The Week UK – 23 August 2019

4 NEWS Politics

THE WEEK 24 August 2019

Controversy of the week

The Tory rebellion

History does repeat itself, said The Guardian. Back

in 1990,asavage speech by the softly-spoken former

Tory chancellor Geoffrey Howe effectively brought

down Margaret Thatcher. Now the savage criticism

of the Government’s plans by another ex-Tory

chancellor, Philip Hammond, threatens to do the

same for Boris Johnson... and on “exactly the same

issue”: Britain’s fractious relationship with Europe.

It’s a“scandalous betrayal”, said Allister Heath in The

Daily Telegraph. As chancellor, Hammond did all he could to block no-deal preparations and veto

crucial Brexit spending plans. Now he is leadingatiny “caucus” of Tory MPs–including Rory

Stewart and David Gauke–which, by seeking to neuter Johnson, risks handing Jeremy Corbyn the

keys to No. 10, and letting Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party devastate the Tories at the next election. “The

saboteur-in-chief” is what many Brexiters are calling him, said Francis Elliott in The Times. He is

even being blamed–though he denies it–for the leak of Operation Yellowhammer, the

Government’s classified projections for what might happen underano-deal Brexit.

For Johnson’s followers, Hammond is the ideal bogeyman, said Matthew d’Ancona in The Guardian.

And when Brussels refuses to budge, you can be sure that he’ll be the key figure in their “Great

Betrayal” narrative. “It’s all your fault, Spreadsheet Phil,” they’ll say. Your alarmism has proved fatal.

By stoking up “Project Fear” you made the EU think we were just bluffing about no deal, and that it

therefore had no need to negotiate. Yet it is madness to accuse Hammond of scaremongering. On the

contrary, you only have to look at the Government’s own assessments in Operation Yellowhammer

–fuel, food and medicine shortages; disruption at the ports; civil disorder;ahard border with Ireland

–tosee that he has been valiantly trying to avertahistoric disaster by warning the country of what’s

at stake. “If you look to the heavens and seeabreeze block plummeting towards you”, it’s not

“alarmism” to draw attention to it. And it’s not as if the British people voted for this calamity, said

The Observer. As both Hammond and Corbyn have often said, “no one voted for no deal”.

That’s true, said Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph. It’s also “utterly misleading”. No one voted

for any type of deal in the referendum: none were on the ballot. Voters were just asked whether or not

they wanted to leave the EU, their MPs having assured them they’d enact whatever the verdict might

be. And the verdict was to leave. But as it happens, by voting for Article 50 and the Withdrawal Act,

both of which specify no deal asalast resort, Parliament did itself accept no deal. How hypocritical

of the likes of Hammond, who go on about the sovereignty of Parliament, to thendisavow what

Parliament voted for. As for the British people, the reason they voted leave, according toapost-

referendum poll by Lord Ashcroft, was political not economic, said Paul Goodman on Conservative

Home. It was the principle “that decisions about the UK should be taken in the UK”. In the event of

the no-deal forecasts coming true, we shall see how attached they really are to that principle.

Howe, left, and Hammond: quiet assassins?

Spirit of the age

Good week for:

Carrie Symonds,who became the first unmarried partner of a

sitting prime minister to be invited to visit the Queen at Balmoral.

Her Majesty traditionally hosts the PM foraweekend during her

summer holiday in Scotland; spouses are invited, but no previous

PM has broughtagirlfriend (or boyfriend).

Bad week for:

The Queen’s pharmacy,which was criticised for selling a

homeopathic remedy that supposedly contains “essence” of the

Berlin Wall. The potion, available from Ainsworths, is made from

bits of Wall that have been ground into dust, mixed with lactose

and then massively diluted. According to Dr Edzard Ernst,acritic

of homeopathy, its manufacturers claim it containsa“vital force”

that helps “break down walls” between people.

Regional imbalance,after areport found that Londoners are

on track to receive almost three times more in transport spending

per person than residents of the north of England.

French,with news that it is no longer the language of choice

among A-level students. The most popular A-level language is

now Spanish, which was taken by 8,625 students this year.

The Independent Group for Change,the party that launched

in ablaze of publicity six months ago, only to sink so fast it now

has “zero support”, according toanew BMG survey of voter

intentions. The party’s 0% rating puts it behind UKIP, on 1%.

Amazon,which came under fire for starting to send out goods in

plastic envelopes that cannot be recycled in the UK, just as most

retailers are trying to cut back their use of single-use plastic.

Drop in MMR vaccines

About one in seven five-year-

olds about to start primary

school are not fully protected

against measles, mumps and

rubella, due toadrop in the

uptake of the MMR vaccine,

Public Health England has

warned. Some 30,

children have not received

the vaccine at all, and 90,

have only had the first of two

injections. Just 87% of

children now get both jabs

–well short of the 95% target

–and the World Health

Organisation has withdrawn

the UK’s “measles-free”

status due to outbreaks.

Prime Minister Boris

Johnson has urged the social

media giants to do more to

combat “anti-vaxx”

misinformation online.

HS2 “go or no-go” review

The Government has

launchedareview into the

costs and benefits of the HS

rail link. Transport Secretary

Grant Shapps saida“go or

no-go” decision on the

£56bn plan, which has come

in for heavy criticism, would

be made by the end of the

year. Phase one of the high-

speed route from London to

Birmingham is scheduled to

open in 2026. Though billions

have already been spent on

it, Shapps refused to rule out

scrapping the project. “Just

because you’ve spentalot of

money on something does

not mean you should plough

more and more into it.”

Poll watch

34%of Britons back Boris

Johnson’s plan to carry out

ano-deal Brexit on 31

October if necessary.49%

think he should either delay

Brexit, cancel it altogether,

or callafresh referendum.

19%believe that Johnson

will negotiateanew deal

with the EU.

BMG/The Independent

14%of Britons say they

know exactly what the

Northern Ireland backstop

is, while12%say they

have never heard of it.

YouGov

65%of pupils aged 11 to 16

in England and Wales say

they think it is important to

go to university, down from

75%last year, and86%in

2013 .Nevertheless,77%still

say they are very or fairly

likely to attend university.

Ipsos MORI/The Guardian

Women atamaternity unit

in Cardiff are to be given

virtual reality headsets, to

ease their labour pains.

For the trial, at University

Hospital Wales, women will

be invited to donaheadset

and offeredarange of 360°

simulations–ofbeing on a

white sand beach, watching

the Northern Lights,

wandering among penguins

or roving on Mars. Virtual

reality “distraction therapy”

is already used by the NHS

for pain management in

some cases, and though the

VR experiences last for only

seven andahalf minutes,

the pain-relieving effects are

said to last for up to 45.

The student union bar at

Dundee’s Abertay University

is to stop selling alcohol, as

today’s students tend to

prefer coffee. Since 2015,

the bar’s sales of alcohol

have fallen by 66%.