Politics & Public Policy

Earlier this week, I was quoted in a Daily Telegraph piece about Grassroots Out (GO). The article had noted that ten seeming-offshoots of the group had been registered with the Electoral Commission as participants in the referendum campaign. If the Commission were to consider them as separate, then taken together they would be free to spend as […]

The chairman of Aviva, Britain’s biggest insurance company, said at their AGM yesterday that the company would prefer to “avoid the uncertainty” of Brexit. Sir Adrian Montague, CBE, the company’s new chairman, was answering a shareholder’s question about the board’s view on the EU referendum. At first he gave a guarded response. “I am not […]

Inga Ulnicane ‘Crisis should not be wasted’. Since the beginning of the global economic crisis in 2008, this idea has been repeated many times suggesting that crisis should rather be used as an opportunity for innovative solutions and necessary reforms. One of such potential changes emphasized by European institutions has been prioritization of research and […]

A straightforward comparison between Britain remaining in the EU and leaving isn’t possible. That’s because we know what ‘Remain’ in the EU means – it’s the status quo and we’ve experienced it for four decades. But Leave? Nobody knows; nobody can say for sure. Even those campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union cannot […]

The opening of the official campaign on the EU referendum hasn’t been all fireworks; instead, it’s been mostly more of the same. Each side trading consequences and perils, questioning the other side’s competence or intent. In particular, we’ve been lacking vision. The vision thing is an easy one of trash: too many overtones of Tony […]

Monday 11 April saw the launch of an impartial and independent review: the EU referendum and the UK environment. Authored by 14 international experts – and led by the three of us – this review draws on the findings of over 700 publications to investigate how has EU membership affected the UK and what might […]

If you’re young with a University degree and live in London, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, you’re more likely to vote for Britain to remain in the EU. But if you’re older, with only a secondary education, and live in provincial England, you’re more likely to vote for Britain to leave the EU. That, in […]

Rival groups are bitterly battling each other to gain the official nomination to run the EU referendum Brexit campaign. Three campaigns with different visions of Britain after Brexit have applied to the Electoral Commission to be designated as the official ‘Leave’ group. Only one group from ‘Leave’ and one from ‘Remain’ can be awarded the […]

Mari Elken and Jens Jungblut On the 3rd and 4th of March 2016, the European Research Area collaborative research network (CRN) had its final workshop at the Directorate General for Research & Innovation of the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. Building on the diverse activities and encompassing research that has been conducted within the framework […]

  There’s not much that’s clear so far in the referendum, but one thing that looks pretty certain is that the campaign has yet to catch the public’s interest fully. Indeed, it might not be pushing things too far to say that most people don’t really care. The reasons for this are many and various. […]