Posts by Richard Parry
Shorn of the legal language required by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, the motion agreed by MPs on Tuesday 29 January 2019 states that ‘This House….rejects the United Kingdom leaving the European Union without an Withdrawal Agreement and a Framework for the Future Relationship, and... Read more
Post type: Blog entry
The most dramatic night at Westminster since the Labour government’s defeat on a confidence motion in 1979 is writing itself as a sequel to James Graham’s 2012 play This House about events forty years ago. Labour’s Tulip Siddiq, unwell, pregnant, wheelchair-bound, played a cameo role, parked next... Read more
Post type: Blog entry
The deal (Withdrawal Agreement) ‘would be an uncomfortable outcome for the European Union: providing quota-fee, tariff-free access to the EU market without any accompanying financial obligations; without any access to UK fishing waters in the absence of further agreement; and without any... Read more
Post type: Blog entry
With the politics of the process changing almost by the minute, Richard Parry assesses the ‘stable text’ of the Brexit agreement.
The final phase of negotiating action in recent days was when the EU27 started to push back against some aspects of the UK-wide solution on Ireland upon realising... Read more
Post type: Blog entry
As the buildup to the EU Council meeting reaches fever pitch, Richard Parry explains that deals at dawn may work in Brussels but they don't always play to the home crowd.
Sometimes in politics setbacks can actually be set-ups, designed to give political propulsion to the outcome that is eventually... Read more
Post type: Blog entry
Richard Parry reviews a fast-evolving situation as the march of time and need to reconcile rhetoric and practicality constrain policy-makers.
The UK government’s White Paper of 12 July marked the culmination of the government’s negotiation with itself as it picked cherries even more precisely,... Read more
Post type: Blog entry
Richard Parry discusses the interacting policies on devolution and Brexit in the current impasse between UK and devolved governments.
As part of their unfolding tactics on Brexit, the Scottish and Welsh Governments have through their legislators taken powers to alter inherited EU-based law in... Read more
Post type: Blog entry
Richard Parry discusses the attempts to express political objectives in secure legal wording as Brexit progresses
On 20 December 2017 the EU Commission set out its draft supplementary negotiating guidelines for the next phase of the Brexit negotiations, during which the arrangements for UK... Read more
Post type: Blog entry
The post-Hogmanay atmosphere is always sobering, and never more than this year when the party may be over for some many people in so many ways. During 2017, three great political experiments - Brexit, the Trump Presidency and the Catalonian independence project - failed to progress beyond the... Read more
Post type: Blog entry
Richard Parry reflects on the first-stage agreement between the UK and EU that defuses political of tension but has little comfort for the proponents of Brexit and leaves all to play for in the territorial politics of Britain and Ireland.
Sometimes even the best-trailed political events happen... Read more
Post type: Blog entry