Plus: Osborne’s regrets, vintage Heseltine – and, after Germany, to Brighton, for what is claimed to be the biggest conference Labour has ever held.
EURATOM, WTO quotas, open skies agreements, banks’ ability to lend – all these involve change which it may not be possible to effect by April 2019.
Two cheers for a measure that, though mostly about managing, dividing and taming popular opinion, remains a reforming landmark.
This is not a pro-Remain article. Rather, my point is that a referendum is a horrible way of making political decisions, and we are where we are as a direct result.
Between 1997 and 2005, public sector spending rose from £336 billion to £517 billion a year. But its output has increased little, so its productivity has fallen dramatically.
Just 0.6 per cent of London homes – and 0.8 per cent nationally – are vacant for more than six months. That’s down hugely in recent years.
May should make a virtue of the complexity.
We should seek the closest possible relationship with the EU and an open trade policy. Firms need confidence to invest.
More powers for Andy Street in the West Midlands should just be the start.
Unresolved questions about refugees, debt crises, security, and general financial instability will force these questions on more people, and not just Britons.
An American scholar shows how British Conservatives welcomed universal suffrage, while German Conservatives were terrified of it.
Plus: The decline of books. Morgan sees off the cult of Mogg. Why I won’t fly RyanAir. And: As I reach a significant birthday, I mull writing my autobiography…
We simply don’t know yet what outcome could command a broad consensus. Everything short of no deal and remaining in the EU should be kept on the table.
The columnist Steve Richards examines the rise of the modern demagogues, and their eventual, inevitable failure.
There is a natural path ahead: announce a resignation by the end of next week, and allow a contest to take place over the summer.