A warm winter, relatively speaking. Populism is rife across Europe and the US, with little as yet to counter it. Feeding off that is a negativity to migration and to minorities, a sort of cultivated selfishness and a turning inwards, far too much like the worst of Brexit magnified. That disaster continues to loom large, though one continues to hope that we may yet avoid the more extreme versions predicted.
I note in late January that immigration is now identified as a red herring, since there is a copious amount of data that shows that migrants pay more in tax than others, work harder and generally contribute positively. The other points stand; Parliament is making little if any progress towards any result that history will judge well.
In mid-May, Mrs May declared defeat and resigned 6th June, to be replaced by **** (still unknown for sure in mid-July, but probably **** Boris Johnson) until the 2020 election. That leaves Brexit still unresolved and neither the local (councillor) nor the European (MEP) elections had high enough turnout (29%, 38% respectively) to genuinely indicate the mood of the nation. The suggestion that a new leader might do something dramatic like revoking Article 50 while apparently saying the opposite is the sort of outrageous thing we need to occur to cut this Gordian knot. Alternatively, what we need is for Labour to declare itself to be the party for Remain and perhaps also for a confirmatory referendum (campaigning for Remain). The shortest route to a resolution of Brexit is to revoke Article 50. Leaving and rejoining will not work; there is damage enough done by the political hiatus since mid-2016.
