Silent Majority Speaks
Rescuing Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected Dictatorship
|
Spin,
not face-to-face confrontations with the voters, is the
Government's chosen method of communication. Ordinary people
are dangerous. Ordinary people might ask a question which
throws a politician 'off message'; the Cabinet member might
reveal himself or herself to be a human being like us, and
not a programmed android. Worse still, he or she might tell
the truth.
Ann Leslie - Daily Mail, September 16, 2004
Blair wants to leave his mark on
history - looks more like a stain to me.
Peter Thorndyke, Diss, Norfolk
- Daily Mail, May 23, 2005
I know I'm me - why do I need an
ID card?
"Sorry, officers, I don't have
an ID card. I never applied for one. It seemed a bit steep
at 300 quid. I do have my free passport, my driving licence
and my London freedom travel pass, each with my photograph.
I have my NHS medical card, with its lengthy number, given
me at birth, my RAF service book with my Armed Forces number,
and a chit authorising me to wear a few gongs -including
a General Service Medal with Malaya bar, for fighting communist
terrorists on behalf of my country, or so they told me.
"I've also got various credit cards and
store cards, all with my signature on the back, generally
good for buying the everyday requrements for life as well
as the odd luxury. If you decide to arrest me, I suppose
I'll have to be photographed and given another number, besides
my PINs.
"I'm afraid I haven't got a pension book;
it was taken away."
"By thieves, sir?"
"No ... well, not exactly. By the Government.
By the way, may I see your warrant cards please, gentlemen?"
Oh dear, they've disappeared. E. Harry Gumer,
Romford, ESSEX - Daily Mail, June 1, 2005
NO means NO
When does NO mean MAYBE?
When it's not the answer the EU wants. With the courageous French
NON resounding in their ears, shabby, undemocratic self-interested
leaders of Europe propose ignoring the part of their precious
constitution that requires ratification by all members and
continuing without one of the biggest founder members to
prevent derailing the gravy train.
As in Ireland, they refuse
to accept any NO votes, ignoring the will of the people,
and re-stage votes until they can engineer the 'correct'
answer. Sadly, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw dances to their
tune like a puppet on a string. With tactics such as these,
how can anyone really believe the EU has our interests at
heart. Letter from Steve Penny, Kingsnorth, Kent - Daily Mail, June1,
2005
Surely the French
result makes the £1million the EU recently spent on
a treaty signing ceremony seem a trifle premature and extravagant.
Letter from Keith Wiseman, Bury, Lancs. - Daily Mail, June1,
2005
|
Britain has traditionally
been one of the biggest net contributors to the EU because
we do not get as much money back from Brussels in farm
and regional subsidies as our rivals.
According to Treasury
figures, between 1995-2002, Britain's average contribution
taking the rebate into account, was £2.6billion,
or £43.55 per head of population.
The French - the biggest
recipient of farm subsidies - contributed £1billion
a year or £16.08 per head of their population.
|
|
Tony
Blair should know that respect comes by example - from the
top. If a country's leader has no respect for the rule of
international law and no respect for the truth, how can
he expect anyone to have respect. Letter
from P.J.Atkinson, Ashford, Kent - Daily Mail, January 12,
2006
The
Chancellor's single greatest act of vandalism in almost
nine years in office has been his wanton destruction of
Britain's private retirement industry. By slapping a massive
tax on pension funds, now worth
£7.3billion a year, he has helped to turn
the best private retirement industry in Europe into a basket-case
in perpetual crisis. Together with the adoption of European
accounting rules - which make it much riskier to operate
a company pension scheme - hundreds of firms have shut their
final salary plans to new employees and slashed benefits
to existing staff. From
Allister Heath: "I've seen the future and its grey"
in THE SPECTATOR - April 15, 2006
Nine
years ago the British people were sold a fantasy of clean
and competent government of principle and honesty. Its shiny
wrappings stripped away, the product now reveals its true
nature: Personal greed, arrogance, incompetence, shamelessness,
rash warmongering and an inability to accept - as is clear
to almost everyone else - that it is time to go. Editorial
- The Mail on Sunday, May 28, 2006
|
July
18, 2007 (1509days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 3622 US - 159 UK - >1,000,000? civilians - 25 media
August
14, 2007 (1536 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 3693 US - 168 UK - >1,000,000? civilians - 25 media
This
site has had 
visitors
Treaty
is EU constitution in disguise, warns Hague
By
Kirsty Walker, Political Correspondent, Daily Mail, August 8,
2007
Gordon
Brown faced fresh Tory pressure for a referendum on the new EU
treaty yesterday after William Hague described it as 'overwhelmingly'
similar to the old constitution. The Shadow Foreign secretary
published research showing that only ten out of the 250 proposals
contained in the document rejected by French and Dutch voters
had changed.
The
Tory plain English guide to the EU Treaty
1.
Everything that was in the EU constitution is in this
treaty, unless it specifies otherwise.
2.
The EU Constitution's name has changed and it is now much
harder to understand, but the content has stayed the same.
3.
Instead of nation states taking it in turns to chair the
EU, a new President will be in charge of the EU's agenda.
He is also supposed to speak to the rest of the world
in our name.
4.
The EU will have a foreign minister. He will chair foreign
ministers' meetings , have his own diplomatic service
and will even, under some circumstance, speak for us at
the UN Security Council. Our own voice in the world will
be less important.
5.
We have been given guarantees about the independence of
our foreign policy, but they are not legally binding.
In fact, they may be all but worthless.
6.
For the first time, the EU will be able to sign treaties
on our behalf in its own right.
7.
By various back door legal routes, we could see EU judges
deciding more of our laws, particularly over asylum laws
and criminal justice system.
8.
Every surviving national veto outside defence could be
abolished without the need for a new treaty. Instead of
the rigmarole of an intergovernmental conference and a
bill in parliament, vital national vetoes could be dropped
after only a short debate in parliament.
9.
The EU gains more powers over a long list of policies.
These policies include most of the 60 odd areas where
the new treaty would abolish national vetoes. Some are
relatively unimportant, but others are not, such as energy
and professional qualifications.
10.
EU judges - who have a strong record of using the EU's
rule book to increase EU's powers - will now be able to
rule on EU agreements over criminal justice and policing.
If Britain no longer opts into new laws in this area it
would no longer have a veto to block damaging changes.
|
He
suggested the 'unreadable' treaty had been designed to confuse
the public and accused the Prime Minister of trying to push it
through on the 'quiet'. Mr Hague warned that once MPs return from
Parliament's summer recess they will have only nine working days
to debate the treaty before it is signed off by Mr Brown in October.
His
party boosted its campaign for a referendum by publishing a pamphlet
entitled The EU Treaty in Plain English. Mr Hague accused Labour
of handing sovereignty to Brussels as the treaty creates a powerful
EU president and foreign minister.
He
said Britain is losing vetoes in some 60 policy areas including
transport, energy and migration and warned that new powers are
being handed to the European Commission, Court of Justice and
Parliament.
Mr
Hague added that a little-noticed 'ratchet clause' in the treaty
would allow the EU to abolish vetoes in almost all other areas.
Member states would simply have to 'notify' MPs of what was happening.
He said: "There has been limited public debate about this
issue and it is important for people to have a clear understanding
of it. The plan all along has been to keep the substance and change
the presentation. The EU treaty is overwhelmingly the same as
the EU constitution. It is in large measure and predominantly
the same thing with the same effect. I think in a way Gordon Brown
wants to get this out of the way with as little public attention
as possible. Certainly they want to get it through on the quiet."
Attacking
the document's complicated language, Mr Hague cited a passage
which says: "As far as the content
of the amendments is concerned, the innovations resulting from
the 2004 IGC will be integrated into the TEU and the Treaty on
the functioning of the Union, as specified in this mandate. Modifications
to these innovations introduced as a result of the consultations
held with member states over the past six months are indicated
below."
Mr
Hague explained: "That is really taking everything that was
agreed in the European constitution and using it as a starting
base for the treaty."
In
another passage, the treaty says: "Articles
29 to 39 of Title VI of the EU Treaty, which related to judicial
cooperation in criminal matters and to police cooperation shall
be replaced by Articles (111-257 to 111-264 and 111-270 to 111-277)
of the Treaty on the function of the Union."
The
Tory pamphlet paraphrases this as: "EU
judges will now be able to rule on EU agreements over criminal
justice and policing."
In
Labour's 2005 general election manifesto, Tony Blair had promised
voters a referendum on the EU constitution that was eventually
shelved that year. Mr Brown has refused to hold one on the new
treaty after insisting that the Government had protected its four
'red lines' on tax, human and social rights, foreign policy and
benefits.
However,
Mr Hague pointed to a stream of remarks from prominent EU leaders
admitting that the new treaty is the constitution by a different
name. Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos has said
that '98% of the content of the old constitution has survived.'
Mr
Hague denied that the Tories are return to an 'old agenda' or
playing to the party's disaffected Right-wing by focusing on Europe.
"This cannot be the Conservative Party returning to an old
agenda when a referendum was promised in the last Labour manifesto,"
he said.
He
added that an EU treaty referendum would be key to the Conservatives'
general election campaign if an early poll was called by Mr Brown.
If you have suggestions
for additional subjects, or material to include in the pages linked
to the subjects listed, please contact the webmaster.
|
