The imminent advent of a Trump 2.0 presidency is concentrating the mind of Europeans as they confront more tumultuous instability at home and abroad. More Europe is, with all its attendant risks, the only preferred option
UK
Labour’s long addiction to nuclear weapons
The prime minister now controls an arsenal capable of killing millions of people. History suggests it should be scrapped.
The change election: UK and Scotland
“A new, centrist UK government, one acknowledging geopolitical instability as well as the need for change domestically, and holding a large majority, looks pretty enviable to plenty of European and international players. Meanwhile, the SNP in Scotland looks on the ropes. Can it find the energy to regroup and recover or does dynamic change now lie with Labour alone?”
Why Labour’s “borrowing to invest’ rule is no game-changer
“Changing from the borrowing rule to the ‘borrow-to-invest’ rule does nothing to change the fiscal space available to the Government so long as it remains committed to getting debt on a falling path by the end of the forecast.”
Who wants to (re)join the EU?
The UK needs a serious debate about re-joining the EU….A substantial majority now backs re-join yet Labour (and the Tories) don’t want to discuss even easing the UK’s hard Brexit, let alone what UK politics would need to look like to make a serious re-joining bid.
Learn from Lady Macbeth’s fate, wannabe Tory leaders
“The body of the (seemingly) outgoing leader is not yet cold, but already thoughts are turning to the post-Sunak future. This is business as usual at Westminster, where an old, macabre joke has it that, on hearing of the death of an elderly fellow MP, the traditional response is: “Oh dear, how sad, what was the majority?”.”
Can the SNP win on July 4?
“With a cautious, centre-right Labour party offering six lukewarm pledges, any confident, pro-EU, pro-independence, social democrat (if the SNP still is) party should be moving ahead not sinking in the polls. Can the SNP still win?”
Swinney a shoo-in? Nae thanks
‘My idea is that one tries to exit this quagmire by staging Scottish (and maybe Welsh and Northern Irish) and UK elections on the same day – or perhaps staggered over several days like the upcoming European Parliament elections on June 6-9. The campaigning could last several weeks or months, enabling a full-scale, profound debate on the UK’s future to take place. Constitutional, socio-economic, geopolitical.’
SNP, Labour and the general election
“Labour’s fiscal caution and policy U-turns, not least with Starmer dumping his £28bn green investment plan, have left the door wide open for a strong, broadly social-democratic challenge from the SNP to Labour’s policies at the general election…so why is the SNP being so cautious and over-focusing on the Tories?”
Options and challenges for Wales’s constitutional future
In her latest European Conversations podcast the author talks to a member of the independent commission on the constitutional future of Wales about its findings – and their relevance for Scotland