It might not be fair, but Brexiteers had the luxury of smashing a vase and walking away. Rejoiners must sweep up the parts and carefully stick them back together. It doesn't take a genius to understand why that will take time

My latest for @prospect_uk

prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/brexi… I have written this to address some of the arguments I have had with rejoin types on here. I have tried to explain that I am very sympathetic to their cause, but it really does have to be slow-rolled for procedural and political reasons.

prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/brexi…

The (astonishing) images accompanying this press release are telling a very particular story - very tough indeed on immigration

https://twitter.com/lukemcgee/status/1785625806342869463

First handcuffs, then hardware. Very deliberate brutality about the images. Not saying they are right or wrong, it's just very striking

6 months ago I spoke with a source about Western ammo being eaten up in Ukraine. They feared NATO members were not restocking

They'd directly suggested to allies a Covid-like response, encouraging states to repurpose industry

Here's how it got so bad

edition.cnn.com/2023/02/14/eur… During the cold war, NATO allies worked on the basis of being able to protect its own borders for about 3 weeks in the event of a Warsaw Pact attack. Post-cold war, keeping that up is not acceptable, since they determined the threat to be minimal

edition.cnn.com/2023/02/14/eur…

Ok, I am reading the Truss essay. First lie: even her own team have admitted she was courting MPs before Johnson resigned. She kept having meetings that were officially about NI but, aides said, were checking levels of support. See also fizz with Liz From who? No senior cabinet minister was anything other than fully behind ripping up EU law. The main issue at the time was no one had put forward any serious alternatives (Truss also only proposed tinkering on financial regulations)

Sunak's first 100 days in office might not have been amazing, but the fact he survived them at all should make Tories relatively happy.

And without wanting to sound too much like Boris Johnson, the next election isn't in the bag yet for Labour

edition.cnn.com/2023/02/04/uk/… Labour's votes are still too concentrated in metropolitan areas, which under FPTP makes winning a majority hard.

@robfordmancs points out that Labour increased vote share in 2019 but lost seats

edition.cnn.com/2023/02/04/uk/…

Oh god apparently I am watching Nadine Dorries interview Boris Johnson then Hardhitting questions so far: are you spending more time with your kids and do you like Ukraine

2022's turmoil has made Brexit even more of an Elephant in the room as Brits got hooked on the political chaos of the Tory psychodrama.

It's unlikely the main parties will be able to ignore it in 2023 as an election looms and Brexit still needs fixing

edition.cnn.com/2022/12/27/eur… The hard Brexit deal has already hit the UK economy. Increasing supply-side barriers for businesses who operate in Europe has obviously made life harder and has been catastrophic for smaller companies who cannot simply throw money at the problem

edition.cnn.com/2022/12/27/eur…