Hollande closer to Cameron than Miliband

François Hollande has beaten Nicolas Sarkozy in the French presidential election, marking the start of some interesting times for the euro-fanatics.

Hollande is a committed europhile but he's a socialist whilst Angela Merkel is a conservative.  He wants to renegotiate France's relationship with Germany making it stronger but with a leftist tilt.

Looking at Hollande's manifesto, it all looks quite familiar:

Policy	Con/ Dem	Lab
Withdrawal from Afghanistan	X	X
Shared military	X
Separation of retail and investment banks	X	X
Unachievable "green" energy targets	X	X
Merge income tax and national insurance	X
Introduce punishing higher rate tax		X
Subsidised apprenticeships	X	X
Reducing corporation tax	X
More judges and police	X	X
Massive housebuilding scheme	X	X
Dropping retirement age
Same-sex marriage	X	X
Development funds for deprived areas	X	X
Pie in the sky plan to abolish deficit	X	X
Pandering to native minorities	X	X
More EU integration	X	X

On major policy issues, it seems the socialist Hollande has more in common with the Tories and Lib Dems than he does with his fellow socialists in the Labour Party.  Of course, there's barely a fag paper between the LibLabCon parties when it comes to anything important and the Tories have lurched to the left in recent years so it's hardly surprising.

Rumours abound that Hollande's election could drive a wedge between France and Germany that will bring the EU and the €uro crashing down round van Rumpy-Pumpy's ears but in reality it's unlikely to make all that much difference.  Eight out of ten laws in the UK come from the EU but it's even higher in France as they're in the single currency and Shengen.  Heads of state for EU member states mainly oversee the implementation of EU laws, it doesn't make much difference what colour their rosette is and Hollande is a europhile so don't expect any opposition to greater EU integration.

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.

EU Parliament demands tax raising powers in exchange for 2.9% budget increase

The EU Parliament has demanded the ability to tax people directly in return for agreeing to a 2.9% budget increase.

Two weeks ago he caved in on the budget increase before he even left the country to demand the EU freeze its budget.  This is after backing down from his demand that they reduce the budget which they want to increase by 6%.

Camoron, naturally, says he opposes the EU being able to tax us directly and has held an emergency meeting with Sarkozy, Merkel and Berlusconi and that they were all "extremely staunch".

So, only one question remains: will this new tax that he's going to agree to come straight out of our wages or will we get a bill that we can refuse to pay?  I'm hoping it's the latter but I expect Hector the EU Tax Collector will be pillaging our wages to make sure we all pay tribute to our imperial masters on the continent.

Listen up !

The behaviour of European Parliament President Mr Hans-Gert Pöttering was denounced today by Nigel Farage UKIP leader.

"Not only were his actions anti-democratic, hectoring and bullying but he is incapable of even handed behaviour", said Farage.

He made his remarks after a heated debate after French President Nicolas Sarkozy had addressed the Chamber. Mr Farage accused Mr Pöttering of failing to discipline the behaviour of Green leader Danny Cohen-Bendit and UEN leader the Irishman Brian Crowley after they had insulted the Czech President Mr Vaclav Klaus.

Farage described the actions of Mr Cohen-Bendit when he demanded that Mr Klaus handing an EU flag over Prague castle as the sort of actions "that could easily have been done by a German official of seventy years ago or a Soviet official of twenty years ago".

He pointed out that Mr Schulz had suggested that opposing the Lisbon Treaty would lead to fascism and that Mr Cohen-Bendit had accused opponents of the Treaty as "mentally ill".

Mr Pöttering then allowed German socialist leader Schulz to accuse Farage of telling untruths. Though Farage had the documentary evidence in his hands taken from Schulz's own web page the European Parliament President refused him the opportunity to clear the slander.

"This is a sham democrat, in a sham Parliament", said Farage, "Voices who support the project are encouraged whatever the veracity, while dissident voices are silenced. I suppose it was ever thus".