BRITAIN’S FUTURE LIES OUT OF THE EU AND INTO THE WORLD

Chancellor George Osborne

Saturday December 17,2011

By Patrick O'Flynn

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THIS week I heard George Osborne thinking aloud at a lunch hosted by the Conservative Friends of Israel.

The Chancellor was asked about dramatic and unexpected changes that occur in the world. He said that the collapse of the Soviet Union had been the most dramatic event at the end of his childhood and “nobody saw it coming”.

He was asked about the Arab Spring and whether intervention in Libya had been a hard decision given that the last Labour government had put a lot of effort into getting Colonel Gaddafi to open his wallet to British business. It was at this point that Osborne gave his most intriguing answer: “The establishment are always nervous of change. Change is sometimes disruptive but it can also move you to somewhere better.”

Those words stayed with me long after I left the event. For here was the Government’s chief strategist acknowledging that dramatic, unanticipated change could occur and, despite the natural caution of the political establishment, that it could be worth embracing. Mr Osborne is expecting a dramatic change in his own economic sphere – the falling apart of the eurozone. Such an event will have a far-reaching impact on the whole European political settlement.

Could we be about to see an event that is in its way just as dramatic as the collapse of the Soviet Union 20 years ago – namely the collapse of the 60-year project to create a European Union?

Could we be about to see an event that is in its way just as dramatic as the collapse of the Soviet Union 20 years ago – namely the collapse of the 60-year project to create a European Union? I am convinced that the Chancellor is now pondering this possibility. And might such an event move us all to somewhere better? You bet it might.

Officially the Government’s position remains that massive political will exists among the key members of the eurozone to save the single currency. But it is becoming increasingly obvious to many ministers that the euro may well be beyond saving.

Nobody has yet explained how its 17 member states and assorted hangers-on will be able to get the requirements of a Fiscal Union past their populations. For southern Europe it means compulsory austerity for many years. For northern Europe it means bailing out the southern cousins to an enormous extent now and a very large extent every year for the foreseeable future in transfer payments as their economies fail to cope with an exchange rate and interest rate set for Germany.

Were countries such as Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal to fall out of the euro and bring back their own currencies then the whole ideology of ever-closer union would have failed. The question the Brussels bureaucracy really fears would then be on the lips of everyone: what, actually, is the point of the EU?

This is the question that my friend Lord Pearson the Ukip peer throws into conversations these days. You can make a compelling case for Nato as the guarantor of peace in Europe and Western liberty (despite its expense and inefficiencies). You can make a case for the United Nations as a tolerated international peacekeeper and organiser of humanitarian relief (despite its lamentable corruption). But what is the point of the EU?

We are passing, however painfully, from a world of regional trading blocks to one of global free trade. The costs of belonging to the single market – with all its attendant regulations – may well already outweigh the gains offered by it. The cost of our vast direct EU subscription certainly outweighs any gains it offers because Britain can guarantee access to the single market through its membership, by a different treaty, of the European Economic Area.

The main EU economies are saddled with huge debts, they have over-regulated labour markets that have led to mass unemployment, especially among the young. They cannot afford their welfare states yet lack the will to reform them. As Mr Osborne remarked in his autumn statement, they are pricing themselves out of the world economy. So the growth in trade for Britain must lie beyond Europe, out across the seas. China and India are growing in a single year at a rate the EU will be lucky to achieve in 10 years.

The Anglosphere of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa is growing strongly too. Other parts of Africa – Commonwealth parts – are getting their act together. The Americas are calling – just as they once did for Walter Raleigh. All this is beginning to occur to thinkers in the Labour Party too – not the usual old Leftist critics of the EU but among a new generation of Blairites who will one day be charged with making it electable again. One of them, a young man called Luke Bozier, published an essay this week that made it explicit

 “Access to the European market is a fundamentally important benefit for Britain but everything else is a waste of time. We can take care of our own regulatory, legal and human rights environments and we can take care of our own foreign policy. Britain doesn’t need EU membership and the EU has made clear they don’t need Britain,” he wrote.

The Titanic has sailed in search of Fiscal Union and we are not on it. David Cameron deserves a slap on the back for that. But now, as Mr Osborne realises, another question looms: where do we go from here?


http://www.express.co.uk/ourcomments/view/290403/Patrick-O-Flynn

EU HOLS ARE ON YOU

Taxpayers fork out millions a year on free or discount European holidays for political activists

Monday December 19,2011

By Daily Express reporter

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UK TAXPAYERS fork out millions a year on free or discount holidays in Europe for political activists under an EU scheme.

Each of Europe’s 736 MEPs can sponsor up to 110 visitors a year on “study visits” to European Parliament buildings in Brussels or Strasbourg.

But they must call in to qualify for the full subsidy – paid in cash without the need for receipts – before sight-seeing, shopping and dining out. Critics say the visits are used to reward party grassroots and Britons benefiting have included activists from the BNP, which has two Euro-MPs.

EU auditors have said the scheme should require receipts, but the Parliament claims tighter checks would be too time-consuming.

Trips arranged by Europe’s MEPs cost £25million this year – a 40 per cent rise since 2007 – of which Britain contributed £3million. The EU says visits are essential for democracy.

Essential for democracy? What does the EU know about democracy? It knows it endangers it's existence.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/290745/EU-hols-are-on-you

DEL BOY – GERMANS ‘WANT TO RUN US ALL’

Sir David Jason pictured as Del Boy in the hit series Only Fools and Horses

Monday December 19,2011

By Dan Townend

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ONLY Fools And Horses star Sir David Jason has claimed “the Germans want to run Europe” in an outspoken attack on the EU.

The star of the hit BBC1 sitcom and ITV1’s Frost asked if Germany was creating a “Fourth Reich” and said Britain was becoming a satellite of Europe.

Sir David, who played Del Boy, adds in an interview that “people are getting a bit fed up with it”. Discussing his upbringing, the popular star says he grew up in a house “getting bombed”.

In the magazine interview, he is quoted as saying: “The irony is that here we are, the world has changed and the Germans want to run Europe.

“They failed to do it by war, twice. What is it? Is this the Fourth Reich?” He is described in the article as grinning while he continued: “I just said it. I’m only reflecting what’s been going on in the country for some time.

“We have more and more rules coming out of Europe telling us what to do and I think people are getting a bit fed up with it.

We have more and more rules coming out of Europe telling us what to do and I think people are getting a bit fed up with it

Sir David Jason

“This was supposed to be a common market.

“I don’t remember them ever saying we would be governed by Brussels and become a satellite of Europe. At least we’re not throwing bombs at each other.”Sir David starred as Del Boy

Del Boy to the rescue!

IT’S DAFT TRYING TO ‘BUBBLEGUM’ EURO TOGETHER SAYS BORIS JOHNSON

Boris Johnson makes his point about the euro on The Andrew Marr show

Monday December 19,2011

By Alison Little

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A DESPERATE bid to save the single currency by trying to “bubblegum” the eurozone together came under fire from Boris Johnson yesterday.

The Mayor of London was one of several top politicians who spoke openly about the disintegration of the euro.

Yesterday there were claims the Government was drawing up plans to rescue British expats stranded in Spain and Portugal if banks there go under.

And the Lib Dems fuelled ­tensions in the Coalition government when they accused the Conservatives of viewing a eurozone collapse with “glee”. Mr Johnson said he would be “amazed” if the eurozone did not undergo some change in the coming year.

He told BBC1’s Andrew Marr show that it was “highly likely” some countries would drop out.

Mr Johnson declined to name the “likely candidates”, but said: “I’d say ­at least one will go. Ouzo will be substantially cheaper.

“Such a lot of political ego has been invested in the success of the euro project that people are failing to see that actually that might be the best way forward.

We go on with these hysterical attempts to bubblegum the thing together. We’re just going to consign those periphery economies to low growth and we’re never going to get confidence back

Boris Johnson

“We go on with these hysterical attempts to bubblegum the thing together. We’re just going to consign those periphery economies to low growth and we’re never going to get confidence back.”

Credit rating agencies have warned that a eurozone solution is now “beyond reach” and have threatened to downgrade several countries including Spain.

But there were reports that the Government is drawing up plans to send planes to evacuate Britons in Spain or Portugal if banks there collapse. Emergency loans could also be made available to get people home, sources said.

Conservative former security minister Baroness Neville-Jones said it was right to make contingency plans. If banks crashed, she said, “you would find there are people there, including our citizens, who couldn’t get money to live on ... very, very worrying”.

While the Tories raced ahead in the polls after Prime Minister David Cameron vetoed the new EU treaty, his Lib Dem deputy Nick Clegg voiced his dismay

In an interview, he said: “I don’t think ­witnessing the break-up of the currency bloc on our backyard would do us any good.”

An ICM poll shows 58 per cent of voters want a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, backing the Daily Express Crusade to get Britain out.

Daily Express - EU CHIEF IN PRUNE EATING CHALLENGE

The Lib Dems’ Sir Graham Watson wants to expose a farcical EU rule that the fruit is not a laxative.

Friday December 16,2011

By Daily Express Reporter

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A BRITISH MEP has challenged a leading eurocrat to a duel. But instead of fighting with swords, they’ll eat prunes.

The Lib Dems’ Sir Graham Watson wants to expose a farcical EU rule that the fruit is not a laxative.

So he intends to prove that it really does work by getting the EU’s food commissioner John Dalli to tuck in and find out what happens.

The MEP raised the issue when the EU refused to recognise the high fibre content of fruits like berries, pomegranates, and prunes.

“I have invited the commissioner to a prune-eating contest to see for himself,” said Sir Graham. “Most of our constituents do not require a scientific test.”

Stop the press! We have actually found a Lib Dem fighting EU madness!!

FRANCE: STRIP UK OF ITS CREDIT RATING

Bank of France chief Christian Noyer

Friday December 16,2011

By Macer Hall, Political Editor

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FRANCE angrily demanded that Britain should be strip­ped of its top-rate inter­national credit rating as the bitter row over the euro crisis intensified yesterday.

But as the French launched their attack, a bid to build a new EU economic bloc without the UK looked to be unravelling as the Hungarian and Czech governments expressed doubts about closer eurozone union.

In highly undiplomatic outbursts, both the French Prime Minister and the governor of the Bank of France called on credit-rating agencies to reconsider the UK’s AAA status.

The onslaught was spearheaded by bank chief Christian Noyer in reaction to growing speculation that France could lose its own prized AAA credit rating.

Ratings agencies Standard & Poor and Moody’s have threatened to lower it by two points amid concerns about the exposure of French banks to eurozone debt.

“A downgrade doesn’t strike me as justified based on economic fundamentals,” said Mr Noyer.

“If it is, they should start by downgrading the UK, which has a bigger deficit, as much debt, more inflation, weaker growth and where bank lending is collapsing.”

It sounds like the French are bad losers. They are looking for someone to blame when the root of the problem lies in the single currency and their own economy.

Later, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon conceded that his country was facing “a challenge with relation to the European currency first and foremost because we’re very indebted.”

He added: “But we’re not the only ones. Our British friends have a higher deficit and more debt, and I would say that the ratings agencies have not yet noted that.”

A credit downgrade could have a potentially devastating impact on the cost of borrowing in the UK.

It could mean rapid rises in interest rates from the present low, adding crippling extra costs on mort­gages and business loans.

But the provocative talk from France was dismissed at Westminster as sour grapes over David Cameron’s veto on EU treaty changes. 

Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: “It sounds like the French are bad losers.

“They are looking for someone to blame when the root of the problem lies in the single currency and their own economy.”

Downing Street declined to rise to the taunting. The Prime Minister’s spokes­man said: “Credit ratings are a matter for credit-rating agencies, but we have a credible deficit reduction plan.”

Meanwhile, David Cameron appeared to be winning support in his stand against the attempt to build an EU 26-member “fiscal compact” alliance excluding Britain.The governments of Hungary and the Czech Republic said that they would not join unless plans for tax harmon­isation were dropped.

Following talks in Budapest, Hungarian premier Viktor Orban and his Czech counterpart Petr Necas said they wanted further details of how the deal will affect non-eurozone nations.

In particular, they fear it might cost them their independence on tax policy.

Mr Necas said: “We are convinced that tax harmonisation would not mean anything good for us.”

Last night, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy announced yet another Brussels summit to discuss the economic crisis which will be held around the end of January.

Here we go again, sour grapes it may be but that doesn't change the fact that that the whole monetary system is corrupt, just take a moment to think about it, how can a private company dictate the amount of interest on an entire county? Why does everyone have to pay interest on money that never exists? If your paying interest on the only source of money it is impossible to ever pay it back. The whole system is a fraud & it's time we all woke up to that fact & simply said NO!

NICOLAS SARKOZY: DAVID CAMERON’S LIKE A CHILD

Nicolas Sarkozy was seen refusing to shake David Cameron’s hand after he used the UK’s veto

Thursday December 15,2011

By Daily Express Reporter

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NICOLAS SARKOZY has accused David Cameron of acting like an “obstinate kid” during their clash in Brussels last week.

In an astonishing rant, Mr Sarkozy also claimed he outmanoeuvred the Prime Minister at the summit.

According to French magazine Le Canard Enchaine, Mr Sarkozy said: “It’s the first time we have said ‘no’ to the English.

“Cameron behaved like an obstinate kid with a single obsession: protecting the City, which wants to carry on behaving like an off-shore centre. 

Cameron behaved like an obstinate kid with a single obsession: protecting the City, which wants to carry on behaving like an off-shore centre.

Nicolas Sarkozy

“No country supported him. That is the mark of a political defeat.

“It was a good coup. I manoeuvred well.”

British officials insist the discussions last Friday were “polite and friendly”, despite the disagreement between the Prime Minister and the French President.

However Mr Sarkozy was seen refusing to shake Mr Cameron’s hand after he used the UK’s veto to block an EU treaty change.

Won't shake hands with the PM eh, & he calls Cameron an obstinate kid, Sarkozy you truly are a EU plank.