After the results of the French Socialist primary came in at the weekend, there were breathless reports that Corbynism had crossed the Channel. But the truth is that the Socialist Party was in trouble long before this weekend. In the polls on Sunday, the former prime minister and erstwhile front-runner, Manuel Valls, came second with […]
Britain is leaving the EU, its main geopolitical partnership for the past 40 years. Within the EU, we faced down the Warsaw Pact, absorbed the post-dictatorship states of Iberia and Greece, and the post-Communist states of the East. We also played our part in liberalising world trade and capital flows and setting up today’s global […]
Theresa May did everyone a favour when she made it clear that the UK is leaving the Single Market and the customs union and will negotiate a free-trade agreement with the European Union. I say this as someone who voted to remain. Many of us wish it were otherwise, but the combined political logic on […]
Theresa May yesterday gave the clearest indication of Britain’s future direction of travel. Her mantra is “Global Britain” – a phrase we will hear endlessly over coming years. The referendum was a vote “to become even more global and internationalist in action and in spirit”, she said. Certainly, it was good to hear May speak […]
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 […]
Bizarrely, the front-line debate on the economics of leaving the EU now centres on whether Britain should stay or remain within the EU’s customs union. This is bizarre because, unlike with the single market, Brexiteers of all stripes took the departure from this customs union as given and a boon. By definition, a customs union […]
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 […]
The headlines this week have been hogged by Ivan the Terrible – Sir Ivan Rogers, the UK’s top diplomat in Brussels, who abandoned his post several months early on the grounds that Theresa May’s government didn’t have a proper plan for Brexit and he couldn’t be bothered to hang around while it tried to come […]
The French Right settled long ago on their candidate for this year’s crucial elections and have rallied behind Francois Fillon’s social conservatism and liberal economics. On the Left, however, things are not so clear cut – with a confusion of candidates fighting for the nomination on 22 January. Yet never has an election been more important. […]
We had to wait less than three days to get the first big Brexit-related news story of 2017. Sir Ivan Rogers, the UK’s permanent representative to the EU, has decided to quit his post early – his original departure date was November. His surprise resignation comes shortly before the March 2017 deadline Prime Minister Theresa […]
“Europe” is not a monolith. It comprises several overlapping entities. There is “Freemovementland” – the passport-free travel area that stretches from the Greek islands to the north of Norway. There is “Frontlineland” – the countries which fear Russian meddling and aggression. There is “Euroland” – the countries which use the common currency. And there is […]
Over the Christmas week, CapX is republishing its favourite pieces from the past year. You can find the full list here. Twenty-five years ago, on 8 December 1991, the leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine signed the Belavezha Accords, an agreement that dissolved the Soviet Union. Fewer than two weeks afterwards, leaders from all […]
Over the Christmas week, CapX is republishing its favourite pieces from the past year. You can find the full list here. It came as no little surprise when, three years ago, François Fillon accepted my invitation to participate in the Margaret Thatcher Conference on Liberty, organised by Britain’s Centre for Policy Studies. Needless to […]
Over the Christmas week, CapX is republishing its favourite pieces from the past year. You can find the full list here. As NATO scrambles to beef up its defences in the frontline states and Western diplomacy is humiliated in Syria, the New Cold War is no longer a fanciful book title. It is fact. As the […]
It happens the same way each time. Families, couples and friends strolling and laughing. The chatter and patter of street vendors, the delicious curling aromas of confectionery and cooked meat. A communal sense of relaxation and a happy holiday vibe: people switching off from all the stresses and strains of their lives, if only for […]
In early December, British foreign secretary Boris Johnson was forced to deny reports that he’d told a group of ambassadors he was personally in favour of the free movement of people across the European Union. Given his previous negative public statements on the issue, reports of his private support for the principle, which allows all […]
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