Top story: Speaker stuns May by blocking Brexit vote

Hello, Warren Murray back with you to get Tuesday started.

Theresa May’s attempts to bring about Brexit have been plunged into constitutional chaos after John Bercow blocked the PM from putting her deal to MPs for a third time unless it has fundamentally changed. The Speaker invoked House of Commons protocol dating back to 1604 that prevents a question being put a second time in the same session of parliament. It blindsided No 10, and cabinet will meet this morning as ministers grapple with how to engineer a way forward.

The twist means May is likely to have to go to Thursday’s Brussels summit with a request for a long extension to article 50. The delay could mean the UK taking part in the European parliament elections. The EU is believed to be poised to formally offer a new, delayed leaving date – which might be enough to satisfy Bercow that the deal has changed sufficiently to be put to another vote. The extension could be up to nine months long, depending on how much change to the deal is needed.

A government source said last night the Speaker’s action indicated that “what he really wants is a longer extension, where parliament will take over the process and force a softer form of Brexit. But anyone who thinks that this makes no deal more likely is mistaken – the Speaker wouldn’t have done it if it did.” During an extension, parliament would have to decide how to break the deadlock – potentially with a second referendum, an election or a cross-party proposal for a softer Brexit. Polly Toynbee sees Bercow’s ruling as having breathed new life into a people’s vote.

‘Cut water leaks and waste’ – England is set to run short of water within 25 years, the head of the Environment Agency has warned, calling for reductions in people’s water use, halving the leakage from water company pipes, and the construction of new reservoirs and desalination plants. Sir James Bevan said England was approaching a point where water demand from its rising population could surpass the falling supply resulting from climate change. Meanwhile the veteran weatherman Bill Giles has called for explanations of climate change to be incorporated into the BBC’s forecasts. The former head of BBC weather presenters says more needs to be done by broadcasters to face the reality of climate change “more squarely and openly”.

‘Survival sex’ – MPs are to launch an inquiry into evidence that benefit claimants impoverished by universal credit or sanctions are turning to prostitution to pay rent or feed their families. Frank Field, chair of the work and pensions committee, said such reports were “shocking”. Sex workers’ welfare groups say impoverished women are turning back to prostitution or going into it for the first time, while others are accepting money for sex from male friends after being left penniless while waiting for their first universal credit payment.

‘Speak the names of those we lost’ – Jacinda Ardern has vowed people will never hear her say the name of the alleged Christchurch gunman. Ardern, who is being tested by the atrocity like no New Zealand leader before, promised to do everything in her power to avoid creating notoriety around the attack in which 50 people have died. In parliament, Ardern opened with the Arabic greeting “as-salaam Alaikum” and said the day of the attack would “now be forever a day etched in our collective memories”.

Play Video 2:00 NZ parliament pays tribute to Christchurch victims – video

She warned social media companies over their role in spreading video of the attack: “They are the publisher, not just the postman … We cannot simply sit back and accept that these platforms just exist and that what is said on them is not the responsibility of a place where they are published.” The accused, Brenton Tarrant, wants to represent himself at his trial, according to his assigned lawyer. Tarrant is being held in isolation in jail and is due to appear again in court on 5 April.

Course clean-up – Post-16 qualifications in England are to be streamlined, with the government poised to scrap funding for what it sees as poor-quality courses. A-levels and the new T-level vocational qualifications are regarded as the “gold standard” but there are also 12,000 post-16 courses available, many of which overlap in subject area. A student who wants to gain an engineering qualification faces more than 200 possible options. Matthew Fells from the Confederation of British Industry welcomed a government consultation: “It can sometimes be difficult to understand the difference between the thousands of qualifications and different grading systems out there.”

Tiny brain with mouse legs? – The Briefing was slightly horrorstruck at first to read how scientists created a clump of human brain matter that sprouted tendrils, hooked into some nearby mouse muscle cells and made them move around. “We like to think of them as mini-brains on the move,” said Madeline Lancaster, from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, who stresses that the structure is intended to aid study of brain diseases and is too primitive to have thoughts, feelings or consciousness. Moving on from the moral compass of stem cell research, to your own internal compass – here is why your brain might be able to sense the Earth’s magnetic field.

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Lunchtime read: Israel befriends Arab monarchies

After decades of hostility, a shared hatred of Iran and a mutual fondness for Trump are bringing Israel’s secret links with Gulf kingdoms like Saudi Arabia and the UAE out into the open. “Hostility to Israel has been a defining feature of the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East since Israel’s creation in 1948 and the expulsion or flight of more than 700,000 Palestinians – which Arabs call the Nakba, or catastrophe – that accompanied it,” Ian Black writes.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Sultan of Oman in Muscat, Oman. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

“Still, over the years, pan-Arab solidarity and boycotts of the ‘Zionist entity’ have largely faded away. The last Arab-Israeli war was in 1973. Israel’s peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan are unpopular, but have lasted decades. The 1993 Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was an historic – if ultimately disappointing – achievement. And what is happening now with the Gulf states is a hugely important shift.”

Sport

Team Sky is poised to announce a takeover by Britain’s richest man in a deal that will maintain the six- times Tour de France winners’ position as the wealthiest team in world cycling. England’s and Australia’s cricketers are set to wear shirts with names and numbers on the back during this summer’s Ashes – a first in 142 years of Test cricket.

Bryony Frost, who became the first female rider to win a Grade One race over jumps at the Cheltenham Festival aboard Frodon in last week’s Ryanair Chase, missed her sole remaining ride on the Southwell card on Monday after suffering a fall in the opening race. The Wales captain, Alun Wyn Jones, believes it is possible Warren Gatland will one day coach England.

Business

Asian shares have been mixed in muted trading – on the mind of the markets is the Federal Reserve meeting later in the week. An announcement is scheduled for Wednesday but economists expect it to announce no change to rates. The FTSE looks like it will open slightly down. Sterling has been trading at $1.327 and €1.170 overnight.

The papers

John Bercow’s refusal to allow another meaningful vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal leads coverage on many front pages. The Telegraph calls it “A major constitutional crisis”, the Financial Times says “May’s Brexit hits block as Bercow rules out third vote on same deal” and the Guardian has “Brexit chaos as Speaker stops May in her tracks”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Guardian front page, Tuesday 19 March 2019.

Other papers are highly critical of Bercow. The Mail features a photograph of him and the headline “Smirk that says: ‘Brexit be damned’”. The Times has “Bercow is sabotaging Brexit deal, says No 10” and the Express calls him “The Brexit destroyer”. The Sun puts things succinctly (asterisks theirs) “B*ll*cks to Bercow”.

The i’s lead story is “Time to go, dozens of Tory MPs tell May” while the Mirror focuses on claims concerning universal credit: “Women forced to sell sex in benefit crisis”.

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