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.
break-2025036_1280 How Many More Times?

The 7th Brexit in History

 On 23rd June 2016 (St George's Day) the people of Britain voted to leave the European Union. This was an historic moment. We could say this was the 7th Brexit in history. And it is not complete yet, as we shall see. In effect, this was not the first Brexit, not the first time that Britannia separated her destiny from that of Europe. In 43 AD ...

  818 Hits
middle-finger-149667_128_20240618-072533_1 A Message from your Rulers

Where is the Centre?

Ask a child to tell you where their centre is and they'll point at their belly button. It's obvious. It's in the middle. Politicians of the legacy parties bleat incessantly about the 'Centre'. Apparently, no one ever won an election to anything unless they were precariously perched on a fence. Where has that got us? In reality the 'Centre' is the e...

  954 Hits
ballot-1294935_128_20240524-164618_1 Democracy?

Of Our Hard Won Sovereignty

"Finished", "stuffed", "toast" . These have been the words and worse that many otherwise loyal Conservatives used about their own party recently. However, now that the election has been called in spite of such pessimism, there is hope for the beleaguered Tories.:  A week is a long time in politics, said Harold Wilson, so how much longer a...

  1056 Hits
lenin-155794_1280 Socialist Nightmare!

It's the Hard Left, Stupid.

 Friday March 1st Rishi Sunak stood at a podium outside ten Downing Street. Like a trainee teacher lacking any form of sanction, he confronted a rebellious class. He did not quite say, "You are all very naughty", but it wasn't far-off. Lots of words, a threat to back the Police if they ever get off their knees. He had harsh words for two group...

  1390 Hits
niqab Is this our future?

Another Glorious Revolution, or a Caliphate?

We are in trouble. It started when Ted Heath told lies about the Common Market and its true intention. Since then, a certain type of self-serving politician has lied about everything from expenses to democracy. According to Nick Robinson, Lindsay Hoyle can be forgiven for caving into Starmer because, "he's only human and wants to keep his job". The...

  1523 Hits

Bruges Group Conference 2023

The National Interest  Advancing freedom, Brexit, and the British national interest.  Speakers include;Sir Christopher Chope MP, Bernard Connolly, Barry Legg, Barney Reynolds, The Rt Hon. the Lord Lilley, PC and Sir Bill Cash MP. Location:Pall Mall Room, Army & Navy Club36-39 Pall Mall, St. James's, London SW1Y 5JN Speakers ...

  7135 Hits
thumb-440352_1920-1 84 Wasted Years

Were all our tomorrows yesterday?

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

  1328 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...

  1262 Hits
newera

Wannabe Dictators

Why do we ape America, but so badly? Let's start with our 'big brother': On Tuesday, an editor at Fox News (fascists!) subtitled a live feed 'WANNABE DICTATOR SPEAKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE AFTER HAVING HIS POLITICAL RIVAL ARRESTED.' The banner was taken down within seconds and the editor told to get his National Insurance card stamped or whatever they ...

  1942 Hits
acropolis-ge0841e931_1280

Greece's New Democracy

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

  1327 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...

  1462 Hits
broken Broken Promises

Broken Promises

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

  1518 Hits
westminster-g3fd54627c_1920

Fatal Traction: How Bad Ideas Gain Currency In Government

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

  1423 Hits
houses-of-parliament-4444870_1920 Royal Republic

The Struggle for Liberty

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

  1427 Hits
2474152_1920 A Divided Country

The Windsor Framework is dangerous

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

  1675 Hits
The-assassination-of-Julius-Caesar Democracy in Danger

Where Have All the Tories Gone?

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

  1561 Hits
stop-1001138_1920 Time for honesty and courage

Has Anyone the Courage to Lead?

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

  2144 Hits
big-ben-2007165_1920 Freedom

PATRIOTISM AND FREEDOM
A libertarian defence of national sovereignty

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

  3408 Hits
signpost-5274077_1920 Our future destroyed?

The End of The Road

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

  1867 Hits
death-5770668 The Grim Reaper

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

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

  2213 Hits
Janus-Building Janus Building Burns

Can the Turncoats Turn Back?

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

  1960 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 ...

  1889 Hits
big-ben-450819_1920 Churchill Led the Fight to Preserve Democracy

Democracy Under Threat

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

  2018 Hits
coin-5095417_1920 Queen of Democracy

Service Leadership

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

  1906 Hits
chaos-485491_1920 Ordo Ab Chao.

‘Ordo Ab Chao' Do Tory MPs have the Courage?

Boris Johnson's fall is due to a combination of factors. The man who was London's Mayor for eight years seems to have forgotten the reason for that success. He chose able lieutenants to implement his policy. As Prime Minister he desperately needed them. Without them, everything from BREXIT to Tax Cuts stalled and it seemed increasingly that the gov...

  1894 Hits
A-Coughlan A festschrift for Anthony Coughlan

A festschrift for Anthony Coughlan: Essays on sovereignty and democracy, edited by Frank Keoghan, Ruan O’Donnell & Michael Quinn, hardback, 159 pages, ISBN 978-0-09955975-2-5, Iontas Press, 2018.

Anthony Coughlan is known to most of us for his heroic work for the National Platform of Ireland, which campaigns for Ireland's independence from the EU. As Michael Quinn writes, "He has tirelessly campaigned against the centralising and unaccountable EU bureaucracy; articulating instead the alternative case for a Europe of independent and co-opera...

  5104 Hits
carnival-g708d1b115_1920

Morality and Respect for Democracy

Being ambushed on his birthday to listen to a small group singing 'Happy Birthday' and sip a glass of wine may have been foolish of the PM. It does not count as crime in rational people's book. 10 Downing Street is a huge office. The Police issued 126 fixed-penalty notices naming only three recipients. The other 123 were presumably issued to specia...

  2118 Hits
hands-g2d9db562f_1920

Is globalisation defunct?

Is there a need for a rethink of the 21st century direction of travel of globalisation, the concept of a global village, 4IR, communitarianism and supranationalism, as conceived at the end of the previous century? Vulnerabilities of scale The devastating impact of the pandemic on economics, trade, logistics and the global supply chain, plus the imp...

  2363 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