Meaningful vote or meaningless vote?

Prime Minister Theresa May gave a statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday on her recent Brexit talks in Brussels. The Prime Minister noted that talks over the controversial backstop are “ongoing” and urged to house to “reiterate its support” for the approach to negotiations that MPs agreed on the 29th of January.

It appears that some in the Commons weren’t happy with the latest briefing on the  government’s current negotiating strategy, resulting in Theresa May suffering another defeat of 303 to 258 – a majority of 45 – against a final, decisive vote on her Brexit deal after she has secured changes to the Irish backstop.

So, another week another vote – but what does this vote actually mean I hear you ask? Well, the jury’s still out. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is due to meet key EU figures himself this coming week, stated that the vote showed there is currently “no majority for the Prime Minister’s course of action.” One abstaining Tory member of the ERG (the pro-Brexit European Reform Group) was Sir Bernard Jenkin,who stated that these votes were neither very important, or binding.

Concerning Northern Ireland, deputy DUP leader Nigel Dodds made it clear this week that he believes that no deal is better than a bad deal, stating that Theresa May will have the party’s full support if “necessary changes” are made to the backstop. DUP leader Arlene Foster reinforced this view in her speech to the DUP’s spring conference in Omagh, stating that the party will “measure any new draft withdrawal agreement against our own tests of both protecting the Union and respecting the referendum result.” She also unveiled the party’s latest slogan: ‘Strength to Deliver’.

In slightly lighter news, this week former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern gave a model example of how to act when people who only found out what DUP stands for 12 months ago try to ask you questions about Northern Irish politics. While being questioned at the Exiting the European Union Committee in London, Mr Ahern was questioned over the border, the constitutional position of Northern Ireland after Brexit, and how the people of Ireland might greet any talk of ‘re-joining the UK’.

It was later clarified that the SNP’s Peter Grant was not asking the question seriously, but attempting to make a point to Brexiteer MPs who believe that issues regarding Brexit would be easily solved if Ireland ‘re-joined’ the UK. Mr Ahern also helped debunk such views, stating that the argument that Northern Ireland was “precisely the same as Finchley” was “constitutionally incorrect as per the Good Friday Agreement and I think people need to understand that.”

Read more from Northern Slant on Brexit here.

 

Trump isn’t backing down on his border wall

President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday in an effort to make progress on building the US-Mexico border wall that Congress has long denied him, but that he has long-promised his supporters. Trump’s plan will now be to combine money from other programs with funds included in the spending package passed by Congress on Thursday to avoid another partial government shutdown.

Many political commentators are doubting the facts that Trump used in his announcement of the national emergency, which he described as a “great thing to do” in order to stop “an invasion of drugs, invasion of gangs, invasion of people” into the US – despite statistics that show that violent crime began decreasing before the establishment of border fencing in El Paso, Texas in 2009. The announcement followed President Trump’s visit to El Paso on Monday, where he promised a rally that he would press for the construction of a wall along the southern border. Shortly before taking the stage, President Trump was informed about Congress’ agreement – at least in principle – to provide almost $1.38 billion for fencing and other physical barriers along the border with Mexico. Less than a mile away from Trump’s rally, possible Democratic Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke spoke before a crowd and highlighted the work of non-profits and activist groups that help newly-arrived immigrants.

President Trump faces legal challenges to his decision to use emergency powers to build the wall, with California Govenor Gavin Newsom joining state Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Friday to declare – “Donald Trump, we’ll see you in court.” New York state’s Democratic attorney general, Letitia James, said her state too will not “stand for this abuse of power and will fight back with every legal tool at our disposal,” while New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro plan on introducing a bill to block the emergency declaration.

Read more from Northern Slant on US politics here.

 

The kids are alright

Students in 40 towns and cities across the UK missed school on Friday to go “on strike” to demand action on climate change, with more than 1,000 students gathering at Parliament Square in London. Students in Northern Ireland also skipped classes, with a small but vocal group demonstrating outside Belfast City Hall with home-made signs.

The students were inspired by 16-year-old Swedish political activist Greta Thunberg, who began protesting last summer as a lone campaigner outside the Swedish parliament.  Greta has since taken her activism to the World Economic Forum in Davos, where she challenged the world elite on climate change, telling the “grown-ups” that “change is coming, whether you like it or not.”

The UK schools’ climate change strikes have been supported by more than 200 academics who signed a letter saying pupils are right to be angry at the government’s inaction. But there was criticism of the strikes from both climate change deniers and politicians, with a Downing Street spokesman stating “it is important to emphasise that disruption increases teachers’ workloads and wastes lesson time that teachers have carefully prepared for.”

 

Madness in Madrid

Just eight months after taking office, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a snap general election for April  – the country’s third election in less than four years. After becoming the first Spanish Prime Minister to seize power via a motion of no confidence, it’s fair to say that the leader of the socialist government is now attempting to avoid making the record books for the second time as the shortest-serving PM since the country’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

Sanchez’s decision came just two days after Congress rejected his 2019 budget plan by 191 votes to 158. Catalan secessionist lawmakers were key to both ousting Sanchez’s conservative predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, and rejecting this budget; while demands for a Catalonian independence referendum are in conflict with the socialist government’s pledge to defend the country’s constitutional order. Polls now predict that the Spanish political landscape will now split further with the influence of Vox,  a far-right party, which had already shaken politics in December with an unexpectedly strong showing in regional elections in Andalusia, a socialist stronghold for the past 36 years.

The call for an early election comes against a backdrop of the ongoing Catalan succession crisis. On Saturday, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona to call for self-determination for the north-eastern Spanish region. This week, 12 secessionist leaders went on trial in Spain’s supreme court in Madrid for their role in the failed secessionist drive, including a referendum and an independence declaration deemed illegal by the Spanish courts. Spain’s public prosecutor is seeking prison terms of up to 25 years on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds for the 12 former government officials, lawmakers and civil leaders currently on trial.

Having enjoyed economic growth since 2014, Spain’s expansion is now slowing down, with the country suffering a persistently high level of youth unemployment. Since coming to power Sanchez’s socialists have boosted the minimum wage by 22%, promised €2 billion to fight youth unemployment and launched a major public sector employment programme. Whether this is enough to keep the party in power remains to be seen.

 

Tensions rise after Pulwama attack

The Pakistan-based group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) claimed responsibility for Thursday’s suicide bombing that killed at least 46 soldiers, the deadliest such attack in the region for three decades. Although this group is formally banned in Pakistan and designated a terror organisation by India, the UN, the UK and the US, it operates and raises funds under different names, having previously launched a major attack that killed 19 soldiers in Kashmir in 2016. Founded nearly two decades ago, the group has been linked to multiple attacks inside India, including assaults using car bombs.

In the aftermath of the attack Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – a Hindu nationalist and member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – vowed to punish those responsible, describing a “deep anger” in India. India is preparing for national elections this Spring, where Modi and his Hindu nationalist party are seeking re-election after a landslide victory in 2014 – although commentators have previously stated that both Modi and BJP are looking increasingly weak ahead of the general election.

All eyes will now be on the rising tensions between India and Pakistan after Modi stated in a speech on Friday that “India will give a befitting reply to this incident”, with Federal Minister Arun Jaitley stating that India will take “all possible diplomatic steps” to cut Pakistan off from the international community. While Pakistan has firmly rejected all allegations that it was responsible, India claims to have “incontrovertible evidence” of Pakistan’s involvement, although such evidence has not yet been provided.

Kashmir has been a contentious issue within the subcontinent’s politics ever since it was split between India and Pakistan shortly after independence in 1947. Since then the nuclear-armed neighbours have waged two wars over the territory, with hopes for lasting peace in the region failing to reach any major breakthrough due to cancellations of potential meetings.  

Join us again next Sunday for a look back at the week about to begin.