Latest posts
Tory MP
Douglas Carswell A French presidential election is due in a couple of weeks. Should one care? Will the outcome change anything? Not, I suspect, if incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy wins. We’ll have more Euro summitry and muppetry. More bailout and bo...
Lessons on Liberalisation from Germany
Douglas Carswell From last week, you’ll need to have worked for someone else for two years, rather than just one, before you can drag them to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal. Good. Those who use their energy, effort and capital to cre...
EU Veto: We’re All Going Down Anyway
Samuel Walker It’s a familiar story; the 99% are drowning in debt, they have no jobs, they’re on the brink of financial collapse and their only hope is to balance their books by taxing, stealing or begging the money off the banks. The 1% has list...
The IAEA on Iran: Rehashed, Reheated and Unconvincing
Jonny Goggs In an interview with The Atlantic, Benjamin Netanyahu asserted the following: “The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.” This month, with the former goal seemin...
To save the Euro or go for growth?
Douglas Carswell Saving the Euro, suggest ministers, will restore economic growth to Britain. It is, they imply, the most important thing we must do to ensure our own recovery. Perhaps if the single currency was such a panacea for growth, we’d...
What should the UK say to Germany?
John Redwood The UK has no need to fear Germany. The UK has no need to be impolite to Germany. The UK should resist the temptation to lecture Germany on how to lead the Euro zone. There are unwelcome signs that the UK/EU relationship is becoming stra...
It’s official: there will be no re-negotiation of EU relationship
People’s Pledge How long will Tory re-negotiationists now give their ‘campaign’ of wrestling back powers from Brussels before they accept that the real choice is in or out of the EU? 1 year, 10 years, 100 years? A senior British government...
The full Monti is just more European government
John Redwood Don’t expect the euphoria over a new Italian government to last long. There is no need to share it. The markets enjoyed a relief rally on news of a new government forming in Italy. The European establishment is behind Mr Monti, so we s...
Euro-poker
Tim Worstall Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has warned Mr Cameron that unless he accepts unconditional changes to the Lisbon Treaty a split will take place, leaving Britain isolated and in a voting minority within the EU. “She explicitly tol...
Birthplace of democracy experiences Brussels ‘regime change’
Democracy Movement The European Union has always boasted that it is a force for democracy; a guardian against a return to the authoritarian politics that have haunted various parts of our continent. This, of course, as recent events in Greece have co...
The U.S. Bomb is Still Ticking
Lucian-Nicolae Berba The United States today faces more challenges than at the beginning of the financial crisis. What started in late 2007, as sub-prime mortgages turned toxic, had ripples through all mortgage-backed securities before continuing...
Occupy Wall Street
Toby Quast I recently visited New York City (pretty much just Manhattan) for half term a week ago and on an impulse I decided to go to the ‘Occupy Wall St’ movement. I was fascinated by many of the things going on there, especially the devotion s...
The Italian Perspective: Considerations on the Eurozone Crisis Summit
Olimpia Ades President Sarkozy’s and Chancellor Merkel’s reaction at the Brussels Eurozone Crisis Summit on Sunday 23rd October, when questioned about their opinion of the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and his plans for economic refo...
I do love this confidence
Tim Worstall France and Germany have reached agreement to boost the eurozone’s rescue fund to €2tn (£1.75tn) as part of a “comprehensive plan” to resolve the sovereign debt crisis, which this weekend’s summit should endorse, EU diplomats s...
Bailout-and-borrow goes on ….
Douglas Carswell You’d have thought by now they might get it. After two years of bailout-and-borrow in the Eurozone, you’d have thought they might see it had not worked. How has throwing all those extra zillions at the crisis made the underlying...
Yes, Death Row probably is torture
Tim Worstall Among the approximately 3,250 prisoners on death row in the US, the vast majority will serve years in solitary and crippling conditions, awaiting execution. Of the 34 states that still kill people, at least 25 hold death row inmates in s...
Why we need to leave the EU
Douglas Carswell It is not just about the Euro. Or the fact we’re having to bailout a currency we chose not to join. It is not the Euro sclerosis – the fact that the trade block we joined in the early 1970s which then accounted for 36 per...
The Eurozone’s proposed “rescue package” isn’t a solution to the crisis
Ruth Lea Last weekend’s IMF and G20 meetings were of the utmost significance. Amidst crashing equity markets and IMF downgrades, the Eurozone’s leaders came under intense criticism and pressure from other participants to “resolve” the Eurozon...
Will enough Germans defend their democracy?
John Redwood The future of the Euro and the greater EU superstate project now rests largely on German politics. The German political establishment has been keen on integration by stealth for many years. It ignored German public opinion against losing...
Is the elite catching up with Europe or is Europe catching up with the elite?
Douglas Carswell For many years it has been pretty obvious to most folk that the European Union is a disaster. Anyone trying to run a small business or a farm or able to read a newspaper will have had some sense of how the EU project has hampered our...

