This book is one of the most important ever written on Britain’s tortuous relationship with Europe in the last 50 years. It has been dismissed as a book written by a haut fonctionnaire, what in English would be called a Whitehall Mandarin. Nothing could be further from the truth. The [...]
What is it about England’s right-wing journalism and France? The obsessive hate against France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, in papers like the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, and Spectator is without precedent. As news arrived of the death of 27 refugees drowned in the Straits of Dover, the Daily Mail summed up the style and language of the Francophobe [...]
Anyone hoping the US under President Biden will restore its own democracy to the level at which it could be an example for most of the world, must be quite disappointed. Even deeper disappointment must be felt by millions of anglophiles who were looking towards Britain as a gold-plated model [...]
The extraordinarily tight outcome of the German elections has created the danger for the European Union of prolonged negotiations before the next federal government can be formed, lasting even as long as until Christmas. However, it also contains a most significant opportunity. This is not merely due to the defection [...]
by Prof. Colin Talbot, Emeritus Professor of Government at the University of Manchester, and Dr. Carole Talbot, Research Associate, University of Cambridge ‘Levelling Up’ is back in the headlines with the move of Michael Gove to what has now become the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. One [...]
This article was first published by The UK in a Changing Europe. If there is one plus to the Covid-19 pandemic it is that many more people in the UK are aware we no longer live in a state with a single government in London. The regular TV appearances [...]
This essay was commissioned by Léo Keller on behalf of the Blogazoi blog, as part of a collection to be published following the German election. It is over 21 years since Angela Merkel took over from Wolfgang Schäuble as leader of the CDU, Germany’s most consistently successful political party. Schäuble, the [...]
Nine months into Brexit and it is already apparent that musicians are one of the main sectors whose lives and livelihoods are being radically disrupted by Brexit, to the point that it is causing 21% of musicians to consider changing their career. Sir Simon Rattle recently stated that it was [...]
Division has been central to the electoral strength of the Johnson Conservative Party. It might also prove key to understanding its potential weakness. Conservative victory in December 2019 was achieved partly through identifying a social cleavage and securing a large proportion of the support of those on one side of [...]
This article was first published by Civil Service World. The Government have very quietly published a grandly title “Declaration On Government Reform”, signed by the Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary no less. It was apparently agreed at a meeting of the whole Cabinet with all Permanent Secretaries in attendance. [...]
