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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 on the new technology that is a very short time, neither has the System been fully costed so this could well be anoth open cheque that we will still be paying for in 20 years when Tony Blair will be in the House of Lords, if it still exists.

Very little is being reported in the media about this extremely expensive EU dream to have its very own satellite system to rival the Americanone which is freely availably and already have up and running. There are also 25 links to other pages in EU Referendum fully describing the system, as Dr North says, happy reading.

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 bleat from the mainly silent and always disregarded by Government, Electoral Commission lambs, but the fact that the Commission’s incompetence and inadequacy was exposed during the North East referendum.
Mr. Younger, you failed to get involved when the Government spent public money producing misleading and factually incorrect literature…hence the Electoral Commission being attached to our actual proceedings at the High Court as ‘an interested party.’ We were forced to withdraw after being threatened with massive costs. It should have been you bringing the action, not us.
Mr. Younger, you failed to get involved when Ministers blatantly flouted the 28 day ‘purdah period’ in advance of the referendum, directing our concerns to the Cabinet Office. We have since been provided with material from the Treasury Counsel, which I will forward to you, proving Ministers breached the Political Parties and Referendums Act. Your organisation misinterpreted the act.
When I heard the statement, “I do not trust the Electoral Commission,” my ears pricked up thinking that finally this expensive organisation, a mere fig leaf for scrutiny and supposed political integrity was about to be exposed…but then I realised it was a broadcast from the Ukraine.
The integrity of our democracy and its processes are a precious thing and an Electoral Commission which is toothless,spineless and silent in the face of blatant abuses by Government is as useless as a referee without a pea in his whistle.
Mr. Younger, please stand down to expose your organisation’s inadequacy so that we, the people, can demand something better.

Yours faithfully

Neil Herron
Campaign Director
North East No Campaign
12 Frederick Street
Sunderland
SR1 1NF

Tel. 0191 565 7143
Mob. 07776 202045
www.northeastnocampaign.co.uk

Neil Herron:

“Referendum spending rules ‘unfair to No vote’(Filed: 25/11/2004)

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.
He told an academic seminar that ministers should be banned from promoting the European Union constitution using taxpayers’ money for at least 10 weeks before polling day.
Mr Younger said the rules should be changed because it would be wrong for the Government to be allowed to spend unlimited sums highlighting the advantages of the constitution at a time when the organisations campaigning against it could not.”

Solana Denies BBC Report

Euobserver reports that The EU Foreign Minister supposedly in waiting for us all to vote “Yes” but expect him to take on the title anyway, Javier Solana told the BBC that that he had the meeting some months ago with the EU proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas.
But a Statement by the spokesperson of the EU High Representative Javier Solana dated 25th November 2004.

With reference to the BBC interview broadcasted today, the Office of the High Representative Javier Solana clarifies that at no time Dr Solana wished to imply that direct contacts between himself and Hamas had taken place.

Any mention of contacts or meetings with Hamas referred to soundings and impressions conveyed to him but gathered by governments and other parties on the ground.

At no time did the High Representative, nor his Office, hold direct contacts with Hamas or any other organisations appearing on the EU “terrorisrt list”. END

I suppose if the secret meeting did take place then they would want it to remain secret, but is the BBC telling lies or is the EU? such a difficult choice.

EUobserver.com:

“Solana held secret talks with Hamas
25.11.2004 - 09:51 CET | By Honor Mahony

Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has held secret talks with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, according to the BBC.

Hamas is listed as a terror organisation by the EU.

Mr Solana told the BBC that that he had the meeting some months ago, without saying with whom it was.

He said the meeting came at a time when there seemed to be an opportunity to push for progress.

Mr Solana’s move is likely to cause controversy with some fearing that such a meeting may legitimise terrorist means”

Reform poll on liberty

New poll shows that the overwhelming majority of voters reject infringements on liberty.

This week Reform releases a new ICM poll showing that the overwhelming majority of voters believe that the Government is introducing too much legislation which infringes personal liberty.

Asked in general about “legislation on things like hunting, smoking and parents’ ability to smack their children”, 71 per cent of voters agreed that “Too many infringements on personal liberty are being proposed on matters that should be for individuals to decide for themselves”, while only 27 per cent agreed that “The Government should legislate on such things even if they mean restrictions on personal liberty.”

Unfortunately as over 60% of our regulations now come from the EU, and as mentioned in the previous post we in Britain can do nothing about that, a change of Government without a change in our relationship with the EU will have very little effect on the policies being perused by the British Government. So although the poll points out that 82% of Conservative voters are against the Nanny State unless the Conservative parliamentary party change their view, those voters are going to be sorely disappointed if their party ever gets back into power.

EU Referendum:

“There is a third way ”

Dr Richard North at his very best, completely undermining Denis Mac Shanes or as Dr North prefers with good reason, Mac Shames, EU Myths in the Telegraph.

“Thus, when MacShame rushes on to tell us that “British citizens cannot pick and choose which bits of law they will obey”, what he avoids saying is that if “British citizens” do not like particular bits of (national) law, they have the means to change them, not least though the mechanism of a general election, and not forgetting that civil disobedience is a time-honoured, and honourable, tradition.

But, within the construct of the European Union, the British citizen has – individually or collectively – no means of changing the law. The construct is deliberately “democracy proof” and therefore confounds the very system to which we subscribe. On that basis, we have a conflict between the “people”, who are not bound by the treaties, and the governments, which are”.

My only caveat is that the EU and our government are trying to make us the people also be bound by the treaties or at least the Constitution because as I have posted before it says in the Preamble

Grateful to the members of the European Convention for having prepared this Constitution on behalf of the citizens and States of Europe, [Who, having exchanged their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed as follows:]

EU Referendum: “There is a third way “

This has been tried before, the only way these appeals to our constitution can fail is because those in power just ignore that constitution and those with the power to make them listen will not do so. Whilst this is happening the government is removing laws and the blocks on limits to their outright power to do anything they like.

The Consequence of this will only lead to the total lost of any rights we the British people have to be ruled by our consent by people we elect and by laws we agree. It is the road to the total destruction of any and all our rights to the British way of life and to Britain itself. To destroy a thousand years of democracy and a system that has been used as a benchmark for democracy itself is nothing less than treason and is an outrage.

Ironies:

“Alex Dakers accuses Mandelson of Treason in Carlisle

The charge:

In November 2004 Pursuant to Article 213 (2) (ex157(2)) of the treaty establishing the European Community, Peter Benjamin Mandelson; Crown Steward and Bailiff of the manor of Northstead not being a person compelled to do so, took an engagement in the nature of an oath intending to bind the said accused to commit an offence namely treason. He freely gave a solemn oath of fidelity before the Court of Justice of the European Union ‘To perform my duties in complete independence, in the general interests of the communities; in carrying out my duties, neither to seek nor to take instruction from any government or any other body; to refrain from any action incompatible with my duties.’

This being treason and misconduct in a public office in direct contradiction to the Oaths he swore as a Member of Parliament for Hartlepool and that, which he swore as a member of Her Majesties Privy Council.

The full legal arguments

I was struck by a piece on BBC news last night about road safety and new car design, not that this is anything unusual in itself, but the BBC were quoting European figures for road deaths rather than British figures. This seemed to be a bit odd and a new departure for the BBC, but then as transport is now an EU competence not all that surprising.
It seems that a Transport Research Laboratory study concluded that 1,700 fatalities and 42,000 serious injuries to pedestrians and cyclists could be prevented across Europe each year if manufacturers produced cars meeting design requirements of car fronts scheduled to become mandatory in 2010. The BBC did not mention the British share in this projected figure which would be 255 dead and 6,300 seriously injured. If of course the projected figure has any basis in fact and is not just plucked out of thin air.
The Telegraph point out that a health campaign group, Headway, said road accidents were a major contributor to brain injuries which left 11,000 Britons a year needing permanent care, obviously Headway are not talking about the same set of statistics.
The Transport Research Laboratory the BBC were quoting the EU backed Euro NCAP which provides motoring consumers with a realistic and independent assessment of the safety performance of some of the most popular cars sold in Europe. Established in 1997 and now backed by five European Governments, the European Commission and motoring and consumer organisations in every EU country, Euro NCAP has rapidly become a catalyst for encouraging significant safety improvements to new car design.
I would be much happier if the EU were not involved with producing figures from agencies financially supported by them, which just happen to confirm, that what they are already going to do is the right thing, it has about it something of propaganda.
The EU transport policy now under the control of the recently cleared Jacques Barrot, the Commission wants every effort to be made to halve the number of road deaths by 2010. A laudable endeavour no doubt, but when we look at the white paper “for 2010 : time to decide “we realise that it encompasses much more than the redesign of car fronts. The proposal are for appropriate signposting of blackspots, combating excessively
long driving times, harmonising road transport penalties at European level, the
protection of vehicle occupants in the event of impact, harmonising taxes on diesel for professional use, Satellite radionavigation The Commission is proposing that the Galileo system should be operational in 2008.

So on the back of a reasonable policy and a laudable endeavour to save lives we can see that the Commision is also making moves to harmonise taxes, harmonise law, harmonise policing practices and also to promote the Galileo satellite system which will eventually be used as a military resource and cause problems with the USA which has threatened to knock it down if it becomes a treat to their security, and as China is also involved in the system it could well do so.