Category: European Politics

  • Thoughts on Brexit

    It’s now 2,840 days since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, and we are still living in the crisis wrought on the global economy. It is probably widely perceived that 2008 is a long time ago, that we’ve moved on with our lives, that the crisis is in the past, that unemployment is falling and the…

  • Lisbon II

    What you have to ask is, what is ever in doubt that we would have another referendum? Of course not. It was clear that as soon as the result was announced that another referendum would be held. The only thing that surprises me is how some people thought there was any doubt about it.

  • Lisbon 2 in Autumn '09?

    The Telegraph are saying this is the likely day for our second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. I must say, I like the name of the briefing paper: The Solution to the Irish Problem An internal EU briefing paper, entitled The Solution to the Irish Problem, predicts that Dublin will accede to the re-run at…

  • Clinton speech in Wordle

  • Lisbon

    It is clear that the decision has already been taken: another referendum. Everything else is just paying lip service to “respecting” Ireland’s vote.

  • The Nos have it?

    Things look decidedly close for Lisbon. I voted No myself.

  • Angela Merkel Video Podcast

    The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has her first video podcast, coinciding with the beginning of the World Cup in Germany. A Prime Minister doing a video podcast, who’d have imagined that 12 months ago? [via]

  • Government woes

    What with all the furore over the Supreme Court judgment, at least we don’t have this spectacle in Ireland. That must be the weirdest and sickest political party I have ever heard of.

  • McCreevy to save Europe?

    The Economist outlines Charlie ‘bundled to Brussels’ McCreevy’s plan for simplifying financial services in the EU. The former Irish finance minister, now the EU’s internal-market commissioner, is regarded as both a sensible champion of capitalism and a bureaucrat who has slowed the march towards a single market. But he is also seen as an enforcer…

  • Kissinger on Merkel

    Henry Kissinger will be delighted to learn of Angela Merkel’s swearing in as Germany’s first woman Prime Minister. He writes of her in the IHT: With her systematic scientist’s approach, Merkel will avoid choosing between Atlanticism and Europe or confusing sentimental moves toward Russia with grand strategy. Matter-of-fact, serious and thoughtful, she will strive to…