Cllr. Gavin Ayling

How many people actually read the EU treatise texts? I read the draft EU Constitutional Treaty when I thought we may have a chance to tell Blair where to go, and I have read large chunks of some of the more recent treatise (Maastricht, Nice, Amsterdam).

But it was only this evening that I was directed to some of the unamended parts of the 1957 Treaty of Rome which established the organisation now known as the EU. The following passage should be read by all those who would seek to claim that it is a benign organisation with no draconian powers:

Article 12. In the territory of each Member State and whatever their nationality, officials and other servants of the Communities shall:

* (a)subject to the provisions of the Treaties relating, on the one hand, to the rules on the liability of officials and other servants towards the Communities and, on the other hand, to the jurisdiction of the Court in disputes between the Communities and their officials and other servants, shall be immune from legal proceedings in respect of acts performed by them in their official capacity, including their words spoken or written. They shall continue to enjoy this immunity after they have ceased to hold office;
* (b)together with their spouses and dependent members of their families, not be subject to immigration restrictions or to formalities for registration of aliens;

So to summarise: Europol can send people here who, in an official capacity, can break the law and never be liable for their actions. Diplomatic immunity for countries has sound reasons - to protect our own diplomats in similar situations abroad, but the EU needs not that power.

It’s late so I won’t go into a long detailing of all the other scary aspects of the EU’s treatise - I’ll just leave you with this thought:

The Council, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251, shall lay down the regulations governing political parties at European level and in particular the rules regarding their funding.

Source: Nice Treaty

The EU can effectively stop a party from raising funds… How long before troublesome eurosceptic parties are victims of the unknowable funding structure that is the EU?

What will it take for Labour to lose its opinion poll lead?

We know that it is complicit in torture in two ways:
1) Allowing US ‘torture flights’ to land in England
2) Using and accepting evidence from torture

We know that Gordon Brown does not recognise the limits that there should be on tax raising powers. We know that the economy is faltering. We know that Blair has taken us to war on a lie. We know that Blair has lied on several issues. We know that Labour do not care that the people of England are having laws passed for them by Scottish MPs. We know that Blair is a europhile who does not mind that the EU hasn’t had its accounts passed for three (thanks to the Spectator) years. We know that public spending (or investment as Brown likes to call it) is out of control and is not providing value for money. We know that the government has lost control of immigration. We know the government does not understand city centres and violent crime. We know that the government thinks it is okay to imprison people without trial.

But surely the torture thing should be enough?

Denis MacShane, the former Europe Minister, has accused eurosceptics today of not wanting to fund Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland’s economic recovery.

Too right. In the UK now there are elderly people who have turned down their heating to pay their Council Tax. There are people spending their life savings to pay for nursery home care. And the Chancellor is still raising new taxes.

And despite this the UK’s taxpayers are asked to stomach a £1bn attack on the £3.5bn EU rebate. Of course this rebate amount wasn’t plucked from thin air by Thatcher in 1984 when she negotiated it - it is the amount that balances the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

As many of you will know 45% 50% (thanks Spectator) of the EU’s budget goes towards the CAP and it is the main cause of African poverty that the EU is directly able to correct. If the EU is to continue to exist it should stop interfering in agricultural subsidies and allow the market to decide which crops are grown and what they cost. At the moment some foods are made artificially more expensive by the CAP.

“Charity starts at home” sounds like an old-fashioned adage but surely it is inhumane to require poor people to pay regressive taxes in order to fund another non-Third World country’s development?