Page Three
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HAHA - In his book "New Britain: My Vision of a Young Country" published in 1997, Tony Blair ("I'm a straight kinda guy") said:
"Of course, if there are further steps to EU integration, the people should have their say, at a general election or in a referendum
| Pressure to salvage parts of wrecked EU constitution | Blair Betrays Britons to Please EU |
| UK prepared to reduce EU rebate | |
| PM £3bn white flag to EU | Blair's the £7bn loser |
| This treaty plumbs new depths of mendacity, democracy itself is at stake says MELANIE PHILLIPS | PM to surrender UK vetoes at EU summit | |
| Our will be done | Blair to do deal over EU |
Scathing report throws future of regional assemblies into doubt |
| EU plans to abandon referendums |
European press review
Germany's Berliner Zeitung says Romania and Bulgaria are not ready to join the European Union but should be allowed to do so anyway. |
Prison sentences for picking wild flowers under EU green laws |
| EU constitution plot is leaked | Public may not get a vote on EU Constitution, says No 10 |
Britain 'turns blind eye to faulty EU laws in return for favours' |
| EU warns Bulgaria |
|
| Former Soviet Dissident Warns For EU Dictatorship | Chirac draws up radical EU list | Europe Rings UK Phone Changes |
| EU defends aid to help media coverage | EU journalist award against discrimination | Free housing for asylum seekers from EU |
| EU Arrests Journalist | MEP blasts EU pavement logo |
JAMES KIRKUP
IN A large, windowless room in a drab, concrete tower in Brussels, 24 prime ministers and presidents will this evening begin to read the last rites over Tony Blair's European dream.
Once, the Prime Minister talked of putting Britain at the heart of Europe.
*******************************************
From
John Kelly
The point needs to be made that our trade with the countries of Eastern Europe
is dwarfed by Germany's trade with the new accession countries. So who
exactly is going to get the benefit of economic expansion there, that we
are having to pay for?
Here
are the figures:
UK exports 2004:
German exports 2004:
Poland £ 1409
million
Poland Euros 18776
million
(£ 12711 m)
Hungary £ 971 million
Hungary Euros 12815
million
(£ 8675 m)
Czech Rep £ 930 million
Czech Rep Euros 17765
million (£12020 m)
Total £ 3,310 million
Total £ 33,406 million
sources: _www.uktradeinfo.com_http://www.uktradeinfo.com/
& www.destatis.de
http://www.destatis.de/
*******************************************
Within
a week of the court-ruling - which said that the EU could impose criminal
penalties directly on "EU-citizens" - MEP's Louis, Borghezio and
Whittaker had raised a Resolution, calling on the EU's European Council (heads
of state or government) to repudiate the judgement, as a clear breach of the EU
treaties, which effectively abolished the democratic sovereignty and the
constitutions of EU-states.
***********************************************
M&S ruling highlights EU land grab on tax policy
By
: Allister Heath December 18, 2005
SLOWLY but surely, the European Union (EU) is tightening its grip on tax
policy. Under the guise of protecting the single market, European judges
are enforcing tax harmonisation through the back door, as demonstrated
yet again in a key ruling last week.
***********************************************
The divergence of Britain from the Continent can be traced to Bonaparte's greatest victory 200 years ago -- and his enduring legacy.
IT IS IN Book III of "War and Peace" that
Tolstoy memorably describes the Battle of Austerlitz — "the battle of
the three emperors" — the 200th anniversary of which fell on Friday.
This was the greatest victory of Napoleon Bonaparte's career. At the time,
it seemed far more important than his navy's defeat at Trafalgar two months
before. Its consequences are still with us.
***********************************************
A quote from Jean Monnet, 'founding father' of the E.U. says it all...
"Europe's nations should be guided towards the Superstate without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation."
|
******************************************************************************************
From:
Stuart Coster coster@democracymovement.org.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsnight
Dear Newsnight,
Will someone please tell Becky Milligan that it is neither accurate nor
impartial to describe EU-critics as "anti-Europeans" (EPP report, 8th
December). It is not a neutral descriptive term but one that EU-critics find
extremely misrepresentative and offensive.
"Anti-Europeans" is a term coined by EU supporters as a calculated
smear with the aim of tarring EU-critics as being motivated by a xenophobic and
isolationist outlook and designed to side-step what is actually a pragmatic
economic & democratic case against unaccountable, supra-national law-making.
Certainly if the BBC wishes to be seen as impartial, it is not appropriate to
use a term that was coined by one side of a political debate as a term of abuse
for the other.
Further, why are those who want to see more powers passed to the EU and thus a
greater limitation of the democratic rights of ordinary European people
bizarrely called "pro-Europeans"? What is "pro-European"
about that? *True* pro-Europeans support democracy, diversity and flexible
co-operation on our continent - not 1950s superstate dogma.
Hope you'll at least agree these terms are controversial and will avoid them in
future. There are plenty of acceptable - indeed more accurate - terms you could
use instead. eg. EU opponents, EU critics, anti-EU campaigners...or better
still, 'democracy campaigners' ;)
Always enjoy the programme - many thanks!
best regards,
Stuart Coster
Subject:
Goodbye Pint! - Yorkshire post Fri 16th Dec/05
Goodbye to the pint as Europe leaves a bitter taste in my mouth
From: DH Rhodes, Keble Park North, Bishopthorpe.15
The new licensing laws enable us to be part of a European culture, states the
Government, and it doesn't stop there. We have only four years to raise our
pint glass for our British heritage. After December 31, 2009 it will become
illegal to sell anything by pint measure, this being under the EC Directive
99/103 Article 3 (2). This states that the voluntary display of information in
customary units will no longer be permitted. Thus all reference to pints,
gallons, pounds, ounces and even the chain length of a cricket pitch will be
outlawed.
Back to the pint. We can always demand 568ml of best bitter and retain the
status quo albeit under a different guise. It is more likely that 0.88 of a
pint (half-a-litre) will be enforced. With the current alleged binge drinkers,
will the litre (1.76 pints) glass become the standard norm? Think of the cost
– new glasses, dispensing units, etc.
These costs will all be passed on to the customer.
Do we want to lose our traditions of several hundred years at the whim of the
European Union? Is this a step too far? Maybe if we all wrote to our MPs, the
strength of feeling could then be gauged.
In
the meantime, I raise my pint to other traditionalists and to those who
respect our heritage – cheers.
EU cannot take credit for peace in Europe
From: Thomas Jefferson, Station Road, Hensall, Goole.
James Bovington (Letters, December 8) is still wearing his rose-tinted
spectacles, even though his previous views on Europe were rebutted by at least
six of your correspondents.
Even if the EU did not exist, it is highly unlikely that there would have been
any outbreak of war in Europe, for the simple reason that mature democracies
do not declare war upon one another.
It should, however, give us pause for thought that, where turbulence has been
witnessed on the continent in recent decades, it has been brought about by the
decline and fall of super-states (such as the Soviet Union).
As for the benefits which James Bovington considers we could have enjoyed had
our interest rates been at the lower European levels, he is a little short
sighted.
The property boom in this country was, in large measure, due to the one-off
reduction of interest rates, which meant that people could afford higher
mortgages, which in turn inflated house prices.
If interest rates had been reduced to European levels, then house prices would
have gone even higher.
The savings on interest would merely have been required to repay the
additional borrowings.
In addition, because of the inflationary impact of lower rates, taxes would
have had to increase because interest rates could not have been increased.
Therefore disposable incomes would have been lower and Mr Bovington's savings
would have been scotch mist. Furthermore, our unemployment would have
converged towards Europe's and doubled in the process.
By all means, let us co-operate with our neighbours, but we do not need to
knock down the party wall between our houses and share a bank account with
them to ensure a peaceful and prosperous future. Indeed, those very measures
could precipitate the conflict we seek to avoid.
The price of a pound of spuds will be £5,000
Christopher Booker’s Notebook - Daily Telegraph 7/5/06
It is not often that I line up alongside the likes of Jools Holland and Jilly Cooper, Sir Tim Rice, Sir Patrick Moore and Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson, the architect Quinlan Terry and the historian Prof Richard Holmes. However, as honorary members of the British Weights and Measures Association (along with Ian Botham and J K Rowling), we were among the 21 signatories of a letter to The Times calling for the repeal of two statutory instruments, 55/2001 and 85/2001.
Astonishingly, the purpose of these edicts is to make it a criminal offence from January 1, 2010 for shopkeepers or stallholders to make any reference at all to pounds and ounces, feet and inches. As we all know, in line with EC directives it is already an offence to sell any item in Britain unless it is measured and labelled in metric. But it is still legal to refer to pounds, feet and inches by way of what is known as a "supplementary indicator", to help those millions of customers (still, oddly enough, the vast majority) who prefer to shop in non-metric quantities.
In four years' time, however, even that concession will be ended. A marketeer who dares explain to his customers that his spuds are selling at so much a pound - even though the price ticket gives this in kilograms and the goods are weighed out on metric scales - will risk a fine of up to £5,000. The point of our letter was to suggest that shopkeepers should still enjoy the freedom to give non-metric equivalents as a "supplementary indicator", should they wish.
Interestingly the various pro-metric zealots who have written to The Times to protest at our letter completely avoided this point. Although eager to heap their usual contempt on our traditional system, not one of them had the courage to defend the proscription, as a criminal act, of the very mention of pounds or inches - something which, as a succession of polls have shown, is opposed by more than 90 per cent of the British people.
Curiously, these new regulations provided the only occasion in 40 years when laws to enforce the exclusive use of metrication were voted on in Parliament. When, in 2002, the Government whipped its supporters into pushing them through the House of Lords, I was surprised to see that one of the majority was Lord Bragg of Wigton.
When I next saw Melvyn Bragg, as I have reported here before, I asked him how he could have brought himself to support such a grotesque curb on our liberties. He claimed to have had no idea he had voted for such a thing, and when I explained to him he was clearly shocked. Thus are we now governed.
This is a short extract from Hansard, House of Lords.
Lord Bruce of Donington:
I am bound to draw to the attention of the noble Viscount and remind the House
as a whole, though Members are probably aware of it, that on 22nd January 1963
the treaty of Elysee was entered into between Germany and France. It bound the
two countries together to consult and determine their position before any
matters were raised before the European Economic 18 Dec 1995: Column 1430
Community.
==============================================================================================================
Here's
another example of the classic move by the EU for "horizontal
harmonisation" beloved of the 'crats.
Your objective is an EU-wide corporate taxation system, so you attack the
smaller section of the target knowing that they are less likely to be able to
lobby and don't have any form of vote. Get the legislation installed in that
section and then move crab-like into the real target, which is the big
corporates using the familiar "level playing field argument".
Let your SME friends know of this and publicise it in letters to the
press.
John Kelly
EU cross-border tax plan for SMEs
By Chris Smyth and George Parker in Brussels
Published: January 10 2006 17:14
EUtax: Small and medium enterprise companies operating across national
borders would be able to operate under a simplified tax regime, under
plans to cut red tape announced on Tuesday by the European Commission.
The initiative is part of a drive to help small and medium sized
enterprises announced this week by the new EU Austrian presidency, which
believes too much European policy is driven by the demands of big
business.
Under the home state tax proposals, companies would be allowed to
calculate all profits using the tax rules of the country where they are
based.
A formula for dividing these revenues between member states according to
their shares of the total payroll and/or turnover would be agreed in
bilateral or multilateral treaties. States would tax these profits at
their own corporate tax rates.
However, the scheme is voluntary and would depend on member states
agreeing to respect each other’s tax systems; the Commission does not
intend to legislate in the area.
Commission officials were unable to say which countries might apply the
new scheme. Some member states – including Britain and Ireland – are
usually hostile to EU tax initiatives.
The Commission wants to reduce the costs of complying with 25 different
taxation systems, which are disproportionately high for SMEs – companies
with under 250 employees and €50m ($60.5m, £34.2m) annual turnover.
It estimates that these costs can be as high as 30 per cent of tax paid
for small businesses, compared with only 1.9 per cent for large
corporations. Only 3 per cent of SMEs operate across EU borders.
“The proposed scheme on home state taxation will greatly simplify the
process of operating cross-border for small firms in the EU,” said
Gerhard Huemer, of the UEAPME pan-European small business association.
“It would help to slash prohibitively high costs associated with the
different tax systems in the member states,” he said. The association
believes the scheme could be attractive to smaller central European
countries, where borders are an obstacle.
The proposal would also give relief for cross-border losses and the hope
is that it will encourage more small businesses to expand across borders.
The scheme will run for a five-year trial on the basis of voluntary mutual
recognition of tax rules.
The Commission likens the scheme to the arrangements between US states or
Canadian provinces, and has pointed to a trial for businesses on the
German-Dutch border as evidence the idea can work.
Wolfgang Schüssel, Austrian chancellor, said this week that an EU
economic summit in March would focus on the needs of SMEs. He wants to
find more money for research and innovation in small companies in the EU
budget round starting in 2007.
Additional reporting by Tobias Buck
A rare commodity - an MP with integrity:
Thanks for contacting me to express your concern about this Bill.
I
am 100% against this outrageous law. It is, in effect, an enabling act, which
will give the government the power to govern by diktat.
I fought against the Bill on the floor of the House of Commons and in committee
- despite the efforts of the Government to railroad it through.
Please click on this link to see what I said in Parliament about it:
http://www.douglascarswell.com/record.jsp?type=hansardEntry&ID=18
I also mention my opposition to it in my latest newsletter:
http://www.douglascarswell.com/files/pdf_pdf_10.pdf
Can you also help me to wake people up to what is happening?
I would appreciate it if you could forward this on to anyone you know that
shares the concerns that you and I have about this.
Warm regards,
Douglas
Douglas Carswell MP
Member of Parliament for Harwich & Clacton
House of Commons: 020 7219 8397
Constituency office:
01255 423 112
84 Station Road,
Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, CO15 1SP
Fighting for an independent Britain!
www.douglascarswell.com
Douglas Carswell, Member of Parliament for Harwich and Clacton, has tabled some
searching questions in Parliament on asylum and immigration.
He has demanded to know from the Home Office:
How many family visitor appeals have been received in each of the past five years.
How many case files have been lost by the Immigration and Nationality Department in each of the past five years .
Whether an asylum seeker who had made a voluntary departure and who later
returned to Britain would have the right to make a further claim for asylum and,
if so, what measures are in place to prevent such an
occurrence.
Douglas says "our immigration system is a scandal and it is time that someone
stood up and demanded answers from the political elite."
"Some politicians only talk about asylum and immigration at election time. As
an MP elected on a platform to campaign against uncontrolled immigration, I am
determined to hold the government to account for what is being allowed to
happen".
"The political establishment don't want us to even talk about immigration - but
I am determined to keep on campaigning".
According to independent watchdog Migration Watch
(http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/)
The UK's population is projected to rise by 7.2 million from 2004 to 2031 - 6.0
million (83%) of this rise is due to immigration. That's equivalent to two
cities the size of Cambridge every year, or 6 cities the size of Birmingham over
the 27 year period, needing to be built because of immigration.
59,000 new homes will be required in England each year for the next 17 years for immigrants.
In 2004 12.0 million non-EU nationals arrived in the UK. How many left? No one knows - we have no embarkation controls.
In Inner London 57% of all births are to foreign-born mothers.
ENDS
Douglas Carswell MP
Member of Parliament for Harwich & Clacton
House of Commons: 020 7219 8397
Constituency office: 01255 423 112
84 Station Road, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, CO15 1SP
Fighting for an independent Britain!
www.douglascarswell.com
carswelld@parliament.uk
