Tag Archives: Referendum

Does the UK government have the unilateral right to ignore instructions from the electorate if it finds them to be “harmful” based on narrowly subjective criteria? And if so, shouldn’t we do something to constrain that power? A couple of days ago I mused that the most fundamental question facing …

Upset by how Brexit is being prosecuted by the government, overseen by Parliament and reported on by the media? It’s time to stop lamenting the symptoms and fixing the underlying issues with our constitution and system of government Of the sum total of British political discourse at all levels, a …

Beguiled by the irresistible prospect of overturning Brexit before it even happens, many Remainers are even more oblivious to the consequences of forcing and winning a second referendum than Brexiteers were to the fallout from victory in the first What would actually happen in the event that there was a …

Cynical, calculating and alarmist MPs are undermining faith in democracy with their conspiratorial anti-Brexit shenanigans “A voter registration site that crashed in the run-up to last year’s EU referendum could have been targeted by a foreign cyber attack, MPs say”, screeches the BBC. The Guardian, spurred by its anti-Brexit bias to …

The country has never been asked. The precedent of Northern Ireland There is a precedent. In March 1973 a referendum was held in Northern Ireland. The electorate was presented with two proposals: 1. Do you want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom? or 2. Do you want …

In case you weren’t aware, Britain voted to leave the European Union last week. Or at least I think it did. It’s been a tense, turbulent and tumultuous past few days, but to my great surprise, I’ve kept relatively sane. Immense jubilation was quickly clouded by threats and abuse, something …

The hysterical response of EU officials to Brexit (as opposed to national leaders, who have been more pragmatic and conciliatory) shows why we were right to leave the European Union, and why no lover of democracy should be happy so long as it continues to exist as a supranational government …

The threat of a second Scottish Independence Referendum (IndyRef2), coming about as a result of the Brexit vote in the UK-wide EU Membership Referendum, is fallacy. It’s spin.  It’s deceitful.  It’s divisive.  It’s complete nonsense. There is no way we are either going to see a second Scottish Independence Referendum, …

Edwina Currie, famous for many things but formerly a Conservative MP until she lost her seat in 1997, sparked Twitter outrage today with a completely off-the-cuff remark about sovereignty. Many of us (with many valid reasons) feel Edwina Currie is as mad as a bag of spanners, but her voice …

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 …

Let me lay out my concerns over the upcoming crisis in Libya, one which will break the EU into pieces, if not accepted and addressed immediately. This is simple.  The facts are there.  The debate is just not happening.  Yet. UK media half-heartedly cover the Libyan crisis, in small news …

What do you think is the life expectancy for a 21st century Scot?  According to official statistics,  the latest averages are 77.1 years for a man and 81.1 years for a woman. What about a ‘generation’.  How many years do you think that might be?  I reckon somewhere between 25 …

To have a proper debate on anything requires the most global of perspectives. Unfortunately, most of the EU referendum debate so far has been either “euro-centric” or “Britain of 2015-centric” and often fails to take into account how Brexit affects the rest of the world or how it would be …

During last night’s episode of BBC Question Time, ex-Sun Editor Kelvin MacKenzie revealed that, at a party before Xmas 2015, UK Prime Minister David Cameron described himself to Rupert Murdoch as a Eurosceptic. Nick Boles, Conservative MP, also states that David Cameron has “no romantic attachment to the EU”, before going …

As the EU Referendum creeps closer don’t be fooled by high profile politicians, such as William Hague, being wheeled out one after another to make a case for staying in the EU. Although unsettling to an uninformed general public, a favourite point being made throughout UK media given his previous Eurosceptic stance, this …