Introduction The Johnson premiership has begun. The tortuously negotiated Withdrawal Agreement (WA) is hated by the new government. There are contradictory signals, and it is unsure what changes could be made to make the WA acceptable to HMG. We seem to have moved from a time limit on the Backstop to no Backstop. Even if… Read more
Category:
European Union
What a state we’re in
I see Fintan O’Toole is, again, pointing out the inconsistencies and logical failures of the two remaining prospective Conservative Party leaders. Indeed, as he implies, if there were actually a technological solution to the ‘Irish backstop’ then they do not need to bother their not so pretty little heads about it. Because a border without… Read more
Is the Euro China’s secret weapon?
It seems to have received little attention but, last week, Portugal successfully raised finance by issuing so called Panda bonds in Chinese currency. This is a country in the Euro issuing bonds in a foreign currency and in a Chinese one at that. According to the Madrid based EU affairs news website ‘South EU Summit’:… Read more
European Tactical Voting Advice
In case any readers have not subscribed, the following is the advice contained in an email from ‘Remain Voter‘ for tactical voting in order to ensure the best opportunity for additional winning remain candidates in every UK Euro constituency: Here is your voting recommendation for Thursday’s EU Election vote. First, 3 things 1 – Get… Read more
Labour dissonance
An interesting Labour leaflet arrived on my doormat yesterday announcing that “Labour (MEP) candidates in the South West believe in giving people a say….. there must be another public vote …” At last: But closer inspection (bottom right – click to enlarge) of the leaflet shows it is in fact, being promoted by USDAW in… Read more
The European Parliament: the Parties
Fig. 1 The distribution of seats in the European Parliament This is the second of a series of posts on the European Parliament. The first discussed the two Proportional Representation methods used in the UK. Fig. 1 shows the groupings with in the European Parliament (EP) in October 2018. The historical composition of the EP… Read more
Your country needs me
As we now know that English is pretty much the lingua franca (a good – imported – English phrase!) of the EU we also know that they have a deep understanding of (the idiocies of) current British politics. We are negotiating with ourselves in full sight of our fellow negotiators. It is some evidence of… Read more
15 : 20 Vision and Brexit- have things panned out as expected?
During the Brexit referendum, before the Progressive Pulse site was set up, many of my comments were on Prof Richard Murphy’s TRUK site. This was my thinking on the time-line and evolving predictions for the future. What I Got Right. The Referendum would result in a Leave victory. The Referendum was a horror show, with… Read more
Parallel currencies can also be powerful
I think most can agree that in order to properly function any state requires a system of defence and of justice. Considering the modern state perhaps we should add that it also needs to have the right to create its own currency. We know that creating a currency for public purpose requires just two conditions:… Read more
Back to the Backstop (Possibly the DUP are not sensible?)
Introduction It has been a fairly grim week Brexit-wise with the HoC again putting fantasy over reality. I have to admit to being so depressed by the whole saga I have found it difficult to put pen to paper. Fortunately three of my favourite commentators, Prof Chris Grey, Ian Dunt and Prof Simon-Wren Lewis have… Read more