Explaining the US Bail Out

Hat tip Samizdata and South Park.

Panic among the fattest EU Parasites

A letter to The Times this morning gives a taste of the federalists fully justified fears, linked here but quoted in full:

Sir, The economic crisis should bring out the best in Europe. The weak should be sheltered by the strong, who in turn should lead the way to a common strategy. So far, Europe is not rising to the occasion.

The divisions caused by a worsening financial situation threaten each of the three big European projects of the past 50 years. Since 1945 Europe has enjoyed peace and prosperity. The central reason is the internal market. (Blog editors emphasis of this oldest and longest standing EU lie.) It has locked the economies of different member states together in a legal community that enjoys the free movement of people, capital, goods and services. If national financial armouries are deployed to boost national industries, and promote narrow national economic interests, the rules of fair competition and the internal market will be undermined.

The unfolding financial crisis has demonstrated the strengths of Europe’s second big project, the common currency. Without it, some members might have encountered far greater difficulties. However, the euro project is incomplete. It has a central bank but not a central treasury, and the supervision of the banking system is left to national authorities. An absence of solidarity could become a hazard for the Eurozone.

EU enlargement to the east is also under pressure. The economic vitality of the new member states has benefited the whole union in recent years. But now the protectionist statements of some EU leaders, and the unwillingness of some member states to offer financial assistance to Europe’s most vulnerable economies, has led some to talk about some old member states wanting to “undo the enlargement”. A new tide of populism and nationalism threatens to undermine the EU’s core principles of solidarity, tolerance and commitment to open society.

Europe is in a critical position. Its member states are too integrated to be able to develop purely national responses, but too divided to decide on a common way forward. Europe’s leaders must show the vision and leadership to develop a co-ordinated position. It is a time for creative institutional responses at a European level on regulation, on the EU budget, and to encourage temporary and targeted stimuli. Leaders should consider setting up European Commission-led task forces to secure and strengthen the single market. They should consider creative ways of underpinning the euro such as Eurobonds or an EU version of the IMF. Western European leaders must go out of their way to show solidarity with their Eastern counterparts — including special measures for those struggling to join the eurozone — rather than the “each for himself” attitude that they currently convey.

The EU began life as an economic project designed to achieve political goals. As the economic crisis continues, only bold political action at a European level will save the European economy and the European project as a whole.

Martti Ahtisaari, Giuliano Amato, Timothy Garton Ash, Mary Kaldor, Lord Patten of Barnes, George Soros Asger Aamund ,Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Svetoslav Bojilov, Emma Bonino, Ian Buruma , Manuel Castells, Charles Clarke, Massimo D'Alema, Marta Dassu, Etienne Davignon, Jean-Luc Dehaene, Pavol Demeš, Tibor Dessewffy, Andrew Duff, Sarmite Elerte Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, Teresa Patricio Gouveia, Heather Grabbe, Pierre Hassner, Diego Hidalgo, Michiel Van Hulten, Jaakko Iloniemi, Wolfgang Ischinger, Olli Kivinen, Gerald Knaus, Mark Leonard, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Nickolay Mladenov, Andrzej Olechowski, Mabel van Oranje, Leoluca Orlando,Cem Özdemir, Ana Palacio, Diana Pinto, Andrew Puddephatt, George Robertson, Albert Rohan, Dariusz Rosati, Adam D. Rotfeld, Daniel Sachs, Pierre Schori, Giuseppe Scognamiglio, Narcís Serra, Aleksander Smolar, Erkki Tuomioja, Antonio Vitorino, Stephen Wall and Andre Wilkens

This blog firmly believes this is the exactly the opposite way to that along which the former Nation States of the EU should now proceed. The EU project should be suspended - the EU Parliamentary elections deferred and no new Commission appointed. Cost cutting on a vast scale should begin and NO new meetings scheduled until robust economic growth resumes across the Continent.

More money spent now by the EU will - AS ALWAYS - be completely wasted on the likes of people such as the signatories of this letter.

National politicians need no further distractions from easing the plight of their national economies, time spent on EU matters being the most wasteful and counter-productive of any that I can discern across the planet!

President Obama - Anti- Britain?

There is an important article on-line this morning ahead of President Obama's arrival in London. I recommend it for reading in full from this link, but the following quote highlights the main danger:

........ President Obama's government is strongly backing the European Security and Defence Policy, the Lisbon Treaty, and the Common Foreign and Security Policy. Obama will seek to strengthen French and German leadership at the heart of a united European Union. President Obama has appointed several prominent supporters of European federalism to key positions in the Pentagon and State Department, including the new undersecretary of defense for policy and the next assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

The Obama Administration has already made major concessions to Paris over President Sarkozy's decision for France to rejoin the NATO integrated command structure. The French have been given two major positions at the helm of the alliance, a move that will significantly enhance the drive towards a European defence component within NATO.

MP Maggots Allowances by Party Average

The so-called "Allowances' ( for which read monies stolen from taxpayers) by Party Average have been calculated by a friend as follows:

• MP's Allowances:

• AVERAGES!

• LibDems claim £140,217

• Labour MPs claim £136,116

• Tory MPs claim £131,275

MP Maggots get Pay Rise!!!!

Read the disgraceful facts of the "*****" who have almost now given up even the pretence of Governing. They just hang on for self-enrichment it would appear from this evening's Evening Standard, linked here.

Jacqui, we’re all on the gravy train

Quotes from the article with the wonderful picture above!

The Prime Minister claimed £17,073 in accommodation expenses for a second home, even though he lives at No 10 Downing Street free.

David Cameron claimed £19,626 for his second home in Oxfordshire, while Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg claimed £23,083.....

Guido Fawkes has a great graphic illustrating how many of the maggots gorging themselves on the corpse of Britain's parliamentary democracy claimed near the maximum allowed - link here.

Staythorpe - Alstom can "NOW" recruit Brits!!!!!

Read here -The company's UK president Steve Burgin said: "Alstom can NOW recruit staff in this country for new jobs that have been created." (Blog editor's emphasis).

MAD AS HELL

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Stuart Wheeler expelled by the Tories

I have commented on the Irony of this expulsion more fully on Teetering Tories Blog, linked here. Time for Iain Duncan-Smith to speak out?

A Wartime Regime?

A wartime regime is what Libby Purves rightly calls for in her column in The Times this morning, link here, but under what leadership? It seems to me unthinkable that Gordon Brown or any of his Cabinet members could play any role yet David Cameron's method of opposing seems to best indicate a desire to become Deputy Leader in a Government of National Unity where his role presumably would be to safeguard the interests of the Landowning Anglo/Scottish Class. The crisis is now appearing likely to rob the country of the election which would normally be due by the summer of 2010! We need an individual to speak out against this approaching tyranny. Dan Hannan in his worldwide blockbuster YouTube video against the Prime Minister and for Common Sense last week perhaps showed both the man and the means. E-mail Mr Hannan and request a follow-up with his suggestions for a way ahead, the address: daniel.hannan@europarl.europa.eu

A US Video apt for the UK

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Freedom Association Co-Founder calls on MP for NoConfidence Vote

The letter to all sitting Members of Parliament, who had better soon start to act in the interests of their electors, was sent last Friday and stated the following:

OPEN LETTER TO ALL MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

“VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE”

Our nation is in desperate straits and our Government is making matters worse by building mountains of public debt and debasing the currency in a futile effort to dig our economy out of an ever-deepening hole. This policy is the equivalent of pouring petrol on a bonfire. If so-called ‘fiscal stimuli’ (immoral borrowing of taxpayers’ funds), and ‘quantitative easing’ (alias excessive money printing), are allowed to continue unabated, we will all be ruined and the damage will be irreparable in this and the next generation. Future generations, yet unborn, may still suffer from this intolerable burden.

Is this really what you want? You are our elected representatives. You have sworn allegiance to the Crown and thus to uphold the Constitution. You have a Code of Conduct and you are bound by the responsibilities of your trusted position to act always in the best interests of your constituents who elected you and your country that you help to administer.

Regardless of your party loyalty, especially in this time of crisis, you have a far greater duty and responsibility to your constituents and country. We are therefore calling on you to support a Vote of No Confidence in the present government because it has clearly lost control of the situation and is now careering in totally the wrong direction towards the cliffs of national ruin.

We urgently need a fresh administration and a fresh course of action. A further year of this mis-governance could spell disaster. The simplest first step would be for banks to separate their assets from their debts in current balance sheets and be responsible for repaying these out of future profits. Borrowing from taxpayers and printing excessive money MUST STOP. Public and non-productive expenditure must be reduced to essentials.

We cannot afford to wait until 2010 by when the present rapidly worsening economic situation may have descended into physical chaos, violence and insurrection. It is your duty to halt this insanity NOW by calling the Government to account or face the consequences. Your fate and ours lies in your hands and a Vote of No Confidence will help to regain public respect.

Yours faithfully,

John Gouriet Julian Heath

Maggot Smith, Home Secretary unconcerned over Ocean 13 film claim

The BBC is reporting that the Home Secretary and Bedsit Occupier, Maggot Jacqui Smith, who signed a claim for two downloads of the film Oceans 13 and one of Smurfs Up at taxpayers expense is only concerned "when she found out about the two adult films". According to the BBC report linked here, she was only "livid and shocked" about her husbands other viewing choices. Not a word of remorse about the unscrupulous and apparently general ripping off of the taxpayers! I quote : The claim was also said to include two viewings of the film Ocean's 13 - at £3.75 each - and an additional £3.50 to watch the film Surf's Up...... A Downing Street spokesman said Ms Smith was doing a great job as Home Secretary and would not let the expenses issue detract from her determination to protect the public. As I asked in this blog on the topic of Maggot McNulty claiming tens of thousands of pounds of allowances on his parent's home:

Do thieves miss jail by returning what they stole?

Dan Hannan's Speech Video Breaks 1.5 million viewer mark

If you have not seen it yet, click here, three minutes of accurate attack on the man who broke Britain - Gordon Brown.

Printing money deals blow to pensions

The debasement of the country's currency is about to deal a blow to the pensions of those who have carefully put aside money for decades for their retirement. The Observer has a report this morning, linked here, from which comes this: Experts have told the Observer that those who use their pension funds now to buy annuities - which guarantee them a set income a year until they die - will receive much lower pensions than they could have just a few weeks ago. I reach retirement age this summer so I will be able to suffer and report on the impact as it takes shape and plan to do so on this blog. Already, in an aspect not considered in the article, the fund from which my annuity will be made available has shrunk due to the catastrophic collapse in the stock market. Theft seems not too strong a word given what Brown has already wrought, another quote: "What the government has done is effectively steal some of people's pensions on a policy that does not work," she said. "For the half a million people who are due to retire this year it is a disaster." In my view not just this year either, for waiting will not improve things therefore it is for all subsequent years as well, the Prudent are about to be crushed! Conservative Home blog are proposing MPs take a pay cut of 5 per cent BUT as this blog has proposed before, removal of pensions earned by our Maggot MPs since John Major's election will be the only just and logical course - that now seems only appropriate as a starter!

Train wreck economy - Letter in Western Morning News

Trying to revive an economic corpse Friday, March 27, 2009, 11:00 AS I write, the Government presses are rolling to print money for our ailing economy. It is spoken of as the last chance to rescue our country from its financial plight. Well, I can tell you, before the first crisp new fiver even crosses our palms, that the plan will not work. How can I be so confident? Simple. Take a look at the economy all this new money is set to inflate. It is exactly the same economy that caused the meltdown we are experiencing, only there is less of it than there was. Bluntly, it is an economy that has failed on a truly biblical scale. It failed because the pillars on which it grew, instead of being firm economic structures created from sound banking and financial practices and support, were in fact mere houses of cards that would totter and fall the moment reality shook their foundations – and they did, in spectacular fashion. Their utter demise was only prevented by mind-boggling amounts of taxpayers' money. So this train wreck of an economy is now the very thing our Government intends to reinvigorate with billions in freshly minted notes. With all its flaws and structural faults, its too great a reliance on property equity and service industries, this is the economic corpse our leaders want to bring back to life. In financial terms, this is the Frankenstein story of our economy – something dead and gone brought back to life to haunt us. In short, the Government is re-creating something that has failed. With personal debt now at £1.5 trillion and rising and government liability for bank debt up to £1.3 trillion, any monetary inflating of such a situation is almost certainly bound to increase still further the former and add to the latter. The Government does not seem to comprehend that in a recession debt levels like ours have to fall – and fall a long way – before incomes are unencumbered enough to allow genuine spending to begin again. To use a motoring analogy, our economy has driven up a cul-de-sac. Before it can make headway it has to go in reverse and take a new direction, not keep revving up the engine in the blinkered hope that there is some way ahead down the old road. Peter Waverly Penzance

"Taken for granted, ripped off, lied to and ignored"

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The video of Hannan's speech attacking Britain's Prime Minister and next week's G20 host Gordon Brown has now received 1,431,107 views in 3 days.

Gordon Brown - Deliberate Wrecker?

I found myself going back to the old records of the Financial Times FT.Com Forums debates during the course of this week, and as is the way with old records I found myself browsing through discussions from the still pertinent past. One such debate had the fascinating title "Do Gordon Brown's sums add up?" which was most active between November and December 2002. Here is the opening of my first posting on that topic which as usual I signed off as NM: +++++ #4 of 4 27 Novem2002 05:33 pm Brown the nitpicking Bungler. by NM guest Gordon Brown will almost certainly prove to have been the worst Chancellor of the Exchequer since at least Anthony Barber, who similarly allowed a consumer spending boom to run out of control for far too long....... +++++ There are many other gems among those posts and during the weekend I will try to find time to transfer those of most interest to a pdf file so that a wider audience can be made to realise that England's present plight was carefully crafted by the former occupant of Number 11 now Number 10 Downing Street.

MP = Maggot Pickles = Tory Party Chairman

Last evening's Question Time from PoliticsHome, linked here.

The relevant extract is below. To watch the video click HERE and go to minute 44.

David Dimbleby began by asking Mr Pickles if he claims for a second home:

EP: “I do indeed have a two house system and an allowance. But if I could just make a brief contribution –

DD; “How far away from Westminster are you?”

EP: “Thirty seven miles.”

[Boos from the audience]

EP: “And if I could just make this brief contribution to hang an MP week -“

DD: “Take your time! Take your time!” EP: “OK, then let me explain why. And I have actually had experience of commuting that distance, when my wife was ill (she’s fully recovered now) – but for a month I did it. And it was an extremely difficult experience and I’ll explain why. Because the House of Commons works on clockwork: you have to be there, if you’re on a committee, you have to be there precisely. Particularly for someone like me, I was a number two –“ [Boos from the audience]

EP: “Let me explain, let me explain, please just let me explain for a moment. I had to be there –“

DD: “Like a job, in other words?”

[applause and laughter from audience]

EP: “Yes exactly like a job. If you’re number two in the opposition, you’re essentially running the committee. So I needed to be there at 930 to move those amendments. It doesn’t matter if a Liberal Democrat isn’t there, but it matters if I’m there –“

Ed Davey: “That’s just cheap”

EP: “When I was doing this, I was leaving home at five thirty in the morning to guarantee that I was there and I wasn’t getting back until twelve or one in the morning. Now you can do that once or twice, you can do that for a while. But you’ve got to understand, the House of Commons runs like clockwork.”

Caroline Lucas: “So does the rest of the world, Eric.”

EP: “And I have never, ever claimed my full allowance. I have always claimed the amount –“

[jeers from audience]

EP: “Well I mean, I publish them. I’ve always published them on my website. They’ve always been there for people to see. I have always been accountable. And I can tell you, I think the things are going to come out in a week’s time. I think I’ve only claimed about sixty percent of the allowance, it might even be fifty five percent. But I’m a serious guy who will put in the hours. And I will work for those hours. But I can tell you this: it is no fun doing five thirty in the morning right the way through. You cannot be sat on a train thinking ‘am I going to make it? Am I not going to make it?’ That’s why I do it.”

Audience Member: “Do you think Fred Goodwin should give some of his pension back Eric?”

EP: “Yeah, I do.”

Audience Member: “Right - that’s because he’s behaved immorally, unreasonably perhaps. But he’s played within the rules! Don’t you think that’s a bit hypocritical?”

EP: “I had my flat – I bought my flat when we regularly sitting until two in the morning. I bought my flat when we did that. I bought that flat because it turned out –“

[Audience member: “sell it!”]

EP: “OK well I’ll sell it. Of course I could sell it. I am never going to be able to satisfy you folks, at all, because I am an MP and therefore guilty.”

- ENDS -

Dan Hannan video attack on Devalued Brown

The Dan Hannan Video update after two days 1,167,339 views 6,303 ratings and 7,895 text comments. (See it by scrolling down my blog).

World Trade from The Economist Leader

Trite article but fascinating graph, read here.

Blair and Brown - deliberately blowing up England's Property Bubble

Before I became a blogger and began Ironies I was an active contributor to the Financial Times FT Forums on a wide range of topics. One such was "Rate Tony Blair's Performance" and in considering the import of my earlier post today on Gordon Brown having set out to deliberately over inflate England's property market I pondered what I had had to say on that topic in the FT Forum and came across this #5002535 of 2422 posted by NM (my signature in those debates) on 11th December 2002 at 10:31 am. "Reading markets by the First Lord of the Treasury Could there have been a worse possible moment between the date in 1997, when following their election victory the Blairs sold their Islington house and the fourth calendar quarter of 2002, for buying two speculative flats in the far from dynamic Bristol property market? Any who might argue the timing is good are referred to the FT.Com UK Property Market Bubble Forum. Disregarding the tabloid brouhaha, what does this tell us about our Prime Minister who guides the nation through these turbulent economic times. First let us dispose of the idea that he did not know of their purchase. I find this absolutely impossible to believe, even before the tearful statement by Mrs Blair when we were supposed to empathise over the money from the sale of their Islington flat being the families sole asset. If that is indeed the case it would be even stranger if she invested such an amount in property without her husbands input and consent. Blair therefore proves himself stupid. I wouldn't trust anyone who made such a decision in today's economic environment with a five pound note, let alone the direction of the nation." Refresh your memory on these flats from here and here. Now clearly I was wrong about the direction of the UK Property market from 2003 and for the next several years, as were most of the contributors to the site mentioned FT.Com UK Property Market Bubble Forum, but none of us were to know that Gordon Brown was about to change the basis for calculating inflation when appointing a new Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, and thereafter preside over an absurd ramping up of property prices at ridiculous lending levels. Although here is a thought in reading my post above "Did Cherie and Tony know?"

German Pressure on Ireland

Last evening I read with horror this report in the Business Section of The Times Online of the state of the Irish economy, the result in my view of their politicians crazed decision to join the Euro currency. In summary the economy shrunk by 7.5 per cent at the end of last year and capital investment declined by 30.6 per cent over the year while industrial output dropped at an annual rate of 12.5 per cent, with the construction sector showing a decline of 24 per cent. In other words almost as bad a situation as England will soon find itself thanks to the deliberate sabotage by the mazed Scot Gordon Brown's schemes as described in my post below. I have today been sent a report on the threats being made by the Germans to the Irish which must only compound their despair. I quote:

The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre

24 Crawford Avenue

Dublin 9

Web-site: nationalplatform .org

Thursday 26 March 2009

Why Germany is urging "humility" on us and a Yes vote to Lisbon

Last week the German Ambassador said that a second No vote to Lisbon would have "horrific consequences" for Ireland.

On Tuesday the German Social Democrat spokesman on European affairs said that any economic assistance to Ireland would require "greater humility" from Dublin, a renewed commitment to the EU from Irish voters in a Lisbon Two referendum, and a better appreciation of "the common German and Irish interest" in continuing European integration.

Why this German anxiety over Lisbon?

One obvious reason is that the Lisbon Treaty would hugely advantage Germany, the EU's largest Member State, by moving EU law-making to a primarily population basis and abolishing the weighted vote system for making EC/EU laws that has existed since the 1957 Rome Treaty.

By basing EU law-making primarily on population size, Lisbon would double Germany's voting weight on the EU Council of Ministers from its present 8% under the Nice Treaty rules to 17%. France's vote would go from 8% to 13%, Britain's and Italy's from their current 8% to 12% each, while Ireland's voting weight would be halved from 2% to 0.8% (Art.16 TEU).

Under the present Nice Treaty arrangements Germany, France, Britain and Italy have 29 votes each in making EU laws and Ireland has 7 votes. An EU law requires 255 votes out of 345 and at least half the Member States have to vote in favour to make up those 255 votes. A "blocking minority" is 91 votes: that is, 345 minus 255 plus 1.

By contrast, under Lisbon a new European law would require the support of 55% of the Member States, i.e.15 out of 27, so long as the 15 make up 65% of the aggregate EU population. Germany has four times Ireland's voting weight now: 29 votes as against 7. By basing votes on population size Lisbon would thereby give Germany 20 times Ireland's voting weight, with its 82 million people as against Ireland's 4.3.

France, Britain and Italy would each have some 15 times Ireland's voting weight on a population basis, compared to their four times now.

Germany and France between them have nearly one-third of the EU's total population. Under the proposed Lisbon Treaty rules Germany and France would need only two other countries to vote with them to be able to block any EU law they did not like.

Giving Germany and the other Big States more of a say in EU law-making is what German Ambassador Christian Pauls really means when he says Lisbon would make the EU more "efficient"!

If Lisbon goes through and gives Germany and the other Big States such an increase in their power, how long - realistically speaking - do people think Ireland's 12.5% corporation tax rate would last, as compared to Germany's 30%?

How long would it be before the EU imposes its own income tax, sales tax or property tax on us - which would be permitted for the first time under Lisbon's Article 311 TFEU and which Germany and France are likely to push for once the Council of Ministers would obtain the legal power ?

In the European Parliament when Ireland joined the EEC in 1973, Germany had 36 seats as against 10 for Ireland - 3.6 times as much. Under Lisbon, Germany would have 96 MEPs as against 12 for Ireland - 8 times as much.

The political reality is that there is now a race on in time between the ratification of Lisbon, which would greatly increase the powers of Germany, France and the Brussels Commission in the EU, and the advent to office of a Conservative Government in Britain by spring next year at the latest.

Conservative policy is to hold a referendum on Lisbon in the UK and recommend a No vote to it to the British people - so long as we Irish are not bullied and bamboozled into reversing our No vote before then, thereby bringing Lisbon into force for all 27 EU States before Mr Gordon Brown's Government loses office.

By standing by last year's No to Lisbon, we would thereby be opening the way to enabling our fellow countrymen and women in Northern Ireland to have a vote also on this important Treaty.

(Signed)

Anthony Coughlan

Director

Proof positive that Brown deliberately wrecked Britain's economy!

Yesterday I linked a post that I put on my blog Ironies on 13th August 2003. It stated the following: +++++

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Bad news for Brown It looks as though the new Governor of the Bank of England, might have got hold of the idea that he really is independent from the Treasury, which is certainly bad news for our incompetent Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, but more probably and sooner rather than later, for the new Governor Mervyn King (The original link provided no longer works typical for many important references regarding Brown):- .... the new Governor of the Bank of England, yesterday criticised the Government's decision to impose a new inflation target in a move that threatens to open a split between the Bank and Treasury. He said it was "strange" to have an inflation target that did not include house prices and warned it could be seen as "moving the goalposts". Mr King also said the Government would miss its optimistic growth forecasts for the next three years, adding to a chorus of doubt over Gordon Brown's economic forecasts. Personally, however, and strictly as a non-economist, if I wanted to use a statistic showing price rises were no longer that severe a problem, which I assume is Brown's intent, then I think I would leave the property element in. The main criteria surely is consistency, without that the numbers cease to have meaning....just look at the make up of the Dow Jones, complete nonsense on any long term basis.

posted by Martin at 8/13/2003 09:12:00 PM +++++ So why did Brown exclude housing costs from the target he provided the new Governor of the Bank of England for inflation and why in spite of his well publicised doubts did Mervyn King then accept the post. Only one conclusion is possible - Brown planned the hyperinflation of house prices to meet the otherwise over-optimistic growth targets mentioned in my posting. King presumably allowed ambition to overrule his instincts and common sense. House prices were already over-heated in 2003 which is why I would have included them in the index as they should have been expected to fall helping inflation. Brown had no such intent hence today's bankruptcy of the country! QED.

Regulatory Costs Spiral

The BBC Today Programme typically ran an item on the horrendous costs of EU regulations shortly after the broadcast began at six am! Few will have heard, fewer can do so now as the first item available at present on the Listen Again facility is the garbage chosen by Gordon Brown for today's propaganda media distraction is on the religion for the royal accession at 0709! The Daily Mail, being the Daily Mail, carries the story but lays much of the emphasis of the costs upon the Labour Party. Other newspapers seem to be ignoring the report, so I will quote from the Mail:

Rules originating within the UK cost £23.4billion but – in a sign of the growing power of Brussels – red tape drafted by the EU cost £53.3billion.

The most expensive measure was the working-time directive,

lays down a maximum 48-hour week. This has cost firms an estimated £17.8billion. Steps to reduce carbon emissions from company vehicles have added £10.4billion while the Data Protection Act has cost £8billion.

The 19 newest regulations – including forcing power firms to cut carbon emissions from homes – have landed businesses with a £1.75billion bill.

Eighteen regulations brought in since 1998 have saved businesses £1.4billion. These include making workplaces smoke free.

Those in the EU fantasy bubble have yet to realise that their national funding will soon and unavoidably vanish! What the consequences for them and many others is hard to guess but unnecessary costs at this level could never sensibly have been entertained let alone enacted!

Britain's Finance Minister and Exmouth Community College

As I will reveal at the end of this post I have more than a little personal interest in this report. The BBC ran a day of schools acting as journalists yesterday and from Devon a group of students set out to 11 Downing street to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer some questions on what he describes as the recession but the students elsewhere more accurately call The Credit Crunch. A full report is here. The following are the questions put by the students, I will link his replies here when they become available. Alistair Darling Questions 1. How has the credit crunch affected you personally – and your family – outside of work? 2. What are your plans to fix the credit crunch? 3. If something goes wrong at school, someone gets blamed and they get into trouble. Who is to blame for the credit crunch and how will they be punished? 4. We are constantly told to get a job to learn responsibility and the value of money, but it is becoming increasingly hard to get Saturday jobs, what are you proposing to do about this? 5. As our mums and dads are struggling in the credit crunch, we are having to pay for more things ourselves but as we’ve just said, it’s really hard to find jobs now - how do you propose we get hold of money to ensure we still lead active and healthy lives? 6. If the government is concerned with our carbon footprint, why are bus and train prices still rising? As we can’t get Saturday jobs and parents are increasingly hard up, we have less money to pay for transport. 7. What would your advice be to a struggling family about how to beat the recession? 8. Has lowering VAT made any difference, other than creating awkward prices everywhere? 9. My dad’s just been made redundant and so have many of my friend’s dads. Why are the unemployment rates so high and what are their prospects when we keep hearing there are fewer and fewer jobs to go round? 10. How much do you earn? And do you think that MPs should set an example and take a wage cut Why my particular interest? Well I had an extraordinarily varied educational experience within England, but among the many schools in both the state and private, day and boarding sectors that I attended the jewel for two whole years from 11years to 13 years was the Exmouth Grammar School in Gypsy Lane. I suspect that has now become this same Exmouth Community College as the road location could not accommodate two such schools (although typically on the College's excellent web site there is no mention of its history). When I attended the Exmouth Grammar School in the mid-nineteen fifties we were streamed from A to D at 11 and the A stream in which I was lucky enough to find myself covered Latin and French, all the separate sciences and the other standard subjects. There were only eleven pupils and we were compelled to give one another mutual support in the hot house academic environment it being emphasised failure for one would be considered as failure by all. None of us came from a privileged background and arrived from a spread of the local Primary schools, although if I recall correctly I was the only pupil from Exeter Road in the A stream. The teaching staff were incredible and Mr Amos who taught maths was phenomenal, the Public School I latterly attended even at sixteen never came up to the curriculum level we had achieved at twelve! It was this system that was destroyed by Labour's Anthony Crosland and the ghastly and pompous (now Lib/Dem) Baroness Shirley Williams and much of Britain's prosperity in the process. More shame to the present disgraceful product of Britain's Public Schools, David Cameron who refuses to contemplate a return to educational selection. What a waste - the evidence Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer and a Bankrupt Nation.

Brown will borrow more than all predecessors combined since 1691

This confirmation of what this blog has been consistently warning (see this post from August 2003 on a difference between the "incompetent" Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and Mervyn King) since its beginnings six years ago, namely the complete economic incompetence of Gordon Brown, now comes from none other than the blog of the Financial Times, linked here. I quote: +++++

We pointed out yesterday that the uncovered gilt auction was troubling if not - yet - the end of the world.

The FT’s resident economics guru Chris Giles has a flabbergasting explanation of the scale of the debt the government is raising in the next two years: £350bn.

“That is more debt bequeathed to its successor than the total borrowed by successive rulers and governments of Britain between 1691 and 1997, the year Labour was elected.”

+++++

Now will the BBC, the other UK broadcasting media and the Conservative Party begin to put the message across to the British electorate????? A start could be made by screening the Dan Hannan Devalued Government three minute video IN FULL!!

Dan Hannan goes Transcontinental

Hardly seen in the UK - the BBC Politics show finally screened a brief extract - Dan Hannan has gone Transcontinental with his three minute lambaste of the loathsome Prime Mentalist Gordon Brown in the Strasbourg Parliament. See the Fox News Report on US Prime Time TV from the Guido Fawkes blog, linked here. The video according to YouTube has had two third of a million views in one day: 1 day ago 660,691 views The full video of Hannan's speech is available again below:

Britain's Vanishing Liberties & Freedoms

Practising for the 2012 London Olympics The Daily Telegraph reports that local councils have used anti-terrorism legislation more than 20,000 times for non- terrorist inquiries, even as petty as the theft of Christmas Tree lights, read here. Surely this image is now representing the greater fear? If you think this an exaggeration of the state into which the country is deteriorating then consider this Parliamentary Point of Order raised by one of the MP Maggots who seem to assume the fascist laws they increasingly pass only apply to others - We, the under-trodden citizen.

Point of Order

John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) (Lab): On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I wish to draw attention to the fact that when I left the sitting of Parliament on Friday and passed through Parliament square and into Birdcage walk, I was detained by the police on a stop and search on the basis of the use of anti-terrorism legislation. That follows on from what happened only a few weeks ago during our campaign against the third runway. One of our campaigners, who was simply taking photographs of the properties that will be demolished if the proposed third runway goes ahead, was also detained, stopped and searched under anti-terrorism legislation.

I make this point of order to draw attention to the fact that the use of that power is becoming random and affecting Members and our constituents in a way that I believe is in complete contradiction to the way in which we legislated, which was for the selective use of the powers to prevent terrorism rather than to harass MPs and the overall community.

Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Michael Lord): The hon. Gentleman will appreciate that that is not immediately a matter for the Chair, but his points are firmly on record and I am sure that Mr. Speaker will want to take note of them.

23 Mar 2009 : Column 50 Different views on torture and the terrorist threat may be read in a letter to The Times by a group of Peers, linked here, and a site devoted to the terrorist threat called Contingency Today, linked here. Note the quote above from a member of the clearly now Fascist New Labour Party itself, elect mindless automatons and mindless fascist legislation is what you will surely get: "I make this point of order to draw attention to the fact that the use of that power is becoming random...in a way that I believe is in complete contradiction to the way in which we legislated, which was for the selective use of the powers to prevent terrorism rather than to harass MPs and the overall community." Parliamentarians are paid to consider the likely consequences of the laws they pass, not just to harangue and fiddle their expenses!

French Foreign Minister admits Lisbon Treaty in doubt

Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, also expressed fears over the Treaty's future.

"What has happened in Czech Republic again hurts any certainty that we will get the Lisbon treaty," he said.

Link

Guardian reports EU Leaders close to "Panic and Despair"

The mostly pro-EU and often nonsense rag called The Guardian has this quote in an article this evening, linked here: The prospect of further upsets to the ill-starred attempt to rewrite the way the EU operates has European leaders panicking or despairing. The same report highlights more difficulties for Brown's G20 meeting with the EU Presidency describing the US President's stimulus package 'the road to hell' and that before President Obama is thereafter scheduled to visit Prague!

Maggot McNulty

Image thanks to The Anglo Saxon Chronicle Blog. Says it all really, of course like the despicable Home Secretary he'll get away with it!

"Lisbon Treaty on Ice"

Euractiv, here, has found somebody to interview in Prague who claims President Klaus is under Russian influence, an absurd allegation to any who watched his recent speech in the EU Parliament or read the interview in last weekend's Sunday Times. A more interesting portion of the report is on the new power division in the Czech Capital on which the following is noteworthy:

Mirek Topolánek himself used to reassure Brussels journalists, when we asked him about the risk of having a leading Eurosceptic as president of the country that holds the EU presidency, that Klaus' powers are in fact limited. But this is not the case any more. Klaus might like to keep these powers as long as possible...

That's true. He will try to do that. He will, perhaps, appoint Topolánek again. But the question is whether Topolánek will be able to secure the support of the MPs who were against him yesterday. The truth is that the Lisbon Treaty is absolutely on ice. As the Lisbon Treaty has passed the Chamber of deputies and is now stuck in the Senate, the Senate holds the key, and also the president. The Senate is full of older MPs who are reluctant about the Lisbon Treaty. As for the influence of Klaus, it lies in the Senate, and the topic is the Lisbon Treaty.

UK Gilt Auction Failure Begins

The FT has coverage from here.

The Sun blasts Brown's speech

PM 'proud' he sold out to EU

By GRAEME WILSON Deputy Political Editor in Strasbourg

Published: Today

SHAMELESS Gordon Brown declared yesterday he was PROUD Britain signed the hated Lisbon Treaty.

The whole page may be viewed from this link, it is accompanied by a marvelous Dorian Gray type picture which makes using the link a must on its own!

Queen gives audience to Governor of the Bank of England

The audience given by the Queen to the Governor of the Bank of England is apparently without precedence and the first reference I found is in this editorial in The Times, linked here, as follows: Throughout her reign, the Queen had never held an audience with a governor of the Bank – till yesterday, when she met Mr King. The meeting might have passed as a constitutional idiosyncrasy, but Mr King also appeared to diverge from the policies of the Prime Minister. Appearing before the Treasury Select Committee of MPs, he was sceptical about the scope for further stimulus of the UK economy by fiscal means. Given the size of the deficits now and for the next two to three years, argued Mr King, there should be caution about adding to them. The Daily Telegraph, here, has a photograph from PA in its report and adds the following interesting detail: Immediately after the hearing at the House of Commons, Mr King was invited to Buckingham Palace for a private audience with the Queen. The meeting, at Her Majesty’s request, represented the first time she has met the incumbent Bank Governor. Is the Queen asking for an audience of more concern to the incompetent and jet-setting Prime Minister or the fact that the Governor of the cash printing bank first openly criticised the Prime Minister's policies which as the Times editorial points out are thought by some (including this blog) to carry 'the risk of an "Arma-geddon scenario”, where there are not enough lenders to meet planned levels of public borrowing'. The Daily Mail added this simple last line to its coverage of King's momentous warnings and carried the same picture of Mervyn King meeting the Queen: Later the Queen held an audience with the governor of the Bank of England for the first time in her reign.

Finally a Conservative who can OPPOSE!

Brown finally gets some facts

Lisbon Treaty in further doubt as Czech Government fails Confidence Vote

The IHT has the story from here. My initial thoughts are that this is very good news for opponents of the anti-democratic EU Lisbon Treaty as it will strengthen the voice and powers of President Vaclav Klaus in the coming period of parliamentary uncertainty!

Breaker Brown addresses Sleaze-ridden Strasbourg

Brown is proud that Britain's Parliament ratified the Lisbon Treaty and thus betrayed the British people he states as he begins his address to the corrupt MEPs who suck the economic and democratic life-blood from the once free citizens of Europe! A truly shameful moment. When the full text is available it will be linked from here!! It is also now available on film from the Downing Street site but I cannot watch the Scottish scum bag without feeling sick these days, which is why I prefer to read the complete bilge! Strasbourg and Brown a partnership made in ????!! The EU Parliament itself is choosing to give publicity to this timely warning from an Ex-EU Leader:

Ex-Spanish PM says EU faces 'wave of mistrust'

Former Spanish premier Felipe González has said urgent measures are needed to address a "wave of mistrust" facing the EU. Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, the Socialist politician also said the public was yet to grasp the "gravity" of the economic crisis.

British inflation rises to 3.2% on CPI

Trash your currency, give the nation's assets to the EU and transfer billions to that same corrupt organisation each year and any country would be bound for disaster. When Maggie Thatcher made here "No!No!No!" speech Britain was self-sufficient in food and energy - the essentials of life - and had a healthy manufacturing industry - remember the Central Electricity Generating Board, British Gas etc., no EDF or Eon back then gouging every citizen to mind-numbing poverty! Thatcher was dumped by the treacherous likes of Heseltine and Ken Clarke who today still hold the levers of Tory power, and the unexpectedly high inflation figures just announced come from the pounded pound and according to The Times all due to HIGH FOOD PRICES most now coming from the EU because we have ,of course, sold out our farmers as well! The three main parties have betrayed Britain and sold it off to the EU to fill their own pockets - Make them pay the price on 4th June!!!!

Politics.co.uk Euro elections analysis.

Not worth quoting but worthy of noting, click here.

Britain's Conservative Party - Frit of advice or critique

The Tories have started a blog (finally), with links to other blogs BUT No Surprise! There is no link to one of the longest running commentaries on the party and its policies "Teetering Tories" which had its first posting on 17th October 2003 on the leadership of IDS and has been following the faltering progress ever since. Can the Conservatives not contemplate policy debate or constructive criticism? Try the link and surf the blog's archives and ask yourself - "What kind of party tries to censor criticism - surely not one upholding Conservative beliefs?

Treasury Secretary Geitner's toxic asset plan to take months

The Bloomberg report on the latest US plan makes gloomy reading for any hoping for an early resolution to the ever deepening credit crunch, read it here. A quote with this blog editor's emphasis: Critics including Paul Krugman, a winner of the Nobel Prize for economics, advocate that the government take over banks loaded with devalued assets, remove their top management, and dispose of the toxic securities. Sweden adopted that approach in the 1990s. Krugman said in a New York Times opinion piece today that Geithner’s strategy won’t work because it “assumes that banks are fundamentally sound and that bankers know what they’re doing.”

Do thieves miss jail by returning what they stole?

Look at the following headline in an article in The Guardian, linked here: +++++

Tony McNulty faces call for inquiry over £60,000 allowances

Employment minister urged to consider repaying money claimed on home in Harrow East constituency occupied by his parents

+++++ Would repayment make any difference for this former Home Office Minister once responsible for policing and crime, security and counter-terrorism??????????? (BBC)

EU monitoring of communications

The following is from The Freedom Association, linked here:

The long sleepwalk to serfdom

Have you used the internet, sent an email, made a phone call or sent a text message in the last week? Almost certainly. Did it seem any different? Probably not. But there has been one major change behind the scenes over the last week. For 15 March 2009 was the deadline for EU member states to implement EU Directive 2006/24/EC.

"What is that?" you say. This is the Directive concerned with the retention of communications data relating to Internet Access, Internet telephony and Internet e-mail. It is the EU charter agreed by member states to afford governments the right to scrutinise your electronic communications activity as a matter of routine. There is no need to go to court for a warrant to monitor details of the people you have been in contact with, this EU Directive makes it necessary for your service provider to log all your activity and hand over the full details when asked to do so.

"What about my rights?" you ask. After all, does the European Convention on Human Rights - which does so much to protect people who break our laws and undermine our safety - not safeguard us too and prevent the state from intruding in our private activities? Well as we know it is supposed to do that. But there is a convenient get-out clause which basically tosses our rights out of the window. You can see it explained early in the EU Directive itself in paragraph 9:

Under Article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), everyone has the right to respect for his private life and his correspondence. Public authorities may interfere with the exercise of that right only in accordance with the law and where necessary in a democratic society, inter alia, in the interests of national security or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

So there you have it. You have the right to a private life and the state can only interfere with that in accordance with the law or in the interest of national security and public safety. So the member states claim this is all about protecting us from a dangerous enemy, change the law and et voilà, they hand themselves the right to trample over our privacy and individual freedoms. Do not count on our Parliament to reject this measure, the EU has taken the power from us to determine laws of this kind. This is one small element of the infamous 70% of our laws and regulations handed down to us from Brussels/Strasbourg that we must implement.

Do you feel comfortable knowing that your visit to this blog to read this posting has been logged, and will be kept for at least one year, for government agencies to look up should they ever decide that you or I represent a threat of some kind? Or that the next phone call you make will be logged for checking should an agency decide you need investigating? Or that your SMS messages and emails this morning are all on record? More importantly, do you think it is right for the state to have such power to invade our privacy?

This is what passes for freedom and democracy in the United Kingdom in the year 2009.

Britain's CBI warns against further tax cuts

Another fiscal stimulus on 22nd April is not likely to work warns the employers organisation as reported in the Daily Telegraph this morning, linked here. This blog has repeatedly warned of the consequences of the Brown/Darling mismanagement and is thus better placed to properly address the policy dilemmas facing an incoming administration such as the Tories. Kenneth Clarke, Boris Johnson, David Cameron and George Osborne have been tying themselves in knots over the weekend on the question of taxation and public spending, because they have refused to confess their crimes in endorsing New Labour policies over many years and joining the fools paradise of an entirely illusory one-time boom economy. Their dilemmas over inheritance tax, the top rate of income tax, priorities for drastic public spending cuts etc., etc., will continue until they collectively experience a genuine "Road to Damascus" conversion, if they believe they cannot win an election after such a publicly confessed change then they will continue to under-estimate the sound common sense of Britain's active electorate and any victory enjoyed on the back of continuing untruths will likely prove Pyrrhic

UK Government Spending

The real debate on where the country can now be taken is at last about to begin. An article in this morning's The Times offers some proof of that fact, the link is here. All kinds of wild assertions will soon be made about relative states of national penury in the past as the vermin that is New Labour scurry to protect their hides before abandoning the sinking ship. The following illustration might be useful for impartial observers to try and retain some proper view of the dangers. The article on UK Public Spending.co,uk is linked here and the credit goes to Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

EPP backs Barroso for EU Commission Presidential second term

The surprise early announcement from the EPP is reported from this link. It concludes that the Lisbon Treaty ratification in Ireland will be Barroso's final hurdle, I quote: Though the EPP has given their official goahead, the Lisbon Treaty referendum in Ireland, which is expected to pass, will likely be the last hurdle of Barroso. The current climate is one that is definitely in his favour. A Czech report on the interview given by President Klaus to the Sunday Times over the weekend which I linked yesterday (repeated here) raises a much more interesting dilemma for the EU and one that may well mark its demise in its present form, that report is here and I quote: ++++++

published: 22.03.2009, 19:57 | updated: 22.03.2009 20:49:09

Times: Klaus dělá paralely mezi Bruselem a sovětskými diktaturami

London - Czech President Vaclav Klaus believes that the Irish will be under "enormous, and not very democratic" pressure to ratify the Lisbon treaty, the British daily Sunday Times writes today.

++++++++ "Enormous and not very democratic" - do those running this EU monstrosity really believe they can so impose this legalistic mish-mash of a Treaty that fulfills none of the requirements of the objectives laid down for the Laeken Convention? Let me put this forward again with another very real ingredient: "Enormous and not very democratic" - do those running this EU monstrosity really believe they can so impose this legalistic mish-mash of a Treaty that fulfills none of the requirements of the objectives laid down for the Laeken Convention, (particularly after destroying the streamlining of the Commission)? Now let us include some very present reality: "Enormous and not very democratic" - do those running this EU monstrosity really believe they can so impose this legalistic mish-mash of a Treaty that fulfills none of the requirements of the objectives laid down for the Laeken Convention, (particularly after destroying the streamlining of the Commission)and against the backdrop of the present economic meltdown? What will the name of President Barroso conjure for future generations of Europeans?

Libertas gets a Maltese Candidate

Its interesting that while the UK Conservative Party is questioned and frets how it will gather enough candidates from other elected MEP to form a group in the next EU Parliament, Libertas goes quietly about ensuring it should be able to form its own group without such worries - and what is more perhaps one entirely devoted to fighting the corrupt monstrosity the EU has become thanks to Europe's main established parties such as the Conservatives. Read the full report from Malta, linked here.

The People delivers the facts

The popular Sunday tabloid splashes this bad news for the less well-informed British citizens:

22 March 2009

BLACK HOLE COSTS YOU £25,000

EXCLUSIVE Here's how they might claw it back

By Nigel Nelson Political Editor

Every British taxpayer faces a debt of £25,000 to pay for Alistair Darling's borrowing binge. At least the Maggot MP and Employment Minister, Tony Mcnulty, has put aside enough to pay his share of the debt having claimed sixty thousand pounds worth of parliamentary expenses on his parents home for the past several years in spite of he and his wife pulling in some three hundred thousand pounds a year, she being the Chief Schools Inspector according to The Times, linked here it begins:

A LABOUR minister was at the centre of a new controversy over Commons expenses after he in effect admitted that he had been wrong to claim £60,000 of taxpayers’ money for a property that is his parents’ main home.

Tony McNulty, the employment minister, confronted over his expenses claims, said he would stop claiming the MPs’ second-home allowance, it was reported last night. McNulty and his wife, Christine Gilbert, the chief schools inspector, have a combined annual income of more than £300,000 and between them own two London homes worth £1.2m.

They live together in a house she owns just three miles from Westminster. However, McNulty has been claiming up to £14,000 a year in parliamentary expenses to help to pay for the second house, in his Harrow constituency, where his parents live. The property is just 12 miles from the Commons.

Interview with President Vaclav Klaus

The Sunday Times has a good interview with the Czech President currently holding the EU rotating Presidency, worth reading as this man presently appears to be the sole leader on the European Continent who has a care for the democratic and individual liberties of more than 500 million citizents presently threatened with the totalitarian authoritarianism of the Lisbon Treaty. Read it from this link.

EU Propaganda spending in Ireland

The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre

24 Crawford Avenue

Dublin 9

Web-site: http://www.nationalplatform .org

Wednesday 18 March 2009

Dear Friends,

According to the Irish Times news report below, a meeting is taking place in Brussels today between the entire EU Commission and Mr Martin Territt, Head of the EU Commission Representation in Ireland, to discuss how the Commission can influence Irish opinion in the lead-in to Ireland's re-run of the Lisbon referendum next October. It is seemingly planned to spend some ¤2 million on advertisements for this purpose

The article is by Jamie Smyth, who is Irish Times's EU correspondent.

A few weeks ago the Irish Times carried an advertisement from the EU Commission Representation in Ireland seeking tenders for an advertising campaign in this country to "inform" people better about the EU. Accompanying press reports stated that this advertising campaign is to be specially targeted at women and young people over the next few months, as these are groups which predominantly voted No to Lisbon in Ireland's referendum last June, according to opinion polls.

It is well-known that the EU Commission is itself a highly self-interested party as regards the Lisbon Treaty, for the Treaty, which is a revamped version of the 2004 EU Constitution that was rejected by the French and Dutch peoples in referendums, would greatly increase the Commission's powers and functions and would provide it with many new areas of policy for which it would have the exclusive right of initiative as regards proposing European laws - something that must surely outrage any genuine democrat.

In late 2007 ago, in the lead-in to last year's Lisbon referendum, former Irish Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna and the undersigned complained to Ireland's statutory Broadcasting Complaints Commission about the EU Commission Office in Dublin spending ¤360,000 on a series of political advertisements on Irish community and local radio stations even though such broadcast advertiments are unlawful in this country, as they are in the UK and various other EU countries.

These EU Commission-sponsored advertisements ostensibly aimed to tell people about the existence of various sources of information on the EU, something that one could not reasonably object to - but they also contained highly loaded and tendentious statements about how much money Ireland had received from the EU over the years, how EU laws had made phone calls and airplane flights cheaper, how the EU had conferred various other benefits on Ireland etc.

These adverts could certainly influence people's attitutes when it came to voting - that being the criterion Ireland's Broadcasting Complaints Commission's uses in deciding whether a broadcast advertisement is "political" or not.

The Broadcasting Complaints Commission upheld our complaint and ruled that the EU Commission's advertisements were indeed political and as such were effectively encouraging Irish broadcasters to breach the statutory ban on political advertising in this country.

If this complaint had not been made and upheld, one can be confident that the EU Commission Office in Ireland would have gone on to repeat these politically potent advertisements on national radio and TV here

It is quite outrageous from a democratic point of view that the EU Commission and its representative in Dublin, Mr Mertin Territt, should be planning to spend large sums of EU taxpayers' money on seeking to influence Irish voters to reverse their vote of last June on the Lisbon Treaty in order, inter alia, to increase significantly the power of the EU Commission itself.

We appeal to you to draw this outrageously undemocratic behaviour of the Brussels Commission to the attention of people in your country and in as many other EU countries as possible, so to that they can raise their voices in protest.

Yours faithfully,

Anthony Coughlan

Director

________

Irish Times, Saturday 14 March 2009, page 11

Commission to seek ways to help State on Lisbon campaign Jamie Smyth in Brussels

The European Commission will hold a special meeting next week to determine how it can help the Government campaign to secure a Yes vote in the second Lisbon referendum.

All 27 EU commissioners will meet the head of the commission's Irish representation office, Martin Territt, in Brussels on Wednesday to consider a range of initiatives that will better inform the Irish about Europe and the treaty.

They will discuss the launch of a new publicity campaign designed to inform the Irish public about the merits of EU membership. They are also expected to agree on a high-profile series of visits to the Republic by EU commissioners and commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.

'One of the lessons the commission and the European Parliament learnt from the first referendum on the Lisbon Treaty was that the pro-Lisbon voices were too often absent from the public debate,' said a senior commission source, who added that the EU's most visible institution - the EU's executive - could not be absent from the debate this time.

The three main EU institutions - the commission, parliamentand council - all took a back seat during the first referendum campaign on the Lisbon Treaty on the advice of the Government, which was concerned their input could hurt the Yes campaign. But there is a growing appreciation in Brussels that a deeply unpopular Govenmrnt will need all the help it can get to persuade the public to change their vote.

The commission is unlikely to propose getting directly involved in the referedum campaign itself, which will remain the primary responsibility of the Government. But it will propose providing information to the public to ensure they understand how Europe plays a role in their everyday life and to clarify points of the treaty that are disputed. A new EU-funded ¤l.8 million publicity campaign in Ireland is due to begin shortly.

Mr Territt is expected to update commissioners on the potential strengh of the No campaign, and particularly the rise of Libertas. He is likely to discuss the changed economic context and how that could affect a second referendum.

EU competition commisisoner Neelie Kroes is likely to be the first member of the EU executive to travel the Republic. EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana is also considering travelling to Ireland next month to talk about European security policy.

Brown - The Golden Fool

The Ernst & Young ITEM Club of economists now estimates the UK Fiscal deficit from 1st April at 12.6%, read here. Showing the Treasury still underestimates the gravity of the crisis they alone have created is this further awful figure: Ernst & Young said large deficits will persist well into the next decade, predicting borrowing over the next five fiscal years will amount to 704 billion pounds, 270 billion more than Darling forecast four months ago. Another Bloomberg report on the National Audit Office critique of the Treasury and its handling of Northern Rock, shows 1.8 billion of loans at 125% were made after the Bank hit difficulties, link here: The NAO said Northern Rock issued 1.8 billion pounds of mortgages for up to 125 percent of the value of homes after the lender first sought government backing in September 2007. The loans accounted for 30 percent of the bank’s mortgage lending. Northern Rock’s business plan, approved by ministers in early 2008, assumed a 5 percent drop in house prices between 2008 and 2011. Why were there no resignations yesterday, nor demands for such resignations from opposition parties? Another question on Northern Rock and its highly suspect lending strategies was raised on this blog on 21st April 2008 and elsewhere, namely the commitment to Mortgage Advisers not to investigate the income levels of applicants for loans beneath 85 % of LTV, I quote: ++++++++++++++++ I dug out an old e-mail from Northern Rock from July 2007 with this paragraph of interest. Our Fast Track Guarantee for cases up to 85% LTV we will guarantee not to request verification of your client's income, provided that they meet our criteria upon submitting their application (please refer to the Mortgage Update for full details). Now I wonder why they would guarantee not to check incomes? +++++++++++++++++ Now from the completely ludicrous defence put forward by Lord Mandelson on TV for allowing 125 % loans to continue and as reported by the Guardian here: "Earlier Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, said the bank was allowed to carry on with high-risk lending after it started receiving support from the taxpayer because the government did not want to suggest it was closing for business" it can be assumed that the same guarantee for non-verification of mortgage applicants income may also have continued beyond the point of government support! The Treasury would then also have been complicit in appearing to endorse a policy of deliberately encouraging fraudulent mortgage applications from independent but regulated financial advisers. Looking at the Guardian link above it should also today be asked why Gordon Brown has not been asked to reply on the specific areas of concern regarding Northern Rock going back to 2004. Time for a Spring Clean? (See the post below).