THE LESSONS OF HISTORY

History is littered with failed currency unions, they never work and neither will the euro. For a prime example of what was wrong with it we only have to look back a few short years to the exchange rate mechanism (ERM) which was in preparation to a European single currency. All that achieved with countries like the UK having the wrong interest rates was misery, people lost jobs, homes, businesses and their savings – this is what euro membership will bring if we are fool enough to heed Lord Mandelson’s wish for us to still join even as this edifice of the EU empire is crumbling all around.

Struggling with the reality of ignoring the lessons of history, it seems that the German leader, Angela Merkel, is having a very uncomfortable time of things a row has now erupted between Greece and Germany as the Greeks feel they have been insulted by comments made in a German magazine.

Like many commentators on the EU problem, this blog agrees it is way past time we in the UK quit the European Union experiment and made our own way in the world, and save the £45 million a day we give in EU contributions too. Let the lessons of history do its worst in the crumbling eurozone.

MATERNITY MADNESS MARCHES ON

The issue of harmonising maternity leave across the EU has been incubating for quite some time and has recently popped up again. This blog reported on this matter back in September 2008.

The Daily Telegraph have picked up on the story too and have reported it could cost long suffering British businesses up to £2 billion. At a time of global financial instability and recession this the last thing anyone wants. EU maternity madness marches on.

FLYING INTO EU BUREAUCARCY

Stuart Agnew MEP, Brussels bureaucrats poking their noses in
where they are not needed.

The future of private flying is under threat from Brussels. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is to replace the private pilots licence issued by the Civil Aviation Authority with a new European Licence in April 2012. In the process, it will phase out a crucial safety rating that is unique to Britain and will effectively ground private aircraft for large parts of the year.

The Eastern Counties MEP, Stuart Agnew (UKIP) has been visiting the Little Snoring aerodrome near Fakenham in Norfolk to be briefed on the situation by private pilot, Roger Haverson who first brought the problem to his attention. Mr Haverson told Mr Agnew that the CAA Instrument Meteorological Conditions Rating (IMCR) enables holders to fly on instruments in cloud and in visibility not permitted by a standard private pilot’s licence and is absolutely necessary in Britain’s changeable maritime weather conditions. The only alternative will be very expensive training courses intended for airline pilots.

Mr Haverson said: “The IMCR has been in existence for 40 years and has saved hundreds of lives in the UK, where flying is always at the mercy of our capricious weather. It involves a fifteen hour training course and a practical examination. I have held one for 23 years and have
lost count of the number of times that using its skills has been the safest option.

“Despite the fact that it has no objections on safety grounds, EASA is reluctant to create an administrative mechanism whereby a national rating can be attached to their new licence”.

Stuart Agnew said: “It would be a tragedy if this vital rating was to be lost to and as a result lives were to be put at risk because it is administratively inconvenient to give UK pilots the means to fly more safely. It could also drastically reduce the amount of time private pilots can be in the air, since they would only be able to fly in cloudless skies. How often does that happen with our weather? The whole future of private flying could be under threat.

“This is a classic case of Brussels bureaucrats poking their noses in where they are not needed. Alas, ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’ is not a maxim that carries any weight in Brussels. I will be raising the matter with my UKIP colleague who is on the European Parliament’s Transport Committee to see what can be done. I will also do anything I can to raise the profile of this issue to put pressure on the bureaucrats who came up with this madness”.

WHAT ARE THE TORY'S UP TO WITH THE EU?

Observing the actions of the Tory leader, David Cameron, and his close little coterie of Tory apparatchiks, you have to wonder if the Tory boy wonder doesn’t have a death wish for his party and any chance of winning the general election which is now only weeks away.

Everything Cameron and his clique do seems to be designed to alienating his core activist who he will need to win the election, also to confuse and put off the electorate who seem to be rapidly drifting away from him in the polls.

The Cameron team have taken on the very heart of the Conservative Party, its associations and chairmen around the country and imposed politically correct candidates upon them, and those that dare challenge this face insults and names such as the “Turnip Taliban”. At the same time a confused electorate, who are sick up to their back teeth of the rotten to the core Labour Government, are facing the only option of either voting for UKIP which is become an increasing influence, or some of fringe parties – or even not voting at all.

To add to this confusion and general malaise within the traditional Tory ranks, news has now got out that the arch Euro fanatic, the much loathed Ken Clarke, is trolling off to Brussels to have secret talks with the EU Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso and other Commission members.

What is Cameron up to, he stole the Tory leadership on the promise that he would be sound on this issue, but has failed the party faithful, the majority of which, is quite hostile to further EU imposition. According to the Daily Telegraph the two day meeting is to inform the EU that it has nothing to fear from a Tory administration. It reported that Mr Clarke will be after certain concessions from the EU on financial and employment issues, but others are mightily suspicious.

Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party made the claim that Ken Clarke was preparing to betray Tory Eurosceptics in readiness government. Is this going to be another Clarke Conservative stitch up, what exactly are the Tories up to with the EU?

THE RETURN OF THE COMIC STRIP

A few years ago the EU, which is not adverse to using a bit of propaganda on kids in schools, produced a comic strip in which the EU heroine issued the classic line: “You can laugh now, but wait until you see my amendments.” The whole thing was so ridiculous it was laughed out of production, but the EU is at it again.

It has just produced more than 300,000 copies of a glossy cartoon strip hardback in five languages and is sending them to homes and schools with the aim of brainwashing children into thinking the EU does some good - which we all know is not the case.

Like its predecessor this one has its own ridiculous lines, including: “What’s a European lady like you doing in a place like this?” The European lady in question is Zana, a beautiful aid worker who wears a safari jacket complete with the EU’s noose of gold stars on a blue background who, like all good little Euro bureaucrats, is on a mission to write a report on funding for a region of a country hit by disaster.

So while the EU is producing books about heroines writing reports on fictitious disasters at a cost to the taxpayers of £200,000, it is dragging its feet on the real disaster in Haiti and squandering money on trying to brainwash children while people are suffering rather putting its funds to good use. 

Matthew Elliot of the Taxpayers Alliance said: “This is pure political propaganda aimed at kids, which is a classic tactic of corrupt and unaccountable regimes down the ages. The EU seems to think it can buy itself popularity, but instead it simply makes itself look more out of touch.”

ID CARDS TO HELP FRAUD

I’ve taken up reading the Times of Malta again, which despite its general pro-EU bias, still has some interesting items of news.

Following on from the item on full body scanners which I reported yesterday, as a member and supporter of No2ID, the cross party group campaigning against the introduction of ID cards which, for a supposedly free nation as Britain, are a complete anathema.

Since the Stalinist Labour Governments of Blair and Brown began moves to impose this tool of the police state upon us, we have been informed that I.D. cards will stop terrorism, but strangely not how as the Madrid bombers carried them, we have been told they will stop crime, but again how? We are also told they will prevent fraud. Take a look at the Times of Malta HERE to see just how useful a fraudulent I.D. card can be to commit crime.

The Government and its I.D. card supporters say: ‘If we have nothing to hide we have nothing to fear’, we have everything to fear from I.D. cards.

SCANNED FROM THE TIMES OF MALTA

Ever since the last fanatical nutter tried to blow up a plane in mid air, there has been a lot of talk of full body scanners being installed in airports – which many people do not like as someone will be looking at an x-ray of all their intimate bits. 

 

The Times of Malta revealed in a news story on Wednesday 17th February 2010 that the EU is pushing for these contraptions to be fitted in all airports across the EU.

 

When we wave goodbye to our pals at the airport we will be waving goodbye to our privacy and dignity too.  Read the article HERE.

THE COLLAPSE OF THE EURO

The old saying of ‘Beware of Greeks bearing gifts’, should be updated to: ‘Beware of Greeks bearing euros’! As previously reported on this blog, the Greek economy is in big trouble, mostly because of the folly of joining the euro.

However, Greece is not the only country have problems with the loss of fiscal sovereignty that comes with the EU’s political currency, it is one of the famouse five countries known as the ‘PIGS’. This stands for: Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, all of which are experiencing fiscal problems and combined could see the end of the euro – which would not be missed by most.

There is talk that Greece could revert to its ancient currency, the drachma, and if it does it could be the first rolling pebble that sets off an avalanche as other struggling countries bail out too. The advantages for these countries to quit the euro and return to their real currencies is great indeed.

At the moment the EU still wants its euro to look like a strong currency and to be a challenge to the US dollar, this means most countries have both interest and currency rates that are wrong for their economies. If countries such as Greece, Spain Portugal and even Ireland, which rely heavily on tourism, had their own currencies again which had a very low value globally, this would prove a boom to their struggling tourist industries as tourists would return with the promise of low cost holidays. These tourist countries have lost out to cheaper destinations due to a combination of inflation and an artificially high currency thanks to the euro.
Germany has offered to bail out Greece, but the price would mean giving the Germans a great deal of say over the Greek economy and how Greece is run. However, it seems a large number of Germans are not happy about this. In their eyes they consider that if Greece got itself into this mess, then Greece can sort the problem out itself – they even think Greece should be evicted from the EU.

Despite the infantile twittering of Lord Mandy that we in the UK should still join the euro, most economists in the UK thank God they we are out of it as the UK would be in an even greater mess than we are already in. The euro is in its first stages of total collapse and the sooner it s gone the better for all the people of Europe who so far have been ignored by the EU’s elite.

DIPLOMATIC DISASTER

Under questioning from the independent Labour Peer, Lord Stoddart of Swindon, the Government has continued to deny that the creation of a diplomatic service for the European Union will have any effect on the role of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.  Baroness Kinnock, for the Government said: "There is no material change to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's role following the implementation of the Lisbon treaty and the appointment of the High Representative."

The Baroness also said that the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty "will not affect the existing legal basis, responsibilities and powers of each member state in relation to the formulation and conduct of its foreign policy and its national diplomatic service."

Commenting on the answers he has received from the Government, Lord Stoddart said:  "It is difficult to believe that the creation of a European Union External Action Service, which is a diplomatic service for the EU, can have so little effect on the role and work of the Foreign Office.  For them to exist side by side without conflicting or duplicating is impossible to imagine.  In reality, I suspect that the External Action Service will gradually take over and render the Foreign Office redundant, making it yet another casualty of EU membership and wiping out centuries of British diplomatic tradition."

MORE ON THE GREEK TRAGEDY

Ambrose Evan Pritchard, writing in the Telegraph on the Greek euro tragedy, is well worth a look. Now that the German's have agreed to break the EU's own rules to bail out the desperate Greek economy, it looks as if we will all be putting our hands deep into our pockets to pay for it.

LEADING THE WAY OUT

Keith Carson of the June Press selling Eurofacts at a UKIP event.

There was an interesting snippet in the 22nd January edition of Eurofacts, which is produced by the June Press. It seems that the British are now the leading Eurosceptics – now there is something to be proud of.

Eurofacts reported: “Britain is the country with the least confidence in the EU, according to an end-of-year Eurobarometer poll. The survey found that 64 per cent of British respondents thought the union was either a bad thing or neither good nor bad, while only 30 per cent opted for “good”. Asked whether the country had benefited from membership of the EU, 49 per cent of Britons said “no” and just 36 per cent thought membership had brought advantages. Only Hungary and Latvia are more negative. Across Europe, 53 per cent of the population of member states think the EU is a good thing, while 15 per cent say it is bad and 28 per cent don’t care about it.”

It’s nice to know that the British people have enough about them that they want to be the leaders of the way out.

IMMIGRATION & EU

The reason there has been no blogging on this site for a couple of days is due to my visit to a different country, North Wales, to sort out my old mom who lives there and was due to have an eye operation. I am pleased to say her op went smoothly and it was a pleasure not having to pay to park my car in a hospital car park – unlike those of us who live across the border in England.

Although we all know that Wales, like Scotland and Northern Ireland are part of the United Kingdom, these days they are detaching themselves and aiming to become independent nations, although they have not yet realized they are nothing more than EU regions despite their delusions of nationhood.

Unlike traveling across normal borders, there are no barriers or passport checks as you drive along the A5 and into the land of my fathers, just a few road works and temporary traffic lights are the only things that slow your passage. It would also seem, according to the Daily Telegraph yesterday and Sir Andrew Green of Migration Watch, that for many immigrants coming into the UK it is about as easy as it was for me driving into North Wales in my old jalopy.

It has come to light that the Labour Government decided to have an open door policy on immigration, despite the fact that they knew this would be a sensitive matter for most of the electorate, including many immigrants who have settled in the UK and now worry about how many people one small island such as the UK can cope with as we head rapidly towards a total population of 70 million people. Everyone is left wondering how we can cope with this massive figure and how our infrastructure will be able to manage. How will be able to house such numbers, will our schools, hospitals, doctors, roads and public transport be able to handle so many? All are questions which come to mind.

So, if everyone is worried about such things, why was the Labour Government so eager to boost to population so rapidly and to such a large number? It seems the answers to that one is all down to Labour putting votes before the interests of the nation, according to Sir Andrew Green in the Telegraph. He reported research done by the Electoral Commission that “ethnic communities vote heavily in favour of Labour.” The fact that many people in the UK are becoming increasingly concerned by the pressure mass immigration has on the country and its resources comes way down the pecking order to Labour Party votes.

Another reason why Governments want mass immigration, other than to combat skill shortages, is that migrant population have no real ties to their new country in relation to its history or feeling of duty to that nation – they come here for a better standard of living and the benefits offered and who can blame them for that. Other than those things they will have little concern about sovereignty being handed over to the unelected in the EU or Parliamentary sovereignty, why should they? But to a Government which is intent to subsume the UK into a fully federated EU superstate then by diluting all opposition with the use of mass immigration this becomes a very handy tool.

Sadly, as much as the Tories or anyone else can jump up and down complaining about immigration into the UK, none will be able to tackle this issue as long as we remain in the EU as it now controls almost sixty per cent of all immigration and asylum. Because of the EU treaties and enlargement the people of Europe’s other 26 nation have as much right to live in the UK as a person born here – and no government willing to keep Britain shackled to the EU can do a damn thing about it.

The only way immigration and the number of the population can be tackled is for Britain to leave the EU and to take full control of the UK’s borders once again. Immigration should not be stopped as we will always need the talents and skills of others, but it should be controlled so it is of benefit to us and to allow us to keep a our population at manageable levels. Immigration and the EU do not go together, it is time we as a nation took control by voting UKIP.

QUACKERS

There is a breed of Duck that is native to Spain, the white-headed duck, which has been under threat from extinction due to interbreeding with the ruddy duck.  Because of this the EU made one of its edicts to save the Spanish duck.

The EU logic was simple, or should have been.  The answer to the problem was to kill off all the ruddy ducks that live in the UK as they, like many Brits, pop over to Spain to have a good time - if you get my drift.

So far 6,200 ruddy ducks have been killed in the UK at a cost of £500 a duck, the whole thing, it seems, has cost the British taxpayer around £3 million and it is all to no avail.

Not all the ruddy ducks have been culled leaving a breeding population to expand the species back to where it was in a short time, added to which the ruddy ducks in Holland and France have been increasing in population making the British cull a pointless and expensive exercise anyway.  To rub salt into a very expensive EU created wound, the white-headed duck population in Spain has been recovering since a ban on hunting them has been introduced.  The whole thing is typical of all the EU does - its quackers!

GREEK TRADGEDY

When the Greeks decided to join the EU’s euro, or rather the Greek government as the people usually have little say in these matters, they not only annihilated the worlds oldest currency, they also destroyed their own fiscal freedom – and now they are paying the price for this lack of Greek wisdom.

Under the orders of the European Union the Greek government has been told to slash public spending and give all details of an austerity plan within one month, as reported in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday 4th February 2010. Using sweeping new powers given it under the Lisbon Treaty the EU is to impose a radical shake up of the Greek economy.

The Greeks are to suffer a rise in fuel taxes and a partial freeze in public wages. They are going to be made to suffer by the EU as the German and the European Central Bank are worried that if there is not a financial crackdown on the Greek economy all the other eurozone countries could be dragged down too and the euro facing serious problems. The whole thing is a Greek tragedy, if the EU did not have ambitions to be a superpower and remained as a trading block only, which is what we were told when we joined the Common Market, all the nations within the EU would be able to manage their own affairs and govern themselves. This proves just how right we were when we warned of the dangers of the Lisbon Treaty and the ambitions of the EU to gain power.

DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR

What is it with the EU and its acolytes? The whole thing can be described as little more than a dogs breakfast but those working within its delusional corridors have ideas of being great statesmen and women, those lower down the packing order adopt an air of great importance. The shaky edifice is built on the basis that the idea of a European Union of subservient member states is so great, good and powerful that mere the mortals who these extremely grand and superior beings preside over should never be allowed to interfere in the project. The general EU approved attitude is, if they don’t like it then tough, the important people have work to do which they can never be allowed to disrupt.

Thanks to the EU we now have whole tiers of important people overseeing how we live our daily lives, and ensuring we live as prescribed by the grand elite, the latest being the item in the Daily Express, Wednesday 3rd February 2010, in which these wonderful people have decided that our milk jugs are unhygienic and are considering banning them.

In the hierarchy, the bottom of the grand pile are the army of people who work in offices implementing the EU’s edicts, these are not just in the European Parliaments in Brussels and Strasbourg, they reside in government offices all across the EU ensuring EU law is imposed in the 27 member states, then there are the MEP’s a grand and toothless bunch of self important people who, as long as they suck up to the leaders of their political parties, are ensured a job for life by being placed high on the party list at election times. They have no power or influence, their votes in the EU Parliaments count for very little, despite the fact they vote on thousands of pieces of legislation each and very year,

There are the pro-EU and subservient national ministers and leaders, who from time to time have big get togethers and make it all look very important and as if they have influence, but in reality they just do as told and abandon the wishes of those that vote for them

Then heading this great steaming heap of bureaucratic dung, are those with the real power, the EU Commission and the Commission President, they are the ones who rule the roost and it is their wishes and demands which are then talked about and ultimately implemented by all below.

Vying for power with them is the new EU unelected President, Herman Van Rompuy, who in reality is a little known Belgian prime minister selected especially for his insignificant stature and rabid pro-EU leanings. He was appointed to the job with the ratification of the dire Lisbon Treaty, taking up this grand title on the 1st January this year – and boy, how this has gone to his head. Observers have noticed that it is like the old saying, give a man a little bit of power and the next thing you know you have a monster. It would seem old Rumpey Pumpy, as he is often called, has taken up with real delusions of grandeur since becoming EU President, literally within a month of taking office.

He has created quite a stir by wanting to hold his first EU summit dedicated to greater “greater economic unioin, according to the Daily Telegraph, in a palace. He obviously considers a palace is worthy of his stature as a great (unelected) leader of the EU.

It would seem that after a little pressure was put on him he was forced to come down to earth, just a little. The grand summit is now to be held, instead of the Palais d’Egmont, but in the equally grand, but less regal Bibliotheque Solvoy, where it seems he will be intent on forcing some very far-reaching economic proposals on the leaders of the member states.

No doubt after chairing such a grand event Van Rompuy will consider himself even more impprtant that he already does – hail King Rumpey Pumpey!

CORPUS JURIS

The long standing anti-EU campaigner, Iris Binstead, has sent out a warning that the EU aims to step up its long standing intention to introduce its corpus juris legal system across all Europe, she writes:

"From the information I have received recently it would appear that Brussels is going ahead as quickly as possible to appoint a European Public Prosecutor and bring in Corpus Juris, a completely alien system of law which does not have the safeguards of our Common Law. It would do away with habeas corpus, trial by jury and innocence until proved guilty. Corpus Juris is the Napoleonic type of law which is common to most European countries and requires a person to prove their innocence. Most trials are held in front of professional magistrates or judges who are also part of the prosecution service. People can be held in prison for periods up to two years without charge.

With the election coming up in the near future and Labour standing to lose it, it appears that Mr Brown is intent upon doing as much damage as possible before he goes. If you feel as strongly as I do that we do not want this alien system of law in our country, please contact your MP and ask him/her to sign up to the Early Day Motion below. Again, with the election in mind, some MPs may take note of public opinion.

Early Day Motion 637 - 18 January 2010

That this House notes with concern that Article 69E, Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters, of the Treaty of Lisbon provides for the creation of a European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), a judicial body in charge of investigating, with the powers to order national police forces to initiate investigations; further notes with concern that the EPPO will have extensive powers and will not be accountabvle to the UK Parliament; believes that the creation of such a powerful undemocratic body would show complete disregard for the common law system in the UK; and calls on Government to ensure that UK enforcement authorities continue to have sole jurisdiction in this country.

It also would be worth while writing to local papers on this subject There follows a letter which has been sent to the Western Gazette by an MEP. I do not suggest you copy it exactly, but it will indicate what you should include in your own letter."

"Sir,

EUROPEAN PUBLIC PROSECUTOR AND CORPUS JURIS

During the interrogation in the European Parliament on the 12th January of one of the prospective Commissions for the European Union, it was disclosed that, following on from the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty at the end of 2009, the European Public Prosecutor's Office will now be established and the European Public Prosecutor appointed. That appointment will have a cumulative catastrophic effect on our future lives in that it will result in the enforcement of Corpus Juris in the United Kingdom.

Corpus Juris was first formally debated as long ago as 1997 and it has been "waiting in the wings" ever since. Now that the Lisbon Treaty has been ratified, Corpus Juris will go ahead. Generally, as far as continental countries in the European Union are concerned, the adoption of Corpus Juris would be consonant with their present criminal legal arrangements but for the United Kingdom (and for Ireland and Malta), the enforcement of Corpus Juris will entail the complete bouleversement of our criminal law resulting, inter alia, in the abandonment of habeas corpus, of the presumption of innocence and of trial by jury - those safeguards of individual freedoms that have been customary for us for centuries but are not followed in continental countries where the Napoleonic inquisitorial system is the general rule.

Because of the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty, our Parliament is powerless to prevent the introduction of Corpus Juris but our Government can exercise either a veto or an opt-out. But, unless sufficient pressure is brought to bear on the Government, it is unlikely to oppose Corpus Juris in that it represents a major step towards the final political union of all the countries in the European Union an objective that, in practice, has always had the support of the Labour Government and of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties. However, if a large number of our Members of Parliament, reflecting the views of their constituents, were to express their opposition to the introduction of Corpus Juris, the Government would be obliged to take notice and, perhaps, would decide to prevent its introduction. For this purpose, Mr Bob Spink, the independent Member of Parliament for the Castle Point Constituency, tabled in the Commons on the 18th January an Early Day Motion - number 637. It is vital that this Early Day Motion should be signed by as many members of the Commons as possible. All your readers who appreciate the dangers to our freedoms of the introduction of Corpus Juris, and therefore oppose it, are requested to get in touch with the Member of Parliament for their particular constituency as soon as possible, making their views plain and asking him/her to sign Early Day Motion 637.