For several years the received opinion is that the middle ground of politics has been abandoned here in the UK, in America and in much of Europe. There is, indeed, a superficial plausibility to this assertion, evidenced by the intemperate language of much of political debate. However, I believe that the underlying reality is quite… Continue reading The Political Logic of the Excluded Middle
Tag: Brexit
The Politics of Division
Is the new populist style of politics emerging on both sides of the Atlantic a cause or a symptom of the increasing sense of division in society? Surveying the “Hillary for PA” Twitter feed last week as I have been known to do (well, on at least one previous occasion), I found an interesting exchange… Continue reading The Politics of Division
Three Cheers for the EU ‘Single Market’ (but Not Four)
Now that the dust kicked up in the hubbub preceding and succeeding the Brexit referendum result is beginning to settle, the real options facing the UK (and indeed the EU itself) are becoming visible as battle lines are drawn for the playing out of the Article 50 process. Or perhaps the lines were always clearly delineated,… Continue reading Three Cheers for the EU ‘Single Market’ (but Not Four)
The Moral Basis of the European Project?
Colin Turfus asks if the European Union is or can ever be faithful to its own founding principles. The Two Pillars For over half a century now a project has been under way to transform European society from what it was at the mid-point of the 20th century, a disparate collection of peoples possessed of… Continue reading The Moral Basis of the European Project?
Confirmation bias and the EU
Do Europhiles tend to hedge their bets with a ‘better the Devil you know’ approach to the coming referendum? Having inclined over the years towards a sceptical view of the EU, it has often struck me how little awareness people tended to have of the costs of EU membership, although they could often enumerate enough… Continue reading Confirmation bias and the EU