The UK Prime Minister may have the regal touch in northern England, but he’s been wrong-footed on the constitutional challenges posed by the Celtic Alliance of first ministers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, argues KENNY MacASKILL
AT the time of writing the outcome of the Brexit negotiations is unclear. Either both sides are maintaining unusually tight security around the content of the talks, or perhaps even the principals do not know what the final destination will be.
But if we take a step back and rather than focus on forecasts of the Brexit negotiations and their impact, we look to what the Tories are currently doing, a clearer picture should emerge.
Governments always aim to align domestic and foreign policy around complementary aims. A failure to maintain that alignment can rapidly lead to a failure of government. Therefore, we should judge what the overall aims of this government not by rows about future fish quotas, but instead by what it is actually doing here and now.
As a proportion of GDP the total welfare bill is lower than it was 15 years ago. The claim that it is spiralling out of control is mythmaking, argues DIANE ABBOTT
The government’s latest asylum proposals abandon labour movement values and fuel division by aping Reform UK, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
The new plan sets out an uncompromising bid for global dominance, casting even allies as obstacles to be subdued, writes DIANE ABBOTT
The 2025 Budget shores up the PM’s political position with headline-grabbing welfare U-turns, but with no improvements on offer to declining public services or living standards, writes MICHAEL BURKE


