In his book “The Passage to Europe”, Luuk van Middelaar called the equivalent EU strategy to demonstrate its relevance to voters the “Roman” strategy politico.eu/article/boris-…
See also “Life of Brian”: “What have the Romans done for us?” ImageImageImage
The strategy does not always work. The Jews rose against the Romans and almost threw them out. Wales and Cornwall voted to leave the EU despite the 🇪🇺-flagged projects.
A clue to why the strategy failed in those cases and why the strategy may well fail here can be found in this passage. Note “managed from London” and “specific purposes”. Image
The current government just can’t let go: it has to decide everything, at the centre. Everything else - locating central government officials in different parts of the UK; putting all its policies through a “Union” filter - is performance trying to hide that reality.
Combine that reality with the refusal to listen to the devolved governments over any aspect of Brexit and the power grab of the UK Internal Market Act (whence, among other things, comes the power to splash the cash here) and you have an essentially paternalistic approach.
“You can have money to spend on things I think you want, and I will take all the decisions that count.”
But the fate of paternalism is to fail: in the end, children grow up, and want to be respected as adults. If the family is to stay together, decisions have to be taken together.

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More from @GeorgePeretzQC

13 Apr
I suspect that, despite @GoodwinMJ’s excitement, the boring truth is that “I’d be likely to vote for a party that wants to tell the truth about British history, good points, bad points, and all” would sweep all before it.
Forcing people to choose between silly alternatives is just tedious culture warmongering.
Read 4 tweets
13 Apr
Important article by the U.K. government’s lead civil servant on the Edinburgh accord that paved the way for the 2014 referendum.
As he says about the Edinburgh accord.
As he says about how we have ended up in the position where it looks as if there will be a pro-independence majority in the next Scottish Parliament. Though also worth raising the U.K. Internal Market Act.
Read 4 tweets
11 Apr
Strongly recommend this article on English devolution by a team including @DianeCoyle1859. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.11…
The introduction sums up the problem.
For those at the back who think that constitutional reform is a luxury a Labour government shouldn’t bother with - note that the root problem is a constitutional problem. For the reasons set out in the paragraphs above.
Read 12 tweets
10 Apr
I don’t think that it’s a question of the “left” having forgotten basic principles. But there is an important point buried in @giles_fraser’s piece about the way in which those who support constitutional checks on executive power/human rights protection frame their discourse.
At a technical level, Magna Carta is mostly no longer law (though the bit Giles quoted still is) and even those bits of it that are law have uncertain legal effect.
It is also far from what anyone would now regard as an adequate statement of limits on executive power: nothing on speech, family life, assembly, freedom of religion (protecting the rights of the C of E excepted)... But lots on arcane property rights (fish weirs...)
Read 15 tweets
7 Apr
Lots of good questions here as to what joining the CPTPP would actually mean for the UK. Talking about “new opportunities” and “forging a leadership position” in world trade is all very well: but we need to be hard-headed on both risks and opportunities.
It is important that the current government is clear in its own mind and frank with Parliament about both opportunities and risks: and that its detailed negotiating mandate is put up for consultation, debate, and Parliamentary approval.
Read 5 tweets
2 Apr
I might need to think twice about my opposition to penalising blasphemy.
Note: more seriously, I don’t think that trying to associate the central event of Christianity with the currently ruling political party would have been caught by the old blasphemy law: but its gross offensiveness and arrogance - and the fact that it is still up - speaks volumes.
However, we may not need a law on blasphemy.
Read 4 tweets

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