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             There are four possible referenda on offer at the moment and in discussion in Westminster. 1. There is Mr Cameron’s proposal,a  referendum in 2017 on the question Do you wish to accept the new relationship with the EU we have negotiated, or leave the EU?, to be legislated for now. 2. There is [...]

             This week a group of mainly Conservative MPs tabled an amendment to the Queen’s Speech. The amendment states, in Queen’s speech style language,                “This House respectfully regrets that an EU referendum Bill is not included in the Gracious speech”.            Some of you would want a full bloodied motion, but I can [...]

              On Monday at 5 pm I am debating austerity and growth policies at the Sheldonian Theatre , Oxford under the chairmanship of the Warden of St Antony’s College. The other main  participants are Martin Wolf of the FT, Robert Skidelsky and Meghnad Desai.             The topic is “Austerity in the UK and the  Eurozone: [...]

             In a way I was one of  the first modern Tory modernisers. In 1995 I said “No change, no chance”, and called for new policies and new approaches to Conservative politics. The party opted for no change, and went down a very large defeat.             In opposition a group of people developed a [...]

Lord Lawson was right to say in the Times on Monday that the Euro means an ever closer union in the EU, with ever more government from Brussels. He is right that the UK does not want that and cannot accept that. Some of us thought the EU bossed us around too much before the Euro. The [...]

  The last time a government had to control the excess spending and borrowing inherited from its Labour predecessor was 1979. I have been reading Mr Moore’s new official biography of Margaret Thatcher. He guides us through the received wisdom and the well known press cuttings and literature. In the case of her private life [...]

          Parliament legislates too much. I am not looking for another long list of Bills regulating too many things. Indeed, top of my list are the Bills I do not want to see get the light of day.         I do not want a Bill to enshrine levels of overseas aid in law. These should [...]

  Reports I am getting from business and individuals in my constituency and from the wider country tell me that banks are reluctant to lend, require huge amounts of paperwork, and impose very high charges if they do decide they will provide some finance. Recent figures show there is still a lending problem in our [...]

            The BBC/Labour strategy up to this point has been to create UKIP as a new SDP. The left now thinks they were out of power in the 1980s and most of the 1990s owing to the split in Labour and the emergence of Labour light. Mr Smith and Mr Blair eventually got them [...]

The Ancien regime of the EU is far from popular. Today we see the full extent of the UK electors protest over the EU’s actions. Voters are fed up with the UK having too little control over its own borders, annoyed that we have to pay benefits according to the whims of the European Court, angry [...]