Britain must obey Strasbourg judges or quit the EU, warns new chief of European Court of Human Rights

Once again the EU Technocrats are sticking their oar in.
In all reality it would be better for us to just give them the Churchill Salute and go our separate ways and negotiate a trade agreement.

But we all know the outcome, dithering Dave will bend over and take one up the proverbial for the country once again.
When will cast jelly Dave realise that the country will be better off out of this political union, while we are still in it he is leader in name only. More of a provincial governor than a PM of the once great country we live in.
If this gets drawn out any longer old Cast Ironic Dave and his bff's, Cleggy and Millipede,will be popping over to Strasbourg and begging for forgiveness and promising more of British taxpayers money to pay fines etc.

Here is the story so far:

Britain must obey Strasbourg judges or quit the EU, warns new chief of European Court of Human Rights

Judge Dean Spielmann also says ministers should grant vote to prisoners

• Intervention puts unelected court on a collision course with Westminster

• MPs including Tory backbencher Dominic Raab 'won't give in to threats'

By JAMES SLACK and STEVE DOUGHTY

Britain was yesterday threatened with having to quit the European Union if it refuses to 'kowtow' to Strasbourg's human rights judges.The warning was delivered by the new head of the European Court of Human Rights, amid an increasing determination among Tory Cabinet ministers to leave its jurisdiction.Judge Dean Spielmann, from Luxemburg, also insisted that ministers had a duty to grant the vote to prisoners.
Threat: The warning was delivered by Judge Dean Spielmann, from Luxemburg, amid an increasing determination among Tory Cabinet ministers to leave its jurisdiction
His intervention once again puts the unelected court on a collision course with Westminster.Technically, the EU and the European Court of Human Rights are separate institutions, with the ECHR overseen by the 47-member Council of Europe.But Mr Spielmann opted to combine two of the most explosive issues in British politics by saying that, if we want to leave the court, we may also have to exit the EU.
His logic was that quitting the court would mean also exiting the Council of Europe. He added no state had ever been a member of the EU without first joining the council.Mr Spielmann said: 'That would plainly be a political disaster.'Any member state who would leave the Council of Europe, who would denounce the convention, would lose its credibility when it comes to promoting human rights also in different parts of the world.'Last night, MPs said they would not give in to threats - particularly where they involved Britain's membership of the EU.
Different: Technically, the EU and the European Court of Human Rights (pictured, in Strasbourg, France) are separate institutions, with the ECHR overseen by the 47-member Council of Europe
Tory backbencher Dominic Raab said: 'Mr Spielmann had no previous judicial experience before ascending to the heights of this European ivory tower, and it shows.'The only thing undermining the credibility of the Strasbourg court are the Mickey Mouse judgments it spews out. He and the other judges should take a long hard look in the mirror before complaining about British democracy.''If Mr Spielmann thinks threatening to kick us out of the EU is going to persuade anyone in Britain to kowtow to the perverse rulings of the Strasbourg court, he's got another thing coming'Dominic Raab, Tory backbencher He added: 'If Mr Spielmann thinks threatening to kick us out of the EU is going to persuade anyone in Britain to kowtow to the perverse rulings of the Strasbourg court, he's got another thing coming.'Home Secretary Theresa May has said the UK should consider its relationship with the European court after a string of adverse judgments.These include blocking the deportation of Al Qaeda hate-preacher Abu Qatada and the long-running battle over whether convicts must be allowed to vote.Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, has also discussed walking away from the court. This would allow the final say to rest with Britain's better qualified Supreme Court.Judge Spielmann told BBC Radio Four that all decisions reached by his court must be respected - including prisoner votes.
Suggestion: Home Secretary Theresa May has said the UK should consider its relationship with the European court after a string of adverse judgments
This is despite the fact that the democratically-elected Westminster parliament has voted overwhelmingly to keep the ban in place.He claimed: 'A decision of a court must be executed. If a decision is not executed this is a violation of the rule of law which is a basic principle of any democracy'.Quoting a long-standing argument of the human rights lobby, he said there was a risk that such an attitude would set a bad example to other member states. He added: 'They might say "Well if the UK doesn't comply with our judgments, why should we comply?"'A decision of a court must be executed. If a decision is not executed this is a violation of the rule of law which is a basic principle of any democracy'Judge Dean Spielmann'Such an attitude causes real damage to the UK's international reputation, because it undermines the whole system and it causes great damage to the credibility of the UK when it comes to promoting human rights in other parts of the world.The European court has 47 members, many of whom have no prior judicial experience.The court's 'one country, one judge' rule means Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco and Andorra each have a seat despite their combined populations being smaller than that of the London borough of Islington.A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'We are clear in the view that prisoner voting is a matter for national parliaments to decide.'We will continue to push for further meaningful reform of the European Court of Human Rights when negotiations start later in the year.'

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