Crawfs have just voted in our historic EU referendum, in the humble local village hall. Remember back in 2011 how I observed the Russian Duma elections? Thus: The arrangements laid down by Russia’s law for conducting elections are technically impressive, albeit detailed to the point of obsession. Russian procedures are […]
Here is my piece today for the Telegraph as the referendum campaign staggers over the line. Some good stuff: Back in the mid-2000s, Tony Blair addressed the annual gathering of British ambassadors. In the Q&A our then Ambassador in Paris warned the Prime Minister that London’s EU policies were going […]
What do UK diplomats make of the Brexit debate? Here’s the locus classicus for the Remain option, namely the former UK ambassador to Brazil, my colleague at the Ambassador Partnership Dr Peter Collecott: There is room for legitimate debate over the immediate effects of a decision to leave the EU. […]
As this tumultuous (or horrible, nasty, revolting, angry, hateful, absorbing, glorious – pick your adjective) UK exercise in referendum democracy nears the end, what about the way the two broad camps have presented themselves? Leave The Leave tendency has struggled to explain exactly what it wants instead of EU membership, and […]
A reader and fan of the Holy Roman Empire writes: Before you write another article on European history you ought to read Peter H.Wilson’s book on the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Only then will people understand German and also European history. Europe most likely would or could […]
Here are two strong pieces on the appalling killing of Jo Cox MP and what (they say) it tells us about other things, including ourselves. They are by some chance related. The first by Alex Massie at the Spectator: So, no, Nigel Farage isn’t responsible for Jo Cox’s murder. And […]
Here is my piece on UK/EU/Brexit that’s just gone up over at Huffington Post: … our decisions today are part of bigger trends, even if in all the noise it’s hard to spot them. Here are three. First, the European Union is like every other attempted pan-European project of the […]
Here’s my latest article for DIPLOMAT magazine – available via their website. Thus: These days far too few Ambassadors are distinguished (or even undistinguished) poets. In 1845 James Russell Lowell wrote the hymn Once to Every Man and Nation to protest America’s war with Mexico. Virtue was duly rewarded and […]
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 […]
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 […]
