At 11:30 this morning the Queen delivered her speech to the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Here, the Queen set out a rather limited detail agenda for Government over the next two years. The intention is to avoid a Queen’s Speech entirely next year, when we will be mid-way through our negotiations on exiting the EU. Instead of the usual Royal Regalia, coaches and full pageantry, the Queen arrived by car wearing wore a blue coat and hat (perhaps saving time changing to get to Royal Ascot later in the afternoon). Her decision not to wear the […]

Yesterday Theresa May undertook her first cabinet reshuffle of the new parliament. I say first, it could well be the last. And it wasn’t so much of a reshuffle as a slight adjustment here and there.   The top jobs, Treasury, Home Office, Foreign Affairs and Defence all remained the same. Philip Hammond, who thought he was on the way out, was able to issue an ultimatum to the greatly weakened Prime Minister saying that he wanted a ‘softer Brexit’. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has asked for unity from the famously ruthless Tory members. It is true that if the Conservative […]

Brussels has reacted to the UK General Election news in typical bureaucratic and calculated manner which has seen the negotiating power during the Brexit talks swing to rest firmly in the hands of the EU Commission. Whilst early indications from Michel Barnier fuelled hopes that the EU Commission would be willing to amend the timeline and be flexible, these wishes were quickly dismissed by President’s Junker and Tusk, both of whom struck a very hard line on the Brexit negotiations.   In the eyes of the EU Institutions, it was the UK’s decision to invoke the Article 50 two-year process […]

Chelgate Chief Executive, Liam Herbert, reflects on the 2017 General Election.   So, there we have it.  The PM is back in Downing Street and its business as usual.  That at least is what Theresa May would like us all to believe as she spoke to the nation from the steps of No10 today having seen the Queen to form a new Government. No mention of the General Election.  No mention of the loss of her majority, or the dramatic outcome after seven weeks of campaigning.  Nothing to see here, just move along. The General Election has delivered a startling […]

UKIP’s rise and fall could be considered the greatest phenomenon in modern British politics. Their rapid rise to success, and their even faster demise, makes their story unlike any of the other parties in the British political scene.   From its outset in the 1990s UKIP presented themselves as outsiders, different to the political elites of Westminster. In part, this was true, and their success as outsiders got several of them elected to comfortable seats in Brussels – where they have enjoyed large pay packets at the same time as they complained about the system (Nigel Farage is still an MEP). […]

Senior Consultant Diana Varley looks in more detail at the polling during this General Election campaign.   Until Theresa May called the General Election, the polls were relatively consistent. Last month the Conservative Party were miles ahead and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party were struggling to keep up. UKIP were just behind the Liberal Democrats, polling at between five and seven percent compared to the Liberal Democrats’ 12 percent. Meanwhile the Greens were polling at less than three percent.   Then the Prime Minister called a snap General Election and all hell broke loose. In polling terms. The UKIP vote collapsed […]