Out in the waves on Carcavelos Beach near Lisbon, Hélder Ferreira stood out from the other surfers. Among a crowd of tall teenage boys who had skipped class to head into the freezing waters that morning, and strikingly beautiful blond girls carving the waves and breaking hearts, it was easy to notice a short, bald man in his fifties. “I started down here, you […]
Last weekend’s referendum defeat for the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, has been depicted as another pro-populist blow against the European Union and its minions, and an advance tremor ahead of the coming collapse of the Italian financial system. It is neither. If there were anything “populist” and anti-status quo in this drama, it was […]
“Grandma Gertrude” must be celebrating: Her favoured candidate, Alexander van der Bellen, will be the next Austrian president. And she herself will long be remembered for her moving video endorsement of him, which went viral within and beyond the little Alpine country of 8.7 million inhabitants. While it will of course be impossible to measure the video’s exact […]
Italian voters have rejected plans for constitutional reform supported by the government of prime minister Matteo Renzi. This result means more political and economic uncertainty for the time being. The aim of the reform was to end Italian’s “perfect bicameralism”; that is, the institutional arrangement whereby the House of Representatives and Senate have exactly the […]
In the chancelleries of Europe, in the gilded suburbs and Michelin-starred restaurants, the cry goes up: the populists are coming! The populists are coming! Not since Attila the Hun swept towards Rome has there been such fear and trembling. With some justification. In both Italy and Austria, voters could this weekend deliver the latest hammer-blow […]
I live right on the border of Richmond Park, the constituency where Zac Goldsmith (former Tory) just lost a by-election to Sarah Olney of the Lib Dems; I also spent the least four years promoting an independent plan for Heathrow (which Zac indicated he could possibly accept) so, I guessed this might happen. It’s important […]
The Foreign Secretary gave his first major speech this morning at Chatham House on Britain’s role in the world. Here is the transcript: There is a sense in which the British cemetery in Kabul is a monument to the human spirit. A triumph of hope over experience and as I stood there last Saturday on a […]
This Sunday, Italians will be called to approve or reject the constitutional reforms passed by parliament in April. These are intended to alter two basic aspects of the current Italian constitution. First, they do away with the system of so-called “perfect bicameralism”, in which the Senate and the lower House share the same functions and […]
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 say, no other French politician even bothered to answer the invitations I hardly bothered to send out. In French political debate, “Thatcher” […]
In the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory, and the triumph of Brexit, France’s presidential elections have been cast as the next theatre for a populist anti-establishment insurgency. The elections have already delivered a shock, with former president Nicolas Sarkozy being beaten in the Republican primaries on Sunday: former prime minister François Fillon and mayor […]
Notwithstanding certain desperate rearguard actions, Brexit is now inevitable. But what many people miss is that there were at least two opportunities to change that. In a recent article, former Conservative Europe spokesman Mark Francois explored some of the background to the Lisbon Treaty, and how its handling in Parliament started us down the road […]
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 […]
In October 2007, having resigned earlier that year as Prime Minister, Tony Blair gave a speech at Blenheim Palace in which he said: The real dividing line to think of in modern politics has less to do with traditional positions of right versus left, and more to do today, with what I would call the […]
The hollow sound you can hear behind the triumphalist bluster of European leaders proclaiming salvation for Greece yet again is the can being kicked a few more yards down the road. Whether its halting progress can continue beyond a Greek parliamentary vote on Wednesday or, even more problematically, the detailed negotiations still to come remains […]
With a Conservative majority and all the Labour leadership candidates saying they support a referendum on our EU membership, it now seems certain we shall have one in either 2017 or 2016. The options will be to either leave or stay on the terms secured in a renegotiation, which is apparently to be completed by this […]
With fundamentally important elections for Greece on the horizon, everyone from the Greeks to the Germans must work out where they stand on the issue of “Grexit” (the potential departure of Greece from the Eurozone). The subject has become a contentious issue once again, in light of indications from the polls that radical left wing […]
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