01 APR 2011

By Frederick Forsyth | Daily Express

IN ALMOST every line of the recent Budget the Government was pleading poverty. We would like to do this, this and that but alas there is no money.

Why are we making ourselves something like a defence-free zone for the next 10 years (if you believe defence projects come in on time, which they never do)? Because there is no money. We cannot afford the army, navy and air force we need.

Well of course it is all rubbish. There is masses of money, tens of billions of it available for “right-on” causes. Unfortunately those causes do not include this island and its people.

There is for example a block of billions ready to help restore bankrupt (by her own fault) Greece to viability. There are billions more set aside for the bailout of Ireland.

And soon another fund, up to six billion more, to prop up Portugal and save the euro in the process. Hold on, you may say, I thought we are not members of the eurozone. Quite right, we are not.

But on May 10, four clear days after he knew perfectly well his party had been defeated, Alistair Darling quite deliberately signed up Britain to massive commitments to save the euro with our own money, or what is left of it.

Is that the end of it? The refloating of just three Eurozone economies? Not a bit of it. We also have volunteered to increase our overseas aid by an extra £3.4billion or 33 per cent. Why? To get a round of applause in the UN building in New York. So that’s it? NOPE.

As every aspect of our national life is being cut and cut and cut to make unavoidable economies we have committed to pump a further £2.9billion into Brussels. The target? To increase the salaries, allowances, expenses, lifestyle and pensions of the Eurocrats.

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