20 07, 2017

No good choices for the British government in the Brexit negotiations

By |2017-09-18T12:21:28+00:00July 20th, 2017|Categories: Blog, Europe|Tags: , , , , , |

  by Brendan Donnelly, Director, The Federal Trust 20th July 2017   David Davis has been criticized in some quarters for spending only two hours in Brussels this week negotiating with Michel Barnier before returning hurriedly to London. This criticism is misplaced. As Secretary of State for Exiting the European [...]

12 06, 2017

The dilemmas of Brexit have not been changed by the election

By |2017-06-12T21:00:02+00:00June 12th, 2017|Categories: Blog, Europe|Tags: , , , , , , , |

The dilemmas of Brexit have not been changed by the election     by Brendan Donnelly, Director, The Federal Trust 13th June 2017   The parallels between the European referendum of 2016 and the General Election of 2017 are striking. Both were risky and avoidable events, called into being exclusively [...]

30 05, 2017

After the election comes the painful Brexit reality

By |2017-05-30T12:15:35+00:00May 30th, 2017|Categories: Blog, Europe|Tags: , , , , , , |

After the election comes the painful Brexit reality     by Brendan Donnelly, Director, The Federal Trust     It should have come as little surprise that the election called by Mrs. May, supposedly to set the tone for the forthcoming Brexit negotiations, should have contained so little serious discussion [...]

25 04, 2017

The Brexit election will not make Brexit easier for Mrs. May

By |2017-04-25T14:29:28+00:00April 25th, 2017|Categories: Blog, Europe|Tags: , , , , , , |

The Brexit election will not make Brexit easier for Mrs. May   by Brendan Donnelly, Director, The Federal Trust   Announcing her decision to call for a general election in June, the Prime Minister claimed that “every vote for the Conservatives will make me stronger when I negotiate for Britain [...]

11 04, 2017

Pointless soft Brexit, suicidal hard Brexit

By |2017-04-11T09:29:52+00:00April 11th, 2017|Categories: Blog, Europe|Tags: , , , , , |

Pointless soft Brexit, suicidal hard Brexit     By Brendan Donnelly Director, The Federal Trust   In a controversial article last week the associate editor of the Financial Times Wolfgang Muenchau asserted that after the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty it was now inevitable that the United [...]

10 02, 2017

How long will Parliament ignore the 48% ?

By |2017-02-10T10:26:35+00:00February 10th, 2017|Categories: Blog, Europe|Tags: , , , , , , |

How long will Parliament ignore the 48%?       by Brendan Donnelly, Director, The Federal Trust   David Jones, the Minister for Brexit, assured the House of Commons this week that it would have the opportunity to vote on the treaty negotiated by Mrs. May’s government to bring about [...]

25 01, 2017

The Supremes say “Stop in the name of Parliament”

By |2017-01-25T14:41:15+00:00January 25th, 2017|Categories: Blog, Europe|Tags: , , , , , , |

The Supremes say “Stop in the name of Parliament”   By Brendan Donnelly, Director, The Federal Trust     On general principles of good governance yesterday’s decision of the Supreme Court must be welcomed. Most Parliamentarians are profoundly uneasy at the erratic course Mrs. May and her government have steered [...]

16 12, 2016

May’s Rocky Road Ahead: Why Brexit May Not Happen

By |2016-12-16T13:43:37+00:00December 16th, 2016|Categories: Blog, Europe|Tags: , , , , , |

In this article our director Brendan Donnelly argues that the triggering of Article 50 will not be the end of the Brexit story. Mrs May is likely to face over the next two years growing obstacles in her path of extricating the UK from the European Union. There is a [...]

4 11, 2016

A “Titanic” success for the government in the High Court

By |2016-11-07T09:39:20+00:00November 4th, 2016|Categories: Blog, Europe|Tags: , , , , , |

  By Brendan Donnelly, Director, The Federal Trust   When challenged about its claimed right to initiate the process of taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union without Parliamentary consent, Mrs. May’s government has relied on two arguments, one legal and one political. The first is that the [...]

2 09, 2016

“When we have decided what you voted for, we will tell you.”

By |2016-09-02T13:46:41+00:00September 2nd, 2016|Categories: Blog, Europe|Tags: , , , |

  by Brendan Donnelly, Director, The Federal Trust   It used to be claimed during the Cold War that in the countries of the Soviet bloc elections could not take place until the government had decided what their result should be. Here, we order these matters differently. We had a [...]

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