Blog posts

  • Vote Leave campaign bus

    The Will of the People

    The will of the people seems sacred to Brexiteers, except when the people have something concrete to vote on.

  • courtesy wikimedia

    Euratom: Brexit goes nuclear

    The 60-year-old Euratom Treaty is a separate legal entity from the EU. The referendum last June did not concern Euratom. Little thought seems to have been given as to what we should do about our membership.

  • courtesy flickr

    My response to Supreme Court Judgment

    I welcome the judgment of the Supreme Court on the proper process for the triggering of Article 50. We live in a parliamentary democracy. Only Parliament, not the government, can decide on a matter that can affect the rights of UK citizens. Parliament must now seize the opportunity to take control of this process, to determine the best way […]

  • courtesy wikimedia

    Global Britain? More like Broken Britain

    There are no two ways about it: Theresa May’s intention to take us out — not just of the EU, but also out of the European Single Market, the Customs Union and indeed “all parts of the EU” — is deeply damaging, and not just in economic terms. Here are some of the key implications of her speech, which will […]

  • courtesy Wikimedia

    Antonio Tajani elected

    Antonio Tajani of the European People’s Party (EPP, aka Christian Democrats) has been elected as the new President of European Parliament, beating Gianni Pittella, candidate of the centre left Socialists & Democrats (S&D) in the fourth and final ballot. Tajani has been an MEP and a European Commissioner. He is also a staunch Berlusconi supporter. […]

  • courtesy daily edge

    Brexit and Ireland

    Much of the debate around Brexit thus far has rightly centred on the government’s shambolic handling of the process, and its cavalier attitude to the potentially disastrous impacts on the UK economy. However on the rather serious constitutional question of Ireland, the Leavers’ astounding recklessness has gone almost unnoticed.

  • courtesy Pixabay

    Brexit and the CFP – There’s always a catch!

    The difficulties that face the fisheries and related industries and communities in the upcoming Brexit negotiations have been at best underestimated, and at worst deliberately misrepresented by those insisting it is simply a matter of ‘taking back our waters’.  

  • courtesy Flickr

    The Tory civil war will re-ignite

    The reason why Theresa May is so silent on her Brexit plans is because, as soon as she comes off the fence, the Tory party civil war on Europe will flare up again in public. The divisions between those who consider it vital that Britain continues to participate in the single market and those who […]

  • Brexit supporting press in a panic

    Interesting that, today, there are simultaneous attacks on me in the Telegraph, the Sun and the Express, all about amendments I tabled weeks ago to a draft report by Liberal MEP Verhofstadt in the Constitutional Affairs committee of the European Parliament. It’s clearly a concerted effort, especially as they all give the same distorted view […]

  • The Corbett Report: Facts not Fiction

    A wildly inaccurate UKIP press release, picked up and sensationalised by the Express Online, has been published on the day that the EU parliament voted overwhelmingly to adopt rule changes that would increase transparency and efficiency, as well as holding all MEPs to a higher standard of behaviour than before. Given their less than impressive […]

  • courtesy Belgiumconnect

    MEPs to vote on CETA early 2017

    The European Parliament vote on CETA – the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada – will be early next year.

  • Associate Citizenship

    I spoke to LBC’s Clive Bull about the proposal from Mr Charles Goerens, one of Luxembourg’s MEPs, for associate citizenship of the EU for nationals of a former Member State.