Oldham, Barking, Gateshead and more: A tour update
It has been a busy few weeks.
On my Brexit listening tour in the last month I have visited East London, Hertfordshire, Oldham and Salford and Gateshead in the North East. We have held public meetings of Remainers and Leavers alike, canvassed on Leave-leaning estates and held roundtables with local councillors, employers, clergy and social workers to understand the underlying issues afflicting Brexit Britain.
In Salford I spoke to people in local cafes and shopping cent
The Guardian: "Theresa May’s essential argument for Syria strikes is nonsensical"
I've written for the Guardian on Theresa May's handling of the Syria crisis. Read the piece on the Guardian website here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/14/theresa-may-essential-argument-for-syria-strikes-nonsensical
#BrexitBroadcastingCorporation – central not sideshow to Brexit
“Be careful what you wish for” concludes Today presenter Nick Robinson in a New Statesman piece defending his employer, the BBC. It comes at the end of an elegant but flawed warning that for liberals it is the BBC or bust. Without the Beeb - in its current form, with its current content - Britain will inevitably replicate America’s toxic landscape of “bias and bullshit” Fox News, so the argument goes. This is disingenuous. I don’t wish to overturn the principle of impartialit
Brexit has no answers to the Irish Question
This article first appeared as part of my weekly column for the New European. I recommend you read it on their website, but the full text can be found below as well. Ireland has always been the Achilles heel of Brexit because of three words: Good Friday Agreement. But as Theresa May has become more vague about the end state of Brexit, while being forced into ever tighter legal commitments for the immediate post-Brexit phase from next March, it has become the Achilles foot. Th
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