We were delighted to welcome Lord Kerr for our 2017 Annual Lecture last week – with almost 300 people packed into the Sir Charles Wilson lecture theatre to hear the former EU Ambassador give speak on “Brexit: Is the Train-Crash Avoidable?”.
After being welcomed by the Principal, Lord Kerr gave a fascinating talk focusing on what he sees as the difficulty in getting an acceptable Brexit deal, and on the interplay between the Scottish and UK Governments on the issue.
There was extensive media coverage around the lecture – with the Daily Record and the Independent reporting Lord Kerr’s view that there is a “on in three chance” of negotiations ending without a deal, Politics Home and the Times focusing on his prediction that the negotiations will turn “very nasty” and with Lord Kerr discussing the substance of his talk on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland the following day.
There was further coverage of the lecture in the Guardian, the Evening Standard, the National, the Belfast Telegraph, Buzzfeed and Common Space – and we were delighted to see Lord Kerr’s lecture lead the news agenda, reaffirming Policy Scotland and the University of Glasgow as the leading venue in Scotland and the wider UK for leading thinkers in their fields to give their views on what is the defining issue in UK politics.
The annual lecture was the latest in Policy Scotland’s Brexit series – and a schedule of further high-profile lectures on Brexit will be announced in the coming weeks.
A full video of Lord Kerr’s lecture will be available later this week.