McDonalds moving non-US business to UK

McDonalds is moving its tax domicile from Luxembourg to London under a new holding company that will manage its non-US licensing deals.

This week the EU Commission launched a formal investigation into a tax deal between the Luxembourg government and McDonalds which allows the company to pay an effective corporation tax rate of 0%. The Commission has already decided they're guilty, they're just looking for the "evidence" to justify the fines that they'll want to impose.

When the EU Commission is in open economic warfare with the US it's hardly surprising that the American companies the EU is targeting want to escape their jurisdiction.

Polish government tell EU they will ignore ruling on constitutional court

The Polish government have told the EU Commission that they will ignore a ruling that allowing the government to appoint judges to its constitutional court is illegal.

In our dialogue with the European Commission, we have assumed that our cooperation will be based on such principles as objectivism, or respect for sovereignty, subsidiarity, and national identity. However, we have gradually come to realise that interferences into Poland’s internal affairs are not characterised by adherence to such principles. On top of that, such actions are largely based on incorrect assumptions which lead to unwarranted conclusions. So we regret to note that the Commission Recommendation is an expression of incomplete knowledge about how the legal system and the Constitutional Tribunal operate in Poland.

The idea of the government appointing the constitutional court judges who will decide if what the government does is constitutional is something that would seem quite alien in many countries but clearly not in Poland. This sort of fundamental difference of opinion on how a country and its legal system should be run is exactly why the EU is doomed to failure.

Via: Guido

EU threatens £93m legal action against UK over HGV Levy

The EU has threatened the British government with legal action after they botched the implementation of a policy they nicked from UKIP.

In 2014 the Tories implemented a version of UKIP's Britdisc, requiring foreign owned lorries to pay to use our roads. But they made the mistake of reducing road tax for UK-based lorries at the same time which the EU Commission has decided gives an unfair advantage.

If they are not convinced by the British government's response they will take the UK to the EU Court of Injustice where the taxpayer is likely to have to stump up more than £90m that has been raised from the HGV Levy.

UK haulage firms are already facing unprecedented challenges from high fuel prices, high taxes, cut price competition from abroad, crippling fines for the mistakes of border staff and violent attacks from illegal immigrants at ports. The HGV Levy goes some way to redressing the balance but if the EU get their way our hauliers will be on the back foot again.

Unelected president of EU Commission demands £1.65bn to pay for immigration policy

The unelected president of the EU Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, is demanding €2.25bn (£1.65bn) of funding to pay for the EU's disastrous immigration policy.

In a thinly veiled swipe at member states for not stumping up the cash they promised three weeks ago fast enough, Juncker said:

These pledges, in terms of staffing, in Greece and elsewhere, and generally – there is a significant amount of money not forthcoming, the member states are delaying the provision of the 2.25 billion which is still not available. That was a decision adopted on the 23rd of September. And now it’s a question of credibility – the credibility of the European Council and the member states as well, that they live up to their promises.

I guess £1.65bn is small change to someone who heads up institutions that loses tens of billions of pounds a year to fraud and waste.

Juncker wants to give hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers the right to work in the UK

Jean Claude Juncker, the unelected president of the EU Commission, has called for changes to asylum rules to allow people claiming asylum to do so in any EU member state, not just the one they arrive in. He also wants asylum seekers to be given the right to work as soon as they make their claim and for the 160,000 asylum seekers and illegal immigrants in Italy, Hungary and Greece to be redistributed around the EU.

Juncker went on to propose that countries that don't sign up to his EU quota system for asylum seekers and illegal immigrants should have to pay more into the EU budget as punishment and setting up a £1.5bn fund to give to the African governments that these people are supposedly fleeing from for their safety.

Nigel Farage told Juncker in the EU Parliament that he had got it wrong and that we would be mad to take the risk of ISIS terrorists getting into Europe with genuine refugees. The unelected president of the EU Commission responded by telling the elected MEP that his opinion was worthless.

David Cameron's response to Juncker's proposals was to announce that there is no limit to the number of asylum seekers, illegal immigrants and terrorists that can come to the UK.

Euroführer Schulz says "the UK belongs to the EU"

The President of the EU Parliament, Martin Schulz, has told ITV News that "the UK belongs to the EU".

The Euroführer generously conceded that "important member states like the EU have the right to discuss their role within the EU" but we can't change any treaties because then other member states will want to.

A lesson in sovereignty and democracy from Herr Schulz, the man who became EU Parliament president without a single one of the 742.5m people who live in the EU voting for him.

Another German imperialist once said "The Führer takes back what belongs to Germany". It seems that that mentality hasn't strayed far from the political class.

Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Schulz

EU Commission bankrupts Cyprus Airways

The EU competition commissioner has forced Cyprus Airways out of business by telling it to repay £50m she considers to be illegal state aid.

Cyprus Airways is 93% owned by the Cypriot government and has struggled to stem losses in recent years. The EU Commission will only allow a government to bail out a company - even one it is majority shareholder in - once in 10 years and ruled that Cyprus Airways has to pay back the money it got in the last financial year, bankrupting the company.

Only in the EU could the person responsible for increasing competition deliberately bankrupt a business, putting more than 1,200 out of a job and reducing competition and still be doing their job.

Barroso throws Tory plans in the trash

Tory lies and spin laid to bare on the Marr show this morning 19/10/2014.
When will people wake up and realise that the government and opposition parties are pro EU and can not change anything so are happy to go against the will of the people rather than listen to the taxpaying voters.

They need to remember they work for us not the EU machine.

"Freedom of movement is a fundamental principle of the EU"

David Cameron can not negotiate an immigration cap. End of story.

EU Commission rules against Spain in Gibraltar reef dispute

The EU Commission has dismissed all of Spain's complaints about the artificial reef created in Gibraltarian waters which the Spanish government used as justification for a number of illegal incursions into Gibraltarian waters by Guardia Civil gunboats.

In the last 2 and a half years there have been over 600 illegal incursions into Gibraltarian waters by Spanish ships and the EU has stood by and let it happen. When the Spanish government stepped up border controls earlier this year in retaliation for refusing to stop construction of the artificial reef the EU insisted on sending inspectors to see what was going on - pre-announced of course - despite pictures of the huge queues and Spanish and Gibraltarian personal accounts being widely publicised all over the world. They of course saw nothing wrong when they turned up on the pre-arranged date so there were no consequences for the Spanish government.

It's refreshing to see the EU Commission actually side with the people of Gibraltar for once when it comes to Spanish harassment instead of just letting them get away with infringing on their sovereignty and damaging their economy. Now it's time the British government did their bit to protect Gibraltarian sovereignty and ordered the Royal Navy to board any Spanish ship in Gibraltar's waters and confiscate it, including Guardia Civil vessels.

You appear to be parked on our lawn

EU Commission considering legal action against Spain

The EU Commission is considering legal action against the Spanish government because some hospitals have been refusing to accept EU health insurance cards.

The BBC have dutifully tracked down someone from the UK who was asked to pay for treatment in a Spanish hospital to try and justify the EU Commission's interference in Spanish domestic affairs.

The NHS has to pay the cost of any treatment carried out abroad under the EU health insurance card system but the national health service of the country where treatment is being carried out bears the cost until it can be reclaimed.

The Spanish government is broke so it's hardly surprising that they're looking to cut costs.  The EU health insurance card scheme is undoubtedly useful but it's expensive and bureaucratic and social security is a reserved matter for national governments.  If the Spanish health service decides not to accept the card any more that's a matter for the Spanish government to decide, not unelected eurocrats in the unelected EU Commission or unelected judges in the EU Court of Injustice.

EU Commission wants 6.8% budget increase

The EU Commission wants another 6.8% increase in its budget this year - an increase of £1bn for the UK alone.

The EC says it needs the money to meet spending commitments which is interesting because that would suggest they have a 6.8% public spending deficit which is 2.8% over the arbitrary one-size-fits-all target of 3% that they are enforcing for all member states.  The Dutch government has just collapsed because they couldn't get through the necessary spending cuts to get their deficit (which is not far off the EU Commission's deficit) down to the EU's limit of 3%, shouldn't Emperor Barroso fall on his sword as well?  We can but hope.

Luckily, Cameron says that it's an unacceptable increase and so does the rabid europhile leader of the Tory MEPs, Richard Ashworth, so their plans are thwarted.  That's a Cast Iron Guarantee™.

UKIP MEP, Marta Andreasen, said:

[It's] selfish, unrealistic and insulting to taxpayers already under the cosh. This demand is cloud-cuckoo land stuff. Have the European Commission finally completely lost their grip on reality?

I think the answer is, they lost their grip on reality some time in the 60s.

Checking if people are eligible for benefits is illegal

The EU Commission has decided that checking if people claiming benefits are actually allowed to live in this country and claim benefits is illegal.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of state for the DWP EU administrator for social security, said:

[This] could mean the British taxpayer paying out over £2bn extra a year in benefits to people who have no connection to our country and who have never paid in a penny in tax.

The EU settlement is supposed to protect the right of member states to make their own social security arrangements.

But we are now seeing a rising tide of judgements from the European institutions using other legal avenues to erode away these rights, and we should be gravely concerned.

So what's he going to do about?  Is he going to tell the EU Commission to bog off?  Is he going to tell them it's up to us who we give our money to?  No, he's going to tell the media how damaging it is to our economy and how the EU is damaging our country and then continue representing the pro-EU Conservatives in their pro-EU government.

EU Commission says leaving eurozone is illegal

The EU Commission has said that eurozone countries are not allowed to leave the Euro. Ever. No matter what the circumstances, no matter whether they are bankrupt and bankrupting the whole continent, no matter whether other member states want to throw them out. It's a one way street, membership is forever.

Neither exit nor expulsion from the euro area is possible according to the Lisbon Treaty under which participation in the euro is irrevocable.

It's funny how you can't leave the Euro if you want to or if everyone else wants you to because that's not allowed under the Lisbon Treaty but if you want to give illegal bailouts to bankrupt eurozone countries that's ok even though it's not allowed under the Lisbon Treaty.

Leaving the eurozone is as simple as a national parliament passing a law saying that the country's currency is no longer the euro.  The EU Commission will find out soon enough how easy it is.

Hat-tip: PJC

Please sir, can we stop taking so much money off the serfs?

The British government has asked the EU Commission for permission to reduce fuel duty by 5p per litre in the Scottish Isles and the Isles of Scilly.

Under the EU Energy Tax Directive, member states have to charge a minimum tax on fuel and have to get the unanimous agreement of Finance Ministers from every EU member state before they are allowed to introduce any variable rate of fuel tax.

The EU Commission is expected to take at least 6 months to decide whether the British government is allowed to discount fuel duty.

This isn't just a national embarrassment, it's a declaration of the British government's subservience to their masters on the continent.  Whoever signed us up to this EU Directive should be charged with treason.

EU Commission taking legal action to protect 3.7% pay rises

The EU Commission is taking legal action against ... erm ... itself? National governments?  Nobody?  Not sure who but they're taking someone to court to overturn a decision by democratically elected (or half undemocratically appointed in our case) national governments to cap pay rises for EU officials at 1.85%.

The EU Commission says that it's illegal not to give them inflation-busting pay rises of 3.7% on top of their already obscene salaries and is asking the EU Court of Justice to rule as such.

There is little doubt that the EU Court of Injustice will rule in favour of the EU Commission because the judges, who are already on a salary of £215k, will be ruling on their own pay rises!  As Nigel Farage says, "it would not take Nostradamus to predict the result of this particular case".

It would be interesting to see what happened if an individual was to take their own legal action over this because the EU Court of Justice is not the independent tribunal guaranteed by the EU Convention on Human Rights.

Pound is the oil of our economy !

For those of you who didnt know West Midlands UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass has had a Column in the Solihull Times Newspaper for a couple of months now. This has been great news for the local UKIP branch. 70,409 copies of the newspaper are delivered around the Borough each week. Below is Mikes column from this weeks paper which gets published under the heading ''Another crazy day in Brussels with Mike Nattress UKIP MEP'' for some reason I wonder why ?

Speaking on French radio and TV, EU Commission President Jose Barroso said the Euro in the UK is ‘’now closer than ever before’’. He said ‘’Some British politicians have already told me, ‘’if we had the Euro , we would have been better off’’

Why do UKIP (whose symbol is the pound sign) say the pound should never be surrendered ?

If we are to be part of a United States of Europe and politicians protest we are not, despite signing the Lisbon Treaty then the Euro is an obvious next step. However , if we are to remain independent, our currency is the oil that lubricates the engine of the economy. As the 5th largest economy in the world , the UK’s economic cycle is different to Europe.

We must retain our ability to set interest rates and taxation at levels suiting our world trading position and therefore need our currency which bestows economic independence , losing our currency will ensure our absorption into a United States of Europe but step - by - step politicians have allowed exactly that , behind the backs of the people for more than 30 years.

With the EU now making 75 per cent of our law and the chancellor admitting that he could not reduce VAT to less than 15 per cent with out EU approval , have we already been taken over ?

This must be a decision for the people , whose families have defended the independence of this island for centuries . EU , better off out ?