Unit 4: Essay on EU and it's future

The growth of nationalism around Europe as seen by the latest EU Parliament election results is a consequence of a 'Remote & complex' Union. Discuss! (45 marks)

or in Natasha language...

The European Union is a bit rubbish, how would you improve it?

in Dob's...I don't care about the EU, just give me some weights to lift!

or Vlad's...Рост национализма в Европе как видно из последнего парламент ЕС результаты выборов является следствием "Дистанционное и комплекс" Союза. Обсудить! (45 знаков)

1. Intro to aims/objectives. (include definitions of nationalism vs federalism)
2. How has EU developed in terms of it's institutions
3. How do institutions work with each other
4. Have the objectives been met in last 50 years (Economy, welfare, prosperity, political union etc)
5. What are the current main issues (immigration, growth etc)
6. Are there any solutions (look to what politicians from around EU are saying)
7. Will it impact on further integration (if you can use the word Sclerosis, that would be great - link to 70's)
8. Conclusion - anything you want that is relevant.

Units 3 & 4: Three useful articles for upcoming exams.

Click here to access a piece showing information about the EU Parliament, how it works, how many seats each country has etc. Useful for opening paragraphs on any Parliament essay.

Click here to access an editorial from BBC Politics correspondent Nick Robinson on what the latest results mean for the political parties (including UKIP).

Finally, the results from the recent local council elections. Click here. Try and find some political commentary on this. Useful for questions on unit 3 economic/welfare/immigration etc policy, as UKIP's rise and the Lib Dem fall is significant on where parties think they need to go as far as policy is concerned for next years General Election.

Unit 4: How the EU works!

Excellent article which explains the EU elections. What it also has is several related videos on the institutions.

Click here for article.

Unit 4: Poland doesn't want to join the Euro - Yet

Click here to access the article on Poland not wanting to joining the single currency.

Useful when answering questions on Euro and it's perceived success, failures.

Question for homework - Predictions that the Euro would fail have been misplaced. Discuss. (45 marks)

Unit 4: Difficult interview for Nigel Farage - A must watch!

Nigel Farage endured a car crash live radio interview with LBC presenter James O'Brien on Friday morning. In began with the Ukip leader challenged over the "avalanche" of controversial comments made by his candidates. One Ukip candidate was revealed to have made remarks about what would happen if he "shot one poofter". Farage said he was "perfectly happy for us to have a debate about our idiots" but complained that other political parties were not subject to the same level of scrutiny as his was. As the interview continued Ukip communications director Patrick O'Flynn intervened in an attempt to get the programme shut down. "We had an agreement and you've massively overrun," he said. But his protests were ignored. Farage said it was unfair for the media to hold up a "handful of people" who made racist or homophobic comments as being representative of Ukip. And he insisted he could not be expected to know the views of every Ukip politician as he did not run the "day-to-day management" of the party. O'Brien also took Farage to task over his previous remarks that he felt uncomfortable when he heard people speaking languages other than English. And he was asked whether that meant he felt awkward when his German wife spoke German not English, he replied: "I don't suppose she speaks it on the train."

Unit 4: How the Euro was saved

In this short video report, Peter Spiegel, the Financial Times's Brussels bureau chief, recounts the moments in 2011 and 2012 when the euro came closest to collapse, and how politicians and bureaucrats battled over the solutions that eventually saved the euro.

Excellent stuff for unit 4 essays on advantages, disadvantages and issues surrounding the single currency.




Related: Another piece on costs & benefits of EU membership.....

With the European Parliament elections on the near horizon there is plenty of discussion about the merits and de-merits of continued UK membership of the European Union.
The Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) has just launched a new report in its series of CEP Policy Analyses: ‘Brexit or Fixit? The Trade and Welfare Effects of Leaving the European Union’ by Gianmarco Ottaviano, Joao Paulo Pessoa, Thomas Sampson and John Van Reenen. Here are their main findings:

1. Over half of all UK exports go to the rest of the European Union (EU) – this corresponds to almost 15% of national income (GDP)
2. One cost of the UK leaving the EU (‘Brexit’) would be less trade with the EU because of higher tariff and non-tariff barriers today and reduced benefits from lower trade costs in the future. A benefit of leaving would be a lower net fiscal contribution.
3. We consider a pessimistic scenario where the UK suffers some formal increase in trade costs compared with an optimistic one where it does not. A conventional calculation from a quantitative trade model produces income losses of around 3.1% of GDP (£50 billion) in the pessimistic case or 1.1% in the optimistic case (£18 billion).
4. When we factor in more realistic dynamic losses from lower productivity growth, a conservative estimate would double losses to 2.2% of GDP even in the most optimistic case. In the pessimistic case, there would be income falls of 6.3% to 9.5% of GDP, a loss of a similar size to that resulting from the global financial crisis of 2008/09.
5. There are further effects on immigration, foreign investment and regulations. Although harder to quantify, Brexit is also likely, on balance, to depress income through these channels.
6. Our current assessment is that leaving the EU would be likely to impose substantial costs on the UK economy and would be a very risky gamble.

Unit 4: Oh dear Mr Farage!

Jacob, read and explain? Click Here

Unit 3: Education and coalition disagreements

I reckon I could blog articles of coalition disagreements every day now until the election! Here is the latest argument over education funding. Again, really useful for Unit 3 education policy.

Unit 3: Law & Order and Coalition split

And so it begins!

After our discussion yesterday about how the coalition cracks would start appearing, here is a piece from the BBC highlighting the differences in ideology between the traditional punitive Tories and the more rehabilitating Liberal Democrats.

Excellent for any discussion on law & order and also for power of government in the current coalition!

Click here for article.

Unit 2: Some issues with an uncodified constitution

Problems with the British Constitution

Has produced an imperfect separation of powers, allowing the executive to exercise too much control over the legislative branch

The notion of the Rule of Law may be breaking down e.g. many people cannot afford to go to court

The sovereignty of Parliament is in doubt

The Constitution is far too easy to amend by a government with a large majority in Parliament

The Constitution still allows too many ‘relics’ of earlier times like the Lord Chancellor, the House of Lords and the Monarchy

It has become a messy mixture of written and unwritten elements

Because it is so vague and uncodified it does not carry the obvious authority of some other constitutions, such as that of the USA 

Unit 3: Two articles on Law & Education

The BBC have written two articles:

This one is based on the Police & Crime Commissioners and their success/lack of it. Some excellent up to date discussion on the governments Law & Order policy.

This article is about making examinations tougher. Again, useful when discussing education policy with up to date coalition government examples.

Unit 1: How democratic are Pressure Groups

Thanks to Qasim for this really useful article on pressure groups, a common 25 mark question on the unit 1 paper.

Unit 2 & 4: European Elections 2014 - excellent link

The BBC have created a link which updates all the relevant news regarding the upcoming elections in the EU.

Articles include explanations on how the EU elections work, who the leading players are in each country and what results could mean for the future direction of the EU. Click here to access link.

Great stuff for all Politics students.

Unit 3: Law & Order - Stop & Search police reforms

Thank you Jacob for finding this article on police reforms by Theresa may. Useful example to use on any essay on this topic.