I’m speaking in Cambridge next week about the UK’s EU referendum and I have been reading a lot of articles about the vote to prepare. Andrew Duff’s piece for Verfassungsblog is one of the best pieces I’ve found – an
Continue reading
Category: Brexit
Stopping the UK being a brake on EU integration
Tony Blair promised to put Britain at the heart of Europe, and then failed to do it. Not only did he not take Britain into the Euro, but he also divided the EU over Iraq (preventing the development of a
Continue reading
What if Cameron actually doesn’t know what he’s doing in the referendum campaign?
After the initial shock of the Tory victory in May, and the dawning realisation that the UK’s in-or-out of the EU referendum will indeed happen, a sort of calm consensus among pro-EU contacts of mine in the UK formed in
Continue reading Cameron’s “proper choice” in the EU referendum ought to mean there’s a third option on the ballot paper
So Cameron is in Riga, trying to charm fellow EU leaders that British exceptionalism a reformed EU is possible. News about it here. But one phrase particularly struck me from Cameron’s words – we’re going to give the people a
Continue reading
What Labour’s leadership hopefuls ought to say about the EU
So the Labour Party has another leadership election. Unlike in 2010, when I was still a Labour Party member and heavily involved in the process*, this time I have no vote (having quit Labour to join the German Grüne as
Continue reading
What precisely is this EU “red tape” that JCB speaks of?
The construction vehicles pictured above are a JCB 3CX (on the left), manufactured in Rocester, UK, and two Volvo Construction Equipment machines (on the right), a L120F and L120E, both manufactured in Arvika, Sweden. My point of course – in
Continue reading
What happens if David Cameron switches to the No side in the EU referendum?
(note: this is a counterfactual – just in case you’re reading it after October 2015!) It is Wednesday 21st November 2015, and David Cameron has called a press conference at Downing Street. With his face going rather puce, the anger
Continue reading
Why I am not going back to the UK to campaign in the EU referendum
David Cameron’s victory in the UK election presents me with a personal problem: he promises to hold an in-or-out of the EU referendum. If the UK leaves the EU I have a major headache – I live in Germany and
Continue reading
Parameters for the UK’s in-or-out EU referendum
The prospect of the UK holding an in-or-out of the EU referendum fills me with dread, but debate of the merits of holding this vote, and how each side might frame its messages are topics for blog entries in future.
Continue reading
As a whole the EU is not a source of frustration, but its politicians or policies might be
A tweet by Gergely Polner, sometime comms guy for the European Parliament in London, and now working in the private sector, tweeted this earlier today that caught my eye: https://x.com/eurocrat/status/542952340358459392 What does this actually mean? (and indeed the quote Gergely
Continue reading
Sorry British Bankers’ Association – British influence in the EU has already fallen off a cliff, and it’s not to do with staff
Gergely Polner (@eurocrat on Twitter) normally knows his stuff about the EU. Sometime spokesperson for the Hungarian Presidency of the EU (still the best social media outreach by Presidency), then head of public affairs for the European Parliament in the UK,
Continue reading
EU enlargement, the UK and immigration – a recap, and a call to move on
Nick Clegg has today joined the race among UK political parties to sound tough on immigration to the UK from the EU, and Mark Leonard (someone who ought to know better) has written a piece for the Fabian Society advocating
Continue reading