Behind the debate over the artwork extracted from the Parthenon are British violence in post WWII Greece, the experience of austerity and matters of national identity.
If Scotland were to go down the federacy route, the old-age debate of whether or not Europe can be viewed as a part of its domestic competences would return.
The UK’s major parties and international partners, especially the USA, do not want the kind of security or defence posture that has been discussed in Scotland in recent months.
The UK public have an appetite for change but not for unpredictability. That makes the whole process a political minefield running up to the 2015 General Election.
Criminalization is not the answer to the movement of people across the Mediterranean. We have to recognize that it is this act of criminalization which is killing people, not the desire to migrate.
While it is true that any member state can veto the accession bid of another state, the EU will want to avoid any possible territorial mess within its borders.
The amount of leverage the threat of Brexit has for the UK depends not so much on what the UK contributes to the EU but about how valued that contribution is by the EU.
Britain may have a reputation as a reluctant member of the EU, but its absence would be deeply felt. The merits of a referendum on a ‘Brexit’ need to be questioned.
With a ‘Brexit’ on the agenda, and the EU’s vision questioned, it should be kept in mind that integration is chiefly about managing divergence and difference.
There is nothing wrong with endorsing freedom, tolerance and respect for the law as values. But claiming that they emerge from a particular national identity is divisive.
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