Grenfell Tower Inquiry - update

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has published an update via the Inquiry website - HERE.  The update provides information about the progress of the Inquiry, community engagement activity, Core Participants, appointment of assessors to the Inquiry, Inquiry phases, evidence from resident, a procedural hearing to take place on 11 and 12 December 2017 and the venue in which the Inquiry intends to conduct its work

Three Assessors have been appointed - see the announcement and details of the appointees.  Assessors are appointed in accordance with the Inquiries Act 2005 section 11.  They are not part of the "Inquiry Panel" which is the Chairman alone (Sir Martin Moore-Bick).  The role of assessors includes:  taking part in Inquiry proceedings as requested by the Chairman;  providing suggested lines of questioning for witnesses to Counsel to the Inquiry; and providing assistance and advice on any other matter relevant to the Inquiry within their area of expertise.  Assessors do not give evidence to the Inquiry, nor are they asked questions or cross-examined at the Inquiry. 

Brexit Round 6 and promise of a EU (Withdrawal and Notification) Bill

The moment the 2 year period was triggered

Round 6 of the Brexit negotiations were held in Brussels on 9th and 10th November and concluded without any major breakthrough on either Citizens' rights, Northern Ireland or the Financial settlement.  The EU seeks agreement on those matters before it will discuss matters such as the future trading relationship.  The EU negotiators (Mr Michel Barnier et al) are bound by the Guidelines set by the European Council - (see post 1st May 2017).


End of round statements:

David Davis (Secretary of State for Exiting the EU)

Michel Barnier - Chief Negotiator

The "European Union Newsroom" is a useful site for information about Brexit

Statement to Parliament 13th November:


On 13th November, Mr Davis made a statement to the House of Commons - see Hansard 13th November.   See also Dept. for Exiting the EU announcement.  In his statement Mr Davis said:

Setting Brexit Day in stone? An unwise move. (Addendum 15th November)

Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill are both in the news again as serious doubts are developing about the economic wisdom of Brexit.

Article 50 Notice:

Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, who was Britain’s permanent representative at the EU before becoming ambassador to the US,  drafted Article 50 TEU and has always been of the view that a notification under Article 50(2) may be unilaterally revoked by the State which gave the notice.  This point could easily have been dealt with when the Article was being drafted but, unfortunately, it was not.  Lord Kerr is now calling upon the government to publish any legal advice it has received from the Law Officers on this point - The Independent 10th November 2017.

The government

Brexit: The non-existent impact assessments demanded by the Humble Address

On 1st November the House of Commons voted to present this Humble Address to HM The Queen:

"That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, That she will be graciously pleased to give directions that the list of sectors analysed under the instruction of Her Majesty's Ministers, and referred to in the Answer of 26 June 2017 to Question 239, be laid before this House and that the impact assessments arising from those analyses be provided to the Committee on Exiting the European Union." [My emphasis].

The address was the outcome of the 1st November debate entitled Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments.  Here is the Hansard record of the debate.  The phrase "impact assessments" is used throughout the debate by many members.  Nevertheless,

Voting for Prisoners - latest in the long-running saga

The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (David Lidington MP) was appointed after the June General Election (post 12th June).  One of the long-standing issues he inherited was that of whether prisoners (or some prisoners) should be allowed to vote.  The present ban is in the Representation of the People Act 1983 section 3 (as amended):

"A convicted person during the time that he is detained in a penal institution in pursuance of his sentence or unlawfully at large when he would otherwise be so detained is legally incapable of voting at any parliamentary or local government election."

So far

"Fat Rascal" - a Registered Trade Mark

199 Steps Whitby

FAT RASCALS have been made in North Yorkshire and other places for many decades.  They may not be the ideal food for those seeking to maintain a trim figure but they are a delight to have in a pleasant cafe along with coffee or tea.  The website Foods of England informs us that the name "Fat Rascals" has been in use at least since the 1855 "Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases Collected in Whitby and the Neighbourhood."  The BBC offers us a recipe and says here that they may have been made since Elizabethan times.

"An Humble Address" to Her Majesty - 1st November 2017

On Wednesday 1st November, the House of Commons debated Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments.  The Opposition Motion was worded in archaic terms:

"That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, That she will be graciously pleased to give directions that the list of sectors analysed under the instruction of Her Majesty's Ministers, and referred to in the Answer of 26 June 2017 to Question 239, be laid before this House and that the impact assessments arising from those analyses be provided to the Committee on Exiting the European Union."