Posts Tagged ‘Europe’
On European Rule
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on November 28th, 2009
The Liberal Democrat Party logo
The totalitarian regime that has “subverted our freedoms” is the failed constitution we have in the UK which allows those powers to be handed over without intervention by referendum and without insisting that, when those powers are handed over, they’re handed over to a democratic alternative.
If you want to be picky, of course, the sovereignty of the UK has never existed — since the UK was formed in 1707 sovereignty has remained in the hands of the monarch. At no point has that constitutional reform taken place which would have placed sovereignty with the people.
Personally, I blame the Conservative, Labour and the Liberal Democrats for this. And it is no good David Cameron thumping his chest when, actually, he hasn’t put together a coherent alternative to treaty after treaty after treaty.
What is needed is a vision for Europe setting out appropriate democratic reform of its governance (an elected Commission or at the very least an elected President of the EU who could appoint that commission).
But with constitutional reform on our side of the channel, the EU would seem more democratic in any case. Why, for example, should an MP for one constituency, be able to act like a President and appoint not only his entire cabinet but also the policy-maker for Europe who happens to come from these countries (the UK)? Wouldn’t it be much better to have an elected head of the government who could then appoint a Commissioner? If our electoral process, for this head of government, were as robust as the French presidential election system, a majority of the people would have voted for that person!
Czech President Vaclav Klaus on the EU Parliament
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on February 20th, 2009
The following video shows president of The Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus being heckled in the European Parliament yesterday. And he’s being heckled, actually, for telling the truth. I remain amazed that the majority of people involved in democracy (politicians) appear to consider the institutions of the EU sufficiently democratic.
It is easy, when you are not a political anorak, to forget just what a corrupt organisation it is that makes the majority of our laws. The ‘elections’ we’ll have in June will not do anything to address that.
If you support a party that supports retained membership of the EU, don’t vote that way in June if you agree that democracy is the best form of government. If your party support retained membership of the EU, write to your MP, write to the leader of that party and tell them that you are not happy with being run by the EU.
EU or USSR?
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on June 28th, 2008
This video is quite scary:
What what’s more scary is that I have no doubt that the MEPs mentioned will retain their seats. Democracy is flawed in two directions — politicians who don’t do what they promise and an electorate who don’t notice or care.
But let’s leave the EU.
Two key issues
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on June 13th, 2008
After a relatively long period where the only issue was how much Labour were going to lose by, we now have two major issues running alongside each other.
Whatever you think of David Davis’ decision to resign he has definitely kept the issue alive. The question “Is it okay to imprison innocent civilians?” would have become just another abuse of freedom had Davis not made his unusual decision.
And he’s highlighted another problem — the BBC and ITV who are supposed to be completely unbiased have continually described the situation as ‘bizarre’. As part of BBC dumbing down they have long sought to explain the implications of situations in news articles rather than just presenting the facts. But on this issue it is quite clear that they are going beyond simple explanation and clarification. If the situation is unusual (and it is) then that is fine, but to say that Davis may have “committed political suicide” or that “David Cameron… is furious” is to make leaps beyond the facts.
Let us be clear too: This is about locking away innocent people. There will be no trial, no evidence will be presented to the victim (of the state) and no news will be delivered to him. This man is losing all rights without being able to help show why he is innocent; and he shouldn’t need to do that.
European Constitution
The other key issue is the European Constitution aka the Lisbon Treaty. The Irish Prime Minister said the other day that the Lisbon Treaty is 95% the same as the Constitution. And the public in Ireland look like they have done for us what we were denied by our liar Prime Minister. Thank God.
Conservative MEP Ranking Ballots
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on March 6th, 2008
Apologies to you if you couldn’t get here recently. If you’d like to help me out, check out the adverts!
For the first time every member of the party is being given an opportunity to vote on the rankings of Tory MEPs and candidates. This is fantastic news as it counters my comments in this post.
While it is a secret ballot I am keen that everyone knows which MEPs are Eurosceptics and which are Europhiles. Then people reading this can vote along those lines without having to go to the same effort as me!
So here’s how I’m voting:
1. Daniel Hannan MEP
2. Nirj Deva MEP
3. Richard Ashworth MEP
4. (Because you are required to rank all candidates) James Elles MEP
You may remember that Mr Elles is a pro-EU Tory who supported the Lisbon Treaty and who wishes to remain in the EPP-ED.
And in Ballot 2:
1. Richard Robinson
2. Nina Kaariniemi
3. Sarah Richardson
4. Tony Devenish
5. Therese Coffey
6. Marc Brunel-Walker
Please bear in mind that my decisions regarding Ballot 2 were largely as a result of answers on Conservative Home’s Goldlist site
Tony Blair doesn’t listen
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on June 7th, 2007
Two petitions I signed on the Number 10 website were responded to today. The responses can be found here:
The respective websites for the campaigns are these:
Frank Field on Immigration
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on May 22nd, 2007
I was distressed multiple times today when watching my recording of the Daily Politics.
I was first distressed with how much I agreed (again) with Frank Field. Could it be that Frank is more Conservative and reasonable that Mr Cameron?!
Then I was distressed by the other guest (Charlie Whelan) who turned suddenly nasty when asked to comment on Mr Field’s position. Political correctness and a naive determination that Labour voters will not mind their lower-paid jobs being made lower paid by, admittedly hard-working, immigrants from the new EU member states.
Freedom of movement is an important aspect of the European Union and I firmly believe that some of the repurcussions on the newer member states’ economies should have been considered before membership was granted. How can the urban, never mind rural, economies in Romania, Poland and Bulgaria survive with such numbers leaving?
But we cannot go over what might have been and hope to come out of it other than frustrated.
What have we learnt?
Probably, most importantly, that poor countries need to be helped by western nations before we offer them the mixed blessing that is EU membership. In fact, as EU membership is so attractive for the likes of Romania because of the assistance they are given for infrastructure improvements, why not make those donations of assistance so that the quality of life differential is not so massive by the time the barriers to movement are taken away?
The humane thing to do with the likes of Turkey and Croatia and Macedonia is to give them the assistance and representation etc. that any other EU country has without providing them with the crippling effect that is freedom of movement (it could be termed “freedom to lose your most productive citizens”).
English independence for Eurovision
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on May 12th, 2007
Every year we laugh wrly at the effects of regional/political voting on the results of Eurovision.
The answer, of course, is for England, Scotland and Wales to split so that they can give each other 12 points… Hey, it works for Norway, Sweden and Finland!
Update 22.48 As if proof were needed, lovely Ireland and Malta gave the UK seven and twelve points respectively!
Nearly 1 in 60
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on August 22nd, 2006
According to the figures available, those who immigrated to the UK since 2004 make up nearly 1 in 60 of the population.
The imminent EU accession of Romania and Bulgaria represents a new source of immigrants to the UK. There are voices, not least Frank Field, who are calling foul, but there’s really no justification for restricting immigration from these new members.
The EU is about free movement of people and free trade. Now anyone with even a small idea of the EU’s working will know that we are not getting anything similar to free trade in many, many areas. So the only tenet of the EU that Britons signed up for under Heath and that is actually functioning is free movement of people.
If we turn around now and say “Sorry Romanians, sorry Bulgarians, you cannot come to the UK because, though we want access to your markets, we don’t want your people.” then we are removing that final part of the EU that we all agreed to.
I agree that the UK is suffering a change in culture… A sort of negative zionism by multiple cultures. And I agree that the time has come for a serious look at our immigration policy… But I don’t think that should mean double-standards on the EU. Let’s leave the EU and say what we really think! Let’s join schengen, let’s sign a free trade agreement with the EU and remain a country in our own right.
At the same time, let’s let English culture redefine itself to include our newest members. Let’s prepare our schools to cope with the children of our mostly young immigrants when they are born. And let’s not confuse immigrants (those who come here) with the legislators that we think are getting the policies wrong.
According to the BBC’s The World programme on BBC Four this evening, Italy, Spain and Malta are struggling with the number of illegal immigrants coming from Africa to work here (where “here” is the EU). As Leanne said earlier on this blog, the people who manage to leave Africa are probably the very people who could reverse the problems Africa so evidently has.
Let’s work harder and more seriously at improving the economies of Africa so that there’s no reason to jump on that ship in the first place. The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy’s abolition would be a good starting place.
