Kemi Badenoch and the contradictions of Brexit This week saw an amazing exchange at a European Scrutiny Committee hearing. It was between the BEIS Secretary, Kemi Badenoch, and a few of the members of the committee, in particular with a Tory backbencher named David Jones. Before I cover this trade of words, I should tell you what the European Scrutiny Committee is and then a little about the BEIS portfolio.
Please note the BEIS no longer exists. From February 7th it was split into three departments, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the Department for Energy Security and NetZero and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Badenoch is the Secretary of State for the DBT. Of course this in no way invalidates the thrust of the article.
How someone as partisan - not to say demented - as Cash was allowed to chair this committee is a mystery to me. The fact that someone as right-wing as Badenoch managed to provoke them speaks volumes about their own political stance. I once wrote an account of one of the many bees obsessing in their bonnets: https://inforrm.org/2015/04/17/bbc-and-the-european-scrutiny-committee-scrutinising-the-scrutineers-part-1-julian-petley/
Please note the BEIS no longer exists. From February 7th it was split into three departments, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the Department for Energy Security and NetZero and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Badenoch is the Secretary of State for the DBT. Of course this in no way invalidates the thrust of the article.