Comment

Will the New Britain survive? Despite the absence of consent to the 2014 referendum, the country went to the polls in 2015 knowing that the SNP had received a surge of support since losing the independence referendum. When the referendum result was announced, Alex Salmond said the independence issue had …

Dear Mr Junker, Please find attached the Article 50 paperwork as required by the Lisbon Treaty to give notice of the UK intention to leave the European Union. We have added a couple of caveats to it as decreed by our House of Lords just so that you know where …

Sometime in prehistory a group of people arrived on our island from Europe. They were Celts. We know next to nothing about them or the people who lived here before they arrived. All that is left of them are the monuments they left behind, places like Stonehenge and Scara Brae. …

The House of Lords has sent back the Article 50 bill with two amendments. The first concerns the rights of EU citizens. The second was to give parliament a “meaningful say” in any deal that might be reached. The proposed amendments can be seen here. The first of those amendments …

The Lords met again to debate the Article 50 bill. The day was dominated by two Liberal Democrat amendments. The scene was set for entertainment and drama. The ultimate decision would be if the people or parliament should have the final say. One amendment passed, one failed. Elsewhere, it was fun …

A majority of Scots believe the break-up of the UK is inevitable, Nicola Sturgeon has her “material change in circumstance” that would allow her to trigger a second referendum and commentators crow about how 2016 was the “Year the Union died”. They are all wrong. Far from creating the circumstances for the …

The Every Vote Counts system is simplicity itself. Voters go to the polls and vote for their candidate exactly as they do now. The MP is elected by winning the most number of votes in their constituency exactly as they do now. As far as the voter is concerned they …

From Conor Friedersdorf’s excellent interview of writer and professor David Hillel Gelernter: Everyone knows that we live in politically superheated times; partisanship feels more bitter and more personal than it ever has in my lifetime. There are many reasons, but here is one: we all know that faith in the Judeo-Christian …

Introduction The main feature of living in a modern democracy is that nearly everybody gets to vote. As John Donne once said in a rather different context an election “comes equally to us all, and makes us all equal when it comes”. At one point only people with a certain …

The colloquially called “Edinburgh Agreement” was signed on 15 October 2012 AGREEMENT between the United Kingdom Government and the Scottish Government on a referendum on independence for Scotland. The United Kingdom Government and the Scottish Government have agreed to work together to ensure that a referendum on Scottish independence can …

The House of Lords has entered the second day of the second reading of the Article 50 debate. There have been some fascinating contributions, some expected, some unexpected. One in particular stood out. It has been an interesting week for the House of Lords, starting with Monday’s BBC documentary Meet …

We have seen that the winner of the Referendum was Westminster itself. The Bubble was strengthened and inflated with its own satisfaction at its victory. Parliament had gambled that the Scots would say No; gambled that the rest of the UK would simply assume that there was a mandate tucked …

One of the most overrated and overblown reasons for folk voting out of the European Union last summer was immigration. There existed within the Leave vote a substantial contingent that advocated retaining membership of the single market and pursuing what is called the ‘EEA option’. There was a large rural …

Most people in modern Britain have little or no experience of visas. Either we don’t need a visa or else it’s straightforward to obtain one by spending a few minutes on a computer.  Most people don’t want to go to the places, like Russia or China, which require visas you …

As the Article 50 starts to take shape, the question facing negotiators is who has the stronger position. The question has been addressed by select committees. Let’s take a practical look. At the same time that debate is in progress, sundry parliamentary select committees are hearing evidence from different sectors. …

To understand any issue, it is often key to understand where it has come from; the history that has created the issue or organisation often sheds light on what the goals of the organisation are. For the Commonwealth of Nations, this is also true. As it has developed out of …

As the report of Lord Heseltine showed, the essence of Britain’s energy through the Industrial Revolution was devolved decision-making at city level. The great town halls and classical architecture of many of our cities owe much to the deep-seated civic pride of Victorian industrialists. It is not only in Scotland …

Tony Blair, to use the words of David Cameron in his first Prime Minister’s Questions in 2005, “was the future once“. In his last Prime Minister’s Questions, David Cameron admitted that he too was the future once. Nick Clegg was the future once- for a brief time in 2010. Ken …

There’s a little woman I know who is from the Glasgow area and she always gets her own way. If there is a committee meeting she is aggressive. She interrupts. She tries to belittle the point of view of others. People avoid getting into an argument with her because rather …

This is the second in a series of weekly podcasts featuring Ted Yarbrough and Isaac Anderson. The podcast summarised the previous week’s articles to give in-depth analysis and perspective to what was published on the site. We hope readers enjoy the Weekly Globe podcasts. You can listen to it here: …