Is coronavirus Boris Johnson's get out of jail card on Brexit?

Economic activity worldwide has slowed almost to a stop. Claims that non-EU countries were queuing up to sign advantageous trade deals with Britain now ring hollow, as governments everywhere have imposed draconian controls on the movement of people and goods. So is coronavirus Boris Johnson's get out of jail card on Brexit, asks Denis MacShane

Ten reasons why a no-deal Brexit may yet be avoided

Between metaphors about tunnels and submarine and the contradictory statements by UK ministers and the absence of any serious Commons debate on Brexit, it is hard to say with certainty what will happen in the EU-UK talks especially as no-one knows when they will end. But here are ten points which suggest a deal is growing more likely in contrast to mid-year when the Brexit commentariat in the UK, when journalists, think-tankers, academics and many EU specialists were very pessimistic and predicting a No Deal or WTO crash out. Here are ten reasons why such a dire outcome may yet be avoided, writes Denis MacShane

Churchill the European has been written out of history

Churchill devoted considerable resources, money, speech-making, and political organization to the cause of European unity. Today, Churchill the European is being written out of British history, writes Denis MacShane

How the Brexit negotiations can end without war being declared

How the Brexit negotiations can end without war being declared, asks Denis MacShane? What’s needed is a compromise, which used to be a British speciality, he argues

Solidarity after the Coup

The paradox of Poland is quite straightforward. The workers, intellectuals and activists who formed Solidarity did not know how to convert the gains of August 1980 into permanent change. The generals, security officers and party hardliners who declared a 'state of war' on 13 December 1981 did not know how to convert the locking up of Lech Walesa and other Solidarity leaders into a lasting solution of the country's economic and social problems. The list of problems without easy answers is long enough inside Poland. But the history of Solidarity and the continuing struggle of the Polish working class has presented a number of questions for Western socialists: what is the nature of Russian and East European political systems and what should be the relationships between organisations of the Western labour movement-political parties and trade unionsand organisations with similar names in Comecon countries? Also Western socialists have had to consider what political and economic response would best support Solidarity. The situation has produced some strange bedfellows. Ultra-leftists have joined forces with right-wing reactionaries in demanding a complete economic boycott of Poland and the Soviet Union and a withdrawal of credit that would push Poland into default. Western Communist Parties have stood shoulder to shoulder with bankers in Wall Street, the City and West Germany, in arguing against any interruption in financial and economic relationships with Poland. The paradoxes stretch far beyond the Polish frontier