It would be nice to know what HMG thinks now. On Saturday Christopher Hope wrote in the Daily Telegraph:
The Spanish EU Presidency, backed by France and Germany, announced that it is going to propose the creation of an EU European Public Prosecutor next month using powers under the Lisbon treaty.It is, indeed, very worrying. Even more worrying is the attitude of the Government that refuses to acknowledge that there is a very great danger of this coming to pass and, therefore, there ought to be some kind of a British policy on the subject. And even more worrying than that is the lack of any kind of comment from Her Majesty's Opposition. Will they veto any proposals for a European Public Prosecutor?
The move is regarded as "extremely worrying" and is seen as a further attempt to transfer powers from London to Brussels.
Christopher Hope goes on:
The British Government has consistently opposed the plans but is powerless to stop them going through as they can be passed as long as they have the backing of nine member states under so-called “enhanced co-operation”.That's not quite what Article 86 says, as this blog pointed out in the previous posting and not quite what Marta Andreasen said in her Open Letter to David Cameron. One more question HMG should reply to: what can they do to stop this development, if anything, and do they intend to do it?
Britain has "opted out" of the system, which means that while the European prosecutor will not be able to bring cases in this country, he will still be able to issue European arrest warrants to force UK citizens to face prosecution in another member state – without asking the permission of the Government or the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer.
Note the silence of the Conservatives, too. This should be a major UKIP selling point.
ReplyDeleteOff-topic but please read Christopher Booker's piece in the Telegraph re the looming shortage in power supplies the UK will face within the next decade.
ReplyDeleteBooker lays out the facts & rips the Tory energy policy to shreds (as well he might, it's shockingly clueless). There's also a remarkable factoid about the so-called 'smart meters' that Tory energy policy insists must be installed in everyone's home. The point here is not just that such meters ..
".. allow consumers to monitor their own electricity usage, they also allow electricity companies to “manage supply”, by cutting off the power when not enough is available to the grid.
So when the shortages come, at least it will be possible to control whose lights and computers have to be switched off to prevent the grid crashing. But it means that anyone thinking of voting for Mr Cameron should first invest in a generator, before his smart meters turns their lights off."
Booker's piece is here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/7386628/How-will-David-Cameron-keep-the-lights-on.html
Maybe this is a tough sell to talk about as most of the country perhaps feel this is one of those distant-we'll sort it out somehow-muddle through at the time situations. But it isn't. This is a major crisis that's looming for the UK so it's a policy that I strongly feel UKIP should devote some serious time too - maybe in the way of video presentations for YouTube or some such, so at least it can reach a wide audience. A column on this blog would be welcome too. :-)
Most people won't have a clue about what they've lost to Brussels until it's too late. The EPP topic is one that many average folk will regard as meaningless to them personally, simply because not enough people are spelling it out. Similarly with the smart-meters, people are being sold the psychologically-soothing idea of "saving money"....the notion that their supplies could also be switched off doesn't enter their brains.
ReplyDeleteSoon, too, we will have the EU tax, which will be in everyone's faces each time they buy fuel (and many other things to follow).
Apart from that, for the UK public, it's just back to normal with head in bucket or sand-hole. One has to despair.