Saturday, 28th January 2012
 

MP Watch

Who are the best and worst MPs

The Bruges Group has ranked Members of Parliament according to their voting in the House of Commons. You can check how they voted on the key EU related issues that came before them and see who are the genuine Eurosceptics and who are Europhile. You can also let your Member of Parliament know what you think of their voting record.

Is your MP one of the best or one of the worst MPs?

   Rebuttals
Rebutting the Government’s pro-EU propaganda

The Minister for Europe's misleading claims

Triggered by an enquiry from a constituent of Philip Davies MP, a series of correspondence began between Mr Davies, the Bruges Group and the Europe Minister, the Rt Hon David Lidington MP. The Minister originally claimed that there were a number of benefits that follow from Britain’s EU membership. The Bruges Group rebutted these erroneous claims. The Europe Minister then responded to the Bruges Group’s countering of his pro-EU propaganda. His response to the Bruges Group analysis poses important questions about the Governments attitude to the EU. These questions need to be answered

   Papers
German Economic Policy and the Euro 1999 - 2010

Germany has benefitted more than any other country in the Eurozone since the launch of the Euro in 2002. The Euro has effectively become a German currency empire which is draining the resources of the Eurozone’s smaller economies.

The harm that German policy is causing is so severe that the Mediterranean-Rim countries are caught in a debt trap where their economies are suffering, they are incurring debt and must then impose austerity measures which further weaken their economies. Yet their economies will not grow so long as the Euro helps German manufacturers dominate the Eurozone

Click here to purchase your copy

 
A Crisis of Trust

The Bruges Group is pleased to announce the publication of A Crisis of Trust by Stuart Wheeler. It examines, in detail, the political culture that has grown up in Britain since our accession to the EU.

A Crisis of Trust is an invaluable guide to what has gone wrong and how our shattered parliamentary institutions may yet be put right, written by one of Britain’s most successful and well-informed businessmen.

Click here to purchase your copy

   
EFTA or the EU?

EFTA/EEA is a simple off-the-shelf working alternative to the EU and has immediate benefits. EFTA states offer a shining example of what Britain can achieve outside of the EU. Those sovereign states are much better-off and much more free and economically dynamic.

Replacing the UK's membership of the European Union with that of the European Free Trade Association and the European Economic Area will enable regulations to be repealed, it will allow businesses to grow and will thus lower unemployment and create around 1 million new jobs

 
The Single Market and British Withdrawal
The stark economic facts as to why the UK should leave the EU

The EC Customs Union dates to 1957. The Single European Act came into effect in 1992 and superimposed on the Customs Union a costly, tightly-regulated, supposedly harmonised internal market: the Single Market. The outsourcing to Brussels of the regulation of all the City’s financial markets, the Social Chapter, the Working Time Directive, Health and Safety and Tax Harmonisation: all are part of the pursuit of the Single Market.

Membership of the Single Market is often said to be vital for British trade. The facts suggest that that proposition is wrong


The Bruges Group is a think-tank which holds meetings, lobbies and produces research on issues relating to Britain’s membership of the European Union. Our Honorary President is the Rt Hon. the Baroness Thatcher.

Since our foundation in 1989, following on from the Bruges speech made by the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, the Group has produced ground-breaking research on issues relating to; the cost of the EU, payments to the EU, immigration, the euro, the EU and the environment and EU corruption.

The Bruges Group also comments upon the many EU institutions, such as the Brussels bureaucracy which includes; the European Commission, the European Court of Justice, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. These European institutions, and their bureaucrats, produce directives and regulations which are a burden upon businesses and the economy.

Through its work against the treaties which establish and govern the functioning of the European Union the Bruges Group spearheads the intellectual battle against European integration, EU federalism, centralisation and enlargement. The Bruges Group continues to consider issues relating to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and the need to restore British sovereignty and democracy. As such there should be a referendum on the EU.

The Group often comments on the Conservative Party and Europe; which remains a contentious issue for the government.
 

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Eat the Pound: Online Game

Published Papers


German Economic Policy and the Euro


A Lesson in Democracy


A Crisis of Trust


The City of London Under Threat


Cool Thinking on Climate Change


Are the British a Servile People?


The Costs of Regulation


The Principles of British Foreign Policy


Lost Illusions: British Foreign Policy


The Case for EFTA


Plan B For Europe


Will the EU's Constitution Rescue its Currency?


Galileo: The Military and Political Dimensions


The Fate of Britain's National Interest


Health and the Nation


Criminal Justice and the draft Constitution


Subsidiarity and the Illusion of Democratic Control


A Constitution to destroy Europe


Giscard d'Estaing's "Constitution": muddle and danger presented in absurd prolixity


Free Speech: The EU Version


Federalist Thought Control


Democracy In Crisis


European Union and the Politics of Culture


Britain and Europe: The Culture of Deceit


The Bank that rules Europe?


Conservative MEPs and the EPP: Time for Divorce


Bruges Revisited


Aiming for the Heart of Europe: A Misguided Venture


Is Europe Ready for EMU?


A Single European Currency: Why the United Kingdom must say 'No'


From Single Market to Single Currency