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borders - Britain and the EU - Britain and the euro - climate change - coalition government - Conservatives - cyberspace - democracy - diplomacy - EEAS - electoral reform - EU budget - euro - European Arrest Warrant - European elections 2014 - Europol - eurosceptics - extradition - federal Europe - financial crisis - financial markets - fiscal compact treaty - general election 2015 - globalisation - history - home affairs - House of Lords - Labour party - Liberal Democrats - media - multiculturalism - nature of the EU - public opinion - referendum on Europe - regulation - rule of law - Scotland - single market - social Europe - summits - tax - tax havens - transparency - US foreign policy - world trade-
Latest Articles in 'UK'
- From the people who brought you electoral reform - 11/07/2012The government’s plans for reforming the House of Lords are in disarray. A substantial majority – 462 to 124 – in the House of Commons voted for reform but the...
- The House of Lords is a mess - 01/05/2012The House of Lords is a mess. It brings together in one place party political nominees (often former MPs), acknowledged experts on particular issues, descendants of drinking buddies of long-deceased...
- The uncertain boundary between politics and law - 24/11/2011Here is an interesting examination of the interaction between politics and law in the British political system, delivered by leading barrister (and future judge) Jonathan Sumption QC. Delivered as the...
Latest Blog Entries
- Proved right on press regulation - 18/03/2013This blog has not expected to be proved right so quickly on press regulation, but that’s what happened today. At the end of last year, when the Leveson commission published...
- Trade war over gambling - 30/01/2013International trade disputes often shine a light on odd behaviour, and the dispute between the United States and the tiny Caribbean island country Antigua and Barbuda is no exception. Originally...
- The wrong conclusion on welfare reform - 24/01/2013In his speech on Europe yesterday, David Cameron observed that Europe, with seven per cent of the world’s population and 25 per cent of world GDP, accounts for 50 per...
devolution Archive
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Farewell, Sir Ian Blair
Posted on 03/10/2008 | 1 CommentThe head of the Metropolitan Police has resigned, and the government is in uproar. Formerly, the appointment as Metropolitan Police Commissioner was in the hands of the Home Secretary, but since the creation of London regional government, the Mayor of London has taken over as... -
On your bike
Posted on 14/08/2008 | 1 CommentA recent report by Policy Exchange attracted all kinds of the wrong headlines because it suggested that cities in the north of England might continue to decline, while cities in the south might continue to grow. This raised all sorts of northern hackles, with John... -
A definition of local politics
Posted on 11/07/2008 | No CommentsAn elegant definition of local politics in an article by P J O’Rourke in the Weekly Standard: Governor Sununu explained the importance of the “short control loop.” Your shower faucets are a short control loop. You turn on the cold faucet, the shower is cold.... -
An English Grand Committee won’t work
Posted on 02/11/2007 | 8 CommentsIn a further development of the Conservative idea of English votes for English laws idea, Tory MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind is now toying with the notion of an English Grand Committee in the House of Commons. This would bring together the MPs representing English constituencies... -
Representing Scotland
Posted on 22/01/2007 | 1 CommentA marvellous report on the BBC today that the Scottish Executive is being sidelined in the making of UK policy at European level. (Read the report here.) Of course, such an assessment – which originated in the Brussels office of the Scottish Executive itself –... -
Balance and Gordon Brown
Posted on 21/06/2006 | 1 CommentAs Gordon Brown gets closer to becoming prime minister and accordingly tries to accentuate his Englishness, his opponents are trying to raise the barrier of his being Scottish. The latest salvo comes in a report from the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee, reported here.... -
Connected
Posted on 22/05/2006 | No CommentsOne of the basic laws of ecology is that everything is connected to everything else. The same is true in federalism. I was prompted to write this by a news report today that Jack McConnell, First Minister in Scotland, had been invited by Northern Ireland... -
Federalism in 2003 – a review
Posted on 30/12/2003 | No CommentsBritish politics has gone through some severe shocks in the past 12 months, faced with constitutional upheavals at home and abroad. As 2004 opens, we look at what effect those changes will have on the future of some key federalist issues. Reform in the UK... -
The future’s federal
Posted on 06/03/2003 | No CommentsBy Brendan Donnelly At the end of last year, I was offered the post of Director of the Federal Trust, an offer I immediately accepted. Most of my friends were quick to offer their congratulations. Some were less enthusiastic. “Federalism,” they argued, was a concept... -
London should run its own transport system
Posted on 13/08/2001 | No CommentsIn a democracy, you need a very good reason to deny people something they have voted for. The Labour government has yet to come up with that good reason regarding the tube. For the result of the London-wide election could not have been clearer. The...
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