MemHT Portal By John Bufton MEP

• This week has seen plenty of dicsussion about David Cameron’s treaty “U-Turn”. In fact I was a little startled to not see the matter picked over on Question Time last night but one assumes the BBC hadn't picked the right members of the panel for that.

The Prime Minister has revoked his original standpoint of blocking a new compact observing tighter fiscal regulation and budgetary control governed by the European Court of Justice. That is now going ahead, but without the involvement of the UK or Czech Republic. What does this mean?
]]> "The Brussels bureaucrats are just giving back an infinitesimal part of the £50 million we hand over to them every day. Children should be given unbiased information about the EU but... at every turn pro-EU propaganda is directed at them." - Paul Nuttall MEP

• The EU are milking every opportunity to target propaganda at young children, UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall has pointed out.

“We keep coming across incidents of the EU blatantly targeting school children and yet one more example has now come to my attention,” said Paul Nuttall.

“Schools which get European Union subsidised milk are forced to display a large poster highlighting the fact that ‘the school provides dairy products subsidised under the European school milk scheme’. ]]> By Godfrey Bloom MEP

• First establish a monster retail bank by amalgamating several banks across the United Kingdom. You call it the Royal Bank of Scotland. Sounds so wonderfully stable. Three magnificent words, all heralding financial probity. Even the dark blue logo gave the impression your money would be safe for a thousand years. Every main street in every town had a branch. In every branch smart young girls waiting to pounce on you with financial advice. For they had ‘done the course’. They had a diploma. Of course, closer examination would reveal there was no Captain Mainwairing figure in the background; they had been ‘shredded’ long ago with their out-of-date banking exam qualifications and old world approach to money.

The grande fromage at the top was good old Fred. Top dude in the banking world, working lad made good, sharp suited and polished booted, he was the face of modern banking. So popular was he with his political cronies, they persuaded her Majesty to dub this confidence trickster ‘Sir’ Fred. ]]> By Marta Andreasen MEP

• Unemployment figures across the Eurozone reached record levels yesterday (31.02.2012).

The jobless rate in the 17 countries that use the Euro was up to 10.4% in December. 16.5 million people were out of work in the eurozone in December, up 751,000 on the year before. The highest rate is in Spain at 22.9%, while the lowest is in Austria at 4.1%.

On Monday we saw the attempt to ‘Germanise’ the entire eurozone by forcing all countries into tighter fiscal controls set by Angela Merkel but controlled in Brussels.

The unemployment figures prove conclusively that the austerity and savage cuts being piled onto countries that have no economic similarity to Germany are a recipe for disaster. ]]> VIDEO

• UKIP Leader Nigel Farage has written to the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz this evening accusing him of breaking the Parliament's own Rules of Procedure.

"I don't want to debate with you on the direct link you made between flags and nationalism," Mr Farage wrote, "but on the simple fact that a President, during a debate feels entitled to comment on the content of a speech made by a Member." (See letter below).

Mr Schulz's comments came after German MEP Reinhard Bütikofer (Greens) accused Mr Farage of "incitement to hatred" for using the term 'Gauleiter' in his speech today in Brussels.
]]> UKIP

• Monday, 30th January 2012 should be remembered as the day that David Cameron showed the British people his true colours.

Last month he was painted as the returning hero from Brussels when he supposedly used his veto over a new treaty.  There was no treaty text so technically a veto could not be used.

He also made it clear he would not allow EU institutions to be used to co-ordinate and administer any new pact.

How much can change in a few weeks.

]]> By John Bufton MEP

• It can be hard trying to convince certain Welsh people about why leaving the EU would be so beneficial for Wales. So often they will call up the millions given to Wales through Cohesion Policy and suggest Brussels has really helped impoverished Welsh communities develop in the wake of huge industrial closures.

I try to explain that even so, we'd be better off if we handled our regional funding ourselves, but there must be something mesmeric about the swathe of blue plaques

dotted on a handful of new buildings, positioned in some of Wales' most idyllic locations and prominently displayed on hoardings for events and occasions that makes people think "look at all the stuff Brussels is paying for". [Incidentally there are Brussels rules on blowing their trumpet].
]]> Daniel de Garcia interviews UKIP Leader Nigel Farage for the Washington Times.

• DDG: Many Americans are closely watching Europe and the ongoing debt crisis. Do you believe the situation is under control or are there more surprises to come?

Farage: The European Union - not Europe, actually - is collapsing under the weight of its own over-regulation, enormous subsidies (to its supporters) and attempts to rule the world through "soft power" (i.e. money) as well as the implications of its absurd currency-and-customs union. Most of this is not on the balance sheet, for credit-rating purposes, but it is there, in the real world, where the EU-crats do not appear to live. Anyone who believes what these people say is certainly in for some surprises.

DDG: It's been suggested by some experts that as a result of the European Union's sanctions on Iran, several EU states may have to tap into strategic oil reserves. In retrospect, do you think that the sanctions were a good idea or will they harm Europe?

]]> Brussels taking revenge on David Cameron's worthless veto

By Stuart Agnew

Despite the triumphant homecoming following December's EU summit, the British prime minister's veto has only succeeded in ensuring that MEPS and officials plot against the UK – claims UK Independence Party MEP

• The latest buzz word in the European Parliament, when the subject of the euro crisis comes up is "solidarity". With the usual complacency, the architects of the euro disaster now feel that solidarity will save their beloved single currency. What they actually mean is that everyone else will have to cough up to repair the damage, assuming said damage can be repaired - which I seriously doubt.

David Cameron's so-called veto at the last European summit has been dressed up by the spin doctors as the British prime minister boldly standing up for the United Kingdom and, particularly, for the City of London. In reality, it was not a real veto, as there was no actual treaty available for him to block.
]]> By Nigel Farage | Daily Mail

• Nick Clegg appears to be demanding that the Government moves much faster in its stated desire to bring in a tax free allowance of £10,000 per annum.

I have never understood and nobody has ever explained to me effectively how the Treasury can justify taxing somebody who is on the minimum wage.

It stands to reason that if one accepts the concept of a minimum wage then its justification must be to set it at the level that an individual over 21 needs to earn £6.08 per hour in order to live a half decent life. That is £12,646 per year on a 40 hour week. Not a great deal of money, and an amount that’s purchasing power is decreasing due to inflation, but a liveable wage according to the Low Pay Commission.]]> • The news that disgraced former European Commission President, Jacques Santer has been appointed as boss of the EU's bailout fund, improbably named the Special Purpose Investment Vehicle (Spiv), is 'almost laughable,' said Nigel Farage MEP, the UKIP leader.

"The lunatics have finally taken over the asylum," he said.
 
"The key to dealing with this crisis, as with any crisis in the markets is confidence. What sort of confidence can anybody have in somebody who was even the EU fired for incompetence."
]]> By John Bufton MEP

• And so it would appear Croatia will be the 28th member of the European Union, given that the bloc ratifies its application, which I think we can assume is a given.

News reports told of an outright majority but is this really the case? Well, as is often true of referenda, especially those associated with EU membership such as in the case of Ireland back in 2005 and of course in 2009 when the referendum was famously re-held in order to garner the right outcome, there is always another side to the story.

]]> The MEP who is expected to be voted into the European parliament's top job on Tuesday has been accused of "demeaning" the institution by already forming his private office.

"Schulz started forming his cabinet six months ago. This shows the whole parliament election as the farce it is. It's a done deal, an agreed stitch-up already. Only parliament or a third world country would have someone of Schulz's temperament or calibre as president." - UKIP Leader Nigel Farage MEP

By Martin Banks | The Parliament

• German Socialist member Martin Schulz has been roundly condemned after it emerged he had already started forming his cabinet ahead of Tuesday's vote to elect parliament's next president.

MEPs will vote in a secret ballot to elect a successor to Jerzy Buzek, the outgoing president, during the parliamentary plenary in Strasbourg.]]> Having a single set of health standards across 27 legal systems, 22 different languages and a morass of different cultures will never be achieved, argues UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall.

By Paul Nuttall MEP | Public Service Europe

• The political class has swung into action. The National Health Service, in Britain, will be replacing all the faulty PIP breast implants that they supplied and David Cameron has called on the private cosmetic surgery sector to do the same, claiming that they have a moral duty to do so. Of course, the private sector is an easy target for Cameron and this runs straight into a growing distaste for anybody who does business and has the temerity to be a success. The problem is that he is shooting the wrong target. And he is shooting it, knowing full well that the responsibility does not lie with the cosmetic surgery industry - which is highly regulated - but with those who control the regulators. Inevitably, when it comes to regulation today the buck stops in Brussels.

Mel Braham, chairman of the Harley Medical Group, has pointed the finger of blame at British regulator the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. But that is not fair on the MHRA. The real responsibility lies in a combination of regulatory failure in France and then European Union laws that prevent British authorities from protecting United Kingdom consumers. Under EU law, the national regulatory authorities can grant their own companies and products a CE mark - which is supposed to provide a guarantee of quality. European law then forbids the MHRA from conducting further checks as all products that carry a CE mark are given free passage in the single market.

]]> "If Turkey was today a member of the European Union the Duchess would be subject to the European Arrest Warrant, in which case there would be no legal process of extradition and the Duchess would be carted off to a Turkish jail - there to languish possibly for 2 years or more before trial. " - William Dartmouth, UKIP MEP (South West).

• Responding to Turkish threats to jail the Duchess of York over a secret film on children abandoned in a Turkish orphanage, UKIP MEP William Dartmouth said today:

"The Duchess of York has done trojan work exposing the inhuman conditions of Turkish orphanages for which we should all be thankful.

"In response to her exposé the Turkish state has disgracefully threatened her with jail.

"Given Turkey's disgraceful human rights record, its continued occupation of Cyprus with 40,000 troops and its current threat to the Duchess of York it is now time for Mr Cameron as well as leaders of the Labour and LibDem parties to halt their fervent support for Turkish membership of the EU.

]]> • A warning that wind power could actually produce more CO2 than gas while increasing domestic fuel bills has been highlighted by UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall.

A study in the Netherlands has found that turning back-up gas power stations on and off to cover spells when there is little wind actually produces more carbon than a steady supply of energy from an efficient modern gas station.

“A new report by the Civitas think tank warns that the UK is in danger of producing more carbon dioxide (CO2) than necessary if the grid relies too much on wind,” explained Mr Nuttall, UKIP Euro-MP.

“It has long been known that wind turbines only produce energy around 30 per cent of the time and when the wind is not blowing – or even blowing too fast as demonstrated in the recent storms – other sources of electricity have to be used, mostly gas and coal.

“The report points out that it takes a surge of electricity to power up the fossil fuel stations every time they are needed, meaning more carbon emissions are released.

“The report concludes that ‘wind projects do not fulfill ‘sustainable’ objectives. They cost more fuel than they save and they cause no CO2 saving, on the contrary they increase our environmental ‘foot print’,” said Mr Nuttall, UKIP deputy leader.

]]> By John Bufton MEP

"While the southern states of the Eurozone may have ended up in a quagmire of overspending brought on by sudden access to low interest rates and the possibility to spend more than they could ever hope to accrue, Germany flourished due to riding roughshod over interest rates to suit her own booming manufacturing economy and has come out on top not just due to the German work ethic..., but due to sheer bloody dominance of the single currency."

• Whatever Brussels touches turns into disaster, rather like a kind of Anti-Midas.

We have seen Common Fisheries Policy destroy marine stocks and encroach upon the seas of developing countries, trawling their waters and stripping whole communities of a means of sustenance.

Common Farming Policy led to stockpiling milk, leading to artificially high prices. Farmers are effectively paid by Brussels rather than by the consumer and only after jumping through hoops, rather than having the freedom to farm and sell their produce at proper prices and maintain and healthy and free agrarian industry. Seeing what has happened to the single currency, can you imagine how severely food supply and self-sufficiency would be rocked should a bio catastrophe or drought hit the European farming sector? I dread to think.

Of course the Eurozone is an utter, utter disaster and is heading directly towards even deeper crisis as Eurocratic egos cannot face relinquishing the keystone project of the single currency or admit defeat.

]]> By Marta Andreasen MEP

"In 2012 it is business as usual. Obstinate and deluded, those in charge keep pushing “the project” in scenes reminiscent of a bad gambler who keeps going back to the table hoping the result will be different this time. This folly has and will continue to cost us, and our children, trillions now and in years to come if we do not stop it."

• This time ten years ago many European countries were embarking on a new era with the introduction of the euro. Co-incidentally I was also starting a new phase in my life: taking up my duties as the newly appointed European Commission Chief Accountant.

Similar to the atmosphere of jubilation experienced by many with the entry into force of the fledgling Euro, I also had high hopes with my new job.

I felt honoured to have been considered for such a big responsibility and was eager to start work. I had been told that the European Commission was undergoing important administrative reforms and I was right in the driving seat, anxious to get these reforms implemented.

Ten years later and the metaphoric land of milk and honey promised by those behind the single currency has turned sour and rancid. You do not need me to tell you that by anyone’s benchmark the currency has been an abysmal failure, completely failing to weather the storms of the financial crisis.

]]>   AUDIO | King World News

Gold to see its biggest spike in 2012

• With world markets still convulsing and gold and silver reasserting themselves once again, King World News interviewed UKIP leader Nigel Farage MEP (06.01.2012) to get his take on the situation.  Farage had some powerful comments regarding the direction of gold, but when KWN asked about the chaos in Europe, Farage stated, “The eurozone is in deep, deep crisis as everybody knows.  Now we have a situation where peripheral countries, particularly those on the Mediterranean coast, find themselves incapable of actually raising finance.  The markets demand a huge interest rate from them because there’s a risk of defaulting.”
 
Nigel Farage continues: “So we have a series of bailouts where money is taken, predominantly from the wealthier northern European countries to prop-up government debts to the banks.  Now this has a European context, but there is also a global context to this because the IMF, which of course is based in Washington, has now become part of this problem. 

"The IMF is now committing vast sums of money to propping up these eurozone states.  I tell you it doesn’t matter how much money they throw at this problem, there is a fundamental imbalance between the members of the eurozone and the whole thing is going to go bust anyway.

]]> • The EU today lauded the 10th Anniversary of the Euro with a celebratory statement and release of commemorative two-Euro coins, both of which were branded as "deeply inappropriate" by UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom.

Coinciding with the launch, a Greek government official threatened to leave the Euro if his country doesn't get the money it wants.

Mr Bloom, UKIP's Economics spokesman, said: "Olli Rehn, the EU Economic Affairs Commissioner must be auditioning for Alice in Wonderland. Greece is threatening to pull out of the currency but he only talks of 'political will, strong determination and swift action to restore economic growth'. The markets must be laughing.

"They are living a cruel pipe dream when they claim that 'the fundamental purpose of economic and monetary union and the euro was - and still is - to allow the European economy to function better, create more jobs and a better life for Europeans'. It is damaging the economy, destroying jobs and causing nightmares for millions across the continent. This cruel charade must end. ]]> By Nigel Farage MEP

• 2012 will be the year of reckoning for the European Project. It is extremely unlikely that the Euro can be held together in its current form, and that that will be the most positive scenario. The worst case scenario will be that the markets overwhelm the whole thing leading to wholesale natonalisation of the banks. Either way Eurosceptic opinions and anti EU voting will continue to grow, not just in Britain bit across the whole European Union.

The EU project is a failure

For UKIP 2011 saw us clearly establish ourselves as the 4th party in domestic politics. Highlights for us included Stuart Wheeler becoming our Treasurer, lending us great credibility. Lord Hesketh joining us later in the year was a coup, having the former Chief Whip in the Lords during the Maastricht debate come over shows us quite how far the argument over Europe is moving in our direction. Then there was the second place for Jane Collins in the Barnsley by-election that ruffled feathers across the whole political  class. And the consistent week by week improvement of our poll ratings in council by-election after by-election the length and breadth of the country, and in December one national opinion poll had us overtaking the Lib/Dems.

It is true that the end of the year saw a dip in our polling as Cameron gained a bounce. While I congratulate David Cameron, what is in all honesty could have done differently? The slow realisation will however dawn, that not a single power has been brought back from Brussels and that amidst the new mood of retribution in Brussels, British businesses are under greater threat than they were before the 'veto'.

There is now an overwhelming desire of the British people to have a referendum on this issue, a referendum that Cameron, Clegg and Milliband steadfastly refuse to grant.
]]> VIDEO

• Senior Tory MEP Robert Atkins described the Icelandic Fisheries Minister as "Stalinist" for not wanting his country to join the EU.

Atkins recently returned from a taxpayer funded EU delegation to Iceland. The Icelandic Fisheries Minister expressed his concerns about what EU membership would mean for Iceland's fishing stocks and fishing industry. Robert Atkins told the European parliament's Foreign Affairs committee that he would compare this minister, Jón Bjarnason, to 'Stalinists', a remark that was immediately challenged by UKIP MEP William Dartmouth.

"The remark citing Jón Bjarnason as a follower of Stalin was completely gratuitous and uncalled for" said William Dartmouth, UKIP MEP for South West England. "Iceland has a 1,000 year old Parliament and one of the longest standing traditions of personal liberty. For an elected Member of the European Parliament which has direct elections only since 1979 to attack an elected Icelandic Minister in these jarring and gross terms is reprehensible".

William Dartmouth called on Robert Atkins to apologise to the Icelandic Minister and to the nation of Iceland. ]]> • Britain still considers the levels of inward migration to be of massive concern reveals new data released by the German Marshall Fund in their Transatlantic Trends: Immigration survey for 2011.

The headline figures show that in the UK 57% people think that there "are too many immigrants", 68% regard immigration as more of a problem than an opportunity and 71% concentrate their concerns on illegal rather than legal immigration.
 
“While the UK maintains its traditional sympathy to those driven from their home by natural disasters, persecution and war, we are very concerned at the sheer scale of inward migration”, said Paul Nuttall, UKIP MEP for the North West.
 
“It makes perfect sense that this is so when the UK is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Figures released by Migrationwatch only this week show 401 people per square kilometre in England”.
]]> RELATED VIDEO

• Today in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, UKIP helped win a vote to defeat a European Commission legislative proposal to continue a fisheries deal with Morocco that is harmful to the interests of the people of occupied Western Sahara.

Speaking after the vote, Stuart Agnew UKIP MEP from England Eastern Region said:

"This is a wonderful defeat for EU-assisted colonialism in Africa. This legislation was harmful to the interests of the people of occupied Western Sahara and clearly breached their rights, as well as established international law.

"UKIP were happy to vote down this proposal and send the European Commission packing."

Last Monday, 12.12.2011, Mr Agnew addressed parliament during the joint debate on the EU-Morocco fisheries partnership agreement.
]]> VIDEO

• Speaking today at the Strasbourg plenary to debate the outcome of the EU summit (8-9 Dec.), UKIP Leader Nigel Farage said that something had changed since the summit: "Mr Cameron may not know it but we are now on course - Britain is going to make the Great Escape.

"We are going to get out of this Union. We are going to be the first European country to get our freedom back. I suspect many others will follow and then what we'll have is our democracy back, our liberty back, and we'll have influence in the world as you lot head for disaster. It is going to happen," Mr Farage concluded.

"I often ask myself the question - why would a successful country that has enjoyed a thousand years of independence give up its right of self-government to the unelected non-entities which sit before us this morning?" Mr Farage asked at the beginning of his address.

"And the answer that comes back from the Foreign Office and the great of the good is that we must have influence in Europe; we must have a seat at the top table so we can change things.
]]> Cameron's veto will incur the wrath of Sarkozy. Financial services will suffer. And only more pain awaits if we stay in the EU, UKIP leader Nigel Farage writes.

By Nigel Farage | Londonlovesbusiness.com

• For some years I have felt like the most unpopular Englishman inside the EU institutions. Now I have competition. David Cameron cut a very lonely figure in the grim Justus Sipsius building in Brussels. He vetoed a new EU Treaty that was designed to save the Euro and will try to present himself as a strong leader in the UK.

His objection to the Treaty had nothing to do with the Eurozone itself or the new, proposed draconian measures on failing member states. This is a pity as he could have used the opportunity to explain that democracy, both in the UK and in Europe, was something that we passionately care about.

He should have warned them that abolishing national democracy and vesting new powers in EU bureaucrats (under German direction, of course) was disgraceful. That an apology needs to be issued to Greece and Italy for the removal of their democratically elected governments and the appointment of puppet premiers. If peoples are deprived of their rights they will resort to other means, civil disorder in Greece being an example of this. The EU project is now in danger of creating the very extreme nationalism that it was supposed to stop. ]]> RELATED VIDEO

• Following David Cameron's use of a veto today at the European Council, UKIP Leader Nigel Farage at the Justus Lupsius building in Brussels this morning said the real debate on the EU was just beginning.

"It is tempting to say well done David Cameron for standing up for British interests, but then we realise that he has actually gained nothing," he said.

"His attempt to safeguard Britain's biggest industry has led to Mr Sarkozy telling him where to go.

"The argument that we can repatriate powers from the EU died last night. We cannot have an á la carte menu in future with Europe. They have made it abundantly clear, we can either take it or we can leave it.

"Of course there will be a heavy price to pay for the City for every time there is a crisis with the Euro the City of London will get the blame. The Euro elite have their permanent scapegoat.

"I fear we will now see an avalanche of financial market regulations over which we will now be in a permanent voting minority.

"The real debate on the European Union in Britain is about to begin. Whether David Cameron knows it or not, his actions last night marked the beginning of the end of Britain's membership of this union.

]]> • In response to David Cameron's call for safeguards for the City in return for supporting EU Treaty change UKIP Leader Nigel Farage said today:

"'Retreat, retreat, just ten yards at a time' is effectively David Cameron's call. David Cameron's European position started off with a 'Cast-Iron Guarantee' to hold a referendum, then moved to repatriating powers, and now down to some obscure concept of safeguarding the City which is undefined.

"Cameron's empty posturing is getting ridiculous. He is the man who called for EU budget cuts but was happy to settle for an increase.

"By his actions we must judge him. And his actions to date have been to pick up the white flag and wave it furiously.

"His pretence of defending the City of London is pathetic as his party supported EU regulation of the City in European Parliament votes last October.

"Cameron has retreated so far to please his EU partners he is now supporting the federalist dream of fiscal union for the Eurozone to save the euro. This is just empty words from the federalist prime minister."
]]> • East of England UKIP MEP, Stuart Agnew has accused Agriculture Minister Jim Paice of ‘fiddling while Rome burns’ in a response to the Government’s proposals for screening of imported eggs after the EU’s battery cage ban comes into force on 1st January 2012.

Mr Agnew, who farms in Norfolk said:  “Mr Paice is going to have to do a lot more than tinker with this issue.  Clever sound bites are not enough.  Imported shell eggs are a relatively small part of the problem and UV scanning of them will only trap the unwary.  

"Unfortunately, it will do absolutely nothing to protect British producers from potentially huge amounts of imported egg powder and processed egg products made from battery cage eggs.

"I would like to hear his proposals for dealing with this much more important aspect of the problem. ]]> VIDEO

• "I've never known in the history of the world that politics beat economics," UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom told RT yesterday, following agreement between Merkel and Sarkozy over EU treaty changes to save the euro.

"Water doesn't flow uphill, that's the long and short of it. Forget my politics, it doesn't really matter. The long and short of it is: this project is doomed to failure, it was always doomed to failure, and moreover I would have the people responsible... arraigned at a fiscal crimes tribunal. I would like to see some of these people sent to prison," Bloom said.   

"The only way out of this is growth. And of course the thing that restricts growth and economies is regulation and taxation, and that's exactly what the European Union wants more of. They just don't get it... I give the thing months rather than years, now."

Asked about Merkel and Sarkozy pushing for a new treaty that would punish states for breaking the rules, Mr Bloom said "it's so much political posturing as it always is. The first people to break the rules - I think was in 2003 - were the French and the Germans by breaking the Maastricht treaty 60%-of-GDP rule. [NOTE: they broke the rules three years in a row from 2002 to 2004].

"So they've been breaking the rules. Everybody's been breaking the rules. They continue to break the rules, and of course now we have - quite against treaty obligations - we have the ECB buying soveriegn debt in the secondary market, so the whole thing is a complete shambles and they're trying to strap celotape all over it, but it's not working.

"We are now witnessing the endgame. It's over. If the euro had been a horse, they would have shot it."
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