Tel. +44 (0)20 7287 4414
Email. info@brugesgroup.com
Tel. +44 (0)20 7287 4414
Email. info@brugesgroup.com
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.
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Bruges Group Blog

Spearheading the intellectual battle against the EU. And for new thinking in international affairs.
In 1997 Derek was the Referendum Party candidate in Walsall North and joined UKIP after the general election that year. He has served on the UKIP NEC, organised six conferences and stood as a UKIP candidate during the last five general elections. From 1997 he has produced the Euro Realist newsletter.
ai-generated-8842232_1280 Great if you are Wealthy!

SOCIALISM FOR THE WEALTHY

The Labour Party of today came into being as we know it around 1900. Its roots lie in the trade union movement of the 19th century and thanks to such people as Keir Hardy the Labour Party was formed. However, there is an irony in the fact that over a hundred years later, the only people who can afford to vote for the party that was formed to repres...

  156 Hits
She_20240513-164257_1 Derek's Shed and Thermometer

Changing the Climate on Climate Change

Every now and then, like most people, I come across something which I feel others need to know about and e-mail details of whatever that has got my ire, or offended me, to many who I feel should be equally rattled. Usually when something has got my goat and I send the offending item around to my contacts, I may get a few people who, out of politene...

  631 Hits
ai-generated-8189191_128_20240422-125030_1 You will all do as you are told!

How To Destroy A Country

How to destroy a country may not be an everyday item on the minds of many as they go about their daily lives. Most people living in this country have other things to to think about such as their jobs or juggling the household finances, a big question may be, if they lash out on a treat will they have enough money left to pay the rent or the mortgag...

  898 Hits
wizard-4417511_128_20240310-133716_1 Fakery not Alchemy

AN IMPOSSIBLE FANTASY

Going back centuries alchemists were convinced they could turn base metals into gold, despite none of them being able achieve this, these days we laugh at them for their obvious foolishness and ignorance. Going forward in time, as machinery and technology advanced, a new breed of people were convinced they could invent a perpetual motion machine, l...

  1095 Hits
virus-4835736_128_20240108-104527_1 You are all going to burn. Burn!

The Green Affliction

Increasing numbers of people have become concerned about a dangerous condition sweeping the planet. Every time there is an annual COP meeting the hundreds of delegates attending, all looking forward to these lavish events after flying in from all parts of the world in their private jets, who require sustenance and are rewarded with tables groaning ...

  764 Hits
unhappy-389944_192_20231206-110708_1 What does the future hold?

Fearing the Future

Kids can be very cruel, when I was at the start of my teenage years at school in 1961 the banter we used was often quite cutting. If anyone wanted to wind another lad up they would often use an insult using the abbreviation of a word which inferred the other lad's sexual leaning were not quite what was expected from a member of the male species. Th...

  884 Hits
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Fred's Nightmare

It was just gone midnight when a loud banging on the door woke Fred blogs from his slumber. The banging on the door increased as Fred donned his dressing gown, stepped into his slippers and, bleary eyed, stumbled downstairs to see who was creating the racket on his front door. The sight that confronted him made his mouth drop as he s...

  1084 Hits
Derek-Bennett-1960s-passport-photo Off on an adventure!

Stealing Freedom of Movement

 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...

  1027 Hits
tax-office-3102460_1920 Too Many Chiefs

Too Many Chiefs

There is an old saying for organisations that are over managed, which is: 'Too many chiefs and not enough indians'. No doubt such a saying these days falls foul of the P.C., woke, right-on campaigners and mad leftie nutters, who will want anyone cancelled for saying such a thing. However, as I stay clear of all social media as I feel it is the inte...

  862 Hits
Derek-Norman Derek Norman

Derek Norman Obituary

It was sad to receive the news of the death of Derek Norman from the head of the British Weights & Measures Association (BWMA), which he had been an active member of for many years, as well as an active UKIP member in his part of Cambridgeshire. He became well known as one of a team who, when given the location of illegal council signs showing ...

  1019 Hits
Robin-Page-ball--chain The EU Ball and Chain

Robin Page Obituary

Robin Page who sadly passed away aged 80 at the end of May 2023 was not only a famous countryman and conservationist, as well as being well known for being a presenter of 'One Man & His Dog', he was also a vocal and active campaigner against membership of the EU. He first came to my attention during the one and only Referendum Party conference ...

  1157 Hits
change-671376_1920 Change is Overdue

Reforming the House Of Lords

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...

  1045 Hits
face-5478733_1920 Tyranny

The Tyrants of the Future

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...

  1308 Hits
funny-3459623_1920 Stupid is as Stupid Does

As Thick As Two Short Planks

 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...

  1628 Hits
Vote Is Democracy Fair?

CHANGING POLITICS

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 ...

  1504 Hits
door-1587863_1920 Bolted Door

KNOCKING AT THE EU’s DOOR

 Nicola Sturgeon, Scotlands first Minister, has been banging on, yet again, about holding another referendum on Scottish independence and is proposing to hold a plebiscite during October 2023. This is despite the fact she lost the so-called 'once in a lifetime' independence referendum in 2014. If the people of Scotland go mad and vote to break...

  1582 Hits
margaret-thatcher-67746_1920 Margret Thatcher

BARONESS THATCHER, THE GREATEST

The day of writing this article is the 16th May, which was the birthday of Bertram Edward Bennett (Bertie Bennett to all who knew him), who was my father. He was Born in the slums of Birmingham in 1915. As a young man and being a devoted socialist, he joined the Communist Party who promptly told him he should also join and infiltrate the Labour Par...

  1550 Hits
fantasy-gbde39f909_1920

Carlamatous Confusion

As the dreaded 2030 deadline for the cessation of the manufacture and sale of all conventional petrol and diesel cars approaches, I have to wonder if our Prime Minister and other Government Ministers really have a clue as to what they are doing and if they realise the calamitous confusion they have set in place for the average British person. As a ...

  1972 Hits
richardshepherdblackandwhite2

Obituary: Richard Shepherd

The first time I encountered Richard Shepherd was during the run up to the 1979 general election when he was standing as the candidate for the Aldridge Brownhills constituency, which was the neighbouring constituency to where I live. I had just come out of my local news agents and he was on his way in and saw me looking at him as I had recognised h...

  1869 Hits
truth-g7bfaaab55_1280

Sir Duplicitous

Over its long and varied history Britain has suffered, from time to time, some terrible leaders, both Kings and Prime Ministers. Some have been ruthless tyrants, some just plain useless and some underhanded and treacherous. Tony Blair who was the Prime minister of the UK from 1997 to 2007, can be described as cunning and sneaky, thanks to him being...

  2261 Hits
snowman-g487d4aa4b_1920

A letter to Lord Frost

The news on the18th December that Lord Frost was resigning his position as our EU negotiator due to his unhappiness with the decisions the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson was making, was one of the worst things to happen in these strange times. I personally was devastated. I have written to Lord Frost and reproduce my letter below.  Dear Lord Fr...

  1731 Hits
partyarrows

On the horns of a dilemma

The best way to describe my pal John would be as a right wing socialist, if it is possible for such a thing.I got to know John at the Walsall Heartcare gym which is a charitable organisation set up to help those who have recovered from heart attacks or other heart problems, also those such as me who have recovered from strokes, I had a stroke in No...

  1741 Hits
WhatsApp-Image-2021-10-21-at-22.03.44

Murdering Democracy

The sun had shone all day, the people we had been meeting every time the Brexit battle bus stopped all of us anti EU, pro-Brexit campaigners, would pile out and meet mostly receptive people who were declaring they were going to vote to leave the EU in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum. We had spent an hour or so on Worcester market and were on t...

  2137 Hits
Rishi-Sunak-TBG

Tax is Theft!

You get to meet some interesting people on holiday, each year for several years my better half and I would return to the same hotel during the same two weeks in June where we would meet up with other regular returning guests. One of them was a senior accountant with a very large firm, he once told me every time they had to produce a cheque to pay t...

  2332 Hits
Diversity-Training

Time to Escape Orwellian Diversity Training

 It is sad that of all the members of the House of Lords, only two had the guts to make a stance against the enforced anti-bullying and sexual harassment training course which has been inflicted on all Peers. For the powers that be in the House of Lords, to insist all our Peers take part in this training, is presuming that all 800 or so member...

  2489 Hits
EV

A Mission Impossible

 I have become seriously concerned about green issues. No, I have not suddenly become a tree hugging greenie wishing to revert back to the days of horse and carts and candles to light our homes, my concern is with the measures coming our way to enforce a Stasi like, totalitarian green regime upon us. Many people are living in ignorant bliss of...

  3043 Hits
Derek--Spitfire

Travelling Through Time

The main character and inventor in the H.G. Wells book, 'The time Machine', decided to travel through time to 800,000 years into the future looking for a period without conflict. If I was given the opportunity to travel through time it would be into the past as the future looks increasingly to be a very unpleasant place to be. The way things are go...

  2397 Hits
USA-election

Counting the Votes

Back in the late 1990's my then regular watering hole was closed for a full refurbishment, which was received with much dismay by the regulars as pub refurbishments always meant a complete revamp and the ruination of a favourite place to meet friends over a pint or two. During this period all the regulars set up home in the bar of a local hotel nea...

  2917 Hits
31st-January-2020

Making the Impossible Happen

Since becoming an active anti-EU campaigner in 1996 when I joined and was selected as a Referendum Party candidate, along with many of my fellow Eurosceptics, I have been called by the EU supporters of being: 'A little Englander', ' a xenophobe', 'swivel eyed','far right' a 'racist', and somehow or other even a 'monetary xenophobe'! None of these i...

  2706 Hits
Boris-Dilema

Unwanted Legacies

How we live today was shaped in the past over the course of our long history and the outcomes of various events. Had we lost World War Two life now would be very different indeed.If Winston Churchill had not become our Prime Minister at such a vital time and instead the Nazi appeaser, Lord Halifax, he would have made a peace deal with Hitler who wo...

  3118 Hits
Churchill-statue

Removing Freedom by Removing History

There is a strange thing when it comes to the politics of the right and left, many on the moderate right believe strongly in democracy, freedom of speech and little state control allowing people to get on with their lives without interference, as long as they do not break the law and do no harm to others and their property. However, those on the le...

  3324 Hits
BL_20200706-154019_1

Hysteria in Vogue

Black lives matter, so do white lives, Chinese, Asian and the lives of every indigenous population on our planet, they all matter equally, no one race should say their lives matter more than any other. Sadly, the Marxists who have organised the Black Lives Matter (BLM) campaign and those alleged celebrities who like to jump on any trendy, political...

  2826 Hits
coal-fires

How Green is my Stove?

When my late father was demobbed after the war in 1946 he returned home to Birmingham to no work and the dole. As he had been a bricklayer before the war and worked on many properties for one building company building chimneys and sorting out flue problems, to make a bob or two to pay the rent he made a fireplace out of concrete in the backyard whe...

  3408 Hits
Boris-looking-behind

Watching Boris

The look on my left leaning parents faces was a picture of horror as they stared down at my eight year old self, they looked at each other and said in shock and in unison: "Our son's a Conservative".  My dear old dad, who I loved during all 84 years of his life, had been a member of the Communist Party in his youth, that was until they asked h...

  3963 Hits
Lord-of-the-Rings

One Ring to Bind Them

Every nation has its flag, here in the UK we have an assortment of flags, one each for the different parts of the Union. Scotland has its saltire, Wales has its red dragon, Northern Ireland its Ulster Banner and England the cross of St George which, despite being seen flying on many traditional churches, is the one flag that those on the left of po...

  4656 Hits
Brexit-Boris

The Benefits of Leaving the EU

We often hear much wailing and doom and gloom from those who, for various personal and mostly self indulgent financial reasons, why we should remain in the EU. These people, who many have big fat EU pensions or receive grants and other hand outs from the EU seem to care little for the democratic will of the British people who, by a majority of 1.4 ...

  28856 Hits

Unlocking closed minds

Between the huffing, puffing and wheezing as a group of us old farts peddle away on our stationary bikes in the gym, there is often a lot of banter, especially taking the micky about the football teams each of the chaps support.The reason we are all there at the Heartcare gym is due to all of us having various heart problems or, as in my case, suff...

  4641 Hits

Threatening his Lordship’s lifestyle

When Peter Mandelson was in the Labour Government and later a highly paid EU Commissioner, I was struggling running the small family business my late father had started in 1946. We just about survived the recession of the early nineties caused by the folly of the UK joining the EU exchange rate mechanism, which bankrupted a large number of small bu...

  5055 Hits
Sex education of teenagers

Sex education of teenagers

The thing that first drew me to being opposed to our membership of the EU in 1991 was the realisation my elected Government was not in control of our country, that authority had passed to an offshore, unelected and unaccountable body.  My awakening came through a letter written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer during the terrible recession o...

  5637 Hits

Contact us

Director : Robert Oulds
Tel: 020 7287 4414
Chairman: Barry Legg
 
The Bruges Group
246 Linen Hall, 162-168 Regent Street
London W1B 5TB
United Kingdom
KEY PERSONNEL
 
Founder President :
The Rt Hon. the Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven LG, OM, FRS 
Vice-President : The Rt Hon. the Lord Lamont of Lerwick,
Chairman: Barry Legg
Director : Robert Oulds MA, FRSA
Washington D.C. Representative : John O'Sullivan CBE
Founder Chairman : Lord Harris of High Cross
Head of Media: Jack Soames