A substantial part of the Brexit case is the simple idea that the European Union has ‘gone too far’. Too big, too clumsy, too intrusive, too undemocratic – in short, too much. Oddly enough in the UK debate both Leave and Remain warmly agree on this. No serious British Remain […]
Continuing from my previous post. It follows that the EU is a stupendously good idea, right? Peace, love, understanding – all neatly codified via mutual treaty networks for the benefit of EU member states’ citizens. In fact it’s such a fine idea that other regions of the world are planning […]
Basically, there are only questions in politics: Who decides? Who decides who decides? (These folk ultimately set all the rules and are the final operational source of legitimacy and authority – see Kelsen’s famous hierarchy of norms) This is what ‘national sovereignty’ is all about. Does your state have its […]
My former FCO colleague the legendary Alyson Bailes alas has died, at the age of 67. Here is her Guardian obituary quoting Sir Kim Darroch: Her flair for languages was remarkable. She spoke and read French, Hungarian, German, Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish at what she herself described as […]
Readers’ whose brains glaze over when trying to work out the acronymic difference between the European Union, the European Economic Area (EEA) and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) may find this piece over at the Adam Smith Institute helpful (h/t Roland Smith). It looks at the Big Picture (emphasis […]
Here is a good piece by Tony E about that grim Newsnight programme on Monday: Charles Crawford is a former diplomat, noted for his work in the Eastern Bloc both before and after the fall of Soviet Union. He knows a thing or two about negotiations, was a senior figure […]
Last night I had a somewhat desultory appearance on BBC Newsnight as part of a discussion on UK/EU and what a post-Brexit UK might look like. They asked me for a short blog contribution for their site. Here’s what they published. Here’s what I sent them: How might a post-Leave […]
How is Poland doing these days under new management? Not so well according to Bloomberg: Polish Stocks Count $50 Billion Cost One Year After Duda Win Twelve months on from Andrzej Duda’s surprise initial victory in Poland’s presidential elections, stock investors are fleeing the country. And there’s little sign they will […]
So, my foray to Cambridge for that Cambridge Union UK/EU debate ended (as I expected) in a huge win for the Remain tendency, ably led by Lord Ashdown. He concluded the debate for the Remain side with a rousing speech that seamlessly combined sound points (“The only world leader who will […]
So. Off to Cambridge tomorrow, to take part in a Cambridge Union debate: This House Believes The UK is better off in the EU This one raises interesting public speaking challenges. It’s a high-powered debate, not a conference presentation or lecture or TV interview. There has to be a goodly […]
