Bruges Group
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The Bruges Group is a euro-sceptic think tank which is often associated with the British Conservative Party, however, the Bruges Group is independent of it and remains all-party. Its Honorary President is the Baroness Thatcher, its co-chairs are Brian Hindley and Barry Legg. The Vice-President is Norman Lamont. A number of Labour Peers have been associated with the Bruges Group, such as the late Lord Shore of Stepney and Lord Stoddart of Swindon. The Labour Members of Parliament, Frank Field MP, and Gisela Stuart MP, have also addressed the group. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/20/neu20.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/05/20/ixhome.html
Originally set up by Oxford University student Patrick Robertson following Margaret Thatcher's Bruges speech in September 1988, the group quickly became a focus for mounting euro-scepticism, stoked by the speeches of then EU Commission president Jacques Delors. It is considered to be the common ancestor of many UK euro-sceptic parties and groups that emerged in the 1990s.
The group was considered highly influential during the period 1988 - 1993 and a rallying point for rebellious backbench Conservative MPs during House of Commons debates over the Maastricht Treaty. At the height of its influence, Robertson briefly attempted to break the group out of its Westminster base. An Oxford branch was set up (under Roland Smith) with important links to Oxford University's rapidly growing euro-sceptic movement led by student Daniel Hannan - later a newspaper columnist and Conservative MEP. The group then went through a difficult period. Dr Alan Sked, a leading academic associated with the group, fell out with other leading members during 1991-1992. Sked went on to form the withdrawalist party the Anti-Federalist League which later evolved into the UK Independence Party.
Robertson left the group a short time later and, after some work with the World Economic Forum, emerged as an adviser to James Goldsmith's Referendum Party (later the Democracy Movement).
The group continues to publish and is active on the World Wide Web. Some of its leading lights are active in the blogosphere (e.g. Dr Helen Szamuely and Dr Richard North at the EU Referendum blog).
These newspaper articles related to a report exposing the costs of EU membership in September 2006.
The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/01/neu01.xml
The Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2337796.html
The Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=403091&in_page_id=1770
The Sun http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2006400430,00.html
Additional reports were in The Express
