Another day, another penny drops about the effects of Brexit. It seems it could cause low-end wages in Britain to rise. And we can’t have that, can we? Today’s outbreak of indignation over this comes courtesy of Pret A Manger. Their HR boss, Andrea Wareham, told the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee than hardly […]
Beneath the cartoonish histrionics, Donald Trump’s presidency already matters. Indeed, it is the mirror image of his predecessor’s, the second part of a drama entitled “What does being American mean?” Barack Obama offered one, impeccably liberal, answer to that question; Donald Trump offers another. One that is visceral, not intellectual; nativist, not universal. This is […]
Walls have a strong political connotation in post-war Europe. The most tragically famous was the Berlin wall built in 1961 to prevent citizens of the DDR (otherwise known as East Germany) from seeking refuge in the West. The fall of that wall in 1989 signalled the reunification not only of Germany but of the entire […]
America’s immigration policy has got the country to where it is today, for better or worse. It created a diverse and innovative nation that has pushed human civilisation forward. It also brought us President Trump, and with him, a more heated debate about immigration. But rather than continuing to shout over one another and refusing […]
My friend Inda Dae, a Somali refugee, has been waiting for 10 years to be reunited with his family in Ohio. They left from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya when he was 16 years old. Now he is a man of 26. After five years of vetting by eight federal agencies, six different security […]
When recovery is slow after an economic crisis, and people feel their livelihoods threatened by political and economic change, there is a tune which plays very well in politics: nativism. Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump’s nativist “America First” message drew vast support. Now that he is in the Oval Office, it is increasingly clear that […]
So at last we know what Brexit means. In her speech today at Lancaster House, Theresa May could not have been clearer. Britain wants the friendliest and closest possible arrangement with the European Union. But it wants to be free to sign its own trade deals – which means leaving the single market, leaving the […]
Theresa May has not yet delivered her key speech on Brexit, but friends of free trade are already celebrating. The weekend papers were full of reports that May’s version of Brexit would include exiting from the single market and customs union, the better to make our own arrangements with other countries around the world. Meanwhile, […]
As of April 2017, firms wanting to bring in staff from outside the EU will have to pay £1,000 per migrant, per year — the “immigration skills charge”. I’ll repeat that: £1,000 per migrant, per year. This extraordinary measure was introduced by the Cameron administration in the Immigration Act 2016, sponsored by one T. May, […]
“The world’s ideological divide isn’t left versus right, it’s globalist versus nationalist, and globalists have work to do.” In a new essay in the Wall Street Journal, the paper’s chief economics commentator, Greg Ip, sums up the case that’s become increasingly fashionable. As he puts it in his essay: “Supporters of these disparate movements are […]
The footage from the Turkish coast guard ship shows a grainy procession of bedraggled figures. The news story announces that they have been rescued from drowning in the Aegean at the hands of people-smugglers. As the video of the refugees continues playing on his mobile phone, our translator points out a smudge of pink being […]
Since the EU referendum, party politics in the UK has undergone considerable change. Each of the three most popular political parties in the opinion polls – the Conservatives, Labour and UKIP – have held leadership elections. While the Conservatives replaced David Cameron with Prime Minister Theresa May, Labour re-elected Jeremy Corbyn and UKIP – who […]
In recent weeks, the world’s attention has been fixed on the tragedy in Aleppo – and on the prospect of yet more refugees flooding across Syria’s borders. Yet 2,000 miles away in Africa, another crisis is unfolding which could have equally appalling humanitarian consequences, and is getting only a fraction of the attention. South Sudan […]
Across European capitals, there was a sigh of relief when Norbert Hofer conceded his defeat to Alexander Van der Bellen in Austria’s presidential election on Sunday. No wonder. This was not an ordinary election. If he had been successful – as some polls suggested and betting markets predicted – Mr Hofer would have been the […]
Of all the Brexit titbits ‘leaked’ in the scribbled notes carried out of Downing Street by a parliamentary aide to Mark Field MP this week, the most germane is probably that “headlines won’t change from now until March”. In the absence of a “running commentary” from the Government, it is understandable that every little morsel […]
Britain has a huge problem with immigration – or so many people think. The reality of immigration is generally positive, yet public perceptions are often negative – and that leads to illiberal, deeply flawed government policy. It is telling that while few people think immigration is negative for them personally, many believe it is detrimental […]
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