Monday, 12 July 2010

EU fines UK £150m for not advertising ERDF

The EU government has fined the UK over £150m for not putting the EU's logo on things that the EU Regional Development Fund has partly funded using UK taxes.

Confused?

It's quite simple.  The EU gives money to cultural and infrastructure projects all round Europe and in return the EU ring of stars logo has to be displayed prominently at the site of whatever the money has paid for and on letters, leaflets and posters to do with it to advertise the generosity of the ERDF.

Which is all well and good if it's someone else's money you're spending but the paltry amount of money the EU Regional Development Agency gives to the UK is far less than the obscene amount of money we hand over to the unaccountable, corrupt European Empire.  In exchange for the EU giving us back some of our own money we are supposed to put up plaques and signs with the EU logo to show them how grateful we are and when we don't, they take more of our money in fines.

These plaques and signs are a blight.  The most inappropriate one I've seen is at Blists Hill Victorian Town on the side of some restored Victorian machinery.  Incidentally, the new post office they built at Blists Hill has modern rubber flooring rather than authentic wooden flooring because of EU regulations but that's a different matter.

It's about time these advertisements were removed from the sides of roads and tourist attractions, they're a blight on the landscape and a seemingly permanent reminder of our subjection by the European Empire.