There is much talk amongst erstwhile Remainers that we must not anticipate, let alone advocate, an early British return to the European Union. Some, whose grasp of history is limp, even compare our situation to that of the Jacobites following the failure of the ’45. Many of us are certainly [...]
One relief from the ongoing general uncertainty surrounding the ongoing negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom on a post-Brexit Free Trade Agreement has been to study specifics, such as its likely regional impact. In pursuit of this I recently participated, by video, in an informal conference on [...]
“Time is running short.” This refrain was first expressed in June by Prime Minister Johnson and Commission President von der Leyen in their conference call, supposedly with the aim of injecting urgency into the ongoing UK/EU negotiations on their future relations after the end of the Transition Period. It has [...]
Photo credit: Steve Nimmons / CC BY There is a celebrated passage in Marcel Proust’s “Sodom and Gomorrah” where the narrator sums up the nature of a character, Charles Morel, who in some sense encapsulates all that is vile in the values of his milieu. Morel, we are [...]
Mr Johnson’s decision last week to bring in a bill which will contravene a critical portion of the Withdrawal Agreement has at least had the merit of clarifying the real nature of Brexit and thus of the proper path by which it must be opposed. Former Prime Ministers John Major, [...]
The Abbot(t)’s tale The Prime Minister, demonstrating an extraordinary vote of no confidence in Britain’s reserves of domestic talent, and perhaps an even more extraordinary insouciance towards the extremely technical nature of contemporary international commercial accords, reportedly intends to appoint the former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to lead Britain’s [...]
Picture supplied by private source. Yesterday’s summit between the Prime Minister and President Macron, on the margins of the latter’s visit to celebrate the 80th anniversary of General De Gaulle’s broadcast from London in 1940 announcing his resolution to continue fighting in the name of France, thereby [...]
The British government has been making a significant effort to present the video conference between the Prime Minister and the Presidents of the European Council, Commission and Parliament on Monday as constituting something of a breakthrough in the negotiations over the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European [...]
by John StevensChairman of the Federal Trust; Former Member of the European Parliament (1989 – 1999) 4th May 2020 In the latest iteration of the unempathetic essence of their cause a debate is emerging amongst the supporters of Brexit over whether the crisis created by the COVID-19 virus will prove [...]
