To cover posts relating to Brexit
The European Council has produced its Draft guidelines following the United Kingdom’s notification under Article 50 TEU (Treaty of the European Union). They take the predicted hard line, as we examine below. Although dated 31/03/2017 and leaked on 1st April, there is little inside to amuse us. These are draft guidelines but we should not … More Divorce Guidelines
Michel Barnier, who if nothing changes will be the “Chief Negotiator for the Preparation and Conduct of the Negotiations with the United Kingdom”, gave a speech on 22 March to the plenary session of the European Committee of the Regions. In this post we comment on excerpts from his speech, selecting items that give clues … More Barney or Blarney?
The notion that member states of the EU love the project (or at least may soon do so again) is absurd but needs to be repeated often in the hope that enough people may come to believe the propaganda. Jean-Claude Juncker is quoted by EU Observer as telling Bild am Sonntag that no other country … More “All you need is love”
Theresa May has announced that Article 50 will be triggered on March 29th, in just a week’s time. We (this blog’s authors) usually agree but on the issue of the Brexit negotiations our views are sufficiently different to warrant separate passages. We’ll present them both and then show that they are not necessarily in contradiction. … More Deal, or No Deal
Our concern is with the EU and the case for leaving. Indeed, the case for breaking the thing up. However, we feel we must comment on the proposed second referendum on Scottish independence because there are some obvious parallels. By announcing her demand for another referendum immediately after Parliament agreed to the triggering of Article … More Scotch-it
Sometimes Remainers are their own worst enemies. Categorising all those who voted against you as stupid and ignorant is complacent and is not a rebuttal of arguments in favour of leaving the EU. They fail to make their own case competently. They believe that remaining in the EU is so obviously the only thing worth … More Electively deaf to all reason?
Revolting Peers The Government was defeated in the House of Lords, which passed an amendment that would allow EU citizens now living in Britain to remain, regardless of whether a reciprocal agreement is negotiated for British citizens living on the Continent. We think it’s likely the Government won’t be too worried because they have repeatedly … More Shorties-7
Lord Heseltine is leading a Tory-peer revolt against the Government’s Article 50 bill currently going through the House of Lords. He is revolting, he says, because British jobs and living standards will suffer if we leave the EU. It seems he wants us to aspire to levels like those in Greece, Italy and elsewhere. The Greeks, … More Oh Lord!
Headline: This ‘will of the people’ talk must stop – we need a better democracy than that We know that most academics voted Remain in the referendum. Not, of course, because universities have access to considerable EU funds, but because membership of the EU is best for the UK, in their opinion. We read many … More Pontificating Professors
EU leaders want any deal Britain reaches with the EU after Brexit not to be better than the deal it currently has within the Union. Exploring this idea will uncover much nonsense. Here are some “thought experiments” which, by their nature, ignore most practical issues concerning Brexit. We’ll take two broad approaches, one technical, the … More Better or Worse?
This EU Won't Work 