Newsletter December 2008/January 2009

Day-to-day news from December

1st - EU Commission President, José Manuel Barroso has said that “people who matter in Britain are currently thinking about” membership of the euro. The Treasury has a Euro Preparations Unit and £43 million had been spent on the project up to 2004.

1st - Until now doctors retired and not working continued to be listed on the Medical Register without paying the annual retention fee of £400. The EU has said that this is age discrimination and that all doctors must be treated the same and pay the fee, whether they are retired or not.

2nd - The Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania was built by the Russians and is functioning perfectly well but the EU have insisted on it closing on 31st December 2009 because it is a Chernobyl-type plant. The plant produces 70% of Lithunania’s electricity and employs 3,000 staff who will be laid off other than those retained to decommission the two reactors. The country will then be dependent on Russian energy supplies.

2nd - Hamish Howitt, a Blackpool publican, has had his pub landlord’s licence revoked for allowing people to smoke on his premises. The French have totally ignored the EU smoking ban.

3rd - Figures released by the Treasury show that Britain’s contributions to the EU are set to treble following a failed deal to cut European farm subsidies. Tony Blair’s agreement in 2005 to cut the size of the UK’s annual rebate was supposed to be matched by cuts in CAP subsidies but France is trying to protect the CAP from reform in negotiations to be held in 2009.

3rd - Conservative MP Mark Harper introduced a Bill, the European Union (Transparency) Bill which would have shown the origins of new laws and the extent to which laws brought before Parliament are a result of EU decisions. The Government whipped its MPs to vote it down. Even Government Ministers turned out to oppose the Bill.

4th - The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, not to be confused with the EU Court of Justice, has told the British Government that it must delete the DNA records of innocent people including 40,000 children.

4th - The 26 other EU countries can now access our database of sensitive personal information including DNA, fingerprints and driver registration. This is backed by the European Arrest Warrant, which provides for speedy extradition to other EU countries.

5th - The Dalai Lama spoke at the EU Parliament in Brussels. He was disappointed to hear that the British Government had changed its 94-year-old policy towards Tibet just 6 weeks earlier. Before we did not recognise Chinese sovereignty but now, Mr. Milliband says, “We regard Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China.” Our policy has changed so that it is now the same as the official EU line.

7th - The EU is so worried that the Parliamentary elections in June will show how unpopular the EU is, it has put aside £27.5 million for a publicity campaign aimed at persuading people to vote.

7th - Three big chemical companies have warned Gordon Brown that if he signs up to the EU cuts in carbon emissions, they will move abroad with the loss of 600,000 jobs.

7th - Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, estimates that 100,000 German jobs are threatened if heavy industry is forced to pay for permits to pollute and has proposed that heavy industry gets 80% of its permits for free. She will not accept decisions on climate protection that will “endanger jobs or investments in Germany. I will provide for that.”

7th - The EU’s climate change agenda will result in tens of billions of pounds in extra costs for the utilities which will certainly be passed on in the electricity prices.

8th - Ireland is set to be offered a series of concessions in return for staging another vote on the Lisbon Treaty in sensitive areas such as tax and abortion. It will also retain the right to name an EU Commissioner. The vote is likely to take place in the autumn 2009 and the Treaty will come into force in January 2010. It is believed that the EU have told Gordon Brown not to call a General Election in Britain before then because the Tories have promised a referendum once they get into power which the EU knows it will lose.

8th - Jack Straw has admitted that the Human Rights Act, which he piloted through the Commons ten years ago, is a “villains’ charter” and needs to be reformed.

9th - Housing Minister Margaret Beckett has decided the tighten HIPs rules by making them available to a buyer earlier and even more complicated with the addition of a six-page questionnaire. The housing market is on its knees and Labour’s response is to make it more difficult to sell your home.

11th - Declan Ganley has announced that his Libertas party will contest the EU Parliament elections in the UK and other EU countries as well as in Ireland.

11th - Germany has mocked Gordon Brown’s financial rescue package, accusing him of “tossing around billions” of pounds.

15th - Peter Mandelson wants to go ahead with part privatisation of the remainder of the Post Office but Labour MPs and trade unions fear it would lead to job losses.

17th - The EU has finally given up its struggle to force Britain to give up its pints and miles. It will also permit the use of imperial units for all other purposes, such as sales of fruit and vegetables and meat, provided traders use “dual labelling” by supplying metric units alongside.

18th - Do you remember Gordon Brown agreeing to accept EU rules on temporary workers receiving the same benefits as permanent staff in return for British workers having an opt out on the 48 hour week? The EU Parliament (including 13 Labour MEPs) have voted by a large majority to scrap the opt out in 2011. People who choose to work extra hours to help pay off their mortgage or other debts will no longer be able to.

19th - The pound fell to yet another new low against the euro, prompting fears that the two currencies will reach parity within days.

19th - In spite of rising unemployment in Britain, the Government are giving work visas to 21,250 more Bulgarian and Romanian workers this year to pick crops.

19th - UKIP peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch asked in the House of Lords how many Britons had been extradited under the European Arrest Warrant. He was told 203 British citizens had been arrested and 101 had been surrendered to other EU member states:
2004 - 12 arrests, 5 surrenders
2005 - 42 arrests, 11 surrenders
2006 - 49 arrests, 26 surrenders
2007 - 62 arrests, 27 surrenders
2008 (up to 30th September) - 38 arrests, 32 surrenders.

23rd - In Italy, Spain and Portugal wolves are an endangered species so Brussels has imposed an EU-wide wolf hunting ban. This has created a problem in Finland where wild reindeer are being decimated by an expanding wolf population.

23rd - The EU has approved EDF’s purchase of British Energy on condition it sells the gas-fired Sutton Bridge and the coal-fired Eggborough power stations. German owned E.ON is interested in buying.

27th - The EU is spending £2.3 billion a year on pro-Brussels propaganda. Britain squanders £200 million of taxpayers’ cash on promotional material or funding groups that extol the benefits of a “United States of Europe.”

30th - A report by the Environment Agency said there is a severe shortage of water in England and Wales. In the south east 10 million people have less water available per head than those living in Egypt and Morocco.

31st - Gas supplies to Britain are at risk after Russia threatened to cut supplies to Ukraine. The Russian gas pipeline to the west passes through Ukraine and previous shutdowns have caused chaos across Europe.