debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
As so often we have to look to foreign papers to understand what is happening in Britain. In a lengthy Q+A interview in Die Welt published last month (18 May), the Europe Minister, David Lidington sets out the UK government’s position on Europe. Like the Prime Minister in his speech in January he insists the [...]
Can we move forward from the Manichean Europhile-Europhobe, Federalist-Sceptic, £/€ divide on the UK’s relationship with the rest of Europe’s nations? The ultra Federal project is dead – though who actually supported it was never clear. Tony Blair’s EU policy was actually much more cautious, prudent, and defensive than many realise. As a PPS and [...]
That there is a crisis of Social Democracy in Europe is not in doubt. The question is whether it is terminal. The symptoms are worrying. In Vienna, home city a century ago to anti-semitic, brownshirt politcs, 27 per cent of voters supported the extremism of the late and unlamented Jorg Haider’s party in the autumn [...]
Social democrats need a new understanding of the historic compromises that are necessary for the practice of power. The German election defeat followed on from losses for social democratic parties in the European Parliament elections. To be sure, socialists kept power in Portugal and Norway, but without a majority of votes. And PASOK’s win in Greece was based on a new [...]
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