Protesters climbed a crane in Parliament Square today in protest at the British government’s continued refusal to give us a referendum on the EU not-a-Constitution.

A legal protest last week was virtually ignored by the media when protesters opposing expansion of Heathrow Airport climbed onto the roof of Westminster Palace.  Ignored by the media and ignored by the British government, they presumably saw only one way to get the attention they needed.

What kind of a sham of democracy do we live in when people with a legitimate protest feel that they need to break the law in order to get noticed?

Technorati Tags: Federal Europe, EU Constitution, Protests

The petition I started calling for a Cost/Benefit Analysis of membership of the EU has just had its 600th signature.

If you haven’t signed it yet, please do so.  If you have signed it, please forward it on to all your contacts and ask them to sign it as well.

Technorati Tags: Federal Europe, Petition

Alistair Darling has announced that he is going to give the Bank of England the power to keep temporary emergency loans to banks secret.

The run on Northern Rock could have been avoided if the emergency credit line the Bank of England gave it had been kept secret.  It was only because of the panic caused by mis-reporting the circumstances – it wasn’t a loan to begin with, it was the promise of a loan if it was needed – that Northern Rock ended up needing billions of pounds of public money to cover the gaping hole in their finances cause by people withdrawing their savings and the share price dropping through the floor as a result.

However, Darling hasn’t done his homework because this is against EU rules.  It was an EU directive that forced the Bank of England to make the credit facility public.  An EU directive that the previous Bank of England governer said he would have resigned over if it was enforced whilst he was governer.

Technorati Tags: Bank of England, Federal Europe, Northern Rock, Alistair Darling

My petition at 10 Downing Street calling on No Mandate Brown to conduct a cost-benefit analysis on memebrship of the EU is doing well – 354 signatures in the last few days and hopefully a lot more soon as it’s just been linked from the Better Off Out website.

If you haven’t already signed the petition, please do so now and put a link on your own blog or website.

Technorati Tags: Petition, Federal Europe

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, intends to declare independence in a matter of days.

Federal Europe wants them to wait until Serbian presidential elections have finished and Russia opposes independence.  The Russian ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, has told Serbia to resist western recognition of Kosovan independence because it would open a “Pandora’s box”.

Rogozin is right of course – with a bit of luck, Kosovan independence will lead to a rise in nationalism across Europe and indepdence for those nations that desire it.  Hopefully England will be one of the first.

Technorati Tags: Kosovo

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to commission an independent cost-benefit analysis of membership of the EU

Membership of the EU costs the taxpayer billions yet the British government continues to insist that we are “better off in”.

They have never commissioned a cost-benefit analysis of membership of the EU and should do so as soon as is reasonably practicable and care should be taken that the organisation chosen to produce the analysis is completely independent and has no reliance or vested interest in the British government or European Union as usually happens in EU studies in the House of Lords where peers in receipt of EU pensions which can be revoked if they don’t promote the EU are asked to provide critical analysis of the EU!

Technorati Tags: Federal Europe, Petitions

Federal Europe has cut the funding it gives to member states through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The unelected regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands (AWM), has received £440m from the ERDF over the last 6 years but will only get £270m for the next 6 years.  At an average net cost of £873 per year per person for membership of the EU, the £440m was a very poor return on the £4.6bn that membership cost the 5.27 million people who live in the West Midlands euroregion; £270m is an insult.

AWM says that it will “do more with less” and claims that the £270m will help create 10,000 new jobs, kick start 2,500 new businesses and attract £19m of private sector money.  This might be the case if AWM were hitting targets but as we pointed out last month they’re missing 4 out of 6 targets they’ve been set by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and one of them they are on target to miss by 95%.

John Edwards, the outgoing Chief Executive of AWM, said “We have consulted widely to ensure that every part of the West Midlands region has its say in how this money will be spent”.  What he actually means is that they have asked “business leaders” what they want AWM to spend our money on for their benefit.

Technorati Tags: AWM, Federal Europe

MPs have now voted on whether the EU (Amendments) Bill should get a second reading.

Most MPs couldn’t be bothered to attend the debate but still somehow considered themselves well-informed enough to vote in favour of a second reading.  It wasn’t the victory that Liebour wanted though – 362 in favour and 224 against.  There is considerable opposition in the Commons on both sides but will there be enough opposition when the final vote comes round?

The bill will now go to the House of Lords where there will be an opportunity to propose amendments and send it back to the House of Commons.  Unfortunately, this Liebour government is addicted to the Parliament Act which allows them to bypass the House of Lords and pass the bill into law against the wishes of the Upper House if it is rejected by the Lords 3 times so even if 95% of the Lords rejected it, it can’t be stopped.  We are entirely reliant on the MPs that just voted in favour of the EU Constitution to protect our sovereignty.

Technorati Tags: EU Constitution

Daniel Kawczynski, Conswervative MP for Shrewsbury & Atcham, points out that the TUC have passed resolutions calling for a referendum on the EU Constitution.

Ed the Millibeast looks like a work experience boy sitting with the grown ups and keeps pulling stupid faces á-la Kevin and Perry whenever someone mentions his name.

A few more MPs have trickled in to the Chamber now the 10 o’clock vote is imminent having diligently avoided listening to the mostly pro-referendum, anti-constitution MPs who have bothered to sit through the debate.

Mark Francois, Conservative Shadow Europe Minister, makes the important point that power belongs to the people and that they are exercising it on their behalf and that it is not their to give away.  Quite right.

Jim Murphy, Liebour Europe Minister, says that EU rules have changed whenever the membership has increased and that the rules are no longer working for 27 members.  There is something we can do to alleviate this problem – we can leave and make it 26.

John Redwood asked if Murphy could give assurances that as references to the EU flag and anthem have been removed from the EU Constitution then we will no longer see the flag or hear the anthem.  Murphy replied by saying that Redwood voted against a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty which was kind of … pointless.

Murphy says that 9 countries promised a referendum on the EU Constitution but only one is now holding a referendum – the Republic of Ireland.  Gisela Stuart, Liebour MP for Edgbaston, suggests that this is because those states are terrified of getting the wrong answer in a referendum after what happened in France and the Netherlands.

Murphy confirms that despite Traitor Blair saying that the UK would have an opt-out from the EU Fundamental Charter of Human Rights, the UK will have no opt-out on the Charter.

The vote is now taking place …

Technorati Tags: EU Constitution

Graham Stringer, Liebour MP for Manchester Blackley, reveals that the Liebour whips tried to convince him to vote for the Reform Treaty because it was in their manifesto but points out that the only treaty in their manifesto was the EU Constitution.  The whips are telling their MPs the Reform Treaty and Constitution are one in the same so how can any MP vote against the promised referendum?

Stringer suggests that MPs who are saying that their constituents aren’t capable of understanding the EU Constitution use their communications allowance to write to their constitutents and tell them just that which is met with a laugh from both sides.

David Curry, eurofederalist Conswervative MP for Skipton and Ripon, says that he entered politics to get Bwitain into Europe and that’s what has kept him going.  He agrees that the EU Constitution and the Reform Treaty are basically the same but says that Bwitain’s obligations aren’t the same.  Quite bizarrely he suggests that when (not if) climate change forces large-scale population movement then we’ll want closer policy management in Europe.

Ian Davidson, Liebour MP for Glasgow South West, criticises the British government’s interference in Portgual that lead to them deciding not to hold a referendum on the EU Constitution.  The Deputy Speaker tried to tell off Davidson for saying the Lib Dums talked balls all the time but was having trouble keeping a straight face.  Davidson reads the final line on the last page of the consolidated changes of the reform treaty which says “Printed on paper containing 75% recycled material”.  Brilliant.

Technorati Tags: EU Constitution

Austin Mitchell, Liebour MP for Great Grimsby, just made a fairly entertaining speech in which he congratulated a Tory MP on his speech and criticised his colleagues for claiming that the EU Constitution will solve all our problems.  Shame it’s only been heard by the very small handful of MPs that have bothered to turn up.

Some key comments from his speech:

“If it looks like a constitution, if it reads like a constitution, if it reads like a constitution then it’s a constitution and it does us no good to deny this”

“It’s no good telling us black is white, because it isn’t”

David Heathcote-Amory, Conswervative MP for Wells, points out that the EU Constitution will be the last treaty to come before Parliament because it’s self-amending and that there is a question mark over the right of the Commons to bind its successors.  There’s no question of course, they have no right whatsoever.

Has anyone noticed the difference in the ties on either side of the house?  Tacky ties on the Liebour side, posh ties on the opposition side – whatever happened to the classless society Liebour promised?.

There are only about 20 MPs in the Chamber, how can those who haven’t bothered to listen to the debate cast a vote?  They don’t have all the facts.

Technorati Tags: EU Constitution

I’m watching the EU Constitution debate on the BBC website.

Liebour seem to be hinging their entire argument on “what’s good for Europe” and “if we didn’t have a referendum on Maastricht under the Tories, why do we need one on the EU Constitution?”  Pathetic really – they’re debating the wholesale transfer of the governance of our country to Federal Europe and all the Liebour traitors can do is try and score points off the Tories for something that happened over a decade ago.

Bill Cash is putting up a brave fight but the verdict is a foregone conclusion – even with 20-odd Liebour rebels, the Illiberal Dumbasses will make sure that their eurofederalist colleagues in Liebour get the result they want.

More updates as anything interesting happens.

Technorati Tags: EU Constitution