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Theresa May used to tell us “Brexit means Brexit”. However, she never really told us what Brexit means. In truth Brexit is like a rainbow, a range of colours, opinions and viewpoints. If we can define a rainbow, can we define a Brexit? Can it ever be touched? On our …

As I was going home the other day, I passed a group of students waving Catalan flags. I didn’t stop to find out what they were demonstrating about. Rather confusingly someone handed we a leaflet about socialism in Chile. Were they Chileans complaining about Catalonia, Or Catalans complaining about Chile? …

The general election has finally been called. Of course a general election should be about more general issues but will Brexit dominate the agenda? The early stages suggest that this will be the defining issue. Looking back at previous elections, 2015 provided a surprising Conservative majority. Many aspects may have …

However well other parties do, it is still the case that the next Government will almost certainly either be Labour or Conservative. Such a Government may depend on the votes of others in coalition, but it is virtually impossible for these others to themselves form a Government. For this reason, …

In October 2019, Heidi Allen defected to the Liberal Democrats, becoming the fourth ex-Conservative MP to do so, after Sam Gyimah, Sarah Wollaston and Philip Lee. [Editor’s note: expelled ex-Conservative MP Antoinette Sandbach has also defected to the Liberal Democrats on 31 October 2019 bringing the total number to five]. …

I wrote my dissertation prior to the Internet. Maybe that’s the dividing line. I studied people like Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky. I went to my tutor’s college rarely, sometimes not for months. It was assumed that I could read everything in the original language. It just isn’t possible to understand a …

The triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which would set the negotiating period of the UK’s departure from the EU, kicked off on 29th March 2017. Negotiations were set to be long and hard, and it soon materialised that the UK was not only fighting against an EU …

Again and again the House of Commons declines the opportunity to hold a general election. Ostensibly no vote will pass. The House is in paralysis. Why do they perpetuate the situation? As ever, it is worth reviewing how this came about, the history going back to the general election of …

There was a time not so very long ago when academic study was free from politics. Universities may have been full of political activity, students went on demonstrations complaining about Margaret Thatcher, but the subjects everyone studied were mainly free from politics. I wonder sometimes if I am part of …

Our man Rex seeks to establish the Brexit agenda for the week ahead. The last week of October promises to be a fascinating, indeed crucial, week in the quest for Brexit. What will happen? We don’t know for sure but there is a timetable, of sorts. There are four key …

It will be shown below that the Treasury has been using incorrect “predictions” to influence the debate on Independence.  If the Conservatives are truly now a pro-Brexit party they must publicly rebut the Treasury Reports. There have been two high profile sets of Treasury Predictions during the campaign for Independence …

The past few weeks and days have been exhausting to say the least. As a passionate Brexiteer I find myself close to simply giving up. On Tuesday 22nd October a Withdrawal Agreement bill was finally passed! However, less than twenty minutes later, parliament decided to vote down the government’s optimistic …

On the 31st of October 2019, Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union, with or without a withdrawal agreement. It is a debate that has divided the country for nearly 4 years in the wake of the 2016 referendum and has exposed or exacerbated ever widening cracks in our social …

Ostensibly, Brexit is drawing to an end game. Boris pledged to achieve this by 31st October, “do or die”. Decisions have to be made but what decisions and by who? This is an attempt to make the issues simple, despite the complications. The latest Withdrawal Agreement (WA) provides changes to …

If the deal that Boris Johnson has negotiated with the EU passes, the whole of the UK will leave both the EU Single Market and the EU’s Customs Union. Let’s be clear. This is Brexit. It isn’t Brexit in Name Only. All of the UK, Northern Ireland too will be …

It seems that a new Brexit deal has finally been agreed, for the time being at least. There are still hurdles to leap, not least in EU and British parliaments. Have developments been sufficient to give us all a treat? Juncker has outlined a summary of intent: “There will be …

Imagine there were a General Election won by Labour. Suppose the Tories delayed their departure from office for 3 years and then, when the opinion polls were ripe, held another General Election to “confirm” the first.  Surely no-one would say that this was a democracy. Suppose the Scottish were indeed …

As the outline of a revised deal begins to become public, it is important to consider carefully the extent to which an amended backstop or “alternative arrangements” still pose a threat to our union. The key landing zone seems to surround the idea of an all-Ireland regulatory area along with …

Following Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister in July 2019, Brexiters gained a new impetus and energy to resolve the Brexit deadlock. In response, Remainers in Parliament moved to thwart them, by seeking to take “No Deal” off the table. They did this on the 4th September 2019, with Hilary Benn …

There are two ideas that the children going on strike about climate change should be aware of. Science progresses or ought to progress by means of scientists testing their theories to destruction. This is the day to day stuff. Science progresses or ought to progress by means of scientific revolutions. …