Brexit past, present and future

Philip Bushill-Matthews

It is six years since the Brexit referendum, heralded by the winners as a new dawn of opportunity for the United Kingdom – freed from the shackles of Brussels. Vox Populi, Vox Dei: the voice of the people was the voice of God, so of course the outcome had to be obeyed. The people would…

Observations on the Present State of the Nation

Northern Ireland

David Frost (Lord Frost), UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Minister for Brexit, delivered a speech in Portugal today outlining his proposals for Northern Ireland. We publish here without comment the text of his speech in full. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen A year and a half ago, in the days immediately after the UK finally left…

Food and Drink: What is the Real Impact of Brexit and Who Can We Believe?

Brexit labour shortage

Widening gaps on supermarket shelves and the promise of shortages of Christmas favourites like turkey and pigs-in-blankets have exposed a major flaw in the Government’s handling of the ongoing UK labour crisis and a new report. The report highlights the scale of the problem by stating that of the 953,000 current vacancies across all sectors in the UK,…

Brexit Divorce Bill Sparks Acrimony

Jenny Chapman

Baroness Jenny Chapman, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Task Force Europe, commenting on the news that Britain and EU are £3bn apart on the Brexit divorce bill estimate, said: “Whatever we think of the sums involved, the difference between the EU’s and the UK’s assessment raises questions for Lord Frost. He was supposed to agree a formula…

The EU-UK Forum

A new initiative has been launched to help tackle some of the many issues raised by Brexit. The UK has now finally left the EU but problems have already emerged, just weeks after the much-vaunted trade and security agreement was thrashed out between the EU and UK on Christmas Eve. One such problem has been…

EU-UK Negotiations Set to Continue

The UK-EU trade deal prioritises sovereignty over economics. Politicians will soon be talking about how to improve the deal. Very little about the UK’s long-term relationship with the EU has been settled, writes Charles Grant. One particular comment that I heard during the Brexit negotiations has lodged in my memory. In September 2020, a senior…

Connection lost – online vigil to mark end of free movement between EU and UK

When you were a child, do you remember how it felt when one of your favourite Christmas presents was taken away from you?  Well that’s how many will feel for many on 31 December when free movement between the UK and the EU comes to an end, For millions of Britons and EU citizens, the gift of free movement gave them the choice to live in…

UK and EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement

On 24 December 2020, the UK and EU agreed a new Trade and Cooperation Agreement to govern the future trading and security relationship now that the UK has left the EU.  President Ursula von der Leyen spoke about the “long and winding road ” that led to an agreement. However, it is also clear that there is much…

Banks Caught Laundering Dirty Money

Some of the world’s biggest banks reportedly let criminals and fraudsters move dirty money around the world, according to leaked banking documents seen by BBC Panorama. More than 2,000 sensitive banking papers detailing more than two trillion US dollars’ worth of transactions were analysed after being leaked to BuzzFeed News and shared with the International…

Perfidious Albion

Polish EPP MEP Danuta Hübner, a former EU commissioner, issued the following statement on Thursday. “As Chair of the AFCO Monitoring group on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement, I am deeply concerned by the proposed measures of the UK government. We are in the process of negotiating the most important agreement on our future…