The wake up uk blog

The "power of the narrative" is a term we have used now and again, as here and here - and with more use on Defence of the Realm. And now we get Booker picking up the theme, homing in on the BBC and Channel 4 news. Both, he writes, prefer their "narratives" to the...

Having done my fair share of warning about the spread of civil unrest and impending revolution, one watches with interest recent reports of the pitchfork protests in Italy, especially as there were some accounts of riot police having joined recent...

Herman Van Rompuy has said that if Catalonia became independent from Spain, EU treaties would no longer apply. He was reacting to the announcement of an independence referendum by the north-eastern Spanish region of Catalonia."If a part of the territory of a member...

This is according to an analysis of the official data by Citigroup and, says Heath, this is beginning to have a big effect on trade flows. In 2008, the UK exported £19.1 billion-worth of goods to Ireland, much more than twice our exports to China (including Hong...

"So bedazzled have we become by the existential fear of immigration", writes Kenan Malik, " that migrants have come to be seen less as living, breathing human beings than as so much flotsam and jetsam to be swept away from Europe's beaches". "Fortress Europe", we are...

Having spent the last few weeks almost full time on writing up our IEA "Brexit" submission (in between reconfiguring my entire computer system, after my desktop died), I have to admit to a special interest, and was therefore especially looking for hints and ideas that...

"The case for British exit from the EU is diminishing. It is no longer self-evident that this country must withdraw from the EU Treaty structures to ensure self-rule and to safeguard our democracy"."Brexit would play havoc with the EU's internal chemistry", says...

The story itself is headlined: "Shelter in Calais generates fears of increased numbers of migrants to Britain", and it tells of "fears of a fresh wave of migrants were raised last night as a new ­reception centre across the Channel proves to be a magnet for...

Actually, the issue was picked up on Saturday by Reuters which told us of the antagonism caused by the use of posted workers in France. These, we are told are workers employed in one EU Member State but sent by his employer on a temporary basis to carry out his work...

… including from the Iraq Inquiry, shows that this view is too simplistic. Instead, Britain seems to have suffered a wider failure of the government system, with politicians, senior military officers and civil servants all playing their part.Faced with a challenging...