Bruges Group Blog

Our leaders think they can avoid addressing in the national forum systemic issues of public order arising from dangerous ideologies. Better - easier, at any rate - to leave such matters for local police and courts to deal with piecemeal. Perhaps they don't know enough about our nation's past. Fifteen members of the Coalition government of 2010 - in...

Ariane Loening's Inquiry is detailed in her book published by the Bruges Group. It is available on Amazon In this article Ariane describes the background to her work. I started to investigate the issue of rural Bengali women's disadvantage after living in West Bengal for several years, having learnt Bengali and qualified and practised in rural area...

Disastrous. Shortsighted. Checkered. Incomplete. Bloody. Failure. These are just a handful of the words used to described U.S. Foreign Policy under former President Joe Biden's administration. The military withdraw from Afghanistan resulting in needless death, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the bolstering of rhetoric from China, the temporary pie...

Kevin's leg, or lack of a leg, is currently the big topic of discussion in the Lyndon where we go for a lunchtime pint and chat with friends. Kevin, who is the youngest of our group, has been having problems for a few years. First it was decided, after various treatments by his medics, that he needed a partial amputation of his foot, then in recent...

The truth about ME: it's not rocket science. It's neuroscience, by Catherine Van dome, foreword by stand-up comedian Patrick Monahan, introduction by producer/director Stephen Pettinger, 239 pages, ISBN 978-1-7390920-8-5, Bruges Group, 2024, £12.99.  This is the story of the actress, the osteopath and the Minister of Defence. No, not the 1963 ...

Maintaining excellent oral health is a lifelong endeavor, but it takes on even greater significance as we advance in years. The golden years should be a time for savoring life's joys, including the simple pleasure of enjoying a meal with loved ones. However, for many seniors, oral health issues like decay, gum disease, and tooth loss hinder eating,...

The fallout from the Southport terror attack by Axel Rudakubana will continue for a long time. Could more have been done sooner, and if so why was it not done? The authorities may have been torn between their duty to safeguard the public and their desire to be seen to act appropriately and proportionately towards the boy. They had had over four yea...

This article written by Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic's Environment Editor. is reproduced with permission https://dailysceptic.org/2025/01/21/mps-to-consider-bill-likely-to-cause-mass-starvation-death-disease-and-societal-collapse-in-near-future/ This Friday, January 24th, the UK Parliament is due to vote on a Private Member's Bill that could...

It's not been a good week for the PM. Yesterday, he attempted some damage limitation over the Axel Rudakubana case and the associated initial official and legal responses, but nevertheless, social media has been busy fisking him. It is not true, as some online have claimed, that he represented the Rwandan father in an asylum appeal, but immigration...

.According to the Met Office we have just 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 this clai...

The world will work better if we try to see things as they are, not as we would like them to be. We have to tackle our tasks conscientiously and fairly, not try to lead the people back to Eden and make the lion lie down with the lamb. When police and political representatives colluded with and covered-up systematic child sexual exploitation for fea...

At this week's PMQs, the Prime Minister called the Conservative Opposition "economic vandals and fantasists" who wanted the benefits of the Budget without saying how they would pay for them. He contrasted their approach with his – making difficult cuts, raising taxes, investing in health, public services and housing with "an iron-clad commitment to...

Introduction The health and health care system of the United Kingdom are on life support. They need to change; they need reforming. If the UK's population is healthier and fitter, then - in a simple and proven example - the use of cars will decrease and benefit the environment in addition to enabling people to spend more on things other than fuel: ...

 Many of the comments on last week's Budget have pointed out that taxes, already very high, are being pushed higher, and that government borrowing, also very high, is being pushed higher still. Some commentators are asking – not for the first time – whether the British economy can absorb this amount of taxation and government borrowing, or whe...

The mortar is the global south. Ironically for all its anti-colonialist rhetoric and claim to speak for the global south, an empire ('of free trade' at least) appears to be under construction, or an unequal association with eventually its own currency and foreign policy. Of particular concern is the presence of the China, Russia, Iran axis at the t...

In 2025, the Starmer Government will place the UK under EU rule in the key policy areas of foreign affairs and defence A December 2024 headline states: 'EU leaders warn Trump it's bad timing for a Ukraine deal'. Subsequent headlines have said the same - the EU is actually seeking to dissuade the US from ending the Ukraine war. Why would they do thi...

The Olympic games have begun and the first event, a race has been run, then, much to the dismay of the gathered throng of observers in the stands, the runner that came in last, who was way behind all the rest, is declared the winner and presented with the champions gold medal. How about when elections are held and the candidates with the least vote...

 Reason For The Study So, the disgraceful anti-British government of Kier 'two-tier'/ 'free-gear'/ 'flip-flop'/ 'sausage' appears to have declared war on the farming community. For those of us outside the London 'bubble' who follow politics, this has come as no surprise: after all, most farmers are rural (not urban) in outlook, based in rural ...

The online platform industry thrives on innovation, fairness, and engaging experiences driven by game developers. They design immersive games, integrate advanced technologies, and collaborate with casinos to shape the future of the industry. Such professionals make sure platforms like カジノエックス 登録 remain competitive, appealing, and secure. Innovative...

A big feature of casino slots is the autoplay ability, where players select their stake and just let the machine automatically play each spin. It's a common feature and one that many players lean on, as it doesn't have any direct effect on the outcome of games. It's not the type of feature that is likely to make a player more likely to select a par...

European gambling has transformed over the last few years, with the United Kingdom remaining one of the most significant markets in the continent. This detailed analysis explores how the UK casino sector compares to its European rivals and highlights surprising trends and emerging patterns that define this dynamic industry. Market Dynamics and Regi...

When I stood to be a member of Parliament - the first time - in 2022 in Birmingham, Erdington, I stood on a libertarian platform - despite only being 23. Richard Tice was leader at the time and he was hesitant at first; the grassroots of Reform UK did not share this hesitation. With the passing of time and harsh lessons learned, the leadership has ...

We need to be clear: the aim of the Blair-Brown-Starmer constitutional changes is to take power away not from Westminster, but from us. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 put the Crown under parliamentary control, counterbalancing it with a Protestant male bourgeoisie. In the centuries since then, we have seen a Glorious Evolution into a secular non-s...

Brexit Success - the changes that will transform Britain's role in the worldMake Brexit Great Again  AGENDA:Registration and Coffee: 10.30amMorning Session: 11am – 1pmLunch: 1pm – 2pmAfternoon Session: 2pm – 4pmRefreshments: 4pm - 4.15pmEvening Session: 4.15pm – 6pm  Saturday, 1st March 2025 10.30m until 6pm Wine and nibbles served f...

At a meeting on 12th November 2024 Suella Braverman had a Discussion with Frank Millard: this is a transcript. FM =Frank Millard SB Suella Braverman. FM: Thank you very much for your time Suella, it's our pleasure to be interviewing you. SB: Thank you for having me and for hosting this. It's great to be with friends and thank you for all the work y...

Here in rural England there has traditionally been a feeling that the Labour Party is the voice of a very metropolitan hostility and non-comprehension of the issues associated with 'the Countryside'. In truth possibly many Conservatives are little better informed, albeit their inherent instincts are not hostile to landowners. In the 1990's, BBC rad...

The bloc must tear up its post-Brexit script or risk letting the US swoop in and carry Britain awayby  Andrew Evans-Pritchard  If the EU seriously wishes to draw Britain closer into its commercial and political sphere, it will have to tear up the post-Brexit script and abandon the punitive pedantry of the last eight years. Otherwise it ri...

As Bitcoin shatters the $100K milestone, the cryptocurrency landscape faces new challenges and opportunities. BProTrade is stepping up with a groundbreaking third layer of security, aiming to redefine protection for traders in an increasingly dynamic and high-stakes market.  As Bitcoin breaks past the unprecedented $100K mark, the stakes in cr...

 1. The Labour Government intends to conclude a 'defence and security pact' ('The Pact') with the EU next year and the likelihood is 'almost certain'. No events which would prevent this pact are currently anticipated. The only factors which might delay or even prevent would be UK public outrage which would require public awareness and/or US Go...

The Budget increase in employer's National Insurance Contributions seems set to be a fiscal flop, looking at the bigger picture. Employer's NIC is increased from 13.8% to 15%. Also the threshold for beginning to pay NIC drops from £9,100 to £5,000 per employee. On the other hand from April 2025 the Employer's Allowance - a discount on the total bil...

 Yet another COP event and yet more insanity and hypocrisy, not least from our Prime Minister who, by promising his eco pals at the COP 29 event which, after most of the delegates flying in from all over the globe in their private jets, with tables groaning under the weight of expensive food and drinks, as well as all the hot air, these events...

Santa's Sovereignty Spritz A Festive Toast to Freedom  Monday, 2nd December 2024 6pm until Late Wine and nibbles served from 6pm until late  Location Pall Mall RoomArmy & Navy Club36-39 Pall MallSt. James'sLondon SW1Y 5JN 

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege for me to have this opportunity to present to the House the government's budget for the coming year. As the House will already know, our economy and government finances are in a desperate and sorry state. Over the past nearly 25 years we have suffered a series of setbacks that have enveloped us in a perf...

The Durian Pact is a novel, but it also exists as a Treaty. It is the very real 'Five Powers Defence Arrangements' that tie the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore to the defence of the Malay Peninsula. Originally the threat came from Japan, today the threat is again from the North – from China. That is the premise around which my no...

Yet again there are calls for wicked Britain to pay eye watering sums of money for its part in the slave trade, which considering, during well over a thousand years of this country's long history, our unfortunate part in this vile trade was only a small moment of that long and varied past. At the 2024 Commonwealth gathering in Samoa, there were dem...

Dear Bruges Group,  "In 2016, when 17.4 million people voted to leave the European Union, they voted for a different sort of country. A country with a sovereign parliament, in control over its future. While the Conservative Party delivered Brexit, we did not respect the spirit of the referendum. We did not take full advantage of the regulatory...

You wait ages for a euthanasia Bill and then three come along at once. First was the 'Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill'introduced on 27 March 2024 by Liam McArthur MSP (Lib Dem). There is no specific limit to the sufferer's expected remaining life: 'a person is terminally ill if they have an advanced and progressive disease,...

Many waves of world revolution find their common beginning in the "shot heard 'round the world" on the April 19, 1775 at Lexington and Concord. An intellectual contagion would sweep through France (1789), Haiti (1804), and the rest of the American Hemisphere carrying the good news of the rights of man, modernity, and rationalism as opposed to obscu...

At this year's Freedom Zone in Birmingham, the Bruges Group held its annual Conference alongside the Conservative Party Conference. We gathered alongside friends old and new, to conduct our own evaluation of what went wrong at the last General Election. Facing the worst electoral defeat in its history, the Conservative Party faces a choice - a choi...

According to a recent article in the Daily Telegraph…"There were 10,422 foreign nationals in jails in England and Wales at the end of March this year, up from 10,148 at the same point last year. That represents around 12 per cent of all prisoners with each costing the taxpayer £47,000 to accommodate, feed and rehabilitate, totalling nearly £500 mil...

The following is taken from a monthly column contribution that I make to the Erdington Local newspaper, from July 2024 (see the link below and be sure to give them a follow)... https://www.erdingtonlocal.com/tag/jack-brookes/ After leapfrogging the Conservatives into second place in the 2024 General Election, Reform UK parliamentary candidate ...

                              "The Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is."  Winston S. Churchill, The Truth is Incontrovertible, (International Churchill Society; https://winstonchrchill.org/resou...

Lord Falconer's Assisted Dying Bill was submitted for its first reading within a few days (26 July) of the General Election. The Bill says it is to 'Allow adults who are terminally ill, subject to safeguards, to be assisted to end their own life; and for connected purposes.' If passed it will for the first time here legalise the deliberate killing ...

The Labour Party has its Oxbridge officer class but the other ranks have to be kept in check or they - its power base - may wander off. As with the cynical saying about drug companies ('a patient cured is a customer lost'), a voter who aspires to the middle class is a mutineer to socialism. The ladder is, or was, education. So in 1965 grammar schoo...

On October 3, Boris Johnson shared with The Telegraph his assessment that Donald Trump would have stopped Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine—a striking indictment of the current leadership vacuum in Washington under Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. Johnson's claim should be a clarion call to any American voters who care about the West's geopolitical ...

There was an irony that at the exact time both the last UK coal fired power station and the Port Talbot steelworks closed, the timing aligned exactly with the completion of my twelve months of temperature readings which I have been taking daily. After experiencing a pretty cold and miserable summer when most of August 2023 hardly got over 60f, I wa...

We are in the second stage of Blair reforms. The dark shadow of the former PM hangs over the new Labour administration. This Blairite legacy was always about 'constitutional reform', Supreme Court, devolved powers and field sports were their aspiration. It was something to excite the Labour membership's turgid mentality. Now in 2024 with a big Comm...

Parliament can do ANYTHING. Since 1688 the monarchy has been brought into Parliament; and since the nineteenth and twentieth century Reform Acts all the common people have gained admittance through their representatives, so that the two Houses of Westminster now embody the British nation as a whole. This is 'power to the people', absolute and unhin...

In a word and my opinion, no. Undoubtedly he is 'different.' Many people including myself have commented on his atypical gaze, one of the features on a checklist for autism (see #14 here); the tunelessness in his voice; the apparent lack of empathy; the rigidity of thinking and so on. But if the PM was crazy he wouldn't be the first. Take his PR ad...

It's getting to the point where some might contemplate emigration so as not to be murdered by a doctor. If it can happen to the Monarch it can happen to anyone. In January 1936 the dying King George V was given a hurry-up kill shot of morphine and cocaine; allegedly the moment was chosen to let The Times break the news, instead of the evening paper...

The Conservative Party has just suffered one of the worst general election defeats in its history following on from one of its greatest general election successes in 2019. Clearly something went wrong. The reason for one was the same for the other, Brexit and its benefits such as the security of our borders. Now, more than ever, there is a need to ...

 When I wrote the article: 'How to destroy a country' for this esteemed blog, I meant it to be seen as a warning. Sadly, from their actions, it appears our Labour Government have used it as an instruction manual, they have taken the art of wrecking this nation to frightening new heights. During the run up to the July 4th general election Sir K...

The typical employee's wage slip is something of a con. Here's how it works. For earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 p.a. there are deductions of income tax at 20%, employee NIC at 12% but an additional 13.8% NIC is paid by the employer. If someone on the average salary of c. £33,000 a year gets a raise of £1,000 the worker pays £320 in tax/NIC an...

There is a widespread misconception that in order to deal with the problem of illegal migration into the UK by migrants arriving on inflatable boats the UK has to withdraw from membership of the European Convention on Human Rights [ECHR]. Whilst withdrawing from the Convention is unnecessary, what is necessary is ensuring UK Courts do not have to f...

Lord Mandelson is said to be behind the gifted-clothes hoo-ha about Lord Alli, the PM and his wife. Nonsense: this is Hamlet without the Prince. Casey Michael in the Mail on Sunday says that Tony Blair 'is offering extensive advice to Sir Keir Starmer behind the scenes.' Alastair Campbell, too - maybe Ali was behind Starmer's headline-catching visi...

Starmer's government has saddled up for a full Parliamentary session but the question of Labour's legitimation remains. This is not merely a new administration but one with a comprehensive socialist plan it wishes to implement. The potential impact of 'Golden' Brown's grand strategy on our constitutional arrangements is arguably far greater than th...

The average fees of a British boarding school are £37,000 a year. Adding twenty per cent VAT brings that up to £44,400. In Portugal the cost would be about 30,000 euro = under £26,000. Children can attend established 'international schools' to learn in their own language. But with the prospect of the Starmer regime lasting for a decade or more, ent...

Sir Keir Starmer appears to be neither economically nor politically astute. Economics: the vote only just passed to abolish the Winter Fuel Payment except to those on Pension Credit may end up as a net cost to the Treasury. John Redwood tweeted beforehand 'Removing the fuel allowance from many low income pensioners will boost numbers on Pensioner C...

Jeffrey Titford 24.10.1933 – 09.09.2024  The following was released by Stuart Gulleford 10th September 2024 Jeffrey Titford, the former Leader of the UK Independence Party and two term MEP for the East of England, has passed away, after suffering from cancer. His family announced his death on 10th September, aged 90. Jeffrey was one of the fat...

In an age where data is often referred to as the "new oil," the conversation around digital privacy and data sovereignty has never been more critical. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, how personal data is collected, stored, and used has profound implications for individuals, businesses, and governments. Let's explore the complex la...

 I know the dangers of forming political opinions with a barman over a cold beer. I was in France's Perigord, normally a tourist hotspot. The mill-leat outside was busy with gushing water in stark contrast to bar trade. The barman told me that the season was catastrophic after such a wet early summer, then the French elections, European footba...

The Conservative Party has not had much luck in choosing leaders. The first to be elected by ballot, rather than appointed, was Edward Heath and we can debate how successful that choice was for national sovereignty or otherwise another time. The most recent term of Conservative government contains the stream of ineffective leaders the Party did not...

When it comes to online casinos, there will definitely be several familiar sights of the most popular table games, including Roulette, Blackjack, and Baccarat. Each has its particular appeal, strategy, and experience, so finding out which one best suits your preferences is important. But how can you be certain which game will be right for you? In t...

Very few people would have heard of the obscure American politician, Dick Tuck, but many may remember his famous quote after he lost the 1962 Senate Primary election, he said: "The people have spoke - the ba….d's". Those who follow political history will know that all Labour Governments are bad, they tax and regulate far too much and always end up ...

For the first time since George Washington was elected the United States' first president on April 20, 1789, the mass of land sandwiched between Canada and Mexico is absent a head of state. After forty-six consecutive presidencies, we are missing a fearless leader, a Chief Executive Officer, and Commander of our military. We are missing our top dip...

"I beg your pardon," they never promised us a rose garden, but they did. The new Labour government is unravelling and blaming it on everyone but themselves, but mostly on the last government, the members of which seem strangely silent for an Opposition whose job it is to oppose. 'Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party'. Th...

In today's interconnected world, the concept of national sovereignty stands as both a proud declaration of independence and a complex puzzle in the face of global challenges. Sovereignty, the authority of a state to govern itself without external interference, is a foundational principle of international law and a core aspect of a nation's identity...

In all the photographs I have seen of Sir Keir Starmer he has an abstracted gaze - 'puzzled' was Lytton Strachey's word for Dr Arnold. It is the inward look of a man serving some greater cause. And so he is. Starmer is an ideologue, not a democrat. Idealists build an internal model of the world that is distorted, like Minecraft or Lego, and use it ...

The UK is overpopulated. Someday we could face food shortages. Not for the first time. At the start of 1939 our population was below 48 million yet we were importing 60 per cent of our food - 55 million tonnes a year. By the end of that year, when the Nazis were sinking resupply ships in the Atlantic, imports had crashed to 12 million tonnes. Reade...

Just a week before Christmas in 1947 I came into the world by cesarean operation in the long gone Loveday Street hospital in Birmingham. My home with my parents, Bert and Rose, was at the bottom of a yard where I then spent the next seven years of my life until my parents managed to organise a mortgage to buy their first house. Like many places aro...

To address the global digital divide, we will first need to have a closer look at what the digital divide is? It basically refers to the gap between those who have access to modern communications and technologies and the ones who don't, which ultimately leads to the disparities to participate in the digital world. With the modern age of AI evolutio...

Renewable energy plays a crucial role in UK's energy security, referring an access that's reliable and affordable to the energy supplies that are necessary for economical and societal functioning. The renewable energy has become a major source to ensure energy security as the UK transitions towards an energy system that's more sustainable. In ...

The candidates for the Conservative leadership have been announced and are each hoping to be in the final two to be voted on by the membership. Why the Parliamentary Party ultimately get to restrict that choice is neither here nor there. It was in comparatively recent history that they themselves were not given that choice, but the leader was appoi...

Would Tony Benn be arrested today? For this is what he said in 1991 at the time of Maastricht: 'Riot is an old-fashioned method of drawing the attention of the Government to what is wrong… Riot has historically played a much larger part in British politics than we are ever allowed to know.' His point was that, deplorable though it might be, it coul...

Western economies have become mired in low productivity resulting in insufficient funds to pay for essential services. Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon. For the first couple of hundred thousand years of man' s history on this planet productivity was stagnant. This was not due to a lack of technological innovations. Huge advances were made in the...

 There are three certainties that come with every Labour Government, these are: Labour always raise and find new ways to tax the population, they are hypocrites and every Labour Government has left office leaving the country in one hell of a mess. Sadly, nothing will deviate from this statement regarding our newly elected Socialist masters. As...

Not since the assassination attempt of the late US President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C., has there been an attempt on the life of a president or presidential nominee prior to last week. A 20-year-old male with no criminal history borrowed his father's rifle, made his way onto the roof of a warehouse 150 yards from where former President Dona...

The unthinkable has happened, a conventional war on the continent of Europe, but the military has been slow to adapt. Yes, Europe has seen bloodshed since 1945; terrorism, militias fighting in Balkanised countries, unmatched airpower imposing diplomacy on those breaching the peace. However, our security cannot be taken for granted. The invasion of ...

Can we stop the cross-party lurch towards Armageddon? I love Quentin Letts' cheeky wit but in describing last week's PMQs as 'a bore' he missed this explosive moment from Rishi Sunak: 'I know at first hand how important it is that our Prime Minister can use his prerogative power to respond quickly militarily to protect British national security, so...

Reform and Trump have similar objectives. These have generally been mischaracterised as far right, but this new wave of populism is more about nationalism vs globalism than it is about left vs right. It is primarily concerned with what is seen as the theft of our national democracy in pursuant of global goals by international bodies that include th...

16th December 1944, western Europe. Hitler launches his last great gamble in the west. Fanatical Nazi soldiers were unleashed on unsuspecting Americans resting far away from where they thought the fighting would take place. The Battle of the Bulge was underway. This film explains the key role that the controversial victor of El-Alamein, Field Marsh...

In Covid-19: The Birth of a Killer, Dr. Jonathan S. Swift masterfully unravels the tangled web of political intrigue, scientific mishaps, and personal ambitions that led to one of the most devastating events of our time—an accidental release of a newly-produced deadly airborne virus from the Wuhan Biological Weapons Research Facility, within the Wu...

I'm just going to say a very few brief words to mark this occasion and to mark some of the very significant problems that the conservative party faces going forward. And frankly, it now has to decide whether it really wants to be the Conservative Party. Firstly, a little good news there's not much of it about I'm afraid but over the last few months...

This was the 'coral anniversary' of the Bruges Group's founding and the mood was very thoughtful, given the historic defeat in last week's General Election. Addressing the meeting was Bruges Group Chairman Barry Legg. His key point was that the Tory Party has not been Conservative for decades. One questioner from the floor said that in a fairly lon...

Britain's political scene is sporadic, but one constant stayed through it all: skyrocketing national debt poor judgment in allocating public spending. Since 1988, national debt has gotten out of control, and now sits beyond GDP.   Parliament's economic judgment have faltered post-Thatcherism, with successive prime ministers failing to replicat...

 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 ...

So, now we have "change", whatever that means (it isn't clear); the Labour version of that word (whatever that is) allied with the Lib-Dem version, but certainly not Reform's meaning of the word. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party has split itself to oblivion. The parliamentarians and wider party were split as well, with the latter's wishes as to le...

Taiwan has long considered its island nation separate from mainland China, but the Chinese Communist Party have become dangerously close to tempting the United States into another war by circling the tiny nation-state with warships in recent weeks. Chinese President Xi Jinping has held that cooperation between the United States and China is a focal...

Four years ago Sir Keir Starmer asked Gordon Brown to plan "the biggest ever transfer of political power out of Westminster and into the towns, cities, and nations of the UK." This may sound good but it isn't. Far from ushering in a golden era of democracy it attacks what may be our country's most precious possession, the ability to hold power to a...

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

Sir Keir Starmer's plans relating to the UK's future relationship with the EU are unclear, but then again, his ever-shifting image and (apparent) political position (embracing Corbynism and Blairism), in an attempt to appeal to both Left and Right, Middle and Working class, the old red wall and staunchly pro-EU constituencies, does rather confuse e...

As we move ever closer to the 4th of July, we deserve to hear the plans of those parties most likely to form the next government – the detail, and how any 'wish-list' would be costed. Until detail is supplied, then any manifesto promise, or gimmicky card 'pledge' is meaningless, as there is nothing specific against which to hold a newly-elected gov...

Back in 1997 I walked the streets locally and knocked on doors with the Conservative candidate in what was regarded as a safe constituency. It was a thankless task, but a worthy one and in spite of a cold response and some derision he was elected with a respectable majority. I remember standing outside a polling station as a Labour van went by blar...

Multiple credit cards and a carefree attitude to paying-off bills was at one time the preserve of the more feckless section of society. These days it seems to be a universal ill of local finances and it is a trend that central government has fostered. As local authorities teeter on the brink of insolvency – indeed by any 'normal' accounting assessm...

The discourse on Conservatism and its future remains alive and well. Elections may worry us, and new challenges may emerge, but the Bruges Group's resolve remains unshaken. On the 8th of July, we cordially invite you to a Drinks Reception to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of Baroness Thatcher's Bruges Group. The reception will be held in the b...

Until July 5 we're enjoying a blessed holiday from Westminster prodnosing - no Covid-era gaggles of MPs in meeting rooms giggling 'Whatever can we make them do next?' Actually, for some of that time they had interim arrangements that let them WFH. Insofar as they worked at all - nono, that's not fair: many are grafters; but here is an extract from ...

ONS projections show a UK population increase of 6.6 million by 2036, of which 6.1 million will be due to immigration. Annual net migration of 315,000 will lead to a projected population increase of nine million people by 2046. That's eight cities the size of Birmingham. According to Migration Watch, "a child born today to an indigenous British cou...

 A phrase has come into the Zeitgeist – calling people the "Trump of their field." Elon Musk is the Trump of business. Meloni is the Trump of Europe. Many leaders still do not know how to react to former President Trump; to his decision to control immigration; 3+% economic growth and, especially, to the absolutely justified desire to implement...

Online businesses have been on a steady rise in the past decade. Researchers attribute this to the accessibility of the internet as well as the minimal startup capital. With online businesses, you do not need to worry about having physical inventory, physical equipment, or even paying for overheads that exist in a conventional business. However, du...

In 1997 the Tories used a now infamous poster caricaturing Tony Blair as having a demon's eyes. This was so over-the-top that it probably backfired. Yet two years later I was asking friends if they thought Blair was mad. They looked at me as though I was; though perhaps they see things differently now. He was the reason that for the first time in m...