A year after the Brexit vote, the long negotiations between the UK and the EU have begun. Having been deeply saddened by the referendum result and the UK’s triggering of Article 50, I now ask myself if the UK has ever been a true EU member and has European ideals. It is now clear that […]
Brexit
Why You Should All Vote For Jeremy Corbyn
Plato And Jeremy Corbyn: “Whose Idea Was This Anyway?” With the June election rapidly approaching, I’m going to dedicate a post to the current leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn. I know that my views don’t matter one iota, and, what’s more, I cannot even vote. Well, that should make you listen […]
Am I Dreaming, Or Is Turkey About To Leave The EU?
If I talked to you about a country that just had a dubiously run referendum, the result of which was so close, as to be invalid for such a huge constitutional change, you would probably be thinking of Turkey. If I then told you that the leader of this country will organise elections with the […]
Read All About It: “In The Media We Trust?”
The British Press: Responsible but not guilty? When the offices of the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo were gruesomely attacked in January 2015, the world was shocked, and rightly so. The attack focused on the press, one of the most sacred institutions of our democracies. The terrorists also challenged something that most of us […]
Beyond The Pillars Of Hercules – The Gibraltar Conundrum
Together we stand, and together we wait And there was I, thinking that we were utterly alone in our battle as UK expats, to avoid being cast into oblivion by the forces of evil from both sides of the channel. It now appears that an entire dependency is about to suffer the same fate as […]
The UK’s Farewell to Europe: “Au Revoir les Enfants”
March 29th 2017 will be remembered as the day the UK officially triggered Article 50 of the European Constitution, signifying a two year slog to disentangle itself from the European Union. I have no intention of browsing the glorifying headlines on the front pages of the UK tabloids. I’ll let the Brexiteers rejoice in their […]
EU Citizens and Brexit: “Leave if You Want to, The Expat’s Not For Leaving.”
The title of this post paraphrases something Margaret Thatcher said during the 1980 Conservative Party Conference. Having been asked on several occasions by the media whether she would perform a U-turn concerning her economic and social policies, she had always replied that she wasn’t one to change her mind. At the conference she spoke a […]
Socrates in the House of Lords: What is Democracy and Does Theresa May Believe in it?
The fact that Theresa May, the UK prime minister, made an unprecedented appearance in the House of Lords speaks volumes over her respect for parliamentary democracy. It is now patently clear that the EU referendum that took place on June 23rd 2016 was flawed ever since the former prime minister, David Cameron, promised the vote […]
Tony Blair’s Appeal Not to Rush Brexit – But Was he Partially to Blame For it in The First Place?
In October 2016 the former UK premier Tony Blair wrote an opinion article in The New European newspaper. He appealed to the UK not to rush into Brexit without seriously taking into account the consequences of such a decision. Tony Blair compared Brexit with a house move. For the former prime minister, it is only […]
Caught Between The Lines: The Fate of British and EU Expats Post-Brexit
This week, the UK parliament approved a bill giving Theresa May the authority to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, in accordance with the EU referendum result on June 23rd last year. Seven months on, and the fate of EU nationals living and working in the UK, as well as British nationals in other […]