Happy Brexit Day
Plus: No Burnham bounce. Labour’s new insourcing policy is capitulation the unions.
The Civil Service has been authorised to brief ‘prospective candidates’ to be the next Labour leader to allow a smooth transition. The overwhelming expectation is still that Andy Burnham will be the only such candidate in place when nominations close, allowing him to become Prime Minister by mid-July.
Al Carns, the former Defence Minister, is mentioned as a possible rival. He has tweeted the sensible point that not only the level of defence spending matters, but how the money is spent. On broader matters, he has set out his stall on LabourList. But could he persuade 81 Labour MPs to nominate him?
Most Labour MPs are relying on Burnham to transform their prospects. The heat might be getting to them if one opinion poll is to be believed. It showed Labour’s vote share falling.
Also, today is the tenth anniversary of the EU referendum. Lots of nostalgic Brexiteers have been digging out old photographs:
Happy Independence Day to those who celebrate.
Below you’ll find all the latest pieces from CapX, plus what we’re reading from around the web.
CapX
Today’s Takes
Fresh thinking from CapX
A Remainer repents
Alys Denby
‘I’m a Remainer, but my struggle is finished. I have won the victory over myself. I love Brexit’
Brexit was about who we were as a nation, rather than a trading arrangement, which is what made it so divisive. Snobbery was a key factor for some Remainers. Yet overturning the referendum result would be an insult to democracy and to everyone who voted for Brexit. Had Brexit been framed as a policy choice about our trading relationships, rather than a question of what kind of country we wanted to be, it would have been far less damaging and its outcome far easier to deliver. Read More
Labour’s new insourcing policy is a capitulation to the public sector unions
Peter Young
‘The public interest can only be properly determined after a competition between in-house services and outsourced alternatives’
After a sustained campaign by the unions, Rachel Reeves announced Labour’s new insourcing policy on June 17. Every central government contract worth over £1 million will now trigger a mandatory so-called ‘public interest test’, requiring an assessment of whether the work can be done in-house before any procurement starts. But there is considerable evidence that outsourcing is more efficient. Read More
The economic case for Brexit still stands
Matthew Elliott
‘We have fought for the right to set our own regulatory standards, our own trade policy, and have the ability to directly hold our elected representatives to account’
We have done the element of Brexit which enables us to flourish – attaining policy freedom – but we have yet to fully exercise it to our advantage, argues Matthew Elliott was the CEO of the Vote Leave campaign. This year more than ever, we should use it to honour another anniversary. Not the tenth anniversary of the EU referendum, but the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations – the seminal work demonstrating that free market policies are the route to prosperity. Read More
Stat of the day
The CapX Reading List
The best of the web today
Labour is deluded if it thinks Andy Burnham can save Britain
David Frost, Daily Telegraph
‘The man who was beaten in two past Labour leadership elections, the undistinguished Blair-era minister, the mayor who reinvented himself as Northern Soul made flesh, is going to be running the country? Seriously?’
Burnham has no room for manoeuvre to do what his party wants him to do. His policy statements, such as they are, suffer from a wish to please his audience, extreme vagueness (perhaps as a consequence), and a tendency to generalise his Manchester experience. He hilariously believes that we have had 40 years of neoliberalism and deregulation, a denial of reality if ever there was one. Read More
Northern Ireland has been the biggest loser from Brexit
Andrew McQuillan, The Spectator
‘Unionism now plays second fiddle to nationalism at Stormont and, courtesy of the Windsor Framework, a sea border segregates Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK economy.’
The seeds of that defeat were not sown in Belfast but in Whitehall, particularly in the Northern Ireland Office, Foreign Office and of course, Downing Street. Northern Ireland exists in a state of suspended constitutional animation. Effectively abandoned by its nominal government in London and still unattainable for those in Dublin who desire it. Read More
Is There a Ceiling for Christians in Politics?
Steve Baker and Tim Farron
The Capitalist: The battle for Brexit isn’t over
And if you want more...
– The radical reforms of Blair and Thatcher are impossible now (Andrew Neil, Daily Mail)
– Brexit: How the political class betrayed it– and Britain (Nigel Farage, Substack)
– Slavery: Properly honouring its end (Linda Denno, Civitas Outlook)
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