Ideas on Europe

Politics & Public Policy

'Things would be so much easier if you stayed'

Jon Danzig |

In Munich last weekend, German diplomat and chair of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, told Prime Minister Theresa May regarding Brexit, ‘Things would be so much easier if you stayed.’ His comment received warm applause from those present in the hall, lasting much longer than the reception to Mrs May’s own speech. Mrs May […]

Does Boris Johnson remember what he said?

Jon Danzig |

Who knows what Boris Johnson really believes, least of all him? He previously said “what most people in this country want is the single market”, and he would personally vote to remain a member of it. He told the BBC Andrew Marr Show in 2012: ″We would like a new relationship. And it’s very simple […]

Can you tell what it is yet?

PoliticsatSurrey |

As a child, I used to like watching a TV programme where a bearded Australian would talk about some cartoons that he was going to show, hurriedly sketching a character in some dynamic pose. Part of the fun was the way he caught the characters’ essence: distilling them into a single image. Of course, this […]

Brexit won't get your country back

Jon Danzig |

Just ten days before the EU referendum, I wrote an article for Independent Voices​ with the headline, ‘You won’t get your country back if you vote for Brexit. You’ll give it away to the most right-wing government in recent history.’ And so, it has come about. My article was shared by Independent readers a record […]

Nothing is agreed

PoliticsatSurrey |

I think I’ve discovered a new condition. I’m calling it Maioaviophobia, or a fear of Theresa May getting on a plane. Somehow, it’s taken until now to notice that it’s the flights that seem to produce the most erratic political behaviour from the Prime Minister. Just think back to that walking holiday last Easter, or […]

EU benefits versus Brexit

Jon Danzig |

The electorate wasn’t sufficiently informed in the 2016 referendum to know whether it was right to leave the EU. The referendum campaign did not give clear answers. The Leave campaign had to rely on colossal lies to present their case. Who knew what to believe? But now it’s becoming clearer by the day what Brexit […]

Tightening Le Touquet and the second-order effects of Brexit

Simon Usherwood, PoliticsatSurrey |

Today’s visit to London by President Macron is important on a number of levels, not least for triggering the long-overdue debate about whether King Harold would have been a Brexiter. If the loaning of the Bayeux Tapestry is something of a sideshow, then it also speaks the overly febrile nature of British political debate that this was […]

Not one question about Brexit

Jon Danzig |

At Prime Minister’s Questions this week, the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn didn’t ask one question about Brexit. Of course, it’s quite right that his questions should have been dominated by the dramatic collapse of Carillion, the company that the government awarded contracts to worth billions of pounds even after they had issued serious profit warnings. […]

Despite Brexit not happening yet

Simon Usherwood, PoliticsatSurrey |

It’s not often I recommend a bot to follow, but I find that HaveWeLeft is a useful daily reminder: https://twitter.com/HaveWeLeft/status/951008276761726979 In all the talk of Brexit and transitions and new relationships, it’s easy to forget that the UK remains a full member state of the EU and will continue to be so for at least another 14 months. My personal […]

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