EU To Ban Eurosceptic Groups

Writing in the Telegraph on Tuesday, Bruno Waterfield uncovered fresh plans by MEPs to eliminate eurosceptics as an organised opposition within the European Parliament.

Richard North continued the story by pointing out that the affect of amending these parliamentary rules will probably be to prevent David Cameron from forming a new eurosceptic group as he had pledged during his party leadership campaign and breaking away from the EPP-ED.

Gawain Towler also talks us through the procedure of how the vote came to pass and the way in which Europhile Tory MEP, Timothy Kirkhope helped Labour’s Richard Corbett escape defeat. Whether this was intentional on Mr Kirkhope’s part is open to debate – though he had ample motivation since he has been against Cameron’s pledge to leave the EPP-ED from the start.

Rather sadly, a significant number of people in politics and the media (who probably should know much better) continue to have a fairly rose-tinted view of what they would like the European Union to be, rather than acknowledge what it has actually become. Despite all evidence to the contrary they persist in believing the Union to be a free trading area when it is not; a bastion of democratic ideals when it is not, and a co-operative but loose association of sovereign nations when it is not.

The sole aim of the EU’s fore-fathers and subsequent torch bearers always has and always will be ‘ever closer union’ and political integration. As a consequence EU institutions and supporters will not tolerate any dissent against their grand project which they have spent so much time and effort slowly constructing, and will often break their own rules of procedure simply to evade any semblance of democratic opposition.

Click here to continue reading the article…

Now Where Have I Heard That Before?

David Cameron today announced that he was going to ‘make poverty history’ by pledging that a Conservative Government would remove three hundred thousand children from poverty through increases in the working tax credit.

Sam Coates over at ConservativeHome briefly expressed his unhappiness and disappointment that the media had chosen to cover the Ming Campbell resignation saga rather than this supposedly important Conservative announcement.

But really, does the media response surprise you all that much? Yes, the Ming story is about as interesting to many as watching paint dry – but then Cameron’s latest policy initiative isn’t exactly a box office blockbuster exhibiting outside the box thinking either.

What’s more, there was certainly a bizarre sense of déjà vu surrounding Cameron’s ‘Social Responsibility’ press conference. You can be forgiven for thinking that you’ve heard and seen something quite similar before - because quite probably you have. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown spent the past ten or so years making similar sounding claims.

It does all seem to be getting very crowded in that miniscule area some people refer to as the centre ground (in my opinion there is no such thing) – all the while as yet more and more people choose to abstain from voting.

Click here to continue reading the article…

Disunited Unity

With the Conservative Conference in Blackpool now at an end and the ever fickle opinion polls claiming that the party is on a level footing with Labour, David Cameron knows that he really has to capitalise on this short-term boost.

As we know, unless the Conservative party does exceptionally well in all its target seat marginals, or is around 4-6% ahead of Labour at the time of a general election (based upon a uniform national swing) Labour will most likely still form another lacklustre Government.

Despite this, a number of interesting and perhaps slightly unexpected proposals did actually come out of Blackpool this week. For instance, William Hague announced that a Conservative Government would introduce legislation meaning that any future powers transferred to the EU (of which there are a lot already) would require a referendum.

This proposal would be very welcome news if the Conservative party did not still cling on to its ‘In Europe, not run by Europe’ mantra – thus meaning that the party is at heart still in favour of increasing EU integration, though just at a slightly slower rate (if even that).

Click here to continue reading the article…

Reverting To Type

After the Wednesday Newsnight interview with David Cameron, the BBC and the papers have made much of his comments on immigration.

The Daily Mail and Telegraph believe that the Conservatives are reasserting their authority on issues which they have currently avoided such as immigration and crime, while the left-wingers at the BBC and Guardian have used David Cameron’s comments as an opportunity to present the Conservative party as returning to the core vote and ‘lurching to the Right’.

The reactions from Nick Assinder at the BBC and the neo-Marxist Seumas Milne in the Guardian were typical of the overall vein of the attacks launched on Mr Cameron. Yet, both miss the mark completely (and probably purposefully too) because in reality Mr Cameron has not said anything new than he hasn’t said before and thus cannot have moved to the Right.

Wednesday’s BBC Newsnight really was a first class example of how the news corporations (in this case the BBC) actually make the news and then report upon it – and in doing so, how they can both dictate and manipulate the political agenda.

Gavin Esler tried his hand at manipulation while questioning Cameron on immigration. He noticeably made great efforts to put the word ‘swamped’ into Mr Cameron’s mouth by constantly repeating it at least half a dozen times. This was most likely done so the BBC could have a headline report the next day saying that David Cameron had said ‘immigrants are swamping Britain’. As it was the Conservative leader didn’t fall into that trap.

Click here to continue reading the article…