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| May going into No 10 - from @PoliticalPics (I would have used his actual tweet if he let ordinary people access them) |
Theresa May is in a cabinet meeting as I begin this, her aim to achieve unanimous agreement on the speech she will give in Florence tomorrow. The story is that she practically stepped off the plane and into No 10, which means last night's supposed mini-summit with Boris Johnson over the Atlantic came to very little. Adam Boulton on Sky reports that she told him she needed some sleep.
The speech is billed as an "open and generous offer" to "break the deadlock" in the Brexit negotiations, but it seems to be the wrong time - the September round of talks has had to be postponed until next week - and possibly the wrong place.
May took her "fair and serious" offer on EU citizens' rights to the EU Council in June, three days after the first round of talks had done little more than set up a few working groups and agree the timetable which May & co had refused to countenance until they screwed up an election. Some EU leaders greeted it politely as "insufficient" and others as "at least it's something" but they basically told her it would have to wait until the July talks because when they told us the negotiations would be done by Barnier, not heads of state and government, they meant it.
Will choosing her own time and place be seen as a sign of strength or of not taking things seriously?
HR News
The Department for Exiting the EU has announced the renomination of the British judge to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU or ECJ, according to taste). Christopher Vajda QC, who has done the job since 2012 after 30 years of practice in European Law, should encounter no difficulties as he goes through a scrutiny panel and approval of his appointment by the Member States.
That first nomination in 2012 was announced by the Foreign Office, but all relationships with the EU seem now to be handled by the bunch responsible for getting us out of it. As the new announcement says, "While we continue to be a Member State, we will honour our rights and obligations, this includes nominating a judge to the Court of Justice".
Saboteurs department
A UK-Canada working group will be established to work on a "seamless" transition to a new trading relationship when the UK is legally able to agree one.
Note, as Justin Trudeau did, that the word "basis" means "starting point", not the "copy and paste" reported by some of the media. In Trudeau's words: "We will be able to move forward in a smooth transition that keeps the essence of CETA applicable to the U.K. in ways that respect the EU's requirements and rules". Other CBC comment says this is "a shrunken ambition for those who campaigned for Brexit. After all, breaking free of the EU was supposed to restore a golden age of free trade as countries rushed to renegotiate deals with a Britain free of Eurocratic interference. The best now on offer, it seems, is to try to hang on to the deals Britain already has under the EU".
This is one of thousands of things we will have to keep an eye open for.
