Brexit

Being raised on an independent island, I learned lots about British history. For my GCSE’s, it was all about learning Henry VIII’s story of leaving the Holy Empire of Rome to marry Anne Boleyn and the story of the first and second World Wars. We knew nothing about Europe, let alone the rest of the…

Like the United States, Europe is trying to create a united region of cross-border trade that works. In America, this is 50 member states who work in a federated structure. My impression after the recent meeting on CRD VI (Capital Requirements Directive) is that Europe’s long-term aim is to achieve the same and, today, there…

Five years ago, on 31 January 2020, the UK left the European Union. Not everyone is happy about this. The number of Britons saying the UK was right to vote to leave the EU has hit its lowest level since the referendum, ahead of the fifth anniversary of Brexit on Friday Right to vote to…

There’s a lot of debate about the big axis of power today: America and China (ed: what about India?). Both have massive tech giants  and both have super economies. Where does this leave Europe? It’s interesting for me in that most of the discussion is that Europe and Eurocrats strangle all innovation with regulation or,…

For over half a century, post the second World War, Europe has been integrating. From a few nations in the 1950s, led by France and Germany, the Eurozone grew to 28 countries. Then, with Brexit, 27. Now, after Brexit, there are rumours the alliance could shrink further as many countries have issues with the ECB’s…

In June, the EU put forward proposals for a new Payment Services Directive, PSD3. Having been involved in these developments since their inception in the 2000s, I was intrigued to read the text of PSD3, particularly as the main point bankers made about PSD2 is that they were forced to open up to Third Party…

I’ve felt European for most of my life, as the UK joined the EU back in 1973. Free travel and movement across borders, that grew from nine states to twenty eight, introduced a glorious period of open integration. Integration of trade and commerce and then, latterly, money and finance. The grand plan of the euro…

The confusion of Brexit I often see headlines saying “Britain is leading Europe”. Britain is leading Europe in what? Fraud, tax avoidance, political shenanigans and more. Such headlines always make me laugh, as the media is writing as though Britain is still part of Europe. Did anyone forget about #Brexit? Britain has nothing to do…

I don’t talk about Brexit much. As a Remainer, I was gutted Britain voted to leave. That was six years ago. Today is the sixth anniversary of that 2016 vote. In 2018, I left Britain to live in Europe. My sympathies lie in Europe and not in Britain. I made this clear when asked if…

Britain has left the EU, but now I read headlines everywhere saying cross-border movements are impossible, Ireland is broken, the City was ignored, our fisherman cannot sell shellfish and so on and so forth. A disaster? Possibly but, on the other hand, everything that is wrong with the EU was illustrated by the Covid vaccine….