Storm Desmond EU flood relief fund money will be used to pay £15m EU fine

A £15m grant from the EU's flood recovery fund to help repair the damage caused by Storm Desmond in 2015 will be used to pay a £15m fine from the last time the UK got a payout from the fund rather than helping the storm's victims.

The UK rarely draws down on any disaster funds because as one of the few net contributors to the EU budget we have to pay a big chunk of whatever we're give ourselves making it easier and cheaper to just spend our own money ourselves rather than launder it through the EU. However, the Tories decided to use the fund for the 2015 storm and were granted £15m but because Labour misspent money from the same fund the last time it was used in 2007, the whole lot is going to pay the £15m fine the British government has been given for misspending the funds.

The Labour and Lib Dem politicians who kicked up a big fuss about the British government not wanting to apply for the grant are all strangely quiet over this.

Localism Bill will force local authorities to pay EU fines

A clause in the Localism Bill will mean EU fines for not recycling enough or for air quality will be passed on to local authorities to pay.

In one way this is positive because at the moment the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and NI are responsible for the legislation that underpins the EU's targets but they aren't responsible for paying the fines if they miss them.  But in every other way this is just plain wrong.

Local authorities in England are experiencing big cuts in their block grants - probably the only genuine cuts in the ConDem budget - and at the same time are being expected to do more with that money.  The London Assembly could be expected to pay £300m in EU fines for poor air quality if Cast Iron Dave and Eric Pickles don't get permission from their masters in the EU to delay air quality targets.  Local authorities could be hit with millions of pounds of fines for not meeting EU landfill targets and the money will come out of budgets for libraries, schools, social services, etc.

EU fines UK £150m for not advertising ERDF

The EU government has fined the UK over £150m for not putting the EU's logo on things that the EU Regional Development Fund has partly funded using UK taxes.

Confused?

It's quite simple.  The EU gives money to cultural and infrastructure projects all round Europe and in return the EU ring of stars logo has to be displayed prominently at the site of whatever the money has paid for and on letters, leaflets and posters to do with it to advertise the generosity of the ERDF.

Which is all well and good if it's someone else's money you're spending but the paltry amount of money the EU Regional Development Agency gives to the UK is far less than the obscene amount of money we hand over to the unaccountable, corrupt European Empire.  In exchange for the EU giving us back some of our own money we are supposed to put up plaques and signs with the EU logo to show them how grateful we are and when we don't, they take more of our money in fines.

These plaques and signs are a blight.  The most inappropriate one I've seen is at Blists Hill Victorian Town on the side of some restored Victorian machinery.  Incidentally, the new post office they built at Blists Hill has modern rubber flooring rather than authentic wooden flooring because of EU regulations but that's a different matter.

It's about time these advertisements were removed from the sides of roads and tourist attractions, they're a blight on the landscape and a seemingly permanent reminder of our subjection by the European Empire.