Democracy & Citizenship

At a first cut, the 23 June referendum result has been the clearest possible vindication of the many years of concerted action by British Eurosceptics: on a high turnout, a majority of people voted to leave the EU, even if many of them wouldn’t have particularly described themselves as Eurosceptics. The result has opened up […]

Another day, another upheaval in British politics. In the 21 days since the EU referendum, we’ve had more changes of more consequence than in any time since the second world war. All very grand to say that, but where are we going with all this? Until yesterday, it was very hard to say, precisely because […]

  The EU referendum was only a week ago, and already the false claims and promises of ‘Leave’ campaigners are painfully unravelling. THEY SAID that outside the EU, Britain could control migration. This would relieve on public services. – BUT NOW they’re saying that leaving the EU can’t radically reduce migration and that fears about […]

It’s telling that almost all the British public debate since Friday’s announcement of the result of the EU referendum has been about British politics: who’s succeeding David Cameron? What’s happening to Jeremy Corbyn? Or Scotland? Almost nothing has been discussed about how this decision will play out with the rest of the European Union. At […]

Just five weeks ago, UKIP leader Nigel Farage, anticipating a close-finish in the EU referendum, told The Mirror, “In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way.” In those circumstances, said Mr Farage, pressure would grow for a re-run of the 23 June ballot, and he would fight for a second […]

With last than a week to go until the EU referendum, the campaigns on both sides are now in overdrive. Since late January, we have been following the social media campaigns, particularly on Twitter, to understand better the messages that different groups are making, the way in which they frame and the extent to which […]

With the referendum on UK EU membership fast approaching, both the Leave and Remain campaigns have put forward their views on the future of environmental policy in the UK and its relationship with the EU. This political debate raises a number of questions:  how green is the European Union; how effective or in some cases […]

The definition of sovereignty is ‘supreme power or authority’. Only one country in the world has that. North Korea. But whilst North Korea has cast iron sovereignty over its nation and people, in the outside world it has very little power, authority or influence. In the modern, rational, democratic world, countries recognise that sharing some […]

‘We want our country back!’ is the clarion cry of many who want Britain to leave the European Union. But whose country do they want back exactly? Your country? My country? Or really, just their country? Before we leave the European Union and possibly change our country forever, we need to have an idea what […]

Eurosceptics often claim that they love Europe, but hate the European Union. They assert that Britain can still be part of Europe without having to be part of the European Union. That, of course, is true to an extent, but it rather misses the point and purpose of the EU. The European Economic Community – […]