Will the Euro Survive?

You know what I think, but here is someone elses point of view.

They Just Can’t Stop Themselves

One of my top grouses about the EU, is that much of what they set out to do is stupid and worthless. There is no other way to describe it. Take this:

LAWS that threaten the British “pinta” and traditional loaf of sliced bread are set to be waved through the European parliament this week. Dairy farmers and British MEPs are fighting a last-ditch campaign to block the moves to harmonise packaged food across the European Union.

Can anyone give me a reasonable reason why food packaging needs to be harmonised at an EU level? What kind of idiot, spends his days worrying that the British drink pints of milk and have different sized loaves of bread? Where is the harm in it? The problem is that if you have an unnecessary European Government, its powers will be used. They have to justify their jobs. This is why I don’t belong to the reform wing of Euroscepticism. Reform it to do what exactly? The only answer is to jettison the whole thing. Update: It seems that the story this was based on was actually wrong.

Hopes Dashed

A headline like that, you would expect it to be about the failure to find more survivors after the roof collapse in Poland. Perhaps it could be about the particularly Not Gay Simon Hughes and his failing campaign or even a lost dog on Salisbury Plain. But No. This is more serious than all of those:

Finland has delayed formal ratification of the European Union constitution, dashing hopes that the nation might breathe new life into the half-dead treaty.

One by one, members are refusing to play the game. Having heard an MEP state that the voters of France and The Netherlands should have no more say than those who want the treaty, I understand where this non story came from. They keep hoping that momentum can put pressure on the rejecters.

Hamas’s Conservative Friends

I was unsurprised when I read the headline:

EU nations urged to accept Hamas

What surpised me was who said it:

The leader of the European Union's election-monitoring team which oversaw the vote last Wednesday, Conservative MEP Edward McMillan-Scott, said the gesture should come at talks between EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.

He joins the long list of Conservatives who have shamefully decided that right and wrong are not as important as an easy life. The list is of course topped by Mr Chamberlain, but includes Milosevic lovers in the Major administration among others. Whatever the suffering of the ordinary Palestinians, we should never recognise a government that refuses to renounce terrorist violence. Look for the EU to make Grand statements, big pronouncements, and then resume sending our cash to support murderers.

Divorcing The EPP

The New Leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, promised to split the Conservative Party from its federast friends in the Euro Parliament. Now it seems that some of the Consdervative MEPs have gone native and are not too happy with this idea. So yours truly, decided to do something to support the divorce. Please go and join in the campaign, let the MEPs know that we do not want to be a part of the Eurolooney Peoples Party.

The People’s Dialogue

When in doubt, throw a conference.

A major conference is taking place on the future of the European Union today following last year’s rejection of the EU constitution by voters in some countries.

You will not solve a thing, but you will probably get to eat some good food and do a little networking. According to the Organiser

"This will help us find the policies that will unite the people of Europe.”

No mention of whether the public (as opposed to political anoraks) will even knowe the conference is on, let alone attend. No doubt if it doesn’t work, they will double the dose.

The Dublin event is the first in a series of events to be held by the Party of European Socialists’ (PES) member parties in a number of Member States.

Great I can’t wait.

That VAT Problem

Contrary to what that nice man Mr Blair says, the European Union does have a great deal of influence on taxes. Where VAT is concerned, Brussels has long held the upper hand. Not everyone is happy with this:

Along with the Czech Republic and Cyprus, Poland infuriated other countries in the 25-member bloc this week when it refused to go along with a compromise deal to extend lower VAT rates to more service sectors.

At stake are several groups of products and services not subject to VAT in these countries. Unfortunately for our soon to be wiser friends, not charging VAT is a cardinal sin in the hallowed halls of Brussels. All Europeans must render unto Caesar, whatever goods or services they consume. Apparently, the Poles have not gained the sophisticated European ways yet:

Some EU analysts said Poland could make a far better in case in Brussels if it did not shoot from the hip. "The government is very inexperienced and it has a very small lobby in Brussels," said Paul Hofheinz, chairman of the independent free-market Lisbon Council research group.

Unlike Jacque Chirac, I suppose, whose politeness and good manners are legend. This whole thing displays one of the things I hate most about the EU. Most people are expected to compromise at all possibilities, whilst others are given a free hand, or should that be carte blanche, to do as they please. All this, for the sake of ideas that have no merit. At the end of the day, there is no reason why VAT rates should be the same everywhere anyway.

Slowly Sinking In

The new member states, have largely pro-EU populations. They have seen membership as the final step of the escape from Soviet Domination and were sold the EU dream on more or less that basis. The reality is of course different. A number of polls in various countries have shown support for the EU softening since membership. The latest is from The Czech Republic.

Support for EU membership among Czechs is decreasing, having dropped five points since last spring to the current level of 44 percent, reveals an opinion survey conducted by the Eurobarometer polling agency and released today.

Remember that Eurobarometer always has more positive results (for the EU) than other polls. It is heartening to see that when reality bites, the normal reaction is to lose the rose tinted glasses.

Mandy Lies For Europe

Our esteemed Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, is spouting his usual nonsense on trade.

European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson hit back at many of the WTO's most powerful member countries who blame Europe for refusing to go further on farm imports.

Can you believe that the cheeky beggars are actually complaining about our Cruelty to Africa Policy (CAP). How dare they, do they not realise how difficult it is for Chirac to get the Framing vote? Mandy Claims:

Europe was making real sacrifices in farming but it stood to gain no significant access to markets such as fast-growing Brazil and India for high-value industrial goods like cars or chemicals made by European companies.

I agree with the first comment. We are sacrificing our environment to grow crops nobody wants, we are sacrificing our disposable income on expensive food and taxes for subsidises and we are sacrificing the lives of million of Africans. Its time the rest of the world acknowledged this. On the second issue, try offering to decrease subsidies in reality not just theoretically and immediately eliminate export subsidies. I am sure India and Brazil would budge then. Finally, read a book or two on trade, its not a zero sum game.

Make Poverty Enjoyable

Our great and good take poverty very seriously, as the following paragraph will show:

Britain’s pensions minister James Plaskitt was among 250 delegates at Villach in Austria. They ate gourmet meals and many visited health spas. Even the chairs for their meeting were flown 200 miles from Vienna — because the originals were judged to be too uncomfortable. The conference was called to discuss the EU’s 32million jobless, and 70million living on the poverty line.

With dedication like that, I feel hopeful for the future of the European Union's poor.

Hands off Our Beer

Whenever some EU member or another has a stupid idea about almost anything, they invariably want to force it down everyone elses throats. The Swedes being a bunch of lefties, not surprisingly, many of the most crackpot ideas come from there. The latest is about beer:

Swedish lobbyists have proposed higher EU-wide taxes and advertising restrictions for beer, a move Czech and other brewers oppose. The Swedish proposals call for all EU states to follow that country’s model of excise taxation. All fermented products would be classified and taxed at the same, higher level, putting beer in the same category as whisky and vodka. The proposal would also ban all advertising for all products containing alcohol, and forbid breweries from publicizing scientific findings about any beneficial health effects of beer.

The Swedish are free to oppress their own citizens on the subject of alcohol. I think their laws are a gross abuse of individual rights, but its not really my problem. The Swedes are also the world's biggest hipocrites on the subject. Bear in mind that Absolut Vodka is a product made by a Swedish State Owned company and heavily marketed around the world, and you will understand what I mean. Hopefully, they will not be successful in their efforts to make one of lifes greatest pleasures, more expensive.

Delors is Back

Just when you thought it was safe to go out, a monster from the past is back:

Jacques Delors, a former European Commission president and the key player behind creating the bloc's single currency, is now helping the commission revive the rejected EU constitution.

Obviously the Sun's classic message was not clear enough: Jacques, we don't want you or any of your ideas. Go and play with your Grandchildren.

No Expansion without Constitution

Those federast tots in their Strasbourg Playpen are continuing to throw their toys onto the floor. They don’t want to see the kindergarten allow more children in without clear rules as to who gets to play with which toys, and who pays for the cookies.

The European Union should close its doors to new entrants until it sorts out what to do with its half-dead constitutional treaty, the European parliament said on Thursday.

Of course dealing with death is difficult for the young and innocent, so I’ll put it gently for them: The constitution has gone to heavens darlings, it wont be coming back. But I’m sure it will be happy there.

Many EU diplomats believe the most likely solution is to strip down the treaty to its most important elements and to produce a slimmed down text, probably in 2008 or 2009.

They could always include some pictures so that the poor little things could understand exactly what they are voting for. Not that we will get a choice in the matter if some have their way:

Nicolas Sarkozy, French interior minister, believes he could ratify a smaller constitutional treaty through a parliamentary vote instead of by holding a second referendum.

Do what you like old chap, its dead once the British Public get their hands on it anyway.

Doctors Shafted by ECJ

Following a European Court of Federalism ruling, GPs throughout the UK face the prospect of making honest mistakes that could get them into real hot water with the VAT man. From Pulse Magazine (a trade newspaper for GPs):

The BMA is making a desperate attempt to delay new tax rules which will force three quarters of GPs to register for VAT. The rules are based on a European Court of Justice decision and will have to be implemented eventually. But the BMA has pleaded with the Government not to hurry them through in time for the start of the next financial year in April.

Look at it like this. Doctors know nothing about VAT. If they are forced to comply with this ruling from April, they are likely to at the very least have to spend more time pleasing the taxman than their patients. Worse case scenario:

Practices would need to consider reducing the amount of work which was liable for VAT or even break up partnerships in order to fall below the VAT threshold. the BMA said. Hasty change risked Practices falling foul of severe penalties, it added.

Isn’t it great how the wise men that rule us think it is a good idea to take Doctors focus off their patients and on to other things. I hope they are able to get a stay of execution, but the combination of a meddling ECJ and a greedy Chancellor is a deadly one indeed. Thanks to Thersites for the Article

Bollocks to You Schuessel

Another great European has spoken:

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel has called for a form of European Union tax to help end regular disagreements over the Union's budget.

Write this down 200 times you imbecile: Disagreements over the Union's budget are good, they protect taxpayers from venal politicians. His intellectually advanced idea?

"It's absurd that today short-term financial transactions are completely exempted from tax. It's absurd that there are tax gaps - that international aviation is part of a tax gap," he said.

Short term financial transactions are the lubricant of the global economy. Profits made on them are taxed just like any other. Taxing the transaction is a disgusting statist reflex, that would benefit no one, except the undeserving parasites that spend the cash Whats really absurd is that we have got to the point where politicians have the front to declare that a lack of tax is absurd. Its our money you plonker.

Euro Parliament Rejects Budget

Further proof if it were needed, that Our Dear Leader’s concessions on the EU budget were futile as well as expensive, were given to us by MEPs.

MEPs reject the European Council’s common position in its current form, because it does not guarantee an EU budget enhancing prosperity, competitiveness, solidarity, cohesion and security in future.

They want even more of our money.

MEPs were particularly critical of the €862 billion in funding agreed by leaders, which compares unfavourably with the €975 billion proposed by the Parliament in June.

Actually it compares very favourably from a Taxpayers point of view, as bad as it is, it is still €113 billion better. They were not completely dismayed though:

Nevertheless, Parliament welcomes the fact that Council managed to come up with a position, which allow the opening of negotiations.

And there we all were thinking that negotiations had closed.

Liberal Democrats, ugh

I found the following on a Lib Dem website.

The Liberal Democrats and their predecessor parties have been noted – if, sometimes, for little else — for their vocation as Britain’s truly European party. Europe is our brand.

Read it and barf.

Scrap the Cap

From a former government advisor and large scale farmer, this was quite unexpected.

Lord Haskins also told a conference in Glasgow that, after the purely farming parts had been scrapped, what was left of the common agricultural policy (CAP) should be re-nationalised. He told a slightly stunned audience at the Semex cattle breeding company conference: "I believe that phasing out subsidies will make farming more efficient and more profitable.

He went on to give a very good reason why:

"Subsidies sustain inefficiencies and encourage farmers to grow crops on unsuitable land. Without subsidies, the inefficient will have to pull up their socks or pass production to another grower, almost certainly larger scale. "Without subsidies, unsuitable land will go out of arable cropping. Either way, with less supply reaching the market, prices should rise."

I am very glad that he has made such statements, but couldn’t he have done so when he was still a government advisor? Nevertheless, its great to know that some farmers share our views on this.

Free the Ports

Reports of trade unionists rioting, usually means that something right is being done. So I was surprised to see that the latest trouble was caused by a proposed EU directive. Surely they couldn’t being doing something right could they? Apparently not.

Faced with a simple problem — how to enhance competition in ports services — the Eurocrats have done what comes naturally to bureaucrats. Instead of deregulating, they seek to regulate and every significant port in Europe would find its business controlled by an EU ports regulator under the ports directive.

The stupidity of the directive is that Ports are not some natural monopoly where true competition is difficult, so they do not need a regulator. Unfortunately, most of Europe’s ports are state owned and that is where the inefficiencies come from. What we need is privatisation not regulation. This idea is supported by Ashley Mote MEP

"This directive will undermine that confidence and those standards because it interferes with freely negotiated commercial contracts. It will impose controls that are neither necessary nor desirable. It seeks to solve problems in state-run ports that simply don't exist in Britain."

Typical of statist European countries to force their solutions onto all of us, when the free market approach taken by the UK solves all of their problems without the drawbacks of their chosen solution.

That Kind of Behaviour is Not Called For

Like most people who are interested in politics, I am passionate about what I believe in. When faced with what I think to be the stupidity of the opponent, I cannot help but get annoyed. I want political discussion to be adult, but I understand fully when it degenerates into a brawl. The European way is different. How can you quarrel, when the issue is solely about dividing the spoils of power? Consensus is just another word for apathy, not some ideal and consensus is something our European Friends do well. So somehow as disgusting an idea as this is, it is far from surprising.

The European Parliament will this week approve a strict new disciplinary code to stamp out banner-waving, heckling and other protests. British Eurosceptics say it targets anti-federalist MEPs.

The speaker in the House of Commons has an important role in controlling the debate. Supporters of the new measure like to pretend that they want something similar. The following sentence should show you that the Eurosceptics are right.

The president of the parliament, Josep Borrell, a Spanish Socialist, has long sought powers to clamp down on what he considers disruptive behaviour, such as waving national emblems during speeches.

A politician who waves his country’s flag during a debate is being disruptive? No doubt street fighting and rioting and other favourite left wing pursuits are nothing more than legitimate political intercourse. Also cross posted on Right Links

Europe’s Police Force

The Boys in Blue (with yellow stars) would like you to step out of the car sir, and show your EU id card. "We understand that you have been making Xenophobic comments about our glorious European Future." Paranoia? I hope so, but I’m not sure:

On 19 January 2005 the EU Gendarmerie Force (EGF) involving para-military police forces from Italy, Spain, France, Holland and Portugal will be launched in Vicenza (Veneto), Italy.

Notice that this is currently outside the usual EU structures. I don’t fancy betting against it become part of the regular structure of the EU though.

Out of Favour

Could even the Crazy Lib Dems be falling out of love with the Euro?

For some reason Chris Huhne's new website chris2win doesn't mention his red-hot enthusiasm for joining the Euro

We can only hope.

Protecting yEU

Right For Scotland has an excellent article about Galileo.

Essentially European leaders have decided to spend a load of other people’s cash on an ego project. Galileo is not only unnecessary but could be potentially dangerous for all of us.

Yes, more than the usual waste of cash, this is potentially dangerous.

What the EU proposes is to provide a system with greater accuracy and a greater update rate to compensate for “flaws” in the GPS system, in fact it has redundancy built in to defeat jamming thereby removing effective countermeasures to foreign weapons systems as well.

The much vaunted lack of accuracy in GPS is nothing more than a safety measure, something the Eurocrats fail to mention. So the “superior technology” could be used by the enemy to launch counter strikes. Finally, such an expensive system will need a source of income:

Europe hopes to tax every aircraft entering EU airspace for use of Galileo, and eventually be able to introduce road tolling by integrating this technology.

No doubt they will boast in ten years that this white elephant is actually profitable.

Imperialist Us?

Imperialism is of course the sole preserve of those horrible Yanks and their other Anglo Saxon sidekicks. They invade countries to steal their oil, force feed the world with Burgers and expect people from Jo-burg to Japan, to listen to Eminem and watch Disney movies. Europe is different. Its about tolerance and common values. Or is it?

Russian President Vladimir Putin and FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Sunday accused the European Union of "imperial" aggression in soccer.

In the opinion of the FIFA president, the EU’s regulations are making the job of running football impossible. Vlad the friend of Europe agrees:

Putin agreed: "It's imperialism in football."

But then the Eurocrats couldn’t keep their hands of the beautiful game, without being guilty of discrimination against ugly ones.

The Lazarus Treaty

It was killed. Stabbed through the heart by a frenzied French public. The body mutilated by a deeply hostile Dutch electorate. Its bloated corpse had begun to putrefy, pushing even the most optimistic to accept the inevitable. But we relied on our normal rational beliefs, not the work of miracles.

The Duff-Voggenhuber report, on which the parliament will vote on Thursday, proposes to intensify the so-called period of reflection on the constitution, agreed by EU leaders after French and Dutch voters rejected the text in referendums last year.

They will be voting on whether to bring Lazarus back from the dead.

The MEPs urge the plenary session of parliament to adopt their call for a "revision process" of the present constitutional text, which "nevertheless respects the constitutional core".

Lazarus will be given a make over in the hope that the public are not fooled. But we should never be taken in by their games. Lazarus is dead, let him rest in peace.

Spot the Mistake

I came across this headline today, which got me more than a little annoyed. Fabris wins EU men's speedskating title. Assuming that the EU has not created a new competition, I think they mean the European Speedskating Championships. It was held by the way in that good old EU stalwart Norway.

Great News From Cameron

Being a knuıckle dragging Right Winger, the last few weeks have been a little disappointing. Boy wonder Cameron has repositioned the Conservative party somewhere to the left of Uncle Joe Stalin and even worse, the public likes it. So the following news came as a happy surprise:

David Cameron is preparing for a showdown with Tory MEPs by vowing to de-select those who refuse to sever links with a federalist group in the European Parliament.

He is really going to do it.

The ultimatum has infuriated some pro-European Tory members, including the former leader of the group, Edward McMillan-Scott, who dismissed it as "ideological nonsense".

Being a member of a party that calls for the abolition of our country in favour of a European Superstate. That's ideological nonsense. All the Conservative Party is now doing is positioning itself where it should have been all along. Conservatism and Federalism are not compatible.

Community Resource

They are after your money again:

EU finance commissioner Joaquin Almunia announced on Tuesday that he supports boosting the union's budget from a new EU tax, which would also give greater autonomy and room for manoeuvre to EU institutions.

Greater room for manoevre to organisations whose accounts are dodgy seems like a retrograde step to me, but then I am old fashioned. He then demonstrated his level of understanding of democratic accountability: The commissioner said that such a fiscal instrument, which he preferred to call a "community

resource" rather than "community tax", would have to conceal the origin of money collected from individual member states, to avoid the constant fighting over net and gross cash balance.

So roughly translated: We want your cash, we don't want you to be aware of how much we are taking and we want to choose what to spend it on.

Euro Turds

The success of Euro standards in other areas of life has motivated our rulers to identify and designate standards for some of the more unsavoury areas of our lives. Dr Crippen gives you the Euro Turd

Compensation Rules Stay

The travel industry challenged the EU's stupid compensation rules at the ECJ. It was not to be.

European Union rules requiring airlines to pay passengers compensation for long delays and flight cancellations are valid, the EU's top court ruled on Tuesday. Airlines had complained about the rules, which took effect last year, saying they were too costly and required payment for conditions that were sometimes out of the carriers' control.

What di they expect? Its not like the ECJ is independent or anything. Now we will all have to pay more for airline tickets to serve the EU's compensation culture.

Bolkestien's Monster Awakes

The Austrian's have made a surprising announcement.

The new Austrian presidency of the EU and the European Commission said it was vital to get a speedy agreement on the draft services directive to prove the Union was serious about boosting growth and jobs.

This will have two good effects. 1) Services need to be liberalised. 2) It will make the left hate the EU more. So Bring it on.

New Blog

The ranks of the Xenophobic Knuckle dragging Eurosceptic Blogs is growing. UK Freedom is the latest to come to my attention. Described as: The blog for a free and prosperous United Kingdom written at the very heart of Brussels. Welcome to the club.

Austria bid to revive EU treaty

They don't understand the meaning of the word No in Austria.

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said on Sunday: "We have promised ourselves that we will restart the negotiations on the constitution.

Excellent. This is the best news in ages. Get the thing revived and then we can have a proper campaign against it. The BBC though is still selling the old lemon:

The treaty, aimed at streamlining decision-making, was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005.

Thats a little like saying the aim of the Nazis was to have a good road network. Its part of the plan but a little way down the list. The main aim of the treaty was to give the EU its own independent legal status.

EU Takes a Swing at Golf

Economic stagnation, unemployment, racial tensions: Our leaders must have difficulty sleeping. Then of course there are the even bigger priorities like golf for example.

Golf clubs within the European Union must treat men and women equally or face prosecution from December 2007, the European Commission said on Thursday.

Thank God they were onto that one, that could have caused the collapse of civilisation as we know it. Of course, the decline of agriculture and the growth of golf, means that in the future golf courses will cover most of our countryside. Get set for a Common Golf Policy.

Naughty Gordon

Once again we are privileged to watch a war between two foes that we hope both lose.

Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, faces embarrassing censure from the European Commission next week when Brussels will recommend the launch of an excessive deficit procedure against Britain for its failure to keep public borrowing below 3 per cent of gross domestic product.

We are definitely onto a winner here. The public will be reminded two important things.

1. Gordon Brown is a prudent as Charles Kennedy in a Liquor store.
2. The EU cannot stop putting its nose in where it is not wanted.

This also increases the morose one’s antipathy toward the EU

You Can Bank On It

How’s this for a statistic:

Banks in the European Union are robbed at a rate of one every 90 minutes.

The downside of a Strong Euro policy maybe? Made it more worth stealing. My money is on a combination of reasons, the most important being that we don’t have a clue who is living in the EU. My bets are that the majority of the perpetrators of these crimes don’t even officially exist. There is also the problem of course that Europe is crap at creating jobs and loathe to treat criminals as worthy of real punishment. That’s would be Un-European.

Internet Poll Biased

The poll that showed Barroso as the most powerful man in Britain, was not free and fair. Those dastardly scheming Eurosceptics told their supporters about the poll.

Gawain Towler and Dan Hannan, the fiercely Eurosceptic Conservative MEP, both admitted to the Guardian that they had separately sent emails encouraging supporters to vote for Mr Barroso.

I assume the shock at this revelation comes from people who think that postal voting is a good idea. I regret that I didn't find out soon enough to add my help.

Cherry Picking the Constitution

Contrary to the official line of the politburo, one of the commissioners has suggested Cherry Picking the Constitution

Mr Barrot, a commission vice-president and transport commissioner, told Austrian daily Kurier on Monday (2 January) that "only the reform of EU institutions and the fundamental rights [section]" could be cut out of the current constitution text and ratified separately. The commissioner added that other provisions in the text should be preserved as well, such as the extension of the areas of majority voting, the formula for member states’ voting weights and the new post of EU foreign minister. But the paragraphs on the division of competencies between the EU and its member states could be sacrificed, according to the senior commissioner.

Take 300 odd pages of legal straight jacket, remove a few paragraphs and bobs your uncle. The people will really fall for that one. Why don’t they just carry on the stealth implementation that they have been doing, it seems to be working. Just one thing confuses me. Cherry picking means taking the best bits does it not? The best bit of the constitution was the party they held for its launch, everything else is toilet paper. So how can they cherry pick when there is no cherry trees?

EU Demands Death

The EU which gets so upset when scum like Tookie Williams get their just reward, is a little different in their approach to smaller innocent life.

A Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights released a 40-page document ordering the EU to impose rules on Catholic countries to force Catholic doctors and hospitals either to abort or refer women for abortions.

Imagine you are a Catholic doctor, who believes passionately that abortion is murder and therefore a sin of major proportions. Is it possible that you can have anything to do with abortions?

The order came after Slovakia, a predominantly Catholic country, had proposed a treaty with the Vatican which specified guarantees for legal protection for unborn persons, including embryos. The European Union said that the agreement violated “international human rights” to abortion and EU laws.

So the EU in all its wisdom, wants to force doctors to go against their most deeply held beliefs, and perform procedures that they cannot do with a clear conscience. Two points: 1) What happened to freedom of religion? 2) Do we really want these people telling us which rights are fundamental and which are not?

Opinion of United Kingdom about the European Union

Following the discovery that someone from France found this Blog by using the above sentence, I thought I would help our friends across the channel find out what we think about them. The UK Opinion of the European Union is set out in this Blog. Broadly Speaking, Expensive, Useless and a gross assault on our liberties. (Hopefully we can get them to kick us out)

French Takeover Law

The French are very touchy about their national treasures, their industrial champions and they hate the idea of them falling into enemy hands. So they passed a law to protect them. Brussels is not pleased.

The European Commission said on Tuesday that it would scrutinise a new French decree that protects certain industries from foreign takeover and warned it could “react” if the provisions were found to violate European Union law.

The law is a poison pill to stop takeovers in certain sectors. It also has another wonderfully economic illiterate aim.

The decree could also give France a weapon in its fight against the outsourcing of jobs. It allows the government to stop foreign owners of French registered companies transferring production abroad, if they are in any of the protected sectors.

France was already a country where no rational person would wish to invest. I’m sure that making life even more difficult for investors will go a long way to solving the unemployment problem. In this case Brussels is fighting on the side of rationality. However the unpleasant truth is that many of the members of the EU share France’s economic ignorance and are determined to force us down the same stupid path.

Letter to Rushcliffe Conservatives

The Following article is a guest piece, from R UK

THE FIGHT AGAINST EU CORRUPTION

In July 2004, Portuguese politician José Manuel Barroso was nominated as the new EU Commission president. In August 2004, he and his family enjoyed six days free hospitality on a luxury yacht owned by Greek shipping magnate and multi-billionaire Spiros Latsis. In September 2004, the Commission gave the nod (under EU state-aid rules), to a €10 million grant to the Lamda shipyard, in which Mr. Latsis has a substantial interest. Evidence is emerging that Mr. Latsis's companies seem to have other EU connections as well, not least through the notorious Athens airport project .

Roger Helmer MEP (Cons East Midlands) decided to speak out in the EuroParliament to raise the doubts that he and many others had about the grant. You might think that opposing EU fraud would please other Conservatives. Well, you’d be wrong. For his pains, Roger Helmer was immediately kicked out of the Conservative delegation by its leader Timothy Kirkhope MEP, and Roger’s whip removed. This was despite the fact that opposing the fraud endemic in the EU is a Conservative Party manifesto commitment.

Roger Helmer has still not been reinstated, though thousands of Conservatives have sent him messages of support. Ken Clarke is the only Conservative to actually speak publicly against Roger Helmer. On BBC World At One, he referred to Roger as an ‘untypical’ Conservative and ‘so extreme that M.Howard had taken the whip away from him’ (not correct). Rushcliffe Conservatives, where do you stand? Are you in favour of EU fraud? Do you think it is ‘extreme’ to even ask questions about it? Ken Clarke seems to think it is.

The EU is riddled with corruption from the top to the bottom. Inside the EPP, Conservative MEP’s who want to speak out are effectively muzzled. Surely Rushcliffe Conservatives, you would be happier if Cameron went ahead and formed the new grouping in the EuroParliament. You should not allow your MP to pillory Cameron any longer for doing the right thing, or to belittle the courage of Roger Helmer fighting a long and lonely battle in Brussels. It’s time you did something, and proposed a motion of no confidence in your candidate. The Party awaits.

Sense From Austria

The Austrian Chancellor has made a statement which cannot be repeated enough.

Mr Schussel said "the ECJ…has in the last couple of years systematically expanded European competencies, even in areas, where there is decidedly no [European] community law." "Suddenly, judgements emerge on the role of women in the German federal army, or on access of foreign students to Austrian universities – that is clearly national law", he added.

I am glad that at least one European Leader has noticed. The problem is that the ECJ sees its role as forwarding the process of integration, rather than upholding EU law. It is a political institution not a legal one.

My Tin Foil Hat

I was surprised to discover that my beliefs about the EU are actually nothing more than a myth. I was a conspiracy theorist and I wasn't even aware. But I stand Corrected:

Former Europe Minister Dennis McShane said it was "an urban myth" to suggest that Britain's laws were decided by Europe.

As I am obviously reluctant to argue with a such a great intellect as Mr McShane, I have no other recourse but to apologise to my readers. I have been misleading you, the "so called" European Directives are nothing more than rough drafts of the Beano, CAP has nothing to do with agriculture and is actually a contraceptive. As for the regular meetings that the European Leaders have is actually a Bowling League. Sorry for misleading you and I hope my family can forgive me for the shame I have brought onto them. I am disposing of my Tin Foil hat immediately.

The Legacy of Thatcher

After the outrageous comments by that young chap Cameron, I have chivalrously leapt to the great lady's defence. Read it Here.

European Tax

To save our dear leaders the difficulty of actually having to defend our interests, once every five years, the Austrians have come up with a great idea.

There were "good reasons" for a European tax. "I know well it will be difficult to reach agreement. But if the European Union would have its own revenues it would be easier to negotiate the budget.

Which would be great would it not? Our dear leaders could spend more time on the caviar and lobster and less with the tiresome business of actually doing their jobs. Like all EU programmes, once agreed, it could never be taken back and at every opportunity, someone would try to increase the amounts raised. Ratchet effect anyone? So one weak government could agree to a budget deal that was effectively perpetual.

A Political Wish For 2006

Whilst 2005 was far from a perfect year for us Xenophobes, we were at least the happy spectators of French and Dutch rejection of the world’s first ever continent sized straight jacket. So what can 2006 offer to match that? After much thought, I decided to go for a high risk option. I want to see the European Constitution revived in 2006. Since its rejection, the Euro Elite have decided to carry on with its provisions anyway, ignoring the ignorant and bigoted electorate. So a proper revival of the treaty would bring the arguments back into the open. We could get a great opportunity to have the arguments all over again. With the Conservative party soon to be sitting apart from the Federasts of the EPP, we would be free to campaign against to our hearts content. At the end of the day, the result should go our way the second time around as well.

The Man Who Runs Britain

The Today programme ran an online poll during December, asking its listeners, who runs Britain. The Result?

José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, is the most powerful person in Britain, radio listeners say.

Just the result that we all wanted to see. More publicity for the fact that we no longer run our own country.