Britain has had some experience of Brexit-in-reverse. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America provides some thought-provoking comparisons. Both the contents and the crisp clarity of the language are inspirational and make the document interesting reading in the light of Brexit. Here are some extracts, beginning with the opening declaration: “When in … More A Declaration of Independence
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?
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?
This post focuses on a single issue; the ideology underlying the demands for progress towards Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The evidence is drawn from the Five Presidents Report (5PR); its roadmap remains the basis for maintaining progress towards completing the Union. At no point in the 5PR can we find any rationale for EMU; … More Fixated on Union
Martin Schulz is moving on from the Presidency of the European Parliament to campaign for a senior post in the German government in their election later this year. The full speech Schulz gave to the European Council on 15 December 2016, from which we offer some highlights, is transcribed here. He is, as usual, strong … More Insider Out
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?
Louis Rouanet has an interesting article on the website of the Mises Institute here. “What is Europe? It seems that no rigorous answer can be provided. Europe is not exactly a continent. It is not a political entity. It is not a united people….Europe has no founding fathers. Its birth was not orchestrated but completely … More Is EU anti-European?
The document we are commenting on here is nearly three years old but doesn’t appear to have been superseded, so we can take it as an up-to-date view from the European Commission. COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Taking … More 2020 Vision?
This EU Won't Work 