If one side thinks negotiations have only just started, then negotiations have only just started Also, Horizon was very quickly agreed in principle, but then took ~9mths to sort out finances

Delighted to be part of this RFCB special issue on #GE24, with a piece on the (sort of) disappearance of 'Europe' as an issue journals.openedition.org/rfcb/13978 @oupolitics.bsky.social @ukandeu.bsky.social

Today's garden

Join us on 30th September - 6.30pm - 7.30pm, joined with Matt Staples and Dr. Edward Wastnidge will be sharing how the Open University’s teaching, research, and wider engagement in politics and international relations connect with the aims of our new society Join: www.oustudents.com/ents/event/2...

The logical culmination of Gove’s ‘we don’t trust experts’. Now it’s ’we don’t know anything’.

The consequence, however, is that both internally and externally each election suddenly becomes (or is at least treated) as a 'final fight' for the survival of liberal democracy. This is not healthy for the political system nor for trust between European partners.

Very much not the point of Reform's announcement, but existence of this and ECHR withdrawal in UK political debate will make EU cautious about entering in more commitments with a UK that doesn't look like it's got back on board with good faith implementation of treaty commitments

It’s worth asking the question why British politics is trying so hard to copy American politics when the same policies aren’t even popular there, let alone here.

Today's constitutional

"The Commission should abandon waiting for Member States’ unanimity at every single step in the negotiation process. This relatively recent practice has no basis in EU law and should be dropped" - Michael Emerson and @stevenblockmans.bsky.social at @ceps.eu www.ceps.eu/ceps-publica...

Reading NTS's Bruges speech, I see he has correct identified the key issues and taken the correct stance on them @collegeofeurope.bsky.social www.gov.uk/government/s...

Today's constitutional

Cross-linkage, you say? Once again, we seem to be heading for a grand UK-EU deal on the Cmn Understanding agenda in 2027 www.thetimes.com/article/7637...

Today's constitutional

Delighted to have such a talented panel to discuss UK politics and European policy with me @oupolitics.bsky.social

Today's constitutional

Today's constitutional

Today's constitutional

Happy I Forgot The Supermarket Would Be Full Of Freshers And Their Parents Buying Big Bags Of Pasta On Moving-In Day Day, to those who celebrate

When European policymakers talk about ‘economic security’, they’re really talking about China. Chart from our new paper with @jbenford-berlin.bsky.social, in which we mapped EU and UK trade vulnerabilities (and offered some ideas why the two should collaborate), published earlier this week.

NTS's comments highlight the common bias to the status quo: yes, macro change is unlikely, especially if you're not trying to effect that change As demonstrated in his comments about CU/SM membership www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Today's garden

Today's online #UACES2025 sessions

Today's constitutional

Economic security is the agenda du jour in Brussels. Yet it is conspicuously absent from the EU-UK 'reset'. In a new paper with @jbenford-berlin.bsky.social for @bertelsmannst.bsky.social, we argue this is a mistake and set out what can be done about it. www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/en/publicati...

Correcting the reports. UK withdrawal from the ECHR absolutely breaches the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. ukandeu.ac.uk/explainers/t...

Unsurprisingly, no mention at all of the UK this year (which is probably as it should be, given all the other things on the agenda)

A good day to follow @theguardian.com Europe Live for reliable information about Polish (and not only) reactions to the overnight violations of Polish airspace by Russian drones. @jakubkrupa.bsky.social provides helpful translations from 🇵🇱 incl political context www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

Nice to see interest in EU, but resolution seems A) more worried about touring artists than anything else, and B) not to have paid attention to how low touring artists are on the EU's list of things to do

Now to find useful ways to spend it

Was very happy to highlight this research to Polly Toynbee at the Guardian (link next post) - hopefully this proves a rare and valuable example of timely research informing an ongoing political discussion

Today's garden

Ah yes, "bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake" Who are these people who supported that pesky Windsor Framework as a resolution to their concerns about the NI Protocol? [hotdog guy GIF] www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Today's constitutional

Today's red moon hunting

how it feels to contribute to an edited volume

Talking Rayner and reshuffle with BBC 3 Counties shortly @oupolitics.bsky.social

New FCDO leadership just as EU reset negotiations begin

Today's constitutional

Useful thread

#REF29 panel memberships are now published Delighted to be part of UoA D25 Area Studies @oupolitics.bsky.social @openuniversity.bsky.social 2029.ref.ac.uk/news/expert-...

UK Colleagues: Pause to #REF criteria-setting, but no changes to overall timeline 2029.ref.ac.uk/news/pause-t...

Ooh we've opened our call for small research grants. £10k for any humanities or social sciences research. Open to independent scholars. We use partial randomisation to allocate the funding: random allocation between all that meet the quality threshold www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-l...

Earwigging on the train a guy talk about "hydrating the ontology" Strongly resisting the urge to google it, mostly because it'll turn out to be A Thing

It's been a delight to attend #UACES2025: great discussions, lovely colleagues and a brilliant location Thanks to the @uaces.bsky.social team, the local organisers @ljmuofficial.bsky.social and all the volunteers who made it happen!

Were always going to be transition costs to Brexit, but the absence of clear endpoint and indecisive govts have made those even bigger than they needed to be www.politico.eu/article/brex...

@simonusherwood.bsky.social and I hope this will be the start of a new @uaces.bsky.social trend: clothing that is reflective of your paper’s topic

Always fun to present on something not about EU-UK relations, especially when it also let's me justify all that time on cycling websites! #UACES2025

Not often you get a conference seminar room with a two cathedral view! #UACES2025

It's September, so let's check back in on all that progress to enact the EU-UK's Common Understanding from May tl;dr tortoise, not hare 1/ PDF: bit.ly/UshGraphic141