What would happen in the event of Brexit depends on who is on the media at that particular time, and I confess to being almost as fed up listening to the remain side telling us how awful things would be in the event of Brexit as I am listening to the relentless optimism of the more…
Despite their significant media exposure I think it’s fair to say that so far UKIP’s main successes have come at the ballot box and not at the dispatch box. That the party serves as a repository for protest votes rather than enacting detailed policy is evidenced through the record of long-standing elected members. In his more…
You can waffle on all you like about trade tariffs, migration controls, budget rebates, etc but to the general public this tedious stuff goes in one ear and out the other. But tell them you are going to monkey around with their tea and toast and you get their attention. From today’s Daily Express: The UK accounts for more…
This morning I got off the metro at Maalbeek station, it’s not the closest one to my office in Brussels, but today was the first day it was open since last month’s attacks and I felt as I owed to it the city to say I wasn’t afraid. Its cleaned platform and white panels seemed more…
Craig Harrison writes for us about the upcoming EU referendum on 23rd June If the latest polls on the EU referendum are anything to go by, then what seemed like a sure thing just a few months ago is now much less certain. Figures from an online survey by Opinium, published by The Guardian at more…
David McNarry’s latest foray into controversy has been to float – and then retract the suggestion that foreign workers (specifically a hypothetical Polish surgeon) be deported for minor crimes such as parking tickets. Although this may play well with a few it seems something of a gaffe: maybe UKIP’s leadership will not be too sorry more…
Was someone reading the Sun this morning…? Here’s one of them that got through…
Eurosceptic hearts were gladdened last week, when they claimed victory in the referendum. Of course I’m referring to the Dutch referendum on the free-trade deal between the EU and the Ukraine, in which a majority of the minority who voted in the Netherlands on Wednesday, chose to reject the deal. Despite insisting that neither Dublin, more…
FactCheckNI — Northern Ireland’s first ever fact-checking service — was officially launched at the Skainos Centre in Belfast. The project — funded by the Big Lottery Fund through Building Change Trust — aims to influence public policy in regards to the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector, keep politicians right in terms of both more…
Tonight’s EU Your Choice debate began with ten minute presentations from the four GB political panellists before moving into a Q&A. The full event was live-streamed and should soon be available to replay. Kate Hoey (Labour MP) – leave Vernon Coaker (Labour MP) – remain Owen Paterson (Conservative MP) – leave John Stevens (former Conservative more…
Tomorrow evening we’ll be holding our EU Referendum debate featuring some of the leading pro-leave and pro-stay campaigners. We’ll be pitting Owen Paterson MP (a former Secretary of State) against Vernon Coaker MP (the current Shadow Secretary of State). We’ll have Kate Hoey MP against former Conservative MEP, John Stevens. The good news is that more…
The dust has begun to settle on the budget and Ian Duncan Smith’s dramatic resignation: not enough that said to know what is going to happen in the medium term. The episode was, however, much worse than the Omnishambles of the 2012 budget. It revealed a series of fault lines within the Conservative Party that more…
David McCann today informed via twitter that yesterday was “Proclamation day”, and the Irish government invited students at schools and universities around the Republic of Ireland to read the 1916 post-office rebels manifesto, and reflect on what it means to be Irish and pen their own ‘Proclamation for a New Generation’. The 1916 rising’s figurehead Patrick Pearse more…
Introducing the fourth in a short series of EUDebateNI events this morning in Derry~Londonderry, Conor Houston explained that while the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building takes a neutral on the decision of whether the UK remains or leaves EU, it does want to encourage debate. Business journalist Naomi McMullan hosted the debate said there more…
The UUP will join Sinn Fein, SDLP, Alliance and the Greens to argue for Northern Ireland staying within the European Union. Here is a statement from the party; The Ulster Unionist Party believes that on balance Northern Ireland is better remaining in the European Union, with the U.K. Government pressing for further reform and a more…
Last November marked the 1400th anniversary of the death of Saint Columbanus, the Ulster monk whose missions on the continent have made him the patron saint of all those who now seek to build a united Europe. This anniversary was marked in various ways on the island of Ireland and in Europe, including a joint more…
“On-balance” to use the first Minister’s language, the DUP’s call to vote to leave the EU is likely to be largely cost-free for her party. The vote which is now set for 23 June will come just seven weeks after the Stormont Assembly elections, will mark the end of a three year cycle of elections; more…
The debate on the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union has properly begun. In these early days of the debate David Cameron and Nicola Sturgeon have made an unusual partnership to try and add a Scottish question to the European one. The UUP is playing a game of public angst with the Scottish claims more…
Eight speakers deliver their pitch for the leaving or remaining in the European Union in QUB Student’s Union – Leslie Budd (OU), Hugo MacNeill (British/Irish Assoc), David Phinnemore (QUB), David McNarry (UKIP), Duncan Morrow (APNI), Declan Kearney (SF), Christopher Stalford (DUP) & Claire Hanna (SDLP)
Dr. David Shiels is College Research Associate in History at Wolfson College, Cambridge and author of a forthcoming biography of Enoch Powell. He argues that if Unionists insist on peeling away the post war constitutional frame by leaving the EU, you risk the unraveling of the British Union too. The Democratic Unionist Party has, at more…
