European Union – STUFF HAPPENS

Which way? The High Line, Liberty and Britain’s road to nowhere

Last week I was working in New York and with time to kill at midday I walked the High Line, a mile-long park created along a derelict stretch of elevated railway built in the 1930s to run freight along Manhattan’s West Side. Originally the trains ran at ground level, with cow boys hired to ride […]

by Alex Hickman

Ambivalence

I am about to publish my first novel, called 59 Years 4 Days. The novel’s main character is a middle-aged man called Simon who learns that he has a fatal illness. Simon is a baby-boomer, a successful member of the Tony Blair generation (TB happens to be a political friend of Simon’s, and a character in the novel). […]

by Alex Hickman

Notes on Slovenia

The track leaves the river and climbs through beech woods to a wooden hotel. Beyond the hotel the track continues across a wide pasture, green and flat below the high wall of the mountains. Mixed forest of birch and pine grows either side of the pasture, until it is too high and the limestone shows […]

by Alex Hickman

Notes on UK Strategy for C21 ii

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by a Bosnian journalist about the future of the City and the UK’s relationship with Europe. The conversation made me think – not for the first time – about just how deep a hole we are in, and how we find the right way out of it […]

by Alex Hickman

The Eurozone won’t survive in its present form

On the eve of the latest Eurozone bail-out, I listened to a panel of four central bankers (an American, a Japanese, a Cypriot and a Dutchman) discuss the outlook for the global economy. The context was a conference hosted by a global banking group. The panellists were a bright foursome and all commanders of their subject and they […]

by Alex Hickman

Notes on UK Strategy for C21

I’ve written before about the UK’s need for a strategy for the 21st century. I think David Cameron’s EU referendum pledge + his announcement of a new generational struggle against Islamic terrorism in Africa +the looming referendum on Scottish independence + the shifting priorities of the US under Obama etc. etc. pose interesting questions about […]

by Alex Hickman

Notes on Frankfurt

Walking past the entrance to the European Central Bank I could see the tension in the faces of the chauffeurs and the bodyguards standing by the security gate smoking cigarettes. Towering above them is the money headquarters for a continent of over 300 million people, and things are in bad way. Around the corner in […]

by Alex Hickman

How the other half lives

Europeans have been coming to terms with uncomfortable levels of anxiety and uncertainty over the last few months. Prolonged financial crisis has pushed us back in to recession, and has condemned us to more austerity, low growth and lost opportunity. Each week seems to bring a new shade of darkness. What next month will bring – […]