Politics & Public Policy

The reality of Brexit is now sinking in fast. But here’s the oddest thing. The UK government is negotiating to leave the EU, just so they can negotiate another arrangement with the EU to give us as much as possible of what we’ve already got, but on considerably inferior terms. If we don’t get what […]

Perhaps the least remarked aspect of this week’s Parliamentary shenanigans has been the distraction from the loss of another week of time to reach an Article 50 deal. Important as a meaningful vote in Parliament is, it does not intrinsically produce an increased chance of a deal being reached. Indeed, the confirmation of a push-back […]

With the pound so much lower following the Brexit vote, many more Britons are now holidaying at Britain’s seaside resorts. And it’s thanks to the EU that 95% of our beaches are now clean enough to wade out into the sea. It wasn’t always like that. Back in the 1970s, we used to pump our […]

Isabel K. Bolliger, Katharina Cramer, David Eggleton, Olof Hallonsten, Maria Moskovko, Nicolas Rüffin[i] We are witnessing the emergence of ‘grand challenges’ impacting societies on a global scale. These include climate change, artificial intelligence, and access to resources. Large-scale research and internationally coordinated collaboration in science, technology and innovation (STI) policy are viewed as the means […]

When Prime Minister, Theresa May​, said in Florence last autumn that, “the United Kingdom has never totally felt at home being in the European Union”, she not only misrepresented the history of her country, she betrayed the legacy of her party. It was only because of the passionate resolve of past Conservative Prime Ministers that […]

Following the Common’s debates on and around the Withdrawal Bill alongside my Twitter feed has been instructive at a number of levels, not least the volume of comment that can be generated around a man standing up. But one of the more striking moments was the comments surrounding the continuing lack of knowledge that many in […]

Last week Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, proposed that President Donald J. Trump should be in charge of Brexit. “Imagine Trump doing Brexit,” Johnson said, according to a leaked audio recording obtained and published by BuzzFeed. “I have become more and more convinced that there is method in his madness.” “He’d go in bloody hard … […]

Although there’s hardly anything about it in the news, one year ago Theresa May held a snap General Election in a bid to win a bigger mandate for her Tory version of Brexit. Instead, she lost her mandate entirely. The Tory’s majority in the House of Commons was crushed in the General Election of 8 […]

Today Paul Dacre, Editor of the Daily Mail, and the man who more than any other helped to cause Brexit, handed in his resignation. In the years leading up to the EU referendum, and since, the Daily Mail has published a daily deluge of stories that spread hatred of migrants and the EU. “Without Dacre […]

This week I found myself in one of the leafier parts of the stock-broker belt, giving an after-lunch talk on the Brexit process. As we pushed the meat-and-two-veg around the plates of the clubhouse, I listened to tales of how the Germans were trying to do what they didn’t manage in the world wars, and […]