eurealist.co.uk

We should recognise a hierarchy of Acts of Parliament: as it were “ordinary” statutes and “constitutional” statutes. The two categories must be distinguished on a principled basis. In my opinion a constitutional statute is one which (a) conditions the legal relationship between citizen and State in some general, overarching manner, or (b) enlarges or diminishes the scope of what we would now regard as fundamental constitutional rights. (a) and (b) are of necessity closely related: it is difficult to think of an instance of (a) that is not also an instance of (b). The special status of constitutional statutes follows the special status of constitutional rights. Examples are the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights 1689, the Act of Union, the Reform Acts which distributed and enlarged the franchise, the HRA, the Scotland Act 1998 and the Government of Wales Act 1998.”

Was only 25 days ago that the home secretary John Reid said “The constitutional treaty is no more – it is a diseased dead parrot,” less than a month later now we have Europe minister Geoff Hoon saying in the FT“In the UK it had been assumed that the constitutional question was moribund after [...]

EU legislation is making it harder for local government to outsource tasks to the private sector and is creating a “mountain of red tape”

Denis MacShane (Matyjaszek)  Who still advises the government on European affairs (I think ePolitix must mean the EU) has said the Conservatives’ foreign policy is a "disastrous blow" to Britain’s national interest. In relation to the Tories’ ambition to split from the European People’s Party grouping of centre right parties, MacShane said: "David Cameron once [...]

It will take only 15 seconds: long enough for Britain to hand over another £6,000 to the EU. What are you waiting for?

Daniel Hannan begs in the Telegraph; he is of course writing about the BBC Christmas Repeal Which law should be tossed into the dustbin of British history?
Hannan says we should blowtorch [...]

Reported on Sky News The Tories have launched a fresh attack on Government red tape, claiming Labour has introduced a regulation an hour, a target a day and a tax rise a month.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne unveiled the figures, which showed there had been more than 30,000 new regulations, 3,000 targets and more than [...]

Faced as we are with the prospect of the SNP wining the Scottish Parliamentary elections next year and then calling a referendum on Scottish independence, it is amusing that some commentators do not seem to understand that this would be the cause of the break up of the United Kingdom. David Clark a former Labour [...]

From Ireland comes a legal challenge to EU law;
The problem arises over the way in which European Community law is enacted in Ireland. EU law is superior to Irish law so when a Directive is handed down from Europe it has to be transposed into Irish law. This is usually done by Statute but also [...]

“We should not fool ourselves. It’s important now to maintain its values, its principles and its substance.

It is late so I beg forgiveness for my flight of fancy brought on by this report in the Scotsman;

After 30 odd years of the EU controlling our fishing industry we find ourselves in the unenviable position of to many fishermen chasing to few fish, this despite the fact that we have already cut [...]

The presiding officer of the Welsh assembly has said that devolution in England would help deliver a “United Kingdom in a united Europe.”
Lord Elis-Thomas said giving people in England a similar say in their domestic affairs would help achieve a more secure constitutional settlement.

“There should be a proper English parliament, and that [...]

Brussels flags common corporate tax

An article in the FT says the EU’s tax commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said he would introduce legislation if necessary to improve tax co-ordination between the the EU’s 25 member states.
Mr Kovacs also set out papers on co-ordinating exit taxes for people who move to another member state. At present their [...]

The Social Platform
The Platform of European Social NGOs is the alliance of representative European federations and networks of non-governmental organisations active in the social sector.

In its Briefing no15 The Social dimension of the European Constitutional Treaty tells us exactly what a Constitution is…..

What is a Constitution?
A Constitution is a text which contains the [...]

Lord Monckton, Viscount of Brenchley, has sent an open letter to Senators Rockefeller (D-WV) and Snowe (R-Maine) in response to their recent open letter telling the CEO of ExxonMobil to cease funding climate-skeptic scientists.
 Lord Monckton, former policy adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, writes: "You defy every tenet of democracy when you invite ExxonMobil [...]

IP/06/1835
Brussels, 19 December 2006
What did the EU do for me in 2006?
The European Commission is launching a new multimedia product, the European Union Yearbook, which sets out 10 major policy actions undertaken by the European Union this year and is available in 22 languages. “Europe and you – a snapshot of EU [...]

Direct Taxation: The European Commission proposes an EU co-ordinated approach of national direct tax systems
(see MEMO/06/499)
The European Commission has adopted a Communication announcing a series of initiatives to promote better co-ordination of national direct tax systems in the EU. The aim is to ensure that national tax systems comply with Community law and interact [...]

But the core remains the same and it is by moving power from the voters and the popularly elected to the public servants and to ministers and from small countries to big countries.

In march An Englishman’s Castle noted that only one in Four new recruits to the Parachute Regiment are being trained to jump because of a shortage of planes. Today Documents leaked to The Sunday Telegraph reveal that no new recruits or even serving members of the Parachute Regiment or airborne forces will be trained in [...]

The information that the Euro-sceptic movement would like to see result from this Bill would start with the claim that the fundamental principle of our democracy—that is, the hard-won right of the British people to elect and dismiss those who make their laws

The Scotsman seems to be conducting a series of article on Scottish independence, today it looks at the Border Issue. Pensions and Benefits, Financial Services and Tax.
On the border issue, I cannot see that there would need be a border between Scotland and the England, for as long as the residual part of the [...]