European integration as a concept is impossible to argue with. However, the EU as it currently stands is clearly dysfunctional and out of sync with the needs of the vast majority of its citizens. It is being run in the interests of a neoliberal elite that consider national sovereignty and political stability anathema to the priority of being able to rake as much of a return from short-term investment as and where the opportunity arises. It is this perverse and grotesque interpretation of ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ that has dominated the institutions of the EU, plunging them into crisis in the wake of the global economic crisis of 2007/08.

ASIO has warned the major parties about taking donations from two billionaires because its intelligence reveals worrying links to the Chinese Communist Party.

oil crisis...

Famous excerpt (probably made up) from a conversation between Colbert and Mazarin under LOUIS XIV:

Colbert: To find money, there comes a time when fiddling is not enough anymore. I would like the Superintendent to explain how we go about spending even when we are already in debt ...

Mazarin: When one is a mere mortal, of course, and one is covered with debts, one goes to prison. But the State ... The State is different. You can not throw the state into jail. Then the state continues, adds to the debt! All states do that.

Colbert: Oh yes? You think that works?

The negotiations leading up to the Paris climate accord involved years of delicate diplomacy and thousands of voices offering guidance. President Donald Trump's handling of the decision to leave was the polar opposite.