Jared Diamond’s Upheaval shows how in times of catastrophe nation states—just like individuals—need to rely on their ego-strength to survive. “How nations cope with crisis and change” is rather a big subject, which suggests something on the scale of Arnold Toynbee’s A Study of History. In Upheaval, Jared Diamond, the great analyst of historical ecological collapses, has...Read More

The part leaking to the press of the Government’s EU Exit Analysis – Cross Whitehall Briefing’[i] highlighted the dire consequences for many parts of the UK of leaving the EU in the June 2016 referendum. The leak and its handling also exposed the extreme reluctance of the Government to provide the information necessary for informed public debate....Read More

Executive Summary The two quotations cited above make the following points. Firstly that the likely economic storm that could yet engulf the UK post Brexit is going to take all the fortitude possible to manage it. And secondly, as with the Hotel California, however many times the UK tries to check out from the hotel...Read More

This final report of a series of conferences organised jointly by the Federal Trust and Global Policy Institute working in partnership with the Representation of the European Commission reviews the European policies of the Coalition government during its third year in office. The report stresses the overriding importance of developments in the Eurozone both for...Read More

In the wake of the recent Irish debt crisis, the UK Coalition government decided not to take part in a new rescue fund for troubled eurozone members, suggested by France and Germany. This decision comes in spite of the UK’s pledge to support the EU-IMF rescue efforts for Ireland through a bilateral loan of more...Read More