Bruges Group Blog

Our new First Lord of the Treasury, Andy Burnham, became the latest in a rapidly growing line of Prime Ministers which, these days, they are coming and going more frequently than the 39 bus service! He was voted into power by just 24,927 voters in the Makerfield constituency who represent just a tiny fraction of the total electorate for the whole o...

During my time in UKIP, one of my duties was as the Chairman of my local branch in Walsall, one of our members, living locally, was, at the time, from New Zealand and was living in the town. He has since returned to his antipodean home and these days we keep in touch by e-mail. He is quite an active and very likeable character and often includes se...

 For much of the twentieth century, following sport in Britain was a relatively straightforward experience. Fans watched a match on television, listened to commentary on the radio or read about it in the following morning's newspaper. The relationship between broadcaster and audience was largely one-way. Today, that model looks increasingly ou...

The title of this article makes it sound like the anguished lament of a dipsomaniac. However, as all will testify, as we travel around the country we see it littered with boarded up and closed pubs that will never reopen. Some will be, or have already been demolished while others, empty and forlorn, await their fate. Some will be converted for othe...

The book launch yesterday evening was a great success and well attended. Special guests were the historian David Starkey and ex MEP David Campbell Bannerman. The stock of books was not enough to satisfy demand and many placed online orders at the event. There was an abundance of food and everyone enjoyed the wine from the Kentish estate of Silverha...

A Concise History of England By Michael E J Wood and published by the Bruges Group   This meticulously researched book examines English history from the people's perspective. A society that had no organised religion developed laws and a legal system that still hold good two millennia later. We can thank Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians ...

Prime Minister Question Time in Parliament these days is now little more than a farcical show which few, in reality, can take seriously. Like much damage done to the UK, our democracy, traditions and way of life, the blame for the dumbing down of PMQ's lands at the meddling hands of Tony Blair who was the Prime Minister who did immense damage to th...

This week we have seen our supposed apolitical police force abandon the pretence of being an unbiased organisation, treating everyone equally in the name of law and order, and witnessed a young man, dying of wounds inflicted by a lying criminal, being arrested and handcuffed by officers whose minds have been so corrupted by the brainwashing, to whi...

Protect our country: a big book for the Union, volume 2, by Alistair McConnachie, paperback, 314 pages, ISBN 979-8-291836941,A Force For Good, 2025, £12.  Will In the year to December 2022 the Office for National Statistics estimated that long-term gross immigration was 1,257,000. In the year to December 2023 it was 1,326,000, in the year to D...

 What is it about Nigel Farage that makes people fall out with him yet at the same time he never seems to fall out with them? I first met Nigel in in 1999 as a member of the newly introduced UKIP Regional Committees, when serving on the West Midlands Regional Committee and we were given the job of preparing for UKIP's very first two day confer...

The politics of feeling in Brexit Britain: stories from the Mass Observation Project, by Jonathan Moss, Emily Robinson and Jake Watts, paperback, 254 pages, ISBN 978-1-5261-5251-0, Manchester University Press, 2024. Jonathan Moss is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Sussex University, Emily Robinson is Reader in British Studies at the same university,...

 A hit song of 1969, written by Peter Sarstedt, contains the lines "But where do you go to my lovely, when you're alone in your bed? Tell me the thoughts that surround you, I want to look inside your head, yes I do", and I often feel that it is a pertinent question that might be asked of the woke who so dominate public debate at the moment. Do...

 B y  Gully Foyle, paperback, 222 pages, ISBN 978-1-917743-11-2, The Bruges Group, 2025, £11.99.   This extremely useful book details many of the tangible benefits we have gained from leaving the EU. Brexit has saved us billions in EU fees and membership costs; Brexit has returned our independence in fishing, farming, animal wel...

 A brutal murder has taken place, the victim lies dead, bloodied, bruised and bludgeoned over many years of continual abuse eventually succumbing. So who shall solve this horrible crime? However, it does not need the likes of Hercule Poirot and his little grey cells, nor the forensic investigation of Sherlock Holmes or the thoughtful considera...

 How Brexit got done and the Tories were undone, by Tim Shipman, 926 pages, hardback, ISBN 978-0-00-870996-9, William Collins, 2024, £30. This splendid book is the fourth and final volume in Tim Shipman's magnificent account of Brexit. Shipman was the political editor of the Sunday Times from 2014 to 2022. Brexit was the product of broader tre...

 Brexit: from the backstop to Boris, by Tim Shipman, paperback, 698 pages, ISBN 978-0-00-830894-0, William Collins, 2024, £26. This is the third in Tim Shipman's magnificent account of the 2016 referendum and its after-effects. All Out War, published in 2016, and Fall Out, published in 2017; the final volume, Out, is to appear in June. The ref...

Britain relies on oil and gas for around three-quarters of our energy – a level that has hardly changed in decades. We will be relying on oil and gas over the coming decades, as the Climate Change Committee itself acknowledges. Responding to the Climate Change Committee's (CCC) 2023 Annual Progress Report to Parliament - GOV.UK Our own oil and gas ...

As a lad I would often hear people blame the Jews for many things, being young I did not question this. At the age of fifteen I left school and began a two year City & Guilds gents hairdressing course at my local technical college, where, once again I began to hear negative comments and not very clever jokes about Jews. Again I never really que...

 Thanks to the current dire financial state of the UK, caused by the usual failure of a socialist government to understand basic economics, coupled with their usual idiotic ideology, we once again hear the siren voices of those who never accepted the result of the 2016 referendum, and are now calling for the country to rejoin the EU. Clearly t...

 It is sad to say that many people, especially the young and gullible, take in and believe all the guff endlessly spewed out about global warming and the impossibility of net zero, especially on the BBC. Sadly, those who get taken in by this nonsense who then think they are doing the right thing by voting for the Green Party, don't seem to rea...

The American playwright Eugene O'Neill said "There is no present or future, only the past, happening over and over again, now", the philosopher George Santayana, wrote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" while Karl Marx famously stated, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce". Of course the idea that ...

 A week before Christmas in 1968 I turned 21 and from that moment I was eligible to vote, which ironically was around the time Parliament began making plans to reduce the voting age to 18. My first time I could vote was in the May 1969 local elections, I went to vote with my dear old dad in the local church hall and, as I did for many years af...

Divorce law plays a direct role in shaping how families reorganise after separation. Legal rules determine who lives where, how finances are divided, and how responsibilities continue over time. These decisions do more than settle disputes. They define how families function going forward. Clear legal guidance helps reduce uncertainty during a perio...

One of the many organizations I have signed up to receive e-mail updates, recently got itself into a bit of a tizzy about our health and our air quality, it gave a link to yet another Government consultation, this time on the sale and use of wood burning and solid fuel stoves. Sadly, when Boris Johnson went bonkers with his green crusade with insan...

There are two reasons why I have titled this article "Green and Dirty", the first being the fact that those who push through many so-called green objectives, instead of cutting pollution, by their allegedly green actions actually increase pollution. All you have to do to see this in action is to have a look at areas where councils have introduced s...

.In 2026, in any civilised country, Atefeh Sahaaleh should be thirty-seven years old, perhaps a successful career woman, or maybe a mother, yet it was her misfortune to have been born into Iran, a nation dominated by primitive, medieval brutes, whose interpretation of their religion dictates that women are to be treated as vastly inferior to men, a...

By David Campbell Bannerman with contribution by Derek Bennett Simon Richards was a person you'd welcome seeing at events and make a beeline over to talk to. Always cheery, polite, humorous, principled, freedom loving, gregarious and well-informed, his untimely loss is a great one for us all to bear. Simon was a determined but gentlemanly Brexiteer...

This article has one purpose: to give you hard facts and numbers, fast, and to encourage you to tell others. We have been spun a lie for decades of "prosperity" from the UK's EU membership when the reality is EU membership has dragged the UK down with it whilst the rest of the world fares far better. The EU not only has the worst economic grow...

The European Union's reckless and damaging political commitment to unfettered inward migration — a policy that US President Trump and his administration have rightly and repeatedly condemned as an existential threat — is actively destroying the democratic, political, social, and economic frameworks of what used to be the stable Western European dem...

By Derek Bennet & Michael Wood  News of Andrew Mountbatten-Winsor's arrest due to his links to Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison accused of paedophilia and other related crimes, has potentially done great damage to our Monarchy. With the loss of our wonderful Queen Elizabeth II on the 8th September 2022, who's reign spanned 70 years...

Astonished at the weekend at some of the comments from so-called economic correspondents who were cringing at Trump's tariffs over Greenland, predicting recession and ready to cave in to his every demand. How did it not occur to them that all we have to do is slap the same tariffs on US imports and the effect is completely neutralised? This is not ...

In the short time he has (unfortunately) been our Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer has managed to acquire quite a good collection of nicknames. They range from: 'The nasal knight', 'Free gear Keir', 'Starmer the farmer harmer' and 'Never here Keir', which is quite appropriate as he has spent a large part of his Premiership out of the country. His l...

To adapt the My Fair Lady song, "Why can't a Yankee be more like a Brit?" It was fun watching Andrew Neil sizzling ever hotter on X as President Trump spoke at Davos - "If the folks at Davos had a spine they'd be walking out en masse now. Leaving him to an empty room." Neil seems to prefer the English habit of cautious precision, apology and unders...

Despite the best efforts of clinicians, the weight of bureaucracy is rendering the NHS unable to function. Doctors are obliged to waste time filling in endless documents, while staff are subjected to constant nonsense from that non profession HR. Apparently endless numbers of so-called managers appoint each other to obscenely well paid posts, while...

The United Kingdom has long been one of the world's most established gaming markets, with a strong regulatory framework and a wide range of operators. However, recent figures suggest that the landscape is shifting. A report from the UK Gambling Commission indicates that the total gaming revenue, measured as Gross Gaming Yield, for the online sector...

Recent events have made me think of two quotes from the past, Harold Wilson's "A week is a long time in politics", and "The World turned upside down" from an English ballad of the English Civil War. There are many reasons why I consistently supported Trump's reelection: the war on waste, the reining in of the various bureaucratic groups who overrod...

In my previous article, kindly published on this Bruges Group site, I wrote about and reproduced the letter I sent to Prime minister Starmer with my total opposition to the introduction of digital I.D. cards, which I see as a tool of the police state. I also mentioned that I had not received a reply to my letter, which was sent immediately Starmer ...

The wonderful Spike Milligan titled his book in which he wrote about his time serving in the army during WWII: 'Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall'. As a young man I read this and other books by him, as a lad growing up with the Goon Show on the wireless I loved his irrelevant humour, so in honour to him, I have decided to show the letter I wrot...

By Gully Foyle author of "75 Brexit Benefits: Tangible Benefits from The UK Having Left The European Union"  on sale now at Amazon The British Public are United More Than We Believe – For National Sovereignty In early August of this year, the usual pro-EU outlets and speakers were yet again all over the media with their latest p...

The trouble with most modern radio alarms, which we have beside our beds to wake us in the morning, is the fact they are too quiet for those of us with deafness and tinnitus in one of our ears. The thing can be buzzing away like merry, and we slumber on regardless. They, sadly, do not wake us in the mornings and the reason we do wake up is thanks t...

By Gully Foyle author of "75 Brexit Benefits: Tangible Benefits from The UK Having Left The European Union" BUY at AMAZON When I started to write my book back in October/November 2024, one of the things I kept hearing time and time again was that there was no useful reference material for pro-Brexit advocates to refer to, no single place ...

The year 2025 came to a close with another massive show of force against Taiwan by its aggressive and combative neighbour, China. Acting under the orders of its megalomaniac president for life, Xi Jinping, PLA forces (army, navy and air force) demonstrated their strength to an embattled island nation of 23 million people which has endured years of ...

Transport operators face a complex set of expectations. Passengers require safe and usable services. Local authorities apply detailed licensing standards. Financial pressure continues to shape every fleet decision. Balancing these demands requires steady planning rather than quick fixes. Accessible transport sits at the centre of public service del...

Although I can clearly recognise the malevolent agendas of the far left, I also frequently feel obliged to respond to letters in my local newspapers from those who are often sincere and well-meaning, but also incredibly naive. A number propose that we do not arm ourselves in the face of the threats presented by our enemies, but instead rely upon di...

So, Labour wants to freeze rail fares. All very popular of course, but no indication as to how they would actually fund that. Wouldthey really be so grossly irresponsible and incompetent as to just load that onto general taxation and create more fiscal black holes? Past experience suggests so. But if our railways are not adequately funded they will...

There are few greater examples of the long-term failings of the European Union, than the EU-Mercosur trade deal negotiations. When you spend 25 years trying to negotiate a trade deal, only to have the end product mired in controversy and likely to be refused by EU member states, you know you have a problem. In June of 2019, before the UK had been a...

Most people are familiar with the Peter Principle which states that in most organisations people are promoted to one level beyond the limits of their competance. This explains why so much senior management is incompetent.However the same thing surely applies to family size. Most families have one or more children more than they can afford. It does'...

Those of my generation may very well remember the hit song 'Three steps to Heaven' by Eddie Cochran, released in 1960. Now however I believe that we face three steps to Hell which, if they are taken by our society, will see the total destruction of the right to privacy, and make it impossible for anyone to live a quiet, anonymous life free of super...

Much ink has been spilt in recently over what would have happened to the economy if Britain had voted to remain. For all the publicity this has generated, this question is purely academic. As fans of 90's films Sliding Doors and The Butterfly effect can attest, when you make even one tiny change to your starting conditions, what comes next is total...

The recent revelations about the behaviour of the BBC in relation to Donald Trump are merely the tip of the iceberg, and those of us who have been pointing out the blatant bias shown by this organisation over many years have been totally vindicated. It is alarming that BBC lies have angered the leader of our greatest ally, putting our alliance at r...

The failure of so many to know the facts of history has had pernicious effects on events through many centuries, and very much today. In mediaeval times England behaved in the same manner as much of Europe in persecuting Jewish people, for example in 1189 and 1190, when violent anti-pogroms erupted in London and York, with a massacre at the latter'...

There's more than a good chance I have told this old joke here before, it was told to me by my father when I was a lad after visiting 'Speakers Corner' in Hyde Park. A Socialist speaker, standing on his soap box addressing the gathered throng shouted out: "When my party is in power you will all have lots of money". A little chap at the back of the ...

There's no doubt about it, it's head scratching time again. Once more it's time to give the old cranium a going over with the digits in wonderment at the news put out, enthusiastically by the BBC, that the Met Office has declared the summer of 2025 to be the hottest ever since records began. Somehow or other, the real hottest summer for many of us ...

In the face of lies, ignorance, and abuse, those of us who recognised the essentially undemocratic nature of the EU, and the path down which it was leading us towards bureaucratic dictatorship persevered, and eventually, in the 2016 referendum, we triumphed. Of course since then those who desire control by Brussels bureaucrats to governance by our ...

Remember the Rwanda plan? This was, as we all know, the then Conservative Government plan to stop the armada of rubber dinghies crossing the Channel full of illegal immigrants who, by destroying all their I.D. on the way here, committed an illegal act and thus made themselves criminals rather than genuine asylum seekers. Sadly, despite being loosel...

We are delighted that Facts 4 EU have given us permission to republish this vitally important research https://facts4eu.org/news/2025_nov_vote_control Here is the future the UK escaped, as Commission starts to take over elections in member countriesWith new autocratic power grab, the thought of a totalitarian bloc on our doorstep is chill...

In the beginning, managing your own rental property can feel empowering. You're saving money, learning the ropes, and doing what you've always dreamed of doing. For many investors, DIY landlording is how they get started – and for a while, it works. But at some point, almost every landlord reaches a crossroads where self-managing stops being sustai...

There is no question that the House of Windsor feels under pressure, and rightly so. Our monarchy has lost sight of its historic underpinning based on the 1689 Bill of Rights, the too-often overlooked settlement of the governance of England following the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688." While people seem to know about Magna Carta and invariably...

 Robert Jenrick's talk to the Bruges Group was widely reported. Please see below links to the stories: The GuardianTory candidates must pledge support for leaving ECHR or stand down, says JenrickShadow justice secretary demands prospective MPs sign contract saying they stand for 'Conservative values' UK politics The TelegraphRobert Jenric...

Personally, I am wary of making the case for Brexit based on the Brexit wins that have already been made, such as niche trade statistics. The reason is that, for most British people, life has got considerably worse since 2016. They are poorer, sicker, more anxious and less safe than a decade ago. That is not to say Brexit is to blame. However, the ...

Monday, 1st September 2025 6pm until Late  The Speakers;   Ambassador John BoltonAmerican Ambassador to the United Nations, Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control, and National Security Advisor.&Lord Hannan of KingsclereBritish writer, journalist and politician. Speakers will discuss: International relations, geopolitics, trad...

Labour positioned itself as a party of technocrats, but the small boats deal shows they have no clue what they're doing, writes Eliot Wilson  Last week, the Agreement on the Prevention of Dangerous Journeys, concluded between the UK and France in July, came into force. It is the government's latest attempt to tackle the number of migrants cros...

It was, from what I gather, George Bernard Shaw who made the famous quote that "Youth was wasted on the young". Now I am in the later years of my life and look back I can see how I wasted my youth, although I must admit to having a good time spending my earnings on booze and sports cars. It was not until I was married and into my thirties, when wor...

By Adam Holloway  Adam Holloway is a Military veteran and journalist who served from 2005 to 2024 as Conservative MP for Gravesham, in Kent. He was one of the Spartans who refused to vote for Theresa May's sell out of Brexit.  Many in Britain feel we may already have passed the point of no return. Our cities grow less cohesive, the countr...

Wednesday, 16th July 2025 6.30pm until Late  The Speakers;   Andrew Griffith MPShadow Secretary of State for Business and TradeRichard Tice MPDeputy Leader of Reform UKRoger BootleChairman of Capital Economics&Professor Tim Congdon CBELeading economic commentator will discuss immigration and Britain's position in the world Speakers wi...

For those of us who were born and grew up in days when freedom of speech and debate on topics were considered a fundamental right, and a proud part of British democracy, who are these days are saddened and dismayed as these once inalienable freedoms are being dismantled, one by one. We live in despair and frustration watching the actions of those d...

The Conservative Party's Moment of Reckoning Today, the Conservative Party faces the real prospect of extinction. After years of broken promises and internal psychodrama, public trust has collapsed. In both national and local elections, voters have overwhelmingly turned their backs on us. The 2024 General Election saw tactical voting on an unpreced...

Rebuilding Britain's Future Through Duty, Discipline, and Shared Purpose Britain is coming apart at its seams. Our social fabric is fraying, our political discourse is increasingly extreme, and many young people no longer feel pride in their country. Against this backdrop, the idea of National Service — recently dismissed as outdated — deserves a s...

When Bitcoin was launched in 2009, few would have imagined the type of digital revolution that this token ushered in over the past 15 years. Not only have cryptocurrencies come to represent viable investments, but they are beginning to be recognised as payment options throughout mainstream society. However, it is always prudent ...

By  Christopher Gill As a Christian and also as a fervent believer in the vital importance and inestimable value of free speech I am more than a little concerned about the prospect of legislation being introduced to give Islam protections that are not enjoyed by any other religion in modern Britain. In point of fact the common law offences of ...

Software development is the backbone of modern-day innovation, security, and productivity.  Whether it is the government's backend administration system or a small startup registered as a fintech, Python is everywhere to be seen and utilised. But things aren't simple when it comes to Python developer hire. You just don't post a vacancy online ...

 There was a wonderful moment at the one and only Referendum Party conference, held over one day in Brighton during October 1996. This was my first ever political conference, I was there with my wife, Linda, and feeling very proud of myself as I had literally been selected as a Referendum Party Parliamentary candidate three days prior to the c...

 According to the UK Met Office in 2025 we experienced the coldest January temperatures for 15 years. I wonder how much colder it has to get to satisfy the Greenies among us. Our national news media have been claiming that 2024 was the hottest year on record and that it was over 1.5 degrees C above the pre industrial norms. How accurate is thi...

SUPPORT NICK TIMOTHY'S BILL TO STOP BLASPHEMY LAWS BY THE BACK DOOR  Last week a banner was raised in Parliament, signifying the beginning of a fightback, against the government's manic concern over "Islamophobia". Nick Timothy MP (Con.), presented a Bill to amend the Public Order Act so that freedom for any criticism, even harsh, derisory and...

David Martin Jones and the End of the End of History   A little over a year ago, in April 2024, my long-time friend and writing collaborator David Martin Jones, died. David was a prophetic political scholar, commentator and essayist—arguably one of the most original minds in recent conservative thought, and paradoxically, one of its best-...

Applications have opened for the position of a chief engineer in a highly technical post in the aerospace industry, those applying need specialist knowledge of all aspects of the industry and vast experience in how to get these highly specified projects underway, including how to create new innovations in this specialist work. So how should the bes...

 To paraphrase a saying from the Second World War, when some citizens seemed blissfully ignorant: 'there's a revolution on, you know!' Throughout my lifetime there has been no major war, but by stealth there has been a radical overturning of conventional society and its institutions and norms. This has now reached a Woke crescendo, and in Orwe...

The betting shop exists everywhere in towns and cities all across the UK as a standard feature of main retail areas. Particularly when observed from the sidewalk the betting shops maintain standard stores yet their business procedures accelerate swiftly due to external regulatory forces. Bookmakers from Britain are increasingly expressing worry abo...

 The ex-Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, despite 11 years working for Elf, the French petro-chemicals giant, increasingly turned against the use of fossil resources. He described Prince (now king) Charles as a 'prophet- for voicing anti-plastic concerns. However, the late and much-admired Queen Elizabeth offered a fine example. Her staf...

A Front Row Seat at the End of History  c FreedomPut simply, A Front Row Seat at the End of History is a collection of essays by academics Michael (M.L.R) Smith and David Martin Jones, most written collaboratively, over the course of a quarter of a century. It spans topics from international relations, Brexit and the decline of the West, to th...

K J Millard, author of 'Charlie and the Spitfire', released this week on 7th May, talks of her experiences of growing up with her grandparents' memories of the Second World War.  I was born in an era when the tumultuous events of the Second World War were still, very much, living memory. Sunday afternoons would always be shared with my grandpa...

 In a world increasingly dominated by technology, materialism, and the relentless march of "progress," ancient myths often seem relegated to the realm of children's stories or outdated superstitions. Yet, James Sale's Gods, Heroes, and Us challenges this dismissal with a resounding assertion: Greek myths are not only relevant today, but they o...

 t's always the little things that make you stop and wonder. For me, it was the moment in the 1980s when the noble, dignified two tone klaxon of British emergency vehicles began its tragic extinction, replaced by the unhinged wailing of electronic sirens straight out of an American cop show. Supposedly, these newfangled noisemakers were better...

Why Europe Cannot Defend Itself In the most extreme irony of all ironies in short: Europe cannot defend itself because of The European Union. This is not polemic nor political posturing. This is about facts: hard inescapable facts. One of the most unpalatable truths is that the institution supposedly established in order to end European wars and en...

By Michael Rainsborough Reading Between the Lies   So, what does my SAR file expose about 'them'—and the entire mess? If you're determined enough to dig, there are some nuggets of truth buried under layers of nonsense. It's essentially like discovering the draft of a painfully bad novel: a lot of cringe-worthy drivel that only underscores...

By Michael Rainsborough   The Rise of the Dark Lord Had the Free Speech Union had been around back then, I would, no doubt, have stormed in with lawyers, righteous indignation and the soundtrack of Rambo (First Blood, not the later lesser movies). When I spoke with the Dean again the following week, I reiterated my disagreement with his facile...

By  Michael Rainsborough But I am mulling over of the idea of the GDR as an article of faith. Communism, at least of the East German variety, was a closed system of belief. It was a universe in a vacuum, complete with its own hells and heavens, its punishments and redemptions meted out right here on earth. Many of the punishments were simply f...

 There is an obvious clash of which one of two objectives will, inevitably, have to give way as neither can survive side by side. The two objectives are the continuous push for growth from both businesses and Governments and protecting the environment, only one can win. If growth wins this means populations will have to continuously rise, resu...

Sometimes, it seems as though, a country, like a person, can receive a message or a warning in the shape of an event that shows up a vulnerability. Whether one considers such a wake up call Divine providence or not, it can be instructive nevertheless. The electric substation fire at Heathrow is in that category. Irrespective of blame (the Russians,...

The EU has been busy making announcements on defence funding and Ukraine, so it would appear that the EU wanted to do these announcements first and allow Kubilius's programme to be a footnote. It is convenient for the EU to do it in this order as the EU would have appeared rather introspective if it had done Kubilius's mostly internally-focussed pa...

School transport costs extend far beyond the price tag of a minibus. While head teachers often focus on the initial purchase or lease payments, experienced education leaders know that running costs, maintenance fees, and licensing requirements can significantly impact their annual budgets. Recent changes to transport regulations and rising fuel pri...

Looking back forty years, a writer in 2060 remarked on the tumultuous rise to power of a radical figure in US politics: 'What he offered above all was a fierce, unreflective determination to halt America's slide into ruin and to restore its prominence in the world. This was such an unlikely prospect that he had to couch it in dream-like terms: "Som...

OBITUARY by Andrew Smith Mick was an only child and born in Walthamstow. He was bright and gained a place at Queen Mary College on the Mile End Road in London where he graduated in electrical engineering. During his youth he travelled overland with mates to Spain and spoke of his enjoyment of it which perhaps led to his enthusiasm for overseas...

It is not often one can link directly the economic and political incompetence of Monsieur Bonkers of Brussels to the cause of an ubiquitous symbol of the UK's economic decline. And we can prove cause and effect in a period spanning less than two decades. Yes, that is all it took for Monsieur Bonkers of Brussels to put the final nail in the cof...

The Conservative Party is still in crisis despite the deep unpopularity of the relatively new Starmer-led Government and of himself and some of his chief ministers. The Opposition should be riding high and scoring points easily, but such was the deep disenchantment with the last Conservative government that led to loyal party members and activists ...

I can't be the only one who suspects that Sir Keir may be an example of high-functioning autism. Some would say 'suffers from' but it is we who bear the consequences when someone in high authority is not 'neurotypical.' There are worse flaws: think of narcissistic psychopaths or messianic dreamers - have we not had such governing us before? Then ag...

 he EU's shadow borrowing has continued to increase, and rapidly. That is the message given by this high-level update by Bob Lyddon, international banking expert and author of 'The shadow liabilities of EU Member States, and the threat they pose to global financial stability', which was published by The Bruges Group in 2023 and used year-end 2...

Thank you to all the gathered delegates and luminaries and media professionals, and thanks especially to the host of the Munich Security Conference for being able to put on such an incredible event. We're of course thrilled to be here, we're happy to be here.One of the things that I wanted to talk about today is, of course, our shared values. It's ...

Despite being a lifelong pessimist and sceptic even I am astounded at how quickly has the Labour Party broken promises, and alarmed at their attack on free speech, and even free thought, in this country. The government, led by a humourless, robotic lawyer and bureaucrat, has empowered the Blob which dominates so much of our public services, made cl...

What's the best way to destroy a project? The simple answer is to put a person or persons in charge who hate and are totally opposed to that project—that way failure is assured. From the 1st February 2020, the very first day Britain was officially set free from the EU's bureaucratic clutches, there were claims that Brexit was not working even befor...