Re-imagining the Past It is so long ago now but do you remember how you voted in the EU Referendum? Philip Hammond appears to remember it clearly: you voted for “a smooth and orderly Brexit”. He also remembers that you “didn’t vote to be poorer”. Remember it better now? If not have another look at … More Not the BBC News

Our previous post asked basic questions aimed at discovering why anyone would want to believe or disbelieve in the EU and its mission. We take a sceptical view but welcome reasoned and evidential challenges. We asked what the major aims and achievements of the EU are; below are our answers in brief, fuller accounts can … More Answers

We’re all susceptible to ‘confirmation bias’: a tendency to seek or interpret things in a way that confirms our pre-existing beliefs and to ignore whatever challenges or contradicts them. A good method to escape this human foible is to ask difficult questions but the choice of questions or the way they are framed may also … More Questions

Boris Johnson has been accused of using extreme language after calling the Act requiring him to seek another extension to Article 50 ‘The Surrender Bill’. The title of our post is borrowed from the rather more extreme slogan used by the Liberal Democrats to characterise their opposition to Brexit – “Bollocks to Brexit”. Extremely vitriolic … More Bollocks to Boris!

Has the UK Supreme Court become quite Continental? When the Supreme Court’s judges ruled that the Prime Minister’s prorogation of Parliament was illegal Remainers delightedly announced that it was not just stupid but supremely undemocratic. The previous English High Court judges (The Lord Chief Justice, The Master of the Rolls and The President of the … More Supremely Stupid

Preparations are being made on both sides of the Channel against the worst that could, but probably wouldn’t, happen. The UK economy since 2016 has been relatively stable. Growth too hasn’t been bad compared with similar countries—unemployment is very low, the deficit is now in comfortable territory. Business investment has been too low, perhaps because … More How Can The UK Survive No-Deal?

Article 50 TEU: “The Praesidium considers that … withdrawal of a member state from the Union cannot be made conditional upon the conclusion of a withdrawal agreement. Hence the provision that withdrawal will take effect in any event two years after notification…”. Had the EU and UK ‘negotiators’ spent the last three years dealing in … More What a Tangled Web They Weave

How professional forecasters attempt to influence politics in their own interest. We can learn a lot from history, good and bad. It can teach us how to do things better in future; it can illuminate what lay behind the good outcomes, such as the benefits that have flowed from democracy; it can warn us of … More Lies, Damned Lies and Economics

How the Political Declaration destroys the current Withdrawal Agreement that Parliament has voted to re-introduce Parliament has voted (52% to 48%: didn’t they complain that was too small a margin after the Referendum?) to deny Boris his ‘no deal’ exit. Actually it wasn’t his; Theresa May’s version was “no deal is better than a bad … More Round and Round the Mulberry Bush

“People didn’t vote for no deal” – indeed they didn’t, because they weren’t asked that question; “People didn’t vote to be poorer” – nor that one. They were asked whether they wanted to stay in the EU or leave; a majority voted to leave. It might be called moving the goalposts except that the goal … More If You Don’t Like The Answer, Change The Question