It used to be the Gnomes of Zurich - now it is the Aliens of the City

There are times when I forget quite what level of fruitbattery exists in that small Brabantine city of Brussels, then for a moment I take a look at what they get up to on a day to day basis, and there they are again. Barking as ever.

Out of the crisis: a "real" economy and world governance system

As opposed to a "fake" economy, like taking up the Euro when you have cooked the books.

So what is this real economy about, can it be about buying and selling, harnassing the profit motive to everybodies improvement? Nah don't be daft,

The EU is the world's largest economy, with enough international clout to return to "real capitalism" rather than resign itself to an alien "financial capitalism", concluded MEPs and experts at a public hearing held on Thursday by Parliament's special committee on the crisis.

So what about the Euro then?

EU model and crisis-tested Euro

The EU approach, founded on the real economy and opposed to financial capitalism, could constitute an effective response to the crisis, but unfortunately the crisis struck at a time when the EU is in "an incomplete stage of its construction", according to Mr Padoa-Schioppa.

Yes that'll be the chap who is described correctly as the founding father of the Euro.

But hark what is this?

The EU, as the world's leading real economy, is also able to tax financial transactions unilaterally, failing an agreement with its partners, said Stephane Schulmeister in a reply to Charles Goerens, Pervenche Berès (S&D, FR) and Pascal Canfin (Greens/EFA, FR). It is Europe's financial centres, London and Frankfurt, which would be most affected by these measures, as the volume of transactions they handle could be reduced by 30% to 80%, according to a WIFO study, but "the production volume of the EU as a whole is sufficient for tax revenue to remain large enough" to cope with the new market situation.

Yes these nutters are prepared to see the City of London crash and burn, and yet think that it won't matter because the schlerotic European industrial base will save us all. By some bizzare reasoning they think that the EU floats on a bubble of its own beliefs, untouched by the financial realities beyond its own porous borders.

If you filmed it and watched it, it would feel like you were filming in an asylum, where every now and then somebody would declare themselves,
"I'm John Milton Keynes"
and be wrestled to the floor whilst protesting that all they wanted to do as to found the Arts Council.

Hmm Can anybody see any links?

Monsters and Critics have a story about a major corruption scandal in Spain. Jaume Matas a Parti Polpular politician,

Matas faces up to 24 years in prison for nine corruption-related offences including embezzlement, peddling of political favours, money-laundering, bribery and falsifying documents.
Matas was environment minister from 2000 to 2003 in then-prime minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservative government.

Interesting, so I wondered what, if anything he had done at an EU level.

And what do we find? That he was the President of the EU's Environment Council which pushed through the Kyoto Protocol.

Spanish Minister of Environment Jaume Matas, as President of the Council of Ministers of Environment of the European Union, noted that "the fact that today we can come to the United Nations to announce that the European Union has fulfilled its political commitment regarding the Kyoto Protocol, is not a simple administrative act, nor is it even political. Rather, it is the expression of the conviction of the millions of citizens of the European Union that the Kyoto Protocol is the best instrument available for working together to achieve our common goal, and their commitment to it...

Minister Matas went on to say that "the European Union's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol is a clear indication that, with enough political will and collective social effort, the challenges of our time complex though they may be can be addressed successfully through instruments of multilateral cooperation".

The simultaneous ratification by the EU and its Member States shows once again that the EU is exercising leadership in addressing this global environmental problem. To this effect, the Minister called on "the international community to support a speedy entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, without a doubt one of the most effective instruments in advancing toward the new model of development we all aspire to, a model of sustainable development".

Just the sort of chap who you would expect to be forcing through a gigantic fraud.

There's no Fule like an young Füle

Štefan Füle is the rather appropriately named European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy. He has just decided that Croatia should join the EU club without any serious checking of its levels of corruption. At least no long term monitoring,

Bulgaria and Romania's EU accession in January 2007 was accompanied by a monitoring mechanism designed to guide those countries' progress in the field of law enforcement, but Croatia should join without such a tool,

Sounds like a brilliant idea to me.He gpoes on with a level of sanguinity that makes me blush,

"Many lessons have been learned" from past enlargements, Füle said, adding that the focus is now on "benchmarks" for closing negotiating chapters and guaranteeing that the EU hopeful is fully prepared to join the bloc.

Asked whether "lessons learned" did not in fact mean learning from mistakes made in 2007, when Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU without having fully complied with its requirements, the commissioner replied, "no, I think that the whole enlargement was generally a success".

There were no problems in Bulgaria, none at all.

As a result of investigations into the management of EU funds in the bloc's most recent and poorest newcomer, the EU report will confirm that it has banned four Bulgarian agencies from handling EU funds because of corruption, freezing nearly 1 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in pre-accession aid and threatening future payments.

In leaked statements reprinted earlier this week, EU investigators said that, among other discrepancies, they had found that Bulgaria had misused money from EU farm aid projects worth some 32 million euros.

The EU report described a "criminal network" of more than 50 Bulgarian companies and foreign-based firms, centered on two businessmen with alleged ties to top Bulgarian politicians, the Focus news agency reported.

And naturally no issue in Romania either.

Maybe he should be called Štefan Blithering Idiot?

Rattled of Plymouth

Following the report last week of an attack on the UKIP offices in Plymouth, it appear that the politically motivated vandals are at it again.

VANDALS have once again targeted a UK Independence Party office on Mutley Plain.
For the second time in a week, vandals smashed the window at the front of the premises.

With one of the Plymouth seats being a four way marginal it appears that some of the establishment must be getting a little restless.

UKIP News Review

National

The biggest thing for UKIP today is the appearence of Nigel Farage on Hardtalk with Simon Sakur. As you would expect it is an in depth and difficult interview. If that was hard, then watch out for the first edition of this season's Have I Got News for You on Thursday.

The behaviour of MEPs, particularly those involved in regulating our biggest industry, the city, is displayed in the Times today,

Gallic charm was lost in translation

Jean-Paul Gauzès “is a professional European politician from the top of his head right down to the tips of his toenails”. It says so on his official website. As a member of the European Parliament, he was in London the other day to give the City a briefing on the directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers. This professional politician conducted the briefing in French. He admitted that this was only his second visit to London in his 60-something years and he was off after lunch, as soon as he decently could. And he wouldn’t be too triste if hundreds of jobs went among London hedge funds and private equity managers. “I thought this was supposed to be a charm offensive,” breathed one hedgie.

Rather shows the contempt that they hold for us doesn't it?

Elsewhere
John Bufton had a letter in the Wales on Sunday about the absurdly named Miaow Miaow (or rather better M-Kat)

"Drug and alcohol services have reported a large number of calls from youngsters using mephedrone. But talk of an immediate ban by the Government is highly premature thanks to EU rules which would stall such a move. Under the EU Technical Standards and Regulations Directive 98/34/EC the Government has to give the EU at least three months notification before it can change British legislation. I find it disgusting that the substance is already outlawed in many European member states but European law means it is impossible to enforce an immediate ban in the UK."

Bloom has a letter printed (not online) in the Grimsby Telegraph,

"Having been firmly warned that more than a couple of eggs a week was extremely bad for us, if not downright lethal, now we are being told to eat as many of the little blighters as we fancy. Turns out that they are not going to result in cholesterol-induced heart attacks after all and are, in fact, an excellent protein-dense food full of marvellous dietary goodies."

Old stories come back
Firstly the fact that the authorities are fingerprinting children at schools without parental permission is reported in the Mail and the Telegraph. Godfrey Bloom was campaigning against this years ago, so I suppose we should be glad somebody has noticed.

The other one is the financial an procurement disastor that is Airbus Industries military plane systems. Now we have the A330 tanker aircraft being trashed by the NAO as well as a cut in the order for A400 M - heavy lift craft.

Meanwhile in Green world we learn that that poster boy of panic, the gulf stream isn't under the threat suggested by the alarmists.

And it is mae clear that the Alamists have lost the political arguement (if not yet entirely the scientific one). James Lovelock he of Gaia and the high priest of global warming announces in the Guardian that democracy cannot be trustedOne of the main obstructions to meaningful action is "modern democracy", he added.

"Even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while."

The scary thing is he, and many like him are serious.

They. Just. Don't. Get. It.
They are a threat to freedom, peace and civilisation. They are the cancer in our midst.

And as an amusing aside it seems that Mr Bercow has been authorising Private dicks.

UKIP News Review

National news

Despite a number of requests yesterday there are no hits in the National news that I can find, if anybody else manages, be sure to let me know.

I missed the Economist writig up the Buckingham election last week,

Mr Bercow also faces a serious challenge from UKIP’s Mr Farage. A vote for him, Mr Farage says, is a vote for a clean man untainted by Westminster politics: “There are no big parties to vote for and the speaker who is seeking re-election is the symbol of the current political class.”

They are a little disdainful of Farage's comments to Van Rompuy, but they are the voice of the establishment, so what would one expect? However veteran political commentator, Vernan Bogdanor sees the possibility of an upset,

Vernon Bogdanor, a professor of government at Oxford University, reckons that Mr Bercow is vulnerable. “The authority of the political class was undermined by the expenses scandal, and the authority of the role of speaker shattered,” he says. He thinks it unfair that voters in the speaker’s constituency are disenfranchised, and proposes that the speaker, once elected, be shunted to a “notional constituency”, triggering a by-election in his original one.

Bogdanor seems to support Bercow's suggestion that the speaker should not need to fight elections. Which of course would be a travesty.

Things that we should be looking at,
In the Sun there is a double page spread about the failures of the Government's immigration policy. Coming from a Tory supporting paper it is no surprise to discover that it doesn't think that the mass of EU immigration is sucha bad idea, but the bald numbers of their poll show a different story.

The Express highlights another immigration/benefits scandal. Gerard Batten has pointed out that "this amounts to us creating an intenational benefits system, just as we no have an International Health Service", the bills to be picked up, as ever by the poor benited British taxpayer.

BRITISH taxpayers are paying out millions of pounds for pregnant Polish women and other migrants to give birth in Eastern European hospitals under controversial EU benefit rules.
The EU scheme, adopted in 2007, means the NHS must pay for the maternity costs of migrant workers who have lived or worked in the UK even if they return home.

And the number of women taking advantage of this costly scheme has ballooned – landing taxpayers with a £2million bill last year. Last night there was growing anger that hard-working British families had to pick up bills from across Europe.

The Daily Mail reveals, maybe, why it is that Dave Cameron's Conservatives are so gung ho for wind farms.

How SamCam's super-rich father is coining £3.5m from taxpayer... to fund wind turbines

As Bob Woodward was told, "Follow the Money".
Janet Street Porter warns of the dangers of the NHS Spine, something I have been banging on about for a while now. She goes into it in some depth and ends,

We have not been consulted about SCRs, just inflicted with them. The money and effort being poured into this bonkers scheme would keep more wards open and pay for extra nurses at a time when the NHS has drawn up secret plans for £20billion worth of cuts

Quite.

The Guardian talks about a Wind Farm factory to be built in the UK. It screams (well it is the Gurdain) it raises its voice to state that 700 jobs might be created - with a possible 1,500 more in "the supply chain". However the announcement is couched with less than subtle demand for even more tax breaks for the industry.
Winds farms just don't blow without the pump being primed and continually serviced with dollops of taxpayers cash.

The move comes despite claims made today by the EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, that the UK tax system is still stacked against manufacturing and needs a shake-up if the economy is to become less geared towards financial services.

The Guardian also flags up the creation of an EU Energy super regulator,

Brussels is pressing ahead with plans to establish an energy agency which is seen as a prototype European regulator. The body could eventually restrict national policymaking but could also give important impetus to North Sea wind power and developing a European "supergrid".

You see that little comment "restrict national policy making"? Oh how Brussels.

The Telegraph has,as ever Ambrose in his Monday column pointing out that last week's deal on teh Greek crisis agreed in Brussels wasn't about Greece at all, but about Germany, a point furthered by an interesting comment piece in the Times by Josef Joffe.

Rhodri Morgan, when retired means idiotic

It appears the former leader of the Welsh Assembly, has as a way of keeping his brain cells ticking over taken up the role of Chairman of the European Affairs Committee of the Welsh Assembly.

Maybe it would be more useful if he took up kniting, or brisk walks with his dog along the Pembrokeshire coast path.

Mr Morgan is convinced the conditions are not yet in place to allow the next Google to be created within the E

Stating the bleedin' obvious seems a forte.

“All of these big new companies like Microsoft, Yahoo and eBay and Google and Amazon are [based in ] Seattle or San Francisco.

“Now, somehow or other we don’t have a Seattle or San Francisco where new e-economy jobs can be generated.”

Try EU regulation, just for starters you gerontophool, then he defends EU funs for poorer Welsh regions,

Mr Morgan also said he expects West Wales and the Valleys will qualify for a new round of European funding. He argued that any suggestion that poorer regions in richer member states should not receive direct funding must be “strangled at birth”.

Now, very slowly as you put your ear trumpet in Mr Morgan,
If we didn't give the money to Brussels in the first place there would be more money for Wales. It would come back with great chunks lopped off by the bureacracy.

And finally lease explain the sucess of John Bufton last year in the light of this,

Mr Morgan is also convinced that the Welsh do not share the loathing of Europe found in other parts of the UK. He said: “There’s never been the hostility to the European Union in Wales that there has been in England and Scotland and Northern Ireland, to be honest... People saw Europe as a rich uncle who was going to help you develop new jobs as an alternative to the jobs you were losing in mining and steel.

“It was never seen as, ‘These are the people who are crippling your fishing industry’.”

UKIP News Review

National News

Derek Clark MEP reveals to the Express (two front pages in two days, well done team) a great junket to Tenerife on the part of MEPs from all the establishment parties.

In Europe sucked in by Europe it seems guys. The ACP trip to the Canaries is a vital use of yyour time this close to an election. And yes they are discussing Climate Change, Bananas and EU control of imigration,

Derek points out the hypocrisy,

Critics last night branded it “hypocritical” to fly delegations thousands of miles – creating some 200 tons in carbon emissions – to discuss saving the planet. UKIP Euro-MP Derek Clark said: “MEPs from all three establishment parties are off on a junket with taxpayers’ cash, pouring tons of carbon into the atmosphere.”

Simon Hoggart in the Guardian is suprisingly kind about Farage's book,

Compared with Ukip, the Labour party is as placid as a Buddhist ashram. I have been, somewhat to my surprise, greatly enjoying Fighting Bull, the memoirs of Nigel Farage, until recently Ukip's leader. The book is very funny, often written in sulphuric acid, mostly when describing his colleagues, such as the hilarious Robert Kilroy-Silk. His descriptions of the self-indulgent, atrophied, bureaucracy-crazed, gourmandising, feeble and febrile workings of the European parliament are terrific. And I liked his account of arriving there:

"My first live media interview was with Phil Hornby of Meridian TV. 'Well, Nigel,' he said, 'you said you'd do it and you've done it. From now on it's going to be endless lunches, lavish dinners, and champagne receptions. Will you be corrupted by the lifestyle?'

"'No,' I told him with a shrug and a grin. 'I've always lived like that.' "

I finished the book on the train yesterday and will post my own review shortly.

The International Business Times flags up Lord Pearson's response to the Budget.

Elsewhere
Stuart Agnew's comments about Egg production make the Farmer's Weekly. An expert view on a serious subject.

Other stuff

Janet Daley pulls her hair out in the Telegraph, pointing to George Osborne's dire performance on the Today program.

What became clear was that the Tories simply were not willing to enunciate any clear, concise distinction between their approach to the economic crisis and that of the Government. Talking in vague terms of energy and vision (time for a change) cuts no ice against the proposition that Labour clearly intends to put at the centre of its election campaign: we are the grown-up, responsible team who have seen you through this crisis - so the last thing you want is change for its own sake. If the Conservatives cannot even describe the basic philosophical shift they have in mind, and make a persuasive case for it, why should anyone choose to take a chance on them?

Good qustion Janet, and one to which your commentors seem only too willing to supply an answer.

For th final word, I go back to the Express, this time their editorial
"The cost of belonging to the EU is too high" it states,

Proposals, backed by France and Germany, to create an “economic government of the EU” headed by the unelected European President Herman Van Rompuy are extremely alarming.

At worst they will result in the final removal of sovereignty from all EU member nations. At best they will prove that any country joining the euro must cede control over its tax and spending policy as well as its interest and exchange rates.

This will come as no surprise to those who always understood that a single currency could not possibly work without a single, all-powerful government at its heart.

In any event, this new package of powers for Brussels shows that the price demanded of EU members in terms of the loss of national democratic accountability is being raised yet again.

Britain already pays a heavy financial price for its membership and the benefits bestowed by belonging are increasingly hard to identify. So an awkward question that none of the so-called “mainstream” parties wishes to address is raised: wouldn’t it be better to leave?

As The Express knows only too well only one party offers any hope of that and that is UKIP.

Ice Cream - Sun dried on the steppes of Patagonia

Which is what I have just been offered by a lagubrious trolley monger on a train near Abergavenny.
He then was asked for a cup of tea,

"Tippy Assam, Chinese gunpowder, Darjeeling, English Breakfast?"

"English please".

"Lucky that, they didn't put the others on the trolley this mnorning"

He went on to regale the tale of the Welsh colonisation of Southern Argentina, setting off from Liverpool on the Minerva to escape persecution, interjecting offers of fine claret all the while.

Rather brightened the day

UKIP News review

National News

Paul Nuttall reveals plans for Europol to spy on us for such things as Euroscepticism and climate denialism. The Express in their fashion create the front page headline,

NEW EU GESTAPO SPIES ON BRITONS

As he says,

Paul Nuttall, chairman of the UK Independence Party, said: “I am horrified. We thought Gordon Brown’s Big Brother state was bad enough but at least we are going to kick him out in May. These guys we cannot sack until we leave the EU.”

Nigel Farage is in the Daily Mail, (2 in two days?)talking about the Franco/German plans to create an inclusive European Economic Government.

UK Independence Party MEP Nigel Farage said: 'When they cannot even deal with the problems of Greece without resorting to outside help it is absurd to suggest anyone is going to go along with the idea of creating an economic government of Europe. They are living in fantasy land.'

The fatuous comment from the Treasury

A senior Government source said last night: 'We support stronger co-ordination of economic policy in Europe, but there are some semantic issues here.
'No one is talking about taking powers away from member states. There is no prospect of Mr Van Rompuy standing at the Chancellor's Despatch Box delivering the Budget.'

Either shows ignorance or arrogance. Ignorance of the true nature of EU governance which hollows out soveriegnty leaving a carapace of independence with national Chancellor's parroting lines not written in London or Copenhagen but drafted n Brussels and Frankfort. But of course it knows that, so instead it is arrogance thinking that this will baffle the British people into believing that the country still has a say in how it is governed.

Elsewhere

Vandals attack UKIP office in Plymouth.A VANDAL attack on the premises of the UK

Independence Party on Mutley Plain could be linked to a slur published on social networking site Twitter, says one of its parliamentary candidates.
The fist-sized missile smashed the outer window of the shop during Wednesday night.
Andrew Leigh, UKIP candidate for Plymouth Sutton, said the attack appeared to be politically motived because the concrete smashed through the party's logo. The damage would cost hundreds of pounds to repair.

Nice, but UKIP are fighting hard down there in a four way marginal so some of the establishment may be getting a little worried.

Paul Nuttal is punting himself around the North West local press talking about Climate Change and opening a new office in Bootle.

Godfrey Bloom is picked up by Rob Langston, the FT blogger laying into the daft plans of the Commission to regulate the Hedge Fund industry,

Mr Bloom said there were many in the industry that failed to understand the extent to which new regulation proposed by the European Commission would have on the financial services industry.
He said: "The concept of regulation of the City of London moving to Brussels is enormous. People don't seem to be talking about his at all.
"The problem of moving it to Brussels is that everything they regulate is a disaster, I think it will have a very detrimental effect on innovation on the City of London."I would argue that there is a degree of concern that it is not being taken very seriously."
Mr Bloom said London firms could start looking for bases outside the EU's regulatory regime, such as Switzerland.

He said: "There is a fundamental misunderstanding [by the European parliament], financial services is about risk/reward. What we have is the Commission trying to remove risk from financial services."

Errr... quite.

A letter writer takes issue with an attack printed on us printed in the Exeter Express and Echo
UKIP candidate in Carlisle has an interesting local campaign going on, Mark Owen is asking people what they think.
Meanwhile Freddie Forsyth in the Express is a litle bit conflicted. First he complains that independents standing in Buckingham are going to queer Farage's pitchas he tries to unseat Speaker Bercow,
In Buckingham we have a rock-solid Tory seat now held by Mr Speaker Bercow, who has made himself hugely unpopular. By tradition the major parties will not stand against the Speaker. But opportunist ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage is standing, and might even have toppled the Speaker in his own bailiwick, the only conceivable chance of a UKIP candidate appearing in the Commons.
Now three more are standing as Independents. There were only ever going to be two kinds of voter – pro-Bercow and anti-Bercow. Now the anti-Bercow vote will be split four ways and Mr Speaker is guaranteed to keep his seat.

The addition of the other candidates certainly makes the election in Buckingham hard to call, but we believe that people like John Stevens are taking votes from Bercow, but votes who would never vote UKIP, thus making life a little easier not harder, so we can agree to differ with Mr Forsyth. However he gets things utterly wrong on the broader picture.

The biggest Tory vote-splitter by far is UKIP, which is now an anti-Conservative vote-wrecker pure and simple. I calculate that about 80 per cent of UKIP voters would have voted Conservative without a candidate and the 20 per cent real headbangers would stay at home.
If Cameron does not make Downing Street it will be because their vote in up to 40 reclaimable seats has been split and wrecked by UKIP and a slew of wannabes trying (and failing) to emulate Martin Bell as Tatton’s Mister Integrity. None of the above shows up in those opinion polls that send our TV pundits into such a frenzy.

Now UKIP will definately take votes off the Tories, well after the rusting of the cast iron guarantees about an EU referendum, when they show a mad desire to press ahead with climate alarmist lunacy, when they propose to tax banks without thinking of the consequences why on earth shouldn't people vote for what they believe in, rather than for a party that has consistently let them down. What Freddie doesn't seem to realise is that in the north and Midlands most UKIP votes do not necessarily come from former Tories. We are picking up disillusioned forme Labour just as much ( an ex-Labour MP has just offered to help campaign for example).
As for suggesting that we do not appear in the polls, well we are consistently picking up upwards of 5,6,7,

Un Grand Projet

At today's Council meeting in Brussels, Joshua Chaffin is blooging for the FT, and he has picked up something rather concerning,

“We’re going through a bit of a down period,” a wise senior diplomat lamented, with characteristic understatement.
What might lift Europe out of its spring funk? A gust of economic growth would make everything look better. A credible and coordinated Greece plan would also help. Beyond that, the sage diplomat suggested that it was time for Europe to embark on a grand project, something akin to the euro or Schengen.

Seems like something to keep the minds of the masses occupied. Chafin suggests Healthcare, but points out we have socialised health already.

So my bet is a fully functioning European Army.
Ee Gad that is scary.

Are you scared yet?

Into the Climate arguement comes this little prize offering from MeteoGroup a private weather forecasting outfit owned by the people behind PA,
Who publish this today,

VOLCANIC ERUPTION COULD WIPE OUT SUMMER

Yes and I could get hit by a metorite.

In 1815 there was a massive volcanic eruption on the island of Sumbawa
in Indonesia when Mount Tambora ejected millions of tonnes of dust, ash
and gas into the atmosphere.

It was the biggest volcanic eruption ever known, and the ejected
particles could have filled more than 100 cubic kilometres. Instead they
were spread by winds widely around the globe and had a devastating
effect on the weather in the northern hemisphere.

The culprit was not the cloud of dust and ash but sulphur dioxide, which
volcanoes can belch forth in vast quantities. It combines with water
vapour in the atmosphere to form a mist of sulphuric acid which reflects
a lot of sunlight away from the Earth.

The consequent drop in temperatures caused what became known as "the
year with no summer" in 1816. Crops failed due to low daytime
temperatures, late frosts and abnormally high rainfall, provoking food
riots, famine and disease. In Ireland rain fell on 142 days that summer,
and across France the grape harvest was virtually non-existent.

In North America there was snow in June, and lakes and rivers froze as
far south as Pennsylvania during July and August.

The role of vulcanism on the weather and short-term climate is sometimes
overlooked. Although this is an extreme example, something similar had
occurred just 32 years previously and rather closer to home.

In 1783 Laki volcano in Iceland erupted. The effects were less
widespread and seem to have been confined to the northern half of the
northern hemisphere. The thick pall of gases virtually wiped out the
summer of that year across much of Europe and North America, and a
particularly harsh winter followed.

The great naturalist Gilbert White wrote that "the sun, at noon, looked
as blank as a clouded moon, and shed a rust-coloured ferruginous light
on the ground and floors of rooms; but was particularly lurid and
blood-coloured at rising and setting."

Benjamin Franklin - statesman, polymath and "America's first
meteorologist" - also remarked upon these occurrences in 1784. "During
several of the summer months of the year 1783," he said, "when the
effect of the sun's rays to heat the Earth in these northern regions
should have been greater, there existed a constant fog over all Europe
and a great part of North America".

Geologists, seismologists and vulcanologists are currently monitoring
events in southern Iceland very closely, following the eruption of
Eyjafjallajokull for the first time in nearly 200 years. Although
dangerous to those nearby, this was a relatively small event but
geophysicists fear that it could trigger a much larger explosion of
nearby Mount Katla.

Katla is described as "enormously powerful", and because it lies under a
glacier its eruption would cause a huge glacial outburst flood - a
jokulhlaup in Icelandic. Moreover, it is possible that it could spread
its shadow over a much larger area, even though the last major
eructation in 1918 had no clear influence on the weather.

It is therefore not possible to say that it would have anything like the
ramifications of Laki or Tambora. Even so, anybody wishing for a hot
summer this year or next might hope that Katla does not blow. More
pertinently, so will the people of southern Iceland.

Run to the hills.

UKIP News review

Nationals

farage has spread himself about today, with a important story in the Daily Mail about the fact that if the UK authorities wish to ban this so called new drug, Mephendrone they cannot with first getting permission from the EU authorities due to an obscure piece of EU regulation.

The Prime Minister yesterday said the Government was 'determined to act to prevent this evil hurting the young people of this country', following a string of deaths linked to mephedrone, also known as meow meow.
But the UK Independence Party last night dealt a blow to Mr Brown's announcement with the unearthing of an EU directive which will significantly slow down the move.
Under the EU Technical Standards and Regulations Directive 98/34/EC, the Government has to give the EU at least three months' notification before it
can change British legislation.
UKIP spokesman Nigel Farage said: 'The Government is kidding the people but it simply can't act without an EU-enforced delay.
'This useless government needs to tell the EU to back off from controlling or delaying British legislation.'

This story is important for two reasons, firstly it highlights the impotence of the government and the ignorance of our governors about how much they already ceeded power to Brussels, and secondly on a purely UKIP party political note, it is the first time the rabidly Tory Mail has credited us with anything for ages.
The Youtube of Farage speaking about this is below.

The email that sent me this video was titled,

"Nigel on Mephedrone"

Now would be a funny sight.
He is in the Telegraph as well, talking about the latest harmonisation plan from the EU, harmonising European divorce laws.

Elsewhere
Bloom gets in to the York Press talking about prisons,

Though not strictly UKIP, indeed in part anti/UKIP, a letter from ever excellent Ronald Stewart Brown in the Telegraph spells out a cogent position.

In the extract from his new book Bad Laws (Comment, March 22), Philip Johnston rightly fears “the insidious accretion of power to a benign and democratic state, through the use of the legislative process to restrict what we do and shape who we are”.

We were warned of this before we joined the European Community. In his Reith Lectures in 1972, later published as Europe: Journey to an Unknown Destination, Andrew Shonfield described how Georges Vedel, the French European parliamentarian, had told him: “What you British will have to learn when you are in the Community is what it means to live inside a precisely defined legal system. The Community is in its very essence a system of laws. Once a particular responsibility has been transferred by law to an identified agency of the Community, that agency does not have the right to hand it over to anyone else.”

As 70 per cent of our laws come from Brussels, it is not unreasonable to see the EU as a major part of the problem. The question is what to do about it. We could not leave the EU without leaving the single market, which no new government could sensibly propose against the opinion of organs of the business establishment such as the Institute of Directors and the CBI.

The Ukip solution of a Swiss-style free- trade agreement with the EU would not work as it would mean losing free movement of goods, a vital feature of the single market for all benefiting from UK-EU trade. I base this view on interviews with some 120 leading businessmen and others with knowledge of the subject.

If a Conservative government eventually considers an alternative to full EU membership, the solution is likely to be negotiating a bilateral customs union agreement with the EU. It would preserve free movement of goods, albeit at the cost of staying in the EU tariff band for most merchandise trade, and could attract the happy label: “Staying in Europe for trade”.

We would argue that to create a customs union that he suggests we would first have to leave the EU. It would only then be possible to move to a more beneficial elationship.

A cunning plan

One nice ripost to the clunkingly hamfisted attempt to control people's lives in today's Times. The suggestion from ranks of high falutinn doctory types that smoking should not just be banned but seen to be banned,

John Britton, the report’s lead author, said that new measures could include banning parents from smoking at school gates, but added that it would be difficult to legislate for situations such as family parties in private gardens. “This report isn’t just about protecting children from passive smoking, it’s about taking smoking completely out of children’s lives. Adults need to think about who’s seeing them smoke.”

The ripost comes from a commentator on Dizzy's blog,

What we need is a some sort of public house where only consenting adults go where people can smoke away from children.
We could call them 'pubs'.

Judgeing from the 300 plus comments on the Time's site their suggestion has not gone down too well.

UKIP News review

Nationals

Gerard Batten gets his mugshot into the Express talking about the court decision that allows EU nationals to claim UK child benefits for children back at home,

But Gerard Batten, UKIP MEP for London warned more EU nationals would come
to the UK, which ranks as one of the highest paying countries in Europe for
child benefit.

In a comparison of 22 countries by the Department for Work and Pensions, Portugal was described as a “laggard” in child benefit packages.

Mr Batten said: “We were already paying child benefit for children living abroad, and now EU citizens themselves on benefits in the UK can claim child benefit for children they left at home.“We already provide an international health service that treats people from all over the world, and now we will provide an international benefits service. Many EU citizens will naturally gravitate to those countries with the most generous benefits systems – especially Britain. How can a country that is £1.5trillion in debt pay benefits to the children of non-citizens who live abroad? It’s completely bonkers.”

William Dartmouth brings up the European arrest Warrant in the Independent,

"Two south-west constituents have just been released from prison in Hungary. They had been in jail for 115 days in Budapest without proper charge. The legal mechanism by which they were carted off from their homes to jail in Hungary was the Liberal Democrat-authored European Arrest Warrant, which replaces extradition. Many more British voters will suffer from the European Arrest Warrant. Less seriously, at the European Parliament on 10 March the Liberal Democrat Chair (Diana Wallis MEP) had me thrown out of the Chamber for making the entirely legitimate and valid political comment: that the appointment of the "supremely unqualified" Catherine Ashton as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security is "bizarre"."

And in the Daily Mail Ephrahim Hardcastle talks about the camilla Long article, even quoting me in the piece.

Elsewhere
The Farage/Long article gets follow up in Londoners Diary

Paul Nuttall has a swipe at those dire Climate Change adverts in the Southport Visiter,
John Bufton has a letter in the Daily Post attacking Plaid,

"What Plaid keep rather cutely referring to as a "cleaning up exercise" is indeed a plan to mop up as much taxpayers money as possible then sell our
country to Brussels. It will be a blow by blow, treaty by treaty effort. Anyone
who denies that further Devolution is a stepping stone for independence has
clearly missed the rhetoric of our self interested Assembly Government. Be
careful what you wish for"

Godders gets some backing in the Grimsby Evening Telegraph

"How absurd that the European Court of Human Rights is insisting on "votes for serving prisoners' ...Well done Godfrey Bloom MEP for speaking up on behalf of the "normal majority"."

And Sir George Earle writes to the Plymouth Herald, still on the Arrest Warrant

Inappropriate use of arrest warrant "This piece of European Union legislation, which Graham Watson, the single Lib-Dem MEP for the South West, is so proud to have steered through the European Parliament is, as he has said, meant to be for really serious international crime...Fortunately for them (the two jailed in Hungary), William Earl of Dartmouth, the second of the two UKIP MEPs in the South West, actively pursued their case in London, the European Parliament and in Budapest and, as you reported, they have just been released - roughly turned out on to the street without apology or explanation. This is the sort of 1984-style treatment we are all now liable to, thanks to Mr. Watson and the EU federalists running the three main parties here."

And on the party web page is the wecome announcement that Tim Congdon CBE will be standing for us in the Forest of Dean.

The award goes to...

Whoever has slagged off UKIP.

Trixy points me to the Press awards held last night and brings my attention to two of the winners.

Camilla Long as intereviewer of the year

Tanya Gold as Feature writer of the year.

Of course as readers here may well know, Ms Long was responsible for the vicious piece in the Sunday Times with its unhealthy focus on the contents of Mr Farage's underwear.

And Tanya Gold wrote the contemptous screed in Saturday's Telegraph.

Seems like digging into UKIP is a sure fire way to gain lautrels and plaudits in the establishment.

When Nigel met Yves

I was having a quiet post work drink last night in O'Farrells bar in the lee of the European Parliament. This pub, the closet one to the Parliament is the nearest thing to a British pub for miles so has, unsurprisingly become the home away from home for the UKIP team. Indeed so much so that when the BNP tried to drink there we told the bar staff that we would have to sdrink elsewhere. Fearing for his cashflow the publican barred the BNP.

Anyway, there I am having my quiet drink and I get a tap on my shoulder. One of the regulars asked me where Farage was.
"Next door having some food, why?"
"Well, Yves Leterme the Belgian PM has just walked past you into the back bar".

You see, Leterm had got a little upset by Farage's desciption of Belgium as a non country,

His comments provoked a letter of complaint from Belgium's Prime Minister, Yves Leterme, to the president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek. "As a Belgian politician, I must react against this damaging intervention... and the impolite comments about Belgium," Mr Leterme protested. He called on Mr Buzek to end "these kinds of incidents" in a bid to protect "the interests of my citizens, which cannot be underestimated".

Maybe I should introduce them. So after agreeing with the bar staff we would let the fellow at least finish his drink - after all he had come to a bar in the Euro bubble no doubt so he could have a drink in peace where nobody would recognise him Farage turned up.

We went to the back and there he was just finishing his drink with a couple of parliamentary staffers.
"Good evening Prime Minister".
The look of horror on the staffer's faces was a picture.
"Good evening Mr Farage"
"I am sorry that I am unable to apologise to you for what I said, after all you said much the same in 2006"

Mr Leterme had famously said that Belgium

is an "accident of history" and that the only things Belgians have in common are "the King, the football team, some beers" lent to this fear.

He had also described the French speaking Walloonian Belgians as, "intellectually not capable of learning Dutch".

"That is entirely different", said Leterme.
"Really how", asked Farage.
"It is different and I am having a drink"
"Well enjoy the drink", said Farage. "and I will learn the Belgian national Anthem".

They smiled and shook hands.

The Carbon Cracks

Hugely important news comes pout of France, reported on PA,

France has backed down from a plan to tax carbon dioxide emissions that had been central to its push for a more prominent role in the fight against climate change.
The plan, launched by president Nichola Sarkozy with much fanfare last September, has been stalled since being ruled unconstitutional in December.
Mr Sarkozy's government had insisted a reworked tax would go into force by July.
Leading conservative Jean-Francois Cope said after meeting the prime minister that they agreed that any carbon tax "would be Europe-wide or not (exist) at all," instead of being a French-only tax.

This is huge news, particularly in the light of the reasons given,

Many within Mr Sarkozy's own conservative party said the opposite and it would disadvantage French companies compared to European rivals.
Among the French, surveys show around two-thirds of people opposed the measure.

Of course it shows the short sightedness of the EU's political leadership. France wants to be competitive inside the EU. Britain must be competitive outside the EU. Or as Godfrey Bloom MEP said,

"Of course that is economic madness". said Bloom. France wants to make itself competitive in the EU, Britain must be competitive in the world".

Sadly of course, he went on "in Britain the three establishment parties would prefer to sacrifice our economy on the altar of climate alarmism".

The Wall Street Journal at least notes the issue. And the FT has some more detail,

François Fillon, prime minister, told a meeting of centre-right parliamentarians
that France would not penalise its industry by introducing the tax unilaterally.
“All decisions taken on the issue of sustainable development must be analysed in the light of our competitiveness,” Mr Fillon told the deputies. “We want the decisions to be taken in common with other European countries otherwise we are going to see a growing shortfall in our competitiveness.”
The decision to ditch the tax divided the government. Chantal Jouanno, the junior minister for the environment, lashed out at the decision saying she “despaired of this retreat”.
Since an EU-wide carbon tax is unlikely to gain approval in months ahead, if at all – the Swedish government pushed the idea with little success during its EU presidency last year – the French levy has, in effect, been shelved.

UKIP News review

Marta Andreasen kicks out at European Parliamentary excess in the Express,

UK Independence Party Euro MP Marta Andreasen said: “The European institutions are preaching economy for all except themselves. In difficult financial times, taxpayers are expected to dig even deeper to finance vanity projects, private cars and more junkets. How much more gravy does Europe want on the gravy train?”

Also in the Express Frank Maloney points out the madness pof the Olympic ticket sales being ringfenced for EU citizens, "It's the London Olympics, not the Brussels Olympics has says,

Officials confirmed the 75 per cent of tickets allocated to the British public will be open to anyone living in the EU.

Boxing promoter Frank Maloney, who is standing for UKIP in Barking, said: “Who does ­Brussels think is paying for the Olympics? We should have a system that ­British taxpayers get reductions, not having to fight with any European for the privilege of seeing the games.”

Elsewhere
We have John Bufton continuing to sell his E-surgery in the Western Telegraph.
And a new candidate announced in Walthamstow, welcome Judith Benli,

English as the sea's lingua franka

Wierdly according to Justin Stares in the Lloyd's List the European Parliament have done something sensible,

EURO MPs are resisting a proposal to establish English as the lingua franca in all communication between ship and port. MEPs of different nationalities are seeking to water down the requirement, which would “provide for the use of English as the working language” as far as ship formalities are concerned.

Whilst all communications in the air are conducted in English this refusal makes some sense. OK, it is being done mostly to spite the Anglo-saxon world, but tant pis. To force all communication into English would be a retrograde step. It would impact upon pilots the world over. Pilots as a matter of copurse need to be expert in the waters surrounding their own ports, Englsih is a secondary concern. If all ships of all nationalities were forced to use English then language skills would take precedence over local knowledge increasing dangedrs to shipping.
It would be nice of they could all speak English of course, and for that matter if all navies, merchant and military, in the world could do so, but when a French ship enters a French port it is more important that the pilot knows exactly where the shoals are than if he can speak English.

UKIP News review

National news

Marta Andreasen is noted by Bruno Waterfield in the Telegraph (print edition)

"Britain has promised to resist an increase in the European Parliament's budget that raises the cost of each MEP to a level four times higher than a Westminster MP. European Union officials have proposed a £119million budget increase next year, taking the annual cost of the parliament to a record £1.6billion...The planned 6.5 per cent increase in 2011 also breaks a 22-year-old promise by the parliament that the cost of MEPs would never be more than a fifth of the EU's total administrative budget...Marta Andreasen, a Ukip MEP and member of the budgetary control committee, accused Brussels of hypocrisy at a time when the EU is urging governments to implement cuts. "The European institutions are preaching economy for all except themselves...'"

Something I missed on Saturday is Diana Wallis's rather pompus response to the William Dartmouth affair,

As to the incident with the Earl of Dartmouth MEP, his microphone was cut off, not because of his views on Arctic policy, but because of a series of personal attacks on Baroness Ashton – who was sitting yards away in the chamber – which I, as vice-president of the parliament, considered unparliamentary. Simon Hoggart should know that even the great Erskine May on behaviour in the Commons now leaves to the Speaker the discretion to determine what constitutes unparliamentary language in that place.

Well yes, she does, but that calling somebody the 'Sarah Palin of the ex-student left' hardly counts as an egregious insult now does it?

Elsewhere
Nigel Farage is in the Kent news

Wales on Sunday doesn't seem to approve of us, though its description ok UKIP policy (and its comprehension of the difference between a Friday and a weekend are somewhat awry.

Marta Andreasen is reported in the Olive Press (and Enmglish language Spanish paper) defending the rights of property owners.

Otherwise we have some reaction in the bloggosphere to the Nigel Farage interview in the Times,

Iain Dale isn't wildly impressed,
Eurosoc has a point, after all she descibes Farage's attack on Van Rompuy as 'abusive' yet then throws all caution to the wind with her own vitriol. Maybe she is just taking the Times' shilling and following up its complaints of the time. Hypocritical though.

Good day for it

The latest in a long line of Quangos is to be opened officially (or vested) on April 1st.

A new Marine Management Organisation (MMO) will make it easier to process
licences for projects from small jetties to large scale dredging operations.

Hilary Benn is telling us all about it,

I am pleased to announce the vesting of the Marine Management Organisation. This is an important step in the implementation of the ground-breaking Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. Delivering a range of marine functions on behalf of Government, the MMO will bring cohesion, consistency and clarity to the management of marine activities and become a world class leader in this area. I wish it every success.

Not that this has anything to do with the EU's own legislatuion, go and have a look at the Marine Act and see how much of it is driven by EU legislation. We have the

Water Framework Directive (that is to say, Directive 2000/60/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a
framework for Community action in the field of water policy);

and we have

“enforceable EU obligation” means an obligation to which section 2(1) of
the European Communities Act 1972 (c. 68)

b and we have

2) The Secretary of State may also give the MMO such general or specific directions as the Secretary of State considers appropriate for the implementation of any obligations of the United Kingdom under—
(a) the EU Treaties, or (b) any international agreement to which the United Kingdom or the European Union is for the time being a party.

And a whole range of others.

Considering that this Quango is being created to impose European law over our waters (esturies etc as well) then surely this is not so much an April Fool's joke as a Poisson d'Avril?

We must be doing something right

Well that can be the only conclusion to come to following the publication of one of the nastiest interviews I have ever read about a public figure.You get a good basic idea just from the title,

Nigel Farage: Brimming over with bile and booze

As you can tell, balanced and reasonable from the start. It opens with,

I’m quite relieved that Nigel Farage MEP has only one testicle.

What on earth is Camilla Long of the Sunday Times suggesting? That he was about to jump her? Put it this way, the interview was conducted in a public place - my office. It was a little bit jokey, but all done with smiles and laughs.

The only bile visible is that dripping from Ms Long's pen. When Farage points out, talking about Baroness Ashton,

“Who is Herman Van Rompuy? Baroness Ashton [the EU high representative for foreign affairs] is even less well known. She never held elected office. She obviously ... married well.

So, an inside job, because her husband, Peter Kellner, is an old friend of Tony Blair? “Of course it is! I very much doubt she’s up to doing it. But the highest-paid female politician in the world is not going to resign.”

Her response?

He’s got a point, but I do wish he wouldn’t deliver it so odiously. But then, Farage is pretty odious: a shifty saloon-bar lizard.

What pray is odious about pointing out that the Baroness who rose without trace was the wife of a great Blair supporter? Nothing.

I will tell you what is odious. The fact that on Friday, just after Farage had delivered a barnstormer of a speech at the Milton Keynes conference I recieved a phone call. It was Camilla Long,

"Look Gawain", she said, "I am really sorry to ask you this but the editors have told me to",
"What's that?" I said,
"They want me to ask which one of his balls was removed after his cancer".

You want odious? I would suggest even asking that question is pretty bloody impertinent and cheap, and I told her so, but she persisted. So I agreed to ask, but told her not to expect a particularly forthcoming answer.

When I asked Farage, he was, unusually for him somewhat put out, but after saying that he though it a cheap shot he then he recovered his normal poise,
"Tell her if she is so bloody interested that she can come over and check herself".
So I called her back and told her, both that he felt is tawdry, but if she must then that is his coment.

Or as she puts it..

...two days later when I call his press officer to confirm which testicle he had removed. Farage has just given his party conference speech and is in high spirits. “Tell her to come and find out, ha-ha-ha!” he shouts over the din.

So do tell me, who is vile and odious?

UKIP news review

Given it was the UKIP Spring Conference yesterday it is no surprise that there are a number of articles in today's press. They range from brief, explanatory to frankly unhinged.

So I shall start with unhinged. And thus I take you the Telegraph's coverage. This a genre piece by Tanya Gold, who had obviously arrived with an article written in all but detail. Thus UKIP are a party of "little Englander"s, so you must have missed John Bufton's speech, one of the four Welsh MEPs elected last year? The, "ragtag army of bearded men and ancient ladies," is odd. Those attending the conference were indeed largely late middle aged white men, with a leavening of women and those from various minorities. But have you ever been to any other political party event, the mix is almost exactly the same. What you do not get at a UKIP conference is the army of young men and women paid to be there by corporate lobbyists. Nobody wants to buy UKIP, because we are not for sale.

"Most are festooned with UKIP balloons and sashes and rosettes. " I didn't see a single sash, and nobody was wearing balloons, rosettes I grant you. But in plitics that is, I believe quite normal.

Does it really take four parking attendants to put a ticket on Aggers’ car?”
What? I follow Farage’s gaze and look ut the window. Four parking attendants are ticketing a car. “That is what we are against,” says Farage, “Four parking attendants ticketing Aggers’ car.” And who is Aggers? “One of our MEPs.”

This I grant you did happen and was followed by the 4 parking attendents beating a retreat as a whole bunch of people went outside to photograph the overkill.

She feigns surpise that UKIP are fielding a significant number of ethnic minority candidates, which is odd. Why should people who live in Britain not care about it and its democracy? Lord Pearson's rejoinder that

“I haven’t totted up how many ethnic minority candidates we have,” says Lord
Pearson, “I’m not really interested.”

Sounds honest too, because frankly UKIP don't care, it is utterly unimportant. If we have candidates from Cornwall, or born in Jamaica, or Ulan Bator or wherever it is because they want to be involved, have been selected and are proud to represent us. Any thought that UKIP would specifically promote, any given sector of society cannot have met anybody from the party, any leaders who suggested such a thing would be lynched. We are happy about anybody joining us who is prepared to stand up for out country. Who they are and where they come from is an irrelevance.

And the other point of accuracy in the piece,

And, magically, Caroline, Lady Pearson, arrives. She is indeed beautiful – tall, blonde, slender... “I said you were more beautiful than Samantha Cameron,” Lord Pearson tells her. “Don’t say that,” his wife replies, “It’s so embarrassing.” “But you are,” says Lord Pearson.

Elsewhere the Times reports fairly though briefly, though longer online,

But for the first time, the party has developed policies across the range of Westminster responsibilities, proposing a law and order crackdown, with new rights for homeowners to defend their property, longer prison sentences, a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule for persistent offenders and repeal of the Human Rights Act.

UKIP has also committed to banning the burka and promoting a pro-British policy of ‘uniculturalism’ instead of ‘multiculturalism and political correctness’. Saving imperial weights and measures and a sceptical stance on global warming are also promised.

Once outside the EU, the party aims to build closer links to the Commonwealth and promote democracy around the world, including Tibet, Taiwan and Burma.

The party would allow private companies to bid to provide NHS services and the deputy leader, David Campbell Bannerman, promised to ‘bring back real matrons, not pretend ones’ with greater powers to keep hospitals free of super bugs.

The FT has an interesting interview with Lord Pearson,

I venture that Ukip is unlikely to play a big role in the national poll because it is still too much of a cranky single-issue party – an irritant on the edge of politics rather than a central player.

Pearson disagrees. “We have policies on lots of things,” he says. It is certainly true that Ukip is seeking to broaden its base by adopting a range of populist policies but this seems less of a coherent programme for government than a list of dog-whistle issues designed to lure away wavering Tories. A good example is Ukip’s education policy, which Pearson describes as follows: “Vouchers, grammar schools and abolish teacher training.”

The party has also taken up climate change. Pearson observes that a Mori poll in February showed that for the first time more British people did not believe in man-made climate change than believed in it. Ukip recruited Lord Monckton, a former adviser to Mrs Thatcher, to investigate and then published his paper, claiming that the science was flawed, and that the state should stop spending resources on cutting carbon emissions.

It is a fair minded interview and worth a read.

The Express gives a short report of Lord Pearson's speech.

BBC Online

"I don't want to be rude, but..."

It's not the UK Independence Party motto, but it could be.

"This is going to be the most boring, pointless, futile general election ever held in this country."

Moving on to Lord Pearson,

He's understated, but still passionate.

His twenty minute address was a mixture of conviction: "The plain fact is the only way we can address the problems of the economy and immigration is by leaving the EU" and campaigning advice: "Don't let people tell you on the doorstep a hung parliament is bad. A hung parliament is infinitely preferable to the rest of them," he said to cheers.

In a seperate piece the Beeb focus on a key detail of the speech,

The UK Independence Party will not stand against hardline Eurosceptic rivals in other parties at the general election, its leader has said.

Lord Pearson said he would ask "seven or eight" UKIP candidates to stand aside in seats where their rivals also wanted UK withdrawal from the EU.

Tory candidates are most likely to benefit but UKIP said its move would apply to Eurosceptic Labour hopefuls.

The plan would show the public that UKIP was "different", he argued.

The point is of course is that as a arty UKIP puts the country before tribal party loyalty. If there are MPs who are committed to leaving the EU, then it would be counter productive to work against them. But they cannot be fairweather friends like Shaun Bailey, Tory poster boy candidate, who recently told me 'sotto voce' that he though that Britain would be better off out of the EU. Good for you Shaunn, but don't tell me, tell the people of Hammersmith, or better still, tell David Cameron.

The Telegraph also cover the substance of the speech - online only - which is significantly more fair minded than the so called news report.

Cameron's refusal to hold EU referendum spells 'certain disaster', Ukip leader says
David Cameron's refusal to offer a referendum on Europe would spell ''absolutely certain disaster'' for Britain in the event of the a Tory election win, the UK Independence Party leader said yesterday.

A Reuters report surfaces in theArab News. Likewise the Conference is carried in the Irish Times.

Non Conference related news includes two peieces in the Express. David Campbell Bannerman is quoted talking about an appalling dereliction of duty by local authorities in Peterborough,

Local UKIP Euro MP David Campbell Bannerman attacked “the ­cowardice of the authorities”. He said: “It is their duty to protect the people of this country. They must do it.”

Migrants are drawn to the city by the prospect of work picking vegetables on Fenland farms. The council said last night: “We are aware of ­people sleeping in these gardens. We will be working to help them access the services available to them.”

Good to see that the Concil have their priorities right. Yes ensure that the people who are trampling on the proprties of others have full access to services. How about serving the local community first by applying the law?

Godfrey Bloom lays into Euro lunacy,

UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom said: “This disgraceful cascade of taxpayers money is typified by the ‘Generosity Project’. The EU’s twisted idea is to spend our money – hundreds of thousands of pounds of our money – to make us feel good about them spending our money.

“I certainly don’t feel generous to them and I can’t think of a man, woman or child in this country that does.”

Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is ridiculous that British taxpayers’ hard-earned money is being wasted in this way.

“People are sick to death of seeing their money poured down the Brussels drain.”

But EU education and culture spokesman Dennis Abbott said the projects had created “millions of jobs in small businesses across Europe”.

I would love Dennis to point out to those millions of jobs. Indeed maybe we should put in a question asking the Commission to show exactly how many jobs have been created by these make-work schemes, and how much each of the non-jobs has cost the taxpayer?

Elsewhere William Hill are suggesting the UKIP are increasingly likely to win a seat,

UKIP MP? YOU BET!
With UKIP holding their Spring Conference, William Hill are offering 2/1 for them to win a seat at the next General Election.

"UKIP traditionally do well at the Euro Election and now we've had plenty of support for them to win one or more seats at the General Election", said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.

Hill's bet - Will UKIP Win a Seat at the next General Election: 2/1 Yes, 4/11 No.

And the Kent News is reporting on another good result in a local election for UKIP, beating Labour and Lib Dems into 2nd place.

Good to see that the Lib Dems are joining us

Nick Clegg is making a speech to Privacy International tonight. And as is the tradition of Liberal Democrats everywhere, to be all things to all people into that audience he will say the right thing,

He will highlight the growth of CCTV cameras, the retention of innocent people's DNA and ID cards as evidence of "endless snooping" by government.

I am delighted, but hold on,

If they win power, the Lib Dems have pledged to introduce legislation to safeguard basic liberties, strengthen data protection laws, "restore" the right to peaceful protest and abolish ID cards.

Nothing here about abolishing the National Identity Register, nothing here about dealing with the NHS Spine. Without tackling these under the counter apsects you are merely pruning. And we all know that if you prune a plant, rather than uproot it, it grows back stronger.

National Identity Register: EEA Countries
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department from which date EEA nationals will be compelled to have their personal information recorded on the National Identity Register; and whether they will then be issued with a UK biometric identity card. [130425]

John Reid: We will start issuing identity cards to British citizens from 2009, alongside compulsory biometric immigration documents to foreign nationals from 2008. No date has yet been set but, subject to further primary legislation, it is intended that registration on the National Identity Register should eventually become compulsory for everyone aged 16 and over who is resident in the United Kingdom for more than a prescribed period and this will include European Economic Area (EEA) nationals.

Nope, I cannot see any attempt to stop it here? Can you? Maybe I have missed something?

For the record, UKIP would abolish the NIR, and thus ID cards become irrelevant. We oppose the Spine, we oppose the proliferation of CCTV cameras, and speed traps (those placed solely to make money).
We also oppose the retention of DNA, the mass proliferation of CRB checks, the European Arrest Warrant (are you listening Mr Clegg) lifestyle laws as a general rule and countless other ways that those in power attempt to restrict our Liberty.

Economics of lunacy: Why we have to leave the European Union

I was trying to work out what to say about this that oozed out of the European Parliament today, but words fail me, so I will leave it in their words.

minimum income to combat poverty
Employment policy - 18-03-2010 - 12:52

Introducing an EU-wide minimum income would help to reduce poverty, agreed MEPs and employers' and workers' representatives on Wednesday. But the question of whether an EU framework directive would be an appropriate way to achieve this remains open.
The political importance of this issue, given that the latest economy and finance Council had announced its intention to withdraw non-standard measures to support employment and prolong unemployment benefit mechanisms, was stressed by Employment and Social Committee Chair Pervenche Berès (S&D, FR).
"Finance ministers are thus aggravating the social situation and undermining the aim, proposed in the 2020 strategy, of reducing poverty", she said.
Escaping precarity "If we boosted growth in the EU by 1 to 2%, 6.5 million jobs would be created, said Rebekah Smith, of BusinessEurope. Yet "a job is no longer a guarantee against poverty. Precarity has generated poor workers, and hence poor retirees", countered Henri Lourdelle of the European Trade Union Confederation.
Is an EU framework directive the right response?
A framework directive on minimum income systems in the EU was advocated by Fintan Farrell, of the European Anti-Poverty Network. "In the EU, 24 out of 27
countries have a minimum income system. Only Bulgaria, Greece and Italy have nothing", added Roshan Di Puppo of SocialPlatform. Such a directive could get again be blocked in the Council, warned Elisabeth Lynne (ALDE, UK).
"The figure of over 80 million poor in the EU demands our attention. Parliament must undertake, in this resolution, to provide a genuine political response", said rapporteur Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL, PT).

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we might need some help.

Somethng in common with Simon Hughes

Hat Tip Dick P
In Comment is free Simon Hughes is waxing lyrical about his 27 years as an MP in Southwark. I can confirm that this happens,

There is always a load to laugh about. Canvassing reveals a large number of people at home with no clothes on – and still clearly happy to answer the door.

I recall canvassing in a York Council Estate doing, as they say, the knocking up just before polls closed in the evening.
One of the addreses given was of a woman who had confirmed that she was going to vote for us. The tellers at the various polling stations could see that she hadn't voted, so I gladly traipsed to her door.
"Brrring"
Footsteps down the stairs, a glimpse of a moving form through the swirled glass in the lintel. The door swings open.
Infront of me stod a women, not quite as nature intended, but most definately as her bofriend would have liked.
I stammered,
"e..E I guess you are not coming to vote then".
"Nay doll, but I might be coming for something else..."
In the words of a famous fleet street hack, I made my excuses and left.

UKIP News review

National news
Nothing to report today in the Nationals,

Locally,
William Dartmouth raises the issue of the European Arrest Warrant in the Plymouth Evening Herald, taking a timely swipe at 'Toady' Watson as he does so,

"At a sitting of the European Parliament the Liberal Democrat chair, Diana Wallis MEP, had me thrown out of the debating chamber for making an entirely valid political comment. More seriously, two South West constituents were carted
off from their homes to prison in Budapest, with no evidence of guilt or innocence being heard here, under the European Arrest Warrant that is championed by South West Liberal Democrat MEP Graham Watson."

Party Secretary, Jonathan Arnott tears into a correspondent in Sheffield.


Mike Nattrass gets more coverage for his factory trip.
Methinks a caption competion for that one Mike. (Suggestions in the Comment section please)

Paul Nuttall has a dig at Windfarm excess in the Leigh Journal.

Godders Bloom keeps it simple in a letter to the York Press

So the Government wants to reduce the drink drive level to one pint.
I can only assume they are terrified there might be one or two rural pubs still
serving.

The Comments suggest he might have spoken for many.

John Bufton advertises his new online MEP surgery in the Carmathen Journal,

"The European Union affects our daily lives in so many ways. As MEP for Wales, I am here to represent you. The time I must spend in Brussels means I don't get to be in Wales as I would like. So I'm setting up an e-surgery, inviting you to get in touch with your European issues. Are you a farmer fuming over EID or a fisherman fighting quotas? As your MEP, I want to know. You can contact the e-surgery at johnbufton@hotmail.com "

The Grimsby Telegraph highlight our candidate in the town, Henry Hudson,

Last year, Henry Hudson, who had been deputy chairman of the Grimsby Conservatives, crossed over to UKIP in protest at the UK signing up to the Lisbon Treaty – which gives more power to the European Parliament.

Welcome aboard Henry, and good luck.

Sorry to see Stuart Gulleford standing down as a candidate, though I will admiot I understand his reasoning,

"Brentwood's Ukip candidate has had to pull out of the general election race because he cannot afford to continue.´New EU rules - which forbid people who are on the staff of MEPs from standing unless they take unpaid leave for the length of the election period - means that Stuart Gulleford has had to stand down as a candidate for the Brentwood and Ongar seat."

Other stuff,

The Mail's story about EU Doctors and the NHS is followed up by an iuntweresting article from Professor Karol Sikora, echoing what I have said before,

One of the key problems is that, under an EU directive of 2004, doctors who qualify in any EU country can move to work in any other EU state without even the most limited examination of their skills, aptitude or language.
In contrast, foreign doctors (ie from outside the EU) must pass a skills and English language test - yes, even the Australians and Americans.
EU countries are also not forced to provide information on their doctors' professional histories - for example, whether they have been struck off for committing a criminal offence or killing a patient through negligence.
There are estimated to be around 20,000 EU doctors registered to work in the NHS, a quarter of them from the former Eastern Bloc countries.

If possible ID cards just got scarier

Plans are afoot to make the ID card all singing all dancing, the current enormously popular cards,(yes folks 7,000 people have taken them up) are scary (but mainly because of the database),

Existing British citizen ID cards are designed to simply verify someone's identity using a government issued card reader, a device which reads the biographic information and the digital photo and two fingerprints stored on the ID card's embedded RFID chip, and allows an official to check those details against the person presenting the card.

But a new card planned for 2012 looks a whole new kettle of summat,

Identity and Passport Service (IPS) are fitting the new cards with a chip that would include the EMV technology standard that underpins chip and PIN transactions in UK credit and debit cards or a digital encryption and signature capability.

Thus shopping, benefits etc could be accessed (read only accessed) by those with cards. At a distance the Identity Minister Meg Hillier, is looking at Belgium with rather large eyes,

"Belgium is one country that leads the way - it [the Belgian ID card] has links to the health service and employment and remote voting," she said.

Yes folks. Employment... Voting....

Oh boy, now why would the Government want to decide whether or how you could do those things?

Tell you what, stopping these things is becoming a serious moral duty. Good thing UKIP opposes the ID cards themselves and the great National Identity Register.

Building on decline

This piece of news from Eurostat might concentrate some minds,

Construction in euro zone registers 12.5 per cent slump in January

That is a terrifying collapse in a key market sector.

In December 2009, the decline was 2.5 per cent on annual basis for the entire union, the report said.

Construction in January 2010 in the euro zone shrank by 10.6 per cent whereas average figures for the European Union stand at a 7.6 per cent drop.

Interestingly there are one or two places that are showing a rise,

But when annual statistics are taken into account, construction output fell in nine countries and grew once again in Sweden by 13.6 per cent and the United Kingdom with 1.1 per cent.

Countries that are not in the Eurozone.

And the first one to stop clapping will be shot

A rather old fashioned approach to audience control seems to have been used at this meeting in the Renaissence Hortel in Brussels when German EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger was speaking today,

the German official's staff had sent an email stating that no-one could be allowed to enter the conference room after Oettinger had arrived. It also said that no-one could leave until he had left.

rather splendidly,

Ironically, Oettinger himself was late arriving for the event before delivering a 20-minute speech to an audience of stakeholders.

Oh the manners.

They are not wrong, but they are hypocrites

The New Statesman is reporting that the EU has been having a go at Gordo for his "optimistic" growth forecasts.

EU criticises ‘optimistic’ economic forecasts

fair enough, he refuses to see reality and by not doing so condemns the country to penury.

But I have to say it is a bit rich from the people that brought us this in 2007

EU growth forecast cut amid 'continued uncertainty'

And this in 2008

Euro zone cuts 2008 growth forecast

and this in 2009

Commission cuts economic growth forecast

Pot... Kettle?