The Sunday Quote

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''Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.''

St. Francis of Assisi quotes (Founder of the Franciscan order of Monks 1181-1226)

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http://www.the-publicist.co.uk/indianSummerBall.html

The EU Rules not OK

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The always excellent EU Referendum has a must read story. It reveals how EU directives circumvent the very rules we are told are in place to prevent illegal migrants simply marrying UK or EU citizens and being allowed to avoid deportation.

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Dr Richard North explains that The European Union's top court "has ruled that non-EU nationals married to EU citizens are entitled to live in their spouse's country." It goes on to tell us that the court has overruled a law in the Republic of Ireland, which grants residency only to those who have previously lived in an EU member state. This is our old friend Directive 2004/38/EC again ... Read the full story on EU Referendum

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Not Holiday Reading

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“The credit crunch and soaring food and fuel costs are making it harder than ever for people to afford a well-deserved summer holiday abroad. Instead of hiking taxes on flying, Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling should give us all a tax break.”
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Mathew Elliott of The Tax Payers Alliance (TPA).

Today, the TPA launched their latest research revealing the total amount of tax paid by Britons holidaying abroad is a hefty £1.5 billion a year. With hard-working people saving all year round for a well-deserved break, few of us are aware of just how much of our holiday money goes straight into the Treasury's coffers.

TPA researchers compiled the costs of Insurance Premium Tax, Air Passenger Duty and VAT on a typical basket of pre-holiday purchases such as suntan lotion and swimming trunks, and discovered that every individual going on holiday abroad pays an average of £30 in tax, and more if you are flying long-haul. Shockingly, a family of four travelling to Florida this summer will have to pay a tax bill of £200 - equivalent to paying to take an extra child on holiday with them.

To read the full report (but not whilst on holiday - it is far too depressing) click here.

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Boycott Boots

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The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has stated that it has evidence that large organisations are making small firms wait for more than 100 days before payment and that some are changing terms and conditions with little or no notice.

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Whilist this issue is not new it is now becoming a huge issue at a time when bank credit facilities are becoming more difficult to obtain.

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The large small business organisation points particularly to new payment terms introduced by Alliance Boots in April, under which supplier invoices are payable up to 105 days after issue. Highlighting Boots' new terms in March, the Forum for Private Business revealed waded in recently with the fact that the chemist chain also levies a 2.5% 'settlement fee' on invoices settled within this period.

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"Making small businesses wait 105 days for payment and charging them for the privilege of doing so is nothing short of outrageous," said John Wright the former trade unionist turned national chairman of the FSB.

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"At a time when small businesses are finding it difficult to deal with a slowing economy and rising costs, it is shocking that large companies think it is acceptable to use them as an unofficial source of credit." Mr Wright added.

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Well inded it is - perhaps a boycott of Boots by small business people would be in order? Separate research in April by the bank payments clearing service Bacs suggested that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are owed more than £18 billion in outstanding payments, cleary the likes of Boots are not helping!

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A Question of Defence

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It was Sir Nicholas Winterton's turn at defence questions today when he took up the theme of helicopter availability for British Troops in Afghanistan. After his anodyne opener (as is the tradition) with a stock answer from secretary of state Des Browne, he got to the meat, asking whether the MoD had "indicated to any of our armed services its willingness ... the full story is posted on Defence of the Realm.

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Boycotting the Olympic Games

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There are many reasons why the Olympic Games which will be attended by hundreds of thousands in China and countless millions will watch on their television and PC screens should be boycotted by the UK - we are after all a nation (of which may of us remain proud) with a record of brushing aside naive placators and duplicitous collaborators and standing up to and fighting (all be it eventually) and destroying evil regimes. As 20th centaury history tells us, twice allowing the placators inatialy to get their way has resulted in disaster on global proportions.

One good reason for a national an very meaningful protest by the fair playing British people by means of a viewing boycott of the high profile Olympic Games that most people should understand is highlighted by Christopher Booker his column today; that being the support given by the oppressive Government of the Peoples Republic of China to that bloody dictator in Zimbabwe, one Robert Mugabe.

If that is not reason enough the horrific pictures linked on Dr Richard North's blog Posted on EU Referendum shows a firing squad for Tibetan prisoners, the date of the images is unknown though it is thought to be within the past 15 years. But, of course, such barbaric rituals are now redundant. Instead, the Chinese government has acquired (as Dr North explains) a fleet of modern "execution vans" from Europe.

The US-based Dui Hua Foundation estimates that 7,500 to 8,000 executions took place in 2006. That means an average of 22 people were killed a day.

It is unacceptable that the British Government is not only in reality ignoring the Chinese governments excesses with only mild protests, it is also actively encouraging further business links with what is undoubtedly one of the worlds most oppressive regimes. Our governments efforts are particularly focused on small businesses with export potential.

Evidence of this trade encouragement by both the UK Government and our political overlords the European Union (EU), which first commenced in earnest in 2000 and has remained a high priority ever since, can be found with the EU's regional agencies across our 'regions' - Regional Development Agencies (RGAs) that were formed in 1998 following Labour's landslide election victory in May the year before. In the North East of England the puffed up RDA, OneNorthEast (ONE) - once the pride of John Prescott - actively supports links between local businesses and the Peoples Republic of China all with the apparent support of principle business organisations and the China Business Association which is funded from both Beijing and the EU (with British tax payers money) with very active support from ONE and Westminster.

It can only be assumed that the business community are unaware of the horrible details of continuous abuses of human rights that are ongoing it China. Well to be fair there is not a lot of time to read newspapers or listen to the Radio, watch the news or indeed access media comment on the web when most businesses are franticly battling against the increasing barriers to growth erected by our political masters.

Why else would thinking business people allow their representative organisations to work with the RDAs who are in turn directly supporting evil regimes - principally China who is not only killing and repressing their own citizens - in blatant disregard to natural justice but is also keeping the mass murderer Mugabe not only in power but also in Luxury (see the Booker column linked above)

Those that support the attitude that if UK business trade with China it can 'only get better' should consider that following the Berlin Olympics of 1936 in fascist Germany evil dictators had persuaded the placatory and naive Olympic movement organizers of the day to hold games in Rome in 1940 and Tokyo in 1944 were eventually decisively stopped from staging the Olympics (which would have given their faciest regimes popular credability) at huge and tragic cost.

In anticipation of comments (based on personal bitter experience) from activists from two business organisations (the FSB and the NECC) that I am a member of that will react to this posting with the comment that: '' but all this is politics and does not effect us'' or comments very much to that effect business people should retort with a poinient quote from European theologian Martin Niemoller:

"In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Lest we forget the cost, not leaset in human tragedy, when the plactors get their way.

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The Sunday Quote

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To make up for the absence of The Sunday Quote last week today is a 'pack' of three Churchillian Quotes:-

''It cannot in the opinion of His Majesty's Government be classified as slavery in the extreme acceptance of the word without some risk of terminolgical inexactitude.

Winston Churchill in a speech in the House of Commons, 22 February 1906, referring to the government's denials of the exploitation of Chinese coolies in South Africa. ''

''I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.''

Winston Churchill in a BBC Radio broadcast, 1 October 1939.

''Sometimes truth is so precious, it must be attended by a body of lies.''

Churchill, when war-time Prime Minister speaking at the Tehran Conference in 1943. He was referring Specifically to Operation Overlord the code name for the Allied planed landings in Normandy which eventually took place in June 1944. The detailed plans were in no small part made successful by a series of imaginative and astonishingly effective deception operations.

Clearly all of the above quotes can apply to British politics in the early 21 Century!

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In my view

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Piece published in The Journal, Wednesday 16 July' 08

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Click to enlarge

The Cost of Big Brother

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Timed to coincide with the run-up to last week's freedom-themed Haltemprice by-election, the Tax Payers Alliance published a paper on The Cost of Big Brother Government.
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As commented in the Daily Telegraph: 'Big Brother' government costs us £20billion It compared the massively expensive (nearly £20 billion) but ineffective measures pursued by the Government - such as ID cards, CCTV and microchips in bins - with the notable failure to employ simple, affordable but useful measures such as proper border controls, deporting known hate preachers and properly enforcing existing laws. The paper also featured a "Hate Preacher Rich List" showing how much taxpayers have paid for the council housing, legal representation, benefits and incarceration of hate preachers who should instead have been deported. To read the full report click here.
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Following on from the theme in the Daily Telegrap's piece Is Labour's surveillance society costing us too much? David Davis, former Shadow Home Secretary, said:

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“This is yet further damning evidence of Big Brother’s expensive tastes. ID cards, CCTV, the DNA database and other measures are a huge waste of taxpayers’ money on policies that undermine freedom and are utterly ineffective in fighting crime or terrorism. At the same time, the Government has failed to deal robustly with extremists and terrorists, like Abu Hamza. Yet again, this government penalises the innocent, and is a soft touch for the guilty.”

Mr Davis has more than a point, the terrorists are winning and this Labour Government is acting in true Orwellian style.

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Global Cooling

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We have had no warming for eleven years, the current global temperature is the lowest it has been since 1999 and snow is lingering on the North American continent for longer than in living memory. We have serious papers suggesting a very real possibility of global cooling and sunspots have all but disappeared.

This Blog just thought that the Greenies ought to be told, pass it on !
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The North/Booker Team

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Christopher Booker Booker picks up on 'Afghanistan' in his column today in The Sunday Telegraph. Mr Booker sets out an admirable summary of what has taken Dr Richard North – so far – over 20,000 words to articulate. This is the genius of the Booker/North team – the former writes "long" in order to do the working out, while the latter then encapsulates the core findings in one short piece that then gets the wider coverage.

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Today The Sunday Telegraph has put an active link to the work of Dr North on his site Defence of the Realm, giving those readers who want to look at the detailed arguments a chance to do so.

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The Sunday Quote

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''Every sale has five basic obsticals: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.''
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Zig Ziglar
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Two New Aircraft Carriers

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To absolutely no one's surprise, the government has gone ahead with the order for two aircraft carriers, formally announced this week at a cost that seems to vary according to source between £3 and £4 billion. The ships, to be named HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, will be the biggest and most powerful ever constructed for the Royal Navy. Dr Richard North looks at the matter on Defence of the Realm.

To the Land of the Free

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To our many readers across the pond we say have a nice Independence Day. As our US cousins are fond of repeating:

... to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Quite right to.
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Small Businesses Big Issues

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The passing (in reality 'rubber stamping') of the European Commission's Small Business Act (SBA) in the European Parliament last Wednesday has been met with comments of disappointment by groups representing entrepreneurs across Europe.

Well the Act has been a long time coming and has been subject to the EU's so called consultation process - so why disappointment should be expressed at the inevitable this blog editor for one fails to understand.

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The EU commission in the well tried and tested style of its established propaganda methods stated that the new law ''Underpinned by the principle 'Think Small First' ''. The Commission's spin machine trumpeted Wednesday's introduction of the legislation as a "crucial milestone" which will slash red tape, make public authorities more responsive, drive up access to finance and boost training and innovation. It will of course in reality do the complete opposite; it can only fail to get better.

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In a Goebbles like statements the Commission's 'sales agents' stated that : ''alongside initiatives aimed at making it easier to set up a company in different member states and measures to tackle late payment, commissioners promised to cut administrative burdens by 25% over the next four years.'' The needs of small firms, they said, will be taken into account during the planning of new regulations. Oh really, so it takes new regulation to reduce mass regulation! Now is that Orwellian, Kafkaesque, or Huxlian - perhaps all three ?

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The total nonsense of this new EU law was confirmed by the reaction of small business lobby groups who had thought (but not deeply enough) that by taking part in the EU's consultation process they were making a difference. How very silly of them, they must have been very well wined dined and sponsored in the long process by the agents of the EU such as the Regional Development Agencies and other EU quango organisations beforehand. When they sobered up from the reality that is the EU regulatory system has hit them hard.

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"The desire to think small first is a welcome development but this publication is unlikely to produce the shift in policy we were led to expect," said David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce. "This is a mish-wash of watered down proposals and initiatives with a questionable amount of political will attached to it from the member states."

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UEAPME, which represents small firms across Europe, meanwhile questioned whether sufficient financial support is available to back the Act's "ambitious aims" and credit management service provider Intrum Justitia criticised the commission's approach to tackling late payment, a problem which cost European SMEs €250bn in 2007.

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"The SBA only points out that an amendment to the [Late Payment] Directive is prepared," the company said in a statement. "The work to prepare an amendment has actually been underway for more than a year. Therefore the SBA has failed to include new and substantial solutions to the ineffective directive."

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In its response, the Forum of Private Business (FPB) called on the UK government to "go one step further" than the Act and prioritise the concerns of the UK's smallest firms.

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Though of course what the UK government can if fact do without falling foul of EU regulations is very limited and going one step further would find the UK government summoned before the European Court of Justice and undoubtably fined!

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Additionally all of the comments are missing the salient point. The cause of the problem is the EU regulation machine which has to produce more regulation, that is its purpose; it serves the Napoleonic Code of law making that underpins the EU. To expect that the EU will produce a regulation to produce less regulation is a paradox - or if one prefers just plane stark raving bonkers.

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The reality of the number of regulations from the EU which effects all of us especially the small business community (witch counts for over half of the UK economy) is not often discussed in detail. Back in 2002 the Commission produced 44 directives, 602 regulations and 610 decisions while the Council produced 149 directives (inc.36 with European Parliament - EP), 164 regulations (inc.24 with EP) and 57 decisions (inc.6 with EP). That makes a total of 193 directives, 766 regulations and 667 decisions, that is a grand total of 1,626 pieces of legislation in just one year.
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The numbers in 2003 and 2004 went down, then started climbing again in 2005. In 2006, though they shot up again. The Commission produced 76 directives, 1,795 regulations and 781 decisions; the Council obliged with 101 directives (inc.38 with EP), 238 regulations (inc.43 with EP) and 264 decisions (inc.21 with EP). That gives us a total of 177 directives, 2,033 regulations and 1,045 decisions or, in other words, 3,255 pieces of legislation, most of which have not been implemented into British law yet and will not be for some time to come., though they will without doubt eventually impact on the
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Meanwhile a poll of 9,000 small businesses reveal 96 per cent are disappointed by Gordon Brown as Prime Minister; well no surprise there. As the PM reflects on his first year in power, a poll by the Federation of Small Business (FSB) showed the extent of small businesses disillusionment in Mr Brown's performance.

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At the head of the discontent is the handling of changes to capital gains tax, the axing of the ten per cent taper rate, followed by recent huge petrol/diesel price increases at the pumps - 32.5 per cent since December '07.“With the end of a period of relative stability, small business confidence in the government has plummeted in the last couple of years," said John Wright, FSB national chairman.“Employment, tax and fuel policies have left many small firms feeling that their concerns are not being taken seriously enough." added Mr Wright.

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Well fair enough, but Mr Wright forgets who actually governs Britain. As far as fuel tax policies are concerned there is in reality nothing the the UK Government can do other than increase taxation!

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EUfin, the EU finance ministers organisation which is a part of the EU governing structure (and thus an organisation that that governs us in the UK) ruled back in 2000 that no member state is permitted to reduce taxation (Excise Duty or VAT) on vehicle fuel - taxation can only be increased. This decision followed a French Government decision to lower fuel taxation in response to revolting French farmers an haulers in August of that year.

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Whilst the only option available to the UK is possibly to alter VAT to be levied only on the manufactures price of fuel at the pumps and not to include (as it does currently) the retail price at the pumps plus duty. This change would reduce petrol by about 6.5 pence per litre.

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Whilst it is good that John Wright as National Chairman of the 220,000 member (and expanding) FSB raises in the media the vital issue of fuel taxation, it would clearly be better if he were demanding of the UK Government something that they are able to implement (though what becomes increaingly limited). We in the UK remain governed principally by the EU in Brussels not our elected politicians in Westminster; a vital point that business leaders clearly still do not understand the full implications of.

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The Sunday Quote

"When life appears to be working against you, when your luck is down, when the supposedly wrong people show up, or when you slip up and return to old, self-defeating habits, recognize the signs that you're out of harmony with intention.''

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

Afghanistan, Winning the War.

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The latest part of Dr North's ongoing series "Winning the war" is now posted on Defence of the Realm. Entitled "Hearts and mines", North looks at the mistaken – and damaging belief that our military can prevail by pursuing a policy known as "WHAM" – winning hearts and minds. As the good Doctor concludes, in a hostile environment, our military struggles for the "hearts" of the Afghan population and, in return, they get "mines". The strangest thing is that anyone ever thought it would be different.

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By coincidence, there is a letter from Dr Rahim Sherzoy, Ambassador to Afghanistan, in today's Sunday Telegraph, responding to a news review feature which asked whether the British forces' tactics in Afghanistan were right or wrong.Sherzoy suggests that the feature was "mostly one-sided", stating that "it is important to underline that the Taleban is not an Afghan phenomenon, but was imposed from Pakistan with the support of some elements from other states." He then goes on to write:

From the start, Nato was prevented from achieving its security objectives because it did not have a coherent strategy to go after the hard-core Taleban or a unifying programme to create jobs and address poverty. There was a lack of commitment to create an alternative livelihood for farmers and land owners to discourage poppy growth.

His Excellency is toataly correct and it is exactly the conclusion that Dr North writes about in his most coomendable piece. Read all about it on Defence of the Realm.

The Madness of Wind Turbines

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Gordon Brown launched last week "the greatest revolution in our energy policy since the advent of nuclear power" He refers to a policy centred on building thousands some 20,000 of new wind turbinesacross the UK.at an estimate cost of a massive £100 billion.

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Nothing conveys the futility of wind power more vividly than the fact that electricity generated by the 2,000 wind turbines already built in Britain is still less than that produced by a single medium-sized conventional power station.

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Not least of the madness of this policy is that the intermittency of the wind means that we will need considerably more wind turbine capacity to reach the government's mythical figures than has been allowed for. According to independent calculations, to contribute 10GW which the system would have to produce would need 30GW of capacity. This would require up to twice as many turbines as ministers are talking about..

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Christopher Booker returns to the fray in The Sunday Telegraph with a vengeance in today's column, firing a 24-gun broadside against this wind farm madness, which is a huge waste of tax payers money that can do no more than provide a huge and expensive sop to the Green lobby!

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Mugabe's Thugs

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On a day when the news includes Mugabe's terror thugs breaking a baby's legs, it's almost obscene to write about anything else. But what new is there to say about that bloodstained despot and his regime? It seems only the ditherer Mbeki can bring him down. A quick gallop, then, through the storm which is quite rightly brewing about MPs' expenses is posted on the very excellent, The Purple Scorpion

No Sex Please We Are Very British

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The EU has recently resorted to desperate measures to sell itself to the people of Europe. Their version of a 'Fat Minuite' can be seen on youtube (click here), shows 18 couples rocking the bed. Quite why this blog has no idea.

The film climaxes with quivering bedheads and loud orgasms and closes with the line: “Let’s come together.” The video is part of a campaign by Margot Wallstrom, the EU Communications Commissioner, to boost interest in the workings of the EU.

UKIP MEP, Godfrey Bloom, has been quoted: '' I suppose this short film is appropriate. The EU has been screwing Britain for the past 30 years.''

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