What changed? When did we lose the global vocation that infused the Cabinet, Leavers and Remainers alike, two years ago?
It’s about neither the principle nor the form of Brexit. Its purpose is to make leaving orderly. MPs should effect it this week.
I took part in the first ever debate held in Parliament on soil. Solar panels line my office roof. Also I use a Somerset wicker basket instead of plastic bags.
Part of settling down and marking time, as Roger Scruton would say, is protecting our environment. Doing so is an unchosen obligation upon us.
The ban is underpinned by a failure to understand essential differences between two distinct types of device. Pets and people suffer as a result.
To shut off consideration of realistic and achievable ways of supporting the Government’s Brexit objectives would be irresponsible.
But a vote on some form of customs union is coming. Might it become a confidence issue?
I was drawn to work here by the values which I believe can help a struggling economy become more productive: autonomy, hard work, and enterprise.
This logic can be extended to protecting our fisheries, to re-examining our use of fertilisers, to building up flood defences and to our uptake of renewable energies.
Of course Ulster’s trade with the mainland must be protected as top priority, but a degree of flexibility on regulations in a small number of sectors is sensible.
Also: DUP gear up for enhanced role whilst working on border compromise; and Holyrood committee shows its teeth and plunges SNP policy into chaos.
Plus: the official measure of inflation should be changed; student funding requires reform; and the Chancellor must prepare for No Deal.
Michael Gove has made a great start at DEFRA, but from farm subsidies to onshore wind there is plenty more the Party can do.
“Two years later no-one knows what they want, even the Tory party. Theresa May says one thing and Boris Johnson says another.”