Wednesdays are normally the most exciting day of the week at Westminster, because it’s PMQs, but today (unless we get some mega surprise) all the action is taking place somewhere else.
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action → ’ → place
In part, that’s because Andy Burnham is still at the Commonwealth summit in Antigua.
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Burnham → ’ → Antigua
You can catch up with all the drama on our US politics live blog.
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You → catch → blog
While the US results are undoubtedly fascinating, quite how relevant they are to the UK is a bit harder to discern.
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are → discern → UK
Donald Trump is still president for the next two years, and none of the chaos he has caused for Britain and other European allies is going to go away; conceivably, he could end up even more disruptive.
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he → cause → Britain
Trump was first elected president in 2016 only months after the UK voted for Brexit and there will be progressives in Britain hoping the US results show that what Ed Davey is this morning calling the “politics of hate, division and economic harm” might be on their way out this side of the pond too.
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calling → elect → pond
But it is probably too soon to get carried away.
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it → get → ?
In so far as there is any interesting UK reaction, I will post it here.
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I → be → it
Back to the Commonwealth summit, and Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, has given an interview to the BBC in which he defended Burnham’s decision to open talks about a proper UK apology for slavery.
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he → give → slavery
In particular, Miliband was critical of Tony Blair’s attempts to settle this issue with what Miliband described as a “sorry not sorry” apology.
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Miliband → settle → apology
Miliband was referring to this statement that Blair issued in 2006, written up at the time by the Guardian here.
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Blair → refer → Guardian
Blair said the slave trade was “profoundly shameful” and he expressed “deep sorrow that it ever happened”.
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it → say → sorrow
But he did not formally apologise.
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he → apologise → ?
In an interview with the BBC’s Newscast podcast, Miliband said Burnham wanted a different approach.
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Burnham → say → approach
He said:
People have been honestly a bit bruised by the past, what happened in the past, the sense that we just really just wanted to sweep this issue under the carpet and not confront it.
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we → say → it
My sense is there’s a bit of a sigh of relief that, OK … at least there’s a sense of we’ve got a shared interest now in moving the Commonwealth on.
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we → ’ → Commonwealth
Miliband said Blair “did sort of do a kind of sorry not sorry situation”.
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Blair → say → situation
He added: “He kind of expressed ‘sorrow, but’ and then said sorry, and then it was walked back by No 10.”
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it → add → No
(Miliband has for many years had a strained relationship with the former prime minister, who was opposed to the way Miliband criticised some aspects of New Labour’s record when he was party leader between 2010 and 2015.
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he → have → 2010
Burnham has said he wants a “structured dialogue” with Commonwealth countries about the wording of an apology.
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he → say → apology
Asked whether the government might reach the point of a formal apology by the time it hosts the G20 leaders’ summit in Manchester next November, Miliband said: “Broadly speaking, yes.”
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Miliband → ask → Manchester
But he also stressed that the UK was not offering reparations.
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UK → stress → reparations
Asked whether the government’s new approach could end up costing UK taxpayers a penny more, Miliband replied:
No …
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Miliband → ask → ?
For us, that’s never been what it’s about.
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it → ’ → what
And that’s why it’s been important that … I did have this conversation with our partners in advance.
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I → ’ → advance
I said, ‘Look, we are going to say we are willing to say that we’re open to an apology, but we’re not going to shift our position on reparations.’
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we → say → reparations
It’s not for us.
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It → ’ → us
It’s not the right answer.
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It → ’ → ?
It’s not practical.
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It → ’ → ?
It’s not feasible for us, but there are things we can work on co-operatively.
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we → ’ → us
Yvette Cooper, the health secretary, gives evidence to the Commons health committee.
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Cooper → give → committee
Lucy Powell, the education secretary, gives evidence to the Commons education committee.
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Powell → give → committee
Louise Haigh, the first secretary of state, faces Alex Burghart, the deputy Conservative leader, at PMQs.
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Haigh → face → PMQs
Andy Burnham is due to record a pooled TV interview while attending the final day of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda.
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Burnham → record → Antigua
Jonathan Haskel, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, gives evidence with colleagues to the Commons Treasury committee about the budget.
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Haskel → give → budget
I’m afraid we are no longer able to have comments open below the line every day on this blog.
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comments → ’m → blog
If you want to contact me, please email politics.live@theguardian.com.
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you → want → politics.live@theguardian.com
You can use this email to flag up corrections, comments for publication, questions or complaints.
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You → use → questions
The Aporia
