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About Kirsty Hughes

Kirsty Hughes is a writer and commentator on European and international politics. She has worked at a number of leading European thinktanks including Chatham House, Friends of Europe, and the Centre for European Policy Studies and has published extensively including books, reports and as a journalist. She has also worked as a senior political adviser in the European Commission, for Oxfam as head of advocacy, and was CEO at Index on Censorship.

Articles by Kirsty Hughes

This week's editor

Rosemary Bechler is openDemocracy’s Editor.

Digital Liberties

How to fight for digital human rights?

European integration

Six countries. Six different paths to EU integration.

No to TTIP

The secretive EU-US trade deal explained

Soft or hard Brexit: do the UK’s political parties know what they want?

Kirsty Hughes 11 November 2016

On the single market, Labour, the Tories, and UKIP, appear to agree: good access to the single market not membership of it - in disagreement with the SNP, LibDems and Greens.

UK gives up foreign policy role and influence, post-Brexit

Kirsty Hughes 1 November 2016

At a time of major global and European challenges, the UK’s decision to sideline itself and retreat into mercantilism, is an act of folly.

Seven reasons why a second EU referendum looks unlikely

Kirsty Hughes 9 August 2016

Debate is not focused on the UK’s retreat from solidarity, partnership, voice, influence and the multiple connecting ties of the EU.

Scotland has four EU options - but which are realistic?

Kirsty Hughes 28 July 2016

Everyone is trying to figure out what Brexit means - including Scotland.

Scotland and Brexit – what should Scotland do next?

Kirsty Hughes 7 July 2016

Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has barely put a foot wrong in the days since the UK voted for Brexit. What should she do next?

Giving up control: where are we and what next?

Kirsty Hughes 4 July 2016

The public as a whole – not just those who voted for Leave – have every right to have a say on what they would like to come next.

Scotland and the EU post-Brexit – independent Scotland in the EU or outside with the UK?

Kirsty Hughes 27 June 2016

For Brussels, Scotland has become the good Europeans, England and Wales the bad.

Brave New World – first reflections on Brexit

Kirsty Hughes 24 June 2016

The UK has stepped back from Europe, stepped back from the world – and in the process done deep damage to itself, the EU and the wider world.

After the Brexit referendum – four political impacts to watch for

Kirsty Hughes 4 June 2016

While a vote for ‘Brexit’ will create by far the biggest waves, whichever way the vote goes on June 23, there will be political fall out to contend with. Here are just some scenarios:

Impact of Brexit on Scotland’s independence drive is hard to call

Kirsty Hughes 10 May 2016

There is an intermediate path that the SNP may well take while it charts a path ahead, in the event of Brexit.

EU loses all moral standing on Lesbos

Kirsty Hughes 6 April 2016

Humanitarian aid has become sidelined for a political agenda – the EU-Turkey deal – something that should be unacceptable for the EU: “humanitarian aid should be neutral, impartial.”

Has Cameron ensured the UK will always be weak in Europe?

Kirsty Hughes 26 February 2016

Either way, there is no way to vote in the referendum for a strong UK in Europe – only for Cameron’s new opted-out, ‘Little England’ model.

3 scenarios for the outcome of the UK’s EU referendum

Kirsty Hughes 4 December 2015

It is quite possible that England will vote differently to all three other constituent parts of the UK. And certain that the politics won’t end with the result.

Scotland might keep the UK in Europe

Kirsty Hughes 26 October 2015

Could Scottish ‘yes’ voters deprive the eurosceptics of victory in the EU referendum?

The EU stumbles as crises mount

Kirsty Hughes 25 September 2015

It is precisely at dealing with a world like today's, of instability and fast-moving events – not open to easy or direct control – that the EU is, and always has been, very bad.

'Brexit' and workers' rights – no case for a 'no'

Kirsty Hughes 15 September 2015

What is this crazy 'cut-off-your-nose to spite your face' strategy? How can we defend let alone improve EU workers’ rights by leaving the EU?

Rough waters ahead for Scotland if the UK votes 'no' in EU referendum

Kirsty Hughes 16 August 2015

If David Cameron's EU referendum gamble fails and the UK votes 'no', what then for Scotland? Will it be smooth sailing to being an independent country in the European Union or tough battles with London and Brussels?

The UK's EU referendum and the EU's legitimacy crisis

Kirsty Hughes 22 July 2015

"Is a UK that retreats in isolationist but somehow progressive splendour really feasible? Surely, European countries must cooperate in the face of the deep challenges and opportunities we face."

Smoke and mirrors over 'Brexit': key questions on the path to the EU referendum

Kirsty Hughes 15 May 2015

Cameron has unleashed a process he won't be fully able to control, having major impacts on the UK's political dynamics and its constitutional future at home and in the EU over the next two years.

Scotland’s growing influence on UK foreign policy

Kirsty Hughes 27 April 2015

Kirsty Hughes talks to Scottish National Party and Scottish Green politicians on foreign policy, the EU and the tectonic shift in Scottish politics.

Greece and the eurogroup: capitulation or breaching austerity's dam?

Kirsty Hughes 26 February 2015

George Papandreou cancelling his referendum was a capitulation. Tsipras and Varoufakis achieving new space and flexibility and four months to achieve a genuinely new approach was quite an achievement.

Syriza win – hope for Greece and Europe?

Kirsty Hughes 26 January 2015

Though the challenges they face are immense, Syriza have brought some much needed hope back to Greece - and even to the European Union.

Britain and the EU – a sorry tale of collapsing influence and dishonest debate

Kirsty Hughes 14 November 2014

Without EU 'reforms' he may not even recommend a 'yes' in the referendum on membership in 2017, says British PM. But what he asks for is mostly there already.

EU myths, politics and scaremongering on an independent Scotland

Kirsty Hughes 11 September 2014

The EU is governed by hard politics, and the easiest thing for everyone if Scotland votes yes will be that she never leaves the EU.

Why the UK has no foreign policy

Kirsty Hughes 19 August 2014

In the absence of any political lead either from their UK masters or their indirect US ones, the UK's foreign office diplomats are left with little direction to exercise real clout, and no role, even on a realpolitik basis, to play in a changing and challenging world.

Gathering clouds over digital freedom?

Kirsty Hughes 12 March 2013

The debate over the direction of the web has just started, and contradictory messages that need careful scrutiny are emerging from governments and corporations alike.

Lost in a 1990s timewarp: the UK and the European Union

Kirsty Hughes 28 January 2013

Is the crucial change in the UK's position in the EU, that demands a referendum, really the need to extend UK doctors' working hours? And what of the EU – has it got a better story to tell?

What future for a Greece in crisis?

Kirsty Hughes 24 March 2012

Will Greece see a process of painful rebuilding, be mired in stagnation and despair - or even face a social explosion?

Another summit, another bleak day for European democracy

Kirsty Hughes 31 January 2012

The new 'fiscal compact' treaty agreed at Monday's summit aims to take vital economic policy choices out of the reach of democratic decision-making. Beyond that, there is no new thinking, nothing to stimulate growth, nothing to give some hope to the 23 million unemployed – and those who will join them as the recession deepens.

EU democracy in crisis: mired in a perfect storm or rebounding?

Kirsty Hughes 16 January 2012

If the heart of the crisis lies in the politics – including in the politics of the economic policy choices being made – then solutions may lie, not in yet more EU institutional changes and the creation of an austerity union, but in the practice and the dynamism of democratic European politics. But a certain tradition of creating a theoretically more democratic Europe for the people even if they do not seem to want it has deep roots in the EU elites. So far, this hasn't worked.