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Recent Blogs
Gunnar Beck: Beware of Germany’s proposal for a new EU-UK transnational court
In an interview with Germany’s leading daily Die Welt on 18 June 2017, German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel appeared to signal the EU might be willing to relax some of its more extravagant demands in the Brexit negotiations. So far the EU Commission has insisted...
Customs Union: A soft option with a dead end
Geoff Raby, Policy Exchange’s Head of Trade Policy, welcomes the latest pronouncement of Philip Hammond’s in favour of the UK still leaving the Customs Union — but notes that the Chancellor hinted that there might be a transitional arrangement to remain inside it. Raby points out the potential perils in this stance, not least of which is that transitional arrangements could solidify into permanent ones.
EU citizens’ rights after Brexit: The EU’s demands for extra-territorial jurisdiction by the CJEU and reverse discrimination
The rights of EU citizens in the UK will be at the forefront of Brexit negotiations. Writing for Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project, Dr Gunnar Beck critically considers the EU’s demand that the rights of EU citizens after Brexit should be directly enforced – in perpetuity – by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). Sovereign states do not agree to treaties that are adjudicated by the courts of the other party. The EU’s demand for continuing CJEU jurisdiction is demeaning and would impose very heavy constraints on future policy-making in immigration.
Trojan Horse: ‘If anyone is still in any doubt that the practices uncovered were inappropriate, just listen to the pupils’
Hannah Stuart (Co-Head of Policy Exchange’s Security and Extremism Unit) and John Blake (Head of Education and Social Reform) look at the latest developments on the Trojan Horse affair.
Euro Clearing Proposals reveal real European Commission Intent
Michael Taylor — Policy Exchange’s Economics Research Fellow — explains why the recent European Commission proposals on euro clearing ‘may well be the first shot in the battle for European financial services post-Brexit’. He concludes, however, that the proposals, ‘appear to have less to do with addressing market failure and more to do with the failure of any other EU city to develop a financial centre anywhere near comparable to the City of London’.
“Jeremy’s Marvellous Medicine” – the accidental Third Way in Labour’s manifesto
John Blake — Policy Exchange’s Head of Education and Social Reform, a self-proclaimed Corbynsceptic – considers the remarkable success of Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 general election, exploring the ingredients which made up Jeremy’s “marvellous medicine”.
Why Gerry Adams is wrong on the Belfast agreement
Dr Austen Morgan, a barrister in London and Belfast, one of the UUP’s talks team for the Belfast Agreement and author of The Belfast Agreement: a practical legal analysis, explains why Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was wrong when he told the Prime Minister that any agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) would be in breach of the Good Friday Agreement.
A State of Extremes
In the first of a series of longer articles for Policy Exchange following the Manchester and London attacks, Sir John Jenkins — former British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and co-author of the UK Government’s review of the Muslim Brotherhood published in 2015 — examines why many Western Governments find it so hard to deal with transnational ideological challenges. After the end of the Cold War, Western officialdom may not have believed in the “end of history”, but many of them did believe in the “end of ideology”. Events are once again proving them tragically wrong.
Why Ruth Davidson et al are wrong on the DUP and gay rights
Jeffrey Dudgeon – co-founder of the gay rights movement in Northern Ireland and author of ‘Roger Casement:The Black Diaries’ — sits on Belfast City Council with the DUP. As a long time political and cultural opponent of their approach, he finds them to be surprisingly flexible in practice on gay rights and other social issues. Policy Exchange Director Dean Godson, author of Himself Alone: David Trimble and the Ordeal of Unionism, writes for the Sunday Times on the wider issues round the Conservative Party’s relations with the DUP.
Election 2017 – Benjamin Disraeli: ‘There is no finality in politics’
‘I have done a terrible, terrible thing. I have voted Labour for the first time. My father and grandfather would turn in their graves, but I was worried about my pension. All I have is my house and the state pension that I manage on.’ These were the words of a typical voter – who had initially pledged Conservative – when she was reminded by Tory canvassers to vote last Thursday evening in a marginal constituency in Plymouth; later that night, the seat changed hands, from Conservative to Labour. Many things went wrong for the Prime Minister and the Conservative Party in this General Election — so what, asks Warwick Lightfoot, Director of Research at Policy Exchange, are the lessons that can be taken from this voter’s change of heart?