I will spend at least the first portion of 2016 explaining why I think the UK should remain part of the European Union; part of me looks forward to the challenge, part of me dreads it. Already the debate has fallen into a predictable pattern: the Leavers speak from the heart while the Remain folk […]
Mr Corbyn goes to Brussels
“I am concerned about the way the European Union is increasingly operating like a free market across Europe” – Jeremy Corbyn, August, 2015 I swear to you, I’m not making that quote up; the current leader of the Labour Party actually said that at a hustings during the contest to be Ed’s successor as Grand Poobah […]
Is David Cameron a genius or a fool? I can no longer tell
Put aside for a moment what you think of the prime minister politically. Obviously if you are anywhere on the Left, Cameron is the champion of austerity, Thatcher times ten. If you are a Daily Mail reader, Dave is a lily-livered liberal somewhere to the left of Trotsky. No, what I’m after today is trying […]
Vladimir Putin v the European Union – on the 10th anniversary of Russia Today
Whatever else I could ever say about Vladimir Putin, I do have to admit he is a political genius. What’s really remarkable about this is that he has effectively ruled a country for almost the entirety of the 21st century to date in which this has not been an essential skill. For in what is […]
The OBR report and immigration: what is the government trying to achieve here?
The Office for Budget Responsibility came out yesterday and stated that David Cameron’s attempted changes to the rules regarding benefits EU migrants can claim in what timeframe are “unlikely to have a huge impact” on the numbers of EU migrants coming to the UK. Fair enough; this only makes sense. This is because most EU migrants […]
Ten questions that Eurosceptics must answer about Brexit
As some of you might have seen this morning in the Guardian, my organisation, British Influence, will be launching a report about the possible unintended affects of Brexit this evening. At the end of the Guardian article, it is mentioned that we pose ten questions to those who wish to see Britain leave the EU. So […]
Yes, immigration can be a good thing. Say it out loud, it feels good
I was on the Jon Gaunt programme a few mornings ago, discussing why I thought Britain should be in the EU. As you can imagine, Jon and I were on very different sides of the argument. There was one moment where he looked to catch me out, maybe get me mumbling, when he asked if I […]
Would leaving the EU lead to the troubles in Northern Ireland restarting?
Usually when national polls are done, on either voting or any other topic, Northern Ireland is not included. There are many reasons for this, most notably because Nord Iron’s party political system is very different and so thus asking them whether they want Labour or the Tories to have a majority in the House of […]
Is UKIP really about to go bust? What that might mean
Yesterday, The Daily Mail ran an article entitled, “Ukip on brink of going bust: Party hit by huge fall in members after flop election“, which sort of did what it said on the tin. While one should always be careful not to take too much account of what the Mail might say about anything, the […]
What are the upsides and downsides to Theresa May leading the EU Out campaign?
Nigel Farage has told the world how he would be delighted if Theresa May were to lead to the campaign for Britain to leave to EU (it’s unclear which specific campaign for Britain to leave the EU Nigel means, but let’s leave that for a moment). While I can imagine he thinks it would be a […]