Sleepwalking into the European Nightmare

The EU treaty is "substantially equivalent" to the EU Constitution thrown out by Dutch and French voters in 2005, UK MPs have said.

The committee criticised the "essentially secret" drafting of the document, which is due to be signed by EU heads of government in Portugal after an Intergovernmental Committee (IGC) later this month (October 07). Indeed, their report on the European Reform Treaty questions, perhaps even undermines, just about all the government’s main claims for that controversial text.

At any rate, it’s rare for a Labour-dominated committee (nine out of 16 members) to produce a report quite so unhelpful to the government.

The headline is that the MPs of the European Scrutiny Committee find that the European Treaty is "substantially equivalent" to the constitution.

They say they understand why the government wants to distance itself from the old constitution but add, "We would wish to explore the reality and significance," of this approach, adding that it could be "misleading". They say it is up to the government to prove that the new treaty is "significantly different" from the old constitution, adding that despite the British opt-outs "we are not convinced". They demand that the government spells out what battles it has won to make the treaty so different for the UK.

It doesn’t stop there. They question the worth of Britain’s opt-outs and clarifications. They say they are “concerned” that the treaty will mean changes that will increase the EU’s powers over national law and so national governments. They want our government to state what safeguards it has against this.

They then go on to be "concerned" that European courts will gain greater rights over UK law. They pick two examples and suggest that Britain might face tougher laws on the length of the working week and on discrimination (they seem to assume that this would be a bad thing) and want “concrete evidence” that this won’t happen

All this is quite remarkable in a week when the Prime Minister is trying to regain some sort of credibility. It seems that New Labour will happily spin an election promise when it suits them; they break it when it suits them.

If a cross party parliamentary committee says it’s the same, does this mean Brown can’t see the truth? Quite possibly.

In his Statement on Iraq in the Commons earlier this week Brown seemed to be assuming the mantle of Gladstone. An amazing thought. But is the Prime Minister aware that it was said of Mr. Gladstone that he could convince most people of most things and himself of almost anything? It seems Brown can convince himself that the EU constitution is not a Constitution when any sane person says it is virtually the same document. Don’t believe me?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6914468.stm It’s interesting to note both the people in this link are in virtual agreement as to what will happen if the treaty is signed. They just take different stances as to whether it’s good for the UK. Me? Sorry, the Constitution is not for me.

When the people of Europe realise what their leaders have done it will all end in tears. Or war.

One rule for you, one rule for me

It seems that you can accuse others of hate crimes these days but happily go about them yourself. You may not speak ill of anyone who may be of a different religious, sexual, political or any other persuasion. But when it comes to race, well, the USA administration clearly puts that in another category all together.

So it was perhaps no surprise what some British MPs visiting the Pentagon to discuss America's stance on Iran and Iraq told they heard one of the USA’s most powerful women say. Debra Cagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs to Defence Secretary Robert Gates told the group: "I hate all Iranians."

The six MPs were taken aback by the hard-line approach of the Pentagon and in particular Ms Cagan, one of Mr Bush's foreign policy advisers.

Tory Stuart Graham, who was on the ten-day trip, would not discuss Ms Cagan but said: "It was very sobering to hear from the horse's mouth how the US sees the situation."

Of course the Pentagon subsequently denied Ms Cagan said she "hated" Iranians.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=554201962695917482&q=rageh+in+iran gives a balanced view Ms Cagan should have a look at.

So, again its one rule for you, one rule for me.

Who unlocks the doors

I was sitting there packing up my papers after a school board meeting. Head teacher, parents, representatives of the local community like me, we all had enjoyed an evening learning of the successes of the school.

As we discussed the date of our next meeting it became clear that the Head teacher was trying to fit us around a date when others were also going to be in the school building. It didn’t really suit many of our diaries but we acquiesced.

But on enquiring more why such was a preferred date our Head told us that it would save over-time costs for the Janitor. Why, I enquired, did the Janitor have to be there, at taxpayer’s expense, to unlock one school door and then wait for two hours to lock it again when the Head and six parents would be the only ones in the school? Could the Head teacher not open and close the school for us? Apparently not. Her years of training clearly have not trained her for such a task.

I multiply that by the factor 12 for a meeting a month of our Board. And multiply that by the number of schools in Scotland. You come up with a figure that, while not enormous, is certainly enough to employ a lot more teachers. I reckon at least 3 more in my own local authority area.
Just another area of inefficient waste that Labour is unwilling or unable to tackle. So why are we allowing it to happen?

Answers and angry comments on a post card to your local Councillor.

A world away

Malta is a lovely country. Or State as we now have to call it now it’s joined the EU. Funny how names change without you really noticing. I think we all know what a State is. The USA has 50 of them I believe. We all know what a State is not. A country. So its goodbye Malta, the independent country that fought so valiantly in the 2nd World War.

I’ve just been there. One of the most amazing things is the low level of crime and disorder. Apart from the areas they have specially set aside for people from the UK where they go and do all the things they think will amuse the local population. Not realising they are being looked at with scorn and pity. For the islands that make up Malta don’t know crime the way we do. A car break in was reported in banner headlines in the Malta Times.

So why are they so crime free? A few observations. Families eat together. On the balcony, the street. Even the beach is covered in the dusk with extended families all enjoying time together. Almost every night. Now, I know local climatic conditions make that possible. Their TV out-put doesn’t inspire staying to watch it either. But is there some secret there. Here, in the UK, it’s all TV dinners in front of mega plasma screens with food bought out the supermarket, probably processed.

One of the fears of the Maltese I talked to is that many of the bad traits that exist in Europe will steadily creep into Malta. Open borders and single currency may have their benefits. But they bring a whole new set of problems. They think they are seeing the first signs of it already. Hopefully joining the EC will not be the beginning of the end for a little bit of this world that lives on common sense, a strong sense of family ties and values and has little crime to write home about.

Red phone box

Earlier this year while on holiday in Cornwall I took a trip to Boscastle. Which brings me to question one. Name Boscastle ring any bells? Ah yes the place that was nearly washed away in floods a few years back. I remember the coverage. Wall to wall. Screen to screen. Paper to paper.

Now, question two. What famous telephone box nearly got washed away in a mud slide caused by torrential rain? If you were listening to the news on BBC Radio Four or indeed viewing it on any of the news outlets south of the border you probably haven’t a clue what I’m on about. Pennan is a beautiful little village up on the north east coast of Scotland. The telephone box was the one in the wonderful film “Local Hero”. Both nearly ended up in the sea after the afore mentioned mud slide.

It also happens to be 600 miles from London. Which is probably why no one south of the border knows about it. Which is a shame. Because if they are operating in the spirit of impartiality, we won’t be getting the wall to wall coverage we recently had again of flooding in parts of England next time they happen. Sad that.

Give us this day our daily bread

I’m not sure if it is one of these great urban myths or not, but the story of the school child when asked where milk comes from answers with out hesitation, Tesco, is well known. Well, technically they were correct of course. Or you could have said Asda, Co-op, your local corner shop or where ever. But it does belie a certain lack of understanding as to where our food comes from.

This ignorance was highlighted during this weekend when the dreaded foot and mouth disease reared its ugly head again.

One person that was described as an economic expert noted that farming in the UK accounted for less than 5% of GDP and therefore as they were not a dominant player in the over all scheme of things, who cared if a bunch of them went out of business.

In a way, this expert was as devoid of intellectual understanding as the child.

Sitting at breakfast, corn flakes with milk, toast, butter and jam. Then lunch, gammon steaks, potatoes, vegetables. Then supper. Light snack of cold cooked meats and cheese.

Clothes, wool jacket and trousers, leather shoes. And the list goes on. There are very few essentials in life that do not come from agriculture.

So I would like that expert to go away and do without any agricultural produce for just one day. I suspect even after 24 hours he would realise what 2/3 of the world already know. With out agriculture you starve. They may be only 5% of GDP. But they are 100% necessary for our survival.

Boris for Mayor. Or Ken. Who cares!!!

It looks like it may actually be an election that makes us laugh, smile, cry or cheer. The race for The Mayoral seat in London has begin, all be it as a trailer for the real thing. Opinion polls, these wonderfully reliable gauges of public opinion actually had Boris ahead in one. How exciting is that! A blip? A trend? Who knows. In a sense, who cares because ultimately only one vote will count. What we lovingly call democracy will have its way and one candidate will rise above the rest to be duly elected. Democracy, the suppressing of the minority by the majority. Oh how cynical of me.

But not half as cynical as Dawn Butler and Diane Abbott, Labour MPs for Brent South and Hackney North respectively. They already have played the “race” card. And all because Boris, in his inimitable fashion, used some rather quaint phrases. By no stretch of the imagination could they be called racist phrases. That is unless you see racism in every corner. (Just don’t ask for black tea!)

I recall not so long ago sitting on a Government committee on ethnic businesses and the need to integrate them into the “main stream”. On the evidence presented to us, one of the key issues for the particular community we were looking at was the lack of ability to speak English by a fair number of the business owners.

Now, if you are like me, you seek solutions to problems. The logical solution to me was to get the Home Office to fund a pilot programme to give intensive support to these businesses in the form of English language courses, all paid for by us the tax payer. It would at one stroke have given the poor English speakers an open door to the whole UK economy.

Sensible? Oh no it wasn’t! One chap nearly jumped over the table at me and shouted in my face that I was “a racist”! “They”, (he was referring to the largely European business community that existed in that particular part of town), “have to come to us and understand us”. Incidentally, it was at that series of meetings that I first realised the extent of the “race” industry. On many fronts, it wasn’t about getting equality. It was about getting separate development. Openly talked about were different accounting systems, different legal systems for businesses, different education systems for the children, different banking laws. I think in South Africa they called that apartheid. And there was me thinking that the UK was becoming a melting pot for all cultures and creeds. It was revealed to be far from it and getting further from it as the years go by. What different worlds we lived in.

So Butler and Abbot may, like my friend on the committee who introduced his own rather objectionable defination of what racisim is, be in danger of themselves introducing racism in to the debate by effectively saying that they are the judges of what language is racist and what is not.

Frankly, I think the people of London are too sensible to listen to such strident nonsense from these two.

1+1 = 3

With the UK Budget just around the corner, it’s good to remind ourselves of the kind logic that is used in preparing the nations finances by New Labour.

In his pre-budget statement at the end of last year, Gordon Brown, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced his plan to double the duty on flights from 1st February 2007– even if you bought your ticket months before.

Aware no doubt of the dubious legality of such a move, one that is being challenged in the courts, the government tried to dampen any opposition by describing the duty as a tax on airlines, not passengers.

Right, I get it. Tax the Airlines and the passengers don’t suffer. So, where does the money come from to pay for the taxation? The profits from the airlines. Where do the airline profits come from? Er, passenger revenues.

It is good to know that we have a man in charge of the UK’s finances, the man who wants to be prime minister, who is so in tune with the realties of the real world.

Staying nuclear with Trident

The votes are cast in the lobbies at the Palace of Westminster. New Labour, the party once implacably opposed to anything nuclear, has had its way with the people of the United Kingdom. Not so much led them astray. More take them behind the bike shed, done its worst with the people and told them that they should enjoy it 'cause it’s good for them.

So much for Blair going out as a world statesman. More like a discredited wolf in sheep’s clothing. The rhetoric, the charm, the vacuous words. And no more so that on nuclear weapons. From a point of principle when a member of CND, to a point of acquiescence to USA policy when in government. So against them when we faced the very real and present threat and might of the former Soviet Union: so in favour of them when we face the might of, er, North Korea.

When you think about it, the last days of Bush and Blair could have been a triumph for world peace. They have enough conventional weapons to blow up the planet between them. So why not quietly say to every other country that has nuclear weapons or aspiration to have them, “we are getting rid of our weapons of indiscriminate mass destruction and you have till the end of my presidency to get rid of yours or we will bomb your weapons and associated sites to bits with our conventional weaponry.” Nobel peace prize for ridding the world of nuclear weapons a cert! What a legacy that would be to cherish. Think the Bush Blair Axis will do it?