Democracy & Citizenship

Over a million people marched in London yesterday demanding a new People’s Vote on Brexit. The tide has turned. There is now no doubt that Britain doesn’t want Brexit. Today Remainers outnumber Leavers. There are no longer 17.4 million Leave supporters. According to analysis of recent polling, there are now only around 14.8 million Leave […]

The first duty of all MPs is to put the safety of the country first. Contrary to popular belief, MPs are not beholden to follow the opinions of their constituents. That means that MPs in constituencies that voted for Leave are not under any legal or constitutional duty to support Leave if they believe that […]

The Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, this week described the vote by UK MPs to block a no-deal Brexit in any circumstances as, “the Titanic voting for the iceberg to get out of the way.” It’s worse than that. The entire Brexit fiasco has sunk our democracy, leading the country to disaster. Yes, Brexit is […]

The Tories are planning a bonfire of our rights after Brexit, with the top priority being to scrap our Human Rights Act and replace it with a watered down ‘Bill of Rights’. That’s been the long-term goal of the Tories, but they can’t do it whilst we are in the European Union. That’s because, although […]

Tempting as it is to comment on the flurries of rumours flying around London and Brussels about what is (or, more accurately, isn’t) happening in the talks involving Geoffrey Cox, it’s probably best to hold fire until we know a bit more about it all. Indeed, whatever the outcome (again, probably not much), the UK […]

JCER recently published an article in the Teaching, Learning and the Profession section entitled: The Effectiveness of Simulations as an Outreach Tool: Using Simulations to Boost Interest in EU-related Higher Education Study. Authors Karen Heard-Lauréote, Vladimir Bortun and Milan Kreuschitz explain how simulations can prove effective when used as university outreach tools to enhance secondary […]

As we move into the final weeks of the original Article 50 time period, it is useful to try and round up several aspects of the EU27’s positions, insofar as they impinge on the UK’s decisions (which is to say, a lot). As much as Parliament is caught up in working out what it might […]

Outside the EU, we’ll only have a say in our country, and there will be barriers to trade with our most important customers and suppliers in the world. But inside the EU, we have a say in our country AND our continent, and enjoy NO barriers to trade with our most important customers and suppliers […]

Let me put my hands up on this one right at the start: I’m writing about this because it’s a more familiar case to me than many others. I know and work with several people at the European University Institute, even though I’ve not had any formal link with the place. For those unfamiliar with […]

I’ll freely admit that one of the most perplexing aspects of Brexit has been the amount of time spent sitting around, waiting for someone to do something, even though there’s been severe time pressure from the start. Of course, when it does kick off, I also grumble about not having any breathing space, so maybe […]