FSA warns banks to prepare for €urozone collapse

The head of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has apparently privately warned UK banks to prepare for the imminent break up of the €urozone.

Warning: Image links to the Guardian

Our glorious leaders (both at home and on the continent) are trying to scare us into thinking that the collapse of the €uro and/or the EU would destroy our economy but they aren't being entirely truthful.  It would be ridiculous to suggest that our economy would be unaffected by the collapse of the €uro but our banks aren't massively exposed to €urozone bonds and the UK taxpayer isn't massively exposed either.

The amount of money the taxpayer and the banks have invested in the €urozone certainly isn't trivial but it's not fatal.  It is important that we distance ourselves from the €urozone and the EU to avoid getting dragged down in the €uro's collapse.

We aren't so tightly integrated economically as most of the EU, we need to emphasise our distance from the reckless economic policies being dreamed up by clueless imbeciles to try and save the terminally ill single currency (or "the euro-vantity project" as Nigel Farage calls it!).

The EU's Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn, has already said that EU leaders have 10 days to save the currency.  For the sake of the 317m people afflicted with this mickey mouse currency and the untold damage it's done to their national economies, I hope he's right.  Once the €uro has collapsed we will see interest rates dropping and national currencies reintroduced way below the €uro's artificially strong present value.  The question people in countries like Greece, Ireland and Portugal will be asking then is if that is what was needed to get them out of the mire that €urozone membership has got them into, why didn't their leaders do it sooner?

Woman arrested for racial abuse on London tram

A woman who has appeared on a YouTube video racially abusing passengers on a tram in London has been arrested.

The video has apparently had over 1m hits (although the version I found has only had 46k) after being mentioned on BBC Breakfast and has led to police finding her and arresting her.  While she is abusing passengers about not being English or British she is holding a young child which is hardly the best example of responsible parenting.

The views the woman has are undoubtedly shared by a lot of people but screaming them at people - any people - on a tram littered with foul language in front of your own child and other peoples' children is not appropriate.

I am assuming that someone on the tram made a complaint (and rightly so) but I wonder if the person who uploaded the video to YouTube rather than send it to the police is going to be punished for distributing offensive material?  After all, if it wasn't for the video being posted on the internet, no more than 30 people would have heard what was said rather than the million that have been exposed to it now.

Offending someone with your opinion shouldn't be illegal, aggressively shouting those views in an abusive manner at someone should be.

BNP Butler joined BNP Barnbrook in the English Democrats

Eddy Butler, the former National Front, former BNP, former Freedom Party, former BNP a couple more times, former BNP national elections co-ordinator, has joined the English Democrats.

The announcement, which was the EDP's worst kept secret since his mate Richard Barnbrook joined in January, will be a bitter blow to the handful of party activists that haven't yet joined UKIP who had hoped to stop the BNP takeover of the party.

UKIP recently announced a revised devolution policy that would see the creation of a federal UK with devolved parliaments for all four home nations.  The final touches are being put to the full devolution policy paper before it goes to the membership for ratification.  UKIP is the only non-racist, mainstream democratic party advocating the creation of a federal UK with equality for all four home nations.

English Democrats: not left, not right, just racist.

Update:
The Chairman of the English Democrats, Robin Tilbrook, has issued a threat by email demanding the removal of this post, an apology for defamation and an undertaking not to criticise the English Democrats again.  His email and my reply are in the comments and needless to say he's going to be very disappointed.  Robin is a solicitor and as such I would expect him to know that you can't defame a political party but judging by this latest email and the previous threats I've had off him over the years (none of which had the desired effect, naturally) I can only assume the Chairman of the English Democrats is just very bad at his job.

Item 7 in the English Democrats' Communications Officer's report of the Saturday's monthly NEC meeting says:

7. The membership application from Eddy Butler to join the English Democrats was accepted

A copy of the report can be found on the England Exists blog, amongst other places.  Chris Beverley - another prominent BNP activist that the English Democrats accepted into their ranks - also confirms that Eddy Butler has joined the English Democrats.

Further Update:
Robin Tilbrook did indeed attempt to sue me for defamation and malicious falsehood in the High Court.  He lost.

Angus Reid Public Opinion poll

An opinion poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion backs up the running order from yesterday's  Survation's poll, albeit with different numbers.

According to Angus Reid, Labour are increasing their lead with 42% of the vote, the Tories are second with 33%, the Limp Dems third with 8% and UKIP fourth with 7%.  The SNP are way in front in Scotland with a large enough majority to give them 4% in the UK-wide tally.

The breakdown by region shows consistent support for UKIP across England, not just traditional Tory-voting areas which is further proof that UKIP is gaining true cross-party support.  The highest support for UKIP can be found in the south of England although this doesn't cater for the "Midlands Wales effect" skewing the figures for the Midlands: polling companies include Wales in with the Midlands which prevents an accurate figure for the East- and West Midlands euroregions where there is considerable support for UKIP.  The "Midland Wales effect" doesn't skew the UK figures but it does make them pretty useless for predicting EU or local election results.

The results of opinion polls are just an indication of popular support before party propaganda, BBC bias and last minute bottlers bump up the votes for the LibLabCon parties but the figures are encouraging nonetheless.

STARVATION IN TO SUBMISSION

Britons are begining to face starvation, charity food parcels are being relied on by 100,000 Britons.  This I fear will increase.

I fear the wicked planners of this mess we are in may have the belief that starving us is the only way they can get submission into the new world order and oppressing us to such an extent that it will starve out all resistance to the new world order from which the gangsters we call the political class shall be immune.

The last decision of the life of the world

Since the world began, we have always had a right or wrong choice.  That choice has always been slow going but it is about to speed up because the choice of right is under threat and is actually being banned in parts.

The political class have turned this on its head.  For the singular individual it is a life and death choice and it will be the only issue in the world that really really counts. Which will you choose?

Blogger Guido Fawkes summoned to Leveson Inquiry

Blogger Guido Fawkes summoned to Leveson Inquiry

Worry about Guido Fawks being summons to this enquiry, I assume it is something to do with practicing his freedom of speach on his Blog.

This disturbs bloggers and free speech people on Facebook, it also worrying to me that this may reflect on the European arrest law if they could do something like this and cause total disappearance.

I think we should keep our eyes on this one.

UKIP polling 11% in Survation poll

A Survation poll for the Daily Star on Sunday has UKIP on 11% - much higher than the 7-8% that the other polling companies have us on.

Survation is the polling company that successfully predicted the result of the Meopham North council by-election in October and had the most accurate prediction of all the polling companies for the Barnsley by-election in March.

For the full set of results check out Survation's website - they make very interesting reading indeed and if they translate into actual vote shares in the next general election we could be looking at double figure numbers of UKIP MPs.

Why Farage's battle is is harder than Churchill's

Churchill's battle was straight forward warfare. Their side, our side, men in uniform and war strategy.

This Battle is different, it's as though the British people are wearing Nazi uniforms and don't know they have got them on.

Nigel Farage's enemies are not Europeans as such, they are his own people who conspired secretly to surrender our country.  This Nation had been under attack for years before UKIP came on the scene,
the art of the Battle is mind games, the Enemy set out to change our way of thinking to drag us down into agreement with their plans without us knowing.

At this moment in time, if there was no UKIP there would be no hope, because the heart and mind of the Labour, Liberal and Tory voters have been so badly defeated they don't know they are in a real battle for the salvation of the country.  The minds of all these people have to be changed and that is no easy task.

European rulers are dead set on conquering Europe.  So you see, fighting your own people to get them to stand up for what is theirs is harder than the enemy getting them to surrender what is theirs. That is Brainwashing. UKIP is the de-brainwasher, very hard to do.

Look for the silver lining

Wait for the silver lining. is an old song by Diana Durben. My Mam used to sing it when she was broke and the gas man came and left her a rebate out of the meter. Well among the political class,we have no sign of a silver lining for years, none from Blair, Brown,or Milliband or whatever his name is and none from David Cameron.

But there is now. The silver lining is called a Farage, a Nigel Farage and the UKIP party. Watch for them in the political skies.

Second place for UKIP in Halzemere

UKIP had a great election result yesterday in Hazlemere in the Wycombe District Council by-election.

• Lib Dem 412
• UKIP 365
• Conservative 228
• Labour 88

An excellent second place for UKIP and a surprise 3rd for the Tories who dominate the district council (although not as much of a surprise as the loony Lib Dems winning an election!).

EU membership fee now £50m per day

Analysis of figures contained in the UK balance of payments "pink book" by UKIP shows that direct contributions to the EU from the UK were £50,000,000 per day last year.

That £50m per day equates to £18.25bn (£18,250,000,000) per year.  That's £300 per year for every man, woman and child in the UK just to pay to direct contributions.  The extra costs associated with EU membership in terms of protectionist tariffs that make goods expensive, damaging environmental taxes, the burden of red tape that makes doing business expensive, etc. are on top of that.

Most of the population want to leave the EU, it is for the europhiles to make the case for continued membership.  The single market doesn't require £50m per day membership of the EU so what do we get out of the EU that's worth £18.25bn per year?  If the British government can't find anything then there's no excuse for keeping us in, wasting all that money.

South Telford Rights of Way Partnership

The Ramblers Association are marching on Shropshire Council's offices today in protest at cuts of up to 40% to the budget for footpaths and rights of way.

Stirchley & Brookside Parish Council was one of the founding members of South Telford Rights of Way Partnership (STROWP) which is an excellent model for the Ramblers Association to adopt for Shropshire.

I spoke to our parish clerk this morning for some history on STROWP as I was aware of the work it currently does but not of how it came into being.  I was surprised to learn that it was set up some 20 years ago to fight against foothpath closures by Telford Development Corporation (TDC) who were building on vast swathes of green space that is now south Telford.  The group has evolved over the years into its current form where it is more concerned with promoting the walks around south Telford and ensuring footpaths are properly maintained.

STROWP produces leaflets for self-guided walks around south Telford as well as at least one guided walk for fundraising.  The parish councils involved - Stirchley & Brookside, Madeley, Dawley Hamlets and The Gorge - fund a part time project officer for STROWP who organises these events, surveys rights of way and co-ordinates maintenance and repair jobs by Community Payback and volunteers.

The partnership works really well for the parishes involved, promoting the walks in south Telford, keeping the footpaths well maintained and informing people about areas of local historic interest.  It costs about £1 per household per year to fund the Stirchley & Brookside's contribution to STROWP which really isn't very much money for such a valuable service.  The idea could easily be transferred to Shropshire - the parish councils that have a lot of footpaths which are likely to suffer most from budget cuts could collaborate with each other to form a similar group and co-ordinate volunteers.

I was interviewed by BBC Radio Shropshire this morning about this very subject which was apparently airing this afternoon.  If I can find a listen again link I'll post it here!

Cross-posted from: Cllr Stuart Parr

Lord Pearson in the House of Lords

Former leader of UKIP, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, asked the following question in the House of Lords:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they continue to support European integration.

The response?

My Lords, my right honourable friend the Prime Minister has described the present situation as,

"an opportunity to begin to refashion the EU so it better serves this nation's interests".

We want to see a European Union, in his words,

"with the flexibility of a network, not the rigidity of a bloc".

The future shape of the EU might well involve more integration in some areas and between some countries, and less in others. Of course, the Government have also made it clear that they wish to see no treaty changes that transfer power or competencies from the UK to the EU in this Parliament.

A typical non-answer from the Conservative & _٨^European Unionist Party.  So he asked for some clarification:

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord. However, the British people have seen through the fiction that the European Union guarantees peace and safeguards jobs. So I have to press the Government: what is it really for? Put slightly differently, I suppose we can all agree that other international bodies such as theUnited Nations or NATO have an identifiable purpose, but can the Government tell us why we need the European Union at all, not to mention its very own disastrous euro?

You can read the euro love-in from all three of the extremist LibLabCon parties on the Hansard website.

Just in case there was any doubt about my defection to UKIP ... HERE YOU GO!

Heseltine says UK will join €uro

Michael Heseltine, the former Deputy Prime Minister and eurofanatic of Thatcher's government, has said that the €uro will bounce back and that the UK will join.

Even though the €uro is on the brink of collapse, three €urozone members have had to be bailed out, two €urozone governments have been overthrown by the EU to protect the currency and a €1tn bailout fund is needed just to allow Greece to default in a managed way, Heseltine still thinks that the UK's future lies in the €urozone.

At 78 years old, perhaps it's time for Lord Tarzan to slow down a bit and find the time to get some medication for his delusional fantasies?

East Mids Conservative Future Deputy defects to UKIP

Conservative Future Deputy Chairman in the East Midlands, Jakob Whiten, has defected to UKIP according to Derek Clark MEP.

Like the other Tory defectors over the last month or so, what finally drove him to leave the Conservative & _٨^European Unionist Party was David Cameron's use of the three line whip to force MPs into voting against an EU referendum.

Cameron agrees to Fourth Reich treaty

Cast Iron Dave has agreed to wave through German treaty changes to create the Fourth Reich without a referendum and in exchange Angela Merkel has agreed to have a think about giving us permission to continue opting out of the more damaging clauses of the EU Working Time Directive.

Ok, zis time you be Eva Braun and
I'll be ze Führer

This is the kind of pathetic concession that the Tories are talking about when they talk about "repatriation" of powers from the EU.  They don't mean doing away with EU competencies or repealing unpopular directives, they mean having a think about keeping opt-outs that we already have.

There is no provision for returning powers from the EU to national governments in the EU Constitution/Lisbon Treaty, powers can only flow one way.  There is no political will behind the "repatriation" of powers either in the British government or the EU, nor is there a way of actually doing it.  The Tories know this and that's why they refuse to tell us how it would work, why they refuse to demand concessions in exchange for signing treaties, it's why no power has ever been returned from the EU to national governments and why a British government official says that there is no intention of trying.

Virgin Money snaps up Northern Rock on second attempt at huge discount

I've written about Northern Rock quite a few times since they were brought down by Saint Robert of Peston in 2007 and looking back at what I wrote and what others said is quite interesting.

When Saint Robert of Peston whipped up a frenzy of consumer panic with his misleading reports on Northern Rock's request for an emergency credit line from the Bank of England (misrepresenting it as a loan rather than the offer of a loan if they needed it) he caused a run on the bank which deprived it of its working capital. The inevitable happened of course and the Northern Rock ran out of cash and was nationalised.

Northern Rock has now been sold to Virgin Money at a minimum loss of £400m but possibly as much as £653m on the amount the UK Treasury spent nationalising the bank.  Those of you who have taken an interest in the Northern Rock affair and with good memories for these things might be getting a touch of déja vu at the mention of Virgin Money and Northern Rock in the same sentence because Richard Branson tried to take over Northern Rock before it was nationalised and on much better terms for UK plc than what has just been agreed less than a fortnight after Saint Robert of Peston embarked on his career-making hatchet job on the bank.

The original Virgin Money offer was to buy Northern Rock's entire operation, pay back £11bn of the £25bn Bank of England emergency loan that Northern Rock was forced to take immediately with the balance to be paid within 3 years.  The UK Treasury hadn't spent any money nationalising the bank so the taxpayer's exposure to Northern Rock would have been repaid within 3 years, Northern Rock's operations would have remained intact, Northern Rock's investors would have had a chance of getting a return on some of their investments and the ripples that Northern Rock's collapse and nationalisation sent through the banking sector could have been avoided.  The UK Treasury instead chose to nationalist the bank, costing the taxpayer billions and contributing to the virtual collapse of the UK banking sector.

Whilst I hold Saint Robert of Peston significantly responsible for the collapse of Northern Rock, some of the blame has to fall on the EU because Saint Robert wouldn't have found out about the credit line if it wasn't for the EU Monetary Abuse Directive (MAD) that required the Bank of England to publicise the fact that it had been offered.  The previous governor of the Bank of England, Eddie George, said at the time that if he was still governor when the EU MAD was brought in he would have resigned over it.

Ed the Millibeast has had a pop at George Osbourne about him selling the Northern Rock off at such a loss for no apparent reason but it turns out that he had no choice because the last Chancellor, Alistair McDarling, had to agree to sell off Northern Rock within 3 years to get permission from the EU to nationalise the bank.  And which government department did Ed the Millibeast work in at the time of the Northern Rock nationalisation?  Erm, that would be the Treasury - he was a minister in the Treasury when his boss agreed to the 3 year restriction on the nationalisation!

Richard Branson's purchase of Northern Rock is only for the "good bank" - the "bad bank" was merged with Bradford & Bingley which was also nationalised.  The "bad bank" is still slowly paying back the billions of pounds it owes the taxpayer.  What happened to the Bank of England loan is anyone's guess.  Northern Rock has cost the taxpayer a lot of money - a lot more than necessary so far and the Virgin Money takeover will cost hundreds of millions more.  The mismanagement of the economy and the banking crisis is nothing short of criminal.

The whole Northern Rock saga started with gross incompetence and unnecessary wasting of taxpayers money and it's perhaps a fitting end for the Northern Rock brand that it will finish with a loss-making sale to the bank that tried to buy it before it cost the taxpayer billions of pounds and precipitated the near collapse of the banking sector and at a snip of the price offered in 2007.

Come the revolution there will be a special part of the wall marked out for Saint Robert of Peston, Alistair Darling and all the other criminally incompetent and irresponsible idiots that have cost us so dearly.

Cross-posted from: Wonko's World

German conspiracy to prevent EU referendum in UK

Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Währung!

A leaked memo from the German foreign ministry shows that the Germans are desperate to avoid a referendum in the UK on the changes they need to various EU treaties to create the Fourth Reich.

Germany has plans for an EU Monetary Fund and for the eurozone and eventually the whole EU to turn into a political union but mindful of previous problems with countries holding referenda on treaty changes which keep giving the wrong answer, the German foreign ministry has advised Angela Merkel to keep treaty changes to a minimum so it doesn't trigger referenda.

Limiting the effect of the treaty changes to the eurozone states would make ratification easier, which would nevertheless be required by all EU member states (thereby less referenda could be necessary, which could also affect the UK)

When David Cameron instructed Tory MPs to vote against a referendum on the EU the other week he said that now was the wrong time to hold a referendum and that they would instead be seeking to repatriate powers from the EU.  However, the plan to repatriate powers has already been dropped.  When asked about plans to insist on powers being returned to the British government in exchange for ratifying the Fourth Reich Treaty, a British government official said:

I don’t think that anyone is seriously proposing going down that route

I can't find my shocked face so I'll have to stick with my sarcastic "what a surprise" face instead.  It is a well known fact that the Lisbon Treaty has no provision for returning powers to member states, only to take more powers - the Tories have no intention to try and repatriate powers from the EU because they know as well as everyone else that it is a one-way street where transfers of power are concerned.

Der Spiegel quotes the eurofanatic Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, saying:

The idea that one could simply get on to the Eurostar, go over to Brussels and come back with a bag-load of powers simply is not feasible

Clegg also says that only "populists, chauvinists and demagogues" would benefit from a debate about taking power away from the EU.  The majority of the population would benefit from that kind of debate but of course he's talking about David Cameron so let's see what it is that Nick Clegg finds so repulsive:

Populist: a person, esp a politician, who appeals to the interests or prejudices of ordinary people
Chauvinist: a person who is aggressively and blindly patriotic, especially one devoted to military glory
Demagogue: a political agitator who appeals with crude oratory to the prejudice and passions of the mob

I think it's safe to say that one thing you can't accuse David Cameron of is being blindly patriotic - he's a traitor who is happily handing over the country he was elected to govern to unelected fascists and crooks in Brussels.  And as for crude oratory: Cameron is far from a crude orator, he managed to deceive millions of people during the election into thinking that the Tories were eurosceptic.  You don't pledge to keep the UK in the EU in public and convince eurosceptics to not only vote for you but join your party and promote a pro-EU agenda with crude oratory!  I think we can also rule out appealing to the interests or prejudices of ordinary people - he actually threatened his own MPs with the sack if they voted for a referendum despite a large majority of the population being in favour of a referendum

The Daily Mail has a handy table of 10 year bond yields - the interest rate the pay on the money they borrow - for €urozone members and the UK.  Greece is promising to pay a whopping 28.88% interest on any money it raises from issuing bonds, compared to just 2.18% for the UK.  A 28.88% interest rate is expensive but affordable if you're talking about a couple of grand on a credit card and you're paying the interest bit by bit every money.  If you're paying it as a lump sum on billions of pounds, it's certainly not affordable and it's not sustainable.

The front page of today's Daily Mail leads with the news that the German Finance Minister says the UK will be forced to join the €uro and "faster than some people on the British island think".  I think most people in the UK would agree with me when I say that hell will freeze over before I will carry round a pocketful of €uro in my own country!

Working immigrants cost taxpayer £2.25m last year

Yesterday the British government announced the latest jobless figures, revealing that youth unemployment is now up to 1.2m.

The figures also emphasise the need to control immigration - something that only UKIP proposes to do.  Last year 280,000 people in the UK lost their jobs whilst 150,000 newly-arrived immigrants found gainful employment.

In 2009 the cost of an unemployed person was estimated at £8,000 per year.  Someone working 40 hours a week at minimum wage will make an annual contribution to the Treasury of £1,681 in income tax and national insurance contributions, assuming they get no other benefits such as income support or tax credits.  Being generous and assuming 50,000 of the 150,000 are skilled professionals and earn an average of double the median average wage of around £20,000 per year, they will pay £10,434 per year into the Treasury - again, assuming they don't claim any other benefits.

Identifiable public expenditure per person in England is £7,121 per year so each of the 150,000 unemployed people already living here who are claiming unemployment benefits because 150,000 jobs they could have been doing went to newly-arrived immigrants costs the taxpayer £15,121 every year they're unemployed.

We don't need immigration.  Not economic immigration anyway.  We need some people who have skills that are in short supply in the UK but we don't need to import factory workers, taxi drivers, farmers and cleaners - we have at least a million unskilled, unemployed people in the UK who can do those jobs.

UKIP policy is to freeze economic immigration for 5 years so that vacancies can be filled by people already living here and then applying a points-based system to control immigration after that point.  Labour and the Tories both adopted their own watered-down versions of UKIP's points-based immigration policy but without the absolutely key 5 year freeze and of course without applying it to immigrants from EU states.  Almost two thirds of the 150,000 newly-arrived immigrants who secured jobs - 93,000 people - were from the 2004 EU ascension states of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

While we are in the EU we have no way of limiting the number of people coming from EU member states to live and work here and when they do come they have to be given the same benefits as people already living here - the same social security benefits, the same access to social housing, the same access to the job market, the same access to health and education services.  All of the services that workers have been paying into for decades only to find them under-funded and over-stretched when they need them.

The message that these figures send out is clear and loud - there aren't enough jobs to go round the people who already live here, we don't need any immigrants.

Italian Cabinet to be 100% unelected

The EU's new man in Italy, Prætor Mario Monti, has appointed his first cabinet today.

Like Monti, all 17 members of the cabinet are unelected and all are academics and economists.  The Italians have had a nationalist, corporatist government in living memory which didn't exactly go well yet according to an opinion poll by the Piepoli Institute, 53% of Italians support an unelected technocratic government.

The EU has now deposed two democratically elected leaders and installed eurocrats in their place.  Lord Tebbit suggests that the EU would be quite happy to install Nick Clegg as PM here if Cameron forgets which side of his bread is buttered.

One of Angela Merkel's cronies, the nationalist socialist homophobe, Volker Kauder, says that the UK should fall into line and stop opposing the Tobin Tax which would devastate our economy.  If Cameron doesn't capitulate on the Tobin Tax, will we see an attempt to overthrow the British government and install the euro extremist Clegg in his place?

Congratulations Councillor Daryll Pitcher

UKIP's Daryll Pitcher has been elected to Wootton Bridge Parish Council on the Isle of Wight.

Daryll has stood for election on the Isle of Wight a couple of times so it's good to see his hard work on the island rewarded with electoral success.

UKIP IOW's webmaster is still sleeping though!

Councillor David Potts defects to UKIP

The former leader of the Conservative group on South Tyneside Council has defected to UKIP and given both barrels to the "spineless prime minister".

Councillor David Potts said:

The Conservative Party is no longer the party I once loved. Modern Tories have sold our country down the river, and seem obsessed with being entirely consumed, both socially and economically, by the European machine.

I believe David Cameron is a spineless prime minister, and I deeply regret having supported his bid for the party leadership.

UKIP is the only party talking sense. I know that I can do more as a UKIP politician than I ever could as a Conservative.

Nigel Farage MEP, the UKIP leader, has consistently and correctly predicted the economic Armageddon that we face in Europe at the moment. This was not an easy decision to make. I had been a Tory Party member since the age of 14.

There are still a lot of good people in the Conservative Party, and I urge them to join me in crossing the floor, so that we may stand up for our true beliefs.

Read more about Councillor Potts' defection at the Jarrow & Hebburn Gazette.

No, we do not need a British Bill of Rights

I don't find myself disagreeing with Nigel Farage very often when it comes to the EU and constitutional affairs but on the subject of the EU Commission on a Bill of Rights I completely disagree with him.

UKIP's has made a submission to this commission slating the EU Convention on Human rights which was turned into the Human Rights Act in the UK and calling for a British Bill of Rights.  Throughout the submission there is a conflation of English and British which demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the constitutional laws in force in the UK which is common to all political parties and the media.

The submission is spot on in its criticism of the EU Human Rights Act which isn't about human rights, it's about imposing a liberal left wing ideology on the population.  Human rights to any right thinking person are things like the right to life, the right to liberty, the right freedom of speech and assembly, the right not to have your possessions and money stolen on a whim and of course the most important right of all, the right to rebel.  Getting married isn't a human right, nor is the enforced religious indoctrination of children or middle aged women moving in their 18 year old Turkish husbands.

Magna Carta Memorial,
Runnymede

However, the answer is not to create a new British Bill of Rights.  We have an English Bill of Rights which, in conjunction with Magna Carta, the Habeas Corpus Act, the Petition of Right and the (English) Common Law, provide us with all the basic human rights we need.  The problem isn't that we don't have enough rights, it's with the lack of enforcement of these rights by the judiciary and the attempted usurpation of our constitution by EU laws.

Take for instance the multi-billion pound industry around the issuing and enforcement of illegal fines, fixed penalties, penalty charges or whatever new name the crooks that issue them come up with.  The Bill of Rights, which is still in force, says "any promise of fine or forfeiture before conviction is illegal and void".  Having the numberplate of your car snapped by a camera does not amount to a conviction, nor does a police officer handing you a piece of paper at the roadside.  You can refuse to pay and opt for a court hearing but that comes with a further penalty in disqualifying you from the reduced fee you are offered for not challenging the illegal fine and of course the promise of a fine has already been made before your court hearing and inevitable conviction which is unconstitutional and therefore illegal.

It matters not that laws have been passed since the Bill of Rights attempting to legitimise the extortion by summary justice, Lord Justice Laws established in the 2002 case of Sunderland -v- Thoburn (aka "Metric Martyrs") that constitutional laws could not be repealed by implication and no government has yet been stupid enough to try and repeal the English constitution.  Yet here UKIP is suggesting just that!

It is worth pointing out at this point that what is incorrectly referred to as the British constitution is, in fact, the English constitution, "Free Born Britons" is a mis-quoting of the term "Free Born Englishmen" that originated from the Leveller movement and the Common Law is English, not British.  The English constitution also applies to Wales because Welsh law was abolished by Henry VIII and replaced with English law.  Magna Carta, the Habeas Corpus Act, the Petition of Right and the Bill of Rights are English laws and don't apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland (with one exception).

The Criminal Procedure Act brought similar rights to Habeas Corpus and Magna Carta to Scotland in 1701 but neither of the English statutes were ever applied to Scotland or Ireland.  The Petition of Right applies to Northern Ireland by virtue of its application in pre-1937 Ireland but not to Scotland and there is no equivalent in Scottish law.  The Bill of Rights similarly doesn't apply to Scotland where the Claim of Right, passed by the pre-union Scottish Parliament, provides roughly equivalent rights to those contained in the English Bill of Rights.  Furthermore, in the case of Sunderland -v- Thoburn, Lord Justice Laws included the Scotland Act and the Government of Wales Act in the list of constitutional laws thus establishing the principle that Wales has a distinct constitution from England..

In order to establish an all-encompassing British Bill of Rights common to all four home nations, each of the four constitutions of the four home nations would have to be brought into line with each other or abolished and replaced with this British Bill of Rights.  Since putting the Scotland Act into effect in English law or the Northern Ireland Constitution Act into effect in Scottish law would be a complete nonsense, the only alternative would be to replace the existing four constitutions with a new one.  So, to establish a British Bill of Rights would require the full or partial repeal of the following:

• Magna Carta
• Bill of Rights
• Habeas Corpus Act
• Petition of Right
• Claim of Right
• Criminal Procedure Act
• Scotland Act
• Government of Wales Act
• Northern Ireland Constitution Act
• Northern Ireland Act

I find the prospect of British politicians who have introduced such legislative abominations as the abolition of trial by jury, the EU arrest warrant, internment and arbitrary house arrest amending and repealing our centuries-old constitutions and drafting a new Bill of Rights quite disturbing and I would hope that 99% of the population would be equally concerned at the prospect.  Magna Carta and Habeas Corpus have stood the test of time so effectively that they are in force in England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, South Africa, Singapore, Canada and other countries around the world.  If a new British Bill of Rights would give us the same rights that we already have then why do we need it?  If it would give us extra rights whilst protecting the rights we already have then pass a new law giving us the extra rights and leave our existing constitutions intact.

There is no need to replace our constitutions with a British Bill of Rights because we have all the rights we need.  What we need is an end to the EU usurpation of our laws and for judges in the UK to be forced to uphold our existing constitutions.  If it is deemed necessary to grant the Scots and Northern Irish the same constitutional rights the English and Welsh have then pass a new law giving them to them.

Assuming the foregoing was ignored and the British government ploughed on with a British Bill of Rights, there is the fundamental problem of repealing or amending any of our shared constitutional laws in that every nation using these statutes has to agree to the change.  The Magna Carta on the statute books in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc isn't a copy of Magna Carta, it is the same Magna Carta as the one in force in England: there is only one Magna Carta.  Would every country using Magna Carta be happy to carry out the same act of constitutional vandalism so the British government can create a British Bill of Rights?

There is a tendency amongst the political classes to believe that making major constitutional change is simply a matter of political will but it's not.  Contrary to popular belief, the British Parliament is not an all-powerful supreme law-making body.  It can't change constitutional laws that we share with other countries, nor can it ignore centuries of judgements and precedent made by judges.  Creating a British of Rights would involve massive constitutional upheaval and the consent and co-operation of several other countries around the world and in all likelihood would end up depriving us of rights rather than protecting and extending what we already have, not to mention setting a dangerous precedent that our constitutions can be changed on a whim.

UKIP's submission is wrong in both substance and concept and I hope it has been conceived out of innocent, rather than willful ignorance.  It certainly shouldn't make it into the next manifesto.

Overthrowing leaders is an organised plot

A week ago we said that attempts to oust Papandreou shows the EU is out of control.

Nigel Farage picked up on the theme two days later, accusing David Cameron of "giving tacit agreement to the overthrow of European democracies" and the Spectator's Fraser Nelson follows up with details of a "hit squad" called the Frankfurt Group including Merkel and Sarkozy actively seeking the overthrow of non-compliant EU leaders.

Nelson's article is well worth a read and when reading it, bear in mind that the British government knows about this group and is allowing it to do what it does without any complaints or criticism.  David Cameron is, indeed, "giving tacit agreement to the overthrow of European democracies" as Farage said.

The only thing that spoils Fraser Nelson's article is that he finishes it off with a call for the Tories to negotiate the repatriation of powers from the EU rather than hauling them over the hot coals for running a europhile dictatorship and demanding they give us the referendum that everyone wants but which their tinpot dictator of a leader made sure we didn't get.  He knows as well as everyone else does that repatriation of powers isn't possible but he's a Tory supporter writing for a Tory-supporting paper so it's what you'd expect.

George Papandreou was the first leader to be overthrown by the Merkel-Sarkozy axis of evil, Silvio Berlusconi  is the second but certainly not the last.  There are another couple of petitions for an EU referendum that are on their way to securing another debate on a referendum but these are equally doomed to failure not just because Cameron is a eurofanatic but because he now knows that any leader opposing the EU will end up out of a job sharpish thanks to this so-called Frankfurt Group.  How much of a part did self-preservation play in his decision to issue a three-line whip to ensure we didn't get a referendum?

The only regime that needs overthrowing in Europe is the EU.

Attempts to oust Papandreou show the EU is out of control

The BBC gleefully reported that the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, was expected to resign after an emergency cabinet meeting this afternoon.  They must have been very disappointed to hear that the rumour was untrue.

According to the BBC, Greek MPs are worried about the EU cutting off the money supply which "would give the heavily indebted Greek government 130bn euros (£111bn; $178bn) and a 50% write-off of its debts, in return for deeply unpopular austerity measures".

You can't blame the EU-funded BBC for trying can you?  The €130bn isn't a gift, it's a loan.  As in, they would be expected to pay it back.  And the 50% debt write-offs would be from private banks and investors, the largest proportion of which are Greek.  So Greek banks will find themselves downgraded and undercapitalised and assuming they survive intact, they will be forced to lay off large numbers of staff who then won't be working and won't be paying taxes (not that many of them do anyway) to help pay back the €300bn loan.

Sarkozy and Merkel summoned Papandredou to a meeting to dictate to him what he can and can't do in his own country.  Greece has been threatened with expulsion from the eurozone, expulsion from the EU and the EU is withholding bailout money it has already agreed until after the referendum.

Greece needs to leave the eurozone and the EU, re-establish the Drachma at a weak rate rate and slash interest rates but its politicians are wedded to the EU as a source of "free" money and the dream of a continent-wide Soviet republic, so the threats - despite being just what Greece needs - are diplomatic blackmail.

The EU is attempting to bully the Greek government into not holding a referendum on the bailout and to bring down George Papandreou.  Merkel and Sarkozy are acting ultra-vires - they and the EU have no authority to try and bring about regime change or prevent national governments from holding referenda.  The EU - and in particular, France and Germany - are out of control.

Greece to get EU bailout referendum

Greece's Prime Minister, George Papandreou, has announced a national referendum on the €1tr bailout package for Greece and the €uro.

In stark contrast to Cast Iron Dave's three line whip, threatening MPs with sanctions to prevent them voting to allow us a referendum, Papandreou said that he trusts the Greek people to make the right decision and will stand by it:

We trust citizens, we believe in their judgment, we believe in their decision. In a few weeks the (EU) agreement will be a new loan contract… we must spell out if we are accepting it or if we are rejecting it.

Pop over to the Autonomous Mind blog for more information and sign Nikki Sinclaire MEP's EU-style "we don't like the first answer so we'll ask again" petition for an EU referendum.