On both sides of the Pond now, the unregarded masses have risen up and given the Establishment a thorough slapping. But the triumph of Trump does provide something of a problem for Brexit. Until now, Liam Fox has been going around telling all and sundry that we can just sign free trade treaties with everywhere […]
And now it gets interesting. In a piece written on the eve of the election, I argued that a Trump victory would be a “peasants’ revolt”, given that it could only come from turning out an overwhelmingly number of white men (and women) without college degrees, who had flocked to his banner even as the […]
It’s one of Edmund Burke’s most famous lines. “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment,” he told the electors of Bristol in 1774. “And he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.” But there’s another line, just below, which ought to be equally well known. Parliament, […]
Before the Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011 was introduced, the UK had pretty much the perfect system for determining when general elections should be called. The prime minister would request a dissolution from the monarch. If the circumstances met a set of circumstances established in precedent for granting an election, one was granted. If they […]
There has been great excitement among the Remain camp today after the Government was told by the courts that it did not have the power to trigger Article 50 unilaterally. Lord Kerr, the author of the article in question, has even popped up to argue that Brexit is still not an inevitability. The truth is, […]
At the Conservative Party Conference this year, the Prime Minister unveiled a cunning plan: she promised a Great Repeal Bill (GRB). The GRB is intended both to repeal the European Communities Act (ECA) 1972, the legislation which gave effect to the supremacy of EU law in the UK, and to convert all EU law into UK […]
If we read the newspapers or listen to the experts, Britain faces two ways to negotiate its way out of the European Union without succumbing to the protectionists’ sirens. The first is a deal à la Norway not only with full access to the common market, but also with full implementation of EU law and […]
Call me a dupe. Call me a patsy. Call me a sucker. Above all, call me wrong. In the days before the EU referendum, I wrote a long essay about why I’d ultimately decided to vote Remain. I was, I said, fully persuaded of the case against the EU. But I couldn’t convince myself to […]
The Belgian region of Wallonia was once called the crossroads of Europe. It sent arms to Spain in medieval times, then became the first place on the continent’s mainland to have an Industrial Revolution, aided by an influx of English industrialists. Wallonia was famous for making fine lace and chocolate, using cocoa imported from colonial holdings […]
After the referendum result this summer, the Government signalled its intention to reduce the number of overseas students studying in the UK. In July, shortly after Theresa May became Prime Minister, Government sources revealed their intention to “restrict visas” in order to meet the net migration target. Then at the Conservative Party Conference earlier, international students became […]
No one will ever abolish boom and bust. Not while human beings are driving the business cycle. So our reaction when the inevitable downturn comes is important. This past recession shows the value of the neoliberal – Thatcherite even – insistence on a flexible labour market. For when GDP dropped so did productivity – rather than employment. The Sheffield Political Economy […]
It was always a matter of when, not if, the attention of the media would turn to the future of the financial services sector after the UK leaves the EU. Will Brexit make no difference, or will the loss of the EU financial services passport – which allows UK-headquartered firms to do business across the […]
Having been sent sprawling after an “altercation” with his Ukip colleagues, Steven Woolfe has landed a knockout blow of his own. The surprise departure of the runaway favourite to succeed Nigel Farage has tipped Ukip – already in a state of disarray after the Diane James fiasco – into full-blown crisis. Woolfe attributes his departure to the […]
As even the dimmest bear may now understand, referendums do not settle debates. They simply move them on. They differ significantly from ordinary elections, in which the game is refereed according to long-understood rules and regulations. Even if, as in 2010, the result initially appears inconclusive, precedent offers a path through the electoral thicket. And, […]
Nick Clegg has told us all, several times in fact, that a hard or clean Brexit is going to mean rising food prices. This is because a reversion to the Word Trade Organisation (WTO) rules once we have left the European Union means that other countries will put up their tariffs against our food exports […]
“The British people didn’t vote to make Britain poorer,” said Phillip Hammond of Brexit recently. Sounds fair. People won’t drink the potion unless they have reason to think it will do them good. But here’s the trouble. When will we know if Brexit is good or bad for us? Is it even possible to know? […]
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