Brexit

29.06.2016 Brexit

The unbearable lightness of Michael Gove

I don’t care what side of the EU referendum debate you were on. This isn’t about that. This is about how much the referendum matters to you or not. And – importantly – how it seems to not matter to

20.06.2016 Brexit

Post-even-really-simple-fact politics

Some of the argument about fact and fiction in the EU referendum campaign is the normal, everyday political stuff trying to bend the facts to suit your purposes. The £350 million a day sent to Brussels claim by the Leave

14.06.2016 Brexit / Technology

Facebook’s pro-#Brexit bias

Bernd Hüttemann earlier pointed out to me that the mood section of the Facebook app for iOS has a mood “in favour of leaving the EU” but none in favour of remain. I scarcely believed it! But now I have

12.06.2016 Brexit / Technology

If you want to do something useful in the EU referendum campaign, step away from this blog, step away from Twitter, and turn to Facebook

The deadline to add people to the electoral register has passed. The campaign is entering its final straight. Those of us caught up with the debate about the referendum see an end in sight after months of spending dozens of

06.06.2016 Brexit

#BERBritsBrexit media coverage

When Matt Hanley, Josh Posaner and I started to wonder about what the Brits in Berlin thought about Brexit we could not have quite imagined how much interest there would be in this issue. We’ve managed to build a super

02.06.2016 Brexit / Technology

Social media and alternative versions of political reality

“Social media is overhyped” a friend said to me in a social setting yesterday. “Look at the Arab Spring – it failed!” I agree with the latter part – what happened at Tahrir Square (and how people came to the

24.05.2016 Brexit

Ultimately I cannot bring myself to vote for Brexit

Holding a British passport, and at the same time being committed to EU integration and the democratisation of the European Union, has never been easy. The months since the UK general election, David Cameron’s EU ‘deal’, and the subsequent referendum

11.05.2016 Brexit

First it was Berlin, then Hamburg, now Köln – #CGNBritsBrexit

First it was #BERBritsBrexit. Then #HHBritsBrexit. And now we’re organising the next in the series of events about the impact of Brexit on Brits in Germany to Köln on 18th May. Together with local organiser Tobias Flessenkemper, we’ll be discussing:

07.04.2016 Brexit

Why the Remain campaign is going wrong

I’m going to set aside my views about the rights and wrongs of Britain staying in the EU for a moment, and instead focus on the way the Remain campaign is trying to make its case. This is especially relevant

07.04.2016 Brexit

If Britain votes to Remain, how should the EU contain it?

I have made the case for why progressives and federalists outside the UK ought to advocate Brexit (for the sake of the political integration of the rest of the EU), and I have also tried to examine in a bit

29.03.2016 Brexit

Jackie Ashley: don’t bemoan a lack of determination from the Remain campaign. Find advocates instead!

So Jackie Ashley is angry I tell you. Angry! We need to be “brutally honest” that the “remain campaign is failing” she writes. Well, what a sodding surprise. A campaign entitled “Britain Stronger in Europe” was never going to light

24.03.2016 Brexit

Britain remaining in the EU increases Boris Johnson’s chances of being the next PM

Over a beer with some academic friends yesterday, conversation turned to Brexit. Boris Johnson will only become Tory party leader if Britain exits the EU was the consensus among my friends. It’ll be Osborne otherwise. I expressed my doubts yesterday,