Blogging pause

Following a prolonged power cut in our region of France during last Friday around midday our internet connection ceased to function. Due to a national holiday in France on Monday 1st November normal blog activities will be unlikely to be restored until Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

Cameron gives UK Assent to Lisbon II Treaty

CNBC TV is reporting that Cameron has conceded the principle that there will be an amendment to the Lisbon Treaty which must mean he has backtracked on every promise and statement he has made on the EU since becoming Conservative Party Leader, there can be no other interpretation of his actions. David Cameron, as long predicted on my blog Teetering Tories, ever since the day he became the most likely leader of the Conservative Party, has thus totally betrayed Britain and particularly all those who voted for him and his party.

Cameron's "Vichy" style surrender to the EU

The following is this morning's blog from Lord Tebbit, quoted here in full just click here to view the Telegraph reader's comments! (Comments from Daily Mail readers to the same post are here):

There are reports this morning that the Prime Minister is preparing to retreat on pledges to cut the European Union budget and will accept a deal that would increase British taxpayers’ contribution by at least £435 million. My reaction is that if Parliament is indeed sovereign, then Mr Cameron should simply refuse flat to agree to any increase whatsoever in the EU’s budget.

He may find himself isolated in that position – as other European leaders fall into line with the Commission’s demands. But he would do better to go down fighting than to surrender in some Vichy-style arrangement, pretending to hold on to sovereignty by agreeing to what Europe demands.

The empty decks of the aircraft carriers will mock a decision to subsidise the ambitions of our masters in Brussels.

(Blog editor's emphasis added by Ironies Too. HEAR, HEAR, Well said Lord Tebbit!)

Cameron capitulates immediately agreeing 2.91% EU budget increase with France and Germany!

David Cameron's first spat within the EU Council resulted in his immediate capitulation. Now we wait for him to concede no referendum on a new treaty!

An open query to Sir John Sawers head of MI6

In a complete break with all past precedent the head of Britain's secret services today went public and made a televised speech as reported here by Sky News. One quote struck me particularly and it also appeared on the linked website, it was this: He added he is confident that all of his staff "act with the utmost integrity and with an eye on basic decency and moral principles". I have been active and sometimes worked alongside and within various groups dedicated to withdrawing the UK from the non-democratic European Union. There is a widespread belief among many most closely involved in democratically working to restore our Parliament's sovereignty that some in the intelligence services have worked to politically frustrate this objective. This belief appears to have begun during the John Major era but it necessarily must have been agreed by both (if not all three) main political parties, determining that remaining within the EU was a question of national security and instructing the heads of the intelligence services to proceed accordingly. As it is now perfectly clear that the policies followed by these three main parties insofar as the Common Market, European Community and today's EU are concerned, have proved an economic and democratic disaster for the country. I therefore address the following open query to the now more open head of MI6 as follows: To Sir John Sawers, MI6 "As present head of MI6 and clearly unafraid of publicity, can you please confirm that no UK intelligence activities will be directed against those seeking the withdrawal of Britain from the EU"

Cameron already defeated on EU Budget

The report is in The Guardian linked here.

Open Europe, Bertelsmann and Millennium Blitzkrieg

Open Europe has become an excellent monitor of the encroachments of the EU against democracy but should be wary of those who may wish to distract it from what should be its objective which I believe should be the restoration of democracy to the former nations of Europe by a return of indivisible sovereignty to their Parliaments. My novel Millennium Blitzkrieg, written in the mid-nineteen-nineties supposed a fictional German Chancellor plotting the subjugation of Europe from the beginning of the new millennium to triumph and be announced on the centenary of the assasination that sparked the First World War in the summer of 2014. This plot is thwarted by a youthful but vain British Conservative Prime Minister mostly contrived and aided by a craftier and much more subtle political side-kick. The novel was accepted for publication by Macmillan's the one time British family publishing firm connected with former Conservative Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan. Bertelsmann aquired the firm and unsurprisingly the offer to publish Millennium Blitzkrieg was withdrawn! Such is life. Copies of the book are still available from Amazon, link or somewhat cheaper by e-mail to the author in new condition dedicated as you may wish although supplies are limited. The joint event by Open Europe and Bertelsmann held this week is covered on this link.

EU Budget only one of seven ways the EU gets our money

Much hoo-haa will no doubt surround the EU budget being slightly reduced over the next two days by the Council of Europe where Britain will be represented by the snake in the grass David Cameron who has since becoming Prime Minister shed his eusceptic skin and now sports his true eufanatical colours. In exchange for obtaining some small savings he is reported to be ready to agree a new treaty for the Euro Currency members, on the grounds that it cannot apply to Britain thus once again avoiding a referendum while conveniently ignoring the fact that the Lisbon Treaty eventually requires us to join. When France and Germany, now owning almost our entire infrastructure and utilities, decide the time is ripe they will squeeze, we will capitulate - join the Euro and thus be bound by all Eurogroup treaty provisions, we will have no choice - defeated nations never do! The EU Budget is in any event a complete side-show, as it is only one of seven ways in which the corrupt EU siphons our cash to waste in the craziest ways while neverthess destroying growth and any chance of Europe re-gaining prosperity. An EU working paper published in May of this year and written by Alain Lamassoure, linked here, from which I quote the following: III. The vast complexity of funding European policies 12. Contrary to what people might think, the Union budget is far from being the only instrument for financing European policies and, by extension, actions related to common European objectives. In fact, there are no less than seven categories of sources, each of which obeys different rules. (Read the rest from page 4 of 8 on the link above). Cameron is a smooth talking confidence trickster who should not be trusted one inch, watch him over the next few days, his treachery over Europe is approaching levels not seen in the Conservative Party since Edward Heath and Geoffrey Ripon.

Cameron turns his back on Parliament

Britain's Prime Minister yesterday had the chance to break with the precedent of his predecessors and listen to the people's elected representatives in the House of Commons before heading to Brussels to cede more of their sovereign rights. The fact that he chose not to speaks volumes on his clear lack of character and preference to relish the powers of becoming yet another little tyrant, in reality just a mere pawn in the hands of the European Union. Read the Hansard report from 12:33 pm from here.

The EU debated in Westminster this PM

Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab): I spent yesterday in Berlin talking to German politicians, and I think that the British Government will discover treaty changes pretty quickly. Those politicians feel that the stability and growth plan is dead, and that it is not the mechanism to take us forward. May I urge the Minister to answer a specific question? Given that 25 of the 27 member states either are members of the eurozone or will have to become members under treaty obligation, and that only two have an opt-out, does he agree that anything that would strengthen the financial and economic co-ordination of the 25, plus the two with opt-outs, would represent a diminution of our sovereign ability to exert our influence and would therefore be subject to a referendum here?

Mr Hoban: As I reiterated earlier—and as my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has made clear—we will not endorse a treaty that transfers sovereignty from Westminster to the EU. The hon. Lady takes a close interest in these matters, and I know that she will recognise that views among member states about the desirability of treaty changes vary, and that the UK is not the only one that is concerned about this.

Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con): In June, Ministers made a big deal of the fact that the UK Budget would not need to be submitted to EU institutions before it was brought to the House of Commons. Will the Minister confirm that, in fact, the UK pre-Budget report data are part of the European semester process, and that, while we might be exempt from sanctions, we are part of that surveillance? Will he be honest and admit that we are part of the EU fiscal scrutiny process?

Mr Hoban: I believe that this Parliament should hear news about this country’s finances before the EU does. We have secured that situation and that was the right thing to do.

The entire debate is on Hansard from here. The recommendations from Van Rompuy's task force on economic governance is here.

Cameron heads to Brussels tomorrow to further betray his Country and once again trash his own clear promises and manifesto commitments.

French Strikes - The Dress Rehearsal Ends!

The service stations across France are steadily being replenished and the garbage cleared from the streets of Marseille. The new pension ages over which the confrontation supposedly took place will pass into law following the constitutional challenge which will almost certainly fail. The remarkable thing for me in watching the process of the strike unfold was that the support of the French people as reflected in opinion polls remained remarkably steady at around 66% throughout. A warning shot has been fired across the bows of the French establishment, President Sarkozy in agreeing to a new EU Treaty with Angela Merkel the German Chancellor during the peak days of his confrontation with the unions and students of France seems determined not to learn any lessons. Proceeding with a new treaty to enforce the economic governance of the entire EU following the German economic model of governance, presumably enforced along German lines of control, will not just prove difficult for the smaller former nations of the EU to accept (read one item from the Irish Times, linked here) but appears unlikely to be acceptable to the people of France. I summarised my views on the real underlying cause of the recent energy supply confrontation in France linked here, on 19th October, in a post titled "The deep anger behind the rench strikes", my views have not changed and I stress again this particular point: The voters of France clearly rejected, by referendum, any further EU Constitutional Treaty, yet such was signed and enacted as the Lisbon Treaty. At the subsequent Presidential election, neither candidate, neither Nicolas Sarkozy nor Ségolène Royale, offered a platform respecting the clearly stated 'NO MORE EU' views of the electorate. The consequences of yet one more EU Treaty being imposed without the consent of the French electorate, could not, following this strike, be any clearer. Would that the British would show similar resolve in protecting their sovereignty and resisting this EU tyranny!

French Strikes

Three out of twelve of France's oil refineries are reported to be going back into production this morning. The next two days will seem critical for the strikers as the legislation they oppose makes its final steps through parliament. Students will stage street protests today and there is another strike called by the unions for this Thursday.

Cameron reported to have agreed new EU Treaty without referendum!

The latest piece of promise breaking from the slick, unprincipled Prime Minister of our stricken nation is reported as a done deal in the Daily Mail, linked here.

Has Bernanke surrendered to the forces of chaos?

The speech of the Federal Reserve Chairman to a joint conference with the FDIC on the USA mortgage crisis seems to have offered no hope for the watching world that there is anybody leading the nation that owns the US Dollar and is thus the controller of our globe's sole reserve currency who has the first clue of what they are about. Greenspan's whirlwind runs apparently totally outside of the control of his heir. In the US., the mid-term elections at least provide the electorate with a chance to show their disgust at the two main parties, anger possibly leading some to a vote for a Tea Party candidate others, I hope in greater numbers, may consider the Libertarian Party which seems a better route back towards the original ideals of democracy. In the UK the housing crisis is also the most obvious symptom of the chaos created by our two main political parties. My posting of yesterday morning hinted at the apparently already decided solution for social housing and 'buy to let' greed, transfer of the assets for practically nothing from the latter to the former is a neat idea, especially after having watched last evening's BBC Panorama Programme (no doubt exactly as was intended by our devious rulers). Underwater mortgage paying homeowners urgently need help as they are presently unaffected by the new benefit rental cap. To avoid such families becoming entangled in such a government scheme (assuming Lib/Dem backbench opposition allows it to proceed) surely now is the moment to divide equity losses proportionately between borrowers and lenders for mortgages taken out since Brown and King deliberately chose to ramp up the property market?

UK House prices - the crunch draws closer

In response to the just released mortgage figures the FT Alphaville blog has a good summary of the present dire situation, linked here. It is aptly titled "Double trouble for UK House Prices.

Blockade of Fos-sur-Mer and Lavera lifted in France

The most important rining centre in France had the blockade lifted as the two legislative sides of Parliament agreed compromises allowing the pensions law to proceed by this Wednsday. Tankers have been waiting to discharge their crude oil since 27th September for Fos and Lavera.

French seeking petrol learn of 3% electricity price hike.

Motorists sitting in line for Gasoline or Diesel were informed by their various media this morning that electricity prices will rise by 3% next January, but that fuel will be more easily obtainable by Tuesday or Wednesday, but for how long given that France's refineries remain shut down by the strikes?

Buy to let Rachmanist landlords face toasting

The Daily Mail has a delicious tale of how badly burnt the taxpayer funded buy to let greed merchants could receive their come-uppance from a collapsing property market. This landlord has had one of his thirty three properties valued at only one pound and a mortgage request refused, read it in full from here. The Independent this morning, in an article titled "Britain stares into the abyss again as household confidence plummets" the newspaper points out that the Chancellor has now capped housing benefit payments at £400 a week for a four-bedroom property, and £250 a week for a two-bedroom home, which should stem the flow of funds to those who have grown wealthy on Rachmanism with zero labour during the years of the inflation of the property bubble. The refusal by successive governments to address the negative equity situation of hard-working families, to which repeated suggested solutions have been made on this blog, has now continued beyond the eleventh hour.

French strikes update

A government minister on TV this morning only expects the new pension law around 15th November. All France's oil refineries are reported to remain closed on Sunday while France's compulsory day of rest on Sundays for its lorry drivers seems likely to ensure that the one in four service stations run dry this weekend will be joined by many others come Monday. An opinion poll published today shows President Sarkozy's popularity off another 3 points to only 29 % offering their approval. The Prefect of the Bouche de Rhone Department is reported to have ordered the garbage now piled in the streets of Marseille to be cleared from tomorrow.

Irish calls to dump EU and approach the USA

I have been wondering for some time why the Irish are prepared to continue to stomach the quite disgraceful demands of the tyrannical and non-democratic EU, given their strong historical links just across the North Atlantic Ocean. Two items in the Irish Independent this morning indicate such a suggestion is no longer taboo in Dublin. They may be read here and here. The complex nonsense that is the Lisbon Treaty provides all 27 former nations the right to withdraw from the EU; generally speaking the powers conferred on the non-withdrawing parties are so extreme that such a right could rarely be envisioned as sensible, but the growing disaster that the Euro currency has wrought upon Ireland's finances makes the economic consequences less than daunting given the indebtedness of Ireland's taxpayers to the evil EU empire. Default and a new arrangement with Ireland's pwerful neighbour to the West would seem an attractive alternative for Ireland, especially given the new Merkel/Sarkozy nightmare of yet another new EU Treaty transferring economic governance and carrying penalties such as lossed voting rights now looming in the wings. If Ireland goes, can then the UK surely not follow quite quickly behind?

MEPs now need Crowns and Robes

There was an interesting debate on the BBC Today programme at 7:50 am this morning between Daniel Hannan and another MEP on the increased EU budget for next year? I have added the link here now that it is available from the BBC. Meantime it seems clear to me that for all their vanities and spendthrift ways MEPS now deserve Crowns and Robes, so I have found this outfit available online for only $70, probably the smallest item each MP will spend this year (especially with the presently over-valued euro!).

Treasures from the threads - number forty-nine

The comment reproduced below comes in response to an article warning of the horrendous dangers ahead in the US and UK gilt edged securities markets, nowadays more accurately described as mere bonds (perhaps reflecting their present worthlessness?) The article by Jeremy Warner of the Daily Telegraph is linked here and my choice of comment is the following:

diogenesxz

27 minutes ago

Personally, I am worried by (a) the fact that as a taxpayer I am liable for the debts of the insolvent banks and (b) the capital loss (for the taxpayer) that will occur when interest rates rise and the government bonds bought by the BoE in QE1 fall in value. I shall continue to reduce my spending to meet the future tax increases that government will impose to meet these liabilities. If there is more QE, therefore, I shall redouble my efforts to spend less because buying more government bonds at current ridiculous prices will only mean I suffer a bigger tax increase in future. If others who have the scope to reduce their spending think like me, QE2 will just inflate the bond bubble more and provoke a recession. If the BoE really wants QE2 to increase demand it should physically print the money (say £100 billion) and distribute it as £10 notes to every family earning less than two-thirds the median wage. Then it would be spent and provide a stimulus. Using QE to boost the price of bonds so as to put money in the pockets of the bankers is not a policy: it's theft.

(Blog editor's emphasis).

Fannie and Freddie already cost US Taxpayers $135 Billion - UK fails to even start counting their taxpayers' exposure!

Read the really harrowing report from the Wall Street Journal, linked here. Note the huge gaping hole in Osborne's spending cut-backs announced this week. Not one word or even a nod towards the coming UK property price collapse and the disastrous consequences for the British economy!

French refinery siezed.

The seizing of the refinery Grandpuits in the "name of the interests of national defence" by the authority of the Prefect of the Department Seine-et-Marne, Michel Guillot, was effected in the middle of last night with the removal of some 80 pickets. The report in french in Le Figaro is linked here. Service stations appeared to have more fuel available yesterday and the school half-term holidays begin this weekend which will doubtless affect the strategy of the protesters against the Government of President Sarkozy. With crude oil deliveries blockaded and and all twelve oil refineries suffering disruptions in one way another, seizing refineries appears only a short term solution. Reports on the strike situation in the electricity power stations has received scant attention in the media, but the reported surge in electricity imports indicates this is yet another area of pressure on the government. Attempts were being made late yesterday to shorten debate on the new pension law in the Upper House by bundling the remaining amendments into acceptable and unacceptable packages reducing the remaining votes accordingly. Whether this has been achieved is not yet known to this blogger.

Treasures from the theads - number forty-eight

This straight to the point comment comes in response to an article "EU budget rise to go on staff jollies as David Cameron faces pressure to block huge increase for Brussels bureaucrats" in the Daily Mail this morning, linked here, which demands Cameron blocks the MEP demanded increase in next year's EU Budget:

"i would still like my vote on europe. Im a voter i want my vote to pull out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

- mat gregory, newport, 22/10/2010 2:22

The fact that an eighty-five per cent rise in the MEP expense allowance is included in the proposed budget was made clear on this blog some time ago. Cameron's coalition government will of course do nothing to stop the deliberate bleeding of Britain's dwindling income to the EU., as all Cabinet Ministers have written the UK off as far as future career prospects and pension security are concerned and all apparently now look to the EU for their future selfish gains. No other explanation for their continuing treachery is possible!

Happy Trafalgar Day!

"England expects that every man will do his duty" the signal flown by Admiral Lord Nelson, 205 years ago to this date before defeating the French and Spanish fleets thus keeping the seas British and therefore free for all nations until the arrival in our Parliament of traitors such as those there today who conspire to keep both land and sea enslaved. (See particularly the posting immediately beneath this).

EU Big Brother over our seas!

From today's Europa Midday Express comes a report of the latest money wasting horror in store linked here, of which the following is a small quote: The 'Roadmap towards establishing the Common Information Sharing Environment ('CISE') for the surveillance of the EU maritime domain', is an initiative under the EU's Integrated Maritime Policy, which advocates an integrated approach to the management and governance of the oceans, seas and coasts, and fosters interaction between all sea-related policies in the EU.

France imported almost 6000 megawatts of electricity yesterday lunchtime

Le Figaro reorts (here in French) that yesterday lunchtime between 1300 and 1400 5,990 Megawatts of electricity were imported by France, the equivalent to the output of 6 nuclear power stations. Several petrol service stations, including the huge Carrefoure facility in the outskirts of our largest nearby town are reported closed this morning. One nearby rural town has no fuel for cars while another having been out of diesel for the past couple of days is reported to have supplies available. I will update these reports regularly together with any electricity power cuts if they occur. It is clear the main battle line against President Sarkozy's proposed pension reforms is now on the energy front. A socialist Senator stated on TV last evening that the debate in the Upper House of the French Parliament was likely to continue through the weekend. The Government continues to resist any concessions.

Strasbourg Scumbags grab an extra six per cent

MEPs voted through an extra six per cent for their budget next year, increasing UK contributions to£900 million pounds. Read the full report from Bruno Waterfield linked here. As in Osborne's supposed spending review all vested interests remain protected such as Whitehall mandarins salaries and perks, existing MP pensions etc., etc., etc., so no doubt this budget will likewise be approved by the ex-national leaders of the austerity bearing EU member states with their own eyes on what they perceive as their their own best personal interests.

EU Squadrons will most probably be the only ones to fly from Britain's new Carriers!

What a dog's dinner was yesterday's defence review! Drawing a pension, as I do, I have seen many such reviews down the years from both main parties during the long sorry decades of Britain's steady and now obviously carefully and deliberately contrived decline. Never, however, one to match the apparent intellectual vacuity or deliberate treachery of that announced yesterday! The Prime Minister, David Cameron stated the following, (see Hansard from this link): There is only one thing worse than spending money you don't have, and that is buying the wrong things with it-and doing so in the wrong way. The carriers they ordered were unable to work effectively with our key defence partners, the United States or France. They had failed to plan so carriers and planes would arrive at the same time. They ordered the more expensive and less capable version of the joint strike fighter to fly off the carriers. And they signed contracts, so we were left in a situation where even cancelling the second carrier would actually cost more than to build it. [Interruption.] I have this in written confirmation from BAE Systems. 1) It beggars belief that the USA, other than in emergency situations would choose to land their aircraft on our carriers given their own large fleet. Is the Prime Minister suggesting the ships will be interoperable for both French and all the many US planes some of which are Harrier versions, which he himself yesterday scrapped! 2) The French are as bankrupt as ourselves, but wisely decided to cancel their two carriers - furthermore we have few joint strategic interests with the French. 3) If he has the evidence he states from BAE systems then he has proof of what appears clear treason in an obvious attempt to bind the hands of any administration following that of Gordon Brown the effect of which has been to further impoverish the nation (as if Brown had not gone far enough in that direction already given his economic incompetence or deliberate neglect). There is only one so-called ally of Britain with the economic muscle to finance the jet fighters that might be able to fly from these carriers and that is Germany. Even Cameron appeared reluctant to give words to this truth, therefore his bleatings about planes from France and the USA. In view of such sensibilities the planes will no doubt be labelled as EU squadrons as no doubt will the crews who man the ships. It seems unlikely that officers trained in the tradition of the Royal Navy at the Britannia Royal Navy College in Dartmouth would be prepared to mount the kind of internal dissent suppression missions that the shadowy figures behind the EU are likely to require of these ships, their jet fighters and presumably Chinook delivered EU Rapid Action storm troopers able to put ashore at short notice anywhere near the austerity weary coastal regions of the centralised and de-democratised EU. In view of the cuts in other surface ships the proud days of Britannia College in Dartmouth must also therefore seem surely numbered. German Professor Markus Kerber, of the University of Berlin, with views with which I concur on the economy but not the direction of the EU, on a recent debate in Paris on the France 24 TV Debate programme gave a good insight into the lust for military might that now exists within Germany. We must question why and unite to defeat the new EU Treaty proposed by EU President Van Rompuy this week with the very short 2013 deadline and immediate endorsement from Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy meeting with the Russian President at Deauville, read here. The debate referred to in the last paragraph above may be watched from this link. The comment on the Aircraft Carriers is at 11 minutes 30 seconds into part 2 of the debate.

RN Flagship HMS Ark Royal sunk with all its aircraft!

The traitors within Britain's Parliament have conspired with the enemies of the nation within the EU to sink the Royal Navy's flagship and all its aircraft. More on the defence cuts after the traitor Cameron speaks in Parliament at three thirty London time this afternoon.

The deep anger behind the French strikes

The media in France and abroad talk of the present protests and strikes in the country as being directed against a perfectly reasonable sounding requirement for an increase in the retirement age from 60 to 62 years. It would be unlikely for the french oil refinery workers to have shut down all 12 of the nation's refineries and put their hands round the jugular of the nation's oil product distribution if such were the case. On TV interviews the reality of 41.5/42 years full contributions are stated as unfair by students facing a working life only beginning at 24 or 25 years of age. Unskilled workers, some of whom claim to have started a life of hard manual labour as young as 15, complain they will now be expected to continue their drudgery until they reach 62. Contrast this with the vast army of paper pushing fonctionaires many of whom after a life of pen-pushing will still expect to draw their own privileged pensions at the age of 55. High among the list of other grudges is the annual withdrawal of more and more routine medications once paid for by the state. Yesterday an example of this health cost factor arrived in the mail, it advised that a tax of 50 centimes would be imposed on every sheet of paper churned out by the hugely bureaucratic health administration, this came from a mutuelle (health insurer) offering to insure against this extra cost. English speakers may best imagine the effect of such a move by considering their tax authorities slapping a 50 pence or 75 cents charge for each page of paperwork they issue then accompanying their tax forms, in future required monthly, with a 500 increasing to 2000 pages completion explanation all charged and taxed to the unfortunate recipient. It smacks of the kind of scheme dreamt up by Brown or Darling for the entire benefit of their Scots constituents at the sole expense of the English taxpayer! In the background, however, and always just beneath the surface in most conversations here along the Atlantic seaboard and from there, well inland into the heart of France, is the corruption of the Government, clearly involving the very minister chosen to push the reforms through and the treachery of both main poltical parties over the EU whose own budget appears about to be increased, an event which will surely be the final straw in many other parts of the EU now watching as France quite literally runs down! The voters of France clearly rejected, by referendum, any further EU Constitutional Treaty, yet such was signed and enacted as the Lisbon Treaty. At the subsequent Presidential election, neither candidate, neither Nicolas Sarkozy nor Ségolène Royale, offered a platform respecting the clearly stated 'NO MORE EU' views of the electorate. How entrenched is the EU in france? Pretty much totally, to illustrate this fact let me point out something that few english speaking people seem to know, the replacement for Ségolène Royale, as First Secretary of the French Socialists, is none other than the daughter of Jacques Delors, known under her married name of Martine Aubry, by such means are the EU familydynasties planned to be formed! Thus if Sarkozy goes what we get is Jacques Delors Mark II! Sarkozy appeared alongside Angela Merkel on French TV last evening and his body language shouted defeat, pleading to the French to accept his reforms as the Germans had already enacted the same rules hardly seemed the soundest argument. Asserting that democracy should not permit the kind of demonstrations France will witness again today, as Sarkozy jerkily attempted last evening, is similarly unconvincing in a situation where he and his EU Council colleagues and his own Presidential forerunners have thrown all of Europe's democracy to the wolves, thus hardly seems likely to cut much ice either! Amusingly the Belgian sausage dachsund Van Rompuy chose the same moment to announce for his mysterious comptrollers that a solution for the economic governance of the EU in the future had been found, such were the words that scrolled along the TV screen. What is meant of course, as always in the EU, is that a form of words had been found to which all the corrupt attendees at the meeting could agree in time to depart for some grand and expensive tax payer funded dinner - the chance of it ever achieving any kind of solution being as distant as any chance of ever re-floating the Titanic.

Is Galileo really just an EU Big Brother in Space?

I have been wondering of late why every rural road in the region where I live in South West France has been adorned with large white numbers counting the distance at every kilometre between nowhere of any significance and somewhere else of similar unimportance or even just another similarly strangely numbered junction with another such previously pleasant and unspoiled country road. Open Europe has published some research on the always pointless seeming EU Galileo space satellite project, linked here. Let's face it the US system has been in existence for years, worked splendidly without fail for my own transatlantic navigations on my yacht and during subsequent coastal water cruising and seems perfectly adequate for similar car navigation systems widely in use today. Mary Ellen Synon in her own blog on the topic raises other interesting points as always and that is linked here. What seems unmentioned is the Big Brother capabilities of the system, could this be an explanation for all those numbers on the roads? Does the EU now wish to monitor even every movement we make in our daily lives, nothing about this monstrous EU project would come as a complete surprise anymore, but surely these fears of mine are absurd? But are they, why else are the numbers flat to the sky rather than vertical for ease of view by the traveller, such as on old mile posts?

Incumbent Politicians are the biggest threat to Britain!

Cyberthreats and terrorism we are told by the hopeless Home Secretary this morning are the main threats to Britain. What nonsense! As in Nevada, where a Granny has publicly challenged the accumulated wealth of the senior sitting Senator, it is the incumbent politicians everywhere in our degraded and run down democracies whose wrecked economies give evidence of the consequences of their self-motivated greed. In the UK it is the leaders of our three main parties who side-stepped the promised referendum and handed our democracy to foreigners while rigging the housing market to maximise their own returns most likely as a direct consequence of the quirk in the parliamentary expense regime whereby they nearly all were allowed to aquire two houses at the public's expense. The house price bubble will soon be seen to be the true disaster it is for the nation! Incumbent politicians across the country should be made to account for every penny of their accumulated assets, if they cannot do so their pensions should be forfeit and in the worst cases long jail sentences should follow. Follow the detail of the cuts to be announced this week and carefully consider, did the IRA or any other terrorist ever inflict such damage upon our economy? Are cyber terrorists ever likely to be able to do so much harm? Real poverty is coming to ordinary families as a result of the nation's wealth having been sent at huge discounts across the Channel. Cyber attacks are a pure diversionary tactic by the guilty swindlers presently sitting in Parliament. Read one such typical propaganda report from here.

Gotthard Underpassed! A feat unlikely to be quickly surpassed.

The breakthrough video may be viewed on this link with a report here. The definitive work on the massive importance of the St Gotthard Pass and its influence on Europe's history was published in its English translation from the German original in 1979, it was titled "The Gotthard Switzerland's Lifeline" and was written by Arthur Wys, who in his introduction stated the following: "Hardly any other traffic route has had such a marked and lasting political and state establishing effect as this, the most central of all passages across the Alps. The Gotthard was not merely the place where the Confederation came into being, it was the main reason for its creation. Although hewn by Nature as a watershed and cultural frontier, it has served for centuries not to separate the peoples on its two sides but to unite them in both purpose and action. Not only for Switzerland but for the whole of Europe, the Gotthard has become one of the most important and unifying international transit routes." If true as it was in 1980, when the first road tunnel high above today's completed tunnel first opened, how much more so has that become today. Soon no longer will the lorries have to crawl to great heights, spewing diesel fumes along the way, to risk the elements and dangers of the fantastically engineered N2 as it snakes its way through the treacherous Alpine valleys. The Swiss Confederation, the Confederation Helvetique (more correctly translated into English as Celtic Confederation) is alone responsible for this great achievement. Switzerland with its direct democracy, regular referenda and independent-minded cantons proudly illustrates how a nation with four different languages can stand as one when bound by democracy. A shining example of the way ahead for all Europeans, deliberately ignored by the founding fathers of the corrupt and non-democratic EU, the disastrous economic effects of whose ambition and self-serving greed we are only just beginning to properly perceive today. Europeans are fortunate that we have a nation such as Switzerland at our Continent's heart, shining as a beacon in proof of what free peoples, when working together, can voluntarily achieve and steadfastly remaining apart from the disaster that is engulfing all around them. Details of the technological marvel that is the Alp Transit may be found here.

Cameron and Osborne out-Foxed on Defence?

Much of the mainstream media has been suggesting a triumph for the Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox, in avoiding even more massive defence cuts. Initial reports appear fairly encouraging that we will retain a reasonable hard core of battle hardened and Afghanistan/Iraq wearied troops to provide the basis for both training a new conscript army to handle the coming chaos from the crumbling of the EU and acting as the backstop to Authority in bringing all the political traitors responsible for bringing Britain to its knees since Edward Heath first blaized the trail to proper account for their self-serving and now clearly treacherous actions. Perhaps Dr Fox has shown the necessary mettle to be a leader in the Coalition Cabinet for the 30/40 Conservative backbenchers who last week demonstrated that there are at last a few MPs now in Parliament who are prepared to bring to a halt to the further bleeding of our national wealth to the corrupt and unaccountable EU whose main member states now have control of all our basic utilities and whose major multinational companies have driven ours to the wall such as in the case of Portland Cement. This blog, that thrust itself into the defence debate (here and the reply here) will hold off sending congratulations to the Defence and Foreign Secretaries following a full and proper review of the details of future defence commitments after Tuesday's publication date. Are we really proposing to finance and run aircraft carriers for French and German aircraft to pursue their possibly potentially colonialist ambitions in Africa for example? A sobering thought for a Sunday!

France slowly grinds to a halt.

As pipeline deliveries of aviation fuel to the airports of Paris are halted from the strike ridden refineries and panic buying of petrol, diesel and LPG hit the service stations all across France those who have brought the former nations of the EU to their economic knees and destroyed their democracies will do well to pause for thought. Le Figaro report in french linked here. As I described in my novel Millennium Blitzkrieg, written way back in the mid to late nineteen nineties, it is those who can control the supplies of energy to our sophisticated societies who will have the final say as to their social arrangements. And where are the bloated self-serving troughers who have grown fat, idle and complacent from their disastrous EU experiment? Well many of them this week have been on a "training" beanfeast in five star hotels in Madeira, read here. Meantime the centre for any hope for Europe has once again returned to the Continent's heart deep in the Alps, upon which topic and the Swiss democratic model I will once again have much more to say during the course of this weekend.

Parliamentary Sovereignty and William Hague MP

I believe it timely to repeat a posting of 17th January 2008 on Parliamentary Sovereignty together with two very pertinent comments it attracted:

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Parliamentary Supremacy

I have been sent a copy of the following email sent by Denis Cooper to a recipient in the UK Parliament the contents of which are self-explanatory and of supreme importance: Quote Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 12:18 PM Subject: Declaration 17 annexed to the Treaty of Lisbon Dear, I wish to draw your attention to Declaration 17 annexed to the Final Act of the Lisbon Treaty, page C306/256 here: Link which asserts a legal doctrine which is fundamentally incompatible with the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. It starts: "The Conference recalls that, in accordance with well settled case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Treaties and the law adopted by the Union on the basis of the Treaties have primacy over the law of Member States, under the conditions laid down by the said case law." and then reproduces an Opinion from the Council Legal Service: "It results from the case-law of the Court of Justice that primacy of EC law is a cornerstone principle of Community law. According to the Court, this principle is inherent to the specific nature of the European Community. At the time of the first judgment of this established case law (Costa/ENEL,15 July 1964, Case 6/641 (1)) there was no mention of primacy in the treaty. It is still the case today. The fact that the principle of primacy will not be included in the future treaty shall not in any way change the existence of the principle and the existing case-law of the Court of Justice." "(1) "It follows (…) that the law stemming from the treaty, an independent source of law, could not, because of its special and original nature, be overridden by domestic legal provisions, however framed, without being deprived of its character as Community law and without the legal basis of the Community itself being called into question."’" In my view the Conservative party should propose an amendment to the European Union (Amendment) Bill to explicitly repudiate this Declaration, asserting that notwithstanding the EU treaties and EU laws, and the doctrine of the European Court of Justice, the British Parliament remains the supreme law-making body for the United Kingdom, and giving a crystal clear direction to British courts that they must continue to uphold the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy. If this is not done, then if at some point in the future MPs decided that they could not accept a particular EU law passed by qualified majority voting, or a particular EU decision agreed by Ministers without the prior approval of Parliament, or a particular judgement of the Court of Justice interpreting and/or extending EU law, and accordingly passed legislation contrary to that EU law or decision or judgement, they could find that British judges declared their new law to be invalid, ruling that the British Parliament had irrevocably surrendered its legislative supremacy by endorsing Declaration 17. I do not see how any MP can assume that such circumstances would never arise, and nor do I see how the present MPs can take it upon themselves to put at serious risk the future legislative supremacy of the Parliament of the British people, by default, and without the knowledge and consent of the British people. An amendment along the lines I suggest would avoid any possible doubt developing in the minds of British judges, making it clear to them that despite Declaration 17 annexed to the Lisbon Treaty they must continue to rank the will of the British Parliament above the will of the European Court of Justice, and they must continue to observe the long-established principle that no Parliament can bind its successors, by means of an international treaty or by any other mechanism. Therefore I urge you to put it to your colleagues that the Conservatives should table such an amendment. Yours etc Unquote Explanatory background to this email was provided as follows: Quote

For clarity, the primacy claim was imbedded in the previous Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe as Article I-6:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/dat/12004V/htm/C2004310EN.01001101.htm

"The Constitution and law adopted by the institutions of the Union in exercising competences conferred on it shall have primacy over the law of the Member States."

plus there was Declaration 1:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/dat/12004V/htm/C2004310EN.01042001.htm

"The Conference notes that Article I-6 reflects existing case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Communities and of the Court of First Instance."

To disarm critics, the transparent primacy claim of Article I-6 of the previous Treaty has been removed, and relegated to Declaration 17 annexed to the Final Act of the Lisbon Treaty, page C306/256 here:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:306:0231:0271:EN:PDF

On the one hand, from the federalists' point of view this has the merit of disguising the claim. On the other hand, whereas Article I-6 was an integral part of the previous Treaty, Declaration 17 is a non-binding political declaration attached to the Treaty of Lisbon, and potentially therefore it can also be detached from the Treaty.

The federalists' objective is to induce the national legislature in each member state to endorse Declaration 17, perhaps unwittingly, in the expectation that the judges within that state would subsequently conclude that the legislature had resigned its legislative supremacy, effectively transferring its sovereignty to the ECJ as the final arbiter of the EU treaties and EU laws.

If that ploy was successful, in our case the consequence would be that British judges would no longer accept the doctrine of the legislative supremacy of the British Parliament, but would instead accept the doctrine of the primacy of EU treaties and laws, as warned by Martin Howe QC in his 2003 booklet "A Constitution For Europe: A Legal Assessment of the Draft Treaty".

Howe explains that across the EU national courts have rejected the primacy claim made by the ECJ, and the reason the primacy Article I-6 (or I-10 at the time of writing) was put in the previous Treaty was that "the draft Treaty is attempting to prevail over and reverse these national decisions". He later writes:

"... Parliament will have enacted Art I-10 [renumbered as I-6 in the final text], which states that the Constitution and European laws have primacy over national laws. This would give rise to an argument that by doing so, Parliament has abolished its own supremacy."

"... the present judicially approved view is that Parliament lacks the power to take this step because it cannot fetter its own sovereignty or deprive itself of the right to repeal the Act. However, the doctrine of the supremacy of Parliament is not written in stone, but rests on continued judicial acceptance of its validity."

"It is on this kind of fundamental question that a drift of judicial opinion can occur over time"

This is why I believe that the Conservatives should table what is really a modest amendment to the European Union (Amendment) Bill, repudiating Declaration 17, asserting the continuing supremacy of Parliament notwithstanding the EU treaties, and issuing a clear direction to British courts that they should continue to uphold the supremacy of Parliament notwithstanding the EU treaties.

For those who haven't already seen it, this is the letter I sent to my MP ......... about this. I suggest that anybody else who has a Conservative MP should send a similar letter. Unquote

2 Comments:

Grahnlaw said...

Martin, your friend seems to have the facts right (although I disagree with his attitude and conclusions), as you would know, having commented on my posting on the EU Treaty of Lisbon: Court of Justice, http://grahnlaw.blogspot.com/2008/01/eu-treaty-of-lisbon-court-of-justice.html But, there is always cause to think about the legally and practically feasible options, before commencing action. The primacy of EC law is well settled in law. I do not see that any member state could unilaterally renounce its obligations under the treaties and the 'acquis' while continuing to be a member. Crudely put, a country can play according to the rules on the inside or by its own rules on the outside. There you have the choice, as far as I understand.

11:00 AM

Martin said...

A reply forwarded from Denis Cooper: Your blog does not allow anonymous comments, and I seem to have mislaid my username and password. The following is the comment I would have posted, if I had been able to do so: grahnlaw writes that: "The primacy of EC law is well settled in law". He means, it is well settled in the case law of the European Court of Justice, as stated in Declaration 17. However, as that Declaration also makes clear, the principle of primacy was not mentioned in the founding Treaty of Rome, and nor has it been mentioned in any subsequent Treaty ratified by the British Parliament. So far it is no more than a legal doctrine devised and advanced by the European Court of Justice, but repeatedly rejected by national courts across the EU. For example, in his judgement on the "Metric Martyrs" case Lord Justice Laws upheld the continuing legislative supremacy of the British Parliament, stating that British courts would recognise the validity of laws passed by Parliament even if they contravened EU treaties or laws - the sole proviso being that it must be clear that the contravention was intentional, not accidental. However if Parliament fails to repudiate Declaration 17 British judges could easily come to a different view in the future, concluding that by accepting the EU's primacy claim Parliament had irrevocably surrendered its own legislative supremacy. This is not a matter of "a country can play according to the rules on the inside or by its own rules on the outside". It is the essential difference between: a) A sovereign state endeavouring to act in good faith towards its counter-parties, by fulfilling its "international obligations" as far as that is possible and tolerable, and its sovereign legislature giving appropriate directions to its judiciary, and b) A non-sovereign state accepting that its judiciary will accept directions from the European Court of Justice irrespective of the position taken by its legislature. As the European Court of Justice is the final arbiter of the EU treaties and laws, effectively the British Parliament is being asked to agree that its sovereignty will be transferred to the lawyers at that Court, at their behest.

4:39 PM

A European Triumph that shames the EU

EU free, democratic and independent Switzerland today shames the monolithic, non-productive and accomplishment-free EU by breaking through the last section of the 35 mile long, very, very deep tunnel that slices under the Alps to provide the greatest transport breakthrough the European Continent has ever accomplished. Read one report from the BBC, linked here, hopefully better-informed and more technological coverage will be available on the web during the course of today. We congratulate the Swiss on thus showing the true spirit of communality that the members of the self-serving EU cannot even begin to contemplate!

252 MPS become self-proclaimed Traitors

On Wednesday evening there was a debate in the House of Commons on the coming EU budget for 2011. Read here. An amendment was proposed as follows:

Amendment proposed: (b), leave out from 'the financial year 2011' to end and add

'is concerned at the above-inflation increase being made to Britain's EU budget contribution; believes that, at a time when the Government is poised to make reductions in public spending elsewhere, it is wrong to increase that contribution; and calls on the Government to reduce Britain's EU budget contribution'. -(Mr. Carswell.)

This was defeated by 252 votes to 42. Those MPs who voted 'No' to this amendment, or contrived not to vote at all, will in due course (perhaps starting from next week, when the true scope of the cuts Britain faces will begin to be revealed) be brought to account by those who must eventually return Governance and our national revenues to this country. Among the 42 MPs who voted for the amendment, may we Britons at last detect the formation of a rump reaching a number that could eventually bring the EU subservient Coalition Government down, especially given the realitythat the spendthrift EU now controls most aspects of our national lives even at this point of near bankruptcy. Their proud names are listed below:

Name	Constituency	Party	Vote
Steven Baker	Wycombe	Con	aye
John Baron	Basildon and Billericay	Con	aye
Guto Bebb	Aberconwy	Con	aye
Andrew Bingham	High Peak	Con	aye
Brian Binley	Northampton South	Con	aye
Bob Blackman	Harrow East	Con	aye
Peter Bone	Wellingborough	Con	tellaye
Douglas Carswell	Clacton	Con	aye
Christopher Chope	Christchurch	Con	aye
James Clappison	Hertsmere	Con	aye
Geoffrey Cox	Torridge and West Devon	Con	aye
David Davis	Haltemprice and Howden	Con	aye
Nick de Bois	Enfield North	Con	aye
Caroline Dinenage	Gosport	Con	aye
George Eustice	Camborne and Redruth	Con	aye
Zac Goldsmith	Richmond Park	Con	aye
Robert Halfon	Harlow	Con	aye
Chris Heaton-Harris	Daventry	Con	aye
Gordon Henderson	Sittingbourne and Sheppey	Con	aye
Philip Hollobone	Kettering	Con	tellaye
Pauline Latham	Mid Derbyshire	Con	aye
Julian Lewis	New Forest East	Con	aye
Anne Main	St Albans	Con	aye
Jason McCartney	Colne Valley	Con	aye
Karl McCartney	Lincoln	Con	aye
Stephen Mosley	City of Chester	Con	aye
David Nuttall	Bury North	Con	aye
Andrew Percy	Brigg and Goole	Con	aye
Mark Reckless	Rochester and Strood	Con	aye
John Redwood	Wokingham	Con	aye
Simon Reevell	Dewsbury	Con	aye
Andrew Stephenson	Pendle	Con	aye
Bob Stewart	Beckenham	Con	aye
Graham Stuart	Beverley and Holderness	Con	aye
Andrew Turner	Isle of Wight	Con	aye
Martin Vickers	Cleethorpes	Con	aye
Charles Walker	Broxbourne	Con	aye

Nigel Dodds	Belfast North	DUP	aye
Jeffrey M Donaldson	Lagan Valley	DUP	aye
John Cryer	Leyton and Wanstead	Lab	aye
Ian Davidson	Glasgow South West	Lab	aye
Kelvin Hopkins	Luton North	Lab	aye
Dennis Skinner	Bolsover	Lab	aye
Gisela Stuart	Birmingham, Edgbaston	Lab	aye

The craven scum whot voted against the amendment are named on this link.

Clegg seeks to crush our unwritten Constitution.

The Guardian reports Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister of the Coalition Government led by David Cameron, as stating to a Committee of the House of Lords: Clegg said: "It's a combination of providing a length of time with which people are familiar and which allows governments at least maybe four of those five years ... to get on with governing properly for the benefit of the country, combined with taking away from the executive this ability to capriciously time the election for nothing more than political self-interest" Parliament can dismiss any government when it ceases to command a majority in the House of Commons. It is not a perogative of the so-called "executive" whatever Clegg intends that to mean. The Prime Minister of the day, normally controlling the majority of MPs has the right to request the Monarch to allow the calling of a general election as he/she chooses. If the two party leaders, joined together within a coalition agreement, choose to commit their two parties to working together for the maximum period remaining between elections that is a matter purely for them and their own party MPs. Should signatories to such a coalition pact be replaced by, or no longer command the support of, their MPs then any new Party Leader may determine he no longer wishes to support the coalition in votes on the floor of the House of Commons and in the event of a subsequent loss of majority support by the Government in such a vote the Monarch would be obliged to call a general election. What Clegg claims is therefore dangerous nonsense and the House of Lords should not be holding any kind of hearing on this topic.

Summarizing the causes of the coming Eurocurrency Crash

The full article on how to profit from the disaster aimed at Forex Traders, linked here, has this interesting summary of Europe's mess: European governments have spent the last few decades constructing their current mountain of sovereign and structural debt to afford their citizens a quality of life previously unknown. This process was encouraged by private companies and investors, post-war and post-coup reconciliation efforts, a rapid market deregulation process which followed the end of the Cold War, and an unrealistic optimism which added to the recent housing bubble, including a culture which looked unfavorably on market skepticism. Now, after the bubble popped and markets came crashing down, the solution seems to be to create a massive bailout pool which countries can access in times of need, and simply pay it off later, with interest. In other words, they can enter more debt, but to a different source. Americans know this process as paying off one credit card with another, which doesn't actually pay off the debt; it merely changes the recipient of the repayments. The obvious critique is to point out this fact and push actively for economic and political reforms instead of bailouts, which is what countries like Slovakia and Germany are doing, much to the chagrin of PIIGS. On the reverse side, the argument has been made, and is being pushed for by many of the struggling economies, that without such a bailout their economies will come crashing down and be pushed into default. If such an event occurs, it creates the very contagion (the Black Debt) that the euro zone wanted so desperately to prevent due to the interconnected nature of the regional economies. Once one country defaults, it can't repay loans to another that may also be at risk of default, and so on; creating, in theory, a deadly domino effect that brings the whole region down and kills the euro.

EU Commission thwarted in North Sea oil grab

The refreshing report of a temporary blockage of non-stop EU expansionism is reported here.

Is the Euro now indestructible?

Iain Martin writes well and interestingly for the Wall Street Journal on Europe, but I would question this statement in his column this week: Several other things now seem relatively clear after the sovereign-debt crisis and the bailout that followed. First, barring an unforeseen explosion, the common currency isn't going to come apart. Any country leaving would have its debts denominated in euros. If it tried to relaunch its own currency it would sink like a stone, its debts increasing dramatically. Such a country would be incapable of funding itself on the markets. And many of those left out of pocket in the resulting disaster would be bondholders in institutions in Germany or France. That will not appeal. These members are locked together. The clear logic of this prediction is that Germany will set the rules for the economic practices of the former states now using the euro currency. The smaller countries' politicians will be inclined to accept this as they are all part of the disgusting self-serving EU gravy train (see my posting of this lunchtime on the Strasbourg Cesspit Blog, linked here). The people of the eurogroup will not voluntarily do so. The general reluctance across the EU to give any political party the reins of power in their neutered parliaments (witness Belgium, Holland, Sweden and the UK) reflects the unacceptability of present trends for the electorates of these countries. Widespread strikes are further evidence of the disgust of ordinary people at the corrupt norm in politics along lines which seem to mirror the EU's own internal, closed doors corruption. If the leading powers of the eurogroup are prepared to enforce their Teutonic mandated economic strictures by the dispatching of their troops to the streets of foreign capitals, then Mr Martin's statement could become true, but if ordinary Germans prove reluctant to return to a role where brute force becomes the sole economic arbiter across the continent, then withdrawal from the EU with a refusal to wear the particular mantle of riot-geared bankroller and enforcer to the feckless could see a German withdrawal from the common euro currency and shortly thereafter its speedy death. An outcome made more likely by another error in Iain Martin's column; the presumption that the sovereign debt crisis in Europe is over, whereas in fact it is only just beginning as my posting eaerlier today on the growing crisis in Portugal makes perfectly clear.

Portugal set to join growing list of EU ex-states without stable government.

Euractiv has the report which is linked here. The destructive nature of the EU which advances by eviscerating the institutions of its member states is about to claim another victim, this time in Portugal, a quote from the linked report:

"We have never been as close to a political crisis in terms of having a budget rejected," said Marina Costa Lobo, a political analyst at the University of Lisbon.

Prime Minister José Socrates has said he would resign if the budget is not passed - a step which would almost certainly trigger sharp selling of Portuguese bonds as investors doubt the country's ability to fix its deepening sovereign debt crisis.

CPI vs. RPI - Google to the Rescue

If there are many like myself who have worried over recent times at the way different indices offer varying ideas on the true direction of our doomed economy, the news that Google will monitor price rises based on online sales actually made will come as something of a relief. The report is linked from here. Can politicians be trusted in any area of life? The evidence everyday seems to mount that they can neither be trusted on prior promises nor on policies and that such doubts must soon extend to their control of the national statistics upon which their present deliberate wealth destroying policies are based. The deliberate manipulation of statistics, if not already a fact, must pretty surely be soon on its way. When Google's inflation index has become a measure of trust, will our politics have been so reformed that politicians could be once again trusted to ensure that Google is kept honest? More on the change from RPI to CPI from The Independent, linked here.

French Strikes

The French website offering information on the multiple strikes today in France. The site transalted into English states "Site actually unavailable - The team of Strikes Info offer a pleasant holiday and invite you to find us again soon, same channel, same time." Says it all really! Actual information on the now sometimes open-ended strikes is here.

Let EU spending surge!

There is an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph this morning. It is written by Philip Johnston and is linked from here, it reports on the ever rising EU budget and points out that as everywhere else across Europe cuts are in progress, the greedy, insular and blinkered filth who run the EU demand ever more funds for their entirely pointless, wasteful and now happily certainly doomed project. Open the spending taps and let them splurge as they will! Only thus, it seems, might the anger of the brainwashed, disenfranchised and idiotic people of Europe see the ghastliness and corruption in their midst, which their neglect of their democracies has allowed to take form. Another view, written by John Lichfield, on possible alternative futures for the EU is in The Independent this morning, linked here. An interesting quote: They do not envisage (yet) dismantling the binding treaty rules which underpin the single European market. Or the Euro. Or the EU budget. Or the Common Agricultural Policy.

"Voluntary" Renegotiation of Previously Binding Contracts.

My posting of yesterday, immediately beneath this, reports that the Irish are to seek "agreement by consent" to a change in the conditions of the terms under which certain senior debt is held by some of Ireland's financial institutions. A devious way of stating the first step on the slippery downwards slide towards sovereign default is about to be taken. I have some experience of the consequences of so-called "voluntary" renegotiating contracts previously considered inviolable if not indeed sacrosanct. I regret a little detailed historical background is required for readers some decades later to understand the enormity of the events described. In the post WWII years, world crude oil supplies were controlled by the seven "major" oil companies. These seven, sometimes known as the seven sisters, (five American, one British and one Anglo-Dutch) determined which new supplies be brought on stream and when to ensure adequate supply at fixed prices. In order to meet the desire of the larger oil producing states around the Persian/Arabian Gulf to have their national income grow at a reasonable rate, the major oil companies, unwilling to offer any price increases, committed to increasing their liftings from the main producing countries at an annual rate of six per cent. (It is interesting to note, as a complete digression from my main point in this explanation, that these cheap and growing supplies of fixed price energy particularly aided the nations of Europe, the six Common Market Club members of which were at that time typically involved in endless quarrels over butter mountains, wine lakes and other pointless one upmanship and beggar my neighbour point scoring which they continue to this day. Economic growth was actually fuelled by all this fixed price oil flooding into the market, the paricular US major by which I was employed to seek homes for such supplies expanded its refining base in the late sixties in Europe from two to five oil refineries). Such a cosy arrangement did not, of course, suit everyone; Colonel Gadaffi in Libya for one fumed at having large reservoirs of light, low sulphur crude oil locked beneath his deserts yet tantalisingly close to the lucrative European markets. Gadaffi brought in smaller but nevertheless international US oil companies (known as independents, typified by Occidental and Conoco) to develop his reserves and bring them to market. Once these new supplies came on stream he bagan to apply pressure to hike the prices, which the independents found difficult to resist given the large investments they had already made in production and export facilities. The majors in an attempt to stiffen resistance to Gadaffi offered the independents alternative supply arrangements. These, of necessity were in the middle east, requiring massive additional transportation to reach their markets in Europe. Occidental, anticipating an exercise of such safety net arrangements, went on to the tanker charter market and contracted significant numbers of tankers at premium rates. Although tanker charters were not handled on the Baltic Exchange, the renowned philosophy belonging to that institution "my word is my bond" held true, and Charter Parties once agreed could up to that point never be renegotiated. As oil prices began to rise, in contradiction of normal market rules, because it was becoming increasingly difficult to find a home for the annual six per cent oil production increases, the safety net offered to Occidental was no longer needed and Oxy had no need for or proper employment for the chartered tonnage. The company's founder Armand Hammer (Arm and Hammer?) determined that the charters would be re-negotiated and that was effected. Concurrently fixed price oil contracts could no longer be honoured at the new higher prices, sovereign oil producing states in the West who should have known better, such as the UK and Norway, enforced changes to their Oil Licence and Production Agreements to capitalize on the higher price, as they justified it, to share in the "windfall" profits. Honesty in contract law became history in energy related industries (although resistance to renegotiating Charter Parties was fought for by some until the mid-nineteen-eighties) thus the seeds of the deep slump, for which Margaret Thatcher is still blamed by certain fools to this day, took root. If Ireland proceeds to gain consent for changing the terms under which its banks foolishly borrowed money, there can be no calculating the consequences. Feeding greed never pays as can be seen, I believe, in the consequences of the events I describe above.

Ireland hints at negotiating a bond "haircut"

According to a report last evening from the FT by John Murray Brown in Dublin and David Oakley in London, published: October 6 2010 22:31, Ireland has given the first indication that it may look for a voluntary renegotiation of senior bond debt owed by its two state-owned banks in a bid to recoup part of the cost of its $70 billion bank bail-out that it announced last week.

Matthew Elderfield, the financial regulator, reportedly told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday the government had made clear it would not impose losses on senior bondholders at Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide building society. “However, this does not rule out the possibility of some negotiations or a liquidity management exercise agreed by consent.” Link.

Weep for England!

The following is from a report in The Guardian, linked here:

A teenager has been jailed for four months for refusing to give police the password to his computer.

Oliver Drage, 19, of Freckleton, Lancs, had originally been arrested in May last year by a team of officers from Blackpool tackling child sexual exploitation. His computer was seized but officers could not access material stored on it as it was protected by a sophisticated 50-character encryption password.

Drage, who worked in a fast food shop, was then formally requested to disclose the password but failed to do so. He was convicted after a trial last month of failing to disclose an encryption key, an offence covered by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

Yesterday at Preston crown court he was sentenced to 16 weeks in a young offenders institution.

Det Sergeant Neil Fowler, of Lancashire Police, said: "Drage was previously of good character so the immediate custodial sentence handed down by the judge in this case shows just how seriously the courts take this kind of offence." (Blog editor's emphasis). So let us be clear about this situation, the police suspect this youth may have underage obscene images on his computer but cannot prove it, but he is nevertheless jailed for not providing them with access. In years gone by if he had been suspected of burying such possibly incriminating evidence could he then have been jailed for not disclosing the location of the burial site? Is it me or has the world gone crazy? The police then seem to be using his previous good character to somehow exagerate the supposed seriousness of his non-proven offence!