UK Independence Party
Enfield & Haringey Branch
|
|
Home | Contacts & Links | Events | FAQ | Join Us | Policies | Newsletter Archive
FROM THE SECRETARY:
PLEASE NOTE - Our May meeting will be held on Monday, 11th May as the first Monday in the month is a bank holiday.
Evelyn Rolph - Branch Secretary
Lisbon Treaty (EU Constitution)
Can you guess which four countries have not yet ratified the Lisbon Treaty? Obviously Ireland, the Czech Republic and Poland but did you know the other one is Germany? The results of the recent court case (see 10th February) will be announced next month. A survey in Germany found that 74% of the 3,094 people polled said that the EU “takes too many powers from Germany” and in Austria 54% of respondents said that the EU interferes too much or should not interfere at all.
The collapse of the Czech government at the end of March is almost certain to delay Czech ratification.
UKIP Trip to Brussels
Fred has just returned from a UKIP organised trip to Brussels which included the obligatory visit to the EU Parliament. He also visited the site of the Battle of Waterloo and Ypres. There are war graves cemeteries everywhere, the biggest at Tyne Cot holds 12,000 British and Commonwealth graves as well as the names of 35,000 missing which Fred found very moving. They also attended the Menin Gate ceremony. I wonder what all those poor deceased servicemen would think of Britain giving up its sovereignty to the EU?
Day-to-day news from March
1st - The EU Commission has accepted a Spanish request to designate an area of Gibraltar water as an EU environmentally sensitive site under Spain’s responsibility even though the area includes British territorial waters and had already been listed by the UK as a protected nature site nearly 3 years ago.
1st - The EU is proposing the reduction of salt levels in bread to 1 gram for every 100 grams of flour. German bakers are up in arms and refer to the ruling as “stupid interference”.
The French are upset because EU plans would allow any wine producer in Europe to blend white and red win to produce rose, rather than the nobler tradition of macerating red grapes for a few hours and bleeding off the rose-tinted liquid.
2nd - The EU has spent £24 million purchasing the Conservatives’ former headquarters in central London.
2nd - The unemployment rate in the eurozone is 8.2%, the highest for two years.
3rd - It is estimated that some 300,000 Poles have left Britain as the work dries up. The ones still here are able to claim benefits if they have worked (and paid N.I. contributions) for at least 12 months. Benefits are greater here than in Poland so it is worth their while to stay. When the Poles headed west in 2004 many of their jobs in Poland were taken by Chinese and Ukrainian workers doing jobs for less money. Now they are demanding “Polish jobs for Polish workers”.
4th - Alistair Darling has backed a proposal for a pan-EU body to monitor systemic financial risks and provide an “early warning system” but opposes the body working under the auspices of the European Central Bank.
5th - The Independence and Democracy Group of the EU, led by Nigel Farage, was invited to the Czech Republic where they were entertained by President Vaclav Klaus. Following his eurosceptic speech last month (see 20th February) Mr. Klaus had received tens of thousands of e-mails, 80% of which supported his view of the EU. The current political class does not represent the views of the people.
6th - The EU Court of Justice has ruled that Britain can keep its compulsory retirement age of 65 without falling foul of EU age discrimination directives.
9th - The Department for Communities has cut funding from a number of key programmes in order to cover fines of £250m from the EU over irregularities in monitoring EU regional aid.
9th - Albania is expected to submit an application for EU membership in June.
10th - The battle to save the traditional British pub is being stepped up by UKIP. Around 40 pubs are closing every week through a combination of over-taxing of beer, over-zealous health and safety legislation and the smoking ban. See the website www.savethepub.co.uk.
10th - Landfill Tax, imposed by the EU but gold-plated by the Labour Government, is expected to raise £1 billion this year, double the amount of 2004. From next year Britain will be fined £150 for every ton of waste sent to landfill over the EU limit. No wonder our Council Tax keeps going up!
12th - The Conservatives have confirmed that after the EU Parliament election in June they will leave the federal EPP Group and create a new one, possibly called the European Conservatives, and could include MEPs from the Czech Republic and Poland.
12th - MEPs have introduced an ‘EU classified’ category “for documents whose unauthorised disclosure could harm the interests of the European Union or its member states”, protecting top secret documents for up to 30 years. MEPs have also voted to keep their expenses secret.
12th - The EU plans to increase road tolls in Europe to control pollution and congestion.
12th - EU investigators raided the offices of French energy company EDF seeking evidence of price-fixing in the French electricity market.
13th - Having closed the Sangatte Red Cross Centre in 2002, the French Government has authorised the erection of a network of “light buildings” to provide food and showers for the many illegal immigrants waiting in Calais for the chance to sneak across the Channel to England. They are also being taught how to claim asylum once they get here. Under the 1951 Geneva Convention refugees should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach.
To add to our woes, the EU intend to extend full paid maternity leave to 18 weeks. At present, UK law entitles mothers to 90% of salary for 6 weeks, then £117 a week for 33 weeks.
15th - The Government’s top medical adviser, Sir Liam Donaldson, is proposing to introduce a minimum price for alcohol to put an end to binge drinking but Nigel Farage has said this would be unlawful under EU rules because it would make alcohol drinks the same price whether they were produced in Britain or on the Continent and do away with competitiveness.
16th - The EU has banned the terms “Miss” and “Mrs” in a new gender-neutral language pamphlet.
17th - The Government has passed a law which means that residents of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man will need a passport to get into the UK. Islanders who fall ill or have accidents in the UK will have to pay for their treatment as from 1st April.
19th - The EU’s Inspire Directive could seriously threaten the privacy of health records, requiring authorities to make private health information available to the general public.
20th - The Hungarian Prime Minister threatened he would send all his unemployed people to Britain unless the EU handed over 160 billion euros financial aid The Commission gave him a third of this sum.
20th - Nigel Farage was asked to sponsor a training strip for the Brighton-and-Hove’s Hangleton Rangers (under 10s) Football Team. Nigel duly obliged but later learned that the strip was to be burned and that the coach David Kinsell had been sacked because he had “accepted a political donation”. The shirts were only training kit and bore Nigel’s name as sponsor but no mention of UKIP. The club committee was led by a Tory member of Lewes District Council.
25th - Italian schools are to impose a 30% limit on foreigners in classes in an attempt to help integration.
25th - Gordon Brown addressed the EU Parliament, praising the EU’s achievements. This was followed by a critical speech from Nigel Farage, and then one by Conservative Daniel Hannan which has been reported in the press and attracted more than 650,000 views on Youtube. No mention of Nigel’s, of course.
25th - The Government is planning to set up a database to monitor social networking sites such as Facebook.
26th - Britain’s plans for renewable energy suffered a setback when the world’s biggest investor in wind power, Iberdrola Renewables, said that it was to cut its investment in Britain by more than 40%. We need to begin building more power capacity today if we are to avoid blackouts by 2015 when we are committed to closing old coal-fired power stations.
27th - Bulgarians farmers are angry that endemic corruption and bureaucracy are blocking their EU subsidies.
27th - The British Chamber of Commerce has found that, while the cost of regulation originating in the UK has cost business £23.4 billion since 1997, regulation drafted by the EU has cost £53.3 billion in the same period.
29th - Stuart Wheeler promised a donation of £100,000 to UKIP and said he would vote for our Party in the EU Parliament election in June and was immediately thrown out of the Conservative Party.
30th - The Taxpayers’ Alliance says that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is costing Britain £10.3 billion a year which adds £400 a year to food bills.
30th - Five years ago the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Britain’s ancient voting ban on serving prisoners is unlawful. Convicts have threatened legal action if they are not allowed to vote in the next General Election, to be held probably next spring.