Denis MacShane Archives
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Opting for EU realism, Corbyn tries to brand Tories as Brexit fundamentalists
Like a crab emerging cautiously from under his rock, the Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is millimetre-by-millimetre re-calibrating his party line on Brexit, writes Denis MacShane.
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EU socialists puzzled at Labour’s hostility to Europeans in UK
Jeremy Corbyn meets fellow centre-left leaders in the Party of European Socialists today to discuss Brexit, writes Denis MacShane.
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Kosovo lurches to nationalism as Brussels lets down its friends
Elections in the West Balkans are never easy. Federica Mogherini might consider intervening now on the side of the pro-European forces in Kosovo, writes Denis MacShane.
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Albania: How not to lose an election? Refuse to take part…
All eyes are on elections in Britain, France and soon Germany but quite the most bizarre election seen in Europe since the end of communism is due to take ten days after the British poll next month, writes Denis MacShane.
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Brexit ‘letter’ is nothing new: What May did not say
After the Trump-like picture of Theresa May signing her Article 50 letter, there was nothing new in her statement in the House of Commons, writes Denis MacShane.
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Forget Russia, new menace in Western Balkans is Trump-style populist politics
A new menace is stalking the Western Balkans: the region's political leaders themselves. Many are now retreating from serious engagement with Europe in order to play internal political games, writes Denis MacShane.
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Balkan Mission Impossible for Mogherini
Europe’s foreign policy supremo, Federica Mogherini, is off on a mission even more difficult than getting Iran and the US to agree their nuclear deal, writes Denis MacShane.
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May throws down gauntlet to European leaders
Watching Theresa May in a hotel room in the capital of a small European nation, not in the EU, has been a surreal experience. Her insistence that every other EU leader had to accept that their citizens cannot any longer travel to the UK on the terms they can today seemed borderline impertinent, writes Denis MacShane.
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Sir Ivan Rogers leaves May’s small tent
Sir Ivan Rogers is not a Foreign Office smoothy, the kind of charming brilliant dip who used to live in the Rue Ducale and out-negotiate the Eurocrats with effortless ease, writes Denis MacShane, reflecting on the sudden departure of the UK's envoy to the EU.
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Media-political hysteria over Brexit High Court ruling not justified
The sensationalist press coverage of the High Court ruling on Brexit is not justified by what actually happened and is likely to happen, says Denis MacShane.
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As Theresa May tries to buy Tory peace Brexit politics heats up
Theresa May’s has spent nearly every waking moment since leaving university thinking about her Conservative Party to which she has devoted all her life, writes Denis MaShane.
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Labour’s ‘Red UKIP’ MPs add to confusion on party’s line on Europe
Labour could be at the forefront of exposing these inconsistencies and incoherence of Brexit. But first, the party has to overcome its own confusion and mixed messages, writes Denis MacShane.
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Switzerland and EU head – politely – for the rocks
As all eyes focus on Brexit - where everything has changed but nothing has started - there is another proud European democracy which would like to shut its doors to immigrants but keep open the EU’s doors to its goods and services – Switzerland, writes Denis MacShane.
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Brexit delivers blow to Swiss EU hopes
Imitation may be the most sincere form of flattery. But it is doubtful if anyone in Switzerland is thanking the City and big bank spin doctors who have come up with the idea that London should seek a Swiss-style relationship with Europe once Brexit is fully consummated, writes Denis MacShane.
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Biden hails gold medal for a country Serbia says doesn’t exist
US Vice-President Joe Biden has chosen this week to come to what is still Europe’s great unfinished business – the West Balkans. Can Biden knock any sense into his Serb hosts? Unlikely, says Denis MacShane.
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Can Greece copy Morocco, and stop sulking?
Anyone ever tried to get from Athens to Skopje or Pristina? It’s a journey from hell as the excellent Aegean Airlines, which links all the region’s cities, have eliminated Macedonia and Kosovo from their satellite map, writes Denis MacShane.
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May’s ‘Three Musketeers’ to take on Europe and the world
Britain’s new Prime Minister, Theresa May, has wasted no time in telling Europe and the world that Britain wants to be somewhere else, writes Denis MacShane.
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Boris departure allows a rethink on Brexit
In English politics, we are witnessing the truth of Marx’s maxim that history repeats itself, first as tragedy then as farce, as the man who led the Brexit campaign in order to become prime minister now suddenly renounces his ambition, writes Denis MacShane.
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Will David Cameron revert to the old normal if Remain wins?
A remain vote would give David Cameron unprecedented power to lead EU reform. But Denis MacShane asks if he will be quite such a Europhile once the dust has settled on the referendum and his job is secure.
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UK’s ‘Super Thursday’ – a one-fingered salute to all the party leaders
The main result of the UK’s Super Thursday election is that every party leader lost, writes Denis MacShane, Britain's former minister for Europe.
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Obama has not sealed the deal
The Remain camp will have to find different enthusiastic advocates and reasons on than trade deal queues to convince voters if Brexit is to be defeated, Obama's trip was not a game-changer.
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Can a Corbyn-Cameron axis defeat Brexit?
The Brexit campaign is throwing up the oddest of paradoxes. Having been elected as a leftist hammer of the Conservatives, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has now decided he wants to ensure David Cameron stays as Prime Minister by joining ranks with him to urge a defeat of the Brexit camp in the referendum on 23rd June.
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‘No enthusiasm please, we’re British’
David Cameron’s unenthusiastic, eurosceptical campaign to remain in the EU risks provoking voter apathy and dooming the UK to more years of disengagement with European affairs even if Brexit does not become a reality, writes Denis MacShane.
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Cameron’s lose-lose strategy
This will go down in history as the losers’ European Council. David Cameron has fashioned a lose-lose game plan in which both the UK and the EU will emerge weaker from his plebiscite politics, writes Denis MacShane.