March 2008

Welcome to our newsletter. I hope you will find it interesting and informative. I am always open to suggestions if you think I can improve it in any way.

Evelyn Rolph, Branch Secretary

Postcards to the Queen

Thank you to all members who requested more postcards to hand to friends and relatives. I still have a few of the old style ones left.

GLA and London Mayor elections 1st May 2008

Thank you, too, to all members who willingly signed Gerard Batten’s nomination forms. These have now been handed in; also Brian’s nomination form for the GLA constituency seat.

The Independence and Democracy Group of the European Parliament, to which our UKIP MEPs belong, has paid for 500,000 leaflets supporting Gerard, and Enfield has been allotted 32,000 of these. It was decided to hand deliver these in the wards which got the most UKIP votes at the last GLA/London Mayor election in 2004, i.e. Chase, Enfield Highway, Enfield Lock, Turkey Street, Jubilee and Southbury. If you live in one of these wards and have not received a leaflet, please let me know. We won’t be delivering any leaflets bearing Brian’s name but we must constantly put the name of UKIP under the noses of voters. I have some of the octopus cards we could put through doors.

When you go to vote on 1st May, you will receive 3 voting papers; one for London Mayor (our candidate is Gerard Batten); one for the super constituency of Enfield/Haringey (Brian Hall) and one for the London-wide GLA members (you vote for the Party - UKIP).

Bush Hill Park Residents Association hustings

The BHPRA has invited all the parties putting up candidates for the GLA to attend a Question and Answer Forum on Thursday, 17th April 8-10pm at the Bowls Tennis and Social Club in Abbey Road, Bush Hill Park (quite close to BHP railway station). Please come and give Brian your support.

EU Treaty/Constitution

Wednesday, 5th March. As expected, Parliament ratified this but it still has to be accepted by the House of Lords. Fred and I watched the final day’s debate on TV and were disgusted that only about 40 MPs bothered to attend but they all poured in at the last minute to vote. Parliament voted against having a referendum by 311 votes to 248. 29 Labour and 13 Lib. Dem. MPs voted with the Tories for a referendum. This will go down in history as the day British MPs decided en masse to break their word to the people and surrendered our national independence.

However, things are not going as smoothly on the Continent as the politicians would like. The opposition Law and Justice party in Poland is threatening to deprive the Polish government of the two-thirds parliamentary majority it requires to approve the ratification. The Poles want the Lisbon Treaty to be amended so that Polish law takes primacy over EU law! They also fear the Lisbon Treaty could allow Germany to claim back lands that Poland was granted after WW2 to compensate it for the Polish land annexed by the Soviet Union. Poland may now hold a referendum.

The Aland Islands, part of Finland, are threatening to reject the Treaty if the EU does not allow them to continue to sell snuff on board their ships. There is an EU-wide ban on snuff although Sweden has an opt out. The islands voted separately from Finland on joining the EU in 1995 and managed to secure an exemption from the EU’s VAT rules, allowing tax-free shopping on ships sailing between Finland and Sweden.

Fishing

The Scottish National Party pressed for an amendment to restore responsibility for fishing to national control but this was rejected (on 26th Feb) in Westminster by 285 votes to 175. English fishermen are facing extinction in the face of strict EU quotas.

EU Parliament

The Strasbourg building of the European Parliament, which stands empty for more than 300 days of the year, is set to be extended just 10 years after it was built. The cost of building work to enlarge the staff canteen is estimated at £500,000.

The EU and you: How the EU affects everyday life

We found this very informative booklet (19 pages) issued by Open Europe on www.openeurope.org.uk/ research/euandyou.pdf. If you have a computer, we recommend you download and read this. There is a section on why Post Offices are closing and we have sent a copy to Monty Meth of the Enfield Over 50s Forum who was very cynical when it was pointed out to him that the closures are part of the EU’s privatisation programme.

Day-to-day news

5th Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair wants to extend the huge British DNA database to cover the whole of the EU.

6th Pickfords, the removal firm, which has had its headquarters in Enfield since the 17th century, has been sold to a European removal company called Team.

14th Peter Mandelson had announced that he would not seek a second term as an EU commissioner but it seems he has had a change of mind. Gordon Brown has said there was no chance of Mr. Mandelson being reappointed.

17th Campaigners in the UK want to ban additives which trigger hyperactive behaviour in children but the EU have refused to allow this. Manufacturers thus have no incentive to remove suspect additives.

18th The Government is planning to set up rubbish collection boards which would take over the running of dustcarts, wheelie bins and municipal tips from borough councils. They will be given the right to set rubbish charges; the first unelected state bodies in modern times to get direct powers to raise their own taxes. They would not be answerable to voters.

21st Carnival parades across Britain have been hit by EU directive EC/561/2006 which affects volunteer float drivers. Truckers now have to log private miles on tachographs in a bid to stop them being overworked. If they drive a float on a Saturday, they would be banned from getting behind the wheel again until Tuesday, leaving their employers without staff on a Monday.

This same directive is affecting bus routes which are more than 30 miles long. After 30 miles, bus drivers have to order their passengers off the bus, change the route number and invite passengers to get back on after buying a fresh ticket. It’s the same bus driver so I don’t know what this achieves. Long distance coach firms are exempt but bus firms face huge costs to change their status.

24th The price of minced meat is likely to go up owing to EU rules. In some EU countries a dish with raw mince called steak tartare is popular. The EU says such raw dishes must be produced within 6 days of slaughter. UK butchers like to store beef to improve the flavour of the best bits, then mince the rest. Now they will have to throw away the rest. Mince has always been a cheap cut for poorer families.

24th It is estimated that as many as 65,000 Poles will be eligible to vote in the election for the London Mayor and Assembly. It will be the first British election to give such significant muscle to Poles.

28th French president Nicolas Sarkozy praised Gordon Brown for his “courage and loyalty” in forcing through the Lisbon Treaty without giving British people a say.

29th Alister Darling’s Budget shows that Britain’s contribution to the EU will almost double in the year 2008-2009 because of Tony Blair’s give-away of part of our hard-won rebate.

29th The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee has shown that each migrant boosts the UK’s economy by only 58p per week. The Government still insists that migration contributed £6bn to the economy in 2006.

30th The EU has decreed that 15% of all energy should come from renewable sources by 2020 but The Observer newspaper says it will cost every household in the UK at least £2,000.