Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project hosted a panel discussion on the Supreme Court’s prorogation judgment featuring some of the leading legal minds in the country. The speakers, who were evenly split on whether the prorogation should have been considered justiciable, were Lord Sumption, former Justice of the Supreme Court; John Larkin QC, Attorney General for Northern Ireland; Helen Mountfield QC, Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford; and The Lord Trevethin and Oaksey QC, Crossbench Peer and Barrister. It was chaired by Richard Ekins, Head of Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project and Professor of Law at Oxford University. Watch the YouTube video here.

The way in which the Supreme Court’s prorogation judgment is received will help shape the common law. In this series of short comments, scholars and lawyers from a wide range of different perspectives reflect on the strength of the Supreme Court’s reasoning and on the judgment’s implications for the constitutional role of courts.

Modernising the United Kingdom – Unleashing the power of the Union, a new report by Policy Exchange, argues that the Government should launch an audacious infrastructure programme and a further devolution of powers to modernise the United Kingdom and boost the economy. Alongside investment in ports, railway infrastructure, roads and ultrafast broadband, the report also recommends wide-ranging environmental and cultural measures designed to promote shared British values, such as the creation of a new Forest of Britain and an annual public holiday on Remembrance Day, 11th November. Read coverage in The Mail on Sunday.

The 20,000 police recruits promised by the Prime Minister should be used to reverse the “almost total collapse of community policing teams across the country,” according to Rekindling British Policing. The new Policy Exchange report, written by Richard Walton – Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange and former Head of Counter Terrorism Command in the Metropolitan Police – with a Foreword by Sir Mark Rowley QPM, former Assistant Commissioner in the Metropolitan Police, offers a 10-point plan for revival. Read coverage in The Times and The Daily Telegraph.

Boris Johnson set out his vision for the United Kingdom on the steps of Downing Street yesterday – in the course of which he embraced many of the ideas championed by Policy Exchange in our series of policy proposals for the next Prime Minister.

The new Prime Minister spoke of:

• Fixing the UK’s social care problem – highlighted by Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg in his first speech, when he referenced his Foreword for Policy Exchange’s paper on 21st Century Social Care
• Improving the chances for young people to buy their own homes
• Unlocking the potential of a bioscience sector liberated from anti-GM rules of the EU
• Investing in the ‘strategic and commercial’ opportunities offered by Britain’s space industry – his words mirroring Policy’s Exchange call for a UK-led “Position, Navigation and Timing satellite and Earth Observation systems”

The new PM must “seek a new approach to the Irish border issue as part of a broader strategy after Brexit to stabilise and strengthen the Union,” said a new briefing paper by Lord Bew. It featured a Foreword by Sir Graham Brady MP (read it on Red Box), author of the Brady Amendment, and was endorsed by Arlene Foster, Leader of the DUP, at the Policy Exchange event. The idea that the Backstop is required by the Good Friday Agreement, she said, is “the greatest lie told in politics today”. Watch the full event here. Read coverage in The Express.

To mark the launch of a series of papers and events – “What do we want from the next Prime Minister?” – Policy Exchange and Conservative Home hosted Sir Lynton Crosby, Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP, Ben Houchen, Mayor of Teeside, and Rt Hon Lord Feldman of Elstree, former Conservative Party Chairman, for a panel discussion on how the Tories might win votes in places such as Canterbury and Middlesbrough at the same time. Watch the event in full, read Sir Lynton’s article on Red Box and Policy Exchange Director Dean Godson’s introduction to the series on ConHome.

Polling commissioned by Policy Exchange revealed massive support for social care being largely free at the point of use and funded out of general taxation. Read the full findings as reported in the Sunday Telegraph, the briefing paper by Warwick Lightfoot and Will Heaven – and watch the event, with Jacob Rees-Mogg MP and Sally Warren, Director of Policy at the King’s Fund, among others.