Readers,

After a long absence, and a much needed break, I am pleased to announce that I am returning to this blog and with it am bringing my views once again. Admittedly this wasn’t a difficult decision, I enjoy writing my views too much to stay away for too long. However, it has nevertheless been a fairly long absence and I look forward to returning to this site.

A lot has happened since I first began this break. We had the bombings in Brussels. The agreement with Turkey came into effect. Demonstrations have begun to take place nightly in France and this weekend a large one was held here in London, culminating in Trafalgar Square. Poland has still decided not to back down from the confrontation with the EU and her democratic allies, the Dutch rejected in a referendum with a miserable turnout the association agreement with Ukraine, DiEM25 have launched their Transparency in Europe Now campaign (sign the petition here), the illustrious Mr Erdoğan has decided he doesn’t like German satire, the Panama Papers came out not too long ago, and perhaps most relevant to us here in Britain, the EU referendum campaign has officially begun.

The next few months are going to hold a lot of news, and a lot of developments. The referendum in Britain takes place on 23rd June. The Refugee Crisis may begin to once again deteriorate, more border fences will go up, leaders will be tested and beliefs will be challenged. I hope to provide as much coverage and commentary as I can, especially in this small gap in between the last wave of coursework deadlines and my upcoming exams.

I truly believe the next few months will test the European Union and our great continent to extremes that it has not experienced in a very long time. The scale of the stresses and strains we Europeans are dealing with are far more serious than the media coverage of our situation would suggest. At the same time I have hope. Naïve perhaps, but where there’s a will for change, there’s a way. I have a will, and I’m sure many others have too.