Category: Europe
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Brexit Party MEP candidate ‘s business boosted by cheap UK assets and sterling weakness
The Brexit Party has today announced former property developer Ben Habib as a candidate for the European elections. At the launch event, Habib argued for keeping a no deal Brexit on the table.Habib’s involvement is an intriguing data point for those who think a influential fraction of Brexit supporters are driven by an appetite for…
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A look at the Commons votes for a Labour Referendum motion
Back in October, I wrote a post looking at how MPs were likely to vote on Theresa May's EU withdrawal agreement. A number of publications, including the New Statesman and Buzzfeed have since undertaken similar, no doubt better informed, exercises. Since my last update in mid-November, it's become conventional wisdom that Theresa May is likely…
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The Good Friday Agreement, Twenty Years On
Lewes Labour Party very kindly invited myself and Professor Mary Hickman to speak on the Twentieth Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement this week. Below is the text of my prepared remarks, which I think bears some resemblance to what I actually said! I'd like to talk a little bit about where we are…
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Latest border plan: A bad idea from the bad old days
Today’s Independent carries some very worrying reporting about the British Government’s latest Brexit plan for the Irish border
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Splendid isolationists: The High Tory opposition to the Good Friday Agreement
The publication of a draft withdrawal agreement today will confirm once again the central role which Ireland has assumed in the debate about Brexit.
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The Mitrokhin Playbook – How Cold War smears failed in Italy
In a couple of posts last week I noted that the Conservative campaign to link Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to Eastern bloc espionage had long-standing precedents in British politics. Tonight, however, we have entered a phase more reminiscent of events on the continent.
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Roundup: Crunch week looms for Brexit and the border
Theresa May at the December summit. Via Flickr. There have been darker moments in British-Irish relations over the last century. Yet it's hard to think of a time when the Irish question has been such a complex factor in British politics. Not perhaps since the clashes between home rulers in the Commons and Unionists in…
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Brexit options for the Irish border (video)
Cross-posted from Patreon: Turkey's TRTWorld channel very kindly invited me to appear on their Roundtable discussion programme this morning to discuss Brexit and the Irish border, with presenter David Foster, journalist John Crowley, Tim Skeet of Britain for Europe and Irish Labour's Gerard Howlin. You can see the video above.
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Barnier steps up pressure on UK over Irish border
Cross-posted from Patreon. The EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, gave a significant update on the state of play at a press conference in Brussels today. His opening remarks on Ireland are set out below, followed by my analysis. The original video (in French and English) is here. The subsequent Q & A (largely in French,…
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Is Labour moving towards a hard border in Ireland?
A cross-post from Patreon. Labour's line on Brexit has hardened perceptibly in recent days, but only yesterday Jeremy Corbyn was still keeping his options open on the customs union. However, Labourlist reports that Shadow Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner has now suggested that remaining in the EU customs union would leave the UK a 'vassal state'.…