NICK CLEGG PLOTS TO SINK DAVID CAMERON EU TREATY VETO

Nick Clegg claimed Britain could still join a deal designed to shore up the euro

Tuesday January 10,2012

By Macer Hall Political Editor

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NICK Clegg has sparked fury among Tory MPs by insisting David Cameron’s EU treaty veto was only a “temporary breach” with Brussels.

Mr Clegg claimed Britain could still join a deal designed to shore up the euro by “folding” euro-zone financial measures into current EU treaties.

He stirred further anger by suggesting British taxpayers will “of course” pour billions more into IMF bailouts.

He made his remarks at a mini-­summit of European Lib Dem leaders and EU commissioners at his Admiralty House base in ­London yesterday.

Wellingborough Tory MP Peter Bone said: “It is typical of how Eurocrats work. When a treaty is vetoed they ignore it and look for a behind-the-scenes way of forcing it through.

“It is absolutely appalling that the Deputy Prime Minister is going behind the back of the Prime Minister to work with unelected European bureaucrats on circumventing the wishes of the British Government.

It is typical of how Eurocrats work

Wellingborough Tory MP Peter Bone

“He lives in a fantasy land where everything in the EU is wonderful, but that is not the view of the British people.” Douglas Carswell, Tory MP for Clacton, said Mr Clegg’s views parrotted those of Whitehall mandarins desperate to re-enter talks in Brussels.

He said he feared Mr Cameron’s veto could be in danger but poured scorn on Mr Clegg’s desire to increase Britain’s contribution to the IMF.

“The last time they tried they were down to 20-something votes,” he said.

Mark Reckless, Tory MP for Rochester and Strood, said: “It looks like Nick Clegg is freelancing. Foreign ­policy is set by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary.” At the meeting Mr Clegg signed a pledge to press for a back-door solution. He said the deal Mr Cameron had vetoed “should, over time, be folded into the existing EU treaties”, adding “We all see this as a kind of temporary arrangement rather than one that creates a permanent breach in the EU.”

He denied the rejection of the treaty was a veto and said he backed extra cash for the IMF beyond £10billion agreed last year, provided it was to help “countries and not currencies”.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Berlin yesterday over fears that Greece’s debts are out of control, threatening the survival of the euro.

FURY AT NEW EU TAX ON BRITAIN

Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel are edging towards a deal for an EU-wide financial transaction tax

Thursday January 5,2012

By Macer Hall, Political Editor

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THE EU plans to hammer Britain with a crippling new tax that will hit pensions, cost jobs and devastate business, it has emerged.

The Franco-German plot will put Britain on course for another punishing clash with Brussels and leave David Cameron facing unrelenting demands for a referendum on our membership of the EU.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were yesterday edging towards a deal for a swingeing EU-wide financial transaction tax, despite fierce opposition from Britain. 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the EU Summit

Sources in the French government said the two will discuss “rapid implementation” of the levy next Monday. Jean Leonetti, French minister for Europe, claimed it will be in force “by the end of the year”.

David Cameron has to block this proposal. It is not in Britain’s interests; it will be immensely damaging.

Euro MP Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party

The latest plotting triggered fury at Westminster amid fears the levy could penalise the City of London and lead to up to 500,000 job cuts in the UK.

It will add to the growing support for the Daily Express crusade to get Britain out of the EU. Downing Street also warned that the Prime Minister could be forced to wield Britain’s EU veto for a second time to block the plan.

One senior source close to Mr Cameron said: “Our position hasn’t changed. They cannot impose it on us, and we wouldn’t accept it.”

A refusal by EU leaders to guarantee protection for the City of London ignited a massive row at a Brussels summit on the euro crisis last month, culminating in Mr Cameron vetoing a proposed EU treaty shake-up.

Chancellor Merkel has since been desperately seeking to mend fences with Britain. But the row erupted again yesterday when the French Government confirmed that the issue will be on the agenda for an informal EU summit in Brussels at the end of this month.

http://www.scottishsundayexpress.co.uk/posts/view/293604/Fury-at-new-EU-tax-on-Britain

The Independent - Amol Rajan: Forget that veto, Europe is still Cameron's nightmare

By using Britain's veto in the EU shortly before the Christmas break, David Cameron showed courage and great statesmanship in defending the national interest. His poll ratings justifiably soared, his strained relationship with Tory backbenchers was permanently improved, and his emotional contract with the British people, unsettled since the May 2010 election, was fulfilled to the mutual benefit of both.

A version of the above paragraph cursed almost every round-up of the Westminster scene, looking back on 2011 and forward to 2012, in our media over the past few weeks – especially the Europhobic portion, which is to say, the majority. That this assessment is wilfully myopic, and blind to the lessons of the past, has been no impediment to its ubiquity. In fact, history shows that Europe is the most toxic of all issues for the Tories. There is no reason to suppose this time will be different.

There are three main ways in which Europe will damage the Tories. First, by putting an unbearable strain on the Coalition. Several reliable Tory propagandists, and a few unreliable ones, suggested in December that Cameron should capitalise on his poll numbers and call an election. More sober and shrewd observers, like Paul Goodman of conservativehome.com, point out that Cameron has no choice but to stick with the Coalition.

The public wouldn't forgive a snap election, and women and voters in the North – two groups the Tories need for a majority – have yet to be won over. Europe is the issue on which the gulf between Tories and Liberal Democrats is biggest and most irreconcilable. It is going to grow as an issue, not shrink. That will make coalition government much harder, from which only Labour will benefit.

The second way in which Europe does damage to the Tories is by exposing Cameron and Steve Hilton's rebranding and detoxification exercise as hollow. They wanted to govern as social reformers. But Europe and the economy give the Tory grip on power a familiar feel.

And third, as this column has noted before, Ukip is emerging as a considerable threat to the solidity of the centre-right vote. Regularly polling 7 or 8 per cent, this party of pinstriped patriots will cost Tories precious votes in marginal seats with their clear, uncompromisingly conservative positions on Europe, crime and immigration.

For these reasons, Europe is about to turn from a dream to a nightmare for the Prime Minister. And the man who will loom larger in his and national consciousness, and indeed the man to watch in 2012, is Ukip's increasingly impressive leader, Nigel Farage.

UKIP.org - NEW YEAR MESSAGE FROM NIGEL FARAGE

Thursday, 29th December 2011

2012 will be the year of reckoning for the European Project. It is extremely unlikely that the Euro can be held together in its current form, and that that will be the most positive scenario. The worst case scenario will be that the markets overwhelm the whole thing leading to wholesale natonalisation of the banks. Either way Eurosceptic opinions and anti EU voting will continue to grow, not just in Britain bit across the whole European Union.

The EU project is a failure.

For UKIP 2011 saw us clearly establish ourselves as the 4th party in domestic politics. Highlights for us included Stuart Wheeler becoming our Treasurer, lending us great credibility. Lord Hesketh joining us later in the year was a coup, having the former Chief Whip in the Lords during the Maastricht debate come over shows us quite how far the argument over Europe is moving in our direction. Then there was the second place for Jane Collins in the Barnsley by-election that ruffled feathers across the whole political  class. And the consistent week by week improvement of our poll ratings in council by-election after by-election the length and breadth of the country, and in December one national opinion poll had us overtaking the Lib/Dems.

It is true that the end of the year saw a dip in our polling as Cameron gained a bounce. While I congratulate David Cameron, what is in all honesty could have done differently? The slow realisation will however dawn, that not a single power has been brought back from Brussels and that amidst the new mood of retribution in Brussels, British businesses are under greater threat than they were before the 'veto'.

There is now an overwhelming desire of the British people to have a referendum on this issue, a referendum that Cameron, Clegg and Milliband steadfastly refuse to grant.

In 2012 we will continue our progress in local government elections and focus heavily ont hej London Assembly polls in May.

London needs growth, London needs jobs, London needs the deregulation of employment legislation, and London needs control of the mass legal and illegal immigration. UKIP will provide that voice and win seats at the London Elections.

Given my views I sadly cannot promise you a prosperous New Year, but one in which the political class further lose their grip on both reality and the country.

With all best wishes for 2012,

Nigel Farage MEP,
Leader UKIP

UKIP.org - TRANSACTION TAX IN PLACE 'BY END OF 2012'

Wednesday, 4th January 2012

As France's Europe Minister revealed a Financial Transaction Tax will be in place by the end of the year, UKIP urged David Cameron to defend the interests of Britain and veto the plan.

The proposal for the levy would incur huge and disproportionate costs on the City of London which would also affect UK consumers.

France's Europe Minister, Jean Leonetti, today announced on French TV that the tax would be in place by the end of 2012.

According to Leonotti, France and Germany were in agreement while all bar two other EU countries were acquiescent.

UKIP Leader Nigel Farage said: "It comes as no surprise that France and Germany are in full agreement on this tax. Why wouldn't they agree to raid Britain to fund their own failures?

"David Cameron has to block this proposal. It is not in Britain's interests, it will be immensely damaging and cannot be allowed to happen. It is no surprise that the only other country apart from Britain which is unhappy with the Franco-German proposal is Sweden. After all they are the only country to have introduced an FTT.

"This is what their Finance Minister, Anders Borg had to say on the subject in September: 'When Sweden began taxing financial transactions in the 1980s, between 90%-99% of traders in bonds, equities and derivatives moved out of Stockholm to London. The impact was basically that we did not get any tax revenue. It brought in very little tax money while moving most of the businesses outside of Sweden'.

Farage continued: "The EU in its desperation to raise funds to support its failed economic experiment must not be allowed to destroy the City of London."

http://www.ukip.org/content/latest-news/2574-transaction-tax-in-place-by-end-of-2012

EU PLAN TO SLAP VAT ON FOOD

Ukip leader Nigel Farage

Tuesday January 3,2012

By Padraic Flanagan

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EU plans for a radical tax shake-up could cost struggling families and pensioners £800 a year.

The European Commission wants VAT exemptions on food, children’s clothes and other essentials abandoned in an effort to harmonise the sales tax across Europe.

Its plans come after the Coalition raised the VAT rate to 20 per cent last year but kept an exemption for food, children’s clothes, passenger travel, books, newspapers and other products.

Last night the proposals sparked outrage among politicians and public-spending campaigners who attacked the Eurocrats for trying to interfere in ­Britain’s tax affairs. Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: “In their desperation to raise cash, the EU is prepared to do anything and hurt the most vulnerable.

“These plans would add up to 20 per cent costs on food and children’s clothes. To put an extra tax on books and newspapers would be a strike for ignorance over education.

“Everyone would suffer, but the most vulnerable would suffer the most.”

These plans would add up to 20 per cent costs on food and children’s clothes

Ukip leader Nigel Farage

The Commission, supported by the London-based Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank, called for the exemptions to be abandoned to allow a common VAT regime that would streamline the single market.

But the move, which could raise £24billion a year for Government coffers, would deliver a crippling blow to the country’s poorest families and hard-pressed pensioners.

Eurocrats and the institute argue that much of the money could be given back by cutting the standard rate of VAT, lower income tax and increases in benefits.

But John O’Connell, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The UK’s tax system is too burdensome and too complex, but changes should be decided here not by Eurocrats.”

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/293240/293240

EU PENSION PLAN ‘WILL COST BRITAIN £1TRILLION’

Pensions expert Charles Cowling warns of a ‘harsh reality’ in the latest proposals coming out of Eur

Wednesday January 4,2012

By Sarah O’Grady Social Affairs Correspondent

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BRITAIN’S pensions system faces a £1trillion bill – £1,000,000,000,000 – under controversial new EU regulations, experts last night warned.

Economists said “Pandora’s Box” plans to pump more capital into retirement fund coffers to make them less risky would have dire consequences for the overall economy.

And they said that the extra cost of imposing a Solvency II-type regime to reduce fund debts would be the final nail in the coffin of final salary incomes.

Pensions minister Steve Webb last month attacked the Brussels’ proposals saying they would cost UK companies £100billion and could mean that companies walk away from the generous final salary schemes.

But the Confederation of British Industry and the National Association of Pensions Funds and others believe that underestimates the likely costs. JLT Pension Capital Strategies warns of a “disastrous” £1trillion bill.

Charles Cowling, managing director of JLT, said: “The latest pension proposals from Europe might be laudable, but the harsh reality is that guarantees are very expensive – particularly in current nervous market conditions.

The latest pension proposals from Europe might be laudable, but the harsh reality is that guarantees are very expensive – particularly in current nervous market conditions

Charles Cowling, managing director of JLT

“Widely quoted estimates of a £600billion bill on UK companies could in fact be as much as £1,000billion – depending on how the rules are introduced.

“Forcing UK companies to make additional pension contributions of up to £1,000billion would clearly be disastrous for our economy – and the employment prospects of pension scheme members – and politicians from all countries must realise this.

“It is probably too late for this Pandora’s Box to be closed.

“Probably the best [and likeliest] outcome for UK companies is to plead for a [very] long transition period – possibly as much as 20 years.

“This debate will not go away and the onus is now on companies with large pension obligations to accelerate plans for managing their way out of these very expensive liabilities.”

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, the lead European regulator for the sectors, is proposing to adapt the Solvency II capital rules for insurers – due to be introduced in 2014 – for use in assessing the solvency of pension schemes.

The changes will be made as part of the European Commission’s review of the 2003 Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provisions directive.

Britain will be disproportionately affected as its schemes account for 60 per cent of all defined benefit schemes in Europe, followed by the Netherlands, at 24 per cent.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/293443/EU-pension-plan-will-cost-Britain-1trillion-