I probably wouldn’t agree with Lord Sumption on every other issue; but I think that he nails the political importance of the EU against the background of European history very elegantly. And small nations acting together within the EU can end up with a surprisingly strong voice.

I put something together on the EU's proposed youth mobility deal. No idea how negotiable the proposals are but it's not hard to see lots of potential sticking points.
open.substack.com/pub/wewantedwo…

And I dug out the stats on how well used the existing youth mobility deals are. Not very. At least, not inwards. Outwards looks a different matter. Only 10k Aussies came here but 35k Brits went there...

👇As ACOBA is back in the news, here's a re-up of Susan Hawley's blog on the Business Appointment Rules from yesterday:
spotlightcorruption.org/britains-revol…

🗣️ 'the rules no longer have relevance in the modern world and are unenforceable to applicants determined to ignore them.'

Strong words from Lord Pickles on the latest breach of ACOBA rules and Boris Johnson's failure to disclose hedge fund links.

ft.com/content/ece299…

🚨🇬🇧🇪🇺🚨Labour says it has “no plans” for doing a youth mobility deal with EU — says it is “synonymous with free movement” (it isn’t)

…but another poor sign for those hoping Labour will be brave on EU. /1

Via @ft

on.ft.com/49NVCLf

Best news of the week theguardian.com/politics/2024/…

There are 37 of these trade envoys: gov.uk/government/new…. Has any assessment ever been made of their utility? Though unpaid, the jobs must be coveted: are they an informal way of extending the government’s payroll vote? Institute for Government

We debate this on Monday 22 April

Who would have thought it? Emotional resonance in this Moldovan commercial video, recorded in Norwegian: youtube.com/watch?v=vBUekC…. Takk, Edward Lucas #Europe

More on #RwandaBill coming up from me, on Times Radio just after 0830 this morning

Always struck by that stage in the political cycle when a govt that has actively chosen not to reform the composition & powers of the House of Lords gets enraged when the members of the Lords the gov’t has chosen to leave in place exercise the powers the gov’t has left unchanged

Government motions for the Rwanda Bill as ping pong continues in the Commons this afternoon show four outright rejections of the latest Lords amendments publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill…

Acute and timely analysis: the Investigatory Powers Amendment Bill returns to House of Lords on 23 April. But unless Labour's position has changed, we are unlikely to see 'conflict of interest' built into the Bill as a reason for the PM's role in the triple lock to be delegated.

My remarks on this theme to BBC Radio 4 Today this morning are here, from 0810 (2h10m in) bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…