Democracy & Citizenship

A former UKIP MEP, Ashley Mote, has been jailed for five years for defrauding the European Parliament of almost half-a-million pounds. On sentencing Mr Mote today at Southwark Crown Court, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith told him: “Your greed and dishonesty were matched only by your hypocrisy, because while this was going on you carried out a […]

Of the four main European Institutions,[1] the European Parliament (EP) has most struggled to be heard on the recent crises affecting Europe (monetary, economic, social, environmental…).[2] At a time when the European project is at great risk, and when European leaders struggle to define a common European interest, it is perhaps time to turn to […]

There is much to give concern in the world of European politics these days. From Greece to the UK, the Mediterranean to Finland (even Austria), you don’t have to look far to find examples of ‘how it’s all going belly up’ (to quote one of my colleagues). It would be simple to take the counsel of […]

On BBC’s Andrew Marr Show this morning, Virgin Group boss Sir Richard Branson said it would be “inconceivable” for Britain to leave the EU and go back to paying export and import taxes on our trade with Europe. Here’s a full transcript of the interview that I prepared from the broadcast: ANDREW MARR: Now then, […]

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, speaking in Germany with her Greek husband by her side, has hinted that that she supports the UK’s continued membership of the European Union. “The United Kingdom has always been closely involved in its continent. Even when our main focus was elsewhere in the world, our people played a key part in […]

Even this is not going to cut it… Earlier this morning – a bit before 8am, in fact – a family friend turned up at our house, ‘for breakfast’. This turned out to be a misunderstanding of what we had thought was a jocular exchange of texts last night and certainly was not one the […]

A new Eurosceptic group campaigning for radical changes to the EU wants to end ‘free movement of people’ and only to allow ‘free movement of workers’. If the group achieves its aims, it could mean an end to moving to other EU countries to retire, such as to Spain where many British pensioners now reside. […]

A new anti-EU campaign, provisionally called ‘No Thanks – We’re Going Global’, is being funded by rich business people to persuade Britain to leave the European Union. The campaign, scheduled to be launched in September, is being funded with £20 million provided by some of the country’s richest entrepreneurs, according to The Telegraph. The group […]

On Alternative(s) to Neoliberal Globalization From 17 to 19 June 2015, I attended the 14th Annual Conference of the International Social Theory Consortium (ISTC) “Reconstructing Social Theory, History and Practice” at the University of Cambridge, with presentation “On Alternative(s) to Neoliberal Globalization” on the 17th of June 2015. First, the ISTC conference was about reconstruction, […]

Support for Britain’s continued membership of the European Union is currently the highest it’s been since the creation of the EU, according to a new poll released today. The poll by Ipsos MORI discovered that 75% of people are now in favour of Britain’s continued membership of the EU. Only 25% want Britain to leave. […]