Current Affairs

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that fake news in some of Britain’s leading newspapers helped to cause Brexit. Every day newspapers such as the Daily Mail and Daily Express print articles that promote hatred of migrants and the EU generally. ‘Too many EU migrants’ was cited as one of the main reasons people voted for Leave […]

Remembrance Sunday is held in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth as a day “to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts”. Of course, we must never forget those who gave their lives in service to our country. We especially owe […]

On 9 May 1948, Winston Churchill, Britain’s war-time Prime Minister, addressed the European rally held in Amsterdam, during which he said: THIS IS THE EUROPE which we wish to see arise in so great a strength as to be safe from internal disruption or foreign inroads. We hope to reach again a Europe united but […]

Twenty-eight years ago today, on 9 November 1989, the people of Berlin – east and west – joined together to dismantle the wall that had cruelly separated their city for twenty-eight years. It was a momentous event that led to the downfall of the Soviet communist regime, followed eventually by applications to join the European […]

As we roll around to a new round of Article 50 negotiations, it’s perhaps useful to revisit another key structural dimension of this process. Negotiation theory spends a lot of time trying to educate users into the language of positive-sum games. Those inexperienced in such things typically see negotiations as zero-sum: your loss is my […]

The Tory administration is leading Britain to disaster. They are unfit to govern and should go. Tonight, International Development Secretary, Priti Patel, was forced to resign after a series of maverick, reckless, unofficial ‘secret meetings’ in Israel which broke the ministerial code. Yesterday, Brexit Secretary, David Davis, failed to deliver 58 Brexit impact reports, as […]

We should have known all along that the 58 Brexit impact assessments that Brexit Secretary, David Davis, claimed existed only last month are in fact all bluff and bluster. Just like Brexit itself. Today Mr Davis told MPs that the UK government’s 58 sectoral analyses of the impact of Britain leaving the EU can’t be […]

Whilst the UK’s assessments on the impact of Brexit are shrouded in secrecy, the European Parliament has already openly published an assessment of the impact of Brexit on the remaining 27 EU member states. The European Parliament commissioned the independent report on the economic impact of Brexit and it was published last March without any […]

Even if the Article 50 negotiations have yet to move to Phase II (transition arrangements), it is clear that such matters are increasingly on people’s minds. The European Council a fortnight ago did concede that the Commission should start to prepare a draft mandate for Phase II, so that as and when Phase I (tying […]

MPs last night passed a motion ordering the government to release 58 secret assessments into the economic damage from Brexit. But Ministers have caused a furious backlash by refusing to say if they will abide by the motion, even though Parliamentary clerks advised that the decision was “binding”. The Government had been fighting to keep […]