During the last few years, there has been an increase in debates about the future of the European Union, partly as a result of Brexit. For long, public awareness of the EU was small. It was perceived as a distant bureaucracy with a lack of connection with regular citizens. This had an important effect on the European Parliament elections, which in many countries have impressively low turn-out. They were seen as an election of minor importance and parties had difficulties to mobilize their electorate. In Britain, this lack of enthusiasm for European integration was combined with public distrust, which increased as a result of the crisis that hit world economies from 2008 onwards. There are multiple reasons for this specifically British type of Euroscepticism and analysists have pointed out every possible one of them. Geography and history certainly play a big role in it. Britain’s longstanding good relations with the United States and other countries from its former empire certainly influence its self-perception as substantially different from its continental neighbours. Additionally, its strong economy and its significant role in the world have contributed to the idea that Britain does not need the EU. Apart from all this, there is a concept in the British special political system that has certainly affected the Brexit debate: parliamentary sovereignty.
The Skripal Case, Propaganda, and Syria: Are We In For Another Cold War?
Last March, the former double-agent and spy Sergei Skripal, and his adult daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a park bench in the UK town of Salisbury. Both had been poisoned with a nerve agent known as Novichok, developed by USSR several decades ago. After an investigation, British officials accused Russia of planning and executing the death-threatening poisoning, which could have affected as many as a hundred thirty people to Novichok. In a statement to the House of Commons on March 12, Prime Minister Theresa May said it was “highly likely” that Russian officials organized the attack.