The 24th official language of the EU: Eurocratese

According to their website the EU, that beacon of multilingualism has 23 official languages,

They are: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.

But now we have to add a 24th. To work and operate in the institutions it has long been known that you need English to succeed, and French to brown nose. But the key language skill above all others is to be fluent in that amalgam of English and gibberish, Eurocratese. Thanks to Quarsan I can bring you this text book example.

Without a close study of the following texts you can forget passing the Concours. First an intro flowchart.

16:00-18:00 1st Break-out session: Visions

This session will take the form of a brainstorming structured into six groups corresponding to the six thematic dimensions of the Digital Futures "hexagon" (political, social, economic, personal, environmental and technological). It will perform a stocktaking of existing "visions" (including those stemming from the DG INFSO internal trial or brought by the participants) and cross-fertilise opinions, inspiring ideas for further visions.

Got that? There will be questions...

9:00-11:00 2nd Break-out session: Trends

The trends identified at the plenary session will have been clustered and the clusters will be partitioned amongst the break-out sessions. Participants will revise the trends, possibly adding new ones. Each trend should then be scored with regards to certainty and impact and receive a fading-out date (if any).

Of course comprehension is vital (if any).

There is, of course method,

Methodology

The long term time horizon of Digital Futures makes it suitable for normative methods (i.e. that start with a preliminary set of futures that are of particular interest and work backwards to see if and how these futures might or might not grow out of the present) complemented by explorative methods (i.e. that begin with the present). The approach is conceptually divided into three knowledge elicitation steps:

1) Draw scenarios on a time horizon 2040-50 using participative scenario planning/thinking techniques. Each scenario is associated with a likelihood, desirability and impact.

2) Identify possible issues stemming from the scenarios, including risks and opportunities.

3) Proceed backward to devise policy orientations and options for action to address the above issues.

To facilitate the planning of scenarios the project identifies trends and the associated drivers and inhibitors with a long term time perspective.

Each of the steps is underpinned by a number of techniques such as creative brainstorming, gaming, relevance trees, Delphi and formal modelling.

And like all the best things, there is another flow chart (if any)

This is for planning for the future, 30 to 40 years in the future.

 Please remember, we are paying for this.

I have nominated this for the Golden Bull award

ECJ Madness strikes again

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.

The Modern Church - Hate the sinner, hate the sin

There is this curate see, no doubt a thoroughly nice chap, but as a fisher of men rather occluded. You see he thinks that anybody who dares question the faith of the Climate Change Lobby is beyond the pale. And in a country which voted rather significantly against the left he has no interest in millions of souls, or at best contempt for them. It is also apparent that according to him one has to hate the sin and the sinner. I would guess that this is a novel doctrine, but there you have it.

The reason why I am aware of this curate is that he tweeted this,

Blog: Paranoid and moronic email from @Nigel_Farage. /cc @christian_aid #ukip #climate

and being the sort of anal chap I am I had had a look for recent #UKIP tweets. Thus I bothered to read his post. Delightful it was

Now, the evidence for climate change is – as anyone who’s not a lunatic right-winger knows – overwhelming. Sadly, Mr Farage falls into the exception category. (No surprise given that UKIP is the blurry area that merges the Tories and the BNP on the right of British politics).

Below is a copy of the paranoid and moronic response I received from Mr Farage so all the world can see the lunacy that UKIP espouse.

You can go and read the response if you want on the above link. Not the words I would have used but there you have it.

I replied to his tweet,

@riggwelter good to see your form of faith allows you to dismiss as lunatics those who disagree with you. Nice tolerant sort I see

 and must have struck some sort of a nerve as he responded rather excitedly. In moments he had replied. Not  once,

@GawainTowler The veracity of #climate science is hardly a matter of faith but of cold hard facts sir +++

Not twice,

@GawainTowler +++ and I said that Mr Farage's email was moronic and paranoid, I specifically did not call him names. Unlike you.

But

@GawainTowler If you parse the post correctly, you'll note that UKIP-style right-wing politics are described as lunatic, not any person.

@GawainTowler It's also clear that UKIP don't like light being shined on their true nature else attack dogs aren't unleashed on constituents

Seems #UKIP dislike light being shined on their true nature so much, they've unleashed the attack dogs on lil ol' me.

Yup five times. I particularly delight in that trite, "lil ol' me" and the sanctimonious use of the cross. But of course that is balderdash. Oh yes and the absolute certainty without the space for doubt about science and its veracity. Again interesting for a man of faith.

Of course, it was Friday night and I was moved to respond to this near confessional,

@riggwelter wow, seem to have touched a nerve. Never saw myself as an attack dog, more a spaniel, Clumber by choice

When called on his rather unchristian attitude his defence was as far as I can see denial. Denial that he had called the boss lunatic, or that his actions were paranoid or moronic. Dunno what you think but he thought this,

@GawainTowler Just strikes me that personal attacks and insults on constituents are an interesting way to do politics is all.

Not sure I had launched a personal attack, or an insult, merely suggested that his tone was somewhat intolerant.

@riggwelter just strikes me that adjectives such as paranoid, lunatic and moronic are fairly ripe for a man of the cloth

Not sure why I bothered with this post, but I felt that the way in which this man was so certain of his own truths that he was willing to degrade and insult those who do not share his views was symptomatic of a malaise that faces both the country at large and the Church in particular. His transparent contempt for a majority of the country rather sits ill with his vocation. Or so it seems to me, but I am only a layman.

He tells us that he is interested in,

 in using both inherited and new forms of church creatively to help the church to live as missional communities and is passionate about helping release people into ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Lord alone knows what that means by this, but I think it is meant to suggests that he respects those of different traditions. But actions speak stronger don't you think?

Be very careful of what you wish for

Is she saying that she looks forward to the day that China sends troops to Europe?

If the 21st Century was to be truly an 'Asian Century', the region, and in particular China, would have to match its growing economic prowess with greater "global leadership", said Georgieva.

The US sent soldiers to Europe to fight the forces of Nazism, noted the Bulgarian official.

"But like 1941, we aspire for Asian leadership in global affairs. With wealth comes global responsibility. That would earn the place in history of the 'Asian Century'."

I am sure she isn't really, but then what is she saying? She is definitely encouraging for China (still a Communist dictatorship FFS) to start sending its troops round the world.

TOGETHER WE MUST MAKE THE EUROPEAN YEAR OF THE BRAIN 2014 A REALITY

I have long felt that these boondoggling beanfeasts that the the 'Year of the..., Week of the ... Day of the ... hour of the...' and so on are a ridiculous carry on. And to that extent this is no different. As they point out, for one of these things to take place this must happen,

For a European Year to be launched it must be proposed by the European Commission. A European Council agreement must follow (among the relevant national ministers) and this must be approved by the European Parliament which will vote on the budget. This decision making process takes several years since it requires each institution to commit to doing something concrete.

And then, having got that far, more money needs to be spent,

It also requires the corresponding budget to be approved at European and national levels

Why?

so that activities such as European, national and local-level awareness-raising campaigns and proposals for political initiatives (a new European programme, new legislation, new political objectives etc) can be funded.

No fun wiothout new laws now is it, and hectoring, and bossing around and being told that this or that activitry is deliterious to thye brain, like smashing you head against a brick wall demanding reform perchance? Or listening to the interminable speeches, in favour of this sort of thing.

The whole charade will be stuffed with preening shirts waffling on, leaving the audience feeling that they have listened to a Vogon poetry reading.

They are treating it like a European City of Culture, or attempting to win the World Cup. Who gets the franchise!!!

Ok, there is lots of worthy stuff about brian disease, but this particular ambition did strike me,

Promote normal brain function and development and address barriers to these.

Oh My Freaking Cripes. Sometimes I hang my head in horror

What is this?

No wiser, how about this?


No really, we need Europe to stop us singing all alone, with the wrong words and out of tune.

Somebody wake me up when the adults have come back. How much is this extravaganza costing us?

You can even vote for your favourite Kareoke track.

Guys, Guys, there is a financial crisis that is swamping your precious political experiment and you want us to vote on our favourite Kareoke tracks?

For Pete's sake, get serious.

No you fools, don't make it worse

The NFU is one of those organisations that has, to put it politely lived past its sell by date. If Disreali were alive today he would be chucking his extinct volcanoes quip at them. As a voice of the establishment there is scarcely better.

So it should come as no surprise that they are desperate to foist upon us anpother unelected nannying nincompoop who can disrupt our lives from an ineffably superior position. I give you the EU's own Chief Scientific officer.

THE NFU has called on the European Commission to honour its promise to appoint a chief scientist to assist on vital decisions relating to food security and climate change...
Katy Lee, assistant director in the NFU’s Brussels office, said science was often ignored by EU policy makers and urged Mr Barroso to fill the role ‘as a matter of urgency’.

We welcomed the intention to create a chief scientific adviser back in 2009 but we are disappointed the post has still not been filled,” she said.

What the hell are they playing at, from the face of it it looks as if the EU had ditched the self agrandising idea and the morons at the NFU want to breath life into its revanent.

“We are faced with huge global challenges to feed a growing world population sustainably and it is clear that the solutions from the EU must be underpinned by sound science and not destroyed by intransigent politics.”

Stuart Agnew MEP, the UKIP Agriculture spokesman, and normally friendly towards the NFU was moved to write in their comments section,

Whilst the NFU always lobbies hard for the interests of farmers, I believe that on this issue they are attempting to shoot their members in the feet. The EU can be relied upon to engage a scientist who has fully bought into the myth of man made global warming (which is the opposite of ´sound science´) and his recommendations are likely to make life very difficult for farmers. Quotas on emissions are a real possibility, to say nothing of the red tape and record keeping that will further engulf farmers.

We had an example of EU `sound science` when they insisted on the burning of carcases of animals with Foot & Mouth Disease, not to mention a great many that did not have it. The longer this post remains vacant, the better. I will vote against any such appointment, if I get the opportunity.

No wonder the NFU are known across the country as No F  Use

Prisons musn't be thought of as punitive

Prisoners are not prisoners, cells are not cells. Segregation isn't segregation, punishment isn't punitive.

Iain Dale on his Radio show last night talking to Charlie a prison officer. How the world goes mad.

Via the ultimate witterer.

No Judge Teare, he is not a "decent man"

Some scruffy ha'porth has just been handed down a two year conditional discharge for criminal damage,

Chris Kitchen, 32, was one of 18 protesters sentenced this week after being found guilty last month of planning to trespass at Eon’s coal-fired Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire and shut it down for a week.

So far so good, if he ofends again a decent sized hefty tome should be chucked at him from a great height, lets say the complete works of the IPCC.

But what really narks is this comment from the Judge,

Judge Jonathan Teare, sentencing, described those convicted as “decent men and women with a genuine concern for others”.

No your honour they aren't. They may have some sort of theoretical affection for mankind, in abstract. But when it come to real, individual, messy people they don't give a bent farthing. They have cost taxpayers, according to the prosecutor's estimates £300,000 in court costs. They have disrupted people going about their dauily, law abiding lives. They take the law into their own hands and they despise progress.

It is mealy mouthed comments like that that give them the moral purpose which they seek.It ios people like you who are the problem, why we see such ludicrous and craven respionses to deliberate lawlessness.

You would have done better to have kept your mouth shut.

2011: A Bright New dawn for the EU.. Eh?

Or at least that is what Mr Barroso seems to be suggesting with his speech today in Brussels,

The start of this New Year marks, I believe, an important new phase in European integration. In this semester we will make real progress on stronger economic governance and policy coordination in the European Union.

This semester's news will be clear: it is not only the so-called "federalists" who want to see more economic governance and co-ordination; it is the markets and also our international partners that are expecting it. More economic governance and coordination is not an ideological dream. It is a pragmatic need. Those defending it are not utopians, but realists.

The Commission's proposals are on the table and we will keep driving this agenda, and we will come with further policy initiatives.

In fact work has already been producing some results. On the 1st January, the three new supervisory authorities for the financial markets have begun their work.

I just want everybody to be clear about this, the people in favour of this are, according to the former Marxist,

1) Fedralists,
2) Markets
3) International partners.

Well yes, I conceed that federasts might be keen on "stronger economic governance and policy coordination" they have always been in favour of it. But the markets? Really? They may see it as one solution to the problem, but it isn't their be all and end all in any way. Saying that the markets have a desire is weird in itself. If they desire anything it is that they desire stability, but if there was perfect stability then they would ossify, what they need is compaetition, and of course having one size fits all policies certainly does not encourage that.

The City of London for example has not been vocal in its support for Mr Barosso's exemplars, the new EU regulatory bodies of which he boasts. I would love him to be able to point to the evidence that 'the markets' have any such desire.

International partners. Eh? Such as? The UN? What the hell is he talking about here? Does China want to see this, or India, or anybody? Is he just making it up?

And even if these unamed international partners did indeed want what he suggests they want, so what! Are we to set policy to please them? Is that what it is all about? Doing what others want us to do, rather than what we want to do?

And of course there is something missing from his analysis isn't there? Popular support. You know, those inconvient things, people.

He bangs on about how he is such a democrat but neglects the one thing that matters, the support of the people he purportedly represents. So a pox on him and his claim to realism. Realism would make him realise that he has no mandate, no legitimacy no support from those who matter for any of this.

As an addition, the remainder of his speech was such a hodge podge that it is hard to criticise, but here goes anyway.

Narked he is,

Let me tell you very frankly that I am unhappy with the progress made on energy efficiency.

Let me tell you something, you condescending patronisng autocrat. I don't care if you are disappointed with the countries of Europe. Who ever thought it mattered whether you are disappointed or not? The nations and peoples of Europe are not little children for you to tut at and wag your stubby Iberian finger at. How dare you?

And they you compound this by being stupid as well. You want growth, but you want to cut energy use by 20%.

Work it out you lesser Faraday, you pygmoid genius, work it out. If you and you cabal set binding figures of a 20% cut in energy use, then you are going to get a cut in growth. It is that simple. To think otherwise is not realisim, but the utopianism you deride and deny.

Just go home, take early retirement and let the people of this continent run their own lives free from the hectoring idiocies and inanities that spew ill-formed from your lacivious lips.

"Christmas trees could present a danger"

I came across this through the good offices of th Norwich Evening News, and my favourite twitterer, http://twitter.com/EveningNews

Written up by the splendidly Christmassy David Freezer, it is a tale of fear and horror...

A dramatic video of how quickly a Christmas tree fire can be spread has been released to warn people to not allow tragedy to strike in their home this Christmas.

Scary it is too.

But I had a look at the statistics, and I noted that in Norfolk - Oh yes the Department of Communities and LocalGovernent had obviously done thir work and have press released tis little fear mongering across the country, county by county - in Norfolk,

Statistics from last year show that of the 429 domestic fires in Norfolk, December was one of the busiest months for firefighters with a total of 46.

Well that would mean that the aveage per month in Norfolk was 35. So December with 46 is bad, but not that bad, and given that we are all turning up the heating, having fires at home and so on, hardly surprising.

I note that,

Statistics show that of the 595 domestic fires in Hertfordshire during 2009, 64 took place in December. Across the border in Essex, 82 of the 803 blazes in the county occurred during the last month of the year.

See what I mean about localised press releases...

Furthermore

The Government’s Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser Sir Ken Knight said: “Everyone enjoys the festive cheer that a Christmas tree and decorations can bring to a home. But the sad fact is that all this can act as extra fuel for a potential house fire. Unsafe electrical decorations, overloaded plugs and unattended candles are all potential causes of fire.

“Just two to three breaths of toxic smoke from a fire can render a person unconscious and you have less time to escape than you think. It only takes a minute for festive celebrations to go up in smoke, so I urge everyone to be fire safe this year and have a great Christmas.”

Dry Christmas trees, decorations and wrapped presents can all provide means for a fire to spread in the home so Fire Kills have issued a list of precautions to take, as well as reminded people to test their fire alarms as soon as possible.

I don't know, call me a cynic but I just wanted to check on those statistics. After all burning Christmas trees are scary things, just look at that video.

So on the department website we find this,

Notes to editors
Provisional statistics show that nearly 2000 fires were caused by electric heaters, electric blankets and candles in 2009/10. Figures will be verified upon publication of Fire Statistics UK during Summer 2011.

Don't let your Christmas go up in smoke. Dry Christmas trees, decorations and wrapped presents can all provide means for a fire to spread in the home.

Hmm... Thinks I, no mention of Christmas trees in the Statistics. So I do what any journalist should do and check. I phoned the Deprtament of Communities;and Local Government and asked if they had any statistics relating to Christmas Tree Fires? After all they were trying to scare us about the dangers of Christmas trees.

They phoned back,

"No", the friendly lass said, "We have no statistics on Christmas tree fires".
"Decorations, statistics on the effect of decorations?"
"No"
"So why are you sending out scary press releases and making scary films about the dangers of Christmas trees when you have no data to back it up?"
"Well Christmas trees could present a danger" She said, slightly hesitantly.

Christmas trees could present a danger, so can books for Pete's sake - Do you put out warnings during the Hay Festival? Excess books could result in congflagration!

"We do the same at Diwali".

"OK, so it is alright to scare people of all faiths, without any evidence to back it up?"

She started to go on like some sort of bit part in a CSI film about dry trees being an accelerant (which makes me wonder if the very fast burning tree in the film is bone dry, the sort that got chucked out a couple of weeks ago).

I pushed again, after all, we have the Government trying to make our flesh creep. Yes of course Christmas trees and paper and electric lights and candles (and Christmas puddings - don't forget the Christmas puddings) are flamable. We know that.

I scoffed again, and getting increasingly annoyed with me she answered,

"The Government has an important role in public information".

Well maybe, but not without any evidence to back it up you don't.

Just for the record Madam, and Bob Neil the Minister implicated in this.

We are not stupid, you can stop spending money telling uis things we know about now.

Crackers is as Crackers does

Under 16 year olds are banned from buying Christmas Crackers by EU regulations.

Sounds like a Euro myth doesn't it. The sort that flary nostrilled UKIP types would make up to scare granies as they sip their old mellow British cream sherry.

So lets look at the advice sent out by the Govt department,

The Regulations

The Pyrotechnic Articles (Safety) Regulations 2010 are regulations which transpose into UK law European Directive 2007/23 on the placing on the market of pyrotechnic articles. In UK legislation the Regulations primarily replace the Fireworks (Safety) Regulations 1997 but have wider product coverage and cover the whole of the UK. There is a transition period until 3 July 2017 for products that comply with the existing legal requirements.

All terribly sensible no doubt, so what about those kiddies with Christmas Crackers?

The minimum age limit for supply of category 1 fireworks is 16 years (see regulation 15(2)). Christmas crackers fall within category 1, among other low hazard, low noise fireworks.

You will be relieved to note however,

The Regulations do not however apply to toy percussion caps for toy guns etc.

Which is fortunate because as well all know, these days after the age of about 12 children now buy real guns on the black market and blow each other away.

Anyhow I just note the response of Godfrey Bloom MEP to this,

"Year after year children are severely wounded by indiscriminate pulling of Christmas crackers" said Godfrey Bloom MEP today. "That is absurd of course, but seems to be the thinking behind the application of a European Directive."

The regulation, The Pyrotechnic Articles (Safety) Regulations 2010 transpose into UK law European Directive 2007/23 on the placing on the market of pyrotechnic articles.

"What this means in practice is that retailers have to demand ID from customers wanting to buy crackers and nobody under the age of 16 will be able to buy crackers. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) describes the rules as 'particularly daft', said Bloom.

"They are too kind. The rules are ruddy stupid.

"They seem to assume that everybody is an idiot, that nobody is safe and that every 10-year-old is a budding Guy Fawkes hoarding Christmas crackers in an attempt to blow up the House of Commons in an apocalyptic cataclysm of bad jokes and paper hats.

"I wish it were true but, sadly, this is just another example of the moronic British application of nannying EU rules.

"They will not rest until each of us is a dribbling incompetent, incapable of deciding what is and what isn't in our own interest.

"Here's an idea. Trust people to make decisions based on facts as they are presented, rather than employ armies of busybodies to check on the activities of innocent children and storekeepers," said Bloom.

Quite so, Godders, quite so.

Linguistic hierarchy

So we used to call them felons, but that wasn't nice, so we called them criminals. That itself was demeaning, so we called them offenders. Now we are being asked to desist from that,

Lawbreakers should no longer be branded offenders because the term is “insulting”, a leading criminal justice campaigner said today.

Frances Crook, head of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said the phrase demeaned criminals and hindered their rehabilitation.

She said it was “easy” for politicians to treat some sections of society as “other” and less than human.

“Someone who commits an offence is not an offender, they are someone who has done something. The action does not define the whole person,” she wrote in the journal Criminal Justice Matters.

“By insisting that the offence overcomes all other parts of the person we are condemning them to a sub-human category for whom there is no hope.”

To offend is to insult society. If you rob it is an insult to the robbed, you are a robber.

If you rape it is an insult to the raped. You are a rapist.

If you defraud. You are a fraudster. If you murder you are a murderer.

You can be whateber you wish to be as your actions will speak louder than your words. You can be a con, convict, crook, culprit, delinquent, desperado, deuce, evildoer, felon, gangster, hooligan, jailbird, lawbreaker, malefactor, outlaw, racketeer, repeater, trespasser, wrongdoer, yardbird any of the above.

But don't go crying for sympathy.

As Mathew puts it,

7. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

7:17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

7:18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

7:19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Update
AM puts it rather better

Isle of Wight Council discover cheap source of fuel

According to Ventnor Blog they have announced that they will be sending recycled Irish jokes to a 'gasification plant' (see right, where old jokes go to die), which will then render them down into purest energy, that you will be able to heat your homes with.

The market stall was visited several times by Trading Standards officers during the summer and autumn of 2008 following information received that some of the products on offer were either illegal copies or fake merchandise.

This included Irish jokes and several other CDs, salt and pepper pots and baseball caps branded with the England logo and Manchester United logo.

The seized goods have since been kept in storage by IW Council Trading Standards and on Wednesday 1 December, they will be taken to the Gasification Plant in Newport.

There, they will be shredded and then crushed into ‘bales’ where they will then be burnt in the Gasification Plant which generates electricity.

I am impressed. If I can get a few Watts from a redundent Irish joke, how much power do I get for a Mother-in-Law? Or for that matter contraband sexist mutterings and the odd off colour comment about dubious foriegners?

To be fair to Ventnor Blog, he is quoting direct from the IoW council press release.

Kids with walking swipe cards

The news being reported today that Andrew Lansley is going to endorse Wimbledon Council's walk to school bribery campaign is very worrying.
It is true that children should do more exercise. But it seems to me to be pushing it to think that walking to school is the right way forward, especially not formally bribing them to walk to school.

This is 'Nudge' politics taken to the wrong extremes,

Firstly it is wrong in itself. It is not the business of government to tell us how to live out lives. Thus the key reason for children not walking to school is because of fear. We had the recent example of the man threatened with social workers for allowing his child to walk a whole 45 yards to a bus stop.
More worrying is how this will be policed,

Under the scheme, pupils will be issued with electronic swipe cards that they use to touch receivers on lampposts between their home and school, in much the same way that Oystercards work on the capital's transport network.

Errr... Oh yes right now that is a great idea. We the people trust the Government and its agencies to keep data safe. So what we have here is the people who run this campaign having access to precise data about how children walk to school, their routes, their times the works.

And why would anybody want that data? Now I am not one who panics about pedophilia, but seriously guys, which idiot thought this one up?

So now we have the school as a new kiddie police state.

You log in on the local lamppost, walk to school, repeating your card swipe all the way. Then you get to school, where you are fingerprinted. Then you have to show your lunch box to prove that you are only eating the approved meal.

And that is before the politically correct rubbish that pretends to be education these days.



And this is a so called Conservative Government heaven help us.



Lansley has to be stopped from this proposal. It is deeply illiberal, it will be ruinously expensive and is just not necessary.

Because I am worth it

I see that the ECJ has just given me a pay rise. It amounts to 3.7% and I understand that the reasoning is that the Council cannot cut my rises. It is in the treaty after all.

The thing is, this pay rise for me and thousands of Eurocrats (including of course the Judges who made the decisison) blows a gaping hole in the famous EU budget decision.

You see this pay rise is not included in the 2.9% so painstakingly agreed by the Council. Mr Cameron's rather battered piece of paper has just been torn to shreds.

It is now EU law thanks to the costumed chaps in Luxembourg that I get my pay rise.

Better still, the internal trade unions are getting very excited about how they are abatting les EU proles, they are now demanding that it is back dated.... and that I get the interest on the money,

Le SFIE maintient ce recours en rappelant qu'il a, en outre, demandé l'application complète de l'adaptation des salaires (3,7 %) ainsi que les intérêts de retard.

As the Eye might say... Trebles all round.

EU Masterchef: Cooking the books?

I stop, I turn, I look again and I still cannot really believe it. Now we have a bunch of European Commissions spending 3 days playing at Masterchef!

For three days four EU commissioners cooked to their heart's delight under the approving  eye of renowned chefs...

Janez Potocnik (Slovenia, Commissioner for the Environment) and Chef Frank Fol, aided by a group of enthusiastic third-grade students, prepared an organic meal with seasonal produce.

Antonio Tajani (Italy, vice-president and Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship), opted for la cucina italiana. He was assisted by two members of his cabinet and two Italian chefs.

Karel De Gucht (Belgium, Commissioner for Trade) and Neelie Kroes (the Netherlands, Vice-President and Commissioner for Digital Agenda) entered into a culinary alliance and prepared a Flemish-Dutch dish with the help of Michelin star chef Roger Van Damme.

Politics doesn't get more idiotic than this.

Van Rompuy's head vanishes up his ...

I am beggining to wonder quite how tone deaf the Eurocracy is? I mean seriously I have just recieved an invitation to go along to an event organised by the EPP, featuring everybody's favourite bank clerk, Mr Heramn Van Rompuy, your President and ours.

Entitled,

“Stability, Security, Prosperity - the future of Europe and the Euro”

One begins to wonder what newspapers the man and his advisors read, The Utopian Times maybe?

If you are in Brussels tonight, go along, laden with rotten fruit.

How to deal with uniformed bureacrats

A chap walks through customs with cigarettes. He is stopped by Customs. He objects.

And they really don't like it. Arresting him... twice. The problem is he knows his rights better than they know their powers. They really don't appreciate his requesting that the interview be recorded.

A very slow, calm raising of the two fingers to overweaning authority.

Via Nothing 2 Declare

Van Rompuy describes the independent nation state as "a lie"

The Bank Clerk is back in his assassin of nations garb.

We have together to fight the danger of a new Euro-scepticism.
This is no longer the monopoly of a few countries.
In every Member State, there are people who believe their country can survive alone in the
globalised world.
It is more than an illusion: it is a lie!

What on earth is he saying here? Is he describing the existence of countries such as Switzerland as a falsehood. In some way, Norway is false?

Truly weird.

Her was talking - dare I say ranting - at the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. And he has the gall to suggest that those of us who do not share his vision, those who do believe that democracy is something best practised at home, those who, like the majority in the UK who believe that their nation is the repository of freedom and liberty, we are warmongers.

The biggest enemy of Europe today is fear.

Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism, and nationalism leads to war (“le nationalisme, c’est la guerre” (F. Mitterrand)). Today’s nationalism is often not a positive feeling of pride of one’s own identity, but a negative feeling of apprehension of the others.

Now Mr Van Rompuy, please let me get this straight. Just because you come from a nation that is tearing itself apart, is indeed a failure as a nation and fits with your description,

The time of the homogenous nation-state is over.

indeed in Belgium's case it never existed, don't think we are all Belgians. My wish to be free of you and yours is not driven by fear. It is not driven by contempt, though I feel that for much of the actions of the EU,. No it is driven by a belief that to have a democracy one needs a demos. A people who consent to be governed by each other. In the EU this does not exist. Thus the EU is not, and will not be a democracy.

My love for my country is untainted by fear of your land, or of Germany, or of Lithuania or anybody. I fear, maybe your bureaucracy and its incessant demands to have ever greater controls over every aspect lives of the citizens of the 27 nations unhappily locked within its borders, but nothing else.

Why should I? I am English.