Friday 31 March 2017

Great Repeal Balloney

People let you know when they don't like regulations - Boston Tea Party


One of the symbolic regulations that the American colonists objected to was a tax  on tea.  This was used to good effect in the Boston Tea Party.  Symbols like this are important and go a long way to frame the narrative of historical events.  And so now the plucky Brits have thrown off their EU yoke one of the first things they are going to do is to repeal the most hated regulation with which the Brussels bureaucrats have been oppressing them.  We all know what that is don't we?

Sunday 26 March 2017

Labour Beginning To Make Sense On Europe

Norway option is a very soft form of Brexit


The whole point of the EU referendum was to restore order to the Tory Party.  Cameron would get out on the stump and follow up his surprise general election win with a barnstorming campaign uniting the country behind Europe.  As a two time winner he'd be able to flatten opposition in his own party and see off UKIP in marginal seats.  The swivel eyed would be shut up and would have nothing better to do than to go back to moaning about the EU, reminiscing about the empire and wife swapping parties.

Monday 20 March 2017

€60 Billion EU Divorce Bill - It's Not About The Money Though


In a perfect democracy citizens would calmly look at the proposals for the EU divorce settlement and assess it in the light of the costs and benefits to the country as a whole and to their own personal finances and make a considered judgement.  Unfortunately most of us have no clue about what any of these figures mean apart from they all sound like very big numbers.

Sunday 19 March 2017

How The UK Has Misplayed Its Best Card


Well the nine months that we have waited before starting the Brexit process proper is now nearly up so it looks like the starting gun will be fired shortly.  I am still not entirely sure what the purpose of the delay was.  The cynical part of me wonders if the government, and Mrs May in particular, were simply hoping something would turn up to allow them to get out of the whole thing somehow.

I Don't Think Things Are So Bad

Weirdly I feel very optimistic.  I was expecting the Tories to win big.  Well they won a lot bigger than I expected.  Their losses in th...