Saturday , May 4 2024

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Conservative Party Policy Renewal: 1000 Ways To Die Trying

Rather than attempting to forge a compelling, coherent vision for Britain rooted in conservative values, our dithering Prime Minister is soliciting a thousand disjointed policy suggestions from every vested interest and armchair crank in the nation. This is not leadership. Having been on the road since 14 March of this …

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With friends like these

I spent my childhood watching reports from Northern Ireland about bombings, punishment beating and prisoners on hunger strike. Most nights the BBC news would have something about some latest horror. The people living in Northern Ireland suffered more than anyone else. It didn’t matter who you were. There was the …

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Binning the Vichy water

It is perfectly possible to imagine a mutually beneficial deal emerging from the UK’s negotiations with the EU over Brexit. We already trade freely with EU countries and meet whatever standards are required to do this. It should pretty much be a matter of saying let’s continue more or less …

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Playing Chequers at Chequers

Two years and a few days ago we celebrated the 2nd Anniversary of the Brexit vote. This, the most amazing and revolutionary of British elections, should deserve to stand among the French, Russian and American Revolutions in the way they changed history. What is the most spectacular part of the entire …

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Killing people is wrong

Once again Northern Ireland in general and the DUP in particular are taking a bit of a bashing because the Republic of Ireland voted to change its constitution the other week. I doubt there would be any criticism of the DUP if Slovenia had chosen to make such a change. …

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Quality over Quantity – How Commonwealth Trade is globalisation’s path forward

Most of what you will see written about trade among Commonwealth member states stresses the advantages, which are numerous – affinities that lower the cost of doing business by up to 19 percent compared to non-member economies. That matters, and could be sufficient in and of itself, but there is …

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Do Remain want to be part of a far right EU?

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 …

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Beware Shops Selling Swedes

It’s easy to mock those Scottish nationalists who spend their time looking around supermarkets for Scottish produce labelled as coming from Britain. There are other Scottish nationalists who want various vegetables to be called by their Scottish rather than by their English name. I imagine some want to go round …

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Is #Brexit Sexist?

When anti-Brexit hysteria and identity politics collide… As the question of Britain’s future relationship with the European Union is folded ever more deeply into our ongoing culture war, it continues to be the establishment centre-left – that bipartisan group who broadly support the status quo of the past two decades …

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And there’s another country

I supported Brexit for these reasons. I thought the UK could in the long term be more prosperous if we could trade freely with whomsoever we chose. The EU runs a club that allows us to trade freely with other members of the club but imposes a common external tariff …

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The Case for Commonwealth Free Trade: Options for a New Globalization -Chapter 8, Network Trading

This is a chapter from the author’s book. You can purchase the book in full here. A Commonwealth Free Trade Agreement would resemble a ‘geodesic’ model of cooperation, with each member state functioning as a support point in and of itself. That this is a much improved approach over the old Imperial …

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Fighting on the ice

In 2014 when I was campaigning for Scotland to remain a part of the UK it never occurred to me that the result of the referendum might be ignored or obstructed. If the Yes side had won, I fully expected that in a short time Scotland would become a fully …

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The Establishment & The EU Directive on Biscuit Taking

I do hope this doesn’t come across as a rant. Because it isn’t supposed to be. It’s just an honest statement: I find the EU’s actions to be taking the biscuit now. They’re going too far with their shenanigans, punishment beatings and strategies. They are behaving like a Commandant in …

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Policing and Numbers

900 Numbers can be important. Remember that number.  900 One has to be aware that stories on Twitter gain a life and currency all of their own.  The same can be said, at least in part, by reports on MSM such as the BBC, SkyNews and ITV News and of course, when …

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Middle Class Saviours Against Brexit: The Arrogant #FBPE Movement

Middle class #FBPE-ers of Britain unite! Talk to your Brexity, working class butchers, builders, plumbers, electricians and gardeners and educate them out of their superstitious dislike of the European Union There are few things more irritating than being called ignorant and closed-minded by a group of people who are themselves …

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Realms of Gold

I imagine sometime back in the late 1690s there were broadsheets handed out in Glasgow and other parts of Scotland promising “realms of gold”. Perhaps our ancestors studied all 354 pages of the scheme. Maybe they studied in detail the cunning plan to turn Scotland into a great economic power. The …

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An open letter to the Tory Remainers

Dear Ms. Soubry, Ms. Morgan, Ms. Rudd, Ms. Greening, Ms. Allen, Mr. Grieve,  and Mr. Clarke, As one of the consumers to which this article refers and a pensioner to boot, I would very much like to take advantage of a lower cost of living denied to us by the …

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Of the Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Speech is apparently something which is now under threat. Spiked magazine recently made the bold claim that some three hundred years of press freedom was threatened by the British Parliamentary vote on the implementation of the second stage of the Leverson inquiry earlier this month. At roughly the same time, and with …

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The foolishness of Keynesian stimulus

The economics of Keynesian stimulus: Spend more money on public services than tax intake People earn more money and spend more money More money earnt and spent means more tax intake Result: win-win… right? Theory vs practice Assuming everyone is taxed at 40%, let’s see how this plays out… Under balanced …

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Who Is Truly Marginalised? – Part 2

Champions of intersectional identity politics in academia, culture and government have accrued near-hegemonic societal power for themselves by exploiting both the real and imagined oppression of certain groups on whose behalf they boldly presume to speak Last month, I wrote a short reflection on who is and is not effectively marginalized …

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