Brexit

The former MEP and anti-EU campaigner Nigel Farage reportedly taunted his German wife by singing the popular football terraces ditty, “Two World Wars and one World Cup…” during a televised game. He was expressing an emotion apparently shared by many Britons who voted to leave the EU in 2016. Britain voted by 52-48 percent to leave the European Union following a promise made by then PM David Cameron, seen at the time as a concession to anti-EU Tory backbenchers. A year after the vote, a general election designed to give the governing Conservatives a stronger majority, left the party weakened, without a workable majority, which in turn led to parliamentary stalemate. This was finally resolved by another election in December 2019, which gave new PM Boris Johnson a majority of 80 seats – and the power to push Brexit through. Popular opinion has it that the ranks of the Leave Campaign included many who attend professional football games in the UK. But did the fans give any consideration to the future health of “the best league in the world” – the English Premier League – when they cast their votes in the referendum? The robust patriotism that was harnessed by a number of those leading the Leave Campaign was vigorously displayed when English football supporters gave vent to some ripe anti-EU chanting during clashes with riot police before the game with France in Marseilles in the Euros that year. There is an obvious paradox – while demonstrating anti-European sentiment, the same fans glorify the many European players who play in Britain’s domestic leagues. And these players are the very people who may be disadvantaged by Brexit. Unlike some supporters, the owners of the 20 Premier League clubs at the time of the referendum, threw their weight unanimously behind the Remain campaign. Any tightening of regulations regarding the movement of people would throw up barriers to lucrative transfers between British and European clubs. Though the eventual outcome of current (2020) talks between the UK and EU on future arrangements are yet to become clear, the clubs are worried by continued uncertainty and the possibility of an eventual hard Brexit outcome.

Lord Waverley: A New Chapter for the UK and a Meeting Place for the World

With the EU agreement now in place, the United Kingdom has the chance to develop a strategy that addresses the ambitions and goals of the country at large. The halcyon

Brexit: Fishing in Troubled Waters

It’s perhaps a case of having your fish and eating it too. The number of analogies that may be rallied to describe the current standoff between the European Union and
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Between a Rock and a Hard Place: UK Discovers the Hard Limits of Its ‘Newfound’ Sovereignty

It is not a good time to be a supporter of Brexit. If spin were a tradeable commodity, all would be exceptionally well in the realm. Alas, it is not.

UK Won’t ‘Move On’ After Brexit: It Will Move Forward

Many of the existential issues that have driven a period of prolonged introversion in the UK, hampering its international engagement, have now been laid to rest. Brexit will continue to
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Jim O’Neill: The Return of Fiscal Policy

As we enter the last quarter of 2019 (and of the decade), cyclical indicators point to a slowing world economy amid wide-ranging structural challenges. There are plenty of issues to

Lord Waverley: Brexit and Trade – The UK Must Now Be Flexible, Opportunistic & Respectfully Machiavellian

The Trade Bill before Parliament is a necessary piece in the BREXIT jigsaw. A question to start with, however, is this: will the bill survive the environment in which it
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Project Fear

After suffering some initial and minor difficulties, they fully expect the UK to become the shining star of a new world order – an Empire 2.0 – a low to

Democratic Deficit

Eurosceptics often decry the European Union’s perceived democratic deficit and strenuously object to being ruled by “faceless unelected bureaucrats.” In the UK, where Euroscepticism is particularly fashionable, they wish for
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Border Trouble

Post-Brexit, the UK will remain part of the EU customs union and quite possibly of its single market as well. That is the gist of the tentative agreement reached on
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