Earlier this week, Finland announced it no longer opposes Bulgaria and Romania’s accession to the Schengen zone in 2012, providing their entry is managed in two-phases. No doubt in pre-Eurozone crisis days Finland’s decision to drop their veto would have been closely analysed, but the fact that it has only captured limited attention should not be… [Read More]
Government’s mistake is to misunderstand the scale of de-industrialisation The Government wants economic growth as much as anyone. Why isn’t it happening? A new report from Civitas argues that growth is faltering because the Government has been solving the wrong problems. The Coalition thinks that the national debt and global warming are the biggest challenges… [Read More]
By Emily Clarke In 2001 Portugal abolished all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, from cannabis to heroin, in an attempt to reduce the number of drug related deaths and the spread of HIV/AIDS. After several years there was tentative discussion about the success of Portugal’s scheme (see for example the Economist’s article of… [Read More]
By Scott Benson On 10th October, a vote of no confidence, which was tied to plans to enhance the European Financial Stability Facility, forced Slovakian Prime Minister Iveta Radičová to step down. Exactly a month later, the Greek and Italian Parliaments have put similar pressure on their respective leaders to resign.
By Emily Clarke Last night thousands of viewers watched as “Spanish Flu” swept through Downton Abbey, taking the life of one of its residents. With no antibiotics, the effects of the 1918-1920 flu epidemic were devastating as approximately 25-30% of the world population was infected and 40 million people, mostly between the ages of 20… [Read More]
If there is one thing we should learn from the Eurozone crisis it is to expect the unexpected and, whatever you do, don’t breathe a sigh of relief too soon. With every hard-negotiated plan to keep the euro area afloat another twist emerges; for who could have predicted that Greece – given a lifeline just… [Read More]
By Emily Clarke The vote that granted Palestine full membership of the UN Cultural and Educational Agency (UNESCO) could potentially have wide-ranging consequences for the role of international organisations within international affairs and their relationship with the United States.
On Thursday some greeted rises in world stock markets as a sign that the EU’s bail-out ‘bazooka’ had worked in scaring away speculators and reassuring the markets. Today’s news that Italy has had to sell 10 year bonds at a record high price indicates that simply inflating the bail-out fund is no panacea.
By Scott Benson Last night’s Eurozone summit may have provided a plan to help solve the immediate sovereign debt crisis but the competitiveness of European industries still remains a cause for concern. This is particularly true in agriculture where EU policy-makers struggle to reconcile the demands of the industry with environmental sustainability.
By Emily Clarke The recent media interest in the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy London Stock Exchange movements has certainly been mixed. From sympathy to contempt to exasperation on the part of St Paul’s cathedral staff at least, the protests and people’s reactions to them are proving difficult to pin down.