Earlier this week it was announced that after 2020 every member of the European Union, without exception, will have to adopt the euro. Thus, unless we get our promised referendum and vote to leave the EU we have only six more years to enjoy the pound and the last vestiges of sovereignty and independence.
Since today is a very big day across the pond it occurred to me (and not for the first time either) that if the pro-Europeans are right (they are not) and we really cannot survive alone then let’s throw our lot in with a federation with whom we have something in common. Let the wheel turn full circle and instead of becoming a puppet state of Europe let’s rejoin our Atlantic cousins and become the 51st state of America. Here are 10 reasons why we should –
1. They speak English (sort of!)
2. No queues when flying into New York.
3. Holidays in Hawaii complete with loud, sorry, colourful shirts.
4. Free fireworks every 4th of July (it doesn’t matter what the celebrations are for)
5. A decent national football (soccer) team that we can all be proud of (for a change!).
6. Mardi Gras every February.
7. Thanksgiving. So that’s two turkey dinners each winter instead of just the one.
8. Micro-breweries in every city.
9. Four proper seasons.
10. The Clintons. Oh, actually …………………………..on second thoughts!
With or without the fireworks – Have a Very Happy 4th of July!
Category Archives: Europe
European Backlash
There is no doubt that the smug, complacent grandees of the European Union took a big hit earlier this week when the electorate in virtually all member states voted against their policies.
In Britain, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) won more seats than any other political party, leaving the big two parties shell-shocked and the pro-Europe Liberal Democrats on the verge of extinction.
Democracy doesn’t always work but the message sent out loud and clear by the people of Europe to the European Union is this; we don’t like your policies, we have had enough of being patronised and are tired of being told what is good for us by clueless and corrupt politicians. We are sick of policies based on idealism rather than common sense and if you don’t listen to us and give us what we want we will vote for those who will.
The unfortunate downside to all of this however is that people, almost in desperation, are turning towards extremist political parties, such as the far right in France, and that has to be a cause for concern. For example, control of mass immigration is acceptable and logical but racism and violence are not.
The pendulum needs to swing away from the idealistic and out of touch liberals who run the European Union but it must not swing too far the other way. Europe requires positive action, not reaction. There is a difference, as students of pre-war German history know only too well.
A Step in the Right Direction
The European Commission has submitted proposals to ban drift nets on vessels fishing in European Union waters. The aim is to protect the lives of dolphins, turtles and other marine creatures killed as a by product of this hugely indiscriminate method of fishing.
These drift nets, stretching for miles and known by conservationists as “walls of death” are responsible for the agonising deaths of thousands of animals which are of no commercial value to man but are of immeasurable importance to the ecosystems of our oceans.
This blog has been a consistent critic of the EU and much of what it stands for but credit must be given where credit is due. These proposals are certainly a step in the right direction and should be applauded as such.
However, those who rule us must never be allowed to forget that further steps are still required (not least the whole scale reform of the fishing quota system) if we are to safeguard the future of our oceans and the animals within them.
Break up?
Last week the Council for Europe announced that Cornwall was being granted special “Minority Status” meaning that the region, for the last 1000 years a county of England, will now have a similar standing to Wales and Scotland.
Most people probably shrugged their shoulders and wondered briefly whether the change of status would really make that much of a difference, a response initially shared by me. Like many people, I like Cornwall and have a warm feeling towards the place with its ancient folklore, its beautiful scenery and delicious pasties! I have similar feelings about many other parts of England and have always felt that our regional differences are part of what makes us what we are.
I’m sure that people in Yorkshire, Kent and Cumbria, for example, feel that their counties are equally special and unique and they are. But should they strive for “Minority Status” and seek separate representation leaving the land as it was prior to King Alfred the Great and the creation of England in the 9th and 10th Centuries?
The more I thought about it the more I remembered something I read years ago by the author Vernon Coleman who warned that one of the primary aims of the European Union is to abolish the idea of nationhood and encourage, in its place, the creation of many smaller regions. These regions will offer less of a problem than nations and, because of their size, will become dependent upon the European government in Brussels. Coleman warned, nearly ten years ago, that ultimately Scotland and Wales would go their own way and that England would cease to exist and be broken into separate regions.
Of course, many people have dismissed Coleman as being a crank or a scaremonger and maybe he is. But when I think about Cornwall’s new status and the fact that later this year Scotland (as Coleman predicted) is going to vote on whether or not to remain a part of the United Kingdom I can’t help but feel a little uneasy.
Europe – The Drip of the Tap
The European Parliament recently announced plans to introduce uniform vehicle licence number plates throughout Europe, meaning that the distinctive white and yellow British number plates will be discontinued and will in future be identical to all other European number plates.
Supporters of the European Union (and even some of those who are not) will no doubt say, so what, it makes sense and it’s only a small concession, it makes transport administration that much easier and why should the UK be different from the rest of Europe? As usual, anybody who questions or offers opposition is dismissed as being small minded or labelled a” little Englander”.
This is the standard response whenever EU plans are questioned or opposed and it’s been going on for over 40 years. Each small concession is like the drip from a tap, small and relatively insignificant by itself but eventually, ten thousand drips later, the trickle becomes a torrent and the whole dynamic has changed.
This is how The EU works. It is government by stealth. As this blog has pointed out many times in the past, it is both wrong and anti-democratic. And what will be next, driving on the same side of the road? Why should the British and Irish drive on the left while the rest of Europe drives on the right?
We must never lose sight of the fact that when we voted in the 1975 referendum we voted on whether or not to be part of a trading community called the European Economic Community. We were not asked whether or not we wished to completely lose our identity, our sovereignty and become part of a United States of Europe.
Our government and particularly our Euro MPs have to resist this proposal vigorously and without compromise. Better still, give us the further promised referendum. If we have that referendum and do vote to be part of a United States of Europe with all that that entails then, fair enough, at least it will have been a democratic decision and we can then no longer complain about the flood of legislation and regulation that carries away our independence.
Getting Away With it
A couple of days ago the Russians sent troops to the Ukraine province of Crimea to “protect” the province’s Russian-speaking majority from oppression by the newly established Ukrainian government. Of course, the word “protect” is a mere euphemism for invade.
So what will the rest of the world do about it and indeed what can they do? There is certainly no political will in the West to take military action against Russia and why should the West become involved anyway?
For all the huffing and puffing by Presidents, Foreign Ministers and United Nations spokesmen the talk of the Russians “paying the price” for their actions is mere rhetoric. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is cool, calculating and ruthless and he knows that he can do whatever he wants and get away with it – just like his Soviet predecessors did in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Eventually the whole thing will die down and the rest of the world will carry on as before. And the people of the Ukraine? Too bad, they’ll just have to get used to it.
What a sad world we live in.
Breathtaking Corruption
Earlier this week the European Union Home Affairs Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstroem, a Swede, said that the widespread corruption in the European Union was “breathtaking”. Crikey, who would ever have thought that?
This corruption costs the European taxpayer (people like you and me) somewhere in the region of 120 billion euros each year (that’s £99 billion in real money) although Malmstroem said the figure is probably even higher. Breathtaking doesn’t even come close. What single word does?
Still, at least it’s now official and a member of the European hierarchy has finally admitted publicly what many of us have known or suspected for years. The question is though, what are we and the British Government going to do about it? More pertinently, what can we do about it?
More Euro Madness
Earlier this week it was announced that Latvia, which joined the European Union in 2004, has successfully applied to join the Eurozone meaning that, as of January 1st 2014 the Euro will become that country’s new currency. They will thus become the 18th member of the Eurozone and one cannot help but wonder why. Why would they want to adopt a currency that has been plagued by controversy and chaos throughout its relatively short life and is seemingly doomed to end in disaster?
Actually, “they” does not mean Latvia as a whole since only 38% of the country voted in favour of the Euro. Still, as we all know, the European Union is no friend of democracy and once European bureaucrats decide to do something they usually get their way no matter what the electorate may think or desire. So no surprises there.
The big concern however is that many international economic experts doubt whether Latvia has actually fulfilled all the relevant criteria for membership of the Eurozone (shades of Greece here) so what on earth are they thinking of? Are they not inviting further trouble?
If I were one of the 62% of Latvians opposed to the Euro I would be pretty miffed to put it lightly. I wouldn’t for the life of me be able to understand why my Prime Minister wholeheartedly and enthusiastically voted to be part of a club whose members are suffering from record unemployment and national debt. I would wonder why my country would want to join the other lemmings as they hurtle towards the cliff’s edge.
No, this European madness shows no sign of abating, and even though the United Kingdom will undoubtedly suffer when the Euro and ultimately the Union itself collapses, I still thank our former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, for refusing to allow the UK to adopt the Euro back in the late 1990s.
More European Madness
The workings, if you can call it that, of the European Union continue to astound. No sooner has the EU decided to abandon the immoral practice of fishing quotas, whereby millions of tons of fish are discarded each year because they are the wrong type of fish, than they commit themselves and therefore all of us taxpayers to another piece of lunacy.
It is, of course, the official policy of the EU, and all its member states including the UK, to discourage smoking and to ban it wherever possible. Indeed, the Union has spent millions of euros on advertising campaigns all over the continent describing to us in great detail the damage we cause to ourselves and those around us by smoking tobacco. That’s fine in itself and surely, only a fool would argue that smoking is good for your health.
However, it now transpires that the European Parliament Agricultural Committee (see the latest Open Europe bulletin) recently voted in favour of directly subsidising tobacco farmers, in effect encouraging them to grow tobacco! It really is almost beyond belief and I say almost because nobody can be surprised any longer by EU policy making. At best, these policy makers are grossly incompetent and at worst corrupt. with most probably falling somewhere between the two.
Politicians speak of reforming the EU but I suspect it’s going to take a lot of effort to reform and transform this asylum and remove the lunatics who control it. Maybe it’s too late and it’s beyond repair. If so, a referendum on our continued membership cannot come soon enough.
Europe – again!
Last Friday, French President Francois Hollande told our Prime Minister, David Cameron, that the European Union would not allow the United Kingdom to renegotiate her terms of membership of the Union and would not win what the Prime Minister had called a “new settlement” for the British.
Hollande went on to say that membership of the EU was for life and “that treaties are meant to be complied with”. This was on the same day that European leaders called for a report into how the EU can boost their joint defence and security role in the world. The ultimate plan is, of course, the creation of a European army which, along with a unified political system and common taxation equates to the creation of a completely sovereign entity, namely a European Superstate.
Prime Minister Edward Heath knew all along all that the creation of a European state was the ultimate plan when he took us into the misleadingly named European Economic Community in 1973. Two years later, in 1975, Prime Minister Harold Wilson was equally duplicitous when his government asked us to vote on whether or not we wanted to stay in that “economic” community.
As I’ve said before in this blog, we’ve been deceived and misled from the start and if, as seems increasingly likely, our present Government are willing to prejudice membership of the EU by attempting to renegotiate more favourable terms of membership they should receive our full encouragement.
Many of us are happy for the UK to be part of, or to remain in, an “economic” or trading community but not at the cost of national sovereignty. A shopper may well wish to purchase apples from the nice lady in the local market but he doesn’t necessarily wish to set up home with her.
There are, no doubt, many more twists and turns ahead of us in our relationship with Europe but if David Cameron cannot get what he wants at the negotiating table he should leave it to the British public. Give us a referendum Mr Cameron and we’ll show you the way.
Common Sense 