Remain Means Remain and other stories by Tom Black

Author:Tom Black [Black, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sea Lion Press
Published: 2017-07-14T00:00:00+00:00

No, But

Tom Black

MODULE NAME: Britain, Europe, and the European Community

MODULE CODE: POLI2065

STUDENT NO: 200447008

ESSAY TITLE: Did the dream of ‘political Europe’ die with the Maastricht Treaty?

FOCUS ON THE QUESTION

Frustrating. For much of the essay, flawless. But when you meander, you do so in style. We don’t need to discuss the intricacies of this year’s German election, however fascinating you or I may find them, in an essay about events two-and-a-half decades ago and their direct consequences. Whether Mr Westerwelle has doomed the government with his pledge to explore unilateral abolition of the Deutschmark is something I am happy to discuss with you socially, but here phrases like ‘will he go on television and pledge that “the ecu in your pocket” is all the German people need?’ are a waste of words.

However, where you are good, you are great. The section about the British, French, Danish, Dutch, and Swedish referendums on Maastricht was the strongest and most nuanced analysis of the data of anyone in your tutor group. Your conclusion – that Maastricht failed because it was never meant to be put directly to the people, and its collapse became inevitable when politicians were bypassed – is cogent and powerfully put (and not simply because I agree with it!). Slightly wider reading would have been welcome (you rely on Economist articles too much), but more on that below.

ARGUMENT & ANALYSIS

You are a witty young man, but unfortunately you are aware of this fact yourself. Phrases like 'moments where history rattled over the points are rarely exposed more literally than in the Strasbourg TGV crash of 1993' will raise a smile among gallows-minded readers of the Spectator, but here they serve as a frustrating distraction from your strong academic points. You almost earned bonus points for managing to avoid the kind of sneering tone your peers slip into whenever Britain Out is discussed, but then you spoiled it by giving in to temptation in the final paragraph. There is nothing racist, much less ‘neanderthal’, about wanting no further integration of the European Community. Cheap jokes at the expense of patriotic Britons have no place in UK academia – we have French academia for that.

More encouraging is your progress when it comes to argument structure. I particularly liked the flair displayed when you use memoirs to source personal anecdotes. The ‘four breakfasts’ section was worthy of a Sandbrook or a Ferguson, and diminished the tedium of discussing the 1999, 2002, 2009 and 2015 attempts to extend the powers of the Commission. I don’t know that Mandelson’s choice of wholemeal toast necessarily betrayed his cold feet, but in almost all other observations, this section was extremely strong.

However, it is disappointing that I must once again caution you against counterfactual tangents. As interesting as it may be to ‘imagine how much greater Mr Blair’s majority in 1997 might have been had the Conservative Party been divided over Europe!’, such speculation has no place in a factual work of analysis. And, to show I am not

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