Libertas in more trouble

After a second Libertas politician withdrew his support for the organisation the EU Parliament is to conduct an investigation into the signatures used to try and establish Libertas group as a European political party.
They have already put on hold the payment of €200,000 of our money due to be given to the party.
Estonian MP Igor [...]

The Trojan Horse Party to get EU Funding

The Trojan Horse Party
Libertas described as Eurosceptic by EUphiles is set to be awarded recognition as an EU Political party in Strasburg later today thus making it eligible to receive EU  funding.
THE INSTITUTIONS, BODIES AND AGENCIES OF THE UNION
In order to be qualified as a “political party at European level”, a party must:
·   [...]

The EU is anti democratic

Faced with the rejection of the Constitution, its rehash in the Lisbon Treaty and the as yet unacknowledged popular widespread rejection of the central EU bureaucracy right across the EU, Joschka Fischer writing in Die Zeit newspaper last week has put some bones on the thinking behind the idea of a central core of states [...]

EU Justice Commissioner is a convicted fraudster

New EU Justice Commissioner is a convicted fraudster.
The EU’s new Justice Commissioner, Jacques Barrot, was given an eight-month suspended jail sentence in France in 2000 for swindling government money. He was later pardoned by former French President Jacques Chirac, a close friend. Barrot was never barred from holding public office and failed to [...]

She has a hole in her head

“She has a hole in her head,” Firestorm in Swedish media over ‘EU blogger registry’

The report calls on the European Commission and EU member states to apply competition law to the media to ensure media pluralism (Photo: European Commission)
TERESA KUCHLER AND LEIGH PHILLIPS
Today @ 09:34 CET

Swedish media have erroneously reported that the EU plans to [...]

The vision of a shared future

Giving the lie to the idea of a two speed EU president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering, has told Bild am Sonntag. That “As long as the reform treaty is not in force, there cannot be any new accessions to the EU, perhaps with the exception of Croatia,”
He said that there would have to [...]

Ireland has no wish to stand in the way

The most sickening episode yesterday was the sight of Taoiseach Brian Cowen, telling the assembled press, after the referendum results had been announced, that Ireland had no wish to stand in the way of the EU Treaty.

Cowan had just told the Irish people that he had no intention of allowing their democratic decision to stand [...]

This odious little man

This odious little man clearly has no intention of accepting the results of the Irish referendum, instead he want to re-hash the arguments played out in the run up to the referendum and pretend that somehow that will answer the concerns of the Irish people.
No it will not, they have been presented with your view [...]

EU Embassies

Once again the Telegraph is first with the news, ground breaking investigative journalism by Bruno Waterfield in Brussels gives us the headline this morning that; “EU plans international embassies”
Mr Waterdfield tells us;

The European Union will open its own embassies under a plan critics fear represents a “power grab” by Brussels officials pushing for a [...]

British political parties

British political parties do not serve the interests of democracy because instead of representing the people, they impose their own ideas on the public. The party workers choose what policies they will offer for public consumption work out their arguments and those of the opposition parties, they will then only talk about their chosen subjects. [...]

Do not tell the Irish

The commission is not expected to mention the New EU council president’s salary in its first budget draft for fear of upsetting the current ratification process of the EU treaty – particularly in Ireland which is to have a referendum.

Does it not strike anyone just how dishonest and manipulative this sort of thing is?

Concern expressed over EU Democracy

President of the EU Commission is very concerned about Democracy freedoms and the wishes of the people.
EU chief concerned about Zimbabwe election delay
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says he is very concerned by delays in the release of results of Zimbabwe’s presidential election. He told reporters in Brussels that one thing [...]

A Declaration of interests from EU Referendum

  EU Referendum
Recipients of extremely handsome pensions from the EU, that is former Commissioners and MEPs, do not have to declare their pecuniary or any other interests when speaking in praise of the European project. It is worth recalling that the EU has the right to withdraw that pension, should any recipient make a [...]

Vote Labour for safer streets

Harriet Harmon deputy leader of the Labour Party, it seems feels it is necessary to wear a flack jacket when walking the streets of her own constituency in broad daylight.

She has apparently insisted she does not need to wear protective armour and only did to as a courtesy to the several police officers who [...]

Haha ever been had

Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Someone has created a fake of my blog!
Following a Google Alert I was very surprised to find a replica of my blog, that someone has bizarrely gone to a lot of trouble making.
Quite who is behind this hoax is a complete mystery but I thought I should make it quite clear I [...]

MPs Break Contract of Employment

Daniel Finkelstein in the Times
Says, we pay for MPs. They are our employees. But how badly we treat them as we argue about trivia such as their expenses.
Is`nt it funny how the concept of English common law can be raised to protect MPs when it suits them to do so, but has no [...]

Richard Corbett

I have refused to link to Richard Corbett MEP because I understood that he did not allow comments for the same reason I have avoided even reading him. For some reason I just did and it is evident that he has now authorised comments.

Hence I have now added him to my blogroll by way [...]

Tory MEP defends trip to sons wedding

The Daily Mail reports that Tory MEP Sir Robert Atkins has been forced to defend his fact finding trip to the USA. His claim for £2,500 was approved by the EU parliament

I have a long-standing interest in US politics which goes back to 1972

That’s alright then, I have a long standing interest in New [...]

Referndum Monkey

I have been reading and exchanging some views with NM on his blog, Nose Monkey`s EUtopia my blog being almost dormant.

I should say that on many issues I do tend to agree with the views as presented on the blog, until that is it comes to the EU, there I am afraid [...]

Time to close it down

As individuals, some MPs may be – and indeed are – admirable people. As a collective, they are a useless bunch of parasites who have colluded in their own abolition. All that remains is to do the decent thing and close down Parliament. Turn it into a museum by all means, but don’t waste our [...]

Why Europe’s National Politicians Sign Away National Sovereignty

Why Europe’s National Politicians Sign Away National Sovereignty
From Brussels Journal
Well worth reading for a good explanation of the problem we face, it is not only the EU but our own elected leaders who are scheming towards the destruction of our nation state.

Those who live in Glass Houses

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said if the Prime Minister reneged on his party’s pledge to hold a referendum
“no one will trust him on anything else”.

I said if David Cameron reneged on his 2006 election pledge to remove Conservative MEP`s from the pro-constitutional EPP–ED group.

“no one will trust him on [...]

Leading in the EU

Whilst Gordon Brown defends his signing of the EU Constitution / Treaty, claiming that there will be no more “institutional” changes for the next ten years, (as if that matters) The EU takes up the suggestion proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to set up a “reflection group” which is to look at [...]

Extra Holidays for MPs

The Scotsman reports that
“MPS are to get an extra week off at the end of this month – just weeks after coming back from their bumper three-month summer recess – because the government has run out of business.
Harriet Harman, the Commons leader, broke the good news to MPs yesterday, also outlining even more time [...]

Mr Deluded

The Telegraph reports that Blair may announce his resignation as Labour leader before next Thursday’s local elections in an attempt to limit the expected electoral damage. May the first seems to be the day most favoured by the pundits who say that the announcement would dominate the news in the run up to the local [...]

Britain is now a one-party state

Over recent years, it has become increasingly obvious that the labels ‘Conservative’ and ‘Labour’ have ceased to have any distinct meanings.

These once great political parties no longer represent different values, and their claim to stand in opposition to each other has become false.

The truth is that they now fundamentally agree on [...]

Another Tory leader Leader Bites the Dust

Oh dear! David Cameron suddenly decides the Conservatives do “do the EU” after all. In a long batch of waffle in the Telegraph Mr Cameron assisted by the Prime Minister of the Czech republic sets out the Conservative vision for the future of the EU, a vision based on the formation of the new political [...]

Forcing the Constituion

According to his Telegraph blog,a senior EU Commission official admitted to Daniel Hannan this week, that there are five countries where he and his colleagues are determined to avoid a referendum, I assume on the EU Constitution, they are Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Poland. Of course all five could [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Three Letters on MP Pay

Telegraph

Old-fashioned MPs
Sir – Are MPs harder working than they were in the Fifties, Sixties or Seventies? My husband, Richard Wood, later Lord Holderness, elected in 1950, was paid a small salary, received a first-class railway ticket to and from London and his constituency and nothing else. He paid for his accommodation in [...]

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 [...]

Bankrupt Policies Mean Bankrupt Parties

Blair speaking on BBC’s Sunday AM programme was asked if he believed there needed to be a shake up in the way political parties were funded the Prime Minster replied:

“I do, but the public will have to work out whether it wants to bear more of the burden as taxpayers.”

Umm…… and how do [...]

Immigration Lies

The statistics, published by the British Government on Tuesday (22 August), reveal that 447,000 workers from the eight eastern countries that joined the EU just over two years ago have applied to work in Britain – of these 427,095 have been approved.

As the biggest of the new member states, Poland also has the [...]

The new EU treaty putting British sovereignty at risk

Hat tip to Tommy English for the link to this essay

…Our next general election should be about much more than schools and hospitals. Britain’s sovereignty is at stake. And although the Government wants to pull the wool over our eyes, we need an elevated debate on Europe…
Brian Durrant – Other articles
Mon 17 Jul, [...]

The Anti-democratic Transnational Progressivism

The challenge to liberal democracy can also come from new and more insidious threats. John Fonte of the Hudson Institute notes that “transnationalism” and “Multiculturalism” are presented as unstoppable forces of history, but in reality they are “ideological tools, championed by activist élites.” He suggests that the end of the Cold War has intensified an [...]

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 [...]

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.  [...]

Language and the control of liberty

Writing in the Guardian Roy Hattersley takes those who ague against political correctness to task, he mentions the case where a 10 year old boy was taken to court for calling a classmate a “Paki” which Judge Jonathan Feinstein said was “political correctness gone mad”. Also the outburst of fictional TV detective Andy Dalziel [...]

The parties are asking us for a lifeline – well, let them sweat

Not a penny more of public money should be directed at propping up Britain’s political parties. For 20 years they have conspired to reduce public participation in democracy. Now they are paying the inevitable price — depressed membership, reduced income and falling election turnouts. To demand that the taxpayer reward them for this exclusivity with [...]

Voters Revolt

This website was born out of deep anger and frustration at a political establishment which over the decades has increasingly treated the British public with contempt.
It explains how our democracy is being eroded – and spells out how together we ordinary people can halt the slide into bureaucratic tyranny.
For a brief [...]

The politicos plans to steal out taxes

Some figures on the amount of taxpayers money the political parties are going to steal from us are emerging, as reported in the Guardian “If state funding is to be designed to displace the large donations (ie more than £100,000) of the two main parties, the taxpayer would need to provide £6m in [...]

Insulated Political Elitism

Today, as the leaders of the Conservtive and Labour parties, meet to discuss ways of stealing our taxes, Dr North at Eureferendum comments on the Hannan article in the Telegraph. Truth be told all the political parties are clamouring to jump on the bandwagon and demand that we the taxpayer support them, why would they not, [...]

Whiter Than White

Guido Fawkes` Blog is covering a money laundering operation story; the Government is apparently donating tax payer’s money through the DTI to the Unions to the tune of 10 million, for union modernisation?
This amount oddly, just about balances the funding the labour party receives from the unions at 11 million, thus saving union members [...]

Do we really owe them a living?

This morning MEP Daniel Hannan in his regular spot at the Telegraph confronts the idea of state funding for political parties,
 “If there is one thing we politicians agree on, it’s that the rest of you owe us a living. That’s why you should be alarmed that the Labour and Tory leaders are meeting tomorrow [...]

Parties of the living dead

Why would anyone donate to these parties of the living dead anyway?

DESPITE THE endlessly exzzzziting inveszzztigations into political party funding, a couple of questions remain unasked. For a start, why should Labour, the Conservatives and other terminally ill parties have a God-given right to life?
The all-party funding crisis reveals that these organisations are already [...]

No Mention of a CBE from Party Members

Alice Thomson in the Telegraph writes about the public funding of political parties and mentions perhaps one of the reasons that both Labour and the Conservative leaders are keen on the issue of public funding.  That of falling membership of the main parties “Instead of playing endless games of tennis with Lord Levy, Mr Blair [...]

MEP`s fight for more power

Members of the European Parliament have stepped up pressure on the European Commission and the Council of Ministers to give them more say in rewriting implementing legislation.
The Parliament is withholding funding from the so-called comitology committees – the groups of national experts who are brought to Brussels to draft implementing rules, which are often [...]

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. [...]

Labour Party Loans Debate

To be honest I have never really understood what all the fuss was about, almost forever those in power have donated honours to people who have supported their party, them or their political aims, you scratch my backism has been part of our political culture for as long as anyone can remember.

Think back to [...]

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 [...]

Eurocrats’ Contempt for the Voters

Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan writing in the Telegraph 
Two years from now, the European constitution will be in force. The Eurocrats have worked out a deft way of getting around them. Around 85 per cent of the text can, with some creative interpretation, be implemented this way.
True, there are one or two clauses that will [...]

Loans and Groans

From Dennis Cooper :Good questions from Anne Palmer. And why do we have to wait for annual accounts to find out who tried to buy influence and/or a title? Any large payment to a political party should be declared the same day it’s received. But I also agree
with the next letter: “Buying a peerage [...]

The Constitution is ?

Blogging Richard Corbett puts the argument that the Constitution is dead to the test…..
"There are at least two views. One is that this text of the Constitution is dead following the referenda in France and the Netherlands; that we had better start thinking of something else and preparing a different way forward. The other [...]

With Friends like these…

Telegraph | News | With Friends like these…: “With Friends like these…
Posted at: 12:40
Still befuddled by the tail-end of flu, I wondered for a moment if the following press release was a parody. Then I read it again slowly, and realised – no, it’s just another day on Planet Brussels.
The press release, from the think [...]

Resurrecting the Constitution

Resurrecting the Constitution
From Euobserver
German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Jacques Chirac are engaged in confidential talks aimed at re-submitting the core of the EU constitution to French and Dutch voters, according to a German weekly.
Spiegel Online reports in a preview of the Spiegel weekly printed edition that conservatives from Germany, France and the European [...]

It is Nice to Know they Listen

From Open Europe
Giscard D Estaing: rejection of the Constitution was a mistake which will have to be corrected” – “if the Irish and the Danes can vote yes in the end, so the French can do it too.
At a lecture at the LSE last night former French President and chief drafter of the EU Constitution [...]

Rule by Consent or by the New Aristocracy

Even the BBC and the Guardian have at last picked up on the Reform bill story, which is gradually making its way into the MSM, under the somewhat conciliatory headline Reform bill could ’sweep away parliamentary debate’
Matthew Tempest and agencies? Suggest that Conservatives and senior legal experts fear the bill will give ministers [...]

Some Moments of Fantasy

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schssel on taking over the Presidency of the EU this month wants to resurrect and redefine the EU Constitution; he said “Europe needed “some moments of fantasy and flexibility and new thoughts.” He said he would restart efforts to draft a new constitution at an EU conference on European identity to be [...]

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