The capacity to ‘compete’—rethinking the welfare state
Rather than a ‘burden on the taxpayer’, the welfare state should be understood in normative terms as productive social investment.
Robin Wilson
Social rights—securing Europe’s future
In Vilnius, at a high-level conference on the European Social Charter, it felt like a paradigm shift was taking place.
Asylum and migration: a positive alternative policy
It’s time for a Gestalt shift from curbing ‘irregular’ migration to pursuing integration for mutual benefit.
Facing Europe’s huge challenges
The outlines of a new progressive narrative for Europe are emerging amid the smoke from forest fires and the war in Ukraine.
Impartiality and public-service media
The media storm in Britain around a television personality speaks volumes about why the UK has become a dysfunctional state.
Tackling the cost-of-living crisis
Inflation is a number. But addressing it is not just a technical issue, best left to (usually male) economists.
Brexit: why does Northern Ireland matter so much?
So little appears at stake in the Northern Ireland protocol yet it’s at the heart of the Brexit deadlock. But then it’s a proxy for something else.
Northern Ireland—the unhappy ending Europe’s story must avoid
Europe has always had its anti-enlightenment side. Northern Ireland graphically presents its extreme manifestation.
Universal Basic Income: a disarmingly simple idea—and fad
Universal basic income is a disarmingly simple idea based on a disarmingly simple premise. The digital revolution threatens massive technological unemployment; ergo, every citizen should
Social Europe Needs A Positive Vision
In his magisterial One Hundred Years of Socialism, Donald Sassoon described how, under the influence of the 19th century German leader Karl Kautsky, the European