EU
Becoming German has helped me understand Brexit
In the end, after all the waiting, the document didn’t look like much — a sheet of A4 paper adorned…
The EU should go the way of the British Empire
To understand how the European Union works, and how it doesn’t, it helps to think of it as an empire.…
Bernard-Henri Lévy: ‘Brexit will not happen’
I meet Bernard-Henri Lévy in a colossally luxurious hotel on a tree-lined avenue just behind the Elysée Palace. The French…
The Irish border is the EU’s problem, not ours
In deference to public exhaustion, I’ve largely avoided Brexit in this slot. But a columnist’s output ought rightly to echo…
Paul Mason: In a parallel universe, Cameron is delivering Brexit
At the BBC early doors for the Today programme, to preview Corbyn’s speech advocating membership of a customs union. I…
Back off, Barnier – you don’t need to invent obstacles to Brexit
There’s an unwritten law governing Boris Johnson in Westminster: every-thing he says or does is a gaffe, or can be…
17 reasons why we should love Brexit
‘But what are you going to do with the powers?’ the minister asked, while I negotiated devolution of powers to…
Brexit suggests we’re on the right side of history
How nice it would be, in this season of good cheer, to find something hopeful to say. Being a historian,…
The DUP is quite likely to cave in over ‘regulatory alignment’. Here’s why they should not
I’m afraid I have a deep faith in the Democratic Unionist Party’s capacity to cede an issue of principle in…
This £50 billion EU ‘divorce bill’ is more like a ransom
A ‘bill’ is not commonly subject to negotiation. It arrives after a customer has contracted for the purchase of goods…
Why has there never been a hit musical about the history of Britain?
Americans may be able to draw on only 250 years of history, but they’re not shy of making a song…
Greece Notebook
I have come to Greece in search of sanity over Brexit. Ostensibly it is a symposium to discuss relations between…
High life
I think this week marks my 40th anniversary as a Spectator columnist, but I’m not 100 per cent certain. All…
Losing our religion
Sir James MacMillan’s European Requiem, performed at the Proms on Sunday, isn’t about Brexit. The composer had to make this…
High life
I’ve stayed far away from the new barbarians with their choppers, tank-like cars, home theatres on board, and fridge-shaped super…
Dear Leavebugs, it’s time to admit your mistake
‘Brexit,’ says my friend David Aaronovitch, ‘is dying.’ We Remainer irreconcilables certainly hope so. But there’s a slim chance the…
The view from Germany
Frankfurt ‘This is not about punishing Great Britain,’ declared Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s interim foreign secretary, on his recent visit to…
The beginning is nigh
Just a few weeks ago, the Conservatives triumphed in the local government elections and Theresa May was hailed as an…
How not to handle an independence referendum
If David Cameron seeks any testament to his handling of Britain’s difficulties with Scottish separatism, the mess that Spain is…
Italy’s heading for its own Brexit moment
Though he is a big fan of the European Union, Barack Obama brings bad karma to it. So perhaps he…
The EU hasn’t settled the ‘German question’. It’s reopened it
‘No one can seriously deny that European integration brought an end to Franco-German conflict and has settled the German question…
Voting in? You have the blood of Spanish bulls on your hands
Britain’s animals would be solidly for Leave. Here’s why
The best guide to being an EU politician – from 1,900 years ago
Boris Johnson argues that the current European Union is yet another failed attempt to replicate the golden age of a…
If we vote Leave, will Juncker have us shot?
Obviously there is no such thing as ‘Cameronism’, as there is ‘Thatcherism’; but once upon a time, David Cameron did…
Smokers are paying for your pension
Axa will no longer invest in the tobacco industry: the French insurance giant will sell €184 million of shares and…
