Any “Plan B” for Brexit must take account of the Referendum result.  The 2016 EU Referendum in the UK was held to determine whether the UK desired to Remain in or Leave the European Union. The result of the Referendum was a convincing majority to Leave the EU in England …

We have been warned by the BBC that Philip Hammond thinks Brexit will be bad for the UK economy.  What do other sources of economic “wisdom” predict? The IMF Predicts the UK will have some of the strongest growth in European big 5 after Brexit: The World Bank in its Global Economic Prospects Predicts the UK …

Coverage in the media of the fact that the Belfast Agreement does NOT specify open borders with frictionless trade in Ireland has been entirely suppressed (read the Belfast Agreement here if you don’t know this) and the news that the Bank of England has calculated that a WTO Brexit with a 21 …

The Belfast Agreement (“Good Friday Agreement”) does not state that the border between the Republic of Ireland (RoI) and Northern Ireland must be open or that there must be the same standards for goods (conformity – ‘CE’) or that tariffs and excise duties should be the same across the border. However, the …

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting outside the Mezquita Catedral at Cordoba and looking around at all the tourists.  Most of the people under thirty were wearing tee shirts and jeans and without hearing their voices it was difficult to work out where they came from.  We see …

Many people will have noticed that there has been very little discussion of the contents of the withdrawal agreement between the UK and EU.  Here is a link to the snappily named: “Draft Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and …

The changes in our society since the fall of communism were not predicted by anyone at the time.  This article summarises what we can see in retrospect and it is not pretty.  Marxism and Conservatism are being replaced by a deviant form of secularism. The most obvious change since the …

The Electoral Commission has referred Arron Banks to the National Crime Agency for suspected false declaration of the source of EU Referendum funding.  The alleged offence involved £2.9m of money given by Mr Banks and spent by Leave.EU, the UKIP campaign for Leaving the EU – the official campaign was Vote Leave and is not …

China is now the richest country in the world in terms of the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) measure of GDP.  Its towns are modern tower blocks, its motorways are enormous and full of traffic and its factories are booming.  It has almost five times the population of the USA. On …

The European Movement – the Controllers  The European Movement now controls Open Britain Ltd, Scientists for EU and Healthier In the EU, these groups share offices and are largely financed by “Best for Britain”. “Open Britain Ltd” may be unknown to readers but it was previously called “The In Campaign Ltd” which …

The countries of the EU have often staged referendums about the terms of membership.  About 20% of all of these referendums have gone against the EU. (see Wikipedia: EU Referendums). Second referendums are frequent in the EU if the decision on the first goes against EU policy.  There have been nine …

The Government has proposed that the UK should be subject to the full EU Customs Union rules for the trade in goods so that goods can flow between NI and the Republic of Ireland exactly as they do at present.  Is it necessary for the UK to stay in the …

Any observer of Western politics will have noticed the rise and rise of Identity Politics.  Why is this happening? It was once tacitly assumed that the participants in political debate had good intentions even if you thought they had the wrong ideas.  Identity Politics abandons the assumption that opponents have …

What should UK trading relations look like after 2019, when Brexit itself finally happens? We are now being told that the UK must enter the “Single Market “.  The Single Market is, in many ways, another name for being in the EU.  As the EU Commission puts it: “The Single Market …

I have just finished reading yet another article on how Trade Deficits are harmless or even good for a country (The Trade Deficit Matters, But Not How You Think by Jeffrey Dorfman). Trade deficits happen when a country imports more than it exports, the excess imports need to be purchased …

There will be no border in Northern Ireland which means customs dues will need to be collected elsewhere.  The simplest solution is for customs dues to be declared as part of a quarterly return by Northern Ireland businesses.  Perhaps VAT liable NI businesses could make a return as part of …

The UK has a trade deficit with the EU (Jan 2018) of  £82bn pa – about 4% of GDP (larger than the UK bank bailout in 2008 annually see note 1).  Trade deficits directly reduce GDP, the trade deficit with the EU reduces UK GDP by about 4%.  It makes …

In any political movement there are several strands.  In the UK we are fed the message that Remain voters are socialist even though one of its most prominent supporters is the arch conservative Ken Clarke and the billionaires Soros and Branson are obviously supporting Remain for their own profit.  In …

Discussions of the antiquity of Homo Sapiens provide an interesting insight into our post-modern, post-Marxist times. The story that is told in most programs on the broadcast media is that Homo Sapiens evolved in Africa about 60,000 years ago and spread out across the world. We now know that Homo …

Since the EU referendum Remain voters have been in a state of shock, wondering how Brexit could be happening.  One of the targets for the media groups who back Remain has been retired people. The implied narrative is that stupid old people voted for Brexit because they were doing very …