On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

Dear Jeremy, In recent weeks there has been a clear signal from the business community and Members across the House that the best way forward in Phase two negotiations for the UK exiting the EU would be to protect our current membership of the single market and customs union. I hope you will join me at 17:00 on Monday 8th January 2018, the first day after the Christmas recess, to discuss how we can work together in Parliament to secure the UK’s continued membership of the single market. As Fraser of Allander analysis has revealed, leaving the single market would risk up to 80,000 jobsRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

Tax. No one wants to pay it but everyone wants what it is able to provide. That’s life. What also seems to be life, in this modern world, is that the Nationalists seem to keep upsetting the Unionists. Last week this was extremely evident at the budget presentation. The unionists thought they had all worked out what was going to happen and had all prepared their speeches beforehand. Nasty nationalists had not leaked what their intentions were. Result…………….very embarrassing, unionist leaders were unable to think on their feet. They read out their prepared statements and as such, much of what they said was irrelevant. TheyRead More →

On:
In: Steven Marwick

There isn’t long to go now in the Catalan election contest which was triggered by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy at the same time that the imposition of Article 155 and the annulment of the Catalan declaration of independence came into force. It is hard to see how the people of Catalonia can have any great faith in the fairness of the elections given the recent actions of the Spanish state. It seems that Article 155 is being used as an excuse for all kinds of cultural violence in Catalonia, culminating in the removal of disputed works of art from a museum in Llieda byRead More →

On:
In: Jim Lynch

“The moving finger writes and having writ moves on, nor all thy piety nor wit, shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it” This quotation from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam sprang to mind as I was considering how quickly political events are moving, or even not moving! The main driver of politics this year has been Brexit. We seem to have gone from the heady hysteria of “£350 million a week for the National Health Service” to the Tory Government attempting to evade the consequences and haggling about the exit price. In allRead More →