Here’s my first post-Brexit vote piece for the Telegraph that’s been noticed here and there: Now what? In particular, do we leave the European Union, or not? Above all, what’s the Plan? The core possibilities are these: We leave the EU and try to become a sort of European Singapore […]
Blimey. Now what? Some quick thoughts (in the order I think them) on the ensuing negotiation with EU partners as London markets bounce back from the early shock. First and foremost, this is a magnificent momentous day in the global history of democracy. It represents a strong majority of one […]
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 […]
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 […]
Over at the FT (££) is an elegant piece by David Allen Green on the legal/constitutional steps that would be expected following a Brexit vote. Key point: A vote for Brexit will not be determinative of whether the UK will leave the EU. That potential outcome comes down to the […]
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 […]
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 […]
