February 4th, 2018: Coveney breaks ranks and May stays for now...

---

​It seemed like a quieter week than the previous seven days so quite a short entry today….

Ireland
In Ireland there was some reporting from the O’Higgins Commission but so far it has failed to deliver any serious blows to the government. The tribunal will continue but there may already be media fatigue and it would take something truly explosive to bring it may to the front pages and impacting polls.

Simon Coveney, the Tanaiste (deputy Prime Minister) came out in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment but publicly announced that he believes that abortion on demand available for the first 12 weeks is a step too far. This could put him at odds with the rest of his cabinet or could equally be seen as a hedge to appease the more conservative voters in the party.

United Kingdom
I wrote last week that “the pace of change and potential for major events in British politics is growing daily” after comments by Jacob Rees-Mogg and other members of the Conservative Party.

At this moment, nothing has fundamentally changed. All the same divisions and challenges are still there and a leadership challenge has not been triggered.

United States
The memo that the President authorised did contain some details that Trump could use to disparage the FBI and their investigation. However, the fact that he released it at all has been used by the Democrats to claim he puts himself above national security.
​
The memo itself was quite difficult to decipher for someone like myself and I’ll leave the deeper analysis to others.