The most modern form of Government

If by modern, up to date and so one we mean the most democratic that is.


Just look at the Economist's Democracy Index 2011 and one thing is very striking from those that their experts consider the most democractic.

Norway
Iceland
Denmark
Sweden
New Zealand
Australia
Switzerland
Canada
Finland
Netherlands
Luxembourg

Here are the top eleven countries in order. Nine of them are constitutional monarchies. Eight of them are European, of which five are EU members, of which only slots nine, ten and eleven are members of the single currency.

All this rather tells a tale, doesn't it? Constitutional monarchies defend people's freedoms more effectively than republics, whatever the likes of the ghastly Sir Graham Watson might think, Lib/Dem and avowed republican, might think. And the further there are away from the EU the better.

Aaronovitch rips himself a new hole

I think he is trying to be funny, but in that case he fails. David Aaronovitch, federastes superbum, has written a column today which deserves a read, (paywall).

In it he finally admits that he has lost the argument about the European Union and Britain's place in it, for which I suppose we should be grateful,

Judging by its newspapers and its politicians, the people of Britain don’t get Europe, don’t like Europe and don’t want Europe.

Interesting echoes of Farage's speech about Van Rompuy in the phrasing there.
But of course Aaronovitch then goes on to display the curdled arrogance of a disappointed man. Essentially he lives the Brechtian dictum of sacking the people.

Pro-Europeans, like him, have,

not just the battle, but the entire war.

but of course,

Without even losing the argument.

They/he is/are better than us,

we British pro-Europeans are beginning to sound more and more like Betamax enthusiasts arguing the superior merits of their systems against the unstoppable VHS tide

Oh yes, you see he and his sort are more intelligent than us, better than us, more refined than us in every way. It is just the blind stupidity of his country folk, and their dullard inattention that is the cause.

I have done my best, but nothing will persuade older Britons that the EU is not just some updated, endless episode of ’Allo ’Allo! or younger Britons to take any interest in it.

I have a message for Mr Aaronovitvh and those like him, being a believer in the European dream doesn't make you more intelligent, doesn't make you morally superior, more aware or in any way a better more rounded person. Far from it.

It makes you complicit in the economic destruction of much of Europe. It makes you happy to see the European Arrest Warrant cart away our citizens to foreign jurisdictions without any recourse to the civil liberties you trumpet elsewhere.

It makes you complacent in the field of democracy as you stand by and watch democratically elected governments usurped by a technocratic elite that will do your higher bidding.

I don't get the joke. Because it isn't funny.

Oh, and all that pap about becoming a few states of the US. Why would anybody want to do that anyway. We don't need to, we don't want to. And it would ruin the fun of liberty.

Belittling the Gods of Youtube

The BBC has been looking at the hit rates of various politicians on Youtube and has discovered something a little odd, well at least to them.

According to research conducted by the BBC - adding up the five most watched appearances by each of a series of high profile UK politicians - Mr Hannan and his fellow MEP, UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, are the two most viewed UK politicians on YouTube at the moment.

Obviously this isn't because people are eurosceptic, not at all,

According to one media expert, the popularity of the Hannan and Farage clips do not suggest YouTube users are necessarily anti-European but that they, and people in general, like "someone powerful being brought down a peg or two".

Rubbish, it is a combination of the two. Hannan's famous attack on Gordion Brown was popular in part becasue nobody in the House of Common's would have dared say such a thing, and they would have been shouted down if they dared.

Also looking at the figures they are talking about they are rather downplaying the level of coverage
For example this,

The speech in which he likened the new president of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, to a "damp rag" and claimed no-one knew who he was - a tirade for which he was later fined and forced to apologise - has been watched nearly 865,000 times.

 What they are reffering to is  the EUXTV version of the speech (today with 874,000 hits), but here is another version of the same speech, with 163,00 hits.

And of course the big daddy of them all the Auto tune version of the speech which to fate has over 3 million hits.

The European Parliament is in some ways just made for YouTube. The speeches are uninterrupted (well they look that way goven the way the microphones are set). A speaker has a set, short time to speak and that is it.

Equally the European Parliament has in recent months managed to get the videos of the speeches up online in pretty short order, pleanry speeches are downloadable now within an hour of the speeches being made (Committee speeches take a little longer).

But the bottom line here, why is it that two staunchly Eurosceptic figures with precious little access to mainstream media top the YouTube? Well what the BBC have failed to do is to look where the hits are coming from. In the case of Hannan, most are from the US where he has become a pouplar commentator. Inthe case of Farage upwards of half his hits copme from across the EU itself, where he is beggining to be seemn as the only serious voice of opposition to their own pro-European political establishments.

Yes they are both watched in the UK, far more than more mainstream politicians, and that is almost entirely due to their political prespective (and the fact that in a very dull firmanaent of political actors the two of them have oratorical skills). Why. It is simple really, the mainstream media reflects the Westminster political bubble and thuis fails to touch the population at large. It's issues are the issues of the establishment, its concerns are those of SW1 and NW1. Hanna and Farage speak to the wider public who's fears and concerns are little marked on the pages of our broadsheets and in the news rooms of our TV stations.

So it should come as no surprise that when the BBC describe Hannan and Farage as little known they fail to add the postscript, to us.

Pro-Euro Tory has an interesting view on press freedom

Bernard Geerlings is a youthful cove so maybe we should forgive him, but I am not so sure,

The press requires greater regulation in what lies and falsehoods are published. Political interpretation is a natural and desirable part of the press' function but the quality of journalism and the national interest demand that the press should be held to account where reckless lies and falsehoods are reported.

I wonder who he feels is qualified to judge what is in the national interest? Could it be people like civil servants?

Defenders of democracy must welcome increased power for a civil service and public bodies who serve the people and are accountable to the people through elected leaders.

Of course intelligent decent people agree with young Bernard,

It is no coincidence that the most educated press in the UK is euro-realist. It is also patently obvious to any student of European politics (pro or anti-European) that it is in Britain's interests at the very least to be a member of the European Union. Large sections of the press claim that it is the democratic will of the people to leave the EU. Whether or not most people want to leave the EU, this interpretation of democracy is not government for the people; it is mob rule. More than that, it is mob rule, where the mob is ruled by the media. The battle is between public servants and unknown media figures in the shadows of giant corporations.

It is all rather sad, if not worrying that this young chap displays such arrogance. Sad that he actually believes that media figures are unknown (has he never heard of bylines?) whereas in some way civil servants are accountable. Sadder still thyat he equates agreement with intelligence, and sadest of all that he is given spavce by a Tory organisation to promulgate what can only be described as deeply illiberal, controlling tendancies.

I am sure he will go far. Particularly as his organisation is supported by this lot,

Rt Hon Lord Brittan of Spennithorne QC
Rt Hon Lord Carrington KG CH KCMG MC
Rt Hon John Gummer, Lord Deben
Rt Hon Lord Heseltine of Thenford CH
Rt Hon Lord Howe of Aberavon CH QC
Rt Hon Lord Hunt of Wirral MBE
Rt Hon Lord Hurd of Westwell CH CBE
Timothy Kirkhope MEP
Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes CH
Lord Plumb of Coleshill DL
Tom Spencer
Ian Taylor MBE
Robert Walter MP

Labour are not fit to govern

hat just has to be the conclusion to make after the intervention of the new Obama, Chuka Umunna, Labour's Shadow Business Secretary. One has to wonder what British business did wrong to get the dribbling pair of St Vince and this fool as their representatives. here what words he uses when he involves himself in the 3 million jobs malarky stirred up by Roland Rudd and his cohorts in the Telegraph,

“It is crucial the UK is fully engaged in the European Union because that is the best thing for growth and British jobs. We already know, given comments which the Deputy Prime Minister and Business Secretary have made, that the Government’s detached position in Europe is detrimental to our interests. Now a significant number of business leaders, including Sir Richard Branson, have highlighted the risks the Government’s detached position poses for British businesses, warning that the Government’s failure to be fully involved in EU decision making could undermine the single market and the three million British jobs that depend on exports to the EU.

“Ministers are out of touch with British businesses because they have severely compromised their ability to fight British business’ corner in Europe. To protect the single market and continue to attract inward investment, it is now crucial the Government repairs the serious damage it has done to our influence in Europe because, as so many business people tell us, if it fails to do so it will damage British business. We need a proper plan for growth and jobs in Europe as well as here in Britain, which the Government has failed to put in place.”

Right lets put this canard to bed once and for all. The idea that 3 million jobs depend upon our membership of the European Union is bunk.

Here is the Fact Check response to it,

Given this dearth of reliable information, we are left to choose between a dated estimate of jobs benefiting from EU-wide trade, but not necessarily dependent upon EU membership, and an EC estimate of jobs created across Europe, when looking at Mr Clegg's claim. Neither supports his assertion that three million jobs "rely directly" on the EU.

Quite.

This is hokum dressed up as fiction, and this collection of the great and not so good, know it. They claim that this is based on Government figures. But as has been proven, this is not the case. The claim came from a study conducted by NIESR which while agreeing that 3 million jobs are involved in trade, did have the honesty to point out that “there is no a priori reason to suppose that many of these [jobs], if any, would be lost permanently if Britain were to leave the EU".

These people are so devoid of arguement as to dress up fiction as fact and fear as good sense. It is as if when we leave the EU, suddenly nobody would do any trade with our friends across the Channel. Tell that to the Chinese, the Americans, the Swiss and the Norwegians. Not being members of the EU, none of them ever do any business with the EU do they?

BNE is deliberately and maleavolantly dishonest, and should be revealed as such. I am one of the few people I know who will lose their job when we finally leave, and I will be delighted when that happens.

Sticks in the craw

Cathy Ashton has put this statement out about the death of Vaclav Havel,

“It was with great sadness that I learnt today of the death of Václav Havel. He was a man of immense courage, who fought for freedom and democracy in the most difficult circumstances.
Václav Havel was one of the great Europeans of his generation, who went on to become an inspirational leader of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. His name will forever be synonymous with the successful struggle for freedom in Central and Eastern Europe and the reunification of Europe.
Václav Havel's commitment to freedom was unwavering, despite great personal cost. His involvement with the Charter 77 movement was an inspiration to all those fighting for democracy
around the world.
Yet despite all his achievements, Václav Havel remained a true man of the people, a modest man whose unique sense of humour always shone through. His legacy will live on through his writing, but most of all through his extraordinary life story, which will inspire us all long into the future.I send my sincere condolences to his family and friends and the Czech people. “

Can I just remind people that in 1977, when Havel was publishing Charter 77, that great statement of the Freedom of Concience, Cathy started work at CND.

That in 1982 while he was midway through a 4 year gaol term , she was the Treasurer of that organisation.

An organisation that very publically backed the Comecon countries and would have ensured that people like Havel would be crushed for good.

She fills me with contempt.

Thank God she and her cohorts lost then, thank God that she and her cohorts will lose again.

Shame on her, if she only recognised that word.

The Great Recession

Eurofound's is an EU Agency. It is supposed to, according to its website

provide information, advice and expertise – on living and working conditions, industrial relations and managing change in Europe – for key actors in the field of EU social policy on the basis of comparative information, research and analysis.

And in the way these things work it produces documents, documents after documents, read by few and paid for by many.

However I spotted something in one that came out today,

The Great Recession has destroyed many jobs and the recovery has been shallow, with few new jobs being created. Where are new jobs going to come from?

It is describing these times of our as 'The Great Recession'. What is interesting is that it thinks that the Great Recession is over, so what pray is happening now?

Make things difficult

The Citizen's Initiative is the democratic veil thrown over the EU system by the Lisbon Treaty. Anmended and mucked around with in order to stop awkward voices being raised.

WARMING UP FOR THE CITIZENS' INITIATIVE
A CONFERENCE HOSTED BY
COMMISSION VICE-PRESIDENT
MAROŠ ŠEFČOVIČ

There is a conference about it in January


And they asking for participants. But in the way of things I cannot for the life of me work out what is all about, because I do not have  microscopes for eyes.

Sort it out, or at least read Kosmopolit's ripost to EU websites (its about the new EP one, but the point stands).

HT Quarsan

Sir Julian, the Parliament's Grand Dame exposes the paucity of Labours federastic wing

Ooo, hark her! Sir Julian Priestly the former Secretary General of The European Parliament has coughed up a piece of bile over his morning gauffre. This man risen to a devalued knighthood for his services to the cause of the EU in Britain, alongside that other great worker against our national interests, Mr Prune, the oleaginous Sir Graham Watson). Safe is his Waterloo fastness, that town redolent of the end of a previous dream of united Europe, he fires off his turgid distress. It lands, moist and quivering, on the plate that is the website of the Labour Movement for Europe.

Apparently he is not overly keen on the results of last week's European Council. But boy does he lay his disappointment on like pancake.

Even on its own terms the December EU summit plumbs new depths of government mendacity and incompetence.

Amongst his attack is the entirely inaccurate argument that Cameron has failed on his own measure,

As to our special pleading for the banks, financial services, hedge funds etc., nothing has changed. EU financial regulation is and will continue to be decided by qualified majority. There was no veto on that; there will be no veto- quite rightly because financial services regulation is part and parcel of internal market rules. The only thing that changes is that the 26 will now develop the habit of working together on the broad range of economic policy, and that the voice of the most economically liberal, free market, high finance-friendly member state will no longer be heard. One would have to be exceptionally naïve to imagine that the 26 will refrain from discussions about any aspect of EU economic and social legislation simply out of consideration for a government that has of its own free will boycotted their meetings.

He demands that Britain should have signed up to the deal, claims that we are isolated, friendless and even thinks that Milliband is in some way better (what would Ed have done? Much the same I guess). Then he blows his own arguments away. Because he would admit, surely that signing up to something that was ill-defined and not fit for purpose is pointless.

So his claim that,

Two elements needed to solve the crisis are absent; the financial firewall has been shored up a little but without any clear undertakings from the European Central Bank, which appears to have forgotten that its core task above all others must be to preserve the currency it administers. And, most importantly, growth- not merely no plan, but hardly warranting a mention at the summit. Without a plan for growth, social, industrial and infrastructure investment, there will be no sustainable strategy for tackling the debt.

rather suggests that Cameron was right not to sign up.

Of course for Sir Julian, and why be shy about your title Sir Julian, why accept the gong if you don't use it? For Sir Julian, it isn't the realities of the situation that matter, it isn't that the EUs leaders are clueless in the face of the Frankenstein's monster of a crisis that their own ambitions have unleashed upon the peoples of Europe, it is that we are not communitaire, it is that the Prime Minister did not dash up the gunwales, to stand foursquare upon the EU's sinking ship, that so riles him.

Go back to sleep Sir Julian, switch on Euronews and let nurse tuck you in. Your dreams are all to naught and your life's work is in tatters. Such a shame.

This will really annoy our Continental Friends

As we know, Standard and Poors has warned all the Eurozone countries, including the AAA pack, with a one or two tick downgrade. Now according to Zero Hedge, Moodys has been so impressed with the deal struck last week that they are threatening much the same.

As a result, the communiqué does not change our view that the crisis is in a critical, and volatile, stage, with sovereign and bank debt markets prone to acute dislocation which policymakers will find increasingly hard to contain. While our central scenario remains that the euro area will be preserved without further widespread defaults, shocks likely to materialise even under this 'positive' scenario carry negative credit and rating implications in the coming months. And the longer the incremental approach to policy persists, the greater the likelihood of more severe scenarios, including those involving multiple defaults by euro area countries and those additionally involving exits from the euro area.

Given that they are also treporting that the UK's rate is stable, how annoyed will the French and others be if despite everything they do they get a downgrade and the UK, Switzerland and Norway are the only ones not to be hit?

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By your actions you shall be judged

Yesterday's overall think piece on the BBC website highlight the Boris, Patterson wavemaking over the European Council summit is interesting. Lord they even gave Farage the pull quote in the piece.

If he lets this go on too long without there being a referendum it will wreck and destroy his government”
Nigel Farage

Which is all to the credit of Robin Brandt, who it looks as if write the piece. So far so even handed.

But then I made the error of scrolling down. The comment section is disabled after 990 comments, and by default shows you the 'Editors picks'. The editor has chosen 7 key comments to reflect the debate (closed I am sure just un time to stop it rolling over the 1000 mark).

Lets look at those picks,

805.Eddy from Waring
7th December 2011 - 16:09

The real struggle is not between a greater and lesser degree of "democracy", defined to suit whoever's agenda. It is between civic, enlightened, liberal values represented by the EU, and dark, primitive, tribal, aggressive cynicism, embodied by many of the nationalistic foamers. Again.
rate this -19

Comment number 801.
Landscape27
7th December 2011 - 16:06

Get rid of all the politicians & let the whole of the EZ inc the UK be run by technocrats. Countries use the phrase this country or that country PLC, so lets let the businessmen run them. My tongue is somewhat in my cheek, but as long as there was still some kind of recourse left to the people, why not? After all we have a politician with a degree in geography, would business people do any worse?
rate this -13

Comment number 151.
sledger10
7th December 2011 - 8:51

To be honest - the way things are going I could not rule out the UK joining the Eurozone and adopting the Euro!
As the old saying goes - "if you can't beat them, join them."
The UK is very weak now compared to what it was even as much as 10 years ago and certainly in the last 3 years we have dropped like a stone - yet Germany, France, Netherlands and others have strong economies.
rate this -101
Comment number 150.
Jimmyarchbold
7th December 2011 - 8:50

The overwhelming factor in preserving British interests is the survival of the Euro. Eurozone fiscal union with re-introduction of old currencies of member states in tandem with the use of the Euro will provide a micro-economic barometer that will provide intense focus on diverging performances and structurally significantly 'beef up' the 'Euro club'.
rate this -6

Comment number 149.
labarbe
7th December 2011 - 8:50

Let's just stop all the bickering, moaning, gnashing of teeth etc. and just get on with it! We are in the EU - for better or for worse- so our leaders should get their heads down and start working like hell to get the best out of our membership that they can. No posturing, no point-scoring, no being macho or petulant, just get working for the good of all of us in the UK, now!!
rate this +2

Comment number 144.
gorlestongirl1
7th December 2011 - 8:47

The EU discussion needs to be sorted, once and for all, referendum please.
rate this +72

Comment number 140.
anotherPen
7th December 2011 - 8:45

Whether or not the UK should “grab back” legal powers previously given to the EU is pure sophistry. There was never any need for the UK to join the EU in the first place and we can leave it whenever we wish by not paying its dues.
rate this + 88

So we have seven, of which the first 5 are pro European Union and in some cases pro Euro currency, then we have two that are anti, one just deamnding a referendum.

Looking at the public rating the anti-Euro comments are up there in the 78's 80' positive, the pro EU are negative.


It rather gives away how the editor thinks. And goes some way to explain the paucity of proper balanced comment on the BBC.

How does one cease to be eligible for a pension?

I only ask because of this odd exchange in the House of Lords. Lord Pearson has been highlighting for a while how former EU officials and Commissioners are in reciept of an EU pension that has as part of its conditions a rule about not annoying the EU, or indeed harming its interests (though the way they are going that should disqualify almost everyone working in the Berlyamont now).

Any how he asked about our dear Deputy PM, for of course not only was Mr Clegg a fornmer MEP, (whose pension is not covered by the rule) but he was also a member of Leon Brittan's cabinet, and was thus an official (whose pensions are covered by the rule).

So he asked in November the following

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Nick Clegg, receives a pension from the European Commission; and, if so, what is the annual amount of that pension, and whether the terms of that pension constrain his actions.

OK simple enough. To which Lord MCnally answered,

The Deputy Prime Minister does not receive a pension from the European Commission.

Well of course he doesn't thinks Lord P. He is still wet behind the ears, the guy won't hit pensionable age for decades. Lord P tried again, and the story gets, dare I say, odder,

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord McNally on 15 November (WA 140), whether the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Nick Clegg, is eligible to receive a pension from the European Commission; if so, when that pension will become payable; what will be its annual amount; and whether the terms of that pension constrain his actions.

Stop wriggling dammit and answer the question.
The answer came back

Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Whip, House of Lords; Liberal Democrat)

The Deputy Prime Minister is no longer eligible to receive a pension from the European Commission.

Eh? No longer. So he was, and now he isn't? And when did he decide to forego that pension, and why?

Farage is 'archaic and jingoistic' but right

The newish Euro webzine Next Europe is finding life pretty tough. It loves the EU but even it must admit that, well, not everything is rosy.

It is pantomime season in the UK and everyone’s favourite Eurosceptic panto villain, Nigel Farage, has been doing his very best to capitalise on the current crisis in the EU. In a recent address to the European Parliament, Farage continued his attack on EU President Herman Van Rompuy calling him the noisy assassin of nation-state democracy. Amongst his archaic and jingoistic rhetoric Farage managed to articulate one interesting point regarding the unelected nature of some European leaders and now national leaders in the case of Italy.

Interesting range of aggressive epithets towards Farage

Archaic: Of, relating to, or characteristic of a much earlier, often more primitive period.
Jingoistic: Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism.
Rhetoric: Language that is elaborate, pretentious, insincere, or intellectually vacuous

So it is pretty clear that Mr Farage isn't your favourite in the Parliament of Fools that is the Strasbourg assembly. But despite this you grudgingly accept that he has a point. The current actions of the European elite are indeed, or at least certainly look like an affront to representative democracy.

As a matter of interest, what is archaic about believing that governments should be chosen by their electorates? What is jingoistic about thinking that it is perfectly reasonable that a country decides how it governs itself and with whom it trades and interacts? (In UKIP's case we wish to trade and interact with the whole world and not be constrained by the EU). If you wish to see 'chauvanistic patriotism', then can I suggest you look at the words of the partisans of the European Union, who become daily more shrill and dogmatic in their belief that nothing, not referenda, not people, not government's not anybody or anything can stop the march to a single entity called Europe.

And rhetoric? It is otherwise called public speaking, or shall I say oratory - a less loaded word, and embarrasingly to those who wish him ill, Mr Farage seems to do it better than those he opposes in the European Parliament.

And as the archaic, no doubt jingoistic and rhetorical saying goes: If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck - well it probably is a duck.

The words of the unelected Italian Defence Minister Giampaolo Di Paola that you highlight,

“The absence of political personalities in the government will help rather than hinder a solid base of support for the government in the parliament and political parties because it will remove one ground for disagreement,”

also smack of archaic rhetoric, rhetoric that would fit well into the mouth of a Mussolini or a Stalin.

More Propaganda films from the European Parliament

Just let me get this straight. Here we have the European Parliament propaganda channel EuroparlTV attempting to rewrite history.

It flags up the Hubble Telescope, the SoHo probe these are heralded, the obvious idea is that they were in some way EU inspired. The only key project that is entirely EU driven was the launch of Mars Express.

And yes the Beagle Mars Explorer. You remember the Beagle, it was a massive success according to this broadcast.

Or in reality from AFP

Beagle 2 Mars Lander Doomed From The Start

Severe organisational failures lie behind the loss of Beagle 2, the UK-lead space probe to Mars which vanished shortly before it landed on the Red Planet late last year, an official inquiry reported Monday.

Investigators were not able to place the blame on a single failure or shortcoming, an official told a press conference in London.

However such were the worries about the mission ahead of its launch that one leading member of the European Space Agency (ESA) said that he had wondered whether it might have been better cancelled.

 And remember, Europarl TV is such a good deal as was revealed this week,

A TV channel for the European Parliament, which has only 830 viewers a day, costs £7 million a year.

EuroparlTV shows parliamentary conferences and committee sittings and also educational video recordings to MEPs and staff, according to the Sun.

The channel started its operation in 2008 and so far it has cost £26 million. Most of the shows telecast on the channel are translated into 22 languages, including Irish, which is spoken by around 80,000 people.

The channel was labeled by critics as "an expensive joke" and "a propaganda tool."

Help: Can somebody translate

Just seen this invitation on the Trading Standards website

Growth and Regulation: The Only Way is Up

CIEH, in partnership with TSI and LBRO, are proud to be organising the 2012 Year Ahead Event taking place 2-3 February in Stratford-upon-Avon. The theme this year is Growth and Regulation: The Only Way is Up.
This highly reputable event plays an important role in shaping the regulatory services' agenda.

Want to have a run on the Euro?

To go with the excerable video I highlighted yesterday that has since been picked up a few places elsewhere is this pdf press kit (HT @Quarsan )


Not only is it filled with ripe absurdities like this piece of paranoia,

The folder contains open files related to this press kit as well as high- resolution images of euro banknotes and coins, images of people handling cash as well as footage on the production of euro banknotes. This material may be used for publication, but only for reports on the euro. You will be asked to sign the disclaimer to ensure appropriate use of the material.

To this,

The coins... have a European side and a national side, featuring a symbol of the respective country. As such, they subtly help people to identify more closely with the European Union, of which their country forms a part.

The single currency is a symbol of economic and monetary integration. It facilitates business generally and payments for goods and services abroad specifically. The creation of the euro area in a continent as disparate as Europe is a significant achievement.  Over 330 million people now use the euro
.
Ten years on, the Eurosystem has reaped the practical benefits of having a common currency, notably in terms of the cash cycle and banknote  procurement. The benefits – as well as the lessons learnt from this broad and deep collaboration – will continue to bear fruit in the future.

To this,

Yes, you are being invited to take part in a run on the currency.

Farage on the Cameron Sarkozy talks

Via PA

UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage described Mr Cameron's visit to Paris as "part of a softening-up process by European leaders on Britain".

Mr Farage said: "We know what Sarkozy and Merkel want - a solid fiscal debt and political union. To get this, they require a treaty change.

"Cameron, however, wants to help them but does not want a UK referendum on Europe. This meeting is about trying to square that circle."

Mr Farage said the Prime Minister should use the "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" of the euro crisis to "act in British interests" by renegotiating UK relations with the EU.

"That he refuses suggests that he prefers the polite applause of Paris, Berlin and Brussels to the wishes of the British people," he added.

ECB glorifies 10 years of the Euro : Timing is everything

This video has been made at some cost (looking at the graphics) to celebrate the 10th anniversary over the Euro notes and coins by the European Central Bank. It must be noted that the comments section has been disabled - I cannot imagine why.

The disembodied voice is placed somewhere of the coast of the Azores, and the whole thing is just utterly ill timed and ill-advised. It makes the priceless observation that the notes are 'thicker in parts', bit like the Eurozone.

What I have learnt from this is that until the 1st of March Drachma are still legal in Greece.

Chaps, don't get rid of them now for God's sake, you might well need them soon enough.

Towler on tour

An article up on the Economic Voice.

Former Labour MEP demands that we sell arms to China

Glyn Ford, the former Labour MEP for the South West of England and now lobbyist for uber-schmoozy lobbyists in Brussels G+ has come out in favour of selling arms to China. I cannot see from the 2010 list of clients where this comes from but that was 11 months ago.


He suggests that they might be a little naughty at times, but you know they are all right reallty. And he has been banging their drunm quite loudly recently, see here,

Tell that to the Falun Gong, tell that to An wei Wei, tell that to the Tibetan people.

I hope they are stuffing your vile jaws with Yuan Mr Ford, and I hope you choke on them.

Ambitions writ large

My friend and your Herman Van Rompuy has been letting his ambition show again. This time to a collection of the EU diplomatic corps in Brussels,

Firstly, as regards economic convergence, we need to examine for instance whether to go beyond the so-called "sixpack" in terms of further macroeconomic surveillance, and how to strengthen the Euro Plus Pact.

Secondly, in terms of fiscal discipline, should we go further in terms of the automaticity of the sanctions provided for under the Excessive Deficit Procedure? Should we provide, in extreme cases, for further sanctions (such as a suspension of voting rights or structural funds) or power for a central authority to intervene in national budgetary procedures?

Thirdly and finally, in terms of economic union, is there a need for harmonisation in certain areas such as taxation or even some social fields? Should there be a form ofmutualisation of public debt? What further regulations are needed for the financial sector?

Make no bones about it, this is the way that the EU is thinking. Common Tax, common debt, more financial regulation and common social policies.

All this in order to achieve something with the language that takes Banker jargon to a new level,
"We have come a long way from the empty or de-credibilised tool-box I discovered when I took office two years ago"

Errr, a de-credibilised tool box?

Tin Foil Hat Alert : Masons meet EU Presidents

This event is taking place today

Amusingly the press release to go with it rather fails to mention the Masonic aspect of the whole affair.

Today Commission President José Manuel Barroso received leading representatives of philosophical and non-confessional organisations at the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels for a meeting which he co-chaired together with Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, and Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council. Participants discussed the promotion of rights and liberties in Europe's neighbourhood and in the European Union itself.

You would be none the wiser reading this now would you?
However out of 16 invitees 10 are Lodge bosses, alongs side the Humanist association.

But reading this one might be a little concerned that the Freemasons are now in it.

The representatives of philosophical and non-confessional organisations welcomed the EU’s engagement to promote and protect democratic rights and liberties inside the European Union and beyond. They expressed their readiness to work side by side with the European institutions to promote democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, human rights and social justice which are indispensable in democratic societies.

Annonymity in the Press

A letter appears today in the Wirral Globe attacking the UKIP MEP Paul Nuttal,

I SEE Euro MP Paul Nuttall was once again incensed to write in to complain about new proposed anti-smoking legislation.

It is particularly interesting to see him criticise scientific evidence, something that the UKIP party he's a member of has little regard for and often cherry picks published papers to suit its own agenda.

He objects to the statistic that second-hand smoke in the enclosed environment of a car exposes to passengers to 23 times more toxins than a smokey bar.

If we were to suppose that it were merely only ten times more toxic, I struggle to see how he could possibly find objection in policies designed to protect the vulnerable.

It is a fact that second-hand smoke is very harmful to those exposed to it, particularly children.

It is a morally reprehensible view that a smoker's "right" to smoke supersedes the right of others to breath clean air.

We can go through the arguements as to this correspondent's point (I think they are sort of accepting that the science of the BMA is dicey here, cripes even the BMA have admitted it). About the meaning of freedom and responsibility and the limits of the state.

But that isn't my point of highlighting the story. It is this,

Name and address supplied.

Eh, an anonymous attack letter in the local press?

What on earth is that about?

So I phoned the Globe and asked them what their policy was, and they told me that anybody writing to them on any subject can request annonymity.

Which is just strange.

I wonder what this correspondent feared? That Paul would rock up round to their house and blow smoke through their letter box?

Maybe the ECB should rethink that

Noticed by Annie Lowrey the economic policy reporter for the New York Times is this rather delightful competion on the ECB webpage.

Participate in the “Euro Run competition France 2011”;

It appears to me that the markets are doing just that.

The gushing ingenu

Herman Van Rompuy is off to the White House. All terribly big stuff, no doubt to see if he can persuade Obama to ban Ratings agencies or to get the Fed to come up with some cash.

But his press officer Dana is having a fit of the Pooterish flutters

@Dana_Council
Nice! The @WhiteHouse retweeted Pres. Van Rompuy @euhvr. #USEUSummit on Twitter :) http://pic.twitter.com/3uJDus2y

Aww bless.

Eurotrail: Losing the plot

I have just received an invite to an event, normal stuff on the internal mail. Of course it includes the normal cocktails at 6.30.

The event is called

THE EUROTRAIL – RE-THINKING REALITIES

It self describes thusly,

The EuroTrail - Re-thinking Realities is an ongoing project of critical reflections and action-oriented proposals about Europe’s contemporary society and public culture, related to global transitions

Eh?

So I went and had a look, and I am not much wiser.

So I probe a little deeper

During the EU-presidency trio in 2010-2011 of Spain, Belgium and Hungary, a common project has been developed to explore, in a multidisciplinary and open reflection, the emergence of Europe in a context of globalization, deterritorialization and complex cultural dynamics. Indeed, the reflection about contemporary Europe should rise above the level of issues such as identity, ethnic conflicts, the nation-state, religious tolerance and essentialist cultural values. The complexity of today’s society calls for a new input in academic, political and public thought, in order to deal with the countless less or more unpredictable events and interactions which take place in today's local and global social world. The current reality asks for a focus on interactions in multiple contexts and networks.

God it sounds like a psuedo Marxist seminar run by a student group.

Designing for bears

Really odd tweet from the European Commission this morning,

The video is here.

Weird for a number of reasons. It is insufferably twee. It is hardly what you should expect from the official twitter feed of the European Commission.

Look chaps, you are the twitter voice of a vast impersonal apparat. So keeping to bland fact based stuff is the right thing. This doesn't make you cute and human, it is inappropriate. Individual Commissioners and others within the system, yes go ahead, show your human side, but not this feed.

And then there is the content. The pay off line is this,

"Audience is feared and respected".

The problem is that we all know that you, the Commission neither fear nor respect your audience, the peoples of Europe. You hold them in disdain and contempt.

Oh no we can't

I missed this last week, but this is how the European parliament advertised the big set piece debate on European Government.

And here is the text that accompanies the image

Herman Van Rompuy

"Deepening economic union by mutualising public debt"

In his view, there are three main courses of action on the road to economic governance in the EU: strengthening economic convergence, improving fiscal discipline and deepening economic union.

And some of the methods being envisaged to carry out these actions are hard-hitting: suspension of structural funds to enforce fiscal discipline or deepening economic union by mutualising public debt between Eurozone members.

“We need fiscal discipline and economic integration focused on growth,” Van Rompuy explained, “not just to punish the sinners but also to link our policies, to demonstrate that we share a common destiny.”

And what about the issue of sovereignty in all this?

The President of the European Council tackled that question head-on: “We need to acknowledge that this means a sharing of sovereignty for all members of the eurozone.”

Deepening Economic Union by ensuring that everybody is broke.

Did he really mean that?

I ask, because from my reading Cameron is admitting that he should be holding a referendum. 

The Guardian Magazine yesterday had the Prime Minister answering a series of questions from a selection of celebrities, academics and what not. One of those asked to pose a question was Nigel Farage, who unsurprisingly asked a question about the infamous 'cast-iron guarantee".

Why do you refuse to give the British people a referendum on the EU, despite your earlier cast-iron guarantee?

So far so predictable. The answer, however is odd.

"I made a policy of having a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, and if the Lisbon treaty had been still extant at the time of government, we would have had a referendum on the Lisbon treaty. I don't believe Britain should leave the European Union, but I do believe there are powers we can retrieve from Europe to have a better balance."

Ignoring the statement of the absurd Tory policy of wishng that the EU would hand back its powers. No it is the comment,

if the Lisbon treaty had been still extant at the time of government, we would have had a referendum on the Lisbon treaty.

Errr... it is still extant.

So can we have our referendum please?

PA begins to notice UKIP

Pretty blunt stuff on last night's results last night,

TORIES BATTERED BY LIBDEMS AND UKIP

Tories crashed to a humiliating defeat in the latest council by-elections, being forced from first to third place in a south east England stronghold.
Liberal Democrat Alex Slater gained on a huge swing at Hazlemere South, Wycombe District, Buckinghamshire.
There was also a shock showing by Ukip which came from nowhere to take more than a third of the votes.

What is Liz Truss wasting our time for

I can hardly believe this, next Wednesday in the House of Commons our pointless representatives will be debating, and I kid you not,

4:30 pm - 5:00 pm: Elizabeth Truss - Government policy on the use of calculators in schools

This is wrong in conception, completion and just about everything.

What on earth is the silly woman on about. There should not be, must not be a Government policy on the use of calculators in schools.

It is none of the Government's business.

Ideally rules should be set by the teacher in the class. End of story.

(I suppose the exam board could make a rule for those taking its exams about calculator use - but that is the extent of it)

In what state regulated universe can it be possible that anybody thinks that the state has a role at such a micro level.

Go away. We don't want you sticking your piggy little noses into every bit of people's buisness.

Is it any wonder that the people of Europe hold Eurocrats in contempt

This self serving rubbish is what gets up people's noses.

Letter to the College from the Commission Staff.

Subject: The new Staff Regulations

We, the co-workers of the European Commission, are deeply worried by the risk of reducing the dynamic of the European cooperation.

In the current crisis, European countries cannot weaken their main policy and operational tool to design effective countermeasures. The European Union is the only obvious credible force because it is the only structure which can bring solutions at the same scale than the problems faced. If each country is logically preoccupied by the future of its own citizens, no Member States would be sincerely ready to go and fight alone this global battle.

In order to ensure the best possible defence, the European Union needs powerful institutions, capable of competing with the other actors challenging our socio-economic standards. In this context, we can accept to show our concrete solidarity, even if this is insignificant economically, in order to send a positive political message, but we refuse to change the working conditions of the institutions personnel in a way that would jeopardise their strength and quality of action. The quality of the human resources, which is directly related to the attractiveness of the working conditions, is essential for building a powerful and proactive Europe, capable of resisting the continuous attack of its model.

We therefore fully support the resolution adopted on 9 November by the Interinstitutional General Assembly of the personnel gathered by the Common Front of Unions and invite the College to reach a compromise with the Common Front, with a view to presenting to the legislator an agreed balanced and fair regulation, safeguarding the independence and highest quality of the European Public Function.

Or in other words, we want more pay and better perks because we the Trade Unions of the most coddled public sector workers in the Western World are the only bulwark against barbarianism - or the great unwashed public who should just shut up and pay more taxes.

What is interesting is I have had a number of requests from people within the Eurocrat world asking me to publicise this letter.

Pearson probes, HMG wriggles over the FTT

Lord Sassoon has given what looks like a pretty robust answer to UKIP peer, Lord Pearson's, question on the Financial Transaction Tax,

The Commission has put forward a proposal to introduce a financial transaction tax under Article 113 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Proposals put forward under Article 113 require unanimity in the Council of Ministers, giving the UK Government a veto over any such proposal. The Government oppose a European financial transaction tax.

In addition, the Commission has put forward a proposal under Article 311 to use revenues from its proposed financial transaction tax to part-fund the EU budget. Article 311 also requires unanimity in the Council of Ministers, giving the UK Government a veto over any such proposal. The Government oppose any new taxes to fund the EU budget.

But hold on a moment. What has the Government committed itself to. At first reading it looks like they will veto the FTT proposal, and if so there would be much breathing out in relief in the City.

But have they? I don't think so. Take a look again at what they say, and you can see that it is no such guarantee.

Essentially Lord Sasoon has said,

"We oppose the tax, we have a veto".

or in other words,

"I want to go to Brighton, I have a car". 

That the Minister would like to go to Brighton, and that he has a car is of no importance, what we want to know is if he will use his car to go to Brighton.

By not specifying his use of a car to take him to Brighton, when it would be very easy to do given he is possesion of a fine pair of wheels, one must suspect that the Government has no intention of using it. What is more, from the way that they have behaved in the past, one must come to the conclusion that they might well to go to Littlehampton instead if their continental friemnds persuade them to.

'Icebergs forrard purser?', 'Full steam ahead'

Remember this?

At times one almost has to feel pity for EU Commissioners. They are like salesmen for tape cassettes after the invention of the CD.

They have a product which everybody knows, is used to and in the past loved, but mow their are better options, more reliable and not nearly as liable to snarl up.


However ther job makes them say things they must know, when infront of their bathroom mirror are ridiculous. Their product is slowly dieing, the market is shrivelling, but they habve signed the contract and must keep on going out their trying to sell it to a world that has cottoned on that they are the past, and nothing, but nothing will ever bring the glory days back.

So it is with Commissioner Štefan Füle. He is quoted as saying,

the further expansion of the EU is a solution to the current “systematic” crisis in the EU

 He went on with his theme,

There are even politicians who have not had problems drawing lines between the current problems and expansion. That’s nonsense. Expansion is not part of the problem but a solution,”

He just doesn't get it. Those countries that want to join the EU do it for a number of reasons, not least the massive transfer of monies to them, which their taxpayers will not have to fund, and the ability to export large numbers of workers into places that have higher wages and thus reduce the cost to their own states of welfare provisions. Not something that the current populations of the EU are that happy about.

Of course this attitude of believing the impossible might stem from his personal hinterland,

Füle, 49, studied at the Charles University and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, where many of the top functionaries of the Soviet Union’s European satellite states were educated. He was a member of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1982 to 1989.

Communists were always good at believing in impossible things.

Orthography, foreign places names and affectation

One of those minor niggles that gets to my curmudgeonly heart is the fashion amongst our chattering classes to ditch tradition British/Englsih names for foriegn places with by nodding to local authenticity. It is all part of a self-destructive and tendancy, and seems to me silly. Not only that we seem to be the only country that engages in this sort of 'lowlier than thou' behaviour.

What I didn't know is that this aspect of the British cringe has been going on for years and years, indeed for well over a century.

I recently had the good fortune to find a rather fine 1907/10 edition of "With Clive in India" by G.A. Henty. And a splendid read it is,
However it is his evisceration of the affectation of changing orthography that really struck me as relevant now, and obviously then,

A word as to the orthography of the names and places. An entirely new method of spelling Indian words has lately been invented by the Indian authorities. This is no doubt more correct than the rough-and-ready orthography of the early traders, and I have therefore adopted it for all little-known places. But there are Indian names which have become household words in England, and should never be changed; and as it would be considered a gross piece of pedantry and affectation on the part of a tourist on the Continent, who should, on his return, say he had been to Genova, Firenze, and Wien, instead of Genoa, Florence, and Vienna; it is, I consider, an even worse offence to transform Arcot, Cawnpoor, and Lucknow, into Arkat, Kahnpur, and Laknao. I have tried, therefore, so far as possible, to give the names of well-known personages and places in the spelling familiar to Englishmen, while the new orthography has been elsewhere adopted.

Quite right too. The idea that the Florentines would London anything other than Londra is absurd, and rightly so.

A lso pleasantly surprising in that Henty, after rightly singing Robert Clive's military prowess over his destruction of French interests on the sub-continent, then lets rip at Clive for his financial and moral  behaviour,

The history of these intrigues is the most unpleasant feature in the life of Clive... The squadron was to have two million and a half rupees, and the same amount was to be paid for the army. Presents amounting to six millions of rupees were to be distributed between Clive, Major Kilpatrick, the governor, and the members of the council. Clive's share of these enormous sums amounted to two million, eighty thousand rupees. In those days, a rupee was worth half a crown. Never did an English officer make such a bargain for himself.

But even this is not the most dishonorable feature of the transaction. Omichund had, for some time, been kept in the dark as to what was going forward; but, obtaining information through his agents, he questioned Mr. Watts concerning it. The latter then informed him of the whole state of affairs, and Omichund, whose services to the English had been immense, naturally demanded a share of the plunder.

Whether or not he threatened to divulge the plot to the nabob, unless his demands were satisfied, is doubtful. At any rate, it was considered prudent to pacify him, and he was accordingly told that he should receive the sum he named. Clive, and the members of the council, however, although willing to gratify their own extortionate greed, at the expense of Meer Jaffier, determined to rob Omichund of his share. In order to do this, two copies of the treaty with Meer Jaffier were drawn up, on different coloured papers. They were exactly alike, except that, in one, the amount to be given to Omichund was entirely omitted. This was the real treaty. The other was intended to be destroyed, after being shown to a friend of Omichund, in order to convince the latter that all was straight and honorable.

All the English authorities placed their signatures to the real treaty, but Admiral Watson indignantly refused to have anything to do with the fictitious one; or to be a party, in any way, to the deceit practised on Omichund. In order to get out of the difficulty, Clive himself forged Admiral Watson's signature to the fictitious treaty.
A more disgraceful transaction was never entered into, by a body of English gentlemen... that Clive, the gallant and dashing commander, should have stooped to it, is sad, indeed.

It may be said that, to the end of his life, Clive defended his conduct in this transaction, under the excuse that Omichund was a scoundrel. The Indian was not, indeed, an estimable character. Openly, he was the friend and confidant of the nabob while, all the time, he was engaged in bribing and corrupting his officers, and in plotting with his enemies. This, however, in no way alters the facts that he rendered inestimable service to the English; and that the men who deceived and cheated him were, to the full, as greedy and grasping as himself; without, in the case of the governor and his council, having rendered any service whatever to the cause....

Hardly blind hagiography

Nevertheless, the whole of the circumstances which followed the signature of the treaty, the manner in which the unhappy youth was alternately cajoled and bullied to his ruin, the loathsome treachery in which those around him engaged, with the connivance of the English; and, lastly, the murder in cold blood, which Meer Jaffier, our creature, was allowed to perpetrate; rendered the whole transaction one of the blackest in the annals of English history.

Strong stuff.

Barroso congratulates Germany for Geography.

Ever heard of the Golden Victoria Award - me neither, though it sounds something to do with the breakfast cereal industry.


Anyhow it appears that Donald Tusk is this year's recipient of most sycophantic European. And Jose took time away from his busy schedule of dreaming up new ways to ensure that the people's of Europe have no say in the Governance of their countries to send a video congratulations.

The text is extraodinary,

Dear Donald, I congratulate you to be the European of the Year, ladies and gentlemen, I also want to congratulate Germany for having the new Poland as its neighbour country. Thank you very much.

Another recipient was that nice chap Henry Kissenger.

Very, very important people

Just been sent this link. And I can tell you know I am humbled by its appearance in my inbox,

briefings from the Senior European Experts

Oh I love that THE.

And what wisdom we get from THE Experts

Many Commonwealth countries are small and 94 per cent of population of the Commonwealth is in Africa or Asia; it is unrealistic to imagine that the other Commonwealth countries would have the capacity to trade with the UK at the level on which our economy depends.

Tiddly little countries like India...

And actually there is a growing intra-Commonwealth free trade movement, but one wouldn't expect the Senior Experts to know this.

So who are these experts?

This lot of Guilty Men

A very long spoon

Lord Myners, the former labour City Minister was on rip-roaring form last night, talking about the EU's impact on city regulation. It is quite apparent that he doesn't rate it. Particularly as it tries to shoot the canary in the mineshaft, by making life hard for the Credit Ratings agencies. First he points out that the ratings Agencies are in the peleton, not out in front,

I disagree with paragraph 22 of the committee's report, which says that credit rating agencies play a role in determining the cost to governments of borrowing. They simply do not. The realistic situation of the borrowing nation's capacity to pay determines the price it pays for credit. The thermometer does not trigger the fever. The credit rating agencies measure the likelihood of repayment. They certainly do not have any impact on the cost of credit. Again, at the risk of giving even more credit to the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, she was absolutely right in pointing to the case of France where the credit rating agencies may say one thing about the rating of that country but the pricing of its debt in the markets says something rather different in terms of differentiation between France and Germany, the quality of covenant and the capacity to honour debt obligations.

The reality is that credit rating agencies are a lagging indicator rather than a leading one. They tend to verify the market's judgment rather than to lead it.

He then shows deep suspicion of the EU's atempts to take control,

The implementation of the credit rating agency directive will be in the hands of the European Securities and Markets Authority-ESMA. This has only recently been established but is an important agency because it will exercise direct regulatory authority. I hope the Minister will correct me if I am wrong here, but I believe that ESMA has the power to overrule national regulatory agencies. In other words, the FSA is subordinate to ESMA and could not, if it wished to, introduce higher standards. ESMA has been clear that it intends to ensure that its rules are enforced uniformly across the EU and in so doing will limit the ability of individual countries to require additional measures. Mr Steven Maijoor, the chair of ESMA, was quoted in the Financial Times recently as saying that,

"we are moving toward common supervisory standards".

The regulations will not be based on the UK's "comply or explain". They will be enforced on all national regulatory agencies by ESMA. I would welcome an assurance from the Minister that he will stand up for self-determination of regulation in the UK and not allow us to be steamrollered by ESMA or any other part of the European regulatory architecture.

We saw some very flawed thinking from the European Commission on credit rating agencies-that there should be a government sponsored CRA, the banning of the publication of ratings, and the pre-approval of methodology, which implies again some process by which these become nationally recognised outcomes rather than the opinions of rather average people.

But is the words that relate to the EU Commisioner in charge, Michel Barnier, that really raise eyebrows,

I worry very much about Mr Barnier. I met Mr Barnier when he was a Minister. He came to see us at the Treasury. He came down the corridor and I was watching him. I am a great fan of art and I was rather impressed that he stopped to look at every painting. I thought this is a man with whom I share a common interest-until I realised he was actually looking at his reflection in the glass on every painting, and adjusting his hair or his toupee. This to me is a man whom we should treat with a very long spoon. I hope the Minister will take due care in working with Mr Barnier because we have been forewarned that this man intends to seek even more powers than those he announced today. He said he wants to return to the issue of censoring rating agencies. I sincerely hope that the Government and the Opposition would have no part in endorsing such an activity.

Ouch.

Typical Tory Cant on EU Financial Rules

Yesterday there was a vote in the European Parliament about the banning of 'short selling'. It is a daft idea, the wrong target and the wrong instrument but three you have it, it is the European Parliament we are talking aboutr remember.

Anyhow read the Tory party press release on the subject. They obviously think it is daft, and Syed Kamall their spokesman (who is a damn fine chap),

"This is a short-sighted ban driven by politics rather than sound economics. By banning uncovered CDS we will only encourage the creation of new, more complex and opaque, financial products.

"These proposals failed to tackle the elephant in the room, which is that those who issue CDS must have the capital to back up their obligations.

"At a time of sensitivity in sovereign debt markets, our fiddling could seriously undermine national governments' abilities to raise money by selling bonds. Investors will simply look to other markets where they still have the ability to fully hedge their investments."

So pretty firm opposition wouldn't you say. The sort of thing that will allow their friends in the City to think that they are well defended by the blue corner.

Well that is fine, until you see how the Tories voted. Only Hannan, Helmer and DCB voted against with UKIP, the rest abstained along with the Lib Dems, Labour of course voted in favour. Here is the abstention list,

ALDE: Bearder, Bowles, Davies, Hall, Ludford, McMillan-Scott, Newton-Dunn, Wallis, Watson

ECR: Ashworth, Atkins, Bradbourn, Callanan, Chichester, Elles, Ford, Fox, Girling, Harbour, Kamall, Karim, Kirkhope, McClarkin, Nicholson, Stevenson, Sturdy, Swinburne, Tannock, Van Orden, Yannakoudakis

How can anybody in the Square Mile trust this shower?

Van Rompuy's Delusions revealed in grammar

Our president, the not so quiet 'assasin of Nations' that bag of charisma and foresight Herman Van Rompuy reveals all just by his use of tense in his speech today.

The various instances of complete lack of self awareness, both on his own part and on that of the institution he leads are legion. (Go and read the speech here if you want, if you have a clue about economics, please ensure that you are away from any co-workers, definately not safe for work. The sound of your hollow laughter might disturb digital networks).

I highlight merely this,

So the Euro Plus Pact has been made consistent with, and builds upon, existing instruments like the EU 2020 Strategy, the European Semester, Integrated Guidelines, the Stability andGrowth Pact and the new macroeconomic surveillance framework.
All these policies -- from the new Stability and Growth Pact to the Euro Plus Pact -- will work in the same direction: pushing Member States towards these reforms. Lagging countries - big or small - will be spotted by the markets and can be hit by sanctions. The time of complacencies is over. We learned these lessons, the hard way. The crisis was arough teacher.

Leave aside the plethora of failing institutions/strategies/projects/roadmaps/six packs and what have you and look at that last sentance.

Notice that it is in the past tense.

The crisis was a rough teacher

Yes, that's right. Was!!!  He, the Haiku-weilding mountebank thinks that the crisis is over. Finished. The lessons have been learnt.

'Phew' he seems to be saying 'that was tough but it is all right now'.

What he doesn't realise (OK he knows full well but wants to lie to us) is that what we have had so far is merely Grendel.

The monster's mother hasn't even arrived at Herot yet, but when she does, Van R and his cohorts will fain find a Beowulf.

Why the Greeks are unhappy

I recieved this from one of the Greek MEP's explaining why Greece is unhappy at the austerity package.


You might think it is partial, but it goes some way to illustrate the depth of feeling Greece about what many see as a German inspired take over of their country,

German indebtedness to Greece from the 2nd World War

I would like to inform you on the Greek financial demands from Germany, as an aftermath to what happened during the 2nd World War.

In April 1941, Germany attacked and occupied Greece. During the German occupation, the conquerors executed the residents of 89 Greek cities and villages. In addition to that, they burnt more than 1800 villages and settlements.

During the war Greece lost 13% of her population. That was not only in the war fields but also due to the famine and the atrocities as well as the plundering of their troops.

On the parallel Germany forced the vicarious Greek government to give a loan of 3,5 billion dollars and they signed the relative contract. After the end of war, the Conference of Paris adjudicated the amount of 7,1 billion dollars to Greece as war reparations. Germany did not pay neither the reparations nor the loan that was owes to Greece.

Italy paid back to Greece a part of the total amount of the loan that was forcefully agreed during the occupation. Italy and Bulgaria paid back war reparations to Greece.

While Germany paid war reparations to Poland (1956) and Yugoslavia (1971), Greece had to demand the paying off of the forced loan on 1945, 1946, 1947, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1987 and 1995. Nevertheless, Germany denies paying off what owes to my country as an obligation that arise from the "occupation loan" and the war reparations. At 1964, the German Chancellor Erhard promised paying the off the loan after the unification of Germany, which was realized in 1990.

The following is an indication of the actual value of the German reparations towards Greece: Taking as indicative the average rate of the USA bonds between 1944 till 2010, that is about 6%, the actual value of the "occupation loan" is up to 163,8 billion dollars and that of war recuperations is estimated in 332 billion dollars. On the 2nd of July 2011, the French economist and advisor of the French government Jacques Delpla declared that the German indebtedness to Greece because of all that happened during the 2nd World War is up to 575 billion dollars (Les Echos, Saturday, July 2, 2011). The German historian Dr. Albrecht Ritschl advised Germany to follow a more moderate policy during the euro crisis of 2008-2011, because she might have to face justified demands for war recuperations of the 2nd World War (Der Siegel, June 21, 2011, guardian. co.uk).

It has to be mentioned that Germany has profited to the tune of 9 billion euro from the euro zone crisis over the past few years, while the German bonds yields close to zero since the European sovereign debt crisis began some two years ago. Berlin's two-year bond yields currently stand at just 0.3 percent and its 10-year bonds at 1.7 percent. Six-month papers - usually giving the lowest return to investors - stand at just 0.08 percent, down from 0.3 percent just one month ago.

According to Carsten Brzeski a senior economist with the ING bank in Belgium, "Interestingly, this is already more than the recently announced [German] tax relief of around €8 billion for 2013 and 2014. It almost looks as if the Greeks financed the little German tax reform," he added (Valentina Pop, "Germany estimated to have 9 bn euro profit out of crisis", www.euobserver.com).

The old statement of Mussolini is indicative: "Germans have even stolen from Greeks their shoelaces"
I would like to thank you for your attention and to ask for your help and your understanding so to demand what is rightful for my country.

Memories are short, andthe hurt is near the surface.

The Government's phoney war on Europe.

The Government's phoney war on Europe.

Dave says he's a sceptic, Nick says he isn't, and the British public are being gulled into thinking that there are real differences between the two parties' positions.

With UKIP slowly rising in the polls, and last night's figures from YouGov suggesting that UKIP is now hitting 5% in every electoral area in Great Britain, the Prime Minister is trying to position himself as a great defender of Britain against the ravages of the European Union. In order to help this sleight of hand it appears that Nick Clegg is joining in the deception, by sketching out an idea that their is a gulf between the two members of the coalition.

Dave says,

"But we sceptics have a vital point. We should look sceptically at grand
plans and utopian visions. We've a right to ask what the European Union should and shouldn't do - and change it accordingly."

And Nick says

"Clearly the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, and David
Cameron and myself, think differently on European issues... I don't think anyone is talking about unilateral repatriation of powers. It's not possible, and Europe doesn't work like that."

Oddly of course it is Nick that is half right here. Nobody is (seriously) talking about repatriation of powers. Cameron is trying to talk to his own membership such is his fear of us in UKIP and our simple and popular position on Britain's relationship with the European Union.

Here are ten good reasons why Cameron's claim to be a Eurosceptic are false
1 He reneged on Cast Iron Guarantee to hold EU treaty referendum

He argues of course that it was only cast iron in the sense that if somebody else did it then his promise was meaningless. He knows that is not how it was going to be taken, indeed he deliberately muddied the waters. he also we must remember said that he wouldn't let things rest there if the Lisbon Treaty was passed. Well weirdly he has been true to his word.

2 Changed Tory Fisheries policy, No longer calls for repatriation of territorial waters.

His first act on becoming leader of the Conservative Party was to drop a longstanding policy to repatriate British coastal waters and opt out of the Common Fisheries Policy. He had been told that to do so would be incompatible with our membership of the EU. The policy had to go.

3. Supported EU regulation of the City

Conservative MEPs in the European Parliament have consistently voted for the creation of three EU super regulators, leaving the command and control of the City of London in the hands of Eurocrats who are not sympathetic to British systems and ways of doing business. It is estimated that the impact on the City will be devastating as companies and jobs flee the onslaught of EU regulation.

4. Supports entry of Turkey to the EU -encouraging mass immigration

How can he claim to be interested in controlling our borders and of reigning in the ambitions of the European Union when he is Europe's biggest cheerleader for brin g ing Turkey into the EU. Time and time again he has championed Turkish entry, despite the wildly different economic status of Turkey. Good friends yes, part of the EU no.

5. Supported creation of EU External Action Service.

And encouraged the usurpation by the unelected Cathy Ashton of British diplomatic and Foreign policy positions, not least the grant to the EU, and Ashton in particular of speaking rights at the UN, the preserve of nation states.

6. Failure to reduce EU budget / allows increase despite promises.

He promised to the House of Commons he would either reduce the EU's annual budget, or the least block it. Then came back from Brussels claiming that a 2.6% increase was a victory. If so he was triumphing in a victory for the EU against Britain.

7. Supports the creation of Eurozone core which would leave the UK in a permanent minority position.

For centuries the core of British Foreign policy has been to ensure that no European continental power has the ability to dominate Europe. Cameron and George Osborne are now demanding just that. Overturning the wisdom of Pitt, Palmerston, Gladstone, Lloyd George, Churchill et al. How can this be in the national interest? After all it will create a permanent majority in the Council of Ministers which means that Britain will always be outvoted on any subject in future.

8. Prepared to have 40 billion pounds UK money go via the IMF to the Eurozone Bailout

Despite the promises and evasions, it is now clear that the promise not be involved in any Eurozone bailout is a fabrication. By doubling our contribution to the IMF emergency fund, Britain has made itself increasingly liable to being involved in the Euro bailouts.

9. Rolled over to Agency Worker directive and other EU laws which harm UK business and jobs.

These directives alone, which he has accepted are set to cost the British economy billions and put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk. To then claim that he is fighting against regulations is ridiculous.

10. Forced Three line whip on EU referendum debate in the Commons.

If Cameron wanted a strong negotiating position in the European Union, then he could just offer that referendum. Without it our continental friends will just igno r e him. By punishing those in the Parliament who defended the wishes of their constituents, in order to pander to the wishes of the Eurocrats - and looking at what has happened in Greece since the Commons vote, this is no idle threat he shows where his true loyalty lies.


Of course Cameron's attempts to paint himself a 'sceptic' are in vain. Just as the markets react to the latest move from Brussels to prop up their dreams so do the people of Britain see through his evasions. A year ago a final plan to save the Euro would have a weeks grace in the markets, this week the imposition of technocratic Prime Ministers in Greece and Italy forced a dip in Bond spreads that lasted less than 24hrs. So it is with Mr Cameron's protestations about his Eurosceptic credentials.

The markets see through the failures of the Eurozone. The people see through the failures of Cameron to defend the countries interests

Face it Dave. Nobody believes you any more.

Salvaj Kareer in jaw dropping moment

It is generally accepted that man of principle Sajjad Karim the former Lib Dem MEP joined the Tories due to a great love.


A love for his own seat. It was obvious that the Lib Dems were going to tank in the 2009 elections, so, with the Tories on the up, and the Tories selection rules in place it became a no brainer for  him to jump ship. By joining the Tories as a sitting MEP it meant that he leapfrogged up to an unassaibalble position on the Tory list. After all he had only recently been selected as number 2 on the Lib Dem list - a unwinable slot. For that he earned the sobriquet Salvaj Kareer.


So imagine my surprise when I read this in today's Guardian,

The power of the cabal will be broken when we learn to trust the citizen and involve them in the decision-making process. We must debate directly electing commissioners and make the council transparent. And first to go must be the closed list system for electing MEPs.

He is so het up about the democratic defeciet that he must have supported calls for an EU referendeum, mustn't he?

On second thoughts maybe he didn"t as his approving tweet here makes clear

@SHKMEP Sajjad H Karim MEP

William Hague urges Tory MPs not to vote for a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union, saying it... fb.me/Gf2d2feE

Oh well another coalition hypocrite.

It went up how much?!!

According to the FT the EU hasd just revealed some frankly startling figues on debt,

The European Union’s executive body said sovereign debt levels in the eurozone would increase next year by more than previously thought, reaching 90.4 per cent of overall gross domestic product, up 88 per cent this year.

Yes you read that right, up 88%!

Behr with a sore head

In the Staggers yesterday, cheif leader writer of the Observer and lead political writer at the Staggers, Rapheal Behr writes a sort of political obitury of Nick Clegg. He describes him in glowing referential tones, almost a tragic hagiography, and entirely out of keeping with the New Statesman's cultural heritage,

Cleggism, by contrast, channels the cosmopolitan, polyglot, liberal borderlessness that the European elite see as the marker of civilisation. The Liberal Democrat leader once wanted to represent a new kind of politics but he looks more like an ambassador from some ancien régime, a lonely tribune from the 20th-century European Union: patrician, collegiate, moderate, boring, benign, seeking consensus, with more than a whiff of elitism -

These mostly positive traits are contrasted with the panto-villany of Farage and UKIP,

Many Tories are focusing instead on the threat posed by Ukip in the European Parliament elections in 2014. Cameron's handling of the euro crisis, insufficiently bellicose for grass-roots activists, has provoked a rash of defections to Nigel Farage's anti-EU shires junta. In the 2009 European election, Ukip came second. It could top the poll next time. That doesn't translate into a big general election challenge, because the party's voters dwell mostly in safe Tory seats, but it is another force pulling politics away from EU engagement.

The Lib Dems, proud of their own conversion from protest vehicle to mature party of government, thoroughly despise Ukip and find the thought of equivalence sickening. One normally even-tempered minister recently described Farage's wrecking delegation in the European Parliament to me as "unpatriotic, Neanderthal wankers". The feeling is mutual.

Farage has had enough television and radio exposure to test whether he can win mass affection as a national figure. He can't. That doesn't mean Farageism lacks resonance. The creed is about more than the EU. It expresses a deep neurosis about borders and identity and the corruption of nationhood by a faceless other. The cultural potency of that force is on show in the hysterical response to the scandal around Theresa May's bungled experiment with relaxed passport controls.

It's remarkable, and one can almost smell the fear.Of course Mr Behr is a teeniest bit skewed in his vision of UKIP. this 'Shires-Junta' as he describes it is polling 9% in London and in the Euros back in 2009 it won cities like Hull, and towns like Hartlepool, not the most bucolic of places. My guess, and a charitable one at that is it is ignorance rather than malfeasance on the part of Behr, but you never know.

The glorious dysfunctionality of the article is that he claims that Farage is unable to win affection as a national figure, but admits that it is Farage rather than his pin up Clegg who is winning the arguement. For if Clegg is

"wholly at odds with the spirit of the times",

as he says, and he is counterpointing him with Farage then by default I would guess that it is Farage who is with the zeitgeist.