“Strangely, the SNP leadership haven’t remembered one of the arch lessons of 2014: Project Fear can backfire disastrously.”
Europe
“Taking swipes at democratic social movements, like the one in Catalonia, or Syriza’s drive to resist EU-backed austerity measures, are some of the only decisive action ever taken by the European Parliament.”
David Jamieson: The EU is helping Spain crush democracy in Catalonia
There was a remarkable contrast this morning in two stories standing side by side on the BBC homepage. On the left, US President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows saying “we’re not going to control the pandemic”. On the right, one positive covid-19 case sparking the testing of all 4.7 million people in the […]
The pandemic and global politics: accelerating the train crash
“This experience is an opportunity to reach out to those forgotten by the system and allow an essential feeling to resurface: human dignity.”
‘Things should always be like this’: Inside the European Parliament’s shelter for women
“At the centre of this web of crank economics, jumbled alliance-mongering, and meaningless exhortations to the ‘international community’, there is nothing. There is no working ‘independence in Europe’ prospectus.”
David Jamieson: Outcry over Tory brinkmanship covers malaise of ‘independence in Europe’
“El Borbón a prisión!” That was the shout of a small group of protestors in Madrid on Sunday [9 August], after the self-exile of Juan Carlos I of the House of Bourbon, who is under investigation for corruption charges in Switzerland and Spain. The protest was small because Spain is in its holiday season, but […]
‘Where’s Juan?’: Royal corruption puts Spain’s ’78 regime in the spotlight
Don’t call it a second wave. Most experts are saying that Europe is still in the grips of wave one, as while cases had been significantly reduced over the past couple of months the virus had not been effectively eliminated, and thus the spike in recent weeks in many European countries is part of the […]
Weighing the ‘risk factor’
Sunday’s Spanish regional elections in the Basque Autonomous Community and Galicia did not produce a surprise in terms of the victors, but it did show that the trend of rising support for pro-independence parties in Europe has not been slowed by the pandemic. In the BAC, EH Bildu, the left-wing pro-independence coalition, won nearly 28 […]
Europe’s nationalist left is on the rise
There will be no criticisms today (many of you will be relieved to read…). The situation is so urgent we just need to understand what is ahead of us and organise ourselves to deal with it as effectively as possible. To explain what’s ahead, look at the case of Italy. The country had its first COVID-19 death […]