Lisbon Treaty & Bank Tobin Tax - the same EU winning tactics

Shock, horror at this weeks Tory conference where one of their MEPs, Kay Swinburne, announced that the EU tax commissioner,  Lithuanian Algirdas Semeta, had already started work on presenting this Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) as a Value Added Tax stripping the UK of its right to veto this proposal which will cost the City €50 bn. a year and cost the rest of the EU about €5bn. Now that's the sort of deal Sarkozy can really get behind and support!

If it were presented  as a new tax then of course wee George could veto it. But alas the Tory Europhiles who were quite happy to go along with this deceit over the rejected Constitutional Treaty  rebranding as the Lisbon Treaty  are in Nelsonian terms going to be hoist with their own petard. Giscard d'Estaing author of the Constitutional was quite open about the rebranding, just the same message in a different envelope which the UK electorate could not vote on. I cannot believe the FO did not appreciate this  but of course they represent Johnny Foreigner not the UK taxpayer.

It will be the same with the FTT. The UK will not get to veto the proposal which will be decided by qualified majority voting (QMV) and I opine the UK will be in a minority of one. After all why pay for something yourself if you can make the Brits pick up the tab! The other money grab by the EU concerns settlement systems having to be relocated out of the City into the Eurozone for safe keeping. This will cost the UK ten times the FTT. Its all a bit boring and esoteric but it will cost lots of people their jobs in the City just the same.

Cameron of course has stated he will use the same tactic to deny us a referendum on the EU. The Tories never change. I remember Heath doing the same thing in 1972. Cameron's fatuous claim that it is not the right time for a referendum of course this is because he knows they would lose! That is of course the traditional politicians response. Don't have a referendum if you think you might lose! Cameron was quite happy with the AV referendum because he knew he would win!

I have written little recently on the Greek Eurozone crisis as it is unfolding exactly along the lines I predicted months ago. All I can say is that the longer it goes on the worse and more painful it will be in the end. The Greeks will go on asking for billions more Euros until someone says No when they will default. The EU will want a default which does not hurt the French and German banks ie they will be paid in full and the others will take a big haircut of at least 50%. The legal cases will run and run.

It is a good job that the markets will hold the EU to account. Our elected representatives certainly won't! They have been bought and house trained by the EU for many years. There is no democracy for us and short of a revolution I cannot see us ever getting it back. Our MPs represent their party not their constituents and I can only see this democratic deficit being remedied by a possibly violent revolution.