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In the 1960s, having instilled international human rights with a decolonial core, Great Britain took a sledgehammer to said regime by splitting Chagos off from Mauritius and displacing her people. The stain of this shameless act has dogged Britain across the world’s political and legal arenas, eroding its moral stature at every turn for the sake of the indubitably significant military benefits Diego Garcia confers - that is until now. Zoe Wreford issues a nuanced defence, nevertheless impassioned with decolonial fervour, of David Lammy’s decision to finally relinquish control over the islands. Bolstered by an analysis of the Chagos Islands’ strategic importance and the global human rights balance, Wreford deftly rebukes those labelling Labour’s decision as a ‘disaster’ or ‘betrayal’. Wreford, though keen to emphasise this decolonisation as a step forward, ultimately ends on a sombre note, that even in a moment of victory and restoration the Chagossians have yet again been left out of their own history. #ChagosIslands #UnitedKingdom #Colonial #Mauritius https://lnkd.in/eNcv-NeW

More than two months after the most politically tense, and constitutionally riotous, legislative elections of the Fifth Republic, Macron anointed the right under Michel Barnier to lead his government, precipitating nigh on universal dismay. Maya Sgaravato-Grant laments the brazen democratic injustice Macron inflicted on France by refusing to appoint a single member of the Nouveau Front Populaire alliance which triumphed at the legislative elections. Bringing out the irony in Macron fashioning a nationwide anti-far-right pact (with the NFP) only to effectively make the extreme right Rassemblement National kingmakers, Sgaravato-Grant goes on to minutely detail the craven compromises Macron has agreed to get even this far, such as allowing the notoriously hardline Bruno Retailleau to take charge of the Ministry of the Interior. Though acknowledging the prime facie intractable dilemma facing Macron, Sgaravato-Grant leaves us without any doubt that Macron had better do a damn sight better than this, not least given that the present ‘worst of all worlds’ arrangement is an imbroglio entirely of his own making. #France #Europe #Politics #Macron #Retailleau https://lnkd.in/eCTsDidg

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Labour’s first 100 days in office have not been plain sailing. Faced with nationwide riots, senior Whitehall personnel restructures and a so-called ‘freebies scandal’, Keir Starmer’s administration has struggled to portray, let alone control, a cohesive national mission for government. Fiercely critiquing their 2024 General Election campaign strategy, Nathaniel Delo believes Labour’s elusive policy proposals leading up to July 4 have contributed to the party’s current misfortunes, particularly highlighting Starmer’s limited explanation of how the UK will achieve sustained economic growth to fund public services. Ultimately, Delo questions the entire Labour project. Like many observers, Delo is attempting to understand what exactly this new Labour Government is for after 100 days in office. #Labour #KeirStarmer #Politics #UnitedKingdom https://lnkd.in/e4W6qTYf

🌍 The second edition of the Geopolitics Report by the Europinion Institute for Research is here! In our latest edition, we explore pivotal topics such as tactical-operational developments from the frontline of the Russia-Ukraine War, further decolonisation by European countries, the impact of the forthcoming US Presidential Election on domestic politics, African elections and growing solar energy, and improving UK-Argentina relations and Colombia joining China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Stay informed with expert perspectives on the most pressing geopolitical, environmental, and social issues by subscribing to the Geopolitics Report today. Authors: Patrick René Haasler, Haroon Ali, and Alice Irene Locatelli Editor: Daniel Sillett #Geopolitics #GlobalAffairs #InternationalRelations #Research #GeopoliticalAnalysis #Russia #Ukraine #War #Europe #NorthAmerica #Africa #SouthAmerica #GeopoliticsReport

Labour increasing taxes is a tale as old as time, and British political history certainly does rhyme. With the budget now less than three weeks away, and having successfully drowned out any serious public dialogue on the economy, Reeves & co. are poised to make Parliament and the public swallow whatsoever may take their fancy. Daniel Sillett takes a scathing romp through Labour lies, economic policy, and plain old nastiness - not that Sillett sees any such distinctions in the Labour of the last couple months. To the tune of The Beatles’ ‘Taxman’, Sillett makes his way through the callous incompetence of Downing Street’s policy on motorists, private schools and special needs, pensioners, and the almost gleeful secrecy over inevitable tax rises. Ultimately, it is the slimy gloss of disingenuity attainting every Labour policy and pronouncement which must leave any reader convinced that Sillett is onto something. #Labour #DanSillett #KeirStarmer #RachelReeves #UnitedKingdom https://lnkd.in/eiCB2ns3

The winter fuel allowance cut has gone down like a lead balloon, sinking with it everything from the Labour party conference to the coming budget. Though loth to say so publicly, and incapable of u-turning, many in Downing Street now wish the policy had never crossed their minds. Charles Amos prescribes Numbers 10 and 11 a heaving dose of political courage in urging them not to take two steps back but rather another step forward, in the form of abolishing free bus passes for pensioners. A deep dive into the personal economics of the over-65s, coupled with a history of handouts already enjoyed by the generations concerned, fleshes out Amos’s recent Talk TV appearance advocating what he holds to be an equal parts brave and necessary policy. Ultimately, having framed free bus passes as unwarranted gifts at the expense of children and the unborn during a time of almost unprecedented national stringency, Amos concludes the older generations simply cannot go on paying themselves more than they’ve earned. #Labour #Starmer #Reeves #UK #Politics #Pensioners #WinterFuelPayments https://lnkd.in/enZwvMTt

Ethan Harvey ended September for Europinion with a fierce critique of Draghi’s mooted cures for the increasingly atrophied economies of Europe. Labelling them at once short-sighted and ahistorical, unfit for the immediate future and shockingly ill-adjusted to the origins of Europe’s present conundrum, Harvey argued Draghi’s proposals comprise little more than another shameful buck pass by European elites. Jokin de Carlos Sola, in a debut piece, challenges Harvey’s reading of history, his understanding of European political economy, and finally his intellectual Britishness. De Carlos Sola contends that the 1990s expansion in Brussels bureaucracy, which Harvey identifies as the radix malorum of the old continent’s economic woes, was in actuality a panacea for the Eurosclerosis of the preceding decades. Ultimately, de Carlos Sola ascribes the litany of misapprehensions he charges Harvey and the broader British academy with to an academic and cultural incoherence which clouds everything seen by those peering across the Channel and passing judgement on what they see. #Draghi #EU #UK #Politics #Integration #Critique #Brussels #Economy https://lnkd.in/ewjVHcMM

Britain’s economy was hobbled by, and has hobbled since, the financial crisis of 2008, as even the most cursory look at the figures and financial papers of the last decade and a half make plain. Rachel Reeves prescribes ‘Securonomics’, a moniker so devoid of meaning so as to make it appealing to almost anyone, and the Conservatives seem willing to endorse every fiscal treatment under the sun, depending on which candidate one speaks to. Andrés De Miguel argues that Britain’s distinctly pitiful economic limp is due largely to the infantilization of politicians and bureaucrats alike by the neoliberal consensus’s all-consuming privatisation spree. Charting the vigorous growth and autopoietic character of neoliberalism in British public policy, De Miguel paints a picture of a state which has over successive administrations taken its hands off the steering wheel, unscrewed it, and auctioned it off to the highest, or more often the cheapest, bidder. De Miguel’s scathing economic genealogy puts the major parties to shame by at the very least performing a diagnosis, although the prognosis (let alone the course of treatment) becomes commensurately more disconcerting as a result. #Labour #Reeves #UK #Politics #Economy #Starmer #Conservatives https://lnkd.in/evt9n6ww

Herbert Kickl’s Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) romped home with 28.9% of the votes, marking yet another far-right victory in Europe. Although FPÖ’s advocation for extremist policies on migration, economic reform, and Russia is cause for much concern, the EU is confident that this election will not have a significant impact on Austria’s alignment with Brussels, citing coalition constraints as a moderating factor. Ned Johnson carefully construes this confidence as one that is well-founded but nevertheless mislaid, arguing coalition politics can merely delay the inevitable, whilst allowing the far-right fertile time to gather strength. Even though it does not command the entire government, FPÖ’s involvement and participation in administration can legitimize its positions without taking direct accountability. The same trends across Europe have shown that alienating these movements only sustains their popularity, Johnson suggests, as the centrists can always be relied on to fail at fixing ongoing immigration crises or fiscal problems. Ultimately Johnson singles out the wedge between member state public opinion and Brussels’ policies and direction, repeatedly hammered in and reinforced by resounding and responsibility-free populist successes such as those in Austria, as the most worrying of seismic political shifts taking place. #Austria #Kickl #FPO #EU #Politics #Populism https://lnkd.in/evtRzTKs