Political news

• Spain Would Not Block An Independent Scotland's Bid To Rejoin EU

  02-04-2017 22:42
  
  Spain would not vote to block Scotland’s bid to rejoin the European Union if it votes for independence, the country’s foreign minister has said despite fears of emboldening Catalonia’s breakaway efforts.
  Alfonso Dastis told reporters Spain remains opposed to the break-up of the United Kingdom, but suggested it would not veto an application by an independent Scotland to join.
  The Guardian reported that when asked directly whether he would halt an independent Scotland from
  
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• People Are Asking 'WTF Has Brexit Unleashed?' Amid 'War With Spain' And £500m Blue Passports

  02-04-2017 21:15
  
  Politicians and commentators have reacted with anger and disbelief over a top Tory’s suggestion the UK should be prepared to threaten war with Spain, amid a flurry of eyebrow-raising stories that emerged on the first weekend after triggering Article 50.
  Ex-Tory leader Lord Michael Howard’s suggestion Theresa May would go to war with Spain to “stand by” the people of Gibraltar prompted a backlash over Brexiteer “sabre-rattling”.
  Lord Howard told Sky News’
  
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• A new take on the oldest parliament | Letters

  02-04-2017 20:14
  The world’s oldest parliament (or at any rate, the oldest European parliament) is neither that of the UK, as claimed by Theresa May (Report, 24 March) nor the Manx Tynwald, as Rosemary Bentley states in her letter of 29 March. It is the Icelandic Althingi, which was founded in 930 and for which we have an unbroken list of law-speakers (presiding officers) from that date onwards, with an exact number of years for which each of them held office. Until 1800, it met in the open air at Thingvel
  
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• Whitehall seeks consultancies to help with Brexit

  02-04-2017 18:28 via ft.com
  
  Contract worth £1.5m over next 6 months likely to be first of many offered
  
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• Whitehall seeks agencies to help with Brexit

  02-04-2017 18:28 via ft.com
  Contract worth £1.5m over next 6 months likely to be first of many offered
  
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• British Passports Could Reportedly Be Blue Again After Brexit - But Not Everyone Is Happy

  02-04-2017 17:40
  
  The UK could be set to return to navy blue passports following Brexit, it has been reported - but not everyone seems convinced this is an entirely justified priority.
  The Sunday Express claimed that a £490 million contract for the redesign of the passports has been put out for tender.
  The current contract is set to expire in 2019 - the year the UK will finally leave the EU.Tory MP Andrew Rosindell, chairman of the Flags and Heraldry Committee, told the Sunday Express that the burgundy pass
  
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• Clementi leads BBC into era of sweeping changes

  02-04-2017 17:19 via ft.com
  Overhaul of broadcaster’s governance creates a PLC-style unitary board
  
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• Brexit opens way for return of UK’s blue passport

  02-04-2017 16:43 via ft.com
  Nostalgia for old style has persisted since introduction of EU’s burgundy in 1988
  
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• Gibraltar tensions bubble over into British war talk

  02-04-2017 16:26 via ft.com
  Spain deals second blow to UK by withdrawing opposition to Scottish independence
  
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• Sunday Show Round-Up: War With Spain, Three-Day Weekends And Labour Council Election Fears

  02-04-2017 16:23
  
  The Andrew Marr Show
  It has a population of around 33,000 and is less than three square miles, but the peninsula of Gibraltar dominated the Sunday shows today.
  Its Chief Minister Fabian Picardo was up on Marr – this week hosted by Eddie Mair – and gave his reaction to the EU’s demand that Gibraltar should not be part of any post-Brexit trade deal with the UK unless Spain agrees.Any EU deal with UK "only fair, proper and right that it should also apply to Gibraltar" says @Fabian
  
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• A global strategy is the way to defeat Isis 2.0

  02-04-2017 14:48 via ft.com
  After losses in Iraq and Syria, the terror group will turn into a virtual caliphate
  
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• 'We Will Go To War With Spain Over Gibraltar' Warns Ex-Tory Leader Lord Howard

  02-04-2017 14:33
  
  Former Tory leader #LordHoward uses the 35th anniversary of the Falklands conflict to explain why he's optimistic about Gibraltar #Ridge pic.twitter.com/9m2oBoxdii— SophyRidge On Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) April 2, 2017
  Theresa May would go to war with Spain to “stand by” the people of Gibraltar, former-Tory leader Lord Howard claimed today.
  The Conservative peer made the comments after the EU insisted any post-Brexit trade deal with the UK would not apply to Gibraltar unless Spai
  
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• Ed Miliband Says He 'Can't Recall' If He Cried After Losing The General Election 2015

  02-04-2017 14:16
  
  How did @Ed_Miliband deal with losing the 2015 General Election?#marr pic.twitter.com/LCBzzLhxxU— The Andrew Marr Show (@MarrShow) April 2, 2017
  Ed Miliband said he could not recall if he cried after losing the 2015 general election.
  Speaking to Eddie Mair on Sunday’s Andrew Marr Show, the former Labour leader said that the days following the loss were “very, very upsetting days”.
  When asked if he cried following the defeat, Miliband said: “I don’t recall.
  &l
  
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• Theresa May would go to war to protect Gibraltar, Michael Howard says

  02-04-2017 14:15
  
  Former Tory leader suggests PM would act to protect Gibraltar’s sovereignty as Margaret Thatcher did for the FalklandsTheresa May would be prepared to go to war to protect Gibraltar as Margaret Thatcher once did for the Falklands, former Conservative leader Michael Howard has suggested, in comments that were immediately criticised as inflammatory. Lord Howard’s suggestion that the prime minister would be ready to follow in the footsteps of her predecessor 35 years ago came alongside
  
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• Unhappy Ukippers? Maybe Europe wasn’t the issue… | David Mitchell

  02-04-2017 11:00
  
  Why aren’t Leavers rejoicing? My instinct is that their crisis runs deeper than the EUA dramatic photo-essay played out on the front pages of the newspapers last week. On Tuesday: a snap of Theresa May solemnly signing a letter. On Wednesday: one of Sir Tim Barrow solemnly handing it over to the disapproving president of the European council, Donald “Tsk” Tusk. I didn’t buy a paper on Thursday as I didn’t have the stomach for the inevitable picture of Tusk solemnly
  
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• Millicent Fawcett To Be Honoured With Parliament Square Statue To Mark Women's Vote Centenary

  02-04-2017 10:33
  
  The first statue of a woman is finally to be erected in London’s Parliament Square.
  A sculpture of suffragist Millicent Fawcett will be put up outside the Houses of Parliament in 2018, marking 100 years since women in the UK were granted the vote.
  The Fawcett Society, a gender equality charity named after Fawcett, hailed the decision as a “fitting tribute” to the women’s rights campaigner.Fawcett was a suffragist, meaning she was dedicated to peacefully campaigning for wo
  
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• Arron Banks: ‘Brexit was a war. We won. There’s no turning back now’

  02-04-2017 10:29
  
  Now out of Ukip – the party he bankrolled – Arron Banks is creating a political movement of his own. We met the ‘bad boy of Brexit’ just before article 50 was triggered – and found his ambitions go far beyond leaving EuropeIt is five days before article 50 is triggered, and I’m sitting in the sunshine outside a pub in Islington with the man who bankrolled Brexit. If victory lies with anyone this weekend, it maybe lies with Arron Banks.Though Nigel Fa
  
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• Prickly or canny? May makes bet on Scottish character

  02-04-2017 06:34 via ft.com
  Refusing a second referendum is a high stakes gamble
  
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• Prickly or Canny? May makes a big bet on Scottish character

  02-04-2017 06:34 via ft.com
  Refusing a second referendum is a high stakes gamble
  
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• Labour MPs revamp centre-left Tribune group to win back middle-class voters

  02-04-2017 01:05
  
  Forum first established in 1960s relaunched as a ‘space to put forward ideas which has not been there under successive leaders’More than 75 Labour MPs are relaunching the centre-left Tribune group with a new mission statement designed to win back traditional supporters while appealing to voters on the centre ground.The group call for “opportunity and aspiration” to be placed at the centre of the party’s programme, and for the party to be “outward-looking in th
  
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• Brexit: the castle in the air – cartoon

  02-04-2017 01:05
  
  Chris Riddell on the triggering of article 50 Continue reading...
  
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