John Cotter

europeanpapers.eueuropeanpapers.eu

8 Sept 2025

Last mention of my most recent article on how - as a last resort - EU law can be (re-)-interpreted to protect the democratic legitimacy of its legislature in the face of Member State autocratisation.

John Cotter@drjohncotter.bsky.social

My latest article ‘Democracy Manifest? Ensuring the EU Legislature’s Democratic Legitimacy in the Face of National-Level Autocratisation’ has just been published online and open access in European Papers: www.europeanpapers.eu/en/system/fi...

The Bayern-Kane relationship has been a massive success story that perhaps isn’t fully understood outside Germany. He has achieved Lewandowski levels of individual success (Champions League still outstanding, of course), but is also genuinely loved by the fanbase in a way Lewa never really was.

The move has also allowed him a platform to demonstrate his individual talent, the opportunity to be at the business end of the Champions League every season, to prolong his career (because of the 34-game season, winter break), and win loads of trophies. And at a club that is arguably bigger than…

any single premier league club (I always say that Bayern is like combining Man Utd and Liverpool into one in terms of stature with a footballing nation like Germany).

And Bayern as a club has really stood behind Kane as well, as seen most obviously in how it has effectively campaigned for his Ballon d’Or. From the get-go, it was obvious that he also possesses that indefinable single-mindedness, will to win, and team spirit that is in the Bayern DNA.

As an FC Bayern member, so proud of and happy for Harry Kane. He has been remarkable at Bayern as a player and as a role model.

And without wishing to be snide, I really wish he got the respect he deserves in England.

Classic “who said it: Trump or Gandhi?”quote.

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com

Norway: "I didn't get the Nobel Prize so I don't want anybody from Norway. I don't want anything to do with Norway…Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a shithouse country, actually."

What’s the British equivalent of Cheesecake Factory? Not literally. I mean, somewhere that is objectively just fine or meh, but criticism of it would be perceived as out-of-touch or excite massive defensiveness from sections of the population. I’ll open the bidding with Greggs.

I can’t help but think that *if* both the *EU* and UK *want* the latter to join, there aren’t really any details like Schengen and the Euro that will stop it happening.

And when I speak of *details*, I’m obviously not referring to fundamentals of the EU’s constitutional identity like the four freedoms, etc.

And of course, if the UK wanted to play chicken with free movement, then it wouldn’t really *want* to join anyway.

I can’t help but think that *if* both the *EU* and UK *want* the latter to join, there aren’t really any details like Schengen and the Euro that will stop it happening.

The keywords are of course *if* (self-explanatory), *want* (how this is defined in terms of extent and durability being in itself difficult), *EU* (because it is a multilevel Union of Member States and this does leave *some* room for shenanigans).

But even when I say *some* room, like a single Member State government deciding to be obstructive as a means to get its way on something else, even that’s unlikely to be a roadblock.

“I think it’s illegal because it’s unfair.” Some high-quality legal reasoning right there.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump says Alaska’s ballot is illegal because people don’t know what “incumbent” means

vanityfair.comThe Art of the Deal: Jared Kushner’s Hacked Phone Revealed More Than $700 Million in TransfersAn exclusive excerpt from ‘Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East’ examines how bank accounts linked the president’s son-in-law—and former sen...

Trump may be babbling nonsense about renaming oceans, etc. because he is simply unhinged, but being a deranged chaos merchant is also a pretty effective deflection tactic when there are scandals like this, which - if even half true - should end a presidency.

Vanity Fair@vanityfair.com

Jared Kushner’s Hacked Phone Revealed His Secret Negotiations—Including More Than $700 Million In Transfers

If I’m to be optimistic, I’d take some comfort from the fact that Watergate took quite a long time to gain any traction. Different times of course.

politico.euTalking to Putin: Europe seeks a negotiator-in-chief for UkraineEuropean officials know they need to be able to speak to Russia’s leader directly. The problem is choosing who should do it.

Did somebody say Lord Frost?

POLITICO Europe@politico.eu

There is a growing realization among European governments that they may soon need to nominate someone to face Russian leader Vladimir Putin in direct talks on a peace deal for Ukraine. The main problem is deciding who should take on such a hazardous task.

Executive Order to change name of Washington DC to New Versailles?

The New York Times@nytimes.com

President Trump has pushed to move briefings out of the White House press room. Aides say he wants an indoor swimming pool instead. nyti.ms/4eoW3AV

Also wondering who’ll get the tender to paint the bottom of the White House pool.

It would be nice if Trump could go a day without doing something that is fodder for an impeachment problem question. But then the man is a walking impeachment problem question.

Even if Trump genuinely believes what he saying about Ukraine needing to deal with Russia, he clearly hasn’t ever considered what happened on the eastern front in WWI or in Afghanistan in the 1980s. There is nothing inevitable about Russia winning anything, despite its territory and population.

Maybe I take the game too seriously, but I think - as a game - this Celebrity Traitors is being undermined by the need of a few contestants to be the main character. This is not to say it isn’t entertaining on other levels, but…

it’s irritating to see traitors tell everyone flippantly that they are a traitor or faithfuls stupidly and unnecessarily drawing attention to themselves. My sense is that it’s often as valuable to vote bad faithfuls out. Just don’t like contestants not respecting the game.

FWIW, there are loads of Russian bots out there who could do just as good a job as White House Press Secretary for half the price.

"The PM is not going to sack you after a week. Sacked after 12 months – looks like you've fucked up. Sacked after a week – looks like he's fucked up." - Malcolm Tucker

Wanting to be White House press secretary under Trump is probably the greatest disqualifying factor for the job.

“You’ve been sentenced to a week as White House Press Secretary under Donald Trump” is a sentence (in both senses) that would make perfect sense to me.

A bit hard to stomach the “guys, I’ve just realised Trump is not that great and we as British conservatives should maybe, probably stop saying he’s great’ takes.

Especially because they keep happening every time he does something indisputably stupid and/or evil.

In any re-join conversation, the UK will have to stop navelgazing about issues like free movement and treat European integration as now being fundamentally an issue of national security in an age in which it is sandwiched between Russia, other autocraties, and an unreliable, even hostile, US.

Defeatism among political leaders about having conversations about the EU because they don’t know how to “sell” free movement demonstrates just how naive these leaders are about Britain’s future in a post-Atlanticist world.

One of the most disappointing aspects of Brexit is that even after an entire decade of discourse about the EU and the UK’s position in it or outside it, there remains very little understanding of the EU.

However, if the UK were to get its internal house in order, I don’t doubt for a second that there would be a strong desire within EU states to have the UK back in and that there would be room for some accommodations to make it happen.

I’ll put it this way: I don’t think negotiating the UK’s entry into the EU from the EU perspective would be as complicated as negotiating the withdrawal and the position of Northern Ireland, for instance.

My overly simplistic take is that the biggest obstacle remains internal UK politics: a clear, consistent, durable, stable majority in favour of joining which is not just borne out of a purely transactional motivation will have to be demonstrated.

Obviously, the EU is not going to compromise on its founding principles and core, in particular, the four freedoms of the single market.

On one extreme, there is still a significant cohort of cherrypicking British exceptionalists believing the EU should compromise its entire raison d’être to accommodate a Britain it should be lucky to have back.

On the other extreme, there are a group of people who seem to take an exceeding level of glee from calling any British desire for accommodation as exceptionalist cherrypicking. I say this because the EU and Member States can be quite flexible when they want to be too.

mirror.co.ukOutrage as Reform MP says navy should be allowed to use lethal force in ChannelReform MP Robert Jenrick said that if Nigel Farage becomes PM, marines will be able to use 'lethal force' to stop small boats - a statement branded 'horrific' by Labour peer Lord Alf Dubs, who fled th...

Robert Jenrick should go home and play full time with his GI Joe dolls. Or go paintballing. Leave the politics to serious people with a modicum of decency.

Gareth Davies@garethtbij.bsky.social

They want to create a 'Deportation Command' and the 'Migrant Identification Centre'. Their Chancellor in waiting is comfortable telling TalkTV that the Navy should be allowed to use 'lethal force' against migrants www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

You can’t go back to Twitter, because Twitter doesn’t exist. No more than you could have gone back to the Weimar Republic in 1938.

If (big if) events follow the normal course and the Republicans nominate a presidential candidate, it’s going to be weird year or so of (a) Trump having to cope with sharing attention with the candidate and (b) that candidate having to navigate the last 12 months of Trump’s presidency in real time.

I somehow can’t imagine Trump being able to resist the temptation to dunk on and undermine that candidate, even if they are from the MAGA gene pool.

I’m guessing that in the alt-right Catholic conversion course you only get to hear about Jesus’ teachings 10-years post conversion.

The US being hollowed out from the inside and sold to the autocracies of the world so the Trump family and their buddies can feather their nests. Not so much unAmerican as anti-American.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Trump: “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president”

I genuinely hope you guys have a country left in two years’ time.

Mid-table Man Utd conceding an equalizer at home to 10-man relegation-zone Spurs in Fergie time is a little on the nose.

The true glue that holds Trump, MAGA, Ronaldo, the manosphere, contemporary fascism, etc. together is whining. Endless whining.

derek guy@dieworkwear.bsky.social

good lord how can anyone be this whiny; are you not ashamed

“A world in which I’m no longer automatically entitled to stuff I want. Wah.”

Lovely moment earlier flying over Liverpool on my way to Cork with the new mix of Rubber Soul in my headphones.