You might not have heard, but there’s been a vote and Britain has decided to leave the EU. All right, Kent has decided that Britain should leave the EU. Hold on, scratch that, three thousand people in Mark Reckless’ constituency have voted to leave the EU. In a quasi-referendum that Mark Reckless put on all […]
MY SPEECH IN ROME
Rome was lovely. I left a London that was 6 degrees to arrive into 22 degrees of southern Italian paradise. So the sunshine alone would have made the trip worth it. But I learned a great deal during my brief time in Italy as well. I knew a little about the proposed changes to the […]
IMAGINE A REFERENDUM ON BANKER’S BONUSES
Many on the Right of this country are desperate to have an In/Out referendum on our continuing membership of the European Union. To be fair, there are also many on the semi-Stalinist, non-internationalist Left who would like the same thing. But mostly the pressure for such a referendum comes from those on the Right. Late […]
TODAY’S BLOOMBERG EVENT: ONE YEAR ON FROM CAMERON’S SPEECH
On January 23, 2013, David Cameron gave a speech at the Bloomberg London office on the future of the UK’s place in the European Union. In it, as I’m sure you all remember, he pledged to hold an In/Out referendum in 2017 should the Conservative Party win a majority at the general election in 2015. […]
WHAT’S PUTIN’S NEXT MOVE?
For the time being, the reformers seem to have won in Ukraine. Yanukovych has fled Kiev and the parliament has deposed him in his absence; a warrant has been put out for the ex-president’s arrest. A new presidential election for May 25th has been called. So far, the only response from Russia has been to […]
THE CRISIS IN ITALIAN POLITICS AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR REFORMERS IN BRITAIN
Italy and its failing political system remains an albatross for British electoral reformers. I don’t know how many times I have heard from politicians who are not particularly inclined to support any change to a voting system within the United Kingdom say something along the lines of: “Just look at the Italians. We wouldn’t […]