Your members' weekly briefing rounds up a selection of Brexit-related news from the UK, the rest of Europe and beyond. Click on the blue links for the full article.
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The ‘Put It To The People’ march will take place in London on March 23, it was announced last weekend. Online sign-ups for the march are already outstripping the total amount of sign-ups for the first People’s Vote march back in June 2018. Sign up here.
In other news, pro-European centrist MPs have resigned from both the Labour and Conservative parties this week to sit as an “Independent Group”. Meanwhile, Theresa May presses on with talks in Brussels, receiving warm words but no big shifts from the EU. The no-deal cliff edge looms large - although MPs will have a chance to remove that danger in key votes next Wednesday. Brexit uncertainty is also feeding into ongoing economic woe, with Japanese companies who had once seen the UK as a bridgehead to the EU running down their operations - most notable Honda announcing the closure of its Swindon plant in 2021.
Let us march once more for a Final Say on Brexit (Independent)
The Independent’s editorial from the weekend reads: “The danger is real. By ‘running down the clock’ on Brexit, the prime minister plainly hopes to force – blackmail, if you prefer – MPs to choose between her deal or no deal. With time so short, the whole political system is being stressed to breaking point, the cramped conditions forcing people into that infamous bogus choice: “My way or no way.” The mantra is constantly repeated, the implication being that there is simply no time left to do anything else. It is not true. There is still time for democracy. There has to be.”
Brussels in despair as May loses three MPs to Independent Group (Times £)
The Conservative defections and splintering of Theresa May’s fragile position in parliament is viewed with growing despair in Brussels. EU officials, diplomats and governments are increasingly fearful that her diminishing majority and authority in the Commons spell failure for her attempts to get her Brexit deal over the line.
Honda’s closure: of course it’s partly about Brexit (Guardian)
Honda’s decision to close its British plant is part of a pattern, says a Guardian editorial. Nissan is scaling back its plans for Sunderland. Toyota may leave. Likewise BMW. The business secretary, Greg Clark, maintains a calm veneer about Honda, but his words – “devastating”, “dismay” – convey something close to panic at the existential threat facing parts of UK industry.
(Reuters)Honda Motor Chief Executive Takahiro Hachigo bows as he arrives at a news conference in Tokyo, Japan.
UK-Japan trade talks sour after letter from Hunt and Fox (FT)
Japanese officials sense a note of high-handed arrogance in a letter sent by the UK’s Foreign and Trade Secretaries urging speedier negotiations to seal a UK-Japanese trade deal. London is already battling to mend relations with Beijing, after China cancelled a key trade meeting with chancellor Philip Hammond in protest at a UK pledge to send an aircraft carrier to the Pacific.
From InFacts
Five things to do in five weeks so Brexit is put to the people (Luke Lythgoe)
Brexit makes a mockery of global Britain (David Hannay)
Price hikes or bust farmers? Another miserable Brexit choice (Nick Kent)
Four more Ratcliffes flee the Brexit ship (Luke Lythgoe)
When it comes to security, UK is safer in EU (David Hannay)
BBC doesn’t get PM’s key promise quite right (Hugo Dixon)
From European Movement supporters
Is Theresa May trying to outfox us?
Why we need a referendum
Brexit and Housing Associations
Brexit - the view from Liverpool
Join me at the Put it to the People March
Why I'm supporting a People's Vote
Quote of the Week
“This is our compromise: we are prepared to facilitate the passage of the Prime Minister’s deal through the House of Commons if the deal is put to a confirmatory ballot of the British people. We believe this is the way forward because Brexit started with the people and therefore should end with the people.”
Labour MPs Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson, in The Times
Tweet of the Week
This great put down to ex-Brexit secretary Dominic Raab from BuzzFeed's Alberto Nardelli.
Brexit comment
We stand on the brink of a historic, national collapse – it’s time to take to the streets to stop Brexit (Independent)
A clear majority of my colleagues in parliament know that Brexit will hurt their constituents, but they still believe it serves their own narrow self-interests to allow it. MPs are putting political expediency above the national interest. They are too afraid to tell the truth.
Young people are at the end of their tether – which is why we'll march for a Final Say on Brexit (Independent)
Once scoffed at as a fanciful dream of those who laugh in the face of democracy, the prospect of giving “the people” a Final Say on what is now essentially the future of our country, is increasingly the only sensible option we have left to get us out of this mess. But there’s no use in simply talking about it, we actually need to do something about it.
Stop looking for meaning in Brexit (New Republic)
This wasn't some great multi-decade reckoning. It wasn't foreordained. It was a series of accidents.
Where Europe would be hurt most by a no-deal Brexit (New York Times)
Even though the bloc is a single market, each country has a unique relationship with Britain as far as the movement of goods, services, people and capital goes. The regions most exposed to a no-deal Brexit would experience issues ranging from disruptions in trade to costly tariffs to fragmented supply chains and restrictions on services.
This Is How Brexit Will Further Damage The Health Of Black Women In Britain (Black Ballad)
Video of the Week
The Japanese ambassador has already explained why Japanese companies like Honda, Nissan and Toyota base their factories in the UK. It’s about profit - and Brexit threatens that profit.
More Brexit News
UK admits trade deals with Japan and Korea unlikely before Brexit (Bloomberg)
Business Secretary Greg Clark said the UK isn’t likely to reach agreements with Japan and South Korea to roll over existing trade deals before Britain’s scheduled departure from the European Union on March 29. The admission throws into stark relief Trade Secretary Liam Fox’s old promise that the deals would be ready at “one second past midnight” after Brexit day.
Jeremy Hunt to Berlin: Brexit chaos will cast shadow over Europe (Politico)
"If Brexit goes wrong, it will be a disaster not just for the U.K. but for the whole of Europe," the British Foreign Secretary says in Berlin. "It means ... the shadow of Brexit hanging over the whole Continent for a long time to come."
Fitch puts UK credit rating on negative watch (FT)
The ratings agency downgraded the UK from AA+ to AA after the referendum vote in 2016. It may do so again due to “heightened uncertainty” around Brexit, Fitch revealed in an unscheduled announcement this week.
Britain’s biggest weakness exposed on eve of Brexit (Die Welt, German)
Lagging capital investment, low productivity, poor workforce training contribute to a gap in industrial competitiveness. Could the UK learn from Europe as Brexit approaches?
An anti-Brexit demonstrators' bus passes a tour bus outside the Houses of Parliament. (Reuters)
Brexit causing palpable decline in UK influence at the UN (BBC)
Brexit is already leading to a “palpable decline” in British influence at the UN, and that influence would be in freefall but for the UK’s commitment to spend 0.7 % of gross national income on overseas aid, a study has found.