Democracy & Citizenship

Bank of England boss, Mark Carney, told the BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme that foreign workers are helping to increase the UK’s productivity. Presenter John Humphrys asked Mr Carney if “cheap foreign labour” was actually stopping productivity increasing. But Mr Carney replied, “I would really dampen down that explanation.” He said that there had been […]

Since Ryan Heath‘s been kind enough to mention all the work I do on this site on Brexit, it seems like a good opportunity to mention a new project I’ve been working on. ‘A Diet of Brussels‘ is a podcast about the referendum here in the UK on EU membership. In it, I want to try […]

“…and on the third day, he rose again.” Last week was both a triumph and a disappointment for UKIP. On the one hand, they secured almost 4 million votes in the General Election, a performance almost unsurpassed for a third party in the UK. On the other, the inequities of the electoral system meant that […]

A UK in-out referendum will soon be upon us. How the rest of the EU responds will be crucial to shaping the outcome in the UK and shaping the future of Europe.

If you are pro-EU, what other choice is there, really? Opinion piece by Jon Danzig Today, Britain votes on its next government in the most tightly-contested election in living memory. Tomorrow, all citizens from the rest of Europe now living in the UK, and all citizens from Britain now living in the rest of Europe, […]

Ten years ago, in mid-April 2005, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing came to Angers in order to exchange with ESSCA students. Just six weeks before the French referendum on the constitutional treaty his visit was part of a campaign for an increasingly uncertain ‘yes’ vote. Given his role in chairing – with diplomatic skills and political know-how – the European Convention […]

So we now have most of the major manifestos for the General Election. None of them – possibly bar the LibDems –  give me much cause to change my mind about the continuing failure of British politicians to talk about the detail of European integration. UKIP’s effort – released today – is a case in point. On one hand, it’s very […]

The European Union has an image problem. The “permissive consensus”[1] (aka non-informed consent) that supported European integration up to the early 1990s is long gone, and the image of “the European construction” as a guarantee of peace is no longer sufficient. Even the last European Commission thought a “new narrative for Europe” was required. Of […]

One of the recurring themes in talks I give about the EU is the notion of entanglement: the idea that ‘Europe’ is not some distant agency, doing things to us, but rather IS us (at least in part) and that we are caught up in it, whatever we feel about it. A couple of stories […]

As affable as he may seem, as much as you might think you could have a pint down the pub with him, Mr Nigel Farage has a dangerous and confused message for the nation. This week he called for laws to prevent racial discrimination at work to be scrapped. British businesses should be free to […]