Cameron defeated over EU budget

David Cameron has suffered an embarrassing defeat on the EU budget after MPs voted in favour of an amendment put forward by Tory rebels to decrease the EU budget.  Cameron was in favour of freezing it at best.

Oxfordshire Tory MP, Tony Baldry, led the charge for the government telling MPs they should get behind the party and not support a cut in the EU budget - "get a grip and start supporting the prime minister".  Another Tory MP, Bernard Jenkin, said "the last thing we want is to wreck the EU".

The vote is non-binding so Cameron will support an increased EU budget anyway but at least he's had a bloody nose.

Tory MEP's briefing on UKIP is a dishonest rehash

An anti-UKIP briefing by Tory MEP, Dr Charles Tannock, for their London region activists has been "leaked" to Guido Fawkes blogger Harry Cole.

The briefing starts with a lie, claiming that two UKIP MEPs were sent to prison in the last parliament for fraud.  Tom Wise was elected as a UKIP MEP and had the whip withdrawn in 2007 when he was charged with fraud by the EU's anti-fraud investigators, OLAF.  Ashley Mote was elected as a UKIP MEP after failing to declare that he was awaiting trial for benefit fraud which would have disqualified him from selection and had the whip withdrawn when a newspaper made the party aware of his trial.  All this is public information but serial gong collector Dr Tannock doesn't let facts get in the way of a good lie.

Dr Tannock goes on to set out what he believes is the threat posed by UKIP.  It's the usual "split the vote and let Labour in" rubbish, reflecting the arrogant belief that any non-Labour votes rightfully belong to the Tories.

He then moves on to what he thinks voters should hear about UKIP.  They should apparently be told that UKIP has failed to act in the UK's national interest because Nigel Farage rarely turned up to meetings of the EU Parliament Economic Committee between 1999 and 2002.  He says that Godfrey Bloom failed to vote on an amendment to stop the EU financial transaction tax in the same committee recently.  The vote was 6 months ago and was passed by 30 votes to 11. He then follows with what is no doubt meant to be a criticism of UKIP totally opposing the EU Arrest Warrant which he claims would mean long delays in deporting criminals on legal aid ignoring the fact that if UKIP were in a position to withdraw from the EU Arrest Warrant they'd be running the country and the criminals either wouldn't be here or would be simply put on the first plane home when they committed a crime.

Tannock finishes off with a list of what rubbish voters should be fed about an EU referendum and some meaningless guff we've all heard so many times before about Tory euroscepticism.  He says that voters should be told that Cameron will give "an explicit manifesto guarantee for a referendum" on a new treaty that they think will probably be on the table at around the time of the next election.  Not a referendum on our membership of the EU but a referendum on a treaty that may not even exist and of course there was "an explicit manifesto guarantee for a referendum" on the Lisbon Treaty at the last election which turned out to be worthless.  An in/out referendum "right now, during the Eurozone crisis, would be utterly pointless" according to Dr Tannock.  Cameron says that there will be no in/out referendum at all because he doesn't want one which makes Dr Tannock's suggestion that there might be one in future completely dishonest.  Much like most of his briefing.

Dr Tannock's examples of Tory euro-realism are Cameron being "determined to be tough on EU issues" such as freezing the EU's 2014-2020 €1tr budget, vetoing an EU banking union unless the City of London get voting rights in it and opting out of some justice and home affairs legislation.  That's a €1tr budget when half of the EU is literally insolvent, a banking union that was conceived to socialise the financial sector and directly attacks the City of London and existing opt outs that the British government have already secured.  Yep, "tough".

This briefing is a dishonest and rather lazy rehash of tired old Tory propaganda and smoke and mirrors.  It's being billed as a "leak" but in all likelihood it was deliberately passed on to Harry Cole for the wider audience it would give them.

Kings Lynn Tory defects to UKIP

A former Conservative councillor and Deputy Mayor in Kings Lynn has defected from the Tories to UKIP after 46 years in the Conservative Party.

Bill Daws is the latest in a string of defections from the Tories who cite a blatant disregard for selection rules and nepotism in their branches amongst their reasons for leaving.

Less than 3% of MPs attend first reading of Carswell's EU bill

Douglas Carswell's private members' bill to repeal the European Communities Act and hence end our membership of the EU (or perhaps not, it's debatable) had its first reading today.

In his speech, Carswell sets out the facts pretty clearly pointing out that the EU economy is contracting, that we are doing less and less trade with the EU compared to the rest of the world, that the EU continues to damage our economy and that the cost of being in the single market is (according to the EU's own figures) around 5 times the economic benefit of being in it.  But how many MPs were there to hear the argument for leaving and the evidence that supports it?  At most, about 15.  Out of 650.

Tory MPs briefed against Carswell's EU membership private bill

I normally wouldn't drive traffic to a Tory supporting blog but in this case I'll make an exception.  Someone in the Conservative Party has leaked details of a briefing against Douglas Carswell's private members' bill calling for us to leave the EU to Guido Fawkes.

Compare the intelligence-insulting questions Tory MPs are being told to ask with the government's response to the latest EU referendum petition.  This isn't the work of politicians, it's far too organised and joined up - this is the work of the europhile civil service and Cameron's army of special advisors and researchers.

Carswell's bill is due to be debated today.

• Does the Minister agree that the passage of such a Bill would lead to a constitutional and political crisis within both the UK and the EU?
• Does the Minister agree that now is not the time to take such a drastic move, given the economic turmoil that Europe is experiencing?
• Repealing the EC Act would be a dramatic move. Does the Minister agree that the people of the UK should be consulted on such a move?
• Does the Minister agree that, as the British people now have a vote on any future treaty change, they should also be counselled on a move as severe as withdrawing from the EU altogether?
• Does the Minister agree that the audit of competencies should be completed before any major decisions on the UK’s future relationship with the EU?
• Does the Minister agree that it is far better to consult the British people through the audit of competencies, rather than making a rash decision to unilaterally withdraw now?

Would the last eurosceptic in CCHQ please turn out the lights?

Cllr Alan Pote joins UKIP

Roger Helmer MEP has just announced another UKIP councillor on Twitter ...

Cllr Alan Pote was previously a Conservative but abandoned the sinking ship last year before joining UKIP this week.

Government response to EU referendum petition

The e-petition 'Referendum on the European Union' signed by you recently reached 18,188 signatures and a response has been made to it.

As this e-petition has received more than 10 000 signatures, the relevant Government department have provided the following response: The Government believes that membership of the EU is in the national interest of the UK. It is central to how we create jobs, expand trade and protect our interests around the world. The Government’s priority is dealing with the crisis in the Eurozone and making sure that the Single Market, which is one of the greatest forces for prosperity the continent has ever known and of immense benefit to this country, is not damaged. The crisis in the Eurozone has intensified the debate in every country on the future of Europe and there is no exception here. Europe is changing, and we do not know what the EU will end up looking like at the end of this crisis. As the Prime Minister has said, this Government believes that a choice between the status quo within the EU or leaving completely is the wrong question. But now that the European Union Act 2011 is in place the British people will have the final say, through a referendum, if any future treaty change results in a transfer of competence from the UK to the EU. This cannot happen without the express consent of the British people. The activities of the EU have expanded over time, before the coalition Government established a referendum lock, and it is important to take stock of the impact of the EU on our country. In line with a commitment made to the British people in the Coalition Programme for Government, the Government recently launched a review of the balance of competences between the UK and the EU to assess the EU’s impact on the UK. Now is the right time to take a critical and constructive look at exactly which competences lie with the EU, which lie with the UK, and whether it works in our national interest. The parties in the Coalition will have the opportunity to address issues such as referenda in their own manifestos at the next election. You may also wish to read the Prime Minister’s Statement of 2nd July 2012 on the European Council at http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/prime-ministers-statement-on-the-european-council/ This e-petition remains open to signatures and will be considered for debate by the Backbench Business Committee should it pass the 100 000 signature threshold.

UKIP on 12% in Survation poll

UKIP is well out in front of the Lib Dems with 12% against their 8% in a Survation poll published last night.

Labour	43%
Conservative	30%
UKIP	12%
Lib Dem	8%

BBC coverage of the poll in the news last night ignored UKIP and pretended the Lib Dems were in third place, even displaying a graphic showing just Labour, Tories and Lib Dems.  Survation Chief Executive, Damian Lyons Lowe, writes extensively on their website about the folly of pretending we still have a three party system and repeats pretty much every criticism written on Bloggers4UKIP of YouGov and others trying to perpetuate the myth of the three party system - criticism that has led directly to at least three polling companies either changing the way they ask for voting intention or the way they report it.

A YouGov poll also published last night has UKIP and the Lib Dems level pegging on 9%.  The full breakdown of results shows most Lib Dem support comes from the rich and young people which is really quite inexplicable bearing in mind their betrayal of students over tuition fees and regressive wealth taxes.  UKIP support is greatest amongst the middle aged and above and working classes.

Labour	32%
Conservative	43%
UKIP	9%
Lib Dem	9%

Survation polling also shows that support for leaving the EU has now reached 51% with just 34% saying they want to stay in and 15% undecided.  This is an increase of 10% in a year and has led to the Tories briefing that David Cameron is thinking about possibly not being entirely unconvinced that the possibility of perhaps having a referendum on membership of the EU might not entirely be completely out of the question as long as it could be gerrymandered to produce the right answer.

Austerity? What austerity?

Thousands of people attended anti-government protests organised by the taxpayer-funded trade unions against "austerity" yesterday.

Cost/Benefit analysis of
yesterday's protests

In Greece, where the Greek government has implemented a severe austerity package mandated by the EU, they've seen budget cuts equivalent to 1.5% of GDP, minimum wage decreased, 30k civil servants suspended on reduced wage, new property taxes, new ex-pat property taxes, permanent budget oversight by the EU, EU Central Bank and IMF, all international aid apart from compulsory payments into the EU bailout fund stopped and unemployment has reached 22%.

Here, every government budget has been increased, minimum wage has increased, the number of civil servants is decreasing at the same rate as they have since Labour started cutting them in 2005 and international aid has been increased to maintain position as second largest aid donor in the world.

Brighton and Maidstone by-elections

Sabiha Choudhury came fourth yesterday in the East Brighton by-election, behind the Greens who control the council and the Lib Dems who ... well, they're Lib Dems.  This is a ward that UKIP has never contested before, they couldn't start campaigning before the postal votes went out and Brighton produces unusual election results because of the Greens.  More at UKIP Brighton & Hove.

Labour	1596	56%
Conservative	531	19%
Green	456	16%
UKIP	148	5%
Liberal Democrats	59	2%
Trade Union Socialists	55	2%

John Stanford also came fourth in the Maidstone Central by-election, behind the LibLabCon but ahead of the Greens and the English Democrats.

Liberal Democrats	2169	40%
Conservative	1301	24%
Labour	943	17%
UKIP	510	9%
Green	393	7%
English Democrats	89	2%

Merkel wants the EU to veto national budgets

Angela Merkel has made a bizarre call for the EU to be given the right to veto a national budget.  The idea is so outrageous that even the French aren't happy about it and that's an achievement in itself.

Give us a kiss Olli

Merkel's plan is for the governments of member states to present their budgets to the EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, the odious Olli Rehn, who would have the power to return them to national parliaments if he doesn't approve of them.  He can't even get the EU's accounts signed off by their own internal auditors but Merkel thinks he should be allowed to veto the national budgets not just of the bankrupt PIIGS countries or even the €urozone but of every member state, including ours.  This would be illegal in the UK.

Cameron has called for more EU integration and the loss of more national sovereignty, saying that he'll be pushing the agenda "very hard" for the EU to take full control of the digital economy, service sector and energy.  The Finnish EU Minister, Alex Stubb, is quoted as saying that it seems like Cameron is deliberately keeping the EU on the outside and that it felt like 26+1 at their summit.  I think someone may have slipped Mr Stubb a tenner (the way the €uro is going, that'll soon feed a family of four for a week) to say that Dave is being a bit stand-offish with them.

Steve Uncles, Robin Tilbrook and the Nazi slur

For years now the English Democrats' political brain, Steve Uncles, has harassed, abused and defamed countless people who don't support the English Democrats or criticise him or his party.  Now he's bitten off more than he can chew with a post on his English Passport site calling his Green Party rival in the Police & Crime Commissioner election a Nazi, complete with mocked up pictures of him with swastikas.

This is Local London, the website for 40 newspapers in the south east of England, reports that Green PCC candidate, Stuart Jeffrey, is "horrified" at the bile on Uncles' site directed at him and is seeking legal advice to have it removed and get compensation.

When Uncles was contacted by a reporter he denied knowledge of the site but later said he was just a contributor to it after their chairman, Robin Tilbrook, told them it was Uncles' personal site.  The site claims to have over one thousand contributors - a claim that can only be substantiated if you count the journalists who wrote all the original content that has been shamelessly ripped off from newspapers and blogs or the countless fake profiles that "like" him and the English Democrats on Facebook.

What is quite astonishing is not that Uncles denied knowing anything about his own blog - it's owned by Passport & Associates (formerly Diamond & Associates) which is a company owned by Uncles and registered at his home address - but that Tilbrook tried to defend him.

What Steve Uncles has done is over the top but at the same time it’s not without a kernel of truth. [...] One of the things we know about Hitler was that he was an anti-hunting vegetarian.

Tilbrook is a solicitor and is responsible for churning out an endless stream of threats and defamation claims against anyone who criticises his party.  He tried to sue me over a post on this blog last year and his case was thrown out of the High Court.  Having lost his own defamation case this year you would think that he'd know that Uncles has been caught bang to rights and as a PCC candidate himself in Essex you'd think he'd want to keep this liability at arms length.  With such consistently appalling judgement, you'd have to be a fool to vote for either of these jokers.

Cyprus told to plan for austerity

A meeting of €urozone finance ministers last week told the Cypriot government that it wasn't doing enough to get emergency aid.

The EU isn't happy with Cyprus for going to the Russians more than once for bailouts rather than submit to the EU's repressive and regressive austerity measures that are attached to a €uro bailout and the terms of any possible bailout will be punishing to send a message to any other €urozone country that is thinking of suckling at another teat.

The Russians were happy to lend €2.5bn to Cyprus a year ago but when they asked for a €5bn loan this year the Russians wanted preferential creditor status which Cyprus was unable to offer as the EU must be the preferential creditor under EU law so they said no.  This means Cyprus must now go to the EU for a bailout unless it can find another rich communist government to lend it some money and pay the price for disloyalty.

Tory fantasists reveal plans to deal with threat of UKIP

Ten senior Tories have told ConservativeHome their fantastical ideas for dealing with the threat to their party from UKIP ... which of course doesn't exist according to David Cameron who told his party last month that UKIP are "a complete waste of time".

Angie Bray MP says they should repatriate powers from the EU whilst outgoing Corby MP Louise Mensch has this hilarious contribution:

Then the referendum should offer three choices. (Can you see UKIP's fox cowering in the corner? We're about to shoot it.) 1. Leave the EU altogether. 2. Demand new membership terms (as listed) and leave if we don't get them. 3. Remain as we are. Can anybody doubt a massive victory for point two?

I could make a comment about dogs hunting foxes but that would be rude.  Has anyone figured out yet why the SNP's referendum on Scottish Independence must have only In/Out and no "renegotiation" option because that's too unequivocal and confusing for voters but an EU referendum must have a "renegotiation" option?

Head of Progressive Conservatism Project, Max Wind-Cowie, says that the Tories aren't divided over "Europe" (he means the EU) and says that UKIP has "wildly opposed conservative and libertarian instincts".  An interesting choice of phrase considering the Conservatives are generally supposed to be ... well, conservative, as the name suggests.

Failed wannabe MP Dominic Schofield says they should renegotiate our relationship with the EU and fight UKIP on the ground with the message "vote purple, get red".

"Giving attention to self harmers merely
gives them justification for their abuse"

This might work with people who don't think the Tories are equally as bad as Labour and who are naive enough to think that voting for someone you don't want to stop someone else you don't want from winning is preferable to voting for the person you want.  Dominic Schofield's clearly doesn't think much of his prospective constituents.

Former Labour, now Tory, social media "expert" Luke Bozier says there should be no referendum on the EU and tax cuts will neutralise UKIP whilst Andrew Boff (Conservative London Assembly member) has this delightful comment:

Giving attention to self-harmers merely gives them justification for their abuse. We should offer a referendum (tomorrow, preferably) because it's the right thing to do, not because we want to deal with attention seekers.

Insulting 19,000 UKIP members and making light of mental health issues in the process.  We have one of the highest rates of self harming in Europe.  Way to go Mr Boff.

Tory-supporting "think tank" Centre for Policy Studies wonk, Ryan Bourne, says they should renegotiate our membership after the next election and David Nuttall MP, Chairman of the Better Off Out group of MPs and Peers, is the only one that has something vaguely sensible to say but still doesn't think we should have a referendum until after the next election.

Syed Kamall MEP says they should "show how UKIP never engage seriously in the European Parliament" whilst Tory researcher Paul Abbott displays a disturbing lack of understanding about the EU, talking about the European Court of Justice and Human Rights even though they're not actually EU institutions and claiming that last year's EU Act means that EU law only has primacy if Parliament wants it to despite it being a treaty obligation which is governed by international law.

It's pretty clear that the Tories refuse to listen to the majority of their membership or voters and that they hold the electorate in contempt.  It's amusing to see them simultaneously dismissing UKIP as being no threat and enough of a threat to have a masterplan for dealing with the UKIP threat to their party.

Nikki Sinclaire: The Member for Hypocrisy

BLOG POST FROM:  THE MUSINGS OF A YOUNG CONSERVATIVE

WE THINK IT SPEAKS A WHOLE LOAD OF TRUTH!

THE MUSINGS OF A YOUNG CONSERVATIVE BLOG

Nikki Sinclaire: The Member for Hypocrisy

Nikki Sinclaire is a member of the European Parliament representing the West Midlands. In 2009, she was elected to represent the Eurosceptic party, UKIP. Not long after being elected, this grub refused to sit with UKIP in the European Parliament, because other members of UKIP's European-wide parliamentary group, Europe of Freedom and Democracy, in her words 'wanted me dead'. She claimed members of the group discriminated against her to the point of physical violence because she is a lesbian.

She has now formed how own bizarre little party with the name 'We Want a Referendum Party'. Obviously she was not satisfied with any of the failed Eurosceptic parties like Veritas, One London, Popular Alliance, No2EU, Libertas, English Democrats or the United Kingdom First Party. The embarrassing thing for Sinclaire is that one of the high-profile members of her new party is far-right bigot George Hargreaves.
Here he is at their very poorly attended little 'conference' (far-right on the picture, and in politics)

Here he is speaking:

The ironic thing is this man has extreme homophobic views. He is the leader of the Christian Party and has been involved with the Christian Voice group, an organisation that supports the death penalty for 'sodomy' ie homosexuality, want to overturn marital rape laws and holds other extremist views. In the 2007 Scottish elections, Mr Hargreaves described a candidate as a 'gay fundamentalist' and stated 'This is not about gay rights, it’s about gay wrongs'. The Christian Party's manifesto for the Scottish election contained proposals for the reinstatement of Section 28, banning of gay adoption and the prohibition of "acceptance or approval" of homosexuality in diversity training. It also claimed gay people die earlier - 'We will publicise the catastrophic effect of ungodly behaviour on the life expectancy and health of people, whom God loves and we should love; particularly homosexuality...'

One of the more bizarre statements he has made is that the Welsh flag is 'nothing less than the sign of Satan'.

When a Twitter user asked Nikki Sinclaire about this hypocrisy she wrote back:

Finally, she also claimed on Twitter that she is concerned about the 'democratic deficit' - well Nikki, perhaps you should resign from the Parliament and give your seat back to UKIP, like the people of the West Midlands chose.

This woman is a hypocrite, a liar and a disgrace. 

UKIP membership up, Tory membership halves

The Tories are haemorrhaging members at a terminal rate according to figures in the Independent, losing 50% of their membership since Cameron took over as leader of the party in 2005.

Labour membership has increased by 20% since Gordon Brown resigned as leader whilst the Lib Dems have lost 5,000 members in just two years.  UKIP membership is up 2,500 since 2009 to 19,000.

Nobel Peace Prize for EU is an insult

Rarely do I find myself surprised nowadays (being somewhat opinionated and bearing a cynicism cultivated over many years of believing that the latest outrage is surely the straw that will break the camel's back only to find I've underestimated the strength of the camel) but the EU being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is frankly astounding.

According to the people that award the Nobel Peace Prize, the EU has brought peace to Europe and promoted democracy and human rights over 60 years - a whole decade more than they claimed last year when they thought they were going to win the prize and a whole decade of revolution and armed uprisings to add to the list of conflicts in Europe while the EU was supposed to have been bringing peace.

Before I go on, let's just remind ourselves of the list we compiled last year of armed conflicts in Europe during the 50 years of peace the EU brought ...

Fifty years ago was 1961, two years after the Basque separatists started a civil war in Spain and France. In 1968, the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia and the IRA started a civil war in Northern Ireland. In 1970 various far left groups started a civil war in Italy and in 1974 Turkey invaded northern Cyprus. In 1984 the PKK started a civil war in Turkey and in 1988 Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war over Nagorno-Karabakh. In 1989 Romania underwent a revolution and in 1991 Slovenia went to war with Yugoslavia for its independence. In 1991, rebels in South Ossetia and Abkhazia started a civil war in Georgia and Croatia went to war with Yugoslavia for its independence. In 1992, ethnic Moldovans started a civil war in Transnistria, there was ethnic cleansing in North Ossetia, civil war in Abkhazia and the start of the war in Bosnia. In 1994, civil war started in Chechnya for the first time. In 1998 there was civil war in Kosovo, the Real IRA started terrorism again in Northern Ireland and civil war broke out in Abkhazia again. In 1999, Chechnyan separatists invaded Dagestan, the second civil war started in Chechnya and there was another uprising in Yugoslavia. In 2001 there was civil war in Macedonia. In 2004 there was more fighting in Kosovo. In 2007 there was civil war in Ingushetia and in 2008 there was a second war in South Ossetia with a Russian invasion.

So people can come up with whatever explanations they want for 50 years of peace in Europe, be it the EU, the partition of Germany or the Cold War but 50 years of peace in Europe is a myth. The only genocide in Europe since the second world war (Bosnia) was not only during this supposed era of EU-imposed peace but under the watch of EU "peacekeepers".

Now another decade has been added on to the 50 years of "peace" so let's add the 1953 uprising in East Germany which was violently put down by Soviet and East German military and police, the 1956 uprising in Poznan in Poland where 100,000 Poles clashed with the military and police, the Hungarian revolution also in 1956 which resulted in thousands of deaths and 200,000 refugees leaving Hungary, the forced deportation of tens of thousands from the Baltics to Siberia in the late 40s and early 50s and the infamous "Cod Wars" between the UK and Iceland to the list.

Today English and Scottish fishermen have asked for assistance from the Royal Navy after being attacked by French trawlers while a French coastguard ship stood by and watched.  On Friday, Turkey - currently being prepped for EU membership - forced a Syrian plane en route to Moscow to land in Turkey, escorted by Turkish fighters and is now engaged in a public spat with the Russians and Syrians.  At the weekend, French police arrested alleged members of a muslim terrorist cell which they say was planning the biggest bomb attack on France since Algerian Islamists were giving them a kicking in the 90s.  All this while the Nobel Peace Prize for 60 years of peace in Europe is being awarded to the EU.

Channel 4's EU news page is quite amusing at the moment - possibly unintentionally - with the top story of course being the award of the Nobel Peace Prize followed immediately by the Greek government arresting and deporting immigrants to save money then violent protests in Greece (complete with swastikas) at a visit by Merkel to her vassal state, protests in Spain over the imposition of EU austerity and a little further down more protests in Spain at EU austerity and then more violent protests in Greece over EU austerity.

The Nobel Peace Prize hasn't been awarded to the EU just for the 60 years of peace it's failed to bring to Europe, it's been awarded for its work to bring democracy to Europe as well.  Only yesterday the EU Foreign Affairs committee criticised the lack of progress of Iceland's membership application despite over 70% opposition to EU membership in Iceland.  Then there's the Irish, French and Dutch referenda on the EU Constitution.  They came back with the wrong answer (no) so they changed the name from EU Constitution to Lisbon Treaty and added even more power grabs in to the appendices, the Irish were told to try again and make sure they gave the right answer this time whilst France and the Netherlands just didn't bother asking again.  And of course there are the EU coup d'états in Greece and Italy - the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, was overthrown and an EU technocrat installed in his place followed by the overthrow of Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi who was replaced with another EU technocrat.  There is no such thing as democracy in the EU.

Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU for bringing peace to Europe is not only based on a flawed premise but it's frankly insulting to the memory of the millions of Allied troops that lost their lives fighting two world wars started by the Germans and the hundreds of thousands of people that died in the various conflicts during the 60 years the EU is supposed to have brought us peace.  To give the Nobel Peace Prize to an organisation run by and for the Germans for their work in bringing peace and democracy to Europe when they have been (and still are) the biggest threat to peace and democracy on the continent in living memory makes a mockery of the Nobel Peace Prize and is offensively inappropriate.

EU grants official candidate status to Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia

The economic geniuses on the continent have finally found the answer to all our financial problems - they're giving official candidate status to Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia.

Official candidate status means the EU accepts the idea of their membership in principal and paves the way for an official application to join.  Kosovo is the second poorest country in Europe, Albania the fourth and Macedonia the sixth poorest.  They're poorer than Greece which has already had a couple of bailouts and is impossibly bankrupt.  Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Cyprus - all of them having had a bailout or on the brink of having one - will all have to pay more into the coffers (as will we of course) to bail out Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia from day one.  It's perverse!

The decision is a contentious one for more reasons than the utter insanity of taking in the poorest countries in Europe and pledging to spend billions on them every year to stop them failing.  The EU is referring to Macedonia as Macedonia when the Greeks insist on them being called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in case calling them Macedonia legitimises a claim the Macedonians haven't even made to the Greek province of Macedonia.  It's like the Americans insisting on calling England the Former British Republic of England in case we decided to lay a claim to the state of New England.  Whether the Greek government objects to this will be an indication of the extent of EU control over the Greek vichy government.  And as for Kosovo - Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain don't even recognise Kosovo as an independent state but the EU's own lawyers have concluded that it doesn't matter if a fifth of EU member states don't recognise Kosovo, they can go ahead and conclude treaties with them anyway.

The EU Foreign Affairs Committee didn't just stop at granting Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia candidate status to show their detachment from reality - they also criticised the lack of progress of the Icelandic application for EU membership.  Romanian MEP Cristian Preda said "the progress does not reflect the feelings of the Icelanders about the enlargement".  Domnu Preda is correct - opinion polls in Iceland show that something like 70% of Icelanders are opposed to EU membership and Icelandic business leaders are similarly cool to the idea so far from progressing the application, it should have been abandoned long ago or even better, not even started.

Cameron makes more promises

David Cameron has made yet another promise of an EU referendum at the Tory Party conference and like his infamous Cast Iron Guarantee™ he's promising it after the next election.  Oh, and it won't be an in/out referendum, it'll be a status quo or the mythical repatriation of powers that he keeps promising but won't ever tell us how and when it might ever happen when there is no legal basis for it in the Lisbon Treaty.

Cameron is particularly vague and contradictory about this referendum, suggesting it would be held some time after a new, trade-only relationship has already been negotiated and then says that a referendum would be needed as a mandate to negotiate a trade-only relationship.  A self-imposed chicken and egg situation from Cast Iron Dave offering a perpetual get-out clause.

The EU Commission is demanding a big increase of 6.85% (€137.9bn) in its budget and the EU Parliament have agreed to it.  While the French and Germans called for a cut in the EU budget, the Tories and Lib Dems voted for a budget freeze and Labour voted for the increase.  Cameron says that he'll consider using a veto to stop any "outrageous" budget increase but of course he doesn't say what "outrageous" means so don't be surprised if, by a happy co-incidence, 6.85% is just shy of "outrageous".

Boris Johnson has scored a massive own goal by backing Cameron's vague and impossible repatriation of powers guff and saying he sees no reason for having an in/out referendum on the EU now.  Many in the City will be astounded that Mayor Boris doesn't consider the sustained assault by the EU on London's financial sector - an attack that is still ongoing - as a good enough reason to leave the EU.

Cameron has also claimed that he will impose visa controls on some EU immigrants.  This is completely illegal under EU rules and the EU have already stomped on the last promise to try and limit immigration and that was only for non-EU immigration!  Membership of the EU removes your right to control your own borders.

The Tories simply can't be trusted.  We've had a string of broken promises by Cameron and Tory MPs have rallied round him, making excuses and calling for the Tory faithful to keep the faith.  Anyone who votes for a Tory with their record is a damn fool.

UKIP's Bill Etheridge banned from PCC public meeting

The left wing "Community Foundation" in Birmingham held a public meeting tonight so that voters could meet Police & Crime Commissioners for the West Midlands Police area.  All candidates, that is, apart from UKIP's Bill Etheridge who was told that he wasn't allowed to attend.

Community Foundation, which lists the Home Office, Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Police amongst its "partners" (ie. taxpayer funded backers).  It seems to do a lot of community work but its main purpose appears to be agitating for islamophobia to be made a crime and special treatment for minorities.  In other words, your stereotypical taxpayer-funded left wing pressure group.

Community Foundation (which is a limited company) was known as Community Development Trust until it changed its name in November last year.  In March last year the company filed accounts saying it was dormant.  In April last year Birmingham City Councillor, Waseem Zaffar, said he was investigating how a community development foundation could provide a voice for the community and channel resources (ie. spend taxpayer's money) for regeneration.  By November the company had been revived with its new name and new offices and money from Birmingham City Council.  Community Foundation clearly owes a great deal of loyalty to its LibLabCon-controlled benefactors.

If you are unhappy with Community Foundation trying to unduly influence the Police & Crime Commissioner elections by excluding Bill Etheridge you can email them at cdtfoundation@aol.com or call them on 0121 370 6133.  You might also like to complain to their sponsors who are giving taxpayers money to this organisation that is clearly participating in political activities.  The Home Office, Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Police are obviously public bodies but Community Development Fund is a fake charity (ie. all of its money comes from the taxpayer) and shouldn't be using public money to fund the political activities of this group.

You can see what Community Foundation doesn't want you to see at Bill's website.

Update:
Someone at the meeting asked why Bill wasn't allowed to go and was told by the chairman of Community Foundation:

We didn't invite him because his answers to our questions would have offended us

UKIP Must Define its Identity To The British People

Agent Cameron strikes again. His comment that UKIP were a 'waste of time' simply managed to annoy those still amongst the Tory faithful who have UKIP sympathies and those Tory MPs who fear that a strong UKIP challenge could put paid to their majorities at the next election. Yet again he demonstrated both his arrogance and complacency to all concerned. 

Talk of a UKIP-Tory pact was always nonsense, of course. Cameron was never going to accede to a pact with a party he and Baroness Warsi outrageously smeared as racist, as this would mean in his eyes "recontaminating" the Tory brand. In any case, it would be difficult to see how the mechanism of the pact would work in practise or how UKIP could ever agree to one of Dave's "Cast Iron Guarantees", or whether the membership would accept working with people who had so insulted them.

But what it has put paid to is further talk of a pact and. therefore, our association with the Tory Party in the media narrative. In that sense, we  have surely dodged a bullet.

It is fair to say that the perception of what UKIP stands for as a party is not as yet well-defined in the minds of the average British voter, and solidifying that perception in the most favourable way possible is the most urgent task facing the party at the present time. People are now vaguely aware that we stand for more than being anti the EU, but we have still not quite crossed the threshold in terms of perception as a major force in domestic politics. Once formed, it will be very difficult to shift perceptions, and with the other three major parties widely held in contempt and being perceived as pretty much all the same, we have a once and once only opportunity to get this absolutely right.

And that identity cannot be as a kind of Tory mini-me; as a party who would be happy to prop up a Tory administration as a default option. The central reason for this is that the Tory party is so utterly loathed in large parts of the country, such as the post-industrial North, Scotland and Wales, that strong association with the Tories is to put a solid cap on the limits of our appeal. People may argue that those areas will never be very receptive to UKIP's libertarian economic ideas in any case, but that is too simplistic an analysis. People hate the Tories in these areas not because they advocate capitalist policies so much as they see them as belonging to a "boss class" whose motives are exploitative. The roots of this perception go very deep indeed, way back before New Labour's ruthless smears, or even Mrs. Thatcher, arguably to the Industrial Revolution itself. Amongst what would once have been termed the industrial working classes, the Tories are simply not trusted, and never will be, but UKIP may yet earn at least a partial trust if it can advocate a capitalism that benefits the common man. Furthermore, as Nigel Farage notes, many of our policies such as those on crime are also very attractive to the 'Old Labour' voters who have been so utterly abandoned by the Labour Party. For this reason, we have every chance of overtaking not just the Liberal Democrats but also the Tory party in Wales and Northern England, a development that may signal the end of the Tories as a truly national party.

So what would a fully-formed UKIP identity look like? Previously I have argued that the rise of UKIP represented the de-merging of the Classical Liberal and Tory wings of the Conservative Party. Indeed, with the number of younger LIbertarian's entering with UKIP's ranks there is considerable evidence for such a trend towards Libertarianism. However, although there will certainly be a great deal of scope for Libertarian ideas in UKIP, our identity cannot be wholly so based, because such ideas only tend to appeal to the most talented sections of society. Instead, surely our identity should be more broadly based on the hard-headed, patriotic, common-sense values of the British  people, who, whether Tory or Labour, long to see the back of the incestuous Metropolitan elite with it's self-indulgent, fantasy-world politics. 

British values for British people.

EU bans homemade jam

The Churches' Legislation Advisory Service and Womens Institute have both advised their members that due to EU directives they are breaking the law if they sell jam, marmalade or chutney in pre-used jars.

The ban on re-using jars is so daft that the Bishop of Exeter, when sending out the advice on behalf of the CLAS, felt it necessary to warn members that "this looks like a spoof but it's not".

The maximum penalty for selling jam in a pre-used jar is £5,000 and 6 months in prison.

UKIP 3rd and 4th in Opinium and YouGov polls

Polling company, Opinium, had UKIP on 11% last night against 9% for the Lib Dems.  Labour lead the Tories 41% to 30%.

Meanwhile, YouGov has UKIP on 8% and the Lib Dems on 10% with Labour leading the Tories 43% to 32%.

The big difference in their methodology is that Opinium offer UKIP as an option in its own right along with the LibLabCon parties whereas YouGov still include UKIP in the "Other" category, even when they are beating the Lib Dems.  When it comes to polling results, the likes of Opinium, Survation and Angus Reid who all list UKIP alongside the LibLabCon give us an insight into what UKIP's performance would be if the party was given media coverage appropriate to its election and polling performance whereas YouGov's results show us what UKIP's performance is likely to be if the party is still treated as an "Other".

The lights are off, nobody's home

Ofgem has finally admitted that the EU and British government have put us in serious danger of electricity rationing and blackouts thanks to their regressive, ill-thought-out policies requiring power stations to be closed in favour of windmills.

UKIP has been warning for some time that we are approaching the point of no return where too many power stations are being decommissioned without adequate replacements being brought online to keep the lights on.  Windmills will only produce a fraction of the electricity we need and at many times the cost of coal and gas power stations.

The deliberate undermining of the UK's energy security, making us reliant on imported gas from countries that really aren't very friendly towards us - giving aid and comfort to our enemies - isn't incompetence, it's an act of treason.

UKIP gains first Northern Irish MLA

Former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MLA, David McNarry, has joined UKIP and will sit in the Northern Irish Assembly as a UKIP MLA.

McNarry is the party's first member of one of the devolved governments and second elected representative in Northern Ireland after Cllr Henry Reilly was elected on a UKIP ticket in May last year.

McNarry was elected as a UUP MLA in 2003 but resigned the whip after being sacked as Vice Chair of the Assembly Education Committee at the start of the year by the UUP's previous leader.

UKIP is the only UK party to have elected representatives in all four home nations.