Despite Russia’s reverses in recent weeks in its invasion of Ukraine, China has doubled-down in its diplomatic support for Putin. We can be grateful this has yet to materialise into the People’s Liberation Army mustering in Donbas, but it now seems only a matter of time before the world will …
Read More »The Tyranny of Boris
Boris Johnson and his party still ride high in the polls. His handling of the pandemic, the catastrophic collapse in Afghanistan, his troubled relationship with the truth at the despatch box have so far had little effect on voters. Whilst the Twitteratti have wailed about the other excesses of the …
Read More »Indyref2 has already been decided. Someone, please tell Nicola.
The Scottish Government has announced that there is to be a draft bill for a second referendum on Scottish independence – indyref2. There is already much comment about what the question will be (perhaps a variant of Leave/Remain to comply with Electoral Commission guidance post 2014), whether independence will win …
Read More »The Tyranny of Parliament
The sovereignty of Parliament is uncontested. The Supreme Court reminded us in the Gina Miller case as have a thousand constitutional commentators before and since. This is the law and it is correct. A recently formed group of MPs – the Independent Group – have proclaimed their independence of their …
Read More »What would be the outcome of a #PeoplesVote?
How Remain will win If my recent local Labour Party meeting is anything to go by, Leave has no chance in another referendum. The vote on whether there should a referendum on the Withdrawal Agreement was passed overwhelmingly. The motion on changing “the” to “a” Withdrawal Agreement was defeated, but …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain: Conclusion- Tomorrow
Where are the zealots of democracy, the fanatics of liberty, the taliban of the rule of law, pounding the internet and social media with their passion and selfless dedication to their cause – democracy and freedom, equal rights for women? These ideals are hopefully common across most nations. The distinctions …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain- A New Referendum?
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 …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain- The Every Vote Counts System
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 …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain- Every Vote Counts – a new voting system part 1
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 …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain Continued- Community or the onward march of devolution
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 …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain Chapter 5 Continued- Sacrifice
As so many brave men and women of our armed forces in Afghanistan and their families have found, sacrifice remains a very real part of British life. For too many, the inescapable inevitability of sacrifice comes as an unexpected shock when they first become a parent or when a family …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain- Chapter 5: A New Britain
In the wake of “Trojan Horse” scandals, where schools in Birmingham were accused of plots to run them on radical Islamic lines, Cameron’s government decided to define and educate our schoolchildren in British values – “to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain Continued- When Britain gets it right
It is no mere point of academic interest to assess when it is right for Britain to go to war. In World War II, conscription had been re-introduced some months before war was declared. Not so in World War I. Volunteering for the army in World War I was a …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain- The New Poland and parallels with 1914 and 1939
A military crossing of a border uninvited, unauthorised by the UN, not in pre-emptive defence of an imminent attack is an invasion. It is illegal. The sanctity of internationally recognised borders is the most fundamental rule of international law. Putin did not stop with the Crimea. The significant Russian population …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain- The new Sudetenland
For years, Russia, bordering on bankruptcy and in social chaos following the collapse of the Soviet Union, had been ignored in international affairs. Its former allies in Eastern Europe such as Poland and the Baltic States had not only become part of the European Union but also joined the former …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain Chapter 4 Continued- Syria
The ambiguities inherent in a moral foreign policy became all too clear over Syria. Syria, the once-mighty military hard man of the Middle East, erupted into civil war in 2011. Syria was Russia’s only ally left in the region after the overthrow of many of the dictatorships by popular uprisings, …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain- Chapter 4 Continued- Iraq
The Iraq war of 2003 was a different matter altogether. In Tony Blair’s eyes, this was the epitome of moral foreign policy. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the decision to invade Iraq, Britain was deeply divided. That, in itself, is sufficient to condemn Blair. As with the Boer War, …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain Chapter 4- Britain lost in the world
Twelve thousand merchant seamen gave their lives in the Great War, or so said the memorial that the author stumbled upon walking back to the hotel in London one warm November night. As a self-proclaimed obsessive on most-things-historical and with a particular reverence for World War One, to still encounter a chilling …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain Continued- Is the future of Great Britain a matter for all the people of Great Britain?
Again, the country has never been asked. Is Great Britain any less a nation than Scotland, Wales or England? Does Great Britain not have a clear identity – clear enough to this writer at least as will be discussed later – with a long (300 years is a reasonable chunk …
Read More »Betrayal of Britain Continued: The right of self-determination
The right of self-determination is enshrined in international law. Should it even be allowed to be put as a question before the British people? After all, referenda were held in Gibraltar (1967 and 2002) and the Falkland Islands in 2013 on whether these territories wanted to remain overseas territories of …
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