UK Independence Party
Enfield & Haringey Branch
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FROM THE SECRETARY:
Thank goodness the election is over! All that remains now is for me to complete the 132 pages of expenses forms and hand them in to Enfield Electoral Registration Office by Friday, 11th June.
Madge has gone to the National Pensioners Convention in Blackpool and we hope she has a good time by the seaside after her election efforts.
Evelyn Rolph - Branch Secretary
General Election
You don’t need me to tell you that the Conservatives won 308 seats, Labour 258 and the Lib.Dems 57 and that we now have a coalition parliament. I’m not happy about having the Lib.Dems in power as their policies on the EU are diametrically opposed to those of UKIP.
Many of the Tory manifesto promises will have to be watered down to accommodate the Lib.Dems. The Conservatives have dropped their pledge to try and gain a full opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights and to repatriate social and employment policy. They have also dropped their pledge for an opt-out from justice and home affairs, instead saying that they will approach any new legislation in criminal justice, and whether or not to opt-in, on a case-by-case basis.
One of the first laws to be passed by the new government is the scrapping of ID cards, which will save more than £1bn over the next decade. A total of £257m has been ploughed into the project but only 15,000 have been issued, making each one cost £17,133.33.
EU news
The papers this month have been full of the problems of the eurozone in general and Greece in particular. The end result has been that the EU and the IMF have lent Greece 110 billion euros (£95bn) of which Germany has contributed 8.4bn euros (7.3bn) in the first year. The prudent Germans are not happy about having to bail out the profligate Greeks especially as the Lisbon Treaty ruled out one country having to bail out another except in the event of a natural disaster or other exceptional event beyond its control.
The Greek austerity measures include:
-an increase in the retirement age from 53 to 67;
-Government workers to lose annual bonuses worth an extra two months’ pay;
-10% tax rise on alcohol, cigarettes and petrol;
-3-year wage freeze in the public sector;
-Early retirement will be limited or abolished altogether;
-VAT increase from 21% to 23%.
In addition, the EU has set up a two-part package worth 640bn euros, designed to support eurozone countries with liquidity problems and preventing the EU debt crisis spreading further. The European Central Bank (ECB) announced it would buy eurozone government debt even though this is against EU rules too. The whole aid package is a clear breach of the EU treaties. Britain’s 5 big banks hold an estimated £40bn of Greek, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian government debt so Britain could be seriously out-of-pocket if any of these countries default on their repayments.
Spain has had its credit rating downgraded from AAA to AA+.
Andrew Symeou
This Enfield student, who was extradited to Greece in July 2009 under the European Arrest Warrant, has been told that his trial will begin on 4th July.
New rules to encourage EU migrants
New EU regulations came into force on 1st May that are designed “to make life easier for Europeans on the move.” They are intended to help job-seekers and pensioners by providing “guarantees that rights in the area of sickness insurance, pensions, unemployment and family benefits are preserved in the event of moving within Europe. As well as workers and their families, it now covers people who are currently out of work, not yet in work or no longer working, so more people will benefit.”
Day-to-day news from May
4th - EU Commissioners have sworn a formal oath “pledging to act independently of national governments and to respect the EU’s treaties. They also swore for the first time to respect the Charter of Fundamental Rights, reflecting the legal status the Charter now has under the Treaty of Lisbon.”
6th - Support for the euro in Poland fell below 50%, according to a survey by the Warsaw School of Economics.
6th - The EU Parliament has approved its accounts for 2008 but critical points brought up by Green MEP Bart Staes have been deleted.
13th - 44% of Germans want to abolish the euro and reintroduce the Mark and 38% of French want to go back to the Franc.
13th - Turkey is having second thoughts about joining the EU.
13th - The 500 euro note (£426) has been withdrawn from circulation in Britain because 9 in 10 are used in illegal activity.
14th - Fears that the euro is heading for collapse have prompted panic buying of gold coins and bars.
14th - The proposed bank transaction tax would raise 321.3bn euros per year in Europe, with 204.4bn coming from the UK, 43.3bn from Germany and 18.8bn from France. (See 2nd March for details). The money will be paid into a central EU pot and used to wind up failing banks but the UK government wants to keep the money to use on any domestic policies it chooses.
15th - A new X-ray scanner was unveiled last month as part of a £15bn investment in UK border controls in Calais but the French have now banned its use in case the radiation damages the health of illegal immigrants hiding in lorries.
18th - Chancellor George Osborne was outvoted by other EU finance ministers who approved the EU’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive which will regulate private equity and hedge funds. The UK hosts about 80% of the European hedge fund industry and the directive could cause serious damage to the UK’s economy.
The EU Economic Affairs Committee has put forward proposals to set up a European Super Regulator to control the activities of banks across the EU. We can’t afford to let the EU hijack our banking industry as well as our hedge fund industry. The EU’s response to any sort of crisis is more regulation.
18th - The euro fell to its lowest level against the dollar in four years over fears of its rescue package.
19th - In spite of the threat to the eurozone, the ECB has commenced building a new 850bn euro headquarters along Frankfurt’s Main River. In addition, the EU Parliament has agreed to provide all 736 MEPs with iPads costing £500 each even though they recently provided them all with state-of-the-art laptops.
24th - Britain’s rat population is likely to rise after EU bureacrats produced a draft regulation to govern the number and type of rat killers that can be used across the EU.
27th - Two UKIP MEPs have vowed to do everything in their power to secure the release of Garry Mann from a Portuguese jail. He was accused of taking part in a riot in Portugal during the Euro 2004 football championship. He was arrested under the European Arrest Warrant (which you will remember was introduced to speed up the arrest of terrorists), was given only 5 minutes to speak to a lawyer before appearing in court which was held in Portuguese, and was sentenced to 2 years in prison.
27th - The Unions are fighting the French government over the proposed plans to increase the state retirement age from 60. The EU Commission has suggested that all EU workers should work to 70.
28th - Eleven EU member states have agreed to set common rules for divorce law under enhanced cooperation measures in the Lisbon Treaty.
28th - The Commission has proposed that Albania and Bosnia be extended rights for visa-free travel to the EU.