Mike Donnan

Brought up in Shepherd’s Bush on pie and mash. Tweets sparingly. Has no objection to disagreement if expressed with civility.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@ClownWorld15175 @Alphafox78 A capital letter.

[Times Radio @TimesRadio]

“Reeves has bitten off far more than she can chew…I don't know a single person of demonstrable economic expertise anywhere near the top of this government.”

Financial markets are “increasingly concerned” about Labour's handling of the economy, @LiamHalligan tells @AfNeil.

[David Atherton @daveatherton]

Prof of Politics Matt @GoodwinMJ's superb speech. The Tories "sold this country down the river", he wants the "laying of the foundation for a more credible, alternative to Labour for the next 50 years"

"Meaningful alternative to the Uniparty."

Do listen to it all.

Hat tip @leeharris

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@briangukc @EU_Commission @briangukc: I do not understand why you blame European voters for the failings of Frau von der Leyen and her colleagues. Members of the EU Commission are not elected but “chosen” (see Article 17.3 of the TEU).

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@jwahjwah @AndyGJBurge @allendh @jwahjwah: with respect, you could not possibly have voted to join in 1975: the UK was already a member of the EEC and the referendum question was whether the UK should stay in or not.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@AndyGJBurge @allendh @AndyGJBurge: I question whether you should be quite so ready to call someone ignorant when you seem to have difficulty in distinguishing between a vote whether to remain in what was then the EEC (not the EC as you stated) and a vote whether to go into it. We had only the former.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@acgrayling “Give us a referendum”, demands Grayling, yet in his book ‘Democracy and its Crisis’ he asserts that representative democracy “should have no truck with referenda” (page 154, according to my Kindle version). Such inconsistency is not unexpected.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@acgrayling Two assertions but no fact-based argument in support. Unsurprising from one who cannot see the contradiction between his writing a couple of potboilers on democracy & his infatuation with the EU whose laws may be adopted only on the basis of proposals by an unelected commission.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@acgrayling Quite right, the electorate was lied to. George Osborne said a vote to leave the EU would cost the UK 500k jobs within 2 years (Reuters 23.5.16). By the way, what justifies you implicitly counting on the Leave side those of the electorate who failed to cast a vote?

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@TerraOrBust For interesting news & commentary (in English) re Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic the website https://t.co/8mpMCLWuu2 is worth a look. For an alternative perspective on Germany, for anyone who can read German, the website of the periodical Junge Freiheit can be recommended.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@acgrayling Is it not a cause for concern when an academic philosopher references with apparent approval a tweet by someone - @Sophia24514 - who seemingly can’t tell the difference between a forecast and a statement of fact?

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@straticotweet Actually, the tweet you reference makes no such admission. It suggests certain benefits but does not assert or imply that there are no others. Your interpretation of that tweet is therefore plainly false.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@SBarrettBar @CamillaTominey The Costa decision stated “the Member States have limited their sovereign rights” & established the principle that EU law overrides national law incompatible with it. Some equivocate by claiming the UK remained sovereign because EU membership was voluntary and could relinquished.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@TerryReintke With respect, your claim that the “UK belongs in the European family” seems fatuous. The UK is European as a matter of geography and implying that the EU is a family is no more than a soppy metaphor. Be honest: the EU wants the UK back as a major net contributor to the EU budget.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@MarieAnnUK Many Remainers/Rejoiners seem to think, mistakenly, that merely by advocating membership of the EU they occupy the moral and intellectual high ground, yet here’s one of them (there are others in the replies) applauding what is nothing more than foul-mouthed and puerile abuse.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@FUNKNA Why have you lumped AZ with Pfizer and Moderna? The first two manufactured an mRNA vaccine whereas AZ’s vaccine was based on adenovirus technology.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@BillEdmunds4 Can you justify your assertion with an analysis filtering out the economic effects of the Ukraine war & the pandemic, including the government & BoE reactive policies, *and* giving comparative data on all the EU states? Do you actually know what’s happening in the EU?

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@MarieAnnUK Since you ask, I’d miss the knowledge that I was living in a democracy whose laws were introduced by people who were elected and could be voted out and not by an unelected caucus, and whose monetary policy was not a one-size-fits-all affair determined by the ECB.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@MarieAnnUK We were warned by the then Chancellor that a leave vote would cost the UK 500,000 jobs (Reuters, 23.5.16). Unemployment is now 3.7 % in UK (ONS, 13.12.22) but 6.0 % in EU & even higher, 6.5%, in Eurozone (Eurostat, pNov. 2022). Please justify your use of the word “catastrophe “.

[Mike Donnan @OldSchoolViews]

@acgrayling The tweet from @euromove seems disingenuous. I doubt that Brexit could simply be “reversed”. The EU would surely be reluctant to reinstate the UK’s opt-out from the euro. Adoption of the euro would entail loss of an independent monetary policy & of the exchange rate instrument.