If you believed the rhetoric, you would accept that the Single Market was a great success. But the truth is that is has failed to deliver on each of the four freedoms. The European Single Market (SM) is the jewel in the crown of the ‘European Project’ with its four freedoms of movement – of goods, services, workers and capital…
Among the documents released are witness testimony implicating multiple public figures, and flight dockets from 1995 onwards that purport to show Maxwell as a frequent flyer on the Epstein's planes, along with numerous of the world's powerful, wealthy and famous.
Those MPs supporting Parliamentary efforts to prevent a ‘No deal’ Brexit largely avoid talking about democracy, independence, and sovereignty, where they are on weak ground. Instead they focus on the “catastrophic” economic damage they expect the UK to suffer if it leaves without a deal. But here too all the evidence suggests they are on equally weak ground Firstly, we…
Exit from the EU on GATT/WTO terms is assumed to mean that the UK will find itself between a Scylla and Charybdis of either eliminating all tariffs on all countries or snapping into place tariffs on the remaining EU Member States at the same levels that the EU currently applies to the rest of the world. The most-favoured nation rule—MFN—is…
It has become a mantra, endlessly repeated by Remainer trade unions: “Workers must not pay the price of Brexit.” What price would that be? And how about acknowledging the price to workers of staying in the EU? On 6 July 2017 Michel Barnier, the EU Brexit negotiator, addressed the EU’s Economic and Social Committee. His words were noted and passed…
Australian teachers are underprepared for the classroom compared to those in other countries, according to a recent global survey. The result indicates initial teacher education in Australia often isn’t up to scratch. The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) asked teachers around the world how prepared they were after completing their teacher education degrees. And on almost every measure — including…
Mr Philip Hammond on Tuesday stated in the House of Commons that a “No Deal” Brexit could cost the country £90 billion. Mr Jeremy Hunt — supposedly prepared to preside over a “No Deal” if necessary — nevertheless warned that it could do economic damage equivalent to the 2008 Financial Crash. Both these forecasts are at the most extreme end of…
Unease is growing in Australia that something has changed for the worse in our live-and-let-live culture. The seismic shifts giving rise to this pervasive anxiety seem to have been coming in cumulative waves. Free speech has given way to the drive to eliminate “hate speech”; bonds of trust have broken in commercial life — especially in our financial services sector;…
It seems increasingly likely that the next leader of the Conservatives, and UK Prime Minister, will be Boris Johnson. On the face of it, this looks like good news for supporters of Brexit given Johnson’s record on this issue and his recent statement that the UK will leave the EU by October 31 ‘do or die’. Yet given the history…
"If you have an open door policy and you are incentivizing Afghans to take advantage of the system, can you really blame them?"
Late Tuesday US Steel announced it will idle two of the blast furnaces where it makes steel, one in its flagship mill in Gary, Indiana, near Chicago, the other in Ecorse, Michigan, near Detroit.
This new artificial intelligence capability allows competent programmers to create audio and video of anyone, saying absolutely anything.
The root of all our problems right now is the fact that human minds are very hackable with enough resources, combined with the fact that war, oppression, exploitation and ecocide are highly profitable.
Solar geoengineering would involve spraying chemicals and/or heavy metals into the air that would block some of the sunlight.
The EU and its apologists insist that it will not ‘reopen’ the WA. There are weak legal and political grounds for such a stance, whereas three strong political incentives exist within the EU to reach an agreement – and soon. But Britain’s new prime minister must convince the EU that he is determined to leave on October 31 if it…
"A unique patient identifier would allow federal bureaucrats and government-favored special interests to access health information simply by entering an individual’s unique patient ID into a database. This system would also facilitate the collection of health information without a warrant by surveillance state operatives."
European tensions are growing. There is Brexit, a directionless and over-extended Germany, an ambitious but weak France, and a growing regional divide. But the main danger to the European project is democracy. What is the European Union? The closest concept I can come up with is that of a liberal empire. An empire is a hierarchically structured block of states…
Should the prorogation of parliament be a possible course of action for a government? Is it an outrage against democracy and the constitution? Rory Stewart threatens direct action, and Matt Hancock declares that such a thing “goes against everything those men who fought their way up those [D-Day] beaches died for.” A leading constitutional historian looks here at the facts behind the…
The AFP raids on the ABC and a News Corp journalist are alarming, but the discussion needs to go beyond press freedom. We must examine how we can better protect the fundamental freedoms of all Australians. These raids have generated a tremendous response, and after being live-tweeted by an ABC journalist, were picked up in international media. A meeting to discuss the…
"If the WA were to come into force, even if the UK would be nominally leaving the EU it would still be subject to all EU laws (including new ones), the jurisdiction of the ECJ, the decisions of EU institutions such as the Commission and EU Parliament"
Australia’s vaunted economic miracle is looking a bit ragged after another sluggish quarter.
History was not kind to Theresa May.
The 21 crew of the vessel abandoned ship after the incident on board which resulted in damage to the ship’s hull starboard side.
