David Lidington

Michael Gove admits that post-Brexit trade deals were bad for farmers Michael Gove has admitted for the first time that the Australia and New Zealand trade deals negotiated by the former Tory government did not protect Britain’s farmers.

This deserves more attention than it has received.

Gove: "we were too anxious as a government to secure those deals in order to show that Brexit was working".

Exactly as so many of us warned at the time, and as the government denied at the time.
www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/country-and-...

A thought as I pondered whether just to pay my tax early this year so I know where I stand. Why doesn’t HMRC incentivise early / over payment of taxes by paying a competitive rate of interest on any monies deposited and advertising this? Surely this would be better than nagging emails?

A key challenge for the new CDL/Chief Sec will be to get his old Department, HMT, aligned so that the allocation of money fits with No 10 & Cabinet priorities.

Darren Jones as CDL plus Chief Sec to PM is a v sensible move designed to secure more effective & energetic cross-departmental implementation of policy. Also means titular DPM is different from the de facto one! V clear signal to Whitehall that Jones speaks with PM's authority

'A video posted on [FB] congratulated whoever "did this to the mosque"...and attracted hundreds of comments expressing anti-Muslim sentiment.
But the South Lakes Islamic Centre, which is behind the building's construction, said it had displayed the flags itself, to symbolise "our shared belonging".'

"Misperception about UK cases before ECtHR. Judgments against UK are rare. Since 1980, ECtHR found UK decision to extradite or deport would violate ECHR 13 times. 4 of these concerned family life. In respect of UK immigration rules, ECtHR ruled against UK 3 times in 45 years": Oxford Uni research

This is vile. Local guy speaks to Sky News about the impact of asylum seekers protests. Watch what happens and share widely

@jamesrball.com and @writesbright.bsky.social have confirmed they're also banned from this year's Reform UK national conference.

They were informed today.

So Farage explicitly told Congress that he doesn't ban journalists from Reform events on the exact day that he banned journalists from events.

Democrat @raskin.house.gov excoriates Nigel Farage for banning journalists from Reform UK events:

"I'm asking you a direct question. Why do you ban journalists who oppose your views from coming to your events? Why did you tell local government not to do interviews with your local newspaper?"

2 September 1582: Mary queen of Scots, at Sheffield, has now learned of events in Scotland. She writes two letters to the French ambassador in England, Castelnau, one rather dull one mainly about her business affairs, and another recently deciphered one about the Raid; clearly ... 1/
#earlymodern

Trenchant & sobering analysis of UK's record in Afghanistan by army veteran @edrusi.bsky.social @rusi.bsky.social

Elon Musk is a radicalised extremist openly championing the most racist faction who would deport the Foreign Secretary, the Leader of the Opposition, the Justice Secretary and the last Prime Minister

The govt silence about such a level of extremism is craven: infinite tolerance of racial hatred

That PX report on the Good Friday Agreement is breathtakingly disingenous. Just waves away all the immense political and practical problems with a bunch of semantic obfuscation.

The big question the media haven't noticed or started to ask is why none of the trouble & disorder in summer 2025 (most of the sporadic disorder is in London suburbs & southeast Epping, Cheshunt, Hillingdon/Heathrow, Canary Wharf) & v little protest of any scale is where riots happened a year ago

Good company to be in!

If you listen to or read Bean J's decision (to which the 2 other appeal judges were party), it's clear that they did consider the context very carefully and in detail. We are also promised a 120 page written judgement on Monday. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the judgement is a separate issue

The Appsal Court overturned the injunction. But it didn't consider the substance of the planning issue, which is due to be heard fully in court in October.

That comment should have been called out by the Justice Secretary at the time. When I became Justice Secretary, I made my support for judicial independence very clear, both inside & outside Parliament

When I was Justice Secretary I had no say (quite rightly) in allocation of trials to judges. It's responsibility of the senior judiciary, & ultimately the LCJ, though in practice logistics come into it - which judges with appropriate experience are available & how long a case is expected to last

Both the initial judge who found for Epping Council & the Apeal judges who granted the appeal have been alleged to have shown political bias.

Angry at insinuations that judges who granted or overturned Epping injunction were politically biased. I've known both Cons & Lab lawyers who've become judges. Whatever their previous politics they take seriously their judicial oath to do justice without fear or favour

All you need to read and know on Anchorage. 👇

Starmer and Macron: Le spécial relationship? | Institute for Government Former Europe minister David Lidington joins the podcast team to assess the state of UK–French relations.

PODCAST 🎙️ Starmer and Macron: Le spécial relationship?

Former Europe minister @davidlidington.bsky.social joins the podcast team to assess the state of UK–French relations.

PLUS: The Leveson review of criminal courts and the new bill on devolution www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/podcast/insi...

@davidlidington.bsky.social

And I stand by that comment. When I worked for Douglas Hurd at HO in 1987-89, the Home Sec knew that decisions he took on policing & sentencing would have an impact on prisons & probation- & they all had to come out of his Department's budget

Here's hoping for a successful summit meeting on 19 May. And why not ?

Helsing | Artificial intelligence to protect our democracies Artificial intelligence to protect our democracies.

Happy to share some great news!
I just started a new job - with Helsing, the AI Defence Company.

Helsing is at the forefront of the fight to develop the emerging defence tech we need to deter authoritarian threats & compete long term by attaining tech leadership.

helsing.ai

We take tariffs on our beautiful Heard Island very seriously. We will be consulting all mammals and flightless birds and will make an announcement in the near future detailing our response. #heardisland #tariff #mcdonaldisland #trumptariff

No, Britain has not escaped lightly from Trump's tariffs And it is not a very convincing vindication of Brexit.

No, Britain did not get off lightly in the Trump tariffs. And no, it is not much of a vindication of Brexit. Or at the least seeing it is an economic dividend is to conveniently look away from the more substantial economic costs.

New writing from me.

open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...