Latest Blog Posts

Europol’s mission and characteristics The European Union’s (EU) body for law enforcement, Europol, was created in 1999 and has its headquarter in the Netherlands, Den Haag. The agency’s role is to help EU member states in combatting the smuggling of migrants. In that task, the agency is one of the main actors in EU policy-making. In its […]

Brexit has Putin’s fingerprints all over it. We’ve increasingly been suspicious of this for some time, but the evidence is mounting. Motive is the key incentive for any crime. There have never been any benefits for Britain doing Brexit. Not even one. Any apparent motive for leaving the EU was based on a pack of […]

If the EU did not exist, it’s highly likely that the countries and continent of Europe would now be in a far worse situation. For hundreds of years, European countries were more used to resolving their differences by violence, war, and subjugation. There was no easy, let alone democratic, means to decide the running and […]

After the EU referendum, many of us were suspicious about the role of Russia in clinching the narrow ‘win’ for Brexit. Evidence was mounting that there had been deep involvement and interference by Russian ‘agents’ whose aim was to destabilise the EU by enabling Britain’s departure from it. It was no secret that Russia’s Prime […]

The Court of Justice of the European Union is one of the most contested transnational institutions in Europe. It nonetheless cemented its authority over nearly seven decades of integration and remains a cornerstone of the EU. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) wielded extensive power for most of the second half of […]

Just 24-hours after the EU referendum on 23 June 2016, I posted this on my blog: ‘Just over half of those who voted bought manky lies dressed up as a better life after Brexit. They were told they’d get their country back. Their lives would be transformed.  ‘More jobs, homes, schools and hospitals. Less migrants. No […]

I need some work done at home and invited firms to quote. “That’s a smart van,” I said in passing to the managing director of a limited company that visited last week. “Oh, we’ve got six of those,” he replied. We went through the project. In the past, companies had sent me quotes with the […]

Boris Johnson is “not a complete clown”, his new communications director, Guto Harri, said this month adding, “he’s a very likeable character.” Really? I would say instead that Boris Johnson is a completely dangerous clown, and nothing he’s done for the country is at all likeable. Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, questioned the seriousness […]

The EU referendum was entirely flawed according to criteria set by former Brexit Secretary and ardent Brexiter, David Davis, on how referendums should be “done properly”. In July 2016, Tory MP, Mr Davis, accepted the result of the EU referendum and the dual-role of Brexit Secretary and Chief Brexit Negotiator in Theresa May’s new government. […]

After several systemic crises in a decade, emergency politics has taken hold in Europe. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and later the Covid-19 pandemic, governments have responded with exceptional measures. Along the way, they have accumulated extraordinary powers. We might be tempted to think that this form of politics is the natural […]