|
Below is some of our recent correspondence to the local papers.
THE PRICE OF A POLITICIANS VOICE
John Galloway
Mr Helmut Winkler accuses UKIIP of trading in misinformation and half truths by presenting the problem at Northern Rock as an EU issue. Untrue, we did no such thing. The failures of Northern Rock are indeed part of a world wide banking crisis and poor management. What I did say in my previous letter was that EU laws made the Governor of the Bank of England’s job far more difficult and contributed to the subsequent run on Northern Rock. Mervyn King, a man of great integrity, reported to the Commons Select Committee that he had been hampered by (EU) red tape in dealing with the crisis. In particular he had been concerned that he had to make his support of Northern Rock public under the Market Abuse Directive and that he may have been accused of illegal state subsidy or support in bailing out this bank. These two bits of EU legislation brought about delay and publicity, both fatal in such a crisis. Now you can believe him or not, but that is the truth of what he believed. Mr Winkler goes on to make out that the Bank of England then tried to make a fast buck by charging over the odds for its rescue funding. The Bank of England charged a higher than market rate for two reasons. Firstly, is does not want to reward incompetent managements of financial institutions by bailing them out cheaply. Secondly, if it had done so it would lay itself open to accusations of illegal state subsidy by the EU Commission. The European Central Bank on the other hand does not have to account to any elected bodies and can act with impunity and without such considerations. As I said before, it is time we governed ourselves again! Jonathan C. Carr
The politicians and bureaucrats are at it again, creating their new lexicon
to confuse the public. The fanatically pro EU Lib-Dems, supporters of
unlimited immigration, have said that they would give an amnesty to illegal
immigrants providing they have not got a criminal record. In my book,
by entering our country illegally, makes them criminal– but I suspect
that’s not the Lib-Dem interpretation. JG
Financial deception continues
If you look at the Bank of England web site you will see it is also called
the Central bank of the United Kingdom. Mervyn King, the governor of the
Central Bank of the United Kingdom, also sits on the General Council of
the European Central Bank (ECB), however he does not appear in the photograph
of the General Council on the ECB website. Yours faithfully John Galloway How right Daniel Kawczynski (Letters 5th October) is in his analysis
of problems facing future generations due to too much government, too
much tax, too much red tape and the massive public debts that have been
and still are accruing as a burden for our children to bear. Freeing the
enterprise sector, not to mention public services from all this will generate
the wealth and jobs to work ourselves out of this morass. But as a party
committed to EU membership and therefore EU control of over 75%+ of our
laws and especially those regulating business, trade, agriculture, fisheries
and almost everything else, his party is powerless to do the things that
he says it must do, thanks to the EU treaties that his party and the Labour
Party have signed, supported by the LibDems. He says that the government
will borrow another £34 billion just this year alone. So why is
his party committed to continuing to pay a big part of that sum over to
the EU, which is both corrupt and wasteful? The truth is that the Conservatives
are at the root of the problem, not the answer. Without leaving the EU
there is no answer. When the Conservatives will truly stand to govern
this country for its people, rather than acting as EU puppet governors
of its people, I will vote for them rather than UKIP. With an election in the offing, Gordon Brown makes the populist promise
that immigrants dealing in drugs and gun crime will be thrown out of the
country. Excellent stuff, but totally un-deliverable as Mr Brown well
knows. If the criminals are EU citizens or asylum seekers which most are,
then EU citizenship law and supranational Human Rights treaties over ride
his power to govern as he wishes and any such promises he makes are false.
There is no chance of Brown leaving the EU or dropping out of the Human
Rights convention. Indeed, he is currently breaking his last election
manifesto promise to hold a referendum on the EU constitutional treaty
and so cannot be trusted. Signing up to this as he fully intends to do,
in opposition to 80% of the British people, will hand over all of our
justice and home affairs to EU control putting even more beyond the power
of our elected politicians. Only when we govern ourselves again and restore
democracy will it be possible to sort out the mess that we are now in
and neither Labour, Conservatives nor the LibDem parties are offering
that option to the electorate. A Swiss proposal Dear Letters Editor, JC
Dear Editor Tory EU Federalist Dinosaurs Tory EU federalist dinosaurs Kenneth Clarke and Douglas Hurd tell us
that there must be no referendum on the EU Constitutional Treaty because
the man in the street is too stupid to understand such details as Polish
voting rights and other details in the treaty. Leave it to the professional
politicians say these mealy mouthed federalist deceivers. The referendum
issue is perfectly straight forward for this and for all other EU treaties.
Do we wish to govern ourselves via democratically elected and accountable
politicians in Westminster, or do we wish to hand over powers of self-government
to unelected and unaccountable unknowns in Brussels? With over 80% of
our laws already being made by the latter and Clarke, Hurd and now Gordon
Brown wanting to hand over even more, the British people are beginning
to understand this game now. That is why around 90% of people now want
a referendum, and any political party that opposes that wish will pay
a terrible price at the next election. Gordon Brown take note! Sign the
No.10 petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/EU-treaty-NON/ and make your
voice heard. Dear Editor SMOKING ALLOWED - FOR POLITICAL ELITE ONLY It started in Brussels; the smoking ban was lifted in the European Parliament, because it was unenforceable. Too many bureaucrats needed their fix and just lit up wherever they felt like it. So it therefore no surprise that our subordinate House of Commons was told last Thursday that MPs were not obeying the new smoking ban. Surprisingly smoking is not illegal in the Palace of Westminster, both Houses of Parliament agreed to restrict smoking to four designated, outside areas. Those caught smoking outside of these areas will however not face financial penalties. How strange that councils are wasting council tax money on soviet style secret smoking police, when by contrast the politicians can just raise 2 fingers and get away with it. As if further proof were needed, Charles Kennedy caught red handed, protests he thought hanging out of a train puffing a fag was allowed – I suspect anyone caught doing the same outside of the political elite class, would at the very least have been fined. Smoking may be a bad habit, but many people do it, they enjoy it, it is their choice and it is legal. But the double standards applied in Brussels and Westminster make our politicians dirtier and filthier than ever a smoker will be. John Galloway Mr Bushill Matthews To justify his expensive and unnecessary existence as an MEP, Mr Philip
Bushill-Matthews crows in the Star (28th June) that he and his buddies
in Brussels have just been able to ban imports of fur coats made from
cats and dogs in China, after only eight years of hot air lobbying in
Brussels. I have news for you Mr Bushill-Matthews. If Britain had retained
its powers of self government instead of handing them over to the EU,
we could have achieved the same result in Westminster via our own elected
MP's in about six months and at one tenth of the cost. We will put the constitution to the British people 'We will put the constitution to the British people in a referendum.'
Stated Labour's last election manifesto. European politicians openly state
that the new EU treaty IS the constitution in every detail but name. Now
Brown is refusing to implement his election manifesto promise. Is it any
wonder people have stopped voting and have no time for politicians? This
time though it really matters. The last vestiges of our self-government
are being transferred to the unelected of Brussels. Not only that but
the treaty even includes a catch all clause that allows the EU to enable
itself with new powers without further treaties or reference to the nation
states. It allows the EU to over rule our legal and criminal systems that
protect us from the state and it gives new powers to Europol, the shadowy
federal state police that have been given a lifetime immunity from prosecution
for any misdeeds. If that doesn't frighten you, nothing will. The enabling
powers clause is similar to that used by Hitler in 1929 to seize power
over the democratic institutions of Germany. History does repeat itself.
It is now up to everyone who values freedom to protest in every way possible
up to and including civil disobedience to make the politicians listen.
They are supposed to be our servants not our masters and that is what
all of this is about. Dear Editor OFCOM UNCONCERNED AT LIES Recently I heard of a news item that I knew to contain a grossly misleading statement. I telephoned OFCOM to enquire how I should proceed, if I wanted to get a news item that I believed to be grossly misleading or simply untruthful, corrected. I was surprised at the response by OFCOM, and readers may also be. The crux of my discussion with OFCOM is the following: Any person (not connected with the television company) being interviewed during a news programme can give misleading information (i.e. lie), and cannot be held to account via OFCOM. The reason is that the television companies are not claiming a specific point, but the interviewee is. However if a news presenter reads something out that was inaccurate then it would be an OFCOM issue to ensure it was corrected. OFCOM could not advice me on how to pursue a complaint against a television company, for say giving airtime to a politician telling what I believed to be an untruth on TV. This apparent lack of accountability I consider to be a serious failing of the broadcasting regulation system and I find it hard to believe that there is not a mechanism for redressing complaints from the public, to challenge persons whom they consider are not telling the truth or being grossly misleading. It would seem that we have indeed arrived at the 1984-broadcasting utopia, where lies are indeed the new truth; didn't someone say something about an EU referendum? John Galloway
MORE GESTURE POLITICS I am perplexed by the recent letter from the Rt Honourable Daniel Kawczynski MP, titled “We must fight the regional mergers”. Let me explain my conundrum. In 1992 John Major (conservative) signed up to the Maastricht Treaty, which besides making all British Subjects, citizens of the European Union, also committed the UK to be broken up into twelve EU regions governed directly from Brussels – Regionalisation. This ’unpopular’ extra bureaucratic layer is happening now either overtly, or covertly via the complex funding routes of all the various agencies, administered by the EU ‘funding controllers’ in Brussels. It is worth reiterating that as a policy the Conservative party will not allow a referendum on whether to stay or leave the EU; so I can only draw the conclusion that this letter was a form of gesture politics.
John Galloway NO REFERENDUM BY BLUE LABOUR The expected signing by the Prime Minster of the ‘re-packaged European Constitution’ appears to have brought out the fighting spirit in Mr Cameron. He has demanded a referendum on the new EU constitution – but is this feigned tough talk? Just a few weeks ago from webCameron, comes this quote. Mr Cameron was asked - “Will a future conservative government give this country a proper referendum on its future membership of the European union?”, his answer - “The short answer to this one is no, erg why, because I believe we ought to be members of the European union, em, and that is part of our platform.”. Clearly both these politicians hold the public in contempt.
Lord Pearson of Rannock Last week, Lord Pearson of Rannock,
a UKIP peer in the House of Lords, made a startling revelation. The large
number of ex-politicians and bureaucrats elevated to our House of Lords
who receive generous EU pensions do not have to declare an interest or
withdraw from votes on EU related debates and legislation. This, despite
the fact, almost unbelievably, that they are under threat of losing these
pensions if the unelected EU Commission and the European Court decide
that they have "failed to uphold the interests of the European Communities."
Thus, not only are these people bribed with our taxes to sing the praises
of the EU, they are also under a blackmail threat not to reveal its shortcomings.
So it is that Brussels buys and controls its minions and this is why you
can never trust a word they say about Britain and its relationship with
the EU. The issue of declared interests had been referred to a Lords sub-committee
chaired by Lord Woolf who decided they could not be impartial. This was
over ruled by the Privileges Committee, dominated by Europhile dinosaurs.
Compare that to councillors who are now disqualified from voting on even
subjects that they have expressed a prior opinion about. All part of the
subversion of our freedom and democratic systems by the EU and why we
must leave the EU if we ever want to govern ourselves again or see moral
standards returned to public life.
Crocodile Tears by Tories David Cameron and Kenneth Clarke tell us that they are unhappy with the almost total unaccountability of the Executive, namely the Prime Minister and his inner circle, to Parliament, our elected representatives. They say they want to do something about it. Decisions like going to war are made behind closed doors and the vast majority of legislation is passed by ministerial edict and hardly ever even discussed in Parliament. Nor is most of this included in party manifestos, so the electorate never voted for it either. The enabling acts that allow ministers to do this are simply an extension of EU government, which allows elected chambers to exist, offering a fig leaf of democratic respectability, while removing their power to really govern, Soviet style. Kenneth Clarke was one of the major architects of this system as a rabid
Europhile. Indeed he is famously quoted as saying that he looked forward
to the day when our Westminster Parliament was merely a council chamber
of Europe. That day has arrived. Ken and Dave are crying . Our only salvation
is to leave the EU and neither them nor the Conservative Party in general
will offer that option because they are fully owned and bought EU puppets. Yet again, David Cameron and his new age Not-The-Tory-Party demonstrate the chasm that exists between the parliamentary Tory party, consisting of puppet career politicians, and its rank and file of party supporters. Just as with the EU issue, where 75% of Tory voters believe we should turn our backs on EU membership and 75% of the parliamentary party is committed to EU federalism, the grammar school fiasco now divides them on similar lines. Thank you again Mr Cameron for handing UKIP this gift from the gods.
UKIP fully support selective education and the development of Grammar
schools alongside successful comprehensives. The more choice of quality
options open to parents and pupils, the better for everyone and for the
future of this country. Politicians should stop interfering in the educational
system and allow good schools and parents to get on with the job. It is
Jonathan Carr
Sir, The headlines of the Sunday Telegraph scream "Labour's plot to sell access to Blair". Meanwhile, the Conservative Party hold functions to which wealthy individuals can buy tickets for thousands of pounds to meet David Cameron. Can anyone please explain the difference?
Jonathan Carr Dear Sir Constitution 'We will put the constitution to the British people in a referendum.'
Stated Labour's last election manifesto. European politicians openly state
that the new EU treaty IS the constitution in every detail but name. Now
Brown is refusing to implement his election manifesto promise. Is it any
wonder people have stopped voting and have no time for politicians? This
time though it really matters. The last vestiges of our self-government
are being transferred to the unelected of Brussels. Not only that but
the treaty even includes a catch all clause that allows the EU to enable
itself with new powers without further treaties or reference to the nation
states. It allows the EU to over rule our legal and criminal systems that
protect us from the state and it gives new powers to Europol, the shadowy
federal state police that have been given a lifetime immunity from prosecution
for any misdeeds. If that doesn't frighten you, nothing will. The enabling
powers clause is similar to that used by Hitler in 1929 to seize power
over the democratic institutions of Germany. History does repeat itself.
It is now up to everyone who values freedom to protest in every way possible
up to and including civil disobedience to make the politicians listen.
They are supposed to be our servants not our masters and that is what
all of this is about.
EU REFERENDUM If readers are part of the 86% of the electorate that a recent ICM/Open
Europe poll says are in favour of a referendum on the proposed new EU
constitution, then here is their chance to show it. The No.10 Downing
Street E-Petitions web site is running the following petition: The web site address is: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/EU-treaty-NON/ This petition is attracting huge support but needs much more for it to get mainstream media attention and to pressure Gordon Brown to honour his party's election manifesto promise that they would hold one, which he is now trying desperately to wriggle out of. Let your voices be heard! Jonathan C. Carr MADNESS OF DRUG PAYMENTS Six prisoners and former inmates forced to stop taking drugs by going "cold turkey" are to receive payments, sources at the High Court have said. The unspecified settlement followed claims the practice amounted to assault and a breach of human rights. Lets get this story into perspective - the drug users, brought and used illegal drugs, got sentenced and put in prison, for breaking the law, and then claimed compensation because denying them the use of illegal drugs is against their human rights – this is an outrage! Does this now mean the law is against our human rights? Are we to allow all prisoners to claim compensation for say restraint of trade? After all, being locked up presumably reduces their opportunities to commit burglaries, muggings, etc. However more worrying is the government’s relentless onslaught against all legal tobacco smokers, now ‘classed’ as third class citizens, to be mocked, taxed and outcast from social society; maybe they are entitled to compensation - because in my view they are far more deserving. John Galloway
Dick Perkins of Telford asks what is UKIP's alternative to being governed by the EU? The answer is simple. An independent, confident, self governing nation that trades freely with the EU but is also then free to trade with America, the dynamic economies of the Far East plus all the old Commonwealth countries around the world. Without the EU shovelling grit into our industrial & commercial gearbox, we would rapidly become the Hong Kong of the European continent, the crossroads between east and west; in other words, what Britain has always been, a leading trading nation. The EU may well be the answer to our European neighbours' inclination
to fall prey to totalitarian regimes which make war on each other, but
that is not a problem that we in Britain have had under Parliamentary
Democracy and Common Law. Can we stand on our own two feet? Of course
we can! We used to govern ourselves and half the world! Why was it right
to give self government back to our old colonies, but it is now wrong
to govern ourselves Mr Perkins?
I must admit, I missed Planet Earth last week, showing the emotive death of a polar bear, however Dr Mitchell Taylor, who is a Polar Bear Biologist, working for the Department of the Environment, Government of Nunavut, Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada, wrote earlier this year: 'I understand that people who do not live in the north generally have difficulty grasping the concept of too many polar bears in an area. People who live there have a pretty good grasp of what that is like to have too many polar bears around. This complexity is why so many people find the truth less entertaining than a good story. It is entirely appropriate to be concerned about climate change, but it is just silly to predict the demise of polar bears in 25 years based on media-assisted hysteria. One polar bear population (western Hudson Bay) has declined since the 1980s and the reproductive success of females in that area seems to have decreased. We are not certain why, but it appears that ecological conditions in the mid-1980s were exceptionally good. Climate change is having an effect on the west Hudson population of polar bears, but really, there is no need to panic. Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present. It is noteworthy that the neighbouring population of southern Hudson Bay does not appear to have declined, and another southern population (Davis Strait) may actually be over-abundant.' Who do we believe the BBC, or the expert on the spot? John Galloway
My local post office owner is very concerned that local people just don't
understand that most rural post offices are going to be lost and many
don't even care. Rural post offices are living on a financial knife edge
now, having lost a number of vital income sources that used to make them
viable. That is because Article 88 of the EU's Amsterdam Treaty of 1977
obliged our government to seek permission from the unelected EU Commission
in Brussels to give state aid to the Post Office. They were allowed to
do this for three years to a maximum of £150 million per annum.
Following an agreement to close 3,000 sub post offices the EU's Competition
Commissioner graciously agreed to allow this subsidy to run from April
2006 to March 2008. None of our Westminster politicians care a jot. They
signed away our power to govern ourselves that created this mess and now
they are powerless to help. So long as they have their comfortable well
paid party careers and inflation proofed pensions on the EU Gravy Train,
they don't need to care. It's time we governed ourselves again at Westminster
and made them accountable for what is happening in the real world.
The letter supporting the EU as the answer to war is a common claim for
the purpose of the EU. Unfortunately history teaches us a very different
lesson. Forced and undemocratic federations of nation states end in conflict
as we are seeing vividly in Iraq, where a civil war is now underway between
Sunni and Shia and Kurds which will end in three separate states. The
same happened when the old Soviet Union broke up with wars in Chechnya
and Bosnia and Yugoslavia. The best defence against war is healthy democracy
within nation states, which puts the people firmly in command of politicians
and bureaucrats rather than the other way around. Stable and true democracies
such as Switzerland, Sweden or Norway don't create wars because the people
control politicians and don't want wars. Unfortunately, the EU is not
a democracy and we are bequeathing our children a terrible legacy of future
instability and conflict by remaining part of it. REGRET AT EU RED TAPE
Only last week the staff of Bowlands Dairy in Lancashire lost their jobs
and another successful company was destroyed by the EU Stasi health police,
despite the company's activities being fully approved by UK authorities.
What is truly terrifying about all this is there is no political accountability.
You cannot blame anyone in elected office and vote them out. You cannot
get any of these bad rules changed or repealed by democratic means. I'm
sorry, I'm wrong about that! You can, but only by voting MP's into our
Westminster Parliament who will take us out of the EU! This excludes all
Lib/Lab/Con MP's whose parties are totally committed to this madness.
POST OFFICE PETITION A petition of four million signatures is handed in at Downing Street
to save our rural post offices that need £150 million a year subsidy
to remain viable. This is a mere pittance compared to the billions of
pounds handed over to the EU each year. It could have been 40 million
signatures, but it won’t make any difference. The fact is that our
puppet politicians in Westminster must have the permission of our unelected
rulers in Brussels, including a certain Mr Peter Mandleson, to pay such
subsidies. They don’t need your votes because they are not elected
and cannot be sacked, so could not care a jot about the consequences.
The Lib/Lab/Con tell us they are committed to this system of government
which is imposed by our EU membership. UKIP disagree. We believe we should
govern ourselves again and that the politicians who make such decisions
should be fully accountable for their decisions at the ballot box! Dear Sir SINGLE ISSUE – NOT US Mainstream politicians and the media would deceive us into believing
that the issue of "Europe" is a single issue and they therefore
brand UKIP as a "single issue party". The single issue we are
talking about here is quite straight forward. It's not "Europe",
but is simply whether or not we govern ourselves. This encompasses absolutely
every issue. As we stand at this moment, ruled by our EU membership, the
three main parties have one single policy on fishing, agriculture, transport,
trade and industry, employment matters, VAT, immigration, health &
safety, discrimination, energy, the environment, waste disposal &
recycling, law making, identity cards, passports, postal services, defence
procurement and many other issues, all imposed by the EU. They are gradually
allowing a single (EU) policy of control to be imposed over local government,
our police and armed forces. Their next step is our constitution, parliament,
currency, foreign affairs and legal system, including our ancient freedoms
of presumed innocence, trial by jury and habeas corpus which protect us
from political state oppression. At which point folks, you don't have
a country to call your own any more! A slow motion political coup de 'tat
will be complete! This single issue is every issue, make no mistake about
that!
Dear Editor TIME TO COME CLEAN ON EMPLOYMENT FIGURES Figures recently released show that in the twelve months to March 06
there was an increase of 126,000 in the number of people employed, which
is good news, or is it? In the same period, the increase in the number
employed by the public Sector (state) increased by 129,000, which means
that 3,000 wealth creating jobs were lost. I am sure we all remember Gordon
Browns pledge to cut 400,000 jobs from the public sector a couple of years
ago? John Galloway
Sir NO POLICIES It's interesting to see how David Cameron is trying to get elected on
the 'I'm a Nice Sort of a Guy, Trust Me' ticket, just like Blair, while
operating in a policy free zone with no firm commitments but plenty of
spin. He tells us it's because he won't know the state of the economy
when he gets elected. Nice one! Sir, NHS FAILURES Despite the huge sums in extra taxpayers money poured into the NHS from increased taxes, hospital wards are being closed, whole hospital facilities shut down and services cut back. Why, and where is the money going? Two of the main answers lie in the Private Finance Initiative, and the EU’s Working Time Directive. The Private Finance Initiative is an EU idea which opens up the provision of hospital facilities to EU wide competition. It therefore opens the door to French or German companies to help themselves to another slice of our GDP as they have already done in the utilities sector, while UK companies are not allowed to do the same in their countries. PFI is basically a hugely expensive HP scheme that takes government debt off its books in exchange for high rental payments to make the government’s borrowing look falsely lower than it really is. Those huge PFI rental payments are now bankrupting many health authorities. The EU Working Time Directive has caused huge increases in costs as Health Authorities have had to double up on employing junior doctors and other staff to maintain cover. All of this is a direct result of EU membership, which is why UKIP wants to return self government to the UK. None of the other parties are making a noise about all this, because they are all fully owned subsidiaries of Brussels. Parliament in Westminster no longer has any real opposition parties. Wake up Britain! You have a choice when you vote, so use it.
Jonathan C. Carr QUANGO ROBBERY An explosion in the cost of government Quangos (Quasi-Autonomous Governmental
Organisations) announced last week with 882 of them consuming £123.8
billion of taxpayers money, equates to over £2,000 p.a. in tax for
every man, woman and child in this country. It should be causing outrage.
This announcement came the same week that a leading tax institute advised
that taxes for the average family had risen by over £700 in the
current tax year. The two are directly connected. A quick analysis of
who these non-elected and non-accountable organisations are, reveals that
by far and away most of them are there to implement, regulate, enforce
and control EU policies. They include the Environment Agency, the Food
standards Agency, the Health & Safety Commission and numerous Development
Agencies, many of whom have chief executives paid more than the Prime
Minister. They provide a steady supply of Jobs for the Boys to corruptly
reward political support, rather than the old fashioned brown envelope.
This is the system of government that EU membership forces onto our backs
and none of the three traditional parties will act against it. Indeed,
they created it and prosper by it. Only leaving the EU will reduce this
parasitical burden off our backs and only UKIP supports that policy. How
much longer can we afford the EU, to whom we also pay £ billions
in extra taxes as membership fees? MORE GESTURE POLITICS I am perplexed by the recent letter from the Rt Honourable Daniel Kawczynski MP, titled “We must fight the regional mergers”. Let me explain my conundrum. In 1992 John Major (conservative) signed up to the Maastricht Treaty, which besides making all British Subjects, citizens of the European Union, also committed the UK to be broken up into twelve EU regions governed directly from Brussels – Regionalisation. This ’unpopular’ extra bureaucratic layer is happening now either overtly, or covertly via the complex funding routes of all the various agencies, administered by the EU ‘funding controllers’ in Brussels. It is worth reiterating that as a policy the Conservative party will not allow a referendum on whether to stay or leave the EU; so I can only draw the conclusion that this letter was a form of gesture politics.
John Galloway FAILURE OF GOVERNMENT TO ANSWER QUESTIONS Failure by the government to answer questions, recently prompted John Hemming, MP for Yardley, to write to the Prime Minister. To quote from his letter – ‘However, there are frequently situations in which I receive a flawed response, a partial response, an evasive or misleading response or even no real response. I do believe that your ministers are acting unlawfully in doing this and take the view that these issues should be considered through Judicial Review. ‘ The fact that a MP has to ask for a judicial review, to get proper answers from the government is outrageous. This government consistently achieves new depths of undemocratic and unaccountable behaviour.
I would like to respond to Mr M Carters letter 29 Aug 06, ‘True Picture of workers’. Mr Carter is quite right; the picture Mr Carr painted is not quite as it should be. The stated influx of 500,000 migrants figure now appears to be closer to 600,000. The reason Digby Jones, whom let’s remember referred to British workers as “Fat, Lazy and complacent” is happy with mass immigration, is because it increases company profits at the expense of depressing the British workers pay. The point is, with a true unemployment figure of 5m (the Business newspaper) why are we allowing such a huge influx of workers, and why are the government not encouraging British worker mobility rather than taxing mobility via stamp duty, high fuel prices and the like? According to Migration Watch, four out of five migrants take more from the British economy than they contribute. This demolishes the Government's key claim that migrants pay more in taxes than they take back in public services. Also remember the ‘golden hellos’’ in the form of £10,000+ tax credits to new EU migrant workers, that’s before we even consider future pension liabilities. The government is currently re-examining its’ economic assumptions, because of concerns that the economy is too exposed to globalisation. It is now technically feasible that at least 70% of the IT industry to be done offshore and perhaps legal services could be offered from say India, via high speed links, all at reduced cost – greatly increasing unemployment here. These ‘employment threats’ have been known about for some time, and yet the government has failed (a positive policy?) to respond to protect the UK workforce; just look at all the major contracts given to EU countries in preference to UK companies. This is the reason UKIP may seem protectionist but it is a policy for positive self-sufficiency and putting the British worker first. I hope this has now ‘cleared’ the picture for Mr Carter. John Galloway UNDEMOCRATIC CHARGES I am not surprised that the North Shropshire District Council is going to introduce car-parking charges, against the clear wish of the majority – why should the tax collecting council listen to the electorate? Some years ago we stopped living in a democracy. The council, by ignoring the 5 petitions opposing the introduction of parking charges, is proof that something is very wrong with the current system. By contrast UKIP is the only party that has always advocated the introduction of binding local and national referendum, to ensure voters voices are heard and acted on. Next time you vote, maybe you will vote for a party committed to restoring proper democracy. John Galloway UKIP Forces Climb-down on Fingerprinting of Schoolchildren Readers may be interested to know that nationwide pressure from UK Independence Party MEPs, Including our local MEP Mike Natrass, has made the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) agree that no child can be digitally fingerprinted without parental consent. I spoke with the education department at Shirehall, Shrewsbury last week and they apparently did not know that schools in the UK have been fingerprinting school children and assured me this has not been happening in Shropshire. Literally thousands of children have been fingerprinted at UK schools during the last 3 years. According to DfES spokeswoman, Jill Chesworth, schools, "have the responsibility for informing parents and getting consent". Until yesterday, schools were fingerprinting children as young as 5 without even informing their parents.
PRIVATE FINANCE INITIATIVE RIP-OFF During the last week the government announced more major Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects. The Trade Unions are wary of PFI – quite rightly so; but why have we got PFI? Most people tend to forget that we are signed up to every stage of Economic and Monetary Union, with the European Union, except for the actual changeover to the Euro. The reason for PFI is quite simple - It keeps the capital cost of the government borrowing off the public accounts, thus making it easier to comply with the terms of the EU Stability and Growth Pact. This restricts new public borrowing to 3% of GDP. This is also the reason that the government have failed to help out our manufactures, i.e. our carmakers – they are not allowed to, because Brussels says so. PFI rips-off us the tax payer by making public projects dependent on more expensive private capital and it is rightly disliked by the trade unions because it usually leads to reduced wages and staff levels for hospital cleaners, porters and the like. These people are important, because they probably have more effect on keeping out MRSA and the like, than any other persons. If we governed ourselves we would not need PFI. The main 3 political parties are committed to the European Union and thus will continue to be committed to PFI. John Galloway
WE ARE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS For the last few weeks John Galloway, chairman of UKIP North Shropshire
has been in correspondence with David Cameron’s Conservative Party
Central Office to obtain a simple answer to a straight question. In view
of the fact that the EU Constitution is being implemented piecemeal by
stealth and the Blair promised referendum on this has been quietly shelved,
our question to the Conservatives is: If the Conservatives are elected
at the next election, will they give the British people a referendum on
whether they want to remain in or to leave the EU? The answers all extol
the virtues of Britain’s EU membership but refuse to answer the
question. So the answer quite clearly is NO referendum. It is therefore
quite clear that the Conservatives are a fully bought and owned subsidiary
of the EU system of totalitarian federal government, as are both Labour
and the LibDems. Despite a huge majority of British people wanting out
of the EU, we are all now political prisoners of a federalised totalitarian
state called the EU and our jailers are the LabLibCon party. If we continue
to vote for our jailers, then we will remain in our political prison.
They are not going to allow us the key to the exit door. So vote for anyone
else at all that believes in UK sovereign Parliamentary Democracy, be
they independents, UKIP or whatever or you will remain in what is effectively
a one party state governed centrally by the unelected and the unaccountable.
That is exactly where we now are.
DEPORT FOREIGN CRIMINALS The government recently proposed the early release of prisoners, to enable ‘better use’ of the prison spaces. If we governed our own country and had control of our borders, we could deport the current 10,384 foreign prisoners, which based on the 2002 cost per prisoner would save approximately £0.5 BN. This action would also have the benefit of freeing up 14% of the overall prison capacity. Either way, we the taxpayer would gain. John Galloway
We cannot give in to demands for Sharia laws
Gerard Batten, MEP for London (UKIP)
The current chaos developing as local authorities find themselves over
run with EU migrants from last year's new accession countries, who are
now flooding the labour market in the UK and overwhelming local education
and housing services, was confidently predicted by UKIP, whose MEP's all
voted against further EU expansion. Local Authority finances cannot cope
with this influx without massive increases in council tax, so they are
asking central goverment for extra help. Either way it's the same extra
tax out of all our pockets. The LibLabCon MEP's in Brussels merrily voted
for the expansion and the Labour Government suggested that we would have
about 13,000 migrants, when the real figure is now well over 500,000,
and that is only those that have registered their presence here. UKIP
have been called nutters and fruitcakes for our views, but the real lunatics
are those running the asylum who voted for this madness. We all deserve
the politicians we elect! Remember that next time you fill in a ballot
paper. It's not what they say but what they do that counts. Sir, The government have been forced to do a U-Turn on the House Sellers Pack
because the Bank of England, currently being re-branded as the Central
Bank of the United Kingdom to remove the politically incorrect word 'England',
have advised them that the disruption that it would cause to the housing
market would cause financial mayhem and recession in our economy. However
the real reason for the Sellers Pack is yet again an EU imposed directive
requiring Energy Efficiency Certificates, part of the Sellers Pack. It
will therefore come to pass that at least this part of the pack will be
enforced. The fact that buyers and their surveyors are quite capable of
judging the insulation and efficiency of a property when buying is not
good enough. We must be regulated in line with Europe, like it or not.
No use writing to your Lab/Lib/Con MP in protest as they no longer govern
this country! It's time we governed ourselves again and only UKIP represent
that view.
Dear Editor I would like to respond to Michael Carter’s letter dated 22 Jul 06, titled ”Angle of reporting was not fair to EU”, where he raises various issues with my letter “EU Ruling the Biggest Threat to Our Nation”. He is correct, the Stars’ editorial team titled my letter; my proffered title was “Bureaucratic Terrorism”. Although in my letter I made no mention of the EU it is perhaps worth looking back 33 years and asking if the incidents that I highlighted, would have resulted in fines back then; I believe the answer is no. The point is that under the Bill of Rights Act (ignored by recent parliaments) a fine can only be given via a court with a judge and Jury. The concept of judge and jury rolled into one, forms part of the “European” law system, and is an alien judicial process for the UK. Mr Carter also wondered if the Star received funding from UKIP because it prints UKIP letters - I can categorically state that that the UK Independence Party in North Shropshire does not fund in anyway the Star newspaper; I would hope our letters are published for their interest - we write as we feel passionately about the deceit and continued destruction of our democracy. At least we have a free press, which endeavours to keep a balanced discussion. Remember the EU spends in the UK each year, literally millions of pounds, of taxpayer’s money promoting itself.
John Galloway
I would like to respond to MEP Bushill-Matthews letter, EU agency top quality, dated 11 Jul 05. It appears typical of MEP Bushill- Matthews to be preening himself over the results of an annual independent survey of competition authorities, which found the European Commission, to be the most admired agency in the World for Combating Cartels and promoting fair competition. He would wouldn’t he - nothing like unelected demy-god worship. I still have not been able to locate the report, but lets talk reality. A neighbour of mine was telling me how she couldn’t expand her small business because of the difficulties and restrictions on importing clothing from the USA. The EU causes these restrictions. Not so bad if you are a large company, and can afford to cut through the red-tape, but a hardworking small enterprise, forget it - this is EU Protectionism. At the end of last year another report was published and deposited with
the Treasury and Fraud Office amongst other places. This report concerned
massive EU fraud of our public money and lets remember the EU accounts
have not been signed-off for 11 years. I’m therefore surprised;
there has not been correspondence from Brussels singing the virtues of
that report also.
Dear Editor BUREAUCRATIC TERRORISM The biggest threat to society today is not terrorism, but government bureaucracy – just look at the last week. Intercare is a charity based in Leicester, founded 30 years ago by a GP who realised that large quantities of drugs surplus to requirements could be put to good use lifesaving in Africa. The charity which helps to save thousands of lives in Africa now faces possible criminal prosecution. The reason, because of the bizarre interpretation of EU waste directive rules by officials of the Environment Agency, who want valuable medicines (waste) buried in landfill rather than put to use in Africa. Two Hastings fishermen were found guilty and heavily fined, (£14,000) for having apparently broken ‘EU Cod quota rules’. The Appeal Court has upheld DEFRA's right to make up its own system for enforcing the rules (even though such a system is not applied to small fishing boats in any other EU country). Furthermore, far from being "excessive", said the judge, the fines on the two men were "if anything relatively modest". A pensioner was fined £50 for feeding crumbs to pigeons. Beryl Withers, 81, had just finished eating a sandwich during a lunchtime shopping trip when she emptied out the remaining crumbs for the birds. But as she moved to put the empty packet in the bin she was stopped by two council wardens who told her she had broken the law. And in Shropshire, I hear that a pensioner driver who was in a bus-lane, by mistake, was hauled away and fined. I recall recently hearing on the radio a transport spokesman, talking about the new Trench road system, commenting along the lines of “people will get used to it”, indicating to me a degree of difficulty with the new road system All of the above incidents were not deliberate crimes – but the enforcers saw fit to prosecute. UKIP have been warning you for sometime now, of the creeping state disciplinarian monster. Life will become a lot more interesting in the next few years as your rights and freedoms are further eroded. Unless you are prepared to stand up and get involved in reclaiming your country back, you will continue to be trampled and controlled by, an onslaught of petty rules delving into every aspect of your life - Welcome to the post-democratic era. John Galloway COUNCIL TAX – CHIEF EXECUTIVE SAYS PAY MORE The Chief Executive of Shropshire County Council, Ms Downs, response to the Lyons inquiry is noteworthy. The Lyons inquiry is looking at reforming council tax. To quote part of Ms Downs response dated 24 Mar 06 to Sir M Lyons: “The council tax should be retained, made fairer by the introduction of more Council Tax Bands and underpinned with a simple system of Council Tax Discount to replace the present (inefficient) council Tax Benefit system. The multiple of 3 between the lowest and highest band should also be increased significantly so as to make Council Tax a fairer Tax.” So by introducing more bands and charging more we have “make Council Tax a fairer Tax “? An interesting assessment. Readers may also be interested to know that the government and indeed the Conservative party have no intention of severing the link between property value and council tax banding. UKIP however, sees great benefit in an affordable flat tax rate for all, circa £300, making it fair and affordable for all basic services and additional funds raised from other sources. Additional to Sir M Lyons stating that he will retain the property link, he will introduce additional charges, seeing great opportunities in waste collection and recycling tariffs. But what I find truly perturbing is that a (public servant) should be advocating taxation policy – I believe this demonstrates a common purpose in the politicisation of the position of Chief Executive. But I suspect with a salary in the region of £105,000+, paid by you and I, she doesn’t care. A great many people, especially the pensioners I speak to, are continuing to find council tax burdensome. We have this brutish government, throwing pensioners into jail for minor outstanding council tax amounts and yet ‘true’criminals appear to go free. People do not want the state meddling into their affairs, they do not want means testing. They want to be proud and free and know that they can use the state as a safety blanket if needed. To quote Shropshire County Councils web site “Shropshire County Councils touches the lives of you, your family and friends in so many ways” – It just forgets to mention the word wallet.
Dear Editor WHY SEEK SECRECY? Recently Tony Blair and other European Union leaders agreed to examine how to salvage the European constitution for re-launching in 2008. Apparently ensuring that Europe will be centre-stage at the next general election. But just a few days before this meeting, Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary tried to block moves for greater openness in EU decision-making process. Apparently some EU ambassadors and MEPs expressed (feigned?) shock at Mrs Beckett's drive to keep television cameras out of the ministerial debates; these debates decide large swathes of ‘loathsome’ EU law. I would like to inform readers of the ‘New Constitution projects’ that are proceeding, even though the vote was NO, by France and Holland: The European Space Programme No need for secrecy really is there, they do what they want – ignore the plebs. The question to our current ruling class is quite simple, “What part of “Non” or “Nee” from our neighbours do you not understand? Because even I, without a law degree, know both mean NO.”
Dear Editor WE ARE FULL UP Where does this government think it has gained the right to give an amnesty to 500,000 illegal people, to stay in the UK? This government, because of gross incompetence, has lost control, and let us remember, devolved most decisions to the European Union. But do not be fooled by the mutterings of the opposition, they started the process of devolving power from Westminster to the EU which has resulted in the open borders policy. Senior ministers have admitted they do not know how many extra people are in our country and David Roberts, Immigration and Nationality Directorate, has stated, “there is little point in hunting individuals who overstay their visas”. Not much accountability or professionalism from these people who are apparently in-line for performance related bonuses. As a country we are overcrowded; the average population density of England is twice that of Germany, four times that of France, and twelve times that of the United States. Our roads and railways are seizing up, town centres at near gridlock, social services at breaking point, doctors’ surgeries full to the brim, hospital waiting lists are growing, water is getting restricted, energy is getting more expensive, housing in short supply and very expensive, and unemployment is rising – All because of excess demand, caused by too many people. Unless we again govern ourselves, by returning full powers back to our
Westminster parliament, there is little hope of our Brussels Masters allowing
us to control our own borders. As the main 3 parties are committed to
the EU, you have more chance in the UK of finding an albino chameleon
than a working immigration policy. John Galloway Dear Editor MORAL OUTRAGE The murder by stabbing of the 15-year-old boy Alex Mulumba was tragic. His father was “Shocked and saddened” at the attack, and the police used a mobile phone image of Alex dying to reinforce the message about the dangers of carrying knifes. But a closer look at this story reveals a far more perturbing tale. Alex was part of a notorious south London gang. He had appeared on their website masked and crouching with a pump action shotgun, and although he has no previous convictions he was on police bail for charges including robbery, theft and violence. It is probable that a rival gang stabbed him. Last year two 15 year olds linked to the gang Alex was in, were jailed for over 6 years for involvement in 35 muggings and other offences. Death is sad, but more so when the victim is young. However the real tragedy of this story is the creation of a youth underclass. There are young teenagers who put no value on life; where crime and violence are considered normal. This death should never have happened, but there has been a collective failing by recent governments, stripping schools and media of a sense of morality and responsibility. Where are the simple Christian messages of right and wrong? Where is the true moral outrage about crimes articulated? Not often in the media, for fear of offending the politically correct do-gooders. And look at the behaviour of politicians in Westminster; a culture of lies, spin and deception mixed with a breathtaking arrogance of little accountability. I am offended by this deliberate failure of our ruling class. John Galloway Dear Editor SECRET ID CARD REPORT The Freedom of Information watchdog has ruled that the Government must
release a report they have kept secret for nearly 2 years which analyses
whether ID cards can deliver benefits to stop identity fraud, particularly
involving benefit fraud. The Government has never explained how the vast
costs of this absurdly complicated computer program can be justified.
It will be interesting to see what excuses the Government can now dream
up to stop its publication
Dear Editor TAKE CARE WHEN TRAVELLING IN THE EU - IT COULD BE YOU NEXT. In May of 2002, a team of four British divers were suddenly picked up by the Spanish police in Corrubedo in Galicia (Spain). The team had been diving on the wreck of the 'Friesland', a Dutch East Indiaman which went down in 1877 with a cargo of tin ingots. The dive company, Force 9 Salvage based in Falmouth, had all the necessary permits to bring up this cargo and the Spanish government were partners in the venture. However, in spite of the absence of any evidence, the local police brought accusations of theft and damage to Spanish heritage. Locally there is a belief in the existence of a treasure ship of gold and diamonds in the area. A Spanish archaeologist valued the few artefacts brought to the surface to identify the wreck as having a nominal value of one euro. A Spanish police diving team produced a report saying no damage had been done. However these divers have been advised to expect soon to be summonsed to a Spanish court on what would appear to be ‘trumped up’ charges. It is of note that the home Office is unable to actually do anything to help these divers. With the new EU Arrest Warrant (EAW), a British citizen can be shipped abroad when accused of something by an EU country regardless of the standard of evidence. British citizens are unable to first have the evidence tested in a British court because the UK Government has handed over sovereignty to the EU, thus British courts are now subservient to EU law. The accused have to undergo a trial in the foreign country with obvious consequences to the person and their family. Not all countries have the same traditions of protecting the individual as the British justice system used to have. But thanks to Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem MPs, your country no longer has the power to protect its’ own citizens. John Galloway
Dear Editor POLITICISATION OF THE MET POLICEHas the politicisation of the Met Police force taken place? Why else would 78 police officers, at 2.30 am, at a cost (revised) of £27,754, go to remove the hoardings of Mr Brian Haw, the Iraq War Protester outside the Houses of Parliament. Was it an eyesore for freedom or a blot for democracy? Maybe we should be concerned about the true nature of the ‘Serious Organised Crime and Police Act'. John Galloway
Dear Sir When we voted to stay in the 'Common Market' in 1975 we were told that it was 'just a free trade agreement'. Since then, without any by your leave, the EU has taken over three quarters of the government of this country, imposing Regional government, VAT, farming and fishing policies, regional mergers of police and ambulance services, open door immigration and making three quarters of our laws that effect every aspect of our lives. Now they want to take over the running of football and to create an EU navy - some trade agreement this is! What's more it's not possible to vote these people out of office and you'll never see a manifesto from them that gives you any choice on policies. What's even worse is the LibLabCon political cartel agrees to this system of dictatorship and people keep on blindly voting for them like turkeys voting for Christmas! UKIP says lets get out of this dictatorship, run our own country democratically
and make politicians accountable. It's time we governed ourselves! Dear Sir / Madam OPEN BORDERSI hope that the revelations concerning convict releases will now wake people up to what is happening in our country. The Home Secretary will have known that 133 of the 1023 convicts released could not be deported because they are nationals of other EU member states. This government aided by the Tories and Lib Dems has granted full residence and employment rights to nationals of other EU member states - without consultation of the general public. The lack of proper border controls will continue to let undesirables to enter our country. Unless we restore full control of our law making to our parliament, and therefore manage our own borders, and decide whom we want to allow in, this problem will remain unresolved. The only mainstream party to guarantee proper border controls is UKIP. John Galloway
Dear Sir or Madam, Philip Bushill-Mathews is intelligent enough to know that my phrase, 'grave news for any worker in Britain' regarding the European Union directive on Services, was made before the Parliament had the sense to throw out the section which would have allowed these services to be provided under the rules of their own country – I was amazed that such nonsense ever reached the discussion stage. He also tells us that the European Union is not letting France get away with her protectionist plans which gives rise to two questions, isn't the whole ethos of the European Union blatant protectionism?, i.e. the ring fencing of 450 million customers against the rest of the world?, and secondly hasn't France always got away with everything? Does he remember the millions in fines imposed against France for its non acceptance of British beef? – France stonewalled for six years and paid nothing - the European Union did nothing. Perhaps the MEP is too close to the action to realize that France runs the European Union - it is clear enough from here! Yours faithfully Bob Wydell
Dear Sir or Madam, ALL GOING UP? My Council Tax is going up, my water, gas and electricity supplies are going up, as is my phone bills, blood pressure and TV Licence – my state pension hiccupped but not enough to register as ‘going up'. Criminal gangs in London are going up – 180 at the last count, gun crime and multi million pound robberies are going up – all courtesy of the stupidity of the European Union's border policy. My contributions to this sorry organisation are going up thanks to a totally inept performance by our Prime Minister. I calculate that from the taxes levied on my weekly pittance of a state pension, I am subsidising 1/3 rd of a French farmer, which is exactly 1/3 rd more than I wish to and I am not alone, today's Telegraph printed five readers letters about the European Union – four described it as an expensive failure and the fifth didn't know what he was talking about. Last week a reader asked, ”Name me three things that have improved the condition of this country under the European Union which we could not have achieved outside – and at lower costs. – No one could! Britain should not be saddled with this enormous financial commitment to the European Union when four out of every five of it's citizens are against it! Yours faithfully Bob Wydell
Dear Sir or Madam, We hear today of the true measure of Tony Blair's voluntary financial contribution, on our behalf, to the European Union –“A Truly Stupefying Sum', and ‘An Awesome Amount of Money' said the Daily Telegraph. Britain will hand over £44 billion over the next budget period! At a time when we at home are being hammered by above inflation Council Taxes, fuel and water bills, TV Licences and stealth taxes. At a time when we cannot find an NHS Dentist or a solvent hospital, when our roads and towns are gridlocked with traffic due to lack of investment in our infrastructure, Britain will hand over this obscene amount to be invested in the infrastructure of the Eastern European member countries and to subsidise our commercial competitors in Europe, and to an organisation that has failed to produce acceptable accounts for the last eleven years! – It is the politics of the mad-house! ‘La Parisien' printed, “Chirac won the match against Tony Blair over the British rebate”, Germany's ‘Welt am Sonntag' jeered, “Tony Blair began his presidency like a tiger, and finished it like a doormat”! The Tories, New Labour and the Lib Dems are quite happy to fleece us to subsidise Europe – only UKIP will put an end to this humiliating and costly venture which Britain can ill afford. Yours faithfully Bob Wydell
Dear Sir or Madam, Turn over any stone in the European Union and another scam involving our money going somewhere else emerges. European Union judges are paid half their salary for three years after they finish in the job! Britain's senior European Union judge has taken home £90,000 every year since leaving in 2004! There's more, since leaving he is now working for MicroSoft in a case against the European Union and, under the generous rules which only Brussels can afford he is entitled to demand fees of £5,000 per day from the European Union, plus costs while working for the private sector! This three year deal is to ensure that senior members do not suffer ‘hardship' when they retire. I doubt that anyone who works for this organisation even knows the meaning of the word. The Commission says, “They are expected to behave with integrity and discretion regarding appointments or benefits”, that's rich coming from the Commission, add honesty and shame to those two virtues and we have another four words which seem to loose all meaning when translated in Brussels! Yours faithfully Bob Wydell
Sir,
Dear Sir or Madam The Lib Dem leader this week promised more decisions at local level – the Lib Dems support the European Union whose policy is to centralise all decision making in Europe.The Tories instruct their MEPs to join the European Union political group whose aim is the implement the rejected constitution and ever closer political ties with Europe. New Labour pays the countries pensioners a miserable pittance to live on clearly believing that it is more important to give billions to subsidise inefficient workers in Europe rather than looking after your own. Yesterday, April 4th, the European Union commenced legal proceedings against twenty of its twenty-five member countries to demand obedience of European Union laws. Britain obeys these rules – Britain pays the second highest contribution to the European Union – Britain gets nothing in return! I submit that it is the politicians of our three major political parties who allow this fiscal farce to continue who deserve the titles of ‘Fruitcakes and Loonies’ Yours faithfully Bob Wydell Dear Sir or Madam, Jack Straw, tells us that a ‘No' vote to the constitution would mean an isolated Britain. If he dragged his head out of the federal clouds for five minutes he would see the truth – that we have been ‘isolated' for thirty years! Isolated from any tangible benefits from 30 years of membership, isolated from any meaningful input to EU policies for 30 years. £73 billion Britain has poured into EU coffers yet for 30 years we have not had a say in the destination or distribution of those billions. If Mr Straw and his Deputy Propaganda Minister MacShane would refrain from writing and believing this pro federal bilge they may find the grim economic news coming from Brussels this week – that more than half of the EU member countries have serious long term problems with their economies. Greece and Hungary are the worst but the list includes France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Malta. All have high levels of debt and growing pension liabilities. Britain's situation is not as dire but we should stop the billions we pay into the bottomless pit of this federal farce every year, stop accepting and implementing the endless edicts and regulations from Brussels which increase costs, stifle initiative and shackle the growth of our economy. It is clear that our partners in the European Union have no intention of ever abiding by the rules they themselves make – get us out and let us face and be responsible for our own problems. Yours faithfully Bob Wydell
Sir, Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill So Bill Cash says he will table an amendment to the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill to allow repeal of unwanted EU legislation, despite the 1972 European Communities Act that makes EU law supreme. He must know that the judgement of Lord Justice Laws in the Metric Martyrs case established that the ECA 1972 is a Constitutional Act, on a par with the Bill of Rights and Magna Carta and so cannot be over ruled by any subsequent ordinary Act of Parliament. The only solution is to repeal the European Communities Act and any other proposal is either nonsense or sham euroscepism. Jonathan C. Carr , Secretary of UKIP North Shropshire
Dear Sir END OF CHURCH ORGANS? After hundreds of years of a tradition of beauty, ill thought out Brussels legislation is about to devastate another aspect of this countries life. Despite being made aware of the problem well in advance our government is bringing in legislation that will over time silence pipe organs for good. The legislation in question is a combination of something called "Restriction of Hazardous Substances - RoHS" and the "Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment - WEEE Directives". These are of course brought in from the European Union and inserted into our law by statute without a single word of debate in Westminster. According to the Institute of British Organ Building "organ pipes last almost indefinitely, and have no adverse environmental effects – they are never disposed of into landfill as old metal is very easily recycled into new pipes!" However because their fans are powered by electricity and the pipes are made of lead alloy they are hit by this legislation. As they say, “it is inconceivable that five centuries of tradition can be destroyed at a stroke of a pen in Brussels". What this means is that repairs to organs will be effectively illegal from July 1st of this year. The UK Independence Party of course voted against this legislation, that was supported by all other UK parties in the European parliament, precisely because of the vast possible array of unintended consequences. Nobody suggests that this is what the well meaning envirocrats wanted to silence church music, it is just the lack of care and Westminster's inability to scrutinise the legislation, despite foreknowledge of the problem, leads us to conclude that yet again we have a case of bad EU law being over zealously interpreted by an uncaring government. People can get in touch with the campaign to save the organs by going to www.pipes4organs.org. John Galloway Sir, Election Fraud? So it turns out that the Labour Party received around £14 million in “loans” that the Party Treasurer knew nothing about! As a Party Regional Treasurer myself, I find this rather hard to believe because all income must be reconciled to expenditure, which must be declared to the Electoral Commission. However, if the Labour Party operated a second secret set of books of which the Party Treasurer was not aware then he could have been kept in the dark. The real question which is not yet being asked is how was the £14 million spent? All election expenditure must be declared by law and central election expenditure allocated to constituencies. The spend in each constituency must not exceed a set amount and be declared in full to the Electoral Commission. By my calculations, if this £14 million was allocated to all constituencies, then this would exceed £21,000 per constituency, which exceeds by far the legally permitted maximum expenditure, especially if added to the local candidate’s normal election expenses. So it would appear that the Labour Party and its officials may well have broken election law, despite their claims that ‘loans’ are not required by law to be declared. This should be fully investigated and all those involved, up to the highest level, prosecuted. It could even result in the election result being legally challenged.
Jonathan C. Carr, UKIP West Midlands Treasurer
Dear Sir FORCED MARRIAGES IN UK The government has been consulting about whether to ban forced marriages in the UK. These ‘marriages’ are not the same as arranged marriages. It is expected that on balance, a law to ban forced marriages will not be pursued. Of course by just ignoring this barbaric practice, the government does not have to make a moral judgement (maybe it is out of morals?). About 300 girls or women are forced into marriage each year in the UK, affecting mainly the ethnic population. Another name for forced marriage is kidnap, rape and abuse- thus no new laws are needed, just a justice system that is correctly used. John Galloway
Dear Editor, Many people will be aware of Government plans to restructure the 43 local police forces to broadly match the EU Regions. Good riddance to the West Mercia Force, some may say, but will a super force better serve us? Whether or not the public want these mergers is not being considered. Using the excuse, "to fight terrorism", the Government proposed the mergers on September 16th. Six days later Chief Constables were told to come up with their plans for merger by November 28, and by Christmas the entire plan will be agreed. The most fundamental restructuring of Britain's police in 170 years is to be rushed through in just 12 weeks. Regional Assemblies, Regional Police, Regional Fire and Ambulance! Regionalisation is considered essential by the European Union to increase its control of our country and weaken local democracy. The UK is fighting a war in Iraq to “bring democracy to the people” but democracy is being destroyed at home as essential services become less and less accountable at local level. It is a scandal that Britain's policing will be totally reconfigured in just a few weeks. Once again this government shows it contempt for the democratic process. John Galloway
Sir While the NO votes in the French and Dutch referenda are great news for eurosceptics, reports of the death of the EU project are premature. The fact remains that the existing EU treaties contain 90% of the contents of the constitution, including a commitment to 'ever closer union' and a centralised political, federal state. As a result of these treaties, none of which are in any way affected by these votes, the euro-federalists have all the power they need to continue with the federalising process. This process continues almost daily as our local government and regionalgovernment progress towards control by Brussels, our police and criminal justice systems are being 'harmonised', our defence forces being integrated into EU structures and equipment plus the daily dose of EU directives. These treaties created an ongoing process of integration and are not as many imagine completed historic deeds. None of the existing EU structures or 100,000 plus directives are withdrawn by these referenda. So it's very much business as usual in Brussels! Unless one of the big political parties is prepared to listen to the people, abandon their commitment to the EU, leave the EU and rejoin EFTA (European Free Trade Area) which is what most people want, then UKIP is the only rational political choice. Jonathan C. Carr
Sir What “Swearword” is going on? A teenager in Kent has been handed an £80 on-the-spot fine by a policewoman for using that well know swear word beginning with the letter F. He said the word in a private conversation with friends in public and the policewoman overheard him; he has refused to pay the fine. In the same week a DJ from Radio One was given just a ‘hand slapping’ for broadcasting the same word and Gordon Ramsey again appears to find it impossible to string a sentence together without using the F word as a conjunction. These events highlight contradictory standards. If using the word is unacceptable then the media should have a duty to set an example, and the police should be taking action against the media. But of course they won’t, it is far easier to try and fleece the young impressionable youth. John Galloway Sir, Sir,
Sir Philip Bushill-Matthews
assertion in his letter (Star Friday 13th January) that Regionalisation
is not an EU imposition but a John Prescott concept flies in the face
of all the evidence. The Europe of the Regions had already been mapped
out even before the Conservatives signed us up to the Treaty of Rome in
1972 and they knew what that meant. Further treaties, especially Maastricht
(John Major) and the Single European Act (Margaret Thatcher) committed
us to Regionalisation and ‘ever closer union’. Now, Mr Bushill-Matthews
states that the great white hope David Chameleon will stand in the way
of this Conservative created steamroller and stop it. What a laugh! We
all know by now that had the Conservatives been in office, they would
be doing exactly what John Prescott is trying to do to comply with their
Treaty commitments, just as they did when they tried to take us into the
ERM with disastrous consequences. The deception continues. There is only
one way to stop that steamroller and run our own country again and that
is to leave the EU. UKIP policy. Sir This week, the EU
Commission reprimanded Gordon Brown for overspending tax revenues and
they are right in what they are saying. Despite this, the same bunch of
losers only last month pressured Blair into giving up to £1.9 billion
per annum more of our taxpayers money towards their EU budget. You know,
the one that has failed its audit due to waste and fraud for the past
11 years running! More and more expenditure is also being incurred here
in the public and private sectors to comply with the uncosted imposition
of over 100,000 EU rules and regulations. Quangos and EU Regional Assemblies,
regulators and bureaucrats grow like Topsie at the expense of taxpayers
and the productive private sector. Economic growth slowly grinds to a
halt and living standards with it. So it comes as some sort of cheek for
the Commissars of Brussels to blame Brown for the results of their own
actions. All three of our major political parties subscribe to this system
of government including David Chameleon of the Not-the-Conservative Party
and we continue to vote for them. Ultimately voters get what they vote
for. Better off out with UKIP!
Mrs J.M.Parish's
letter (Star 4th January) says that the EU's agenda for regional police
forces, amongst many other things is being imposed by the EU without political
opposition here and politicians try to pretend this is not an EU issue.
Secret Foreign Office Paper FCO 30/1048-1971 which assessed the implications
of EU membership in 1971 and how it needed to be handled includes the
following statement: " After entry there would be a major responsibility
on HM Government and on all political parties not to exacerbate public
concern by attributing unpopular measures or unfavourable economic developments
to the remote and unmanageable workings of the Community." This document,
kept secret for 30 years explains the unholy alliance of the main political
parties to blame each other for policies imposed by the EU with 'Punch
and Judy' politics but NEVER to attribute blame to the Puppet Masters
of Brussels. Examples include the catastrophic entry into ERM by the Conservatives,
the break up of British Rail into track & operating companies, the
break up of the Post Office and its letter mail monopoly, the ending of
the excellent 192 Directory Enquiries service, and regional assemblies
no one wants. Finally, last week Radio 4's excellent Who Runs Britain
radio poll established that Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the EU Commission
is the man who runs Britain with three times the vote of Tony Blair and
50% more than Parliament. At least educated listeners understand the sad
truth. And Barroso in not elected! Sir,
The news that a Turkish
author is being prosecuted for criticising the Turkish government for
denying the genocides which have occured there in the past was met by
a haughty statement from the EU telling Turkey to mend its ways. So called
seditious libel, or slandering the state has not been a criminal offence
in Britain since the Middle Ages and this is part of free speech. When
British treasury official Bernhard Connelly was hauled before the EU courts
for blowing the whistle about corruption in the EU in his book, The Rotten
Heart of Europe, The Advocate-General at the European Court of Justice
(Case C-274/99) stated: "Criticism of the European Union is akin
to blasphemy and could be restricted without violating freedom of speech."
Can anyone tell me what the difference is and why our politicians of all
main parties have given power to a European Court that can think like
this to over rule our laws made by our elected representatives in Westminster?
Pots and kettles springs to mind!
Dear Editor, Many people will be aware of Government plans to restructure the 43 local police forces to broadly match the EU Regions. Good riddance to the West Mercia Force, some may say, but will a super force better serve us? Whether or not the public want these mergers is not being considered. Using the excuse, "to fight terrorism", the Government proposed the mergers on September 16th. Six days later Chief Constables were told to come up with their plans for merger by November 28, and by Christmas the entire plan will be agreed. The most fundamental restructuring of Britain's police in 170 years is to be rushed through in just 12 weeks. Regional Assemblies, Regional Police, Regional Fire and Ambulance! Regionalisation is considered essential by the European Union to increase its control of our country and weaken local democracy. The UK is fighting a war in Iraq to “bring democracy to the people” but democracy is being destroyed at home as essential services become less and less accountable at local level. It is a scandal that Britain's policing will be totally reconfigured in just a few weeks. Once again this government shows it contempt for the democratic process. John
Galloway John
Galloway
|