John Harris

Brexit and Trump are entangled. Labour must rethink its article 50 stance | John Harris

Tuesday, January 31st, 2017

Corbyn’s three-line whip could mean MPs are not just voting to leave the EU, but backing a US leader who is spreading dangerous tensions around the world

Theresa May goes to America to hold Donald Trump’s hand. Inside 48 hours of her departure, that quickly infamous executive order on the US travel ban sparks a huge story, variously involving Mo Farah, an Iraqi-born Tory MP, and the clear sense that something fundamental to a lot of people’s view of the US has suddenly been kicked away. And as the saga rolls on, another thing reveals itself: that with Trump in the White House, Britain is set to take a historic step away from Europe and the prime minister apparently determined to reinvent the so-called special relationship, the context for Brexit might have been transformed.

To state the obvious, Trump was not in office on 23 June 2016. Indeed, received opinion still had it that come November, he would easily be defeated by Hillary Clinton. Now, though, his hyperactive first week in power, his bracing view of geopolitics and the time he recently spent with May have surely put a fresh set of tensions into the debate about how we leave the EU – or, indeed, whether we should leave at all – and the international relationships that might take its place.

Remarkable statement by Ted Malloch, reported to be Donald Trump’s pick as US ambassador to the EU, speaking on BBC’s #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/LDQtyRCdpa

Related: Trump is trading on prejudice – and if May is a true friend she’ll tell him | Sarah Wollaston

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Brexit and Trump are entangled. Labour must rethink its article 50 stance | John Harris

Tuesday, January 31st, 2017

Corbyn’s three-line whip could mean MPs are not just voting to leave the EU, but backing a US leader who is spreading dangerous tensions around the world

Theresa May goes to America to hold Donald Trump’s hand. Inside 48 hours of her departure, that quickly infamous executive order on the US travel ban sparks a huge story, variously involving Mo Farah, an Iraqi-born Tory MP, and the clear sense that something fundamental to a lot of people’s view of the US has suddenly been kicked away. And as the saga rolls on, another thing reveals itself: that with Trump in the White House, Britain is set to take a historic step away from Europe and the prime minister apparently determined to reinvent the so-called special relationship, the context for Brexit might have been transformed.

To state the obvious, Trump was not in office on 23 June 2016. Indeed, received opinion still had it that come November, he would easily be defeated by Hillary Clinton. Now, though, his hyperactive first week in power, his bracing view of geopolitics and the time he recently spent with May have surely put a fresh set of tensions into the debate about how we leave the EU – or, indeed, whether we should leave at all – and the international relationships that might take its place.

Remarkable statement by Ted Malloch, reported to be Donald Trump’s pick as US ambassador to the EU, speaking on BBC’s #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/LDQtyRCdpa

Related: Trump is trading on prejudice – and if May is a true friend she’ll tell him | Sarah Wollaston

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Jobs for all? In the US that idea is about to be tested to destruction | John Harris

Friday, January 27th, 2017

Donald Trump says he’ll bring back full employment. But maybe no politician has the power to deliver this

The story has rather got lost in the midst of Donald Trump’s statements this week about his fabled wall, the merits of torture, and all the other stuff that has underlined the frightening nature of his arrival in power – but on Monday, the new president hosted a remarkable meeting.

In the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Trump held talks with the leaders of US trade unions: among them, the presidents of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, the Smart (it stands for sheet metal, air, rail and transportation) Union, and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. Despite US unions overwhelmingly backing Hillary Clinton – the carpenters, for example, recently warned that “Trump’s legacy will ruin America” – all was apparently warmth and cordiality.

Related: On her flight May should read Trump’s book: the other guy is always shafted | Polly Toynbee

Related: The Trump effect has rallied US markets – but it’s based on illusion | Robert Shiller

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They call it fun, but the digital giants are turning workers into robots | John Harris

Saturday, January 21st, 2017

With perfect timing, a new film highlights how employee monitoring is taking over people’s lives

“Secrets are lies; sharing is caring; privacy is theft.” So run the three Orwellian aphorisms at the heart of Dave Eggers’ 2013 novel The Circle, whose film version – starring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks – will arrive in cinemas this spring. Given that the story centres on an omnipotent hybrid of Google, Twitter and Facebook, and asks exacting questions about their shared vision of the future, the timing is perfect – chiming with rising angst about the digital giants’ imperial approach to information, and the sense that their power and recklessness is now having so-called real-world impacts, and huge ones at that. Such, perhaps, is the zeitgeist of early 2017: tech-fear fusing with terror about Donald Trump and Brexit, leaving millions of us in a state of twitchy anxiety.

At the heart of the novel and film is the Circle corporation, whose logo suggests a stylised panopticon, and whose leaders want to shape the world in the image of their Californian HQ. There, privacy and autonomy count for almost nothing. Under a veneer of feelgoodism, employees are complicit in their own constant monitoring and a system of endless appraisal by their peers, who feed into a system called Participation Rank – or PartiRank, for short.

The US retail chain Target has given 335,000 Fitbit trackers its workers, as part of a ‘corporate wellness programme’

Related: US employee sues after ‘being fired for deleting app’ that tracked her location

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Our panel’s verdict on Theresa May’s Brexit speech

Wednesday, January 18th, 2017

Our writers discuss the prime minister’s long-awaited speech laying out plans for Britain’s departure from the European Union

Related: Theresa May’s Brexit speech: ‘No deal for Britain is better than a bad deal’ – Politics live

Related: Key points from May’s Brexit speech: what have we learned?

Related: Prime minister vows to put final Brexit deal before parliament

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