Wednesday 30 January 2013

The Single Market is not the only fruit

The Single Market  (SEA)  has become the sacred cow of the Europhiles, big business and our politicians. An unholy alliance that I would describe as a conspiracy against the British people. The Common Market was founded on free movement of capital and labour, a principle more honoured in the breach than the observance. It just did not happen as the French paid lip service to the principle and carried on ignoring it when it did not suit their national interest.

The SEA's signing grew from the discontent among European Community members in the 1980s about the de facto lack of free trade among them. Leaders from business and politics wanted to harmonise laws among countries and resolve policy discrepancies.  

The SEA was passed in 1986 but not finally ratified until 1992. It introduced QMV as the way of settling disputes ensuring the annoying Brits lost their previous veto. This ensured the Brits would be out voted on any proposals they objected to. Franco Prussians numerically dominate the European Commision civil service. I know of few Brits fluent in two EU languages other than their own. I have even known British diplomats who struggle to speak on foreign language fluently. I know from my time in the Civil Service how easy it is to manipulate and slant agendas and how unaware politicians are of such skilled bias.

The French of course carry on as before finding ways around anything they don't like which gets through. The Brits jobsworths of course gold plate these anti UK interest initiatives to prove what good Europeans which the French find hilarious. It fits in with their national view of  the English, all gay cavaliers.

The SEA extended free trade to goods and services but the latter seems always to run into problems. That is the area in which the UK has a huge competitive advantage over the Franco Prussians. A tribute to the stunning incompetence of the FCO, the department which led the crusade in the early 70s to get us into the EU!

The single market does have some advantages of course but these acrue mainly to large companies trading in every country of the EU. Countries like Norway and Switzerland enjoy most of the benefits of the Single Market without being in the EU. It also benefits big non EU based companies like Samsung, Panasonic etc.
So the tale we would lose access to the Single Market if we were out of the EU is baloney. The EU known which side their bread is buttered on in respect of their imbalanced trade with us. Germany alone woul lose 12 bn Euros per month if the stopped trading with us. Merkel has just pointed out we are Germany' s biggest trading partner!

Multi-national car manufacturers upsticks and re-locate at the drop of a hat. This country's economy is more than a few car factories. There is a surplus of car productive capacity worldwide so there will inevitably be car plant closures. Renault Peugeot are already trying to shut factories in France. Napoleon Hollande is trying to make water flow up the hill. Ford lost 1.3 bn Euro last year in the EU. Its a declining market clearly oversupplied with car makers so when Nissan or Toyota or Honda decide to close or downsize one of their UK plants you will be deafened with the EU phile cries of we told you the uncertainty would cost UK jobs. Bollocks! It will have been caused by a fall in demand.

Worse we are bound by imposing common European tariffs on non EU trade. These deals are of course designed to suit Franco German manufacturers. Outside the EU we could do our own deals to suit our companies and our national interests.

To cap it all the free movement of labour has now become free movement of benfit claimants! We have to be like the Swiss and tie incoming labour to time limited work permits. If we don't we wiil soon be foreigners in our own country. Bulgarians and Roamaninas are only the start. What will happen when Turkey or Ukraine, total population 200 million join? And who pushed this EU enlargement policy? The great minds of the UK FCO. They sought to dilute French influence but at what a cost and they failed!

We are only going to get one go this generation at a new relationship with Brussels. The Single Market is only one of many factors to be taken into account. It and its big business beneficaries must not be allowed to dominate the discussion. That pre-eminent place belongs to all the interests of all British people.


Tuesday 29 January 2013

Nikki effective whilst Farage is anonymous; NEC runners & riders

Cameron's referendum false promise can be seen as a triumph for Nikki Sinclaire's persistent hard work gathering signatures for petitions demanding an EU referendum, that was the petition Farage had to be shamed into signing by Nikki in front of the TV cameras. Nikki's pressure has helped force Cameron into granting a hypothetical referendum if he can win the next General Election. Its nowhere near enough but it is more than Farage and his EU paid army of sycophants has achieved.

Since Cameron's announcement Farage has not been seen on the air waves. For why? He does not know what to do. He has been skewered by Cameron and I for one am not going to help get him off the hook.

I have also received a copy of the UKIP NEC ballot paper for next month's elections.


Note the usual UKIP howler - wrong year! Perhaps Mr Crowther should investigate or on second thoughts that might make things worse. UKIP are always a bit off the pace.

I can only recommend those one should not vote for as they are Farage sycophants so say No to McGough, Mickelwait & Moncrieff. Mr Bown has given a lot of money to EUKIP and I wish serial candidate and Murky Castle old boy Rob McWhirter good luck. He deserves something for his persistenc.

Saturday 26 January 2013

The Dinosaurs Return - be afraid, be very afraid

The FUD attack on leaving the EU will be three pronged, political, business/economic and media /celeb but the most important of all will be the enemy within led by Dave and his army of civil servants led by OberGruppenFuerher Jeremy, it was not in my remit, Heywood.

Thus three of the old guard have been brought out of the box to terrify the poor UK public into loving the EU.

Private Eye describes these terrifying creatures thus:

Hesltinosaurus Rex with its terrifying mane of blond hair and trumpeting calls to big business,

Velociraptor Mandelborus with its terrifying teeth and bottomless cunning,

but most frightening of all,

the Blairosaurus recognisable by its whitened teeth and awesome permatan. It was thought to have choked to death last year through trying to swallow many huge wadges of dollar bills at once but no, it seems to have dislocated its upper and lower jaws and like a python swallowed this cash moutain whole.

All three were last seen 15 years ago leading the campaign for the UK to join the euro but like Mr Scwarzeneger they are back to wreak hovoc in our land once more.

This fearsome threesome will be joined by Ken 'fatboy' Clarke, D 'thinboy' Turd and serial non -exec director and BBC chairman Fat Pang.

They will be hugely helped by the useful idiots Fat Pang has ordered to be recruited for the audience of his QT show chaired by former Buller member Dimblebore. These idiots will say things like we pay our MPs to make these decisions for us and to rip off the public purse and give plaintive cries of we don't understand these things with our tiny brains. Give us more propaganda information to help us.

Its a exactly like the big brother scene in Orwell's 1984. When these dinosaurs have rampaged through the TV studios up  and down the land,  terrified population then at the right time, just as in 1984 they will be given their EU comfort blanket back by merciful big brother Barroso whom they will hail as saviour and build churches in his honour. The useful idiots will cry God bless your majesty Barroso and chant Glory Hallelujah we're saved, we're saved and the Blairosaurus will go back to its favourite occupation eating shed loads of money.

The Civil Service Army will as always be decisive. There was a letter to the Times printed Friday 18th January from one  David Hall, Economic Advisor FCO 1969-79, Pershore Worcs. I quote,

"In 1971 I was among a group of economists from acrossWhiehall summoned by the then Chief Economic Advisor to the Treasury. His opening remarks were along the lines, 'The Government has decided to apply for membership of the Common Market It cannot make the political case for membership and has asked us to make the economic case. We know that it is at best weak but we must do our political masters bidding. Does anyone have any ideas?'"

I was not an economist when I was with the Civil Service in 72-73and Mr Hall's letter chimes exactly with my impression of what was going on. There never was an economic case for entry.

I suggest Tim Congdon who lives quite near Mr Hall makes contact with him pronto and has a mano a mano economic chat with him. Who knows he maysoon  be silenced by the organs of the state.

Preceding that Super Mac had also tried to join the Common Market. He had a specially useful machine called the Manningham Buller which was wheeled out to confuse issues to the British public but unfortunately Le General a dit Non before we found out if the machine worked. I suspect Dave will be reconstructing this machine. The plans must still be in Tory central office

Arraigned against these formidable forces are EUKIP's caped crusader Farman and his assistant, boy blunder, Nutty Slack.  Read this blog to follow this exciting contest.

Thursday 24 January 2013

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt - FUD

These will be the main weapons deployed by the EU lovers to undermine the outers. The origin of this acronym lie in the marketing tactics of IBM in the 1964-1984 period to undermine those selling cheaper and better mainframe computers notably Gene Amdahl who left IBM to found Amdahl and compete with IBM.

I quote from a web source:

Defined by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to found his own company: “FUD is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that IBM sales people instill in the minds of potential customers who might be considering [Amdahl] products.” The idea, of course, was to persuade them to go with safe IBM gear rather than with competitors' equipment. This implicit coercion was traditionally accomplished by promising that Good Things would happen to people who stuck with IBM, but Dark Shadows loomed over the future of competitors' equipment or software. See IBM. After 1990 the term FUD was associated increasingly frequently withMicrosoft, and has become generalized to refer to any kind of disinformation used as a competitive weapon.

The alternative version was nobody ever got fired for buying IBM!

Sound familiar? Well these are exactly the scare tactics used by Branson and Sorrel to try and keep us in the EU, not of course for our benefit but for the benefit of their companies' profits and executive bonuses. This dodgy pair 15 years ago were urging us to join the Euro using the same FUD WPP and Virgin profit enhancing tactics and arguments. They were wrong then but it is only by getting both hands round their neck and squeezing will they ever admit they were wrong.

We are going to see a lot more of this tactic promoted assiduosly as ever by the BBC along with the fictitious 3 million jobs and 50% of UK exports that supposedly depend on our continuing as an EU province. Time for a Boston, Lincs tea party methinks.

So what happened to IBM the dominant IT company up to 1985? Well like our politicians they were looking in the wrong direction. There was a University drop out  kid called Gates who bought up the rights to a microcomputer operating system that he rebranded as MSDOS. IBM had built a microcomputer called the PC to kill off the Apple II built by Jobs and Wozniak in their garage. IBM had no interest in the PC other than an Apple killer and gave Gates a contract to develop his MSDOS operating system for their PC but unfortunately left all the MSDOS rights with Gates. The rest is history. Apple came close to extinction a couple of times but Microsoft, Gates company has never looked back and made Gates the richest man in the world and Warren Buffet's bridge partner.

There is a clear parallel with the EU. IBM was inward looking and obsessed with its mainframe models. They gave Gates the loaded gun and he killed them. True IBM exists today but its second division. Its the same with the EU. Obsessed with their Napoleonic dirigiste system, crazy social rights and labour legislation and market regulaytion  they cannot see what is happening in the Far East. They are killing innovation in Europe. China, India and closer to home Turkey will move in to fill the gap and the EU will find itself  an irrelevance on the world stage like the Hapsburg's Austro Hungarian empire. The Hapsburgs forgot nothing and learned nothing. The EU will be the Hapsburgs all over again. Deja vu as the frogs say.


Wednesday 23 January 2013

Cameron's long awaited speech

Well its happened at last. It left many questions unanswered. We are to have an in/out referendum if Dave's Tories win the 2015 election (unlikely) and if Dave can repatriate powers from Brussels (very unlikely) and if the Tory Europhiles dont dish the Bill. So the chance of a referendum is as I wrote before is vanishingly small.

Red Ed has given Dave what he wants by saying Labour if elected will not hold an in/out referendum so Dave can proceed into the next General Election saying we will give you a referendum and LibLab won't. I think this a big mistake by Red Ed. He is in a competitive market for votes and has just handed Dave a big competitive advantage. Labour,  are now trying to backtrack on this. I am not surprised.

The speech was delivered at Bloomberg offices in Finsbury Square in their lecture theatre. I have sat there and listened to numerous financial talks. It holds something like 200 people, small for such an important speech.

Eukip's Nuttall was wheeled out on Daily Politics to spend most of his time listening to Shaps and Flint avoiding answering A Neil's questions. Nuttall said little other than to make the partisan point Dave's referendum was because he was running scared of UKIP. Not quite, its the electorate who are fed up with the EU. UKIP is only jumping on this bandwagon. Nuttall and Farage clearly had no answer to whats the point of UKIP now. Quite. Dave has tried to shoot EUKIP's fox. Farage looked rattled.

This one will run and run. I don't care who gets us out of EU control, as long as we get out.

Cameron has a credibility problem following his cast iron performance on the Lisbon Treaty. People, not least many Tory MPs , trust Cameron. They see him as little different from his LibDem chums.

Dave's other problem is the old one, its not the enemies in front of you that do you real damage, ie Red Ed, but the ones behind you Ken Clarke, Nick, Hezza etc. The devil as always is in the detail which will now start to trickle out.

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Wheels are coming off George's austerity programme

Frase Nelson has a very telling graph in his blog. I reproduce it below: It shows spending running over OBR forecasts and tax revenue running under forecast.


So its bad news all round for wee George. His beloved AAA rating might not survive. It all goes to show trading with the Eurozone is not good. Austerity it is not.

Monday 21 January 2013

UK economy looks a bit sick

Markets are starting to look at the UK economy and the don't like what they see. This was only a matter of time. The UK has already had a double dip recession and is heading for a third dip. Bootle in his regular Monday DT business column says he expects negative growth for 2012 to be confirmed when the Q4 2012 GDP figures are published soon.

Because of my wife's small French house I keep a close watch on the Sterling Euro rate. Its been falling recently from 1.25 to 1.19 in little more than a month. Conventionally one would say this is good for UK manufacturing industy exports to the Eurozone but given the huge collapse of demand in that area there is little export increase to be had. The main effect of our currency devaluation will be to increase the UK rate of inflation. This will create yet more problems for Dave & George.

What can they do to improve things? They have to bite the bullet and make real significant cuts in public spending . I suggest they abolish the Overseas Development Authority and save £12 bn for starters and then cut benefits for our East European immigrants.

Its time for tough decisions that our politicians boast of taking but seldom do.

Sunday 20 January 2013

Farage excellent on AM show today but what next?

To coin a phrase you could not put a cigarette paper between my views on the EU and Nigel Farage's. I think he has to develop and back up a lot of his gut instincts with facts and links to serious writers and further action. To do this he needs a good team which he has not got. The players are there but he just is not picking them. He is a poor manager in that respect.

The Farage troll SDP gives a fair summary of his main interview points thus:

1/ None of the the leaders of the 3 major political parties have ever had a proper job.

2/ UKIP will say job done when Britian is a self governing nation.

3/ The question is does Britain want to be just a province of a country called Europe.

4/ 40% of Britain's overseas trade is with the EU but this percentage is falling.

5/ Britain runs a £46 billion pounds a year trade deficit with the EU

6/ Laws from the EU are damaging British business

7/ No co-operation or coalitions with David Cameron because he is not to be trusted.

8/ UKIP is not racist and is the only party that has a ban on former BNP members

All good stuff but against a better interviewer than Jeremy Vine a few of these assertions, particulary point 8, might have come under closer scrutiny.

EUKIPs pressing need is to quickly assemble a team of business people to rebut the baseless allegations of Branson, Sorrel and ram home the message that leaving EU control does not mean being excluded from the single market.

Simon Wolfson, CEO of Next, does this in his brilliant piece in today's Sunday Telegraph entitled, "I back the singlemarket - but not at any cost". Click on link to read it. He comes from a long line of savvy Jewish busnessmen who have also been great philanthropists in the UK.

I cannot improve on his writing so please read it for yourself but I give a few quotes plus some expansion and explanation but it is all very good

"But, although leaving would be difficult, I reject the argument that says the benefits of a single market require us to stay in at any cost. Particularly if that cost is an ever more powerful EU.
What business wants is very simple: a single market, not a federal Europe. Britain joined the EU to participate in a common market and help shape its rules. We did not sign up to the inexorable march to a federal Europe."

"These scare tactics are all too familiar to me. They were the same threats used by the same people when they urged us to join the euro. I remember their warnings of economic isolation and ruin.
Yet Britain's trade with Europe grew despite remaining outside the euro, while many that joined the single currency find themselves saddled with hyper-unemployment and permanent recession. The scaremongers were wrong then, they are wrong today. Their concerns are a poor excuse for stifling debate."

Yes indeed Lord Wolfson, they were also the same scare tactics used in Wislon's fixed 1975 refererendum that kept us in this disastrous project. He quotes exports to the EU as £200 bn annually. That makes our imports from the EU £250 bn! The philes can huff and puff but EU are not going to throw that amount of exports to us away. It would increase EU unemployment even further. That is the sort of thing that brings governments down.
On the CAP bribe for French farmers Wolfson writes, " The Common Agricultural policy is downright protectionist. It hinders the economies of countries we should help in Africa, while pushing up food prices for Europeans."
Abolishing the CAP would do far more for development of the poor parts of the world than all the foreign aid put together and multiplied by 10! Jack Kennedy knew that but Barroso and his ilk ignore to keep their useless project in being. They want to rival the US. Can they not see that US success stems from its democratic political and econom,ic system and gold standard Supreme Court justice.
"If other "core" countries want to forge a new federal state then let us wish them well. Let them build one, with all the regulation, loss of democracy and expense that involves.
But we do not have to join in, certainly not for the sake of our continued participation in making the rules that govern the single market."

and most tellingly on the EU integration argument,
"They have unwittingly exposed the truth of the matter. They know that deeper integration will make them less competitive. They tacitly admit that more Europe means more damaging rules and regulations. 
That should be a concern to all Europeans, whether Britain stays or not.
Many continental European businessmen quietly agree. Germans who are unhappy that their taxes are being used to prop up countries they regard as profligate; Spaniards who wonder if the euro will condemn their economy to never-ending recession and hyper-unemployment."
Had I still been on UKIP's NEC I would go tomorrow to sit outside Simon Wolfson's office to try and get him and like minded busness men to speak out in TV forums on these views. I am sure Jeff Randall on Sky would facilitate such a show.
Simon Wolfson's grandfather whose generosity funded my grant to study at Oxford would rightly have been very proud of him! 








Friday 18 January 2013

Farage does well on QT. Crowther bombs on AQ

I have just finished listening to Any Questions on Radio 4 with Olly Letwin, Ben Bradshaw, Bronwen Maddox and EUKIP's chairman Steve Crowther. I thought Crowther started of quite well on the subject of the Algeria hostages. It was a lets all agree subject so it was a bit off a pushover as was the horse meat discussion. However when the subject of homosexual marriage came up the wheels came off.

Dimblebore then helpfully threw in the contradictory comments of Olly Neville on the matter. Olly was the chairman of Young Independence until he was sacked by Crowther for espousing non Farage approved libertarian views. Nigel always gets one of his placemen to do his dirty work. Crowther was thereafter well and truly dissected by Dimblebore. He dissembled, waffled, uhmd and erred and eventually had to confess he had sacked Olly. Poor Mr Crowther, he just wants to be an MEP and receive the EUs bounty like Nigel has these many years.

I have an inate sense of fair play that extends even to NF and Griffin. On Any Questions the previous evening the BBC had set Farage up outnumbered four to one by ardent slimy Europhiles. Just like they set up Griffin with a hostile audience of North London Jews in AQ some years. I did not think it was fair on either but even so I thought Farage did very well in putting the leave the EU case. His last point on did we want to be a sovereign nation or a Brussels province was the right one to make and transcended all the silly quasi economic arguments.

These two shows encapsulates Farage's EUKIP cult. He cannot have anyone of talent or independent views at the top of EUKIP less they surpass him. So he appoints placemen of little ability which works until they are exposed in public. This will happen more and more now EUKIP are doing so well in the polls.

Thursday 17 January 2013

City grandees support an in/out referendum

I reproduce below their letter to today's DT


SIR – We write as City supporters of the People's Pledge, alongside the 87 MPs and 130,000 individuals who have also declared their support for an in-out EU referendum.
As the world's dominant financial centre, the City of London leads a financial services industry that employs 1.2 million people and generates an annual trade surplus in excess of £40 billion, compared with Britain's annual trade deficit with the EU of £55 billion.
Pressure is growing for a referendum on our EU membership, not least because of the movement towards full banking and political union within the next five years.
The pro-European lobby, apparently speaking on behalf of British business as a whole, has argued in generalities. We believe that members of the public should be given specific figures, not platitudes, so they can make an informed decision about whether Britain should remain in the EU.
The City has for 1,000 years been at the heart of developing British wealth and democracy. We are determined that the people of Britain be given a clear choice.
Adam Fleming
Lord Flight
Robert Hiscox
Daniel Hodson
Jon Moulton
David Reid Scott
John Robins
Lord Vinson 
Stanislas Yassukovich

Its a great letter and makes the great point that we deserve specifics not the vague generalities that come from Branson, Heseltine, Clarke and the Lib Dems. One of the latter, Julian Huppert  MP for Cambridge was skewered by AN today on the Daily Politics. Neil asked him to name one firm that changed an investment decision in England because of the claimed uncertainty of the UK referendum  or Scotland because of their referendum. Huppert could not name a single firm!

This is exactly the point made by these sharp guys in their letter. We deserve specifics not hot air from pompous Sirs & Lords promoting their own interest.

Note their use of our huge trade deficit with the EU of £55bn. Thats why they all want us to stay. They are ripping us off to the tune of £55bn pa. Its very bad for the UK but the propagandists always like the big lie.

These are serious City people. I give a brief Google based description of them below.

Jon Moulton runs private equity fund Better Capital and appeared only last week on AN's Daily Politics debunking the wooly generalities of the paid EU philes.
Rober Hiscox runs the big insurance broker that bears his name.
Stanislas Yassukovich has held around 15 big city jobs, chairnan of Merril Lynch etc
Lord Flight 40 years in financial services starting in Rothschilds
Daniel Hodson former deputy CEO Nationwide BS
David Reid Scott veteran wealth fund manager
John Robins Deutsche Asset management
Lord Vinson small business expert.On the 4 August 2012, Lord Vinson threatened to defect to UKIP unless the Conservatives took a more Better Off Out approach toEurope.
These are exactly the sort of people those who want a referendum should be contacting to appear on Euro realist platforms. Lets hope they do.

Wednesday 16 January 2013

UKIP's Lord leaps into the Daily Mail

I found William Legge, the Earl of Dartmouth, a difficult man to get on with. He was selected by SW UKIP members most of whom of course  did not know him from Adam on the deferential vote. He is an Earl. He went to the exclusive expensive Heatherdown prep school, Eton and Oxford just like Cameron. Just the sort of background that impressed UKIP SW members but goes down like a lead balloon with the general public already sick of Cameron's Eton clique. Incredibly Legge' boasted about his Cameron identical background  on last Sunday's politics show! That's how to add to the Labour vote Willie.

I participated in all the SW hustings for that slate. Legge did not impress me or anyone I spoke to with his oratory but unlike the rest of the prospective candidates he had the benefit of exclusive speaking engagements at the largest SW branches plus the UKIP conference arranged for him by the late SW RO Malcolm Wood. I well remember Alan Wood, another candidate and one of UKIP's few fptp elected district councillors, rightly complaining to Wood after the Stroud husting about this preferential treatment for Legge. No other candidate received such favoured candidate status. It came as no surprise that after Legge's selection and subsequent election in 2009 he employed Wood as his advisor and minder. Wood, who was obsessed with the aristocracy, would not  pee without asking Nigel first so presumably Legge was the candidate Farage favoured. I did hear rumours of subsequently unfulfilled expectations of largesse.

Legge's debating rhetoric deficit was most recently on show in this weeks Sunday Politics West region, click on link and use the slider to get 40 minutes into the regional part of the programme where you can judge Legge's performance for yourself and compare it with the Tory MEP who was on the show as well.

Previously he made an exhibition of himself in the European parliament throwing his papers around and criticising Cathy Ashton in what the parliament speaker called abusive terms and causing her to switch Legge's microphone off. Click link to see for yourself. He came off second best to Ashton in a previous encounter click link to judge for yourself.

The Daily Mail article of 2005, click here to read also gives some good background on Legge and his mother. Its compulsive reading. I quote


"Meanwhile, Raine's son William - whose determinedly bachelor status once raised doubts over his sincerity to the opposite sex - was yesterday enjoying a trip to the cinema and dinner with Australian Fiona.
All of which will be a blow to the woman expecting his child in March, TV producer Claire Kavanagh. William split with the 40-year-old JP's daughter from Belfast in the summer after less than a year together.
Claire is said to be still hoping that they will get back together, so that their child - expected to be a boy - can become heir to the earldom.
But there is one glimmer of hope for Claire, as a friend tells me of William's new love: "Fiona is very nice, but no one knows how serious the relationship is because she is going back to Australia soon."

Fiona is rumoured to be very wealthy which does nothing to detract from her charms.
Sounds like the plot of one of Legge's granny Cartland's novels!

Legge, Cameron, Osborne plus many of the Tory cabinet members have a similar elite educational and social background. They fit Nadine Dorries, Tory MP's description, 'Posh boys who don't know the price of milk'.
Labour of course has its own Milliband aristocracy centred on London's exclusive Primrose Hill by Regent's Park, Haverstock Comp and PPE at Oxford. I was amused to hear my old BoE oppo Matthew Hancock, also PPE Oxford,  now a junior minister in twinkletoes Cable's Business Dept waxing eloquent on the benefits of boardroom diversity, women, non whites etc but he was clearly speaking about ordinary people. Its the old, old story, such concepts as the benefits of diversity do not apply to our political elite.

Legge now finds himself featuring in the Daily Mail who report his wife phoned the London police about a  'domestic' argument they had about in which room to locate a  TV in their Devon pile near Exeter. Wow! Legge was arrested on suspicion of assault, taken into custody. Click on link to read. It has also been news in Oz. Mrs Legge came from Melbourne and the story was covered in the Sydney Morning Herald click here to read under the informative headline,

'Disorientated' Lady Dartmouth plays down aristocratic scandal

I quote below from the Daily Mail story headlined:


Princess Diana's step brother arrested over row during which his wife called the police

  • The Earl of Dartmouth, 63, was arrested on suspicion of assault following a domestic dispute
  • The UKIP MEP, who was not charged, has described the event as 'the worst day of my life'

Legge's mother is the lady Diana dubbed Acid Raine.

The guts of the story is given as usual in these cases by an unamed  'friend'. I quote from it below.



A friend said the couple had had a row on the evening of November 15 over an apparently innocuous decision about which room the television should be put in at their home in Devon.
Lady Dartmouth went to bed and fell into a ‘deep sleep’. But the Earl later wanted to pursue the matter and ‘shook her awake’.
The friend insisted there was no physical altercation and said the couple had not been drinking.
The Earl of Dartmouth is the son of Raine McCorquodale, who was Diana's step-mother
The Earl of Dartmouth is the son of Raine McCorquodale, who was Princess Diana's step-mother
He said the couple were ‘very close’, adding that they were due to travel to Strasbourg together this weekend.
In a statement yesterday the Earl said: ‘After my wife went to bed I decided to wake her and clarify my point of view. Looking back it was an unwise thing to do as Fiona was deeply asleep and became disorientated. Her alarm resulted in a call to the police.
‘By the time the police arrived, there was no issue. Fiona told them repeatedly she did not wish to take the matter further and there had been no physical altercation.
‘The police attempted to persuade her to say she had been assaulted and she should press charges even though we both separately explained it was just the sort of disagreement which often happens within a marriage. 
They then placed me under arrest and I was held for several hours until they realised nothing of consequence had occurred and no charges could be made.’ 
Lady Dartmouth said: ‘When William woke me from a deep sleep I was rather disorientated and rang the police.
‘When they arrived I emphasised I was never going to press any charges because absolutely nothing had happened.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2261107/Princess-Dianas-step-brother-arrested-row-wife-called-police.html#ixzz2IA3Sp2CW
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook


The story ends with:

A friend last night said Lord Dartmouth had not ruled out a complaint against the police over the apparent leak of information about the incident.

Its  a very strange tale. Do you know of anyone whose wife when suddenly awakened by their husband phones the police? What caused this disorientation? Why did the police attempt to persuade Mrs Legge to press charges of assault if nothing had happened? Curiouser and curiouser.

The last sentence is quite incredible. If Legge pursues a complaint against the police he and his wife might be risking a charge of wasting police time.

Clicking on the various links in this piece will give you a bit more information on William Legge.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

You ain't going to get a referendum

The sordid deal Cameron did in 2010 with the LibDems to get into  No 10 makes it impossible for him to deliver any referendum on our membership of the EU even if he wanted to which he doesn't. LibDems are neither liberal or democratic. They are a nasty group of the worst sort of political opportunists who have exploited Cameron's failure to win the last General Election to foist their minority views on the coalition. They ditched their very publically signed pledges to our poor students who have been fooled, used and abused by the desplicable Clegg to get their snouts in the trough and their bums on the back seats of ministerial limos.

Cameron was of course equally desperate to get into no 10. He is now in no 10 but not in power. He is the prisoner of the duplicitous Lib Dems. Hence he had to concede the pointless referendum on changing our fptp voting system which no one wanted.Clegg  He and Clegg are heading for certain annihlation in the 2015 General Election which will usher in another long period of Labour misrule. He and Clegg will hold on to the bitter end like Mr Micawber hoping something will turn up.

Cameron and Clegg have no principles. Both are PR men. Milliband is just the same. All three are now blocking the wish of the electorate for an in/out referendum on our EU membership for party political self interest. All three represent their crackpot party interests noy yours. They are selected by the party and it is to their party they look for advancement and preferment.

The media, particularly the BBC, are now broadcasting in full EU propaganda mode. In the last few days I have watched 3 discuassion programmes on the Beeb where there was no pretence of balance. All participants were solidly pro EU. Big business has also funded a lobby organisation to promote its self interest plus we now have Clarke, Heseltine and Mandelson wheeled out at every opportunity to rubbish the Eurosceptic argument.

I don't know why they are worried. Nick Robinson summed up the conditions under which Cameron could deliver a referendum with more 'Ifs' than Kipling's famous poem. I summarise:

If he can get it past the LibDems.

If he can deal with his own Europhiles and keep his party together

If he can get anything back from the EU to put to electorate

If he can win the next General Election

The chance of all these coming to pass is now tending to zero.

What is Farage's EUKIP doing about it. Well the last media utterance I heard from
NF on Radio 4 at tea time with NF boasting as per usual about how much he could drink so I presume his strategy is to drink the Europhiles under the table.

I have three predictions:

EUKIP will win more seats in the 2014 EU elections.

Red Ed will win the 2015 UK General Election with a majority around 100.

The LibDems will be wiped out in both elections.

The last is the only cheer I can see for the next 7 years.

PS

Why go to Holland to make this speech? Well MT made her big speech on the EU in Bruges and Dave thinks the Dutch are sympathetic to his views. That implies they know what his views are something that has escaped me and the Tory party

Saturday 12 January 2013

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

In this case the woman is UKIP's Argentinian/Danish Spanish domiciled UK MEP Marta Andreasen. Put on UKIP MEP slates, in contravention of a number of UKIP rules, by the patronage of Nigel Farage, Andreasen is now involved in a very damaging public spat with UKIP's new star Neil Hamilton the former focus of the cash for questions saga in the dying days of the Major government. Its now being chronicled by Junius and tells the old old story of a woman scorned.

Its all being staggeringly mishandled by another Farage place person, Steve Crowther.  He has written some rather ill judged emails to Andreasen which have ended up in  the hands of the Daily Telegraph Mandrake column, required reading for all UKIP neocons, that's about 95% of UKIP membership.

“I am appalled that a senior member of the party should behave in this manner,” thunders Crowther in an email. “You seem unable to work as part of a team or fulfil the commitments you made when adopted as a Ukip candidate. "

Great coming from the man who had difficulty filling in London Assembly voting forms for  UKIP who then ploughs on further with,

“You  (Andreasen) were wrong to state that sitting MEPs will not know whether they are to be reselected until just before the election. The first stage in whatever process is adopted will be for the party to assess, early in 2013, whether its sitting MEPs deserve to be given any further opportunity to represent it in parliament.”  

Mr Crowther has badly misjudged the situation. Andreasen is not a woman to cross. She is not happy with the new UKIP professionalized, a favourite NF adjective, candidate selection procedures which can be roughly summarised as keep wannabee UKIP MEPs in the dark until they can do nothing about their places on the list or if indeed they are on the slate at all. Her unhapiness is now being very publically stated in the pages of the DT.

She  had alleged that Hamilton, who was elected to Ukip’s national executive committee last year, and his wife were being lined up for seats in the European Parliament, thanks to manipulation of the selection process for candidates.  Hamilton has threatened legal action. 

Junius chronicles things on  the link above. Note the use of the royal we.

Its pigeon's coming home to roost. Between this and Olly Neville of YI also hiting the headlines. Farage's people picking skills are rightly being called into question. I have no sympathy for Andreasen, Hamilton, Crowther or Farage.  They all deserve what the media will dish out to them. Young , idealistic Mr Neville has simply been naive which is understandable for a 22 year old.

EUKIP needs to close this down quickly and try and limit the damage but Andreasen will be difficult to keep quiet.  Crowther is clearly not the man to do this and in a Nuttall Andreasen press spat my money would be on Marta. Thanks to NF she is an MEP with the platform and media status of an elected UK. representative. Things for EUKIP are starting to unravel unless they back down and do a deal with Andreasen. Number two in the South East might suffice but Farage's control of EUKIP would have been weakened. Who will be next? William Legge and Gerard Batten will be watching the outcome with some interest. 

Thursday 10 January 2013

EUKIP - undemocratic and intolerant of minorities

The usual term applied  to political parties one can describe thus is a Nazi party. EUKIP's Farage controlled NEC has just kicked out young Olly Neville, a York University student aged 21 as chairman of the Farage Youth, a post to which he was elected only one month ago! His 'crime' was, like our PM David Cameron, to publically support gay marriage. He also like the BBC supports the Palestinian cause against Israel.

He has been forced by party chairman Crowther, well known for his administrative incompetence in electoral matters, to resign his position. This of course has happened many times before. Del Young, then chairman of YI, was set up by the Faragistas and ambushed with a load of false allegations. I had a similar fate on the NEC set up by Bannerman, late of UKIP now a Tory. Its the EUKIP way.

Mr Neville is accused of speaking against the Farage line on gay marriage. One of his most vocal prosecutors seems to be former York student, Gawain Towler, the so called UKIP press officer, whom I was told in his student days was chairman of the York homosexual club and ended up living with the chairman of the York lesbian club. Has Mr Towler changed his position since then on homosexual issues?

Channel 4 quotes Mr Towler explained: "In relation to the party's policies on areas including gay marriage, the European elections, the legalisation of drugs and prostitution among others, Mr Neville has been publicly at odds with the party over the past few weeks."

"After a number of issues relating to the public presentation of policy on both broadcast and social media, we felt that Mr Neville was not adhering to the requirements of being an official spokesman for the Party."

"Mr Neville was also chairman of Friends of Palestine in Ukip, a grouping that was seen as being at odds with the party’s broad support for Israel." A surefire vote loser given the increasing number of British Muslims. No wonder EUKIP can never win a Westminster seat. The lack the basic political skills needed to win fptp elections. The EU is the only pond they can swim in kept afloat by huge EU bribes paid for by the UK taxpayer.

I have great sympathy with Mr Neville. I came in for the same treatment by the same self seeking group of Farage controlled UKIP MEP wannabees. I always stuck to EUKIP's policy line in public and private. My sin was to criticise the electoral and political management incompetence of people like Gill allowing Andreasen onto UKIP slates etc. Crowther seems to be cast in the same mold following the London assembly election fiasco. He should do well in UKIP.

Closer to the Farage EUKIP bone whilst on the NEC I asked a lot of questions about the dodgy state of UKIP finances. Who asks these questions now I wonder? No one dare. It is the question that dare not speak its name at least not if you want to be on an EUKIP slate.

Worst of all was that just prior to the May 2009 Euro elections there were serious and potentially UKIP national campaign busting allegations made about Mr Towler. The SWRCC, on whose list Towler appeared as number 3 held a long meeting that I was asked to recuse myself from which I did. That meeting voted for Towler to stand down as a UKIP candidate. It went to the NEC where Farage had Towler reinstated on the SW slate. That is what Farage means by democracy in EUKIP. You do and say what Nigel wants.

Documentation concerning these allegations still exists. It may surface this time.

Mr  Neville is a young man. I remember asking Piers Merchant if I had transgressed any UKIP rules. Absolutely not was his reply and he poimted to what people like Ken Livingston and Jack Straw had said about Labour in their youth. It was insane of Crowther and his mentally  challenged colleagues on the NEC to react in such a way as to spread this all over the national media. It can do UKIP nothing but harm. Far better to ignore it and if challenged in the media reply UKIP is a broad church of those who wish to see our country leave the EU.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Me and Ms Sue Mountstevens

Sue Mountstevens is the independent elected as police commissioner for Avon and Somerset in November 2012 defeating candidates from all three LibLabCon main parties.


She won convincingly securing 128000 votes to the second placed Tory with 68000 after second preference votes had been allocated. She is a local businesswoman, director of a local Bristo bakery employing 1300 people. She has an excellent CV for the job.

BBC reported:


Ms Mountstevens, a married mother of three, was a member of the Avon and Somerset police authority before stepping down in order to stand in the election.
She has also served as a magistrate for 15 years on adult, youth and family cases.
She was the director of the well-known family business Mountstevens Bakeries.
In short she is exactly the sort of able, practical and independent candidate we need but who has largely become extinct because of the rise of the professional political careerist who now dominate all political parties including UKIP.
She wanted a different Chief Constable on termination of the current incumbent one Colin Port. The incumbent then decided he wanted to stay on for another 2 years. Ms Mountstevens said he could apply along with other candidates for the post. Mr Port had a huge strop saying this was demeaning etc and took Ms Mountstevens to the High Court and tried to block her interviewing for 'his' job. He lost with costs but it is reported he intends to appeal
I see this as a good day for democracy. I have never met Ms Mountstevens. I was asked to run against her. I refused as I did not want to split the independent vote. That's the advantage party nomniees have over independents. They know they will not have someone with the same label running against them. I wish her well. She had a torrid time outside the High Court with the media scrum demanding details of an alleged seven complaints made against her. I am not surprised. She obviously put a lot of other noses out of joint as well as PC Port. More power to her elbow I say. I hope the Major also approves of the lady. 

Monday 7 January 2013

BIS ease bank liquidity rules. Who benefits most?

The BIS, Bank of International Settlements, announced a dramatic easing of its previously proposed bank liquidity rules. This is short term cash or quickly realisable assets that can be sold for cash to cover a run on the bank. All this was achieved without the control of the EU or the ECB but worldwide covering US, Japanese, UK, Swiss and other non-EU banks as well as EU banks. The US banks were the prime pushers for this relaxation of the draconian rules the EU and ECB wanted. The key difference is the deal was done by hands on well informed bankers not grand standing, dumb politicians. The main changes were summarised in today's FT thus.


'First, the full implementation has been delayed from 2015 to 2019; banks will only need to meet 60 per cent of the requirements by 2015.
Second, the assets. Previously, qualifying assets were mostly limited to cash, government debt, reserves at central banks and some corporate bonds rated AA- or higher. But now banks now can hold the following securities for up to 15 per cent (after haircuts) of their high-quality liquid assets:
- Corporate debt securities rated A+ to BBB– with a 50% haircut
- Certain unencumbered equities subject to a 50% haircut
- Certain residential mortgage-backed securities rated AA or higher with a 25% haircut

The biggest change from the previous EU backed propsals is the inclusion of residential mortgage backed securities but with a 25% haircut ie only 75% of the book value of these loans are included in the qualifying amount and crucially the banks have four more years to meet the requirements.

The main benificiaries will be the French banks who were struggling to meet their political masters previous rules. Will they thank the BIS, theYanks and the non-EU bankers for in fact bailing them out. Non! It was all an American mess in the first place.

I do have some mis-givings about these propsals. It looks like a return to the system that created the mess in the first place. You can read the full account on the BIS web site. Its a good job the BIS is headquartered in Basle not Frankfurt or worse Paris.

On UK politics I saw N Farage on today's BBC Daily Politics with Jo Co. I thought he did well aided by Tory Cheryl Gilllan against Ming and the awful Tessa Jowell. Ms Gillan did a very good job as NF's minder. Its a pity UKIP does not get this message but they don't have anybody as able as Ms Gillan.

The photographs of Dave and Nick renewing their partnership vows like a pair of homosexuals in Beardie's church was political farce of the highest order.

Friday 4 January 2013

Who will your UKIP MEP candidates be?

Well you won' t find out until after Nigel's favourites names have been officially lodged with the Electoral Commission and cannot be changed. That's democracy in Nigel's new modern UKIP. Don't complain you malcontents you voted for it except you did not realise it at the time. Its the EU way of doing things which Nigel thoroughly approves of and endorses. His time in Brussels has not been wasted. He has learned many lessons from the EU on how to fix things

So who will make it onto these lists. Who wants to be a millionaire? You will just have to wait until the white smoke is seen emanating from Nigel's room?

Lets try and decompose the problem a little.

First comes our current MEPs. Nigel's cronies, Nuttall  &, Bloom are certs. The position of Clarke is a little uncertain. Some say he is too old. I say you are never to old to say Yes Nigel!

Less certain are Batten, Natrass, will he won't he, will Nigel forgive him? He certainly needs Natrass in the West Midlands to combat Nicky more than Batten who can be easily replaced by Winston MacKenzie who of course will help Nigel's multi-racial credentials. Agnew in East Anglia is probaly safe because of his money. Andreasen and Legge seem no longer to enjoy the Fuerher's favour so will be out. Trevor and Nicky have already opted out and Bannerman another Farage protege has run off and rejoined the Tories. John Bufton is also out of favour but Wales with a reinvigorated Labour party may be unwinnable for EUKIP.

That leaves 2 vacancies in the South West, 1 in East Anglia, 1or 2 in the West Midlands. Natrass will be one if he manages to be reconciled and re-integrated with NF. If KP can do it for England surely Natrass will manage it. One will be needed in the South East to replace Andreasen and 1 in London to replace Batten. I expect Neil Hamilton to be parachuted into the South West list and possibly also his wife as well. I also expect Ms Duffy's partner Reeve to be first on the East Anglia list above Agnew and as earlier Winston MacKenzie to be first in London. Who will Farage have on the SE slate to replace Andreasen? I think he will want a woman and I suggest Margot Parker a former EU lobbyist so well versed in the ways of Brussels that she and EUKIP seem made for each other. She also  did very well at the Corby by election.

Now consider the gender and ethnic balance. A black homosexual woman would tick all the boxes but I can't thinkof one. I think Jane Collins who came second in the recent Rotheram by- election might do nicely in the West Midlands. At no two in the South West if not Mrs Hamilton then who? That brings us down to the wannbee MEPs, mainly white middle aged males.

Crowther has aspirations in the South West but did he not make a mess of the London election nominations? More likely is Towler, familiar with EU waysand  a long time Farage apparatchik whom Nigel can rely on to do what he is told.

Further down still we get to McGough. He has little chance in London because of the change in the ethnicity of the population theres. Middle aged white males are unlikely to succeed. The face fungus is OK but only if its black and Muslim. Then there is young Arnott who may be no 2 again to Godders in Yorkshire but could go to the moribund East Midlands region.

More likely are some money bags. Nigel's media chums are dangerous. They might outshine the leader on the box but they may go on some lists around the number 4 slot for their media personna.

Apologies to those I have omitted. There are many card carrying Farage loyalists and patriots, many women, who have worked hard for EUKIP over the years but as Edith Cavell said before they shot her, 'Patriotism is not enough'. He or she who would an MEP be must devotedly curry favour with Nigel over the next 15 months. So get licking and sucking you wannabee MEPs!


Tuesday 1 January 2013

Why Farage's UKIP will fail

My last blog dealt with UKIP's deeply flawed and corrupt process of selecting MEP candidates for the regional lists in the 2014 Euro elections. The same thing happened in 2009 when Mr Gill an ex Tory backbench MP mediocre even by the standards of Tory MPs was put in charge by Farage of overseeing the selection process in 2008. It was my misfortune to be on the UKIP NEC when this process was happening. I was receiving numerous complaints from UKIP members up and down the country about the flaws in this selection procedure. I tried to contact Mr Gill about these in my opinion largely legitimate complaints but he was uncontactable for 6 weeks. It was like a football referee blowing the whistle to start the game and then running off the pitch leaving the players to get on with it.

The NEC, led by the chief Farage apologist D Denny dismissed these complainants, many long term hard working party activists,  as "malcontents" a smearing word that was always applied to those who disagreed with Farage and his cabal. My view and that of the late Piers Merchant the returning officer was for UKIP to set up an NEC sub-committee to which all complainants could submit written evidence, appear in person and be questioned by the committee which would then rapidly rule on the validity of these complaints and what action should be taken if such was deemed necessary.

Such a democratic, fair and transparent process got short shrift from the Cabal and never saw the light of day. The result was that Andreasen and others appeared on the UKIP slates and were selected by the EU rules as UK MEPs. This is now coming back to haunt UKIP and is a dire warning of what has, and will happen, when rules are waived and ignored.

It will be worse this time round as the tide is rightly running strongly against the EU and many more cabal cronies will appear on the UKIP slates and be elected as UK MEPs by the EU many will be political dross. It does not matter if UKIP win all 76 or so UK MEP slates. MEPs cannot get us out of the EU only MPs in Westminster can do that. But there is a huge political downdside to these low grade sycophants when they have the letters MEP after their name. They will provide a soft and easy target for the largely Europhile media who will crucify them. Farage will huff and puff. He can brush aside one Bloom with his untenable views on women and association with undesirable mid European parties but he canot brush aside the ill considered public remarks of ten or even twenty of these people. They will make UKIP a laughing stock.

Farage's UKIP cult has many flaws. As in all cults rules are there to be obeyed only if the cult leader approves. Otherwise rules can be waived or ignored. You cannot run a serious political party as a cult. Adolf Hitler managed it in Germany but he had a host of talented people around him to cover his many flaws. Farage has gotten rid of all the talent at the top of UKIP just as Stalin purged the Red Army officer corps in the late 30s. Stalin however had a huge pool of talent to draw replacements from, a huge army and ruthless secret police force. He also had to listen to the Politburo. Farage's UKIP of course  has none of these assets.

Worse, as well as lack of political talent, many of Farage's associates come with huge political baggage, the Hamiltons to name but two. Another easy target fror the BBC. UKIP's strategy must start with having squeaky clean candidates as far as possible. This makes them much harder to attack and shifts the battle on to the policy ground that UKIP can win on. Otherwise the BBC and its like will play the man not the ball just as happens in MOTD every Saturday. Its putting the ball in the back of the net that matters.