Tag Archives: richard cobbett

Edward Robinson

The inspiration for European integration is part of British history too

By Edward Robinson | Thu 28th June 2018 - 9:54 am

Two years on from the EU referendum and Walter Benjamin’s haunting observation that “the very past itself is at stake” seems appropriate.

What sort of future Britain will have depends, to a large extent, on how a working majority of voters and politicians understand her past. For, as the UK’s former judge on the European Court of Justice, Sir Konrad Schiemann, noted in a 2012 lecture on the EU as a Source of Inspiration, “what you find inspiring depends to a degree on where you come from and what you’re looking for”. Born in 1937, Schiemann was probably the last CJEU judge to have experienced the Second World War. Growing up in Berlin hiding from British bombs and then, via Poland and the Lancashire Fusiliers, landing up as a law student in Cambridge, Schiemann is clear where his generation were coming from and what they were looking for. His generation of Brits (and many of those that followed) understood the preamble to the European Coal and Steel Community as being part of their history too, despite Britain not having been a signatory to it.

Continue reading »
Posted in Books | Also tagged and | 7 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Chambers
    I quite agree with Caron. My son obtained a Statement for special educational needs. He was put on a queue, but never had quite enough points to be given a slot...
  • Jana
    Speaking from my personal experience (Scotland), I think we need to be saying something about reforming the way the Children’s Panel system currently operates...
  • Jans
    Speaking from my personal experience (Scotland), I think we need to be saying something about reforming the way the Children’s Panel system currently operates...
  • Mick Taylor
    @Rose Runwick. I voted against merger and I still believe that the 6 years wasting our time dealing with the SDP stopped dead the expansion of the Liberal Party...
  • Rose Runswick
    Thanks for this Caron, and you are right, I hear so much about my generation not getting our hands dirty, but I know many people who run as many as three jobs j...