EU SPELLS FOREIGN OWNERSHIP TO POST OFFICES

Foreign ownership of Royal Mail is inevitable and unavoidable under European Union competition rules, and the EU is squarely to blame for the current wave of post office closures and redundancies. That’s the message from the cross-party Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIB).

Hundreds of thousands of CIB leaflets on the EU threat to Britain ’s postal services are being distributed in High Streets and at protest meetings throughout Britain . They are the latest in a series of “Time for Truth” leaflets which explain the extent of the EU’s control over our everyday lives.

CIB shows how the closure of thousands of post offices across Britain , redundancies for tens of thousands of postal workers, the sell-off of Royal Mail and the threat of foreign ownership are all the direct consequences of EU competition law. CIB points out that a key objective of the EU is to impose competition throughout the whole of its territory regardless of whether or not a national monopoly is beneficial to the local community.

The leaflet states: EU Directive 97/67/EC on Privatization of Postal Services, issued on 15 December 1997, began the introduction of an EU-wide postal service and immediately reduced the Royal Mail’s monopoly to mail weighing less than 350 grammes. The delivery of mail over that weight was privatized, which meant that foreign companies, mainly the Dutch TNT and the German ‘Deutsche Post’ (trading as DHL), were able to cherry-pick the profitable areas of mail services in this country, leaving the loss making areas to the Royal Mail.  Royal Mail profits plummeted.

 

A second Postal Services Directive in 2002 further reduced the Royal Mail monopoly to 50 grammes.  From 2009 the Royal Mail monopoly will be phased out completely.  Instructions from Brussels to Foreign Secretary David Miliband (dated 28 November 2007) leave no doubt that the EU is in control of our postal services. It unequivocally states: “The transformation programme will involve POL [Post Office Limited] reducing the size of its post office network by around 2,500 branches.”

 

The destruction of our Post Office network is being managed under the title “Network Change Programme” which, on its website, explains that the closures are necessary because “The Government has recognised that fewer people are using Post Office branches [and] … that the shape and size of the overall network of Post Office branches needs to change.” It fails to state that fewer people are using the post offices because the Government has been slowly and deliberately withdrawing services that the Post Office traditionally provided.

 

CIB Chairman George West adds: “The Government fails to mention the involvement of the EU and the real reason why our post offices are closing and Royal Mail is being sold off.  It was the same with the privatisation of the railways under the previous Government.  European law takes precedence over British law. 

 

“Britain ’s Parliament ultimately has no say in the matter – unless of course it takes the radical action necessary to free this country from the constraints imposed by the EU.  Again and again we see the negative consequences of our membership of the European Union, which currently costs Britain in excess of £55 billion a year.   Britain would be better off out.”

 

The British postal monopoly dates back over 350 years.  It was first established in law by the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, and was reaffirmed in the reign of King Charles II.  “It is tragic that after three and a half centuries, like so much else that served the interests of the British people well for so many years, our national postal service has been broken up and is to be opened up to foreign ownership and control.”

HEAVEN HELP US IF THERE'S ANOTHER WAR

Cabinet papers released by the National Archives under the 30 Year Rule reveal that the Callaghan Government was deeply concerned about deficiencies in Britain’s military capabilities - at a time when the Nation invested twice as much in Defence as it does now.

 

Commenting on the newly released papers, Commander John Muxworthy, Chief Executive of the UK National Defence Association (UKNDA), said:

 

“Little or nothing has changed over the last thirty years save that during this period the amount invested in Defence has been more than halved. Problems then facing our Armed Forces were due to the 'crazy decisions' on Defence spending taken a decade previously. Similarly today the £2billion 'black hole' in the Defence budget is the result of crazy funding decisions made by the present Government over the past decade. 

 

“In ten years from now, unless there is a significant increase in the Defence budget, the situation facing our Armed Forces will be even worse than it is today. We will have fewer men, fewer ships and fewer aircraft. Three weeks ago the Government announced the very first cuts in public spending due to the current financial crisis – and the axe fell on the Defence budget first of all.

 

“Defence should be the Government's top priority – yet it is obviously the lowest. The ever downward spiral of funding for our Armed Forces, while their tasking, workload and overstretch increases year by year, must be reversed before there is some irredeemable disaster. Our Forces today are stretched to the limit and beyond, and are now utterly unable to respond quickly to the 'unexpected'. 

 

“The one thing we can be sure of is that the next major threat, incident or disaster to affect this Country will have been 'unexpected'. Prime Minister Callaghan seems to have been well aware of this. He described the gaps in our Defence capability as a ‘scandal’.

 

“Unless Defence is raised urgently and very significantly in the Nation's list of priorities our Armed Forces may well be unable to respond effectively to the next 'unexpected' incident. We have nothing to spare - the cupboard is bare. Thirty years from now, what will our successors say of us? 

 

“On the Cabinet papers released under the 30 Year Rule there is a handwritten note by Prime Minister Jim Callaghan: ‘Heaven help us if there is a war!’  What, if he is honest with himself, would our present Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, today scrawl on his briefing papers?  ‘Heaven help us if there is [another] war!’ "

£2.3 BILLION GAS

Whatever it does the EU just cannot manage to make itself popular with the people, but it spends an awful lot of our money trying to do so.

Recently it was revealed that the EU is spending more than the entire Coca Cola global advertising budget on pro-EU propaganda in a vain effort to make somebody, anybody, like it.  It now spends a staggering £2.3 billion of taxpayers money a year on self promotion and there is not even a tasteless fizzy drink at the end of it, although it does produce a great deal more gas.

Britain's cut of this vast EU-wide squander fest to promote the wonders of a United States of Europe is £200 million, which considering the state of our NHS and the economy can only be seen as irresponsible, especially for those who are denied life extending drugs by the inappropriately title NICE.

Vast sums are thrown at schools in the hope of turning young minds in favour of the EU, its almost as if someone in the Commission has decided to follow Adolph by forming the EU Youth.  Another vast wast of money is the EU's attempt to make itself popular by setting its own version of You Tube, only this is white EU elephant is called 'EU Tube' which hardly anyone has bothered to watch.  It's viewing numbers are painfully low, but who in the right mind would want to watch some brain dead Euro junkies trying to promote their obsession which no one else wants?

The EU is desperate to make us like it and it will show no limit to how much of our money it will spend to achieve this aim.  It squanders £2.3 billion on EU gas and hot air when all it really has to do to make us happy is call it a day and wind itself up.

BRINGING OUT THE BEASTS

Ken Clarke MP, following the EU's agenda.

It was always my opinion that the Telegraph was a Conservative Party supporting newspaper, why else does it have the nick name the "Torygraph"?  But when I read Patrick Hennessy (Sunday Telegraph 28th December 2008) and the Sunday Telegraph editorial my first thoughts were: 'Why does the Telegraph want the Tories to commit political suicide?  Both Patrick Hennessy and the editorial expressed their feelings that the best way for the Conservative leadership to challenge Labour’s “big beast”, Peter Mandelson, is to fight fire with fire and return to the front bench a once Tory big beast in the shape of Ken Clarke.

The trouble with fighting fire with fire there is a good chance the inferno will become uncontrollable.  The Conservative Party has already lost around 40,000 members in recent times and this tactic spells disaster for them from the outset.

What people have to realise with Peter Mandelson is that he is not Labour’s man, nor does he work for the benefit of the Labour Party, his first loyalty is for the promotion and advancement of the EU - the same applies to Ken Clarke.  How can these two ever challenge each other when they both want the same objective which is total subservience to the EU and governance by it.  

We can all remember the two grinning Tories of Clarke and Heseltine sitting side by side with Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson promoting the European Union's euro and the destruction of our own sovereign currency, the pound at the launch of what is now the failed campaign to promote the euro.

To plonk Ken (call me euro) Clarke on the Tory front bench would not help advance the Conservative Party, it would more likely destroy it.  After a voting lifetime of always placing my cross in the Tory box on the ballot paper I quit my support for them due to John Major signing the Maastricht Treaty and, of course, the pro-EU actions of Ken Clarke, I know a lot of other Conservative supporters have walked too as the natural Tory instinct is opposition to the EU. 

Bringing Ken Clarke back to the front bench would spell the end to one of our oldest political parties.  The big beast the Conservative Party needs are those who propose EU withdrawal.  Bringing back Ken Clarke will ensure I will never return to what was once my natural political home - I am sure a great may other real Conservative's will feel the same way too.  In my opinion Ken Clarke is a big beast with the wrong motives - they are pro-EU not pro-Tory.

ARRESTY! ARRESTY!

It's back to the land of blog after my short Christmas respite, and one of the things I noted to blog about on my return was Turkish membership of the European Union after a reading an item in the Daily Telegraph before the festivities.

Turkey wants to join the EU, and for some insane reason a number of Europhiles also want Turkey as a member. The Tories who want the Turks in think that by allowing a country with such a large population as Turkey in will help to dissipate the power of France and Germany. Others want Turkey in as they think it will help quell any tensions between the West and Islam. Whatever the outcome, Turkish membership of the EU will not come without consequences.

One obvious consequence is that a vast number of Turks will flock into Western Europe looking for work which will unsettle many, but other consequences will be things less obvious. Just think what will happen when the Turks get their hands on the EU wide arrest warrant.

So, how's this for a silly one.  Going back to that item in the Telegraph it reported that a group of British tourists were arrested in Turkey for playing a game of charity bingo to help raise funds to pay the medical fees of a British expat who had been diagnosed with cancer. In Turkey bingo is seen as unregulated gambling and is an offence. Around 60 British tourists were playing the game when the police were called, 15 were taken to the police station and six of them fined. 

Now here's a question, what if Turkey had been an EU member and the offence discovered after these tourists had returned home? Could they have been subject to the EU arrest warrant and sent back to Turkey for the crime of playing bingo?  Anyone for arresty, arresty! 

WISHING YOU A HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Derek's blog factory is now closing for the duration of the festivities, wherever you are, whoever you are, whether I know you or not, even if you oppose what I have to say on this blog, have a very happy and contented Christmas.  Make the most of it, 2009 awaits, so does the EU, and the worst recession we will most probably see.  As Lord Howe commented to one of my ranting letters about the EU to him: "Courage mon Brave."

CAR CRASH

Derek’s old Rover gets a wash and brush up at a charity car clean.

In all the years I have been a member of the Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIB), it has only once held its AGM and main meeting of the year outside London. The reason it moved away from the centre of the universe that one years was down to one of the members, a long standing trade unionist, who put in a motion at the previous AGM to go to Birmingham the following year – that was when Sod and his infamous law kicked in.

Plans for these events have to be put in place well in advance, and the trouble is, sometimes events can happen rapidly to screw up all your best laid plans, as they did with this CIB AGM.

This was the year when BMW decided it was going to close down the manufacture of Rover cars at Longbridge as it was not making money. There was an almighty stink at the time and a major march and rally in Birmingham to save Rover was organised for, you guessed it, the very same Saturday that the CIB was to hold its AGM in the city.

Come the day all the trade unionists were on the march and rally to save Rover, including the chap who had pushed for the CIB AGM to be in Birmingham. Poor old CIB had some press coverage for being in the city, but of course, all the news was of Rover and that rally.

So why did BMW, after buying and investing in Rover, decide to pull the plug? Apart from using the feeble excuse at the time that it was down to Britain not joining the euro, the real reason was that BMW wanted the British Government to give it state aid to help save Rover and the jobs there. But of course, the EU Competition Commissioner said hang on a bit chaps, I want to have a think about this and will make my decision in a few months as all this goes against the EU rules on competition. The British Government, being obedient little toady servants to the great master EU, told BMW it could not give it a hand out more than the maximum allowed, BMW in turn had a strop, said bugger you, and in the end flogged Rover off for a couple of quid the now infamous Phoenix. And by and by Rover was still closed, and the Chinese, laughing their little yellow socks off, plundered and asset stripped and shipped the whole Rover production line off to China.

For someone such as myself who since passing his driving test in 1965, has driven a whole string of British made cars which have been three Morris’s, four Triumph’s, Two Leylands, one Jensen and in more recent time Rover’s, never once owning a foreign car, seeing our British car manufactoring going belly up is a disaster.

Now things are looking distinctly dodge for Jaguar and Land Rover whose new owners, the Indian based company Tata, have been making demands that the Government should bail out Jaguar and Land Rover as it did with the banks.

It too wants money but has given the Government a reprieve as the Tata boss, Ratan Tata, has promised to pump a sizeable amount of Tata’s own money in to help see Jaguar and Land Rover through, but like Arnie, they may be coming back, and when they do what will our Government do then? They will have to go crawling to the EU and plead permission to give British taxpayers money to a British based company to save British jobs, and if the EU says no, then Jaguar and Land Rover could either be closed or its production line and jobs, in a repeat of Rover, depart for foreign climes.

As a child born in the slums of Birmingham I remember sitting on my dads lap listening intently to proud tales of how Birmingham was the workshop of the world, how has Britain and our great manufacturing base been reduced to this within my lifetime?

BELGIUM HAS BROKEN ITS GOVERNMENT AGAIN

Irony is a wonderful thing, it must be God’s way of bringing the pompous and overbearing back down to earth with a bump. The European Union, that great bastion of pomposity and self importance, based its epicentre in the capitol of Belgium, which is a nation of artificial construct, as is the EU is too in the making.

Because of the divisions between the two halves of the country Belgium has been a nation without a Government for some considerable time, finally getting one in recent times, but now more problems have arisen. There’s more about this on the Wonko’s World blog.

AN INVESTIGATION INTO IRRELEVANCE

It would seem that up to twenty Members of Parliament have written to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, otherwise known as ‘Gorbals Mick’, to ask him to authorise an investigation by the Standards and Privileges Committee, to look into the Damian Green affair.

As we all know, Damian Green is the Conservative Member of Parliament who recently had his home and, more significantly, his Parliamentary office, raided by the rozzers in November after it was disclosed he had passed on some leaked information to the press. Members of Parliament, under long standing Parliamentary rules and customs, are normally safe from investigation due to their Parliamentary privilege, this police raid broke all protocols.

It would seem that Gorbal Mick, who is still a Labour Party MP but should remain neutral, gave the police to go-ahead for this controversial raid on an opposition Members office and the Tories are not happy.

What has made them even less amused with the un-Parliamentary antics of Speaker Martin is the fact he has, by refusing to sign off the inquiry, blocked it and the enquiry cannot go ahead.

As the MPs go off for their Christmas jollies, it will not just the wine that will be mulled during the festive season, a lot of Tory MPs will be mulling ways in which to force him to resign when they return in January.

By blocking this inquiry it gives the impression that Speaker Martin is also preventing MPs and the public from knowing his involvement in this affair, suspicions are growing. It looks as if the 2009 Parliamentary season could be staring off with some rip roaring stuff. And, of course, while all eyes are on this storm in a Parliamentary tea cup, the EU will still be quietly beavering away to remove our freedoms and liberties and pushing forward the dreadful Treaty of Lisbon. The chattering classes will be debating the importance of Parliamentary traditions and the neutrality of the Speaker, and at the same time the EU will be working, hardly reported or noticed, to make Parliament utterly and totally irrelevant.

RIGHT ON FOR ANIMALS

Feckless felines, Tom (top) & Danny (below).

My better half, Linda, and I share our home with one dog, Tess, and two cats Tom and Danny, or rather they share their home with us, the animal slaves who cater for all their whims and needs.  Talk to any pet owner and they will all say the same, they are slaves to their pets and if vets bills have to be paid (which are never cheap), then they themselves will go without to give their dogs, moggies and whatever other furry or feathered friends they may be enslaved to give them what they need.

In days gone by dutiful dog owners would go to the Post Office once a year and obediently hand over their 5/- (five bob or 25p in modern parlance) for their dog licences.  Those who were not bothered much about their dogs would not bother with such silly things as a dog licence.  So, as always. it was the good animal owners who paid up and took great care of their pets whilst the shits who abused their pets never bothered and very few were ever prosecuted for it

Sadly, there are still many around today who care little for animals or their welfare, which gives the RSPCA and other animal welfare groups major headaches and a constant strain on their limited resources, the last thing they want will be to take action against loving cat owners who don't happen to have a litter tray in their home.  Yet idiotic new guidelines are being introduced to tell these same caring pet owners for things which, to say the least can only be described as ridiculous, such as don't leave your dog unattended in a car for more than a few minutes, that cat owners have at least one litter tray per cat, despite the fact the cats may have cat flaps and other such silly things.  Well. my cats come and go as they please, when they want to see to the call of nature they go through the cat flap and do the necessary outside without stinking the house out having to use a litter tray.  Sadly, if the local zealots and town hall tyrants get their hands on these new rules innocent ad caring pet owners will face fines and punishments while those who abuse animals will be ignored.

So where is all this unnecessary crap coming from?  Well, take a look at this from the EU: 

"The purpose of the Community Action Plan on the Protection and Welfare of Animals is to:

• Promote minimum animal welfare standards across the EU in order to protect animals from unnecessary pain/ suffering in three main areas: farming, transport and slaughter

• Apply the principles of the 5 Freedoms adopted by many other countries (developed by the British Farm Animal Welfare Council in 1979, revised in 1993). Freedom from:

• discomfort

• hunger and thirst

• fear and distress

• pain, injury, disease and freedom to

• express normal behaviour

• Clarify EU legislation and identify areas that need improvement

• Ensure a consistent approach to animal protection and welfare throughout EC policies while considering the socio-economic impact of any measures

• To set minimum standards which member states/countries can improve upon

Context

• The EU recognizes animals as sentient beings and has been developing animal welfare legislation for over 30 years as one of the international world leaders in animal welfare

• A fundamental principle guiding EU legislation on animal welfare has been the 5 Freedoms (developed by the British Farm Animal Welfare Council)

• All member states/countries must have and apply animal welfare policies to ensure that animals are not subjected to any unnecessary pain or suffering

• The Treaty of Amsterdam (implemented in1999, an amendment to the Treaty on the EU) and other related treaties and acts, laid out the ground rules for the EU on animal welfare in a special Protocol

• "Protocol on the Protection and Welfare of Animals":

• acknowledged animals as sentient beings and obliges the EU to consider animal welfare when drafting and implementing legislation

• states that the EU is responsible for legislating improvements in animal welfare and preventing the cruelty and mistreatment of animals

• primarily applies to agriculture

• member states/countries are responsible for animals in other areas, such as competitions, shows, cultural/sporting events (i.e. dog fighting/racing, bullfighting)

• The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe(2004) also commits to ensuring the protection of animals and dictates that:

• EU member states/countries shall consider animal welfare when drafting and implementing EU policies specific to agriculture, fisheries, transport, internal markets, research and technological development and space policies

• legislative and administrative provisions and customs of member states/countries will be respected, particularly religious/cultural traditions"

Any link you think?  I'm all for caring for animals, but this is just OTT.

WASTING TIME AND MONEY

There’s an interesting item on waste and recycling posted on the EU Referendum blog, Richard North explains the problems and enormous costs inflicted on us through ill thought out EU rules and directives which, as EU members we have to pay despite the stupidity of the EU's rules. Sadly, as we are members of this ridiculous organisation we are not allowed to change the way we recycle or dispose of our waste, we just have to continue paying for it – and the EU fines which are mounting.

POSITIVELY FAILED

Bob Spink MP, flanked by MEP’s Roger Helmer & Dan Hannan, commented on the Total Politics survey.

In a survey commissioned by Total Politics magazine, it revealed that only 15 percent of British and Irish MEPs believe voters see them in a positive light. UKIP member and MP Bob Spink, was asked to comment on this survey and said he sees the European Parliament as "pseudo-democratic" because "it has no independent law-making power and no general electorate". He added: "All the real power in the EU lies with appointees, at the EU's Commission, Council and Court, and none with the MEPs". He thinks the British public is "very significantly Eurosceptic".

Read the Total Politics article in full for more comments and opinions.

TRUE LIES

Dan Hannan MEP, reported distortions of the truth in the European Parliament.

Generally these days the Conservative Party looks like all gloss with little substance. It’s leader, David Cameron, seems to be a cloned blue version of Tony Blair. Like Moses, he intends to lead his followers out of the wilderness and into the promised land. The only snag being, Cameron’s promised land is a different destination to that of the majority of his rank and file members, who are blindly following anyway, in the hope that, nudge nudge, wink wink, he’s taking them towards the promised land marked EU exit but not making it obvious. Sadly, their Europhile leader has no intention of going in that particular direction – his ‘sat-nav’ is set for a destination within the prison confines of the EU where there is no escape.

One of Dave Cameron’s followers, albeit one on an increasingly strained leash, is Dan Hannan who is one of the two reasonably decent MEP’s in the EU’s sham parliament, the other being Roger Helmer. These two Tory dogs of war have to be increasingly careful these days otherwise they may find themselves neutered. In fact, Dan Hannan was muzzled during the Tory conference when he was prevented from speaking out against the EU at a Bruges Group fringe meeting, Cameron threatened him with deselection if he spoke there.

However, writing in the First Post, Dan Hannan reported the shameful events when a group of EU delegates went to meet the Czech President, Vaclav Klaus. As Mr Klaus tends to lean towards an EU-sceptic view to a certain degree, it seems this delegation were on a mission to instruct Vaclav Klaus where the EU land lies when Czechoslovakia takes over the EU presidency in January. It began when the Green MEP, Danny Cohn-Bendit slapped an EU flag on the Czech Presidents desk and told him to fly it from the Czech Parliament and generally verbally insulted and attacked the president. Insulted, Vaclav Klause appealed to Hans-Gert Poettering the President of the EU parliament to stop this aggression. Poettering allowed the attack to continue.

When Dan Hannan reported these goings on he also mentioned that this whole incident was raised in the EU parliament and how the socialist leader, Martin Schulz, complained that it was undemocratic that this whole incident had been reported in the first place (they have a strange and warped sense of democracy in the EU). What Dan Hannan did not report, no doubt due to the ever tightening of his leash, was that the whole storm in the European Parliament came about thanks to the UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, who once again had the balls to stand up in the European parliament and take them head on. If we relied on the Tories to tackle this EU problem nothing would ever be challenged despite any opposition from Hannan and Helmer, it is UKIP we have to rely on to protect and defend democracy and our interests from constant attack from the EU.

To see footage of events in the European parliament and Nigel Farage’s robust expose, go to England Expects.

ANOTHER 48 HOURS

The differences between small and large businesses are not just down to size, but also down to the way they operate and the working relationships between the staff and the employer.

How the avalanche of mostly ill conceived EU rules and regulations impact on these varying size businesses can have a vast difference in how they cope with them. Large multinational companies will take most EU measures in their stride. They have legal departments which can look into the rules and formulate working policy to cope with them, they have various other departments that can handle the masses of EU generated paperwork and bureaucracy and whatever the EU throws their way they can usually deal with it without too much bother.

However, a small to medium sized business relies on the owner having to cope with the legal aspects. He/she may have to spend hours studying and trying to make sense of any new rules emitting from the EU. That small business owner is also the one who has to implement any changes and brief his staff. In general the whole EU business is a legal minefield and a total nightmare for small businesses, and no bother at all to the multinationals. This then is why the big business organisations such as the CBI are EU friendly, and the small business organisations such as the Federation for Small Businesses are EU-sceptical. Small business owners have a close and personal working relationship with thier staff, multinationals have contracts.


Because of these differences the vote to scrap the British opt-out on the 48 hour working week in the European Parliament, taken on Wednesday 17th December, will make little difference to large companies but spell the end for many small businesses.

If this goes ahead after the period of negotiation which is now to take place, no one other than the self employed will be allowed to work more than 48 hours a week. This news will be a blow to many workers as well as small business owners as many need the overtime to help pay large mortgages and to cope with the rapid rises in utility bills.

At a time of economic depression flexibility of working hours is essential to help many businesses to survive, this vote of MEPs is not only unwelcome, it will spell the death knell for some businesses who with the help of their hard working staff may have survived.

The MEPs who pushed for the destruction of yet another British freedom were jubilant after the vote was taken. In scenes of joy they shook hands after the vote in the chamber of that sham parliament, and generally behaved in a way that would never be seen in our once sovereign British Parliament. They were overjoyed because their actions now undermines and threatens another little bit of competitiveness British businesses have.

Soon the rapidly rising dole queues will see an increase thanks to the idiotic EU Working Time Directive and our British Parliament, our Ministers and Prime Minister will be able to do nothing as British subjects suffer for the sake of their subservience to the EU. The only thing left which can save us is for our Government to say the EU experiment has failed, it isn’t working, we have to leave to save our jobs, our economy and our business competitiveness. Sadly, the spineless B’s won’t do it. This is a 48 hours which could be avoided, but sadly this plot has all the makings of a distaster.

A HOLLOW VICTORY

Mike Plumbe of the British Weights and Measures, gives a donation to Neil Herron of the Metric Martyrs Campaign.

Harold Wilson started it all in earnest in the sixties when, as an appeasement to the other member nations of the then Common Market, and as a way of getting membership of the “Club”, as it was called, he set in motion a shift from the use of our British imperial weights and measures to the continental metric system.

He failed to get us in at that time but we were still left with a system of measurements that were confusing and generally disliked in equal measure. Non-the-less, enforced metrication, as unpopular as it was and still is, carried on regardless until Prime Minister Thatcher said that was enough which gave a temporary respite, until the EU began throwing its undemocratic weight about and the metrication project rumbled on.

Since then we have seen honest traders giving their customers what they wanted being prosecuted and criminalised for it, as reported several times on this blog with the latest case involving Janet Devers.

Now, at last, the campaign of EU enforcement has come to an end when MEPs agreed to allow dual labelling of goods as they knew enforcement of metric in the UK was a lost cause. The Skills Secretary (whatever that is), John Denham, said: ‘People in Britain like their pint and their mile.’ Don’t we just. Someone should also tell him that we don’t like being told what to do by an unelected body such as the EU.

Although the press was hailing this as a victory, sadly it was nothing more than a sham victory. It wasn’t a victory because our Government stood up for our interests and told the EU to bugger off and shove its centiwhatsits where the sun don’t shine, it was the EU graciously giving consent for us to continuing using our system of weights and measures, under certain rules and restrictions laid down by the EU.

A minor victory it may be, but in reality it was a hollow victory which will only remain as a victory until the EU decides otherwise.

More info about the campaign at the British Weights and Measures Association.

WANTED!

How's this for a birthday card?

It's this bloggers birthday today (don't ask how old as it's too embarrassing!), so to cheer me up my little brother sent me this card.  Nice one Bruce, many thanks, and the port will be enjoyed too.

THE EU IS THE ENEMY OF DEMOCRACY

UKIP MEO, Jeffrey Titford, warns that the EU is the enemy of democracy.

In a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg today (17.12.08), Jeffrey Titford, the MEP for the Eastern Counties (UKIP) questioned the democratic legitimacy of the European Union's proposed budget for 2009.  He attacked the EU's 'arrogance' in assuming that it should be 'a global player' and demanded to know who had ever wanted it to play such a role. "I put it to you all that the EU has no democratic mandate whatsoever for the empire building outlined in this budget", he said.

 

Mr Titford also attacked plans included in the budget for an EU trademark and an information campaign which he dismissed as 'brainwashing' because the EU would: "sell itself as the greatest benefit to humanity since penicillin rather than the grotesque enemy of democracy and freedom of thought that it really represents."

 

The full text of Mr Titford's speech is as follows:

Mr President

 

Arrogance is the word which keeps springing to mind when reading this lengthy report, because the text is redolent with it.  For instance, clause 25 laments the fact that the funds available quote: ‘do not allow the Union to assume its role as a global player’ unquote.  The same clause refers to the EU having the capacity to assume its role as a global partner’.  

 

Who ever wanted the EU to have such a role?  Why does it have such an inflated sense of its own importance?  Certainly, no one in my country has been given a vote on the development of the EU as a global player.  We were told it was a common market and would provide cheap wine and nice holidays.

 

I also note that the global player wants its own trademark for use in all communications with the masses and wants a major information campaign for the 2009 European election campaign.  For ‘information’ read ‘brainwashing’ because the EU will no doubt sell itself as the greatest benefit to humanity since penicillin rather than the grotesque enemy of democracy and freedom of thought that it really represents.

 

The aforementioned arrogance spills over into everything it touches.  There is no better example than the disgraceful and disrespectful treatment of President Klaus, a head of state, at a meeting in Prague recently by members here.  

 

I put it to you all that the EU has no democratic mandate whatsoever for the empire building outlined in this budget.

FOREIGN MAIL

The Royal Mail to be sold off to foreign ownership.

The Royal Mail to be sold off to foreign ownership. It seems there is no end to the dirty deeds of this unpleasant Labour Government, especially since the return of the Dark Lord, Baroness Mandelson who has never missed an opportunity to do harm to this nations freedom and sovereignty. 

On Tuesday 16th December, 2008, news was released that large chunks of our Royal Mail is to be flogged off to foreign ownership for around £3 billion.  This begs the question, how can the Royal Mail, which is identified with the Crown, be sold off?

Two companies are in the running to take over the Royal Mail, one is TNT which is part of the Dutch postal company, TPG, the other is DHL which is part of the German owned Deutsche Post.  The ting neither of these companies will inherit with the Royal Mail is its pensions obligations of around £7 billion which will be left for the taxpayers to pick up.

Although there was major coverage of this sad story in the press and media, once again the main reason why this postal disaster is taking place, the EU's postal directives, were not mentioned anywhere.  This is akin to reporting the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers but not giving any mention of terrorists, it gives a false impression and the illusion that it is being done at our Government's bidding, rather than the real reason, which is our Government obeying the orders of the EU to be replaced by cross border postal services that have no links or loyalties to any one nation - other than the EU.

Lord Many is, as you may guess, heavily involved in this betrayal and has been "thrashing out the deal in recent day and its culmination will be seen as a part-privatisation of the nation's universal postal service."

As we post our Christmas cards in the run up to the festive season, we will be sending messages of joy and happiness, but there is little joy to be had this Christmas as another part of Britain's unique heritage is sacrificed on the pagan alter of Euro federalism.

ABANDON ALL HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER THE EU

There have always been certain principles and protocols in the way British subjects have been governed, how laws are made and how Parliament works.

No British subject is ever considered guilty of a crime until a court of law has found that person guilty. Our laws have always been made by our elected representatives in the interests of the British people on the basis that laws made in Parliament by one administration, can be repealed by another. No Parliament may bind its successor.

With these simple principles the British people have generally been governed fairly and freely over many centuries. Another principle is that all British subject are born free and can do as they please unless there is a law to prevent certain actions. Again those laws are made in Parliament and can be repealed or amended if they are not working.

Because of the way our system of governance has been structured our elected politicians always knew that they were there to serve the people, and woe betide them if they failed in their elected duties. However, over the years since we first joined the Common Market, now the European Union, the way in which we are being governed and how our Members of Parliament represent us has been shifting year on year, so much so if any long gone MP were to come back today and see the sad state of things they would probably horrified.

Gone are the principles of representation, it is now the peoples duty to serve the political classes. Going rapidly is innocence before conviction, and gone is the power and authority of Parliament. What we have in place is a self serving political class who have handed their authority and responsibilities to an unelected foreign power, the EU. Also gone is any inclination to defend the rights and freedoms of British subjects against this foreign occupying power.

EU-sceptics have been warning of this shift of power and the failure of our MPs to defend the people for many years, and it is only in recent times the press have begun to catch up with this sad fact. Reported in the Daily Mail on Monday, 15th December, 2008, was news of another twist of the savage knife that our Government is to abandon us to face even more power and injustice to comply with the master race in the EU.

Added to the injustice of the EU-wide arrest warrant and the new EU rule of trials in abstentia, which means that any British subject can face arrest by British police working under orders of a foreign power, and can then be handed over to face imprisonment for a crime which may not even be a crime in the UK, soon those foreign governments will be able to access the masses of data this Stalinist Labour Government have compiled on British subjects.

Preparations are now under way to share our data, such as information on our driving licences, stored DNA, fingerprints and other information which is in the hands of the British authorities, will become available to all authorities across the EU. Someone who may have left traces of DNA or fingerprints near the scene of a crime whilst on holiday, could suddenly be traced and the next thing they know is arrest and deportation to languish in a foreign jail accused of a crime on little more than circumstantial evidence. Under the system of law being introduced by the EU, Corpus Juris, there is no innocence until proven guilty, no rights of release without charges and no jury trials.

Some poor unfortunate could have a weeks holiday in Bulgaria and within weeks be on a permanent holiday there banged up in some stinking prison with no rights whatsoever, and even worse, not even any support or protection from our own British government which has abandoned us all to the mercy of foreign courts and the overriding power of the EU.

As the Daily Mail stated: “behind this individual proposal for mass data sharing lies something even more sinister. A new desire for the EU to encroach into justice and home affairs”. Abandon all hope all ye who enter the EU.

WE’RE ALL PLEBS NOW

Derek Norman asks, should we let "Those that matter" decide our future.

Have you noticed how the vast majority of the British, French, Dutch and Irish populations have suddenly been down-graded to the level of uncultured, low-birth, unintelligent, common Working Class morons. In other words we have been re-classified as being no better than Roman commoners who were ill-educated and of no significance to those that ruled the ancient Roman Empire, with the one exception that they were compelled to pay taxes that were due to Caesar. They were “Plebeians”; low-class common working people despised by the elitist “People That Mattered” who ran the day-to-day affairs of Rome and the Empire. Have you recognised the parallel between that the European Union (The New European Empire) ruled by the Commissioners and other elitist European bureaucrats together with some of our own EUrophile political leaders? Leaders such as Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson who openly despise the ordinary man and woman in the street and have shown their contempt for the views of ordinary British citizens and the UK electorate by going forward with political objectives which are contrary to the wishes of the British people. This also applies to the leaders and “those that matter” in France, Holland and Ireland. For Caesar and his ruling elite in Rome we can now substitute the oligarchic European Commission and the ruling elite in Brussels, and of course, our own miserable Vichy politicians in Westminster that supported the passing of the European Constitution, sorry my mistake, the European Reform Treaty, sorry my mistake, the Lisbon Treaty, into British law.

Let us consider a few examples of how the people of Britain and Europe have been treated contemptuously by “The People That Matter” in EU politics.

1. The British people were promised a referendum before the European Constitution was implemented into British law. The deceitful Eurocrats reworded the European Constitution and it magically appeared as the Lisbon Treaty. Many EU leaders agreed it was the European Constitution in all but name. The European Constitution has now been ratified by Parliament. Gordon Brown snubbed the British people.

2. The French and the Dutch people voted against the European Constitution in their referenda and have been treated contemptuously by their own politicians and the unelected European Commission. The common people who voted NO to the EU Constitution are considered to be ill informed pleb’s who haven’t a clue what the EU is about. Despite the NO vote both countries have had the Lisbon Treaty ratified.

3. The Irish people are now to be forced to vote a second time, probably in the Summer of 2009, in a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. How insulting is that to the ordinary Irish citizen? Of course, the EU does not accept that the Irish people should have the audacity to prevent or obstruct the Brussels’ bureaucrats plan for a New European Empire.

4. The British deep sea fishing industry has been decimated by imposition of ridiculous and harmful EU Directives which are enforced by our own navy. The British Navy is acting as the fishing police force to impose the diabolical damaging EU legislation on the remains of a once proud and great fishing industry. Don’t you feel ashamed to be part of this awful tragedy? How could our British politicians allow this to happen?

5. EU metric legislation has been forced on to hard working market traders who have been taken to court and fined for selling fruit and veg’ in pounds and ounces, which is what 98% of their customers want. The 1985 British Weights and Measures Act allows traders to sell in imperial measures, but the EU Directive, 80/181/EEC, forcing metrication on the street traders overrides the British Act of Parliament decided two judges in the High Court. At the present time a lady market trader, Janet Devers, is facing a fine of £5000 and is being intimidated by Hackney Council Trading Standards Officers. No customer complained and there was no overcharging or fraud, but “Those that Matter” ensured that Janet Devers faced the might of European legislation. At the same time “Get Rich Quick Bankers” were legally drawing obscene bonuses of millions of pounds of shareholders money, often after the Bank or Company had a downward spiral in business terms. How’s that for democracy and fairness?

6. The BBC and other media tend to support the EU as if it was a legitimate Government and show a significant bias in favour of the EU. They rarely explain to their viewers and listeners the significance of the constant flow of EU Directives and how they affect the lives of ordinary citizens. One of the methods of preventing information of EU activities reaching the eyes and ears of the public is for pro-EU politicians and supporters to interrupt anyone trying to tell the truth about the undemocratic nature of the EU. This happens on BBC’s Question Time program occasionally and recently on the Andrew Marr Show when Sheila Hancock continuously interrupted a leader of British Industry who was trying to explain that the UK could not change VAT levels to what might be in Britain’s best interest to overcome the present dire economic climate because of EU laws. At least, I think that was what he was trying to say.

Those of us that believe in true democracy think that the British people are the ones that should be consulted on any major issue to do with changing the UK’s status with regard to our membership of the EU.

We are not anti-European; we are the true Europeans because we recognise the right of each European country to be ruled by its own elected representatives. We wish to trade and encourage friendship between European Nations, but we do not want to be ruled by elitist politicians and unelected Commissioners who think they are the only “People That Matter”.

FINISHING BERTIES AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Bertram Edward Bennett, Derek Bennett's father

Sunday 14th December has been a pretty lazy day for this blogger. Just a few tidying up jobs to do this morning before the Lyndon House Hotel beckoned for a very enjoyable pint of real ale in good surroundings, then this afternoon I finally finished off my dear old dad's wartime autobiography, which runs into thirty seven pages of A4.

I found his handwritten notebook some weeks back when my brother, Bruce, and I cleared out my mom's loft ready for some work, and every spare bit of time I have had I have used to work on it, and now it's finished.

The tale starts with all his pals either joining up at the start of the war, or being conscripted. My dad, Bertram Bennett, was a forman bricklayer and did not expect to be conscripted as he was in a reserve occupation - but the army still got him.

He hated the army and many of its menial tasks, but enjoyed organising the concert parties. He spent the whole war here in the UK and never served abroad, so this is not a tale of heroics, but it is one of humour and gives a glimpse of life in those times. If anyone wants to spend an hour or so reading about my dad's army experiences then please send me an e-mail and I will e-mail a PDF version by return,

DEVIOUS LITTLE SWINES AT HACKNEY COUNCIL

There have been posting on this site before regarding the case of market trader, Janet Devers, who was prosecuted by Hackney Trading Standards for not complying with the EU’s enforced metrication rules. See HERE, HERE & HERE.

A total of twelve charges were brought against her for doing nothing more offensive than supplying her customers with their goods purchased from her in the weights and measures they know and wanted. Like most decent British people they find the continental metric system alien and confusing, they cannot relate to it. Despite this the mad officials at the Hackney soviet insisted on bringing charges.

There were twelve charges in all, eight were tried in the magistrates court where she was convicted, and the other four were due to be tried in a jury trial. Mrs Devers has put in an appeal against the convictions and felt confident that no jury would ever convict here for selling goods in traditional imperial weights. It seems the devious Labour apparachiks at Hackney Council were of the same opinion and have decided to drop these other four charges rather than face a humiliating defeat.

They obviously know that as soon as you bring in ordinary decent people on a jury their mad schemes will be rejected in the face of common sense. This, sadly, denies Janet her day in court and the backing of her peers which would have strengthened the campaign against EU enforced metrication.

Hackney Council will still not drop its opposition to her appeal against the charges already made against her in the magistrates courts. Neil Herron of the Metric Martyrs campaign which has been supporting Janet Devers throughout her ordeal at the Hackney inquisition, said: “It’s about time Hackney did the decent thing, put their hands up and apologised to Mrs Devers.” Sadly, the left wing nutters at Hackney Council wouldn’t know what the decent thing was if it came up and stood on their foot.

BRIAN COWAN’S HYPOCRISY

Anthony Couglan of the National Platform in Ireland has sent out the statement below.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen's hypocrisy in pretending to "respect" the people's referendum vote on Lisbon is now evident, for not a jot or tittle of Lisbon will be altered when he forces the people to vote on it a second time next year.

Political Declarations or promises regarding future Treaties that are not yet even drafted will not alter a comma of the Lisbon Treaty.

If people vote Yes in Lisbon Two to exactly the same Treaty which they voted No to last June they will be changing the Irish Constitution so as to recognise the supremacy of the law of the new Union which Lisbon would establish over anything contrary, whether in the Irish Constitution or in political Declarations and promises that might be tacked on to Lisbon.

No political Declarations or promises about commitments and even Protocols in future EU Treaties can change Lisbon or the supremacy of the EU Court of Justice in interpreting that Treaty's provisions. These will have come into force well before any further EU Treaty or Treaties will even be negotiated.

If the Irish media and public opinion allow themselves to be taken in by the kind of presentational trickery Taoiseach Cowen and his Government are now planning, they could be making themselves the laughing stock of Europe.

A promise by the 27 EU Governments that each Member State can keep a Commissioner permanently under Lisbon is valueless in the light of that Treaty's provision that from 2014 Member States will lose their right to decide who their national commissioner will be.

For under Lisbon (Article 17.7, amended Treaty on European Union) a Government's present right to decide would be replaced by a right to make "suggestions" only, for the incoming Commission President to decide (See notes below elaborating on this point).

Under the present Nice Treaty arrangements Member States would retain permanently their right to decide who their national Commissioner is - a right which they would lose under Lisbon.

The Nice Treaty requires that the number of Commissioners should be fewer than the number of Member States from 2009, but by an unspecified number to be agreed unanimously.

This requirement of the present Nice-based Treaties can be abided by, and Ireland and the other States can keep a national Commissioner permanently, by the simple expedient of reducing the number of Commissioners from 27 to 26 and permitting whoever holds the job of "High Representative for EU Foreign and Security Policy" - currently Spain's Javier Solana - to attend Commission meetings instead of being formally titled a Commissioner from that State.

This can and should be done under the Nice Treaty. This would mean that the Commission arrangements would continue virtually unchanged from the present. Ireland woud retain a Commissoner permanently except in the unlikely event of an Irish person being given the even more important job of High Representative.

Taoiseach Cowen and his Government have deliberately sought to isolate and put pressure on their own people by failing to say after the Lisbon referendum last June that Ireland would not ratify Lisbon in view of the people's No vote.

If the Taoiseach had done that, continued ratification by the other EU States would have been pointless, for Lisbon requires ratification by all 27 States before it can come into force for anyone.

DEFENCE CUTS AN INSULT

Defence cuts announced by the Secretary of State for Defence, John Hutton, have been described by the UK National Defence Association (UKNDA) as “bad policy, damaging to the national interest, and an insult to our hard-pressed, overstretched and under-funded Armed Forces."

The UKNDA, which campaigns in support of Britain's Armed Forces, said that the cancellation of major defence programmes such as FRES [Future Rapid Effect System] and the 2-year delay to the construction of the two new aircraft carriers – a cornerstone of the Government’s defence policy – made no sense either from an economic or a military point of view.

UKNDA Chief Executive Officer, Cdr John Muxworthy, said: “These delays and cuts will save little but rather increase costs in the long term. They will weaken the nation’s defences and put the lives of our service men and women at risk. Indeed, these false economy measures will cost lives in the future.

"The Government is pouring hundreds of billions of pounds into a possibly vain endeavour to solve the financial and banking crisis but at the same time cutting back on the nation’s defence and security. This is folly.

"Maintaining vital investment in defence would preserve our industrial base, save tens of thousands of jobs, and – what should be the Government's very first priority – enhance the nation's depleted and over-stretched defences."

TAKE THE QUIZ

Here’s a bit of fun for a damp Saturday, take the quiz and see which political party you support.

Out of interest and research, of course, I clicked on every policy and mad idea I oppose and it came out that I agreed with 74% of Labour policies. Which just goes to show, vote for mad ideas and get a mad government!

TAKE THE QUIZ HERE.

COMMON SENSE IN MANCHESTER

Peter Roberts of the Drivers Alliance, delighted with the vote in Manchester.

Do Turkey's vote for Christmas?  Does a condemned man look forward to his execution?  Do hard pressed and highly taxed motorists want to see the costs of driving increase substantially?  There is only one answer to these questions, NO, of course not!

This silly and increasingly irresponsible Labour Government, which has lost all track of common sense and reality, seemed quite surprised when the results of the referendum on congestion charging were announced on Friday 12th December - what on earth did they expect, it was a foregone conclusion that no one in there right mind would vote in favour of allowing the Government to dip its sticky little fingers ever deeper into our pockets for the privilege of going about our daily business.

Geoff (Buff) Hoon tried threatening tactics by announcing the money intended to improve public transport would not be available if the people of Manchester voted no, but as anyone could have told him, if they prefer the comfort and convenience of their own cars rather then be crammed onto unreliable, overcrowded and often less than clean buses, trams, trains and other forms of public transport, if they are not using public transport now they will not bother with any new systems in the future -they chose the comfort, freedom and convenience of their own cars.  

There is more information at the Drivers alliance web-site, also on the BBC web-site.

A MESSAGE FROM UKIP LEADER NIGEL FARAGE

Nigel Farage MEP, points out that Libertas is a pro-EU political party.

Declan Ganley is expected to announce that his Libertas Party will field candidates in next June's European Parliament elections, both in the UK and elsewhere.

The UKIP position is that though this may confuse people this is in reality going to be a problem for David Cameron and the Conservative Party. Mr. Ganley's views are very similar to those of Mr. Cameron. They believe that reform from within the EU is possible. We of course know that this is not the case and that we have to leave the political union and negotiate a free trade agreement. So, Libertas as I understand it, would be campaigning for staying inside the EU and negotiating from that position of weakness. As you know this is completely different to our long held position. Which is that we must withdraw for that will be the position of strength from which we can decide our own way.

Remember this, no one listened to the Dutch about the Constitution, no one listened to the French. No one is listening to the Irish now over the Lisbon Treaty. Anyone trying to reform from within will simply be ignored again which is why we have to leave: only then will they pay attention.

More from Nigel Farage HERE at the UKIP web-site.

THE IRISH GOVERNMENT HAS BETRAYED ITS PEOPLE

Anthony Coughlan sent on these comments about the Lisbon Treaty and the Irish vote.

DECLAN GANLEY AND JENS-PETER BONDE, Thursday 11 December 2008 @ 09:13 CET

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - The French president yesterday told the group leaders of the European parliament that he has made a deal with the Irish government to hold a second referendum in Ireland to ratify the Lisbon treaty first rejected on 12 June by 53 percent of Irish voters.

None of the representatives of the Irish people who voted No to the Lisbon Treaty were consulted by the Irish government before they struck a deal with the French Presidency. The Irish government has simply ignored the result of the referendum and betrayed those people who voted No in the majority.

Government ministers, including the prime minister, have been urging other countries to "isolate" Ireland by ratifying the treaties so that the Irish could sweat it out and then change their mind.

And what do they deliver as concessions to the Irish voters? Not one single word to be changed in the treaty that was also rejected by the French and Dutch voters in referendums in 2005 when it went under the name of "Constitution".

Not one word or legal obligation will be changed. The same content will simply be put in a new envelope, just as Valery Giscard d'Estaing said about the change from the Constitution to the Lisbon Treaty. But this time, not even the headline or the wording will be changed.

It is the same text  as the one that was rejected.  It is legally doubtful if it is possible to repeat a binding referendum on the same text in the same parliamentary period.

In the new envelope, there will be a lot of nice words in Declarations. They have not the slightest legal value. They will neither change anything in the treaties nor hinder the court in Luxembourg from deciding directly against whatever the Declarations say.

Then, they will have the promise of a commissioner from each member state. Fine. But the Irish commissioner will be picked by a majority of prime ministers and presidents in the EU. The Irish government can come up with "suggestions", but other member states decide.

It would indeed be a concession if they were to change the treaty and allow every member state to elect its own commissioner, and it would be democratic progress if we could elect our commissioner in direct elections together with the elections to the European Parliament.

The Irish government has simply given in and will not even insist on the right of Ireland to nominate its own commissioner.

Declan Ganley is president of Libertas and Jens-Peter Bonde is president of the EU Democrats and a member of the European Parliament from 1979-2008

PARLIAMENT BY-PASSED BY EU LAWS

Lords Stodart and Pearson, both oppose the EU take-over of Britain.

UKIP peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch has revealed that the government has consistently broken its promise not to sign up to new Brussels laws while they are still being scrutinised by Parliament. In a debate on the House of Lords European Union Committee, Lord Pearson said there were two reasons for querying the usefulness of the committee and its sub-committees.

"First, we have the continuing scandal of the government having promised not to sign up to any new law in Brussels when it is still under scrutiny in the committee of either House of Parliament, but breaking that promise or overriding the scrutiny reserve, no fewer than 180 times in the Lords and 157 times in the Commons between 2003 and June 2006.

"That is 337 new laws that have been passed into law in this country in breach of the wishes of Parliament. I have tabled a Written Question to find out what has happened since."

Lord Pearson went on: "However, perhaps the main reason for querying the usefulness of this committee was revealed in a series of Written Answers in the previous Session to my noble friends Lord Tebbit and Lord Vinson.

"They asked how often a recommendation of either House's Select Committee had been incorporated into EU legislation in Brussels. After much prevarication about disproportionate cost and so on, the Government could come up with only one example, on 10 March 2008, when they revealed that your Lordships' committee's, 'recommendations on a restricted scope and the country of origin principle were incorporated into the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (amending the Television Without Frontiers Directive)'."

Lord Pearson said there might be other examples in which the views of Lords' Select Committees had been accepted in Brussels, but they must be very few, and he wondered whether it was worth continuing.

SHEER FRUSTRATION

Silly Liberal Democrat comments on Radio Four

Please excuse me while this blogger goes off for a moment or two to bang his head up a brick wall ------- A'h that's better - now where are we?  Thats it, tainted Irish pork and the sheer, mind numbing idiocy and hypocrisy of the Liberal Democrats, or should that be the Lib Dims?

I've just been out delivering (in the freezing cold) UKIP newspapers in the ward where there will be a by-election after Christmas, and while driving home the Radio Four programme I was listening to was debating the problem of Pork from the Republic of Ireland which has been found to contain a high level of dioxins.  Naturally, as we would all expect from our EU loving BBC, in the part of the programme covering the rules on the labeling of meats there was no mention of the EU.  To make matters worse they interviewed a Lib Dim spokesman on this, whose name I failed to get, who waffled on about the labeling of meats and that currently anyone in the UK producing meat products could buy their meat from anywhere in the world, then as the pies, or whatever they produced, were made in the UK they could label them as 'British'.

Now, when it comes to joining the Liberal Democrats and becoming a member of that strange political party, it's very easy to do as there are only two qualifications. A. you have to be a fully paid up twit, and B. you have to have strong hypocritical tendencies.  With those two qualifications you will be destined for high office in the Lib Dims.

This highly qualified Lib Dim spokesman twittered on about how it should be made clear where the meat came from on these pork products and that they should only be only be labeled as British if they contained British pork only.  I do love to hear these Lib Dims talking about such things (where's that wall again?).  They sound so knowledgeable, so reasonable, almost convincing - apart from the fact that all they are doing is spouting a load of tripe.

This deceitful or ignorant little Lib Dim toad (I can't make up my mind which) seemed to think we in the UK could change the rules just like that and start labeling our pork pies, bangers, pork scratchings and just about anything else made from pork as containing British produced pork.  As its so close to Christmas and the pantomime season we all know what to say - 'Oh no we can't', 'The EU is behind you!'  It is the EU that set in place the lunacy of these labeling laws as it is busy creating one massive new EU nation out of the current 27 member nations. Individual nations, as far as the EU is concerned, are just a temporary obstacle which in a matter of time will be removed completely - it only sees EU regions.  Just like the old traditional counties of the British Isles where all products produced were always classed a British, the EU in its aim to remove national boundaries now sees all products produced in anyone of its member nations as made in the EU - hence its changes to the labeling laws.  

The Lib Dim twits can bang on all they like about our labels, but until we leave the EU they will never be able to do anything about it - but of course they like to sound good while at the same time are doing nothing other than telling 'pork pies.

EU REFERENDUM has also posted on this subject too.

THE END OF THE ROAD FOR CONGESTION CHARGING

Peter Roberts of the Driver Alliance, reports that few people want road pricing.

Peter Roberts of the Drier Alliance said that nearly three in four drivers across the North West are opposed to any form of congestion charging according to latest research.

1, The latest AA/Populus survey of 11,300 members reveals the number of drivers opposed to congestion charging has increased from 72% in April to 77%. 

2, With the people of Greater Manchester voting on the introduction of the world's biggest congestion charging scheme, the survey does little to comfort those hoping for a YES vote.

This research shows a hardening of attitudes towards congestion charging at the very time £3 million of public money has been spent promoting and advertising it when linked to improvements in public transport.

Another indication of the public's attitude towards road pricing is the 12% reduction in vehicles using the M6 Toll road which was designed to relieve congestion through the West Midlands. This excellent motorway is hardly used with just a few cars choosing to pay the £4.50 a time toll. With the existing M6 still carrying the vast majority of traffic, this experiment in toll roads has proven to be a disaster for those promoting pay-as-you-go motoring.

If the referendum in Manchester returns a NO vote on Friday, this will be a serious setback to the governments and the EU's plans to charge for road use and road pricing will be knocked back for years.

Peter Roberts of the Drivers' Alliance adds:

"Road pricing is dead in the water. Every poll, referendum and survey shows massive opposition to this flawed idea and road users are deeply opposed to pay-as-you-go driving.

It is time government listened. Overwhelmingly, people are strongly opposed to congestion charging and road pricing. In a democracy, this should mean something and it is the duty of government to stop peddling this unwanted and failed policy.

With the western extension to London's congestion charge also being scrapped, hopefully this is the end of the road for road pricing."

 

See: Telegraph report also Manchester Poll. Drivers Alliance.

PITY THE IRISH

We all knew it was going to happen at some stage, we all knew that the euphoria over the Irish ‘No’ vote to the EU’s Lisbon (Constitutional) Treaty was only going to be short lived, and we all knew that in the EU ‘No’ never actually means ‘No’, but just a slight setback for the Eurocrats.
So when the Daily Mail (Monday 8th December 2008) had the headline: ‘Irish to vote on EU treaty again’ on page two, it was no surprise.

After their ‘No’ votes to the Nice and Lisbon treaties, the Irish still haven’t quite grasped how EU democracy works. In the EU ‘No’ votes don’t count as the electorate must have because of one of several things. 1: they did not understand the question. 2: they were not happy with their own government so they voted ‘No’ as a means to punish their ministers – it had nothing to do with the EU –of course. 3: they have got it wrong and must do it again, and as a final option, 4: why bother asking the silly buggers in a referendum if that’s their attitude, we will have to change the name of the treaty and present it as something else and don’t bother to ask them. Thus, the EU gets its wicked way each and every time. There’s nothing to beat EU democracy in action, how proud Lenin and Stalin would be of the EU.

So, the Irish government is now desperately trying to tinker around the edges of the dreadful Lisbon Treaty so that it can appease its master, the EU, and when done they will present it as something completely new and wonderful, despite it will be the same old second rate rubbish underneath its nice new wrapping. At sometime during 2009, the Irish will have to go to the polls and repeat the whole thing again with, no doubt, dire warnings that the world will come to an end if they don’t vote how they are supposed to.

Let’s hope that the Irish don’t fall for the same trick twice in a repeat of the Nice Treaty which they rejected first time around but succumbed at the second vote. We must all wish them well and prey that they are made of sterner stuff and give this nasty treaty another thumbs down – that really would put the EU and its federalist traitors in a spin.

If, by some miracle, the canny Irish defeat the EU again, then when you go out to celebrate, don’t have a pint of Guinness to do so – it supported the ‘Yes’ vote, have an Irish whisky or two instead.

HUMAN RIGHTS, WATCH THIS SPACE

Brian Mooney on Human Rights says watch this space and writes below.

There is a massive ongoing charm offensive, where New Labour is trying to detox its poisonous image.

Post offices, fuel prices, bank interest, tracking our phone and internet use, rights to sell in pounds and ounces without prosecution - it's all fair game, and the hype goes on.

Now look at the Daily Mail today. Nice of the Mail to give Labour such a flattering headline, like the other media halfwits.

Human rights: Straw to get tough and reform 'villains charter' [Justice Secretary Jack Straw] tells the Mail that he wants to ' rebalance' the rights set out in the Human Rights Act by adding explicit 'responsibilities', specifically to obey the law and to be loyal to the country - that's high of 'Jack Boots' whose government has trampled over our constitution and surrended ever more power and money to the EU.

Now read the small print.  In a move which will alarm the civil liberties lobby, Mr Straw reveals that he is studying whether the act can be tightened and has taken legal advice

Early days yet - but watch this space.... a Green Paper is likely in January. More Straw HERE.