Why can’t a rich country act like a rich country?
A question I am often asked by non-British friends is: when the UK is a G7 country, how can its public services be in such a shocking state? We recently received a letter from the school asking parents...
View ArticleWhat exactly is a “soft” Brexit?
There seems to be a lot of confusion and misunderstanding over what is meant by a “soft Brexit”. This is my attempt to shed some light on what’s meant by “soft” and “hard” in this context. “Soft” does...
View Article“Leave Lies” rebutted
Here follows a lengthy reply to someone called @MaraudingWinger on Twitter who posted an (even lengthier) piece on what he called “Lies, Exaggerations and Threats from the Remain Side – Now &...
View ArticleBrexit negotiations: how is the UK doing?
Last year, before Brexit negotiations got started, I wrote this short piece outlining my thoughts – as someone with many years of experience negotiating with and on behalf of the EU – on how the UK...
View ArticleSome Twitter threads on trade
I’ve posted a couple of threads on Twitter recently about trade, challenging the Brexit narrative of some ‘liberal leavers’ in which they argue that the UK has been held back by its EU membership....
View Article“our national story”
In her Florence speech Theresa May said: “because of our history and geography, the EU never felt to us like an integral part of our national story”. In response, I tweeted this thread. Here in one...
View ArticleKnit for Victory
About 18 months ago I taught myself to knit. It’s something I’d been meaning to do for a long time, I had always seen it as a beautiful craft and a potentially very satisfying creative outlet. With a...
View ArticlePlay up, play up, and play the game
Michel Barnier has warned the UK that Brexit is not a game. This was in response to Theresa May’s comment in Parliament that “the ball is in the EU’s court”. Language matters. The UK side has...
View ArticlePost on the LSE’s Brexit blog: “Going it alone on trade is like bringing a...
I’ve reworked one of my twitter threads on trade into a post for the LSE’s Brexit blog. I argue that the kind of Brexit being advocated both on the left and the right of British politics is unrealistic...
View ArticleRemembrance Day and Brexit
My EU poppy gets a mention in this Spectator blog. I profoundly disagree with the author. War, and peace, are as political as it gets, and defending the EU as a peace project is not trivialising...
View ArticleIt’s identity theft
Here is the gist of a semi-impromptu intervention I made in the sleet at the #FinalSayForAll rally in Brussels on 11 December. I was radicalised by Thatcher’s Bruges speech. I’m a lifelong advocate of...
View ArticleLSE Brexit Blog: So Long & Thanks For All The Red Tape
I’ve contributed another piece to the LSE Brexit Blog, this time expanding upon my tweet below which went a bit viral after I spluttered indignantly at David Davis and his disdain for impact...
View ArticleIncompatible Fictions
I have just started listening to Sapiens, the book by Yuval Noah Harari. I’m finding it engrossing and thought-provoking in the best traditions of popular science writing. Harari argues that the key...
View ArticleBrexit binaries
Many people in Britain thought the referendum win for Leave was the moment we left the EU. The deed was done, we were out. Many people in Britain think we’re still in the EU, until the moment...
View ArticleHappy for EFTA After
In recent days there has been a nasty spat of recriminations among former Remainers, some of whom blame others for excessive zeal, making the best the enemy of the good, and pushing us towards the...
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