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February 13, 2017
Still stumbling towards the exit Running out of patience with British politicians? In my latest article on all things Brexit (9 February) I explain why the Westminster parliament and parties find themselves split and emasculated – and have only themselves to blame. I have precious little sympathy for those Remainers who voted blithely to promote… » read more
Posted by Andrew Duff - On Governing Europe
February 6, 2017
Britain’s splendid, free-booting, liberal traders, now leading the UK into the economic wild blue yonder, believe that most of the world’s trading nations will be queuing up to sign lots of lovely, lucrative trade deals as the country breaks away from the European Union. They are in for a nasty shock. Most obviously, most of… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner's Blog
January 27, 2017
Mrs May makes her speech Reverberations continue over Prime Minister May’s London speech of 17 January. She wants a comprehensive free trade agreement with a few add-ons plus political cooperation in security matters. This has all the hallmarks of a future Association Agreement between the UK and the EU 27, but without the institutional mechanism… » read more
Posted by Andrew Duff - On Governing Europe
January 24, 2017
The apparent enthusiasm of US President Donald Trump for a trade deal with the United Kingdom in its post-Brexit state should be regarded with considerable scepticism. The UK’s Brexiteer enthusiasts, currently suffering from the delusion that every major trading nation in the world is ‘queuing up to strike deals’ with London, should look at the… » read more
Posted by Brian Gardner's Blog
January 23, 2017
By Chenoa Geerts, Associate Political Consultant Tuesday 17th January. The day UK Prime Minister Theresa May explained what “Brexit means Brexit” means. The long-awaited speech was held in London’s Lancaster House, where Margaret Thatcher welcomed the creation of a single market in 1988. You could only imagine what this symbolic gesture meant, as Mrs May… » read more
Posted by The Whitehouse Consultancy
January 17, 2017
In my previous piece, posted on 22nd November 2016, I argued that direct democracy, where the electorate is asked to decide or approve policy, is dangerous. I suggested that representative democracy is a better alternative. One of the reasons I advanced is that a majority of people in an electorate are remarkably ill-informed, making rational… » read more
Posted by Peter Bye
January 16, 2017
1. The waiting is almost over. On Tuesday 17 January Prime Minister Theresa May will deliver a speech in which she promises to spell out in more detail what her government wants out of leaving the European Union. A few days later the UK Supreme Court will deliver its judgment on the appeal brought by… » read more
Posted by Andrew Duff - On Governing Europe
January 5, 2017
There will be times when running commentary on Brexit has to break out from a trot into a sprint. This week is one of those. The resignation of Sir Ivan Rogers as UK Permanent Representative to the EU has been widely reported. People seem more surprised than they should have been. It is not news… » read more
Posted by Andrew Duff - On Governing Europe
December 15, 2016
The meeting of the 27 EU leaders over dinner on 15 December is their first chance to have a real political debate about Brexit since the summer. In the absence of any clear signal from London about where the UK wants to go when it leaves the EU, the summit debate will inevitably be more… » read more
Posted by Andrew Duff - On Governing Europe
December 5, 2016
What does Brexit really mean? A good place to start is the question voters were asked on 23rd June: should the UK remain a member of the European Union or leave the EU? So at the very least we can say that Britain will at some point cease to be a member of the EU… » read more
Posted by Fritz Groothues
1. The British government has decided to offer weekly Brexit briefings to the foreign media. But British journalists will be excluded, leaving many of them in their habitual state of incomprehension or prejudice about the European Union. Ministers still insist they will give ‘no running commentary’ on Brexit. Until they do so, at least, I… » read more
Posted by Andrew Duff - On Governing Europe
November 30, 2016
Non-British readers may be a bit bemused by some of the press reports emerging on Brexit in the last few days. So to ease interpretation, here’s my take on the most notable of the latest events:- 1. Speaking at the LSE on Friday evening, John Kerr gave a valuable talk which is well reported on… » read more
Posted by Andrew Duff - On Governing Europe
November 8, 2016
We are used to think that Fascism somehow belongs to the past, something that somehow is gone. But I don’t think that this is appropriate anymore. The last months have shown that Fascism seems to be very much alive, probably in a new way. Some of the typical characteristics of Fascism are having a very… » read more
Posted by The future of the European Union
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blogactiv, EurActiv.com, EurActiv.fr, Global Europe, UK in Europe |
On 31 October 1517, 499 years ago, the Augustinian monk Martin Luther from Wittenberg sent his Ninety-Five Theses, harshly criticizing the Roman Catholic practice of selling indulgences. This would become the starting point of the Reformation. The intention was to fundamentally reform Latin Christendom and the Church. The result, however, was a schism. It led… » read more
Posted by The future of the European Union
October 20, 2016
Some years ago the late Victoria Wood, a British comedienne, appeared in one of her excellent radio sketches as a sheep, frequently heard running across a field along with another. At the sound of each movement, one bleated ‘where are we going?’ to which the reply was ‘I don’t know’. They could have been describing… » read more
Posted by Peter Bye
