Showing 1 - 10 of 12
No, Brexit Britain doesn't want its empire back
News, John Lloyd, Published on 14/01/2019
» Britain is moving towards an exit from the European Union on March 29, possibly with no agreement, and thus courting – according to the Bank of England – an 8 percent drop in GDP and a 7.5% rise in unemployment. A drear prospect, attended by matching drear commentaries on the stupidity of the 52 percent of the British electorate who voted for Brexit in 2016.
Another Brexit vote is a bad idea
News, John Lloyd, Published on 10/12/2018
» In the "careful what you wish for" stakes, few issues rank higher than the plan for a second referendum by those in the UK hoping for a reversal of the country's June 2016 vote to leave the European Union (the "Remainers"). If secured, the outcome could be a fast track to a phenomenon the UK has so far avoided -- the creation of a large, angry populist party, probably of the right and perhaps also of the left.
Is populism a disease? Or a cure?
News, John Lloyd, Published on 29/10/2018
» Populist nationalism is here to stay. Many still believe it a phase which, like surliness in adolescence, will pass and be succeeded by orderly, thoughtful maturity. But they will find that the political world, already changed, will disappoint them. Liberalism, however defined, is not politics' default position: mainstream politicians are in a fight ring facing young contenders buoyed by a string of victories.
Why Macron's 'third way' is now the EU's best option
News, John Lloyd, Published on 17/09/2018
» The largest question in democratic politics in Europe is: who's in charge?
Anti-Trump op-ed boosts democracy
News, John Lloyd, Published on 10/09/2018
» The good news was well disguised in the anonymous cry of warning against the "amorality" of Donald Trump. A senior administration official, writing as an unnamed columnist in The New York Times, described how he and like-minded colleagues "are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of (the US president's) agenda and his worst inclinations." The message is that democratic habits -- and, crucially, civic decency and responsibility -- can, in step with free journalism, win out over degraded administrations.
Imagining a post-Putin Russia
News, John Lloyd, Published on 27/08/2018
» It's not the week to say it, but Donald Trump has a point. It isn't original and what it proposes will be hard to do, yet when he says that "getting along with Russia is a good thing", as he did before his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last month, he isn't wrong.
Migrant misery spans worldwide
News, John Lloyd, Published on 25/06/2018
» It's an increasingly hard world for those seeking a better life in richer countries. Immigrants aren't welcome in most states, even where demographic trends reflect the need to expand the labor force to levels able to sustain and support aging populations.
Italy's right to make wrong choice
News, John Lloyd, Published on 04/06/2018
» The Italian crisis is over, and has just begun. Its dimensions go far beyond Italy; they are now European, even global. The near three-month long improvisations on a theme of governance ended Thursday with the announcement of an administration headed by Giuseppe Conte, a law professor with no government experience tasked with running a cabinet controlled by the leaders of the two parties which form that administration -- a signal of weak, divided and warring politics at the summit of power for the foreseeable future.
What Italy's power crash means for the EU: It's all bad
News, John Lloyd, Published on 07/03/2018
» Power has crashed down in Italy -- in two senses.
Trump peddles platitudes in Davos
News, John Lloyd, Published on 30/01/2018
» "When people are forgotten the world becomes fractured," President Donald Trump observed to the Davos forum in his breathlessly awaited speech on Friday.