- March 16th, 2019
- Posted by EU Australia
The British parliament has ended a week of big votes on leaving Europe with the battle lines more clear but still stuck in a stand-off.
Lee Duffield says the House of Commons has continued with a struggle to budge the Conservative Party Prime Minister Theresa May from the stand she has been taking.
He says it is a struggle also for journalists to make sense of the trouble, as he has worked through the details to get this explanation. … Read More »
- March 12th, 2019
- Posted by EU Australia
The House of Commons has again on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected the Withdrawal Agreement for Britain to leave the European Union.
Lee Duffield writes that the vote came after a week of the usual confusion and bumble over so-called “Brexit”, which produced a revised agreement – in the end not revised-enough to satisfy hold-out MPs.
The vote was NO 391, YES 242.
… Read More »
- February 14th, 2019
- Posted by EU Australia
Things have come to a push-and-shove stage in talks between Europe and Australia over trade – with the EU’s head man in agriculture taking a tough position in Australia this week.
Lee Duffield caught up with the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development (equivalent to a federal minister), Phil Hogan (picture), and members of his negotiating team on the Gold Coast.
He says European Union officials who got the British in a tight corner over their secession from Europe – committing them to pay Brussels €39-billion (A$62.09) – aren’t backward putting their own interests forward. … Read More »
- December 24th, 2018
- Posted by EU Australia
Winding down at year’s end is bringing the traditional mix of devotional observances, silly season and anxiety about what’s likely to come next.
Lee Duffield writes. … Read More »
- December 12th, 2018
- Posted by EU Australia
Teresa May’s postponement of the show-down vote over leaving Europe, in the British parliament, has highlighted a full-scale conflict over ideologies and wills – and high risk for the country’s future.
Lee Duffield who has a long background reporting European affairs says walking out which looked simple has proved complicated and dangerous.
In the first of two articles he documents the agreement between the British government and European Union, and the fight over it which has paralysed politics in the United Kingdom. … Read More »
- December 12th, 2018
- Posted by EU Australia
Debate in the British parliament over the Draft Agreement with Brussels, for Britain to leave the European Union, has produced above all fresh conflict, confusion and uncertainty.
In this second of two reports, Lee Duffield, a long-time specialist on European affairs, says British involvement with the EU has always been a love-hate liaison. … Read More »
- November 13th, 2018
- Posted by EU Australia
It came to France, scene of the epic battles of the Great War (1914-18), to host the celebration of its centenary on 11 November.
Lee Duffield says it also fell to the French President, Emmanuel Macron, to post a reminder about the ideal of civilisation which the savagery of that war had jeopardised. … Read More »
The British parliament has ended a week of big votes on leaving Europe with the battle lines more clear but still stuck in a stand-off.
