer within the UK, and preserve peace in Northern Ireland by reaching a settlement with the Republic that works for everyone.

No wonder she resorts even more often than most politicians to a small number of stock phrases, including “a country that works for everyone”. Such safe, inclusive language is meant to reassure everyone that she will be a safe, inclusive negotiator.

As the Duke of Wellington remarked, when the great task at last arrived of making an enduring European peace after the Napoleonic wars: “Be sure that in politics there is nothing stable except that which is in everyone’s interests.”

read more

Conservatives