So it turns out that one of the guiding principles of my research is something that has a name and is a thing [insert your views on being able to build your own degree programme here]. Chesterton’s Fence is simply the notion that if you find things to be in a way that doesn’t make […]
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I’ve been in several PhD vivas these past weeks, as examiner and supervisor, and there’s been a common thread to the discussions, namely that you’ll never get the opportunity again to spend so long with a subject in so much detail. Of course, that’s because other people haven’t chosen to study Brexit negotiations. This week’s […]
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The other week, I wrote that probably the most useful thing for the Prime Minister would be a lengthy prolongation of lockdown, to provide more cover for any decision on extending transition. Well, we now have that cover, although the only serious explanation appears to be a function of Johnson’s extreme caution about loosening the […]
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This post originally appeared on the UK in a Changing Europe website. The return of Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings to Number 10 has seen a significant ramping-up of the British rhetoric on the negotiations around the future partnership with the EU. That’s not merely meant stronger words about refusing an extension of the talks, […]
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Of all the people to be locked down with, I’m really happy it’s with my family. That’s not just because we all get on with each other very well, but also because my wife is a health psychologist. That means we’ve had lots of discussions about coronavirus, looking at it from very different perspectives and […]
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As much as people talk about Brexit at all right now, much of what you hear is the cry that an extension of the Withdrawal Agreement’s transition period must happen. I’ve not seen a single industry representative, negotiation expert or academic say anything different for the past month, and I’m not about to go against […]
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