Raison D Etre The Balloon

Despite their many obvious interconnections, EU and international law are all too often studied and practised in different spheres. While it is natural for each to insist on its own unique characteristics, and in particular for the EU to emphasise its sui generis nature, important insights might be lost because of this exclusionary approach. This book aims to break through some of those barriers and to show how more interaction between the two spheres might be encouraged. In so doing, it offers a constitutional dimension but also a substantive one, identifying policy areas where EU and international law and their respective actors work alongside each other. Offering a 360-degree view on both EU and international institutional and substantive law, this collection presents a refreshing perspective on a longstanding issue.

In World War Two an ornate Victorian mansion, overlooking the River Thames at Medmenham, in Buckinghamshire, was the Headquarters of the Allied Central Interpretation Unit. It was here that the air photography, obtained by reconnaissance aircraft flying over the whole of enemy and occupied Europe, was analysed by Photographic Interpreters: the Intelligence produced from their reports influenced virtually every Allied operation planned and carried out during the war.An analytical mind, curiosity, the ability to search for clues and recognise the unusual were essential qualities for the Interpreters and found in men and women from scientific and artistic backgrounds. They included a daughter of Winston Churchill.Women made up half of the work force, as every aspect of enemy activity was watched and analysed. Now the women of Medmenham, the ‘Women of Intelligence’, tell the story of their wartime life and work – in their own words.

A New York Times–bestselling author hangs out with conspiracy theorists and hunts for the Bilderberg Group in this “hilarious, disturbing” memoir (The New York Times). A wide variety of extremist groups, from Islamic fundamentalists to neo-Nazis, share the oddly similar belief that a tiny shadowy elite rule the world from a secret room. In Them, journalist Jon Ronson has joined the extremists to track down the fabled secret room. As a journalist and a Jew, Ronson was often considered one of “Them,” but he had no idea if their meetings actually took place. Was he just not invited? Them takes us across three continents and into the secret room. Along the way he meets Omar Bakri Mohammed, considered one of the most dangerous men in Great Britain, PR-savvy Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Thom Robb, and the survivors of Ruby Ridge. He is chased by men in dark glasses and unmasked as a Jew in the middle of a Jihad training camp. In the forests of northern California he even witnesses CEOs and leading politicians—like Dick Cheney—undertake a bizarre owl ritual. Ronson’s investigations, by turns creepy and comical, reveal some alarming things about the looking-glass world of “us” and “them.” Them is a deep and fascinating look at the lives and minds of extremists. Are the extremists onto something? Or is Jon Ronson becoming one of them? “Jon Ronson has managed to write a hugely amusing book about the lunatic fringe.” —The Washington Post “Them is at times funny, other times unsettling, but always astonishing.” —Booklist “It takes a funny man to see the humor in all the conspiracy theories that float hatefully across the land, and Jon Ronson is a funny man. It takes a brave man to chase that humor right into the belly of the beast, and Jon Ronson is a brave man too.” —The San Diego Union-Tribune

Originally published: Great Britain: Short Books, 2013.

Although the storm clouds of war were gathering in the late 1930s Britain was still a powerful force on the world stage, desperately seeking peace through a policy of appeasement whilst half heartedly preparing for war with Nazi Germany. Although the great depression had eased somewhat and Britain had made social advances such as universal suffrage following the First World War, the underlying class structure in Britain had remained essentially intact. Even the senseless slaughter on the battlefields of France and Belgium wrought by half witted generals from the upper classes had only slightly ameliorated the class system endemic in the Island Nation. Historic events of pressing magnitude were unfolding in 1939 and were destined to percolate down to the lives of almost every individual on the planet. This narrative covers the life of a small boy living in a London suburb which sustained heavy damage from enemy bombing and where over a hundred of its citizens were killed and only ten percent of its buildings survived the war unscathed. He recalls the terror of lying in a cupboard under the stairs as the Luftwaffe bombed his suburb, rationing, V1 flying bombs and long range rocket raids. His account encompasses a short period of evacuation to the safety of a country village, periods in hospital with severe illness and the relief experienced by a war torn populace when the news of Hitlers death heralded the end of the Third Reich and the Second World War. His reminiscences also include details of his familys friendship with German prisoners of war following hostilities, his schooling, first job in the City of London and an account of his service when conscripted into the British Army where he became a member of the British occupation forces in Germany. However, the main thread which weaves the narrative together lays in the many humorous episodes which punctuated his early years, particularly whilst in the British Army which appeared to have changed only marginally since the carnage of the First World War.