Cameron caves in to EU shocker

Well who'd have thought it?  Camoron has caved in to the European Empire and broken his cast iron guarantee to hold a referendum on the EU constitution/Lisbon Treaty again.

He set a new personal record for caving in to the European Empire by conceding defeat a day before he even started negotiations.  Well done Dave, quite the statesman aren't we?

Cast Iron Dave said he was going to Brussels to put a stop to the unacceptable 6% budget increase his bosses on the continent are demanding.  Instead he agreed to a £435m (2.91%) increase in the EU budget before he even left the country.

According to the President of the EU Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, only 10 of the 27 EU regional administrators (formerly known as Prime Ministers and Presidents) are siding with Camoron - far below the majority needed to make a futile show of opposing the europhile EU Parliament which came up with the 6% in the first place.

Lord Tebbit has upset some eurofederalists by bringing up the 2nd world war European civil war by warning Camoron not "to surrender in Vichy-style arrangement, pretending to hold on to sovereignty by agreeing to what Europe demands".  He's already surrendered Lord T, stop wasting your time with the Conservative & (European) Unionist Party and put your efforts into a proper eurosceptic party.

France and Germany have both agreed on the need for a new version of the EU constitution/Lisbon Treaty to give the European Empire more power over national budgets.  This should trigger a referendum under Camoron's own rules but he said that as we're not in the euro we don't need a referendum.

As well as agreeing to give another £435m per year to the EU - about £435m more than we can afford - Camoron has formally agreed to present the UK national budget to the EU before it's presented to the UK Parliament and to be fined if the EU decides we've borrowed too much money.

Camoron has caved in yet again, putting EU ambition ahead of national interest.  He's broken another referendum promise, handed over more of our sovereignty to the EU and agreed to give them close to half a billion pounds per year more for their slush fund at a time when the British government is slashing public spending and raising taxes at home because we're bankrupt.

It's no wonder even died in the wool Tories can't find a good thing to say about Camoron when it comes to the EU.

David Cameron: Compulsive Liar & Traitorous Europhile

David Camoron is going to the European Empire today to fight for a limit on the increase in the EU budget.  A few days ago he wanted a freeze in the budget and a few days before that he wanted a reduction in the budget.  By the end of the day he'll have increased our contribution and agreed to abolish the rebate.

It is impossible for the UK government to reduce the EU budget.  Even if Camoron somehow managed to get a majority of the heads of member states to agree to limit the obscene 6.2% increase in the EU budget, the EU Parliament can overrule them and as we all know, 90% of the EU Parliament is made up of europhile traitors whose only objective in life is lining their own pockets and creating a European Empire.

Cast Iron Dave gave a cast iron promise that we would have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution.  He lied.

He said his government wouldn't transfer any more powers to the EU and then transferred more criminal justice powers to the EU, agreed to illegal EU scrutiny of the UK budget before it goes to Parliament and agreed to the creation of an EU financial services regulator.  He lied.

He said he would fight for a reduction in the EU budget.  He lied.

He said he would fight for a freeze in the EU budget.  He lied.

He says he's going to fight for a limit on the EU budget increase.  He's lying!

France and Germany want to change the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution to give the EU more control over eurozone economies.  Camoron said any new treaty or treaty change would be subject to a referendum.  Now he says we don't need a referendum on this change to the Lisbon Treaty because we're not in the euro.  Another lie.


David Camoron is a compulsive liar and a treasonous europhile.  He has surrounded himself with europhile Tories and Lib Dems in his ConDem coalition cabinet.  During the election campaign we said "Vote Conservative, get Brussels".  The electorate voted Conservative and they're getting Brussels.

The EU is not Europe

I may have mentioned this before but a real pet hate of mine is when people call the EU "Europe".  They are not different words for the same thing.

Watching the One Show on BBC1 tonight, they started talking about the European Arrest Warrant and the case of a young man extradited to Greece and currently stranded there, unable to leave the country, while he waits for a trial to answer assault charges.  Except it's not the European Arrest Warrant, it's the EU Arrest Warrant.

The presenter said the EU Arrest Warrant makes it easier to extradite people to any country in Europe.  But that's not true, because there are only 27 European countries in the EU and 19 that aren't.  You won't extradite someone to Albania on an EU Arrest Warrant.  Or Switzerland.  Or Norway, Iceland, Bosnia, Ukraine, Russia ...

The history revisionists in Brussels want to plaster "monuments, memorial sites, and places of remembrance" with blue plaques to commemorate their imaginary contribution to the imaginary shared values and imaginary shared history and culture of the European Empire.  I won't even go there otherwise I'll be up all night ranting at my keyboard instead of sleeping and Gawain has already done the honours in his usual concise and scathing way.  But I will have a little rant about the name of the plaques - the European Heritage Label.  Aaaargh!  EU Heritage Label, not European!

The BBC has a habit of calling the EU "Europe".  The British government does it as well with its Europe Minister and Europe Office, neither of which have a remit outside of the EU.  I've put in a complaint to the BBC about them calling the EU "Europe" and pointing out that they have an obligation to accurately report on the EU.  It won't make the slightest bit of difference but it made me feel better.

Greece can't cope with Turkish immigration

The European Empire has despatched Rapid Border Intervention Teams to try and seal the Greece-Turkey border because Greece can no longer cope with the number of illegal immigrants making their way in from Turkey.

According to the EU's own border control quango, Frontex, 90% of illegal immigrants caught trying to get into the European Empire were coming over the Greece-Turkey border.  The Greek government has asked the EU to send in Rapid Border Invention Teams because they can no longer deal with the influx of asylum seekers.  There is a backlog of 52,000 asylum claims in Greece that have yet to be dealt with.

If the European Empire can't cope with the 350 illegal immigrants who enter Greece every day, how are they going to cope with the 74 million Turks who will have the right to live and work anywhere in the European Empire if and when Turkey eventually joins the EU gravy train?  Millions of Turks will make their way into the EU via Greece, putting an intolerable strain on every member state but particularly Greece and Bulgaria as the gateway to the Ægean.

Some animals are more equals than others

David Campbell Bannerman complained to the BBC about Nigel Farage's planned appearance on Question Time and had him pulled from the programme.

Tim Congdon chipped in and said it wasn't fair for Farage to appear on TV when the other leadership candidates didn't.

So where was Tim Congdon last Sunday?  On the BBC Politics Show without any of the other candidates.  His justification for appearing on the Politics Show when he said it was unfair for Farage to appear on Question Time?  Because he announced that he was going to be on the show and none of the other candidates complained so they obviously didn't mind.

Why DCB decided not to complain about Tim Congdon appearing on the BBC is a mystery, especially considering that he made the announcement at the same leadership hustings that Farage did about Question Time.

One rule for Farage, one rule for everyone else it seems.

Birmingham hustings pictures

Rather belatedly, some pictures from the UKIP leadership election hustings in Birmingham last week ...

Last chance to take part in our competition

Just a quick reminder that today is the last day to enter our competition to win a signed copy of Nigel Farage's book, Fighting Bull.

Any posts submitted by anyone other than me from the 1st of October until the end of today can be entered into the competition to win the book.  Nigel Farage will judge the posts entered into the competition and the one he judges to be best will receive a signed copy of the book.

If you want to take part in the competition but haven't been set up to write for the blog yet, you can contact me.  I can't guarantee I'll pick up your message in time but I'll do my best!

How the EU sees its budget working

It is the month of June, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.
Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town.

He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.
The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.
The Butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.
The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town prostitute that in these hard times, gave her services on credit.
The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.
The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.
At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.
No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the EU  is doing business today.

Birmingham Hustings

I made extensive notes at last night's leadership election hustings in Birmingham.  Here's what I can make sense of from the three and a half pages of notes I made.  Observations are in italics.

---

Introductions

WM
Very enthusiastic; reinvigorate branches; overcome perception as a racist party; appeal to "young kippers"; change comes from NEC and members; very funny, improve IT; communications; Commonwealth; no microphone.

DCB
Nigel said he can't do 2 jobs - EU and Westminster (not true); "safe hands"; can't keep having leadership elections; councillors important; have to contest elections; have to get out of comfort zone; "vision, experience, teamwork;, target of 20 MPs under AV+ and 30 elected peers (10%); have to be more professional; got 20k votes as a Tory PPC; enjoys media; can give fundraising advice; Frank Maloney bringing in professional fundraiser.

NF
Founder member of UKIP; election success as 2nd largest EU party; corrected DCB - said he couldn't do 3 jobs: leader, MEP & PPC; Bercow decision "went wrong"; best person to communicate policy to public; which candidate are LibLabCon scared of most? Been on Any Questions/Question time 30 times; track record of fundraising; Pearson will be chair of fundraising committee with Steve Woolfe & Jill Seymour as secretary; no discipline in party; can't put cigarette paper between LibLabCon.

TC
Hesitant; greatest threat to constitution & democracy is EU; sounds scripted; 4 leaders in 1 year "not a happy show"; MEPs don't have time to deal with branches; don't want to be a one man band; don't want to be an MEP; 4 year plan; will set up London office part funded himself; "candidate for change"; "want my country back".

Commonwealth


WM
Introduced 8 country Commonwealth forum to UKIP.

NF
Appalling to break links; free trade with Commonwealth.

DCB
Future is India; EU has dwindling share of world economy free trade.

TC
Free trade; argument for EU common market no longer valid as no more high tariffs from Commonwealth.

Electoral Pact/Not standing against eurosceptics


NF
Priority is to get 646 good candidates; never been any secret deals; no leader could say never form electoral pact.

DCB
Will not wear blue rosette or write to papers undermining our candidates; sell policies.

TC
No secret deals; something must have happened because papers said so!

WM
Members should decide.

Domestic Issues


DCB
Wrote manifesto; common sense policies; lower taxes; immigration.

TC
EU is central policy; need domestic policies; "freedom, fairness, patriotism"; only British patriotism; "believing in Britain".

WM
Reinvigorate branches; communication Branch > NEC > Leader; break members apathy; clear line of communication through party.

NF
Was told UKIP was a 1 trick pony, then a 2 trick pony, nobody says that any more; local issue (Thanet wind farm) got him invited onto Question Time (not any more, thanks to DCB).

Referendum - disband?


TC
Plan for next 4 years; if we leave party celebrate but carry on.

WM
We can't leave EU without Shadow Cabinet and MPs; why disband when we have MPs? (popular with the members)

NF
Used to think so but MPs don't have patriotic bone in body; "I'll be blown if I give my country back to scoundrels that sold us out".

DCB
Swiss referenda are the only thing keeping Switzerland out of EU; finish off europhiles once and for all.

Most media savvy


WM
"Nigel's almost as good as me!"; been on radio a lot; "I'm showbiz".

NF
Doing Question Time difficult; media appearances not about surviving, "about dominating, being nimble, being fast, thinking on your feet"; unparalleled media experience.

DCB
NF stay as media representative; need more faces on media or party looks small; trained in media handling.

TC
Says he's "good on television"; acknowledged expert on public policy; former journalist; "I'm the media savvyist of this lot".

Biggest weakness and how to turn into a strength


NF
Intolerance; don't suffer fools gladly; getting in barrister to change constitution so it isn't at odds with party rules.

DCB
City being destroyed (answering wrong question!)

TC
Vain; have a team that can criticise me; never resent criticism.

WM
Women! NF is an inspiration; ex-fighter; members views important.

What will failed candidates do to support winner?


DCB
Whatever asked; loyal to party.

TC
Nobody offered me a job; fight cause for the rest of my life.

WM
Offered job to all candidates including TC (TC apologised); "groundwork, time, dedication, glory, cause"; action speaks louder than words.

NF
Role for all 3; WM ambassador for Commonwealth; would loyally support winner.

Devolution (my question)


TC
Devolution = subsume into EU; federal arrangement; no independence.

WM
No independence; galvanise and come together; work together.

NF
UKIP have underplayed Englishness for too long; party policy is right; another layer of politicians; want less politicians (gave me an "I know that you know that I know it's wrong" look)

DCB
We lost 300k votes to EDP; supports Grand Committees instead of devolution; want St Georges Day bank holiday.

Extremist


WM
"Simple - elect me as your leader!"

NF
Took libel action against the Times on 1st day as MEP for associating him and UKIP with BNP; 10% BME candidates last year.

DCB
We represent view of majority; reinforce links with Commonwealth.

TC
Membership form should say if you are found to commit racist activity you will be expelled (disapproving murmurs)

Quantative Easing


NF
Great fear of deflation but are we ready for more QE? Americans practising extreme Keynesian economics; defer to TC on QE.

DCB
Defer to TC on QE; China & India will have resource war; have to be disciplined & anticipate inflation sadly.

TC
Government required banks to shrink balance sheet which caused recession; advocated QE and partly reason why it happened; no worries of inflation at the moment; advocates 0.5% QE per month.

WM
QE was a stopgap; nobody knows what to do; no need for QE; need to create industry.

WM County Committee 9 point plan improve party


DCB
Welcome feedback; suggestions should go to party board subject to NEC.

TC
Agree we need small government; branches have been neglected; leader should write to branch chairmen regularly.

WM
Want us to make news; need leader with profound understanding of community.

NF
Not enough direction from centre; Staffs is an example of UKIP success and probably be first branch to get UKIP MP; clear goals.

Unite factions


TC
4 year plan

WM
Shadow cabinet; raise profile; put EU on the side.

NF
Address churn; need to have continuous campaigns; promote new media; ask dissidents "are you with us?"

DCB
Promise to look at NF's plan when elected.

Sum up


TC
We will leave EU; most people want to leave; put pressure on political class; need change; experience of building up business; uninspiring.

NF
Crash - "lucky, given 2nd chance, want 2nd chance of leading UKIP"; sadly all about personality politics now; opponents fear NF most; not afraid of anybody; will delegate management and just lead party.

DCB
Wrong to criticise manifesto as too long; "New UKIP"; place in team for all candidates; keep NF as face of party; vote DCB get NF as well.

WM
Read manifesto - "freedom of action, freedom of resources, freedom of the people", "I will not wilt, I will not fail to deliver".

---

That's my notes, now my own summing up:

Winston was hilarious, a real breath of fresh air and extremely passionate and enthusiastic.  A very good public speaker.  He doesn't stand a chance, sadly, but he's a good guy.

Tim Congdon was a poor speaker, hesitant and monotonous.  Doesn't seem to be able to see beyond the EU issue.

Nigel Farage was ... Nigel Farage.  Exactly what you'd expect - good public speaker, knowledgeable and funny.

David Campbell Bannerman was a strong public speaker and quick with his answers.  Spoke about loyalty to the party then dumped on the party to get one over on Farage.

At the start of the hustings, Congdon got the most applause (as expected given that the West Mids is Nikki Sinclaire territory and her supporters are behind Congdon).  By the end he got the least.  Winston got the most applause at the end of the night.

So who was the winner at the Birmingham hustings?  Using the incredibly scientific method of listening to the amount of applause the candidates were getting, it swung from Congdon-DCB-Farage-Winston to Winston-Farage-DCB-Congdon.  Winston got his applause for his personality rather than his leadership credentials so the winner by the end was Farage.

DCB and the politics of envy

During the leadership election hustings in Birmingham tonight David Campbell Bannerman said, more than once, that he was loyal to the party.  When all the candidates were asked if they would deal with the leader should they lose the election, DCB said once again that he was loyal to the party and would do whatever the leader asked of him.

So imagine everyone's surprise when Nigel got a phone call from the press office following the hustings telling him that the BBC had removed him from the panel on tomorrow's Question Time programme because David Campbell Bannerman had complained that they were giving him airtime during the leadership election.

Tomorrow's Question Time is about the huge new wind farm at Thanet which UKIP is opposing, not about the leadership election.  Nigel would have been to token anti-windmill panel member and was chosen ahead of a Green Party spokesman.  Now UKIP will be denied the publicity that Question Time always brings and the programme will probably go ahead without someone credible speaking out against the global warming scam.  So much for party loyalty.

But loyalty to members and the cause is more important than loyalty to the party and that's why DCB is even more out of order in making this petty complaint.  While the other candidates were chatting to members, listening to their views and giving them more detail on their campaigns, DCB was in the car park complaining to the BBC.

DCB started the hustings with a personal attack on Farage and finished with an attack on Farage.  Another own goal from Team DCB.

My AV vote dilemma.

The First Past The Post system is one which needs to be put out of its misery, killed, finished. It is hopelessly outdated in an era where many constituents don't need to live down the road from their MP to be able to contact them and follow their work thanks to the advent of the internet. It is also hopelessly unrepresentative, as illustrated by the last General Election where much smaller parties got MPs, while UKIP with nearly 1,000,000 votes still has zero representation in the House of Commons.

It would be logical for me then to vote "yes" to the Alternative Vote in next year's referendum, yes? Well hang on. AV is a preferential system, not a proportional one. On the other hand, those who seem to be running the "no" campaign seem to be largely Conservative advocates of FPTP.

I am in neither of these camps. I don't like AV and I don't like FPTP. So the question I have to ask is, would a "yes" vote open up the flood gates and make the possibility of further PR reform possible, or would it simply serve politicians to turn around and say "job done, PR secured"? Would it effectively be used to kill off the argument for full PR, as it would have supposedly been secured?

On the other hand, a "no" vote against AV will be used many to justify the view that their is no wide appetite among the British public for electoral reform or proportional representation. It could set the case for those who want genuine PR back many years again.

Which camp am I in? I'm still not quite sure, and I doubt I'm alone.

William Hague offers the public a key to a broken lock

Hague outlines plans for sovereignty bill and ‘referendum lock’; “What a sovereign parliament can do, a sovereign parliament can also undo”

What absolute and complete nonsense Hague is coming out with nowadays.

He says that he will bind future governments to hold referenda on transfers of sovereignty to the EU; but in the same breath says that parliament cannot be bound!


A future government can change his bill with no reference to the public, so removing the requirement for a referendum, or can simply deny that any transfer of sovereignty is taking place.

Remember Labour reneged on a manifesto pledge for a referendum by deny that the Lisbon Treaty transferred any power to the EU - according to Labour it was 'just a tidying up exercise', while to all others it was the EU Constitution under another name.

Hague forfeited any remaining credibility he had with his 'there is no treaty to have a referendum on' comment.[1]


[1] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6901961.ece

Cutting child benefit is simply not an "attack".

Shock, horror, even the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror are united in their alarm at child benefit being cut for people earning over £44,000 per year.

Labour's line seems to be that this is an attack. What they seem to not understand is that saving taxpayer's money on things like this means it frees up the money to be spent elsewhere, like on schools, hospitals or helping to reduce the nation's deficit which simply must be done.

Those who oppose cutting the benefit for those earning so much need to get real. Most people I speak to (who aren't dirt poor) who receive the benefit don't require it for their children - it's used as an extra bonus. One that British taxpayer's can no longer afford to pay out.

Reminder: Competition

Just a reminder about the competition to win a signed copy of Nigel Farage's book, Fighting Bull.

Any posts submitted from today until the 22nd of October can be entered into a competition to win a signed copy of Fighting Bull.  Nigel Farage will judge the best entry and the winner will receive the book.

After the closing date I will contact everyone who has written for Bloggers4UKIP in the month of October and invite them to choose the post they would like to submit.  Depending on the number of entries, you may get to nominate a second post.

The competition is open to anyone (except me) who publishes a post on Bloggers4UKIP between the 1st and 22nd of October.  If you aren't already set up to write for Bloggers4UKIP, you can contact me to get yourself set up.