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.

A Four Point Plan to Preserve the Union: Preventing a Border Emerging in the Irish Sea

The Brexit Agreement and regulatory checks affecting Northern Ireland By Simon McIlwaine An aspect of the Prime Minister's withdrawal agreement with the EU causes much anxiety among supporters of the UK's withdrawal and Northern Ireland in particular. Whether or not there is going to be any kind of internal UK border is causing great concern i...

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Ignorance or Arrogance or Both – a View on Remain Elites From an Ordinary Leave Voter

On 24 June 2016, when the Brexit Referendum result was announced, I was thrilled. The Great British Public had voted to take back their nation and return to self-determination. However, my excitement swiftly dissipated, as in the following years, Brexit was progressively watered down and smear campaigns about Brexit, or 'Project Fear' as they becam...

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How to Preserve British Sovereignty During the Transition Period?

Looking ahead, let us suppose that Boris Johnson wins a majority of seats on 12th December, as hoped. He has then promised to have his "Withdrawal Agreement" Treaty with the EU ratified by Parliament, possibly by Christmas. From then on, according to some optimists, it should be plain sailing to "Brexit" on 31st January, whereupon a "Transitio...

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Carbon Dioxide and Global Warming: a Review and a Few Facts

The purpose of these notes is to present some facts about the campaign to stop global warming and climate change.  The climate has changed in the past, is probably changing now, and will change in the future.  The campaign is trying to stop the unstoppable. The natural factors affecting global temperature are very powerful: terr...

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The Future is East, Time for Electoral Realism

We recently returned from a trip to S.E. Asia, mostly holiday, but meeting with some of my wife's clients too. Smog, created by Indonesian farmers' crop burning joined the humid heat to hang like a blanket over Bangkok, our first stop. The difference to late September London was a shock. Less of a shock was driving on the left and familiar names li...

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Will It Be Easier To Get Finance After Brexit?

The financial ramifications of Brexit are still very uncertain and perhaps the most anticipated aspect of the withdrawal negotiations. Although progress is being made, all the experts, including MSE's founder Martin Lewis and the Bank OF England, are encouraging Brits to be prepared for some fluctuations and uncertainty whilst the dust settles. Tod...

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BREXIT - Science Proves Project Fear "Expert forecasts .. no better than dart-throwing monkeys."

Who is better at predicting: the expert or the novice or someone else?  Intuitively people believe experts. But science tells us a very different story.  And Brexit provides some startling evidence in support. When forecasting "... experts performed worse ... than dart-throwing monkeys" 2001 Nobel Laureate Professor Daniel Kahnemann expla...

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Brexit Party MEP: 'Boris' Deal is NOT Brexit'

This article was initially published on BrexitCentral https://brexitcentral.com/why-the-brexit-party-maintains-that-boris-johnsons-deal-is-not-brexit/ by Brexit Party MEP, Ben Habib  Ben Habib believes there is an "understandable desire amongst many Brexiteers to accept Boris Johnson's deal". Everyone is battle weary, but it is preci...

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Flawed Outcome is a Tolerable Price to Pay for Our Freedom

Initially published in The Daily Telegraph by Martin Howe QC, Chairman of Lawyers for Britain https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/18/flawed-outcome-tolerable-price-pay-freedom/  First, the positives. Boris Johnson's deal is miles better than Theresa May's ghastly capitulation. The Northern Ireland backstop protocol in the Withdrawal A...

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Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Eventually we have a Brexit deal that has been approved by the partisan Parliament, in what is hopefully their last ever appearance on our television screens for some of this current batch of members. As was doubtless their intention, they have left the government, and Boris in particular, with a major problem, and many of those who have deliberate...

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SNP is Failing on a Daily Basis

Beset by failure in running Scotland, at the SNP party conference in October leader Nicola Sturgeon was forced to bring forward her plan to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence in 2020. With all the SNP's legal moves against Brexit fizzling out or falling on stony ground, it has been forced by the success of Brexit arguments to reveal ...

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Guilt, Identity and Blame

The strength of democracy is that no one ideology will ever triumph over the others. Its weakness is that they all retain that ambition Britain seems to have gone insane, or at least (anti-)social media has. Politics dominates, but not rational political discussion. Legitimate news media has been swept aside by online propaganda rags describing the...

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How Brexit Affects the EU Educational System: 7 Things to Be Aware Of

With notorious Brexit going on, the United Kingdom's situation has become a real precedent in the European Union. Even though the right to leave the union was granted to every state entering it, EU policymakers naively hoped there would be no one willing to leave the prosperous entity. Being the first, Great Britain faces a lot of bureaucratic prob...

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Magic and Tricks

Boris Johnson has really taken us on a ride here. The trick, ladies and gentlemen, was to make us believe that he intended to take us out of the European Union with or without a deal, even with the Benn Act and all will be revealed in time and it was. There was no way he could avoid the Benn Act so didn't just send one letter to the European Union ...

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The Loopholes of the Surrender Act

As I assume you know, the Benn Act, or more commonly known as the Surrender Act, isn't the most well thought out piece of legislation, as lined out by Chair of Lawyers for Britain Martin Howe QC at The Bruges Group 'Moment of Truth' event in Manchester during Conservative Party conference. This article will outline the loopholes that Boris Johnson,...

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The Revised Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration: a briefing note

The Revised Political Declaration Introduction So far as we are aware the only material changes in the Withdrawal Agreement (Treaty) are to the NI Protocol, which means that the critical ECJ oversight and Art 184 link to the Political Declaration remain. I am told by UKREP that there are two changes to other Articles in the Treaty but they were una...

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Statement from Barry Legg, Chairman of The Bruges Group on the Withdrawal Agreement

The Bruges Group is opposed to the acceptance by Parliament of the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration which has been released today. The Bruges Group has always put the highest priority in maintaining the integrity of the United Kingdom. This agreement provides for a different status for Northern Ireland and therefore has the potential ...

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Time to Flip the Script for Brexit Negotiations

The reaction of the European Union negotiators and heads of state to Prime Minister Johnson's recent slate of proposals for eliminating the Irish backstop has exposed a fundamental truth about the Brexit negotiation process. So long as the EU must consent to British proposals for leaving under Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union, the EU ...

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Trade Deals, the Ins and Outs for Post Brexit Britain

What's so good about free trade agreements? They make the rich richer, workers poorer, and they rob countries of the ability to plan. For decades we have been told that global free trade – where goods can be imported and exported without restrictions or tariffs – is the route to prosperity. Impressive international institutions have been const...

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A Re-heated Vassalage Treaty will be the Mother of All Betrayals

The week of 14th – 19th October will be one of the momentous weeks in British political history. Prime Minister Johnson will attend an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday 17th and Friday 18th October. On Saturday 19th October, the House of Commons will sit in emergency session for the first time since 1982. During this summit he will potentially agre...

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The Summary of a Judicial Crisis

On 28 August Gina Miller applied for judicial review of the decision to prorogue Parliament, seeking a declaration of the court that the Prime Minister's decision to tender this advice was unlawful. On 6 September, the High Court of England and Wales granted Ms Miller permission to bring the application but then unanimously dismissed the claim. The...

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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...

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A Couple of Weeks ago the EU Court of Justice Was Widely Hailed for Having Struck a Blow for Free Speech...

But don't cheer too loudly yet! As you probably know, an important part of the mammoth EU General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, concerns the "right to be forgotten". This essentially means even if an article about someone is already in the public domain, search engines like Google or Yahoo, and news websites that provide search functionality...

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Britain Is Being Sucked Into The EU’s Military Structures; What Will PM Boris Do About It?

By Andrew England Kerr MEP We've seen the usual tired old politics. What I haven't seen is any realisation of the real danger this country faces. Perhaps you have to see it first-hand to understand the true scale of it. I have over the past three weeks. I've watched the true force of the Franco-German domination of Europe as key positions are divvi...

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Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

I would hazard a guess that the majority of people in the country are by now exceedingly fed up with the Brexit saga, and just want us to leave at the earliest opportunity. This view has even been expressed by 'remainer' friends of mine, most of whom appear to have accepted the outcome of a democratic referendum, even though they disagreed with it....

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Between a Rock and a Hard Place

There is probably no greater struggle in life than the one with oneself. The European Union has always been a contentious issue in this country this is why David Cameron decided to call a referendum. The so-called Remainers believed wholeheartedly that they could win it and lay to rest once and for all oppositions to the UK's EU membership, but it ...

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Deal? Withdrawal Agreement? Treaty?

The same four-letter word is being constantly branded around by the media. Whether talking about Theresa May's legacy, or discussing Boris Johnson's new negotiation, it never fails to disappear. That four-letter word is "deal". Yet this "deal": offered by Brussels, sold by Theresa May, defeated by MPs; seems dangerously close to being reborn. This ...

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An Unholy Alliance

The left were always solidly against the Common Market and remained so as it evolved through the EEC to EU. The reason was simple. Its rules stood in the way of a Socialist state. Blair, having defeated Clause 4, became an ardent advocate of the EU and repositioned Labour as a centre party. Labour has always been a target for extremist entryism and...

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Time for a Royal Commission

Eighty minutes on the clock, and after some dubiously-awarded penalty kicks, the side in blue shirts with yellow stars is on the cusp of victory. In a moment of high drama, Boris Johnson grabs the ball and makes one last desperate lunge. Forcing his way through the serried ranks of naysayers, he gets the ball over the line. Brexit at last? We live ...

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Boris Binning the Backstop Isn't Brexit

1. This Agreement – even without the 'Backstop' - will put the UK under the de facto jurisdiction of a group of 27 foreign powers, leaving the UK powerless to veto laws or procedures affecting the UK and its citizens. (Articles 4, 86, 87, 89, 132, 168, 174) 2. The EU27 can make decisions behind closed doors which can profoundly affect British busin...

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Boris Johnson Should Beware Resuscitating the ‘Dead’ May Deal – Even Without the Backstop

This article was originally published on BrexitCentral by Christopher Howarth, https://brexitcentral.com/boris-johnson-should-beware-resuscitating-the-dead-may-deal-even-if-the-eu-agree-to-scrapping-the-backstop/ Let’s start with some recent history: the reason Boris Johnson is Prime Minister is because Theresa May’s draft Withdrawal Agreement...

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Why as a Conservative Member, I support Farage's Clean Brexit

A Withdrawal Agreement isn't a managed, amicable departing of ways, it is an unnecessary albatross around the neck of Albion – we must leave without one. Since late 2017, I have concurred with the view that the entire process of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which allocates of two years of negotiation between departing member-state with the...

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'Why we Support Brexit': Robert and Sally Wright

Interview with Alice Grant: 'Why People Support Brexit Series' - Bruges Group Blog By Ethan Thoburn https://www.brugesgroup.com/blog/alice-grant-interview-with-ethan After previously speaking to Brexit supporting student Alice Grant and then royal superfan and former Labour Party member Joseph Afrane, this episode I spoke to the organisers of the '...

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Project Fatigue

Project Fear 3.0 has been in full swing since the summer as we approach 31st October 2019, the third date for leaving the EU. The unfortunate citizens of the UK who wish to leave the European Union have been fed wall-to-wall saturation coverage of how terrible Brexit will be. TV stations, newspapers, magazines and social media advertisements contin...

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Boris' Brexit Options

Initially published on 13th September and updated on 26th September  With the Brexit pea soup not looking any clearer whatsoever, Boris Johnson's hopes of an early general election are fading by the minute as I type this and of course Parliament being prorogued from the evening of Monday 9th September until 14th October. It's interesting to se...

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The Voting League Table of MPs

MP Rankings  EU-related Voting since 2010 With a General Election around the corner, the most important question for voters is which MPs are committed to leaving the EU and delivering on the will of the people and which MPs have always been wedded to Europe and will stop at nothing to betray the result of the 2016 EU referendum? Parliament vot...

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Dominic Grieve: The Legal Profession’s Cheerleader

It often thought that lobbying, the professional representation of private interests to governments and subsequent attempts to influence policy, was confined to industrial-like political powerhouses of Washington D.C., the capital of the free world, and Brussels, the de facto capital of the European Union. In the US, the currency within lobbying is...

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In War, Truth is the First Casualty

Make no mistake about it, we are at war, and it is one of the dirtiest wars yet fought, in which the truth has been hijacked by the 'Remainers' and twisted to suit their personal agenda. Look at what has happened over the last three years, and especially over the last three months: those who never wanted to leave have stepped up their campaign of l...

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Brexit - the moment of truth

Leaving the EU Brexit Hub Monday, 30th September 20191pm until 2.30pm With the speakers; Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MPFormer Secretary of State and serving Privy CounsellorRt Hon. Arlene Foster, MLALeader of the Democratic Unionist PartyRt Hon. Mark Francois MPEuropean Research Group& Martin Howe QCLawyers for BritainAGENDASpeeches and press confe...

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Our Fight with Brussels Does NOT End on 31st October

Our fight with Brussels does not end on the 31st of October. This wider conflict that Brexit represents is between sovereign nations and supranational organisations, between self-determination and central planning of the most wicked intention. In order to capitalise on our departure, we must first recognise a weakening, Brussels is tightening its g...

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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 ...

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Cry "Havoc!" and Let Slip the Dogs of War

When the history of Brexit is written, two primary mistakes will stand out. One was the Conservative party's decision to appoint Theresa May as its leader and the country's Prime Minister. The second was by the 27 member states of the EU. They appointed a team of EU federalist fanatics, rather than pragmatists, to negotiate our exit. They saw the n...

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Differently Democratic

In June 2016 a scandalised fellow academic asked me in a London restaurant why I was wearing a Leave badge. To my mention of the woeful lack of democracy in the EU he told me, as he would a backward student, that from my blinkered English position I clearly didn't understand the EU's fierce commitment to democracy. It was, simply a matter of being ...

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Interview with Joseph Afrane: 'Why I Support Brexit Series'

As I outlined in my last article, my interview with the fantastic Alice Grant, that I am researching why people support Brexit, from all different backgrounds and in this edition of The Brexit Series, I spoke to campaigner and self-proclaimed 'royal superfan' Joseph Afrane. Many of you may have seen Joseph out and about in London and especially aro...

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The Commonwealth and Brexit

How the Commonwealth can invigorate Brexit Britain and return the UK and her economy to the top of the world and international politics. Brexit Doom-mongers in the media and politics will have you know that once we have left the EU, the UK will be cast away, reliant on a self-obsessed US president and unable to speak with confidence in the world. H...

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Bruges Group Membership

JOIN THE BRUGES GROUP HERE The Bruges Group was founded 30 years ago, with you as part of our team, we have achieved a great deal. Yet, there is still a long way to go and any scenario is possible, and all eventualities are probable. So far, our strategy has been vindicated, the hard work is helping restore our freedom. Throughout the autumn of 201...

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The Brexit Speeches

 The following article and above PDF are speeches by Richard Tice MEP for the Brexit Party and also property businessman; Swedish-British billionaire businessman Johan Eliasch who is CEO of sportswear giant Head; Sir John Nott the former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry then Defence under Margaret Thatcher; Peter Lilley the former Sec...

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Now's the Time for a Special Relationship More Than Ever

Today we'll know who our next Prime Minister will be, and Wednesday will see the Maybot's last PMQT before she heads off to formally resign to the Queen at Buckingham Palace on the afternoon. No matter who our next PM will be, either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt, we need to rebuild that special relationship with our closest ally, America.  We'...

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Scottish Independence: SNP Are Just 'Yes Men' For the EU

The Scottish National Party's minority administration in Edinburgh is trying to contribute to the attempt to foil Brexit and the struggle to achieve sovereignty and independence for the whole of Britain. But it's not doing well… While efforts in the British parliament to halt our exit from the EU are being roundly defeated, pro-EU fervour has conti...

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An Existential Crisis: We Are Threatened by a Parliamentary Coup

 Sir Austen Chamberlain, speaking about Germany's violation of the Treaty of Locarno, remarked: "It is not so long ago that a member of the Diplomatic Body in London, who had spent some years of his service in China, told me that there was a Chinese curse which took the form of saying, 'May you live in interesting times.' There is no doubt tha...

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You Can't Have Your Cake and Eat It

Having one's cake, eating it - demanding more, and eating that, has long been a feature of the EU Brexit negotiating team. A recent example of their hypocrisy is to be found in the wave of faux outrage over Boris Johnson's threat that if he became PM, he would refuse to pay the £39 billion that Brussels is demanding from us. In terms of the race fo...

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Would Brexit Impact the Gambling Industry?

When we hear about gambling as it relates to Brexit, it's typically regarding betting on different outcomes. Inevitably, there have in fact been betting markets these past few years aimed at predicting when Brexit might happen, what it might look like, etc. What doesn't get as much attention though is the idea of what effect Brexit could have on th...

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The Swiss Stand Firm Against the EU Bureaucracy

Switzerland and the European Union have begun open financial war with each other as the EU tries to force the country to sign the proposed Framework Agreement covering all aspects of the country's relations with the EU. The EU has been forced into a hardball approach to Switzerland because with Brexit still unresolved it cannot afford to be weak. I...

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Now Finish The Job

The latest attempt by would-be Brexit wreckers was defeated in Parliament last week. But the job is not yet done. They will try again. We have to keep the pressure on untrustworthy Westminster politicians of whatever party. On 12 June the Labour Party led an attempt to tie the next prime minister's hands by ruling out no deal on leaving the EU. It ...

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How Leaving the EU is the Only Way to Carry Out Democracy

By now we should have left the EU. Vast swathes of people are incensed. But it is evident that Brexit will only be delivered if the people move to enforce it by neutering an obstructionist parliament. Nothing good will happen until parliament is overwhelmed by the people's desire to leave. Left to its own devices parliament is too much the instrume...

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The EU, Workers' Rights and the Good Old Trade Unions

It's become a mantra, endlessly repeated by remainer unions: "Workers must not pay the price of Brexit." What price would that be? And how about acknowledging the price of staying in the EU? On 6 July 2017 Michel Barnier, the EU Brexit negotiator, addressed the EU's Economic and Social Committee. His words were noted and passed on to unions in Brit...

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It Isn't the Government's Job to Frighten the Public

The duty of government is to obey the will of the Nation. To paraphrase that which Professor Dicey said, referring to "the grand principle underlying the conventional precepts of the constitution, in "The Law of the Constitution[i]": "… neither the Crown [which I take to mean the Government] nor any servant of the Crown ever refuses obedience ...

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Who Will Save Us From The EU's Climate Alarmist Lunacy?

It is uncertain whether the UK will leave the EU on 31st October 2019. Even if we do, there is much work to be done to overturn nearly five decades of EU directives, regulations and rulings which have been imposed on the UK. One of the most egregious examples of such a law is the Climate Change Act 2008. (1) The Climate Change Act implements Direct...

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A Determined Prime Minister Can Take Us Out

Here is the fantastic Sir John Redwood MP's article first published on Brexit Central (https://brexitcentral.com/a-determined-prime-minister-can-ensure-we-are-out-of-the-eu-by-31st-october/) outlining how the right man can take us out of the EU by 31st October.  For too long we have witnessed this Parliament trying to delay or dilute Brexit. T...

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The EU, Brexit and Employment Market

Where Unemployment Really Is Before the referendum in 2016 we were told by George Osborne and the Treasury, among others, that 820,000 jobs alone would be lost as a consequence of a Leave vote, causing "an immediate economic shock" but here we are over three years later and unemployment is at its lowest for over 40 years. Those figures published by...

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How Maggie Was Right About The EU Decades Ago

As the Conservatives elect their replacement for Theresa May over the summer, it's worth looking back to see how crucial it is for a leader that is in line with grassroots views, and currently Euroscepticism is the overwhelming grassroots position among members. Ever since the Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1992 there has been a battle for a refer...

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Carillion and Corporate Governance.

The government is in the process of reviewing what needs to be done to prevent such corporate collapses happening again, and is in receipt of substantial petitions on the subject. The prime focus of the protests and review is on whether the auditors could and should have picked up the warning signs and issued a qualified audit report on the basis t...

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Why we Should be Focusing on AI post-Brexit

Artificial Intelligence is certainly an area of focus post Brexit, the sector of AI was worth around $1.2 trillion as of around 2018 with predictions from Zdnet.com estimating the growth of the AI business values to around $3.9 trillion by 2022, that's a huge amount for any sector; this roughly equates to a forecasted prediction of just over £3 tri...

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There is No Such Thing as No Deal

The withdrawal agreement is not only unjustified but also not required. In the event of the UK's departure from the EU without a withdrawal agreement the EU itself has put in place measures to keep trade open. These range from agreeing to equivalence in financial services, access for hauliers, the continuation of flights, and the transport conventi...

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Sovereignty is the issue

The issue at the heart of our contentious relationship with the European Union – and before that the Common Market – was sovereignty, rather than trade. Likewise, the debate over the Withdrawal Agreement: it has little to do with our trading relationship and everything to do with ensuring that sovereignty remains firmly with the EU, although techni...

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Labour Shortages

The Government's Migration Advisory Committee wants to increase the number of jobs on the list aimed at plugging gaps in the UK labour market. Jobs on the Shortage Occupation List are effectively allowed to jump the queue for workers from outside the European Economic Area. Their review said there should be a big expansion of jobs on the list. Unde...

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We Can Work It Out

 "Life is very short, and there's no time, for fussing and fighting, my friend." (John Lennon and Paul McCartney – 1965 "We Can Work It Out")We had one deadline - 29th March – for leaving the EU, which was inexplicably lost in the mists of political time. (Political time is like real time, but without reality, adherence to deadlines, or t...

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Why Sovereignty Matters

 The evolution of sovereign states around the world has been an uneven process. Some were founded on shared nationhood, language and culture. Some on lines drawn by colonial rulers. Others out of the chaos of war. But sovereign states have this in common: they are all that now stands between the peoples of the world and utter domination by the...

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Just Leave!

 Through the treachery of the government and MPs, Britain is in political and economic limbo. Instead of being free to taking back control, they have handed the future of the country over to the EU… Delay, and more delay. Britain is now going to be denied independence for up to 6 months longer, a total of three-and-a-half years after voting fo...

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Opinion: Secularisation, Individualism and #indyref2

 In 1964, the film Mary Poppins was released. It captured the mind of a generation and epitomised the sentiments of the turn of the century. Mary Poppins was not ultimately about a magical nanny or a singing chimney sweep, but about duty. It was about the duty of man to his family. Mary Poppins is the story of George Banks, who gives up person...

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Tell Us What Do You Want!

I have become increasingly annoyed over the last year by those people who decry the desirability of leaving the EU on WTO terms – commonly referred to as 'no deal'. As I have pointed out on a number of occasions (Swift, 2018a, 2018b, 2019a, 2019b, 2019c), an exit without an agreement would give us numerous advantages when dealing with the EU, in pa...

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Another European empire ends at Waterloo

In their positions of power and privilege, Remainers have always assumed that they are right, and that they will win. This is particularly so in London, where the gospel is preached daily by George Osborne's Evening Standard. But since 29th March, when the government failed on its promise to leave the EU as stipulated by Article 50, the mood around...

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John Redwood's letter to the Attorney General about the Withdrawal Agreement

Below is John Redwood's letter to Geoffrey Cox. The Attorney General has not yet replied, and he needs to.Given the government's difficulty in replying to this, John Redwood is re-issuing it and encourage all to circulate it more widely. The conventional media refuse to ask these questions of the government and supporters of the Agreement.  De...

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Anne Marie Morris MP & Andrew Bridgen MP and Q&A with Anne 09/04/2019

 Anne Marie Morris MP & Andrew Bridgen MP and Q&A with Anne 09/04/2019. No delay, no capitulation - NO DEAL

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Carry On Democracy? A damning analysis by David Betz & MLR Smith

What is the most apt cultural metaphor with which we can interpret the behaviour of the political classes over Brexit? Reflecting on the parliamentary theatrics of recent weeks, perhaps it is the slapstick bungling of the Carry On films that recommends itself: Theresa May played by Barbara Windsor; Kenneth Williams as Jeremy Corbyn; Sid James as Mi...

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The wounded leader: a cautionary tale

Theresa May is at the weakest yet most dangerous stage of her miserable leadership. The scheduled European election might not happen if May overcomes resistance to the Withdrawal Agreement, which has hardly changed since first presented. It was at Chequers that the Cabinet was first told of the thin gruel on offer. Brexit secretary David Davis havi...

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A strong statement of intent

Enter your text here ...

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NO DELAY, NO CAPITULATION, NO DEAL. Bruges Group 09.04.2019 MARK FRANCOIS

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Brexit betrayal: Tories could lose Peterborough and other local authorities to UKIP

They had one job….Amidst the fury in the Conservative Party at Theresa May's overt betrayal of the Brexit vote, Wayne Fitzgerald, deputy leader of Peterborough council, told the Telegraph of a large number of constituents 'who will not vote for any Labour politician, Conservative politician, anybody other than an anti-EU party'. This is an area tha...

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The BBC and Brexit: BBC bias by omission

  Leave and the 'left' 2002-2017, 41 pages, News-watch This News-watch study found that left-wing arguments for Britain to leave the EU have scarcely been considered on the BBC's flagship news programmes. Only 1,198 words across the entire 30 surveys came from left-wing speakers making any sort of case for withdrawal, an average of 86 words pe...

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The Will of the Nation

Members of Parliament (with the exception of those who have not rebelled and refuse to renege on the promises made in the manifesto) voted to take "no-deal" off the table thereby revealing Parliament as hard-line remainers, all too ready to reject democracy in an attempt to subvert the will of the nation and to sweep aside legitimate politics. "Har...

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On the march - The European Army

May is signing Britain into involvement with the European Defence Agency, the European Defence Fund, the European Defence Industrial Development Programme and PESCO. The EU describes all these together as the start of its military 'integration' leading to the creation of 'a Common Defence' in five years' time. EU leaders have been telling us they a...

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British Politics – a critical analysis

Brexit is one of the most defining in our history. It is sometimes presented as a political disease, which must be cured by simply preventing its fulfilment or as a political opportunity, which will enable us to become once again a sovereign nation capable of making its own laws. What has transpired however over the last few months is the inability...

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The Long and Winding Road just got a bit longer

So we now know that the leaders of the other EU nations, doubtless pressured by the cabal of Eurocrats, have agreed to an extension of time before we can finally escape from the EU. They have, however, made this extension conditional on MPs accepting the PM's deal. Very clever. As I have consistently pointed out, Brussels does not want us to leave,...

  4881 Hits

The sovereignty of the people trumps the sovereignty of Parliament

Labour supporters should ask themselves, what if Labour wins the next election by, say, 1.3 million votes or fewer? Would they mind if the establishment decided that it was not a valid victory, because it was too close, or because Jeremy Corbyn allegedly lied when he said that he might give more money to the NHS, or because there was, allegedly, Ru...

  8854 Hits

Welcome to the age of cognitive warfare

The strategy of chaos is in full swing in the United Kingdom! The country has been plunged in a total information warfare, the EU having lost the legal and popular argument when the referendum took place in 2016. They have now resorted to using their weapon of choice: disinformation. The Brexiteers are making a serious mistake by focusing on May wh...

  4999 Hits

Democracy or Tyranny: Which will Members of Parliament choose?

There are only two forms of government – government with the consent of the People or government without the consent of the People.  Charles Moore wrote yesterday[1] : "On Thursday, I was interviewed by a mainstream Swiss newspaper. Switzerland, of course, is not a member of the EU. The reporter's first question went something like this: 'My c...

  6227 Hits

Ritual Humiliation in the New Theocracy

In my article "The Extreme Middle and a New Theocracy," I argued that supporters of the EU worshipped at the altar of a new Theocracy. As the arguments over Brexit grind on, nothing has changed my view. Indeed, I'm more convinced than ever that it is true. Forgive me for repeating familiar facts, but it is necessary. Following David Cameron's reneg...

  5672 Hits

Roll of Honour: Defying the Whips to oppose the bad deal

The 28 Leaver Conservative Members of Parliament who voted against Theresa May's 'Withdrawal' Agreement: Adam Afriyie Steve Baker John Baron Peter Bone Suella Braverman Andrew Bridgen Sir Bill Cash Sir Christopher Chope James Duddridge Mark Francois Marcus Fysh Philip Hollobone Adam Holloway Ranil Jayawardena Bernard Jenkin Andrea Jenkyns David Jon...

  5861 Hits

Suella Braverman is right: cultural Marxism is a real and present danger

Suella Braverman is a brave woman. I have been speaking about the dangers of Cultural Marxism for many years, but she is the first Member of Parliament I have heard to use the expression during a speech for the Bruges Group. It is the right and proper term to explain the corrosive cultural atmosphere which has been generated today in the United Kin...

  15320 Hits

Not fit for purpose: cheating Remainers undermine UK petitions website

Oh, the irony. All that conspiracy theory about Kremlin interference in the EU referendum, and now the desperate Remain campaign cheats our public petitions website by encouraging signatures from anywhere in the world. Russians are aplenty among the millions of petitioners urging revocation of Article 50. Nigel Farage is rightly asking why this for...

  6478 Hits

Esperanto: an ideologically perfect language for the EU

Saluton! The contrived language of Esperanto, thought to have disappeared into the mists of time, is alive and kicking. And it is on the cusp of gaining official recognition by the EU. Devised in 1887 by Ludwig L Zamenhof, an eye doctor and Ashkenazi Jew in the Tsarist empire, Esperanto merged multiple European tongues into one grammatically ration...

  7146 Hits

Export Subsidies vs Refunds of Foreign Import Tariffs

This article is a follow up to my previous post entitled 'Nissan, Felixstowe, Lettuces and Whisky' in which I proposed a system of refunding foreign importers of British exports for the import tariffs they will pay to their own governments after Brexit, thereby allowing our exports to continue unaffected. If nothing is done about this our exports w...

  5415 Hits

The truth about trade outside the EU

Britain was a leader in international trade for centuries, long before the EU was even thought of. As an EU member state, the UK cannot now trade on our own terms with the rest of the world. Decisions are made for us, based on the interests of the EU 28 - not the UK.Today, the UK is still a member in its own right of over 100 international organisa...

  6059 Hits

Nothing has changed

 As Geoffrey Cox, Attorney General, advises: there is no internationally legal means of escaping the Backstop. 'The legal risk remains unchanged that if through no such demonstrable failure of either party, but simply because of intractable differences, that situation does arise, the United Kingdom would have ... no internationally lawful mean...

  6009 Hits

‘No deal’ is our only remaining negotiating weapon; don’t decommission it.

  6468 Hits

Who Governs and by What Right

  6519 Hits

The 'Withdrawal' Agreement is a Zombie Bill

Can the same Bill be re-introduced having once before been rejected by the Commons?  This question has profound implications for the future of our exit from the European Union. In normal times, when democracy appeared to be respected, if a Bill has been rejected it could not be reintroduced in the same parliamentary year. The overwhelming reje...

  7511 Hits

How the "Backstop" breaches international treaties

The backstop is illegal. When speaking with international lawyers they mention a number of difficulties that the EU will discover if they actually try to implement the backstop.   The competence of the 'Withdrawal' Agreement to establish the backstop exceeds its lawful ability, it is Ultra Vires.Given indications from the President of the...

  21915 Hits

Fruit, Fear and Brexit

At the end of January, I was interested to learn how the BBC's news website reported Italy's recession. It was not on their radar. Unsurprisingly, several scare stories were. One, by business editor Simon Jack, was headlined "No-deal Brexit to leave shelves empty warn retailers." My attention was grabbed, however, by a dramatic warning with a state...

  5837 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