Essex on a soggy Sunday
The leaves are vivid shades of brown, red and yellow. There are arm loads of apples to be peeled and chopped. Plums and berries to be boiled. Jam to be potted.
There’s no better time of year than autumn. And no better place to spend it than in Essex.
Posted on 31 October 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Tea Party explained
Whatever the outcome of the mid-term US elections, you can be certain that the BBC coverage misrepresents the grass-roots phemomenon that is the Tea Party.
Instead, I recommend you read Daniel Hannan's blog pieces explaining the Tea Party here and here. The Tea Party seems to be as much about righting wrongs within the Republican party, and bringing the entire political class to account, as it is about hostility to Obama.
Posted on 31 October 2010 by Douglas Carswell
EU deal: this is no victory
The spin says that the proposals from France and Germany for fiscal governance extend to the Eurozone only and so will not affect the UK.
The truth is that the EU might not be able to impose sanctions at this time, but our budget will be subject to as much scrutiny like every member state, including in theory Greece.
Having established common EU scrutiny over our budget, this deal also means a common EU legal framework applicable to "all EU Member States" - irrespective of us being outside the Euro. The path is now clear for us to be out voted on future EU legislative initiatives involving our internal fiscal affairs.
We've not just given ground over how much of our money we give the EU. We've given the EU a say over how we spend our own money at home. Some victory, eh.
Posted on 29 October 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Being outside the Euro does not exclude us from the new EU treaty changes
Ministers want us to believe that because Britain is not in the Euro, the Treaty changes being agreed to today by the politicians do not apply to the UK.
Nonsense.
Under the proposals for "stronger EU economic governance", UK budgets will become EU business.
The EU might not at this time be able to impose sanctions against the UK should they disapprove, but - according to paragraph 34 of the European Council's own report - this deal creates "a new legal framework .... applying to all EU Member States".
Forget the spin about how a mere £380 Million increase in our EU budget contributions is some kind of a victory. Today's deal means new powers are transferred from Member States - including Britain - to Brussels.
Read the EU Commission's own account of how this new Treaty change gives them more powers
here.
Posted on 28 October 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Have we been had?
EU competence is to be extended into member state’s fiscal policy, with the power to make law for "all EU Member States". And it appears to have been kept hidden until today.
Not even the European Scrutiny Committee, I’m told, had sight of a paper by the “Task Force to the European Council” called “Strengthening Economic Governance in the EU” until today.
This hidden paper appears to confirm two things:
a) Despite what we were told in June, UK budgets will now become EU business. They might not be able to impose sanctions on us if they disapprove – yet. But they are involved.
b) According to the document, “The Task Force recommends a deeper macro-economic surveillance with the introduction of a new mechanism underpinned by a new legal framework .... applying to all EU Member States”.
Yep. That’s right. The EU is to legislate in a new area. In a way that could apply to all EU Member States.
And you thought there would be no further transfers of power to Brussels, eh?
Posted on 27 October 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Who appoints our judges?
Violent criminals should always be taken to court rather than given on-the-spot fines, Lord Judge told a Commons committee yesterday. It's easy to talk tough on crime when appearing before Commons select committees.
Perhaps His Lordship might actually be tougher on crime if that same Commons committee got to decide if he was Lord Chief Justice in the first place?
One of the reasons why our criminal justice system keeps letting down the law abiding is that those who preside over it answer only to each other, rather than the rest of us*.
At present, judges are appointed by a panel of grandees; the Judicial Appointments Commission. They focus big time on trying to ensure judges are representative of the wider population in terms of background, gender and heritage. Pity they do little to ensure our judges are representative of the public in terms of attitudes to crime.
* - not a single one of the 10,000 people who appeared before the courts on charges relating to burglary, for example, was handed the maximum sentence.
UPDATE: "It'll never happen" scoffs one reader of this blog. Perhaps this excellent Commons research paper might convince you otherwise ....
Posted on 27 October 2010 by Douglas Carswell
New EU treaty, same old spin?
First there was a cast iron guarantee to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty - which never materialized.
Now there could well be a new EU treaty, without any referendum - despite what we were promised.
Prepare for the government spin, which will likely say:
1. This new agreement involving France and Germany etc is not really a new treaty.
2. It doesn't involve giving the EU new powers in new areas. Just transfers in existing areas. And when we promised a referendum on any further transfer of new powers, we meant in new transfers of power within new areas. Obviously.
3. Besides, this is not a significant transfer of power. We were careful to say there'd be a referendum only when there were significant transfers. And we don't think this is significant. So there.
4. This new thingy, which isn't really a treaty, doesn't involve us, as we're not in the Euro. Despite what the small print might say.
5. Anyhow, look how tough we've been, getting Europe to mug us for a little less with a slightly reduced budget increase!
By Friday, there's a fair chance you'll have been fed variants of all five of the above....
Where is the referendum on any new treaty, like we were promised? Same EU policy. Same tired old spin.
Posted on 26 October 2010 by Douglas Carswell
New EU economy rules - does the small print apply to Britain?
Back in June, David Cameron attended his first Euro-summit and agreed to let EU quangos take over regulation of the City of London. In return, we were told, our government had achieved a great victory. Britain, we were assured, would be exempted from any proposals requiring member states to have their budgets vetted by Brussels.
Hummmm .....
If you read the European Commission document 11807/10, however, it doesn’t seem quite so clear cut. Studying it, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the new rules on fiscal oversight are going to apply to all EU Member States, not just members of the Euro.
The paper – subtitled “Tools for stronger EU economic governance” – focuses on how Member States, not just Euro countries, “will act in compliance with the EU framework.” The “new structured mechanism” for vetting each countries budget will be applied to “all Member States”.
In or out of the Euro, the paper suggests Britain may indeed have her budget subject to EU Commission vetting – albeit that the time table for this “semester” process might allow officials to claim that the Commons gets to see it first.
And what if Brussels did not approve of the tax and spend policies of our democratically elected government?
If such rules only apply to Eurozone countries, why does page 5 of the document, under the heading “Corrective Action”, say that “This mechanism would apply to all Member States”. Use of that word “all”, again. If there’s a caveat saying “all” excludes Britain, I couldn’t find it.
What I did manage to find was a motion on the House of Commons Order Paper this morning tabled by the government appearing to welcome these proposals.
Perhaps there’s an easy enough explanation? I’ve written to the Minister who tabled the motion, Mark Hoban, asking if he can provide specific clarification and a copy of the actually text that shows these new rules do not involve the UK.
Meanwhile, I think it’s fair to say that the document currently before the Commons doesn’t seem to say what ministers say that it says.
Posted on 25 October 2010 by Douglas Carswell
What if the Tea Party candidates win?
Looks like Republican candidates selected by the grass-roots Tea Party movement are set to do well in November elections over in America.
Yet here in the UK, our BBC-Guardianista commentariat have been busy telling us for weeks how "unelectable" they all are. Even the dimmest producer must be beginning to see that such a lazy analysis fails to square with how Tea Party-types are nudging ahead of establishment incumbents in state after state.
So how do you suppose our lefty politico-media elite explain it away if the Tea Party candidates win big?
Already - perhaps anticipating the success of small-state, libertarians - we're starting to be told by the self-referential MSM that however successful the Tea Party, it's a "backlash". It's all about "anger", they say.
What if the Tea Party movement is something more than that? Might it not be America's Jeffersonian ideals given a whole new lease of life, and practical dot com applicability, by the age of the internet?
Don't expect any BBC programme makers to see it that way any time soon.
Posted on 24 October 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Allister Heath is a must read
Allister Heath, City AM’s editor, is a must read. His latest article on the extent of the squeeze shows why.
Middle England is being hit by “a
triple whammy of limited pay rises, elevated inflation and tax increases ... a development that has been barely picked up in Westminster and by the media.
“Over the past 12 months, the value of an average pay packet after retail price inflation and direct tax is down a crippling 3.4 per cent.”
Posted on 22 October 2010 by Douglas Carswell