BACK TO BLOGGING

The village of Dolwyddelan in North Wales.

As Christmas 2009 is fading away and 2010 rapidly approaches, it is time to drag my bone idle body off the sofa and get back to doing a bit of blogging.

This Christmas was, as are most, a nice break and a time to relax with family.  It was spent as usual in North Wales at the home of my old mother, along with Mrs B and her father Fred. 

 

Apart from spending time in the village pub drinking some quite nice Welsh beer, and eating Turkey, mince pies and plum pudding, I have had quite a bit of time to spend reading the newspapers which seem to be full of ever increasing amounts of celebrity gossip and less and less serious news, especially news about the EU takeover of our country.

Sadly, because the press and media place so little importance on the impact of the EU few people realise just how much power and influence the EU has over us.  A stark example of that was given to me on Christmas day over a lunchime pint in the Gwydr pub in Dolwydellan.  The owner of the village shop, a chap who I have known for around thirty years who originally hails from Tipton in the Black Country, was featured recently in a Tory Party political broadcast and was shown shaking hands with David Cameron when he came to visit the area.  I mentioned that I had seen him on the telly and my old acquaintance, now known as "Arkwright" to all who know him, said he was considering standing in the local elections next May.

I began to give him a bit of my knowledge of campaigning in more local elections than I care to remember and made the point that until we leave the EU makes little difference who is elected in the general elected as the Lib Lab Con, by refusing to take us out of the EU and restoring democracy, will have to continue doing as the EU instructs - he would have none of that and thought we would be alone in the world as, in his opinion, the Commonwealth would not have us back.  Despite pointing out the fact the bulk of our exports were to none EU countries and the other EU countries would not cut off their best customer - his mind was closed.  This, sadly, is the battle we in the EU realist movement have to fight - the war on ignorance generated by pro-EU spin and deceit.

One of my Christmas gifts was a shiny new Sat-Nav, which should be a great help to me as I get around to various events and meetings in obscure places.  One thing that confused me as I had a fiddle with this device was that it recognised where I in North Wales, but would not recognise my home address or even my home town of Walsall.  When returned home it then recognised where I was but not my mothers address in Wales - I found out that you have to set the name of the country you want to visit, which to my mind has always been the United Kingdom of England, Scotland and Wales.  It now seems the break up is official according to my new Sat Nav, which I thank is sad as I was always proud of our British joint achievements over the centuries.

As for news of the EU, Quentin Letts writing in the Daily Mail on Boxing Day raised the issue of a plan to allow MEPs to sit in their national parliaments.  Although this proposal is in its early stages but should it get the go ahead MEPs could be involved in and have influence regarding the scrutiny of EU legislation being passed through Westminster - pro-EU MEPs would naturally do everything in their power to ease the passage of even more EU bureaucracy.

Other EU news came in the Daily Telegraph (29th December 2009) which reported that little Lithuania, which only a few short years ago escaped Russian Soviet domination, but for some mad reason then opted for EU domination - no doubt thinking it would benefit fiscally from membership.  However, if that was the plan it has gone badly wrong as many Lithuanians have lost their jobs due to spending cuts.  To make things worse the EU has demanded that the country should begin decommissioning its main energy source from the 1st January 2010, forcing the country to rely on Russian energy which will cost considerably more than their own current supply.

In 2004 the EU made the closure of Lithuania's Ignalia nuclear power station as a condition of membership.  This power station, which the EU describes as a Chernobyl-sized threat, provides 70 per cent of the countries power, its loss will have some quite substantial financial implications as the subsequent rising fuel bills would cut its gross domestic product by one percentage point and would increase inflation by almost one percentage point.  The pressure this will bring to the jobless in that country will be intolerable.

Some very sad news came in the latest edition of the 'Yardstick', which is the newsletter of the British Weights and Measures Association (BWMA) which reported the deaths of long time campaigners Fabian Olins and Eddie Worster.  I already knew about the loss of Fabian, but the loss of Eddie came as an unpleasant surprise.  

Eddie had been a long time member of UKIP and a supporter of my newsletter, the Euro Realist.  Both men who did so much for the liberty and freedom of our country will be much missed.

As I get back to blogging I will try to do a little more over the next few days, the lure of holiday laziness beckons but it's time to get moving again, especially as we go into 2010, then campaigning will really begin to heat up.