To cover posts relating to Brexit
The Prime Minister’s speech on Tuesday 17th January contained a little for everyone, yet few seemed pleased. We have concluded that we should attempt our own interpretation of Mrs May’s words. We quote freely from the speech, so that readers can know what our interpretations are based on, and we add comments only where we … More The PM’s Brexit Speech
Dr. Richard North’s blog, EUReferendum.com, is always worth reading and, though often discouraging in its interpretation of Brexit events to come, he knows his stuff and is probably correct. It is sad that he has become so frustrated at what he regards as the ‘zombie’ attitudes and behaviours he meets from politicians, journalists and other … More North going South?
Reverse Marxism There seems to be a high probability that the EU Parliament will veto any Brexit deal acceptable to the UK. At a recent debate between the seven candidates to replace Martin Shultz as President of the European Parliament some said the deal should be fair to both sides so any agreement that meant … More Shorties-6
The Adam Smith Institute has a detailed review of the EU, and the case for leaving, here. The author, Roland Smith (no relation?), dislikes the cases made by both the Leave and the Remain campaigns. He offers “a liberal case for Leave”, which is sufficiently general to be applied to any member state. “In mapping … More What might Adam Smith think?
Reporting for the BBC, Kamal Ahmed says that Lord King, the former governor of the Bank of England, believes that the UK should be “self-confident” about leaving the European Union. He argues that there are real opportunities for economic reform and new trade deals, which means that Brexit could be successful. “I think the challenges … More King Dismisses Euro
The Economist has a collection of videos here, in one of which several worthies speculate on what would happen if, to ensure a win in the coming French presidential election, and a defeat for Marine Le Pen, the candidates had to offer to hold a referendum on France’s continuing membership of the EU. One participant … More Brexit Contagion?
hard, soft or just right? Diane Abbott, Labour’s shadow Home Secretary, repeated a lie this week: “… the truth is you cannot have access to the Single Market without a measure of freedom of movement” (BBC, Andrew Marr Show, 11 Dec 2016). Let’s put that more generously, she is another who needs to mind her … More How would you like your Brexit:
Campaigners for and against Brexit have dropped any pretence at balanced discussion and base their arguments on unsupported opinion, half-truths, distortions, diversions and lies. We believe firmly that if the British people – and other Europeans – are to make sound decisions then they need to be offered rational arguments from which they can draw … More Press to Reject Brexit
Robert Chote, head of the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), says “forecasts are always wrong” because the future is highly uncertain. But the OBR has a job to do – to forecast the future – and a poor set of tools at its disposal. Reading tea leaves is a nonstarter, obviously, so the next … More Reading the tea leaves
The first time we left a law-making, tax-collecting, over-regulating, European super-union was in 1534. The taxes then went to Henry VIII’s treasury rather than the Borgias’. The oceans were freed for our global exploration (the Pope had declared the Atlantic a Spanish possession). A revolution in trade and industry was triggered. A fuller (and better) … More It’s a Second Brexit
This EU Won't Work 