Simon Glendinning | Lightnews

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 7d

The US became a global power in a time when the economic-political space became planetary. However, a new global order could be constructed in that space by the global powers: one that re-configures each global power as a regional power - if they can mostly agree who gets what.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 7d

English cricket fans regretting the retirement of Chris Tavaré.

This was the first of 26 consecutive tests for Tavaré, including tours of India, Sri Lanka and Australia, during which tests he made two test centuries and
again achieved some notable feats of slow scoring. His 50 in five hours and fifty minutes, against Pakistan in 1982, was the second-slowest in the history of the English game."' Among his slowest innings was a score of 35 runs in six-and-a-half hours at Madras in the 1981/82 season. In 2012, Alex Massie wrote that, for Tavaré, scoring runs seemed "a disagreeable, even vulgar, distraction from the pure task of surviving".? At Perth in 1982 he made
"an eight-hour 89, 60 minutes of which were entirely scoreless", although he

Nicolai von Ondarza @nvondarza.bsky.social · 7d

Thinking a bit more on this, there is a symbolism in the fact that this warning to the US is issued at the margins of a meeting of the 'coalition of the willing' to defend against Russia.

Europe in 2026, under siege from two sides.

Nicolai von Ondarza @nvondarza.bsky.social · 7d

Joint Statement of major EU/NATO countries on Greenland, together with Denmark:

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 10d

Thank you for this essay! Identifying Marxism as *the* inseparable adversary of Nazism is, I think, a pre-requisite of understanding Nazism. OTOH, there is a long tradition of non-Marxist socialism (“beyond all class distinctions”) which resists identifying socialism only with its left variations.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 11d

There is a passage on Europe in JS Mill’s On Liberty which could have set the tone for a distinctive and constructive British vision of Europe - but as far as I can see it was lost to the world until I attempted to resurrect it in 2021 …when it was already too late.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 11d

Not especially true - every MS has its Europe - but especially truly awful. :(

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 11d

“Towards integration” or “towards closer union” is an undeniably teleological conception. And there is nothing wrong with that at all. The only question is about the ideal end (the telos). What is “complete” integration? You may say: a federal state. I say: something *essentially* short of that.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 11d

Yes! Hilarious.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 11d

Not sure about the law example here. I think it would take too long trying to refine it to fit. Nevertheless, on the face of it any piece of EU legislation that harmonises across MSs either does or does not conflict with the existing law in any given MS. The rest follows (I think).

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 11d

No condescension intended. Teleological development does seem implied in your description of the emerging federal formation - and that would be a questionable way of looking at developments underway. But my central point is that *any* development would be constrained by the limits I identified.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 11d

Some national constitutional courts have challenged its absolute reach, asserting limits based on national constitutional identity or fundamental rights. But of course you are right about the steps in the process of law change. I’m not sure it makes a difference to the thought experiment though.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 12d

A thought experiment: suppose a law that is common to all MSs - no conflict - and the ECJ asserted a demand for a change in that law. That could be a moment of consensual legal progress in some domain. But what if the MSs all opposed the proposal? Would they all have to suck it up? Idk, I hope not.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 12d

Quite rightly the ECJ has primacy over conflicting national laws. But even there states reserve a right to oversight. And the idea that a federal state is “emerging” is far too simplistically teleological. I have mentioned structural limits to the development of that which that idea simply ignores.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 12d

The EUs current state-like powers (which, to repeat, I like) are not the powers of a state though - they are delegated powers by states. Just as the open borders of Schengen are open only because they are, by states, closable. But yes: not simply intergovernmental, not at all.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 12d

Fair summary. And: yes it is not desirable. A European Union short of a federal state is, however, very desirable. And in answer to your other question: it enhances the sovereignty that a MS keeps. And I focus on MS because they are the unit of membership: it is their union - a union of states.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 12d

I do not believe there is a “way” to that goal. It is barely a possible goal. The “example” I gave of a possible way was a best-case scenario- and it too would fail except in two limit exceptions: in a hegemonic MS (identity of MS and Fed interest) or in a MS “on its knees” (no existing interest).

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 12d

One possibility: you could have, in a member state, a proEUrofederal party of state-abolition. The party policy would be one thing: if it came to power it would give up that governing power and hand it to an EU authority, and become in that moment a regional “implementing authority” of a EUroFed.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 13d

But the national interest is distinctive since it is the domain of a state. As Kant puts it, the formation of a federal state cannot be “the will of the nations” - not because right now they are against it but because it is not the sort of thing a nation can will.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 13d

Anything (like now) that can be coherently affirmed as in the national interest for each in the all. It is never coherent to suppose it is in the national interest to have no national interest. (Read Kant’s “Perpetual Peace” on this.)

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 13d

So you can be firmly opposed to a federal state model and also in favour of voluntarily pooling sovereignty where it is in the interest of each individual in the all.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 14d

“Many Europeans may not like the idea of federalism. There are plenty of people who think that sovereignty only comes in the form of the European NSs that were created in Europe in the 19th century.” This confuses a concern with full federal state structures with attachment to national only ones.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 14d

There is (was) one post-war feature of the UK economy worth keeping in view: the fact that its manufacturing industries were (largely) not decimated by war. So it was not an imperative to build and build new. The economy ran on old - against economies that had shiny new and efficient fixed capital.

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 14d

Yarvin: “Conservatives fail because they can never see that [USA] is actually not their country. Liberals win because they can never see that [USA] actually is their country.” He thinks there is a liberal hegemony. So GOP winning an election is not winning at all: the “underdog” DP has already won.

Lea Ypi @leaypi.bsky.social · 20d

Merry Christmas from Rosa, @ppfideas.bsky.social team & me 😍! In the latest episode of the podcast, David & I discuss von Trotta's film "Rosa Luxemburg" & the life and politics of “the most brilliant intellect of all the scientific heirs of Marx and Engels Marx and Engels", as Franz Mehring put it.

Past Present Future Podcast @ppfideas.bsky.social · 20d

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

Today in our season of live recordings David and @leaypi.bsky.social. look at the biopic of a revolutionary: Margaretha von Trotta’s 'Rosa Luxemburg' (1986), which explores the deeply unstable relationship between the personal and the political.

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 25d

“…no longer…” - when was the golden age of our govts being responsive to a demo? (Council tax?)

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 26d

I would like to describe my French competence as “entertaining”.

German? Gut Frage. And Greek: very limited ancient.

Richard Corbett @richardcorbett.bsky.social · 27d

The details of the announcement reveal that Britain is not just rejoining Erasmus, but also the EU internal energy market, a first small step to reversing the economic damage of Brexit:
ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Joint Statement by Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency Maroš Šef\u010Dovi\u010D and HM Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office The...

In May, the United Kingdom and the European Union held their first ever Summit and agreed to strengthen cooperation through a new strategic partnership. This partnership will make us more secure, will

ec.europa.eu

Nicolai von Ondarza @nvondarza.bsky.social · 27d

Official confirmation of the UK rejoining Erasmus+ in 2027.

As someone who studied in the UK (though not via Erasmus) very pleased to see this particuarly severing of connection at least partially rebuild:

Joint Statement by Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency Maroš Šef\u010Dovi\u010D and HM Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office The...

In May, the United Kingdom and the European Union held their first ever Summit and agreed to strengthen cooperation through a new strategic partnership. This partnership will make us more secure, will

ec.europa.eu

Simon Glendinning @simonglend.bsky.social · 27d

Do you think the qualifier might be to provide space for the Hindu variant? If not then tragically awful and stupid.

Martin Hebart @martinhebart.bsky.social · 28d

Ok, this is nuts. Once you see it you cannot unsee it. Do you see it?
(OP @drgbuckingham.bsky.social )

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