In this new video, our director Brendan Donnelly discusses why Brexit cannot be made to “work” without considerable accompanying political and economic drawbacks. He argues that those who wish for the UK to rejoin the EU should start making the intellectual for this now: Click here to read [...]
Throughout the month of December commentators and politicians speculated tirelessly on the likelihood of a negotiated trade arrangement between the UK and EU before the end of the year. Many expected that the personal convictions of Boris Johnson and the intransigence of the Conservative Party would prevent the conclusion of [...]
The last weeks of 2020 will provide a slew of illustrative material for future historians wishing to highlight the moral and administrative decline of the British state in face of the challenges of Brexit and Covid-19. Pride of place will go to the twin nominations to the House of Lords [...]
The dinner between Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen on 9th December seems to have done little to improve the chances of an agreement on EU/UK trading relations before the end of the transition period. Both sides have interest in achieving such an agreement and it would be premature [...]
Shortly after the EU referendum of 2016, a “former Conservative minister” supposedly remarked that Brexit would force the Conservative Party to choose between destroying the country and destroying itself. Both the attribution and exact wording of this epigram may be questioned, but precisely this choice is the dilemma with which [...]
The National Audit Office released last week a report on preparations for the end of the transition period after Brexit. The report was critical of the government for the inadequacy of these preparations and in particular for its failure to foresee and respond to the predictable administrative consequences of Brexit. [...]
Federal Trust Director Brendan Donnelly discusses the preparations for the end of the Brexit transition period and argues that the UK will never be "ready for Brexit": You can also read Brendan's blog on this topic on the LSE Brexit Blog.
News that the Brexit talks were to be resumed sent the external value of the pound back up again. Political commentators, especially in the UK, began to predict the relatively rapid conclusion of an agreement on future trade relations between the UK and the EU. They pointed in particular to [...]
Barry Davis / CC BY In recent weeks Michael Gove has admitted to the House of Commons that the end of the transition period could lead next year to queues of “up to 7000 HGVs in Kent” and that a system of “Kent Access Permits” would be necessary [...]
One of the more optimistic interpretations placed by some commentators on Boris Johnson’s crushing victory in the General Election last year was that his new large majority would make it easier for him to negotiate rapidly and effectively with the European Union in 2020. His large majority, it was hoped, [...]
