Tim Hedges had a career in corporate finance before moving to Rome where he works as a freelance writer, novelist, and farmer
Italy's populists win popularity by shaking things up
No-one in the European mainstream gave Italy's populists a great deal of credit, but they are winning popularity by shaking things up. Popular populists; how about that!
- 8 August 2018
Brexit stirs debate about EU madness across Europe
Britain’s impending departure from the EU has at the very least stirred up a wave of discussion on a subject largely unknown to the European people. They are suddenly beginning to realise the costs and effects of a corrupt subsidy and tariff regime most thought normal. Brexit will bring much needed perspective to the debate about the EU, which is only just getting started in continental Europe
- 24 July 2018
Eurosceptics across Europe watch Brexit own goal
What makes Brexit interesting to Italians and other Europeans is that the UK team seemed to be without a captain and determinedly kicking towards its own end. Meanwhile, unbeknown to the Brits, the other side is terrified of them; terrified of the domino effect from fans in Europe who might emulate their style, and terrified of losing the 40 billion in ticketing revenue. Come on, let's change tactics, get to the final, and bring it all home
- 11 July 2018
EU fails to smother the resurgent nation state
The European project is designed to smother the nation state, and democracy with it. But the cracks in that edifice are now so wide that it can only be a matter of time before the resurgent nation state strikes back with a lethal blow
- 4 July 2018
Migration strikes at core of EU's existential crisis
When some writers have said that immigration is an existential matter for Europe, they are not exaggerating. The EU has to decide whether it is a loose association of independent states, or an ever closer union of the likeminded. Soon, it must choose
- 26 June 2018
Inconvenient truths about Italy's migrant problem
There is a murky truth about the way NGOs have been working with people traffickers to help migrants get into Europe. That's not the story the mainstream media is telling you about Italy and migration
- 20 June 2018
Shabby UN outfit seeks to silence its critics
The United Nations is in so many respects a den of corruption, riddled with careerists and cronies. The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN is, disgracefully enough, now using antiquated Italian libel laws to try and silence its critics
- 11 June 2018
Italy's rule bending government a headache for Brussels
Italy was never just going to quit the euro, not right now at least. But the new government is going to be a big headache for Brussels whose failing deep integrationist project will continue to lurch from crisis to crisis
- 4 June 2018
The EU's coup in Italy; a neo-authoritarian fiasco
This is the ghastly, undemocratic face of the EU. Just as they told countries to vote again when they had got their referendums "wrong", just as they got rid of the elected Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi in 2011, now they have forbidden the chosen Italian finance minister because he is critical of the euro. Welcome to the EU's neo-authoritarian disaster in the making
- 28 May 2018
Trouble brews for Brussels with Italy's new government
The new Italian government is highly critical of EU interference in Italy’s affairs so there will be trouble. They are also about to increase public debt by at least €100 billion. It's going to be fun and games for the crisis ridden EU
- 23 May 2018
Italy will be the EU's biggest challenge after Brexit
The EU has expanded too far and is too inflexible. If there is no change of course, and Italy is its first big challenge after Brexit, the EU may risk unravelling
- 14 May 2018
Oh no. Another election in Italy?
Amazing as it may sound, Berlusconi, for all his venality and amorality, is the only person since the war to have led a party through its full five year term. As for Salvini, he is makng much of standing on principle, which may well mean that Italy goes back to the polls in June, and Salvini strenghens his hand
- 2 May 2018
No resolution yet to Italy's political impasse
Italy continues to fumble its way to a new government, though much is still up in the air. Still, the EU could always muscle in and make things worse. Don't bet against it
- 24 April 2018
Italian Politics: Of Putin, porn, and, of course, Berlusconi
Since Mussolini the Italians have been terrified of anyone acquiring absolute power, so they devise it that no one has any power at all. Forming a government is throwing up all sorts of problems from Putin, through Berlusconi, oh, and that porn star who offered to sleep with Saddam Hussein to stop the Gulf War. Welcome to Italian politics
- 16 April 2018
EU's chaotic migrant policies wrecking Italian serenity
Serenity is a quality you rightly expect in small Italian towns. But the world is as it is, and Europe's migrant crisis is never far from affecting the day to day life of ordinary people, something Europe's insulated political classes seem strangely unaware of
- 3 April 2018
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