Featured News

October 10, 2017

Scotland and Wales have no plans to become the sacrificial lambs of Brexit

The UK’s devolved nations could be the rocks upon which a Brexit deal is wrecked, writes Murray Ritchie. For months Scotland and Wales have been…

Brexit means Brexit – and it hurts!

The European project – always a work in progress

When it comes to sovereignty, talk is cheap

New data rules for an age of hacking and the hacked

Food is the stuff of life – or death

A soft Brexit made in Scotland?

June 7, 2017

Tax treaty history: the day an MLI defeated BEPS

A ‘tax shopping’ industry worth between $100 billion and $240 billion a year was enthusiastically consigned to history at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and…

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Nuclear industry acts on ‘no deal’ Brexit as MPs plot Euratom rebellion
The British nuclear industry is activating plans to relocate some nuclear material and components around Europe, Sky News understands. The move comes in anticipation of a failure to replace the UK’s existing trading arrangements with Europe and the globe before Britain leaves the EU in March 2019. Executives are now planning for potential legal barriers to the highly controlled movement of nuclear parts and materials into and out of the United Kingdom after Brexit. Leading figures speaking privately to Sky News have complained of “no visibility” that full arrangements will be in place by 2019 to replace existing arrangements under the Euratom nuclear safety treaty and related third country treaties – and are “planning for a world where that doesn’t happen”. The news comes as Sky News has learned Tory MPs plan a rebellion on Euratom by backing a new amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill, stalling leaving the treaty (which is separate from the EU), until the Government reports on how it will replace every existing nuclear relationship. Sky news, October 16

Ministers warned of constitutional crisis over EU withdrawal bill
Ministers have been warned they must amend the EU withdrawal bill to curtail any possibility of a power grab away from the Scottish and Welsh devolved administrations or risk a constitutional crisis. The first secretary of state, Damian Green, is to meet senior figures in the Welsh assembly and Scottish government on Monday at the joint ministerial committee. They will warn that the devolved administrations will not give legislative consent unless the bill is significantly amended. The first minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, said he would recommend the Welsh assembly block the bill unless changes were made. The Guardian, October 16

PM dashes to Brussels hoping to break deadlock
Theresa May will fly to Brussels today for emergency talks with EU chiefs to break the impasse on Brexit. The prime minister will make the surprise trip with David Davis, the Brexit secretary. They will meet Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, and Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator. The meeting, which is understood to have been requested by Britain, comes days after Mr Juncker and Mr Barnier declared that talks over the UK’s withdrawal from the bloc were deadlocked. The two sides will speak over dinner in the commission building. Also present will be Oliver Robbins, the British civil servant leading on Brexit, and Martin Selmayr, Mr Juncker’s chief of staff. It will be the first dinner between Mrs May and Mr Juncker since a fractious meal in Downing Street in April. The Times, October 16

May urges Merkel to end Brexit stand-off
Theresa May has personally urged Angela Merkel to end the Brexit stand-off at this week’s EU summit in Brussels after Berlin and Paris led moves to toughen the EU’s negotiating line in the next phase of talks. France and Germany have pushed for changes to a draft paper prepared for Thursday’s summit to avoid the impression that the EU will agree guidelines on a transition period as soon as “sufficient progress” has been made in addressing divorce issues such as the exit bill, according to top diplomats. The British prime minister called her German counterpart on Sunday in an attempt to break the impasse ahead of the high-profile summit, with UK officials arguing that negotiations could not progress unless they move beyond the current talks on a divorce settlement. Financial Times, October 16

EU infrastructure bank warning to UK
British infrastructure projects seeking funds from the European Investment Bank will need to insure the bank against the risks of Brexit, its president said at the weekend, as he warned that Britain’s departure from the EU would damage its ability to fund infrastructure. Werner Hoyer, president of the EIB, denied that the EU’s development lender had frozen new lending to Britain but highlighted the difficult legal challenges that Brexit already posed when finalising contracts which potentially run until the 2050s with oversight from the European Court of Justice. Financial Times, October 16

UK inflation set to hit five-year high
UK inflation is expected to hit a five-year high this week, outstripping growth in pay packets and putting renewed pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates. City economists forecast that the consumer price index will be shown to have risen to 3 per cent in September, up from 2.9 per cent a month earlier, its highest level since 2012. The Office for National Statistics will release its figures on Tuesday, just before an influential committee of MPs is set to question the Bank’s governor, Mark Carney, and other officials involved in setting interest rates. The Guardian, October 16

English school budgets face ‘breaking point’
Headteachers are to warn MPs that school budgets in England are facing “breaking point” after a combined £2.8bn in cuts and costs imposed upon them by the government. The National Association of Head Teachers is writing to all Westminster MPs to highlight the plight of state schools in England suffering from funding shortages, in which it tells the politicians that standards are at risk. The letter contains a blunt plea from Paul Whiteman, the NAHT’s general secretary, for MPs to lobby Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and ask for more resources for schools ahead of next month’s autumn statement. “The autumn budget is the last chance for money to make it to schools this year,” Whiteman said. “Please write to the chancellor of the exchequer to ask him to announce more money for schools.” The Guardian, October 16

Hospitals to ban ‘super-size’ chocolate bars
“Super-sized” chocolate bars are to be banished from hospital shops, canteens and vending machines, NHS England says. Sweets and chocolate sold in hospitals should be 250 calories or under, the head of the body says. Under the plans, most “grab bags” will be banned – with hospitals given a cash boost for facilitating the change. The proposals would also see 75 per cent of pre-packed sandwiches coming in at under 400 calories. Pre-packed savoury meals and sandwiches must also contain no more than 5g of saturated fat per 100g. And 80 per cent of the drinks stocked must have less than 5g of added sugar per 100ml. BBC news, October 16

Hail pushes Bordeaux into the red
Bordeaux’s winemakers anticipate a fall in revenue of more than €1.5 billion this year after their vines were devastated by frost in April and hailstones in August. The Bordeaux Wine Committee expects sales to drop by 50 per cent, which would leave hundreds of vineyards reliant on public subsidies to stave off bankruptcy. The region’s 8,500 winemakers picked grapes worth about €3.6 billion last year, which was seen anyway as a poor vintage. This year, the figure is likely to be about €2 billion. The Times, October 16

Financial regulator warns of growing debt among young people
The chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority has warned of a “pronounced” build up of debt among young people. In an interview with the BBC, Andrew Bailey said the young were having to borrow for basic living costs. The regulator also said he “did not like” some high-cost lending schemes. He said consumers, and institutions that lend to them, should be aware that interest rates may rise in the future and that credit should be “affordable”. BBC news, October 16

MPs move to block ‘no deal’ Brexit
A powerful cross-party group of MPs is drawing up plans that would make it impossible for Theresa May to allow Britain to crash out of the EU without a deal in 2019. The move comes amid new warnings that a “cliff-edge” Brexit would be catastrophic for the economy. One critical aim of the group – which includes the former Tory chancellor Kenneth Clarke and several Conservative ex-ministers, together with prominent Labour, SNP, Liberal Democrat and Green MPs – is to give parliament the ability to veto, or prevent by other legal means, a “bad deal” or “no deal” outcome. Concern over Brexit policy reached new heights this weekend after the prime minister told the House of Commons that her government was spending £250m on preparations for a possible “no deal” result because negotiations with Brussels had stalled. The Guardian, October 15

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