Tel. +44 (0)20 7287 4414
Email. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel. +44 (0)20 7287 4414
Email. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Bruges Group spearheaded the intellectual battle to win a vote to leave the European Union and, above all, against the emergence of a centralised EU state.
The Bruges Group spearheaded the intellectual battle to win a vote to leave the European Union and, above all, against the emergence of a centralised EU state.
Image
Image
Image
Image

Bruges Group Blog

Spearheading the intellectual battle against the EU. And for new thinking in international affairs.

Danegeld and Cult Crash

celebrating-1297377_1920 Thanks for the € Subsidy!
The chief executive of Deutsche Bank Christian Sewing told a meeting in Frankfurt "We are not the sick man of Europe. But, it is also true that there are structural weaknesses that hold back our economy and prevent it from developing its great potential. And we will become the sick man of Europe if we do not address these structural issues now." Ac...
Continue reading
  91 Hits

North and South in a new geopolitical dichotomy

flag-1040565_1280 The Commonwealth of Nations
.What used to be East and West is now the global North and South in a new geopolitical dichotomy. While not strictly ideologically divided, the ascendancy of (southern) BRICS members being largely economic, they and the whole Global South are increasingly defined politically according to their perceived history. Much is spoken about multipolarity b...
Continue reading
  224 Hits

Our Nation State its Past, Present and Future. By Bob Lomas

map-1019896_1280 UK - Great Britain & Northern Ireland
The intellect of mankind has developed down through millennia which has facilitated his progression of understanding. Unfortunately the level of understanding is not, and has never been, universal due to group isolation and environmental limitations. On a world scale it has been and remains a long and very slow learning curve, its progression ...
Continue reading
  223 Hits

The Elites: Myth or Reality?

G12 Is Freedom Under Threat?
The word 'elites' has come to mean a shorthand for 'the powers that be', which may include or be separate from and above one's elected representatives including international regulators that dictate to and restrict governments. This comprising an embryonic world government for whom and for which no one voted. According to various conspiracy theorie...
Continue reading
  222 Hits

Stealing Freedom of Movement

Derek-Bennett-1960s-passport-photo Off on an adventure!
 The photo of me is from 1968 when I was young, beardless and fresh faced, it was one taken for my very first passport. In those days our British passports were wonderful things, they were dark blue with a hard cover and inside were the instructions from our Monarch to let the holder of the passport pass without let or hinderance. As I used th...
Continue reading
  236 Hits

Were all our tomorrows yesterday?

thumb-440352_1920-1 84 Wasted Years
'Thirteen Wasted Years' is the war cry of Starmer's Labour party. To those who remember, it simply demonstrates that they have not got a new idea - on anything. The slogan was used by Wilson for the 1964 General Election. I suggest that the truth is that, apart from Thatcher, we have had 84 wasted years, well 79 if one deducts WW2. Neville Chamberl...
Continue reading
  266 Hits

Censorship is deadly

china-3303411_1280
The danger of suppressing information and alternative views in matters of public interest is that it will likely lead to costly and lethal policy errors. Alastair Campbell says it is a shame that the UK does not jail politicians for misleading Parliament. Can he have forgotten that Blair assured the Commons that he knew - rather than was personally...
Continue reading
  213 Hits

Climate (sic) "Science" Mythology and an Historical Perspective. 

Facts_1 Facts and Dangerous Myths
One of the few benefits of being old is a weary perspective - that our untameable climate has caused self-acclaimed scientists to be perpetually baffled. When it comes to this force of nature I am firmly encamped with King Canute who, possibly unlike our present king, deserves to be remembered as a debunker of baloney. Growing up in the 60's, and f...
Continue reading
  424 Hits

Artificial Idiocy and Productivity Damage

robot-153635_1280 Artificial Idiocy
Last Saturday we went to the theatre in Windsor. The car park no longer has a machine that takes cash. It does have two parking aps. The first was out of order, or at least it could not be downloaded. The second was one my wife has. Her credit card is registered with them, but she could not pay. She phoned them. A human sorted the problem, confirme...
Continue reading
  288 Hits

World War II: The First Culture War

The-Darkest-Hour-A-historical-account-of-World-War-I_20230808-151515_1
Mr Robert Oulds' new book, World War II: The First Culture War has received praise and plaudits from all quarters. War strategists, academics, and politicians alike have praised his book as detailed, illuminating, and comprehensive. It's a book that goes deeper than merely the events, the politics, or the history many of us understand - it's a...
Continue reading
  1817 Hits

The EU - A GDP Graveyard - Proved by 40 Years of IMF Statistics

euro-g259665e30_1280
Still Want to Rejoin? - Read This  If you want still to rejoin the EU, ask yourself after reading about nearly four decades of IMF economic data, how in the name of good judgement anyone might want to do that.   For those four decades the EU has been a graveyard for UK GDP along with the r...
Continue reading
  872 Hits

Affairs are now soul size

ai-generated-7952435_1280
Why do bad men do bad things? Because they are mad, that is the modern explanation. But 'mad' is just English for 'I don't understand.' It's become common wisdom that all religious belief from Animism to Zoroastrianism is wrong, loopy and solely responsible for mankind's atrocities; but it's the irrationality and inhumanity of worldly wisemen that ...
Continue reading
  232 Hits

Britain's debt pile is NOT higher than the EU's

euro-714947_1920 Euro - An Unhealthy Currency
Contrary to the Daily Telegraph's story today claiming that Britain's debt pile does not outstrip the EU's, Britain's is far lower, because the EU's is masked by creative accounting. The full extent of the EU's debts and other financial liabilities is detailed in my book recent book 'The shadow liabilities of EU Member States, and the threat they p...
Continue reading
  785 Hits

Predictable Panic and Populism

person-41402_1920 Panic
The by-election results have had a predictable effect on MPs of the two main parties. The real story is that because there is not a Conservative party to vote for, Tories stayed at home. With the exception of a minority of democrats still fighting to implement Brexit, the conservative party is now Labour-lite. The real Labour party in full throated...
Continue reading
  399 Hits

'The European Project is Making People Poorer'

UK-EU-fight
Have we in the UK been getting steadily poorer year-on-year over 46 years in the "European Project" [the EEC and then the EU] than if the UK had been out? What is the evidence? Remainers claim "We're better off in". But is it true? And if "We're better off out" people should know. The UK is tipped to overtake Germany and become the largest economy ...
Continue reading
Recent Comments
Clifford Miller
Comment deleted - points now incorporated into main article.
Friday, 25 October 2019 05:27
Guest — Ian
Great read, many thanks for your hard work in pulling this together.
Friday, 25 October 2019 09:37
Clifford Miller
Comment deleted - points now incorporated into main article.
Saturday, 26 October 2019 20:48
  9197 Hits

How Has Brexit Benefited UK Businesses?

brexit-gcbaa6344b_1280
The UK exited the European Union on December 31, 2020. Leaving the EU has been a double-edged sword for British companies, who have experienced advantages and numerous difficulties due to Brexit. Combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, the results have only sometimes favoured UK companies. Before Brexit, goods and services could be transported to and ...
Continue reading
  365 Hits

Brexit is Working - Part TWO

world A World of Opportunity
We are pleased to publish this analysis by Sebastian James based on his blog at The Blue Anchor. PART TWO In part two we look at GDP growth. The dataset is here. Here is the graph:  Below is the section from 1956 when records began up to the 1975 referendum vote to remain:  I see a line going up from bottom left to top right. GDP grew fro...
Continue reading
  501 Hits

Inquisition Resurgent

Noose Strangled to Death
As Cayetano Ripoll slowly choked to death on the Spanish scaffold, he would have been unaware that he was the last to suffer that fate at the hands of the Inquisition. They had demanded he be burned at the stake. As a compromise he was hanged, a slow death compared with the recently mandated garrote. Ripoll's crime was to have taught Deism, that th...
Continue reading
  394 Hits

Brexit is Working

world A World of Opportunity
We are pleased to publish this analysis by Sebastian James based on his blog at The Blue Anchor.  PART ONE After the vote to leave The Guardian started a regular tracker to chart its impact on the economy. But as the Remainer predictions turned to dust and the good news kept piling up the Guardian quietly dropped this feature. So I'm reviving ...
Continue reading
  746 Hits

Eurozone’s ‘shadow debts’ start to become real ones, and threaten the Bundesbank with bankruptcy

Piggy-Bank Breaking the Bank
The German Federal Audit Office ('Bundesrechnungshof') has warned that the Bundesbank may need a bailout due to losses on the EUR650 billion of bonds it bought as part of the Eurozone's equivalent of Quantitative Easing. The Daily Telegraph reported on this on 26 June. Of course the risk is not for the entire EUR650 billion but for the fraction by ...
Continue reading
  929 Hits

The Seven Year Tantrum

crying EU Loser Tantrum
Two weeks ago I wrote an article about the show trial of Boris Johnson. It attracted attention and comment on twitter. I have never looked at comments on the Bruges Twitter feed and it was a revelation. The level of spite and childish name calling was staggering. Since the removal of Boris the antics of EU acolytes and their rejoiner friends has be...
Continue reading
  485 Hits

Born in the right body: gender identity ideology from a medical and feminist perspective

IS Born in the Right Body
By Isidora Sanger, paperback, 359 pages, ISBN 9798364867902, independently published, 2022, £11.99.   Isidora Sanger is the nom-de-plume of a retired medical doctor. In this splendid book she demolishes the case for gender identity ideology. Both the Gender Recognition Act and the Equality Act have been systematically misrepresented to ju...
Continue reading
  902 Hits

Turning Things Around

win-1820037_1280
The UK must not listen to declinists and defeatists. It is amazing how fast things can be turned around, and I've seen it in education, where the material we work with is often difficult. In the late Seventies I taught in an inner-city multiracial secondary school neighbouring Handsworth, where the first riots were to come three years later. The bu...
Continue reading
  372 Hits

No To Left-Wing Declinism !

cup-1010918_1280
coThe economist Duncan Weldon has told the New Statesman's Will Dunn that 'Brexit is a "slow puncture" on the UK economy.' As former business editor of BBC's Newsnight and so presumably of the Left he received soft treatment by Dunn. Let us deflate his arguments a little. Clearly much of our difficulty with the EU post-Brexit is intentional on thei...
Continue reading
  393 Hits

An Attack on Law and Democracy

Boot Treading on Justice
The hatred of Brexit is so great that it seems its opponents are happy to destroy not just the rule of law, but democracy itself in their quest for vengeance. Those who deny this, should read the Guardian newspaper Opinion piece 13th June 2023 Titled "Brexit was Johnson and Johnson was Brexit. Now that he has gone, Britain must think again" Its sub...
Continue reading
  1475 Hits

Call to arms

wolves-924358_1920 The Wolves (now Blooded) Circle…
The Conservative Party killed the golden goose and got a lame duck. The wolves (now blooded) circle… A former prime minister has not only been pushed from office, but chased out of Parliament as well. Did that happen to Neville Chamberlain? Did it happen to Edward Heath? These days, however, former leaders need to be extinguished as well as removed...
Continue reading
  515 Hits

Boris is playing 8D Chess

Ukraine_and_Great_Britain_will_continue_to_strengthen_anti-war_coalition_-_Volodymyr_Zelenskyy_after_meeting_with_Boris_Johnson_in_Kyiv._51994994336 Like the Terminator he will be back
'It is very sad to be leaving parliament - at least for now - but above all I am bewildered and appalled that I can be forced out, anti-democratically, by a committee chaired and managed, by Harriet Harman, with such egregious bias.' This resignation of Bojo first starting point was the kangaroo court that was image  of the modern po...
Continue reading
  758 Hits

Boris and the divided house

convento-do-carmo-g57a2b2603_1280
Boris Johnson's letter of resignation wonders how Harriet Harman's panel could have come to its conclusion: I have received a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear - much to my amazement - that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament. That sense of injustice is reminiscent of Sir Thomas Mor...
Continue reading
  493 Hits

Answer the Question

propaganda-3543257_1920 Ignore Facts
Seven years after the Brexit referendum and three years since we actually left the EU project fear has intensified. Those who could never, and still cannot, explain why they want to be ruled by an unelected and democratically unaccountable president and 27 person commission, daily attack democracy. According to Osborne, Soros, Labour, Lib Dems, SNP...
Continue reading
  466 Hits

Tories: The Party's Over

comic-g77c4043b5_1280
It's time to call it a day. I'm not the only one saying it - ask Dominic Cummings, for another. The Party is moribund and we need to put it out of our misery. As for the Labour Party, that died a long time ago. New Labour gave a new meaning to the word 'New': 'Not.' Now it is a soft-handed version of revolutionary Communism, dedicated to the overth...
Continue reading
  445 Hits

Britain's Unique Aristocracy

2020_31_lords-scaled Short defence of our timeless hierarchy
The word aristocracy has many stigmas and dogmas to it, some good, some bad, and Britain's aristocracy has in the past deservingly or not earned most of them to some degree or another. The good far outweighs the bad, this good that our aristocracy has contributed mightily to our stability and prosperity and that without it we would have neither. To...
Continue reading
  385 Hits

The Beauty-Utility Grid

The architect Robert Venturi said buildings were either Ducks (whose exteriors advertise their function) or Decorated Sheds, where the ornament is independent of the contents. This idea has wider applications: for example the British Constitution is a Decorated Shed, if you accept Walter Bagehot's separation of its parts into 'dignified' and 'effic...
Continue reading
  469 Hits

UK debt and the sword of Damocles

The general public has little idea of how much debt hangs over our heads. Today, Laura Perrins warns us that government borrowing is now equivalent to 99.2% of GDP (i.e. a whole year's worth of national economic activity); but that is only the tip of the iceberg, because it is only looking at public sector borrowing. Unlike the UK, where valuable f...
Continue reading
  498 Hits

The Conservative Party is Mr. Hyde

face-4908263_1280 See Behind the Mask
The Conservative party is in trouble. The problem is that most of its supporters and a few of its MPs don't understand its ethos. During most of the last century, fear of a rabid socialist party (Atlee's 1945 party was really communist) has conspired to keep the wool pulled over most voter's eyes. If Brexit had never happened this situation may hav...
Continue reading
  608 Hits

Totality of on- and off-balance sheet liabilities of the EU public sector is cloaked in obscurity

cloaked-liabilities Hidden Debts
The totality of the public sector liabilities of EU and Eurozone member states is clouded in obscurity. The key measure tracked by Eurostat - 'General government gross debt' – is circumvented to such an extent that, based on year-end 2021 figures, debts of around €6.4 trillion failed to be registered, and contingent liabilities of around €3.8 trill...
Continue reading
  976 Hits

Greece's New Democracy

acropolis-ge0841e931_1280
From Our Man In Thessaloniki Greeks go to the polls on Sunday to elect their national legislature. Voting is compulsory, even for Greeks abroad (as so many are, since the economy crashed), but the obligation is not enforced and the turnout in 2019 was less than 58%. Foreigners who are permanently resident may also take part (something that our Sir ...
Continue reading
  408 Hits

The great western inflation should lead to changes at the Central Banks

Sir-John-Redwood Rt Hon Sir John Redwood PC MP
John Redwood's Lecture, All Souls College, Oxford  Rt Hon Sir John Redwood will be giving a lecture on the great western inflation of the last two years. He will examine the role of the Central banks, explain how they could have avoided the general price rises, and ask how the Bank of Japan, the Swiss Central Bank and the People's Bank of Chin...
Continue reading
  871 Hits

The archipelago of EU public sector entities with borrowing powers has created a behemoth of liabilities

eu-liabilities-behemoth Hidden EU Debts
The EU member states contain numerous public sector entities with borrowing powers, and whose debts fall outside the definition of member state debt as reported by Eurostat. The responsibility for the debts tracks back, one way or another, to the member state but the amounts involved are opaque. All that can be said with complete certainty is that ...
Continue reading
  1120 Hits

The EU banking system has falsified the amount of its cushion against losses

eu-banking-sysyem-falsification EU Banking System Smoke and Mirrors
EU authorities have permitted commercial banks to implement a particularly aggressive form of risk-evaluation methodology, the result of which is the ability to claim a thick loss-absorption cushion and to attest that the EU banking system is stable and resilient. It isn't: cushions are as thin as before the Eurozone financial crisis. This is laid ...
Continue reading
  823 Hits

European Scrutiny Committee Letter To Rishi Sunak

Ten The Government are Not Listening
European Scrutiny CommitteeHouse of Commons London SW1A 0AATel (020) 7219 3292 Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.parliament.uk/escom From: Sir William Cash MP 15 May 2023 Rt Hon. Rishi Sunak MP Prime Minister10 Downing StreetLondon SW1A 2AA Change in Government policy on Retained EU Law and the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill Dear P...
Continue reading
  780 Hits

Reforming the House Of Lords

change-671376_1920 Change is Overdue
It was often said about the anatomy of a bumble bee, when looked at its shape and size of wings, that they should not be able to fly, but do. There are lots of things like bumble bees that should not work but do, the House of Lords in the days before Tony Blair got his meddling mitts on it worked reasonably well. In those days the majority of membe...
Continue reading
  684 Hits

The Eurosystem has become a commercial bank, except one without a credit assessment department or loss-absorption cushion

eurosystem-commercial-bank Eurosystem is an unregulated Commercial Bank
The Eurosystem has expanded its operations well beyond what a central bank would have traditionally undertaken. It now owns assets that are not 'central bank money' definitionally. Assets have credit ratings as low as BB in the Standard and Poor's system, which means they are 'Speculative Grade' and involve 'Substantial credit risk'. It does not ev...
Continue reading
  1027 Hits

What did we learn about the Conservative Democratic Organisation and Moggmentum

What did we learn about the Conservative Democratic Organisation and Moggmentum Refreshing and something we needed to hear
This Saturday, grassroot conservatives across the nation nestled in the city of Bournemouth to enlighten themselves with the refreshing back to basic Tory rhetoric. While enemies of Traditional Conservatives tried to thwart this event  as 4D Chess moves from Johnsonites (although repeatedly stated not a Pro-Johnson movement from the ...
Continue reading
  684 Hits

Broken Promises

broken Broken Promises
Rishi Sunak's government is consistent in one thing. It makes promises to implement policies clearly aimed at public support, only to, within a short period, to unfailing announce that it will not after all go ahead, or that oi might, but only at some indeterminate point in the future. Far from providing a reason to vote Conservative it is generati...
Continue reading
  629 Hits

The Woke Triumvirate

The Woke Triumvirate Prime Minister: Keir Starmer (Left) Deputy Prime Minister: Ed Davey (Right)
  He [Caesar] declared in Greek with a loud voice to those who were present 'Let a die be cast' and led the army across. — Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 60.2.9 The meaning of this quote from Plutarch describes the start of the Roman Civil War, Julius Caesar articularly describes that things have happened that can't be changed back. This was s...
Continue reading
  633 Hits

Out pops the cloven hoof

time-g4ae00e013_1920
Yesterday (Thursday 11 May) was a wonderful demonstration of why we are blessed to have a sovereign Parliament. The Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch had informed the Press before telling Parliament about the decision to remove the deadline for abolishing hampering EU legislation. Coming to the House to explain, she began with an unfortunate turn of...
Continue reading
  475 Hits

Coronation Reflections

union-jack-3431475_1920 United Kingdom
Our undoubted king has been anointed, crowned, walked through the Abbey accompanied by his queen, preceded by a priestess sword bearer - the lady of the lake. So far, so good. Britain was almost united again as it is sometimes and usually on a royal occasion, understanding implicitly that our monarch (but not their wider family) best represent...
Continue reading
  415 Hits

TARGET2 harbours risks even greater than the enormous ones acknowledged by the European Central Bank

target-2-risks Target 2 - Enormous Hidden Risk
There has been long and ongoing debate about the nature of the sizable loans and deposits that the Eurozone national central banks (NCBs) run with one another within the TARGET2 payment system. The debate has overlooked that the balances are nearly double what the European Central Bank (ECB) reports, and that the report only shows the amounts at th...
Continue reading
  1085 Hits

Illegal Immigration

Trafficking Soon - four star hotels, food and free money
We are now well into May, and it appears that the flood of illegal immigrants across the channel has not abated – if anything, as the weather improves it is likely to increase. The opportunity to control our borders, and to decide who enters the UK and for how long, was a key strand of Brexit, yet nearly seven years after the momentous vote, nothin...
Continue reading
  477 Hits

The European Central Bank's programmes have created a major funding risk for Eurozone member states

ecb-major-funding-risk Major funding risk for Eurozone member states
The programmes of the European Central Bank (ECB) are extensive, and involve greater risks than the ECB can bear, it being very thinly capitalised. Even modest losses on its programmes would require it to be recapitalised by its Eurozone shareholders – the national central banks (NCBs) of the Eurozone member states. This is laid out in the newly-re...
Continue reading
  989 Hits

Voting: the numbers game

democracy-gf6dfc3800_1920
The requirement for ID in Thursday's local elections has caused upset - Richard Murphy calls it 'a reversal of the right to vote.' At least he (correctly) thinks it's important. So does the EU, which is why it is post-democratic by design: its Parliament is nothing more than a talking shop. Moreover, the individual's ballot is swamped by sheer numb...
Continue reading
  425 Hits

Making a success of Brexit

Bruges-Group-presentation---October-2022-debt-interest-1
  542 Hits

Fatal Traction: How Bad Ideas Gain Currency In Government

westminster-g3fd54627c_1920
Three years ago today (2nd May) my MP wanted to demonstrate her responsivity to her constituents, which makes a welcome difference from the types that have allegedly represented me in the past. Unfortunately, we have locally an equivalent to Theodore Roosevelt's 'hyphenated Americans': some people who wish to embroil us in foreign matters beca...
Continue reading
  526 Hits

Apologia Pro Raab

Apologia Pro Raab
To summarise the whole Raab "bullying" scandal is best described from Conservative MP for Peterborough, Paul Bristow, deploring the saga as cynically making the UK as "not a serious country". Certainly Mr Bristow is pristine clear about this, the mockery that the accusation of "bullying" affecting the civil service makes our nation a joke.From...
Continue reading
  407 Hits

What democracy?

word-cloud-ged0462796_1280
We're still cutting the Lilliputian threads, but if we can prevent Remainer sabotage we shall be able to say that we're fully out of the EU. But then, so is North Korea. Rather than define our destiny negatively as against the puppet-empire in Europe, what positive vision should we have of Britain and our future? We talk of ourselves as a democracy...
Continue reading
  461 Hits

The Struggle for Liberty

houses-of-parliament-4444870_1920 Royal Republic
As we approach the Coronation we can expect much malign and ill-informed comment from people who do not understand our political system. One reason for their ignorance will be the deplatforming of speakers who could put them right, such as the redoubtable David Starkey, shunned by the woke for their misrepresentation of an impatient and infelicitou...
Continue reading
  645 Hits

Net Zero is the Rationale for the European Investment Bank to Help Manufacture Enormous Public Sector Liabilities

netzero-eib-liabilities Net Zero Liabilities
Net Zero is proving to be a good cover story for the European Investment Bank Group to create huge financial liabilities for the EU taxpayer. The amount looks set to exceed €1.2 trillion by the end of the current EU budget period in 2027. This is laid out in the newly-released book 'The shadow liabilities of EU Member States, and the threat they po...
Continue reading
  1124 Hits

An Anonymous Tyranny

DS Civil Service Replace Elected Government
Adam Tolley's report on the behaviour of Dominic Raab is flawed. The accusations were plainly coordinated between departments and were 'afterthought' accusations that would have been dismissed by an employment tribunal. Of the accusers "Only some of those individuals had any direct experience of the DPM (Deputy Prime Minister - Raab); some had neve...
Continue reading
  635 Hits

Misleading Accounting Lends Undeserved Credibility to the European Stability Mechanism

misleading-accounting It is all smoke-and-mirrors.
The European Stability Mechanism is the main bailout mechanism behind the Euro. Croatia recently joined it upon adopting the Euro. The ESM uses two accounting tricks to make it appear larger and more robust than it actually is, disguising that it lacks the firepower to deal with a major incident. This is laid out in the newly-released book 'The sha...
Continue reading
  1118 Hits

EU supranational entities harbour major unacknowledged liabilities for member states

eu-supranational-liabilities EU Debts
The structures of the EU and Eurozone have allowed the creation of a series of supranational entities that have taken on debts whilst having little financial strength of their own: their creditworthiness depends on guarantees or capital calls from member states, without the extent of the member states' liabilities being transparent and being added ...
Continue reading
  989 Hits

Public credit rating agencies discriminate against the UK and in favour of EU/Eurozone member states

creditrating-discrimination Discrimination against UK
Public credit rating agencies have not been even-handed in their treatment of the UK compared to EU member states, given the large shadow debts and contingent liabilities that weigh on the latter. This is explained in the newly-released book 'The shadow liabilities of EU Member States, and the threat they pose to global financial stability', writte...
Continue reading
  1253 Hits

Scope of EU and Eurozone Debts is Unrecognised by Public Credit Rating Agencies

unrecognised-debt EU and EZ Debts ignored
The public credit ratings of EU/Eurozone member states are inflated, because the credit rating agencies have not factored in the significant shadow debts and other financial liabilities bearing down on the respective member state's debt service capacity. Total financial liabilities are much higher than these agencies appear to recognise. This is th...
Continue reading
  1459 Hits

Remain Eat Your Words (yet again)

success-3138743_192_20230415-100634_1 BREXIT Success
 Full yet? You wont see this on the BBC news but the last three quarters have seen the biggest improvement in the UK trade balance ever in history … EV-ER. This is precisely, exactly what the Remainiacs swore would NOT happen if we became an independent democracy again. The full dataset is here if you want to satisfy yourself I'm not maki...
Continue reading
  595 Hits

Germany Cannot Pay Totality of EU/Eurozone Debts

germany-cannot-pay False assumptions of global debt markets.
Global debt markets appear comfortable to absorb all of the bonds issued by the European Union for its €750 billion Coronavirus Recovery Fund on the basis that 'it all tracks back onto Germany'. This is true: the guarantee structure behind the EU's debts makes each member state liable for the entirety of them. The same debt markets do not seem to h...
Continue reading
  815 Hits

EU and Eurozone break both spirit and letter of global debt rules

breaking-debt-rules_1 EZ break Spirit and Letter of Global Debt Rules
The EU and its member states position themselves as a cornerstone of the rules-based international order, but they break its financial rules in both letter and spirit by failing to fully report their financial liabilities. The key measure tracked by Eurostat - 'General government gross debt' – is circumvented to such an extent that, based on year-e...
Continue reading
  879 Hits

The Tyrants of the Future

face-5478733_1920 Tyranny
Cecil Rhodes once said: "to be born English is to win first prize in the lottery of life". As a baby boomer growing up and going to school in the 1950's and early sixties, being taught to be proud of my country, our history, empire and its development into the Commonwealth, I always felt extremely privileged to be born British and fully agreed with...
Continue reading
  817 Hits

EU and Eurozone are massively over-indebted - but official figures obscure it

obscuring-over-indebtedness EU Obscure over indebtedness
EU and Eurozone member states fail to fully report their financial liabilities. The key measure tracked by Eurostat - 'General government gross debt' – is circumvented to such an extent that, based on year-end 2021 figures, debts of around €6.4 trillion failed to be registered, and contingent liabilities of around €3.8 trillion. This discrepancy is...
Continue reading
  1121 Hits

EU and Eurozone are Massively Over-Indebted - but official figures obscure it

Burn The Euro Zone is a Threat to Financial Stability
 EU and Eurozone member states fail to fully report their financial liabilities. The key measure tracked by Eurostat - 'General government gross debt' – is circumvented to such an extent that, based on year-end 2021 figures, debts of around €6.4 trillion failed to be registered, and contingent liabilities of around €3.8 trillion. This discrepa...
Continue reading
  1092 Hits

The Windsor Framework is dangerous

2474152_1920 A Divided Country
The delicate balance of the Good Friday Agreement should be protected  By Derrick Berthelsen Reprinted by permission of the Critic Magazine There are many reasons to vote against the Windsor Framework changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol. Several excellent articles have been published outlining why — in this and other periodicals — but tod...
Continue reading
  806 Hits

The EU Lobby’s Repudiation of UK Independence

rejected-5250678_1920__20230330-144103_1 The Blob Rejects Democracy
The repudiation of the sovereignty of the UK's people by a pro EU elite has always been a puzzle. It is a puzzle because not one of them was able to explain their reason. In the absence of a cogent argument, independence opponents resorted to 'Project Fear' during the referendum campaign on leaving the EU. Blood curdling threats were rolled out exp...
Continue reading
  612 Hits

Where Have All the Tories Gone?

The-assassination-of-Julius-Caesar Democracy in Danger
Politicians should have a vision. George H. W. Bush's perceived lack of one probably cost him a second term. Atlee's vision of a British Socialist Commonwealth condemned the UK to a painful exodus from the privation of WW2. Its legacy hampered our development. The Reagan - Thatcher vision was a time of hope, a vision of a renewal for the world demo...
Continue reading
  697 Hits

A brief examination of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Assessment Reports which deal with the Physical Science Basis of climate change

Temperatures-and-increasing-carbon-dioxid_20230315-135325_1 More carbon dioxide cannot cause more warming
Since its establishment in 1988, the IPCC's many scientists have been mandated by its founders (the UN Environment Programme and World Meteorological Organization) to "make policy relevant – as opposed to policy-prescriptive – assessments of the existing worldwide literature on the scientific, technical and socio-economic aspects of climate change....
Continue reading
  2409 Hits

London's Proposed ULEZ Expansion...Basic Freedoms Under Threat

ULEZ_2 Freedom under threat
With little discussion most of the world (the democratic west at least) is in a race to a net zero bottom. Scientific evidence is manipulated to 'prove' carbon damage. Normal climate variations that have existed since the world began are now labelled a 'Climate emergency'. Scientists who disagree are silenced by withdrawal of funding and or loss of...
Continue reading
  850 Hits

Orwell Saw the Future Clearly

book-4373283_1920 The Ministry of Truth is awaiting its moment to be born.
Seventy five years ago George Orwell, in my view the greatest political thinker of the 20th Century, wrote the novel 1984. This was one of the most prescient books ever written, eclipsing most science fiction stories, in that it is so true to the age in which we now live, while, as a horror story it puts fantasies such as Dracula in the shade. Not ...
Continue reading
  1749 Hits

A True, Tried and Tested Horizon

New-Horizon The World is more important than the end piece of Eurasia.
Whatever the choreography we have a clog dance not a ballet. Sunak's 'deal' is yet another fudge. Involving the King in politics and the manipulation, copied from the EU, demonstrate a cynical disregard for probity. The Northern Ireland Protocol is a travesty. No Independent nation can agree to be ruled by a political court (The ECJ) whose sole rem...
Continue reading
  812 Hits

Wake Up!

tact-3036245_1920 Wake Up to the Woke Threat.
 The values that have nurtured our law and democracy are increasingly under attack. Keir Starmer endorsing the move to enable people to declare that they are not the sex they were when born. He claims women can have a penis. He also, unsurprisingly was unable to define a 'Woman'. Supporting this idiocy, media reports of a rapist who claims he ...
Continue reading
  1184 Hits

As Thick As Two Short Planks

funny-3459623_1920 Stupid is as Stupid Does
 For many years I have pondered the cunning, deceitfulness and often seemingly sinister actions of our elected Members of Parliament and Governments, I have tried to understand why they were so happy to surrender our country to rule from the European Union and why they are all so besotted with 'Net Zero' and spout a lot of nonsense about globa...
Continue reading
  1015 Hits

Has Anyone the Courage to Lead?

stop-1001138_1920 Time for honesty and courage
Since the referendum governments have squandered opportunity. We should be in a strong position, but a combination of Pro EU Tories, the Blob and the Civil Service has put democracy at risk. The daily attacks on Brexit citing idiotic opinion polls, demonstrate a determination by the opponents of democracy to take us back into the EU whatever the co...
Continue reading
  1350 Hits

Rishi Sunak Must Rip Up EU Laws Immediately to Deliver on Brexit’s Promise

europe-3256079_1920 EU Laws are Holding Back British Growth
The Bruges Group is pleased to republish this article by Barnabas Reynolds  Brussels' rules are prescriptive and controlling, and are holding back British growth The Prime Minister must restore Britain's sovereignty over our laws The Government is seeking the power to remove some of the vast swathes of EU-inherited law by the end of 2023 in it...
Continue reading
  1426 Hits

What Needs to be Taught

teacher-651318 Numeracy is the Key
The Prime Minister advocates that the teaching of Maths should be a priority, although one suspects that he really means numeracy, as the ability to add up a few figures is more useful for the average person that knowing all about the calculus of the hyperbola. However the level of debate concerning economic matters in this country makes clear that...
Continue reading
  862 Hits

Nothing is Done

lifeboats-6590295_1920 Wasted UK Money & Resources
In the Middle Ages, before the widespread use of gunpowder, the moat of a castle was an effective means of defence. Although the age of castles as strongholds is long gone we in this country have one trusty moat which has protected us for centuries, and I have often remarked, when contemplating history, and indeed modern threats, "Thank God for the...
Continue reading
  952 Hits

A CHALLENGE TO THE ORTHODOXY OF CLIMATE CHANGE

fantasy-2847724_1920 Net Zero Terrorism
This paper was written in November 2022 by: Stuart Agnew. MRAC (Agricultural science) Roger Helmer. M A Cantab (Mathematics) It is published by the Bruges Group as an Important contribution to a debate we should be having. OVERVIEW Within the last 20 years a belief has become established that the planet is imminently destined for catastrophic clima...
Continue reading
  1456 Hits

PATRIOTISM AND FREEDOM A libertarian defence of national sovereignty

big-ben-2007165_1920 Freedom
Three quarters of a century ago, when Britain was fighting for her life and the freedom of Europe, no important body of opinion would have questioned the value of patriotism or the importance of preserving and cherishing our nationhood as a focus of resistance to Nazi totalitarianism. Pride in our heritage, our sense of connection with the past and...
Continue reading
  1377 Hits

The End of The Road

signpost-5274077_1920 Our future destroyed?
For over a century the UK has struggled with political realism and to an extent, its identity. In 1918 the Labour Parties pamphlet 'Labour and the New Social Order' set out an essentially communist agenda. Beatrice and Sidney Webb's 1920 book ' Constitution For The Socialist Commonwealth Of Great Britain' fleshed it out. Many were taken in by talk ...
Continue reading
  823 Hits

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Democracy, It Tolls for Thee

death-5770668 The Grim Reaper
The short-lived Truss government came to power with a mandate to change Britain. She fought her campaign clearly stating her policy. She was lawfully elected according to the rules. Her policy was designed to produce growth. Cutting taxes was a part of the program. The respected US Tax Foundation in its 2020 report on UK tax wrote: "All things bein...
Continue reading
  1359 Hits

Tax Anomalies, Cowards and Encouraging Cheating

shakedown-1340048_1920 Tax Anomalies
A competent Conservative Government would have rectified the anomaly of taxable income between £100,000 and £125,140 being subject to an effective tax rate of 60%. It is clearly anomalous for the effective tax rate to rise from 40% to 60% on income in this band and then fall to 40% on income between £125,141 and £150,000 before rising to 45% on inc...
Continue reading
  1053 Hits

Can the Turncoats Turn Back?

Janus-Building Janus Building Burns
The UK faces problems, problems that to a great degree are the fault of the political and financial establishment. There is no point in blaming every ill on Covid and Ukraine indeed it is only to the latter crisis that the establishment response has been sure footed. Otherwise, the failures are legion. Brexit has not been fully implemente...
Continue reading
  1170 Hits

The Thought Police are Here

propaganda-7287298 Thought Police & Surveillance
I was raised to consider the police to be the friends of ordinary people, there to protect us from criminals and thugs. As a youngster I found this to be true and later, as an adult I met many policemen, when playing in teams against them, at various sports, such as golf, tennis, squash, football etc. Now retired I know a number of retired officers...
Continue reading
  1905 Hits

Don’t Kill the Goose that Lays the Golden Egg

Margaret Thatcher & Boris Johnson
One of the less-endearing qualities of the Conservative and Unionist Party (and I speak as a life-long Conservative voter), is the lemming-like compulsion to immediate change leader if things appear not to be going their way. 'Throwing out the baby with the bathwater' appears to be the inevitable jerk reaction by some MPs, regardless of the value o...
Continue reading
  1042 Hits

CHANGING POLITICS

Vote Is Democracy Fair?
The great war time leader, Winston Churchill, once said: "democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried". he was seldom wrong in his political thinking, a sound working democracy ensures tyrants and despots do not have the chance to come to power. Sadly, through history and events today, there have been ...
Continue reading
  1061 Hits

Democracy Under Threat

big-ben-450819_1920 Churchill Led the Fight to Preserve Democracy
Democracy is in serious trouble. Before Trump was sworn in, many Democrats took to the streets to protest. 'He is not my president' was their battle cry. The American people were presented with a choice between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump. They had to elect one of them and the majority chose Trump. For democracy to function there must be loser ...
Continue reading
  1229 Hits

The Monarchy

queen-gfd2930226_1920

The final lines of G K Chesterton’s poem “The People of England” are “We are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet. Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.”. The period of mourning, and the magnificent funeral, of our beloved late Queen have shown that these words are not empty, but reveal the truth. Despite years of hectoring by the intellectual Left, whose domination of the media, particularly the BBC, has given the impression that their view of the world is the only acceptable one, and that to be what they describe as socially progressive represents the only virtue, the ordinary citizens of this country have shown that they have not changed, and that, when the chips are down, they are as patriotic as those who endured, and won, two World Wars in order that freedom and democracy might survive.

The true British spirit of those days, as portrayed in the great war films of the 1950s, such as “The Dambusters”, “Reach for the Sky”, and “The Cruel Sea” , shows a people with grit, and determination, using both the shield of freedom, and the sword of righteousness, to defeat evil regimes seeking to destroy democratic civilisation. They are far removed from the vociferous, carping, and ignorant, left wing activists, who claim to seek a socialist Utopia, but in fact would plunge this country in a dystopia as envisaged by Orwell in 1984, where humour and laughter do not exist, only a grim pursuit of power for themselves. What a contrast to the smiling face of Queen Elizabeth!

In the last words that Holmes ever addresses to Watson he says “Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing world”, and this is something that could also be said about our much mourned Queen Elizabeth II. She was never afraid of innovation, and was instrumental in transforming the monarchy to adjust to the modern world, yet in those matters which abide, and are truly important, she was steadfast. As the last significant link to the great Second World War generation she represented duty, courage, faithfulness, humour, and a stoic endurance of the worst, in order that the best should ultimately triumph. To use the words of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, in the eponymous play, she was “as constant as the Northern Star”, and contrary to the speech of Antony from the same source “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”, the good that she did will survive, as her son takes on the mantle she has now laid aside.

Thanks to our careers in the administrative sector of the Church my wife and I had the honour of meeting Her Majesty at the time of the Silver Jubilee, and later attending a palace garden party, and we can attest to the fact that she was expert at putting people at their ease, and showing an interest in their lives. She was a truly great lady, a devout Christian, and an example to all in how to behave.

Although we shall never see her like again the new King is cut from the same cloth, and offers a certain hope that her legacy will continue. The monarch, by standing about the political fray, provides a calm centre to our national life, preventing by their very presence the possibility of any sort of demagogue becoming a dictator, or some democratic, but divisive figure, becoming President.

Constitutional monarchy has been shown to be the best system yet devised to protect the rights of all, providing a template for governance which billions around the word envy. Who could believe that a President Edward Heath, Tony Blair, or even Boris Johnson, could unite the nation, and command the love and respect that the monarch enjoys?

In the face of the blandishments of the vociferous republicans we should indeed be foolish to throw out an institution which has served us so well, although there is one danger which could yet destroy it. Should, God Forbid, through a terrorist attack, or a simple plane accident, anything happen to the Prince of Wales and his family, we should be faced with the prospect of the Duke of Woke becoming King. Harry has shown himself to be courageous, and supportive of injured soldiers, but he is unfortunately also, just like Edward VIII, not very intelligent. He has fallen under the influence of one who is herself the product of the shallow, celebrity culture of Hollywood, and who seems to be obsessed with the idea that she is somehow oppressed, even when living in a vast mansion. His accession would be unacceptable to vast numbers of people, who are sick of being lectured on their supposed shortcomings by the woke. In addition, although never convicted of anything, the Duke of York, next in line if the Sussexes were excluded, would also be rejected by too many for him to inherit the throne. If it were constitutionally possible these two parts of the royal family should be removed from the line of succession, in order to safeguard the future of the monarchy

Two more truths can be derived from the events of this month.

The first is that the Armed Forces, despite the efforts of too many administration to downgrade their importance, remain the same disciplined organisations they always were, responding triumphantly to the demands put upon them . The bearer party of Grenadier Guards were superb, and all deserve medals, while the faultless performance of the troops on the day was breathtaking to behold.

The second is that, in an age when useless managers infest so many of our public, and indeed, private bodies, the skills of the Duke of Norfolk, shown in his organisation of everything, put such parasites to shame.

The Queen has gone. God save the King.

  1583 Hits

Déjà Vu and a Confected Crisis

crisis-5238323_1920 Crisis. What Crisis?
An energy crisis hit world economies and after almost three years the pain exploded in most countries. The exception was the USA. Acting pro-actively President Reagan slashed regulation to free the economy. He fired over 11,000 striking air traffic controllers. Breaking the strike. An action Paul Volcker saw as a 'watershed' moment in the battle ag...
Continue reading
  1180 Hits

Climate - CO2 Nature’s Gift, by Jeremy Nieboer, 88 pages, Bruges Group, 2022

fruits-3461815_1920 Nature's Gift
Jeremy Nieboer wrote the excellent 'Climate: all is well, all will be well', published by the Bruges Group in 2021. His new book is another thought-provoking contribution to the debate about climate change. The author, a retired lawyer, forensically examines the scientific evidence about CO2. He shows that CO2 is essential to all life on Earth. Car...
Continue reading
  1451 Hits

HeatON-Harris to Deliver on Protocol - The Union is Under Threat

Chris-Heaton-Harris
The appointment of Chris-Heaton Harris as the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland was greeted warmly by unionists, ever hopeful that at long last we would have a Secretary of State who cared as much about protecting the rights of unionists as those of nationalists. Moreover, there was a great hope that this UK Government would break with the sy...
Continue reading
  2497 Hits

Service Leadership

coin-5095417_1920 Queen of Democracy
 The best way to honor the queen would be to take up her form of leadership—as service. She was vivacious and regal up until her final passing. But the queen exuded something even more profound—a surety in the way she led. The entire world watched (an estimated 4.4 billion, making it the most viewed event in history) and wept over the recent l...
Continue reading
  997 Hits

The Northern Irish Protocol Must Go Now

Union-Jack-bunting-on-Shankhill-Road
The Acts of Union is the present constitutional foundation of the United Kingdom. As the late Lord Trimble, the unionist architecture of the Belfast Agreement, said: The Acts of Union is the Union. The Northern Ireland Protocol "subjugates" (in the words of the Court of Appeal) Article VI of the Acts of Union, and therefore it follows that it subju...
Continue reading
  2304 Hits

The Big Lie

liar-7074360_1280 The Big Lie
"…in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themse...
Continue reading
  2650 Hits

Climate - C02 Nature's Gift

climate Climate - C02 Nature's Gift
In this important book, the author Jeremy Nieboer sets out the case for CO2 as a vital element of mankind's survival. It is also a powerful indictment of the UN and Global elite who have so woefully failed to protect the earths population. Shockingly the author explains that this failure is brought down upon us solely by unquestioned submission to ...
Continue reading
  1182 Hits

Liz, Land on Our Planet

astronaut-4106766_1920 Looking for reality
There is a disconnect between the media, politicians and the people of the UK. We are fed a daily diet of gloom. Hysterical millionaire 'experts' rant with messianic fervour. A plethora of experts, who helped cause the problem, seek to out do each other in their apoplectic zeal to blame others. It is as if they seek to reprise the late Jack Hawkins...
Continue reading
  1098 Hits
Copyright ©1989-2023 The Bruges Group. All Rights Reserved.
Site designed by WA Designs