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Things I have posted recently
- The Year of Covid 19: Political Religion and the Culture Wars. Part 2.5. The Utilitarians I: Elie Halévy and the Philosophical Radicals 1750-1867. 12/02/2023
- The Year of Covid 19: Political Religion and the Culture Wars. Part 2.4. The EU’s legacy: 1789-1914: Science, Nature, Necessity. 29/03/2022
- The year of Covid 19: Political Religion and the Culture Wars. Part 2.3: The EU’s legacy, 1492-1789: Europe enters into the Devil’s Anus. 03/02/2022
- The Year of Covid 19: Political Religion and the Culture Wars: Part 2.2: The EU’s Legacy from the Middle Ages. 30/06/2021
- The Year of Covid 19: Political religion and the culture wars. Part 2. 1. Europe’s legacy: the first fifteen hundred years to AD 410. 26/02/2021
- The year of Covid-19: political religion and the culture wars.Part 1. 16/12/2020
- The UK Internal Market Bill: Supranational v. International law 14/09/2020
- China in the World: Chapter 3 Sino-US relations – a stable instability. 11/07/2020
- China in the World: Chapter 2 China becomes the prime global manufacturing and trading platform. 27/06/2020
- China in the World: Chapter 1. From backwater to world power. 16/05/2020
- China, coronavirus and the politics of paranoia 25/04/2020
- Brexit and the British Constitution: Part V. Modernisation or Vandalism? 09/04/2020
- Brexit and the British Constitution: Part IV. The pre-1945 Roots of British Supranationalism. 10/01/2020
- Brexit and the British Constitution: Part III. Efficiency, Parliamentary Sovereignty, Bureaucracy. 02/12/2019
- The Supreme Court’s judgement on Prime Minister Johnson’s decision to prorogue parliament: Part IV. New law or constitutional aberration? 06/11/2019
- The Supreme Court’s judgement on Prime Minister Johnson’s decision to prorogue Parliament: Part III. Assessment. 06/11/2019
- The Supreme Court’s judgement on Prime Minister Johnson’s decision to prorogue Parliament: Part II. The Arguments for and against. 06/11/2019
- The Supreme Court judgement on Prime Minister Johnson’s decision to prorogue Parliament: Part I: Definitions and timeline. 06/11/2019
- Apocalypse and Guilt: Why Savonarola and Greta differ. 01/10/2019
- Brexit and the British Constitution: Part II. The Whig spirit of the Old Constitution. 21/08/2019
Tag Archives: the EU
Brexit and the British Constitution: Part II. The Whig spirit of the Old Constitution.
The frontispiece is from the first “Whig” History of England-by a Frenchman. The spirit of the Old Constitution How history is recorded plays a central part in Britain’s uncodified constitution. Rules and conventions remain subject to interpretation, precedents are by … Continue reading
May’s trajectory: Part II. from Prime Minister to the EU’s Governor in the province of Britain.
Party first, country second. As a Tory tribalist, May’s priority was to prevent a party split, while locating herself on the party spectrum as a soft Remainer with her prime sympathies going to the majority Remainer MPs. This was evident … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, France and Germany, United Kingdom
Tagged European integration, France, Germany, supranationalism, the EU, UK
5 Comments
The UK’s Golden Opportunity: The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square
The May-Barnier deal is in deep trouble. After two years of negotiations, and signed up by 27 member states, it has been vetoed twice by the largest and fourth largest defeat in parliamentary history. Prime Minister May has returned to … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, France and Germany, The United States, United Kingdom
Tagged European disintegration, France, Germany, supranationalism, the EU, UK
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Germany on top, Europe in trouble. Discuss. Part 2. European Disintegration?
Douglas Webber’s is a very different book, but it is also very complimentary to Bulmer’s and Paterson’s Germany and the European Union. Both hold a question mark in the title, and both place Germany centre stage, but Webber’s subject is … Continue reading
Posted in disintegration, Europe, France and Germany, Ukraine, United Kingdom
Tagged comparative politics., Euro, European integration, France, Germany, Greece, power politics, Russia, supranationalism, the EU, UK
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British ideas of Europe: PART 4. The UK’s view of a sustainable regime for Europe.
From the perspective of 2016, British voters in the referendum could be forgiven for thinking that the EU was not very sustainable. The Euro crisis was in its sixth year; Chancellor Merkel’s decision to welcome mass immigration into Germany undermined … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, France and Germany, United Kingdom
Tagged Brexit, comparative politics., democracy, Euro, European integration, France, Germany, interdependence, supranationalism, the EU, UK
4 Comments
British ideas of Europe: PART 3. The European Union in Crisis.
In his book, COLLAPSE : Europe after the European Union,(Biteback, 2018) Ian Kearns issues a warning to Euro-optimists to cease dreaming of a brighter future. Get real, learn about your continent’s history, and smell the coffee. The fate of the continent … Continue reading
Posted in disintegration, Europe, France and Germany, United Kingdom
Tagged Euro, European integration, France, Germany, globalisation, immigration, interdependence, Russia, the EU, UK
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Chequers is dead: long live an alternative Europe
Prime Minister May was a remainer, and has remained a remainer. She has ensured that Whitehall leads the negotiation with Brussels. Since Whitehall is part of the Brussels establishment, it is the establishment negotiating with itself about how best to … Continue reading
Posted in France and Germany, United Kingdom
Tagged supranationalism, the EU, UK, world politics
2 Comments
You’re wrong, Matthew Parris: sovereignty is worth more than a sneer.
In his usually witty manner, Matthew Parris, in The Times of February 24, trashes “Hologram May” for leading “a hopeless mission”. “As obstacles appear on the route to Plateau Sovereignty, perhaps this illusory leader’s role is to make sure it’s … Continue reading
Brexit: A Certain Idea of Europe.
The result of the June 23, 2016 referendum as to whether the United Kingdom(UK) should remain in or leave the EU seems final enough. On a 72% voter turnout, 52% voted for Leave and 48% for Remain. Yet the vote … Continue reading
Ken Clarke’s Memoirs and the June 23 Brexit referendum
Sooner or later, we are going to get very bored by Brexit, but not for a while, given the number of publications pouring from the presses. Here are two books on the subject. Ken Clarke’s Kind of Blue: A Political … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, France and Germany, Italy, Oil, the Mid East and Gulf, United Kingdom
Tagged Euro, European integration, France, Germany, internal market, the EU, UK
3 Comments
Writing about history, politics & economics 