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Good morning,
It's the simple things that get us through the day. I can't start work in the morning without a cup of tea. Fortunately I'm sufficiently Luddite to use a normal kettle, otherwise you might not get the Red Box email until 6pm tonight if I followed the man who had an 11-hour battle to boil his wi-fi device.
This is the sort of thing that matters to people. Like when they can't buy Marmite or mayonnaise as a result of Brexit.
No wonder a new survey of academics names David Cameron one of the worst prime ministers in modern history, with one claiming his EU referendum was the greatest defeat of any prime minister "since Lord North lost America". Ouch.
If you're trying to understand Brexit, we can help. Oliver Wright and Henry Zeffman launch their new weekly Brexit Briefing today. Sign up below. |
Matt Chorley
Red Box Editor
@MattChorley
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| In today’s briefing |
- What is the point of the SNP?
- Love it or hate it, you can't buy Marmite
- Foreign students overstated by tens of thousands
- 'Trump apologist' Farage under fire
- What do we want? More demonstrations!
- Cameron aide launches lobby group
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| SNP CONFERENCE |
| What is the point of the SNP? |
Eighteen months ago Nicola Sturgeon was the evil puppeteer who was going to pull Ed Miliband's strings in a Labour minority government, holding Westminster hostage and paving the way to Scottish independence. Things didn't quite pan out that way.
They run Scotland, are still the third largest party in the House of Commons, and almost certainly the most united, yet as their conference gets under way in Glasgow today, there is a nagging question: What is the point of the SNP?
While Ukip struggles with its post-Brexit raison d'etre, Sturgeon has the opposite problem: instead of hastening the cause, Brexit seems to have pushed the dream of independence even further on to the backburner. For all the shouting about Brexit, the SNP can't actually stop it.
So what to do in the meantime? For her clan in Westminster it seems to mean tabling silly early day motions — expensive mini-petitions which only MPs can sign — to welcome things like the unveiling of a Christmas tree, note the 50th anniversary of Star Trek and celebrate a constituent getting into the final 13 of the Miss Scotland competition.
Angus Robertson, the group leader in the Commons who is expected to be named the party's deputy leader today, often uses his PMQs appearances to show Jeremy Corbyn how it's done. He came unstuck yesterday though when he repeated some of Corybyn's questions on Brexit, and Theresa May responded: "I answered two questions on that earlier, I suggest he should have listened to the answers I gave then."
The SNP are so adept at political positioning that they are now arguing that the chaos caused by Brexit means talk of independence must be put on hold. So what to talk about instead?
Certainly not domestic policy, despite big questions about the party's stewardship of the Holyrood administration, particularly on health and education. Meanwhile, research shows that Scotland's deficit now stands at 9.5 per cent of GDP — the highest in the EU and twice the level for the UK as a whole. Polls suggest there is a niggling irritation among Scottish voters that they want Sturgeon and co. to get on with the job of running the country.
Instead, the Tories in London keep handing them the ammunition they need. The hardline anti-immigration rhetoric from Theresa May and Amber Rudd has enabled Sturgeon to condemn the "absolutely disgraceful" and "shameful" Westminster government. It is a perfect chance to reignite claims of "Tory nastiness". And it is a charge that Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, is struggling to shake-off.
Expect lots of Tory bashing in Sturgeon's opening remarks today as she rails against "hard Brexit" and accuses the Conservatives of using Brexit "as licence for the xenophobia that has long lain under the surface - but which is now in full view".
But there is renewed pressure from the grassroots for specifics on when independence might be back on the table. She also faces the first cracks in her party’s unified front as a Momentum-style movement hosts a rival “radical independence” event.
Let's not overstate it: the SNP is still a political colossus. In a YouGov/Times poll in August they were on 52 per cent, up six points since May's Holyrood elections. (Although Davidson's net personal rating on +21 put her ahead of Sturgeon on +20.)
Sturgeon is a masterful politician, seemingly able to turn every defeat — Scottish independence, the EU referendum — to her advantage.
But next May will mark a decade of SNP rule in Scotland. Some might be forgiven for asking themselves quite what has been achieved.
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| Brexit Britain |
| Love it or hate it, you can't buy Marmite |
Forget talk of single markets, customs unions and sterling devaluation. This Brexit s*** just got real, as the young people say.
Marmite, Colman’s mustard, Hellmann’s mayonnaise, PG Tips teabags and Marmite have been withdrawn from Tesco’s website, amid reports that Unilever had asked the supermarket for a 10 per cent price increase because of the pound’s slump to a 31-year low. The Mail calls it 'Brexit Blackmail'.
Never mind the promise of £350million a week, I definitely don't remember being told Ben and Jerry's icecream would be off the menu after Brexit.
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| Living in poundland |
There is a strange game being played out in Westminster, which involves watching what David Davis says and then watching what happens to the sterling. "Shortly after Mr Davis sat down, the pound began to rise," the Press Association reported yesterday.
Conservative MPs are worried, and warned that uncertainty over Brexit was spooking businesses and the markets and called for parliament to be given greater scrutiny of Britain’s negotiating stance. Read the story
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| See you in court |
| Brexit goes to the High Court today, for a legal challenge over whether the government can trigger Article 50 without a vote in parliament. The case is being brought by fund manager Gina Miller. |
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| Fox’s 'fat and lazy' jibe deters negotiators |
Trade specialists have been put off joining the government’s negotiating teams by Liam Fox’s comment, revealed by The Times, that British business is too “fat and lazy” to export, according to a headhunter. Read the story
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| €20 billion divorce |
| Britain is facing a "divorce bill" of up to €20 billion as the cost of leaving the European Union, according to the Financial Times, which has been crunching the numbers. |
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| Shhh... loose lips cost Brexit |
A big row erupted this week, after it emerged that a leaked report claiming Brexit would cost £66 billion a year came from David Davis' Brexit department. Suspicions are running high.
Lord Blencathra, a former Tory MP, has demanded to know what is being done to stop foreign office staff from leaking the government's strategy and tactics to the EU or other European governments. Baroness Anelay, a foreign office minister, insists everyone has been told to remain tight-lipped: "Both departments have ensured that all relevant staff are properly security vetted. Both departments have reminded their staff of the need to deal with all sensitive information on restricted channels of distribution, and at the appropriate levels of security." |
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| Times investigation |
| Foreign students overstated by tens of thousands |
Foreign students have become pawns in the immigration debate, with Theresa May determined to make Britain a less attractive place to study.
The prime minister has repeatedly argued for a crackdown on foreign student recruitment, claiming that too many "vanish" when their course ends, providing an illegal route into the UK.
But The Times reveals that just 1 per cent of international students break the terms of their visa by refusing to leave after their course ends, equivalent to around 1,500 people — far lower than the tens of thousands ministers suggest.
However, the government is refusing to release the analysis.
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| Future of Ukip |
| 'Trump apologist"' Farage under fire |
He's only been back in charge for nine days, but now Nigel Farage's leadership is under attack from his own party.
Angry Ukip MEPs have accused him of being a Donald Trump "apologist" who attempted to "defend the indefensible" after the presidential candidate's lewd comments about women.
Farage dismissed the Republican's obscene remarks about groping women as "alpha male boasting''. Usually loyal MEPs William Dartmouth and Jane Collins issued statements saying they wanted to "disassociate" themselves from Farage's comments and insisted he does not speak for the party on the issue. "The leader of Ukip is not only an intruder in a foreign election, he also seeks to defend the indefensible," Dartmouth declared. |
| Davidson: Puppies (or cats) for all |
Tory poster girl Ruth Davidson is already plotting her plans for world domination. “A puppy for everyone,” pledges the party’s Scottish leader, who has just got a “wee cocker spaniel” of her own. But challenged on last night’s episode of Unspun with Matt Forde on Dave, she insists she will be flexible. “What if I’m more of a cat person?” Forde asks.
Davidson is keen on individual choice. “But with individual choice comes individual responsibility," she warns. You have to look after that cat, and not let Donald Trump anywhere near your pussy.” |
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| Pamela Anderson's Flying Circus visit |
As if Theresa May hasn't got enough on her plate, now she has got post to open from Pamela Anderson. The former Baywatch star is only making a flying visit to London, and couldn't deliver her letter to Downing Street personally, so the PETA supporter posed near a postbox with her plea for the new PM to ban wild-animal circuses. "With all due respect, Brexit is complicated," Anderson says. "But kissing circus animal acts goodbye is easy as pie." Unless you're kissing a lion, presumably.
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| Corbyn's Labour |
| What do we want? More demonstrations! |
Ah, the politics of protest. Instead of arguing about the best way to resolve the bloody civil war in Syria, Westminster is squabbling over where to wave a placard.
Boris Johnson started it, when he urged the public to demonstrate outside the Russian embassy over the country’s bombing campaign in Syria. Now Seumas Milne, Jeremy Corbyn's spin doctor, has suggested demonstrating outside the American embassy instead, claiming the focus on the bombing of Aleppo by Russia was diverting attention from US-led coalition “atrocities” elsewhere.
Labour MP John Woodcock condemned the "offensive nonsense" and claimed Milne was “notorious for his pro-Russia views and hatred of America”.
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| Anger at Chakrabarti's rise |
Baroness Chakrabarti has faced a backlash from Labour MPs a week into her job as shadow attorney-general after she was accused of posturing at a party meeting and appearing to defend private education for the rich. Read the story
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| Prostate saga ends with positive diagnosis for Corbyn |
| Patrick Kidd |
| It was supposed to be a question about public services in the West Midlands — a chance to get Theresa May to plug his old pal, Andy Street, who is standing to be mayor of that region — but Michael Fabricant’s turn at PMQs yesterday ended up as a surprisingly detailed description of his prostate problems. Never has so much parliamentary time been given to one honourable member and his operable member. Read the full sketch |
| SW1 |
| Cameron aide launches lobby group |
A key aide to David Cameron has set up a lobbying company within two months of leaving Downing Street without getting permission from the government’s sleaze watchdog.
Ameet Gill, Cameron’s former director of strategy who was given an OBE by the former prime minister last year, launched Hanbury Strategy last month without informing the advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba). Read the story |
SWAMPED A&Es Almost six in ten accident and emergency units have been labelled inadequate as they are overwhelmed by elderly people made ill by a lack of help with eating, washing and getting around.
Read the story
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UNSAFE DOCTORS More than 800,000 patients are registered with unsafe GP surgeries, inspectors say.
Read the story
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RAIL REFUNDS Southern passengers will be able to claim compensation if their train is more than 15 minutes late under an improved compensation scheme announced today.
Read the story
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WHIPLASH REFORMS George Osborne’s reforms on how the insurance industry deals with claims for whiplash injuries have been set aside by the government, increasing costs for motorists.
Read the story
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| TMS |
| From the diary |
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Dog hairs and graces
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Jenny Agutter believes that her dog is the reincarnation of Princess Diana, according to Miranda Hart. Writing in her memoirs Peggy and Me, Hart claims that Agutter had confided the news while they were on the set of Call the Midwife. The dachshund, named Tufty, has a fringe of hair that she shyly glances through doe-eyed like the late Princess of Wales. She is also said to growl whenever the Queen appears on television. The Railway Children star then told Hart her final justification. Every time a Mercedes arrived at Agutter’s home to take her to the set, Tufty would shiver and refuse to get into it.
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Read more from the TMS diary
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| Today |
- Scottish National Party conference begins in Glasgow
- High Court hears legal challenge on giving Parliament to power to authorise triggering Article 50.
- 9.00am: Councillors in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead meet to consider a legal challenge to Heathrow airport expansion.
- 9.15am: Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, gives evidence to the foreign affairs committee.
- 9.30am: Office for National Statistics publishes figures on hate crimes.
- 10.00am: Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, hosts a knife crime summit.
- 11.30am: Jon Thompson, HMRC chief executive, appears at work and pensions select committee session on tax credit payments.
- 11.30am: Mariano Rajoy , the acting Spanish prime minister, hosts Theresa May for talks in Madrid.
- 12.00pm: Alun Cairns, the Welsh secretary, addresses the South Wales branch of the Institute of Directors on opportunities of Brexit.
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| House of Commons |
- 9.30am: Environment questions
- Business statement — leader of the House
- Backbench business on i) baby loss and ii) inquiry into hormone pregnancy tests.
- Adjournment debate on the costs of independent living for disabled people
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| House of Lords |
- 11.00am: Introduction of Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate
- Oral questions on: recent developments in Syria, vulnerable people and supported housing, accessible football stadia, and UK weapons sales to Saudi Arabia in Yemen.
- Debate on proposals for the extension of grammar schools.
- Debate on the significance of local libraries and independent bookshops in the UK.
- Debate on the revival of the Middle East peace process.
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