eurealist.co.uk

BE welcomes European Union Bill
“Britain in Europe welcomes the government’s decision to publish a bill to ratify the new European constitutional treaty, subject to a referendum.
“For far too long we have been subjected to a diet of myth and misinformation by the eurosceptics, their millionaire backers and their friends in the media. A sensible debate [...]

The Headline in the Telegraph “Pledge to decriminalise environment offences” caught my eye, I thought, if our Tone is going to start decriminalising offences, would not that cause some problems with the EU, which has competence on environmental matters.
One naturally assumes that to decriminalise is to make something that is a criminal offence, not [...]

Hazel Blears MP Labour Member of Parliament for Salford, Home Office Minister, defends the Civil Contingencies, Act in the Telegraph.
But we should all understand that these are Bolshevik-style powers, so sweeping and totalitarian that they sound as if they have been lifted out of some 1930’s banana-republic manifesto, no democratic parliament in a [...]

The Practice of Triangulation

I much prefer my politicians to be open and honest, if that is not an oxymoron, I do not like the new career politicians who have never worked in industry or held any job that did not automatically put them in a safe environment divorced from the real life problems of ordinary [...]

Further to my post about the “Vote No” campaign slogan “no to the constitution, yes to Europe”. Helen Szamuely of EU Referendum clearly also sees the problems and details some of them and the objections. Richard North did point out the problems with the proposed slogan to the Vote No organisers well before they decided [...]

Alternatives to EU Membership
The British Government is the servant of the British people, which means that our system, places the sovereignty of the people at the very centre of our democracy, for this system to survive our government cannot pass power to a supranational body to make our laws, otherwise they have effectively removed the [...]

Ldg Seaman David Kayes, 34, A New Zealander is leaving the Royal Navy after 17 years because he is not prepared to become a British citizen in order to continue working on submarines.
Telegraph

The Ministry of Defence is now demanding that all those 8000 Commonwealth servicemen and women who have served loyally in the British forces, [...]

Telegraph | News | Christopher Booker’s Notebook:
Christopher Booker in the Telegraph asks the question who will arrest the “Who arrests the Prime Minister for this crime? A rather outrageous suggestion one may think, but one that is very much in the thoughts of many of us, as we see our politicians continually breaking, not only [...]

Daniel Hannan is a Tory MEP If only the Tories would take on board his views, but until they do then there is a place for UKIP.
Telegraph | News | At the heart of Europe:
Snip
Forget the rhetoric about the parliament “coming of age” and “standing up to the executive”. It is back to business as [...]

Even Lady Scotland, does not know what is happening or is trying to misinform the House of Lords, one hopes it is the former, because if it was a deliberate attempt to mislead then how are we supposed to believe anything any politician tells us.
Lady Scotland should in fact know that she gave Lord Tebbit [...]

“An Interesting Vote
As a Brit my focus on the European Constitution tends to be on the referendum to be held in the UK. It currently seems as if the French referendum may provide a more interesting spectacle however.
The French Socialist Party are considering whether or not to back the treaty and there are grave warnings [...]

Britain is the only country in the world which has legislation which controls the spending of participants in a referendum.
In the North East assembly referendum there was a designated “Yes campaign” and a designated “No campaign”, the selections were made by the supposedly independent Electorial Commision. There are many questions still to be answered about [...]

Has anyone else noticed that Javier Solana has been in the news a lot this week; was what I was going to write, but Jonathan Lockhart has beaten me to it.
Jonathan Lockhart’s Notebook:
“Just who is guiding Javier Solana?
Javier Solana has been in the news a lot recently. Mr Solana is the European Union’s ‘High [...]

For links to original story The Edge of England’s Sword: Letting the side down?: “Letting the side down?
John at The England Project reports on a pro-hunt rally in Wales where the BBC claims protesters engaged in homophobic and racist taunts. If true, its the sort of thing that needs to be stamped out since even [...]

Mary Ann Sieghart in the Times “Can someone please help the Tory Party to rediscover its identity”
Makes the point that every Tory MP she speaks to, finds the thought of ID Cards obnoxious, as that is the case then why on earth do they not say so, apparently the problem is Michael Howard who [...]

EUobserver.com
EU launches bid to slash red tape
26.11.2004 - 09:52 CET | By Richard Carter

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Economics Ministers on Thursday (25 November) launched a new bid to cut EU red tape in a drive to make the regulatory environment in Europe easier for business.
Meeting in Brussels for a competitiveness council, ministers agreed to simplify [...]

Sir - Following the Queen’s Speech, it seems to me that the only thing that George Orwell got wrong was the date.
Michael Murphy, Sheffield

Lord Steyn attacks fellow law lord over Guantanamo Bay detainees:
“Courts must never abdicate their duty to protect citizens from the abuse of power by governments, a senior judge said last night.”
In a highly unusual move, he launched a public attack on Lord Hoffmann, a fellow law lord, for suggesting that the courts should not [...]

Further to my post today about the EU transport white paper,“Transport time to decide” EU Referendum reports that The House of Commons Transport Committee has now produced a report on Galileo. According to the EU white paper, this thing is supposed to be up and running in 4 years time, with all the work [...]

The Letters Editor
Daily Telegraph
Dear Sir / Madam
‘Silence of the Electoral Commission Lambs’
“Spending rules governing the referendum on the European constitution will give the Government an unfair advantage,” Sam Younger, the chairman of the Electoral Commission, said yesterday Daily Telegraph 25th November).
Perhaps it was not Vote No’s threat of court action that has elicited a gentle [...]