‘Whatever programme is adopted after Brexit, the UK as a whole and Scotland will have to compete with other countries for migrant workers. For EU citizens, other countries within the EU where free movement still exists will become more attractive.’
Labour, SNP, ‘People’s Vote’ and a Brexit Deal
‘Fudging both the timing of an independence referendum and the SNP’s position on a ‘people’s vote’ looks like getting more difficult as Brexit D-day draws nearer this autumn.’
Leave voters don’t want a ‘Global Britain’
‘For them (Leave voters), Brexit wasn’t about rebooting Britain as a global player, in fact it was about recognising we have limited capacities—particularly economically—and that these should be focused almost exclusively domestically.’
Refugee feeds tourists: Imad’s Syrian Kitchen
One diner’s casual satisfaction is another’s fight to survive. Deeply aware of being a tourist in an age of mass migration, Fay Young enjoys one of the best meals of her life cooked by a warm-hearted refugee in Imad’s Syrian Kitchen.
Brexit’s most elaborate fudge may not save May
‘The question is not whether the EU will accept or reject these plans. Of course it will reject them. The question is whether the EU will engage in discussion about a future trade relationship, even knowing what these plans are.’
Brexit, devolution and local government
‘One thing is clear – the days of a neat division of powers between UK, Scottish and local government are gone. Brexit will paradoxically make these multilevel dynamics very much like those of the regionalised states in the EU27,’ the bead of COSLA office in Brussels writes.
The future of Europe depends on democracy
‘I call them the cheerleaders of Putin – Farage, Le Pen, Wilders. They were doing only one thing. They take the money from the Kremlin. They take the intelligence of the Kremlin. Like Mr Arron Banks, for example, the friend of Mr Farage. ..’ (Guy Verhofstadt)
Brexit and the coming break-up of Britain
Westminster and the three devolved governments should conclude a new constitutional settlement for pooling sovereignty within the UK, with fresh powers and competences given to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to control their people’s destinies. Otherwise, it will only undermine the current devolution settlement and assume even greater central powers in the name of national (UK) sovereignty’.
May’s unpalatable choice: concede or #indyref2
‘The polls do not indicate a pro-independence surge, but after the shock of 2016 only a fool would predict the outcome with confidence. Westminster could in principle refuse to allow another referendum, but emulating Madrid’s handling of Catalonia would surely not be the right course of action.’
Kicking the can down the road to Norway
‘ The story of betrayal is already being constructed. It is a dispiriting prophecy that foretells we will still be arguing about our relationship with Europe, and only that, in four years’ time’.