About

This site is less a blog than a cheap and tatty little receptacle for the work of British-Canadian journalist Leigh Phillips. If you like a nice, long, non-fiction read, you should appreciate much of Leigh’s writing. If you don’t, you will probably find most of these pieces instead to be overly baroque, polemical essays in a confusing mix of registers.

So, best not read the articles on the screen. Print off one instead, or send it to Instapaper, pour yourself a large mug of coffee and enjoy a properly leisurely but still often quite provocative read.

***

Leigh Phillips lived in Brussels for five years covering the European Union. While there, he wrote for the EUobserver, the Guardian and Red Pepper and specialised in financial, environmental and political reporting.

His work has also appeared in the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Express, the New Statesman, Businessweek, the Globe and Mail, Maisonneuve and Embassy, as well as in translation in a number of continental European newspapers. Previously, while based in Amsterdam, he reported on European digital media and information technology in the developing world.

He has written thousands of news articles. On this site, you can find some of the ones of which he is moderately happy with.

***

Upon the advent of the economic crisis, Leigh became known in particular for his critical coverage of the EU’s austerity policies and what he describes as a hollowing out of democracy in the EU.

“Phillips may be the only journalist working in mainstream media who has the slightest inkling of what the European Union really is.” - Steve McGiffen, author of The European Union: A Critical Guide.

“Half of what you write about you get wrong, Leigh.” - EU economic and monetary affairs spokesman Amadeu Altafaj-Tardio during the European Commission’s daily press briefing.

***

He has recently returned to university to study physics but continues to write regularly for a variety of publications.