England Expects

Farewell then Greece

2012-01-28T00:54:00.000+01:00

The FT has an extraordinary leak of German plans for the future of Greece. Essentially if they come to pass we will no longer be able to describe Greece as a country. A nation yes, a culture most definitely, but a country.

No longer.

The strictures are devastating,

1. Absolute priority to debt service Greece has to legally commit itself to giving absolute priority to future debt service. This commitment has to be legally enshrined by the Greek Parliament. State revenues are to be used first and foremost for debt service, only any remaining revenue may be used to finance primary expenditure. This will reassure public and private creditors that the Hellenic Republic will honour its comittments after PSI and will positively influence market access. De facto elimination of the possibility of a default would make the threat of a non-disbursement of a GRC II tranche much more credible. If a future tranche is not disbursed, Greece can not threaten its lenders with a default, but will instead have to accept further cuts in primary expenditures as the only possible consequence of any non-disbursement.

You will pay off your debts to us before anything. Before teachers, nurses, police essential services, the lot. Nothing less than a Teutonic Jyrza.

To cap that this regime will be enforced by a Pasha from Brussels,

2. Transfer of national budgetary sovereignty Budget consolidation has to be put under a strict steering and control system. Given the disappointing compliance so far, Greece has to accept shifting budgetary sovereignty to the European level for a certain period of time. A budget commissioner has to be appointed by the Eurogroup with the task of ensuring budgetary control. He must have the power a) to implement a centralized reporting and surveillance system covering all major blocks of expenditure in the Greek budget, b) to veto decisions not in line with the budgetary targets set by the Troika and c) will be tasked to ensure compliance with the above mentioned rule to prioritize debt service.

Farewell then Greece. Is it not time to resurrect the shade of Kostas Georgakis or even Demetrius Ypsilantis?

Καλλιῶναι μίας ὥρας ἐλεύθερη ζωή,
παρὰ σαράντα χρόνοι, σκλαβιὰ καὶ φυλακή.

Forget Hardy, William Barnes is Dorset's greatest figure

2012-01-25T12:24:00.001+01:00

I was delighted to read a spirited clarion call for my favourite poet in today's Guardian.

The words of this linguist and preacher sing out from Blackmore Vale. They are hard, humorous and languid.

Here is an example,

The Wife A-Lost

Since I noo mwore do zee your fe{"a}ce,
Up ste{"a}rs or down below,
I'll zit me in the lwonesome ple{"a}ce,
Where flat-bough'd beech do grow;
Below the beeches' bough, my love,
Where you did never come,
An' I don't look to meet ye now,
As I do look at hwome.

Since you noo mwore be at my zide,
In walks in zummer het,
I'll goo alwone where mist do ride,
Drough trees a-drippèn wet;
Below the ra{"i}n-wet bough, my love,
Where you did never come,
An' I don't grieve to miss ye now,
As I do grieve at hwome.

Since now bezide my dinner-bwoard
Your va{"i}ce do never sound,
I'll eat the bit I can avword,
A-vield upon the ground;
Below the darksome bough, my love,
Where you did never dine,
An' I don't grieve to miss ye now,
As I at hwome do pine.

Since I do miss your va{"i}ce an' fe{"a}ce
In pra{"y}er at eventide,
I'll pray wi' woone sad va{"i}ce vor gre{"a}ce
To goo where you do bide;
Above the tree an' bough, my love,
Where you be gone avore,
An' be a-w{"a}itèn vor me now,
To come vor evermwore.

Which has to be one of the great love poems in English.

So yes, I take up the suggestion of Paul Kingsnorth. Lets make the 22nd Feb Barnes Night.

Washing down your Lettuce Soup, Lamb saddle and of course Barnes' own Apple Cake

“He's nice an' moist;
vor when I were a-meakin o'n,
I stuck some bots ov apple in the dough”.

with lashings of the finest Ale and Cider.

And try this one for size, The Witch

Not really a ringing endorsement

2012-01-25T10:25:00.000+01:00

Rather preposterously, Jacques Santer has got the job as head of the EU bailout fund. "He is someone with a name. He is close by and was available," or in other words 'he is unemployed and twiddling his thumbs', is the best the EU could come up with to justify the appointment.

As UKIP's Farage pointed out,

The lunatics have finally taken over the asylum. The key to dealing with this crisis, as with any crisis in the markets is confidence. What sort of confidence can anybody have in somebody who was even the EU fired for incompetence.

The plain fact is that the name Santer is synonymous in the public mind with financial corruption. It is quite incredible that some-one of his reputation and past actions would be appointed head of an EU bailout fund.

It seems that even the Eurocrats agree with this assessment,

He was chosen because he is a "good European", a Luxembourger, who will take on the board role for the Luxembourg-based EFSF's SPIV without a salary.

"He is someone with a name. He is close by and was available," said an EFSF spokesman.

Defending the decision, Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the meetings of eurozone finance ministers, told reporters: "He (Santer) served both Europe and his country in the best way possible".

If Mr Junker thinks that presiding over a corrupt an incompetent Commission, leading to embarrassment and mass resignations is the 'best way possible' I am certain that watching the performance of the improbably named Special Purpose Investment Vehicle, or Spiv for short will be entertaining, if you are not one of millions who will suffer due to its depredations.

ECJ Madness strikes again

2012-01-24T23:46:00.001+01:00

Sometimes one just has to sit open-mouthed in wonder at the judgements pouring forth from the Luxembourg European Court of Justice. I bring you the case of Maribel Dominguez. Meribel had been off work for 14 months due to an accident, and felt that though she had not been to work for that period she was due holiday pay for the time that she didn't take holiday, because she wasn't at work.

I leave it to the Solicitors Journal to explain the niceities,

The fact that the directive did not make any distinction between employees off work on sick leave and those who have in fact worked in the course of the reference period meant that, for the former, the right to paid annual leave could not be made subject to a condition that the employee has actually worked during the so-called reference period – usually a year.

Yes you got that right,

the right to paid annual leave could not be made subject to a condition that the employee has actually worked during the so-called reference period

I despair, truely I do.

A different view of the Croatian referendum

2012-01-23T18:47:00.000+01:00

This has been sent through to me by Marjan Bošnjak of the Only CroatiaParty, it deserves a read. I haven't checked all the facts but those I do know about stand up.

Contrary to official claims, the Croatian people did not overwhelmingly support Croatia's membership of the European Union.

In fact, most Croats abstained from the EU referendum resulting in a record low participation level of only 43%, which means that even if all those who turned out, voted in favour of EU membership, they would still constitute a minority not only of voters, but of the Croatian people.

At the first-ever referendum held in Croatia in 1991, the turnout was 83.5%, of which 94% voted in favour of independence.

Fully aware that the Croatian People do not want to give up their hard earned independence, the ruling elites changed the Croatian Constitution prior to the EU referendum to eliminate the rule which invalidated any referendum unless 50 percent participation was achieved.

Prior to the EU referendum, the Croatian people were subjected to a massive North Korea-style pro–EU propaganda campaign, which relentlessly extolled the benefits and virtues of
membership, and denigrated any attempts to say otherwise.

The Government spent huge amounts of public funds to pay for a massive YES campaign, whilst denying any funding to the NO case. In addition, the European Commision ran its own very expensive YES campaign. State enterprises and corporations were also enlisted. State Television aired pro-EU adverts for free or at discounted rates, Croatia Post home delivered more than 2 million government leaflets for free, and the City of Zagreb provided free EU advertising on its trams.

The official referendum campaign was restricted to a four week period at the height of winter and favoured the official YES case which had almost exclusive access to the electronic media. It also exploited seasonal distractions provided by Christmas and New Year celebrations as well as winter school holidays.

The real referendum campaign had actually started much much earlier and involved, not thousands, but tens of thousands, pro-EU advertisements on radio and Television.

The 'Vecernji List' daily reported on 10.8.2011 that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and EU Integrations had in the two preceeding months (June and July 2011) paid the broadcasting of more than 13 thousand radio adverts and more than 2300 TV adverts on 80 radio stations, 6 national and 15 local TV stations. This massive propaganda campaign continued and even increased in scope and intensity over the next six months leading up to the referendum.

The Austrian, German and Government-owned electronic and print media ( ie all the media in Croatia) blatantly supported the YES case and made sure that the YES campaign was the only campaign.   Hundreds of sponsored 'information programs' were aired over many months and even more 'informative' newspaper articles were printed.

The Catholic Church hierarchy, lavishly funded by the State, also openly supported the YES case and seemed unconcerned that there was no democratic public debate and no visible NO case.

In the last few weeks, the population was carpet-bombed by advertisements and appeals on TV, radio and the print media from the President, Prime Minister, Opposition Leader,   Ministers, Actors, Singers and Sportsmen to choose EU prosperity and happiness over isolation and poverty.

Just days before the referendum, Foreign minister Vesna Pusić shamelessly threatened Croatia's 1.2 million pensioners that they would lose their pensions if they voted against EU membership. The Zvijezda voting station in Zagreb, which covers several retirement homes with about 1100 pensioners, reported an 80 percent vote in favour of EU membership.

And the result of this massive propaganda campaign ? -A referendum turnout of only 43% of all voters and a vote of 66% in favour of EU membership and 33% against.

And even this vote is somewhat suspect because Croatia has more voters than citizens. According to the latest 2011 Population Census, Croatia has a total population of only 4.29 million, yet according to the Electoral Commission it has 4,504,765 voters over 18 years of age eligible to vote.

In such blatantly undemocratic circumstances, it was impossible for the Croatian People to make an informed decision and the EU referendum therefore has no democratic legitimacy. It has all the hallmarks of a sham.

It is clear that the EU referendum in Croatia was a swindle which did not meet even the most basic democratic criteria, and whose sole purpose was to elicit an affirmative vote.

We call on the Croatian Government and the political elites to recognise the reality that the Croatian People have not freely and democratically given their consent to the loss of their independence.

We call on the Croatian Government to do the right thing, to annul this sham referendum, to organise a new, fair and democratic referendum, and to give the Croatian People the opportunity to make a free and informed decision about their future.

Should this not happen, we ask all the democratically minded Peoples of existing EU members not to participate in this undemocratic swindle of the Croatian People. We ask them and their National Parliaments to block the ratification of Croatia's membership of the EU, until such time as the Croatian People are given the right to decide freely at a fair, democratic and legitimate referendum.

The Moneyball loses it again

2012-01-23T18:38:00.000+01:00

This blog's favourite Labour MEP, Hairy Moneyball is at it again.

In a rambling post she manages to show both arrogance ignorance and misplaced pride. It is all about how she still holds a flame for Tony, and how she wishes that he had managed to introduce the Euro,

It was, therefore, a tragic shame that Tony Blair did not take us into the Euro. Apart from giving Britain a place in the world, it would also have sealed his legacy, a legacy which became so damaged by the Iraq war. As a strong Blair supporter, I believe he deserves to be better remembered than seems to be the case at present. This may have been the reality not just something on my wish-list if Blair had found the courage to put our country well and truly at the economic and political heart of Europe.

You are quite right Hairy, he would be hated even more, quite something to wish for for your unrequited love.

Where she really starts to go off the wall is on her description of Britain's place in the world, which she links to what she sees as a UKIP position,

Outside the Euro with David Cameron we really are not much more than Norway. I have never bought the UKIP argument that it would be good to be like Norway. Excellent country that it is, it is not really significant in the scheme of things, does not take part in major international decisions and appears to be content to sit at home avoiding power and responsibility.

As a British patriot, I do not want the Norwegian option for our country which ruled the waves only 100 years ago. I want to be where it matters. That is at the heart of the European Union with a seat at all the tables and the power due to us as one of the second largest EU member states after Germany. In order to be where we should be, Britain has to be a member of the single currency. It’s as simple as that. We ignore this at our peril.

Lets have a look at this, particularly at those comments about Norway.

The charges are

1) It is insignificant.
2) It 'Does not take part in major international decisions',
3) It 'appears to be content to sit at home avoiding power and responsibility'

If I were Norwegian I would probably take issue with this.

1) For a country with half the population of London, smaller than London it does alright. It has an enviable standard of living (Its GDP is second highest in the world). It has a successful fishing industry, it is high (6 in the world) on the Transparency (Corruption Index) index, the Economists Democracy Index has it No 1. So maybe a country to look at and learn from, making it significant.

2) Norway, unlike the UK takes part in things like the WTO, we are represented by the EU. Otherwise ist is a active participant in the following international organisations,

International organization participation: ADB (nonregional member), AfDB (nonregional member), Arctic Council, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EFTA, ESA, FAO, FATF, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD (partners), IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MONUSCO, NATO, NC, NEA, NIB, NSG, OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, Schengen Convention, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMISS, UNRWA, UNTSO, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

3) Yesterday, Norway gave 350 of its servicemen medals for their involvement in the Afghan conflict. Norway is famous for it involvement in 25 separate peacekeeping operations since 1945. It was instrumental in various conflict for bringing about resolution, Sri Lanka for example.

So Hairy's contemptuous ignorance of the position of Norway is one thing. Her confusion about Britain is of a different dimension.

I wonder if she can explain what she means by this?

one of the second largest EU member states after Germany

Eh? One of the second? Not 'four of the second', or even 'the second', but 'one of the second?'

Because I cannot wrap my head around it.

This sort of stuff is risible,

Given that the UK economy is so tied up with the Eurozone and Britain gains considerably from the EU single market, being in or out of the Euro makes little difference economically.

So the ability to set interest rates is of little import? The ability to use various monetary tools to suit the situation faced by the UK is unimportant. So in which case why should we join?

She has no liking for this country of ours, no care for it, no concern for it and certainly no belief in it. Shame really.

Wallis resigns to spend more time with her family?

2012-01-19T14:00:00.000+01:00

Roger Helmer reported it first, and now we confirmation that the third placed candidate for the EP President, and Yorks Lib/Dem MEP Diana Wallis has resigned. Roger highlights an amusing aspect, suggesting that her excuse for leaving cannot be the hoary old 'to spend more time with her family',

So this raises the question of succession (one which I find interesting and topical). It seems that the second candidate on the Yorkshire Lib-Dem list in 2009, behind Diana, was a chap called Stewart Arnold. Three things you might like to know about Mr. Arnold. The first is that he is currently on Diana’s staff. The second, that he is (despite the surname), the husband of Lib-Dem MEP …. Diana Wallace. And third, based on hearsay in the corridor, he’s not that highly rated by other Liberal MEPs.

Hockney and English comprehension

2012-01-19T10:45:00.001+01:00

Two Op-Eds today have taken my eye. And they provide what my old English teacher would have described as a 'perfect pre-prepared package. Come on chaps, get your pens out, it's time for an object lesson in English comprehension. Compare and Contrast'.

I offer you Peter Oborne in the Telegraph, and Martin Kettle in the Guardian. Not a couple that would normally be seen together, but both are writing about the new Royal Academy show of the recent Yorkshire landscapes. What is interesting is that neither could be described as art critics, and neither are regularly writing about art at all.

Martin Kettle describes himself,

Martin Kettle is an associate editor of the Guardian and writes on British, European and American politics, as well as the media, law and music

And Peter Oborne,

Peter Oborne is the Daily Telegraph's chief political commentator.

The art critics have already had their say in the previous few weeks, so now it is the turn of the think pieces. What is remarkable is that both these two writers come to a similar conclusion.

The central distinction in Conservative philosophy is between two different kinds of knowledge: abstract and concrete. Britain is moving back towards a world with solid, enduring values in which, for the first time in many years, public figures can make confident judgments about truth, beauty and morality. It is a world in which David Hockney OM has an honoured place as the greatest artist of his age.

And here is the other,

At the risk of pushing this argument too crudely and too far, and conscious also of my own Yorkshire pride, it seems to me that Hockney and his art express and address the kind of people and country that he and we wish we were. There is something religious in his work. And when Hockney takes a pop at Hirst, I, for one, will cheer, because he is taking a pop at the kind of country we have become, in which attitude is more important than morality, price trumps value, and in which to shock and make a name is privileged over doing something lovely or true... The modernists, like the conceptualists today, believed that the past had nothing to teach them and that the rules all had to change. They were utterly wrong. They offered 20th‑century answers to 19th‑century questions. Hockney seems to know it is time to move on. This show offers one artist's own 21st‑century answer to a quest for something beyond ourselves that is truly timeless.

Hand in you essay at the end of class.

Stop asking questions

2012-01-18T18:51:00.000+01:00

Quite an astonishing tweet from Cecilia Malmström, the European Commissioner from oh so transparant Sweden,

After all there are 736 MEPs, so 12,000 questions from them amounts to about 1 1/3 questions a month.

Hardly a massive workload, and hardly a sign that the MEPs are doing their job of holding the Commission, the Excutive, to account.

What is she trying to hide, and what does this attuitude tell us about the mindset in the Commission?

Ashton fires a shot across Hammond's bows

2012-01-17T16:59:00.000+01:00

Though I doubt he noticed.

The Defence Minister should be aware that he, and the UK are being not so subtly undermined across the world. This is Cathy Ashton's statement today on her trip to India,

I was saying to the defence minister that I chair the meetings of the 27, soon to be 28, defence ministers, and that’s a real opportunity as we think about issues like pooling and sharing, bringing together our knowledge and our assets and our ability to operate so that we have more to offer India. And India, in its strategic role with countries - particularly perhaps with Brazil and South Africa, its role in the United Nations - has much to offer us too. So for me, there is good progress, but there is much more that we can do.

The inference is pretty clear. Why bother with any EU member state, I am the one in control here.

Mr Hague, Mr Hammond are you listening?

The Secret of a Successful French Film:

2012-01-16T16:13:00.000+01:00

The success of the new silent movie, The Artist, at the Golden Globes was impressive. But in all the coverage I had no idea that it was a French film, It was @PeterAllenParis who pointed it out to me.

How to make a successful French film?

Simple, have no dialogue at all.

This one is for @johnrentoul

2012-01-12T10:50:00.000+01:00

This one rather answers itself

Melancholic Charles continues a great Italian tradition

2012-01-10T14:45:00.000+01:00

Charles Malinconico is a junior Minister in Mario Monti's glorious appointed technocratic government. The EU hireling who was a Professor of European Law (natch) has just fallen on his sword over a corruption scandal.

Local media reports say Malinconico took his family on holidays to a Tuscan resort without paying. The bill was picked up by an impresario currently caught up in an apparent bribery scandal. Malinconico has denied the claim.

He appears to be pretty well named as his mood today probably reflects the auto- translate of his name. Looking at the WSJ report, he will not be the last of the EU apparat to be cashing in his governmental chips,

Another minister in the cabinet, Filippo Patroni Griffi, has also been lambasted in the Italian press for having purchased an apartment in Rome with a view of the Colosseum for a price about five times below market value.
Malinconico's situation "has nothing to do with me," Patroni Griffi, who is in charge of the public administration, said Tuesday on the sidelines of an event in Parliament.

The way things are going the Italian people will start to think that Berlusconi might not have been such a bad thing after all.

Danish Oxymorons

2012-01-06T18:43:00.001+01:00

It has taken me a while to get through this but it makes interesting reading in a way. This is the

Programme of the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2012

I am highlighting some stuff on pages 58-60 of 62 (I always read these documents from the back, it is often where the juiciest morsels are hidden). It is the Culture section. The battle over the future of our continent is not just one of economies and currencies, but far more one of culture. And look at this muddled thinking,

The primary task of the Council is to supplement and support Member States’ efforts to develop, for example, a high educational level and educational mobility, a common cultural heritage, development in the audio-visual area as well as sport.

A Common Cultural Heritage. Got that, develop a common heritage. How pray? The whole point about heritage is that it is something that pre-exists. It is something inherited, not something that can be developed in that way. Nobody can have the faintest idea what people in the future will value in this way. Anyhow back to the muddled thinking,

The Presidency wishes to continue cooperation on the strategic targets of the European cultural agenda, including the targets of promoting cultural diversity...

So by a Common Heritage they mean promote cultural diversity? Eh?

What is common is what is different? Or am I getting this all very wrong and being very stupid. Surely getting the EU monolith to promote difference is absurd in itself. Difference does not require commonality, nor does it require a centralised bureaucracy for it to flourish, quite the opposite.

Latest polling confirms that people want out of the EU

2012-01-04T13:55:00.001+01:00

The Angus Reid polling organisation have today released their latest EU relate polls. And yet again we can see the massive disconnect between the political elite and the people they purport to represent. Indeed yet again we see that on this, as on so much the settled opinion of Britons chimes most closely with UKIP.

53% say EU membership has been negative for the UK; 33% believe it has been positive
46% would vote to leave the EU in a referendum; 26% would vote to stay in
83% would vote against the UK adopting the euro

The final questions relate to Cameron's ghost veto, which as we know was popular,

61% agree with the Government’s decision to reject the new EU treaty

But of course Angus Reid are merely compounding the myth that there was a Treaty on the Table for Cameron to Veto.
Finally and quite the siren sound for Dave comes the 56% who would like to see the Coalition split and for their to be a snap General Election.

Boundless arrogance

2012-01-04T12:43:00.000+01:00

Just to remind you, formally the European Community is made up of 27 countries each equal under the Treaties.

Then you have reality.

A European financial transaction tax will be in place by the end of year, French minister for European affairs Jean Leonetti said on Wednesday, apparently speeding up the timetable."This is on the programme for the next European summit (on January 30). (French President) Nicolas Sarkozy and (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel have decided on this and it will be put in place before the end of 2012,"

Because the Merkozy says so, it is the case.
Interestingly only the UK and Sweden oppose this plan,

Leonetti said Germany and France were already in agreement on the tax and that Italy was not opposed to it. He said that of the 27 members of the European Union, only Britain and Sweden were opposed to the idea.

Interesting because of course this tax will hit the UK disproportionately, to provide the EU with what it laughably calls it's 'own resources', and Sweden the only country to have self harmed in this fashion. This is what their Finance Minster Anders Borg said back in September,

When Sweden began taxing financial transactions in the 1980s, "between 90%-99% of traders in bonds, equities and derivatives moved out of Stockholm to London," Borg said.
"The impact was basically that we did not get any tax revenue. It brought in very little tax money while moving most of the businesses outside of Sweden

This is the chap who in November was named the FT's European Finance Minister of the Year (not a competitive title this year I suspect)

The most modern form of Government

2011-12-29T16:46:00.000+01:00

If by modern, up to date and so one we mean the most democratic that is.

Just look at the Economist's Democracy Index 2011 and one thing is very striking from those that their experts consider the most democractic.

Norway
Iceland
Denmark
Sweden
New Zealand
Australia
Switzerland
Canada
Finland
Netherlands
Luxembourg

Here are the top eleven countries in order. Nine of them are constitutional monarchies. Eight of them are European, of which five are EU members, of which only slots nine, ten and eleven are members of the single currency.

All this rather tells a tale, doesn't it? Constitutional monarchies defend people's freedoms more effectively than republics, whatever the likes of the ghastly Sir Graham Watson might think, Lib/Dem and avowed republican, might think. And the further there are away from the EU the better.

Aaronovitch rips himself a new hole

2011-12-29T11:44:00.001+01:00

I think he is trying to be funny, but in that case he fails. David Aaronovitch, federastes superbum, has written a column today which deserves a read, (paywall).

In it he finally admits that he has lost the argument about the European Union and Britain's place in it, for which I suppose we should be grateful,

Judging by its newspapers and its politicians, the people of Britain don’t get Europe, don’t like Europe and don’t want Europe.

Interesting echoes of Farage's speech about Van Rompuy in the phrasing there.
But of course Aaronovitch then goes on to display the curdled arrogance of a disappointed man. Essentially he lives the Brechtian dictum of sacking the people.

Pro-Europeans, like him, have,

not just the battle, but the entire war.

but of course,

Without even losing the argument.

They/he is/are better than us,

we British pro-Europeans are beginning to sound more and more like Betamax enthusiasts arguing the superior merits of their systems against the unstoppable VHS tide

Oh yes, you see he and his sort are more intelligent than us, better than us, more refined than us in every way. It is just the blind stupidity of his country folk, and their dullard inattention that is the cause.

I have done my best, but nothing will persuade older Britons that the EU is not just some updated, endless episode of ’Allo ’Allo! or younger Britons to take any interest in it.

I have a message for Mr Aaronovitvh and those like him, being a believer in the European dream doesn't make you more intelligent, doesn't make you morally superior, more aware or in any way a better more rounded person. Far from it.

It makes you complicit in the economic destruction of much of Europe. It makes you happy to see the European Arrest Warrant cart away our citizens to foreign jurisdictions without any recourse to the civil liberties you trumpet elsewhere.

It makes you complacent in the field of democracy as you stand by and watch democratically elected governments usurped by a technocratic elite that will do your higher bidding.

I don't get the joke. Because it isn't funny.

Oh, and all that pap about becoming a few states of the US. Why would anybody want to do that anyway. We don't need to, we don't want to. And it would ruin the fun of liberty.

Belittling the Gods of Youtube

2011-12-23T11:46:00.000+01:00

The BBC has been looking at the hit rates of various politicians on Youtube and has discovered something a little odd, well at least to them.

According to research conducted by the BBC - adding up the five most watched appearances by each of a series of high profile UK politicians - Mr Hannan and his fellow MEP, UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, are the two most viewed UK politicians on YouTube at the moment.

Obviously this isn't because people are eurosceptic, not at all,

According to one media expert, the popularity of the Hannan and Farage clips do not suggest YouTube users are necessarily anti-European but that they, and people in general, like "someone powerful being brought down a peg or two".

Rubbish, it is a combination of the two. Hannan's famous attack on Gordion Brown was popular in part becasue nobody in the House of Common's would have dared say such a thing, and they would have been shouted down if they dared.

Also looking at the figures they are talking about they are rather downplaying the level of coverage
For example this,

The speech in which he likened the new president of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, to a "damp rag" and claimed no-one knew who he was - a tirade for which he was later fined and forced to apologise - has been watched nearly 865,000 times.

What they are reffering to is the EUXTV version of the speech (today with 874,000 hits), but here is another version of the same speech, with 163,00 hits.

And of course the big daddy of them all the Auto tune version of the speech which to fate has over 3 million hits.

The European Parliament is in some ways just made for YouTube. The speeches are uninterrupted (well they look that way goven the way the microphones are set). A speaker has a set, short time to speak and that is it.

Equally the European Parliament has in recent months managed to get the videos of the speeches up online in pretty short order, pleanry speeches are downloadable now within an hour of the speeches being made (Committee speeches take a little longer).

But the bottom line here, why is it that two staunchly Eurosceptic figures with precious little access to mainstream media top the YouTube? Well what the BBC have failed to do is to look where the hits are coming from. In the case of Hannan, most are from the US where he has become a pouplar commentator. Inthe case of Farage upwards of half his hits copme from across the EU itself, where he is beggining to be seemn as the only serious voice of opposition to their own pro-European political establishments.

Yes they are both watched in the UK, far more than more mainstream politicians, and that is almost entirely due to their political prespective (and the fact that in a very dull firmanaent of political actors the two of them have oratorical skills). Why. It is simple really, the mainstream media reflects the Westminster political bubble and thuis fails to touch the population at large. It's issues are the issues of the establishment, its concerns are those of SW1 and NW1. Hanna and Farage speak to the wider public who's fears and concerns are little marked on the pages of our broadsheets and in the news rooms of our TV stations.

So it should come as no surprise that when the BBC describe Hannan and Farage as little known they fail to add the postscript, to us.

Pro-Euro Tory has an interesting view on press freedom

2011-12-21T17:59:00.000+01:00

Bernard Geerlings is a youthful cove so maybe we should forgive him, but I am not so sure,

The press requires greater regulation in what lies and falsehoods are published. Political interpretation is a natural and desirable part of the press' function but the quality of journalism and the national interest demand that the press should be held to account where reckless lies and falsehoods are reported.

I wonder who he feels is qualified to judge what is in the national interest? Could it be people like civil servants?

Defenders of democracy must welcome increased power for a civil service and public bodies who serve the people and are accountable to the people through elected leaders.

Of course intelligent decent people agree with young Bernard,

It is no coincidence that the most educated press in the UK is euro-realist. It is also patently obvious to any student of European politics (pro or anti-European) that it is in Britain's interests at the very least to be a member of the European Union. Large sections of the press claim that it is the democratic will of the people to leave the EU. Whether or not most people want to leave the EU, this interpretation of democracy is not government for the people; it is mob rule. More than that, it is mob rule, where the mob is ruled by the media. The battle is between public servants and unknown media figures in the shadows of giant corporations.

It is all rather sad, if not worrying that this young chap displays such arrogance. Sad that he actually believes that media figures are unknown (has he never heard of bylines?) whereas in some way civil servants are accountable. Sadder still thyat he equates agreement with intelligence, and sadest of all that he is given spavce by a Tory organisation to promulgate what can only be described as deeply illiberal, controlling tendancies.

I am sure he will go far. Particularly as his organisation is supported by this lot,

Rt Hon Lord Brittan of Spennithorne QC
Rt Hon Lord Carrington KG CH KCMG MC
Rt Hon John Gummer, Lord Deben
Rt Hon Lord Heseltine of Thenford CH
Rt Hon Lord Howe of Aberavon CH QC
Rt Hon Lord Hunt of Wirral MBE
Rt Hon Lord Hurd of Westwell CH CBE
Timothy Kirkhope MEP
Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes CH
Lord Plumb of Coleshill DL
Tom Spencer
Ian Taylor MBE
Robert Walter MP

Labour are not fit to govern

2011-12-20T18:17:00.001+01:00

hat just has to be the conclusion to make after the intervention of the new Obama, Chuka Umunna, Labour's Shadow Business Secretary. One has to wonder what British business did wrong to get the dribbling pair of St Vince and this fool as their representatives. here what words he uses when he involves himself in the 3 million jobs malarky stirred up by Roland Rudd and his cohorts in the Telegraph,

“It is crucial the UK is fully engaged in the European Union because that is the best thing for growth and British jobs. We already know, given comments which the Deputy Prime Minister and Business Secretary have made, that the Government’s detached position in Europe is detrimental to our interests. Now a significant number of business leaders, including Sir Richard Branson, have highlighted the risks the Government’s detached position poses for British businesses, warning that the Government’s failure to be fully involved in EU decision making could undermine the single market and the three million British jobs that depend on exports to the EU.

“Ministers are out of touch with British businesses because they have severely compromised their ability to fight British business’ corner in Europe. To protect the single market and continue to attract inward investment, it is now crucial the Government repairs the serious damage it has done to our influence in Europe because, as so many business people tell us, if it fails to do so it will damage British business. We need a proper plan for growth and jobs in Europe as well as here in Britain, which the Government has failed to put in place.”

Right lets put this canard to bed once and for all. The idea that 3 million jobs depend upon our membership of the European Union is bunk.

Here is the Fact Check response to it,

Given this dearth of reliable information, we are left to choose between a dated estimate of jobs benefiting from EU-wide trade, but not necessarily dependent upon EU membership, and an EC estimate of jobs created across Europe, when looking at Mr Clegg's claim. Neither supports his assertion that three million jobs "rely directly" on the EU.

Quite.

This is hokum dressed up as fiction, and this collection of the great and not so good, know it. They claim that this is based on Government figures. But as has been proven, this is not the case. The claim came from a study conducted by NIESR which while agreeing that 3 million jobs are involved in trade, did have the honesty to point out that “there is no a priori reason to suppose that many of these [jobs], if any, would be lost permanently if Britain were to leave the EU".

These people are so devoid of arguement as to dress up fiction as fact and fear as good sense. It is as if when we leave the EU, suddenly nobody would do any trade with our friends across the Channel. Tell that to the Chinese, the Americans, the Swiss and the Norwegians. Not being members of the EU, none of them ever do any business with the EU do they?

BNE is deliberately and maleavolantly dishonest, and should be revealed as such. I am one of the few people I know who will lose their job when we finally leave, and I will be delighted when that happens.

Sticks in the craw

2011-12-19T18:33:00.001+01:00

Cathy Ashton has put this statement out about the death of Vaclav Havel,

“It was with great sadness that I learnt today of the death of Václav Havel. He was a man of immense courage, who fought for freedom and democracy in the most difficult circumstances.
Václav Havel was one of the great Europeans of his generation, who went on to become an inspirational leader of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. His name will forever be synonymous with the successful struggle for freedom in Central and Eastern Europe and the reunification of Europe.
Václav Havel's commitment to freedom was unwavering, despite great personal cost. His involvement with the Charter 77 movement was an inspiration to all those fighting for democracy
around the world.
Yet despite all his achievements, Václav Havel remained a true man of the people, a modest man whose unique sense of humour always shone through. His legacy will live on through his writing, but most of all through his extraordinary life story, which will inspire us all long into the future.I send my sincere condolences to his family and friends and the Czech people. “

Can I just remind people that in 1977, when Havel was publishing Charter 77, that great statement of the Freedom of Concience, Cathy started work at CND.

That in 1982 while he was midway through a 4 year gaol term , she was the Treasurer of that organisation.

An organisation that very publically backed the Comecon countries and would have ensured that people like Havel would be crushed for good.

She fills me with contempt.

Thank God she and her cohorts lost then, thank God that she and her cohorts will lose again.

Shame on her, if she only recognised that word.

The Great Recession

2011-12-19T18:26:00.000+01:00

Eurofound's is an EU Agency. It is supposed to, according to its website

provide information, advice and expertise – on living and working conditions, industrial relations and managing change in Europe – for key actors in the field of EU social policy on the basis of comparative information, research and analysis.

And in the way these things work it produces documents, documents after documents, read by few and paid for by many.

However I spotted something in one that came out today,

The Great Recession has destroyed many jobs and the recovery has been shallow, with few new jobs being created. Where are new jobs going to come from?

It is describing these times of our as 'The Great Recession'. What is interesting is that it thinks that the Great Recession is over, so what pray is happening now?

Make things difficult

2011-12-14T16:46:00.000+01:00

The Citizen's Initiative is the democratic veil thrown over the EU system by the Lisbon Treaty. Anmended and mucked around with in order to stop awkward voices being raised.

WARMING UP FOR THE CITIZENS' INITIATIVE
A CONFERENCE HOSTED BY
COMMISSION VICE-PRESIDENT
MAROŠ ŠEFČOVIČ

There is a conference about it in January

And they asking for participants. But in the way of things I cannot for the life of me work out what is all about, because I do not have microscopes for eyes.

Sort it out, or at least read Kosmopolit's ripost to EU websites (its about the new EP one, but the point stands).

HT Quarsan

Sir Julian, the Parliament's Grand Dame exposes the paucity of Labours federastic wing

2011-12-14T10:37:00.000+01:00

Ooo, hark her! Sir Julian Priestly the former Secretary General of The European Parliament has coughed up a piece of bile over his morning gauffre. This man risen to a devalued knighthood for his services to the cause of the EU in Britain, alongside that other great worker against our national interests, Mr Prune, the oleaginous Sir Graham Watson). Safe is his Waterloo fastness, that town redolent of the end of a previous dream of united Europe, he fires off his turgid distress. It lands, moist and quivering, on the plate that is the website of the Labour Movement for Europe.

Apparently he is not overly keen on the results of last week's European Council. But boy does he lay his disappointment on like pancake.

Even on its own terms the December EU summit plumbs new depths of government mendacity and incompetence.

Amongst his attack is the entirely inaccurate argument that Cameron has failed on his own measure,

As to our special pleading for the banks, financial services, hedge funds etc., nothing has changed. EU financial regulation is and will continue to be decided by qualified majority. There was no veto on that; there will be no veto- quite rightly because financial services regulation is part and parcel of internal market rules. The only thing that changes is that the 26 will now develop the habit of working together on the broad range of economic policy, and that the voice of the most economically liberal, free market, high finance-friendly member state will no longer be heard. One would have to be exceptionally naïve to imagine that the 26 will refrain from discussions about any aspect of EU economic and social legislation simply out of consideration for a government that has of its own free will boycotted their meetings.

He demands that Britain should have signed up to the deal, claims that we are isolated, friendless and even thinks that Milliband is in some way better (what would Ed have done? Much the same I guess). Then he blows his own arguments away. Because he would admit, surely that signing up to something that was ill-defined and not fit for purpose is pointless.

So his claim that,

Two elements needed to solve the crisis are absent; the financial firewall has been shored up a little but without any clear undertakings from the European Central Bank, which appears to have forgotten that its core task above all others must be to preserve the currency it administers. And, most importantly, growth- not merely no plan, but hardly warranting a mention at the summit. Without a plan for growth, social, industrial and infrastructure investment, there will be no sustainable strategy for tackling the debt.

rather suggests that Cameron was right not to sign up.

Of course for Sir Julian, and why be shy about your title Sir Julian, why accept the gong if you don't use it? For Sir Julian, it isn't the realities of the situation that matter, it isn't that the EUs leaders are clueless in the face of the Frankenstein's monster of a crisis that their own ambitions have unleashed upon the peoples of Europe, it is that we are not communitaire, it is that the Prime Minister did not dash up the gunwales, to stand foursquare upon the EU's sinking ship, that so riles him.

Go back to sleep Sir Julian, switch on Euronews and let nurse tuck you in. Your dreams are all to naught and your life's work is in tatters. Such a shame.

This will really annoy our Continental Friends

2011-12-12T16:44:00.002+01:00

As we know, Standard and Poors has warned all the Eurozone countries, including the AAA pack, with a one or two tick downgrade. Now according to Zero Hedge, Moodys has been so impressed with the deal struck last week that they are threatening much the same.

As a result, the communiqué does not change our view that the crisis is in a critical, and volatile, stage, with sovereign and bank debt markets prone to acute dislocation which policymakers will find increasingly hard to contain. While our central scenario remains that the euro area will be preserved without further widespread defaults, shocks likely to materialise even under this 'positive' scenario carry negative credit and rating implications in the coming months. And the longer the incremental approach to policy persists, the greater the likelihood of more severe scenarios, including those involving multiple defaults by euro area countries and those additionally involving exits from the euro area.

Given that they are also treporting that the UK's rate is stable, how annoyed will the French and others be if despite everything they do they get a downgrade and the UK, Switzerland and Norway are the only ones not to be hit?

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2011-12-12T16:30:00.000+01:00

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By your actions you shall be judged

2011-12-08T15:51:00.000+01:00

Yesterday's overall think piece on the BBC website highlight the Boris, Patterson wavemaking over the European Council summit is interesting. Lord they even gave Farage the pull quote in the piece.

If he lets this go on too long without there being a referendum it will wreck and destroy his government”
Nigel Farage

Which is all to the credit of Robin Brandt, who it looks as if write the piece. So far so even handed.

But then I made the error of scrolling down. The comment section is disabled after 990 comments, and by default shows you the 'Editors picks'. The editor has chosen 7 key comments to reflect the debate (closed I am sure just un time to stop it rolling over the 1000 mark).

Lets look at those picks,

805.Eddy from Waring
7th December 2011 - 16:09

The real struggle is not between a greater and lesser degree of "democracy", defined to suit whoever's agenda. It is between civic, enlightened, liberal values represented by the EU, and dark, primitive, tribal, aggressive cynicism, embodied by many of the nationalistic foamers. Again.
rate this -19

Comment number 801.
Landscape27
7th December 2011 - 16:06

Get rid of all the politicians & let the whole of the EZ inc the UK be run by technocrats. Countries use the phrase this country or that country PLC, so lets let the businessmen run them. My tongue is somewhat in my cheek, but as long as there was still some kind of recourse left to the people, why not? After all we have a politician with a degree in geography, would business people do any worse?
rate this -13

Comment number 151.
sledger10
7th December 2011 - 8:51

To be honest - the way things are going I could not rule out the UK joining the Eurozone and adopting the Euro!
As the old saying goes - "if you can't beat them, join them."
The UK is very weak now compared to what it was even as much as 10 years ago and certainly in the last 3 years we have dropped like a stone - yet Germany, France, Netherlands and others have strong economies.
rate this -101
Comment number 150.
Jimmyarchbold
7th December 2011 - 8:50

The overwhelming factor in preserving British interests is the survival of the Euro. Eurozone fiscal union with re-introduction of old currencies of member states in tandem with the use of the Euro will provide a micro-economic barometer that will provide intense focus on diverging performances and structurally significantly 'beef up' the 'Euro club'.
rate this -6

Comment number 149.
labarbe
7th December 2011 - 8:50

Let's just stop all the bickering, moaning, gnashing of teeth etc. and just get on with it! We are in the EU - for better or for worse- so our leaders should get their heads down and start working like hell to get the best out of our membership that they can. No posturing, no point-scoring, no being macho or petulant, just get working for the good of all of us in the UK, now!!
rate this +2

Comment number 144.
gorlestongirl1
7th December 2011 - 8:47

The EU discussion needs to be sorted, once and for all, referendum please.
rate this +72

Comment number 140.
anotherPen
7th December 2011 - 8:45

Whether or not the UK should “grab back” legal powers previously given to the EU is pure sophistry. There was never any need for the UK to join the EU in the first place and we can leave it whenever we wish by not paying its dues.
rate this + 88

So we have seven, of which the first 5 are pro European Union and in some cases pro Euro currency, then we have two that are anti, one just deamnding a referendum.

Looking at the public rating the anti-Euro comments are up there in the 78's 80' positive, the pro EU are negative.

It rather gives away how the editor thinks. And goes some way to explain the paucity of proper balanced comment on the BBC.

How does one cease to be eligible for a pension?

2011-12-08T14:32:00.003+01:00

I only ask because of this odd exchange in the House of Lords. Lord Pearson has been highlighting for a while how former EU officials and Commissioners are in reciept of an EU pension that has as part of its conditions a rule about not annoying the EU, or indeed harming its interests (though the way they are going that should disqualify almost everyone working in the Berlyamont now).

Any how he asked about our dear Deputy PM, for of course not only was Mr Clegg a fornmer MEP, (whose pension is not covered by the rule) but he was also a member of Leon Brittan's cabinet, and was thus an official (whose pensions are covered by the rule).

So he asked in November the following

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Nick Clegg, receives a pension from the European Commission; and, if so, what is the annual amount of that pension, and whether the terms of that pension constrain his actions.

OK simple enough. To which Lord MCnally answered,

The Deputy Prime Minister does not receive a pension from the European Commission.

Well of course he doesn't thinks Lord P. He is still wet behind the ears, the guy won't hit pensionable age for decades. Lord P tried again, and the story gets, dare I say, odder,

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord McNally on 15 November (WA 140), whether the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Nick Clegg, is eligible to receive a pension from the European Commission; if so, when that pension will become payable; what will be its annual amount; and whether the terms of that pension constrain his actions.

Stop wriggling dammit and answer the question.
The answer came back

Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Whip, House of Lords; Liberal Democrat)

The Deputy Prime Minister is no longer eligible to receive a pension from the European Commission.

Eh? No longer. So he was, and now he isn't? And when did he decide to forego that pension, and why?

Farage is 'archaic and jingoistic' but right

2011-12-08T11:42:00.000+01:00

The newish Euro webzine Next Europe is finding life pretty tough. It loves the EU but even it must admit that, well, not everything is rosy.

It is pantomime season in the UK and everyone’s favourite Eurosceptic panto villain, Nigel Farage, has been doing his very best to capitalise on the current crisis in the EU. In a recent address to the European Parliament, Farage continued his attack on EU President Herman Van Rompuy calling him the noisy assassin of nation-state democracy. Amongst his archaic and jingoistic rhetoric Farage managed to articulate one interesting point regarding the unelected nature of some European leaders and now national leaders in the case of Italy.

Interesting range of aggressive epithets towards Farage

Archaic: Of, relating to, or characteristic of a much earlier, often more primitive period.
Jingoistic: Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism.
Rhetoric: Language that is elaborate, pretentious, insincere, or intellectually vacuous

So it is pretty clear that Mr Farage isn't your favourite in the Parliament of Fools that is the Strasbourg assembly. But despite this you grudgingly accept that he has a point. The current actions of the European elite are indeed, or at least certainly look like an affront to representative democracy.

As a matter of interest, what is archaic about believing that governments should be chosen by their electorates? What is jingoistic about thinking that it is perfectly reasonable that a country decides how it governs itself and with whom it trades and interacts? (In UKIP's case we wish to trade and interact with the whole world and not be constrained by the EU). If you wish to see 'chauvanistic patriotism', then can I suggest you look at the words of the partisans of the European Union, who become daily more shrill and dogmatic in their belief that nothing, not referenda, not people, not government's not anybody or anything can stop the march to a single entity called Europe.

And rhetoric? It is otherwise called public speaking, or shall I say oratory - a less loaded word, and embarrasingly to those who wish him ill, Mr Farage seems to do it better than those he opposes in the European Parliament.

And as the archaic, no doubt jingoistic and rhetorical saying goes: If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck - well it probably is a duck.

The words of the unelected Italian Defence Minister Giampaolo Di Paola that you highlight,

“The absence of political personalities in the government will help rather than hinder a solid base of support for the government in the parliament and political parties because it will remove one ground for disagreement,”

also smack of archaic rhetoric, rhetoric that would fit well into the mouth of a Mussolini or a Stalin.

More Propaganda films from the European Parliament

2011-12-07T13:10:00.000+01:00

Just let me get this straight. Here we have the European Parliament propaganda channel EuroparlTV attempting to rewrite history.

It flags up the Hubble Telescope, the SoHo probe these are heralded, the obvious idea is that they were in some way EU inspired. The only key project that is entirely EU driven was the launch of Mars Express.

And yes the Beagle Mars Explorer. You remember the Beagle, it was a massive success according to this broadcast.

Or in reality from AFP

Beagle 2 Mars Lander Doomed From The Start

Severe organisational failures lie behind the loss of Beagle 2, the UK-lead space probe to Mars which vanished shortly before it landed on the Red Planet late last year, an official inquiry reported Monday.
Investigators were not able to place the blame on a single failure or shortcoming, an official told a press conference in London.
However such were the worries about the mission ahead of its launch that one leading member of the European Space Agency (ESA) said that he had wondered whether it might have been better cancelled.

And remember, Europarl TV is such a good deal as was revealed this week,

A TV channel for the European Parliament, which has only 830 viewers a day, costs £7 million a year.

EuroparlTV shows parliamentary conferences and committee sittings and also educational video recordings to MEPs and staff, according to the Sun.

The channel started its operation in 2008 and so far it has cost £26 million. Most of the shows telecast on the channel are translated into 22 languages, including Irish, which is spoken by around 80,000 people.

The channel was labeled by critics as "an expensive joke" and "a propaganda tool."

Help: Can somebody translate

2011-12-06T12:56:00.000+01:00

Just seen this invitation on the Trading Standards website

Growth and Regulation: The Only Way is Up
CIEH, in partnership with TSI and LBRO, are proud to be organising the 2012 Year Ahead Event taking place 2-3 February in Stratford-upon-Avon. The theme this year is Growth and Regulation: The Only Way is Up.
This highly reputable event plays an important role in shaping the regulatory services' agenda.

Want to have a run on the Euro?

2011-12-02T17:49:00.000+01:00

To go with the excerable video I highlighted yesterday that has since been picked up a few places elsewhere is this pdf press kit (HT @Quarsan )

Not only is it filled with ripe absurdities like this piece of paranoia,

The folder contains open files related to this press kit as well as high- resolution images of euro banknotes and coins, images of people handling cash as well as footage on the production of euro banknotes. This material may be used for publication, but only for reports on the euro. You will be asked to sign the disclaimer to ensure appropriate use of the material.

To this,

The coins... have a European side and a national side, featuring a symbol of the respective country. As such, they subtly help people to identify more closely with the European Union, of which their country forms a part.

The single currency is a symbol of economic and monetary integration. It facilitates business generally and payments for goods and services abroad specifically. The creation of the euro area in a continent as disparate as Europe is a significant achievement. Over 330 million people now use the euro
.
Ten years on, the Eurosystem has reaped the practical benefits of having a common currency, notably in terms of the cash cycle and banknote procurement. The benefits – as well as the lessons learnt from this broad and deep collaboration – will continue to bear fruit in the future.

To this,

Yes, you are being invited to take part in a run on the currency.

Farage on the Cameron Sarkozy talks

2011-12-02T17:30:00.000+01:00

Via PA

UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage described Mr Cameron's visit to Paris as "part of a softening-up process by European leaders on Britain".

Mr Farage said: "We know what Sarkozy and Merkel want - a solid fiscal debt and political union. To get this, they require a treaty change.

"Cameron, however, wants to help them but does not want a UK referendum on Europe. This meeting is about trying to square that circle."

Mr Farage said the Prime Minister should use the "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" of the euro crisis to "act in British interests" by renegotiating UK relations with the EU.

"That he refuses suggests that he prefers the polite applause of Paris, Berlin and Brussels to the wishes of the British people," he added.

ECB glorifies 10 years of the Euro : Timing is everything

2011-12-01T15:50:00.001+01:00

This video has been made at some cost (looking at the graphics) to celebrate the 10th anniversary over the Euro notes and coins by the European Central Bank. It must be noted that the comments section has been disabled - I cannot imagine why.

The disembodied voice is placed somewhere of the coast of the Azores, and the whole thing is just utterly ill timed and ill-advised. It makes the priceless observation that the notes are 'thicker in parts', bit like the Eurozone.

What I have learnt from this is that until the 1st of March Drachma are still legal in Greece.

Chaps, don't get rid of them now for God's sake, you might well need them soon enough.

Towler on tour

2011-12-01T10:34:00.000+01:00

An article up on the Economic Voice.

Former Labour MEP demands that we sell arms to China

2011-11-30T15:21:00.000+01:00

Glyn Ford, the former Labour MEP for the South West of England and now lobbyist for uber-schmoozy lobbyists in Brussels G+ has come out in favour of selling arms to China. I cannot see from the 2010 list of clients where this comes from but that was 11 months ago.

He suggests that they might be a little naughty at times, but you know they are all right reallty. And he has been banging their drunm quite loudly recently, see here,

Tell that to the Falun Gong, tell that to An wei Wei, tell that to the Tibetan people.

I hope they are stuffing your vile jaws with Yuan Mr Ford, and I hope you choke on them.

Ambitions writ large

2011-11-30T15:00:00.001+01:00

My friend and your Herman Van Rompuy has been letting his ambition show again. This time to a collection of the EU diplomatic corps in Brussels,

Firstly, as regards economic convergence, we need to examine for instance whether to go beyond the so-called "sixpack" in terms of further macroeconomic surveillance, and how to strengthen the Euro Plus Pact.

Secondly, in terms of fiscal discipline, should we go further in terms of the automaticity of the sanctions provided for under the Excessive Deficit Procedure? Should we provide, in extreme cases, for further sanctions (such as a suspension of voting rights or structural funds) or power for a central authority to intervene in national budgetary procedures?

Thirdly and finally, in terms of economic union, is there a need for harmonisation in certain areas such as taxation or even some social fields? Should there be a form ofmutualisation of public debt? What further regulations are needed for the financial sector?

Make no bones about it, this is the way that the EU is thinking. Common Tax, common debt, more financial regulation and common social policies.

All this in order to achieve something with the language that takes Banker jargon to a new level,
"We have come a long way from the empty or de-credibilised tool-box I discovered when I took office two years ago"

Errr, a de-credibilised tool box?

Tin Foil Hat Alert : Masons meet EU Presidents

2011-11-30T14:06:00.000+01:00

This event is taking place today

Amusingly the press release to go with it rather fails to mention the Masonic aspect of the whole affair.

Today Commission President José Manuel Barroso received leading representatives of philosophical and non-confessional organisations at the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels for a meeting which he co-chaired together with Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, and Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council. Participants discussed the promotion of rights and liberties in Europe's neighbourhood and in the European Union itself.

You would be none the wiser reading this now would you?
However out of 16 invitees 10 are Lodge bosses, alongs side the Humanist association.

But reading this one might be a little concerned that the Freemasons are now in it.

The representatives of philosophical and non-confessional organisations welcomed the EU’s engagement to promote and protect democratic rights and liberties inside the European Union and beyond. They expressed their readiness to work side by side with the European institutions to promote democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, human rights and social justice which are indispensable in democratic societies.

Annonymity in the Press

2011-11-29T16:52:00.000+01:00

A letter appears today in the Wirral Globe attacking the UKIP MEP Paul Nuttal,

I SEE Euro MP Paul Nuttall was once again incensed to write in to complain about new proposed anti-smoking legislation.

It is particularly interesting to see him criticise scientific evidence, something that the UKIP party he's a member of has little regard for and often cherry picks published papers to suit its own agenda.

He objects to the statistic that second-hand smoke in the enclosed environment of a car exposes to passengers to 23 times more toxins than a smokey bar.

If we were to suppose that it were merely only ten times more toxic, I struggle to see how he could possibly find objection in policies designed to protect the vulnerable.

It is a fact that second-hand smoke is very harmful to those exposed to it, particularly children.

It is a morally reprehensible view that a smoker's "right" to smoke supersedes the right of others to breath clean air.

We can go through the arguements as to this correspondent's point (I think they are sort of accepting that the science of the BMA is dicey here, cripes even the BMA have admitted it). About the meaning of freedom and responsibility and the limits of the state.

But that isn't my point of highlighting the story. It is this,

Name and address supplied.

Eh, an anonymous attack letter in the local press?

What on earth is that about?

So I phoned the Globe and asked them what their policy was, and they told me that anybody writing to them on any subject can request annonymity.

Which is just strange.

I wonder what this correspondent feared? That Paul would rock up round to their house and blow smoke through their letter box?

Maybe the ECB should rethink that

2011-11-29T15:24:00.000+01:00

Noticed by Annie Lowrey the economic policy reporter for the New York Times is this rather delightful competion on the ECB webpage.

Participate in the “Euro Run competition France 2011”;

It appears to me that the markets are doing just that.

The gushing ingenu

2011-11-28T18:54:00.000+01:00

Herman Van Rompuy is off to the White House. All terribly big stuff, no doubt to see if he can persuade Obama to ban Ratings agencies or to get the Fed to come up with some cash.

But his press officer Dana is having a fit of the Pooterish flutters

@Dana_Council
Nice! The @WhiteHouse retweeted Pres. Van Rompuy @euhvr. #USEUSummit on Twitter :) http://pic.twitter.com/3uJDus2y

Aww bless.

Eurotrail: Losing the plot

2011-11-28T15:54:00.000+01:00

I have just received an invite to an event, normal stuff on the internal mail. Of course it includes the normal cocktails at 6.30.

The event is called

THE EUROTRAIL – RE-THINKING REALITIES

It self describes thusly,

The EuroTrail - Re-thinking Realities is an ongoing project of critical reflections and action-oriented proposals about Europe’s contemporary society and public culture, related to global transitions

Eh?

So I went and had a look, and I am not much wiser.

So I probe a little deeper

During the EU-presidency trio in 2010-2011 of Spain, Belgium and Hungary, a common project has been developed to explore, in a multidisciplinary and open reflection, the emergence of Europe in a context of globalization, deterritorialization and complex cultural dynamics. Indeed, the reflection about contemporary Europe should rise above the level of issues such as identity, ethnic conflicts, the nation-state, religious tolerance and essentialist cultural values. The complexity of today’s society calls for a new input in academic, political and public thought, in order to deal with the countless less or more unpredictable events and interactions which take place in today's local and global social world. The current reality asks for a focus on interactions in multiple contexts and networks.

God it sounds like a psuedo Marxist seminar run by a student group.

Designing for bears

2011-11-28T11:54:00.002+01:00

Really odd tweet from the European Commission this morning,

The video is here.

Weird for a number of reasons. It is insufferably twee. It is hardly what you should expect from the official twitter feed of the European Commission.

Look chaps, you are the twitter voice of a vast impersonal apparat. So keeping to bland fact based stuff is the right thing. This doesn't make you cute and human, it is inappropriate. Individual Commissioners and others within the system, yes go ahead, show your human side, but not this feed.

And then there is the content. The pay off line is this,

"Audience is feared and respected".

The problem is that we all know that you, the Commission neither fear nor respect your audience, the peoples of Europe. You hold them in disdain and contempt.

Oh no we can't

2011-11-28T10:11:00.001+01:00

I missed this last week, but this is how the European parliament advertised the big set piece debate on European Government.

And here is the text that accompanies the image

Herman Van Rompuy

"Deepening economic union by mutualising public debt"

In his view, there are three main courses of action on the road to economic governance in the EU: strengthening economic convergence, improving fiscal discipline and deepening economic union.

And some of the methods being envisaged to carry out these actions are hard-hitting: suspension of structural funds to enforce fiscal discipline or deepening economic union by mutualising public debt between Eurozone members.

“We need fiscal discipline and economic integration focused on growth,” Van Rompuy explained, “not just to punish the sinners but also to link our policies, to demonstrate that we share a common destiny.”

And what about the issue of sovereignty in all this?

The President of the European Council tackled that question head-on: “We need to acknowledge that this means a sharing of sovereignty for all members of the eurozone.”

Deepening Economic Union by ensuring that everybody is broke.

Did he really mean that?

2011-11-27T21:31:00.000+01:00

I ask, because from my reading Cameron is admitting that he should be holding a referendum.

The Guardian Magazine yesterday had the Prime Minister answering a series of questions from a selection of celebrities, academics and what not. One of those asked to pose a question was Nigel Farage, who unsurprisingly asked a question about the infamous 'cast-iron guarantee".

Why do you refuse to give the British people a referendum on the EU, despite your earlier cast-iron guarantee?

So far so predictable. The answer, however is odd.

"I made a policy of having a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, and if the Lisbon treaty had been still extant at the time of government, we would have had a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. I don't believe Britain should leave the European Union, but I do believe there are powers we can retrieve from Europe to have a better balance."

Ignoring the statement of the absurd Tory policy of wishng that the EU would hand back its powers. No it is the comment,

if the Lisbon treaty had been still extant at the time of government, we would have had a referendum on the Lisbon treaty.

Errr... it is still extant.

So can we have our referendum please?

PA begins to notice UKIP

2011-11-25T12:53:00.000+01:00

Pretty blunt stuff on last night's results last night,

TORIES BATTERED BY LIBDEMS AND UKIP
Tories crashed to a humiliating defeat in the latest council by-elections, being forced from first to third place in a south east England stronghold.
Liberal Democrat Alex Slater gained on a huge swing at Hazlemere South, Wycombe District, Buckinghamshire.
There was also a shock showing by Ukip which came from nowhere to take more than a third of the votes.

What is Liz Truss wasting our time for

2011-11-24T16:43:00.000+01:00

I can hardly believe this, next Wednesday in the House of Commons our pointless representatives will be debating, and I kid you not,

4:30 pm - 5:00 pm: Elizabeth Truss - Government policy on the use of calculators in schools

This is wrong in conception, completion and just about everything.

What on earth is the silly woman on about. There should not be, must not be a Government policy on the use of calculators in schools.

It is none of the Government's business.

Ideally rules should be set by the teacher in the class. End of story.

(I suppose the exam board could make a rule for those taking its exams about calculator use - but that is the extent of it)

In what state regulated universe can it be possible that anybody thinks that the state has a role at such a micro level.

Go away. We don't want you sticking your piggy little noses into every bit of people's buisness.

Is it any wonder that the people of Europe hold Eurocrats in contempt

2011-11-24T16:27:00.001+01:00

This self serving rubbish is what gets up people's noses.

Letter to the College from the Commission Staff.

Subject: The new Staff Regulations

We, the co-workers of the European Commission, are deeply worried by the risk of reducing the dynamic of the European cooperation.

In the current crisis, European countries cannot weaken their main policy and operational tool to design effective countermeasures. The European Union is the only obvious credible force because it is the only structure which can bring solutions at the same scale than the problems faced. If each country is logically preoccupied by the future of its own citizens, no Member States would be sincerely ready to go and fight alone this global battle.

In order to ensure the best possible defence, the European Union needs powerful institutions, capable of competing with the other actors challenging our socio-economic standards. In this context, we can accept to show our concrete solidarity, even if this is insignificant economically, in order to send a positive political message, but we refuse to change the working conditions of the institutions personnel in a way that would jeopardise their strength and quality of action. The quality of the human resources, which is directly related to the attractiveness of the working conditions, is essential for building a powerful and proactive Europe, capable of resisting the continuous attack of its model.

We therefore fully support the resolution adopted on 9 November by the Interinstitutional General Assembly of the personnel gathered by the Common Front of Unions and invite the College to reach a compromise with the Common Front, with a view to presenting to the legislator an agreed balanced and fair regulation, safeguarding the independence and highest quality of the European Public Function.

Or in other words, we want more pay and better perks because we the Trade Unions of the most coddled public sector workers in the Western World are the only bulwark against barbarianism - or the great unwashed public who should just shut up and pay more taxes.

What is interesting is I have had a number of requests from people within the Eurocrat world asking me to publicise this letter.

Pearson probes, HMG wriggles over the FTT

2011-11-22T13:34:00.000+01:00

Lord Sassoon has given what looks like a pretty robust answer to UKIP peer, Lord Pearson's, question on the Financial Transaction Tax,

The Commission has put forward a proposal to introduce a financial transaction tax under Article 113 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Proposals put forward under Article 113 require unanimity in the Council of Ministers, giving the UK Government a veto over any such proposal. The Government oppose a European financial transaction tax.

In addition, the Commission has put forward a proposal under Article 311 to use revenues from its proposed financial transaction tax to part-fund the EU budget. Article 311 also requires unanimity in the Council of Ministers, giving the UK Government a veto over any such proposal. The Government oppose any new taxes to fund the EU budget.

But hold on a moment. What has the Government committed itself to. At first reading it looks like they will veto the FTT proposal, and if so there would be much breathing out in relief in the City.

But have they? I don't think so. Take a look again at what they say, and you can see that it is no such guarantee.

Essentially Lord Sasoon has said,

"We oppose the tax, we have a veto".

or in other words,

"I want to go to Brighton, I have a car".

That the Minister would like to go to Brighton, and that he has a car is of no importance, what we want to know is if he will use his car to go to Brighton.

By not specifying his use of a car to take him to Brighton, when it would be very easy to do given he is possesion of a fine pair of wheels, one must suspect that the Government has no intention of using it. What is more, from the way that they have behaved in the past, one must come to the conclusion that they might well to go to Littlehampton instead if their continental friemnds persuade them to.

'Icebergs forrard purser?', 'Full steam ahead'

2011-11-22T11:07:00.000+01:00

Remember this?

At times one almost has to feel pity for EU Commissioners. They are like salesmen for tape cassettes after the invention of the CD.

They have a product which everybody knows, is used to and in the past loved, but mow their are better options, more reliable and not nearly as liable to snarl up.

However ther job makes them say things they must know, when infront of their bathroom mirror are ridiculous. Their product is slowly dieing, the market is shrivelling, but they habve signed the contract and must keep on going out their trying to sell it to a world that has cottoned on that they are the past, and nothing, but nothing will ever bring the glory days back.

So it is with Commissioner Štefan Füle. He is quoted as saying,

the further expansion of the EU is a solution to the current “systematic” crisis in the EU

He went on with his theme,

There are even politicians who have not had problems drawing lines between the current problems and expansion. That’s nonsense. Expansion is not part of the problem but a solution,”

He just doesn't get it. Those countries that want to join the EU do it for a number of reasons, not least the massive transfer of monies to them, which their taxpayers will not have to fund, and the ability to export large numbers of workers into places that have higher wages and thus reduce the cost to their own states of welfare provisions. Not something that the current populations of the EU are that happy about.

Of course this attitude of believing the impossible might stem from his personal hinterland,

Füle, 49, studied at the Charles University and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, where many of the top functionaries of the Soviet Union’s European satellite states were educated. He was a member of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1982 to 1989.

Communists were always good at believing in impossible things.

Orthography, foreign places names and affectation

2011-11-21T10:58:00.001+01:00

One of those minor niggles that gets to my curmudgeonly heart is the fashion amongst our chattering classes to ditch tradition British/Englsih names for foriegn places with by nodding to local authenticity. It is all part of a self-destructive and tendancy, and seems to me silly. Not only that we seem to be the only country that engages in this sort of 'lowlier than thou' behaviour.

What I didn't know is that this aspect of the British cringe has been going on for years and years, indeed for well over a century.

I recently had the good fortune to find a rather fine 1907/10 edition of "With Clive in India" by G.A. Henty. And a splendid read it is,
However it is his evisceration of the affectation of changing orthography that really struck me as relevant now, and obviously then,

A word as to the orthography of the names and places. An entirely new method of spelling Indian words has lately been invented by the Indian authorities. This is no doubt more correct than the rough-and-ready orthography of the early traders, and I have therefore adopted it for all little-known places. But there are Indian names which have become household words in England, and should never be changed; and as it would be considered a gross piece of pedantry and affectation on the part of a tourist on the Continent, who should, on his return, say he had been to Genova, Firenze, and Wien, instead of Genoa, Florence, and Vienna; it is, I consider, an even worse offence to transform Arcot, Cawnpoor, and Lucknow, into Arkat, Kahnpur, and Laknao. I have tried, therefore, so far as possible, to give the names of well-known personages and places in the spelling familiar to Englishmen, while the new orthography has been elsewhere adopted.

Quite right too. The idea that the Florentines would London anything other than Londra is absurd, and rightly so.

A lso pleasantly surprising in that Henty, after rightly singing Robert Clive's military prowess over his destruction of French interests on the sub-continent, then lets rip at Clive for his financial and moral behaviour,

The history of these intrigues is the most unpleasant feature in the life of Clive... The squadron was to have two million and a half rupees, and the same amount was to be paid for the army. Presents amounting to six millions of rupees were to be distributed between Clive, Major Kilpatrick, the governor, and the members of the council. Clive's share of these enormous sums amounted to two million, eighty thousand rupees. In those days, a rupee was worth half a crown. Never did an English officer make such a bargain for himself.

But even this is not the most dishonorable feature of the transaction. Omichund had, for some time, been kept in the dark as to what was going forward; but, obtaining information through his agents, he questioned Mr. Watts concerning it. The latter then informed him of the whole state of affairs, and Omichund, whose services to the English had been immense, naturally demanded a share of the plunder.

Whether or not he threatened to divulge the plot to the nabob, unless his demands were satisfied, is doubtful. At any rate, it was considered prudent to pacify him, and he was accordingly told that he should receive the sum he named. Clive, and the members of the council, however, although willing to gratify their own extortionate greed, at the expense of Meer Jaffier, determined to rob Omichund of his share. In order to do this, two copies of the treaty with Meer Jaffier were drawn up, on different coloured papers. They were exactly alike, except that, in one, the amount to be given to Omichund was entirely omitted. This was the real treaty. The other was intended to be destroyed, after being shown to a friend of Omichund, in order to convince the latter that all was straight and honorable.

All the English authorities placed their signatures to the real treaty, but Admiral Watson indignantly refused to have anything to do with the fictitious one; or to be a party, in any way, to the deceit practised on Omichund. In order to get out of the difficulty, Clive himself forged Admiral Watson's signature to the fictitious treaty.
A more disgraceful transaction was never entered into, by a body of English gentlemen... that Clive, the gallant and dashing commander, should have stooped to it, is sad, indeed.

It may be said that, to the end of his life, Clive defended his conduct in this transaction, under the excuse that Omichund was a scoundrel. The Indian was not, indeed, an estimable character. Openly, he was the friend and confidant of the nabob while, all the time, he was engaged in bribing and corrupting his officers, and in plotting with his enemies. This, however, in no way alters the facts that he rendered inestimable service to the English; and that the men who deceived and cheated him were, to the full, as greedy and grasping as himself; without, in the case of the governor and his council, having rendered any service whatever to the cause....

Hardly blind hagiography

Nevertheless, the whole of the circumstances which followed the signature of the treaty, the manner in which the unhappy youth was alternately cajoled and bullied to his ruin, the loathsome treachery in which those around him engaged, with the connivance of the English; and, lastly, the murder in cold blood, which Meer Jaffier, our creature, was allowed to perpetrate; rendered the whole transaction one of the blackest in the annals of English history.

Strong stuff.

Barroso congratulates Germany for Geography.

2011-11-18T18:54:00.001+01:00

Ever heard of the Golden Victoria Award - me neither, though it sounds something to do with the breakfast cereal industry.

Anyhow it appears that Donald Tusk is this year's recipient of most sycophantic European. And Jose took time away from his busy schedule of dreaming up new ways to ensure that the people's of Europe have no say in the Governance of their countries to send a video congratulations.

The text is extraodinary,

Dear Donald, I congratulate you to be the European of the Year, ladies and gentlemen, I also want to congratulate Germany for having the new Poland as its neighbour country. Thank you very much.

Another recipient was that nice chap Henry Kissenger.

Very, very important people

2011-11-17T17:48:00.001+01:00

Just been sent this link. And I can tell you know I am humbled by its appearance in my inbox,

briefings from the Senior European Experts

Oh I love that THE.

And what wisdom we get from THE Experts

Many Commonwealth countries are small and 94 per cent of population of the Commonwealth is in Africa or Asia; it is unrealistic to imagine that the other Commonwealth countries would have the capacity to trade with the UK at the level on which our economy depends.

Tiddly little countries like India...

And actually there is a growing intra-Commonwealth free trade movement, but one wouldn't expect the Senior Experts to know this.

So who are these experts?

This lot of Guilty Men

A very long spoon

2011-11-16T14:23:00.000+01:00

Lord Myners, the former labour City Minister was on rip-roaring form last night, talking about the EU's impact on city regulation. It is quite apparent that he doesn't rate it. Particularly as it tries to shoot the canary in the mineshaft, by making life hard for the Credit Ratings agencies. First he points out that the ratings Agencies are in the peleton, not out in front,

I disagree with paragraph 22 of the committee's report, which says that credit rating agencies play a role in determining the cost to governments of borrowing. They simply do not. The realistic situation of the borrowing nation's capacity to pay determines the price it pays for credit. The thermometer does not trigger the fever. The credit rating agencies measure the likelihood of repayment. They certainly do not have any impact on the cost of credit. Again, at the risk of giving even more credit to the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, she was absolutely right in pointing to the case of France where the credit rating agencies may say one thing about the rating of that country but the pricing of its debt in the markets says something rather different in terms of differentiation between France and Germany, the quality of covenant and the capacity to honour debt obligations.

The reality is that credit rating agencies are a lagging indicator rather than a leading one. They tend to verify the market's judgment rather than to lead it.

He then shows deep suspicion of the EU's atempts to take control,

The implementation of the credit rating agency directive will be in the hands of the European Securities and Markets Authority-ESMA. This has only recently been established but is an important agency because it will exercise direct regulatory authority. I hope the Minister will correct me if I am wrong here, but I believe that ESMA has the power to overrule national regulatory agencies. In other words, the FSA is subordinate to ESMA and could not, if it wished to, introduce higher standards. ESMA has been clear that it intends to ensure that its rules are enforced uniformly across the EU and in so doing will limit the ability of individual countries to require additional measures. Mr Steven Maijoor, the chair of ESMA, was quoted in the Financial Times recently as saying that,

"we are moving toward common supervisory standards".

The regulations will not be based on the UK's "comply or explain". They will be enforced on all national regulatory agencies by ESMA. I would welcome an assurance from the Minister that he will stand up for self-determination of regulation in the UK and not allow us to be steamrollered by ESMA or any other part of the European regulatory architecture.

We saw some very flawed thinking from the European Commission on credit rating agencies-that there should be a government sponsored CRA, the banning of the publication of ratings, and the pre-approval of methodology, which implies again some process by which these become nationally recognised outcomes rather than the opinions of rather average people.

But is the words that relate to the EU Commisioner in charge, Michel Barnier, that really raise eyebrows,

I worry very much about Mr Barnier. I met Mr Barnier when he was a Minister. He came to see us at the Treasury. He came down the corridor and I was watching him. I am a great fan of art and I was rather impressed that he stopped to look at every painting. I thought this is a man with whom I share a common interest-until I realised he was actually looking at his reflection in the glass on every painting, and adjusting his hair or his toupee. This to me is a man whom we should treat with a very long spoon. I hope the Minister will take due care in working with Mr Barnier because we have been forewarned that this man intends to seek even more powers than those he announced today. He said he wants to return to the issue of censoring rating agencies. I sincerely hope that the Government and the Opposition would have no part in endorsing such an activity.

Ouch.

Typical Tory Cant on EU Financial Rules

2011-11-16T13:04:00.000+01:00

Yesterday there was a vote in the European Parliament about the banning of 'short selling'. It is a daft idea, the wrong target and the wrong instrument but three you have it, it is the European Parliament we are talking aboutr remember.

Anyhow read the Tory party press release on the subject. They obviously think it is daft, and Syed Kamall their spokesman (who is a damn fine chap),

"This is a short-sighted ban driven by politics rather than sound economics. By banning uncovered CDS we will only encourage the creation of new, more complex and opaque, financial products.

"These proposals failed to tackle the elephant in the room, which is that those who issue CDS must have the capital to back up their obligations.

"At a time of sensitivity in sovereign debt markets, our fiddling could seriously undermine national governments' abilities to raise money by selling bonds. Investors will simply look to other markets where they still have the ability to fully hedge their investments."

So pretty firm opposition wouldn't you say. The sort of thing that will allow their friends in the City to think that they are well defended by the blue corner.

Well that is fine, until you see how the Tories voted. Only Hannan, Helmer and DCB voted against with UKIP, the rest abstained along with the Lib Dems, Labour of course voted in favour. Here is the abstention list,

ALDE: Bearder, Bowles, Davies, Hall, Ludford, McMillan-Scott, Newton-Dunn, Wallis, Watson

ECR: Ashworth, Atkins, Bradbourn, Callanan, Chichester, Elles, Ford, Fox, Girling, Harbour, Kamall, Karim, Kirkhope, McClarkin, Nicholson, Stevenson, Sturdy, Swinburne, Tannock, Van Orden, Yannakoudakis

How can anybody in the Square Mile trust this shower?

Van Rompuy's Delusions revealed in grammar

2011-11-15T17:07:00.002+01:00

Our president, the not so quiet 'assasin of Nations' that bag of charisma and foresight Herman Van Rompuy reveals all just by his use of tense in his speech today.

The various instances of complete lack of self awareness, both on his own part and on that of the institution he leads are legion. (Go and read the speech here if you want, if you have a clue about economics, please ensure that you are away from any co-workers, definately not safe for work. The sound of your hollow laughter might disturb digital networks).

I highlight merely this,

So the Euro Plus Pact has been made consistent with, and builds upon, existing instruments like the EU 2020 Strategy, the European Semester, Integrated Guidelines, the Stability andGrowth Pact and the new macroeconomic surveillance framework.
All these policies -- from the new Stability and Growth Pact to the Euro Plus Pact -- will work in the same direction: pushing Member States towards these reforms. Lagging countries - big or small - will be spotted by the markets and can be hit by sanctions. The time of complacencies is over. We learned these lessons, the hard way. The crisis was arough teacher.

Leave aside the plethora of failing institutions/strategies/projects/roadmaps/six packs and what have you and look at that last sentance.

Notice that it is in the past tense.

The crisis was a rough teacher

Yes, that's right. Was!!! He, the Haiku-weilding mountebank thinks that the crisis is over. Finished. The lessons have been learnt.

'Phew' he seems to be saying 'that was tough but it is all right now'.

What he doesn't realise (OK he knows full well but wants to lie to us) is that what we have had so far is merely Grendel.

The monster's mother hasn't even arrived at Herot yet, but when she does, Van R and his cohorts will fain find a Beowulf.

Why the Greeks are unhappy

2011-11-15T16:04:00.000+01:00

I recieved this from one of the Greek MEP's explaining why Greece is unhappy at the austerity package.

You might think it is partial, but it goes some way to illustrate the depth of feeling Greece about what many see as a German inspired take over of their country,

German indebtedness to Greece from the 2nd World War

I would like to inform you on the Greek financial demands from Germany, as an aftermath to what happened during the 2nd World War.

In April 1941, Germany attacked and occupied Greece. During the German occupation, the conquerors executed the residents of 89 Greek cities and villages. In addition to that, they burnt more than 1800 villages and settlements.

During the war Greece lost 13% of her population. That was not only in the war fields but also due to the famine and the atrocities as well as the plundering of their troops.

On the parallel Germany forced the vicarious Greek government to give a loan of 3,5 billion dollars and they signed the relative contract. After the end of war, the Conference of Paris adjudicated the amount of 7,1 billion dollars to Greece as war reparations. Germany did not pay neither the reparations nor the loan that was owes to Greece.

Italy paid back to Greece a part of the total amount of the loan that was forcefully agreed during the occupation. Italy and Bulgaria paid back war reparations to Greece.

While Germany paid war reparations to Poland (1956) and Yugoslavia (1971), Greece had to demand the paying off of the forced loan on 1945, 1946, 1947, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1987 and 1995. Nevertheless, Germany denies paying off what owes to my country as an obligation that arise from the "occupation loan" and the war reparations. At 1964, the German Chancellor Erhard promised paying the off the loan after the unification of Germany, which was realized in 1990.

The following is an indication of the actual value of the German reparations towards Greece: Taking as indicative the average rate of the USA bonds between 1944 till 2010, that is about 6%, the actual value of the "occupation loan" is up to 163,8 billion dollars and that of war recuperations is estimated in 332 billion dollars. On the 2nd of July 2011, the French economist and advisor of the French government Jacques Delpla declared that the German indebtedness to Greece because of all that happened during the 2nd World War is up to 575 billion dollars (Les Echos, Saturday, July 2, 2011). The German historian Dr. Albrecht Ritschl advised Germany to follow a more moderate policy during the euro crisis of 2008-2011, because she might have to face justified demands for war recuperations of the 2nd World War (Der Siegel, June 21, 2011, guardian. co.uk).

It has to be mentioned that Germany has profited to the tune of 9 billion euro from the euro zone crisis over the past few years, while the German bonds yields close to zero since the European sovereign debt crisis began some two years ago. Berlin's two-year bond yields currently stand at just 0.3 percent and its 10-year bonds at 1.7 percent. Six-month papers - usually giving the lowest return to investors - stand at just 0.08 percent, down from 0.3 percent just one month ago.

According to Carsten Brzeski a senior economist with the ING bank in Belgium, "Interestingly, this is already more than the recently announced [German] tax relief of around €8 billion for 2013 and 2014. It almost looks as if the Greeks financed the little German tax reform," he added (Valentina Pop, "Germany estimated to have 9 bn euro profit out of crisis", www.euobserver.com).

The old statement of Mussolini is indicative: "Germans have even stolen from Greeks their shoelaces"
I would like to thank you for your attention and to ask for your help and your understanding so to demand what is rightful for my country.

Memories are short, andthe hurt is near the surface.

The Government's phoney war on Europe.

2011-11-15T15:17:00.000+01:00

The Government's phoney war on Europe.

Dave says he's a sceptic, Nick says he isn't, and the British public are being gulled into thinking that there are real differences between the two parties' positions.

With UKIP slowly rising in the polls, and last night's figures from YouGov suggesting that UKIP is now hitting 5% in every electoral area in Great Britain, the Prime Minister is trying to position himself as a great defender of Britain against the ravages of the European Union. In order to help this sleight of hand it appears that Nick Clegg is joining in the deception, by sketching out an idea that their is a gulf between the two members of the coalition.

Dave says,

"But we sceptics have a vital point. We should look sceptically at grand
plans and utopian visions. We've a right to ask what the European Union should and shouldn't do - and change it accordingly."

And Nick says

"Clearly the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, and David
Cameron and myself, think differently on European issues... I don't think anyone is talking about unilateral repatriation of powers. It's not possible, and Europe doesn't work like that."

Oddly of course it is Nick that is half right here. Nobody is (seriously) talking about repatriation of powers. Cameron is trying to talk to his own membership such is his fear of us in UKIP and our simple and popular position on Britain's relationship with the European Union.

Here are ten good reasons why Cameron's claim to be a Eurosceptic are false
1 He reneged on Cast Iron Guarantee to hold EU treaty referendum

He argues of course that it was only cast iron in the sense that if somebody else did it then his promise was meaningless. He knows that is not how it was going to be taken, indeed he deliberately muddied the waters. he also we must remember said that he wouldn't let things rest there if the Lisbon Treaty was passed. Well weirdly he has been true to his word.

2 Changed Tory Fisheries policy, No longer calls for repatriation of territorial waters.

His first act on becoming leader of the Conservative Party was to drop a longstanding policy to repatriate British coastal waters and opt out of the Common Fisheries Policy. He had been told that to do so would be incompatible with our membership of the EU. The policy had to go.

3. Supported EU regulation of the City

Conservative MEPs in the European Parliament have consistently voted for the creation of three EU super regulators, leaving the command and control of the City of London in the hands of Eurocrats who are not sympathetic to British systems and ways of doing business. It is estimated that the impact on the City will be devastating as companies and jobs flee the onslaught of EU regulation.

4. Supports entry of Turkey to the EU -encouraging mass immigration

How can he claim to be interested in controlling our borders and of reigning in the ambitions of the European Union when he is Europe's biggest cheerleader for brin g ing Turkey into the EU. Time and time again he has championed Turkish entry, despite the wildly different economic status of Turkey. Good friends yes, part of the EU no.

5. Supported creation of EU External Action Service.

And encouraged the usurpation by the unelected Cathy Ashton of British diplomatic and Foreign policy positions, not least the grant to the EU, and Ashton in particular of speaking rights at the UN, the preserve of nation states.

6. Failure to reduce EU budget / allows increase despite promises.

He promised to the House of Commons he would either reduce the EU's annual budget, or the least block it. Then came back from Brussels claiming that a 2.6% increase was a victory. If so he was triumphing in a victory for the EU against Britain.

7. Supports the creation of Eurozone core which would leave the UK in a permanent minority position.

For centuries the core of British Foreign policy has been to ensure that no European continental power has the ability to dominate Europe. Cameron and George Osborne are now demanding just that. Overturning the wisdom of Pitt, Palmerston, Gladstone, Lloyd George, Churchill et al. How can this be in the national interest? After all it will create a permanent majority in the Council of Ministers which means that Britain will always be outvoted on any subject in future.

8. Prepared to have 40 billion pounds UK money go via the IMF to the Eurozone Bailout

Despite the promises and evasions, it is now clear that the promise not be involved in any Eurozone bailout is a fabrication. By doubling our contribution to the IMF emergency fund, Britain has made itself increasingly liable to being involved in the Euro bailouts.

9. Rolled over to Agency Worker directive and other EU laws which harm UK business and jobs.

These directives alone, which he has accepted are set to cost the British economy billions and put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk. To then claim that he is fighting against regulations is ridiculous.

10. Forced Three line whip on EU referendum debate in the Commons.

If Cameron wanted a strong negotiating position in the European Union, then he could just offer that referendum. Without it our continental friends will just igno r e him. By punishing those in the Parliament who defended the wishes of their constituents, in order to pander to the wishes of the Eurocrats - and looking at what has happened in Greece since the Commons vote, this is no idle threat he shows where his true loyalty lies.

Of course Cameron's attempts to paint himself a 'sceptic' are in vain. Just as the markets react to the latest move from Brussels to prop up their dreams so do the people of Britain see through his evasions. A year ago a final plan to save the Euro would have a weeks grace in the markets, this week the imposition of technocratic Prime Ministers in Greece and Italy forced a dip in Bond spreads that lasted less than 24hrs. So it is with Mr Cameron's protestations about his Eurosceptic credentials.

The markets see through the failures of the Eurozone. The people see through the failures of Cameron to defend the countries interests

Face it Dave. Nobody believes you any more.

Salvaj Kareer in jaw dropping moment

2011-11-10T17:56:00.000+01:00

It is generally accepted that man of principle Sajjad Karim the former Lib Dem MEP joined the Tories due to a great love.

A love for his own seat. It was obvious that the Lib Dems were going to tank in the 2009 elections, so, with the Tories on the up, and the Tories selection rules in place it became a no brainer for him to jump ship. By joining the Tories as a sitting MEP it meant that he leapfrogged up to an unassaibalble position on the Tory list. After all he had only recently been selected as number 2 on the Lib Dem list - a unwinable slot. For that he earned the sobriquet Salvaj Kareer.

So imagine my surprise when I read this in today's Guardian,

The power of the cabal will be broken when we learn to trust the citizen and involve them in the decision-making process. We must debate directly electing commissioners and make the council transparent. And first to go must be the closed list system for electing MEPs.

He is so het up about the democratic defeciet that he must have supported calls for an EU referendeum, mustn't he?

On second thoughts maybe he didn"t as his approving tweet here makes clear

@SHKMEP Sajjad H Karim MEP

William Hague urges Tory MPs not to vote for a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union, saying it... fb.me/Gf2d2feE

Oh well another coalition hypocrite.

It went up how much?!!

2011-11-10T16:00:00.000+01:00

According to the FT the EU hasd just revealed some frankly startling figues on debt,

The European Union’s executive body said sovereign debt levels in the eurozone would increase next year by more than previously thought, reaching 90.4 per cent of overall gross domestic product, up 88 per cent this year.

Yes you read that right, up 88%!

Behr with a sore head

2011-11-10T15:15:00.000+01:00

In the Staggers yesterday, cheif leader writer of the Observer and lead political writer at the Staggers, Rapheal Behr writes a sort of political obitury of Nick Clegg. He describes him in glowing referential tones, almost a tragic hagiography, and entirely out of keeping with the New Statesman's cultural heritage,

Cleggism, by contrast, channels the cosmopolitan, polyglot, liberal borderlessness that the European elite see as the marker of civilisation. The Liberal Democrat leader once wanted to represent a new kind of politics but he looks more like an ambassador from some ancien régime, a lonely tribune from the 20th-century European Union: patrician, collegiate, moderate, boring, benign, seeking consensus, with more than a whiff of elitism -

These mostly positive traits are contrasted with the panto-villany of Farage and UKIP,

Many Tories are focusing instead on the threat posed by Ukip in the European Parliament elections in 2014. Cameron's handling of the euro crisis, insufficiently bellicose for grass-roots activists, has provoked a rash of defections to Nigel Farage's anti-EU shires junta. In the 2009 European election, Ukip came second. It could top the poll next time. That doesn't translate into a big general election challenge, because the party's voters dwell mostly in safe Tory seats, but it is another force pulling politics away from EU engagement.

The Lib Dems, proud of their own conversion from protest vehicle to mature party of government, thoroughly despise Ukip and find the thought of equivalence sickening. One normally even-tempered minister recently described Farage's wrecking delegation in the European Parliament to me as "unpatriotic, Neanderthal wankers". The feeling is mutual.

Farage has had enough television and radio exposure to test whether he can win mass affection as a national figure. He can't. That doesn't mean Farageism lacks resonance. The creed is about more than the EU. It expresses a deep neurosis about borders and identity and the corruption of nationhood by a faceless other. The cultural potency of that force is on show in the hysterical response to the scandal around Theresa May's bungled experiment with relaxed passport controls.

It's remarkable, and one can almost smell the fear.Of course Mr Behr is a teeniest bit skewed in his vision of UKIP. this 'Shires-Junta' as he describes it is polling 9% in London and in the Euros back in 2009 it won cities like Hull, and towns like Hartlepool, not the most bucolic of places. My guess, and a charitable one at that is it is ignorance rather than malfeasance on the part of Behr, but you never know.

The glorious dysfunctionality of the article is that he claims that Farage is unable to win affection as a national figure, but admits that it is Farage rather than his pin up Clegg who is winning the arguement. For if Clegg is

"wholly at odds with the spirit of the times",

as he says, and he is counterpointing him with Farage then by default I would guess that it is Farage who is with the zeitgeist.

The impotent rage of an aging tribune

2011-11-09T17:27:00.001+01:00

Sir Michael White, resident sage at the Guardian has today opened his mouth to roar, only to show to the world the fetid, decaying teeth of an Ottoman vizier. He has lost the arguement, the barbarians are at the gates, and so, rather than show the subtlty of his youth he resiles into impotent rage,

In placating their own Eurosceptic backbenchers and party activists – not to mention the dark, sullen group of angry voters who vote Ukip, BNP or not at all – they have marginalised Britain in Europe in all sorts of ways in order to play to the gallery.

Has the eldery roue ever met a UKIP voter, angry we may be, but dark and sullen? Not adjectives that really fit the norm.

What is so sad is that Sir Michael recognises the horrors being ladelled upon the people of Europe,

there's a democratic deficit in much of the current turmoil. The eurozone's leaders – a shadowy, half-elected caucus that Larry calls the Frankfurt Group – have, in effect, sacked the prime minister of Greece, and now Italy's too.

Portugal's and Ireland's governments have already fallen to election defeat, and Spain's is poised to be voted out too. That's always an important distinction: better the voters do it than Angela Merkel and Sarko.

There is none so sad than old and sad.

JIm Updated: or The Cost of the EU

2011-11-09T12:47:00.000+01:00

Hillaire Belloc rather nailed it

You know—or at least you ought to know,
For I have often told you so—
That Countries never are allowed
To leave their Treaties in a Crowd;

Open Europe have released their heavily trailed new paper "Repatriating EU social policy: The best choice for jobs and growth? , and interesting reading it makes indeed.

This graph rather makes a very clear point about the impact of regulatory control of teh European Union on British buisness.

Now we must remember that this graph is merely a distillation of the regulatory impact. It in no way includes the direct costs of EU membership, such as the subscription fee of £45 million a day and so on. I reject the arguement that we get miney back from the EU at about 50p in the pound. That may be true but to hand over cash to your neighbour, who then gives half of it back and orders you to spend just so, and then to trumpet the fact through advertising the neighbour's generosity, to my mind doesn't count. It is just possible that we in the UK would like to spend our money differently. Of course we might agree with some of the EU's ideas of good spending, but that should be up to us.

Anyhow take a look at this graph and weep for the British unemployed.

Belloc of course suggested that we must,

always keep a-hold of Nurse
For fear of finding something worse.

But seriously, tell me what could be worse?

Targets for trouble

2011-11-09T11:56:00.000+01:00

I have just recived a map produced by the students for places which they wouold like to cause trouble today.

Of course the only people who will sufer are the shopkeepers and retail/food outlets.

All the financial types have been at work for hours, so disruption for them will be minimal.

Bit puzzling for the fellow

2011-11-04T17:33:00.000+01:00

Gosh they must be getting worried. Here is a tweet from a decent enough Tory (one of the rebels)

SteveBakerMP

Wondering how to persuade enthusiastic young UKIPers to join the only party capable of turning this country around #conservatives

Of course the problem he faces isn't trying to get Ukipers to join the Tories, it is stopping the flow of young Tory activists from voting for and joining UKIP.

The most idiotic thing

2011-11-02T16:33:00.000+01:00

Stuart Wheeler is one of today's PA quotes of the day with this,

"the most idiotic statement made by any politician was David Cameron's that we were not going to discuss Europe in this Parliament. I'll remind them that Norway and Switzerland are the two most prosperous countries in Europe, and the only two which aren't EU members"

From his speech at the Oxford Union last night.

UKIP's poll rise is real, significant and sustainable

2011-11-02T13:13:00.001+01:00

As this graph from Anthony Wells of YouGov shows since the general election the steady growth of UKIP is one of the most intersting developements in British politics.

This is of course in part because of the growth of the European Union in people's conciousness, but as Wells points out has many other causes.

The bottom line is that this isn't some flash in the pan, but somethng that isn't going away.

Greek military sackings highten fears

2011-11-01T23:31:00.000+01:00

In an extraordinary developement the heads of all three of Greece's armed services have been sacked and replaced with figures seen to be more sympathetic with George Papendreou's regime.

General Ioannis Giagkos, chief of the Greek National Defence General Staff, to be replaced by Lieutenant General Michalis Kostarakos

Lieutenant General Fragkos Fragkoulis, chief of the Greek Army General Staff, to be replaced by lieutenant general Konstantinos Zazias

Lieutenant General Vasilios Klokozas, chief of the Greek Air Force, to be replaced by air marshal Antonis Tsantirakis

Vice-Admiral Dimitrios Elefsiniotis, chief of the Greek Navy General Staff, to be replaced by Rear-Admiral Kosmas Christidis

Like the anouncement of the referendum yesterday this seems to have been done with the utmost of speed and secrecy.

The opposition are furious and point out, not without reason that with a vote of confidence to be passed next week this is a rather precipitous act.

“Under no circumstances will these changes be accepted, at a time when the government is collapsing and has not even secured a vote of confidence,”

Is it just me or has the tyemperature round here just dropped a couple of degrees?

Best excuse yet on not voting for a Referendum

2011-11-01T17:46:00.000+01:00

John Hayes MP, Minister of State at the BIS has come up with what must be the best excuse yet as to why he clung to his job on the slippery pole rather than support the motion for an EU referendum this week. Writing in his local paper the Lincolnshire Free Press he said,

For me this motion simply wasn’t Euro sceptic enough

Absolutely nothing to do with your job then was it John, nothing at all.

Redundent plastic Eurosceptic. Hypocrite and slug

BBC promotes Stuart Wheeler

2011-11-01T16:47:00.000+01:00

According to this story

Mr Hamilton has now topped a ballot for elections to the party's NEC - whose members include MEPs, local officials and the party's Treasury Sir Stuart Wheeler, the former Tory donor.

It appears that the BBC think that Mr Wheeler deserves a knighthood. Now of course I agree, but I am surprised the BBC feel that way. That Mr Wheeler is UKIP's Treasury, nice thought but nothing so grand, merely the Treasurer.

The Sycophancy Prize dies

2011-10-21T17:18:00.001+02:00

The death of the European Parliament Journalsim Prize was announced the day after, in a blaze of puffed up glory, this year's winners were announced and defended.

I tweeted a friend, one of last years winners and I received a tweet back. It had just one word.

Hurrah

When the FT Deutschland is priced in DMs again you know the end is nigh

2011-10-21T15:30:00.001+02:00

Thanks to Zero Hedge for this, but frankly wow.

Sign up and demand an EU In/Out Referendum

2011-10-20T18:28:00.001+02:00

Ruddy hypocrites

Galileo launch delayed

2011-10-20T16:01:00.000+02:00

The launch of that famous flying pig, naty heard of platinum pigs that is the European satelite system, has been delayed according to information that comes to me,

The launch of the two first satellites of Galileo Programme has been postponed for 24 hours

For technical reasons, the launch of the two first satellites of the Galileo Programme from Kourou has been postponed for 24 hours.

The launch is now foreseen tomorrow Friday 21st October at 12h30 CET.

Not weather note, but tech issues.

However this hasn't in any way stopped the celebrations,

Welcome to the Galileo Drawing Competition – this is your chance to have a Galileo Programme Satellite named after you and launched into Space!

To enter the competition you will create a picture that represents ‘Space and Aeronautics’ This includes things like stars, rockets, planets and satellites. What else can you think of that is in Space?

You can create your picture using any drawing, painting, or colouring technique that you like. You can use all sorts of materials like paints, felt tips, pencils, glue, glitter. The main thing is that you use a big dollop of imagination!

Yippee, the EU is so generous

Labour calls for illegal immigrants to get the benefits of the welfare state

2011-10-20T15:10:00.001+02:00

Claude Moraes the Labnour London MEP has today called for what he euphemistically describes as 'irregular migrants', you know what you and I would call illegal immigrants, to have full access to schools and hospitals,

Claude Moraes, S&D spokesperson on civil liberties, justice and home affairs, said:

"European Socialists and Democrats urge the Commission to ensure that the rights enshrined in the legally binding Charter of Fundamental Rights, including the right to health and education, are fully upheld for irregular migrants throughout the EU and to promote the ban of the reporting obligation for service providers"

He doesn't get it. To stem the flow of illegal migration, you cannot throw open the doors to the welfare system. We must help countries elswewhere, through trade liberalisation and the spread of wealth to improve the lot of their own citizens at home to reduce the migration 'push factors'. Butr we must also reduce their access to benefits here in the UK to mitigate the various 'pull factors'.

Moraes would create for us a morass.

When democracy dies it dies unheeded

2011-10-19T17:28:00.000+02:00

Sarko has his mind distracted from the Crisis, the Germans swing this way and that, rumours swirkl and ratings agencies harrass the centre like a pack of hungry wolves slowly picking of the weakest.

And then we look back down the telescope to Greece. This Reuters report says it all, says too much,

The mood was furious among demonstrators, fed up after repeated doses of austerity and increasingly hostile to both their own political leaders and international lenders demanding ever tougher measures to cut Greece's towering public debt.

"Who are they trying to fool? They won't save us. With these measures the poor become poorer and the rich richer. Well I say: 'No, thank you. I don't want your rescue'," said 50-year public sector worker Akis Papadopoulos.

The boom of tear gas canisters fired by police rang out, and black clouds of smoke from petrol bombs hung over Syntagma Square, scene of violent clashes between police and demonstrators at anti-austerity protests in June.

And then that low tolling sound,

International lenders, who are providing the funds Athens needs to stay afloat after it was shut out of bond markets last year, have expressed impatience at the slow pace of reform as Greece has slipped behind on its budget targets.

There has been growing talk that Athens should be placed under tighter supervision by EU authorities to ensure it meets its reform obligations.

For what it is worth

2011-10-19T10:19:00.000+02:00

I have written to my MP,

Dear Mr Hughes,

As you are only to aware the the Business Committee yesterday timetabled a debate and vote upon the thorny question of giving the people the chance to vote in favour of staying in the European Union by means of a referendum.

As my MP, and as a Liberal Democrat, a party it must be remembered supported the idea of a referendum on an In/Out question I would ask you to support this motion, by voting Yes to an In/Out referendum. To do so would give the people of this country the chance to dcide on their own future, and it would also allow you to vote along your party's pre-Coaltion agreement stated position.

I look forward to hearing from you before next Thursday, the 27th of October when the debate and vote wil be taking place.

Yours sincerely,

Gawain Towler

I am not expecting much to be fair

That Referendum debate

2011-10-18T20:38:00.002+02:00

Ok, so I am a little bit jaded. Yes I do think that having a debate on the issue is a good thing. I would think that if it were around the water cooler, or in the pub, or indeed in the House of Commons. The more that people debate the issue the better, but I am distinctly unenthused by this.

Listen to the statements of both parties. Please note that neither Cameron, nor Milliband, nor even Clegg have bothered to make a statement but have left it to spokesmen to comment, which tells you a lot abut the whole affair.

Here is the Tory comment,

"I imagine we will establish the whipping arrangements nearer the time but we have a very clear policy on that and that is set out in the coalition agreement.We would expect MPs and ministers to follow the Government's policy."

And here comes Labour,

"Britain should be focused on creating the jobs and growth we desperately need, not cutting ourselves off from major export markets that British jobs depend on.

"The European Union should focus more on supporting growth and jobs, but a referendum on pulling out of the EU is a distraction that would create uncertainty for business and risks much needed investment in the UK."

Its not just the dismal predictability of the debate itself, and worse still the knowledge that it will be lost, and those who would see us remain in the stifling embrace of the European Union claiming that was it, we have had our discussion, now go back to sleep. It is this dull incomprehension from those that purport to govern us that sticks in the craw.

The Tories will put down a fierce whip to show their own party backbenchers who is boss. And Labour shows the lack of imagination which will ensure that spend plenty of time on the opposition benches. They have a glorious opportunity here to stick one to David Cameron. Outflank him, cause him massive disruption, and at the same time prove that they can read the tea leaves and believe that people should decide their own future. But no, instead they retreat to the idiocies of the past.

Are we cut off from America, from India, from 95% of the worlds population? No of course not, would we be cut off from the markets on the continent, to ask it is to show the utter dullard thinking that emanates from Victoria St.

The only good thing I can see coming out of this is that any sneaking idea the supporters of the three main parties have that their own parties will do something about our relationship with Europe must at last be torpedoed. Any future candidate who claims to be a Eurosceptic in order to head off the threat from UKIP will, if they fail to vote in favour of this measure be seen as wanting. And yes, we will be making that point loud and clear across the country, in surgeries, in letters, in the local press and elsewhere.

They do not deserve you support, as they do not give a damn what you think.

My trips were never this bad

2011-10-17T18:41:00.000+02:00

I mean seriously. Mary Ellen Synon reports another propaganda film produced by the EU today in her Mail blog, and it just epitomises quite how awful these people are.

Death of shame: Parliamentarium edition

2011-10-17T18:02:00.000+02:00

This is just dreadful. A propaganda piece by the European Parliament about their new shiny 20 plus million visitor centre.

The sadness of irony

2011-10-17T11:59:00.000+02:00

But they do not see the irony.

Will it be another twenty years before we see a poster celebrating Re-Restoration of Independence?

"We don't need a referendum - we need a change of Government".

2011-10-16T22:48:00.001+02:00

So says Nadhim Zahawi the Tory MP for Stratford and Avon on his website's political priorities page. No Nadhim, we need a referendum, and a change of government.

The chap was up against the boss on the Politics Show today and just repeated the absurbd mantra that we need to stay in the EU because we want to trade with it. "I've just been in a meeting with 400 businessmen", he kept on saying "and they want to export to the EU".

Well yes, and what makes home think that we will be unable to export to and import from the EU if we were no longer members? Has he never bought anything produced outside the EU?

This shibboleth needs lancing once and for all, and to help me do so I offer the latest Civitas pamphlet from Ian Milne, which does it all rather well.

As he points out, it we didn't have the hidden tarriff on all our goods sold to the EU (and bought from it) that is the massive subscriptin change for membership - and the associated regulatory and compliance burden, then we would be able to produce goods at a far cheaper rate, and thus be able to work within a free trade agreement with our continental colleagues in a far more preferential manner.

So Mr Zahawi, please explain to those 400 businesses you met at the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP event last week, that their costs would be reduced if we left, and we would retain a free trade agree,emnt, and ask them again if tehy want to be in the EU. I doubt they would all be clamouring to stay in as you absurdly suggested.

Oh and don't you think that as somebody so net savvy that you were a founder of Yougov, you should change your priorities page?

Questions to which the answer is NO (version 377)

2011-10-11T17:26:00.000+02:00

This one from that propaganda money pit that is EuroparlTV

The News: Will the next Steve Jobs be European?

Rather delightfully and with no sense of irony at all, they speak to an Alzhiemers research scientist (obviously the sort of work that is going to become a global science business phenominum) who, while pro research in the EU is rather diplomatic about the temptation to work outwith the failing superstate, by referring to a

"better quality of environment for the scientist"

(read better pay and conditions/less bureacracy/more freedom to work etc.

The point is that of course it wasn't the science, but the marketing that made Jobs such a success, and a pro business environment.

Would Elizabeth Windsor please present herself to Committe Room P4B001

2011-10-11T16:58:00.000+02:00

The European Parliament is set to give itself sweeping powers of investigation. In a report penned by David Martin, the Labour Glaswegian MEP named this,

Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament on the detailed provisions governing the exercise of the European Parliament's right of inquiry replacing the Decision of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission of 19 April 1995

What this means in reality is the following,

Any EU citizen could be summoned to testify at request of the committee. Witnesses could be asked to speak under oath...

EU and Member States' officials may also be asked to speak before the inquiry committee, MEPs propose, and the committee would be able to ask the advice of experts during its investigations

They can refuse, but they would have to explain why. What this would mean in practice is that the European Parliament could summon any Prime Minister to explain their economic policy or any pother, renditions say, or security matters, and in extremis it could summon the Queen, as under the EU's own Treaties the Queen is merely another EU citizen.

I can quite see the situation where out of malice a bunch of continental communists could, just out of a sense of malice demand that the Queen appear in front of them to explain the reciept of CAP funds in the Royal Estates.

Of course the Queen would no doubt refuse, but they would be able to create maximum embarrasment for minimum cost.

David Martin should be shipped in through Traitor's Gate just for thinking this idiocy up.

Hesketh shows the way forward

2011-10-11T12:14:00.001+02:00

There is a significant amount of chatter out there about the announcement this morning of the defection of Lord Hesketh.

Somwething that hasn't been highlighted was his involvement as Chief whip in the Lords during the passage of the Maastricht Treaty. This has been cited by a number of Tory activists as proof that his position in supporting UKIP is questionable.

To me it shows something else entirely. This is a man who was intimately involved in the machinations during that period and now feels strongly that what he was involved with was going in the wrong direction.

Rather than use this as a stick to beat hinm and UKIP with maybe it should be looked at in a somewhat different way.

Look at it this way. He has had the honour and courage to face up to the reality that Britain's involvement in the EU. A majority of the Tory party feels the same way he has been feeling about how this country's relationship with teh EU has evolved.

Today he comes clean and can look himself in the mirror, how about the rest of them?

What a Walley

2011-10-10T17:48:00.000+02:00

Here she is, Joan Walley. The nigh on invisible Chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee. This committee was set up after special pleading by Friends of the Earth, so you can guess what it is like.

The Committee was established in November 1997 reflecting a manifesto commitment on the part of the incoming Labour government. The proposal for a single committee to look at the environmental impact of all government departments can be traced back, through the 1994 Labour party policy document In Trust for Tomorrow, to a submission to the Procedure Committee from Friends of the Earth in 1990.

So what is it doing, well it is terrified lest we drop our frankly mad 80% carbon reduction target.

"The long-term carbon-cutting commitments set out in the Climate Change Act are supposed to provide certainty that Britain is determined to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050.

"Unfortunately, the Government's somewhat schizophrenic attitude to climate change seems to be undermining that confidence.

"The Chancellor's comments last week show that five years on from the Stern report, the Treasury still doesn't get climate change - or the risk it poses to global stability and economic prosperity.

"While the Prime Minister is to be commended for not faltering when setting the fourth long-term carbon budget, he risks throwing the UK's climate targets off course by instigating a review in just three years' time that could overturn the commitment.

"Backtracking on the Government's green promises now would be a big mistake."

It would be a big mistake to drop the most damaging legislation ever passed by a British government, the most expensive, the most job destroying. Oh brother, cannot this government just quitely do away with a Select Committee designed by a lobby group, and rather concentrate on getting this country out of it's defecit crisis?

Please?

To big to fail

2011-10-10T16:45:00.000+02:00

First it was banks, then countries and now it seems it shoots down the wrong end of the telescope and it is individual Ministers.

It is becoming quite obvious that Chris Huhne is, in some odd way to big to fail.

While Liam Fox is David Cameron's business, it has become utterly clear that the Prime Minister has absolutely no authority over the activities of the Lib/Dem cabinet Ministers.

And it is equally obvious that Nick Clegg is scared of Chris Huhne. And because of that internal Lib Dem fear the Prime Minister is saddled with a senior Minister who is obviously totally unsuited to the job that he holds. he is a Minister of the Crown, and he behaves like the Student Union cadre he once was.

But Cameron is impotent.

The man in the Berlyamont knows best

2011-10-10T15:32:00.000+02:00

Banksy found himself introuble with the EU 'elf Police

This whole business of the Toy Directive is a classic example of the cloth-eared approach of the Euroocrats to the world.

They might well think that they are above politics, indeed they do. But this aloofness from people's day to day concerns leaves them able to do soemthing as daft as banning under eight year olds from bvlowing up balloons and the rest.

To them democracy, public opinion is something that must not register. It is short term, and thus politicians and their attempts to represent the fickle voice of the electorate must also be ignored.

Not being consrained by democracy they plough their lonely furrows, trying to make the world a perfect safe place. This comment from the Telegraph today exemplifies the approach,

"You might say that small children have been blowing up balloons for generations, but not anymore and they will be safer for it," said an official"

As Paul Nuttall, the UKIP MEP on the Public Health Committee in the Brussels Parliament puts it in the Express,

Ukip MEP Paul Nuttall, said: “These idiots in Brussels seem to have a death wish. The euro is falling apart, but what do they concentrate on? Throwing our toys out of their pram.”

Silver, Gold, Diamond... Who cares it's still a party

2011-10-06T13:02:00.001+02:00

The Essex Enquirer seems to have decided the Queen is a lot younger, or at least her reign has been a lot shorter than it is,

A ONCE-in-a-lifetime opportunity to protect green spaces under threat of development across the county is being wasted by Essex councils.

As part of the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations next year, councils have been given the opportunity to nominate a green space to be protected in their area guaranteeing Essex's outdoor recreational spaces for future generations.

Errrr... Chaps the Silver Jubilee was in the 1977, the Diamond Jubilee is in 2012. Mustn't blame the hack though, at 24 it would be a full 7 years before he was born. Bless.

And kudos to Stuart Agnew for demanding action from the council.

EMS: A legacy of despond

2011-10-06T11:15:00.001+02:00

It really is time for some of the old stagers to be put out to grass.

I present that old, often charming, red-veined cove Edward McMillan-Scott, formerly Tory MEP leader, now a Lib Dem, still spouting echos of years gone by. He exemplifies an elderly and tired generation of political elite who, burnt by the slow decline of Britain cannot see anything but a continuation of the same. For him and his sort optimism is restricted to the banks of the Spey.

Here he is in a letter in the Yorkshire Post today,

THE Conservative high command is clearly involved in a concerted damage limitation process over the growing Euroscepticism displayed at the party conference in Manchester.
This disguises a potentially momentous shift in which the UK would slip into an EU hinterland while the core countries develop a deeper relationship around a strengthened euro.

His delusion about the strength of the Euro seems to know no bounds, but that isn't what disturbs me, and to be frank saddens me. It is the voice of a man deeply entrenched in his anecdotage,

I recall a lengthy call to my mobile from Hague – I was at Brussels Airport waiting for a plane – in which he demanded that I sign up to a “Never to the euro” pledge. He had persuaded the leaders of the other Parliamentary groups, Scottish, Welsh, Lords etc to do so and he insisted that I – then leader of the Tory MEPs – now sign. I refused, objecting that to rule out membership in principle was absurd, even if I was not then in favour

Hague’s positioning towards the 120 or so Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers who last week inaugurated their campaign for “localism”’ (that is, repatriation of powers from the EU) was to say that membership was not “career suicide”: hardly helpful to Cameron, who dreads his Right-wing.

The group’s leader, George Eustice, was once a Ukip election candidate. How long before Cameron faces reality over the euro and faces down his Ukip tendency, who are full of passionate intensity for a referendum? And what is the deal he now offers them? Second class membership of the EU for Britain. That is not in the national interest.

What we want isn't first or second class status at the level of the EU, our ambition is not so lowly.

What we want, what we believe we can achieve and what with hard work and self-belief we will regain is first class status in the world. Trading freely and holding our heads up high as a beacon for freedom, tolerance, liberality and economic confidence and success.

Within the confines of the EU straightjacket we would forever have second class status. Even Germany that trading behemoth cannot sit at the top table of the WTO because of its membership of the EU.

The sound of silence does not indicate support Mr Laitenberger

2011-10-05T16:00:00.000+02:00

he carnival of delusion that is the Europrean elite's grasp of the realities of the European Crisis has been highlighted yet again.

In one of those classic 'Brussels talking to Brussels' events at the European Policy Centre Barosso's Chef de Cabinet Johannes Laitenberger has gone down a storm. And he has made it clear that there is no reason to panic, the project is on track, everything will be fine. And how does he know this? He knows this because the silent majority has been speaking has been speaking to him (we know not how)... maybe he hears voices (or worse believes what he reads in Eurobarometre).

"The first and best ally that we have in all of this is the silent majority who too often is drowned out by a very vocal minority of sceptics and critics but which is much more solid than we care to think,"...

And how is this silent majority composed?

"I am very confident that there are enough people, enough institutions, enough forces, that can be mobilised. You sense that the tide is turning. Many people who at the beginning of the discussion did not raise their voices are more forceful, more decisive and saying more clearly what needs to be done."

Oh yes, institutions, they are already on your side. You must be tone deaf if you don't know that. And the idea that you could mobilise anything, for crying out loud, what? Where?

Today the only people mobilised are the poor masses in Greece, and I doubt that they will be coming to your aid.

Oh but what if, Mr Laitenburger, just what if that silent majority has finally had it up to here with the undemocratic, aloof behaviour of you and those like you? What if what we are seeing is indeed the wakening of the general public, but as they wake from their subsidy induced torpor it isn't you that they support? They do not look at your minority interest as their own, but instead cleave as they always have to their own countries, to their own lands?

What then?

The subtleties of language

2011-10-05T13:23:00.001+02:00

The European Parliament has today passed the legislation in Committee that will create what they call a European Heritage Label. UKIP made a bit of hay with this when it was first presented, and rightly so.

But I have been looking at the legislation and I was struck with the language in which it is counched.

Look at the language here, being part of the EU is part of a 'sense of belonging' whilst diversity is to be 'appreciated'. One is integral to one's very being - that is being a European citizen and one's feelings towards the benificent EU, whereas diversity is externalised and to be appreciated, thus not actually part of us.

The Commission's proposal
The aim of the proposal is to strengthen European Citizens’ sense of belonging to the European Union, based on shared elements of history and heritage, as well as an appreciation of diversity, and to strengthen intercultural dialogue.

Very sly. Because of course it is our diversity that makes us who we are, not our similarity.

Of course this whole program, to cost 650,000 Euros is specifically targeted at kiddies,

The label is not about a site's beauty or its architectural quality, but rather its symbolic value for European integration and the history of the Union. It is not about conservation of sites in itself, but rather about the activities they can offer and their educational dimension, especially for young people.

And my favourite recipient of this glittering honour?

A shoe factory.

Questions to which the answer is NO (version 376)

2011-10-05T12:34:00.000+02:00

I well recall those hours in school, leaky fountain pens and inky fingers prominent struggling with Kennedy's Latin Primer.

One of the things that always impressed me as child we that the Romans had a word that make it clear that no answer was required as it was apparent that it would be in the negative.

Nonne Caesar inimicum superavit? (Caesar defeated the enemy, didn’t he?)

Num Caesar inimicum superavit? (Caesar did not defeat the enemy, did he?)

Notice that in the first question a “yes” answer is anticipated but in the second a “no” answer is anticipated. Also note that the Latin word “non” is not needed in the second sentence to indicate the negative construction; “num” is sufficient.

Here is an example of a Num question

Are the Tories the New Lib/Dems

2011-10-03T20:29:00.000+02:00

I know it sounds a dumb question. But hear me out.

In the past, what 18 months ago most people outside the Lib Dems were utterly confused as to what they were for. We knew they were for dodgy bar graphs in local election leaflets. We knew they stood for 'Winning here' but we didn't know what it was they were 'winning ' for.

They were pro-European (apart from a few down in the West Country who knew that was a loser at the polls down there). They were for civil liberties in a general way, but supported a whole range of anti-liberal ideas like the smoking ban.

They were free market economists, except when they were fighting inner city seats when they were re-distributive socialists like Simon Hughes.

If they were for anything it was for finding out what their local community wanted and appropriating it as policy. This of course lead them in to all sorts of contradictions but it didn't matter, after all they were nowhere near power.

The Tories meanwhile, well we knew what they were for. Enterprise, business, self reliance and all that sort of stuff. Often caricatured as uncaring they were a party of the independent underdog against organised interests.

But today, who knows. With U-turn after U-turn it is becoming impossible to get a handle on them. Eurosceptic, but not. Pro-enterprise, but in favour of swinging green related policies, in favour of a range of civil libertarian issues, but supporters of greater and greater use of CCTV. Faster on the motorways, slower in towns. Its a dogs breakfast.

Listening to the policy statements and speeches at the conference it is as bad as the Lib/Dems of yore.

Each Cabinet Minister seems to have been set the task of buttering up a different section of society, often in wildly contradictory ways that to be honest I cannot make head or tail of what they are for.

I half expect 'In Touch' leaflets to start including those bar graphs.

14 million Euros to spend a few pennies

2011-10-03T18:04:00.000+02:00

That fount of all rectitude, that home of the parsimonius, the Eurpopean Parliament has agreed to spend another 16 million euros on improving office space in the Strasbourg building.

The extra space would allow the building of new offices for MEPs' assistants, many of whom currently share office space with MEPs when they are in Strasbourg, and provision of new communal toilets.

No seriously, we cannot have MEP's assisatnts sharig the same office as their boss, that just wouldn't do. According to the European Voice it appears the money will also be used to knock down some of the intergral MEP loo spaces and build communal loos.

This will be good in that paradise of Presidents I suppose to discover who indeed is the biggest swinging Dick in town. But do we really need to spend another great wad of cash, on loos?

So why did you leave?

2011-10-03T17:50:00.000+02:00

David Campbell Bannerman is acting quite oddly. he has just launched a pamphlet that,

Another conference, another pamphlet on the future of the European Union and this one is calling very clearly for us to pull right out, right now.

David Campbell Bannerman, who left UKIP to join the Tories five months ago, is arguing that things could be better outside the EU.

"There's a lot of mythology about the EU," he says.

"This is the ultimate Plan B. It's a much bigger picture, that of our entire relationship with the EU."

It's a fascinating time for Eurosceptics, he told a fringe meeting at the Conservative Conference: "I would argue it is good for many countries to escape the prison of the EU."

David, your (new) party leader has made it quite clear that as long as he is around that he will not countenance any thought of an 'in-out' referendum.

Meanwhile you steal the phrases of your (old) party leader to demand it. So why on earth did you jump ship? Surely it couldn't be anything to do with a careerist reason could it?

Government Guarantees that Olympic track to go after 2012

2011-10-03T17:12:00.001+02:00

To be fair to them the headline is slightly different.

GOVERNMENT GUARANTEE OLYMPIC TRACK WILL STAY

But as always the devil is in the details. If I were the IAAF who were given this guarantee I would be very very cautious of it,

The inspectors of London's bid for the 2017 world athletics
championships were today handed a "cast-iron guarantee" by the
Government that the running track will remain in place at London's
Olympic Stadium regardless of whether Tottenham win their court action.

A letter from the Treasury Solicitor making the guarantee was given to
the IAAF evaluation commission, which is headed by senior vice-president
Bob Hersh of the United States, on their three-day visit to London.

The Tory Government are handing out a 'cast-iron guarantee'.

Who will give me odds that the track will be ripped up, just like Dave's last Cast Iron promise?

We know what is good for you

2011-09-30T19:07:00.000+02:00

I n the end everybody will vote for the Bailout. Even little Slovakia which has been holding out against it for quite a while.
Last year the PM even went as far as describing the whole bail out process as

participating in a "pyramid scheme."

So it is no surprise to have the European Commission lecturing them as they have today,

“The euro has been very, very beneficial for Slovakia,” Amadeu Altafaj, the European Commission's economic affairs spokesman, told a news briefing.

“It is in the self-interest of Slovakia's citizens and politicians to endorse these enhancements,” he said, noting that Bratislava, along with all other eurozone members, backed the EFSF overhaul at a crisis summit in July.

“So it should be ratified by the parliament, hopefully, soon,” he said, warning that there was no “Plan B” for the eurozone.

Plesae note that I would have thought it was the business of the Slovaks themselves to decide what is and isn't t in their own interests, not soime jumped up Eastern European Press Officer who co-incidentally had rather a hard time when faced with Mr Oborne earlier in the week. Yes it is he.

Sharon Bowles: Confused Carbon Crusader

2011-09-29T22:27:00.000+02:00

Meet Sharon Bowles, Lib Dem MEP for the South East and a woman really rather pleased with herself - Two of he last 9 press releases have been about how important she is (here and here).

She tweeted tonight that she had been really quite busy,

Wonder who footed the bill?
Last 3 weeks have been Strasbourg, Poland, Manchester, Brussels, Washington, Strasbourg. Now nearly home at last!

Which is all very exciting for her, not sure whether we are supposed to sympathise or bow in awe. (Amused that she went to Manchester - with the the Tories next week, rather than to Birmingham where the Lib/Dems were last week.

But what I am really impressed with is the travel, she must have a carbon footprint the size of Hampshire (of course as a very important person she cannot do video conferencing or anything like that she has to travel in person. Here she is taking others to task.

Update
She didn't go to Manchester after all

SharonBowlesMEP
Yow, I am so tired I do not know where I have been, was Birmingham not Manchester!