In 1890 the socialist artist William Morris imagined a future utopian England, of 2003, where the Houses of Parliament were no longer a place of politics but were used for storing manure [1]. Whilst Morris’s dream didn’t come about by that year we were certainly reminded of it by what happened there on Monday, 25th … More News From Nowhere
Transparency The EU declares loudly in its treaties and in its marketing puff that it is an enthusiastic proponent of freedom of information and transparency (see https://ec.europa.eu/info/about-european-commission/service-standards-and-principles/transparency/freedom-information_en). However: The EU Parliament’s Secretary-General for the last ten years has been Klaus Welle. One of his responsibilities is to administer ‘the Bureau’, an internal Parliamentary body that … More Freedom from Information
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet even a common soldier, Marcellus, can sense that “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”. Similarly from the behaviour of the EU towards the first country to decide it wants to leave it should be obvious to all that something is rotten with the Union. It could have responded to the … More Something is Rotten
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) regulations on free trade agreements (and interim arrangements on the way to such agreements) do not support the claims of those who shriek that leaving the EU without a deal would lead the UK over a disastrous cliff edge. That is a choice, which can be made or avoided by … More This and GATT
This is an addition to The Brexicon, first published in July 2018. (See the Summary and Parts 1 & 2) Again we list more of the terms designed to confuse the general public in Brexit discussions. Level Playing Field – A field containing different levels. In EU jargon a ‘field’ is an area of EU … More The Brexit Lexicon (Part 3 – March 2019)
Swiss stock exchanges have had a special relationship with the EU for some time; they are allowed to operate within the EU even though their policies and practices differ. However, the formal agreement between Switzerland and the EU will expire at the end of this year and the EU wants to bring the Swiss arrangement … More Will the Swiss Roll?
There are many factors that could destroy the European Union – which we described in our review of Ian Kearns’ book ‘Collapse: Europe after the European Union‘ [Collapse: Europe After the European Union – Parts 1&2] – but here we will summarise the most immediate problem: debt. If a state is bankrupt its bonds aren’t … More Die Another Day?
This is an addition to The Brexicon, first published in July 2018. (See the Summary and Parts 1 & 3, linked below.) As in the other Parts, we list some of the deliberately misleading terms used in the Brexit debate. Our definitions may be satirical but the explanations justify our criticisms. Brexit Means Brexit – … More The Brexit Lexicon (Part 2 – March 2019)
Chris Leslie, a founding member of The Independent Group of MPs who oppose Brexit (TIG), stated that he was elected by his constituents to represent them in Parliament. It was his name on the ballot paper and he was chosen to use his judgement about his voters’ best interests. Before the 1970 General Election when … More Unrepresentative Members
No, not ‘Total Rugby’ (a forum for debating Ruby League). As we write this Italy is about to face England in a 2019 Rugby Six Nations match; England is famous this season for its mostly-successful tactic of putting boot to ball and kicking the odd-shaped object in the expectation of quickly winning it back. Similarly … More TLTRO Rugby
