Comment

The Treasury Select Committee (TSC) has delivered its report on Brexit, or to give the full title, “The economic and financial costs and benefits of the UK’s EU membership”. The result is far reaching, leaving a few questions unanswered. At times, observers might feel that the committee has been uneven …

A careless turn of phrase reveals a poisonous, negative attitude towards Britain held by prominent Remainers and EU apologists What do passionate British europhiles and EU defenders really think about their own country? This question is an eternal puzzle to Brexiteers, who have watched Remainers from the prime minister on down …

More than 300 prominent historians have signed a letter warning against Brexit. Their intervention continues the long europhile tradition of framing the EU referendum debate as a false dichotomy. To further their argument they deal only in binaries in a thoroughly disingenuous fashion in order to portray all Brexiteers as …

George Osborne, as he promised, has released a second dossier on the effects of a no vote on 23rd June. This time, the target of doom and gloom was the first two years after a Brexit vote. Sadly, Osborne decided not to attend the House of Commons to defend the …

I’m naturally a pessimist. I sometimes try to write in an uplifting way as if to encourage the troops. The moral, after all, is to the physical as three to one. But it’s generally me who needs encouraging most of all. I fully expected the SNP to gain a majority …

Many people have asked me, increasingly more so recently, what I mean when I say I am a “Burkean conservative”. Some are aware of the statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke – the namesake of this term – some are not. I admit, it’s not a term you see used that …

I watched the BBC documentary “Last Whites of the East End” last night.  I’m not a fan of the BBC approach to documentary-making, finding their spin to be unbearable, but this one piqued me when I saw Twitter come alive. I’ve since watched the war of words on Twitter as …

A further report of doom and gloom after Brexit has been released, this time from the institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), claiming the Brexit would bring two more years of austerity. Is the body of evidence from independent analysts really increasing? The IFS is a charity, based in London specialising …

Fed-up with all of the contradictory forecasts and statements about the referendum on Britain’s continued membership of the European Union?  You probably should look away. I would like to see another forecast – I know, that suggests either some kind of a weird fantasy obsession or that maybe I am …

“Trade policy”, says the EU Commission, “is an exclusive power of the EU – so only the EU, and not individual member states, can legislate on trade matters and conclude international trade agreements”. This obviously has serious, wide-ranging implications which are have not been adequately discussed or honestly spelled out …

Somewhere in Rousseau’s Social Contract is the idea that the whole electorate should vote on everything all the time. This would, of course, have been unworkable even in an eighteenth century city state. If the whole population were to spend every day governing the country, who would do any work? …

As you may have noticed, there’s been quite a lot of squabbling within the Conservative Party over the issue of the EU referendum recently. The party leader is all for remaining within the EU as he clings to the terms of his “renegotiation”, that is to say, his failure to …

I came of age in an era of unserious politics. In America, there was George W. Bush, a Republican who preached the platitudes of “compassionate conservatism” and global democracy and left the US poorer and the world more chaotic. In the UK, there was Tony Blair (along with Gordon Brown), …

We can never hope to properly understand the European project without understanding its origins. It’s “official” history is now widely accepted; it was an idea that emerged after WWII to prevent a third European war. Actually the core idea that is the genesis of the EU emerged from the Great …

Every nation on Earth has established traditions and customs. Great Britain has a great many also, although in the modern age, the traditions of this country are being increasingly challenged and removed from public life. Challenging and questioning traditions are not always a bad thing, but we must examine tradition …

The SNP’s failure to win an overall majority in Holyrood was a setback for them and their cause. It will be very hard indeed for Scottish nationalists to push for a second independence referendum in the next five years. Importantly, in the present context, this is the case even if …

In the recent past we have heard that Brexit will cause:  Sterling to crash by 20% (1),  Banks to move to EU (2),  Banks on both sides of Atlantic to be struck down by uncertainty (3), London to lose its status as financial capital (4) etc. These were all rumours …

What do you make of all the scare-mongering, AKA Project Fear,  that is coming out of the Remain camp, relating to the European Referendum? I ask because there seems to be something of a contradiction in the whole thing. On the one hand, we have David Cameron and his government …

One of the early claims in the referendum campaign, even before the campaign started in earnest, is that Britain is “safer IN”. Let’s have a look at these claims. There are three aspects to the claim. The first of these is militarily, the second is in terrorism, the third crime. …

The Treasury Select Committee (TSC) met on the afternoon of 11th May to question George Osborne and Treasury official, Mark Bowman over the EU Referendum campaign. The session can be seen here. For those who are unaware, select committees are broadly organised to reflect government departments. Naturally, the TSC reflects …