At her Mansion House speech on Friday, scarcely a paragraph began in any other fashion than “as I said on the steps of 10 Downing Street” or “as I said in my Lancaster House speech” or “as I set out in my Florence speech”.
It is, arguably, a clever tactic. If you make claims that you have absolutely no evidence for, in public, enough times, then when these claims are raised (rather than having to actually justify them) you can instead refer back with withering resentment to the countless times you have made them.
For example, there must surely be millions of people out there convinced there will be “no return to a hard border in northern Ireland” for no other reason than Theresa May continually insists there won’t be, and for no other reason than she is “committed” to it not happening. [...]
Theresa May remains in a tricky position, Brexit-wise. Her troublesome cabal of backbenchers – and indeed frontbenchers – remain adamant that the only acceptable course of action is to quit the customs union to sign free trade deals with other countries. The fact that, over the course of the weekend, the most important country in this regard – the US – is now actively engaged in ramping up a global protectionist trade war, is unfortunate to say the least.
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