For whatever reason, he may be morphing into the politician I hoped he would become – the moderate man whose patience is exhausted.
Downing Street seems to think that one day’s bad publicity over clearing the backlog is a price worth paying for sorting the small boats problem. It needs to do so now more than ever.
It may be possible to be in favour of upholding the GFA and maintaining Northern Ireland’s place in the union whilst also favouring withdrawing from the Convention, but I am struggling to see how.
When push comes to shove, what will matter will be whether or not the arrivals stop – or at least that the voters believe that the Prime Minister really wants to halt them and is sparing no effort.
The Prime Minister must make up his mind whether or not to see through a policy to stop the small boats – now an issue of profound symbolic importance.
The new leader should review the Government’s current plans and focus limited time and political capital where it counts.
Unless Ministers get more grown-up in their rhetoric, they are going to set expectations at a level they cannot and should not meet.
The Court has simply made up its jurisdiction to provide interim relief. More specific to this case, it had no proper application before it.
It’s best thought of as a contagion that spreads across the divide between parties and factions.
Proposals that define Convention rights in ways other than the Court determines send the wrong message.
After a stumbling start, the Government is heading in the right direction on human rights reform. But there remains much to do.
The solution is emergency legislation that lists in a schedule every Russian national who has been the target of EU and US sanctions.
Such is the logic of the new Justice Secretary’s appointment – and the combative stance of the Attorney-General.
And we’re all for a rebalancing – but Parliamentary government must mean Parliament in full, not just the executive.
Take the case of a Nigerian national who was sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison for offences including possessing crack cocaine and heroin with the intention to supply. The First-tier Tribunal allowed his appeal against deportation on grounds deportation was irreconcilable with Article 8.