Jeffrey Titford, the United Kingdom Independence Party MEP for the East of England, has attacked new proposals that on 27th September were put to the European Parliament, calling for the re-birth of the EU constitution. Another East of England MEP, Andrew Duff, a Liberal Democrat, is the co-rapporteur for the proposals and Mr. Titford has described them as "deeply regrettable".
Mr. Titford said: "The discredited EU constitution that was thrown out by the electorate in both France and the Netherlands should have been consigned to the waste-paper basket of history. Now we are seeing it rising like a phoenix from the ashes. It is deeply regrettable that it should be a British MEP who is behind this re-birth.
"Unfortunately, Andrew Duff is an un-reconstructed federalist who does not believe that Britain should be governed from Westminster.
"We have been treated to a great deal of waffle about the need for a 're-launch and the revising' of the EU constitution so that it can be put to a 'pan-European vote', the idea being to have the new draft constitution ready to put to voters at the 2009 European Elections. It seems that nothing has been learned from recent events and that the EU will continue on its federalist path, ignoring the wishes of the peoples of Europe, who have clearly signalled that they want to take another route entirely."
A Yorkshire Member of Parliament has become the first Conservative in the present House of Commons to call for Britain's full withdrawal from the European Union.
Philip Davies, the Member for Shipley, described his party's policy on the EU as "unworkable" and called for an "honest debate" on continued membership.
His declaration is the first time in this Parliament that a sitting Conservative MP has suggested completely withdrawing from the EU. Speaking to an audience of Conservatives and others at a fringe meeting at the recent Conservative Party Conference at Blackpool, Mr. Davies said: "What I want to see is a referendum on continued membership of the European Union. What do we have to fear from asking the British people if they want to continue being part of the EU?"
Labelling the EU as "corrupt, inefficient, bureaucratic and anti-democratic", he said that William Hague's "in Europe but not run by Europe" slogan did not make sense. "We've got to accept that being in Europe is being run by Europe", he observed. "And that not being run by Europe can only mean being out of Europe."
Conservative Party policy, which calls for renegotiation of some treaty elements, is not an option, he declared. "Let's be upfront about it and have an honest debate", he said. Mr. Davies claimed the policy would be popular and said it was about time someone in the party championed it. "In all the opinion polls that I've seen there appear to be more people who want to leave the EU than who want to vote Conservative", he added.
Of the United Kingdom Independence Party's efforts to take Britain out of the EU, he said: "The only party that's going to deliver us leaving the EU is the Conservative Party".
In his quest to become Leader of the Conservative Party, Mr. Kenneth Clarke told us that the Euro had not worked very well, that the EU constitution was now dead and that "Europe" would not be a live political issue for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately there is no evidence to suggest that Mr. Clarke's protestations were the result of a genuine conversion rather than an unreconstructed Europhile's attempt to woo a naturally eurorealist electorate.
There are indications that after a decent interval has elapsed - perhaps next year, perhaps the following year - the French and the Dutch may be asked to vote again on a "revised" constitution, in the same way that the Danes and the Irish were made to vote again after they voted No in previous referendums. The EU Commission is already busily engaged in implementing parts of the constitution without proper authority - a dangerous trend for good governance.
The only democratically acceptable response to the constitution must surely be the famous one of: No; No; No. The way will then be clear for Britain - and other countries - to break free from the clutches of Brussels and to co-operate as free and self-governing nations.
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The BBC has recently been showing a series entitled Tales from Europe, in which Kirsty Wark travels in turn to each of the former Soviet-bloc countries which have recently joined the European Union. This is in many ways a delightful series, in which we see something of the architecture, culture and cuisine of these countries, hear something of their history and meet a few of their people. But every now and then the programme jars when we are told that these countries are "joining Europe" or "becoming part of Europe", or when we are gratuitously subjected to a slice of Euro-propaganda. These countries are not, of course, "becoming part of Europe"; they have always been part of Europe. They have just become part of the European Union, which is another matter altogether, as some of them are now beginning to discover.
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In the hapless succession of "Ministers for Europe", the latest occupant of the office is Mr. Douglas Alexander.
Speaking recently at a Brussels think-tank, Mr. Alexander said that the European Union "should be cautious in flaunting the trappings of a state". He observed that the EU had its own flag and anthem, and he went on to say that "support for the EU won't be advanced by creating symbols that heighten anxieties rather than diminishing them".
Mr. Alexander seems to suggest that the EU happened upon a flag and an anthem - not to mention an executive, a legislature, a judiciary, a central bank and a currency - almost by accident, whereas the plan to turn the EU into a state in its own right is, of course, deliberate, and is being pursued piecemeal and by stealth so as not to alarm the people. The people are indeed right to have the heightened anxieties which so disturb Mr. Alexander!
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In a survey of 177 countries by the United Nations, and for the fifth year running, Norway has come out as the country with the best quality of life. Could Norway's not being in the European Union have something to do with this?
On 16th August, Mr. Roy Reding, a Luxembourg lawyer, filed a lawsuit to get his country's approval of the EU constitution annulled.
A small majority (56.52 per cent) in Luxembourg voted Yes to the European constitution in a referendum on 10th July, and 43.48 per cent voted against.
Mr. Reding claimed public funding was used illegally in support of the Yes campaign, according to Tageblatt, the Luxembourg daily newspaper.
He also accused the government led by Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker of violating the Grand Duchy's constitution by not treating citizens equally, that is to say by refusing to give public funds to the No campaign.
"The only possible sanction is the straight and simple cancellation of the referendum and its result", said Mr. Reding.
The lawyer also called into question the advertisements shown on TV ahead of the poll. They contained "absolutely no information content" about the treaty, he said, and he added that they "consisted entirely of psychological manipulation of the voter".
Mr. Reding, who has spoken publicly against the proposed EU constitution, asserted that prime minister Juncker intervened directly and asked for changes to the TV ads. The lawyer called on the court to hear employees from the advertising agency in charge of the campaign as witnesses.
As the EU continues in its attempts to implement the EU constitution piecemeal and by stealth, we will also need to be on our guard against similar abuses in this country. 2>Britain and the European Union: Alternative Futures by Mark Baimbridge, Brian Burkitt and Philip Whyman with Foreword by Frederick Forsyth
£7.50 from Campaign for an Independent Britain, 81 Ashmole Street, London SW8 1NF.
The Last Indian - The Destruction of Two Cultures
Narindar Saroop
New European Publications Ltd. 1-872410-47-2 £14.95, 214pp.
At first glance this may appear an unlikely book to be reviewed in Britain There are, however, messages to be found between the lines of this engaging memoir, some of which possibly reflect on the United Kingdom's troubles with the EEC and its successor organisations over the last three decades.
The author was born into one of the Punjab's most prominent families. His grandfather was a co-founder of the Unionist Party of India and a number of family members served in the Punjab Cabinet. They supported eventual Indian independence, but "in an orderly and unhurried fashion". The author feels that this would probably have been achieved had India been granted Dominion Status in the 1920s. Following partition, which they had opposed, his family had to leave India, and Major Saroop then followed a career in business combined with political activity, which included service as a Conservative councillor and a parliamentary candidature at Greenwich in 1979.
The author has a deep love of the traditional cultures of both India and Britain, and feels that both have been destroyed, hence the self-coined soubriquet which provides the book's title. A thread running beneath the narrative is that, to survive, nations and societies need to preserve their traditions, identities and individuality; retaining (or regaining) self-government is surely an essential component in this.
Available from bookshops and from the publishers at 14 Carroun Road, London SW8 1JT.
"The Facts they don't want you to know"
This 32-minute video exposes the facts about EU corruption, the destruction of the British system of justice, and plans for a United States of Europe, in which the British Parliament would be by-passed and perhaps even abolished.
Available from the League's Worcester Park address at £6 each, two for £10 or five for £20.
At its recent conference the Trades Union Congress, which had been strongly Europhile since Jacques Delors' infamous visit to their conference in 1988, adopted a new policy of constructive criticism towards the European Union after voting for a motion from the RMT union rejecting the EU constitution and calling for a trade union campaign for “an end to neo-liberal policies and the privatisation of public services”.
The motion was supported by Unison, the Transport and General Workers Union, Amicus and a range of other unions. It was opposed by Community (the steel workers union) and a number of smaller banking and telecommunications unions. Speaking in favour of the motion, Bob Oram from Unison’s national executive committee argued that, with the constitution out of the way, “it is vital that the TUC is part of a campaign to reform the EU - this motion allows the TUC to do that”.
A spokesman for the Centre for a Social Europe, a Eurosceptic think-tank, said, “The trade unions have become increasingly sceptical about the benefits of the ‘ever-closer union’ project. The vote shows that progressives are developing an alternative to the neo-liberal EU agenda”. A report in The Times says that, “The vote denotes a marked shift towards euroscepticism by the unions, which have broadly supported the EU in recent years”.
The fact that the EU is now coming under fire from the left as well as from Conservatives highlights its fundamental flaws.
To co-incide with the TUC conference, the Centre for a Social Europe published a pamphlet Building a Social Europe: the Trade Union Case for EU Reform.
In addition, the United Kingdom’s four biggest trade unions - Unison, Amicus, the T&GWU and GMB - have lined up in opposition to the controversial EU draft directive on services.
The Unions are to use their combined political and financial muscle to fight the parts of the directive which will undermine workers’ rights and damage public services. The move comes as the European Parliament’s Internal Market Committee abandoned attempts to vote their way through the 1,500 amendments tabled to the directive, a vote which could have taken up to twelve hours. The Committee is now scheduled to vote on the amendments at the end of November and the European Parliament will vote on the draft directive in mid-January, delaying any resolution of the issue until after the end of the UK presidency of the EU.
This booklet commissioned by the Anti-Common Market League was written by Dr. Brian Burkitt, the eminent economist, and includes a Foreword by Frederick Forsyth, the celebrated novelist. It provides a powerful case against giving up the Pound for the Euro, for both economic and political reasons and deserves to be widely read.
Available from The Anti-Common Market League, 28 Highdown, Worcester Park, Surrey, KT4 7HZ
Price £4.00 each (inc.p.& p.); two copies for £7.00; four copies for £12.00
You are invited to the Annual Party in aid of the Anti-Common Market League
Friday 2nd December
6.30 p.m. onwards at The Hoop and Toy Public House (upstairs) 34 Thurloe Place, SW7 (2 minutes from South Kensington Tube station)
Special guest will be: Gerard Batten MEP (UKIP London)
Entrance:In advance £6 (double ticket £10), on the door £7 (double ticket £11)
Cash Bar - Free buffet
Tickets can be obtained from the Anti-Common Market League, 28 Highdown, Worcester Park, Surrey, KT4 7HZ