Boris Johnson’s Unconservative Party

From Economist.com

print-edition iconPrint edition | LeadersSep 7th 2019

4-5 minutes
BORIS JOHNSON has been Conservative leader for little more than a month, and until this week had appeared in Parliament as prime minister only once. But that did not stop him carrying out the biggest purge in the party’s history on September 3rd. After a backbench rebellion led to a resounding defeat of his uncompromising Brexit policy, 21 moderate Conservative MPs, including seven former cabinet members and a grandson of Winston Churchill, had the whip withdrawn and were told they would not be allowed to stand as Tories at the next election.

It was the most dramatic step in a long process: the transformation of Britain’s ruling party from conservatives into radical populists. The capture of the Tories by fanatics determined to pursue a no-deal Brexit has caused the party to abandon the principles by which it has governed Britain for most of the past century. With an election looming, and the Labour opposition captured by an equally radical hard-left, the Tories’ sinister metamorphosis is terrible news.

Greece Is Quietly Backsliding on Reform

Greece needs public sector reform and investment, not more debt-fueled consumption.
By Phylis Papadavid
Bloomberg

Greece’s planned August exit from its third European Stability Mechanism bailout has triggered investor optimism. Its July 2017 bond issuance, the first in three years, was oversubscribed, as were subsequent issuances in February of this year. And yet financial investors should curb their optimism. Greece’s return to the markets, and its economic recovery, are likely to be a bumpy and slow -- especially if it continues to delay key reforms.

Clashes break out in Greece over foreclosures

By Associated Press March 14 at 12:34 PM
ATHENS, Greece — Five people were detained Wednesday during clashes between riot police and protesters attempting to disrupt a central Athens auction of foreclosed properties.

Left-wing activists have stepped up protests in recent weeks against online auctions as the government remains under pressure from bailout lenders to speed up the process and ease the strain on banks stemming from a huge backlog of nonperforming loans.

The auctions are required as part of the country’s international bailout, which is due to end in August. Creditors have also promised to deliver some debt relief for Greece if it fulfils all the conditions of the bailout.

Brexit Bulletin: The New Political Reality

By Simon Kennedy  and Robert Hutton
21 Ιουνίου 2017, 9:52 π.μ. EEST

Bloomberg

Prime Minister Theresa May will make her first attempt to engage with Britain’s new political landscape on Wednesday as she publishes a Brexit-heavy legislative program.

Queen Elizabeth II will read out the plan for the next two years. It’s set to include a bill designed to convert thousands of European Union rules into British law and another to regain control of trade policy from the bloc.

Macron and the Revival of Europe

Roger Cohen MAY 7, 2017

The New York Times

It’s not just that Emmanuel Macron won and will become, at the age of 39, France’s youngest president. It’s not merely that he defeated, in Marine Le Pen, the forces of xenophobic nationalism exploited by President Donald Trump. It’s that he won with a bold stand for the much-maligned European Union, and so reaffirmed the European idea and Europe’s place in a world that needs its strength and values.

A Bad Brexit Deal May Be Better Than No Deal After All

by Simon Kennedy
24 Μαρτίου 2017, 2:01 π.μ. EET 24 Μαρτίου 2017, 11:24 π.μ. EET

Bloomberg

The mantra within the British government as it prepares to hammer out the terms of its break-up with the European Union is that no deal is better than a bad deal.

Walking away with no regime for 230 billion pounds ($287 billion) of annual exports to the bloc and the 3.3 million Europeans in the U.K would be “perfectly OK,” says Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Not “frightening” at all, says Brexit czar David Davis.

‘Brexit’ Fuels Feeling in Scotland That Time Is Right for Independence

By KATRIN BENNHOLDMARCH 14, 2017

LONDON — Scotland’s nationalists wasted no time: Just minutes after the country’s leader, Nicola Sturgeon, called on Monday for a new independence referendum, a website went live asking people to show their support on Twitter and donate to the campaign.

By Tuesday morning, 204,345 pounds, or about $249,000 — more than a fifth of the £1 million target — had been raised; pro-independence banners in Scotland’s blue-and-white colors had gone up across the country; and celebrities were offering support, including the actor Alan Cumming, who shared a Twitter post by Ms. Sturgeon, with the comment “It’s showtime!”

It was an early glimpse of the Scottish nationalists’ formidable campaign machine, evidently little diminished since the last referendum, in 2014. Support for independence rose from about 27 percent at the start of that campaign to 45 percent at the final count.

Brexit Bulletin: What Can By-Elections Tell Us About Brexit?Bre

Labour is facing a stiff challenge in its traditional heartlands.
by David Goodman
23 February 2017, 9:30 π.μ. EET

Bloomberg

Voters in Copeland and Stoke Central take center stage today in by-elections that will have an impact beyond the borders of the two constituencies.

Both districts have traditionally elected Labour MPs but voted for Brexit, putting it firmly on the agenda during the campaigns, alongside more granular local issues. That, coupled with timing of the polls and the positions of the parties involved, mean they matter more than the average by-election, according to Bloomberg’s Robert Hutton.

Europe’s threat list includes jihadists, Russia — and Donald Trump

By Ishaan Tharoor February 2 at 1:00 AM
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The Washington Post

Nothing illustrates the crisis facing the world order more than a letter circulated this week by Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council. Tusk's message, addressed to the leaders of the European Union's member states, pointed to the other Donald, describing the Trump administration as one of the potential "external" threats facing Europe.

Theresa May Gets Parliament’s Backing on ‘Brexit’ Bill

By STEPHEN CASTLEFEB. 1, 2017

The New York Times

LONDON — Easily winning a crucial vote among lawmakers, Prime Minister Theresa May was well on her way Wednesday to winning the parliamentary approval that Britain’s highest court said she needed before she could begin talks on ending more than four decades of European integration.

Wednesday’s vote, in the House of Commons, will not be the final parliamentary verdict on Mrs. May’s plans, but with 498 lawmakers in favor and 114 against, it was emphatic enough to show that any subsequent efforts in Parliament to complicate, or slow, the path to withdrawal would probably be in vain.

Britain’s excruciating embrace of Donald Trump shows how little independence it has gained from Brexit

The Economist
27-1-2017
Leaving the European Union means the country has less, not more, control over its circumstances

THERESA MAY’S private opinion of Donald Trump goes unrecorded, but she is surely not a natural fan. Before Mr Trump’s election the prime minister called his remarks on Muslims “divisive, unhelpful and wrong”. Fiona Hill, one of her powerful chiefs of staff, declared him a “chump” and Nick Timothy, the other, tweeted: “As a Tory I don’t want any ‘reaching out’ to Trump.” Mrs May flannelled in a television interview on January 22nd when asked about the president’s treatment of women, his disregard for NATO and his protectionism. In temperament the two leaders could hardly be less alike: one brash and operatic, the other cautious and meticulous. So expect the prime minister’s visit to the White House on January 27th to be a study in awkwardness: the mother superior dropping in on the Playboy Mansion.

World leaders find hope for globalization in Davos amid populist revolt

By Max Ehrenfreund January 17 at 6:30 PM

The Washington Post


DAVOS, Switzerland — Amid growing doubts about the future of free trade and international economic cooperation, proponents of globalization found reasons for optimism as the World Economic Forum opened Tuesday.

The specters of President-elect Donald Trump’s protectionist rhetoric and the British exit from the European Union loomed over the annual event that attracts world leaders and dignitaries to this mountain resort town to discuss the state of the global economy.

German Finance Minister tells paper euro zone will fall apart if don't follow rules

 Tue Dec 20, 2016 | 4:52am EST

Reuters

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, asked about Greece's plans to pay pensioners a Christmas bonus while it is in the midst of a bailout program, told Die Zeit paper that the euro zone would fall apart if countries did not stick to the rules.

Political Risks Leave Euro-Pound Analysts Most Divided on Record

by Anooja Debnath  and Charlotte Ryan
20 - 12 - 2016, 9:54 π.μ. EET

Bloomberg

For analysts trying to plot the course of the pound against the euro in 2017, the key decision is judging which side of the English Channel will see greater political turbulence.

Strategists are trying to pinpoint whether the U.K.’s exit process from the European Union or the rise of populism in the rest of Europe carries the bigger risk. The dichotomy is evident in Bloomberg’s survey of currency analysts, where the range between the highest and lowest year-end forecasts for euro-sterling is the widest going into a new year since at least 2006.

As Brexit approaches, signs of a gathering economic storm for Britain

The Washington Post

By Griff Witte December 13 at 5:16 PM
LONDON — From a modest office in a small town in northeastern England, Elliott Peckett’s family stocked the world with costumes.

Billowy white Marilyn Monroe dresses. Red velvet Santa caps. Rhinestone-studded Elvis jumpsuits.

They were shipped out by the millions to 42 countries across the globe, and they brought the profits of countless Halloween parties, Carnival parades and Christmas wonderlands back home to England.

But thanks to Brexit, not anymore. After 122 years, Peckett’s costume company, Smiffys, is moving its headquarters to the Netherlands.

The Latest, Greatest Threat to the Euro: Populism

Elections and referendums in the year ahead pose a far different challenge from the financial crisis of recent years

The Wall Street Journal

By GREG IP
Updated Nov. 30, 2016 11:32 a.m. ET


The euro has survived sovereign default, recessions, banking crises and bailouts. It may not survive populism.

In the coming year, the eurozone will host at least five elections or referendums that could bring a populist, euroskeptic party to power. In effect, the common currency is about to play multiple rounds of Russian roulette.

The populist threat is qualitatively different from the financial crisis that first erupted in Greece in 2009 and eventually engulfed half the region. In that case, what worried private investors was that a country, or its banks, would default on its debt and be forced to leave the euro. Investors fled, driving interest rates sky-high and plunging the continent into recession.

Euro Gripes Threaten Economic Recovery as Populism Advances

Alessandro Speciale
October 25, 2016 — 7:00 AM EEST

Bloomberg

Anti-establishment parties are gaining ground in the heart of the European Union, and they may pose a bigger challenge to the region’s economy than any of those that have drawn support in the periphery over the past years.
While populists in Spain or Italy are revolting against restrictive fiscal policies and a weakening of social safety nets, the backlash in France and Germany focuses on monetary union itself. Parties openly advocating a break from the euro are building momentum ahead of a year of election across the region and politicians skeptical about EU integration are already twisting policy decisions. Belgium’s Wallonia region blocked a trade deal with Canada just last week.

Greece govt populism made adjustment worse: EU's Dombrovskis

Mon Sep 26, 2016 | 9:28am EDT

Reuters

Greece has had to go through tougher austerity than it would have otherwise been necessary, because of the populist stance of the left-wing government of Alexis Tsipras in 2015, European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said on Monday.

Tsipras, who took power in January 2015, rejected belt-tightening in public finances requested by lenders in exchange for emergency loans and reversed some of the reforms introduced by the previous Greek governments.

As new loans were frozen, Greece defaulted on the International Monetary Fund in July 2015 and had to introduce capital controls to prevent its banking system from collapse.

In Greece’s Populism, Precious Lessons for Europe

The New  York Times

Nikos Konstandaras JAN. 28, 201

Athens — It may just be coincidence, but in the year since a radical left movement and an extreme right-wing party joined forces to govern Greece, the resilience of the European Union has been tested. But it may be also that the forces released in Greece have emerged in many other countries, poisoning relations among member states.

The glue that holds Greece’s paradoxical coalition together, and which we see across Europe, is populism. Not some coherent ideology that puts the people’s interests first, but a policy based on opportunism, on cultivating a grandiose sense of national identity and then presenting that identity as being threatened by domestic and foreign enemies. It uses current problems to undermine efforts at solutions, and conjures past and future utopias rather than trying to keep up with dizzying change.

SYRIZA ANNIVERSARY: WHAT HAS ALEXIS TSIPRAS ACHIEVED?

BY JOSH LOWE ON 1/24/16 AT 2:32 PM

Newsweek

Power can do funny things to a person. Just look at the panel Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sat on at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday. There, the former firebrand, besuited and sporting a fancy watch, shared a stage with an old foe, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, and other EU leaders. Tsipras solemnly warned an audience of brainy business types and the global super-rich about the dangers of “populism” for Europe.