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The EU has good reason to hope that Brexit goes badly, writes Paul David Beaumont (Norwegian University of Life Sciences). That would continue to deter Eurosceptic parties on the continent from hardening their stance. But at the same time an unambiguously disastrous Brexit would risk depoliticising EU membership, and reduce the the incentive to address ... Continued

"It's worth bearing in mind that when we talk about immigrants in this country, these are immigrants currently saving people's lives", Piers Morgan commented on Good Morning Britain last week. his statement would have rung true if said last month, last year, during the EU referendum campaign or at any time in the recent history of migration to the UK. These positive arguments about migration are rarely heard in the mainstream media. The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis brought about a change, at least on the surface, in the rhetoric on immigration. In this blog, Alexandra Bulat (UCL) argues that soundbites won’t help migrants – policy change will.

The Labour party was eventually persuaded to back a second referendum. This was a historic mistake which led to defeat in the General Election, says Michael Wilkinson (LSE). Labour should have respected the vote to Leave and offered a platform for change based on a future outside of the European Union. Thursday’s General Election was a bad day for the Labour party. It spelled the end of Remainism and signalled a historic defeat for the left. There needs to be serious reflection on all of this because the repercussions are severe and wide-ranging, and broader lessons must be learned, not just for the UK but elsewhere. It turned out, contrary to much expert assessment, that the 2016 referendum was, in fact, binding. The left failed to grasp this, and the underlying disconnect it signified.

Economic insecurity is attracting growing attention in social, academic, and policy circles. It has arguably risen for a number of reasons in recent years: the Great Recession (with its associated job instability), automation and the fear of job loss, the Chinese import shock, and ageing populations and migration, amongst others. As well as its obvious implications for family finances and [...]

What comes after extinction? In After Extinction, editor Richard Grusin brings together contributors to address this question by considering extinction within cultural, artistic, media and biological debates. This is a timely contribution to contemporary discussions regarding the future of our planet, writes Anda Pleniceanu, that will leave readers with a renewed perspective on the relevance of the humanities to understanding our present environmental and humanitarian predicament. After Extinction. Richard Grusin (ed.). University of Minnesota Press. 2018.

Lockdown and Easter combined to quell talk of Brexit - but not for long. With Michel Barnier back at work, post-Brexit negotiations are to resume next week. But can the transition talks really be concluded by the end of 2020? Roch Dunin-Wasowicz and Ros Taylor (LSE) round up the latest developments.

When he bought large orders of light bulbs for the Winter Palace, the Russian Tsar became a high-profile customer of Philips, the Dutch multinational corporation founded in 1891 to produce just that: light bulbs. But the company never limited itself to one line of products. In the 20th century, Philips became a household name, with its brand name stamped on a long line of consumer electronics. One of its less known areas was healthcare: as early as 1918, Philips created a medical X-ray tube, and in 1949, the Synchrocyclotron, a type of particle accelerator to study malignant tumours. In 2005 it became clear that the multinational was pivoting to healthcare, when it accelerated the process of divesting many of its units that “defined the company in the eyes of the consumer”, as explained by Jeroen Tas, chief innovation and strategy officer and member of the executive committee of Philips. This is the type of company transformation that attracts attention from academics and business professionals globally. Why take such a big step? “If we don’t look at the big picture, we can tweak ourselves to oblivion”, Jeroen told LSE Business Review managing editor Helena Vieira on 7 November, during the Web Summit conference in Lisbon.

The new Withdrawal Agreement would mean the Irish Sea will become a border between Welsh ports and the Republic of Ireland. This will mean big changes for Holyhead. Andrew Potter (Cardiff Business School) looks at the likely problems and how they could be minimised. As 2019 draws to a close, the logistics industry is once again digesting a new potential scenario for moving goods between the UK and EU, thanks to the Withdrawal Agreement agreed in October and which will be enacted if the Conservatives win a majority in the General Election. Within Wales, there has been significant discussion by both politicians and the media about what this might mean for ports, and particularly those serving the Republic of Ireland.

What were you reading in 2019 on LSE Review of Books? We count down the most-read new book reviews published this year on the blog.

In Competitive Accountability in Academic Life: The Struggle for Social Impact and Public Legitimacy, Richard Watermeyer critically explores the increasing quantification of academic life and the rise of the marketised competitive university. This book particularly succeeds in not only exploring the futility and counterproductiveness of quantified academic performance metrics, but also revealing how complicity among some academics allows these practices to become even more entrenched, writes Ignas Kalpokas.