Opinion / European Union and Wider Europe

Speechwriting: Speaker Hears Audience!

That row in Poland about my speechwriting support for former foreign Minister Radek Sikorski rumbles on inconclusively. See eg here (where they impertinently add a year to my age) and here. Excellent that Hungarians are following this saga with keen interest. And Czech that! Here are some extended thoughts from me about […]

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Helping a Free Cuba Make a Winning Start

My latest piece for Commentator, co-authored with Pratik Chougule, describes in broad terms how we might do some good solid work to build on the Obama Administration move to start normalising US relations with Cuba, by actively but sensibly doing the spadework needed to help Cuba get ready for the day a […]

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Putin Bearly Sounds Responsible

UPDATE: An interesting take on all this by Marc Champion – does Vladimir Putin in fact want a deal? * * * * * Today I watched online most of the three hours of Vladimir Putin addressing a huge media throng in Moscow. Here’s my thoughts as given to the […]

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Russia: From Rouble to Rubble

Events in Russia’s economy are accelerating in the wrong direction. No doubt at some point things will pick up again. But for now the trends are ghastly. Amidst all the analysis of what is ‘really’ causing the rouble to slump, this one by James Miller reads well: What is the […]

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The Staggering Cost to Russia of Putinism

Here’s a question. If country X grows its economy 1% faster than country Y over ten years, what’s the difference in outcomes? I previously looked at Serbia and Zimbabwe in this sense, trying to calculate the True Costs of Stupidity: Thus the Cost of Milosevic(ism) can be accurately measured. It is […]

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Immigration: what if no-one is foreign any more?

My new piece for the Telegraph is on immigration. It turns on the distinction between people who enter the country by following the rules, and those who don’t: Immigrants into the UK fall into different broad categories. Rich people buying an exclusive UK pad. Foreigners ready to invest their money […]

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Polish State Visit 2004: Media Misery

On the subject of the media, HM Government made a serious effort to crank up positive publicity for the visit to London of Poland’s President Kwasniewski on a State Visit after Poland joined the European Union in 2004. The visit featured a fun photo-shoot swing by the London football ground where […]

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EU Budget: That Chinese Alarm Clock

I haven’t ever published here before the full text of my legendary Chinese Alarm-Clock email about the then EU Budget negotiations that was leaked in late 2005 by someone senior (in the Treasury?) to the Sunday Times and caused a vast furore in Poland. It was a spoof speaking note […]

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G20 Summit: Putin, Sanctions and Ukraine

The G20 Summit in Australia ends. The assembled leaders start the long flights home. The results are in the communique, a classic example of a dull, badly written, important text: We have agreed on a set of voluntary leading practices to promote and prioritise quality investment, particularly in infrastructure. To […]

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The Return of Ed Miliband

UPDATE The key zero-zero soundbite in this speech (below) is already causing controversy for being, how best to put this, simply wrong. Ed Miliband has been quick to put out a subtly different version to try to fix the mess! But the original tendentious version is still out there proudly on […]

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