Today, The Times has coverage of Lord Owen’s sensible ideas on Europe but, as my wife has pointed out, his referendum questions are too complex. Instead of asking “Do you want the UK to be part of the single market in a wider European community?” just ask, “Do you want […]
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A Question Time panel at the John Hampden Grammar School
On Friday March 16 2012, a Question Time panel was hosted by Steven Sackur at the John Hampden Grammar School with the Bishop of Buckingham, Nigel Farage, Lord Alf Dubbs, the Independent’s Mary Dejevsky and me. Bucks New University students filmed the event and the video is now available here: […]
Read MorePhilipp Bagus explains how to overcome obstacles to Euro exit
Via Is there no escape from the euro? Intellectual honesty requires us to admit that there are important costs to exiting the euro, such as legal problems or the disentangling of the ECB. However, these costs can be mitigated by reforms or clever handling. Some of the alleged costs are […]
Read MoreHow to repatriate 130 EU laws
This week Open Europe published a new report that shows how the Government could repatriate 130 EU laws on crime and policing, including the controversial European Arrest Warrant. The Government must decide before June 2014 whether a whole raft of EU police and justice laws, adopted before the Lisbon Treaty […]
Read MoreThe Initiative for a Free and Prospering Europe
The Prime Minister today made a spirited defence of the Government’s position following the European Council meeting, in the face of ridiculous pantomime behaviour by Labour. I was glad to be called to ask a question, in which I brought to the Prime Minister’s attention the Initiative for a Free […]
Read MoreIs the EU maintaining the Rule of Law?
In their haste to use ever greater state power to solve the problems caused by excess state power, the European nations intend, it appears, to use an EU institution, the ECJ, to arbitrate disputes under a non-EU treaty. This may seem arcane, but EU matters always are. It’s one of […]
Read MoreThe PM’s critics on the EU have a crucial question to answer
What would they have done about this “new fiscal compact” agreed at the recent European Council: General government budgets shall be balanced or in surplus; this principle shall be deemed respected if, as a rule, the annual structural deficit does not exceed 0.5% of nominal GDP. Such a rule will […]
Read MoreDid I have a Freudian slip when asking about the EU at PMQs?
In the Daily Mail, Quentin Letts reports that I called for the UK to quit the EU altogether at PMQs yesterday. Some colleagues also thought I said “leave” not “lead”. Hansard reports my intended words: Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con): Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is time for this country […]
Read MoreSpeech to the People’s Pledge Congress on the Eurozone crisis
Why Is There a Euro Crisis?
From a magnificent article by Philipp Bagus – Why Is There a Euro Crisis? Today’s banks are not free-market institutions. They live in a symbiosis with governments that they are financing. The banks’ survival depends on privileges and government interventions. Such an intervention explains the unusual stock gains. On Wednesday night, an […]
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