Browsing Category General

We continuously underestimate the underlying passion and commitment of the powerful people who run Europe and steer it towards a United States of Europe.

Speech to the Bruges Group, Monday 13 June 2016.

Read the full text here: BrugesGroup13.6.16

Watch the video of the speech and Q+A here: BrugesGroupVideo

Extract: …how is it that Margaret Thatcher, the most powerful Prime Minister we have had since we joined the Common Market in 1973, totally failed to slow down, let alone halt, the continued integration of the EU despite being, on the face of it, the …


Referenda and a crossparty Constitutional Convention: Peter Hennessy Inaugural Lecture

Peter Hennessy Inaugural Lecture, Mile End Institute, QMUL
8 October 2015

“Referendums are not just a device as Attlee described them when suggested by Churchill. They are also a refuge advocated when parliamentary patronage and party political whipping can no longer prevent cross party voting challenging governmental authority. 

“They are usually conceded by governments reluctantly and that reluctance stems from the pressure of public opinion and the unpredictability of the …


Lord Owen and other European Leaders comment on US negotiations with Iran on its nuclear programme.

Negotiations with Iran: the best bet for our future security

Published online in europeanleadershipnetwork.org

17 March 2015

“We call on our governments to fully appreciate the importance of this historic opportunity to ensure Iran’s peaceful use of nuclear technology, reintegrate Iran into the international community, and reinforce global non-proliferation efforts. This represents our best bet for ensuring our future security.”

Read the full text here.

 


Hubris syndrome: An acquired personality disorder? A study of US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers over the last 100 years

Download Full Paper here: includes tables/footnotes/references.

Brain Advance Access published February 12, 2009

David Owen (House of Lords, London, UK) and Jonathan Davidson (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, USA)

‘The history of madness is the history of power. Because it imagines power, madness is both impotence and omnipotence. It requires power to control it. Threatening the normal structures of authority, insanity is engaged