With less than a week to the start of negotiations, the UK’s Brexit team appear more ill prepared than ever to handle the task. News of ministerial casualties within the Brexit team has been dismissed as minor. Meanwhile, replacements are shuffled into the department in the dead of night, hoping to avoid the attention of the media. It seems it is not just the electorate that harbour grave doubts about the forthcoming negotiations.
Ken Loach believes Labour’s problems have been brought about by Machiavellian plotting. The media, Labour grandees and disgruntled Blairites are all at it apparently.
At precisely 5.00pm, Donald Trump will be sworn in as America’s next president. For many, this day could not have come soon enough. A man who listened to those ignored by the Washington elite. A megastar businessman who promised to re-boot the American dream for the little people.
For those that imagined the consequences of a Trump presidency would at least be temporary, feelings of hope have all but evaporated. As each of Trump’s appointments is announced, a dark shadow creeps further over world stability.
After five decades of stability across the developed world, a new era of insecurity is emerging. Values and institutions that were considered sacrosanct are now being questioned or rejected. Nationalism is rapidly emerging as the new political force driving change.
The scandal surrounding BHS has handed the opportunity for Theresa May to demonstrate her willingness to tame the worst excesses of capitalism. Will she take it?
Martin Schulz’s column in the Guardian was an honest account of the prevailing attitudes in Brussels towards impending Brexit. Perhaps there is more to be learnt. A word cloud analysis has been highly revealing.
