The danger and stupidity of the EU

Can I say at the begining of this post, that I am sorry for its layout, I have tried to split it into paragraphs but some reason my computer won't let me .Over the years I have sat and read, watched and listened to many politicians trying to justify some ridiculous policy or law that is being brought out. I have often wondered if they really believe what they are saying is right, and if they don't believe in it how do they sit there and speak as if they really think it is a good idea. I think this also applies to the EU and the constant erosion of our countries ability to control its own destiny and set its own laws. Most politicians, whatever you think of them are not stupid, and they must realise what is happening to this country, and because they are not stupid it concerns me that they are quite happy to sit and watch as we hand over more and more power to unelected individuals. We joined the Common Market in 1973 and since that time consecutive governments have lied to the British people, they have told us that the Common Market, EEC, EC and now the EU is a good thing for this country. But having spent a number of years of looking into the behaviour of this organisation and I have found there are very little benefits for us. So I wanted to look at two areas in which the EU affects us, and that is democracy (or rather lack of) and economically. I have written about these things before, but I wanted to put these two issues in one post so forgive me if I am repeating what I have said before. One of the things that I have written about before is the EU's total lack of democracy and there are reasons for this. Over the years the EU's leaders have shown their complete contempt for democracy, in 1990 they made the Danes vote again after they had a referendum and rejected the Maastricht Treaty. In 2001 the Irish voted in a referendum and rejected the Treaty of Nice and the EU made them vote again, and in October 2002 the Irish voted yes. In 2005 the French people rejected the EU Constitution in a referendum by 55 per cent to 45 per cent and the Dutch by an even bigger margin, by 61.6 per cent to 38.4 per cent. It was left to a Dublin Correspondent to the letters page of the Daily Telegraph, Jonathan Wilson, to sum up the likely outcome of these events. 'The French "non" will not stop the EU or even make it think again,' he wrote. 'The hallmark of the the EU is its contempt for democracy and the will of the people, which are viewed as inconvenient. The EU will push ahead regardless. When Ireland previously voted "no", we were, in effect, sent to bed without any supper and told to vote the correct way the next time, which, to our shame we did.' And of course he was right, The EU ignored the French and Dutch people and renamed the the EU Constitution the Lisbon Treaty and no country in Europe were allowed to have a referendum except little old Ireland, this is because their constitution has a clause in it which states any changes to the Irish constitution has to go before the people. So in 2008 the Irish voted "NO" and of course our EU leaders did not like this so they made the Irish vote again, the EU spent millions of Euros of taxpayers money on propaganda, and stupidly the Irish voted "yes". I have a question, what is the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship? Answer ,the government of a democracy rule with the consent of the people, in a dictatorship they do not. This sums up the EU and its contempt for the people of Europe!! Now to the economics of the EU, this is a massive subject and I could spend a long time on this subject, but I will try and be as brief as possible. In 1973 the 6 members of the Common Market and the United Kingdom made up about 35 per cent of the worlds GDP, since then it has diminished to between 15 and 18 per cent, it is expected to continue to fall to about 9 per cent by 2020. So the EU's importance as an economic block is gradually disappearing. As this continues to happen those who govern us seem to be living in a world completely separated from the real world. Their behaviour is very similar to the Tsar of Russia who in the early part of the 20th century ruled supremely but by 1917 was dead. They do not realise that the world is changing and they are not willing or able to see it. Over the past 40 years the EU has produced huge amounts of regulations, and the pace of this regulation has started to speed up. David Cameron spoke recently about reducing regulation and red tape for business, but quickly realised there was little he could do as the EU produces about 30 new pieces of regulation every single day. Recently the EU increased maternity and paternity leave for parents, this of course puts added pressure onto business, especially small and medium size businesses. At a time when many countries within Europe are struggling the EU are strangling them with red tape. We have the 'working time directive', limiting working time to a maximum of 48 hours a week, and I am sure if the EU bureaucrats had their way they would reduce that further. On top of this there are thousands of 'health and safety' regulations, one of these is the 'working at height regulations', I work for the fire service and we have been forced to adopt this piece of legislation, as you can imagine it is a nightmare to implement as my job is quite dynamic and it isn't always practical to wear a harness. Add to all this, we have environmental regulations governing CO2 emissions, which again is going to have a major impact upon our energy prices and ability to produce enough energy for our needs. On top of all of this the Euro is struggling, Greece and Ireland have had to go cap in hand to the European Central Bank (ECB) and they have been bailed out. Britain, even though it is not part of the Euro has had to dig deep and pay towards this bail out. Alastair Darling, just prior to leaving office signed us up to bailing out any EU country that gets into trouble. So when Portugal's economy implodes we will have to give them £7 billion. At the moment the ECB is buying Portuguese bonds on the stock market (because no one else wants them) trying to keep this from happening, but it won't work. In an ever changing world we need to be able to adapt and move with the times. In an ideal world we could all work 30 hours a week, have 10 weeks paid holiday, sick pay for as long as we needed, a lovely big pension when we retire, we could work in a totally safe environment away from any danger, we could produce enough energy through renewables, and everyone could have the job they want. But that isn't the reality, in many countries around the world they are seeing their economies grow and in the not too distant future they will grow bigger than ours, and whether we like it or not this world is changing and if we do not change and adapt our economies will continue to die and our wonderful standard of living will diminish. I know my postings are generally negative, but unfortunately this is the reality and those within the EU who govern us cannot see it. They are so wrapped up in the dream of a Europe ruled from Brussels they cannot see that they are building on very unstable ground and sooner or later it is going to come crashing down around them. Unfortunately before this happens we may well see internal strife within many countries, we will see people on the streets rioting, as is already happening in Greece. Many people within Europe are starting to wake up to the reality of the EU, I hope that soon more people realise that the EU does not care about them but only about ruling them and we will see this empire die like so many others.

The USA and Isreal, the great Satans?

Over the years many countries have behaved badly, many individuals who run these countries have behaved in a barbaric manner and committed some abominable crimes. Some of these people (generally men) have been brought to justice and some have got away with their crimes. I have found when looking at history, many people have acted in an extraordinarily evil way, and unfortunately many will continue to do so.

Many countries have been forged in the blood of innocent people and if we look at the history of most countries you will probably find there is some event or incident that the people of that country look back on with shame.

In recent times two countries in particular have come under attack for their supposed evil behaviour, and that is the USA and Israel. These two countries, if you are to believe what you read and hear from certain media sources have been almost responsible for most of the evil events that have occurred in recent history (that might be little bit of an exaggeration). Many on the left have blamed the USA for much of the injustice that has occurred throughout the world, or at the very least of having an influence on what happens.

I remember sitting listening to two people I know having a conversation about the 9/11 attacks in New York. These two intelligent individuals sat and blamed the USA for these attacks, they used phrases like 'the great Satan' and 'the altar of capitalism' to describe the United States and the Twin Towers. They sat and agreed that this event was of Americas making and they basically deserved it. I have to be honest, I was incredulous, I could not believe that these two people could talk so judgementally on something they knew absolutely nothing about.

Likewise Israel has for many years come under attack from the left for its supposed evil behaviour towards the Palestinians. Many intelligent, rational people have spoken incredibly irrationally when it comes to the issue of Israel. In practically every news story from the Middle East which involves Israel, Israel are made out to be the 'baddies', it doesn't matter what they do they will always in many commentators eyes be the aggressor.

Melanie Phillipps in her book 'The World turned upside down' says this in connection to Israel
'....subjected to an unprecedented level of scrutiny should be presented in such a way as to drive out truth and rationality. History is turned on its head; facts and falsehoods, victims and victimizers are reversed; logic is suspended, and a fictional narrative is now accepted as incontrovertible truth. This fundamental error has been spun into a global web of potentially catastrophic false conclusions.'

I couldn't have put it better myself, when it comes to this issue, over the years the facts have been driven out, many left wing news outlets have painted a one sided picture in which Israel is always wrong. I have always wondered why this is, if you believed everything you read or hear about Israel you would think that this country is on a par with the Nazi's in its treatment of the Palestinians. Israel over the years has been attacked without any provocation, the Israelies have endured thousands of rockets attacks from Palestine with no mention of this by any media organisation, yet when they retaliate they are labelled the aggressor. Many would argue that Israel has treated the Palestinians badly by kicking them out of their homeland, but if you believe this nonsense you have swallowed the lefts propaganda.

Most people who argued against Israel, usually do not take anytime to look at both sides, they have never spent anytime in Israel or Palestine and know very little about the Middle East. They know nothing of Hamas, the Government of Palestine whose stated aim is to "kill every Jew wherever you can find him", I think that is pretty unequivocal. Recently five members of one Israeli family were murdered by Arab terrorists, one a baby of 3 months had his throat slashed (if you want to read about it click here http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=212017 ). You will probably not have heard anything about this atrocity as most of the media ignored it, of those in the West who did report it described these poor victims as 'hard line settlers' or 'extremists'. I hardly think 3 young children can be described as hard liners or extremists, I am sure they didn't even know what these words meant. And this sums up the whole argument around Israel.

You would think Israel is the most evil nation ever to inhabit the Earth, yet no one mentions that this is the only country in the Middle East which has had a democratically elected Government, with Arabs sitting in its parliament (Knesset). Jews, Israeli Arabs have full political rights, Arab students attend Israeli universities, they serve in the courts and as police officers, they are equal. Yet if you travel to many Arab states you will find discrimination against, not only Jews, but women, homosexuals, Christians. You never hear Syria mentioned in the news and its human rights record, or Saudi Arabia. You only have to look at what is happening right now in the Middle East to quickly realise that many countries human rights records are appalling, yet they are not condemned.

Israel and the United States aren't perfect, who is? Many within these countries would agree that their behaviour has not always been morally correct. But again what countries history is unblemished? You only have to spend a little time looking at history to quickly realise that many have a lot to be ashamed of. Many Choose to focus their anger and vitriol upon Israel and the United States but when I look at countries like; Burma, Zimbabwe, China, North Korea, to name but a few it does make me wonder what world many people live in.

The lunatics have taken over the asylum!

Over the past few years 'man-made global warming' has become an obsession, the Government have completely swallowed every peace of propaganda hook, line and sinker. One of the ways this Government and the previous one has shown its commitment to the warmists obsession is by setting our national energy policy by EU targets on renewables.

Now let me say this before I start to look at this issue; I am an environmentalist, I believe we should look after the planet, I believe we should use renewable energy, I believe we should protect endangered areas and peoples, I believe we should be investing in renewables. But the problem I have with our Government and its energy policy is, it is based upon completely ridiculous targets and will not meet our needs in the future. The policy is this, Britain is committed to generating nearly a third of its energy within ten years from renewables, mainly through erecting thousands of wind turbines.

At the moment there are about 3500 wind turbines in and around this country, last year they contributed about 1.6 per cent of our energy needs, the Government want to build about 12,500 of these, shut down 6 coal fired power stations and hope that these wind turbines will meet the demand. Well they won't, anyone with half an ounce of common sense would realise that the wind does not blow all the time and when there is very little wind we will need to get our energy from somewhere, this will mean we will have to import it at astronomical expense.

Wind turbines are so expensive that Holland recently became the first country in Europe to abandon its EU renewable energy target, announcing that it is to slash its annual subsidy by billions of Euros. The Danes, who have built more wind turbines per head than any other country have the highest electricity prices in Europe. In Spain the rush for wind and solar energy has been a national disaster. In Germany, having built more wind turbines than any other nation in the world they are now building new coal fired power stations like crazy.

The first lie peddled by the wind industry and repeated like parrots by our politicians is to exaggerate their output, they talk in terms of 'capacity', as if this is what they will actually produce. This is what they have the potential to produce, but never do because the wind does not blow all the time. Here are two examples; there is a 350ft wind turbine beside the M4 near Reading, it only worked at 15 per cent of its 'capacity' last year, the Government subsidy was £130,000 given to its owners and it produced £100,000 worth of energy.

A Swedish firm recently opened what is now the largest off shore windfarm in the world, off the coast of Kent and stated it would power thousands of homes with its 'capacity' of 300 megawatts. What we were not told is that its average output will only be 80 megawatts, a tenth of that supplied by a gas fired power station, we will be paying a subsidy of £60 million a year, or £1.5 billion over its 25 year lifespan.

We are told its is worth it if we can cut down on CO2 emissions, but when you take into account the smelting of metals used, the carbon intensive concrete used for the massive foundations, the building of miles of roads to get to these turbines, and the releasing of immense quantities of CO2 locked up in the peat bogs were many turbines are built there is probably no benefit. On top of this you need to keep the traditional power stations on tick over 24 hours a day to provide back up for when the wind does not blow.

A recent newspaper article exposed the immense human and ecological catastrophe being inflicted on Northern China by extraction of the rare earth minerals needed to make the giant magnates that every turbine in the west uses to generate its power.

The cost to the British consumer in a few years time will be immense, the Government have signed up to the 'Renewable Obligation Certificate subsidy scheme', whereby for every megawatt hour of energy produced, the wind turbine will earn £49 for its owners and it is twice that amount for off shore wind turbines. The industry is dominated by foreign owned companies and will not even benefit British companies.

I could blame the EU for all of this, but no one was more keener than Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband and now David Cameron and Chris Huhne to sign us up to these ridiculous targets. To meet their targets the Government are committed to spending £100 billion building these monstrosities, plus another £40 billion on connecting them to the National Grid. According to the electricity industry we will need to spend another £100 billion on upgrading the existing power station to provide back up, which adds up to £240 billion, or nearly a quarter of a trillion pounds. This will mean it will increase energy bills for every house hold by about £1000 a year.

What saddens me most is that over the next few years our politicians will destroy huge swaves of our beautiful countryside and our coastline with this complete folly. They are willing to follow a policy that is going to blight this country for years to come, not only in destroying our countryside but we will not be able to produce enough energy for our industry and conventional use. When the rest of the world is moving on and their economies are growing, and at a time when we need to invest to keep pace with the rest of the world our politicians are following a crazy fantasy and unfortunately it isn't a bad dream but reality.

What I find so amazing is, if you spend a little time researching this issue like I have done you will quickly realise the sums do not add up. It is quite obvious that the wind does not blow all the time, even those who are obsessed with 'man-made global warming' would agree with that, so why on earth are we wasting billions of pounds on this ridiculous fantasy. When other countries in Europe are moving away from wind energy why is our Government following this absolutely moronic policy? It does seem that our leaders have really lost the plot, but unfortunately for you and me they are in charge and they are following a path that eventually will lead to complete catastrophe.

The EU again and our stupid poiticians

I have always wondered how our politicians get away with so many lies, it does seem to be an occupational requirement that when you become a politician you have to be able to lie, and lie convincingly. At one time or another a politician will have to throw their principles out and feed the electorate a load of rubbish. I know not all politcians are liars and many are very principled and have integrity, but it seems that if you want to get on you have to swallow all your morals (if you had any in the first place) and tow the party line whatever that is.

Over the years billions of pounds have been wasted on grandiose schemes and ill thought out projects. Many of these projects were found to be a complete waste of money at the very beginning but because of pride or corruption they continued and the British taxpayer had to fund the bill.

The two greatest wastes of our money over recent years have been the EU and the 'man made global warming' industry. Both Labour and our current government have frittered away billions and no-one has ever been held to account. Has anyone ever sat down and questioned the sanity of our politicians and their ability to run anything, let alone a country and the destiny of millions of people? It seems to me that the answer is a resounding, NO!

I have written about the EU before so I don't want to spend too much time on it, but I want to say this. This year we will hand over to this; unaccountable, undemocratic, corrupt organisation £50 million every day, that works our to be £18.25 billion this year, of that £8.3 billion is our net contribution. I have spoken to many people about this organisation and what I have always come up against is ignorance and a total lack of facts. People point out to me about the economic benefits without realising that out of the other 26 member states we have a deficit with 25 of them (the only one we do not have a deficit with is Slovenia). If we left tomorrow it would not effect our economy whatsoever, as the two riches countries in Europe per capita are Switzerland and Norway and they are not part of the EU, they are part of the European Free Trade Area and have trading agreements with the EU.

David Cameron and previous Prime Ministers have spoken about us being in the EU and reforming from within, after 40 years of being part of this organisation we have not been able to reform it and now we are signatories to the Lisbon Treaty there is nothing we can do about it. Under article 8 of the Lisbon Treaty the EU Commission do not need to consult with any National Government and can change any part of this treaty and there isn't anything that David Cameron can do about it, THAT IS THE TRUTH!!! You will never hear David Cameron admit this, so either he is a liar or stupid, you take your pick!