Brian Barder's website and blog Brian Barder's website and ephems

Does Mr Corbyn need a minimum of PLP support to stand against Ms Eagle for re-election as leader? Yes

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour party is to decide this afternoon whether, under the party’s constitution and rules, the requirement that a challenger to the leader must have the support of...

If Angela challenges Corbyn, will Labour’s National Executive Committee change the rules for him?

If Angela Eagle (or another MP) does challenge Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership, can Corbyn be a candidate in the ensuing leadership election even if he fails to get the minimum number of nominations laid...

Is Brexit now unavoidable? Just possibly not (2)

Events are moving so swiftly that it’s difficult to write anything that won’t be overtaken a few hours later.  The defenestration of Boris Johnson and the candidature to succeed Cameron of Michael Gove (who...

UK withdrawal from the EU may be avoidable after all. Here’s how

The result of the referendum on 23 June at first seemed conclusive. A clear majority of the UK electorate had voted for withdrawal from the EU.  Neither parliament nor any foreseeable UK government can...

First thoughts about Brexit: Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat

Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes insane.  That might be Britain’s epitaph after yesterday’s referendum in which a majority of the Britons voting decided that our country is to expel itself...

Project Enthusiasm: the ultra-positive case for Britain to Remain in Europe

An unusually positive and enthusiastic case for Remain (Britain remaining in the European Union) is made in a new article by two writers who have both had extensive but different experiences of working with EU colleagues...

The Jo Cox tragedy has inevitably overshadowed a notable by-election result

The dreadful murder of a very special person and outstanding Labour MP, Jo Cox, yesterday has inevitably overshadowed a much lesser event on any reckoning, but still one of some significance.  This is the...

A grim warning from Martin Wolf of the FT: what future for Britain and our politics?

Today’s (15 June 2016) Financial Times publishes a column by their top economics commentator, the internationally respected Martin Wolf, who conveys the grimmest and most cogent warning of the likely effects of Britain leaving the European Union...

Most of the factors threatening Britain’s place in Europe have nothing to do with the EU

In a memorable recent television debate dominated by strong, articulate, piercingly intelligent women (Angela Eagle, Nicola Sturgeon, Amber Rudd, Gisela Stuart, Andrea Leadsom – where were Caroline Lucas and Maria Eagle?  Yvette Cooper, even?),...

A scandalous injustice: 4,614 IPPs stranded indefinitely in our prisons, 77% of them for crimes they haven’t yet committed.  Action this day!

IPPs – Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection – were belatedly abolished in 2012 by the first liberal Justice Secretary or Home Secretary for years, Ken Clarke, a Tory.  But the thousands of prisoners then...