The EU

More than 50 Conservative Members of Parliament have started a new group to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union. The Telegraph reported it as, “a move that will electrify the battle for Britain’s future place in the world.” The new group, called Conservatives for Britain (CfB), has warned that unless Prime Minister, David […]

So here we are, about a month into the new government. How’s it shaping up with the EU referendum thing? For me, four things stick out so far. Firstly, David Cameron has conformed to type in his approach to the matter. Assuming that he was a surprised as the next man (that next man being Ed […]

Irony comes in many shapes and sizes. Just as Greeks and the rest of Europe watch with bated breath whether Greece will leave the Euro zone, comes news that a designer with the Bank of Greece has won a prize for the design of a new Euro coin. The new coin is to celebrate 30 […]

Ten years ago today, the French voted down the European Constitution Treaty, which was supposed to replace existing EU Treaties and institute key changes such as the appointment of a EU foreign minister. This was followed by an even stronger ‘No’ in the Netherlands three days later. These ‘No’ votes succeeded where the Danish 1992 […]

For every pound that the UK contributes to the European Union science fund, it gets back £1.40. Why? Because the European Union invests into science projects “on the basis of scientific excellence”. And British scientists are among the best in the world. As Michael Brooks pointed out in his weekly science column for the New […]

Citizens from over 70 nations will be able to vote in the UK referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. But most European Union nationalities will be excluded. A spokesman for the British Prime Minster said: “This is a big decision for our country, one that is about the future of the United Kingdom. That’s […]

Today’s newspapers are full of the latest migration figures that show net migration to the UK rose last year by 50% to 318,000. That’s way beyond the target set by Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, who five years ago promised – but failed – to reduce net migration to ‘tens of thousands’. Today Mr Cameron […]

On Tuesday I went to one of my alma maters, LSE’s European Institute, to listen to a panel on Britain’s EU policy. As well as storifying it, I’ve also been thinking about the discussion and particularly three of the things mentioned by Simon Hix, one of the panellists. “Never underestimate the EU’s ability to find a way to muddle through” […]

Following the Conservative party victory in the 2015 UK general election, Tobias Lock presents the key findings of a policy paper which resulted from a UACES Small Event grant funded workshop.

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 […]