4 NEWS The main story… What happened What the editorials said For months, “embittered Remainers” have been accusing May May’s plan for Brexit of not having a coherent Brexit plan, said the Daily Mail. She Theresa May promised this week to pursue a proved them spectacularly wrong this week. clean break from the European Union, ruling In “clear, unequivocal” terms, she pointed out out any deal that “leaves us half-in, half-out”. that we can’t remain in the single market, In a long-awaited speech setting out her because it ties us to the free movement of priorities for the Brexit negotiations, the Prime people and the supremacy of EU courts. And Minister said the UK cannot remain within the she indicated that “if the EU insists that being single market, as staying in “would, to all a member of the customs union means we intents and purposes, mean not leaving the EU cannot strike our own trade deals in the wider at all”. She pledged instead to seek a “bold and world, she will take us out of that, too”. The ambitious” trade agreement with the bloc – one speech was a “defining moment in British that would keep trade with Europe as politics”, said The Daily Telegraph. Optimistic “frictionless as possible” while still allowing the and outward-looking, yet with a welcome UK to control its borders, set its own laws and touch of steel, May’s plan “represents a strike solo trade deals with other countries. masterclass in common sense and is exactly what Britain voted for last June”. May said Britain would remain a friendly A “touch of steel” partner to the EU, but made clear that she The speech has certainly brought more clarity, would be willing to walk away from the Brexit trade talks. said The Independent, but May has no mandate for her “No deal is better than a bad deal,” she said. May added “extreme” Brexit vision. People didn’t vote for the progressive that if the EU adopted a punitive approach, the UK might be loss of investment and jobs that will probably result from forced to change its economic model; echoing the Chancellor’s leaving the single market. And they certainly didn’t vote for warning last week that the country would pursue an aggressive Britain to become the “Singapore of Europe” by mounting a low-tax policy if it was frozen out of European markets. race to the bottom on corporate taxes, as May has threatened. What happened What the editorials said “The inauguration of a new US president is normally a America’s new president moment of great hope,” said The Observer. Not this time. To the dismay of Western allies, Donald The prospect of Trump in the Oval Office has Trump reaffirmed his determination to inspired “dread, anxiety and great foreboding”. overhaul US foreign policy, as he prepared to His campaign showed him to be utterly unfit for take office this week. In newspaper interviews the job, and his recent behaviour has only (see page 40), he repeated his condemnation of confirmed that judgement. Within minutes of Nato as “obsolete”, described the EU as “a opening a press conference last week, he had vehicle for Germany”, and suggested that he “slandered” American intelligence agencies, might lift sanctions on Russia. Shares in “pistol-whipped” US firms that invest abroad, and German carmakers slumped after he taken a “wrecking ball” to Obama’s healthcare threatened to impose a 35% tariff on BMWs reforms. “His elevation is a national humiliation.” made in Mexico for sale in the US. But his offer of a quick Anglo-US trade deal with the US Internationally, the stakes are high, said The following Brexit was welcomed in Britain. Trump Times. The new administration is not just also angrily denied allegations that he had Enter The Donald threatening a potentially ruinous trade war with engaged in lewd conduct in Russia (see page 20). Beijing, it’s also picking a fight over China’s creation of artificial islands in disputed waters in the South Elton John and many other celebrities rejected invitations to China Sea, a dispute that could escalate into armed conflict. perform at Trump’s inauguration, on Friday. Veteran civil To make matters worse, said the FT, Trump seems ready to rights campaigner John Lewis had said he was staying away risk alienating friends in Europe by reversing America’s in protest at Trump’s illegitimate election. After Trump 70-year policy of support for a united Europe. That is dismissed Lewis as “all talk”, at least 50 Democrat “fundamentally wrong-headed”. As the Cold War and 9/11 congressmen said they wouldn’t be attending either. so clearly demonstrated, the US needs strong allies in Europe. It wasn’t all bad For the first time in 60 years, Britain and China are now a Syrian brown bear has linked by a direct train service Unilever has vowed to make all been spotted in Lebanon. for the first time. Setting off its plastic packaging recyclable A mother and her young cub from Yiwu, in eastern China, the by 2025. The consumer goods were filmed in the Bekaa East Wind freight trains revive giant – which makes everything Valley last month by a group the Silk Road trading route, from Dove soap and Persil of hikers. Analysis of the passing through seven detergent to Ben & Jerry’s ice footage confirmed that the countries on their 7,456-mile cream – said it was bowing to animals were Syrian brown journey to London’s East End – pressure from customers, who bears – which were in a relatively quick 16 days. It were increasingly irritated that previously thought to be is not perhaps as novel as it so little of its packaging could extinct in the country, having sounds, as varying rail gauges be recycled. The company not been seen there since require the containers to be produces around 3% of the 1958. Typically about 4ft tall, reloaded onto different trains at world’s plastic packaging; it with a stocky build, the bear various points. However, it is now plans to develop new, is native to mountain ranges across the Middle East, and is hoped that the line will open up recyclable materials to meet generally classed as under threat: it’s classified as vulnerable in new trade opportunities safety and food regulations. Iran, Iraq and Turkey, and has been extinct in Syria since 2009. between China and the UK. COVER CARTOON: HOWARD MCWILLIAM HOWARD CARTOON: COVER THE WEEK 21 JANUARY 2017 …and how it was covered NEWS 5 What the commentators said What next? The Prime Minister sounded almost euphoric, said Stefanie Bolts in Die Welt (Berlin). “Just May has confirmed that think,” she declared, “a single market without barriers… giving direct and unhindered access to Parliament will get a vote the purchasing power of over 300 million of the world’s wealthiest people. Bigger than Japan. on the final Brexit deal. It’s Bigger than the United States. On your doorstep.” No, that wasn’t May this week, but her unclear whether it will also predecessor, Margaret Thatcher, speaking at the same venue, Lancaster House, in 1988. get a vote on the triggering of Thatcher was extolling the virtues of the very thing Britain now wants to turn its back on. May Article 50. Judges ruled last believes she can secure a better arrangement for Britain, said John Harris in The Guardian. year that May needed the We’ll see what happens when her rosy vision “collides with what the EU actually wants”. prior approval of Parliament to do so. The Government The negotiations won’t be easy, said Daniel Hannan in The Spectator, but there is every chance appealed, and the Supreme of reaching a “mutually beneficial outcome” if EU leaders know we’re willing to walk away Court will hand down its without a deal and are not approaching them as a “supplicant”. A failure to reach a deal judgment on Tuesday. wouldn’t be the end of the world anyway. In the “worst-case scenario”, WTO tariffs would be applied reciprocally. According to a study by Civitas, UK exports to the EU would be subject Notes of a meeting that to tariffs of around £5.2bn a year – around half our current annual budget contributions to Michel Barnier, the EU’s Brussels; the UK, meanwhile, would collect £12.9bn on EU imports. chief negotiator, had with senior MEPs last week have The confidence of Brexit supporters has been bolstered by Donald Trump’s promise of a hinted at unease about the speedy US-UK trade deal, said David Collins on The Conversation, but people shouldn’t get cost of Brexit for the rest too excited about this prospect. For one thing, the UK won’t be allowed to start formally of the EU, reports The negotiating such a deal until it leaves the EU, which isn’t going to happen for another two Guardian. Barnier apparently years, assuming May goes through with her plan to invoke Article 50 in March. Agreeing the wants a “special” deal to terms of the deal won’t be easy, either. British farmers won’t like the idea of competing with ensure that EU members the US agricultural giants of the Midwest. And British shoppers won’t be keen to accept US continue to have easy access exports such as hormone-fed beef that are currently outlawed in the EU. to the City of London. What the commentators said What next? Trump’s presidency is doomed, said Richard Cohen in The Washington Post.