Dorothy has been involved in the energy and telecoms sectors for many years, working with EU institutions in Brussels. She was previously the private secretary to a Labour cabinet minister. Returning to the UK in 2005, she settled in a small village at the foot of the South Downs and is partner in a Whitehall-based think-tank focusing on public policy issues.
Macron’s win in the French Presidential election brought relief to many both within and outside France, but revealed a divided nation. Dorothy Smith analyses the results and the challenges that Macron faces going forward.
France stands at a political crossroads, with first-round voting in the Presidential election resulting in a run-off between the centrist President Macron and right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen. Dorothy Smith analyses the policies of the two candidates and the crucial role that voters for left-wing Melenchon will play in the final round.
On 24 February, wholesale gas prices rose 28% on the news that Russian forces had invaded Ukraine, with some experts predicting that UK consumers’ energy bills for gas and electricity could rise to £2,500 or even £3,000 a year. Brexit hasn’t helped either.
The Northern Ireland Protocol has kept the peace in the province since 1998. However, the UK Government’s chosen ‘hard Brexit’ threatens to undo all the hard work that went into its creation.
In the light of all the propaganda, no doubt some people were persuaded by the slogan’Get Brexit done’, to change their vote at the last general election, imagining that, after Brexit, things would change for the better. On the day the UK officially left the EU, 31 January 2020, Britain’s exit was presented by Boris […]
The announcement on 24 November of the successful conclusion of the German negotiations to form a “traffic light” coalition government (named after the parties’ respective colours: red for Social Democrats, green for Greens and yellow for liberal Free Democrats) brings the promise of a new dynamism in politics, not just for Germany but for the EU as a whole.
Following Germany’s recent elections, the country’s politics are shifting as the country’s long-standing chancellor Angela Merkel, quits the role she has made her own. Will this be a test for Germany’s hitherto stable democracy, and what lessons and implications, if any, might there be for the UK?
There were many attempts to make progress at the COP26 climate change talks in Glasgow. But there was also considerable resistance by countries with vested interests in fossil fuels.