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 campaign, have been harder still. The Leave and the Remain...
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: What’s likely to happen – will the UK leave? What...
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 today after the Dutch expressed their vague frustration towards the...
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 more depth how the outcome of the vote might have...
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 anyone’s fire, was it. Run by Will Straw, relying on...
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, and have been pondering this more since, and have come...
If you read ex-PM John Major’s Telegraph piece from Saturday about the dangers of Brexit you’d think all is generally well in the fine and pleasant land of England. Our pick and choose with regard to the EU has worked, he argues, and “we have the best performing economy in...
The standard way of looking at the UK’s EU referendum in other capitals around Europe, and indeed within the EU institutions in Brussels, is that – often a bit grudgingly – people feel it would be better for the EU if the UK does not leave. In this blog entry...
“What do you think Brits in Berlin think about the prospect of Brexit?” Matt Hanley asked me. So we set about trying to find out – by putting on an event on 24th February entitled #BERBritsBrexit (details of the event here, Facebook event page here, Twitter search for the tag...
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At the height of the Eurozone bailout crisis, Alexis Tsipras went to address the European Parliament. Why bother with that? was the cry of sceptical journalists who have never paid attention to the European Parliament. 887000 viewers of Guy Verhofstadt’s response show that this was a worthwhile political exercise –...
With the date for the UK’s EU referendum not yet set, it still feels like the Remain and Leave campaigns are in their early, pre-preparation phases. The logos for the campaigns are above – Britain Stronger In Europe (the official Remain campaign), and Labour In For Britain and European Movement...