Tim Hedges had a career in corporate finance before moving to Rome where he works as a freelance writer, novelist, and farmer
Italy's migration dilemma
It must be realised that Italy is not the UK or Germany which have had migration since the 1960s. In Italy’s case the problem has been emigration, and mass immigration is quite new to them. Between political correctness and plummeting birth rates, quite a debate is raging
- 17 October 2018
Budgeting for populism amid EU hypocrisy
Brussels, you may recall, already vetoed Italy's first choice as finance minister -- a eurosceptic whose views were regarded as heretical. As the finance minister that Italy had to concede to Brussels calculates this year's budget, the Eurocrats are already up in arms. Does national democracy count for nothing?
- 5 October 2018
State of Disunion: Thank goodness for Brexit
EU State of the Union addresses are meant to mimic America's, but they are a sick joke for many "ordinary" Europeans. Commission President Juncker would not know the feelings of a European citizen if he ran over one in his chauffeur driven Mercedes. Thank goodness for Brexit
- 21 September 2018
Sex and the Vatican
Sex. It’s all about sex, the Roman Catholic Church. Who hasn’t thought that? Pope Francis’s church needs to return, as Christ did, to talking about the poor, lest this becomes an obsession
- 7 September 2018
Italy's populist government rides high in the polls
The people of Italy believe, not without some justification, that their country has been ruined by a caste of people which has feathered its own nest. What the oddball combination of Di Maio and Salvini has done is to understand this discontent and to channel it. Unless the mainstream in Europe engages in radical self-reflection and reform, the populists will continue to have the ear of the people
- 31 August 2018
Italy's telling bridge
The Italian bridge collapse is a tragedy and a political hot potato. How will the populist government handle it?
- 20 August 2018
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
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