WHY THE EU'S MARKET MATTERS TO BRITAIN

Brexit would free Britain to sign bilateral free trade agreements with the ‘BRICS’ emerging economies, the Anglosphere and Japan without having to reach a consensus with 27 other EU member-states. The rest of the world is growing faster than the EU, and it offers opportunities that would make up for any forgone trade with Europe. This means that Brexit would boost the economy in the long term, especially if you throw in some deregulation to boot.

Why don't EU leaders realise that this refugee deal with Turkey is exactly what the people traffickers want?

By any measure, the war waged by the EU against the people smugglers blamed for the refugee crisis has been an abject failure.

Refugees at a makeshift camp near the Greek village of Idomeni; thousands are stranded at the Balkan border AFP/Getty

If sabre-rattling, barbed wire, and naval flotillas and other barriers could disrupt the trade in transporting migrants, this is a war would have been won long ago.

Can Scotland Save Its Oil Industry?

The Scottish city of Aberdeen is built upon the successes of the oil and gas industry. A walk round the city centre reveals the level of investment, with every street festooned with luxury hotels, classy restaurants, and even a golf course, courtesy of Donald Trump.

Recently, however, there has been an increasing sense of uncertainty in ‘the granite city’. At the start of the year, it was reported that the price of crude had slumped to a twelve-year low with the likes of Shell warning of a 50 percent cut in profits. Across the city, oil workers have been facing redundancy from a variety of companies including Petrofac, Gulfmark, ConocoPhillips and Sparrows.

The Rotten Heart of Europe: The rampant dysfunction in Belgium puts us all in danger.

Four days after Belgian police captured suspected Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam in Brussels –triggering a round of congratulatory news conferences in which French President François Hollande deemed the arrest “an important moment” in the fight against Islamist extremism — terror struck the Belgian capital. The Islamic State has claimed another hit on West European soil and here we go again: the gut-wrenching images of panicked people fleeing attack sites, the crushing stories of pain and loss, the displays of solidarity on social media and public buildings across the world, and, once again, the grief, shock, and panic.