tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17181548212898421282024-03-14T09:38:07.147+00:00Hustles in BrusselsEurosceptic MEP's view from the EUJohn Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-9965829190041251692012-11-01T13:04:00.000+00:002012-11-01T13:05:01.697+00:00So Labour wants to play games?Yesterday's Commons debate on the future EU budget was laughable really.<br />
I couldn't decide whether it was trick or treat when Labour got behind Tory rebels to defeat Cameron's proposals on a real time budget freeze:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #93c47d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Trick</b></span></span>, because Labour know full well they can politically posture. Brussels would never accept a budget reduction, meaning they are more likely to push for Plan A landing British taxpayers with an INCREASE in EU costs.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><span style="font-size: large;">Treat</span></span></b>, because at least for once on the issue of Europe, the Government majority were actually on the side of the British general public.<br />
<br />
But what Labour have essentially done is whip up a firestorm and sent Cameron off to the front line in Brussels where he will inevitably be defeated. Very clever.<br />
<br />
But what was ludicrous bordering on lunacy was Ed Milliband's statement that<br />
<br />
"He has thrown in the towel even before these negotiations have begun"<br />
<br />
Excuse me Mr Milliband? Was it not your party that oversaw British ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the largest consitutional change in Europe to date, handing over more of UK sovereignty than ever before, without any recourse to the 60 million Brits who deserved a referendum? Indeed Gordon Brown signed the Lisbon treaty in 2007 with charges of "gutlessness" ringing in his ears before he set
off, only to suffer more indignity when a TV link
crashed just as he was about to put his name on the document, squeezed alongside the signature of that other Miliband, then Foreign Secretary, who had acted as
stand-in for the Premier during a glitzy signing ceremony with
leaders of the other 26 EU member states.<br />
<br />
And of course, at the time Cameron had scolded<br />
<br />
<br />
"He said he would trust the British people and consult them
more. He doesn't even have the guts to put it to the British
people."<br />
<br />
It was also under Labour's watch that half the UK rebate was given away, costing taxpayers billions of pounds a year.<br />
<br />
This game of "You're weak over Europe" "No YOU are" is utterly vacuous.<br />
<br />
Both parties can be held jointly culpable for selling Britain off to Brussels over the years. Our first past the post system means that since the European Union's origincal inception, one or the other has allowed British sovereignty to be traded for little gain.<br />
<br />
So Europe instead is essentially used as a stick to hit eachother with, rather than being tackled as a problem in it's own right. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-51176692544455358842012-10-26T15:42:00.000+01:002012-10-26T15:50:29.690+01:00Is this what you call a democratic political system?It is so disheartening to watch the government, supposedly representing its people, filibuster a Private Member's Bill, formed after a call from more than five thousand people, until it is presented before an almost empty house, when that bill relates to the structure via which 75% of UK law passes.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG6rWMKsTlb77aP5VfHEPlCTtCYGGa_uVEj5uohGBeASYlxoT_Fe74AWjI623amoVJn2F-_FqQJtq2I1tiP-Q1C0VtCQVe7YizDsdGAka0RhoieRwdsPPbCdJp2yGB_uGKo63koveyC0g/s1600/House_of_Commons_Microcosm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG6rWMKsTlb77aP5VfHEPlCTtCYGGa_uVEj5uohGBeASYlxoT_Fe74AWjI623amoVJn2F-_FqQJtq2I1tiP-Q1C0VtCQVe7YizDsdGAka0RhoieRwdsPPbCdJp2yGB_uGKo63koveyC0g/s1600/House_of_Commons_Microcosm.jpg" /></a><br />
In the end, Douglas Carswell's attempt to get UK membership of the EU debated in the Commons resulted in being a damp squib with so few attendees it held the merit of a discussion down the local boozer. What were we to expect?<br />
<br />
In principle, private members' bills follow much the same <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Parliament#Procedure" title="Act of Parliament">parliamentary stages</a> as any other bill but in practice, the procedural barriers are far greater. Such bills are only brought to the house13 Fridays a year. Considering most MPs return to their constituencies on Thursday evening, the meagre five hours of time available on selected each day to cater for several private members' bills make it easy for topics the Government wishes to be brushed under the carpet, to be, well, brushed under the carpet.<br />
<br />
Unlike Government bills, these debates are not timetabled, meaning the Government can whip ministers into talking<a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talked_out" title="Talked out"></a>
the bill, stopping further progress by preventing a vote.I think it's fair to assume that Jeremy Wright may have tried his hand somewhat at filibusterng today, with a rather circumlocutary soliloquy on Family Courts.<br />
<br />
The bill's
proponent can force a vote only with the support of at least one hundred
members. With a headcount of mere tens, this had
the practical effect of blocking Carswell's private members' bill from gathering anywhere near enough momentum to even grace the pages of the newspapers, one anticipates.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIEwfKxiv3pNwX3t-ZtPGUWjwNGIzQ8j_bXPjzKNFnQB-F0lebiof5M_g9qXwr2M3vgsxMZCKtPhPPZzOwbOm9WCYelWlzTmYk6_cN9qmA6wfkCNjRB44CrB6dp-jmMdQix76nBALNfs/s1600/bill+parliament.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIEwfKxiv3pNwX3t-ZtPGUWjwNGIzQ8j_bXPjzKNFnQB-F0lebiof5M_g9qXwr2M3vgsxMZCKtPhPPZzOwbOm9WCYelWlzTmYk6_cN9qmA6wfkCNjRB44CrB6dp-jmMdQix76nBALNfs/s320/bill+parliament.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Another date for second reading
will also be set for bills which have been talked out.We can look forward to part two sometime in March. This is a
formality; so the bill will be placed to the bottom of the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_paper" title="Order paper">order paper</a>, and will likely be objected to on each future occasion, leaving it no practical chance of success.<br />
<br />
What's the point then? When thousands have pushed for something to reach Parliament and it can be extinguished like a flickering candle, there is something seriously wrong with the passage of a backbench bill through Parliament.<br />
<br />
The Government are starting to dangle the carrot of a referendum on Europe in front of the voterate. Why when 16 year olds have been given the vote on Scotland's membership of the United Kingdom has nobody under the age of 55 been given the chance to vote on UK membership of Europe? Even those who have had the opportunity to make a choice would have voted for or against a much different political beast than we have today.<br />
<br />
Almost 40 years ago to the day the European Communities Act was debated by the United Kingdom to allow succession to what was then the European Economic Community. We were told "Common Market or broke". What we have four decades later, with gross state intervention and an everly centrist and bureaucratic sclerotic beast in Brussels is the realisation that shackling ourselves to this undemocratic, hulking blackhole of a Union will lead us to be broke, like Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus and so forth.<br />
<br />
We live in a very differnet world today. A globalised marketplace. We should be trading with all corners of the world, not running at a trade deficit with our broken and clumsy near neighbours and allowing all our former bilateral deals to be subsumed within the quagmire of European legislative dross.<br />
<br />
The same is true of immigration. With the UK only just recovering from a double dip recession, with the propensity to go back into economic contraction again more than just a creeping threat, how can we afford the 23,000 new babies born to Polish mothers alone in the UK in the last year? Our vital public services are already bursting at the seams with cuts needed to bring down the state deficit which structurally is one of the highest in the world.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwtLCg7Qmr-HsimJSLpXjx0MjSihO1KDSkWnlknmf4TqNNHzklMbVH44C0liPpVRpTuJKIteMMZwCPINMrxxF8iABAqdsB4KXMDScyQhY1-juoB2PiD3zzXYmpGxSdClJlvUiubO-KygA/s1600/referendumEU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwtLCg7Qmr-HsimJSLpXjx0MjSihO1KDSkWnlknmf4TqNNHzklMbVH44C0liPpVRpTuJKIteMMZwCPINMrxxF8iABAqdsB4KXMDScyQhY1-juoB2PiD3zzXYmpGxSdClJlvUiubO-KygA/s320/referendumEU.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
And yet issues that affect our daily lives, underpin the very fabric of society, like police on the streets, nurses in hospitals, teachers in schools, pensions, social housing, energy bills, food on supermarket shelves, working hours...I could easily go on for days...are either governed by laws made in Brussels by faceless bureaucrats, subject to the red tape which costs our economy billions, or are being grossly underfunded because Britain continues to pay out £10 billion every year to Brussels which could be better directed towards things that really matter.<br />
<br />
Our farming has been put into the red, our fisheries have been decimated and now we are looknig at having to pay those responsible even more money for the "privilege" of being a member of their club. Meanwhile that money is being poured into other European countries while their citizens are flocking over to the UK to benefit from our welfare systems (again something they are able to access under European law) spreading the burden onto the British taxpayer who meanwhile has absolutely no say whatsoever.<br />
<br />
The great European Socialist project will collapse, like all socialist projects before it.<br />
<br />
I truly hope we will not go down with it as it sinks.<br />
<br />
Now, more than ever, we need a vote. In or out.<br />
<br />
I'm afraid just over half an hour of Tory Party private infighting won't cut the mustard.<br />
<br />John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-25784179356343738762012-10-15T18:18:00.000+01:002012-10-15T18:18:41.267+01:00Nobel Peace Prize for EU not such a noble idea<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The award of the
Nobel Peace Prize to the EU last week sparked a lot of debate.</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh26iycBKFIPCmR42FrG0fgYlJrrD-B77sXJUQTXH6bdrFYyxZw3CZs769SCQkGv1NvysViHb89P1jGadUnHMG3Aart83cTuM745TOSvmJotkmCXNyvpJaAVYs2Xt_meeQst2fEPA2Nz0M/s1600/noble-peace-prize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh26iycBKFIPCmR42FrG0fgYlJrrD-B77sXJUQTXH6bdrFYyxZw3CZs769SCQkGv1NvysViHb89P1jGadUnHMG3Aart83cTuM745TOSvmJotkmCXNyvpJaAVYs2Xt_meeQst2fEPA2Nz0M/s320/noble-peace-prize.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">What qualifies
the EU for this accolade? One argument is that it was established after World
War II to ensure harmony by pooling resources between France and Germany. The EU began as the
European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, largely at the behest of America, to
enable massive rearmament at the start of the Cold War. The original objective
was to prepare for war, not peace. Meanwhile NATO, established in 1949, was
forged as a unified defence league for peacekeeping not only in Europe but internationally.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
European Coal and Steel Community developed into the European Economic
Community and began foisting ideologies of fed</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">eralism upon currently 500 million
citizens who are subject to, but without democratic influence over, its laws. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">At
present, after putting political will over common sense by creating a single
currency, we are left with a crisis that the unelected European Commission is unashamedly
using to push forward deeper integration. The relative peace we have enjoyed in
Europe for the last ten years is beginning to
unravel. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
are seeing the humanitarian fall out of the EU's failed fiscal policy, with
thousands plunged into poverty: utterly despicable in 21st century Europe. Just last week the Spanish Red Cross announced that
their winter appeal is to create food parcels for Spaniards, the first time the
campaign has been focused domestically and not on developing countries in
Africa and Asia.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy3ONqpS9KisF4SlyZekvMDkS0lkCQGMD61ksm1RGj4NTQjBCy7KW86l_6mlnDoJMPJJyf3C2KHqhDUye82PQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> In Greece
25,000 people are dependent upon handouts from the Orthodox Church. Is it
surprising 50,000 protestors turned out on the streets of Athens, some burning Swastikas, to express
their anger at the visit of Angela Merkel, who they feel is responsible for the
crippling austerity causing so much suffering? A steep increase in tensions is
allowing the rise of extremism and inter-country distrust.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Under
the current structure of the EU, with inter-reliant energy and agricultural
policy, a burgeoning External Action Service and the call for Qualified
Majority Voting on Foreign Affairs, what would happen if the international balance
of peace tips? Do we want to be part of a giant multi-nation block with no say
as a country? Many opposed the merger of EAD and BAE (including the Pentagon in
America)
on the grounds of undermining international security by creating an arms giant.
Yet merging other forms of self sufficiency, from farming to trade, can be equally
as dangerous. I do not oppose free trade with Europe,
nor do I undervalue the importance of transcontinental cooperation in international
security, but I fear the consequences of creating an unanswerable multi-national
superpower. History has observed the knife edge upon which the world teetered during
the Cold War. The constitution of the USSR and the EU post-Lisbon Treaty
is staggeringly 98% similar.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am rather
cynical about the timing of this award. Tensions are running high and the EU desperately
needs an image boost to quell growing discontent. Perhaps by posthumously
awarding the EU the Peace Prize now, the Nobel Committee is trying to promote a
sense of solidarity where nationalistic tendencies are simmering just below the
surface of increasingly violent riots. </span></div>
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John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-28800936979113440832012-10-11T16:00:00.000+01:002012-10-11T16:01:10.053+01:00The Catch 22 of CoverageI read today in the Daily Mail that the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215924/BBC-rethink-coverage-EU-migration-accusations-programmes-unbalanced.html?ito=feeds-newsxml" target="_blank">BBC are planning to rethink their coverage of the EU</a> after complaints that they are regularly one sided and too pro-EU.<br />
<br />
At last a BBC I can get behind!<br />
<br />
I have said on my blog before that I often feel that reportage of the EU is handled in a very one sided manner. Let me not even start on how I feel the BBC covers UKIP as a political party. When UKIP are polling just below, and sometimes just above the Liberal Democrats it's hard to understand why one party has every media resource thrown at coverage of the conference, from Live updates, multimedia reports, continuous streaming of interviews, speeches and so forth, while the other barely scrapes a mention. There is the argument that the Lib Dems are currently in power as part of the coalition. Of course this is undeniable and quite rightly the public would wish to know the policies and proposals being outlined by the Deputy Prime Minister. But even before the results of the 2010 general election, there has been a disproportionate amount of air time for the Lib Dems compared to UKIP in relation to where the parties regularly feature in opinion polls.<br />
<br />
Of course, we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Get bums on seats inside Westminster and surely our coverage would have to increase exponentially. But how does a party raise its profile when even supposedly unbiased public owned news organisations fail to treat the party with the same level of respect as is gifted to the "established" three? The BBC is an organisation that has for years strived, some may argue too hard, to be representative of the public. Whereas in countries such as France it is still shamefully rare to see black or asian television personalities, Harry Roselmack being, I believe, the first black news anchor on TF1, having debuted in 2006 (astonishingly late), in Britain the BBC, ITV and Channel Four have always fought to make sure the faces we see on the news are the faces we see on the street. Some might complain that perhaps the levels of "positive discrimination" have gone too far, but that is another matter.<br />
<br />
Yet when it comes to Eurosceptics, as we are dubbed, and according to the majority of public opinion polls, accounting for around two thirds of the population, we are handled as if we are extremists and lunatics.<br />
The BBC has at times come across as the mouthpiece for the EU. If not championing Brussels, then at the bare minimum the BBC seems to be resigned to the opinion that because the EU exists, what is the point of arguing against it.<br />
<br />
There is seemingly a connection between the handling of anti-EU sentiment and the coverage of UKIP.<br />
We are the second biggest party in Brussels, striving to become the largest after the next European elections and standing a good chance. Why then, when issues about the European Union are addressed, are we rarely given a platform other than on Question Time, which is essentially the televisual equivalent of sticking politicians in the stocks?<br />
<br />
I also have direct experience of the attitudes of certain BBC staff I have encountered and others whom I have heard about. I was once informed how one member of the production team kept referring to UKIP as "BNP-lite", a vile and utterly disparaging comparison that bares no reflection to UKIP's libertarian views.<br />
<br />
It is also increasingly common to label UKIP as "Right Wing" or even "Far right".<br />
<br />
I myself am from a Labour background and do not associate myself with Conservative politics at all. UKIP serves largely as an umbrella organisation for people disenchanted with the fickle and unreliable policy making of the two main parties who are able to dominate politics and thus change direction and betray the voting public whenever they see fit as they are protected by the first past the post system.<br />
<br />
I do not believe the terms right and left wing have any place in today's politics. A highly interesting article on the <a href="http://libertarianpress.co.uk/" target="_blank">Libertarian Press website</a> discusses how this linear description of politics is outdated and unhelpful to voters who deserve to be better informed. The<a href="http://libertarianpress.co.uk/2010/09/25/a-plague-on-both-your-houses/" target="_blank"> article</a> proposed replacing the left and right wing system with a more astute political compass with the four points differentiating between Socialist, Socially Liberal, Free Market and Authoritarian. On this political compass, Stalin and Hitler are found at exactly the same point, when history has them down at opposite ends of the spectrum.<br />
<br />
While we cannot expect the newspapers (being partisan by nature and vessels for the privilege of opinion of a few wealthy magnates) to give us an unbiased report on politics, it is to the BBC as a publicly funded organisation we should be able to turn for a broad spectrum of opinion.<br />
<br />
Yet from programming to news reportage the BBC increasingly occupies the same territory as the Guardian newspaper. (It has even been said by people within the BBC that all the young guns are observed in the cafeteria or walking into the newsroom with the Guardian tucked firmly under an arm).<br />
<br />
The Guardian, which has carefully molded itself to occupy green and inoffensive territory of being seemingly inoccuous and friendly, is in fact possibly one of the most preaching and harshly critical, one-sided of broadsheets in the UK. Dressed up in hemp clothing, vegetarian recipes, folk festivals and a penchant for everything humanitarian, it is the one newspaper that will not only scathingly attack anything they deem as 'right wing' but also let it be known what you should be eating, watching, wearing and listeneing to.Whilst it is hard to protest against tips on allotment gardening as being culturally subversive, there is an increasingly accepted sense that there is a right and a wrong way to conduct your life, which is endorsed not just by the pitchfork waving Guardian, but also by the majority of BBC programming. The right way is eating only organic food, listening to PJ Harvey, growing a beard and wearing ethically sourced designer latex wide rimmed glasses. The wrong way is, amongst other things, disliking the EU and therefore voting UKIP.<br />
<br />
Interestingly the biggest threat to purported freedoms and values, farming standards, animal welfare and ethically sourced latex wide rimmed glasses is probably Brussels. And the biggest champions of libertarianism, a reduction in bureaucracy, real democracy and the welfare of fish, fishermen and farmers is UKIP. So while the Guardian waxes lyrical about buying local and eating in restaurants were the provenance of their ingredients and credentials of their suppliers is highlighted on their recycled environmentally friendly menus, the only way to really ensure local trade prospers and British farmers are able to turn out high quality, environmentally sound and economically viable produce, is by leaving the EU.<br />
<br />
UKIP as a party struggles with image. This is without doubt a sorry truth. It is normal for a small, upcoming party, as a threat to the established powers, to be at the receiving end of mudslinging and dirty politics. But you don't expect the BBC to join in, albeit unwittingly.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile the Green Party, with two MEPs and a coveted seat in the Commons, gets not only equal coverage to UKIP, with 13 seats and 3% of the vote in the General elections, but somehow manages to get the red carpet (or should I say biodegradable astro-turf) rolled out for free speech, despite only garnering less than one percent of the vote in 2010.<br />
<br />
As I write this, <a href="http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/" target="_blank">yougov's daily poll </a>reflecting voting intention shows the projected vote share as:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
CON 34%, LAB 41%, LDEM 8%, UKIP 10%</div>
<br />
Yes, that's right. We are a full 2 per cent clear of the Lib Dems.<br />
<br />
That is without the fair share of coverage and in spite of the propogation of negative reportage by main media outlets.<br />
<br />
Just imagine what that poll would look like if we were given the fair and balanced and accurate coverage we rightly deserve.<br />
<br />
I welcome with open arms this review commissioned by the BBC to be published sadly not until 2013.<br />
But while it may be a small step forward in our favour, it is a giant leap that is needed if UKIP are really going to get parity of coverage. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-88788546725899456012012-10-10T15:42:00.001+01:002012-10-10T15:43:05.832+01:00Is this what you call a Union?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Not since Captain Corelli's Mandolin have images of the Swastika in Greece been so prevalent on our TV screens.<br />
<br />
Is this really the 21st century reality of the European Union?<br />
Chillingly, yes.<br />
<br />
Fifty thousand people took to the streets to protest against German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Athens as she made her first visit to Greece in five years. Despite strict security measures and a ban on public gatherings, police still resorted to firing tear gas at protestors and arrested almost 200 people.<br />
<br />
The Greek people blame Merkel for overseeing the strict programme of cuts that have been conditions of receiving financial help.<br />
<br />
Greece is set to miss the fice year debt reduction target that was set when the country's €100 billion bail out was negotiated, that's despite the extraordinary measures taken by the Government that has seen thousands reduced to poverty and homelessness.<br />
<br />
Across Europe the situation is deteriorating. In Spain the Red Cross has appealed to the public to supply food parcels for stricken countrymen and has launched a massive appeal for millions of Euros to help those most in need in the country. It is the first time such an appeal has been launched to help those in need domestically, with usual campaigns targeting the world's poorest in Africa and Asia. The charity say some 2.3 million Spaniards are now extremely vulnerable and in need of food aid.<br />
<br />
Yesterday, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaris pleaded with the German Chancellor that his country was "bleeding" from all the internationally imposed cuts, however she showed no sign of backing down on German sanctioning of the demands, instead choosing to compare the situation in Greece to that in her own East Germany after reunification with the West.<br />
<br />
You would think with so many Nazi-themed insults being bandied about by the disgusted people of Greece, she would avoid alluding to the war.<br />
<br />
Yet what we got from the Greek Government was more of a tail between the legs grovelling about rectifying mistakes, perhaps in reference to the image being portrayed by German media as a nation of lazy and workshy complainers. Similarly Merkel has been tarnished with Nazi Overlord representations through out Greece. Yesterday's meeting was more a PR stunt to show solidarity between the two nations, rather than a meeting to discuss a productive settlement and reinforce both sides' commitment to maintaining Greece within the Eurozone.<br />
<br />
Yet for many, the cards are still very much in German hands.<br />
<br />
German-led conditions
attached to emergency loans have made Merkel the face of
austerity for Greeks. Merkel has been depicted in the Greek
media wearing jackboots and an SS uniform.<br />
<br />
Yet the austerity is not working. The Greek economy is set to contract for a sixth year in
2013 while the government continuously fails to meet deficit-reduction target. The economic downturn is the worst since World War
II, post Nazi occupation. Which brings us onto the thorny matter of war reparations.<br />
<br />
Under German occupation Greece was forced pay war loans to Hitler, leading to hyperinflation and a famine in which more than 500,000 Greeks, or 7 percent of the population,
died between October 1940 and October 1944, a quarter of a million from
hunger.<br />
<br />
It is believed that under occupation from 1941 to 1945, Greece paid Germany some £86 billion, which many believe the German's still owe. Despite Greece receiving reparations from Italy after World War II in recompense for Mussolini's occupation of the country, Germany never paid Greece. Fast forward the clock sixty years and the irony that the Greek people see the German Chancellor as transforming their country into a "German protectorate" is evident amidst calls for the occupation loan to be repaid, which would go a long way to securing Greece future financial security.<br />
<br />
Is this what the European Union, set up in the wake of World War II, was supposed to lead to?<br />
<br />
One country dominating the affairs of another, peoples at loggerheads over who is right, who is wrong, and who owes who what?<br />
<br />
It amazes me that the international community has failed to speak up on the issue. When it is falling to charities in 21st century Europe to make appeals for food aid due to political measures being enforced by other countries or unelected organisations, it is staggering that nobody is speaking up. <br />
<br />
The UN's Development Policy and Analysis Division (DPAD) notes that the debt crisis in the euro area, especially
in Greece, remains the biggest threat to the world economy. An
escalation could trigger severe turmoil in the financial markets and a
sharp rise in global risk aversion, leading to a contraction of economic
activity in developed countries. In their World Economic Situations and Prospects report, they advise<br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">"Breaking out of the vicious cycle of continued deleveraging, rising
unemployment, fiscal austerity and financial sector fragility requires
more concerted and more coherent efforts on several fronts of national
and international policy making.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">On the fiscal front, it is essential to change course in fiscal
policy in developed economies and shift the focus from short-term
consolidation to robust economic growth with medium- to long-run fiscal
sustainability. Premature fiscal austerity carry the risk of creating a
vicious downward spiral, with enormous economic and social costs.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Fiscal austerity has already pushed many European countries further
into recession. This is particularly relevant for the debt-ridden euro
area economies. Euro area countries have fallen back into recession,
following fiscal retrenchment over the past two years. Clearly, the
efforts at regaining debt sustainability through fiscal austerity are
backfiring in low growth and high unemployment."</span><br />
<br />
What is so staggering is that Europe, and when I say Europe I mean a few figures from the European Commission in Brussels, the European Central Bank and leaders of the wealthiest Eurozone member states, are being allowed to dictate policy that is having a very human cost.<br />
<br />
One wonders if a similar situation was being faced by ECOWAS or with the CFA Franc whether or not Europe would be muscling in to dictate what be done to rectify the situation.<br />
<br />
Without a doubt.<br />
<br />
Although Central African CFA francs and West African CFA francs have
always had the same monetary
value against other currencies, they are separate
currencies. They could theoretically have different values from any
moment if one of the two CFA monetary authorities, or France, decided
it. <br />
<br />
Why does the Euro not break up and follow the same agenda?<br />
<br />
Answers on a postcard please.John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-53250711201875572572012-09-27T16:52:00.000+01:002012-09-27T16:52:37.501+01:00The moral implications of bail outs and austerity<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Morally bankrupt.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bankrupt?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How little we have seen of the human impact of the ongoing
financial crisis in the Europe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course we have seen reportage of the human reaction, be
they stern faced Ministers assembling around large oak tables, shooing away the
clucking throngs of news journalists awaiting any shred of carrion to be tossed
from the wreckage, or the gathering crowds of unhappy protestors, waving
banners before being strewn with rubber bullets by an equally unhappy, yet duty
bound police.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And yet then, when we read on, we learn that Greece has asked
for that, despite being reprehensible for having committed such and such an
oversight, while doom laden Spain is sure to encounter this in their fate
leaving it to Germany to propose that, and so forth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As such the anthropomorphic labelling of whole countries is
enabling both journalist and reader to be removed from what should be the real
news story of the unfolding Eurozone disaster, the true cost to the everyday citizen. The people angle. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But it has suited the European Union to convey this image
and the largely national-leaning print press to extenuate it. Define the
problem as an entire country’s fiscal profligacy and then the only tool for
debt solution is the EU's favoured austerity that must be shouldered by all. In Brussels it
allows for a convenient bypass of democratic wont in order to transact further
powers within their scope, while for national governments and newspapers, it
conjures a sense of national unity by lauding an "all-in-this-together" sermon that allows the weakest in society to be most
heavily burdened, despite being the furthest removed from
the causes of the crisis. What is so ironic is that while in Brussels, Barroso readily condemns the very notion
of nationalistic, populist barriers to deepening European integration, he
relies upon it implicitly to sell the Troika imposed programme of cuts to a
nation. Everyone must do their bit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mr Barroso, it was your fiscal policy and foolhardy
adherence to a single currency, placing political will before economic sense,
that both caused the problem and continues to prolong it, so why must Senor Garcia be
forced to work until his joints are ground to dust while his children will be
taxed for the ills committed by their predecessors? I am sure when the concept of a single currency without unified fiscal policy was being drawn up he wasn't consulted. </div>
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Every country that found itself in the same position as the
Eurozone after the credit crunch in 2008 was able to find a solution. In Iceland, the
economy hit such a wall that the country defaulted and devalued the Krona. Iceland is now
recovering very quickly and is borrowing again on the world markets as a creditworthy
entity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You see the debate that has raged in newspapers across
Europe about what to do with a problem like Greece depends heavily on viewing
each and every man, woman and child on an Athenian controlled island as both
part of the problem and therefore responsible for its solution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If a person borrows money, they receive the amount directly
and must pay it back according to the terms and conditions. If a country
borrows money, the citizens are unlikely to be informed of the loan, its
purpose and certainly not its terms and conditions. How then does central government, let alone the government of a third country, morally justify imposed austerity?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet the personification of Greece as the naughty member of
the Eurozone allows the EU to paint the picture of the reckless neighbour who,
finding themselves unable to pay for their mortgage, appeals to the bank for
help to keep their house. They are relucantly granted a reprieve on condition of some very stern,
and of course wholly warranted, terms and conditions. Therefore if Greece gets a bail out at the cost of imposed
spending cuts and strict austerity measures, then Spain would have to subscribe to
the same punitive conditions if their economy is also to be rescued. Of course Senor Garcia cannot see why his benefits are being stripped when he has done nothing but work hard all his life. Meanwhile
Germany, who does not find herself in such a financial mess, can bang the
fist on the table and make demands which will affect the retirement age of
Kirios Papadopoulos. Of course when I say Germany I mean Merkel and her
cronies and their Brussels-based counterparts.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1995 Germany
strongly opposed an IMF bail out of Mexico arguing moral hazard in
giving a €17.8 billion loan as it essentially worked out as a rescue package for
the American investors who had shored up so much Mexican short-term debt. Now
the boot is on the other foot and it is German banks facing losses
if Greece
is allowed to go under, with as much as €22 billion of Greek public debt held
by German investors. Suddenly Frau Merkel repeats the tune of solidarity for
Greek and EU ears, but will happily pour scorn on Athens as and when it will placate her own
people.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It may suit Brussels,
political leaders, newspapers and ministers to talk about Greece, Spain,
Germany, Portugal and Ireland as if they are characters
in philosophical problem. But the real moral debate is not who should be paying
the debt, but how. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-35173496812534637832012-09-25T15:23:00.000+01:002012-09-25T15:23:27.002+01:00EU STEALTH TAX<div id="mainBodyArea">
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Poor old Cyprus has the difficult job of being at the helm of the rotating Presidency of the EU Council while negotiations over budget for the next seven years take place.<br />
Their valliant attempt to cap the budget at €1,033 billion was effectively thrown out after EU ministers failed to agree yesterday.<br />
While those countries inevitably filling their pockets as net benficiaries decried such a limit on spending, member states such as the UK, who bankroll a lot of the EU waste, are fighting hard to encourage the Commission to live by their own rules of zealous austerity that have been so damagingly imposed on bailed out Eurozone countries.<br />
No wonder then , considering how morally and financially bankrupt the EU is, that the Commission has once again put in a bid for their own tax raising powers through a direct levy on consumers and businesses across the Union. This would mean Governments themselves would pay lesser contributions, while the European Commission dipped their hands into the pockets of the 500 million EU poopulation.<br />
The proposals cover a one per cent rise in VAT which Brussels would siphon off to spend how they see fit. On top of this, disguised 'green' policies would see tax on fuel and flying also be driven towards the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.<br />
Britian has also been threated with having to give up the rebate, which sees Britian receive cashback from Brussels to offset discrepancies between contribution and funding. Where as other net contributors such as France benefit greatly from Agricultural spending, Britain receives little in relation to the funds poured into Brussels and so is the only country to receive a refund, something which many other member states oppose.<br />
However without the rebate, Britain would top the table of contributions to Brussels meaning a hugely distorted per capita burden on the UK taxpayer.<br />
It is often said there should be no taxation without representation. By gearing up to arm themselves with full fiscal powers, Brussels would effectively have created a self-funding, unimpeachable centralised government with little democratic representation.<br />
The Commissars of Brussels prefer working via protection rackets and loan sharks than attempting to function as a 21st century democratic institution. The sooner the world wakes up to this, the better.<br />
<br />
<br />
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John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-42474016060948442832012-09-20T10:15:00.000+01:002012-09-20T10:15:03.770+01:00Unscrupulous but not sexist!Insurance Companies.<br />
Custodians of morality.<br />
Purveyors of good will and justice.<br />
Never the sort of industry to make assumptions, jump to conclusions and forge the edifice of their profit upon the shifting sands of prejudice.<br />
This is why the EU, as a bastion of equality and sense, will impose the new EU Gender Directive on car insurance this December.<br />
How utterly despicable that in this day and age, insurance companies decide how much your premium is going to be based upon likelihood to crash your car!<br />
<br />
It is only right, surely, that women drivers be forced to pay up to
£2,000 MORE a year, despite, generally, being safer and more prudent drivers than their brothers, boyfriends and husbands.<br />
<br />
Now traditionally, women pay less than men for car insurance because
statistics show that they have fewer accidents and cause less damage
when they are involved in a crash. But the good people of Brussels aren't fans of tradition. So they decided it was better to bar insurers from charging men more than women based on the expectation of higher and more frequent payouts.<br />
<br />
It is estimated the average woman will end up paying an extra £362 a year, or around £30 a month. Yet for female teens, the price hike could be more like 94%, pushing the total cost to £2000, which, let's face it, most teenagers cannot afford.<br />
<br />
Sorry Susan, we cannot afford your car insurance. Better you walk home by yourself at night or take a dodgy looking minicab. Or you could stay at home and put the supper on. <br />
<br />
The money will essentially be used to subsidide the lower premiums male drivers of the same age will enioy - although the drop in their insurance is likely to be only 9%.<br />
<br />
So all's fair once again. We have the safest drivers covering the costs of the accidents of the most reckless, insurance companies opportunising and harvesting huge profits and the EU smiling beatifically at the balance they are forging as the arbiters of equality in Europe. John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-86943611425463838262012-09-10T16:15:00.000+01:002012-09-10T16:15:52.877+01:00All Eyes on Germany This Wednesday<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Wednesday could be the most pivotal day yet in
deciding the fate of the Eurozone.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Yes we’ve had critical summits and last minute
emergency meetings. But September 12<sup> </sup>is being hailed by some as the
day that could make or break the common currency as Germany’s constitutional court will
announce whether or not the European Stability Mechanism, or permanent bail out
fund of €700 billion, is legal according to German law. So far 14 of the 17
Eurozone members have ratified the treaty, with Estonia,
Italy and Germany yet to
put pen to paper.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It is the reaction in Germany however that will pull the
most influence. As the economic powerhouse of Europe, Germany has already been
criticised by George Soros, one of the world’s leading financiers, for failing
to face the brunt of the crisis and has been warned that the Eurozone would
face a long depression unless Germany are prepared to take on some of her
neighbour’s debts. “Stay and lead, or quit the Euro” has been the message from
Soros.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As the clock runs down on a rescue mission, it is becoming increasingly
apparent that time is no longer on the side of the Eurozone. With Spain sizing
up the possibility of needing a full state bail out, Prime Minister Mariano
Rajoy has been clear in his intent to review all the conditions of seeking
financial aid from the European Central Bank before arriving cap in hand.
Nothing will be clear about the ECB’s recently announced bond buying plan until
a rescue is requested, and how much this would mean signing over sovereignty to
faceless bureaucrats in Brussels
and at the IMF. Even if this were to happen, the Bundestag would then have to
approve the terms of the agreement, and with recent backlash against the German
Government from the media about the ECB’s proposals to buy Eurozone government
debt, it is clear public opinion does not support the idea of Germany
effectively bankrolling and underwriting the financial problems in other single
currency member states.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Whereas in America,
the banking crisis was quickly resolved after the collapse of Lehamn Brothers
in 2008, Europe, due to its lack of federal
unity, has been unable to find a weighty enough solution. On the same day as Germany decides
on the legality of the ESM, the European Commission will announce proposals for
a new Eurozone supervisor, an offshoot of the ECB that will regulate some 6,000
banks. Yet once again Germany
is no longer playing ball. Whereas many see the creation of a supervisory institution
as a concession to Germany’s demands that a watertight structure be brought in
if German euros are to be used to underwrite Eurozone debt, Germany has now
cast doubt on whether one central supervisor is enough and whether the ECB can
supervise so many banks at onece. There has even been murmurings that some Germans suspect the French of trying to
shift so much responsibility onto the ECB so as to deliberately render it impracticable.
Meanwhile Britian, which houses the majorty of the EU’s financial industry, is
of course outside the single currency and sceptical about any legislation or supervision that would shift power away from the City towards Brussels.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Even if a resolution is found, many still
believe it is too late to make a real difference. The Eurozone is back in
recession and unemployment has reached recird highs.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Also on Wednesday theDutch will go to the polls
to decide on their future Government, with more vocal opposition to the country’s
role in single currency bail outs than ever before. While it seems likely a pragmatic
centrist government will be elected, there is no doubt that the ongoing Euro
crisis has played a key role in many of the election campaigns with increasing
public discontent over the handling of the Eurozone crisis and calls for the Netherlands
to become <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>more assertive and sceptical
about demands made in Brussels and by other Eurozone members.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Meanwhile in Greece the three party government
cannot agree on austerity measyres designed to save almost €12 billion and
ensure the next tranche of bail out funding from the IMF and EU. It is
estimated that </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Greek debt is
still at a whopping 166% of GDP. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If the next chunk fo bail out money is
withheld in the wake of insufficient reform, it is likely Greece would default, catapaulting the single
currency back into crisis as markets would once again rally at the threat to
the single currency, rocketing the cost of borrowing sky high and serving a heavy
blow for Spain
who is already teetering on the edge of insolvency.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">According to Der Spiegel today Merkel’s rhetoric
has somewhat changed on a Greek exit. Whereas before her and finance secretary
Wolfgang </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Schäuble may have viewed Greece as the runt of the litter, it is
reported she has now spoken out about the suffering of the Greek people in the wake
of the crisis and implored that everything must be done to prevent a 'Grexit.'</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This may of course also have something to do
with the fact that in the wake of an exit, the €62billion owed by Greece to Germany would effectively have to
be written off.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It will be interesting to see on Wednesday what
the German Constitutional Court
rules.</span></div>
John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-76007699959832643892012-09-06T15:05:00.004+01:002012-09-06T15:06:30.275+01:00Bovine EID - What's your view?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNV-NAAri7f5Qv897ea0jbWsH4VHCY_V_QrECTzLmIVpl6lrcqt5BwY9lCGHkWBG4y6szKJboXvAHsQHTlKf7hjxNi8UbqRHlAImdQ47Egkn14QNCL3iDamwTydSchKzDQ6Un6KMh0JI/s1600/cow2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNV-NAAri7f5Qv897ea0jbWsH4VHCY_V_QrECTzLmIVpl6lrcqt5BwY9lCGHkWBG4y6szKJboXvAHsQHTlKf7hjxNi8UbqRHlAImdQ47Egkn14QNCL3iDamwTydSchKzDQ6Un6KMh0JI/s320/cow2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Parliament has reconvened with a session in Strasbourg next week to kick things off. On the agenda and on my remit is the proposition that cattle received electronic identification tags, EID, in the same way that movement monitoring was introduced for sheep in 2008.<br />
<br />
The farming community seem to see more sense in tagging cattle than sheep. Stringent paper records are already a requirement of the industry, and quite a few farmers believe switching to digitised record keeping will save time and effort. But what about money?<br />
<br />
There is no stipulation under the proposals on who pays for the equipment, whether Bovine EID will be compulsory and whether strict penalties will be levied against non-compliance.<br />
<br />
Sheep EID has suffered a great many issues, costing farmers hundreds of thousands through equipment failure and fines. Are we likely to encounter the same littany of issues when the ear tags are attached to cows? Is this monitoring really necessary? Before the introduction of such legislation, was farming and meat more dangerous, say, 30 years ago?<br />
<br />
I will be reading into these matters and addressing Parliament next week and would appreciate any feedback from farmers about their concerns and questions. Feel free to comment on the blogpost.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, here's a rather pertinent joke I stumbled across the other day.<br />
<br />
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A farmer named Bill was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous
pasture in Wales when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out
of a cloud of dust. <br />
<br />
The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses
and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the farmer, "If I tell you
exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give
me a calf?" <br />
<br />
Bill looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?" <br />
<br />
The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects
it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the
Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his
location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the
area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. <br />
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg. <br />
Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image
has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL
database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his
Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. <br />
Finally, he prints out a full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech,
miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turns to the farmer and says, "You
have exactly 1,586 cows and calves." <br />
<br />
"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bill. <br />
He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with
amusement as the young man stuffs it into the boot of his car. <br />
<br />
Then Bill says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?" <br />
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?" <br />
<br />
"You're a Member of the European Parliament", says Bill. <br />
"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?" <br />
"No guessing required." answered the farmer. "You showed up here even
though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already
knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of pounds worth of
equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you
don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about
cows, for that matter. This is a flock of sheep... <br />
<br />
.... now give me back my bloody dog.
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John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-56795526131835505222012-08-09T16:04:00.001+01:002012-08-10T10:17:15.092+01:00The Great Debate...?Yesterday Radio 4 transmitted a programme they called <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01ljk52/" target="_blank">The EU Debate</a><br />
<br />
Sir Stephen Wall, the former diplomat and EU adviser to Tony Blair, argued his position against a panel who
want Britain out, including UKIP's own Roger Helmer,
Dr Helen Szamuely - Head of research for the Bruges Group and Conservative MP
Mark Reckless.<br />
<br />
The debate was held at The London School of Economics and Politics (LSE).<br />
The audience was resoundingly pro-European Union.<br />
<br />
Some would say this is no surprise. LSE boasts "a distinguished history" in EU Law. They readily point out that "The first major English
language textbook on European Union law was published by an LSE academic...Members of the Department have gone on to be members of the Court
and similarly the Court is represented in the Department.." <br />
<br />
It is perhaps the foremost University in the UK for any graduand seeking a Commission or ECJ based career, so one would imagine the audience of the debate was largely made up of people either aspiring to work for the EU or a student body of a broadly similar mindset.<br />
<br />
It is rather sorry that the BBC chose to stage the argument with a roll-call on voting intention at the start of the debate (the Yays have it) and then the same question posed at the end of the debate to demonstrate that the vast majority still applauded the EU. It certainly whiffed a bit of a set up, pitching not one, or two, but three Eurosceptics against one avid supporter to then fimd that their arguments had gained no purchase with the audience at all.<br />
<br />
It would be like having three Michelin starred chefs attempting to extol the virtues of Chateaubriand with a side of Fois-Gras to an audience of Vegans.<br />
<br />
The final product was this semblance that one rather unpopular Europhile (just former association with T Blair often casts people into the instant role of pantomime villain) could be pitted against three articulate Eurosceptics, and guess what, the EU still comes out on top. Well there you have it. A foregone conclusion. The EU is the shiniest and best thing to e'er happen to Western Civilisation.<br />
<br />
But listening to the arguments put forward by Mr Wall, there was also implication, the same one often used by the left-leaning press, that leaving the EU is the same as getting into a time machine and returning to a war-stricken divided Europe of workhouses, soot and poverty.<br />
<br />
Oh and Britain will become as insignificant on the world stage as Micronesia. <br />
<br />
It just doesn't make sense. Nobody is denying that the EU at some stage may have done some good stuff.<br />
But the ever centrifugal pull of power into the midst of a democratic vacuum exhibited by Brussels as it clambers shambolically through the self-inflicted wastelands of economic misery is eerily reminiscent of the very Communism Mr Wall exhorted the pan-European bloc gallantly overcame.<br />
<br />
I shuddered at his use of the words "For safety's sake" as if without the very Union that is pitting nation against nation in an epidemia of economic contagion, puttting people on streets and causing petrol bombs and smashed shop windows to become a regular sight once again in the Mediterranean, Europe would be thrown back into myre of multi-national conflict. What an utterly grotesque assertion, and how undermining to NATO, the UN and 21st century common sense.<br />
<br />
And how undermining to the UK that without Europe we would no longer have any sort of influence where it counted. <br />
<br />
It is as if there is a clear dichotomy. Either be in the EU or hate neighbouring European countries and become an isolated and impoverished little territory.<br />
<br />
Why nobody seems to posit that cooperation, trade and solidarity may actually be enhanced by leaving the European Union, which as far as most can see is merely the architect of economic and political failure, is a mystery to me. All you have to do is open a newspaper to see the turmoils affecting Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and so forth.<br />
<br />
Of course Switzerland, who remains resolutely outside of the EU but fully cooperational in terms of free trade, is planning to use the Large Hadron Collider now Higgs-Boson has been found to forge a network of guerilla tunnels under continental Europe and take us all by force, all the while smirking as she benefits from selling Philip Patek's in return for civilisation-destroying arms. If that sounds ridiculous to you, then surely this proposition that the EU membership is essential for European peacekeeping also rings of utter codswallop.<br />
<br />
Notice how the debate rarely even touched upon the catastrophic failure of the Euro, the self-defeating agricultural policy dessimating UK farming and neutering our ability to be self sufficient, let alone the Common Fisheries Policy which not only practically eradicates all ocean life from the waters of Europe, but destroys the coastlines and fishing communities of numerous third world countries.<br />
<br />
I must admit I listened with pride at the arguments put forward by Helmer et al.<br />
Yet a clever bit of editing and a sprinkle of production values and the BBC came across as the mouthpiece of Europe. <br />
<br />
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<br />John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-12840787413497200332012-08-02T17:37:00.000+01:002012-08-02T17:37:52.615+01:00Passing the buck..or Euro<a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buckstopsherefrontsmall.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" class="thumbimage" height="108" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Buckstopsherefrontsmall.jpg/240px-Buckstopsherefrontsmall.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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US President Harry Truman famously had a sign on his desk in the Oval Office that said "The Buck Stops Here".</div>
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The expression itself is thought to originate from poker, whereby a marker or counter indicates whose turn it is to deal. A player could pass the "buck" into the next player and thus buck his responsibilities.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Truman_pass-the-buck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" class="thumbimage" height="191" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Truman_pass-the-buck.jpg" width="200" /></a>In international relations the phrase has come to mean the tendency of nation-states to refuse to confront an escalating issue in the hope that another nation will step up to the mark. Perhaps a more fitting representation of playing hot potato with multi-national responsibilirt would be the phrase "The Euro Stops Here". But then, where does the Euro actually stop?</div>
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I don't just mean in terms of the currency itself. The very problem with the single currency was that it was created without any sense of centralised control. Instead a sort of Ashram-style communcal ownership of the currency was forged. But as the edifice began to crumble, all of a sudden shared responsibilities were denied and finger pointing, points-scoring and accusatory proclamations shattered the previously optimistic murmured assent of the great single currency project.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibHfJpPBoVpDKhJD_XVJuoaEb4XdFMxmnNz170QeJL3QQzE822ZdGEj_NqffbAWrLSe68f0mGpKSYfIU1CkQti7M3D0C_N3tBj9dqe97Xsuvt6lE04QOUtI4Ef5ehgz1hRHDTsz-o__Nk/s1600/euro3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibHfJpPBoVpDKhJD_XVJuoaEb4XdFMxmnNz170QeJL3QQzE822ZdGEj_NqffbAWrLSe68f0mGpKSYfIU1CkQti7M3D0C_N3tBj9dqe97Xsuvt6lE04QOUtI4Ef5ehgz1hRHDTsz-o__Nk/s1600/euro3.jpg" /></a>It is of course summer recess in Brussels. That means the big boys in the EU are essentially on their holibobs, leaving nobody to call their shots for a couple of weeks and essentially passing the onus onto the European Central Bank to calm the waters before everyone can return to the drawing board and bang their heads together once again.</div>
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<br />
<br />
Rather unhelpfully, the ECB President Mario Draghi has been left the usual script.<br />
Phrases like "The single currency is not reversible" and "The ECB will do whatever it takes to save the Euro" are being jettisoned out at the world's media, who, of course, have heard it all before.<br />
<br /><b></b><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_passing#cite_note-1"><span></span></a></sup><br />
Then there was even the line “In the coming weeks we will design the appropriate modalities for such policy measures,” alongside the usual affirmation that eurozone countries "must use the time constructively to move towards closer integration in the eurozone".<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipK8Q-qv5Wq0iUQVoe07WWaL7RkrKsXaifz3matCX3M2XpEEejec3Is7wgNaUCprUnS6NmOBu3G58VRds5liU88ZsOUlCLNz3V-YWCfNiIsTSuR6kcxN2IzW5CSOBDAig7lXeKam8Fwpc/s1600/euros.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipK8Q-qv5Wq0iUQVoe07WWaL7RkrKsXaifz3matCX3M2XpEEejec3Is7wgNaUCprUnS6NmOBu3G58VRds5liU88ZsOUlCLNz3V-YWCfNiIsTSuR6kcxN2IzW5CSOBDAig7lXeKam8Fwpc/s1600/euros.jpg" /></a>The ECB's bond-buying programme had managed to actually bring down the costs of government borrowing in the Eurozone via the trade between banks and government institutions on the secondary market. However this was shut down in January and anyway, actual costs of government borrowing are largely determined at auctions in the primary market where bonds are sold directly to banks (bonds are essentially I.O.U.s which certain crafty financiers agree to "buy" ata rate of interest which they believe will land them a sizeable profit. Of course, the less desirable the I.O.U. the higher the rate of interest demanded by the potential purchaser). It is here that the ECB would need to bring down the costs in much the same way as the Bank of England has done in the UK, effectively spending 20% of UK national income on government debt.<br />
<br />
The same sort of intervention by the ECB would be a bond purchase of around €1.6 trillion. <br />
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ21E7gK87di_yBigHijWCFqxOGvkEUWAa0PJDTQDbDFP6DlRDN3yCHrOah_TxHsH0Av5mA4OexnrkC1p9oDTINaYk5QxSUxmFjfSxhdi5kPyFKILdppdAmf5aY9PabNdeqH29yslA7ko/s1600/euros2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ21E7gK87di_yBigHijWCFqxOGvkEUWAa0PJDTQDbDFP6DlRDN3yCHrOah_TxHsH0Av5mA4OexnrkC1p9oDTINaYk5QxSUxmFjfSxhdi5kPyFKILdppdAmf5aY9PabNdeqH29yslA7ko/s1600/euros2.jpg" /></a>But the ECB's constitution prevents it from lending money to
European governments, precluding it from buying bonds at government debt
auctions in the primary market.<br />
<br />
Instead, under the Eurogroup plan, the EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility, or to you and I, the bail-out fund) would do the buying...through the ECB.<br />
<br />
The problem is however that the bail out fund which at one point had €440billion has already thrown €200billion at Greece, Ireland and Portugal and has recently committed another €100billion to Spanish banks.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfCe2bu6cP7RdvR2t7PCIqAJp44jLWp9bOHino2CopLcT5bthJcjgNguk1XrvZHx-_5JnllEEDHPVdhW1sCBKMIlUJdYIivnZFjtevGk7O27qWxYO0KmPAnCQN_0R2j7VZsD0el325UNU/s1600/euros4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfCe2bu6cP7RdvR2t7PCIqAJp44jLWp9bOHino2CopLcT5bthJcjgNguk1XrvZHx-_5JnllEEDHPVdhW1sCBKMIlUJdYIivnZFjtevGk7O27qWxYO0KmPAnCQN_0R2j7VZsD0el325UNU/s1600/euros4.jpg" /></a>Yet the ECB has also stated that "first of all governments need to go to the EFSF; the ECB cannot replace governments". But there's nothing really lefy in the EFSF, and what's more the statement made by the ECB was not really backed up by one vital player: <span id="articleText"> Jens Weidmann, head of Germany's influential Bundesbank, the ECB's biggest shareholder. The very fact that Draghi named the dissenter was clear intent that rather than buttering up Germany as potential paymaster, the institutions are tempted to round upon the economic powerhouse by portraying Germany as some kind of Judas.</span><br />
<span id="articleText"><br /></span><br />
<span id="articleText">He is without doubt fully aware that all this chit chat must get through Germany's Constitutional Courts in September. </span><br />
<span id="articleText"><br /></span><br />
<span id="articleText">Draghi has also reaffirmed that national governmens had to do their bit and stick to, if not enhance, already devastating austerity measures and use their bail out funds before turning cap in hand to the Central Bank.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuwn8A5cQPuOipDfig4PgMD0pDLioc_0KqkVxpY-G2HInbfstPj3ubEa7S9YFfxumo7FqIIqmf6sGcuvpPYQ8xYqvh98hmtXD47udBU-Bc5eoGgh3AVvQJioKLxj8N5SO8AsO_Y81oR6s/s1600/eurosign+and+flags.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuwn8A5cQPuOipDfig4PgMD0pDLioc_0KqkVxpY-G2HInbfstPj3ubEa7S9YFfxumo7FqIIqmf6sGcuvpPYQ8xYqvh98hmtXD47udBU-Bc5eoGgh3AVvQJioKLxj8N5SO8AsO_Y81oR6s/s200/eurosign+and+flags.jpg" width="200" /></a><span id="articleText">Essentially all we have heard from Draghi is the usual rhetoric designed to temporarily calm the storm while everyone enjoys their vacation. However, perhaps significantly, the German Government has backed the ECB's statement despite</span> officials at the German central bank being openly critical of using
ECB resources to buy the bonds of struggling countries such as Greece or
Spain as against the spirit of the
ECB’s statutes, which forbid it to finance states. The bank simply reiterated that “There haven’t been
any changes” on this position.<br />
<br />
The question over whether the ECB could grant the proposed €500billion rescue fund a banking license in order for it to borrow from the ECB has been shot down by Germany. Yet while the Bundesbank cannot veto ECB policy decisions, the very fact that Germany is the biggest shareholder in the ECB due to the size of her economy means it is vital that they are on board.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSvwrDVJHmhcJ3l1xbx9IeZQYT-zypV_WYD1TBj9A0lU1yGf5vovbsYRfhcFfGnJ7-Uvlf30SgxvCsynqp9tjyd8-EoT0dYa90RZuhXGtW3N_jU4yKPIpiy66NGOCzV_6RRO7RkN8L7gU/s1600/Merkel2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSvwrDVJHmhcJ3l1xbx9IeZQYT-zypV_WYD1TBj9A0lU1yGf5vovbsYRfhcFfGnJ7-Uvlf30SgxvCsynqp9tjyd8-EoT0dYa90RZuhXGtW3N_jU4yKPIpiy66NGOCzV_6RRO7RkN8L7gU/s200/Merkel2.JPG" width="200" /></a>And so we have in practice what the EU was designed to prevent.<br />
<br />
The question of on who's desk the sign "The Euro Stops Here" should sit is increasingly obvious to us all. Once again the future of Europe will likely be determined in the Bundestag unless all the other European states can combine forces to overcome her might.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><b></b><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_passing#cite_note-1"><span></span></a></sup>John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-49964356985507200032012-07-24T15:13:00.001+01:002012-07-24T15:14:32.745+01:00A knock on your door from Barosso can mean only one thing...It's getting rather tiring talking about the same topics, week in week out.<br />
But they simply cannot be ignored.<br />
As soon as they disappear from newspapers, they are simply simmering under the surface of a fast-track primordial swamp waiting to evolve and re-emerge a more fearful beast.<br />
More than £30billion of value of British companies was obliterated by news that Spain, as predicted, will likely need a national, as well as the already agreed, banking bail out. And if the Eurozone's fourth largest economy is sucked into the mire, well, I've said it before and will say it again. The EU is screwed.<br />
In fact the Global economy is going to be up the creek without a paddle. World stock markets fell by 2% in the wake of the news.<br />
British banks with billions tied up in Spanish loans are now in a precarious position while the credit ratings of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany are all set for a downgrade, which ultimately will compound the problem, making the powerhouse economies of the single currency face higher rates of borrowing.<br />
Italy is also heading towards a bail out with public debt totalling almost £1trillion.Ten Italian cities are on the verge of bankruptcy.<br />
Currently Spain has been granted a bail out of up to £80 billion to shore up its banks, which are sitting on £122 of dodgy loans. But the latest news that the state also need an urgent cash injection adds an eyewatering £250billion onto that amount. Throw Italy into the mix and in total the Eurozone looks like it may need the previously predicted €2 trillion to get through to the end of the year. The bail out fund that took months to agree has only €700billion to it's name.<br />
Let's see what that looks like as a number...<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">€2,000,000,000,000,000,000 </span></div>
Yikes!<br />
<br />
Meanwhile the Troika, (IMF, ECB and EU) are about to arrive in Greece to turn the knife a little more and make sure their hugely unpopular and unsuccessful austerity measures are being obeyed to the letter.<br />
Greece is likely to suffer much deeper recession that previously thought, with expectations that the economy will shrink by 7% ratehr than the forecast 5% demonstrating the swingeing cuts are driving the economy into the ground. But without progress, Greece is being threatened with not receiving the final part of its bail out of €31.5billion. Reports suggest the IMF will now refuse any further calls for aid.<br />
I was surprised to learn that despite his pontificating from Brussels, Commission President Jose Manuel Barosso hasn't even set foot in Greece, the country he has overseen being brought to its knees, since 2009.<br />
<br />
<br />John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-61107259229786646152012-07-17T16:49:00.002+01:002012-07-17T17:03:10.389+01:00Commons census - The Dutch and The British<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgN8DHP4BxE_jFB65p2HIEmvZXJzci-tlYpEVwp5WIxlgiPzcZ-0adNSY25FPbOpmaxnbrPTh6_XPbxxjfDYPnmaBIy5FUkdK780IkFzpYH7Gg7Yon2_37cSywxzPX-r7Vos8D0lZ3wL4/s1600/netherlands+flag.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgN8DHP4BxE_jFB65p2HIEmvZXJzci-tlYpEVwp5WIxlgiPzcZ-0adNSY25FPbOpmaxnbrPTh6_XPbxxjfDYPnmaBIy5FUkdK780IkFzpYH7Gg7Yon2_37cSywxzPX-r7Vos8D0lZ3wL4/s200/netherlands+flag.gif" width="200" /></a>Figures released today from the latest conducted census have shown a population increase in at least 3.7 million in England and Wales.<br />
<br />
Fifty five percent of that increase was fuelled by immigration between 2001 and 2011 - a jaw dropping 2.1 million.<br />
<br />
The rest is due to rising birth rates and increasing life span. However, immigration has also played a part here, with higher average birth rates attributed to foreign born couples. One in four babies now born in the UK has a non-UK born Mum.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvF4rKtieC2UoJpyw69SVPNXKOtTu9Md90zkX2QGGYqIvRi8kWOGObqJLUrxptafJnv0qlhtjUkbSoPLeamKKTGPBwMUnhHK0_mCRKyZu_1Hxqxxx-nsX5C8BLmBLAzVv5nfMrNqbTA80/s1600/union+jack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvF4rKtieC2UoJpyw69SVPNXKOtTu9Md90zkX2QGGYqIvRi8kWOGObqJLUrxptafJnv0qlhtjUkbSoPLeamKKTGPBwMUnhHK0_mCRKyZu_1Hxqxxx-nsX5C8BLmBLAzVv5nfMrNqbTA80/s200/union+jack.jpg" width="200" /></a>England is now the third most densely populated place in the EU, after Malta and the Netherlands. Well given that Malta is by nature a very small island, no bigger than the size of Bristol, I think we can discount that from the count. By virtue of its compact size, density is heightened. Even still, if you visit Gozo, you will see acres of unspoilt arable land.<br />
<br />
England has around 402.1 people for
every square kilometre of land, overtaking the figure of 398.5 in Holland and
355.2 in Belgium. The density of the population in England is almost more than four times that of France, which has 99.4 for each
square kilometre.<br />
<br />
So other than both having a Queen, a rocky history with the Habsburgs and a national zeal for football (they exhibit passionate opposition to the Germans even more than we do) we also find ourselves facing the same cultural questions.<br />
<br />
The Netherlands is the 61st most populated country in the world with a population of 16,663,831. A mere drop in the ocean compared with the UK's burgeoning 56.1 million.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8RbCtcaCjnRq362CouywQfdl-6hpNYpmo7b173yuYEoxBi3Cu58N0KL0M_UMkHoZqWcrv4s-pxpCs9Q5uRQ1N9Csp5XLsbjPZsF4CISi4tdlcgDejWhB_km3EgvP0HtwumL43jlX4Hos/s1600/crowd1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8RbCtcaCjnRq362CouywQfdl-6hpNYpmo7b173yuYEoxBi3Cu58N0KL0M_UMkHoZqWcrv4s-pxpCs9Q5uRQ1N9Csp5XLsbjPZsF4CISi4tdlcgDejWhB_km3EgvP0HtwumL43jlX4Hos/s1600/crowd1.JPG" /></a>But like statistics often quoted for the UK, this marker relates to the Netherlands as a whole.<br />
<br />
Britain is the 39th most crowded country in the world. But as 93% of immigrants go to England, it is England that matters in this context. Together with Holland, England is the sixth most crowded country in the world exlcuding islands and city states. <br />
<br />
Between 1900 and 1950 the population of the Netherlands doubled from 5.1 to 10 million people, and then grew by another 50% thereafter. According to Eurostat, 2010 saw 1.8 million foreign-born Netherlands residents, 11.1% o the total population.<br />
<br />
Such a dramatic change of cultural landscape has its repercussions. Apart from the fear of unsustainable pressures on housing, employment and public services comes the more tricky and sensitive issue of whether a country is the sum of its peoples, and that being the case, whether change is good.<br />
<br />
Inevitably growing consertantion about immigration led to the rise of more immigration-centric policies. The Dutch Government's policy, overseen by Immigration Minister Laurens Rita Verdonk, paved the way for permits for "knowledge-migrants" who would earn a minimum gross income of €45,000 unless a doctoral student or postgraduate or university teacher younger than 30 years of age. The permit is granted for a maximum of five years, while foreign students get a residence permit of just one year, subject to renewal by the relevant educational instututions.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwfY9MvXoiiZ52o_4zOv8yfQPK8Ztzyy3p5pXqOjC4N9mIaHZFrQzp4x09_kj1qwhHy73kDPYXQOPZN1QwD7eLWnymhtUie1I2ftpw_Nxn_aeaHOSlLJQ8FxZN_DVfv50a9RObdVP8Z84/s1600/crowd2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwfY9MvXoiiZ52o_4zOv8yfQPK8Ztzyy3p5pXqOjC4N9mIaHZFrQzp4x09_kj1qwhHy73kDPYXQOPZN1QwD7eLWnymhtUie1I2ftpw_Nxn_aeaHOSlLJQ8FxZN_DVfv50a9RObdVP8Z84/s1600/crowd2.JPG" /></a><br />
Newcomers to the country and those immigrants already settled are also subject to an integration exam, much like here in the UK. The Netherlands are the first country to insist permanent immigrants also complete the pre-integration course.<br />
<br />
Many Dutch people however are also concerned about the scale of EU immigration. In reaction to European Commission proposals to enforce social security benefits to people working in a member state but living elsewhere, the Government has been denying this right, provoking the Commission to threaten the Dutch Social Affairs Minister Henk Kamp with legal action.<br />
<br />
Which brings us on to the question of what EU member states can actually do to tackle the problems that a mass influx of immigration can potentially bring?<br />
<br />
The difficulty with this subject is it falls victim too easily to protestations of xenophobia, despite simple mathematics and economics underscoring the sense of having a debate about the impact of a growing population. <br />
<br />
Recent reports on Reuters suggest that as economic mire continues to trouble the Eurozone, so-called "Populist" concerns such as cultural ones have been usurped of their supremacy by valence issues such as fears about the economic crisis. Voters are apparently less bothered about immigration and are instead more worried about how the Euro crisis will affect the Netherlands.<br />
<br />
But surely the two are intertwined?<br />
<br />
Should we separate discussions about burgeoning populations and net immigration, or should they both be regarded under the same microscope? Is this not the safest way to tackle the tricky subject of immigration?<br />
<br />
My tendency is to suggest the latter - certainly from a national point of view, though this is certainly not the vantage point of the Socialism-steered European Commission who wish to trample renewed calls for sovereignty in the light of ongoing economic crisis and iron out any disjuncture between once allied member states. After all it is important for the very continuation of the EU for solidarity to supercede national interests - and how better to achieve this than create a single federal entity, both engineered and corroborated by the free movement of people?<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuOcAmYiIAGCo5zst38LAakRkPA47I378bdXevsjbBRs6XpEEVBCSQ_7IILu7G3M3M2XugTlZg9iEaEi5hory2FqmGDy0DHaPi2euBSEsY_o-15HoDdaTuoe0hiZUsLVeYP5BAYT4pujM/s1600/crowd3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuOcAmYiIAGCo5zst38LAakRkPA47I378bdXevsjbBRs6XpEEVBCSQ_7IILu7G3M3M2XugTlZg9iEaEi5hory2FqmGDy0DHaPi2euBSEsY_o-15HoDdaTuoe0hiZUsLVeYP5BAYT4pujM/s200/crowd3.JPG" width="200" /></a>The question now is what route the UK Government will take in light of these recent statistics.<br />
<br />
Are we willing to burden share if economic migrants from, say, Greece, wish to come to the UK to seek employment or benefit from our social welfare system?<br />
<br />
Since 1997 three quarters of employment created in the UK has been taken by immigrants. <br />
<br />
The latest poll by YouGov shows that 70% of people want immigration reduced down to the level of emigration, effectively creating a one-in-one-out system of entry, surely reflecting an economic concern over and above a cultural one?<br />
<br />
Are we even permitted to talk about the cultural ramifications of immigration? Is there a valid argument to be made?<br />
<br />
It's a subject not often tackled here in the UK. Britishness has become almost such an abhorrent term that, other than during the Jubilee, it is by and lrge frowned upon (by nameless, faceless people) to raise the Union Jack outside your home as a perceived act of nationalistic hostility. (Who are these people that supposely think this, anyway? I've never met one, yet we are all aware of the connotations raising the British standard apparently engenders)<br />
<br />
What level of insanity have we reached when flying our country's flag is perceived as racist?<br />
<br />
In the UK we are not having the conversation in the open. Instead a perceived rot forcing us to shun patriotism is pervading common sense, meaning real discussion about immgiration is only taking place in sitting rooms and quiet corners of pubs, or by minority groups of society whom we would rather not voice their opinions at all.<br />
<br />
Is that because the conversation is wrong in its very purpose?<br />
<br />
No.<br />
<br />
It's actually because we are a very welcoming society and so concerned to appear as such that, in a typical British fashion, to be seen to openly complain is, well, tasteless. Only a tiny, insidious little percentage of a percentage actually hold the sort of views that we fear we may be perceived as having if we open up this particular dialogue.<br />
<br />
When left unspoken however, the argument is up for grabs by whichever niche section of society wishes to adopt it. Sadly it has become an issue in the UK far too readily associated with the BNP. They then have the power to attract support by laying claim to concerns that are not being addressed by Government.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQj7et0XLZ3W1vPLYm_EjqUGfLajowZl5RrLaBJjnhPkgsFZOg5YbSnxl__3VVsFwm7pdVVyJcLGmGhVrS1bD8Fn79w7hbTCS7CXkVQV0mW0sNWNYQTMBo19ePVaOSuhd225Lav8VDpls/s1600/crowd4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQj7et0XLZ3W1vPLYm_EjqUGfLajowZl5RrLaBJjnhPkgsFZOg5YbSnxl__3VVsFwm7pdVVyJcLGmGhVrS1bD8Fn79w7hbTCS7CXkVQV0mW0sNWNYQTMBo19ePVaOSuhd225Lav8VDpls/s320/crowd4.JPG" width="320" /></a>This very dialogue has been tackled head on, for better or for worse, by the peroxide-topped infamous figure of Geert Wilders and the PVV party in the Netherlands, to a rather astonishing level of success given the party's size all but five years ago and its present sway in Parliament today.<br />
<br />
Now there are gaping differences between what the PVV stand for and what many British people stand for, however there is one aspect of uniformity. A shared desire to actually bring this debate to the fore.<br />
<br />
There is growing unrest both over there and over here surrounding what can be done in support of the preservation of one's perceived country, its peoples and its ideals.<br />
<br />
History has taught us that when such issues are ignored, they are more likely to become inflamed and then become very difficult for the middle ground to reclaim.<br />
<br />
I vouch for an open debate on this matter, where British people are not afraid to show their true colours.<br />
<br />
And you know what? I think we would all be quite proud of how open we are as a people, and not only 'tolerant' but actively welcoming and celebratory of our multicultural present.<br />
<br />
Yet it is exactly this temperament that is at stake if we cannot talk about immigration sensibly. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-38325168781432442892012-07-05T10:23:00.000+01:002012-07-05T10:23:32.224+01:00UKIP Breakthrough in Wales<br />
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span>UKIP could make dramatic gains in forthcoming Welsh
elections according to a <a href="http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/y0phchdfgq/YG-Archives-Pol-ITVWales-Results-050712.pdf" target="_blank">YouGov poll</a> commissioned by <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2012-07-05/a-labour-majority-and-a-ukip-breakthrough/" target="_blank">ITV Wales.</a> The prediction
that UKIP could gain 5 seats, putting the party on equal footing with the
Conservatives, is based upon a dramatic shift in Regional List voting where
UKIP ranks as the third party, on 12% of the vote.
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The results of this poll are encouraging, but they tell us
what we already know. As a party we are going from strength to strength. Voters
are waking up to the fact that we are a credible alternative to the
establishment parties who time and again let down the people.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For too long, too few parties have<a href="http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2012-07-05/a-labour-majority-and-a-ukip-breakthrough/" target="_blank"> d</a>ominated politics. This
enables them to drastically shift policy as they wish as they believe they are
untouchable. This also means that worryingly, it is a select few people at the
very top of these parties with power and influence, while voters and backbenchers
are simply ignored.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This has become clear with the number of u-turns made by
the Coalition Government in Westminster.
Dismal policy making and broken promises are losing the establishment parties
support. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
UKIP’s recent success isn’t just about growing
consternation with the EU. It’s about voters waking up to the fact that we
offer a whole range of policies that represent what the people of Wales want.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
UKIP is not just an alternative to a Tory vote. It’s an
alternative vote to all the other parties that have failed, and will continue
to fail, Welsh voters. These results show that people want UKIP as part of Wales’
political fabric to fight their corner on a range of issues.</div>
<br />John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-35723114803835106522012-06-25T12:23:00.000+01:002012-06-25T12:24:43.385+01:00Motorcycle Protest<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYgjVVn98TIKfLesU5Iln7XdTF7Ndc9cwhFOumdIqf7Ms-vNDhFNp1-bjJUVWWK5QldNfPXNU_p1Ui3mvJsz2JezUgULFa0VcybfWM9YIoR_0DrThUxwG3Mt6vq_G-3F3bs8UDbDNx7j4/s1600/MAG+protest+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYgjVVn98TIKfLesU5Iln7XdTF7Ndc9cwhFOumdIqf7Ms-vNDhFNp1-bjJUVWWK5QldNfPXNU_p1Ui3mvJsz2JezUgULFa0VcybfWM9YIoR_0DrThUxwG3Mt6vq_G-3F3bs8UDbDNx7j4/s1600/MAG+protest+2.JPG" /></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This weekend I joined hundreds of bikers before they embarked on a protest cavalcade down the M4 - one of 12 major
demonstrations up and down the UK, organised by the <a href="http://www.mag-uk.org/en/index/a6296" target="_blank">Motorcycle Action Group</a> to protest
against proposed EU legislation that will limit the right to modify new bikes
and make on board diagnostics compulsory.</span></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4rZ3EEDJnxuoZiLIDWHIlB88OKvQ5s9uBHb3hNkGR-qrhWXrTeZR8QeI7XBGE5s287qsWLlgJLYgJVC86mcM9xghgPaQ6Uka2LxJWoj0oz-GFZrS9gbDDd7hORy0den3AUAbf-5i1Dus/s1600/MAG+protest+3.JPEG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4rZ3EEDJnxuoZiLIDWHIlB88OKvQ5s9uBHb3hNkGR-qrhWXrTeZR8QeI7XBGE5s287qsWLlgJLYgJVC86mcM9xghgPaQ6Uka2LxJWoj0oz-GFZrS9gbDDd7hORy0den3AUAbf-5i1Dus/s1600/MAG+protest+3.JPEG" /></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">At 1300 the
motorcyclists set off from the12 meeting points -
representing the 12 EU Parliamentary Constituencies.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> In Wales,
the protestors embarked upon their ride</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> at Junction 49 of the M4 and were accompanied by
police escort.</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrW7YYrpIKC0o8sIbih0AR1-7Vu2Qab9t2mC9toZvmVOhaAMyvuGGBl25s88qWCBMzDWlp-nW6EoR2Y6lrQlb2hi-kW41JxT3KxQ5hhPCTydFXFeLMEIyQKsPOADa943ycRgkSAkOMfQ/s1600/MAG+protest.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrW7YYrpIKC0o8sIbih0AR1-7Vu2Qab9t2mC9toZvmVOhaAMyvuGGBl25s88qWCBMzDWlp-nW6EoR2Y6lrQlb2hi-kW41JxT3KxQ5hhPCTydFXFeLMEIyQKsPOADa943ycRgkSAkOMfQ/s1600/MAG+protest.JPG" /></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There is no evidence to
support this notion that modifications are unsafe or environmentally unfriendly.
Compulsory ABS and automatic headlights will render older models illegal and
also shift more responsibility onto motorcyclists and away from dangerous road
users.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Similarly the proposed On Board Diagnostics are a breach of liberty and
will force motorcyclists to take bikes into dealerships, preventing any
mechanical work from being done at home.</span></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBPlzNDzXfhyphenhyphenskkHVXvdd5byu8Hfw5okc-HA8wOsp_g-CW9oiJWCMwRni6wseb_y0FpLsLb-vfCs9MgGo6SBNGBkBaq0VUr2eReprY9YjLEtecrqvjx_xh0J0LUjNTtxKmQvkL35y3yDc/s1600/MAGprotest5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBPlzNDzXfhyphenhyphenskkHVXvdd5byu8Hfw5okc-HA8wOsp_g-CW9oiJWCMwRni6wseb_y0FpLsLb-vfCs9MgGo6SBNGBkBaq0VUr2eReprY9YjLEtecrqvjx_xh0J0LUjNTtxKmQvkL35y3yDc/s1600/MAGprotest5.JPG" /></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The burden
of the regulation far outweighs any sort of justification and will cost
motorcyclists heavily. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The turn out is incredible which just goes to demonstrate
how passionate many motorcyclists are about their vehicles and the disgust that
is felt about the EU interfering with probably the most liberating form of
transport.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf3je3QVvoPnwGrtPb8jEjMFy44Ak6L5osab3JpouLHP1kMEkwg9fcl4HKMn1m4HbxyC5bseq5wcjlsWcQ6GUc_vYMRxCQFOOQDwB-qaB00pXpDsUKO6PQDLpnzHUiVPrkzfX3snTBlKA/s1600/MAGprotest6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf3je3QVvoPnwGrtPb8jEjMFy44Ak6L5osab3JpouLHP1kMEkwg9fcl4HKMn1m4HbxyC5bseq5wcjlsWcQ6GUc_vYMRxCQFOOQDwB-qaB00pXpDsUKO6PQDLpnzHUiVPrkzfX3snTBlKA/s1600/MAGprotest6.JPG" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The
message from Brussels demonises motorcyclists. </span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Everyone
I spoke to agreed that safety and respect are paramount in
motorcycling, which is why they take such umbrage at being persecuted this
way. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikmJhJWPO-KNzvR_ZZ5AetwIJ_hDDRbBWEzsmE88vBnj8V3jy2ilPsKZrXRGKlUCHtv0f1gg-MnYdh3j4C-o0Ecxkj-1ctDoxUrUUGCCFORJgmpYJwY6b_AwXY42m-oIBcMwud7eZrfJ0/s1600/MAGprotest7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikmJhJWPO-KNzvR_ZZ5AetwIJ_hDDRbBWEzsmE88vBnj8V3jy2ilPsKZrXRGKlUCHtv0f1gg-MnYdh3j4C-o0Ecxkj-1ctDoxUrUUGCCFORJgmpYJwY6b_AwXY42m-oIBcMwud7eZrfJ0/s320/MAGprotest7.JPG" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It's simply another example of the EU churning out legislation simply because it thinks it can.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span>John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-89059932065091805142012-06-21T15:30:00.001+01:002012-06-21T17:35:13.233+01:00Teach Your Children Well<div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">I once read an opinion piece in a newspaper which said that if the Tories wanted to turn back the clock twenty years, then UKIP wanted it turned back fifty. The comment was likely designed as a slur, a reference to some sort of idealistic nostalgic retrospect of the way things were. However, isn't this more and more society's inclination, and if it is, what is so bad about that?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR2cv4LwJizSPDP8jd2_p1kmQeo9J_JmEt4Fy7QxT3NRfe9clptQYl0Vn7JADVi_uqDI6Cu9cM4BHlKYA-UhHM0wtOm65frJ5SrgS_uq5fO6vBMkkwbF82NAq3jDBdBuE1h0C5KSMtoeU/s1600/classroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR2cv4LwJizSPDP8jd2_p1kmQeo9J_JmEt4Fy7QxT3NRfe9clptQYl0Vn7JADVi_uqDI6Cu9cM4BHlKYA-UhHM0wtOm65frJ5SrgS_uq5fO6vBMkkwbF82NAq3jDBdBuE1h0C5KSMtoeU/s400/classroom.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">From buying organic to local provenance and the sudden return to popularity of "old fashioned" cuts of meat and traditional British dishes, to the ever evolving cycles of fashion and music, remodelled classic cars and remakes of films, the presence of our past is pervasive throughout popular culture, and so it should be. It is our identity</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">But what about in politics?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">We often hear the phrase "old fashioned values". You rarely hear the past being spoken about as something dire or squallid. Not in the UK anyway.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">History has shown us that everything from the maxims that bind a society, to geo-political landscapes, to the earth's climate changes, are bound by varying concentric circles of change. Empires come and go. Benchmarks for prudency, decency and hedonism undulate. Some summers are good. Others are a washout.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">When it comes to judging things from a latterday era, it is fair to say that nothing was perfect. Looking at the world through rose tinted glasses will not help push forward an ever changing global population. But learning from history will.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">Forgive me if I have come across rather Keatsian in my introduction. I remember learning his works at school. Something which sadly, few peoples could lay claim to today. Which brings me on to the topic of this blog post. Education.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">As an individual and as a party, UKIP and I resolutely support the announcement by Michael Gove of the restoration of the O Level. In our manifesto we champion the need to return to previous methods of teaching and examination. <i><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">From effectively teaching the "three R's" and using phonics to teach reading, to reintroducing the traditional methods of arithmetic and basing targets around those expected in the 1950s, I strongly believe the school system needs a big shake up</span></i>. </span></span></b><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">We are falling behind, and nowhere more so than in Wales.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">In recent PISA rankings Wales scored below average in reading, maths and science, putting it below a number of developing countries and former soviet satellite states in educational acheivement.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">Yet the younger generation are our investment in the future. With an ever increasing global economy and access to education improving around the world, without inspired minds, our future is bleak.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">When the GCSE was introduced in 1988, it was quickly extended to accommodate the full range of academic abilities. The result was inevitably one of "dumbing down". The system then extended upwards to A Levels, and with Government targets on getting more and more school leavers into University, the value of the degree began to plumment and students who otherwise may have excelled in vocational courses that would contribute invaluably to manufacturing and design in the UK found themselves with Mickey Mouse qualifications, little life experience, reduced job prospects and in debt up to their eyeballs.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWtGmAOVmsulG-ACJ6OWBltQ7EF9-6WaxYdG-0n6bZ6oFczGHbja0SQNAx8MIvFnSPP_zwSnbBLCekyMjnXD9ozLieWTwkc60YbDMMIzWG4PT2ISKa_4TnbK9T6n8hvXDKBqh7K1T2yPA/s1600/classroom2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWtGmAOVmsulG-ACJ6OWBltQ7EF9-6WaxYdG-0n6bZ6oFczGHbja0SQNAx8MIvFnSPP_zwSnbBLCekyMjnXD9ozLieWTwkc60YbDMMIzWG4PT2ISKa_4TnbK9T6n8hvXDKBqh7K1T2yPA/s200/classroom2.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">There are two reasons why society however continues to champion this vain pursuit of pseudo-academia. First of all, it's the centrally imposed social status of those with a degree. We have been told repeatedly that you 'need' university to get on in life. That it would be ill perceived of to not have spent 3 years in full time education after leaving school. It is also a trick played by Governments to bring down youth unemployment statistics, yet what it creates is a bottle neck of jobless graduates who cannot contribute to the economy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">It also comes down to the very tetchy subject of ability.</span></span><b><i><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></i></b><br />
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<b><i><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">The differences in our capabilities must be papered over. Whilst we cannot deny that some people are naturally better at maths, others are proficient linguists and others are just generally good all rounders, we tend not to like to separate children on ability too divisively for fear that it will harm those who, for want of a better expression, don't make the grade.</span></span></i></b><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">When it comes to sports, music and arts, these are often regarded as more inherent, and as such, less teachable skills, so promoting ability in these areas tends not to come under the same level of scrunity.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">I am a firm believer that every child deserves the best possible education.<i><b><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;"><i><b><span style="font-size: small;">Is selective education about separating the wheat from the chaff or about tailoring the classroom environment to the needs of the pupil to the closest possible degre<span style="font-size: small;">e?</span></span></b></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">One thing is for certain. Any selective education should be based purely upon how the child will perform in a set environment</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;"> via empirical testing, not</span></span></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;"> upon socio-economic background.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">It's an emotive subject. However, in terms of segregating different groups of pupils, what is the difference between establishing grammar schools, and organising year groups into sets based upon ability within one school? </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">I tend not to look at the debate from the angle of pushing on the brightest, although I do applaud the access a great grammar school can give to a pupil from a low income background with great potential. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">I look at it more from the perspective of what is most likely to demoralise the young, and through which structure we can best achieve creating an education system suitable for all.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">The reintroduction of the O level will see better performing students siphoned off to sit a separate test. Is it therefore logical, if there is to be a two speed of teaching, to conduct this via separate educational establishments where each can focus upon its own needs and requirements and as a result, offer the best fit product for the greatest number of people?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">Have we become far too sensitive about matters which, when I was growing up, were taken more as "facts of life"?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;"><i><b><span style="font-size: small;">I believe social mobility and broad spectrum inclusion have certainly improved over the decades. There was a lot wrong with the incredibly schismatic wrenching apart of teenagers under the former system</span></b></i> </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">Some pupils were destined to only ever learn tertiary or blue collar skillsets while others were pushed towards white collar professions. Opportunities were denied and potentials abandoned in favour of a drachonian and cruel intellectual class system. This cannot be allowed to happen again.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">But taking on board the positives that grammar schools have and still offer, is it not time we open our minds to their re-establishment?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;">It is a thorny debate often dependent upon your own life experiences and political persuasions and one perhaps with no right answer. However one thing is for sure. <i><b><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black;"><i><b><span style="font-size: small;">Our schools are simply not performing. I welcome a radical change with open arms. </span></b></i></span></span></div>
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</span></div>John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-26466428783095773962012-06-13T10:58:00.000+01:002012-06-13T11:03:41.935+01:00Power and the money, money and the power, minute after minute, hour after hour.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil2XaR-e5WobSDK_X7wBsPpP_t6BzcISm6xCb8I_09Lth4rsuGMM27lm6GapcGGBjM7gadc3aNy24wBbXwj9KHlGAAWAkvalSe2DYfLkDwGVJ0K-qxLM1IT4DNY0ak_OcjUIo3SFGQIa4/s1600/coolio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil2XaR-e5WobSDK_X7wBsPpP_t6BzcISm6xCb8I_09Lth4rsuGMM27lm6GapcGGBjM7gadc3aNy24wBbXwj9KHlGAAWAkvalSe2DYfLkDwGVJ0K-qxLM1IT4DNY0ak_OcjUIo3SFGQIa4/s320/coolio.jpg" width="320" /></a>It's not often one feels compulsed to entitle a blog post with American Gangster rap circa 1995. But it's a rather apt extract.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">First of all let
me praise the industriousness of our emergency services for their hard work during
the flooding in Aberystwyth ad Machynlleth. Until something of this nature
happens to you it is difficult to understand the traumatic affect it can have.
As parts of Ceridigion were submerged under five foot of water and clean up
operations continue to take place in Talybont, Dol-y-Bont and Llandre I trust
that the Welsh Government will do all it can not just to help households and
businesses seek compensation but to prevent such incidents ever happening
again. It is also imperative that authorities thoroughly screen flood waters
for potential contamination which could affect farms or even the local water
supply.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">While it poured
here in Wales, the rain in Spain thundered
down from a dark economic storm cloud hovering over the banking sector. Indeed despite
weeks of protestations we all knew to be vacuous, Spain finally had to plead for a bail
out to stabilise the country’s inexplicable nexus between state funds and
banking finance. The Spanish Government had borrowed extensively from the banks
to fund a burgeoning structural deficit, yet after the property bubble burst in
the 2008 credit crunch, the Government was then forced to start bailing out the
banks. Now however finances ministers have agreed to pour £100bn to shore up
Spanish finances. However a more conservative estimate for the figure needed is
£400bn. Even though the sticking plaster may calm the markets temporarily, what
is startling is how this will have a knock on effect across Europe.
Mediterranean neighbour Italy
is responsible for providing no less than 22% of the bail out at a shrivelled
repayment rate of just 3%. But in order to cough up the funds, Italy herself
must borrow from the markets, at a rate of interest of 7%, inevitably dragging
her below the gathering rip tide. Meanwhile the loan to the Spanish Government itself
will actually add a further 10% on top of already astronomical state debt. You
could hardly make this stuff up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And still the
problems with Greece
are not solved. In fact on the 17th June Greece is set to go to the polls again
– a day which could see a newly elected government steadfastly refuse to abide
by the austerity measures conditional of receiving future financial aid. No
wonder. These imposed cuts have ripped the economy to shreds throwing hundreds
of thousands out of work, leaving pharmacies empty of life saving medicines, slashing
welfare payments as the state finance pot runs totally dry forcing families
onto the streets to beg for food. A ‘Grexit’ is liable before the month of June
is even up. The exposure of the European Central Bank to bail out countries
such as Greece
is almost €500 billion. If Greece
leaves the single currency, that is likely to cause the ECB itself to go bust,
unless it can recoup money from Portugal,
Ireland and Spain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Speculation among
Eurosceptics and Financiers alike is that the whole sorry mess was intentionally
engineered to force Europe into becoming a European Republic.
It has been common consensus for years that a single currency cannot work with
so many different Exchequers. As the crisis struck, instead of Brussels shrinking from its disastrous fiscal
errors, instead the call has been for deeper integration, forcing the burden of
debt to be passed from neighbour to neighbour dragging each and every country
into the same calamitous myre. The next country veering headlong towards bail
out is Cyprus,
and while we are not in the single currency, the exposure of British banks to
European debt is an eye watering $430bn, or 19 per cent of our GDP. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Customers of Santander may fear the
fate of their savings given the bank’s Spanish parent, but the bank is one of
the least vulnerable in the wake of a dramatic and increasingly likely Euro
crash. Barclays and RBS, the latter having been already bailed out by the
British taxpayer, have the greatest amount of money tied up in the Eurozone. A
total of £191.8 billion is estimated to be at risk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Should the
Eurozone fail to repair its problems, the global financial sector would breach
under a ripple effect far greater than observed in 2008 after the Lehamn
Brothers collapse. Yet it is more and more apparent that perhaps Brussels does not want
the problem to be solved. Whilst economic crisis may lead to human misery as we
are seeing in Greece, it
also, rather conveniently, allows Brussels
to conduct the most flagrant power grab for the final slice of federal pie – fiscal
integration. For he who controls the money also controls the power</span></div>John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-6504692923346000742012-06-07T14:16:00.001+01:002012-06-07T14:18:54.554+01:00Welcome to my club<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">How easy it is to jump onto the bandwagon
of popular opinion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">For years, UKIP have been labelled
everything from fanatically anti-European to xenophobic for holding the view
that the European Union was bad for Britain. As recently as a couple of
years ago, throughout the early months of my tenure as an MEP, I received
accusations of scaremongering if ever I suggested the Eurozone was doomed.
Those critics have fallen strangely silent of late.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now politicians from across the political
spectrum are championing a British exit from the EU, warning of the dire
economic consequences of prolonging the single currency without fiscal
unanimity and bandying about suggestions of an in-out referendum. All of a
sudden our party line is trendy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">One thing is for certain. For the single
currency to survive member states must forge closer economic bonds, to the
extent of becoming a single federal entity (the argument is that the EU has
borders, a flag, an anthem, a Parliament, an army, foreign policy, a currency and
laws, so the only thing separating it from a federal state is the lack of tax
raising powers). If this does not happen, the Eurozone will, eventually, implode,
and in doing so, force the UK
into a decade of depression.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Of course, the UK would resolutely not wish to be
part of a federalised super-state. It raises the question of what sort of
relationship we could have with a new Europe. UKIP
has always championed a relationship akin to the current Swiss model, where
free trade and continental cooperation remain priorities, despite not being a
member. This is now being mooted by politicians who but a few months ago
championed a more integrated European Union, only to find their subject today
ridiculed by fate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Either way the tapestry that has been
woven by Brussels
over the last five decades is unravelling at an alarming rate. Spain requires
a £100 billion bank bail out to save her finances. The incomprehensible nexus
that has formed between the Spanish state and the banking sector means the
Government can no longer sensibly bail out the very banks that have been bailing
out the Government. The Spanish Finance Minister has resolutely denied needing
a bail out, but we’ve heard this before. Greece,
Portugal and Ireland all
said the same thing. In the UK,
the Government recapitalised British banks to the tune of £1 trillion, a
measure that was widely criticised on the continent as too closely bound to
Anglo-Saxon capitalism. But it saved us from the economic disaster we are now
seeing affect banks in the Eurozone’s largest economies – even in Germany. It’s
estimated at least £200 billion must be injected into Eurozone banks to
stimulate borrowing capacity, but in order for this to happen Germany must
essentially underwrite all single currency loans.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It’s understandable that Germany doesn’t
like the idea of so-called “Eurobonds”. Why would they? Holding them culpable
of the debts of their neighbouring countries is hardly going to seem fair to
the majority of Germans. Meanwhile Spain wants a bail out with no
strings attached. Of course they would. They can see what has happened in Greece, where
desperately ill people are queuing outside pharmacies for life saving medicines
as stocks run dangerously low. Germany
does not want Spain
to get a free handout without agreeing to fairly stringent conditions. And thus
we are left trapped in an ever revolving circle of national self-interest that
is leading critics to cry out for the greatest seismic shift in political power
ever seen by Europe – the move to federalise
the Eurozone before the clock ticks down, despite such a schismatic resolution
flying in the face of democracy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">What about the UK? What do we want? We need Eurozone
banks to be protected. Barclays is exposed to Spanish banks to the tune of
£26.5 billion. RBS is liable to £14.6 billion if they do collapse, while Santander,
one of the high street’s biggest financial retailers, is actually Spanish
owned. Then there’s our economy. In many respects inextricably intertwined with
European markets, not just through EU membership but as the result of simple
geographic positioning.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The most sensible answer would be the
UKIP option. Leave the EU, enhance trade with traditional partners in the
Commonwealth and demonstrate neighbourly cooperation and free trade with Europe
as is the modus operandi of Switzerland
and Norway.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
celebrations, a lunch with Commonwealth leaders was hosted at Buckingham Palace.
We were reminded that our Queen is not just the head of state in the UK. She is
Queen of Antigua, Barbados, Bahamas and Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica and
New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, St Kitts, St Lucia, The Grenadines, the Solomon
Islands, Tuvalu and Australia, as well as being head of the 54 countries that
make up the Commonwealth of Nations, including India, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Singapore, South Africa and Kenya. These are long established natural allies of
Britain,
countries with a diverse diaspora, different geographical landscapes and as a
result, present true international trade opportunities. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This year Commonwealth GDP will soar past
the Eurozone’s. While the Eurozone will grow by only 2.7% if it manages to avert
fiscal disaster, the Commonwealth will be boosted by 7.3% growth. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m not bitter that my views are now
being championed when for so long they have been slated. I would be a poor
politician were my pride more important than my conviction. I just hope the
newest recruits to Eurosceptic ideology have strength enough to hold as
steadfast to their beliefs. For what Britain
and Europe needs more than anything right now
is a steady hand on the tiller.</span></div>
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<br /></div>John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-3672036707547251102012-05-29T14:47:00.001+01:002012-05-29T14:54:00.577+01:00Oil, banks and democracy - a potent blend<br />
Oil carries with it so many connotations.<br />
The social, moral and geo-political implications create a quagmire as opague and viscous as the crude substance itself.<br />
When Ghana discovered oil off its coast line a few years ago there was a sharp intake of breath. Everyone saw what had happened in Nigeria. The Government were not prepared to fall into the same trap, creating a feral landscape where natives and multi-nationals go head to head over the black stuff, where misery is wrought across borders such as in Sudan, and where corrupt governmental allegiances and illegal wars exacerbate religious and ethnic divides. Where there is misery and oppression, there is often oil.<br />
<br />
In the case of Spain, Italy and Greece however the interconnection between oil and misery is different.<br />
<br />
Oil in Spain?<br />
<br />
Yes. The Golden Stuff.<br />
<br />
Olive oil.<br />
<br />
For in Spain the price of oil olive has slid so drastically, caused by a sharp decline in domestic demand, a failure of potential foreign export markets to embrace the oil - such as the Far East, and a supply overload flooding the market. As a result, the EU has been forced to intervene. [Sigh]<br />
<br />
Taxpayers' money is now being driven in to shore up the prices in order to maintain employment in rural areas that rely almost exclusively upon olive plantations.<br />
<br />
We all know what happens when the EU intervenes, fixing prices and stockpiling resources.<br />
Should we expect olive oil producers over the next few years to become completely dependent upon single payments?<br />
<br />
The future of the Mediterranean economies in the Eurozone is bleaker than is being made out. In Spain, the Government are beginning to realise there is little they can do to avoid becoming the next Greece. The likelihood of the country needing an EU bail out is almost certain. Spanish banks have been propping up state finances to the tune of €316 billion borrowed from the European Central Bank. Those banks now emergency finance, to the tune of €23.5 billion, which the Spanish Government has been determined to find itself - creating an ironic cycle of debt that cannot be broken without outside stimulus.<br />
<br />
Yet the people of Spain have already shown vehement opposition to the Government's own austerity measures, and with a quarter of the adult population now unemployed, who could blame them? Yet any EU bail out comes with a multitude of conditions that must be met - however unsympathetic to the plight of the normal person. This is the situation we are now seeing in Greece, where the democratic choice is an end to austerity, yet the EU refuses to climb down on the demands stipulated in return for propping up the single currency. One can be assured that if Spain ends up in a similar position, the opinion of the public would be known the world over.<br />
<br />
In Ireland, the public have gone to the polls to vote in a referendum on Irish approval of the "EU fiscal pact" set out last December. Prime Minister Enda Kenny has urged the nation in a televised address to back the proposals, in order to ensure the rug isn't pulled from under their feet, and for the time being, the propaganda appears to have worked with early results indicating voters would back the fiscal pact. Of course in Ireland they also have the added security of sterling propping up some Government debt after George Osborne signed off a £7 billion bilateral loan, but this also means our loan, which is due to be repaid with interest in the future, is at risk of falling into a fiscal blackhole if the single currency collapses.<br />
<br />
The coping mechanism that has been rolled out during the course of the last four years has been for deeper integration and mutualised responsibility, yet this flies in the face of the will of the majority of voters in the EU, be they Germans who do not accept their share of any burden or Greeks forced out of work, unable to access medicines and even food. The public conception is that closer EU integration has weakened national economies, rather than providing the reinforcement that it was purported to achieve.<br />
<br />
Economics is more of an art than a science, it is often argued. It involves theorising, when nobody can understand or predict what any outcome may be, however well read they may be in the field or practised and proven in managing national debts. While one side of the argument would state that breaking the single currency up would cause a lot of short term pain but enable each country to forge an idiomatic platform upon which to compete and rebuild, others would argue that disintegrating the Euro would leave huge unaccounted for wounds of debt that would plunge the global markets back into disarray, creating shockwaves more severe than those witnessed in 2008 and the first global credit crunch.<br />
<br />
One thing is for sure. The break up of the single currency would not be good for the EU. It would undermine the entire European project and pit disenchanted countries against one another, further enhancing the risk of member states applying to leave the EU, potentially resulting in the domino affect of the entire dissolution of the entireUnion. It is argued that nowhere in any treaty is exiting the single currency accounted for, further enhancing the risk of the break up of the Euro resulting in ejection from the EU itself - by law.<br />
<br />
June is set to be an interesing month. If Greece runs out of money before the elections, and if Brussels are resolute in their stance that a bail out would not be provided without obeisance to their conditions, we could have a humanitarian crisis on our hands.<br />
<br />
I hope, for the sake of the people of Greece, this is not the case.<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-31417405855838200442012-05-24T12:05:00.000+01:002012-05-24T12:42:36.121+01:00FFS the FTT is not FFPWhat a difference a day makes.<br />
<br />
In the rapidly unfurling madness that hs gripped the Eurozone, the summer may prove to be a cataclysmic season. Yesterday European finance ministers gathered to thrash out plans for growth and investment ahead of an EU summit at the end of June. It was an opportunity for new French President to bring the the table the concept of Eurobonds - a policy idea on the back of which he competently rode to election victory. Yet the concept of drawing up co-liability between Eurozone member states for debt, as such becoming eachothers' guarantors, has never sat easily with the Germans. This is despite the fact that simply sharing in a currency is enough to allow economic contagion to rip through the continent like an Australian bush fire.<br />
<br />
Last year, 25 of the 27 member states of the EU signed a fiscal treaty. Only the Czech Republic and the UK refused to be signatories. The treaty essentially outlined austerity measures that all member states agreed to in order to try to protect the fragile economic situation in Europe from further sharp blows. Yet also in this treaty was a proposition to add the Tobin Tax, or Robin Hood, tax, on financial transactions. The concept that the tax robs the rich (bankers) to give to the poor (Brussels) is a twisted distortion of what would likely be the outcome. As we all know, incurred costs are more often than not passed down to the consumer. In this instance, all members of the general public with bank accounts. The other potential repercussion is the mass exodus of the banking sector from the European Union to more liberalised financial sectors in other countries, such as Zurich or Hong Kong, This of course would result in a disproportionate blow to the UK, who houses more than three quarters of the banking sector of Europe in The City of London, as well as many corporations around the world. Were these institutions and multi-national conglomerates to up and leave, the impact on the UK economy would be substantial. The contribution to GDP of the financial sector in the UK is hugely significant, as well as the jobs it provides and the capital that flows to the country.<br />
And so for this reason, in December last year, the UK vetoed the treaty. As a result of not being able to achieve unanimity, such a schismatic legal change could not be made under EU terms. In effect, the withdrawal of the UK ace should have brought the house of cards down<br />
<br />
And yet it hasn't. For yesterday the European Parliament voted<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> 487
votes in favour, 152 against, with 46 abstentions for the Podimata report which paves the way for the Financial Transactions Tax to be levied.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">An amendment to shoot down the report
brought forward by the ECR group, to which the Conservative Party belong, was
strongly defeated, leaving the UK Government with little room for manoeuvre. The question now is whether the UK Government can do anything at all to prevent the FTT from coming into affect. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The proposal is for
both sides of the transaction to be taxed. Those who signed up to the treaty
vetoed by the UK Government on the basis of this tax would benefit from a
reduction in EU contributions. The UK veto has as such been rendered useless, placing
the onus on the UK taxpayer to pay the tax on all transactions for member states
who had signed the treaty, yet without receiving the benefit of a reduction in
EU contributions. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The tax </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></span>essentially allows
the EU to finance itself directly from taxpayers’ pockets - and yet without any recourse
to a public vote. Giving the EU tax raising payers without any democratic scrutiny is
utterly unacceptable and is also the final step in making the European Union a
federalised super-state.<br />
<br />
In theory the tax cannot be approved without the unanimous backing of the European Council. Surely the British vote would most steadfastly be against the introduction of the FTT. However the Parliamentary report calls for the implementation of the tax by the beginning of
2015 "even if only some member states opt for it".
<br />
<br />
Nine countries have come out in favour of the tax including Austria, Belgium, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, with it being labelled as the main route of exit from crisis. Yet rapporteur Anni Poadimata's view that it would brung a "fairer distribution of the weight of the crisis" is utterly skewed. The majority of the weight of such a tax would be carried by the UK, and it would appear the intentions are to use the extra finances to shore up the single currency.<br />
<br />
<b><u>The FTT is not FFP</u></b><br />
<br />
<i>The Financial Transactions Tax is not Fit For Purpose</i><b><u> </u></b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/Financial%20Transaction%20Tax_0.pdf" target="_blank">A report by the Institute of Economic Affairs</a> warns agains the dangers of a Financial Transactions Tax. In it, it is suggested that<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>An FTT can be imposed with varying effects depending upon how many other governments do so at the same time. A purely EU FTT would see much trading leaving the EU, as happened to Sweden when it unilaterally imposed such a tax in the 1980s and 90s. A global tax would not have the problem of trading moving but would still have all of the other associated problems</li>
<li>There would be no net revenue. While there would be revenue from the tax itself there would also be falls in revenue from other taxes. The net effect of this is that there will be less revenue in total as a result of an FTT</li>
<li>The FTT simply means it would be the EU's own money to spend as they wish. The revenues from the FTT would be designated as the EU’s ‘own resources’, that is, money which comes to the centre to be spent as of right; not, as with the current system, money begrudgingly handed over by national governments. The EU bureaucracy therefore has a strong interest in promoting such a change. What’s in it for the rest of society is harder to spot.</li>
<li>It will be the taxpayer who carries the burdern. All taxes and any tax, means less money in the wallet of some live human being. The first and great lesson of tax incidence is that taxes on companies are not paid by companies. They are not, despite legal personality, live human beings and therefore cannot carry the ultimate burden of any tax. With the FTT the one place we know the tax cannot fall is on the banks. Banks are corporations and corporations cannot bear the burden of a tax; it has to be some human being. Some part falls upon capital, making raising capital more expensive. This, in turn will affectworkers’ wages: more expensive capital leads to less of it being employed. Yet this does not mean bankers earning less: it is the workers who earn less as a result of less capital being employed. The second part is the incidence upon the users of the financial markets: a fairly obvious result of a transactions tax. Pensions would yield lower returns, partly as a result of lower share values as a result of the tax and partly as a result of paying the tax itself. The FTT would thereforeimpact upon all users of any financial instrument.</li>
<li>The loss in GDP as a result of the tax is larger than the revenues raised from the tax. The total incidence, the total lost from all pockets, is higher than revenues and thus the incidence of the tax is over 100%. </li>
<li>A transaction tax would increase, not decrease volatility. Since an FTT would decrease the size of the financial markets, prices would jump around rather more than they do at present - completely the opposite of what certain supporters of the FTT suggest.</li>
<li>The markets that do high volume, low margin trades would be affected by an FTT such as the foreign exchange (FX), futures, options and stock markets. None of these markets failed in any manner in the recent or current troubles. So the FTT doesn’t even work as a way of avoiding the recent financial crash: for it taxes the things that did not cause problems and would not make much difference to those things which did.</li>
</ul>
The situtation in Greece is appalling, with drugs at an all time low as a result of deep austerity measures cutting healthcare budgets and forcing families onto the streets. The country is on the brink of a healthcare crisis, with panic spreading among high risk patients who fear they will have no access to life saving drugs. One healthcare profssional predicts that within two weeks, if the European Union does not grant Greece the loans it needs, chaos will erupt on the streets. Another healthcare worker, a cardiologist, has told the press of his horror at treating mean, women and children for sickness due to eating out of bins. A member state of the European Union is quickly degrading into scenes of a third world dictatorship.<br />
<br />
Yet the money currently being dangled in front of Greece would not restock pharmacies.Instead it would be placed into a separate account, inacccessible by public service financiers, to simply pay off interest of Greek debt. In return for the loan, further cutrs would have to be implemented by the Greek Government - itself non-existent after dramatic election results left no one party with a big enough majority and 70% of Greek people voting for manifestos that promised an end to the crippling austerity measures.<br />
<br />
It is without doubt a crisis situation in Greece, and the country desperately needs money. The causes of the problem, the finger pointing, the accusations of profligate waste during boom years, have been rendered vacuous. These are real people's lives. But what people must understand is taxing the banking sector is not going to directly resuce Greece. Far from it. It will line the pockets of Brussels and enable them to continue with their single currency project while using their new found security as a mallet with which to strike the Greeks into submission.Where they stand now, a Grexit could seriously harm the single currency, removing some of the might from Germany's arguments. Yet if the FTT is pushed through, Europe would be once again armed with power. And this time, not just the war-tanks of legilsation that have ridden roughshod over national interests. They would also have a constant and controlling source of income.An FTT will not reduce volatility, it will increase it. It would shrink those parts of the financial markets which did not in any manner contribute to these problems. It would increase revenue collected directly by the EU - as the Union's first tax raising power, while reducing total national revenues by shrinking the overall economy. Meanwhile those who would carry the economic burden of the FTT would be workers and consumers iplacing dependency straight back into the hands of the federalised superstate.<br />
<br />
Over the next few days decisions made by financial and political leaders in all member states could have a profound impact on the future shape of Europe for all. With picture changing so rapidly on a daily basis, who knows what the autumn will bring.<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div>John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-80003514710879907452012-05-15T17:22:00.002+01:002012-05-15T17:22:57.737+01:00By Zeus!In an ironic twist of events, Francois Hollande's much anticipated meeting with Angela Merkel to forge a new cooperative dominion over the Eurozone was halted after his plane was struck by a bolt out of the blue.<br />
<br />
Could that be an act of Zeus?<br />
<br />
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18078845<br />
<br />John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-53675241985520545432012-05-15T15:28:00.002+01:002012-05-24T12:07:39.925+01:00Climate Change in the Political Sense<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
For more than four years now I have been writing articles on
the problems in the Eurozone. It is becoming a rather wearisome subject,
despite the twists and turns in the plot line. That’s because we all know how
the book ends.<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But what we don’t know is what story follow up books will
tell. For this first time European Central Bankers have explicitly discussed a
Greek exit. Over the course of the last two years I have challenged the
Commission President over the possibility of Greece being booted out of the
single currency. He repeatedly denied that this was even a possibility. I wrote
to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Minister for Business in the Welsh
Government to enquire whether an impact assessment had been drawn up and how we
would deal with the implications of overnight chaos in the Eurozone. The
response was one of silence.<br />
</div>
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It would seem though that the day for serious scrutiny has
come. Markets have plunged in response to the new fears that Greece will run
out of money to pay its creditors as early as next month, with reports from The
City that some companies have already asked for drachma to be included on their
systems. Economists fear that a Greek exit would result in runs of Spanish debt,
forcing them to seek bail outs when the reserves for such a crisis would not
even begin to meet the needs of contagion spreading to the EU’s fourth largest
economy. Yet any crisis in the Eurozone jeopardises our own economy. Fragile Ireland just
across the water would suffer under a collapse of the single currency. Remember
that it was UK sterling that
underwrote Irish debt, while Ireland
remains tightly bound to Wales
in terms of trade. Meanwhile the Eurozone remains the UK’s largest
single export market.<br />
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The other consequence of economic misery however is more
worrying. As demonstrations in Spain
are revealing an increasing appetite for protest, Southern
Europe is preparing for a summer of discontent from across the
political spectrum. Fifty thousand “Indignants” gathered in Madrid’s Puerto de Sol at the weekend.
Suggestions that the Greek Parliament, having been unable to form a government
after recent elections, may continue with a technocratic government that would be
obsequious to Brussels
would be met with bloody protest. What was witnessed in the Arab Spring could
soon be taking place on the continent. The last time capitalism and democracy
went into retreat in Europe the results were
terrible. Barely eight years after the last time European banks collapsed, the continent
was plunged into a series of civil wars and nationalist struggles that erupted into
World War II. </div>John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-11655958211026538632012-05-10T16:02:00.006+01:002012-05-10T16:03:40.076+01:00Patently obvious<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">New EU laws are looking
to broaden the scope of patenting what are called “essentially biological
processes”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">What is meant by this
is selective breeding and crossing for example, to create new strains of plant
or genetically selected animals.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">However the process used is rather more natural
than simply a laboratory based exercise - so how does one copyright it?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Currently
multi-national companies are able to use patenting laws to monopolise new
breeds, often for the purposes of agriculture. There have been some recent high
profile cases concerning some of the biggest agricultural giants patenting breeds of
tomato and broccoli, preventing competitors from growing similar strains. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">But
should Europe have the competence to decide
what gets patented and by whom?</span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Currently
it is up to nation states to make such calls, and with so many social and moral
implications of breeding new animals and plants, be it for consumer purposes or
scientific experimentation, it is not right that the EU should have the power to decide.
We must equip national patenting offices with the powers to discriminate in the
UK who owns the intellectual property of what.</span></span><br />
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<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SLIwQIlLa_U" width="560"></iframe>John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1718154821289842128.post-86941643213617203172012-05-10T15:44:00.001+01:002012-05-10T15:59:22.196+01:00Greek Enlightening?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWxl6Vl8yfx7UC3mTuKs05bfE0zGkSkVVoy1NmH6Gqqg847Ngbman8mZlQ9oS3a7VxGf6xbcrOzAx5abU209OeNEBkMyN4emkNE5kaeNgfBxtKr72wvzIsPm91Y_xbzMe05P7-7MHa2a8/s1600/aristotle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWxl6Vl8yfx7UC3mTuKs05bfE0zGkSkVVoy1NmH6Gqqg847Ngbman8mZlQ9oS3a7VxGf6xbcrOzAx5abU209OeNEBkMyN4emkNE5kaeNgfBxtKr72wvzIsPm91Y_xbzMe05P7-7MHa2a8/s320/aristotle.jpg" width="224" /></a>There is something so poignant yet with an irresistibly aesthetic in the fact that the seat of ancient Western philosophy is currently the seat of political and economic disruption in Europe.<br />
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So much of what we have today - the structure of society and politics and the words we use to discuss it - found origins in Greek philosophical scripture.<br />
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From Plato's Republic to Aristotle's Politics, Greek thinkers conceptualised and theorised the ideal structure of society and role of law more than two and a half thousand years ago. What would they have to say about what has happened in Greece, and what would their opinion be on the European Union?<br />
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Looking at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_%28Aristotle%29" target="_blank">Aristotle's <i>Politics</i></a>, it is important to highlight that the philosopher believed human kind by nature to be a social and thus political animal. He did not mean that everyone wished to be out canvassing for this party or that, or even sit on councils or governing panels. As a biologist Aristotle was keenly interested in categorising species and observing how they lived. He observed that mankind had a heightened moral code rarely seen in other species, which lended itself to the creation of a complex social context. As such, he determined that the <i>Polis</i>, or city structure, was engineered by man to enable the species to flourish or achieve Eudaimonia.<br />
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In order to make the Polis work, everyone, he believed, should be educated with an eye to the constitution. For Aristotle, being co-citizens was not merely about mutual cohabitation under the same set of laws, for this was a matter of justice alone. Instead being a citizen was about participartion in rule and political deliberation.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZyL2bdNlTaukOIHMoTexSQcS5eiCIHt67SdyCTCIjlJcS_RLDqijuguz7bViYcqJ4-kJnToV7B1fWYQKbYa7M7tPuDLt-miuafR-Fp_k0GcMV5Rx2WIIB0h3RciVDwA8VYre18yCeCo/s1600/Greek_Thinkers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZyL2bdNlTaukOIHMoTexSQcS5eiCIHt67SdyCTCIjlJcS_RLDqijuguz7bViYcqJ4-kJnToV7B1fWYQKbYa7M7tPuDLt-miuafR-Fp_k0GcMV5Rx2WIIB0h3RciVDwA8VYre18yCeCo/s320/Greek_Thinkers.jpg" width="233" /></a>However this did not necessarily constitute what we term democracy today. For Aristotle, extreme democracy would lead ultimately to anarchy, a theory borrowed from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_dialogue" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Plato's Socratic</a> works. Instead, Aristotle felt that the rule of law was structured upon socio-geographic properties. Different societies, depending upon <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/topography" target="_blank">topographic </a>features and thus industry and agriculture, and <a href="http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/cultural-relativism.htm" target="_blank">cultural relativisms,</a> prospered under different systems, from extreme democracy to oligarchy to monarchy. Being the philosopher who defined value in his <a href="http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/ethics" target="_blank">Nicomachean Ethics </a>under the system of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_mean_%28philosophy%29" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Golden Mean </a>(where a balance must be sought between opposing factors, such as an equilibrium between cowardice and foolhardiness) he saw perfect governance as a balance between monarchism, oligarchy, democracy and other social structures.<br />
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However what was vital in this <i>Pragmatic Utopianism</i> is the underlying belief that political rule must be in the interest of the ruled, and as such, abide by a teleological sense of aiming ultimately for what can be deemed 'good'. In order to achieve this, Aristotle envisaged an upper limit to a macro-governance of around one hundred thousand people. Within this subframe resided other micro-governed units, all the way down to the family home where he saw the relationship between man and wife as somewhat political in its ideal operation.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyv5nXi_jkCgZbnmF-5a1kOVHmZGQl9LMvaRYVnQE8tBQnWt2bpWXKe4qQoiyh6-YcoUzSsC5-KL2eGtwxh5DKAsDKZDKOm0aeNWwyonPyK6flPqAV7KsnOgTJHe-HCaN327JtQgqXEgw/s1600/greek+flag.ashx" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyv5nXi_jkCgZbnmF-5a1kOVHmZGQl9LMvaRYVnQE8tBQnWt2bpWXKe4qQoiyh6-YcoUzSsC5-KL2eGtwxh5DKAsDKZDKOm0aeNWwyonPyK6flPqAV7KsnOgTJHe-HCaN327JtQgqXEgw/s320/greek+flag.ashx" width="320" /></a>So what would he make of the European Union, and what would he say about the current situation in Greece?<br />
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“Polity” for Aristotle is the word to indicate rule by the many in what he defines as the correct system of government. By contrast, he refers
to rule by the many in a diverging and thus “erroneous” system as
“democracy.” Polity is therefore midway between democracy and oligarchy. Critics would argue that what we are currently witnessing in Greece is bordering on oligarchical rule, or quasi-democratic governance, where stringent measures laid down by ruling factions such as the EU, IMF and European Central Bank or the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troika_%28triumvirate%29" target="_blank"><i> Troika</i></a> are not taking into consideration the will of the people.<br />
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Aristotle argued that mistreating the people would lead to the overthrow of the oligarchy and thus the establishment of democracy. Perhaps what we are seeing at the Greek ballot box is an increasing mistrust of the authorities that have governed Greece since the outbreak of financial crisis and will lead to a European Spring, where <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/psephological" target="_blank">psephological </a>rebellion will overturn the powers held by Brussels.<br />
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Interestingly however, Aristotle also argues that erroneous systems of government are necessarily subsequent and not prior to good systems of government. Using this model perhaps Aristotle would argue that as an original concept, the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Community" target="_blank"> European Economic Community </a>established more than 50 years ago was just in its aims and provided a valuable function. But the system of governance that has developed, as derived from a proper and sensible model, has become distorted by influential factors that disallow the right form of government to prosper. Aristotle might perhaps perceive the biggest influence and thus corruption of EU level politics to be the size of the multitude it governs.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoaNuyCI_J9OQt7xrk_N0iJgkeJIU7GFWXXs-XUOO8M-v50jO7smuc6YzTQhuFzYeQ22wbHEtQyn9Ok1E0LkIf1PCY7PTSmu_sx4MiJnRHtN6TqTKx19ngXnuCeU7WlfSYYl-P0A1Fptk/s1600/crowd4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoaNuyCI_J9OQt7xrk_N0iJgkeJIU7GFWXXs-XUOO8M-v50jO7smuc6YzTQhuFzYeQ22wbHEtQyn9Ok1E0LkIf1PCY7PTSmu_sx4MiJnRHtN6TqTKx19ngXnuCeU7WlfSYYl-P0A1Fptk/s320/crowd4.JPG" width="320" /></a>In Aristotle's writings, a city-state must be populous enough to be self-sufficient, but too large a state cannot have an easy system of governance as it cannot be effectively managed, with inadequate representation of or communication with its subjects. However Aristotle does not distinguish between foreign born and original residents. What is important, he believes, is having an appropriate number to be able to forge participation across society.<br />
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As such Aristotle also sets great store by education, debate and social inclusion in discussions and inquiry on a governmental level. One would imagine he would perceive the EU as not only too far-reaching in its geographical expanse and ambition, but too opaque, and as a product of its vastness, incomprehensible to its population.<br />
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What might be suggest in order to divert crisis from Greek shores?<br />
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It is highly likely that he would be an advocate for Greece leaving the EU. He might even go as far as to purport restructuring the governance of Greece into smaller, devolved democratic provinces within which nuclear self-sufficiency could be achieved in order to restore the competitiveness of the economy.<br />
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Despite unwittingly scribing a number of concepts and political theories that have been embraced by Brussels, it is hard to imagine that Aristotle would support the structure of the EU as it is today. His belief that different systems of governance are appropriate for different topographical regions, each with their own set of idiomatic concerns, would likely make him a supporter of the nation state over and above supra national entities. He would almost certainly disapprove of Common Agricultural Policy!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkAnD5MgmkPPl-dS0TO1OqVXwh1kcMtztolUB8ycQFnDqDwzxDNe9HVJdtlZu-v9o4r5E_IjuUjc2s0QkwxIl7SBbq6vLbprqjRs2pDUtIGE8NurX-SdLuWjvL1ZYJ5J2RASH8rkdcwgc/s1600/BXL+FACADE+LAT+HEMICYCLE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkAnD5MgmkPPl-dS0TO1OqVXwh1kcMtztolUB8ycQFnDqDwzxDNe9HVJdtlZu-v9o4r5E_IjuUjc2s0QkwxIl7SBbq6vLbprqjRs2pDUtIGE8NurX-SdLuWjvL1ZYJ5J2RASH8rkdcwgc/s320/BXL+FACADE+LAT+HEMICYCLE.jpg" width="320" /></a>Under Aristotelian predictions, the EU would be setting itself up for a fall.<br />
Indeed, recent elections in both Greece and France have witnessed the public making it clear that they no longer have faith in their ruling parties. The question that has been raised as a result of the recent polls is whether or not the EU will heed the warning. The people have spoken - but will they be heard?<br />
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According to Aristotle, the greater number of people living in poverty creates a sizeable enough catalyst to act as a stimulus for change. Levied against the inertia of a ruling class who do not allow for the participation of the greatest possible number of citizens, the result is a clash out of which democracy (or perhaps using a different term, anarchy) will come to the fore.<br />
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We have witnessed this in the Arab Spring, despite the development in that particular context yet to draw to a final conclusion.<br />
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Perhaps we will witness it in southern European states?<br />
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One thing however would be interesting if The Republic and Politics became the text books for a European constitution. Under an Aristotelean or Platonic model of governance, Barosso and Van Rompuy may well be exiled abroad and likely replaced by the likes of<a href="http://www.roger-scruton.com/" target="_blank"> Roger Scruton,</a><a href="http://acgrayling.com/" target="_blank"> A.C. Grayling </a>or even Stephen Hawking. We could call this new system of rule EUdaemonia.<br />
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<br />John Bufton MEPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894546830025165117noreply@blogger.com0