Newsletter March/April 2010

FROM THE SECRETARY:

The first Monday in May is the May Day Bank Holiday so our next branch meeting will be on the SECOND Monday, i.e. the 10th at the Angel Community Centre as usual.

We will have had the Council election by then, possibly the Parliamentary one as well. DON’T FORGET TO VOTE.

Evelyn Rolph - Branch Secretary

Edmonton/Bush Hill Park hustings
Bush Hill Park Residents Association have invited our candidates to two separate Question & Answer Forums (hustings), both to be held at the Bush Hill Park Bowls, Tennis & Social Club in Abbey Road, BHP from 8pm to 10pm (doors open 7.30). The COUNCIL forum will be on Wednesday, 7th April and the PARLIAMENTARY one will be the following Wednesday, 14th April. Gwyneth will be representing UKIP at the Council (Bush Hill Park) forum and Roy at the Parliamentary (Edmonton) one. Please come along if you can and support our candidates.

House of Lords
Labour will pledge in its election manifesto to scrap the House of Lords and replace it with an elected senate. More than 700 years of tradition would come to an end.

Greece
Greece has raised taxes and cut public services which has resulted in riots on the streets. The EU have agreed that if necessary Greece can borrow money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and eurozone countries in equal shares. They had originally refused to borrow from the IMF as it would have been an admission that the euro was not strong enough to stand alone. France and Germany want to set up a European Monetary Fund (EMF) which would lend money to eurozone countries in much the same way as the IMF lends worldwide.

Sale of the family silver
*The German state-controlled train group Deutsche Bahn and the French transport firm SNCF are both interested in buying our bus and train group Arriva.

*Manganese Bronze, maker of London’s iconic black cabs, has been sold to Chinese auto group, Geely, which is proposing to shift production of bodies and chassis from Coventry to Shanghai.

*Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev. who already owns the Evening Standard, has bought the Independent newspaper.

*Canadian firm Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has bought Camelot (the Lottery operator) for £389million.

Falklands
The budget for protecting the Falkland Islands has fallen by 50% in 6 years, from £143 million to £69 million at a time when Argentina is sabre-rattling again.

Day-to-day news from March

1st - The German Constitutional Court has rejected the EU-backed data retention law that demands mobile phone companies and internet servers keep our records and has demanded that data already stored be destroyed “without delay”. The Swedes have not yet implemented the directive and feel they were right to wait as it might be revised.

2nd - Jean-Luc Dehaene, Vice-Chairman of the EU Budget Committee has said that “we should open the discussion on direct funding for the EU”, suggesting that instruments to combat climate change present an opportunity to do that.

EU MEPs voted for a so-called “Tobin Tax” on transactions between banks. The new tax, which will be levied directly by Brussels, will take a proportion of the profit made every time European banks engage in a transaction with each other. Needless to say, our UKIP MEPs voted against the new tax.

3rd - The EU has said its competition law means it would be illegal for the British Government to allow UK sports fans to reserve a portion of the Olympic tickets which will instead be distributed amongst EU countries by ballot. This didn’t happen when the Olympics were held in Greece. In addition the Greek games in 2004 received subsidies from the EU which are being denied Britain.

3rd - In February I reported that two British businessmen had flown to Budapest under the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) in the belief that their court case was ready to be heard and instead were thrown into prison. I am happy to say they have been released (but without any explanation) and flown home.

3rd - The EU is opening talks on free trade agreements with Singapore and Vietnam. This is what Britain should have entered into in the first place! India is re-considering a planned free trade agreement with the EU because of excessive EU requirements on social criteria.

4th - The EU is using the present economic crisis to grab more power from the nation states. It wants to set up an “economic government” which would decide tax and spending plans for all 27 EU countries. If in place it would sign off, or even overrule, our Budget. It would need a treaty change so another chance for a referendum but Britain can be outvoted if the other 26 countries agree. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that an incoming Conservative government would not be allowed to use new treaty negotiations to ask for powers to be returned to Britain.

4th - The first “pay-as-you-throw” rubbish scheme is to be launched this year, raising fears of nationwide bin taxes. The trial scheme is being held in Bristol City.

8th - Using the powers given to it under the Lisbon Treaty, the EU is planning to set up a European Public Prosecutor (EPP). The UK wants to opt out of this plan and the EPP would be unable to bring cases in this country but could still issue EAWs to force UK citizens to face prosecution in another member state. The Government’s opt-out in justice and home affairs is a totally inadequate safeguard for the UK’s criminal and justice system.

8th - Due to a change in EU regulations, immigrants from the 8 Eastern European countries will be able to claim benefits after having lived in Britain for 3 months. Previously immigrants had to have worked in the UK for a year before being able to claim state help. Eastern European women living in Britain are flying home to give birth to their babies but are claiming the cost from the NHS under EU rules adopted in 2007. Last year this scheme cost Britain £2 million.

9th - The Tories, Labour and Lib. Dems. are all agreed that Turkey should join the EU. This would give the 74 million Turks the right to move to Britain.

10th - Pub landlord, Nick Hogan, the first to be jailed for allowing people to smoke in his bar, was sentenced to 6 months but was released after his £10,000 fine was paid by local donations. He is now putting his name forward as UKIP candidate in Chorley.

12th - Following the death of an English man after a German doctor with poor English accidentally gave him an overdose of diamorphine, the General Medical Council wanted all foreign doctors to have a check on their language skills but this has been declared illegal by the EU. Doctors from Commonwealth countries, who usually speak English as a first language, face far more stringent tests than Continental ones.

15th - The EU wants to take away the right of suspects to translators when facing criminal investigations abroad under the EAW. The UK government is actually supporting this suggestion.

16th - The USA proposed a ban on the international trade in polar bear products such as bearskin rugs which Britain wanted to back but Britain had to vote as part of an EU bloc which decided to reject the deal.

16th - The EU has warned Gordon Brown that he must cut the UK’s budget deficit. At the same time, the EU has more than doubled our net contribution to the EU budget. This is partly because of Tony Blair giving up in 2005 part of the rebate won by Margaret Thatcher and partly because we have to pay in euros and the pound is weak against the euro at the present time.

Tony Blair gave up part of our rebate in exchange for a review of the Common Agricultural Policy. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has threatened a new political war over plans to cut EU farm subsidies, the large majority of which go to French farmers.

17th - The vote on the EU’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive to regulate hedge funds and private equity firms has been postponed until after the British General Election after “a last minute intervention” by Gordon Brown. The Directive, if passed in its current form, could cost the EU economy 9.2 billion euros in lost tax revenues. At least 80% of the hedge fund industry is based in London but could have a dramatic effect on Guernsey and Jersey which are not part of the EU.

18th - Mephedrone is a drug linked to recent deaths in the UK and Ireland. A ban on it cannot be fast-tracked because there are a number of EU directives that have to be complied with and we must give 3 months’ notice to the EU. The Irish have already done this and the drug will cease to be legal in Ireland after June, but the UK government is dithering.

18th - A Roman Catholic adoption agency has won a legal fight to keep its Christian rules saying children should not be sent to live with gay couples, even though this is against EU anti-discrimination legislation.

18th - The Government has suggested that bus passes for Over 60s could be replaced with ID cards.

19th - The EU’s plan to curb the dosage of vitamin and mineral pills could lead to 4,000 job losses and force 700 health food stores to shut. France and Germany are pushng to allow only low-dose levels of vitamins and minerals to be used in food supplements and have warned that the UK will be outvoted in the final decision.

19th - The EU wants to relax the regulations on pets travelling between member states, which would involve abandoning controls for rabies, tapeworms and ticks.

23rd - Draft figures for the next EU parliament budget show that each MEP will cost taxpayers £2.1 million next year with the parliament’s overall budget rising by 6.5%. Everyone else must tighten their belts but not them.

29th - Labour and the Conservatives are believed to be in favour of moving clocks permanently forward by an hour, bringing the country in line with much of the rest of Europe. [It would please the French who have always been jealous of the 0º longitude line going through Greenwich and world time being measured from Greenwich Mean Time. - Ed].