''Speeding'' not a major killer - it's official

With the publication on Wednesday of the Department for Transport's (DfT) road safety statistics for last year, there has been much focus on the revelation that – contrary to all previous official assertions – "speeding" is not a major killer on our roads.

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Up to press, the official line has always been that excessive speed is a contributory factor in a third of all accidents but, what transpires from the latest set of figures (summary here) is that "speeding" – defined as exceeding the speed limit – is a factor in only five percent of accidents (1 in 20).

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Why the authorities should be so obsessive about speeding, therefore, has always been something of a mystery, except that it has the advantage of something that can easily be measured, relatively easy to enforce and indeed raise money on.

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Another important factor – of which most people are entirely unaware – is the European Union. On 12 September 2001, when the EU commission defined the road safety targets to be reached by 2010 in its Transport White Paper, it too singled out “speed” as the major issue and, in its list of priorities called for tighter enforcement of speeding laws.If not actually the cause of the speed camera blitz, therefore, the EU has been there fully supporting the mindless officials and the government fundraisers who have been quite deliberately distorting the presentation of the data and confusing the issues.

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Even yesterday, in the official DfT press releases, the urban myth was being maintained:

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''Exceeding the speed limit or going too fast for conditions were reported as a contributory factor in 15 per cent of all accidents. However, the factor became more significant with the severity of the accident; it was reported as contributory factor in 26 per cent of fatal accidents and these accidents accounted for 28 per cent of all fatalities (793 deaths).''

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That is how they do it, eliding "too fast for conditions" – a variable which is independent of the speed limit – with exceeding the speed limit. But, whereas the latter is amenable to speed enforcement, the former is not.

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Paul Smith of the organisation Safespeed details the issue..

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Mr Smith argues that the obsession with speed limit enforcement, increasingly through the use of speed cameras, is counter-productive. Such is the malign effect that the rate of decline in the death rate due to road accidents has tailed off.

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When it comes to serious injuries, data from the British Medical Journal suggests that there has been no fall at all, year on year.

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Pro speed camera advocates – not least those who benefit financially from them – still insist, however, that their loathsome tools should be called "safety" rather than "speed" cameras, but the evidence it now pointing to another possible appellation – like "death cameras".

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Ironically, the very measures which the EU supports and encourages are preventing the UK from reaching the targets that the EU itself has set.

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It really is interesting, though, to see quite how many people believe burning is the most appropriate answer to the problem of counter-productive so called 'safety' cameras - click here and here.

A Fringe Meeting

CONFERENCEFRINGE MEETING

BRUGES GROUP CONSERVATIVE PARTY FRINGE MEETINGTHE EU:

OPTIONS FOR BRITAIN

2.30pm – 4.00pm Tuesday, 3rd October 2006

Lectures: 2.30pm

THE SPEAKERS

DOUGLAS CARSWELL MP and CHRISTOPHER BOOKER

Admission Free Open to all
The Restaurant Bournemouth International Hotel Bournemouth

DOUGLAS CARSWELL MP

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The member of Parliament for Harwich and Clacton. Dod’s political biography describes Douglas as being “Tall and Eurosceptic ...He is one of his party’s radical thinkers.''

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Douglas believes that public services fail all too often because power has increasingly been put in the hands of remote and unaccountable elites. The answer, believes Douglas, is Direct Democracy – pushing power away from Whitehall and Brussels, down to the individual, where possible, or failing that the town hall.Issues advocated by Douglas are; the abolition of the Council Tax and for VAT to be converted into a local sales tax, to make local authorities self-financing, more accountability in public services, directly elected sheriffs, decentralisation of the NHS, public hearings for judicial appointments and the democratisation of quangos. Achieving Britain’s independence is one of Douglas’ overriding political interests.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER

A journalist for The Sunday Telegraph. He is the author of the Bruges Group paper Britain and Europe: The Culture of Deceit and the co-author of The Great Deception: Can the European Union Survive?

Click here for more information

One Bite from Cherie

A satire, or is it a parody ?
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Those rift-healing, wholesome astrological rays of the autumn equinox must have been working overtime on Monday as the Prime Monster's wife Cherie Booth QC finally buried the hatchet in public.......in Chancellor Gordon Brown's skull at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester.

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As the Chancellor's oleaginous tributes to Blair's humanity, prescience and generosity of spirit hit the high notes with a totally unbegrudged grovelling "thank you" for the priviledge and honour of their close working relationship, Cherie's outburst rang clear as the official alarm bell on The Titanic in an expletive straight from cockney slang rhyming with 'rollocks'.

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The unprecedented gesture sent shockwaves of thunderous applause throughout the convention hall, bars and annex rooms as Mrs Blair majestically wove her way outside, only pausing to pose for the waiting cameras gathered outside the auditorium.

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Later, in the privacy of the Oswald Moseley Memorial Suite at the Hellfire Club Hotel that the Prime Monster and his wife are sharing for the conference's duration, Mrs Blair denied she had been in a mischevious mood or had made any such personal attack on the couple's next door neighbour in Downing Street.

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Mrs Blair rounded sharply on critics who questioned her judgement and timing of the alleged remarks by reminding her adoring entourage that there's only ever been one boss of this government, oh yes indeed. "Make no mistake: I run the show in the UK and Europe and have the Riggs Bank accounts to prove she thundered.

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Meanwhile, yesterday's keynote speech by the Prime Monster himself was watched avidly by senior officers of the Metropolitan Police's Anti-Corruption Unit who are investigating bagman Lord Levy and the Blairs top accomplices at Merlin Bioscams and Sainsbury's Supermarkets, in the bungs-for-peerages scam.
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As one seasoned confrence goer chirpped: ''it can only get better''.

Human Rights at Pedestrian Speed

Two seasoned Campaigners, Idris Francis from West Meon Hampshire and Gerard O'Halloran from London, claim that requiring car owners to reveal details of who was driving a vehicle caught speeding on so called roadside speed 'safty' camera is a breach of their right to silence.

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The Human rights group Liberty is backing two motorists in the European Court of Human Rights after the UK domestic courts rejected their arguments. The case essentially concerns the requirement for vehicle keepers to identify the driver of a vehicle identified on a speed camera.

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The applicants to the action claim this requirement breaches the right against self-incrimination and thereby their right to a fair trial under the European Convention on Human Rights.

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The case has the support of the Safe Speed road safety campaign, which believes cameras can divert motorists' attention away from the roads.

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"The so-called 'right to silence' is ancient and worthy," Safe Speed founder Paul Smith said in a recent press realease adding: "It was a severe blow to British justice when it was undermined for the sake of nothing more than needless mass prosecutions by speed camera."

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The court's ruling on section 172 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 will procced at a pedestrian speed. A jundgement is not expected untill the Spring of next year.
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Needles to say The UK Government does not accept this claim, well there is an awfaul lot of income at stake !

The Long Farewell

Tony Blair's speech to the conference yesterday was his "farewell" not to the country… that really would be a cause for celebration. Unfortunately, it was only the farewell to the Labour Party.

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Our "Tone" still has another nine months or so in office, more than sufficient to complete the destruction of our nation that started with his accession in May 1997.

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Needless to say, Blair's speech was greeted with "euphoria" among the Labour faithful. The press always ready with the empty cliché – write that his will be a tough act to follow, which is undoubtedly true. When most of the nation is already wrecked, it will be exceedingly difficult to do as much damage as this man has done, although Gordon Brown – if it is he that follows – will undoubtedly try his best.

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Possibly though, there is something more depressing. When we finally do get rid of Blair, his successor may be so awful that he makes David Cameroon look attractive. That is probably the only thing that would get him elected and the thought of that Gordon Brown's vacuous face leering from the television, being addressed as "Prime Minister", is something many of us do not even want to begin contemplating.

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Tony Blair – who's name coincidentally and appropriately shares initials with a malignant disease which his government has singularly failed to check – will undoutidly be written up as a great statesman.

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It will take several generations before historians are able to write a more accurate account of Blair's 'reign', recording just how damaging this man has been - but the truth usually comes out in the end. That, at least, is of some comfort.

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P.S.

Apparantly Tony Blair in his speech described Gordon Brown as a "Great Servant of the State". Those of you who know your history of the Conservative Party will be aware that this is exactly how Harold Macmillan described RAB Butler - and it wasn't meant as a compliment. Of course, Rab Butler never got to be Prime Minister. Well now, Cherie looked particularly pleased at that point.

Of Fairways and Flags

You would not have guessed it from the blizzard of blue and gold flags at the K Club in County Kildare today that the Ryder Cup was originally a sporting event between the best American Golf professionals and those of Great Britain.

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The first contest was in June 1927 at the Worcester Country Club, Massachusetts, when the United States team defeated their counterparts from Great Britain 9½ -2½.This victory was to set something of a precedent in that in the first 19 matches (played every other year, with none during WWII) from 1927 to 1971, the British

won only three times and drew once – in 1969.

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In an attempt to balance up this uneven competition, Ireland was officially added to the British team in 1973, it becoming an Anglo-Irish team for the three tournaments of 1973, 1975 and 1977. The addition, however, did nothing to change the fortunes of the players on this side of the pond. The US also won those three contests.Almost in desperation, therefore, the British Professional Golf Association prevailed on its American counterpart to widen out the competition to all of continental Europe and, in 1979 the first of the modern matches was played, styled as the USA versus Europe. The US won that and the next two matches.

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Meanwhile, the great dream of a "European identity" was stirring in the bosom of the nascent European Union (yet to acquire that name) and, in 1984 the European Council at Fontainebleau (where Thatcher got "her money back") commissioned a report from a committee chaired by Italian MEP Pietro Adonnino to recommend various measures to build the public's sense of European identity.He reported back at the Milan Council in 1985, suggesting, amongst other things, a Euro lottery, an EU driving license, the adoption of the blue flag with gold stars; and the creation of European sports teams.

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The latter endeavour has been singularly unsuccessful to the extent that when Romano Prodi in 1999 suggested "European" teams should represent the 25 EU nations at the Olympics, he was laughed out of court. But, ironically, the one area where the commission has had some success is in hijacking the "European" Ryder Cup, flooding the venues with its emblem.

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Thus, as the headlines proclaimed, "Europe wins historic third victory in succession over America in Ryder Cup", there were "ring of stars" symbols everywhere, on hats, scoreboards, flags, shirts, etc.

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All the television symbols and other publicity logos were blue with the ring of stars. This was all that Adonnino could have wanted when he proclaimed in 1985 that sport provided a key opportunity to promote a "sense of a European identity".

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But, like so many things the EU touches, the victory was an illusion. The victorious "Europe" team included two Swedes (one of whom lost in the final day singles), two Spaniards (one of whom lost), two Irishmen (one of whom lost, the other ended all square) along with six citizens of the UK (four English, one Scot, one Northern Irish), all of whom won.

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In all, 21 of the 25 "European" nations were not represented. There were not many Latvians in view, or Italians, or French. Effectively, the 1927 dream of a victory by Britain over the US has come true – only now it is under the cover of an EU flag.

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Perhaps that victory is the only model to which the EU can ever aspire which might even bring it "victory" in a wider sphere, which might explain why – for all the provocation – the poor little Europeans are so keen for Britain to remain in the EU.

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One does wonder how much of the EU's publicity budget was spent by the European Commission (all those flags near the fairways) to see six Brits beat the USA.

The Sunday Quote

'' Your friend the British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office''

George Bernard Shaw (1856 -1950) The Devil's Disciple (1901).

Clearly 105 years later not a lot has changed.

Cucumbers, Quangos and Questions.

Don't frighten the horses, businesses or the public ! The British media will not disscuss''Europe'' (The EU)

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It is interesting to see how much energy has been expended by sections of the eurosceptic community on the remote and largely theoretical EU threat to our freedoms represented by the putative abolition of habeus corpus. By contrast, you will see little concern – and none of any lasting effect – in the British press about the continued drip-drip erosion of our liberties and indeed entrepreneural sprit that happens in a myriad of ways through the application of EU law.
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One such is recorded by Christopher Booker in this week's Sunday Telegraph, under the heading, "Citronella deters insects, but it's illegal to say so".

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If you did not even know what Citronella was, perhaps vaguely thinking that it was a branded fruit drink, then the fact that it has been banned for use as an insect repellent by the EU's Biocidal Products Directive, (98/8/EC) is not going to have you storming the barricades.
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However, for Mr Nigel Furlong, whose long-established Newport company makes products for the care of horses, this is a vitally important matter. He has spent ten years and £680,000 of his own money (for which he had to re-mortgage his house) developing a highly effective and popular cream for repelling the insects which can cause serious harm to horses, particularly by infecting cuts.
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One of this cream's 32 ingredients is citronella, an oil extracted from lemongrass, which has the unusual property of deterring insects without harming them, while smelling pleasant to people – which is why citronella candles are still widely advertised for keeping insects away from barbecues.

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It has now become a criminal offence for Mr Furlong's firm to sell its most popular product, because it includes this entirely harmless ingredient which is still on sale in supermarkets, pharmacies and health shops throughout the land, not to mention everywhere else in the EU – and which can continue to be sold as long as no claims are made as to its ability to repel insects.
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Mr Furlong's experience is simular to an another absurdity where a Yorkshire grower sought to avoid the use of highly toxic organo-phosphorous pesticides on his cucumber crops, for which purpose a highly innovative company developed a completely safe alternative. This, oddly enough, was food starch, an ingredient of thousands of manufactured foods, considered to be so safe that it can be found in most proprietary baby foods.
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In the cucumber growing business, the most important pest is white fly and it was discovered that, by spraying the plants with food starch, it formed a coating on the pupal cases which was sufficiently tough to prevent adult flies emerging, thus eliminating any infestations.
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Such an option, you would think, would be highly encouraged by the authorities – but not a bit of it. Because this harmless substance was to be used as a pesticide, it came within the ambit of the "plant protection" directive (91/414/EC).
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This, like the biocides directive, prohibits the use of any products unless they are on a "positive list" and, in Mr Furlong's case the fee payable to the regulatory authority (the HSE) was £89,000 plus the enormous cost of producing a "safety dossier".
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In the case of the starch – which was given the name "Hugtite" - the regulatory costs were in excess of £200,000 before it would be considered for approval.In both cases, however, there is a major problem – the products are generic, widely available to a multitude of manufacturers and, once it is approved, anyone can use it.
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The system thus puts entrepreneurs in a situation of having to expend an enormous amount of money, for which they can gain no benefit.
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Over the years Christoper Booker has built up hundreds of examples of this sort of thing – with hundreds of small firms either gravely disadvantaged or driven out of business. Add to that the broader trade categories, like the fishing and slaughter industries, and perhaps thousands of (mostly small) firms and have been put out of business, with untold effects on the economy and employment.
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Importantly, each impost is an erosion of our freedoms - every bit as important as habeus corpus - in particular the important right to conduct a business and earn you living without unreasonable interference from the State.
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It is thus appropriate that Booker's second piece (of two) is headed, "Whatever you do, don't mention Europe". We – or rather, the political classes – simply do not mention the EU. For sure, Booker's article today will elicit a few "tut-tuts" from his readers and one or two may be moved to write to their MPs and maybe some questions will be asked by some businesses organisations, but that will be the end of it.

Writes Booker today:
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"Europe, we are told, not least by senior Tories, is 'off the agenda'. Such a boring subject – no longer politically relevant." He continues:
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''One result is that the media, reporting on some controversial new law, seem more reluctant than ever to admit that it comes, as it so often does, from Brussels. There were many reports, for instance, on the law against carrying children below "135 centimetres" tall in a car without a booster seat.
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''Almost none explained that this was forced on us by EC directive 2003/20. It took Boris Johnson, frothing with anger, to point out in The Daily Telegraph that the law had been introduced without giving Parliament a chance to debate it. (He seems not to have noticed that it was discussed in committee on 5 July and that his party did not vote against it.)
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''Credit also to The Observer, for revealing last week that 60 NHS hospitals are having to close whole departments because of the effect of the EC Working Time directive on the availability of doctors.
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''It was good to see The Observer acknowledging this, since it had greeted Tony Blair's victory in 1997 by shouting from its front page "Goodbye Xenophobia" – as if that were the only motive for scepticism about the EU, rather than recognising it as an inefficient and undemocratic form of government.
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''Numerous articles have appeared recently on the shambles in our waste disposal system created by the switch from landfill to "recycling".
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''There was a scarifying report in the Mail on Sunday showing how much of our rubbish collected for recycling ends up in China in vast polluting dumps, most of it going to landfill. But this, like so many others, laid the blame for our chaotic waste policy solely on "town halls" and "ministers", without any mention of the fact that our policy is now dictated by Brussels waste directives.
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''Apart from this column, no newspaper explained that the recent changes to "size-based pricing" for our post originated in EC legislation, even though this is there for anyone to see on the Royal Mail and Postcom websites.''
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''There has also been near-silence about the damage being done by Brussels regulations to 'The City', our richest economic sector, now threatened with reduction, as Irwin Stelzer says in this week's Spectator, to "second-class" status.
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''So the great taboo continues. Has there ever been a time in history when people were so kept in the dark about how their laws are made?

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''It is all very well for Mr Johnson to froth with anger. But he might be doing something more useful if he could persuade his colleagues in the "Not the Conservative Party" that how we are governed is not exactly something which should just be stuffed away "off the agenda".

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Interestingly, The Observer today returns to the theme of junior doctors, recording that:

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Patients are being put at risk because the number of hours' training that a doctor completes before qualifying as a consultant has fallen by around 75 per cent in the past 15 years … Junior doctors are warning that medics hoping to become specialist surgeons say they are not spending enough time in the operating theatre to make them proficient and safe. That is because junior doctors' hours have fallen considerably under the European Working Time Directive, which means they can only work 56 hours a week, including nights on call.
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So there it is, "Europe" is off the agenda in the mainstreem newspapers confined to the margins. It is as if to mention matters ''Europe'' would ''frighten the horses''.

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Those of us that know better need to apply pressure our politicians, both indvidualy and through pressure groups, to ask penetraiting questions to those in power, the elected officials, not the many quangos.

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The present Government loves to build 'buffers' betwen itself and the business community - various DTI inovations, Government funded Businees Forums, Regeneration Partnerships, regional organisations far to numerious to list, are all designed to deflect effective pressure from the business community.

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The spirit of true enterprise in Britain depends upon our freedoms. We are being seriously deceived and the Government is being cunningly evasive.

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As top political analysist Dr Richard North warned at a fringe meeting at the Federation of Small Businesses Annual Confrence this year: ''what the European Union can do for British small businesses is send them all the way of the dodo.''

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The end of week quote

Strange relationship

An intriguing and illuminating article, dissects the relationship between the MSM, politicians and NGOs. It is an important contribution to the debate about the way we are governed, a debate which will be pursued here, with much intensity, in the comming months.

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Our particular intrest is Business Non-Governmental Organisations and their ongoing impact (or lack of) on the process of business.

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Headed "MSM, NGOs and paranoia", and written by Nelson Ascher for Pyjamas Media, the strap tells us that the article looks "at the strange symbiotic relationship between the Mainstream Media and Non-Governmental Organziations and what it means to our lives", but this is one of those occasions when the strap undersells. Mr Ascher also tells us a great deal about modern politics, read more…

Shame on Sir Ian Blair, again

As the police officer who gave the order to kill Jean Charles de Menezes last July the actions of Commander Cressida Dick are central any inquiry into the activities of the Metropolitan Police servive that lead to his tragic death.

We don't know how culpable Commander Dick is because 14 months after this catastrophic Scotland Yard blunder nobody has told the full story. The details of what happened have not yet been released to the public because the Director of Public Prosecutions was desperate to avoid a charge of whitewash after he rightly decided not to prosecute the officers who actually killed Jean Charles. So he launched a thoroughly inappropriate prosecution under Health and Safety rules, more usefully employed by a local council to ban doormats because they could hamper fire-escape routes.

Commander Dick's promotion to Deputy Assistant Commisioner is supported by Sir Ian Blair, which should be enough to bring an abrupt end to her prospects. She is seen however as being very much of the mould favoured by the 'Met' chief, she like her boss is an Oxford graduate.

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Only the present Commissioner could possibly interpret that as a sufficient factor to aprove the Commander's promotion prior to the verdict of the Inquest; shame on Sir Ian Blair.

Business for New Europe, indeed!

Buried in the nether regions of The Daily Telegraph business section today is the most remarkable claim that "UK is now top dog in Brussels".

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The story is written by Edmund Conway who has previewed an as-yet unpublished report by the Europhile group "Business for New Europe" (BNE), comprised in the main of refugees from the now defunct Britain in Europe – itself an offshoot of the European Movement.

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One cannot imagine that the Telegraph's Edmund Conway was totally unaware of these Europhile links, especially as the current chairman of BNE, Roland Rudd, is a former board member of Britain in Europe and the board is stacked with members like Leon Brittan, former EU commissioner. Conway did not see fit to pass the knowledge on to his readers, telling us that the report was to be "published today by a group of leading businessmen." Only later in the piece does he identify the BNE and then only as a "campaign group" whose backers include WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell, Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone, Reuters chairman Sir Niall Fitzgerald - to a man enthusiastic Europhiles.

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The undiluted message that BNE wishes to present – with not a hint of critical appraisal – followed by a quote from "Former European Commissioner Christopher Tugendhat". He is allowed to say, "This is a timely reminder of how much the European Commission has changed in recent years." But it is not said in Conway's piece is that Tugendhat is also a member of the advisory council of – you guessed it, Business for New Europe, indeed.

The Sunday Quote

'' Whenever possible, remember that you are still free and that there is still beauty in the World. It's OK to smile.''

Flier distributed in New York by US Red Cross, five years ago this week-end following the destruction of the World Trade Center.

A Eurorealist view of the EU

By Vaclav Klause, The European Journal.

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A Eurorealist view of the EU’s futureBy Václav Klaus,The European Journal, Both in the United States and in Europe, the past 50 years of the European integration process is usually considered to be a success. To express a different view is politically incorrect, but – I am more than convinced – we must be ''correct politically“.

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The way of looking at the European integration process must be sharper and more serious than before, especially now, when we are at the crossroad and have to interrupt the creeping unification, socialization and bureaucratization of the European continent.

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Recent developments need a change. By accepting ten new Member States, mostly former communis countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the EU has been considerably enlarged. This increased the economic disparities and the transaction costs of the EU functioning, ruling and decision-making, as well thedifficulty of complying with unnecessarily “harmonized” rules and decisions in many countries. It also increased the EU’s democratic deficit.

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At the same time the EU has continued – at an accelerated speed – to expand the number of pages of its legislation, which now deals with almost every aspect of human life and human activities. In one of the recent issues of the European Journal I was informed that of the 22,000 pieces of legislation in the EU, about12,000 were introduced between 1997 and 2005, compared to 10,000 during the 40 years from 1957 to 1997. Massive increase of legislation means less personal freedom as well as the fact that the role of Member States and of national mparliaments has been radically diminished.There is no end to it.

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The ambitious attempt to accelerate the unification and de-democratization process by the European Union Constitutional Treaty has been – to my great satisfaction – rejected, but creepin unification goes on as if nothing happened.

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The economic stagnation (or very sluggish economic growth) persists. The European common currency – the euro – was successfully launched but I do not agree with the interpretation that the launching itself was convincing proof of the positive contribution of this monetary arrangement to the economic development and to – however defined – social welfare in the Euro-area. The costs – demonstrated by the statistically visible economic growth slowdown since its introduction – have not been recognised. It has been unacceptable to even suggest such a link.I have many doubts about that development and disagree with the fashionable intention to solve the existing problems by creating an “ever-closer Europe”. I am against the adjective “ever-closer” as well as against the noun “Europe”. We should not speak about Europe, criticise Europe, build Europe or expand Europe,because Europe existed, exists and will exist independently of our ambitions to organise ourselves within it, to unite or divide ourselves or to make friends or enemies within it.

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The Czech Republic recently entered not Europe, but the European Union.The political project – to do certain things together – regardless of the existing historical, political, economic, cultural or religious differences was a rational idea. But it must be rationally implemented. The question is, whatdoes it mean to do certain things together?

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When I look back at the last half a century, I see two different integration models in Europe. The first one can be called the liberalisation model. It was characterised by inter-European opening-up, by the overall liberalisation of human activities, by the removal of barriers at the borders of countries as regards the movement of goods and services, of labour and capital, and of ideas and cultural patterns. Its main feature was the removal of barriers and its basis was intergovernmentalism.

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The second stage, which I call the interventionist and harmonisation model, is characterised by centralisation, regulation, harmonisation of all kinds of “parameters” of political, economic and social systems, by standardisation of conditions of production and consumption, by homogenization of human life. Its main features are regulation and harmonisation orchestrated from above, and the birth of supranationalism.

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I am – as is well known – in favour of the first model, not of the second. I am convinced that the unification of decision-making at the EU level and the overall harmonisation of societal “parameters” went much further than was necessary and more than is rational and economically advantageous. As an economist, I am aware of “externalities”, of “spillover effects” and of “continental-wide public goods”. These phenomena undoubtedly existed and exist and should be properly reflected in European institutions and legislation. However, they do not dominate.

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The second stage of the European integration process has been based on the false idea that they do dominate. I consider it wrong. I suggest, therefore, redefining the whole concept of the European Union, not just to make cosmetic changes. I suggest going back to the intergovernmental model of European integration.

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I suggest going back to the original concept of attempting to remove all kinds of barriers, going back to the consistent liberalisation and opening-up of all markets (not just economic ones). I suggest minimising political intervention in human activities and where intervention is inevitable it should be done close to the citizens (which meansat the level of municipalities, regions and states), not in Brussels.Europe must be free, democratic and prosperous. It will not be achieved by democratic deficit supranationalism, etatism, or an increase in legislating, monitoring, and regulating.

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Europe needs a system of ideas which must be based on freedom, personal responsibility, individualism, natural caring for others and a genuinely moral conduct of life.

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Europe needs a political system which must not be destroyed by a postmodern interpretation of human rights (with its emphasis on positive rights, with its dominance of group rights and entitlements over individual rights and responsibilities and with its denationalisation of citizenship), by weakening of democratic institutions which have irreplaceable roots exclusively in the territory of the states, by the “multiculturally” brought about loss of a needed coherence inside countries, and by the continental-wide rent-seeking of various NGOs.

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Europe needs an economic system which must not be damaged by excessivegovernment regulation, by fiscal deficits, by heavy bureaucratic control, byattempts to perfect markets by means of constructing “optimal” marketstructures, by huge subsidies to privileged or protected industries and firms,and by heavy labour market legislation.

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Europe needs a social system which must not be wrecked by all imaginable kinds of disincentives, by more than generous welfare payments, by large-scale income redistribution, by all other forms of government paternalism.

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Europe needs a system of relations and relationships of individual countries which must not be based on false internationalism, on supranational organisations and on a misunderstanding of globalisation and of externalities, but on the good neighbourliness of free, sovereign countries and on international pacts and agreements.

The end of week quote

The most telling part of the Pope’s speech, which is causing so much outrage in (some) of the Muslim world, is the last part, the conclusion. Said the Pontiff:

''The West has long been endangered by this aversion to the questions which underlie its rationality, and can only suffer great harm thereby. The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur - this is the programme with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time. "Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God", said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in response to his Persian interlocutor. It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures. To rediscover it constantly is the great task of the university.''

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There we have it: "It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures" … he is inviting a dialogue.

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How many of the rioters, the effigy burners and protesters or their leaders do you think have actually read the speech – the whole speech?

'' Mad anti-Americanism''

There seems to be a good deal of excitement, especially on the American blogs, about Tony Blair's "withering attack on Thursday on what he called "mad anti-Americanism" among European politicians"

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All well and good, say we. It is, for some reason, an accepted wisdom that while Europeans are anti-American, the British are not. This has long ago ceased to be true.

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There is a great deal of anti-Americanism among politicians and not just those on the left; there is a great deal of ignorant and bigoted anti-Americanism in the media, again, not just on the left; and there is a great deal of ignorant and bigoted anti-Americanism among the people of this country in general, despite the wholesale adoption of many American words, customs and practices.

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So, Mr Blair, if you are reading this blog. May we respectfully suggest that you contemplate Chapter 7, Verse 5 in the Gospel according to St Matthew:

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"Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." Here endeth the Lesson.

The EU Backtracking in the Holly Land

The creation of a Palestinian government through an agreement between Fatah and Hamas has encouraged the European Union (the UK's actual government) to start backtracking on their assurances that they will not lift the economic embargo (except for a large amount of money sent in supposedly for humanitarian purposes that allow the PA to use other funds to pay their armed militias) until Hamas agrees to the “ending violence, recognizing Israel and accepting previous accords between Israel and the Palestinians”.

Far from insisting on the three conditions, according to Ahmed Yusef, political adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, an acceptance of the Hamas stand on all those issues – i.e. a complete refusal – will now be known as “a more balanced stance regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict”.

To be fair, the information comes from the new Palestinian government that has not had time to achieve anything very much or, even, make its presence felt in the Palestinian territories but we have not had a denial from the European Union.

The argument is that the new government is not a Hamas one but a coalition between the two main political groupings. So, that’s all right. Furthermor, as Ha’aretz quotes Ahmed Yusef saying:
“Recognition and other political issues will be part of the negotiations Abbas will hold. We have granted him full legitimacy to negotiate on behalf of the entire Palestinian people. If he can achieve a diplomatic solution, his plan will be presented before the Palestinian institutions, such as the government and the parliament, and they will need to authorize his proposal. The Arab initiative and the previous UN resolutions will be part of the government's future political agenda.”

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Which means precisely nothing. The Arab initiative is the Saudi plan for Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders (which, of course, did not involve the existence of a Palestinian state, Gaza being then in Egypt and the West Bank in Jordan).

The purpose is greater pressure on Israel, though, clearly no pressure is needed on such states as Syria or Iran or such organizations as Hamas and Hezbollah.
“We will put forth a broad political program that will result in greater European support for the Palestinians, and that will create more diplomatic pressure on Israel, in the hope that this will soon end Israeli occupation. A new diplomatic initiative is needed to bring about change and a solution through peaceful means. The initiative must include greater European, international and Arab involvement than the failed initiatives of the past.”

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So what of the broad political programme. Will it include democracy and freedom of the press in the Palestinian territories as it exists in Israel? In the meantime, let us remember that, according to Hamas, all of Israel’s territory is regarded as occupied. By supporting the new Palestinian government’s point of view the EU accepts that reading of the Middle Eastern situation.

Driven to their deaths

By Christopher Booker

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When Cpl Mark Wright of 3 Para was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday,attempting to rescue six comrades who had been badly injured when their patrolvehicle was hit by a mine, this brought to 35 the number of our Armed Forces killed since their new deployment in Helmand.

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The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been at pains to conceal the vehicle's identity, but the evidence suggests that yet again it was a Snatch Land Rover. When Canadian and German patrols were also hit by explosive devices, theiroccupants escaped largely unscathed because their vehicles, an RG-31 and a Dingo, are designed to be "mine protected".

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This underlined the MoD's scarcely believable folly in sending our troops into action in Afghanistan and Iraq inunprotected vehicles, with the wholly predictable result that more than 30 have now died.

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The MoD seeks to reassure us that it will soon be sending 100 Pinzgauer patrolvehicles to Afghanistan, costing £487,000 each. What they do not admit is thatthese "coffins on wheels", as they are known, offer less mine protection thanthe £60,000 Land Rovers.

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Meanwhile the RG-31s used by our allies, costing just£320,000, have saved scores of lives. Not the least forgivable aspect is how the MoD uses spin and deceit to conceal its incompetence.

The Sunday Quote

''If spider webs unite, they can tie up an elephant.''

An Ethiopian Proverb


Presumably the Elephant need not be in the room at the time (Ed)

When is it going to stop

By Dr Richard North

Via The Times, agencies and others, we learn with great regret that the Army lost three more soldiers in Afghanistan yesterday, with 11 other troops injured. Particularly distressing was the death of one of the soldiers after his vehicle hit a land mine, with five other troops also seriously injured. Another soldier received minor injuries.

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The incident took place in the north of Helmand province, and occurred after the soldiers' patrol strayed into an unmarked minefield. There was no contact with the Taleban.Very few news reports mention a vehicle, however, and the MoD have not disclosed the type. The likelihood is that it was a "Snatch" Land Rover. From the number involved and the fact this vehicle is the most widely-used patrol vehicle, the odds point very much towards this.

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Another soldier of the three who died today one of the crew who was ambushed by a suicide bomber last Friday – an attack that had already left one soldier dead.Yet, German forces have recently been subject to an attack by a suicide bomber while one of their patrols also hit a mine. Riding in mine-protected Dingos, however, both crews survived with only very minor injuries.

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In May, a Canadian vehicle also ran over a mine after it had been sent to aid a resupply convoy that experienced a breakdown of one of its vehicles. Fortunately, the vehicle was an RG-31 Nyala. Although the crew was briefly hospitalised after the incident, Brig. Gen. David Fraser, commander of the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan, was reported to be smiling as he left the hospital after visiting the soldiers.

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For the British yesterday, there were no smiles. Yet the tragedy of the mine and suicide bomb incidents is that the deaths and serious injuries were almost certainly preventable.

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Unlike the other nations providing major force numbers in Afghanistan, though, British soldiers have no mine protected vehicles for carrying out patrols. Had they been German or Canadian, their odds of survival would have been that much higher.And the only thing on the horizon for the troops are lightly armoured Pinzgauer trucks, which provide no mine protection either.

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When the hell is the British Ministry of Defence going to do something about these unnecessary deaths?

The Mantra -Speed Kills

The letter below was published in The Northern Echo today

Bob Jarratt { 2 nd September} suggests, in effect, that motorists must learn to love Speed (so called 'safety') Cameras; they are there he implies to protect us all.

Mr Jarrett clearly supports the road safety campaigners in this country who are obsessed with the mantra ''speed kills''. A slogan which is backed up by the often repeated falsehood that speed is a factor in one- third of fatal and serious accidents. The true figure is in fact about seven percent. Furthermore, the bulk of speed-related accidents occur at speeds within the posted speed limit, so that it is "inappropriate speed" rather than speed, per se, that kills.

As for the claim that speed cameras have reduced accidents, the truth is that serious accident figures have been continuously dropping since 1966, making Britain's roads the safest in Europe. But that rate of decline has markedly slowed since 1994, coinciding with the period when cameras have moved to the forefront of official efforts to promote safety.

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No matter we must learn to love the 'safety' cameras, they are there to save us from ourselves and extract many extra millions from vastly over taxed motorists.

Fishing Policy

Asda joins call for Common Fisheries Policy to be scrapped.

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Asda (owned by US Supermarket Wall Mart) has joined calls for Britain's withdrawal from the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in order to protect the livelihoods of local Scottish fishermen and preserve fish stocks in the North Sea.Gordon Maddan, regulatory affairs manager at Asda, said: "We want all the fish we sell to be sustainable. It's very clear however that the Common Fisheries Policy has failed to deliver this so we are now supporting callsfor a radical change in approach."

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The supermarket believes a new management regime, devised by fishermen and taking on board the views of NGOs and other stakeholders should replace the CFP. It would give fishermen a stake in managing the stocks on which their livelihoods depend.

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Last December the newly elceted leader of the Conservative Party reversed the Policy of the party resuing to oppose the EU's CFP. As it stood, the policy represented two years of gruelling hard work and the personal commitment of then shadow fisheries minister, Owen Paterson MP who produced a credible alternative to the CFP in the form of an opposition "green paper", now dead in the water.
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Taking a very different tack, earlier this year Asda announced it was changing the way it sources fish,bringing its sustainable fish policy into line with its parent companyWal-Mart. Within the next three to five years, Asda will only stock wild-caught fresh and frozen fish from fisheries that meet the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) independent environmental standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries.

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Asda's decision means dozens of products bearing the MSC’s distinctive blue eco-label have started appearing on the supermarket's shelves. The supermarket suspended the sale of North Sea cod in May this year (switching to fisheries in Iceland and Norway).

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The supermarket is calling for the North Sea to be declared a marineconservation zone to preserve fish stocks for local fishing communities. It believes commercial fishing of the North Sea should be limited to localfishermen who depend on it for their sole income and who use recognised sustainable fishing practices.

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The Fishermen's Association Ltd (FAL) and Save Britain's Fish (SBF) have been campaigning for UK withdrawal from the Common Fisheries Policy for the past 10 years, saying that thousands of fishermen have lost their jobs as adirect result of EU conservation policy.

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Since 2001 and 2004 196 vessels over 10ms have been scrapped, and that1,100 boats have left the UK fleet in the 20 years since the UK joined theCommon Market.Last week campaigners for Britain's withdrawal from the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) also welcomed the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation to their ranks.

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Many small businesses in the UK are dependent on a flourishing fishing industry. The EU's CFP continues to be detrimental to our nations economy. When the issue of North Sea fishing is understood and addressed by the UK's largest member Business organisation, the Federation of Small Businesses they to should call for the withdrawal from the CFP, useing Owen Patterson's white paper (copies on request) as the bases for a dynamic and radical policy.

Airfix has become unstuck

The firm behind plastic model legend Airfix has gone into administration; more than one now grown up British schoolboy will lament the demise of this very British company.
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Airfix was formed in 1939 by Hungarian-born Nicholas Kove. At the height of its powers during the sixties, Airfix shifted 350,000 Spitfires, 80,000 Hurricanes and 60,000 Lancasters a year, but by last year sales were down to a third of that level.

Airfix's decline has been a protracted affair. It went into receivership in 1981 as enthusiasm for modelling waned. It was bought by MPC and the kit moulds and tools transferred to French company Heller. In 1986 it was acquired by Humbrol, which struggled to compete against the rise of TV, computer games, and the internet as kids' leisuretime activities of choice. A management team appointed in December 2005 failed to stop the rot. Administrators moved in to Hull-based Humbrol Ltd yesterday.
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Bill Bond, of the Battle of Britain Historical Society, lamented: "It is a great shame. I remember building these models as a teenager. Spitfires were my favourite, like all children. For tens of thousands of boys this will have been integral to their childhood. I suppose it is a sign of the times. Spitfires are no longer fresh in the memory are they? Children now have PlayStations and computer games."
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Sadly, the Airfix Spitfire is no more. Thirty-one of the company's 41 employees were last night made redundant after "severe cash flow pressures" and disruption of supplies from Heller - itself now insolvent - finally shot down the company.

Loss of RAF Nimrod

It was with shock that we learned yesterday of the loss of a Nimrod MR2 over Afghanistan, with the death of its entire crew of 14. We can only add to the expressions of sympathy to the relatives, friends and colleagues of the deceased.

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The shock came in part because one does not expect to lose this type of aircraft, even in combat theatres. One presumes – as has been stated in a number of reports – that it would have been at an altitude safe from any anti-aircraft missiles that the Taliban could deploy.

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And, for a mature airframe, one does not expect a "mechanical defect" – the current MoD explanation – to have such a catastrophic effect.

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Already though, the pundits are suggesting that it could have been a missile attack, discounting the MoD denials. They pointed out that the Hercules crash in Iraq in January last year was initially put down to "metal fatigue" when, in fact, it turned out to have been downed by a missile.

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However, even if it had been a missile which downed the Nimrod, you would not expect the MoD to admit it immediately – and rightly so. It is simply not good sense to give the enemy, gratis, an after-action report, confirming his success. A different line is taken by Colonel Tim Collins in The Sunday Telegraph today, who writes, "Government must find more funds or pull out".

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More later.

Sunday Quote

Sunday Quote

"You have to motivate yourself with challenges. That's how you know you're still alive. Once you start doing only what you've proven you can do, you're on the road to death."

Jerry Seinfeld 1954 -
American Comedian

The Terrorists are Winning

Murder in Samarkand… Confiscated

Don't bother picking up a political book if you're going flying now, security staff could confiscate it. Clearly travellers are only allowed populist pulp on board to read now, anything else makes us a security risk?

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Sadly this is not an isolated story. A British Muslim airline pilot yesterday described the "humiliating" moment when he was hauled off a transatlantic flight just before take-off.

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Amar Ashraf, 28, who was born in Wrexham, North Wales, said he felt " demoralised and humiliated" after being told to leave the flight from Manchester to Newark by a stewardess, and then being questioned by armed police. He believes his removal was down to having a "Muslim-sounding name". There was no other reason why Mr Ashraf should have been suspected of being a terrorist.

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Incidents such as these are examples of how the terrorists have won.

The Press Complaints Commision

The "Qanagate" affair, which we have posted detail of on this blog, has died down and attention moves elsewhere – that is the way of the world.

However, as any old campaigner will tell you, that is when the work really starts. Publishing the details and stoking up huge – and entirely justified – outrage at the behaviour of the media is one thing but, on its own, it means very little.

Nothing has actually changed and, in fact, all we have seen, publicly at least, is the newspapers and agencies harden their positions and go into denial.Furthermore, in the final analysis, nothing will change until and unless the players are forced into admitting they were wrong and are then forced to make changes.

A campaign to achieve change takes on the aspect of trench warfare, pushing, probing and skirmishing, without any great dramatic breakthroughs which will grab the headlines.To that effect, Dr Richard North prepared our report and, at the beginning of this week, submitted a formal complaint to the Press Complaints Commission.

Yesterday Dr North received a response which confirms that he has passed the first hurdle – the complaint has qualified for acceptance and the Commission has agreed to "look at it".The complaint itself is directed at four newspapers, The Independent, the Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, but the Commission has indicated that it will, as requested, "widen the investigation" if it considers it necessary.

This blog will keep will keep readers informed of developments.