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Recent Posts
Britain and the EU Archive
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How much harm can one man do?
Posted on 09/11/2016 | No CommentsDonald Trump defeating Hillary Clinton wasn’t the result most of us wanted or expected, but it’s what we’ve got. The question now is what next? Trump’s promises on the campaign trail were variously bombastic and implausible. He couldn’t keep them all, even if they were […] -
The biggest lie
Posted on 26/10/2016 | No CommentsAt an event to analyse the implications of the Brexit vote and try to predict what comes next. One question from the audience – what was the biggest lie told during the referendum campaign? There was general consensus among the panel that £350 million for […] -
See you in court
Posted on 19/10/2016 | No CommentsI am having difficulty explaining to people from other countries what’s going on in the High Court at the moment. There is a case brought by Gina Miller, a fund manager, arguing that the government cannot invoke Article 50 of the TEU (the procedure for […] -
In praise of hard Brexit
Posted on 16/10/2016 | No CommentsIt is now 16 weeks since the referendum on 23 June. Since then, according to that bus, we have given £5.6 billion to the EU, which Gisela Stuart, among others, would have preferred to spend on the NHS. If a new hospital costs £500 million, […] -
A quick decision
Posted on 16/10/2016 | No CommentsI was asked the other day by a Leave-supporting politician whether business wanted a quick decision. The doubt about Brexit hard or soft must be difficult for you, he said: wouldn’t you prefer just to get on with it and know where you stand? Yes, […] -
On leaving the European Union
Posted on 15/10/2016 | No CommentsIf I had to pick a period of time to be out of politics for various personal reasons, I couldn’t really have chosen a worse few years than those just gone. Vladimir Putin was making his first moves on the Crimea, with all that implied […] -
Must Britain leave the EU? (15 November 2016)
Posted on 15/10/2016 | No CommentsA joint meeting with the Federal Trust and the Global Policy Institute 5.30 pm to 7 pm Tuesday 15 November 2016 London Metropolitan University 84 Moorgate London EC2M 6SQ We asked last year whether Britain could leave the EU, with a rather gloomy prognosis. Sadly, we were […] -
Must Britain leave the EU?
Posted on 15/10/2016 | No CommentsThe Federal Union committee met on 26 September, for the first time after the referendum on 23 June, to take stock. The result of the vote had been a shock, but not perhaps not a surprise, and the passage of British politics since had been […] -
Can Britain stay in the European Union? (24 September 2015)
Posted on 05/09/2015 | No CommentsThe referendum on British membership of the EU is coming closer, but the EU itself appears to be drifting further away. Whether looking at policies for the European economy, or the fate of the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, or the future of European […] -
John Pinder (1924 – 2015)
Posted on 15/04/2015 | No CommentsJohn Pinder OBE was that rare thing: an intellectual leader in politics. A résumé of his career speaks for itself: after maths and economics at Cambridge – at King’s College, that of Alan Turing and Maynard Keynes – he joined up to the Royal Artillery […]