Podcasts about eurosceptic

The starting point of this book is the 'civil war' of ideas that broke out during the early 2010s about the purpose and even the desirability of the European Union as a polity, with a number of right-wing populist formations openly advocating for exiting the Union. The sovereign debt crisis triggered a spiral of ideological decommunalization: national leaders seemed to have lost that sense of 'togetherness' and mutual bonds that had been laboriously developed over decades of integration.  Politics and Social Visions: Ideology, Conflict, and Solidarity in the EU (Oxford UP, 2024) explores this politically disruptive process from an ideational perspective, on the assumption that symbols and visions play a crucial role. In processes of polity formation, ideologies offer competing partisan views, but tend to converge along the 'communal' dimension, which defines the nature and boundaries of the emerging polity. This convergence has been a challenge for the EU since its origins, as it has required the construction of a coherent and acceptable image of Europe as a compound polity of nation-states with a divisive past. Maurizio Ferrera offers a reconstruction of how the main ideological currents have struggled - and often failed - to reconfigure their horizontal profiles (i.e. their images of the national within Europe) into a new vertical profile (i.e. an image of the European within the national). The challenge has been especially demanding for European left-wing parties, which have been largely unable to forge a shared and recognizable 'social vision' of the European Union. Only during the COVID pandemic have the seeds of a novel communal consensus emerged that might prove capable of defeating the anti-communal views of Eurosceptic ideologies and free market technocrats. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The starting point of this book is the 'civil war' of ideas that broke out during the early 2010s about the purpose and even the desirability of the European Union as a polity, with a number of right-wing populist formations openly advocating for exiting the Union. The sovereign debt crisis triggered a spiral of ideological decommunalization: national leaders seemed to have lost that sense of 'togetherness' and mutual bonds that had been laboriously developed over decades of integration.  Politics and Social Visions: Ideology, Conflict, and Solidarity in the EU (Oxford UP, 2024) explores this politically disruptive process from an ideational perspective, on the assumption that symbols and visions play a crucial role. In processes of polity formation, ideologies offer competing partisan views, but tend to converge along the 'communal' dimension, which defines the nature and boundaries of the emerging polity. This convergence has been a challenge for the EU since its origins, as it has required the construction of a coherent and acceptable image of Europe as a compound polity of nation-states with a divisive past. Maurizio Ferrera offers a reconstruction of how the main ideological currents have struggled - and often failed - to reconfigure their horizontal profiles (i.e. their images of the national within Europe) into a new vertical profile (i.e. an image of the European within the national). The challenge has been especially demanding for European left-wing parties, which have been largely unable to forge a shared and recognizable 'social vision' of the European Union. Only during the COVID pandemic have the seeds of a novel communal consensus emerged that might prove capable of defeating the anti-communal views of Eurosceptic ideologies and free market technocrats. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

The starting point of this book is the 'civil war' of ideas that broke out during the early 2010s about the purpose and even the desirability of the European Union as a polity, with a number of right-wing populist formations openly advocating for exiting the Union. The sovereign debt crisis triggered a spiral of ideological decommunalization: national leaders seemed to have lost that sense of 'togetherness' and mutual bonds that had been laboriously developed over decades of integration.  Politics and Social Visions: Ideology, Conflict, and Solidarity in the EU (Oxford UP, 2024) explores this politically disruptive process from an ideational perspective, on the assumption that symbols and visions play a crucial role. In processes of polity formation, ideologies offer competing partisan views, but tend to converge along the 'communal' dimension, which defines the nature and boundaries of the emerging polity. This convergence has been a challenge for the EU since its origins, as it has required the construction of a coherent and acceptable image of Europe as a compound polity of nation-states with a divisive past. Maurizio Ferrera offers a reconstruction of how the main ideological currents have struggled - and often failed - to reconfigure their horizontal profiles (i.e. their images of the national within Europe) into a new vertical profile (i.e. an image of the European within the national). The challenge has been especially demanding for European left-wing parties, which have been largely unable to forge a shared and recognizable 'social vision' of the European Union. Only during the COVID pandemic have the seeds of a novel communal consensus emerged that might prove capable of defeating the anti-communal views of Eurosceptic ideologies and free market technocrats. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/eastern-european-studies

The starting point of this book is the 'civil war' of ideas that broke out during the early 2010s about the purpose and even the desirability of the European Union as a polity, with a number of right-wing populist formations openly advocating for exiting the Union. The sovereign debt crisis triggered a spiral of ideological decommunalization: national leaders seemed to have lost that sense of 'togetherness' and mutual bonds that had been laboriously developed over decades of integration.  Politics and Social Visions: Ideology, Conflict, and Solidarity in the EU (Oxford UP, 2024) explores this politically disruptive process from an ideational perspective, on the assumption that symbols and visions play a crucial role. In processes of polity formation, ideologies offer competing partisan views, but tend to converge along the 'communal' dimension, which defines the nature and boundaries of the emerging polity. This convergence has been a challenge for the EU since its origins, as it has required the construction of a coherent and acceptable image of Europe as a compound polity of nation-states with a divisive past. Maurizio Ferrera offers a reconstruction of how the main ideological currents have struggled - and often failed - to reconfigure their horizontal profiles (i.e. their images of the national within Europe) into a new vertical profile (i.e. an image of the European within the national). The challenge has been especially demanding for European left-wing parties, which have been largely unable to forge a shared and recognizable 'social vision' of the European Union. Only during the COVID pandemic have the seeds of a novel communal consensus emerged that might prove capable of defeating the anti-communal views of Eurosceptic ideologies and free market technocrats. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The starting point of this book is the 'civil war' of ideas that broke out during the early 2010s about the purpose and even the desirability of the European Union as a polity, with a number of right-wing populist formations openly advocating for exiting the Union. The sovereign debt crisis triggered a spiral of ideological decommunalization: national leaders seemed to have lost that sense of 'togetherness' and mutual bonds that had been laboriously developed over decades of integration.  Politics and Social Visions: Ideology, Conflict, and Solidarity in the EU (Oxford UP, 2024) explores this politically disruptive process from an ideational perspective, on the assumption that symbols and visions play a crucial role. In processes of polity formation, ideologies offer competing partisan views, but tend to converge along the 'communal' dimension, which defines the nature and boundaries of the emerging polity. This convergence has been a challenge for the EU since its origins, as it has required the construction of a coherent and acceptable image of Europe as a compound polity of nation-states with a divisive past. Maurizio Ferrera offers a reconstruction of how the main ideological currents have struggled - and often failed - to reconfigure their horizontal profiles (i.e. their images of the national within Europe) into a new vertical profile (i.e. an image of the European within the national). The challenge has been especially demanding for European left-wing parties, which have been largely unable to forge a shared and recognizable 'social vision' of the European Union. Only during the COVID pandemic have the seeds of a novel communal consensus emerged that might prove capable of defeating the anti-communal views of Eurosceptic ideologies and free market technocrats. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The starting point of this book is the 'civil war' of ideas that broke out during the early 2010s about the purpose and even the desirability of the European Union as a polity, with a number of right-wing populist formations openly advocating for exiting the Union. The sovereign debt crisis triggered a spiral of ideological decommunalization: national leaders seemed to have lost that sense of 'togetherness' and mutual bonds that had been laboriously developed over decades of integration.  Politics and Social Visions: Ideology, Conflict, and Solidarity in the EU (Oxford UP, 2024) explores this politically disruptive process from an ideational perspective, on the assumption that symbols and visions play a crucial role. In processes of polity formation, ideologies offer competing partisan views, but tend to converge along the 'communal' dimension, which defines the nature and boundaries of the emerging polity. This convergence has been a challenge for the EU since its origins, as it has required the construction of a coherent and acceptable image of Europe as a compound polity of nation-states with a divisive past. Maurizio Ferrera offers a reconstruction of how the main ideological currents have struggled - and often failed - to reconfigure their horizontal profiles (i.e. their images of the national within Europe) into a new vertical profile (i.e. an image of the European within the national). The challenge has been especially demanding for European left-wing parties, which have been largely unable to forge a shared and recognizable 'social vision' of the European Union. Only during the COVID pandemic have the seeds of a novel communal consensus emerged that might prove capable of defeating the anti-communal views of Eurosceptic ideologies and free market technocrats.

PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, April 1: We bring you all the reactions from the French and international press after French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was found guilty of embezzlement and banned from running for public office. The immediate ban means she'll likely be ineligible for the 2027 French presidential elections. The international press, meanwhile, turn their attention to Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally and Le Pen's likely successor. We also look at reactions from the European far right. There's plenty of press reaction to Le Pen's conviction for embezzlement and her immediate, five-year ban on running for public office. One word from the French paper La Croix sums it up: "Ineligible". The paper says this court ruling is a huge shock for the far-right National Rally party and will throw the 2027 presidential election into disarray. La Croix hails what it sees as an inherently "legal decision", even if it has political ramifications. It adds that the ruling is based on laws and texts voted years ago. The paper expresses alarm at the response by the party's leader Jordan Bardella, who has decried the "execution" of French democracy. La Croix reminds readers that the justice system is for everyone, without exception.In the leftwing press, Libération says GUILTY in big, bold print on its front page. The communist paper, L'Humanité, revisits a slogan from the Front National, the previous name of the National Rally. The slogan was "clean hands, heads held high." It's corrected by L'Humanité to read: "dirty hands, heads hanging low". The editor of L'Humanité calls Le Pen's conviction a victory for democracy and the state of law and slams the reactions from the far right and the "Bolloré media". This is a reference to media magnate Vincent Bolloré, who is close to the far right. The latter have denounced a conspiracy against them.Speaking of the conservative media, Le Journal du Dimanche, a weekly paper that is owned by Vincent Bolloré, calls Monday's court ruling the day that destroyed Le Pen's presidential destiny. The paper laments what it sees as 20 years of her career being "annihilated" by one legal decision. The right-wing paper L'Opinion, meanwhile, calls it a political earthquake. Kak, the cartoonist, sees Le Pen hanging from a hook with the hammer of justice ready to nail her in. The paper's editor warns of "a huge moment of democratic danger" and says the court decision will paradoxically serve to feed populism. Le Parisien says it could transform Le Pen's right-hand man Bardella into a valued asset of the party.There is also lots of focus on Bardella in the international press. Politico notes that he has weathered nearly a decade in politics without losing his lustre. He is "polished, composed to a fault, with boy-next-door good looks and a carefully practiced smile". Bardella is a TikTok sensation and the only politician on the list of 50 most popular personalities in France compiled by a French newspaper. His popularity and the rise of the far right represent a "potential sea change in European politics", Politico says.For The Telegraph, the far right will survive this court ruling. It points to Bardella as a likely successor. He is "slavishly loyal" to her and recently published a bestselling memoir about growing up in an urban slum. However, his youth could be a hindrance. If one day he makes it to the Élysee palace, the irony would be that the anti-immigrant party's first president is ... the son of immigrants.In any case, far-right figures from Europe have rushed to Le Pen's defence. Italy's Matteo Salvini and the Netherlands' Geert Wilders have been quick to defend her and condemn the ruling with the slogan Je Suis Marine, which spreading on social media, according to a report from our FRANCE 24 web team. Hungary's Viktor Orban also used the slogan on social media to express his support for Le Pen. Paolo Lombardi, an Italian cartoonist, has reimagined Orban as Le Pen. Finally, Marten Wolterink, a Dutch illustrator, evokes the hypocrisy of the far right: Vive L'Europe as long as the money keeps coming in, embezzling funds but otherwise inherently Eurosceptic.

What implications would Herbert Kickl's rise to Austria's chancellorship, as the leader of the Eurosceptic, anti-immigration, and pro-Russian Freedom Party, have for Brussels and the European Union?Today Radio Schuman answers this question with centre-right European People's Party (EPP) MEP Reinhold Lopatka.After the resignation of Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and the collapse of centrist coalition talks, President Alexander Van der Bellen has tasked Herbert Kickl, leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), with forming a new government.The FPÖ, which won 28.8% of the vote in September's elections, is now negotiating with the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), despite the latter's initial reluctance. If successful, Austria would normalize a coalition between centrist and far-right forces, potentially bringing a Eurosceptic, pro-Russian, and anti-immigration leader to the EU stage, aligning closely with Hungary's Viktor Orbán.Today we also take a look at a European court case about data privacy and the most punctual airlines worldwide - spoiler alert: the ranking may challenge your expectations!Radio Schuman is hosted and produced by Maïa de la Baume, with journalist and production assistant Eleonora Vasques, audio editing by Georgios Leivaditis. Music by Alexandre Jas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Georgia has recently experienced weeks of protests following parliamentary elections that secured a win for the ruling Georgian Dream party. In the aftermath, the party announced plans to suspend efforts to join the European Union.On Saturday, the country faces presidential elections, a development that could further destabilise the nation of 3.7 million people and potentially accelerate the government's distancing from the EU.Although the presidency in Georgia is largely ceremonial, this election is significant as it marks the first time since the 2017 constitutional reforms that the president will be chosen by parliament rather than by popular vote. The current president, Salome Zourabichvili, represents the pro-EU opposition and has consistently criticised Georgian Dream for its increasingly authoritarian, anti-Western, and pro-Russian policies. Recently, Zourabichvili declared she does not recognise the results of the parliamentary elections and pledged to remain in office until new elections are held.Georgian Dream has nominated Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former soccer player with Eurosceptic views, as its presidential candidate.To gain deeper insight into the stakes of Saturday's election and the current situation in Georgia, Radio Schuman spoke with Nuka Kekelia, our Euronews correspondent in Tbilisi.In the second segment of the podcast, we had a look at some details of a vote on human trafficking among EU ministers.In the last part of the show, Radio Schuman brings you the new code of conduct of the upcoming Eurovision.Radio Schuman is hosted and produced by Maïa de la Baume, with journalist and production assistant Eleonora Vasques, audio editing by David Brodheim and Georgios Leivaditis. Music by Alexandre Jas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Germany is in economic trouble. Its car industry - 7% of the economy - is being squeezed by struggling exports (to China in particular) and a poorly handled transition to EVs.Add in problems that go back decades and maybe its time to become a Eurosceptic again. If Trump wins, the Democrats need to look in mirror. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/the-other-hand-with-jim.power-and-chris.johns. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dame Andrea Marie Jenkyns DBE (born 16 June 1974) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Morley and Outwood from 2015 to 2024. Jenkyns was first elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Morley and Outwood in West Yorkshire at the 2015 general election, defeating Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls.[2][3] She was an advocate for the Eurosceptic organisation Leave Means Leave and a strong critic of Theresa May's handling of Brexit during her leadership of the Conservative Party.[4][5] Jenkyns served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Skills from July to October 2022, when she was dismissed by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. She failed to win re-election to the successor seat of Leeds South West and Morley at the 2024 general election.[6] Early life and career Andrea Jenkyns was born in Beverley, Humberside. After leaving school at 16, she worked at the Greggs bakery.[7] When she was 18, Jenkyns' father sent her photo off to a beauty pageant, and she eventually reached the final of Miss UK.[8] In her late thirties, Jenkyns studied for a degree in Economics from the Open University and in International Relations from the University of Lincoln.[9] Jenkyns is a former member of Lincolnshire County Council for Boston North West.Explore the podcast

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has successfully leveraged her exclusion from the EU top job talks to reinforce her party's Eurosceptic narrative and position herself as a champion against the EU's elitism. But how is her strategy playing out in Brussels?In this episode, host Giada Santana and Euractiv Italy's Alessia Peretti discuss what Meloni wants from the European Council's meeting and what she obtained.

Shownotes and Transcript Hermann Kelly, President of the Irish Freedom Party, shares insights on Irish politics and his background. He discusses growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, his journey from theology to journalism to politics, working with Nigel Farage in the European Parliament, and the challenges of the political sphere. Hermann outlines the Irish Freedom Party's principles of national sovereignty, anti-EU influence, pro-life stance, and traditional family values, criticizing mainstream parties on immigration. He emphasizes the importance of controlled borders, work permits, and prioritizing Irish citizens' welfare. Hermann addresses media bias, advocating for social media and grassroots efforts to connect with voters and counter leftist narratives. His vision for the party focuses on restoring national sovereignty, protecting Irish culture, and prioritizing Irish citizens in policy decisions. Originally from the Bogside in Derry, Hermann's family have a small farm in Donegal since he was a young. After attending St Columb's College in Derry, he studied marine biology in Edinburgh before studying theology as a lay student at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth.  First a secondary school teacher he then became a journalist, writing for various national newspapers including the Irish Mail on Sunday and Irish Examiner.  He was formerly director of communications for the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group in the European Parliament, and his since come to work with The European Conservatives and Reformists Group.  He is a founding member of The Irish Freedom Party and its current president.   Connect with Hermann and The Irish Freedom Party... X/TWITTER        x.com/hermannkelly                            x.com/IrexitFreedom WEBSITE            irishfreedom.ie/ Interview recorded 10.7.24 Connect with Hearts of Oak... X/TWITTER        x.com/HeartsofOakUK WEBSITE            heartsofoak.org/ PODCASTS        heartsofoak.podbean.com/ SOCIAL MEDIA  heartsofoak.org/connect/ SHOP                  heartsofoak.org/shop/ *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on X/Twitter x.com/TheBoschFawstin Transcript (Hearts of Oak) I'm delighted to be joined by someone whose name I have seen a lot back in my time in my UKIP days, and that's Hermann Kelly. Hermann, thank you so much for your time today. (Hermann Kelly) Great. Thank you very much for the invite, Peter. Great to be here. It's good to have you discuss all things Irish politics. You can obviously follow Herman @HermannKelly on Twitter. And Hermann, journalist, former UKIP's European Media Supremo, head of comms at the EFDD group in the European Parliament, Nigel Farage's press secretary, and all the fun that came back in those times, of course, as president of the Irish Freedom Party, launched in 2018 as a common-sense political party in Ireland, because Ireland lacked those, and we'll get into all of that. But, Hermann, you were born in the bog side. Christmas Day, you were born in the bog side in Derry, London Derry, Stroke City, which which is over there in Northern Ireland. It's known as a very rough area, like the Shanklin Falls, maybe in Belfast. What was it like growing up in an area like the Belfast? Well, it was only rough when I was growing up. It was a very friendly place, a very safe place, incredibly low crime rate. It was only rough if you were a British soldier. So there's bullet holes at the side of our house, the front of our house, on the wall opposite our house. There was a high banking behind our house. IRA used it as a shooting spot. And as the British Army jeeps went past the army checkpoint, out the road, they would get shot at. I've seen that many times. But if you were a local, it was incredibly safe, very low crime rate. And it had my followers headmaster of a large primary school in Cregan and Derry just up the hill from ourselves. and that had 75% male unemployment, so it was quite financially poor. But it was very friendly, very safe. And I must say, it was also highest per capita, donations per capita of any city or any town in what was politically the UK. So people were very kind, very generous. I didn't find it rough at all. It's interesting. Me growing up in Carrickfergus, that was absolutely fine because a lot of police lived there. So actually, it was monoculture, completely Protestant. You found it absolutely fine growing up in somewhere completely Catholic with no police or no army. It's interesting. We both grew up actually fairly safe childhoods. Interesting. But at kind of opposite ends of the scale in terms of that sectarian divide. Yeah. I suppose for where we were, it was a kind of high trust, low friction society. That's the whole thing about not being a multicultural society of a kind of melting pot or a kind of constant friction of people bumping off each other, metaphorically rather than physically. I mean. I always remembered very safe and certainly with the neighbours, very good people as neighbours, very, very lucky. And it shows the whole, the importance of common belief, nationality, and how it can lead to a very low-friction, high-trust society, which is easy to live in. What was it you kind of aspired to growing up? Because you went, you studied theology, you've been in media and journalism and politics. Kind of growing up, what were your thoughts of what the future may be? Well, obviously you can see with my, let's say, circuitous route of career that I didn't really know what I wanted to be when I was 18. And I remembered the agony of what I was going to fill in in the UCAS form to go to university right up to the last minute. And I started at optometry and then marine biology and then theology. I had always a great interest, developed a great interest in philosophy and then from that then theology and but I always had an abiding love interest because I grew up in day during the troubles, oh we always we were brought up with great interest in politics, interest in history in culture and also a great respect for language studied Irish studying English and a bit of French as well but the importance of language and all those things melded together my abiding interest in politics and history and culture and faith etc all those things and then also my respect for language and from that I eventually found my way to become a journalist and then a director of communication so in one way it was very circuitous but then it was when you look back it looked like a very straight path but the interest in politics and a respect for language and literature kind of have always remained with me. Well so how did you end up working with UKIP with the EFDD group in the European Parliament, was it an interest just in politics European Parliament and then later on you connected with the chaos and the fun that was UKIP or did that come first how did that happen? Well. I was actually, well, I'd previously been a teacher, I was working in Dublin and I think i became a teacher. I liked this idea of influence, influence on society to make the world a better place. And so it became a teacher then I realized that, well, where's the power to change society? Really? It's concentrated in the press, in the media. So it became a journalist. And then I think by that stage I had maybe four, five children and someone said to me one time if you can say you're a consultant you can charge twice as much, well journalism in Ireland didn't pay very much so I then was working as a press officer for Libertas in the European election 2009 for deacon gamley who were then a Eurosceptic party pat across Europe and I was so I was then recommended on foot of this by Declan Gamley to Nigel Farage. But previous to this, I had written an article for economic recovery in Ireland. Ireland needs to leave the euro. And I think Nigel Farage had seen this. It went up on UKIP website because it's unusual for people to advocate that in Ireland. And so he heard my name. And after I was recommended by Declan Gamley, he gave my call I said here let's meet up and I worked for Nigel Farage in Ireland it was the Lisbon 2 campaign of 2010 was it and 2010 and I sorry summer 2009 I worked for three months and after that just in Ireland he said come over work for me he was happy with the briefing he got and says here come over work for me full-time over in Brussels so as Ireland was absolutely going down the tubes and all these journalists were losing their jobs and losing their houses I thought well it's a good opportunity to take a well-paid and steady job, you know for the family. Definitely. I remember applying to work over there and after 10 months, they finally approved it and it was far too late and I had to produce documentation that didn't exist in the UK. It was just chaos. But I always heard your name, Hermann Kelly, always mentioned, just as I kept hearing Gawain Tyler's name mentioned over in the UK. And it seemed to me these two were the ones that understood, had their finger on the pulse, certainly in terms of medium press. I must say, I had great fun with UKIP MEPs. Like, I was working for the group, so it would have been probably 47 MEPs, seven different nationalities, I think. EFD group initially was about 42 MEPs, seven different nationalities. But the whole thing is you're meeting new people and people from different countries, different cultures, different experiences of life, pretty well-educated, pretty intelligent people, the whole lot. So it was very stimulating. It was good fun. It was important. I was committed to the work I was doing. I was philosophically committed to it. So I wanted to do a good job. and you know what you develop good relations with the people I was working with, so a number of the MEPs Nigel Farage, Paul Nuttall later guys like Ray Finch that I was very good friends with these people and also a number of staff Jamie Linsworth, Orly Leloup was chief of staff, you know we also became good friends not just colleagues working together in a political party. I remember going going for an interview with orally uh back in the days but it was all I guess the thing I found whenever I'd met a lot of the MEPs was they were real people and you kind of come across politicians that are too polished and that's all they've wanted to do the UKIP MEPs that actually lived their lives and then were doing this because they wanted to do something for their country, that's kind of rare these days in politics and that's what I love, that real but also sometimes a little bit of chaos, I mean you must have had some sleepless nights. Well one previous, Mark Kreutzer, a previous press officer said getting all the UKIP MEPs together. Was like, what was it, like herding cats, like, Yeah, see, to go against the stream, to go against the crowd or the mob, you have to have a quite individualistic contrarian streak to swim against that tide. So you must have that already to be happy to say to the establishment and the vast majority of the easy, instead of taking the easy path, you're taking the harder path and you're going against the tide. So you must have that contrarian and also quite self-confident streak to be able to do that so yeah it's a strength and a weakness, it's a strength in that people actually believe what they say and say what they believe, but it's difficult get them all in one room and get them all going singing off the same hymn sheet as you might say like you know but some great characters. I remember being here out in the front of the European Parliament here in the beer factory and was with a lot of MEPs and staff and turning around to Jamie Leansworth who was Nigel Farage's secretary at the time or advisor and saying, God, we have some characters here, huh? That's an understatement. You've got guys like Godfrey Bloom, and Mike Hookham and all these different guys and Stuart Agnew and they're all very strong characters strong personalities but it was great fun as well and like you you get to like these people as well it was never a dull, never a dull moment no never a dull moment and some of the carry on in among the foreign MEPs as well I remember, you you had MEPs from like Greece and Latvia sorry Lithuania etc et cetera, and you meet them and hear, but their histories are very different. Their experiences of life were very different. So to hear them talking about the importance of national sovereignty against a kind of federalist EU state, etc. They all have it for their own reasons and find it in their own experience. But I certainly was very committed to the job. I did my very best. And certainly reaching for the referendum in 2015, we strove very, very hard. We worked very hard to get a referendum and we worked hard then to get a result. So it was very pleasing for me personally and not just professionally but also personally to get to achieve a referendum 2015 and get a result in the Brexit referendum of 2016, so I was my wife always used to give off to me you love your job as an accusation, I said yeah what's wrong with that I do Yeah it's true it's good to love it, I want to get on the Irish politics but just last thing is is what was it like to be up, you're in the belly of the beast, you're up against the system, you're saying that, actually where we are standing here representing the UK, we are against everything that this institution, this parliament really wants, which is ever closer union, ever closer ties, control. And we want to be free from that. What was that like? Because no other countries have had a breakaway, exit groups, but actually none of them have achieved anywhere near what UKIP achieved, so what was that like as the major grouping there who actually wanted to get out of there, you would have had a lot of commonality I guess with individual MEPs but maybe not with parties, so there must be tension as well Oh yeah certainly in the second term with the EFDD group we there was a marriage of convenience we had with the five-star party and that wasn't a marriage made in heaven believe me uh so we were very Eurosceptic believed in national sovereign they wanted to leave the European union and we were sold a bit of a pup that they were kind of anti-establishment kind of Eurosceptic well the leaders were pepe grillo a guy david casaleggio certainly were quite rebellious and Eurosceptic But the MEPs who they voted in, where a lot of them had done Rasmus schemes and stuff like that, they're all very university-educated. They weren't Euro-sceptic at all. And that was a very difficult time, yes. There was quite a few arguments there. But, you know what? Personally, I would always have different relations with various people, across the political spectrum here in Brussels. I would regard it as bad form to be, disliking people because of their political views. But certainly, politically, Yeah, we were treated pretty abysmally by the institutions of the European Parliament here, who certainly after Brexit were incredibly vindictive and actually went on a witch hunt of MEPs. And I know, for example, that Paul Nuttall, his life was made a nightmare with constant meetings by this finance department with false accusations. And basically the refusal, how they treated some people was just unbelievable. Like one guy broke his arm. I know, for example, that they refused to pay the medical bills of a number of MEPs, which were 100% genuine, just out of malice. And they said, but you have to pay? That's the rules. Take us to court if you want. It's our court. This is the kind of stuff that would happen. and they refused to pay the staff of some MEPs. Asked why, we're not going to do it. If you want to, take it to court if you want. Remember, we control the court as well. So this was the attitude. So it really showed that centralisation of power in the hands of a small number of unaccountable elite is a very dangerous and stupid idea. No completely. Right, I want to get on to Irish politics. And everything that you've taught about, I guess, has given you a wide grasp of what is happening across, your wide grasp of that political side and added to your journalism skills and background. So you've got the Irish Freedom Party and Ireland is, as I mentioned earlier, I grew up with Gareth Fitzgerald and Charlie Hockey in the 80s in Ireland. Ireland was a very different place, although it still was Irish. So that was the benefit of it. Well, that bit's changed. But, and we'll get into Immigrate, but the Irish Freedom Party, tell us kind of where that came from, the idea and what it stands for. Because there was no party in Ireland looking for a sovereign, independent Ireland. You had Sinn Féin, who were basically, they were... They're implementing British rule in Ireland, but also they were happy to advocate Brussels' rule. So they're opposed to UK influence in Ireland, but they were completely happy that the majority of the laws which run in Ireland actually come originally from Brussels by people who we didn't elect and who we can't get rid of. So I believe in nation and nation-state and democratic self-determination. I believe that Irish people are good enough to make their own laws, to decide their own destiny in this world. I'm opposed to subservience to the European Union. The big problem over here in Brussels with the EU itself is what you call qualified majority voting, where Ireland, we're 1% of the EU population. So that means that the votes are voted on, 99% of the votes are done by people who are not Irish, and these laws can be approved and imposed upon us, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it because we have disqualified majority voting in most of the areas. Many people do not realise that in areas of EU competence, EU law is superior to the Irishlaw, Irish Supreme Court, and the Irish Constitution. And that, for me, certainly is not a constitutional or democratic. Like a constitutional republic. That is a province of Brussels. It's a subservient province of Brussels, and that's not what the people were promised 100 years ago. So how did the party launch? It's been there since 2018, and I've looked at the Irish political scene from afar, and there wasn't anything which was common sense and seen. One Taoiseach after another just destroying Ireland. Yeah, there's this cultural like, it's funny because I was, we're talking about where we're both from, like, so growing up in the Brandywale, in the Lomar Road in Derry during the Troubles, I was brought up for all intents and purposes was a cultural superiority complex, that we were brought up that Irish poetry, Irish dance, Irish games and language and literature was fantastic. It was the best in the world and the world needed plenty of us. Go forth and procreate. We're wonderful, right? It then come down south and the experience is cultural self-loathing, which is very strong among the media class and the political class. And it's, well, where does this come from? And it wasn't just but this cultural self-loathing is very deep in south of Ireland at the minute at something to which I'm very implacably opposed and now we're trying to change the ship of state around, you know what, Irish culture is good Irish nation it's important what's the only one one we have, that Irish democracy, we must, seek that we are in democratic control of our destiny in this world, not to have laws dictated to us by someone else who we didn't vote for and we can't get rid of. But it's to do with a lot of things as well. Our catch cry is that we want free people in a free country. So it's not just like we want democratic control in Ireland to leave the European Union. And that the government in Dublin is going to dictate our lives, is that personal freedom, personal responsibility are very important. They're vital. We're standing up for things like the importance of free speech, for the right to not have the state dictate to you what you most put inside your body as a basic human right. The right to private property, that the state does not control your life, Even an Irish state doesn't control your life. So standing up for, I would describe these the basic building blocks of a liberal society. Of, as I said, free people in a free country, free speech, right to bodily autonomy, private property, lower government, less government waste, less government spending, lower taxation, the people be able themselves to make the decisions which control their own lives. So we started the party five years ago. We just now have had our first councillor elected in those last local elections. Glenn Moore and Clon Bakken will be running a large slate of candidates in the general election, which is likely to come about in October or November of this year. And I'm myself I ran as a candidate in the Midlands Northwest for the European election there just passed I ended up I got there was a huge huge number of candidates, 27 candidates in total, there were 13 nationalist candidates after Peter Casey the former presidential candidate I got the the highest is the highest vote of any nationalist I ended up with 21,000 votes and 3% of the vote. Considering there were 13 nationalist candidates in the field, I did very well. And actually, the person who was presented themselves as kind of a little bit conservative, socially conservative, nationalist. Eurosceptic, what do you call him, Keir Malooly from the Independent Ireland Party. What did they do? They got elected. And the first thing he did was come over to Brussels and join Renew, which is the Federalist fanatic group, with a complete and utter betrayal by the party of all those voters who voted for him. So I only wish he had told the voters before the election that he was going to join the Federalist group in the European Parliament rather than after, because I think my vote would have increased dramatically. Well, Ireland are getting some of the policies, but Ireland seems to have been slow to move away from that. You had Fianna Gael, Fianna Fáil, you've always had them with a dose of Labour in there. Then obviously you've had the rise of Sinn Féin. But Ireland seems to have been slow to move away from that group of parties. And Sinn Féin have been around a long time as well. They're not a new party. Tell me what that's like in moving to new parties and getting the message out. It's a tough sell, actually, putting something new out in the Irish political sphere and getting the message out in the media. Absolutely, because historically, I was very slow to support new parties. Most of the successful political parties are split off from actually Sinn Féin from 1905 and onwards. We have Sinn Féin then split into Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and then Plan the Public. I believe all the parties are a break off of Sinn Féin bar the Green Party, if that is correct. And Sinn Féin well for example but even Fianna Fáil used to be Fianna Fáil, the Republican Party, they believed in National Democratic since they pushed to join the Common Market in 1973 and then it was still Sinn Féin policy to leave the Common Market or the European Community, whatever you called it, certainly up until the late 80s so we're basically.... Look, the Proclamation of Independence in 1916 talked about the Irish people having the right, and even says, also in the Irish Constitution of 1937, about the sovereignty and independence of Ireland should be protected for the good of the Irish nation. And that's what we're seeking for. All we're looking to do is to be a normal, self-governing country where we make our own laws for the benefit of the Irish people. That's all. We're not looking for anything new, crazy, or fandangled thing. But Sinn Féin have changed dramatically. They're now a European Unionist party. I call them a Euro-Loyalist party. I'm sure they hate it, but I love it. You know the reasons why. Oh yeah, I call Sinn Féin immigration party. It does make me laugh that they hate it as well. The Sinn Féin immigration party is Brits out everybody else in. Drives them mad. I saw in your Wikipedia entry you'd used the term abort and import, which I also loved as well. I say the Sinn Féin immigration policy is Brits out to everybody else, and the Fine Gael immigration policy is abort and import. And it actually works perfectly in all the romance languages, French and Spanish Spanish, et cetera. It all works perfectly in those, because I was telling someone over here at dinner one evening, I said, oh, that's really good in French too. That's fantastic. I always use as few words as possible to pack as much power into as little space as possible. That's my job as a press officer, was always to take complex ideas and crunch them down or boil them down into some in as few words as possible with as much power and impact, both political and emotional impact on people as it can. So that's a typical few examples of Hermanism, so to speak, like to boil down complex ideas. The simple language, because my job as press officer was always to get words or formula words that people understand, they can easily understand, easily remember. I always scratch my head looking at Ireland originally used to be one of the strongest Catholic countries, most staunchly Christian Catholic countries in Europe. And yet you've had their political representatives have not gone along with any Catholic belief. You look at Sinn Féin, you look at the North SDLP, everything about them has been more the self-hatred woke agenda and nothing about what actually the church would teach. And I often wonder if I was going to mass each Sunday, actually politically, who would I vote for? Where Northern Ireland, the DUP, who generally were socially conservative. And for the Catholic side, there was no one socially conservative ever to vote for. Absolutely. Well, certainly, yeah, in the last 20 years, you had to, I think a large part of it was self-inflicted by Vatican II about the self-loathing that anything came before 1965 was bad, was supposed to be forgotten, to be rejected. And that the new year zero, so to speak, the second Vatican Council ended, I think, 1968 or 69, that everything after that was okay. And it's all Libby-friendly. That was great. great, but no, in the Irish context, even up in the North, which was normally more conservative, people were more, let's say, conscious and proud of being Christian and being Catholic, part of their identity, national identity, religious identity. Down south, completely the opposite, where people that, because the power of the media, that you had Sinn Féin, the Workers' Party in the 70s and 80s, a very... They started off as nationalists that became internationalists and then became very a Marxist party, basically very anti-Christian and I believe that had a very, the leader's effect on the culture of Ireland because there were so many of them got into the media and had a big big impact, but ourselves, we are happy and proud to, when we are not a kind of confessional party, you don't have to be a Catholic to join the Irish Freedom Party. But we've made it very clear from day one that we are a pro-life party and we are pro-family, that we believe we want to protect and augment the foundations of civilisation. So where cultural Marxism wants to destroy the nation state. National sovereignty, the nation state wants to destroy the family, even down to the distinctions of male and female. We want to counteract that. So we were against this trans ideology. We'll stand up for the distinction and common complementarity of man and a woman. We approve family. We want to encourage people to have children, to educate their children in their culture. It is then with education develops culture and a civilization. And we believe that we also believe in the nation state and in national democracy. So like, but all this stuff about. It's very hard to have a functioning successful civilization where the family is not at the centre of it and faith is a very important, Christian faith you acknowledge not only acknowledge Christian faith as a historical origin but also as a living thing in Ireland. And I must say that compared to the Libby Dibbies in Ireland, you'll find that a large swathe of nationalists, they're not practicing Catholics and Christians, they're certainly culturally so. And they're very proud of that. Because when they look around and they see that here we have, They have 10,000 abortions, 10,000 Irish children being killed in the womb last year in Ireland. Our birth rate is now 1.5, just over 1.5 children per woman. A few generations of that, the population of Ireland shrinks to filial. So we are in favour of liberty and of life. So we would like to encourage people to get married, to have children, to start a family. So we advocate as a pro-natalist, pro-family party, but also advocate policies like we have already. And they've successfully implemented in Hungary to adjust the tax system to help young couples to have kids. And that, for example, if a couple have three or four children, that they don't pay tax and that they don't encourage young couples to have children because no country has a future without children. And that's a basic fact because demographics is destiny. That is a universal truth all across the world and every time in every culture. So we want to encourage the people to have children and also then provide the basics all of them. So I was talking last night on a space and I was talking about the importance of, we are not looking for we're just looking for the ability for people to grow up in a safe environment, and then when they leave school that they have the ability to get a job. Find someone who's only got married to be able to buy a house because at the minute, because of mass immigration, high house prices, young people cannot buy a house and they're all emigrating. A massive problem in Ireland isn't just immigration into Ireland, it's also emigration. We are importing a huge number of people into Ireland. We don't know who, in many cases, we don't know who they are, where they're from, do they have a criminal record. That is detrimental to the security of our country because it leads to an increased crime rate, et cetera. At the same time, because our young people cannot, in many cases, find an apartment to rent, certainly not a house to buy, which they cannot afford anyway. So what are they doing? They're emigrating to Australia and Canada. And that's. Well that's the definition of a failed state isn't it, where you can even provide a job in a house for young people and they're emigrating so that is a failed state, so we as people actually are pretty upset how the country that they love being destroyed before their eyes and, but we will instead of personal darkness we would like to put out a light and do something about it, soI said, we're putting out candidates in the general election. We will keep on standing. Nigel Farage, he just got elected there during the week. It was his eighth time of standing for the Houses of Parliament. And I've only stood twice in the European election. That'd be my first time standing as a TD seat. So we're in the infancy of the Irish Freedom Party. But I am certain that in the years ahead, we will have a large impact. And we're already having an impact. because you saw there in that European election, Sinn Féin did very poorly. Their vote fell, now last October, their vote in the polls was 35%. It's now 18%. And in the European election, their vote fell by 12.5%. A general nationalist sway was 12.5%. So that vote, I would suspect, or I would argue, went from Sinn Féin to a smog spore of nationalist candidates. It was like a plunder boss into a mattress and that vote went everywhere to so many different national candidates, 3,000 here, 3,500 there, maybe 21,000 people like me, but that the. That Sinn Féin vote did not go to Fine Gael. It went to generalist nationalist candidates. So we're having an impact on the narrative, on the discussion of the EU migration pact, on the anti-free speech laws that they're trying to introduce in Ireland, about the whole thing about housing availability, etc. We're having an impact on the political discussion in Ireland already. Ready and I would hope and expect that that increases in the years going forward. I want to pick an immigration but let me just touch on the family, because when you look at Hungary and their pro-family and pro-life policies and there are parties you look at Italy and Greece and there are it's a pro-family nation still pro-family culture and a pro-life generally. But many parties, I know Reform will maybe talk a bit about pro-family, but pro-life, you know, that's up to the individual. But I can't imagine kids growing up thinking, you know, when I get older, someday I'd love to have an abortion. It shouldn't be the main option. There has to be a range of options of adoption, of other ideas. And it seems as though especially young girls are pushed down this avenue and this is the only option and I mean I got a lot of respect for you as a party, not only being pro-family but actually pro-life because that's a completely common sense response to what we are facing. Yeah well I was actually attended the rally for life, on in Dublin there on Saturday there's a very big crowd at it and there was a number of members and candidates for the Irish freedom party were there the Irish freedom party banner and the a number of national flags as well to show that we're proud to stand up for life and so well sure, how can you talk about human rights when you don't If you do not defend the right to life, if you don't defend the right to exist. How can you talk about the right to free speech, the right to private property, the right to this and that? It's a nonsense. And on the counter to that, if you accept that you can wipe out and destroy and butcher innocent human life, if you accept that principle, well, the next thing you're then on to logical consequence of accepting that principle. Is you're then you extended over time and you're then in favor of euthanasia of old people and then your euthanasia of people who are physically handicapped in some way or then people who are depressed and then you're straight on the 100% healthy people who there's nothing wrong with them and then you're straight on to murder, murder of innocent people who have I've never done anything wrong, and there's nothing wrong with them. So it's philosophically to accept the principle that it's okay to destroy human life. I will never accept it. Because you're on the slippery slope of a culture which advocates killing. Killing of its young, it's innocent. Then it's then killing old people, then sick people, and then healthy people. And that is that this two cities as Saint Augustine might say and the culture of life and the cultural death are extremely different and the consequences of a slight change in principle, like it's like coming up to a roundabout in a car and you're going around and you take one direction and as you follow out along that road that you've taken you can go in a very you end up in a very different destination if you take another turn off and you follow that path, for a number of miles. So be very careful. So that's why we've been very clear from day one that this is a pro-life party and we're also pro-family and we support a cultural life, not a culture of death. I want to finish on immigration because it's very strange for Ireland because Ireland have so much influence worldwide and the Irish culture is known throughout, probably because of the potato famine, because of that mass migration that's meant there is Irishness everywhere, certainly in the US and you travel all over Europe and wider and you'll certainly find Irish pubs, people flock to that. That desire and likability and connection and respect for Irish culture and intrigue, all of that, that kind of seemed to be disappearing. I'm surprised the mass immigration, but the change that's brought to Ireland, considering Irishness is known, despite Ireland being a tiny country, its impact culturally is very wide all over the world. But yet successive governments have allowed absolute mass immigration on a scale I don't think anyone else has seen in Europe for such a country that size. How has that affected voters and the public? Because if you keep voting the same way, you're just going to get the same change in Ireland and decimation of Irishness. All the main parties in Ireland, Fianna Fáil, Fianna Gael, Sinn Féin, Labour Party, all the left are all in favour of what pretty much amounts to open borders, mass immigration. Now the consequences of that at the moment is that the Irish population since 1995 has gone up by over 1.5 million people, gone from 3.5 to 5.3 million people. That's a 42% percent increase in a very short period of time. And Ireland actually is the fastest increasing we see in Europe. In the Western world, actually, Ireland has the fastest increase of population through immigration of any country in the world, bar none. So what is happening, I would describe it as the new colonization of Ireland, because the numbers coming in here is so large. Like when we started off the party five years ago, I believe 12% of the population were non-national. It's now 22%. So there's been a 10% increase in the non-national part of our population within five years. That's immense. And actually, Grip Media did an analysis of the rate of influx of immigration into Ireland. And they worked out that if the current rate continues, what has happened over the last five years, As that continues, Irish people will be a minority in their own country by the year 2050. And I don't know about you, but I certainly wasn't asked about that. I didn't give my consent. So we describe what's happened now as the colonization without consent. And all we're looking for is to be a normal country, which has borders, which controls for the good of its people, the numbers of people and the qualifications of the people who are coming in, that they make sure that one, do we need to and two, if you want to come in you have got to contribute to our society and so for example you've got skills that you can that you can contribute and you're not a kind of tax, like don't be coming in here looking for free housing, free welfare, free medical care, like you come in, you work you support yourself and when [I very much believe in the work permit system. You come in, you work, you pay tax. And after that, after picking up, working, being paid, getting experience, having a good time, you then go back to your country of origin or go on to the next country, wherever you like. But I believe that because taking in large numbers of unvetted males into the country makes Ireland a less secure place. And like, for example, in 2022, there were 12 women were murdered in Ireland. Five of those were murdered by non-nationals. So there's been a swathe of increase in rapes and sexual assault in Ireland, as has happened all across Europe, be it in Germany, be it in Italy, be it in Sweden and France. So we should stop being naive and thinking that, oh, but it will never happen in Ireland because everybody loves us. They may do, but the consequences of mass unvetted immigration into Ireland are not very positive for Ireland at the minute. So all we're looking for is to be a normal country which controls its borders for the good of its own people. Because we want our young people, as I said earlier, to be able to get a job, be able to find a house and live in a secure area without any fear. And that's what people see, the destruction of their country, the mass immigration, and of course the destruction of the family. How do you, I mean, someone who understands the media so well, how do you get your message out? You've got a block on the mainstream media. Is it looking for alternative media, going directly to individuals, to the voters? How do you kind of get around that block which exists in Ireland to stop your message of common sense getting out? Well, you're completely true. The mainstream media, and when I say mainstream, it's funny because in regards, for example, that issue of are people in favour of mass immigration, 75% of people in Ireland are completely opposed to more migration. They believe Ireland has more than had enough. So that is the mainstream position. It's the extreme leftist position of open borders. They are the extremists. They are the minority. But the thing is, these leftists do control the media. And so we find it very difficult if not impossible to get anything positive out in the Irish media, so we're using social media at the minute and during the European elections was a good boost because the local papers had to talk about us, talk to our candidates, the write-ups of the candidates was almost universally positive on local radio, there were debates, so we got the name and the candidates of the party out there in open debate. We were discussing our policies in a fair environment for the first time, but the national media blocked us completely. So basically, we're pretty much using social media and also boots on the ground to get out meeting people, canvassing is very, very important. Well, Hermann, I really do appreciate your time. Hermann Kelly, President of the Irish Freedom Party, bringing common sense and an option to the voters that traditionally up to now really have not had any. So Hermann, thank you so much for joining us and giving us an overview, not only of Irish Freedom Party, but the difficulty and issues you're facing there in Ireland. Thank you very much, Peter.

In recent years, several far-right parties espousing nationalist, anti-immigrant, and Eurosceptic ideas have garnered significant support. Despite their nationalist ideologies, these contemporary far-right movements have demonstrated a surprising capacity for international cooperation. Anne van Mourik interviews Martin Hamre, a historian of fascism at the Freie Universität Berlin about this topic. What are some earlier examples of fascist internationalism? How did fascist ideas spread through international conferences and cooperation in the 1930s? What insights does Hamre's research provide for understanding the contemporary European far right?

Three weeks ago, French president Emmanuel Macron stunned and bewildered French voters, and his own Government, by calling a snap general election. By Monday morning of this week, it appeared the president's gamble had backfired.Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally led in the first round of these high stakes elections, taking 33 per cent of the popular vote. It was followed by the leftwing New Popular Front, which secured 28 per cent, while Mr Macron's ruling centrist Together bloc trailed in third place with just 20 per cent.The clear takeaway from this first round of voting is the National Rally party, currently led by 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, is now the dominant political force in France.Is Le Pen's anti-immigrant, Eurosceptic party on course to secure an absolute majority in France's National Assembly?Or could Mr Macron's calls for voters to join together and prevent National Rally from taking control change the course of these elections?Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by John Casey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has successfully leveraged her exclusion from the EU top job talks to reinforce her party's Eurosceptic narrative and position herself as a champion against the EU's elitism. But how is her strategy playing out in Brussels?In this episode, host Giada Santana and Euractiv Italy's Alessia Peretti discuss what Meloni wants from the European Council's meeting and what she obtained.

Support our work here - https://urbanscoop.news/support-us/In this episode of SILENCED Tommy speaks to Lord Pearson of Rannoch. Lord Pearson is a businessman and Eurosceptic politician who was leader of the UKIP (UK Independence Party) from 2009 - 2010.Lord Pearson has been a leading and vocal critic of totalitarianism, especially what was the Soviet Union. He has supported soviet dissidents working within the former soviet union, prominent figures such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn for example.Lord Pearson is also a very vocal critic of Islam, and has raised issues pertaining to Islam and the Muslim community in the House of Lords on many occasions, only to be snubbed, jeered, and labelled an Islamophobe by his peers.Lord Pearson has been a vocal supporter of Tommy Robinson, one of the very few politicians who truly understood him and gave him the time of day.

Many who read the polls might say 2024 seems like the year of living dangerously.No arguing who hass got the momentum only four days out from snap legislative elections here in France... and on the eve of the first candidate's debate in the United States. French voters can argue that they have tried all the others so why not the far-right… or that Marine Le Pen's party will be less Eurosceptic once confronted with the hard reality of governing. Kind of like what has happened in Italy.But then how to explain Donald Trump's brand of politics? He is not untested. On his watch, supporters tried to overturn the former US president's electoral defeat by force on January 6th, 2021. Why does he have the momentum?Emmanuel Macron's been blasted for gambling away his relative majority on a snap election that does not give citizens enough time to reflect. Americans will have had four long years to reflect. In both cases, are the one-third of voters solidly behind illiberal parties bigger risk takers than Macron or do they feel that they have nothing to lose? Produced By Aline Bottin, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown. 

Pascal Lamy, a 77-year-old "globalist" Frenchman who has staked his decades-long career on the idea that more Europe is always better than less, has told FRANCE 24 he's hopeful that the solid gains by hard-right and Eurosceptic parties in the EU elections will spur Europe's 500 million citizens to build more bridges. Speaking to Douglas Herbert, Lamy also discussed the new political landscape in his native France, following President Emmanuel Macron's shock decision to call snap elections. He predicted that the most likely outcome is that France will have "an extreme-right government sometime in July".

How student protests in support of Palestinians at Paris's political science institute are different from those in the US, a look at France's growing disaffection with Europe, and the long birth of the Channel Tunnel linking France to Britain – 30 years old this week.  Student protests against Israel's war in Gaza came to a head in the past week, when the president of the prestigious Sciences Po university called the police to forcibly clear out an occupation of the Paris campus' main building. Some have called the protests an imitation of what is happening in the United States, but the scale, scope and politics are a bit different. Students talk about why they have joined the protest movement, their shock over reactions by government and police, and compare today's mobilisation with student protests of the past. (Listen @0'00)On Europe Day, and with only a month to go before EU elections, surveys are showing France is an increasingly eurosceptic nation – only a quarter of the population place their trust in Europe and its institutions, and even fewer are optimistic about the EU's future. The disaffection with Europe comes as polls also show the far-right, populist National Rally is tipped to oustrip President Macron's ruling party in the elections. Laetitia Langlois from Angers University examines what's behind growing eurosceptism in France and what it means for President Emmanuel Macron. (Listen @16'30)The Channel Tunnel turns 30 years old this week. Officially opened on 6 May 1994, it was the culmination of two centuries of dreaming about a land link between France and the UK. (Listen @9'30)Episode mixed by Cecile Pompéani. Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

Krzysztof Bozak, a Polish Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker of the Sejm joins Hearts of Oak to outline his political journey, beginning with his participation in a youth movement and the founding of the Confederation of Freedom and Independence Party.  Krzysztof lifts the veil on the Law and Justice Party's EU stance, economic policies, and immigration management.  He tells us of the significance of upholding conservative and nationalist values amidst mainstream narratives.  Krzysztof highlights his role in the Polish Parliament and his openness to collaborating with like-minded international entities. This interview offers deep insights into Polish politics, party distinctions, and the importance of ideological integrity in a changing political landscape. Krzysztof Bosak began his political career as an activist and spokesman for the organisation All-Polish Youth. In 2005, he became one of the youngest Polish MPs in history, elected as a candidate of the League of Polish Families, a conservative party, at the age of 23.  Krzysztof is now the leader of Confederation of Freedom and Independence Party, Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker of the Sejm. Connect with Krzysztof... X/TWITTER               twitter.com/BosakKrzysztof    (English account)                                    twitter.com/krzysztofbosak Confederation of Freedom and Independence Party         WEBSITE                    konfederacja.pl X/TWITTER                https://konfederacja.pl/ Interview recorded  30.4.24 Connect with Hearts of Oak... X/TWITTER                twitter.com/HeartsofOakUK WEBSITE                    heartsofoak.org/ PODCASTS                heartsofoak.podbean.com/ SOCIAL MEDIA          heartsofoak.org/connect/ SHOP                          heartsofoak.org/shop/ TRANSCRIPT (Hearts of Oak) And I'm delighted to be joined by a member of the Polish Parliament, that is Krzysztof Bozak. Krzysztof, thank you for your time today. (Krzysztof Bosak) Thank you for the invitation and welcome everybody. Great to speak with you. I had the privilege of meeting you back, goodness, 18 months ago, I think, with Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff , a good friend of both of ours. And you are a member of the Polish parliament and I'm looking forward to understanding a little bit about the Polish parliament setup. Each country is different but you are the president of the national movement and you're the leader of the confederation or confederation of Freedom and Independence Party, and you're the Deputy Speaker of the House, which is called the Sejm. And your a husband, father, you're a Christian, and I want to delve into all of those. But Krzysztof, you became a member of the Parliament back in 2005. You were very young back then. Tell me why you got involved in politics. How did that happen and how did you end up standing as a member of parliament and being elected? It's a long story. In fact, this time I was the youngest MP in this term and I started being involved in politics by a youth movement, a Catholic Eurosceptic and Catholic Nationalist youth movement. Since I was in high school. I was 17 or 18 years old when I joined. It was the time of the debate about joining the EU. All mainstream parties, mainstream medias, mainstream bishops, mainstream everything was in favour of joining EU. And a small minority of speakers and social leaders were against defending principles of independence, sovereignty, traditional values, and so on. And I was sure that they are right and I joined this movement, being against joining European Union at that time. I joined a youth movement, then in 2001 a conservative pro-family, pro-life Eurosceptic party was created. It was League of Polish Families. It was kind of coalition of very different right-wing conservative or Eurosceptic or nationalist groups. And four years later I became the youngest MP being elected from my home town and constituency. From the 10th place on the list. So I was not a leader of the list, I was on the 10th place and people elected me from this list as the only MP in this constituency. So it was a very big success and a very big surprise for many people. And it was short term, only two years, because this was a time of big political instability. We had two government changes. It was, let's say, right-wing government, many scandals, and after two years, earlier elections, and my political party didn't succeed. League of Polish Families disappeared from Polish politics. Law and Justice political party took everything, every right-wing voters. We were against, we were competitors of law and justice, competitors from the right. They were centre-right from our perspective. and after that for 12 years I was outside the Parliament involved in social movement and working in right-wing NGOs, in think tanks like Republican Foundation, defending the same values on the social level with my colleagues and people who didn't lose faith in being active and trying to create truly right-wing political movement. We tried many times different attempts to get into the Parliament we have 5% threshold and proportional system so it's quite hard if you do not have support from big business big media or big money and we succeed in 2019 I went back to Parliament this time as a co-leader of of Confederation, Freedom and Independence. It is a coalition now, coalition of three political parties, three political movements. My movement, national movement, still the same values, still the same political tradition. So national conservative Catholic tradition, national democratic tradition of Polish political independence movement, and we created this national movement as a new political party ten years before, in 2013. So for six years we were outside the parliament, and after that we made a coalition with conservative libertarians and traditionalists. So conservative libertarians were created by long-term defender of economic freedom and civil liberties. Janusz Korwin-Mikke, now he's not in his political party, he's pleaded, but he created this political party and now they have a younger leader, Sławomir Manczan from Next Generation, very popular young businessman and tax advisor and also a big defender of economic freedom and conservative values. So this is the second pillar first is national conservative Catholic second is let's say conservative libertarian and the third is citizens movement traditionalist movement of Jagger Brown is a quite popular right-wing movie a documentary movies director an artist and intellectual who who were involved in politics also a few years before, first being on anti-communist and right-wing position, and then shifting more to the right and building the coalition with us. So now we have Confederation as a coalition, or let's say umbrella party, coalition party, for these three different movements and many smaller groups who joined us. And we work collectively, we have collective leadership and we challenge law and justice from the right. We were in opposition during eight years of law and justice government. From our perspective they are not very conservative and they are, I know that sometimes media call them nationalists, but from our perspective they were a typical centre-right political party. And we made an alternative right party for Polish voters and now we even extended the number of voters who support us. So now we have 18 MPs and more than 7% in polls and now we fight to get into the European Parliament. Because for now there are only people from Law and Justice and their allies parties. And we believe that Polish voters deserve to have better representation in European Parliament. Built by truly critical to European Union politicians, not supporters of EU who change only some narrative, but they always vote in favour of you. Well, tell us about the... Because when I, as a Brit, maybe read the newspapers here in the UK, it would have talked to the Law and Justice Party as being an extreme right party. In a similar way, they mock Orbán in Hungary. But I'm curious to see where you fit in, Because when I went over and met with you, I begun to understand the Law and Justice Party were maybe not as wonderful as the West may think. So what makes the Confederation different than the Law and Justice Party? Yeah. It's a very complicated topic, but I think that it's easier to propose some metaphor or some example. So it's quite similar in my opinion like in the United States where you have mainstream Republicans and you have Trump supporters and for example Rand Paul or some people who are more nationalist-oriented. So, in Polish politics, law and justice is like mainstream republicans. They use some words, some phrases, some ideas of conservative or even pro-national right, but they use it intentionally rather for propaganda and they act like centre-right politicians. When they were in government in Poland, they even introduced many policies. We can say that these policies that they developed on social level or in economic policy, these are rather social democratic policy, not conservative or right-wing or not nationalist in any way. So, to go into the details, we criticise them because they supported European integration on the new level. First, many years ago, they supported Lisbon Treaty. They negotiated Lisbon Treaty being in government. Then their president signed the Lisbon Treaty. They made a propaganda with mainstream and center-left and leftists that the Lisbon Treaty is good for Poland. And we believe the opposite, that it was a disaster. Our situation is much worse in the EU under the Lisbon Treaty than before. Then, during the last eight years, they supported the European Green Deal and their Prime Minister accepted the European Green Deal in the European Council. Now farmers oppose, they even criticise in the current electoral campaign. They made a pledge that they will stop the European Green Deal, but they do not say that their prime minister accepted it on the European Council in 2019 then in 2020 their prime minister Morawiecki accepted fit for 55. So they increased the goal of reducing these emissions 15 percent percent more and they introduced many new policies in European union and it is all possible because they are accepted in European council on a 2020 meeting in fact prime minister Morawiecki also proposed us as a polish prime minister in Brazos creating new pan-European taxes it's completely It's completely against our Constitution, it's completely against our values. We believe that our phrase is that we need small taxes and only paid in Poland and they three or five new pan-European taxes and they accepted it and we paid this to Brussels, not to Warsaw and we have no influence on how this will be used, this money. Then they accepted European debt, we strongly opposed any idea of giving this right to Eurocrats in Brussels to introducing their own debt and building their own sources of income by that. And they, of course, accepted. Then they accepted also in 2020 a special pan-European COVID fund called Next Generation EU, even this phrase, next generation EU is evil and of course they accepted it and they made a campaign in Poland that it's a big success of Poland and that we will have billions of euros because of this success of Prime Minister Morawiecki and law and justice. And there was a small minority of their MPs who criticised this but they were silenced in the party and in the media and in fact from the perspective of Polish voters we were the only one independent voice in Parliament. I took part in this debate in Parliament and criticised this next, please check this by some search engines, what is this, next generation EU. This is not only a European debt program. It is paid by European taxes and by European debt for many years, but it's also a new attitude towards European funds. They accepted that we will have funds only under many new political conditions. So now we got some milestones, they call these milestones, and this is the list of tasks, of political tasks, and they program Polish policy by Polish so-called democratic government from Brussels without any base in constitution. We have more than 100 milestones and these are the conditions to get this money. So, we made a new debt. This is not our debt, this is the European debt. And to use this debt, we have conflict with EU for almost 3 or 4 years. And they now lecture us on every issue from this list of 100 milestones. And Prime Minister Morawiecki from the Law and Justice Party in the Polish parliament said that he is not ashamed of this deal because, for example, Italians have more than 400 milestones, tasks. So it's a nightmare from the perspective of somebody who is in favour of Polish independence and sovereign policy and democracy and even democracy in Poland. They made a secret agreement in Polish parliament with leftists to support this, because even in their own political camp, they call it United Right, which is false, because the right in Poland is not united. But they use this phrase united right and theywere afraid that not every MP will support this but because it was so controversial so they made a secret agreement with leftists. They took some leftist agenda in this deal and they made majority with leftists to push it through the parliament. Then they never discussed all this deal and this 100 milestones in parliament. We had never any debate on this issue. In fact, this negotiations were secret also against people in government. Not every member of government knew what they discussed in Brussels. Now we know this only from media. They never introduced this deal in parliament and explained what's going on. Then they accepted very, in my opinion, bad new rule called rule of law conditionality. So now without base in European treaties, Eurocrats in Brussels can lecture us what is rule of law. They can stop money for us. So these were some examples of their EU policy. There are many more, for example, their member of European Committee was in favour of European Green Deal. He even said that it's in line with political agenda on agriculture of law and justice. So they had a big conflict, of course, with EU on this rule of law. And in this conflict they it was completely complete disaster for Polish state because they started this conflict and then they missed everything because they never finished any reform of courts in Poland and they made even leftists stronger in Poland because they tried to make some compromise with Brussels. This compromise was never accepted by Brussels because it was not, let's say, 100% what Brussels wanted. But in fact we have a very big mess in courts and in law about courts and about independence of judiciary. And now after this conflict and these reforms never finished as I said the situation is worse than when it started worse on the sovereignty worse on the justice and the time that you need to wait in the court for the justice. And worse, from the perspective of the power of liberal lobby in judiciary and right-wing people who, trusted law and justice government are in a very bad situation now because they took some positions or some propositions, and now they are nowhere, in the middle of nowhere. It's a very sad story. Then we have economic policy. Their economic policy was, in fact, social democratic. So they raised taxes, they raised debts, they extended public spending. They tried to centralize every policy. They took money from local governments. they put this money to their national budget and they try to influence every policy by their political nominees and they work like, let's say, Maybe not autocratic, but it was a typical one-party government which tried to centralize and control everything. It's the opposite that I understand the pro-national policy or conservative policy. It was, in my opinion, it was elitist and even social democratic when you analyse. For example, they were strongly against home-schooling and against independent schools. They proposed some legislation to ban homes chooling. After some protests of conservatives and leftists united, they stepped back. But after protests in their party and outside and from many directions. But their first goal was to centralize everything under the government rule. And we said that it's stupid because they will not rule for forever and after them the left will come to the government and exactly this is what we have in Poland. Now we have center-left government, liberal and leftists, and the left took Ministry of Education, everything was centralized. And now they try to switch, oppose every institution and every policy that law and justice created. And we said that it will be so. And now we see the consequences of their stupid policy, which was not conservative, not Christian, not supporting any citizens' movement. They believed only in their political party and that's all. This is their philosophy. Then we have a very important issue for us in Poland, let's say, immigration. Law and Justice government was introduced in Poland, open borders policy. They were against illegal immigration and at the same time they opened borders. For biggest immigration, legal immigration in Poland since maybe 300 years. Last time that we have so big immigration was maybe in 16th or 17th century. Now we have millions of legal immigrants in Poland, the majority of them are Ukrainians, but there are also people from different Asian and especially Asian countries. They didn't want immigrants from Africa, but they invited people from Asia. They made, being anti-Russian party, they made a special easier way for Russian citizens to come to Poland, to be a part of our labor market. They opened our market for people from Belarus, from Central Asia, from Caucasus. Now Georgian immigrants are the biggest group when you analyze crimes in Poland, they are in the first place. When you analyse people who smuggle illegal immigrants, Ukrainians are in the first place. We have, it's strange, but there is no official statistics how many immigrants do we have in Poland. Nobody can count them, because these are millions and they opened borders for legal immigration, but they didn't build any administration to control the immigration. So, in fact, the best data that we have is not from the government, but from telecom operators, from big telecom business who can say how many people use different languages on their phones. So this is how we know. Or from banks, because these people from abroad open bank accounts. But it's not all. It's not started with the war in Ukraine. This is what I would like to underline. We had much more than a million Ukrainian people in Poland before the war. They were intentionally invited and government worked also on some agreements with some Asian countries to increase legal immigration to Poland. These were also Muslim countries. During the law and justice government, Muslim population in Poland increased, in my opinion, more than ten times. In fact, to be honest, it is still small, but they started this. So now we have information that a third mosque will be built in Warsaw, and the biggest one, of course, with the money from abroad, because they never, they always criticized any foreign influence, and they never proposed any legislation to stop the influence by money from abroad, for the politics, or for example, to found Islam, or Muslim movement in Poland. Then, when the war in Ukraine started, they opened borders for refugees and in fact not only for refugees but for everybody with Ukrainian passport because they made some legislation. Giving every privilege that Polish citizens have for everybody with Ukrainian passport, even for people who came here from Western Europe. It's strange, but it's true. They made a special amendment, because their first goal was always to encourage as many foreigners to live and work in Poland as it is possible. It has two reasons. First is that they believe in multicultural society. It is a part of, this is some branch of Polish pre-modern tradition, that we had a commonwealth with different nations and some of them are from this tradition and they believe that they can rebuild this commonwealth with different nations in encouraging these nations to build some community, not let's say Polish community, but they call it a Republican community, a new commonwealth of nations. From our perspective, it sounds very similar to globalist agenda, but they say, no, no, no, it's not a multiculturalism by globalists, This is our tradition of Polish multiculturalism. We as a national movement completely do not believe in this concept. We believe it's anachronic, pre-modern, and it didn't work. In fact, we had a commonwealth with different nations, but these nations don't want commonwealth with us. These nations like Belarusians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, all of them wanted independent states. And it's normal, it's normal that every nation want to have their own independent states. So, some of law and justice politicians are people older age with their heads in the clouds, reading historical books and believing in some ideas, for example, from 17th, 16th or 18th century. And in my opinion they don't understand nothing from our times and especially they don't understand that mass immigration is a big threat for the society. In Poland this process started, especially in bigger cities. Warsaw under the Law and Justice government became much closer to London when we analysed the population. There are not many African people, but many people from Asia, as I said, and especially from Russia and Ukraine. The situation is changing very fast. They made a legislation and as I said, they gave every privilege, every policy for Polish citizens. They gave it also to the people with Ukrainian passports. And these are many millions of people who would like to live abroad. We are the only European nation that pays for everything. And, of course, we have nothing in exchange. We have some agenda towards Ukraine, but they did nothing from our agenda, and we gave everything. And this is what we're against because we believe that it's impossible for one country to have two nations on the payroll, and this is how it works now. Then you have also Ukraine and supporting Ukraine agenda. At the beginning of the war we were not against, because we believed that this horrible Russian attack, is a crime and is a threat, but after two years we see that their government gave all that we have to Ukraine and the result is still not clear and other European nations do not act this way. They negotiate some things for them. Americans are also not very fast to give everything what they have. And now, for example, our army do not have enough weapons because they gave new weapons from Polish army to Ukraine. And at the beginning they said that Americans or Germans will give us in change new equipment, all the equipment and the thing, but they didn't. So it's very hard being a Pole and seeing all of that. It's very hard not to be critical to law and justice and their government. In fact, we are not surprised. We know these people for many years. We know that during the debate about joining EU they were in the same camp as leftists, as centrists, progressives and all of them. In fact, they were never national or truly traditionalist or truly conservative right. They are a mix of people of different ideas and their leader of law and justice. It's not easy to understand this, being a foreigner, but to understand the situation you should know that the leader of law and justice Jaroslaw Kaczynski. He always were against Polish nationalist tradition. He is rather from the tradition of Polish patriotic socialism. We had some pre-war tradition from interwar period of Polish, let's say, Polish patriotic socialists and this is their first choice. They do not talk about this last decades because they know that people would like to vote right-wing party, not patriotic left-wing party. But the leader is rather from, let's say, centrist or centre-left patriotic republican tradition, the leader of law and justice. The members of the party are very mixed and very different. I would not say that every MP is bad. There are many probably MPs with good views but they vote bad or act bad being in government. I will give you one more or two more examples. For example, we had a very big debate in Poland about pro-life. Law and justice was always pro-life in declaration but when they got majority they did everything thing not to vote on pro-life bill so two times polish pro-life movement collected more than hundreds of thousands of signatures having majority so-called pro-life majority people had to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures to put citizens bill to parliament and they voted against. They voted against for two times, then we as right-wing MPs, some of their MPs and every MP from Confederation made written request to Constitutional Court and Constitutional Court with some nominees, right-wing nominees from Law and Justice waited few years to analyse this request, but after they analysed this, they made a judgement that it is against Polish constitution to kill unborn babies with some disabilities or health problems. And this is how the situation changed, not by the voting in parliament, And of course, people who are in favour of law and justice say that this was their secret plan to organise this this way. But I do not believe. In my opinion, it was rather by accident. They never wanted. And now their former prime minister Morawiecki said that he is against this sentence of the court, of constitutional court. That they should defend this. Yes. But they said that they are against because they are afraid of public opinion, people who like abortion, they want centrist voters and so on. So they do not defend, they controlled every media in Poland and they didn't defend this issue. Another example, their prime minister supported long-term EU LGBT strategy. Being prime minister voted in favour. Another example, their minister who was responsible for European funds sent a secret letter to local governments that if they want European funds they should cancel Anti-LGBT and pro-family statements. Many local councils made some statements that they are against LGBT propaganda in schools and they support normal family policy. It was then criticized by, of course, progressive media and some LGBT organizations, but there was nothing against citizens' rights. It was nothing against civil liberties or something. It was a declaration that we don't want propaganda in schools or something like that. And we know that they made this letter to local governments. We know that only from LGBT organizations because they published this, being proud that the so-called right-wing government is pushing the pressure with the EU to local governments to be not too much conservative. Yes, so it shows how they work and they say one thing and they do the opposite and it was always like that. We know we know these people for four decades So we are not surprised about normal polish voter don't know all of these facts because you need, hundreds of hours to follow every information and analyse everything to to gather these details and to understand what's going on and if you follow only mainstream media, even mainstream Catholic media in Poland. In progressive mainstream media, you had an attack on law and justice, that these are nationalists, they are xenophobic, they are anti-European, they want to go back to the Middle Ages or something like that. So people said, okay, these are good people, yes, they are very conservative. And if you listen to some right-wing media or Catholic media, They are true conservatives. They fight very hard, tough fights in the EU and so on. And you had nowhere to have the truth about how they rule, how they govern the country. Everybody analyzed only what they said. And their speeches were quite good. I can agree. For example, two days ago, I listened to the speech of their leader and to their convention about EU policy and I could take this and it could be my speech, yes, but it has nothing to do with their government, what they did in Brussels. This is the problem and I think it's a problem in many countries. It's a problem also in Hungary. Orban is also very pragmatic, yes, he's not a nationalist. And there's a problem in Italy with the Meloni government. It's not an independent agenda of independence. And in many other countries. So this is how it works. And this is why we believe that Polish politics deserve a truly right-wing party with truly conservative and truly pro-national and sovereign agenda and people who are against political correctness. This is what gathers us in Confederation. We are against political correctness. We don't want to be influenced in any way by anybody from mainstream. And we are proud that we are anti-mainstream. Of course, I had many debates in mainstream media, so I always go when they ask me and I always discuss. And I believe that my views are not radical or far-right or anything like that. But I don't want to give up my principles and my beliefs. I don't want, I would rather, I would like to be rather outside politics, like being 12 years outside the parliament, than joining this, let's say, fake right political parties and saying good speeches and voting bad things. I don't want that. Well, Krzysztof, thank you for giving us such an overview of Polish politics. And I wish that we had politicians like yourself in the UK with conviction, with beliefs that actually stood on a biblical principle on a lot of these issues. And I just the final thought is as deputy speaker, I mean, that is a that is a prestigious, important position. You must be Donald Tusk's kind of worst nightmare, that you stand for everything he is against. I'm sure it was difficult to actually get in that position, was it? I'm sure there was opposition. I know we only have a few minutes, but I'm just curious to know the opposition from people like Tusk to actually having you, a nationalist, a Christian, in that position. It's a little bit different, in my opinion. To understand the situation, you should know that the main line of political difference, is in Poland between Civic Platform and Donald Tusk as a leader, and Law and Justice and Jarosław Kaczyński as a leader. It's not, on some level of course it's a, let's say, ideological and political different, but they have many things in common. This is our, let's say, talking point, yes, that they are not so different on the level of agenda of political program. When you analyze their EU policy, they could exchange their ministers, and in fact, they're exchanged in these two political parties many members of cabinets. In fact, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki before was an advisor to Donald Tusk. And there are many examples, I will not go into the detail because it's not so important. It is important to understand that it's a, let's say, ambition conflict between Kaczynski and Tusk. It's obvious that they hate each other. It started in 80s in the opposition movement. They have very bad opinion about each other, very bad. This is a true conflict, a true personal conflict. Both of them try to be pragmatic and in fact they are very pragmatic, very. But not on this one issue, not all about them themselves. This is their weak point that they become very emotional. So going back to the situation in the chamber and me as a deputy speaker Donald Tusk and don't care he don't care he hate yaroslav kaczynski and me I'm the guy from the different generation, in my opinion he do not believe in anything he is a pragmatic politician after so many years in politics. He was a liberal, he was a classic liberal in 80s, maybe early 90s. So on the level of defending economic freedom, I think he understands everything what we say. And he's a former classic liberal. Maybe he started on the same positions as Viktor Orban, but during years in politics, he lost belief probably in any principle. And now probably the only thing that he believes is pragmatism and power. Being in power and being pragmatic. This is how I understand him. So, in my opinion, he used left-wing politicians as tools. He gave them the platform, as you say in English, he gave them the platform, he gave them the space, even in government, he gave them a very important part of administration because he doesn't care. Not because he supports these ideas, he doesn't care. In my opinion, he personally believes that these are stupid people with stupid program but he didn't care. So he also didn't care about my views, in my opinion. Of course, some of his members in his political party care a lot and hate very conservative people. This is, let's say, a pro-abortion lobby in his party, very strong now, because his party started as centre-right party. It is interesting that Civic Platform, the party of Donald Tusk, started in 2001, all these three parties that I talked about, so League of Polish Families, Law and Justice and Civic Platform, all these political parties started in 2001 and entered the parliament. League of Polish Families after seven years was kicked out from parliament by voters unfortunately, but Law and Justice and Civic Platform stayed there and both Law and Justice Party and Civic Platform started as centre-right political parties very similar to each other, so similar that some politicians in 2001 didn't know which one to join so it was like a lottery or you had colleagues here so you go there you have colleagues here you go there it was a time of big changes in Polish politics so a civic platform the party of Donald Tusk started as a platform with principles of defending western civilization defending Christian values defending economic freedom defending some some conservative values maybe not everything but some and being pro-EU this was the starting point and after 20 years, they are centre-left political parties with very big pro-abortion, progressive lobby inside, former post-communist politicians, former leftist politicians inside, Green Party inside, because they built a civic coalition, they extended civic platform into civic coalition. And in this coalition, you have people who split it from the post-communist left, you have Green Party, you have some citizens' movement, and It's a central left spectrum. And Donald Tusk is a leader for everybody because now he tried to be pragmatic, not to be too close to any special views, yes? So for me it's completely not a problem. It's a problem with some MPs who are trying to be a little bit offensive or sometimes aggressive but I have my attitude which is always being very calm and polite to everybody no matter what are his views. I try to be polite and with respect to everybody this is I believe that how we should act in democratic politics and in Parliament and it works, because in fact even left-wing MPs or pro-abortion MPs have a good opinion about me as a deputy speaker, because I do not interrupt their speeches, I'm not nasty, counting their time. They could cooperate on this normal level with me, in my opinion, much better than, for example, with deputy speakers from law and justice, they were horrible, they were nasty, they were aggressive. They used their seat to, not to push their agenda, but to push their emotions against other people. So they were, there were attempts to push me from the seat, to kick me from the seat, the left put this request, but nobody voted in favor of this request, because nobody believed that it's a good decision to take this position from me and give it to anybody else. I think it's a result of maybe 20 years of my work in public debate and people know who I am, people know that I have my views, but people even who do not believe in my views, they respect that I didn't change them for many years, that I, in fact, in my opinion, many people from centre-left also respect me, that I didn't join law and justice. Because they have very bad opinion about law and justice, also about how they ruled when you analyse what they did with public money. Yes, this is another story, what they did with public money, how they used this for themselves. Their interests. Not very many bad stories. And we were not involved in all of that. So in my opinion, I have, I am lucky because I have a big respect. Of course, not everybody like me and especially not everybody like my views. But I have no reasons, I have no reason to say that I'm in a bad situation. Well, Krzysztof, I do appreciate your time. I'm so thankful to have you on. I know you've got great demands on your time being in that high profile position and being a high profile figure in the country. So thank you so much for giving us your time to explain to our UK and US audience a little bit about Polish politics. So thank you. Thank you very much for this invitation and this conversation and to finish this conversation with some good accent I would like to invite everybody who are true conservative people to come to Poland to meet us. We are very open to extend our international contacts. What I would like to say is that on the level of personal contacts. If some of you have some contacts with people from law and justice, it's not bad for us. As a normal people, we talk with each other normally in Parliament and outside Parliament. So we are critical to their leadership and to their prime minister, but taking normal MPs, we talk like normal people. And it is possible to have contacts with law and justice, for example, in European Parliament and with us in Poland or when we enter the European Parliament. So I would like to encourage everybody from truly right-wing movement to build contacts with Polish people, with Polish conservative organisations, political parties, editorial houses, NGOs, social movements. We have a big social movement, very many organizations and many good people. And please, come to Poland, have this contact, maybe also some people from the States. I believe that we should support each other. I always put some time and my energy to build this contact, so maybe some of my colleagues from abroad will watch this interview. I hope so. And me personally and our colleagues from Confederation, we are always very open to support every good people with good ideas to defend the principles that we believe, also conservative, traditional, Christian, Pro-freedom, pro-independence, and other good principles. So, this is my word and I believe that despite all these bad tendencies that we see in Western world, in Europe, we should have hope and we should defend good principles and good values, because this is our duty and this is how I believe, this is what we should do. So I have very big respect for every people who work in politics and on social level in countries that are less conservative than Poland, because I know how it feels when your country is going in the wrong direction. I talked with people from different countries and I know how it feels and I have big respect if you do a good job and give hope to your people, to your nations. Exactly. Well, thank you, Krzysztof, for your time. Greatly appreciate it. And I'm sure we will speak soon. Thank you very much.

The European Parliament confronts the Council and the Commission today about the political developments that have swept Slovakia.On Sunday (7 April), Slovaks elected Peter Pellegrini, an ally of populist pro-Russian Prime Minister Robert Fico, as the country's new president, boosting the pro-Moscow forces' grip on power.The European Commission has already threatened to freeze funds for Bratislava in response, but that might make the Eurosceptic prime minister even more popular. After the backsliding in Hungary under Viktor Orban, can the EU stop another country in the union from eroding its democracy?We invited Zuzana Gabrižová, editor-in-chief of Euractiv Slovakia, to help us analyse the situation.

In the latest episode of our daily podcast Today in the EU, we take a look at the consequences of political polarisation in Poland. October 2023 marked the end of eight years of the nationalist government of the Law and Justice party in Poland, with the election of pro-EU veteran Donald Tusk. Brussels welcomed his rise to power and unfroze billions in funds to Poland. But change does not happen overnight. Tusk is now confronted with an electorate divided over how the government should address farmers' protests, the cost of living crisis, and hostile attitudes towards the European Union. Will he succeed in steering Poland away from Euroscepticism? 

歐洲各國爆發農民抗議活動，出動拖拉機封鎖街道導致各地交通癱瘓、向歐洲議會投擲雞蛋表示不滿，部份地區也發生與警察衝突的事件。歐洲的農民們為何抗議? ♥️ 每月小額贊助: https://bit.ly/zeczec_ssyingwen ——— · 訂閱講義 (NT$88 /月)：https://bit.ly/ssyingwen_notes · 網站 (相關文章 / 影片)：https://ssyingwen.com/ssep181  · 單字卡在 IG： ssyingwen ——— 本集 timestamps  0:00 Intro 1:16 第一遍英文朗讀 4:20 新聞 & 相關單字解說 20:28 額外單字片語 30:45 第二遍英文朗讀 ——— 朗讀內容參考了 Reuters, AP, CNN, 兩篇 BBC, BBC, 兩篇 Euronews, Euronews, 以及兩篇 The Guardian, The Guardian. ——— 重點單字片語 (敘述欄有字數限制，完整版請參考講義)： Poland 波蘭 Hungary 匈牙利 Spain 西班牙 Belgium 比利時 Tractors 拖拉機 Greece 希臘 Ukraine 烏克蘭 Border crossings 邊境關口 / 關卡 Brussels 布魯塞爾 France 法國 Farmers 農民 Grievances 委屈、不滿，抱怨 Red tape 繁文縟節、拖拉費時的官僚繁瑣手續 European Union (EU)歐洲聯盟、歐盟 Russia's invasion of Ukraine 俄羅斯對烏克蘭的入侵 The cost of living crisis 生活成本危機 Imports 進口 Bugbear 讓人討厭的事 Quotas 配額；對某些商品的進出口數量或金額上的控制 Duties 關稅；對進口貨物和物品徵收的稅 Unfair competition 不公平競爭 Resentment 不滿情緒 Climate change 氣候變遷 Portugal 葡萄牙 Brussels bureaucracy 布魯塞爾的官僚機構；指歐盟總部 The European Green Deal 歐洲綠色協議 The European Commission 歐洲執行委員會 Concessions 妥協、讓步 Pesticides 殺蟲劑 European parliament elections 歐洲 / 歐盟議會的選舉 Eurosceptic parties 反親歐派的 / 對歐盟持有懷疑態度的黨派 Far-right 極右翼的 Anti-European 反歐盟的 Farming 農業 (也常見 agriculture) Political agenda 政治議程；政府官員與民眾認真關注的議題清單 Ramp 斜坡 / 坡道、匝道 Ramp up 加快、增加、提高、加強 Valentine's Day 情人節 Singles Awareness Day 單身意識日

A wave of upheaval is happening across Europe, with hard right or Eurosceptic parties gaining traction in countries from France, to Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Matt climbs aboard Chorley Airways to find out how the political landscape is changing.Plus: Columnists Manveen Rana and Matthew Bell discuss leadership lessons from Tony Blair, why being an MP is becoming increasingly dangerous, and what happens when politicians name-check members of the public.Columnist Panel (01:52)Europe's Turn To The Right (24:25) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today's show, Dr John Laughland discusses right-wing governments rising up.   GUEST OVERVIEW: Dr John Laughland is Director of Forum for Democracy International and a lecturer in political science and history at the Catholic Institute of the Vendée in Western France. He was Director of the Eurosceptic think tank European Foundation until 2008 and Director of studies at the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation in Paris until 2018. He worked at the European Parliament from 2018 to 2020.   X: @john_laughland      

Even those closest to Boris thought he was a Remainer. He liked to flirt with Eurosceptic views but had always been open about the benefits of remaining a member of the European Union.And then Guto gets a call from Boris's sister - "Boris is about to do something really stupid, you're the only one in the world I can think of who can stop him."Boris joined forces with Vote Leave and supported Brexit. But did he really understand the world he'd be drawn into?From the questionable promises made, to the tribe of people he became stuck with, Brexit propelled Boris Johnson to become the Prime Minister - but it was a house built on sand.Guto takes us through this unique, unrepeatable, and fast-moving time. He takes us into Number 10, a peek behind the curtain to see what really happened in a period that encapsulated Boris's rise to the very top of Government, to the chaos and scandals that would ultimately be his downfall. Archive credits1. PA Media2. LBC / Global3. 10 Downing Street / YouTube4. Parliament Live TV5. The Commonwealth / YouTube6. Politics South East / BBC Sunday Politics7. European Parliament Multimedia Centre / europa.eu

Boris Johnson may have criticised the prime minister's deal on post-Brexit trading in Northern Ireland but a number of formerly staunch Eurosceptic rebels — including Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker — have enthused about Sunak's success. How is the PM going to manage dissent within his own ranks, or is Eurosceptic opposition crumbling? Plus, what the deal on the new-look protocol - aka the Windsor framework - means in practice for business.Presented by George Parker, with political correspondent Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe, Ireland correspondent Jude Webber, Brussels correspondent Andy Bounds and special guest former Tory cabinet minister and New Statesman columnist David Gauke.Produced by Anna Dedhar and Manuela Saragosa. The sound engineer was Breen TurnerNews clips: BBC, GB News, Sky-Follow @GeorgeParker -Subscribe to FT UK politics newsletter -Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com -View our accessibility guide Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For Northern Ireland Protocol, now read Windsor Framework. A beaming Rishi Sunak and European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, have signed what MIGHT come to be seen as an historic agreement to solve the conundrum of the status of Northern Ireland post-Brexit. Might, because we don't know how the loyalist, unionist DUP will react, nor the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative Party, the ERG, potentially led by mischief-maker-in-chief, Boris Johnson. What Sunak has negotiated is a victory for pragmatic policy-making. But the raw politics still looks precarious.You can watch our episodes in full at https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

Truss is back and Johnson never went away – what are they angling for? And can Sunak avoid these two figurative icebergs? Plus, the yob narrative is back on the agenda. Is Tory posturing on anti-social behaviour any more than pandering to curtain-twitchers? And with Australia choosing not to put Charles on its banknotes – who should we put on our money? The panel is joined by Geri Scott, political reporter for The Times.  Get your tickets for OGWN Live at the Leicester Square Theatre on Weds 15 Feb. Get your Official Left-Wing Economic Establishment mugs here. “She sounded like somebody who had lost the ability to assess empirical reality… if you were a close friend of hers you'd want to sit down and have a chat.” – Ian Dunt  “Boris Johnson could be moulded into any political position he finds useful.” – Ian Dunt  “There used to be these big debates: Heath vs Thatcher, Europhile vs Eurosceptic - where are those big debates within the Tory Party now?” – Ian Dunt  “I really don't think [Liz Truss] has got many friends left, and that's why she's doing this kind of legacy making” – Geri Scott www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Ian Dunt and Marie Le Conte. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jet Gerbertson and Alex Rees. Assistant producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz Audio production by Alex Rees. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most of you have heard about the European Union and Brexit. But have you met someone who was actually a Member of the European Parliament (MEP)? On this episode I interview former MEP Jonathan Arnott and he explains what the European Union is and what he did as a MEP.

Recent election gains by Marine Le Pen's far-right party have sent shockwaves across France and triggered concern throughout the EU. Could the rise of the Eurosceptic far-right threaten the future of the bloc? And could Emmanuel Macron's nationalist nemesis be paving the way for a Frexit? This is The Overview

Veterans In Politics- Season 4, Episode  with  Steve Baker MP FRSASteve's career began in the Royal Air Force as an engineer officer working with Tornado, Jaguar and the Adour aero engine. He became a Chartered Engineer through the Royal Aeronautical Society and held a military airworthiness licence. After his time with the RAF, he read for an MSc in Computer Science at Oxford University (St Cross College) and joined a specialist, entrepreneurial software firm as Head of Consulting and Product Manager before taking on various senior roles in business software.Steve was elected to Parliament representing Wycombe in 2010. He served first on the Transport Select committee before moving to the Treasury Committee. He was elected to the Executive of the Conservative 1922 Committee by Parliamentary colleagues.A vocal Eurosceptic, Steve is a rebel by fashion rather than design, taking on the issues whilst a self-confessed Party loyalist.  It was great sitting down and talking about his RAF career, his support to Party professionals and advice for aspiring MPs.  NOTE- Please rate us on Apple Podcasts, donate or become our mate on our website HERE:  Donate - CampaignForce

Veterans In Politics- Season 4, Episode 6 with  Sir Desmond Swayne TD VR MPBefore going into politics, Sir Desmond was a teacher, and then a manager at the Royal Bank of Scotland. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Cameron, both during his time as Leader of the Opposition, 2005–10, and then for two years while Cameron was Prime Minister.  We ask him about what Cameron was actually like to work for, and the experience of working at No 10.  You will love this insight!Sir Desmond was also mobilised for active service in Iraq towards the end of a lengthy reservist career that spanned almost 4 decades.  We recount this, and his news reports back from operational theatre and how this irritated the chain of command.He was a supporter of the Eurosceptic pressure group Leave Means Leave and more recently, has been a critic of the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  We explore his reasoning of this, and why he believes strongly in what he does.NOTE- Please rate us on Apple Podcasts, donate or become our mate on our website HERE:  Donate - CampaignForce

Sir Richard Shepherd, for 35 years an independently minded Conservative MP, died last month. How should he be remembered? As a Eurosceptic and a natural rebel, certainly, and also as the founder of Partridges - one of London's most loved food shops. But was he, at heart, a libertarian or a traditional Tory or an old school Liberal?  Joining The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, to discuss Richard Shepherd's life in politics in this podcast are his former parliamentary colleagues, Barry Legg and Sir Bill Cash.

In the last twenty years Britons and Eastern Europeans have become closer and more intertwined than ever before. But it's often been a relationship of frustration, and, through the rise of anti-immigration and Eurosceptic politics, marked by xenophobia and racism. In this podcast hosts Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams talk to Yva Alexandrova and Alena Ivanova about Yva's new book, Here to Stay: Eastern Europeans in Britain (Repeater Books, 2021). They discuss the problems the left in the UK has had in engaging the issue of European migration and giving voice to these experiences, and reflect on the myriad of ways in which the peoples of these islands are now connected to Eastern Europeans.   Here to Stay is out now:  https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/677207/here-to-stay-by-yva-alexandrova/ 

Pete Hoekstra was US Ambassador to the Netherlands during the Trump administration. He served 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the second district of Michigan and served as Chairman and Ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. He is currently Chairman of the Center for Security Policy Board of Advisors. Eurosceptic Alliance to Fight Creation of European Superstate

This is part 1 of a special episode bringing together voices from across the political spectrum who share a positive vision for Britain outside the European Union. Part 2. MAD LADS OF LEXIT, continues the discussion with David Jamieson and Joe Guinan, and is available to subscribers at Patreon.com/ThePopularPod. Subscribers already got the unedited interview with John Redwood when it was recorded in October. The BAD BOYS are: Sir John Redwood, MP, head of Margaret Thatcher's policy unit, and a longstanding Eurosceptic of the Tory Right. David Jamieson, a Scottish Marxist, co-host of Contercast, and a rare supporter both of Brexit and Scottish Independence. And Joe Guinan, Vice President of the Democracy Collaborative Think Tank and a key contributor to the economic policies of Jeremy Corbyn.

Broadcaster and and former Director of Strategy to David Cameron, Steve Hilton makes a rare UK media appearance to tell our Planet Normal co-pilots, Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan, how his former boss was actually a Eurosceptic, what President Biden has in common with a Monty Python sketch and why things are looking good for Donald Trump in 2024.And with the spotlight on all things green this week, the Planet Normal rocket takes a virtual trip to Cop26. Allison disregards the gathering as a 'pantomime', Liam tells us why he's backing the Indian approach to net zero, and our co-pilots agree that were they attending a climate change summit, they might skip the private jet.Also on the podcast: have the charms of French President Emmanuel Macron finally worn off for Ms Pearson?Allison will be replying to comments beneath this article on Thursday 3rd of November 11am-12pm: Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/allison-pearson/ |Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ |Listen to Chopper's Politics: https://www.playpodca.st/chopper |Need help subscribing or reviewing? Read more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen/ |Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk |For 30 days' free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal |See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last episode of our special summer series, Jessica Elgot asks her guests: Who is the elusive David Frost? When did he become such a Eurosceptic? And how will the continuous fallout from Brexit affect his legacy?. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/politicspod

Joe Biden described his mission for his trip to Europe this week as “realizing America's renewed commitment to (its) allies and partners.” But what does this mean in practice? How well does the transatlantic alliance still fit with the way that Europe and the United States now see their goals in foreign policy? To find out, host Anthony Dworkin, senior policy fellow at ECFR, talks to Susi Dennison, director of ECFR´s European Power Program, Jana Puglierin, head of ECFR´s Berlin office, as well as Jeremy Shapiro, ECFR´s research director. They discuss what Europe and the US want from this week's summit meetings and look at some of the striking results of ECFR's latest public opinion poll across 12 European countries. Once the coronavirus crisis is over, how do Europeans see the EU's role in the world? This podcast was recorded on 9 June 2021. Further reading: - Crisis of confidence: How Europeans see their place in the world by Jana Puglierin & Susi Dennison: https://buff.ly/2RxZFt9 Bookshelf: - "How to prevent Germany from becoming Eurosceptic" by Jana Puglierin & Mark Leonard: https://buff.ly/2RzAxSO - "Ali and Nino" by Kurban Said - "The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life" by Tom Reiss - "Why the Germans Do it Better: Notes from a Grown-Up Country" by John Kampfner - "Histoire de la laïcité en France" by Jean Baubérot Photo: dpa CC BY

How the European Union relates to the world of business has long been a matter of great contention. Scepticism towards the EU on the right of politics has for decades been fuelled by the perception that Brussels is a bureaucratic regulation generator, with little understanding of how business operates. On the Eurosceptic left, by contrast, the EU has been seen as a capitalist club, in hock to big business, incapable of seeing the interests of ordinary people.How has the relationship between business and the EU evolved over time? How does it vary from sector to sector? And what does it all mean for policy outcomes? A new book sheds much fresh light. Called Business Lobbying in the European Union, the book is co-authored by UCL’s very own David Coen, along with Alexander Katsaitis from the London School of Economics and Matia Vannoni from King's College London. Host: Dr Alan RenwickProfessor David CoenBusiness Lobbying in the European Union

Phil Wang gets to grips with the 2016 Eurosceptic experimental hip-hop album United Diktatürs of Europe, by Anarchist Republic of BZZZ. Plus why instruments are like tacos. Produced by Hannah Hufford Photography by Edward Moore Design by Danny Arter

The whole world now believes that the coronavirus originated in China, in a wet market, in a bat. But now the hunt is on for patient zero. As Beijing begins to return to something resembling normality, we get a firsthand report from Tom McGregor, an American living and working in China. He joined us in the Sputnik studio via satellite to discuss, amongst other things, how the virus emerged, if the current anti-China propaganda could have repercussions down the line, and whether the current spike in divorces is really attributable to the coronavirus lockdown. It is said that, had Harold Wilson been run over by a bus in the morning, any one of his cabinet could have replaced him as prime minister by the afternoon – such was the quality of parliamentarians in the 1960s. One of those cabinet members was Peter Shore. A dazzling orator and outstanding statesman, he was also the original Eurosceptic. A new book by Kevin Hickson, a senior lecturer in British politics at Liverpool University, reappraises the life and times of this political giant; he came into the studio to tell us more.

Interview mit Sven-Christian KindlerBegrüßung In der Nacht von Freitag auf Samstag ist das Vereinigte Königreich aus der Europäischen Union ausgetreten. Ulf bezeichnet den Brexit als ein Zeugnis dessen, was in der direkten Demokratie alles schief gehen kann. Doch das Drama ist noch nicht vorbei. In den kommenden Tagen starteten die Verhandlungen über ein Freihandelsabkommen, deren Ende noch nicht absehbar ist.  Hymne Brexit-Bilanz: Der Milliardenschaden, den die Briten kaum spüren (spiegel.de)EU und UK: Wie weiter nach der Trennung? (eurotopics.net)Der Brexit ist beschlossen - was passiert jetzt? (eurotopics.net)The Eurosceptic mission will not be over until the EU withers away (The Telegraph)Brexit : « Les Britanniques ne sont pas européens » (Le Monde.fr)Newsrooml (drv.de)Ein großer Platz wird frei (Süddeutsche.de) Coronavirus Wegen dem neuartigen Corona Virus namens 2019-nCoV rief die Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) in der vergangenen Woche eine «gesundheitliche Notlage von internationaler Tragweite» aus. Einen solchen Gesundheitsnotstand wurde zuletzt im Jahr 2019 bei Ebola erklärt. Die größte Sorge der WHO ist, dass sich das Virus auf Länder mit weniger gut ausgestatteten Gesundheitssystemen ausbreitet. Obwohl die Organisation keine Handels- und Reisebeschränkungen vorsieht, empfiehlt sie, Passagiere an Flughäfen und Güter- der Container-Verladeplätze zu überprüfen. Welche Auswirkung der Virus auf die Weltwirtschaft hat ist noch nicht abzusehen.   A Virus’s Journey Across China (The New York Times)Gesundheitsnotstand: Was die WHO-Erklärung bedeutet (tagesschau.de) Premliminary assessment of the International Spreading Risk Associated with the 2019 novel Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan City (mobs-lab.org)Epidemic Map  (3g.dxy.cn)Coronavirus: WHO ruft internationalen Gesundheitsnotstand aus  (spiegel.de) Coronavirus - Was Sie zum neuen Virus aus China wissen sollten - Stiftung Warentest (test.de) RKI - Infektionskrankheiten A-Z - Neuartiges Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) (rki.de) Zwischen Einsicht und Zwang (Süddeutsche.de)Dem Virus auf der Spur (Süddeutsche.de)Mehrere Deutsche infiziert (Süddeutsche.de) How to Misinform Yourself About the Coronavirus (The Atlantic)Bericht zur Epidemiologie der Influenza tin Deutschland Saison 2018/19 (influenza.rki.de) Droht jetzt eine Pandemie? (tagesspiegel.de) Virologe Kekulé: "Man hätte mehr gegen das Virus tun können" (br)Wenn die Globalisierung zur tödlichen Gefahr wird (Der Spiegel) Virologe: Corona nicht harmloser als Grippe (NDR)Ansteckend wie SARS, aber seltener tödlich (Deutschlandradio) Bahn-Milliarden (Interview Sven-Christian Kindler) Die Bundesregierung hat die Deutsche Bahn in den vergangenen Jahren kaputt gespart. Nun erhält der Konzern von der Regierung mehrere Milliarden Euro. Das Geld soll unter anderem in die Erneuerung von Gleisen und Eisenbahnbrücken fließen. Doch reicht die Summe aus, um die Probleme der Deutsche Bahn zu lösen? Ein zweiter Blick zeigt, dass die Modernisierung der bestehenden Infrastruktur erheblich aufwendiger und teurer ist, als gedacht. Der MdB der Grünen, Sven-Christian Kindler, sagt im Interview, dass das Geld nicht reicht und erklärt, welche strukturellen Probleme der Bahn angegangen werden müssen. PM: Missmanagement bei der Bahn beenden (sven-kindler.de)Mehr Geld vom Bund: Milliarden für den ÖPNV (FAZ.NET)Fast 1,7 Milliarden Euro für Schienennetz und Bahnhöfe in Baden-Württemberg - Über 1.000 Kilometer Gleis wurden seit 2015 erneuert - Kundenfreundliches Bauen für weniger  (regierend)Warum die Bahn um die versprochenen elf Milliarden Euro bangen muss (tagesspiegel.de)Live CO2 emissions of electricity consumption (electricitymap.org) Gesetz über die Feststellung des Bundeshaushaltsplans für das Haushaltsjahr 2020 (bundeshaushalt.de)Ergänzung zu den Beschlussempfehlungen des Haushaltsausschusses (8. Ausschuss)  (dip21.bundestag.de) Bundestag beschließt Kahlschlag bei Energieforschung 2020 (solarserver.de) Kritik an Mittelkürzung für Energieforschung - 90% weniger  (finanztreff.de)BMWi bestreitet drastische Mittelkürzung bei Energieforschung (finanztreff.de)Starke Kürzungen bei der Projektförderung der Energieforschung (tagesspiegel.de)Stecker gezogen (taz.de) Pannen auf Schienen (Süddeutsche.de) Mietendeckel Das Berliner Abgeordnetenhaus hat am Donnerstag das Mietendeckel-Gesetz beschlossen. Das Gesetz soll sowohl neue Mieten begrenzen, als auch bestehende Mieten kürzen. Auch wenn der Mietendeckel nur für Berlin verabschiedet wurde, ist er ein Präzedenzfall. Glückt das Experiment, kann davon ausgegangen werden, dass sich andere Bundesländer an dem Gesetz orientieren werden. Umstritten ist, ob das Bundesland die Gesetzgebungskompetenz hat. Aus deshalb wird der Mietendeckel voraussichtlich vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht landen. Kilian Wegner (twitter)Berlin beschließt Mietendeckel - Verbot für Mieterhöhungen - Stiftung Warentest (test.de)Rot-Rot-Grün lässt die Mieter am Ende doch allein (m.tagesspiegel.de) Wohnungsverband rät Vermietern, Mieten zu senken (tagesspiegel.de)Wohlhabende können sich freuen (tagesspiegel.de)Was Sie zum Berliner Gesetz gegen zu hohe Mieten wissen müssen (tagesspiegel.de)Reaktionen zum Mietendeckel-Beschluss (tagesspiegel.de)Wohnungsmarkt: Der Berliner Mietendeckel kommt: Das sind die Auswirkungen für Mieter und Vermieter (handelsblatt.com)Der Berliner Mietendeckel kommt: Das sind die Auswirkungen für Mieter und Vermieter (handelsblatt.com) Verbot für Miet­erhöhungen (Stiftung Warentest) Mietendeckel in Berlin In zentralen Citylagen sinken die Mieten am stärksten (Der Tagesspiegel) „Historische Dummheit“ und „toller Erfolg“ Reaktionen zum Mietendeckel-Beschluss (Der Tagesspiegel) Wahlrechtsreform Die Debatte über die Wahlrechtsreform flammt wieder auf. Denn aufgrund von Überhangs- und Ausgleichsmandaten wird befürchtet, dass der Bundestag nach der nächsten Bundestagswahl noch größer ist als heute. Hohe Kosten und Platzmangel sind nur zwei Probleme, die debattiert werden. Vor allem aber würde die Arbeitsfähigkeit der Ausschüsse leiden. FDP, Linke und Grüne haben darum, jenseits aller ideologischer Unterschiede, einen gemeinsamen Gesetzentwurf vorgelegt. Die große Koalition dagegen hat noch keine abgestimmte Position. Doch die Zeit drängt: Weil die Parteien in wenigen Monaten ihre Listen für den Bundestag aufstellen, müsste eine Reform spätestens bis zum Sommer durch sein. 800 Abgeordnete eingeplant (Süddeutsche.de)Mythos Direktmandat (Süddeutsche.de) Der Bundestag soll kleiner werden - aber wie? (Der Spiegel) Vergrößerung des Bundestages verhindern (Bündnis 90, Die Grünen) Gesetzentwurf der Fraktionen FDP, DIE LINKE. und BÜNDNIS )/DIE GRÜNEN (Deutscher Bundestag) Auschwitz Gedenktag Anlässlich des 75. Jahrestags der Befreiung von Auschwitz empfehlen Philip und Ulf die Dokumentation «Ein Tag in Ausschwitz». Der Film zeichnet die grausame Routine eines Tags im Vernichtungslager Auschwitz-Birkenau nach. Grundlage für die Dokumentation ist ein Fotoalbum, das von SS-Tätern angelegt worden war. Antisemitismus heute - Die AfD legt Hand an den Grundsatz "Nie wieder!" (Deutschlandfunk) Europäische Studie: Antisemitismus nimmt für Juden immer mehr zu (ZDFheute) Extremisten in der Bundeswehr Der Militärische Abschirmdienst (MAD) ermittelt wegen 550 rechtsextremer Verdachtsfälle in der Bundeswehr. Im Vergleich zum vorherigen Jahr ist die Zahl der Verdachtsfälle erheblich gestiegen. Die Frage, die sich hier stellt, ist: Haben wir in Deutschland ein Problem mit Rechtsextremismus in der Bundeswehr? Philip betont: Auch wenn die Zahlen ins Verhältnis zur Gesamtzahl der Soldaten und Soldateninnen gesetzt werden müssen, ist jeder Rechtsextreme ist einer zu viel. Nach Austritt aus Fraktion: Rechtspopulismus-Forscher: „Beobachtung der AfD ist voraussichtlich nicht mehr aufzuhalten“ (handelsblatt.com) Phoenix  (twitter) AfD-Fraktion Bundestag: Politik auf verlorenem Posten (ZEIT ONLINE) Neue Sensibilität bei Bundeswehr? | DW | 27.01.2020 (DW.COM) AfD-Bundestagsfraktion verliert weitere Abgeordnete (tagesschau.de)Rechtsextremismus: Militärgeheimdienst ermittelte gegen 208 Bundeswehroffiziere (ZEIT ONLINE) Bericht: Immer mehr Soldaten mit rechtsextremer Gesinnung (Süddeutsche.de)550 Verdachtsfälle in der Bundeswehr (tagesschau.de)MAD: 550 rechtsextreme Verdachtsfälle in der Bundeswehr (tagesschau.de)Bartels fordert jährlichen MAD-Bericht (n-tv.de)Kritische Anmerkungen zur Verwendung des Extremismuskonzepts in den Sozialwissenschaften (bpb.de) Die neue Offenheit (Süddeutsche.de) Text: Ciara Cesaro-Tadic Bilder Epidemic Map  (3g.dxy.cn) Bahn CC-BY-3.0 Kilian Wegner (twitter) Bundestag CC-BY-3.0 Hausmitteilung Spenden: Bankverbindung Spenden: Banking-Program mit BezahlCode-Standard Spenden: Paypal Kuechenstud.io-Newsletter Kuechenstud.io Shop "Lage der Nation" bei iTunes bewerten "Lage der Nation" bei Youtube "Lage der Nation" bei Facebook "Lage der Nation" bei Instagram  "Lage der Nation" bei Twitter "Lage der Nation" in der Wikipedia

On October 27, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party came second in state elections in the eastern state of Thuringia. The AFD won 23% of the vote, making gains at the expense of Angela Merkel’s centre-right CDU. Titus Molkenbur is a research consultant at the London School of Economics and co-author of a recent report on the rise of the AFD. He speaks with us from Germany.

On October 27, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party came second in state elections in the eastern state of Thuringia. The AFD won 23% of the vote, making gains at the expense of Angela Merkel’s centre-right CDU. Titus Molkenbur is a research consultant at the London School of Economics and co-author of a recent report on the rise of the AFD. He speaks with us from Germany.

In our sixth episode, Catherine de Vries talks with Aidan Regan about different forms of Euroscepticism across the EU: their features, origins, and the way that radical and mainstream parties cope with or employ them.Catherine visited the UCD Jean Monnet Centre on the New Political Economy of Europe as part of our seminar series. You can check future events and speakers here:www.newpoliticaleconomyeurope.eu/events/s…arseriesYou can also find additional information on her work here:research.vu.nl/en/persons/catherine-de-vriesIf you want regular updates, make sure to follow us on Twitter! @UCD_DEI

DEBATE | Erik Edman - Claire Fox - René Cuperus - Dave Sinardet - Jacob Reynolds The rise of populism in Europe in recent years and the UK's vote in 2016 to leave the European Union have prompted many to question if the EU can survive. Recently, however, there's been renewed optimism about the prospects for reforming the EU. Increased voter turnout and a ‘green wave' of support for pro-EU environmentalist parties in the 2019 European Parliament elections are cited as evidence of renewal. Eurosceptic, nationalist and populist parties performed below expectations, while pro-EU liberal and social-democratic parties did better than expected. Afterwards, some argued that the EU had renewed legitimacy. Perhaps more surprising is a reluctance among Eurosceptic parties to push for a break with the EU. As one commentary put it, ‘instead of promising to protect people from the European Union, populists have started promising to make the EU protect the people'. In 2016, at least 15 parties across Europe campaigned for a referendum on their country's EU membership. Yet today, populists in countries such as France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany now seem focused on securing change from within the EU. Italy's deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, captured the new mood by promoting the idea of a ‘Common-Sense Europe': not an end to the EU, but a changed EU, one that focuses more on security, manages immigration more closely and takes a ‘nation first' approach to the economy. What accounts for these shifts and how significant are they? The UK's protracted struggle to leave the EU certainly seems to demonstrate the difficulties confronting a state seeking to exit the bloc. Has the Brexit saga, and Greece's failed attempt in 2015 to resist EU/eurozone tutelage, dealt a fatal blow to the idea of restoring national sovereignty? Many still question the viability of ‘remain and reform' and whether it is possible to democratise the EU. For example, the Spitzenkandidat system of nominating and electing the new Commission president dissolved when party groupings were ignored, and appointments emerged via behind closed-doors discussions within the Council of Ministers. Nevertheless, Yanis Varoufakis of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 believes that, through creating a citizen-oriented New Deal for Europe, the EU can become a democratic force for good. Would, for example, allowing the European Parliament to propose laws mean that MEPs become more important to the people who elect them? The Democracy in Europe Movement won little electoral support in the countries in which it stood. Does this suggest that few believe in the possibility of reforming the EU? Or, alternatively, that few see the need for reform as a priority? Is the EU ‘an empire in decay', as some allege? Can a case be made for the idea of ‘remain and reform' and for an evolved, more democratic EU in which nation states function democratically? deburen.eu/programma/4952/brexit-of-remain-and-reform

Darren Grimes is a Eurosceptic campaigner who tells Matt the harrowing inside story of how he came to be fined £20,000 by the Electoral Commission and how he had the verdict overturned on appeal. In one of the most fascinating episodes of The Political Party, Darren explains his journey from the Lib Dems to the Conservatives and the story of his rise to prominence so early in his 20s. Follow Darren on Twitter here: @darrengrimes_ Follow Matt on Twitter here: @mattforde Get tickets for the London performances of 'Brexit, Pursued by a Bear' here: www.mattforde.com/live See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Former Prime Minister David Cameron has broken his long silence on Brexit, confessing in new memoirs that he is "truly sorry" for the chaos and rancour that has engulfed Britain after it voted to leave the European Union three years ago."I failed," Cameron concedes in his book, "For the Record," excerpted on Saturday in the London Times.The memoirs are artfully revealing. Cameron both covers his posterior and concedes some mistakes - of strategy and timing, mostly. He admits he is today "depressed" about Brexit; he charges that the current prime minister, Boris Johnson, was a major misleader; and he confesses he smoked a lot of dope during his Eton school days - sneaking off to an island in the River Thames to get "off my head" on marijuana.It was Cameron who confidently called for the June 2016 Brexit referendum - and it was Cameron who led the muddled, muted campaign for Britain to remain in the European Union.After Brexit won 52% to 48%, Cameron quickly resigned, notably caught on a hot mic humming a tune as he strode away from the podium in front of 10 Downing Street.Many Britons blame Cameron for today's Brexit quagmire, branding the former prime minister "the man who broke Britain."Cameron's critics say the British public was never really clamouring for the 2016 referendum and that Cameron called it only to quell internal squabbles in his fractious Conservative Party and to quiet the rabid Tory tabloids.Cameron confesses the whole thing quickly devolved into a "terrible Tory psychodrama."In an interview with the Times newspaper, as a part of the book's pre-publication publicity campaign, Cameron labelled Prime Minister Johnson's possible "no-deal" Brexit "a bad outcome."He also warned that the country might be forced to stage a second referendum on whether to leave the European Union."I don't think you can rule it out, because we're stuck," said Cameron, who served as prime minister from 2010 to 2016.In his memoir and interview, Cameron charges that his former political chums - Johnson and his sidekick, the current government minister in charge of carrying out Brexit, Michael Gove - misled voters in 2016 about the swell benefits of leaving Europe.Cameron calls his former friend Gove "mendacious" and says Gove and Johnson behaved "appallingly" during the 2016 referendum.Cameron points to their false pro-Brexit claims that Turkey was about to join the European Union (it wasn't) and their suggestions that soon Britain would be flooded by millions of Turkish Muslim immigrants (never happened).While he does not call Johnson or Gove liars, Cameron said the pair "left the truth at home" when they claimed, for example, that leaving Europe would produce a $440 million a week windfall to fund the country's beloved National Health Service."Boris had never argued for leaving the EU, right? Michael was a very strong Eurosceptic, but someone whom I'd known as this liberal, compassionate, rational Conservative ended up making arguments about Turkey and being swamped and what have you. They were trashing the government of which they were a part, effectively," Cameron told the newspaper.Cameron later said in an interview published Sunday that Johnson didn't really believe in Brexit when he broke ranks and led the campaign to take Britain out of the EU. Cameron had been expecting Johnson's help during the hard-fought campaign.Cameron says of Johnson: "The conclusion I am left with is that he risked an outcome he didn't believe in because it would help his political career."Cameron said in an interview published Sunday that Johnson didn't really believe in Brexit when he broke ranks and led the campaign to take Britain out of the EU. Cameron had been expecting Johnson's help during the hard-fought campaign.Cameron says of Johnson: "The conclusion I am left with is that he risked an outcome he didn't believe in because it would help his political career."In a bit of a side-dish, Cameron remembers Johnson's curren...

Angela Merkel will step down as German Chancellor by 2021 – if not sooner amid growing health concerns. With no clear successor, her firm control over Germany’s economy, commitment to centrist democracy, and stabilizing influence in Europe’s foreign policy are all at risk. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, International Correspondent for NPR in Berlin, joins Altamar to discuss the vacuum of leadership amid a perfect storm of German and European politics. As politicians at home compete to fill the void, the continent faces Eurosceptic populist leaders, Trump’s trade threats, and challenges from Russia and China. Who can fill her shoes?   More at https://altamar.us/germany-life-after-merkel/  Follow us on Twitter and Facebook  ----- Produced by Simpler Media

Podcast 444: European Elections: Macron Slips in Polls as Eurosceptic Parties SURGE!!! by Dr. Steve Turley

Officials in Brussels are worried. With the elections for the European Parliament rapidly approaching, they say Russia is using disinformation and fake news to sow discord and to undermine people's trust in the European Union. Moscow flatly denies such accusations. But EU officials say Russian disinformation could help anti-EU parties and movements. And, if you were to believe the polls, populist and Eurosceptic parties are indeed likely to increase their number of seats. While the EU talks of a threat that can’t be ignored, others argue that European governments are missing the point: it's not foreign threats they should be tackling, but rather issues such as economic uncertainty, worries over immigration and discontent with traditional politics. So, how seriously should we be taking the EU's warnings? Presenter: Mike Wendling Reporter: Marco Silva (Photo caption: Mural depicting a man chipping a star off of the European Union flag, by British graffiti artist Banksy / Photo credit: Getty Images)

Renault and Nissan patch up their alliance and plan a further acquisition to bulk up the business, a leading Eurosceptic says he has decided after all to back Theresa May’s deal on Brexit, and we learn more about former Uber chief Travis Kalanick’s new global venture. Plus, why European investors are becoming concerned about rising levels of banker pay. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Eurosceptic and anti-Brexit, The Economist’s Adrian Wooldridge argues that democracy must find a middle ground between the elites and the populists. However, even this middle ground proves to be controversial. Wooldridge and Andrew Keen debate whether a politics of identity is undermining or invigorating democracy, whether capitalism and democracy are on divergent paths, and how to detach the “liberal” from the “liberal elite.” A thought-provoking discussion that touches upon many of today’s contentious subjects.

The rise of Eurosceptic parties all across Europe, the complex bargain after the Brexit vote, and the limited capability of EU institutions to react to economic and social crises have kicked off a comprehensive reform debate on the future of European integration. The debate has become more urgent due to diverging economic trends among the main economies participating in the Euro area. This event will discuss how narratives around the EU and the EMU are developing and what the politicians’ perceptions of them are. We will rely on two studies: in the first one the historical trends related to the euro-crisis were analysed through identifying the key topics in articles from influential newspapers in the four largest euro-area countries (Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung, France’s Le Monde, Italy’s La Stampa, and Spain’s El País). In particular, the authors of the study analyse where the blame for the crisis has been laid, with the aim of informing the current debate on euro-area governance reform. In the second study, a survey on the future of European integration was conducted last autumn in the national parliaments of France, Italy, and Germany; more specifically, in the French Senate and Assemblée Nationale, the Italian Camera dei Deputati and Senato della Repubblica, and the German Bundestag. The survey covers three reform dimensions: i) the division of competencies between the European and national level, ii) EMU reforms, and iii) the future of EU finance and decision-making. The results shed light on possible next steps in the debate on European integration. While there is hope that a more European response to at least some policies may emerge, a larger consensus has yet to be reached around new instruments and institutions to reform the euro-area.

Mark Leonard speaks with Susi Dennison, director of ECFR’s European Power programme, and programme coordinator Pawel Zerka, about the upcoming European Parliament elections, the possibility of a surge in Eurosceptic parties, and how to mobilize the pro-European vote. New ECFR report: "The 2019 European Elections: How anti-Europeans plan to wreck Europe and what can be done to stop" it’https://www.ecfr.eu/specials/scorecard/the_2019_European_election Bookshelf: - The Happiness Industry by William Davies - Nervous States by William Davies - Bourgeois Equality by Deirdre N. McCloskey - The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith - The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff The podcast was recorded on 11 February 2019. Picture: © European Union 2019 - Source : EP

EN - Interview with Michael Nevradakis of Dialogos Radio and Hellenic Insider on Radio Sputnik's Fault Lines program, on the Skripal case and EU-NATO respose, and Greek and Cypriot refusal to expel Russian diplomats. In English. Aired March 29, 2018.

This week I spoke to Oliver Lewis the former Research Director of Vote Leave. He explains how he helped set up Business for Britain, the forerunner of Vote Leave, which filled the gap in the Eurosceptic market, making the business case for leaving the UK. He also revealed how using a strategy used by the US military helped to defeat the Remain campaign when arguing in the media.

Andrew Bridgen MP talks about his views on #TheresaMay, the wish for the Eurosceptic wing of the party to rescue #Brexit and who his ideal candidate would be as leader of the Conservative Party, he is joined by our senior fellow Professor Catherine Barnard.

Patrick O'Flynn is an MEP for the East of England and recently defected from UKIP to the SDP. Yes, the SDP are still going and they're Eurosceptic. Paddy takes us inside UKIP, his experience of being a 'centrist' member of it and shines a light on some of the disputes within the party in the last few years, including the final one with Gerrard Batten and why he could no longer stay in the party. He and Matt also discuss what a No Deal Brexit would mean. This one really could have lasted ten hours. Buy tickets for the Christmas specials here: https://leicestersquaretheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873589775 Buy tickets for Matt's tour here: www.mattforde.com/live Follow Paddy on Twitter here: @oflynnmep Follow Matt on Twitter here: @mattforde See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

TRAIN union CC.OO. has announced two additional strikes for December 21 and January 7. There was an existing train strike planned for this Friday 14, which at present is still set to go ahead.Renfe and Adif announced in a press release this morning (Tuesday), the main reason for the industrial action is not having enough staff to cover train routes during the busy Christmas season. TERRORIST group Daesh have issued a video threatening future terror attacks on Spain, allegedly citing a return to Barcelona following last year’s attack in La Rambla.The video message, picked up by cyber-analysts, reportedly claims the “cells are ready and the objectives are designed”. The video has not yet been released to the public. THE Guardia Civil has detained 23 robbers in Spain. The arrest took place in Ciudad Real, Toledo, Cuenca, Badajoz and Zaragoza in homes inhabited by elderly people. In a Guardia Civil report, police claim that 23 individuals have been arrested and six more are being investigated. A REAL estate report predicts the ‘housing market boom’ will slow down from 2021.Prepared by the Institut de Tecnologia de la Construccio de Catalunya (ITEC), the document suggess ‘housing promotion’ will have grown by 11 per cent by the end of this year, which is down on the 16.3 per cent growth experienced in 2017. SINCE 2015, the number of requests from Britons to apply for Spanish citizenship has tripled. The Spanish media claim this increase is due to the uncertainty of Brexit.Spain’s General Department for Registries and Notaries reported that 166 Britons requeste Spanish citizenship so far this year. Although the number is not as high as Morocco (10,067) and Venezuela (2,001)........ A MOTHER claims she dumped her new born daughter in a rubbish bin after becoming ‘overwhelmed and distressed’ at having given birth alone on the floor of an apartment in San Sebastian. The Brexit mess knows no bounds as Theresa May deludes herself into thinking her Brexit deal will be carried by Parliament. However, there is a bigger picture and the signal from Mrs May that she is ready to step down once Brexit is delivered came after she vowed to fight with 'everything I've got' to beat the Eurosceptic coup bid. The contest is being held after hardliners secured the 48 letters from Conservative MPs needed to force a ballot that could bring her time as leader to a shambolic end. At a rowdy PMQs this afternoon, watched by husband Philip from the gallery, Colin Wing, 60, was caught on camera screaming insults at the Manchester City player in a Premier League match at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Mr Wing, from Beckenham, south-east London, says that he has lost his job, and his season ticket at Chelsea after 50 years watching the club, adding: 'Everybody’s got what they wanted'. Concern is growing for the safety of homeless people across Britain following a number of unprovoked attacks - including being robbed, urinated on, ambushed and hosed with water.

TRAIN union CC.OO. has announced two additional strikes for December 21 and January 7. There was an existing train strike planned for this Friday 14, which at present is still set to go ahead.Renfe and Adif announced in a press release this morning (Tuesday), the main reason for the industrial action is not having enough staff to cover train routes during the busy Christmas season. TERRORIST group Daesh have issued a video threatening future terror attacks on Spain, allegedly citing a return to Barcelona following last year’s attack in La Rambla.The video message, picked up by cyber-analysts, reportedly claims the “cells are ready and the objectives are designed”. The video has not yet been released to the public. THE Guardia Civil has detained 23 robbers in Spain. The arrest took place in Ciudad Real, Toledo, Cuenca, Badajoz and Zaragoza in homes inhabited by elderly people. In a Guardia Civil report, police claim that 23 individuals have been arrested and six more are being investigated. A REAL estate report predicts the ‘housing market boom’ will slow down from 2021.Prepared by the Institut de Tecnologia de la Construccio de Catalunya (ITEC), the document suggess ‘housing promotion’ will have grown by 11 per cent by the end of this year, which is down on the 16.3 per cent growth experienced in 2017. SINCE 2015, the number of requests from Britons to apply for Spanish citizenship has tripled. The Spanish media claim this increase is due to the uncertainty of Brexit.Spain’s General Department for Registries and Notaries reported that 166 Britons requeste Spanish citizenship so far this year. Although the number is not as high as Morocco (10,067) and Venezuela (2,001)........ A MOTHER claims she dumped her new born daughter in a rubbish bin after becoming ‘overwhelmed and distressed’ at having given birth alone on the floor of an apartment in San Sebastian. The Brexit mess knows no bounds as Theresa May deludes herself into thinking her Brexit deal will be carried by Parliament. However, there is a bigger picture and the signal from Mrs May that she is ready to step down once Brexit is delivered came after she vowed to fight with 'everything I've got' to beat the Eurosceptic coup bid. The contest is being held after hardliners secured the 48 letters from Conservative MPs needed to force a ballot that could bring her time as leader to a shambolic end. At a rowdy PMQs this afternoon, watched by husband Philip from the gallery, Colin Wing, 60, was caught on camera screaming insults at the Manchester City player in a Premier League match at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Mr Wing, from Beckenham, south-east London, says that he has lost his job, and his season ticket at Chelsea after 50 years watching the club, adding: 'Everybody’s got what they wanted'. Concern is growing for the safety of homeless people across Britain following a number of unprovoked attacks - including being robbed, urinated on, ambushed and hosed with water.

Citizen-focused movements and parties like DiEM25 and Volt Europa are looking for ways to challenge politics-as-usual. But are they a smart way to fight populism and shore up the European project? Colombe Cahen-Salvador, a one of Volt's three founders, explains why participatory budgets and software linking voters with representatives in the European Parliament are on her party's agenda. Tom says he likes Volt's optimism. He also says he's already given €25 to DiEM25. James warns of the dangers of direct democracy. Pelle Christy, an EU affairs expert from Denmark with a Eurosceptic past, says the new parties are going to have to make tough compromises if elected — or risk making Europe’s problems with populism worse. "Een Laaste Liedje" by Tres Tristes Tangos is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. "Exotica" by Les Juanitos is licensed under CC BY 2.0 FR. "Muscovite No. 9" is played by Lara Natale.Support the show (https://euscream.com/donate/)

This week the Treasury and the Bank of England gave their forecasts for the post-Brexit economy, but is a Jeremy Corbyn government more threatening to economic growth (00:45)? In Italy, growth is a distant memory, as the economy stagnates and youth unemployment is at 35%. The government and the EU are at loggerheads over how to solve it. Is Italy the next Eurosceptic time bomb (19:35)? And last, what is it like to write a biography for somebody who can't stand you (32:40)? With Liam Halligan, Grace Blakeley, Ferdinando Giugliano, Matthew Goodwin, and Richard Bradford. Presented by Lara Prendergast. Produced by Cindy Yu and Alastair Thomas.

The Institute for Government was delighted to welcome Sir Bernard Jenkin, to present a keynote speech on what he believes will make a successful Brexit. He was in conversation with Bronwen Maddox, Director of the Institute for Government and there was an opportunity for audience Q&A. Bernard Jenkin has been Chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee since 2010 and a Member of Parliament since 1992. He is Chair of the Steering Committee of the European Research Group, a group of Eurosceptic members of the Houses of Parliament.

Robert Banks Jenkinson was a shy, awkward, intellectual sort of man. Perhaps he imagined, while a student at Christchurch, Oxford, of an alternate reality in which he was a classics don. But his father, the first Earl of Liverpool, loved him and had a plan for his life: Robert was going to be Prime Minister. Amazingly enough, father planned best. Socially-inept Robert would go on to be a key member of the cabinets that fought the empire of Napoleon. Then, following the assassination of  Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in 1812, the by-then Lord Liverpool became the King's Prime Minster and First Lord of the Treasury. Guiding Britain through the last three years of war was not as difficult as leading it into the peace that followed twenty years of conflict, and a new Europe which for the first time since 1688 was not dominated by the seemingly eternal conflict between France and England. Liverpool was one of the most successful prime ministers in British history, and yet is now almost forgotten. Will Hay and I will be discussing the career of Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool. We'll also discuss why political history is important and should still be written. Essays by William Anthony Hay on Lord Liverpool "Lord Liverpool, Eurosceptic" "Why We Need Liverpool" Reviews of William Anthony Hay, Lord Liverpool: A Political Life The Wall Street Journal The New Statesman The New Criterion

European elections are fast approaching, and with them the same nagging fears as Eurosceptic parties and nationalist ideas go from strength to strength throughout the continent. However, with only eight months to go until those crucial European polls, this is no time for resignation. Reinvigorate a progressist discourse, revive the European project and remobilise the forces: these are the challenges that face us between now and May 2019. European Lab Brussels will echo the sentiments of a whole wave of citizen initiatives that have already taken up the gauntlet. Far removed from any political parties, it is activists, venues, festivals and medias such as We Are Europe who are picking up the baton, starting the countdown and launching their own mobilisation campaigns. With Eva Rovers, Alberto Alemanno, Mick Ter Reehorst, Kyrill Hartog and Angela Richter - In partnership with Are We Europe - https://www.areweeurope.com/

The former Brexit Secretary on his Communist grandfather, how sugar turned him into a Eurosceptic and why he blames Philip Hammond for problems in the Brexit negotiations.

This week, Tory in-fighting comes to the fore, but could the party be even more divided than we thought (00:35)? Meanwhile, across the Pond, Donald Trump continues to cause backlash. Is he to blame for an ideological shift to the left in the country (14:25)? Thankfully, our own Head of State isn't on Twitter, though that doesn't stop people speculating about her Majesty's personal opinions. Is the Queen a Eurosceptic (23:45)? With James Forsyth, Paul Goodman, Rick Wilson, Malin Baker, Robert Hardman, and Hannah Furness. Presented by Isabel Hardman. Produced by Cindy Yu and Alastair Thomas.

The European Union is facing numerous challenges: a newly-elected Eurosceptic government in Italy; divisive negotiations over the EU’s future budget; questions over the USA’s commitment to Europe; and of course, Brexit, where the Irish border question is once more threatening to derail the whole process. In the week after the Council meeting, the Institute for Government brought together journalists and commentators from various EU member states to consider how capitals across Europe are approaching these issues. Our panel discussed what the outcome(s) of the Council meeting mean for the long-term development of the EU, the potential Brexit deal in October and the implications for the longer-term relationship between the UK and the EU. The panel discussion was followed by an audience Q&A. Our panel included: Tony Connelly, Europe Editor, RTE Luigi Ippolito, London Correspondent, Corriere della Sera Jakub Krupa, UK Correspondent, Polish Press Agency Sonia Stolper, UK and Ireland Correspondent, Libération Kerstin Leitel, London Correspondent, Handelsblatt Media Group This event was chaired by Jill Rutter, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.

"The fragility of the EU is increasing," says EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, and, "the cracks are growing in size." The cracks appear in many forms. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel says migration is the issue that "could decide the EU's fate." Her French counterpart, President Emmanuel Macron, wants urgent economic reform and a "profound transformation" of the EU. His solution in part is to "give Europe back to its citizens." But what do European citizen want? Some want out, as seen in Brexit. Many others don't like the way the EU is currently run. That's behind the rise of Eurosceptic governments in Hungary, Poland, and now Italy. Can the gap be closed between French hopes and German fears? Who has the will and the wherewithal to reform the EU before another political or economic crisis engulfs it? And if no change comes is the EU's very survival at risk? (Photo: EU flag billows all tattered and torn. Credit: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

The Days Ahead: Quieter week for big economic numbers. Watch for trade and updates on the Eurozone. One-Minute Summary. When markets crack, we know two things. One, the problems don't come from the last crisis (so no need to look in the MBS world). Two, they come from things you barely notice. Last week it was Argentina and Turkey. This week, it was Italy (see below). U.S. bonds promptly rallied 4.5% and the 10-Year Treasury yields, which many predicted would soar to 3% and beyond, fell to an intra-day low of 2.79%. Bonds got medieval on Tuesday and one Bond King had a very bad day. Domestic and international stocks and U.S. bonds finished more or less unchanged on the week. But there was plenty of action along the way. Small caps had another good week (they tend to not get riled by trade stuff) and are now some 500bps ahead of the large caps so far this year. The trade talk is not good. The U.S. went ahead with tariffs on steel from Canada, Mexico and the EU. We don't think they're going to take this one lying down. In past years, the parties would have taken the issues to the WTO and talked about it for a couple of years. This time Cecilia Malmstrom, the very accomplished EU Trade commissioner fired right back with, “When they say American (sic) first, we say Europe united.” So far markets have tended to view the trade talks as bluff followed by climb down. That’s worked. So far. Still, expect a lot more disconcerting headlines. 1. Markets are jumpy (Part 2): Here’s something you don't see very often. A G7 sovereign bond crashing in a single morning’s trade. As everyone knows by now, Italy is trying to form a government on a coalition of two parties. The Northern League (secession, pro-Russia, anti-GMO, lower taxes, Eurosceptic) and the 5-Star Movement (guaranteed minimum income, Green, unsure about immigration and mostly Eurosceptic) tried, failed and tried again to form a government. In Italy, winning parties must present their cabinet and government candidates to the President. He has veto power. And he used it. The fear then was another election in the fall with both parties running on an explicit “out-of-Euro” platform because…that’s the only thing these guys really agree on. Now we've seen Italian governments come and go and, with 42 Prime Ministers since 1945, a change of government in Italy passes as a Cabinet reshuffle elsewhere. And we don't really think this time is different. A government will form, it will make a few changes and it will argue with the EU about debt, growth and bond restructuring. --- If you want to join us live next time or get future updates about new episodes, subscribe to our email newsletter: bandjadvisors.com/subscribe Did you like this podcast? Be sure to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts: bandjadvisors.com/itunes Ask us your financial questions in your review and we'll answer them in the next episode. We appreciate your feedback! Learn more about Brouwer & Janachowski and our wealth management services: www.bandjadvisors.com

Global financial markets have been flying up and down and all over the place this week and it’s all got to do with one boot-shaped country in the Mediterranean. Italy has found itself embroiled in a power struggle between Eurosceptic populists – winners of the March general election – and the pro-EU establishment. The ramifications have spread across the globe and will affect Britons from big-time investors to anyone building up a pension pot. As we write this a coalition deal has been reached in Italy, likely to avert a proposed snap election. But this story is moving so quickly that just hours ago when we recorded the podcast there was no deal on the table. Even more reason as things helter-skelter forward to step back and work out what is going on and how on earth we got here – as This is Money editor Simon Lambert offers in his back-to-basics explainer. Also in this episode, Simon, presenter Georgie Frost and personal finance editor Rachel Rickard Straus talk about what you can do to stop your dream house move falling through, and whether proposals to make tax on savings and dividends simpler will work – or just see savers pay more tax. And finally, in troubled times for the high street, they look at one retailer bucking the trend. Enjoy.

Does the new Italian government really pose a danger for the Eurozone and the European Union? There has been much to-ing and fro-ing in Rome this week as the two parties which finished up ahead in Italy's election in March have tried to persuade the president to approve their coalition government. The parties are unlikely populist allies: the anti- establishment Five Star Movement and The League, which started life as a secessionist movement in the north of Italy. Both parties reject economic austerity. They want to lower taxes and raise government debt further. This is causing alarm bells to ring in EU capitals. Were Italy to prove unable or unwilling to cut its budget deficit, the potential for a new crisis in the Eurozone looms. Italy, say some commentators, could drag other countries, such as Spain and Greece, down with it.It is unprecedented in a country that was one of the founder members of the EEC, the EU's forerunner, to have Eurosceptic leaders at the helm. CONTRIBUTORSProfessor John Foot, a historian specialising in Italy at the University of BristolJacopo Iacoboni, author of L'Esperimento, a book about the Five Star MovementCristina Marconi, a journalist on the newspaper Il MessaggeroFerdinando Giugliano, a columnist and leader writer on European economics for Bloomberg OpinionJudy Dempsey, a former Brussels correspondent and now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Europe think tank.Image: Italian lawyer Giuseppe Conte addresses journalists after a meeting with Italy's President Sergio Mattarella on May 23, 2018 Credit: VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images.

The top winners in the Italian elections was the Eurosceptic and populist Five Star Movement. Having won just a third of the vote, they will now form a center-right alliance. Host Dan Loney talks with Francesca Vassallo, Political Science Professor at the University of Southern Maine, and Filippo Taddei, Director of the Bologna Institute for Policy Research at the SAIS Europe Johns Hopkins University, to analyze the results and where this puts the European Union on Knowledge@Wharton. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On International Women's Day, gender and equality top the agenda as our panel discuss whether feminism is a damaged brand. There is the fall out from the Italian election where the Eurosceptic 5 Star Movement and Lega were the big winners. And the political and diplomatic implications of the poisoning of a Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury. Sky's senior political correspondent Beth Rigby, Europe correspondent Michelle Clifford, specialist producer Lucy Plint and head of data Harry Carr join host Adam Boulton for this week's All Out Politics podcast. Please leave a review! #InternationalWomensDay #Italy 'RussianSpy #SkyNews

The surge in support for populist parties across Europe in recent years is well documented. Right-wing populists are in office in Poland, Hungary and Austria, and in the Czech Republic, recently re-elected president Milos Zeman campaigned on an anti-immigration and Eurosceptic agenda. Next month in Italy, the Five Star Movement could capitalise on anti-immigration sentiment and a stagnant economy in the country's parliamentary elections. But how should the European Union react? Are sanctions appropriate, or might they only serve to exacerbate the problem? And what are the consequences for French President Emmanuel Macron's vision of further European integration? Today's World View podcast features European Editor Patrick Smyth, Eastern Europe Correspondent Daniel McLaughlin and Assistant Editor Ruadhan Mac Cormaic.

Daniel Hannan MEP is known to most people as a leading Eurosceptic, or, in the Guardian's words, "the man who brought you Brexit". With Britain on its way out of the EU, Hannan has established the Institute for Free Trade, which makes the intellectual and moral case for free trade, and sees Brexit unique opportunity to revitalise global trade. A few weeks ago, at the Conservative Party Conference, he sat down with Robert Colvile, CapX's Editor-in-Chief, to discuss what sort of deal he would like to see between Britain and the EU, the genius of comparative advantage, and exactly why Jeremy Corbyn is so dangerous. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Is Britain facing an identity crisis? The traditional dividing lines of left and right seem to be dissolving into new political tribes – metropolitan liberals versus the culturally rooted working classes, graduates versus the uneducated, the young versus the old. In June's general election, traditional Labour heartlands like Mansfield went Conservative, while wealthy areas such as Kensington swung to Corbyn. Britain seems utterly confused about its politics. As the far left and Eurosceptic right have gained strength, much of the country has been left feeling politically homeless. So what’s going on? How will these new alignments play out as the country faces the historic challenge of leaving the EU and forging a new relationship with the rest of the world? Are the Conservatives really up to the job, as they bicker over what kind of Brexit they want and jostle over who should succeed Theresa May? Is it now unthinkable that Jeremy Corbyn could be the next prime minister? Looming over the current turmoil is the biggest question of all: What kind of Britain do we want to live in? What are the values that should hold our society together? We were joined by Ken Clarke, the most senior Conservative voice in Parliament; Hilary Benn, Labour MP and Chair of the Brexit Select Committee; and Helen Lewis, deputy editor at the New Statesman and prominent voice on the left. Alongside them was David Goodhart, author of one of the most talked about analyses of post-Brexit Britain, and Anand Menon, a leading academic thinker on Britain’s fractious relations with the EU. The event was chaired by Stephen Sackur, one of the BBC’s most highly regarded journalistic heavyweights. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Donkey Voters, We are bank with a bang though and in today’s episode we interview Peter Hitchens, long-time Eurosceptic, Mail on Sunday columnist and brother of the late Christopher. Peter has generated controversy over his criticism of our beloved Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and ignited a subsequent twitter storm with Irish tweeps about the 1916 rising and German involvement therewith. More here: http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2017/08/would-the-irish-have-put-up-with-being-treated-like-this-.html We discuss with him in some more detail his criticism of our Leo, why he believes the Good Friday Agreement was a surrender to paramilitaries and his preference for direct rule – an idea which was shortly after taken up by Michael Gove (who initially supported the deal) in his ‘Price of Peace’ essay. We noted his suggestion that when (the what he sees as inevitable) reunification of the island happens, Irish soldiers may well end up patrolling the Shankill in the face of disquiet from the Unionist minority. We also discuss Brexit, why he sees referendums as unfair and increasingly so, and his view that Britain should stay in the Single Market despite the loss of sovereignty that will entail. Finally, we discuss his view on the Kevin Myers controversy.

The UK has voted to leave the EU, sending shockwaves through Britain's political class and its economy. Whatever the fate of Britain – and many fear years of damaging instability – Brexit is a serious blow to the European Union. Britain is far from the only member state with doubts about the scope of the European project. There are strong Eurosceptic movements in many other nations too. Some think the British precedent will boost their influence or that other nations will be able to use the threat of exit to undermine shared decision-making. And the loss of Britain – which is still, for now, Europe's second-largest economy – could leave the Union precariously unbalanced, with Germany too dominant within it. As the EU contemplates an uncertain future, we are asking whether the EU even has a future without the United Kingdom. Presented by Chris Bowlby. (Photo: David Cameron, Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bulgarian Prime minister Roesen Plevneliev, Eurozone finance ministers with bank notes, euro coins and a map of Europe in the background. Credit: Getty Images)

Eurovision- credible contest or car crash TV? In this episode Luke and Lucy ask why the UK hasn’t won the Eurovision song contest in a long time. Luke gives Lucy a geography lesson on which countries are actually in Europe and they offer some suggestions for artists that could represent their nation. Plus Daily Star Sunday journalist Ed Gleave is on the phone to explain why Luke is wrong and what it’s really like attending Europe’s biggest singing competition! #eurovision #UK #USA #euro #Eurosceptic #eurovisioncountdown #radio #men #podcast #women

For the latest show Matt is joined by talented filibuster and Conservative party Eurosceptic, Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP for North East Somerset since 2010. For info on future guests visit www.mattforde.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

George Parker and Sarah Gordon of the Financial Times, plus Marcus Roberts from YouGov, discuss whether the Queen is a Eurosceptic and why Tony Blair continues to cause headaches for Labour. Presented by Sebastian Payne See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Host Matt Chorley is joined by Chief Leader writer Giles Whittell and columnists Jenni Russell and Phil Collins. Giles Whittell: Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president of the United States. Of course a lot of people are going to spend a lot of time analysing this [Tuesday] morning's Iowa caucus results, but the facts are these: Trump and Cruz are unelectable in a national race. Only one mainstream Republican has a chance of squeezing past them. That is Marco Rubio. He has already torpedoed his image with Latinos by betraying them on immigration reform. Bernie Sanders is a socialist. Hillary beats Bernie, and then beats whoever the GOP puts up. Simple. Jenni Russell: Is David Cameron simply the luckiest prime minister ever, or is there an element of skill in his performance which we rarely credit? He beat the SNP and crushed the LibDems. Now Labour is distracted and divided and even the Eurosceptic threat is evaporating as they are consumed by vicious internal fights. With no coherent... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The British referendum on whether to stay in, or leave, the European Union may well be held this coming summer. It will be a vote of momentous significance for Britain and for the EU. The polls suggest it could be a close run thing. Stephen Sackur talks to Lord Lawson, president of the Conservatives for Britain group, which is campaigning for a British exit in defiance of Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservative Government's official strategy. The Eurosceptic's have a historic opportunity – can they seize it?(Photo: Lord Lawson on Hardtalk)

Oset Babur '15 pinpoints the influences of eurosceptic parties in the European Union, by focusing on the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and the Danish People’s Party (DPP). Euroscepticism will be broken down into ’hard’ and ’soft’ branches, based on the kinds of impacts suggested by each parties; a ’soft’ influence over the concern of state sovereignty might be a party’s decision to support discourse that is skeptical of a united Europe, while a ’hard’ influence may be proposing legislative motions to leave the EU on grounds of a lack of accountability between EU institutions and member governments. The talk will conclude by looking forward at the future of Eurosceptic parties, and hypothesizing about their continued impact on EU enlargement and integration, as well as the impacts they will have on their local political systems.

Some say it should be a loose collection of sovereign nation states; others say it should aspire to be a kind of super-nation state itself. Or is it, in truth, a messy but workable mixture of a number of extremes, ideals and concepts? These are the type of questions that Mark Corner‘s new book The European Union: An Introduction (I. B. Tauris, 2014) seeks to both ask about the EU and tentatively answer. This is not just another routine tour around the institutions and functions of the European Union – instead, it’s a sharply written introduction to the EU that makes the reader understand it beyond the constraints of terms such as ‘nation state’. It’s also a very timely book, as the 28 member bloc is under scrutiny as never before, especially in the wake of both the euro crisis and the continent-wide rise of Eurosceptic parties. It’s a recommended read for anybody trying to make sense of one of the grandest twentieth-century projects that is still evolving and adapting to the world today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some say it should be a loose collection of sovereign nation states; others say it should aspire to be a kind of super-nation state itself. Or is it, in truth, a messy but workable mixture of a number of extremes, ideals and concepts? These are the type of questions that Mark Corner‘s new book The European Union: An Introduction (I. B. Tauris, 2014) seeks to both ask about the EU and tentatively answer. This is not just another routine tour around the institutions and functions of the European Union – instead, it’s a sharply written introduction to the EU that makes the reader understand it beyond the constraints of terms such as ‘nation state’. It’s also a very timely book, as the 28 member bloc is under scrutiny as never before, especially in the wake of both the euro crisis and the continent-wide rise of Eurosceptic parties. It’s a recommended read for anybody trying to make sense of one of the grandest twentieth-century projects that is still evolving and adapting to the world today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some say it should be a loose collection of sovereign nation states; others say it should aspire to be a kind of super-nation state itself. Or is it, in truth, a messy but workable mixture of a number of extremes, ideals and concepts? These are the type of questions that Mark Corner‘s new book The European Union: An Introduction (I. B. Tauris, 2014) seeks to both ask about the EU and tentatively answer. This is not just another routine tour around the institutions and functions of the European Union – instead, it’s a sharply written introduction to the EU that makes the reader understand it beyond the constraints of terms such as ‘nation state’. It’s also a very timely book, as the 28 member bloc is under scrutiny as never before, especially in the wake of both the euro crisis and the continent-wide rise of Eurosceptic parties. It’s a recommended read for anybody trying to make sense of one of the grandest twentieth-century projects that is still evolving and adapting to the world today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some say it should be a loose collection of sovereign nation states; others say it should aspire to be a kind of super-nation state itself. Or is it, in truth, a messy but workable mixture of a number of extremes, ideals and concepts? These are the type of questions that Mark Corner‘s new book The European Union: An Introduction (I. B. Tauris, 2014) seeks to both ask about the EU and tentatively answer. This is not just another routine tour around the institutions and functions of the European Union – instead, it’s a sharply written introduction to the EU that makes the reader understand it beyond the constraints of terms such as ‘nation state’. It’s also a very timely book, as the 28 member bloc is under scrutiny as never before, especially in the wake of both the euro crisis and the continent-wide rise of Eurosceptic parties. It’s a recommended read for anybody trying to make sense of one of the grandest twentieth-century projects that is still evolving and adapting to the world today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some say it should be a loose collection of sovereign nation states; others say it should aspire to be a kind of super-nation state itself. Or is it, in truth, a messy but workable mixture of a number of extremes, ideals and concepts? These are the type of questions that Mark Corner‘s new book The European Union: An Introduction (I. B. Tauris, 2014) seeks to both ask about the EU and tentatively answer. This is not just another routine tour around the institutions and functions of the European Union – instead, it’s a sharply written introduction to the EU that makes the reader understand it beyond the constraints of terms such as ‘nation state’. It’s also a very timely book, as the 28 member bloc is under scrutiny as never before, especially in the wake of both the euro crisis and the continent-wide rise of Eurosceptic parties. It’s a recommended read for anybody trying to make sense of one of the grandest twentieth-century projects that is still evolving and adapting to the world today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some say it should be a loose collection of sovereign nation states; others say it should aspire to be a kind of super-nation state itself. Or is it, in truth, a messy but workable mixture of a number of extremes, ideals and concepts? These are the type of questions that Mark Corner‘s new book The European Union: An Introduction (I. B. Tauris, 2014) seeks to both ask about the EU and tentatively answer. This is not just another routine tour around the institutions and functions of the European Union – instead, it's a sharply written introduction to the EU that makes the reader understand it beyond the constraints of terms such as ‘nation state'. It's also a very timely book, as the 28 member bloc is under scrutiny as never before, especially in the wake of both the euro crisis and the continent-wide rise of Eurosceptic parties. It's a recommended read for anybody trying to make sense of one of the grandest twentieth-century projects that is still evolving and adapting to the world today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special addition: Tim Montgomerie is joined by Phil Collins, Jill Sherman and Phillip Webster after an extraordinary day which has seen an extensive cabinet reshuffle. The panel attempt to answer the following: 1. Is this still a reforming govt? 2. Has the reshuffle met expectations for women? 3. Is the Eurosceptic movement for an election or to last? Subscribe via iTunes: itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/did-you-read See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Europe's prolonged economic crisis has prompted a populist backlash against the powers that be. In Finland, the EU's prosperous northern outpost, the big beneficiary has been Timo Soini, leader of the Eurosceptic, nationalist party long known as the True Finns. He wants to see the Eurozone dismantled, immigration curbed, traditional values restored. Critics have labelled the party xenophobic - is this the angry politics of European disintegration?(Image: Timo Soini. Credit: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images)

--{ "From ABC You Learn to Train, From a Long Process into Your Brain, The Military Boys have the Answer to Time - Downloading Directly into Your Mind" © Alan Watt }-- Pyramid of Reality - World Commonwealth, United Nations - Apathy and Fear, Rising Prices and Taxes, Abused Mentality. Entertainment Indoctrination, Comedies, Britain and U.S. - Predictive Programming - Media Handouts - "Matrix"-style Downloading, Programmed Controllers. Amalgamation of Americas - European Union, Britain - EU Parliament - 2010, U.S., Canada, Mexico - "Democracy", Margaret Thatcher, Parallel Government - Homeland Security. Canada: Guinea Pigs for GMO Food, Bisphenol-A in Food and Drink - Bioengineering. War to Destroy Family - Culture Under Attack, Social Engineering - "Assertive" Schooling - Soviet Birth Control (Abortion) - China, Creation of Social Approval and Disapproval. Cloning, Genetic Engineering for New Types of Humans - Donor Wombs - Genetic Selection. "Wag the Dog" movie. (Articles: ["Kids set for 'Matrix' future" ITN (itn.co.uk) - May 30, 2008.] ["European Parliament to ban Eurosceptic groups" by Bruno Waterfield (telegraph.co.uk) - May 27, 2008.] ["Alarming levels of hazardous chemicals in Canadian canned foods" ANI (at feeds.bignewsnetwork.com) - May 29, 2008.]) *Dialogue Copyrighted Alan Watt - May 30, 2008 (Exempting Music, Literary Quotes, and Callers' Comments)