Another month, another Prime Minister. The ructions in Westminster might well have launched a thousand memes about lettuce, but have also clearly put any policy work on hold. This holds true for British EU policy, where the only clear shift since Boris Johnson’s time in office has been a shift in discourse and framing: both […]

After a summer hiatus for the Conservative leadership campaign, there was much expectation of Liz Truss following through on her stated plans for the Northern Ireland Protocol. Recall that she had been the lead minister for the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill and that she had done much during the campaign to court the support of […]

This post originally appeared on the UK in a Changing Europe website. As a strapline for Labour’s EU policy, ‘make Brexit work’ has a lot going for it. An echo of ‘get Brexit done’ – which served Boris Johnson and the Conservatives so well in 2019 – it both highlights how un-‘done’ Brexit is, and […]

This week’s second reading of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill moves the UK one step closer to a significant aggravation of the relationship with the EU. With no Tories voting against the Bill – partly because it was presented as a technical exercise – the government is pushing on with a faster committee stage. However, […]

The title of this post feels insanely optimistic, given the events of the past weeks, but if we don’t try then we certainly won’t succeed. Last month I submitted some evidence to the Follow-up inquiry on the impact of the Protocol, run by the Lord’s EU Committee’s sub-Committee on the Protocol. Being very aware of […]

Since we’re back in a hotter phase of the NIP rhetoric cycle, it’s useful to revisit various points. None of it’s new and I’ve shared all the content below with you before, but apparently that’s not got through to everyone. The UK government is seemingly on the verge (again) of producing a bill that would […]

A short post this week, to update the trackers for meetings of the assorted committees of the EU-UK’s Withdrawal Agreement and Trade & Cooperation Agreement. As you can see, things have been quiet so far this year. WA activity has been winding down (although that might change should the UK follow through on its reported […]