The UK Independence Party MEP discusses the case for Britain leaving the EU at an 'After the Euro' conference, attends a friend's book launch and laments the European Parliament's expenses system
• Saturday
Today I was invited to make a speech at the annual conference of the Bruges Group in King's College London. The subject this year was 'After the Euro'. Speakers from the worlds of economics and academia tackled the subject of what will happen when the single currency comes apart, which it will inevitably do, either completely or partially. My slot in the programme was the last in the afternoon and I shared the platform with Christopher Booker, the renowned journalist and author.
My speech was on the subject of the mechanics of leaving the European Union. I set out to address the practical issues of how Britain could disentangle itself from the whole undemocratic mess and restore independent self-government. This is a subject that will grow in importance as the case for EU exit grows. After our speeches Christopher and I enjoyed a vigorous question and answer session with the audience. I then had to sadly decline the offer of the conference organisers to go to the pub in order to go home and enjoy with my wife and friends the excellent firework display organised near my home.
"I have voted against this report because it contains a very dangerous flaw.
"The report talks about language tests for medical workers, acknowledges they are important, but doesn't want them to become an "additional barrier". This phrase is very unclear, and could therefore be subject to legal challenge in the courts, with dire consequences if the challenge is upheld.
• "Last night, Prime Minister David Cameron classed himself as a Eurosceptic," UKIP leader Nigel Farage said today.
"Here are Ten Reasons why David Cameron is not a Eurosceptic:
• The term Robin Hood tax always raises a wry smile from me because it is the classic definition of an oxymoron.
Would that more politicians, journalists and bureaucrats read their Frédéric Bastiat, possibly one of the most prescient economic philosophers of the nineteenth century. Of course in the modern statist world his work is carefully and understandably suppressed. One of his most magnificent quotes is: "L'etat, c'est la grande fiction á travers laquelle tout le mond s'efforce de vivre aux dépens de tout le monde." In short, the state is an invention which enables people to live at the expense of their neighbour. It was written in 1863. What would he make of modern Europe where recipients of state largesse are more numerous than he could have even dreamed of?
Why oxymoron though? Well, the legend of Robin Hood was that he robbed the rich to give to the poor. The modern state of course, as we all know, robs the poor to give to the rich. The state is all powerful; the United Kingdom government spends 50 per cent of gross domestic product, significant amounts of which are milked from those on modest incomes to benefit those who are already wealthy. Indeed, very wealthy by world standards.
•It was inevitable that the latest Common Agricultural Policy reform proposals would be full of contradictions. Three new principles have been introduced and while there will be horse trading on the extent and details of these, I feel that none of them will be discarded. In no particular order they are capping, greening and interference in cropping rotations. At first glance, capping would seem appealing.
Very large farms will have their payments capped at a certain level, instead of a per acre payment for every acre. Businesses affected by this will attempt to re-structure one way or another to maintain subsidy income. The European Union says it will investigate and disregard arrangements that it considers are put in place purely to harvest subsidy. Someone will have to judge whether the splitting of a business was for genuine reasons or not and lawyers will become involved. These individuals will probably benefit more than the taxpayer.
By Marta Andreasen | Related VIDEO • 4.6 billion Euro of payments from the EU budget – taxpayers' money – are ‘irregular’ according to a report released today by the European Court of Auditors. I sat in Committee this morning (10.11.2011) where the report was presented.
This figure equates to around 25% of the UK’s annual contribution to EU coffers.
The Court of Auditors Report on the 2010 budget shows that ‘irregularities’ – or possible fraud, in layman’s terms – are on the rise from their previous 2009 report.
The combined error rate for payments for 2010 is 3.7% or 4.6 Billion Euro.
•The Culture and Education committee in the European Parliament this morning passed amendments to a report on "The European Dimension in Sport" which encourage states to fly the EU flag at international sports events and display the flag on athlete clothing.
The compromise amendment in question, Compromise 20 "...suggests to sports federations to consider the idea of having it [the EU flag] displayed on the clothing of athletes from Member States, alongside with the national flags;..."
It also "...suggests that the European flag should be flown at major international sports events held on the EU territory..."
Responding to this vote, UKIP MEP for England North West Paul Nuttall said:
"The UK had to work very hard for England players to be allowed to wear the poppy on their jersey. So soon after this common sense outcome, it is outrageous that the Culture Committee in the European Parliament now wants to push the UK to fly the EU flag at the Olympic Games and display the flag on footballers' jerseys.
• KWN | With world markets still in turmoil and gold and silver reasserting themselves once again, today King World News interviewed former LBMA commodities broker and trader and current MEP Nigel Farage to get his take on the situation.
When asked if there is a chance Europe is headed into a depression, Farage responded, “Well I think there is and of course it was banking collapses back in 1931 that really led to things being bad. Now we’ve lumbered ourselves with a European social market model for our labor forces, which leaves us hopelessly uncompetitive with the Far East. Countries like Italy, I mean their industrial production, their foreign and direct investment has collapsed in the last five years. You ask yourself, ‘If the banks go bust, what on earth is going to be left in some of these countries?’”
Nigel Farage continues: “I’m beginning to feel there is a certain inevitability (to a depression) now. The crisis that has been created by all of these mistakes is now bigger than governments themselves. If we get the kind of banking collapses that I now believe are possible, we could be heading into something that we haven’t seen in over 70 years. A Great Depression is not impossible.
While experts from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) accept it would initially cause a sharp economic shock this would be followed by a quicker return to strong economic growth.
“This research shows demise of the euro would not be anything like the disaster that has been argued and British exports would be boosted as currencies of strong countries gain in price,” said Mr Nuttall, UKIP Euro-MP for the North West.
“David Cameron claims that the failure of eurozone leaders to resolve the debt crisis is harming the economy and that the break-up of the single currency would be even more damaging. But this CEBR research shows the other side of the coin.
• This morning I spoke to Morning Ireland on RTE and Newstalk 106 about the Irish government’s decision to appoint Kevin Cardiff, a former Head of the Irish Ministry of Finance, to a €180,000 job at the European Court of Auditors.
The Court, as regular readers of this blog will know, is tasked with auditing and assuring the fiscal integrity of EU accounts and the EU budget.
So what’s the problem with Mr Cardiff? As head of his department he oversaw a mistake in the accounts that could have cost Ireland €3.6 bln. By this I mean his department overstated Irish debt by this amount. Luckily the mistake was found out recently.
"Across the country, we are in conversations with a lot of district councillors, county councillors: people who are making up their minds and saying is it time now for us to jump ship?" - Farage
Keith Weir from Reuters interviews UKIP Leader Nigel Farage
• (Reuters) - Conservatives who are unhappy with the party line on European Union membership should throw in their lot with the avowedly anti-EU UK Independence Party, its leader Nigel Farage said on Friday.
Farage dismissed Prime Minister David Cameron's claim to be a eurosceptic, calling him the most pro-Europe Conservative leader since Edward Heath who led Britain into the then Common Market in 1973.
"The reality is the rebels lost last week. The anti-EU cause within the Conservative party under this leadership is dead," Farage told Reuters in an interview.
"My argument to those MPs is 'if this is how you feel...you better come and join us because you are wasting your time where you are,'" he added.
Around 80 Conservative MPs defied Cameron last week and backed a call for a referendum on EU membership.
•Julian Assange losing his appeal against his ‘judicial surrender’ under a European Arrest Warrant was sadly predictable. The verdict of the judges reinforces everything that I have been saying about the EAW since 2004. The judges’ ruling once again proves that extradition under an EAW is a bureaucratic formality and English courts have no power to consider the prima facie evidence against the accused person and no real power to refuse extradition.
Mr Assange is the most high profile EAW case and it highlights the fact that thousands of ordinary people are now being extradited to EU member states without the English court being allowed to consider the merits of the case against them or refuse their surrender. The doctrine of ‘mutual recognition’ of EU legal systems means that all member state legal and judicial systems are considered of equal status and quality. The EAW has turned many peoples’ lives upside-down – some of whom are subsequently found innocent and who would never have been extradited in the first place had the English court had the power to base their decision on the quality of the evidence, or lack of it, against them.
By Nigel Farage | The Economic Voice The people of Greece are going to be asked whether they are happy with the package offered by the elite. We do not know the language of the question but we do know the language of the debate in which it is framed.
•It is remarkable, in this technological and high speed world, how concepts defined by the ancients in Greece, by Sophocles, Aristotle and Homer remain so apposite. Today the word that most sums up the feeling in Brussels and the Chancelleries of Europe is Hubris.
Defined by the OED as “Presumption, orig. towards the Gods; pride, excessive self confidence” it is the perfect description of the mode of thought and attitude of the European elite.
One aspect of this hubris is the absolute belief that they know best, that they are wise and we are foolish. The masses are there to pay their taxes, to keep to the law, to work, and accept what they are given, unquestioned. The worst possible thing that can happen is that they, the multitude are given a say in what happens. The politician that cracks and allows the voice of the people to be heard is immediately traduced. Described today as ‘dramatically irresponsibility’ by the Europhile press, George Papandreou’s promise of a referendum has opened Europe’s Pandora’s Box.
The European Parliament Journalism competition – with its €5,000 prizes – has been scrapped and not before time, writes Godfrey Bloom, UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.
• The European Union seems to drift further and further towards a Soviet style administration. The laws are made behind closed doors by an unelected bureaucracy, cocooned from reality by massive tax breaks, free pensions and high salaries. The European Parliament is a sort of politburo, an amending chamber which nods through most of the legislation proposed - giving a veneer of democracy to the easily fooled. Visiting United States Congressmen are amazed and horrified that the parliament is not the law making body.
I spoke to a senior employee of Europarl TV the other day, who explained that even the faintest criticism of the EU would mean a broadcast would be edited or pulled altogether. Questions on the €21m expenses of the parliament's "museum" were withdrawn almost immediately. The slightest protest against the EU within parliamentary grounds or hinterlands in Brussels or Strasbourg is broken up by security goons or police, within an hour or two.
"The position of the UK's third party is well and truly up for grabs."
- UKIP Leader Nigel Farage MEP
• The most recent YouGov poll [pdf] reveals that UKIP is currently polling 7% across the UK, while the the Liberal Democrats stand at 8%.
UKIP is especially strong in the over-60s demographic polling 14% to the Liberal Democrats' 8%. The findings also show that UKIP is the choice of those in the C2DE classification with the party polling 11% of support to the 5% of the Liberal Democrats.
It is the first time that the gap between UKIP and the Liberal Democrats has narrowed nationally to just 1%.
• I'm sure you have all seen enough of the referendum vote last Monday. Whatever you think about having a referendum, especially on the terms as offered, I think you will agree that the Government are totally out of step with the electorate, which can only be to our advantage. We must try to press that home.
I was, of course, at Westminster on Monday, with Don Ransome and Sue, and some 3 or 4 hundred mainly UKIP members, protesting outside what used to be the REAL Houses of Parliament. All very peaceful with lots of placards bearing branch names, East Mids well represented. So, like other UKIP MEPs, I missed the first day of this week's Strasbourg session.
• The approval this Parliament gives to EU institutions on the management of taxpayers´money, the so called discharge procedure, has become a joke.
This morning (25 OCT) the European Parliament in Strasbourg debated the discharge – or approval in layman’s terms – of the 2009 European Council accounts. Just now it failed to approve the Council accounts in a vote.
We were elected to scrutinise and protect our People’s interests. Yet year after year the biggest part of the budget – the European Commission’s – is riddled with irregularities. Yet this parliament is happy to grant discharge to it.
Yet when it comes to the European Council, the Parliament refuses discharge even if the auditors make no criticism at all about this institution’s financial management.
Why? Power Games! The Parliament thinks not granting discharge is a way of flexing its muscles. In reality it is an act of total disrespect to the taxpayers it is supposed to serve.
• "It is absolutely scandalous that at a time of austerity and slashing of public spending the European Parliament is calling for a five percent budget increase", said UKIP MEP Nigel Farage.
"It is not enough that we freeze the EU budget, it must be slashed.
"To attempt to just freeze the EU budget as the Tory Party wants, is a slap in the face for all those enduring hardship at home. "
"Despite deep cuts in public services it is just incredible that the European Parliament would vote in favour of a 5.23 per cent increase in the EU's spending next year to €133 billion."
UKIP leader Farage said that UKIP joined with other parties and MEPs in the European Parliament on Wednesday (26 Oct) to table and support amendments to reduce the EU spending budget.
"We did not vote to increase or to freeze the EU Budget. We called for cuts."
UKIP also voted for amendment (number 985) to reduce MEP allowances by 25 per cent.
British people have had enough of the EU's 'ridiculous interference and micro-management of our countries law' - writes UKIP leader
• In the European Union referendum vote, in Westminster yesterday, the old parties showed their true colours. It is clear they do not care one iota what people think on this vital issue.
With their blanket three line whips, just like the EU itself, they were willing to bully and bulldoze all in their path to ensure that the will of this political class is carried out. They will not listen to the people. The bully boys of the LibLabCon think they have won. But only for a while, because the will of the British people will not be ignored.
The size of the "yes" vote in favour of a referendum demonstrates that the MPs were given courage by the strength of feeling of their constituents. And 111 is a healthy figure that should send a clear message to David Cameron and the other party leaders.
Home > News
.png){kind=small}
UK Independence Party in the European Parliament, Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, Rue Wiertz, 60 - 1047 Brussels
• .png)
The proposed Robin Hood tax would hurt all of us and then be wasted by national governments
• 
By Nigel Farage
•
