Anyone who knows me well knows I am fascinated by the use of words about the EU. Since @europasionaria first got me to read Lakoff’s “Don’t Think of an Elephant”, I’ve been wondering how to apply his ideas to the debate about the European Union. I’ve even run a couple...
The words “More Europe” are essentially used a shorthand for needing EU action in an area where the EU does not currently act, like current efforts to complete the Digital Single Market for example. But take a step back and think about this for a minute. “More Europe” is actually...
In response to Barroso’s State of the Union address today, leader of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament Guy Verhofstadt resorted to his tired old line. The pro-European forces should unite against Euroscepticism, he said, and this will define 2014 European Parliament election campaign. Verhofstadt has been saying this...
According to Philip Stephens in the FT “Facts finally collide with ideology on Europe“, as his column gives solid backing to the FCO’s Balance of Competences review. The reports are “shorn of ideology and political judgments” he says, while “Iain Duncan Smith, Owen Paterson and Philip Hammond were among cabinet...
Over a coffee after State of the Net in Trieste, Luca Conti (@pandemia on Twitter) posed me a question. “What do you [meaning non-Italians] think of Beppe Grillo?” It’s also a question that my good friend Antonella Napolitano will be trying to answer at Personal Democracy Forum France later this...
The ‘eurorealist’ pressure group Nucleus in the UK has rebranded and is now the Centre for British Influence Through Europe (CBIE). I read the name and it immediately rankled, and a few people on Twitter pushed me to answer why. The answer, in essence, is whether a national case for the...
A tweet by Emma Burnell pointed me towards this blog post by Tracy Hill about UKIP, and the threat they pose to Labour. You can read the whole blog post to look at the stuff about UKIP, but there is one paragraph I will highlight, for it shows the problems...
So Labour has another stab at getting together some sort of EU policy. Ed Miliband is interviewed in The Sunday Telegraph and the only thing that seems to emerge is that Labour needs a “hard-headed” approach to the European Union, courtesy of further spinning from Douglas Alexander on the Andrew...
Two grandees of UK politics were at it again today. Peter Mandelson, while at least acknowledging an in-out referendum for the UK, was nevertheless pompous and deluded in the FT: “pro-Europeans […] should acknowledge that their case has largely been won by default and that it needs to be re-articulated...
Labour grandee Paul Richards has penned a tremendously misjudged piece on LabourList, so much so I think it deserves to analysed a bit. This is especially vital because the main premise – that Labour can win an election in the UK based on policy – is one still held by...
It’s budget day in the UK today. Others are far more qualified than I am to discuss the ins and outs of what George Osborne announced. I will instead – with prompting earlier on Twitter from Liz Disley – look at that old nugget of the budget: how it impacts families....
Apologies if this is stating the obvious to too many of my readers, but there is no truth about the European Union. The words sound simple enough. But what do I actually mean? People that are in favour of the European Union and their country’s continued membership of it have...