EU Watch

Ever Wondered What The EU Spends It's Money On?

2006-10-17T15:01:00.000Z

To those in the know, it's the EU's 50th birthday next year, and so far, no-one knows how they are going to celebrate it. Ideas have been leaked and since dropped, so we are all in the dark. But they have a logo for it: the monstrosity which is around here somewhere. I would like to take issue with a few things on it. "Together Since 1957"? We've only been members for thirty, so in what sense has Europe been "together" for fifty years? Excellent propaganda here. And because of the accents, a...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Barroso's Pro-EU Propaganda

2006-10-16T19:16:00.000Z

José Manuel Barroso rarely gets my prize for the most sensible speech-maker. And yesterday was no exception:Mr Barroso said the UK can "drive from the centre or sulk at the periphery", in a speech at the Royal Institute of International Affairs.Apart from the fact that when we try to drive from the centre, see Mr. Blair's shocking attempt at negotiating an EU budget, the solution actually puts Britain in a worse off position anyway. Sulking at the edge seems the only course open to us. But the...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Hands Off Our Dairies

2006-10-13T07:17:00.000Z

There has been a complaint about British cheese in Lancashire:European Union experts imposed a trading ban on Bowland Dairy last week after complaints that it had used material unfit for human consumption.So what food was unfit for human consumption? Floor waste and out-of-date milk. This is not as scary as it seems. Floor waste is bits of cheese that fall off the conveyor belt into a bucket (nothing to do with the floor), so the company is just being quite economical in recycling this cheese....

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Farm Subsidies - The Truth About The CAP

2006-09-21T07:05:00.000Z

There's a new independant website which tells us where all the CAP (wasted) money actually goes. It's called farmsubsidy.org, and it's actually rather good. Firstly, there is a list of those countries who refused for their CAP data to be published, and not surprisingly, it reads like a list of the most europhile countries:Austria, Finland, Germany, Greece and Poland.We have a "Partial" sign next to us, and very few countries actually gave a "good" amount of data to the project. So all in all,...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Oneseat Reaches 1 Million Signatures - Time To Fight France In Their Own Territory (Again)

2006-09-19T14:57:00.000Z

This is my first post for a long time, due to a mixture of exam pressure and not very many people reading it as opposed to Conservative Comment. But hey, here we go.One million people have signed an internet petition calling for an end to the European Parliament's monthly sessions in Strasbourg.Which, if you remember, is the amount of signatures a petition needs to guarantee a debate in that great talking shop - the European Parliament - in the now-implemented in all but name Constitution. I...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

I've been lazy...

2006-08-07T07:19:00.000Z

Over the last week, there has not been very many updates on this blog. Yes, the EU is still working in it's own special way, but I've been lulled into a false sense of laziness, due to the Parliamentary Recess back home. If you're interested in the Polish death penalty scandal, then you know what to do. Other than that, it's all quiet on the western front.

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

The EU And The House Of Lords - Not The Best Of Friends

2006-07-19T06:39:00.000Z

Say what you like, but I have become a great supporter of the role that the House of Lords has played over the last eight years. Especially when they come out with stuff like this:The UK House of Lords EU Committee says the public has a right to know what goes on behind closed doors. The peers claim important decisions are reached, yet no report is ever made to Parliament and no publicity is given about them by the Home Office. However, the Home Office insists that meetings of the G6 are...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Movement For European Reform - The New Tory Grouping - But Only In 2009

2006-07-13T11:28:00.000Z

Short changed over the EPP. Cameron has now been politically astute, but dangerously pro-european over his latest announcement that the Tories will form the Movement For European Reform, but only in 2009. You see, Michael Howard made a pledge that the Tories would stay in the EPP until at least 2009. So, some silly people (Angela Merkel), couldn't quite comprehend the fact that David Cameron is a different man to Michael Howard. If John Reid, upon entering the home office, kept all of Clarke's...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

RSS Feed

2006-07-11T08:51:00.000Z

An RSS feed is a web page which is updated whenever I post to this blog. You can access this page at any time and check for updates using an RSS reader. There are various ways to subscribe to the RSS feed for this weblog. By clicking on this button to view the feed: By entering your e-mail address to get updates (once a day at most) by e-mail: Via the appropriate RSS feed reader:

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Nigel Farage Speaks Common Sense...

2006-07-09T11:09:00.000Z

Just a few things to keep us from getting bored... In the last few days, I've been watching a series of videos put on Youtube by someone called UKIPWebmaster. The ones that I will recommend are by none other than my "local" (South East Region) MEP, Nigel Farage of UKIP. Such a man who speaks such common sense about the EU deserves a bit of publicity... Nigel Farage on who's who in the EU commission UKIP MEP Nigel Farage confronts José Manuel Barroso And perhaps the best of the lot... Tony...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Back Onto Blogspot

2006-07-06T07:15:00.000Z

As you can probably tell, I am now back on the lovely blogspot servers, having given up the FTP experiment. Google Sitemaps, I have come to the conclusion, is not worth it for a blog. So what are the lessons that I have learned? With two blogs on the blogger platform, I can compare the pros and cons of being on blogspot. 1) Unknown to most, while you are on the blogspot server, all of your posts are automatically submitted to Google's blog search database. This does not automatically happen...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

The Perfect Remark

2006-07-04T16:47:00.000Z

Following on from a comment on another eurosceptic blog, I am seeking to find the comment most likely to get yourself a severe reprimand from all parties concerned in the EU for being politically incorrect. Or generally being a pain. My attempts are below. Comments welcome. Would you buy a used car from this commission?The Norwegians have twice rejected EU membership. Does that say something?The EU IS run for the benefit of France and Germany, isn't it, Mr. Barroso?Name that institution -...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

My Top Incoming Links - EU Watch

2006-07-03T16:46:00.000Z

For no other reason than I've seen other bloggers do this, and it gives me a chance to show off my Google Analytics site tracking, I have compiled a list of the most referrals to this blog from other sites. Because this blog gets less traffic than Conservative Comment, I've lowered the bar to include every way of accessing the site. So here we go:Conservative Comment, surprise oh surprise - it's my other blog, with 53% Blogger, with 23%Rightlinks, with 7%The Road To Euro Serfdom, with 7%Google,...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Brussels In Putsch For New Powers

2006-06-28T18:59:00.000Z

For once, the BBC are nice and open in their headlines:"Brussels in push for new powers"Says it all, really. The President of the Commission Jose Manuel Barroso has told the BBC that this is not a power grab but an attempt to make Europe a safer place. Rephrase that. The EU wants sweeping powers, so naturally, Europe will end up worse off. No-one's actually too sure how exactly getting rid of the national veto will improve public safety. It will simply mean that Britain can be easily outvoted...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

The EU Has A (Rather Poor) Sense Of Humour

2006-06-26T09:40:00.000Z

I'm not sure if this is intended as a joke from the EU enlargement commissioner: Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica criticised the EU earlier this month, arguing the bloc's "policy of constant setting of conditions" towards Serbia was "deeply wrong" and counterproductive. But EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn replied by saying the Serbian government should stop blaming Brussels for its own failures. Mr Rehn indicated he was "grateful that Prime Minister Kostunica stopped short of...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

A Lack Of Environment Policy

2006-06-23T08:42:00.000Z

A member of the commission has finally realised why the EU is not meeting its climate change commitment: "Despite the various policy initiatives, this report highlights that the trend is still going in the wrong direction. Europe must implement all planned policies and measures relating to reducing greenhouse gas emissions", she added. Oh no. The EU has planned policies? Having looked on the environment website, the policy area merely states their kyoto commitment, instead of having policy....

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

The Euro Is A Must - First We've Heard

2006-06-22T13:47:00.000Z

I pity these poor new member states: Out of all ten new EU member states, Poland is the least prepared to join the eurozone, a move all newcomers are legally obliged to make. We kicked up a huge fuss, so we do not get the euro, but the new states had it forced upon them before they joined? Hard luck. Brussels now has the power to force its failing currency upon unsuspecting member states. They say that they have learned from their past mistakes in introducing the euro. I don't believe them....

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

An Illegal Referendum

2006-06-21T14:55:00.000Z

Suicide by referendum is about to take place if certain players in the game of the EU have their way:The Austrian chancellor has reiterated his view that a pan-European referendum on the constitution is the only way out if the institutional impasse. To paraphrase, because individual referendums aren't giving him the right answer as people are voting against the constitution, he wants to make a huge europe-wide one so that the europhiles in Germany and Spain can outvote the eurosceptics in...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Like the parrot: Dead, Deceased and No More?

2006-06-20T07:49:00.000Z

Tony Blair has done his normal blatant lying over Europe:Mr Blair said deciding whether it was dead or not "depends not simply on me but all the other countries in Europe... it cannot be proceeded with unless there is an overturning of the French and Dutch votes". The constitution needs all 25 states to ratify it. If Blair declares it dead, it cannot carry on. So deciding whether it is dead or not does depend simply on him, as he is leader of the most intensely (60%) eurosceptic nation. All I...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Leaders Of Europe

2006-06-19T08:32:00.000Z

There's a new EU debate worth looking at. It's rather euphamistically called Leaders of Europe, and the members debating are the now discraced Chris Davies, Chris Heaton-Harris and Nigel Farage. All members of the European Parliament, and is directly biased against us Eurosceptics. All nice questions get asked to the Liberals and Tory members, but Farage gets leading questions designed to make him seem europhile and disown his euroscepticism. But he acquitts himself marvelously. It should be...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Self-Righteous Proclamations

2006-06-15T10:16:00.000Z

After the EU furore over British beef, (they are apparantly our closest trading partners yet they were the first to ban it on the discovery of BSE), those selfsame EU countries with the snobbish "this can't happen in our country" attitude, and the "they are british, they no cook good food" Mr. Chirac attitude have a problem of their own. Eggs. Salmonella has been found in eggs from across the EU, although mainly from the Eatern Bloc. A survey measured the number of eggs containing dangerous...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Change of Address

2006-06-11T14:16:00.000Z

Those eagle-eyed among you will have noticed a slight change in the URL of this blog. I am now broadcasting live from the awardspace servers, and very happy I am too. I have to confess that the move is entirely a crass promotional act on my part. I want to use Google Sitemaps and see if it does me any good as far as google goes. Of course, you need access to your own files to do this, so I figured that this was the best move. I also figured that it wasn't entirely lawful to use flickr in the...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

European Central Sightseeing Tours

2006-06-08T19:10:00.000Z

Turns out that the European Parliament isn't the only organisation to do the touring circus trick:The latest ECB decision was made in Madrid at the headquarters of the Bank of Spain, one of the two times each year that the ECB holds its rate-setting meeting outside of its Frankfurt hometown. For ECB read European Parliament, and for Bank of Spain read Strasbourg, and we have another example of an EU institution that has no power over Britain using British taxpayer's money to pay for a...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Euromyths? They've Fooled Us So Far

2006-06-06T18:38:00.000Z

Had a poke around on this (very funny) EU site called... Euromyths! It turns out that they admit half of the euromyths actually are true, and they use lots of trickery to wheedle out of the others. They leave out the embarrassing ones, that is, the ones that they know are true. The blurb says that it has: "the most up-to-date rebuttal of press error and bias." The press isn't where the error and bias happens, people. The European Union cannot force the British Government to give criminals the...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...

Make a Song and Dance of It

2006-06-05T07:23:00.000Z

There is a rather bizarre piece on EU Referendum: "We have big plans to make the EU more punter-friendly," one EU official is reported to have said. "The intention is to heighten people's awareness and make the EU fun. We intend to use the 50th anniversary of the Union in 2007 as the vehicle to drive the initiative." Having a huge song-and-dance party appears to be the EU's idea of livening things up. Not surprisingly, the ex-communist eastern european countries have already compared the idea...

This is a summary. Visit the original post for more...