Simon Usherwood

The publication on Wednesday of a UK Command Paper “Safeguarding the Union” came largely out of the blue. For months the Secretary of State and budding author, Chris Heaton-Harris, has been talking with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) about returning to power-sharing in the Northern Ireland Executive. Last year’s Windsor Framework was supposed to have […]

During the Christmas break, the UK got rid of all its Retained EU Law (REUL). But not really. The entry into force of the Retained EU Law Act at New Year’s Eve meant that all that “Retained EU Law” got relabelled as “assimilated law”. As I discussed in my previous post, the Act also resulted […]

Christmas is, of course, the most Brexit-y time of year. Who can forget such classic moments as reading treaties under the tinsel in 2019 and 2020, or pondering the no-confidence vote in 2018 over a glass of eggnog? Obviously keen to keep up the tradition after a couple of fallow years, this time we get […]

I’ve been turned over this question for some weeks now, mainly because it has kept on popping up in different places. And because I fundamentally disagree. Last month, I heard the line ‘sovereignty is democracy’ fall from the lips of Bill Cash, speaking on a panel about Parliamentary scrutiny of European business. I had hoped […]

2024 is going to be a busy year for UK-EU relations. As much as we talk about the 2026 TCA review as a key point, next year will see a full refresh of EU leadership and the European Parliament, plus a probable British general election, plus whatever fallout from a US presidential election might occur. […]