Why are so many dictators former doctors?
Are we increasingly living under a ‘doctatorship’? The influence of the medical profession over our everyday lives – from personal…
What's up with Macron's Lawrence of Arabia stunt?
President Macron neither lacks chutzpah nor a lust for drama. His walkabout yesterday amid the devastation of Lebanon’s Beirut, following…
Covid-19 and the twilight of Britain and France
Is Covid accelerating the eclipse of France and the UK as ‘great powers’? For over two centuries Paris and London…
Has France been naive in its handling of Huawei?
The controversy over the UK’s use of Huawei equipment in its 5G network has not abated, despite the government’s announcement…
Macron’s Faustian pact with the EU
On Wednesday, the new French Prime Minister Jean Castex made his general policy statement to the National Assembly. We know…
Meet Macron's politically incorrect justice minister
Picture the greatest French criminal barrister of his generation with the physique and cantankerousness of Rumpole-of-the-Bailey and the media-strutting ‘blokishness’…
Macron has just dropped a clanger
His name is unknown, but resonates like that of a character from Astérix the Gaul. Jean Castex is France’s new…
Macron has 500 days to save himself
The clock is ticking for Emmanuel Macron. He has under two years of his presidential mandate to carry out his…
Macron is trying to bathe in de Gaulle’s glory. It won't work
Emmanuel Macron never misses an historical opportunity to emblazon his banner. One is reminded of the nineteenth century diplomat Talleyrand…
The European Union may never have its ‘Hamilton moment’
The European Union has always been quintessentially risk averse. What a surprise therefore to see it jeopardising its very existence…
Macron is facing an economic disaster
Last week theNew York Times praised President Macron’s management of Covid-19 and asked why the French were not impressed. None…
Inside the final act of the Brexit drama
The fourth round of official Brexit negotiations resumed on Tuesday, screen-to-screen. They will determine whether the stalemate can be broken…
A no-deal Brexit is now all but inevitable
Coronavirus is obscuring much about the future of the EU – and Britain’s relationship with it. Not everyone is joining…
France’s bid to tame the German giant
Why does president Macron want European debt mutualisation? Why has France become the spokesman for the ‘southern states’ on a…
Covid statistics are just politics by other means
Statistics is the continuation of politics by other means, to misquote Clausewitz. One hundred and fifty years after the crushing…
Meet the Frenchman who has shaped the world's response to coronavirus
Projecting the fight against Covid as a war on a virus – like the war on terror – tells us…
We need to brace ourselves for a new global order after coronavirus
How will states perceive themselves and each other after the pandemic? This is not just a matter of narcissism; it is…
A hard Frexit needn't be a disaster for France
With European solidarity impaled on the coronavirus epidemic, talk of Frexit is surfacing again. But how could Frexit be organised?…
Could coronavirus lead to Frexit?
Is France flirting with the idea of Frexit again? Coronavirus is currently provoking a chorus of ‘reprendre le contrôle’ (take…
France’s downward spiral of coronavirus repression
In France there is a palpable sense of administrative and political panic in how to deal with the coronavirus epidemic.…
Coronavirus means the EU will never be the same again
The European project was built on the idea of rendering future war among European states impossible. The EU is programmed…
Revealed: Michel Barnier and France's Brexit stitch-up
The glaring difference between the EU and British negotiating goals has been brought into plain sight. In readiness for the…
How might a big Boris victory change Britain?
If Boris Johnson wins a clear majority on 12 December, it could mark a big turning point in British history.…
Expect fireworks at this week’s Nato summit
This week is seminal for Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron. Boris, in Watford, is hosting one of the most important…
Jacques Chirac leaves behind a limited legacy
The death today of the Fifth Republic’s fifth president, at the age of 86, is also the passing of its…
