Good For Britian?

I watched Question Time last night for the first time in ages, no it has not improved.
One of the questions as to be expected concerned the wildcat strikes, it would appear that the Conservatives would not attempt to take back the authority to look after the British state its companies, its people or their jobs [...]

What they were saying in 1971 (4)

European Court’s decisions will he binding on our courts which night then have to rule on the validity or applicability of the United Kingdom statute.
(iv) The Law Officers have emphasised that in accepting Community Law in this country we shall need to make it effective as part of a new and separate legal [...]

What they were saying in 1971 (3)

the transfer of major executive responsibilities to the bureaucratic Commission in Brussels will exacerbate popular feeling of alienation from government. To counter this feeling, strengthened local and regional democratic processes within the member states and effective Community regional economic and social policies will be essential.

What they were saying in 1971 (2)

The task will not be to arrest the process, since to do so would be to put considerations of formal sovereignty before effective influence and power, but to adapt the institutions and policies both in the UK and in Brussels to meet and reduce the real and substantial public anxieties over national identity and [...]

What they were saying in 1971

The ability and the ultimate political right in the last resort to withdraw will remain for a very considerable time though it may come to have mainly theoretical significance.
In that last resort the ultimate sovereignty of the State will surely remain unchallenged for this century at least.
Meanwhile it will continue to be important [...]

Pie In The Sky

As forecast here in April the Government’s unpopular pay for mile scheme is to be reintroduced following the Galileo satellite restructuring process when the EU took control of the project last year after a private-sector group abandoned it.
The spin was that the Blair administration was taking note of the 1.8 million people who [...]

The EU has No Democratic Legitimacy

In short democratic legitimacy of the EU is non existent, none of the peoples of the nation states have ever voted for the creation of the European Project, it was created as a top down political structure where national politicians could exchange ideas and explore ways of working together for the betterment of all. But [...]

Can the NHS survive the EU

“Can the NHS survive the EU”
Nobody is really addressing the question “Can the NHS survive the EU” with news that the Commission will present draft rules that patients in the EU can get treatment outside their own country without pre-approval from their doctor. The measure is being presented as part of a wider package to [...]

The EU is still splashing our money about

This time it is 123 million euros to Togo
Concluded in Lome under the 10th European Development Fund, the agreement was signed Friday by EU Commission Head of Delegation Filiberto Sebregondi and Togolese Cooperation, Development and Planning Minister Gilbert Bawara.
46 percent of this money is aimed at boosting the economy through funding infrastructure projects.

Speaking during [...]

Surveys have replaced the vote

The Lisbon Treaty gives the EU power in civil and criminal law, justice and policing, anyone thinking that this will have little effect should be warned that the EU is already preparing the ground for harmonisation of civil and criminal law procedures throughout the 27 member states.
The EU tells us that almost three quarters of [...]

The effects of EU Citizenship part 3

The EU is already vying with its member states over the concept of citizenship something which is vital for the EU to progress towards its eventual goal. In order to maintain its advantage in the citizenship
a policy of prohibiting dual citizenship between member states would be seen as unreasonable and opposed to the spirit of [...]

The effects of EU Citizenship part 2

One of the problems for the EU in its push for direct power over the people, is that EU rules introduced under the banner of removing trading restrictions those prohibiting discrimination between nationals. Only applied to those few people who actually went to work in another member state, the rules did not reach down to [...]

The effects of EU Citizenship part 1

Those who would suggest that the EU is not destined to become the United States of Europe as originally envisioned by the founding fathers of the project, might like to answer one simple question. If that were not the case, then why on earth do we continually have new treaties thrust upon us? No sooner [...]

EU told off for interfering in China

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu has issued a statement telling the EU that it is not amused by the EU interfering in internal Chinese’s matters. In answerer to the resolution on Tibet passed by the EU Parliament which urged European Union leaders to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics unless [...]

Keith Vaz is astonished

Council spy cases hit 1,000 a month

Regulations

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.
Winston Churchill

Did the EU ever have the will

Kissinger believes EU losing will to go to war
PARIS – The reluctance of Europe’s leaders to risk soldiers’ lives in Afghanistan is rooted in the emergence of the European Union and the decline of nationalism and patriotism here, former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger argued in an essay published Tuesday.
I have not read this [...]

Road Pricing back on the agenda soon

Remember the government road pricing scheme that was all the rage last year, but was then suddenly and quietly dropped for no good reason. Well I can confidently predict that it will soon be removed from back burner.
News today EU Transport Ministers gave their final approval for the Galileo satellite navigation project almost ensures that [...]

Treaties Studies and Papers

The European Scrutiny Committee said;
“We again recall that as recently as June of this year the European Council not only emphasised the “crucial importance of reinforcing communications with the European citizens … and involving them in permanent dialogue” but also stated that this would be “particularly important during the [...]

Is this science?

Thanks for the chuckle!
So, using this new scientific method, I have made some predictions of my own:

Based on the last 5 years worth of data, the number of people killed in Iraq will increase to 10 billion over the next century and the number of [...]

EU news Links

“It’s too early to tell because the data is incomplete, but it looks like there’s been maybe a 1% rise in emissions in 2007 compared to 2006,”
Oh well what do you expect!
European Commission authorises Polish State Aid for coal industry
Perhasps given the last item?
Belgium issues early veto against Blair bid [...]

EU Soldiers Accused of Torturing Civilians in Congo

The Swedish military has accused French soldiers of torturing civilians during the EU-led Operation Artemis in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003, one of the bloc’s first joint missions.
Five years ago, the European Union sent some 1,500 soldiers to DR Congo as part of a UN mission to take action against the bandits [...]

EU Funding of NGOs

NGO Monitor has released a draft report this week examining European Union (EU) funding of political NGOs in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The fifty page report, ‘Europe’s Hidden Hand’ reveals for the first time that between 2005 and 2007, the EU provided tens of millions of Euros from public money to NGOs whose activities directly contradict [...]

The Cenralisation of Knowledge

And moving swiftly on from any further debate about the Lisbon Constitution.
Already well entrenched in education the EU decides to step up its centralisation of education, information, and knowledge.
It has been agreed spring summit, that the EU should create a fifth freedom the Freedom of Knowledge to be added to the four original principles [...]

Reform of the EU is a Constant Reality

AH Ha! just as I wrote that NM (please excuse the initials but I simply cannot take seriously someone who calls himself Nose Monkey, and I believe that the issues he raises are serious) was convinced that the reform of the EU was a possibility, he comes up with a post in which he explores [...]

Spraying Graffiti

This Directive could well mark the beginning of the end of the NHS.

Labour backbenchers attack Health Directive:
“This Directive could well mark the beginning of the end of the NHS.”
Thirty two Labour backbenchers have today [...]

All part of the master plan

Joining the dots to see the bigger picture
  Eureferendum
On this day lest we forget

Reading the Treaties

The EU is not a defence alliance in fact this is quite clear as Article 17 of the treaty states the EU "shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy" of a member state.
But articles 11 and 16 also state that EU countries "shall refrain from any action which is contrary [...]

So, what has Europe ever done for us? Apart from…

The points in the Independent are mainly irrelevant to the existence of the EU – Cannot the Europhile press and Europhiles generally come up with something other than this same old lies and propaganda that has been challenged so many times in the past that it has become boring to even produce the evidence to [...]

The Lost Village of Andalucia

In order to set the scene; a few years ago Steve a friend bought a villa just outside the little Andalucia town of Competa which lies a few kilometres from Nerja up in the mountains on the edge of the Natural Park of the Tejeda and Almijara mountain ranges.
When they sold their business and [...]

Socialist in a spin over democracy

There is this story in the Guardian also this from Euobserver
Socialist leader Martin Schultz is set to urge other political groups in the European Parliament to join forces and sideline the new far-right faction once it is formally confirmed next week, while calling for higher thresholds for deputies to form a new group.
The [...]

Support for the EU can be equated with a semi religious belief

J Clive Mathews seems to be a firm supporter of a utopian European vision, who nevertheless is prepared to support the EU Nightmare that is in reality the only one on offer, in the hope that it will all work out right in the end.  
Having crossed swords with Nosemonkey on his Blog several times, [...]

Sport more important than sovereignty.

The BBC Christmas Repeal
The Hunting Act with 52.8% European Communities Act : 29.7% which means that 52.8% of those who voted consider their sport more important than this countries sovereignty.
 
But perhaps it is a reminder for 2007 that if we are going to get anywhere we need to bury our differences and pull together all the separate [...]

Social Platform Lies

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 [...]

The Taxing 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 [...]

An Historical Failure

The German government is starting as it means to go on.

EU Ministers set out yesterday a timetable for reviving the Constitution, with the hope of concluding negotiations on a new document by late 2008.
In a move to isolate countries which have not ratified, the18 countries that have already ratified will attend a meeting in Madrid [...]

Step Towards Further Integration

The Telegraph calls it the doomed currency, after last years call by Italy’s Northern League for a return of the Lira this time it is the French in guise of prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, who although not calling for the return of the Franc has said that members must regain control over exchange-rate policy.
The [...]

Solana the Face of EU

From China’s Peoples Daily on Line
It is not a surprise that Javier Solana, the foreign policy chief of the European Union (EU), has been named the winner of the 2007 Charlemagne Prize.
EU’s diplomacy in the past year became the focus of global attention at certain points. Solana has become the face of the 25-nation [...]

Scotland Does Not Want Independence

I know a lot of Scots would take issue with that headline but I will try to explain why I belive it to be true.
But first I would like to explore why some Scots are calling for the break up of the United Kingdom.

Brian Adam is the MSP for Aberdeen North

Independence [...]

So now we know who runs Britian

I had only read the headlines of this case and thinking it was a possibly an EU myth gave it no further thought, but what Booker has disclosed in his column this week is a travesty of justice. The EU Commision has against all the evidence connived to force the British Food Standards agency to [...]

Holding out for personal freedom

After months of intense negotiations, the Germany government led by Angela Merkel last week announced plans to ban smoking in restaurants, dance clubs, schools and other public buildings.
Then, two days later, leaders of Germany’s government, which crafted the ban, warned they might not have the authority to actually enact it, and that smoking [...]

An Aromatic Conspiracy

It is heartening to learn that at last the EU anti-Fraud squad OLAF is about to do something about the endemic Fraud in the European Union.
Some point from Ashley Mote`s Letter to Lord Radice, chairman of the House of Lords sub-committee investigating EU accounts

The Court of Auditors (CoA) admits that 80% of [...]

The End of Political Europe

Nicolas Sarkozy the French interior minister and presidential candidate said Turkey’s entry into the European Union would “be the end of political Europe“ and that it would worsen the “problem” of Muslim integration.
He suggested that instead of membership Turkey be offered a “privileged partnership”
Sarkozy is quoted as saying “We have a problem [...]

The Wise Monkeys

Euobserver announces that an EU Commision backed group of “wise men” are going to meet this weekend to see if they can come up with solutions to pull the EU out of its institutional stalemate. (Euobserver actually said Europe but we do have to keep on correcting them don’t we).
 Apparently Giuliano Amato former Italian prime [...]

EU Immigration Good For Britain?

In the main on this blog I have steered clear of immigration subjects, it is far too easy to be branded xenophobic or racist in order to undermine the real message.
However now I do so with the intention of pointing out the duplicity of the British governments handling of the issue of economic immigration from [...]

Furthering the EU Ambitions

Daniel Hannan in the Telegraph tells us that The European Union is a solution in search of a problem. Whatever the question, the answer is invariably “more Europe“. War in Lebanon? We need to be able to deploy an EU army. A breakdown in the World Trade Organisation talks? Let’s have a more integrated European [...]

Leaving the EU

Sir – Philip Davies MP and his colleagues (Letters, July 18) are right to assert that the most important issue is not whether Conservative MEPs sit with the EPP but rather whether Britain should be a member of the EU at all.
While the former is of internal interest to the Conservative Party, the latter will [...]

Behind Closed Doors

We do not understand why the former Home Secretary should have apparently agreed with other G6 ministers to press forward with the "availability" principle and disregard data protection issues. This is contrary to the decision of the Member States in the Hague Programme, contrary to the advice of independent data protection authorities, inconsistent with what [...]

British interests

Sir – Dr Charles Tannock’s defence of the Conservatives’ spavined refusal to leave the EPP raises some interesting points (Letters, July 17). Leaving on one side the pleasures of what he refers to as "advantageous separate whipping" (which sounds kinda fun – may we be allowed some in the Lords?) could he explain why he [...]

Power Struggle in the EU

Some time ago Eureferendum pointed out that there is a power battle going on at the heart of the EU between the Commision and the heads of states in the Council and that it would be a mistake to belive that the unelected Commision was the real power in the Union. (I paraphrase)

 Perhaps this [...]

Shocking ban on New Zealand butter

Sir – It is shocking that the European Commission has been able to impose a ban on New Zealand’s exports of butter to the European Union.
In view of our close historical ties with our cousins across the world, this has big historical resonance. So important is butter to the New Zealand economy that, when [...]

EU exit

Sir – While the group with which Conservative MEPs align themselves in the European Parliament is important, the more pressing issue surely has to be that roughly two thirds of all laws that take effect in this country come from Brussels, not Westminster.
It is very helpful that David Cameron allows backbench Conservative MPs to campaign [...]

We are on our way to a European Army

From Eureferendum
At a meeting in Brussels today, Claude-France Arnould, Director of Politico-Military Affairs at the European Council declared that the EU Battle Groups were more a tool for political integration than to attain military objectives.

Vision for the Oceans and Seas

A European Vision for the Oceans and Seas: A ‘Roadmap’ for the Motorway in the Sea. Anne Palmer 16.6.2006.

I have always hoped that the people we elect into ‘power’ in this seafaring nation of ours, and yes, pay their wages, would take on the mantle of responsibility in looking after our own [...]

A Total Lack of Mandate

I raised the question of Solana’s status in a written question to the Council last October.
They are supposed to reply within six weeks to all questions, but we MEPs have no sanctions available if they don’t.
As you can see from the attached file, the answer was answered in April and finally reached me on 1 May.  [...]

EU Embassy

The EU’s External Action Services/Embassies/Consulates/High Commission/Missions.

In a declaration attached to the Treaty, the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) stated that “as soon as the Treaty ESTABLISHING a CONSTITUTION for Europe (meaning the Union) was signed, the Secretary General of the Council or High Representative for the CFSP, the Commission [...]

Policy laundering and the EU

This week it was reported that the Home Office intends to link implementation of an Identity Card and National Identity Register with an EU Directive on the content of passports.
In fact, as we have repeatedly reported, the UK is not bound by the EU biometric passport regulations because it is not a signatory to [...]

Are we to be a nation or a province of Europe?

Sir – When Daniel Hannan says "we are fantasising about the kind of EU we might ideally like to have", he is highlighting the dilemma faced by Britain as a result of its membership (Opinion, March 20).
We are swimming against the tide of European integration, which is the raison d’être of the whole project. [...]

United States of Europe

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt appeared on the Today programme to promote his book the “United States of Europe”.  He said, “I don’t think people have said that they are against a [...]

Death of the British Driving Licence

Member states to approve EU driving licence

EU ministers are set to hammer out a plan to replace the 110 existing types of driving licence with a single document recognised across the bloc, at a meeting on 27 March.
The move comes after member states’ officials agreed a compromise text following months of wrangling over details [...]

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