Tag Archives for Brexit
New SPERI Briefs: Understanding EU Business Views on Brexit
Two new SPERI Global Political Economy Briefs are published today. The first Brief, Frankfurt, Paris and Dublin: Post-Brexit Rivals to the City of London? assesses the strategic positioning of alternative financial centres in the aftermath of Brexit. It shows how three major rivals to the City are organising to attract ‘low hanging fruit’ from London. Read coverage of the Brief in … Continue reading
EU business strategies and Brexit: Balancing proximity with politics
As Article 50 is ‘triggered’ business groups within EU member states are caught in a dilemma between proximity and politics: how to minimise trade barriers with the UK whilst maintaining the Single Market Powerful firms and business interest groups within the EU are likely to have a significant influence over the shape of the Article 50 negotiations. Despite this, there … Continue reading
Remaking the case for a ‘developmental state’ in Britain
Britain urgently needs a new national development strategy after the Brexit vote and must find the will to embrace a radically different model of the state Sometimes you just have to say it again, doubling down on what you think. In one of the first posts I wrote on this site in 2013, I proclaimed: ‘We are all developing countries … Continue reading
SPERI Co-Director gives the Commencement Lecture of the Department of Politics
Colin Hay’s commencement lecture – entitled ‘Brexistential Crisis? Making Sense of British Politics after Brexit’ – was delivered to an engaged audience of students and staff of the University of Sheffield on Thursday 16 March. Starting with a contextualisation of Brexit, his presentation drew on the final chapter of Developments in British Politics 10, published last November. He focused initially … Continue reading
Lost in Dicey: judges, Brexit and the constitution
The Supreme Court’s Article 50 judgement was based on a constitutional fallacy that puts the stability of the United Kingdom at risk On 24 January this year the United Kingdom Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of the UK government against the decision of the English and Welsh Divisional Court (colloquially the Court of Appeal) over the legal conditions under which … Continue reading
The (distorted) issue of inequality
The populist right’s focus on race and immigration claims to be about fairness and inequality, but actually distracts from the more acute matter of the concentration of wealth and income at the very top As many have already pointed out, the vote for ‘Brexit’ and the election of Donald Trump are linked by their association with the apparent triumph of … Continue reading
Inclusive growth at city-region level: a perspective from Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is an important test-bed for how inclusive growth can be put into practice at a local level The Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit (IGAU) was established in January 2016 by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and The University of Manchester, as part of JRF’s work on cities, growth and poverty, and the University’s new Urban Institute and wider efforts … Continue reading
New Podcast: Brexistential Crisis? Making Sense of British Politics after Brexit
SPERI Co-Director Colin Hay speaks to the Max Plank Institut for the Study of Societies in Cologne about British Politics after Brexit. Colin reflects on how the vote for Brexit was allowed to happen, its wider implications (both political and economic) and the seismic changes through which British politics is currently being remade. Listen to the podcast in full.
New Paper: British Business Strategy, EU Social and Employment Policy and the Emerging Politics of Brexit
A new Paper published today highlights how Brexit might change how British businesses engage with EU institutions in order to further their objectives. Through a document analysis of business responses to the Balance of Competences Review on EU Social and Employment Policy and CBI policy documents between 2010-2016, the author Scott Lavery outlines how British business has attempted to ‘defend … Continue reading
What ASEAN needs to learn from Brexit
ASEAN needs to develop stronger leadership and become more democratic. Failure to do this will mean it continue to be fragmented and vulnerable to the danger of ‘breaking up’ Recent crises in the European Union, from Brexit to the recent Italian Constitutional referendum have sparked debate about the future of the EU, not only in the Europe, but also outside … Continue reading
Industrial strategy failures increase the likelihood of soft Brexit
As Theresa May knows, Britain is too weak economically to prosper outside the single market under the current economic policy paradigm – this inconvenient truth will soon tear apart the pro-Brexit coalition In many ways, 2016 was a fairly typical year in post-crisis Britain. The economy continued to stumble along, but the government continued to pretend otherwise, declaring austerity to … Continue reading
Brexit and free trade fallacies Part Two
The British government is displaying an abject grasp of global trade politics; ironically the EU red tape the Brexiteers wish to burn is the very basis on which the ‘free trade’ they hope for rests In the previous post, I discussed how negotiations around ‘free trade’ and the agreements that sustain it are no longer really about tariffs. Rather they … Continue reading
Brexit and free trade fallacies Part One
Modern trade politics is about regulatory harmonisation and attracting flows of investment, and this calls into question the very idea of ‘trade’ as we have understood it until now On taking up office as Secretary of State for Brexit, David Davis caused consternation – and mockery – when he appeared not to understand EU trade law, suggesting the government would … Continue reading
What Brexit and austerity tell us about economics, policy and the media – New SPERI Paper
We are delighted to publish the transcript of Simon Wren-Lewis’s Prize-winning Lecture: What Brexit and austerity tell us about economics, policy and the media. In this Paper, Simon Wren-Lewis tackles the inconsistencies and inaccuracies reported in the media about austerity and Brexit. He calls for journalists to bring in academic expertise and to prick the Westminster bubble. Simon Wren-Lewis is … Continue reading
Brexit, May & Trump: the dangerous illusion of ‘taking back control’
The analytical frame of ‘economic patriotism’ helps explain the rise of xenophobic populism and its failure to acknowledge the complex realities of our economic interdependence Contemporary politicians, particularly those with demagogic inclinations, pretend to their electorates that they can pull all the necessary levers of economic policy to exert control over the national economic future. 2016 has provided powerful examples … Continue reading
Scotch mist: Brexit and independence
The SNP is using the uncertainty caused by Brexit to remake the case for independence – yet the warning signs about Scotland’s economy should already be on In her recent SPERI Annual Lecture Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister for Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), cited a report by Strathclyde University’s Fraser of Allander Institute which estimated that … Continue reading
Brexit and the British state
Focusing on the ‘left behind’ thesis ignores the real message exposed by the referendum: the UK is a fragmented and fast dissolving state Despite all the uncertainties generated by the referendum result of 23 June, one assertion is now commonly made with increasing confidence: that support for a ‘leave’ vote was a protest from those left behind by the twin … Continue reading
Third Workshop on the Political Economy of Brexit
The third instalment of the SPERI White Rose research project on the ‘Political Economy of Brexit’, led by Scott Lavery, took place on Wednesday 9th November at the University of Leeds. Organised by Charlie Dannreuther, the workshop examined the impact of Brexit on Britain’s infrastructure and investment and focused on how leaving the EU might affect a number of key … Continue reading
Trump and Brexit
Trump’s victory and Brexit could unravel the western economic and political order which has been the framework of world politics for the last seventy years Trump’s victory in the US presidential election has been compared to the vote for Brexit. Both were driven by the anger and despair of the white working class, and their rejection of the liberal, cosmopolitan … Continue reading
Will Frankfurt, Paris and Dublin replace the City of London after Brexit?
Alternative EU financial centres are unlikely to supplant the City as Europe’s premier financial hub – but private and public actors within these urban centres are already seeking to ‘capitalise’ on Brexit It is often claimed that alternative financial centres (AFCs) within the EU are well-placed to benefit from Brexit. However, no comprehensive analysis of the positioning of AFCs in … Continue reading →
3 April 2017 by Scott Lavery
Categories: SPERI Comment | Tags: Article 50, Brexit, Eurozone, financial centre | Leave a comment