David Lawton

Fascinating piece!

Brexit in Historical Perspective: The Age of Britain in Europe When the bell tolls at eleven o’clock tonight, ringing out Britain’s membership of the EU, an entire phase of British history will ...

It's six years today since Britain left the EU.

I wrote this on Brexit day in 2020, about the strategic dilemmas to which European membership had once been the answer and that would now reopen once Britain left.

I'd stand by most of it today.
gladstonediaries.blogspot.com/2020/01/brex...

I’m not sure it was basically a Christian Democrat project from the start. Spinelli was among the ‘founding fathers’ for example, or there’s Eurocommunism in the 70s/80s. There have always been a diverse range of pro-European visions fighting against one another to shape the project

I left university in 2019 with £49,600 of debt. A few months later, I became an MP and have since received a salary that puts me in the top 5% in the country. 6 years on, the repayments from my salary have brought this total to down to £48,600 - just £1,000 less.

fantastic news! I found studying in Europe and with Europeans one of the most enriching parts of my studies

I'm very proud of this book: it has a wonderful array of work by many of my favourite historians, which cumulatively makes the pitch for understanding modern British History through the lens of the urban. Lund Humphries have done a wonderful production job, & it is a big beautiful book. Buy it now!

Rebels Post Videos of Mass Killings in Darfur as the World Watches After the fall of El Fasher to the R.S.F., observers fear for the next target in the war.

Last month, El Fasher, in Sudan’s Darfur region, fell to rebel forces. “The world hasn’t caught up to what a big deal El Fasher is,” a humanitarian researcher at Yale said. “We are talking tens upon tens of thousands of potential dead in five days.” https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/ePchw0

well considering he'd do humiliating Cameos for £70 a pop...

I'm sympathetic to this take but I wonder how we then categorise the large amounts of capital flowing into green tech (especially in other parts of the world). Is this not also 'capital' in action?

The political logic is clear: Farage is saying that the problem is not Brexit, but the politicians who have failed to properly implement it. If only the UK had pushed harder to rip up EU red tape, we would not be in the mess we’re in. But his economic and regulatory logic is fundamentally flawed. A close study of recent Brexit history (we happen to have produced one) shows that Conservative governments did, in fact, aspire to deregulate the UK economy. That they failed was due not to a lack of political will, but to reality – and the dawning realisation of the economic damage it would do. It is the very “business people” Farage claims to speak for who pushed hardest against the “Brexit opportunities” agenda.

Farage promises to “reduce the size of the bloated state”, but the task of identifying legislation to reform, and then designing and implementing the new rules, would be a major administrative undertaking for Whitehall. The UK civil service has doubled in size since Brexit, and a key reason for this is that Whitehall has had to take on jobs that were previously left to EU regulators. The more the UK seeks to do things differently to the EU, the more British bureaucrats we will need to do the heavy lifting. If Mr Farage’s real priority is to cut the state to save cash, there is one obvious thing to do – join the EU single market.

Yesterday Nigel Farage argued that the UK has failed to grasp Brexit opportunities to deregulate, which his 'pro-business' government would deliver.

I've got a piece in the Independent arguing why that is a misreading both of Brexit history and economics.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexi...

After teaching today one of my students said they'd found a meme which summarised our lesson. I don't know if this is the point I was trying to make about epistemology but it made me laugh

if you’ve ever watched the apprentice, that’s the world without arts or humanities degrees

By building a powerful counter-elite

Had a wonderful time in Albania but rather disappointed they no longer offer a free haircut and shave at the border - I would certainly have been eligible

From the archive: a letter from Farage to an elderly Enoch Powell asking him to come and give the electorate 'another jog' in 1994

After finishing the latest Adam Curtis, I'm convinced it would be improved with all captions and narration removed, leaving the viewer with a pure stream of clips between which we are left to free-associate the historical meaning

Another contradiction between popular and elite Euroscepticism, is that while Brexit may have mobilised discontent with globalisation, from the 1990s most Eurosceptics espoused a hyperglobalist vision for the future of British capitalism.

Exactly. Brexit may have been sold as anti-elitist, but it was always the result of a very particular elite project. An ‘elite populism’ runs through the history of Euroscepticism in which manifestly elite figures mobilise ‘the people’ against a malign and illegitimate pro-European establishment.

You can get 25% off my book UP IN THE AIR: A HISTORY OF HIGH-RISE BRITAIN at Waterstones, with the code SUMMER25 until Thursday 31 #WPreorder

Thank you. I'm very interested in reading the book when it's out!

Thank you Eve!

Thanks Katie, it was challenging but enjoyable in the end!

Thank you Kate!

Thanks Alfie! I'll send you a message

Last week, I passed my PhD viva with no corrections. I’m so grateful to everyone who supported me during this research. If you are interested in reading my take on the transformation of conservative attitudes to European integration after 1975 please feel free to DM me. Now for some rest! 😮‍💨

Stevens knocking it out of the park

INTERVIEWS WITH HISTORIANS - E. P. THOMPSON YouTube video by Institute of Historical Research

OMG, the @ihr.bsky.social has uploaded a bunch of old interviews with historians on their youtube channel and I'm now deeply invested. Summer treat for #SkyStorians!

Look at this interview with E.P. Thompson by an embryonic Penelope Corfield!

I'm thrilled to have been published in Past & Present.

Diving into the fractious politics of rich-country macroeconomics after 1973, I use the neglected case of protectionist Keynesians to rethink what happened, and why. I highlight statecraft, geopolitics, and Maier's 'territoriality'. (1/2)

Congratulations Colm!! Look forward to reading this

Picture of a panel of fabulous historians

Final round table on the purpose of British history writing in today’s political, cultural, and higher education landscape #QMCBS