Month: June 2016

Reflections following a brief statement from the British Ambassador to Austria

To fellow Brits in Vienna – remain strong – and if anyone is feeling alone and bewildered, get in touch.

Last evening I saw a brief video clip from HM British Embassy here in Vienna – with a very brief statement by the Ambassador, who is due to conclude her term here very soon. The video was published through the Embassy’s Facebook account, and was released yesterday. Continue reading “Reflections following a brief statement from the British Ambassador to Austria”

My initial reaction to the results of the Referendum

My brief statement prepared yesterday immediately upon hearing the results.

I went to bed early on Thursday to make sure that I could watch the coverage of the results towards the ‘business end’ of the count. At 4am I woke up, and upon looking at my phone, headed to the sitting room to watch the coverage on BBC News. Slowly but surely with a Lagavullin in my hand the ‘remain’ camp were not making any inroads into the ‘leave’ advantage.
Continue reading “My initial reaction to the results of the Referendum”

I am British – and European

This Briton wants to stay in the EU…

Patrick Lamb recently posted about his being British on his Facebook account. Metropole, the English language city magazine for Vienna picked up on his post and asked to repost it. It made me think that as a last post before the Referendum I should consider my similar story. Hat tip to Mr. Lamb! Continue reading “I am British – and European”

Not the place you used to be…

The London of 2016 is a vastly different place to the one I knew from when I used to live in the UK.

On Wednesday I boarded a flight to London, travelling BA for the first time in a decade. Since moving to Austria in 2000 I’ve probably flown into London (Heathrow, City or Stanstead) about 70-80 times. It certainly has no novelty to it.
Continue reading “Not the place you used to be…”

A week of travel – Austria, Britain and Croatia

This week sees the last full week before the Referendum vote on 23 June. There will be many campaigners on both sides putting in some serious miles as the referendum still remains very much in the balance. I’ll also be putting in some miles – to London on Wednesday and back to Vienna on Thursday before a day trip to Zagreb for Friday – all part of the job working within the European banking supervision environment – going to the European Banking Authority in Canary Wharf and then the Croatian National Bank, the latter hosting a meeting of an SSM working group.
Continue reading “A week of travel – Austria, Britain and Croatia”

This is Greenland 1985

Greenland was part of the European Communities’ territory from Denmark’s accession in 1973 through to Greenland’s withdrawal in 1985.

One of the lesser-known facts about the Referendum on continuing membership of the European Union is that a UK withdrawal would not be the first time that a territory has left what we now know as the European Union. The scale and interconnectedness of a British withdrawal would indeed be a far more seismic event than the previous withdrawals of Algeria (upon seceding from France in 1962, it left then very much embryonic European Economic Community), Greenland (which was part of the European Communities’ territory from Denmark’s accession in 1973 through to Greenland’s withdrawal in 1985) following a referendum in the wake of a dispute over fisheries, and most recently, Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin that both seceded from Guadelope (itself a Département Outre-Mer (overseas département of France)) back in 2007, and ceased to be an Outer Most Region (OMR) of the EU.