On leaving the European Union
If I had to pick a period of time to be out of politics for various personal reasons, I couldn’t really have chosen a worse few years than those just …
history
John Pinder: Inspirer of the Young
Richard Laming, chair of Federal Union, spoke at the memorial service for John Pinder on 25 April 2015. I have been asked to speak on behalf of young people, which …
John Pinder (1924 – 2015)
John Pinder OBE was that rare thing: an intellectual leader in politics. A résumé of his career speaks for itself: after maths and economics at Cambridge – at King’s College, …
Stab in the back
A persistent complaint from the eurosceptics is that the British people were lied to about membership of the EU. Joining wouldn’t reduce our national sovereignty, we were told, and we …
Who started the first world war?
This year sees the centenary of the start of the first world war. There will be commemoration of this sad anniversary throughout the country during the year, but there will …
How much does a war cost?
A previous post on this blog investigated how it was worth to Britain that it was no longer at risk of fighting a world war against Germany. For all the …
The cost of EU membership
A new pamphlet from the Taxpayers’ Alliance claims to set out some acts about what it costs Britain to be a member of the European Union. The size of the …
75 years since Munich
Today is the 75th anniversary of the Munich agreement, when British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and his French opposite number Eduoard Daladier met German dictator Adolf Hitler and Italian fascist …
The worst day in history
Today is the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Flodden, when the invading army led by James IV of Scotland into England met with disaster on the Northumbrian fells. A …
The Spring of Civilisation?
By Ian Hackett This September, as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine (to name just a few countries, or not-quite countries, in or near the one-time cradle of …