Lisbon Treaty was deliberately made unreadable

Just in case anyone has forgotten, or has simply not grasped how mendacious europhiles are and how they have conspired to stop the people of Europe voting in a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, listen to the clip below.

They deliberately made the Lisbon Treaty unreadable.

In July 2007, on OpenEurope's blog this was posted:

The pro-euro camp are all busy congratulating themselves about having fooled the public by changing the name of the constitution.

At a meeting of the Centre for European Reform yesterday EU officials discussed their strategy for adopting the EU Constitution without a referendum.

Former Italian PM Giuliano Amato said, “They decided that the document should be unreadable. If it is unreadable, it is not constitutional, that was the sort of perception. Where they got this perception from is a mystery to me. In order to make our citizens happy, to produce a document that they will never understand! But, there is some truth [in it]. Because if this is the kind of document that the IGC will produce, any Prime Minister – imagine the UK Prime Minister - can go to the Commons and say ‘look, you see, it’s absolutely unreadable, it’s the typical Brussels treaty, nothing new, no need for a referendum.’ Should you succeed in understanding it at first sight there might be some reason for a referendum, because it would mean that there is something new.”

You can listen to them all chortling about how terribly clever they are on the clip below. There is a quite lot of this kind of gloating going on in the pro-euro camp at the moment. But unfortunately for them, calls for a referendum are not going to go away...

(If you can't view the player in your browser, click here).

The main speaker is Giuliano Amato.

Breathtakingly arrogant and anti-democratic.

Woman faces extradition for cannabis infringement 20 years ago

The Evening Standard tells the story of of Deborah Dark, a British citizen, who is fighting extradition to France under the EU's European Arrest Warrant for an alleged cannabis offence 20 years ago.

A French court acquitted her but neither she nor her lawyer was informed that the French prosecution later appealed the decision and she had been sentenced to six years in prison, in absentia.

For the next 15 years, Dark travelled undisturbed to France, unaware of her status as a wanted convict "so it might have continued but for creation of the European Arrest Warrant, enacted in 2003, to enable the fast-track extradition of terrorist suspects.

This changed everything.

In 2005 a public prosecutor in Pau applied for and was granted a European Arrest Warrant against her." The article notes that Dark "remains stuck in a Catch-22 situation" because although both a Spanish court and Westminster Magistrates Court have refused to extradite her, due to "passage of time", she is unable to clear her name without returning to France, risking a retrial.

Fair Trials International said that changing the legal system and amending European law made by the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union will require key British politicians to take up her case, which the article notes "could be a long, hard road."

"The Home Office say they can't help, my MEP, Baroness Sarah Ludford, hasn't responded to my numerous emails and pleas for help. Everywhere I turn, they pass the buck."

What needless agony this woman has had to go through. How can it be right that she wasn't informed of her "wanted criminal" status which has doubtless caused her problems over the years, without her knowing why?

Is this what we call justice?

Fair Trials International provides background on Deborah and her case.

Treason in the air - Global Warming Bolleaux

Bjørn Lomborg of Project Syndicate questions the rationality of the Warmist brigade.

These warmist nutters are determined to erode democracy and ban free speech. They should be locked up in padded cells.

Bjørn writes:

COPENHAGEN – Discussions about global warming are marked by an increasing desire to stamp out “impure” thinking, to the point of questioning the value of democratic debate. But shutting down discussion simply means the disappearance of reason from public policy.

In March, Al Gore’s science adviser and prominent climate researcher, Jim Hansen, proclaimed that when it comes to dealing with global warming, the “democratic process isn’t working.” Although science has demonstrated that CO2 from fossil fuels is heating the planet, politicians are unwilling to follow his advice and stop building coal-fired power plants.

Hansen argues that, “the first action that people should take is to use the democratic process. What is frustrating people, me included, is that democratic action affects elections, but what we get then from political leaders is greenwash.” Although he doesn’t tell us what the second or third action is, he has turned up in a British court to defend six activists who damaged a coal power station. He argues that we need “more people chaining themselves to coal plants,” a point repeated by Gore.

The Nobel laureate in economics Paul Krugman goes further. After the narrow passage of the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill in the United States House of Representatives, Krugman said that there was no justification for a vote against it. He called virtually all of the members who voted against it, “climate deniers” who were committing “treason against the planet.”

Krugman said that the “irresponsibility and immorality” of the representatives’ democratic viewpoints were “unforgivable” and a “betrayal.” He thus accused almost half of the democratically elected members of the House, from both parties, of treason for holding the views that they do – thereby essentially negating democracy.

Less well-known pundits make similar points, suggesting that people with “incorrect” views on global warming should face Nuremburg-style trials or be tried for crimes against humanity. There is clearly a trend. The climate threat is so great – and democracies are doing so little about it – that people conclude that maybe democracy is part of the problem, and that perhaps people ought not to be allowed to express heterodox opinions on such an important topic.

This is scary, although not without historical precedent. Much of the American McCarthyism of the 1940’s and 1950’s was driven by the same burning faith in the righteousness of the mission – a faith that saw fundamental rights abrogated. We would be well served to go down a different path.

Read the complete article.

Man-made Global Warming bolleaux

The Met Office has spectacularly failed over the last three years in predicting the weather, despite spending millions on technology which was supposedly top drawer.



From WeatherAction:

WeatherAction summer forecast success reported on BBCTV 29th July as floods & tornadoes confirm Piers Corbyn's forecast detail and Met Office admits failure

- "It's not a question of technology but application of Physics" says Piers

- "You say you want us to publish more about our Solar Weather Technique but you (The Met Office) and Governments will not welcome that because it will pull the rug from under your belief in Man-made Global Warming. The World is now cooling and we can explain why."

Piers Corbyn, astrophysicist of WeatherAction was interviewed on BBC News 24 at 12.30 on 29th July with brolly in hand showing his summer forecast was working while the Met Office admitted to viewers that theirs had failed. [NOTE BBC have NOT so far issued a video link of this enjoyable piece of television, we urge viewers to put in requests]

In response to the question 'Does the technology exist?' to do the 'seasonal forecasting' the Met office find so hard, Piers said: "It is not a matter of technology but of the application of Physics and equations. Just as computer models of the economy fail so does the Met office approach to long range forecasting. We can predict in detail months ahead how solar particle and magnetic effects modulated by the moon cause the Jet stream - the tracks of lows - to shift. That is the key to weather type change prediction in Britain & Ireland."

He read out his WeatherAction summer forecast headline (see below) issued on 22 February which well describes the summer so far - and said it also gave more detail in 13 weather periods through the summer which were developed into 27 weather periods in the monthly forecasts. This contrasted dramatically with the Met Office 'barbecue summer' forecast issued in April - which made no attempt to identify sub-periods - and their recent meandering admissions of failure.

Piers said key points about his Solar Weather Technique (SWT) of long range forecasting are available on the web and more would come but some investors were countenancing against that. Philip Avery of BBC/Met Office then commented "Yes, because they make money". In response to this admission by the Met Office that there is merit in WeatherAction forecasts Piers said: "Yes, more will be published but you and governments will not welcome it because it will pull the rug from under your belief in man-made global warming. The world is now cooling and we can explain why."

Afterwards Piers said:

"Our summer forecast under SWT25d has gone excellently. We are especially pleased with the DETAIL in July (see below). Our month ahead forecast graph issued at end of June specifically predicted that Tuesday 28th July would be the best day in the S/E for a while, which it was. We said the period 29th-31st would be a 'TOP Extra Activity' Red Weather Warning period with High Whirlwind/tornado risk and that during this period a month's worth of rain was likely in a few hours in places.

"These extremes have been realised. Some western parts were hit by 60mm of rain on 29th and whirlwind / tornado events hit Scotland and Western parts with floods in places. We issue weather warnings over forty days ahead while the Met Office often finds it hard to make them four hours ahead.

"It's a pity that Climate campers don't feel able to use our forecasts and are getting drenched once again because their dogmatic belief in the unbelievable provided by their mates in the Met Office means they cannot make weather-wise plans. I hope soon that real climate Karma will run over their Dogma!"

Green Watch has some fascinating articles on the so-called deniers of this junk science. Worth a read.

Bob Ainsworth exclusive photo

This exclusive photo of Bob Ainsworth has been leaked to me by a contact in the British Armed Forces. It was taken by one of 'Our Boys' shortly after Bob the Knob's last moral boosting visit to the British Forces, stationed in the Afghan desert. One can only assume that they weren't too impressed by the bullshit spouting, spineless twat and that it's fairly safe to say that their moral was none too boosted either . . . .

Lifted wholesale from the talented: Grumpy Old Twat

England: We have not spoken yet

The final two paragraphs's of G K Chesterton's The Secret People seem apt:

They have given us into the hand of new unhappy lords,
Lords without anger or honour, who dare not carry their swords.
They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes;
They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
And the load of their loveless pity is worse than the ancient wrongs,
Their doors are shut in the evening; and they know no songs.

We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,
Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.
It may be we shall rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first,
Our wrath come after Russia's wrath and our wrath be the worst.
It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest
God's scorn for all men governing. It may be beer is best.
But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet.
Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.

How wrong was that prediction!?

Bernanke gets it spectacularly wrong and Pete Schiff gets it right. It goes to show how the pygmies of the media and government so spectacularly lead us astray.

The good news is that Peter Schiff is running for the Senate.

Fairness, justice and freedom are more than words

MSNBC exposes Fed ponzi scheme

Ron Paul's HR 1207 bill to audit the Fed has been gathering momentum to the extent that even MSNBC analyse the Fed's lack of transparency, its role in the the bailouts and ask "where did all our money go"?

Sand Art

Swine flu vaccine warning

Dr Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's flu chief, warned about the potential dangers of the untested vaccine on 27th July: "There are certain areas where you simply do not try to make any economies. One of the things which cannot be compromised is the safety of vaccines."

And yet, the European Medicines Agency, the drug regulatory body for the EU, is accelerating the approval process for the vaccine, allowing firms to bypass large-scale human trials and instead test a vaccine based on bird flu.

Britain, Greece, France and Sweden plan to start using it as soon as it is cleared, despite the WHO's warning.

Does that set any alarm bells ringing?

The 1976 swine flu vaccine caused neurological damage and it transpired later that the vaccine had never been tested.

The Department of Health said it was "extremely irresponsible" to suggest Britain would use an unsafe vaccine. A spokesman said: "Over 40,000 doses of the vaccine which the swine flu vaccines are based on have been given without any safety concerns."

Excuse me? Who is being irresponsible here? It is not those worried about the safety of the vaccine who are being irresponsible; it is those who are not worried but plan to go ahead with it anyway who are being irresponsible.

The DoH has no safety concerns. But the WHO does. And we know what happened in 1976.

Who would you trust?

Update: Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease

From junk food to ... do you know?

We take a lot for granted. Be patient with this movie. How do you think it ends?

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Transforming ugliness into beauty

Before: concrete stucco facade:

During: plastering the surface:

During: adding detail:

After: the finished product:

Government by Goldman Sachs

Speculators, for the last few decades, have quietly gained control of the stock market, pushing up prices of commodities to unnatural levels. It has essentially skewed the supply and demand of natural markets, which resulted in the massive oil bubble last year.

Goldman Sachs, which has been a major player in this has its tentacles all over government. So who really runs America?

This is a 5-part video whose successive parts will auto-load.

Stop spending our future

The US is drowning in debt, using much the same formula as that 'championed' by our bone-headed PM. Both insist that we have to spend our way out of recession.

If spending got us into this mess, how can spending get us out, without mortgaging our future?

Nanny's special police force - Bouncers

Hot on the heels of Nanny's great wheeze to create "Plastic Policemen" (PCSO) and empowering park wardens and others to be able to fine people ("Jacqui's Specials"), Nanny has come up with another "terrific" idea.

She has decided to grant night club doormen ("bouncers" to you and I) the power to be able to fine people who are unruly.

Not only that, but Nanny's Bouncers will be abe to access the police criminal records database. In other words, a person whose only "qualification" to levy fines etc is a special T shirt and high vis yellow vest both with logos that say he/she can levy fines (provided by Nanny) will be able to nose around the criminal records database at will.

Good isn't it?

By the way, in order for bouncers (or rather the companies running the bouncers) to be able to "qualify" to levy fines and wear the T shirts etc, they first have to pay a fee to Nanny.

Kerching!

Any fines levied will go into the coffers of the local councils or police.

Ker-Farking-Ching!

Lifted from NannyKnowsBest

Isn't this how Hitler's thug force started?

Consquences, intended and unintended

Two intriguing and thought-provoking articles are well worth reading - both from the Mises Institute, home to libertarian thinking and Austrian economics.

1. Gary Galles* writes about the Inexcusable Unintended Consequences of government policies, its reaction to those consequences and whether government is culpable for not predicting the possibility of those consequences.
2. Briggs Armstrong** explains "Why I Pay with Two-Dollar Bills".
   

* Gary M. Galles is a professor of economics at Pepperdine University
** Briggs Armstrong is a student at Auburn University majoring in accounting and minoring in finance. He is a member of the Auburn University Libertarians, the Auburn Economics Club, and the Auburn Philosophy Club

Tamiflu inventor makes millions from swine flu

It shouldn't come as a surprise. On principle, I won't be buying shares in Gilead or Roche! There are other ways of making money.

Perspicacious reports:

Swine flu is the scourge of the world - but is making one man richer every single day of the week.

Scourge of the world? What about TB, cancer, wars, economic collapse or despotic governments? I'd say they're all just a tad worse. In any case, many of those who've taken Tamiflu say that the 'cure' is worse than the disease.

For Dr. Norbert Bischofberger, 55, is the inventor of Tamiflu, the only vaccine currently on the market to combat the pandemic. Now the owner of a luxury hotel that was once the family home in Mellau, Austria - where as a boy he built a secret lab in the attic - colleagues say science not money motivates him.

A graduate of Innsbruck, Zurich and Harvard universities, Bischofberger headed a research team to create Tamiflu, the first orally active commercially developed anti-influenza medication, for U.S. company Gilead Sciences in the 1990s.

Today he is a director of research and vice-president of Gilead in California which owns the intellectual rights to Tamiflu and outsources it to Swiss pharma giant Roche to manufacture and distribute.

He earns some £450,000 a year but has stock options and bonuses in the tens of millions of pounds. And he takes a handsome percentage said to be in the millions of Tamiflu profits as governments around the world stockpile it as the virus spreads.

But in an interview with a German Sunday newspaper it was reported he ‘gets quite angry’ if it is suggested he has become rich through a horror-virus, the fear of which is gripping the world.’ No person ever said on his death bed: I only wish I had earned more money in my life,’ he said.

The US government declares that it will not allow any exemptions from mandatory vaccinations which are reported to be underway. But WHO's International Health Regulations state that the WHO can only recommend - not dictate mandatory vaccinations, so the decision to mass vaccinate lies with individual governments.

Three particular articles seem to indicate that should governments attempt compulsory mass vaccination, they will face class action suits from an angry public. The articles:

Article 3.1. The implementation of these Regulations shall be with full respect for the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons.

Art. 23.3 No medical examination, vaccination, prophylaxis or health measure under these Regulations shall be carried out on travellers without their prior expressed informed consent or that of their parents.

Art.56.5. In the event of a dispute between WHO and one or more States Parties concerning the interpretation or application of these Regulations, the matter shall be submitted to the Health Assembly.

Update: The Mail reports:

Thousands of patients could be denied NHS treatment and left to die under 'worst-case' emergency plans for a swine-flu epidemic.

The blueprint would force doctors to 'play God' and prioritise intensive-care treatment for those most likely to benefit - ruling out patients with problems such as advanced cancer.

The 'scoring' system would be introduced if half the population became infected with flu.

Is this, perchance, a leak from government? Do you think they might be trying to nudge us towards sheep-like acceptance of mass vaccination via scare tactics?

Would our mangy, unprincipled UK government attempt mass vaccination in the UK?

If so, I hope investigative journalists will keep an eye on which Labour politicians end up with directorships in the pharmaceutical companies and whether Labour's party coffers are augmented directly or indirectly by those companies.

Czechs to delay Lisbon Treaty via Constitutional Court

Václav Klaus and 17 Czech senators plant to refer the Lisbon Treaty to the Czech Constitutional Court at the beginning of August, which would delay the signing of the treaty into Czech law until the court has given its verdict. If the court finds the Lisbon Treaty to be unconstitutional, its fate could be the bin - where it belongs.

The Telegraph reports:

That could thwart the ambitions of Sweden, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, to see the Treaty's provisions pushed through before the end of the year if Ireland votes to approve the treaty in its Oct 2 referendum.

Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister, said recently he wanted to see the EU "move over to the Lisbon Treaty, if possible, late in our presidency".

[...]

Germany and Poland still have to ratify the treaty. While they are widely expected to do so, any further delay could hold up the appointment of the new European Commission, which is due to take office on Nov 1.

Andrew Duff, the UK Liberal MEP, accused Mr Klaus of procrastinating.
Meanwhile, one of the key figures in the pro-treaty campaign in Ireland has admitted that the "Yes" camp faces a "tough campaign" over the next two months.

The latest opinion polls suggest a "Yes" vote would be possible, but Pat Cox, campaign director of Ireland for Europe, an independent civil society group promoting ratification, said, "Ireland is a very different place today to what it was a year ago. The financial crisis has rocked our confidence. We are reeling from a series of body blows over the last 12 months. There is no room for complacency.

"There are those on the No side who will seek to exploit our present uncertainty to encourage the Irish people to vote against our own interests and reject the Treaty.
"We do not plan to let them succeed," Mr Cox, a former Irish MEP and president of the European Parliament, added.

What Mr Cox is not telling us is that the EU spent €2.4bn on promoting the EU in 2008. With the uphill struggle that the EU now faces as it desperately tries to get this dreadful treaty ratified, I'm willing to bet that 2009's EU propaganda budget will be double that sum.

And we're all paying for it.

Cross-posted at Bloggers4UKIP

Pfizer pay $50m damages for antibiotic experiment on Nigerians

For decades, pharmaceutical and chemical companies such as Pfizer and Monsanto have been posing as beneficent, caring organisations, while doctoring research results to gain licenses and win law suits. They did particularly well under the last few US administrations; the FDA is said to be corrupt and in cohoots with Big Pharma, encouraged by government.

Recently, Pfizer agreed to pay £75m in settlement of a class action suit filed by a group of Nigerian parents who claim that Pfizer harmed their children by using them as guinea pigs in an unlicensed drug trial. 5% of the children died and others suffered brain damage, organ failure and other serious side-effects.

In 1996, Pfizer needed to test its antibiotic, Trovan, in order to obtain FDA approval. At the time, Nigeria was plagued by meningitis, cholera and measles, so Pfizer flew a research team to the country and set up a station a few yards from where Doctors Without Borders were dispensing free treatments to the locals. Parents were not told that their children were participating in a drug trial, nor that laboratory testing on animals had caused liver and joint damage.

One Pfizer researcher who did not join the research team in Nigeria, Juan Walterspiel, wrote to William Steere, Pfizer's CEO, complaining that the study was "in violation of ethical rules." and that "Some of the children were in critical condition and most of them malnourished, which made oral absorption even more unpredictable [...] At least one died after a single oral dose."

Pfizer has had hundreds of charges of unethical practice levied against it including the suppression of negative studies of its drug Neurontin, which can induce suicidal tendencies. An attorney fighting a case against the company called Pfizer's actions "scientific misconduct and unethical behavior."

Recently Pfizer ended a clinical trial for the cholesterol drug, Torcetrapib, after a significant number of patients (1%) died. Others developed heart problems. Consumer health campaigner and author, Mike Adams opines:

"I believe this decision would never have been reached without the increased scrutiny now being directed at Big Pharma [...] In my opinion, if this drug had been developed five years ago, the trial results would have been tweaked to make it appear safer, and the drug would have been released anyway."

"Pfizer announced just two days before this decision that it was seeking FDA approval for the drug [...] No one in their right mind should believe that the FDA would have denied approval for this drug, especially while the agency continues to support Vioxx, a drug that has killed more than 50,000 Americans."

Update: Thanks to banned, who flagged up The Constant Gardener movie . Watch:



If anyone can find a Pay per View site online with a vast stash of movies, please let me know!

EU con: Ireland to be bailed out by Germany

The Germans were not keen on relinquishing their highly regarded Deutsche Mark for the Euro in the '90s, for fear that should any member states be reckless with their economies, Germany's economy would be forced to bail them out. So the Maastricht Treaty was designed to reassure German taxpayers that bailouts between member states would be illegal. and that each member state had to be fully responsible for their own fiscal policies - including debts they incurred.

At the time, the German economy was strong, Ireland's economy beginning to boom, EU states generally growing and nobody seemed to foresee the possibility of future economic busts - despite the huge disparity between the social and economic fabric of the member states.

Ireland's current spending shortfall this year is €26bn while its spending requirement is €60bn, which means that it must borrow approximately €400m per week to keep the public sector going. Ireland's debt servicing costs are already the most expensive in Europe because the markets regard it as risky. Ireland is in a bit of a hole.

In October, it faces its second referendum on the same Lisbon Treaty with bogus guarantees and the EU and Brian Lenihan are trying to convince them that should their economy crash, their only hope would be bailouts from the EU.

Firstly, Ireland can slash its public sector and save itself a ton of money - so giving the markets confidence in its handling of the economy. That would have the effect of easing the cost of its credit and reducing the likelihood of its economy crashing.

Secondly, 70% of Germans are against bailing out the Irish and indeed, under EU law, it would be illegal for them to do so.

So, the Irish are being conned into believing:

• that the 'guarantees' they were promised will be delivered (they won't);
• that their only hope out of their financial crisis is to keep borrowing (it isn't);
• that the EU will bail them out should their economy fail (it can't and it won't).

And we all have to pay for the privilege of delivering this fiction to them, to persuade them to sign up to a treaty that none of the people of the member states wants!

Merkel, who faces an election this year, is latching onto a line from Article 100 of the Maastricht Treaty which permits a bailout for a member state in the case of "natural disasters" or "exceptional occurrences beyond its control." She says this allows some "interpretive room for manoeuvre." Update: Der Spiegel gives the low-down on Germany's economy.

The Irish aren't stupid but people do crazy things when scared - which is precisely what the EU intended. We have a duty to tear the veil from their eyes, in any way we can.

I suggest we get busy blogging - and flooding their newspapers with comments.

Cross-posted at Bloggers4UKIP

Peter Hitchens was right all along

Many die-hard Labour supporters were still swallowing Labour's "narrative" (crap, to you and me) in 2006, even though the wheels were beginning to wobble on the vehicle of state they were driving to ruin.

Peter Hitchens, once a commie, but now a realist, belted these lefties with logic and sound argument. They laughed!

The four videos below comprise a compendium of the best of Hitchens on Question Time, from 2006 to 2009.

They're not laughing at his views now! (Update: 23 Aug 2009): these videos are no longer available - damn!)

New World Order: still don't believe it?

Cross-posted at Voice of the Resistance

Juicy Reads

With his usual clarity of thought and incisive argument, Daniel Hannan lashes out at the BBC for its partisanship in promoting the Greens over UKIP in the Norwich North by-election - despite UKIP proving to be more popular than the Greens.

The Mail reports that three Ethiopian exchange students went missing on a trip to Parliament. Unconvincingly, the police say their police's primary concern is for safety of the three. Somehow, I doubt that! Their student visas expire on September 9th; I can't help wondering if they're hoping to extend them 'unofficially'. Labour's stance on this - and more importantly, its actions - will be very interesting indeed.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Venomous Balls can't resist smearing Purnell, suggesting that his decision to quit the Cabinet in June was due to a "midlife crisis". I look forward to Purnell's retort. Clearly Balls doesn't want yet another career opportunity prized from his clammy grasp, when Brown drops off his PM's perch.

Balls will also be frothing at the mouth at the Tories' plans to bring back O levels - killing two birds with one stone.

I doubt many would disagree of Jeremy Clarkson's colourful description of Brown - it seems pretty apt to me!

Simon Jenkins contends that Britain is losing its sense of proportion over swine flu. I contend that the government has done everything it can to hype up this piddling disease. There are so many more important things that a government can and should concern itself about - swine flu is not one of them.

Vampire politics of the living dead

Cameron claims the high ground over Labour's "utterly despicable campaign tactics.



He rightly points out that the Conservatives had a clear 20% lead over the nearest rival due to their fighting a cleaner, more hands-on and more truthful campaign.

Brown and cronies have nothing left to fight with and nothing left to lose - apart from the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. Their tactics will become ever more dirty and loathesome as the general election date approaches.

Potholing for keys: Man stuck in drain rescued

Plunging into a drain to retrieve a mate's keys, this 6-footer found himself trapped in the drain.

He was later rescued by firefighters - all that was visible to them was his bald head!

UKIP wins seats in Cambridgeshire

UKIP have won their first council seats in Cambridgeshire - Cambridgeshire County Council and Huntingdonshire District Council.

In the county election, Councillor Reeve swept up with 865 votes to Conservative Councillor Sun Normington's 682 votes.

The LibDems took 308 votes, pushing Susan Coomey (Labour) into 4th place with a pitiful 53 votes.

In the district election, Cllr Reeve also took the seat with 753 votes. Conservative Angela Curtis accrued 569, Independent Jeffrey Clarke came third with 303 and Melanie Allgood, LibDem, came fourth on 295.

The cure is worse than the disease: swine flu

Many contractors of swine flu have said that it is shorter lived than a bad cold and not nearly as bad as regular flu.

The side-effects Tamiflu are said to be worse than the flu itself, as a few commentators have asserted on various bulletin boards.

For example:

Before taking the Tamiflu, I had a slight feverish feeling, was a bit achy and had a headache and a bit of a sore throat, so my GP gave me Tamiflu as a precaution. I was ten times worse after taking it and stopped after 2 tablets, despite taking the first 2 with food as suggested. I would never take this again and would never recomend it to anyone; if it was a cure it would be different, but I would have been better off riding the flu out as I've done in the past. I'm in my second week off work as I have to get over the side effects as well as the virus. Just horrific.

Even though the tamiflu cleared most of my influenza symptons quickly ,the side effects for me were much worse and are still continuing.I would rather just ride out the flu.I will most definitely be not taking this medicine again and have recommended to all my family and friends not to take it.

i started tamiflu 4 days ago taking 2 tablets a day for 5 days today is my last day i feel so much worse and thought it was the flu getting worse but after coming on here i am thinking it is these tablets what are making me feel so stange. on day 2 i started to feel actually suicidal after taking my 4th tablet! it only lasted about an hour but scared the hell out of me! i have only one left to take and still fel so weak, dizzy sick and scared. anyone else feeling like this or similar after taking them. worried.

this all happened day 2 after taking 3 doses of the 10 pills. i seriously thought that I was going to die, all of my muscles tensed up around my throat...terrible, terrible feeling. for some i guess they had no side effects, and for them i would say go for it. I will Never take this medicine again, ever.

I took my first dose of Tamiflu yesterday evening. After about 25min my head felt like it was buzzing and I started feeling really dizzy. Then I checked out the leaflet and read through the side effects and I seemed to be experiencing quite a lot of them. About 10min later I had to lie down in bed as I felt so dizzy and horribly sick! Then the stomach cramps kicked in, worse than the ones I have while I'm on my period. I was lucky that I had anti sickness medicine at home (which I took straight after reading the side effects in the leaflet!). Otherwise I probably would have vomited a lot. The anti sickness was also making me feel nice and drowsy so I drifted off into a good 12 hour sleep. For people that have a sensitive tummy like me I would not recommend taking Tamiflu but if you do, make sure you have enough anti sickness medicine at home. I have not taken anymore Tamiflu since, apart from this last dose. For me, nausea dizzyness and vomiting are side effects I cannot bear and I'd rather have a headache and a bit of fever.

Now it's July 3rd. I've been puzzled about why I am still exhausted, but didn't connect it with Tamiflu. I keep getting headaches everyday, and a weird 'buzzing' in my head. My back aches a lot more. I've been bluer than usual as well. Plus the IBS flared up too. I've made the connection with Tamiflu because today I tasted it very strongly in my mouth, when I haven't taken it for over 2 weeks! It certainly must still be in my system! How long does this thing stick around in you and what are the long-term effects??!!

My symptoms would be really bad starting 45min after taking med, then last about 3 hours. After that was just a feeling of not feeling right. Lack of focus, moody, agitated, somewhat depressed. I never developed any flu symptoms which is what the manufacturer is trying to blame on these side effects.

Tamiflu.com lists side-effects and precautions:

Rare but serious skin reactions and allergic reactions have been reported. Stop taking TAMIFLU and call your doctor if you experience any of these reactions, as they could be very serious.

People with the flu, particularly children and adolescents, may be at an increased risk of self injury and confusion shortly after taking TAMIFLU and should be closely monitored for signs of unusual behavior. A healthcare professional should be contacted immediately if the patient taking TAMIFLU shows any signs of unusual behavior.

The most common side effects of TAMIFLU are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting. TAMIFLU is generally well tolerated.

In addition, take the following precautions when using TAMIFLU:

• You should not take TAMIFLU if you are allergic to oseltamivir phosphate or any other ingredients of TAMIFLU.
• TAMIFLU is normally not recommended for use during pregnancy or nursing, as the effects on the unborn child or nursing infant are unknown. If you are pregnant, planning to become pregnant or breastfeeding while taking TAMIFLU, talk to your doctor before taking TAMIFLU.
• If you have any type of kidney disease, talk to your doctor before starting TAMIFLU therapy.
• The use of TAMIFLU along with an intranasal flu vaccine like FluMist^®* has not been evaluated. However, due to the possibility for interference between these products, an intranasal flu vaccine should not be given within 2 weeks before or 48 hours after taking TAMIFLU, unless it is deemed appropriate by your doctor. The type of flu vaccine administered as a shot through the skin can be given at any time relative to use of TAMIFLU.

As with any medication, be sure to discuss with your doctor any over–the–counter or prescription medicines you are currently taking before beginning TAMIFLU therapy.

So let's get this straight. The government is charging bureaucrats, with 5 hours' 'training', with the task of advising people to take Tamiflu - without recourse to a GP, even though some of Tamiflu's side-effects can be fatal?

The government's alleged reason for making Tamiflu available is to prevent mass absenteeism from work, which would have a detrimental effect on the economy.

If the Tamiflu 'cure' makes patients more ill than the flu itself, the government is compounding the problem. Swine flu isn't even much of a problem!

The government is the problem.

Read my previous posts about swine flu here, here, here and here.

Václav Klaus tries to delay Lisbon ratification

EuropeanVoice reports that Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt is keen to have the Lisbon Treaty ratified by all countries before the end of his EU Presidency. But the Czechs are keen to delay it, hoping that the Irish will vote No before the the treaty comes into force.

The treaty cannot come into force before:

• Ireland votes Yes in its October 2nd referendum,
• Germany passes a law on the role of the German parliament in the EU
• The Poles and Czechs ratify the treaty.
  

But EU officials are worried that Klaus could delay signing the treaty into Czech law beyond October. 17 senators who support Klaus are planning to refer the Lisbon treaty to the country's constitutional court at the start of August. This will be the second time the Constitutional Court has been approached to advise on whether the treaty complies with the Czech constitution. The Czechs would be unable to ratify the treaty until the court had given it the all clear.

Labour's lies: Labour's planned spending cuts

Quite why Labour bothered to lie about it's planned spending cuts is beyond me, when the official figures, published on the Treasury's own website, trash Gordon Brown's claims so easily.

The cuts announced amount to nearly £3 billion.

Some of Labour's planned cuts, adjusted for inflation are to fall in:

Education: 0.11% (£100 million)
Business Department: 24.6%
Foreign and Commonwealth Office: 22%
Transport: 8%
Defense: 8%

Yet Labour is still in denial. A Treasury spokesman spins it thus:

"It is ridiculous to suggest that the Government is planning cuts in defence spending or overall spending next year. We have brought forward £3 billion of spending from 2010-11 in order to support the economy now and spending on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan — over £4 billion this year — has not yet been allocated for next year. On the basis of findings of independent advisers, the Government also announced in the Pre-Budget report that it would make £5 billion of efficiency savings next year, protecting funding for frontline services."

Given the enormity of the UK's rising national debt, can Labour only identify £3 billion's worth of cuts?  That's just not good enough, when you consider the amount of debt Labour's saddling us with.

Thanks to its reckless spending thus far, our debt will increase to nearly £1 trillion in coming years:

2009: £175bn
2010/11: £173bn, total debt = £348bn
2011/12: £140bn, total debt = £488bn
2012/13: £118bn, total debt = £606bn
2013/14: £97bn, total debt = £703bn

All this assumes that the economy will grow by 1.25%, optimistically predicted by Darling but disputed by most economists. Stephen Gifford, chief economist at Grant Thornton, called Darling's prediction "wildly optimistic".

Blair rejected as EU president among UK voters

PoliticsHome asked a sample of 1,258 voters from across the country to consider some hypothetical scenarios, designed to get to the heart of their order of preference.
 

First, given the choice between Tony Blair and "some other foreign candidate" to fill the role - thought to be the scenario in which Blair would be favoured - the public still reject the idea. All groups except Labour supports choose "some other foreign candidate" over Blair. The overall result falls against the former Prime Minister by a margin of 47% to 37%.

Second, asked who would make a better President of the European Council, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the public are overwhelmingly more supportive of Blair. He receives the majority of support from all political groups including Labour supporters, and is preferred to his former Chancellor by a margin of 57% to 11%.

Third, the public would prefer to see no European president at all. 53% of voters are against the idea of a president of the European Council, with conservative supporters (76%) and non-aligned voters (59%) most strongly against the idea.
31% of voters would like to see a European president, with Labour supporters the only political group that back the idea by a majority.

Farage berates EU - Lisbon Treaty is EU Constitution

Hat tip: Barking Spider

BBC exclude UKIP from election programmes in Norwich

Glenn Tingle, the UKIP candidate for the Norwich North by-election, has been excluded from a BBC election hustings programme.

Craig Murray, one of Glenn Tingle's opponents in the election, says that "many more people have told me that they are voting UKIP, than have said they are voting for any other party". Feedback from the dozens of UKIP campaigners on the streets every day in Norwich tells much the same story - that Glenn Tingle is currently the lead candidate in Norwich North.

So why is the BBC - required by law to be an independent and impartial broadcaster - excluding the UK's second largest European party and the party with the leading candidate in the election from a televised hustings? Well, there's only one way to find out ...

The BBC is producing a televised election hustings for the Norwich North by-election but the UKIP candidate has has been excluded.

UKIP is the second largest European party in the UK, the fourth largest political party in the UK and by admission of one of his opponents, the UKIP candidate, Glenn Tingle, is the favourite candidate.

Excluding the leading candidate (or, indeed, any candidate) is unacceptable and I feel certain that if he was a candidate for one of the LibLabCon parties that he would have been included.

You might like to make a complaint to the BBC along similar lines. The more complaints they get, the more likely they are to treat Glenn Tingle fairly.

Lifted from Bloggers4UKIP

Update: The BBC's response:

Thanks for your e-mail regarding our coverage of UKIP.

Especially when there are a large number of candidates - 12 in Norwich North - the broader interests of the voters would not be served by giving equal coverage to each and every candidate, irrespective of their chances of success. So when editors are deciding how much coverage to give, relatively, to different parties and candidates in any election, one of the key factors they look for is "evidence of past and/or current electoral support" in that electoral area.

On that basis, in Norwich there is clear evidence of support for the three main parties as well as for the Green Party and therefore those parties will be getting similar levels of coverage. Similarly, there is evidence from the recent elections that both UKIP and the BNP have some support in at least parts of the constituency and they will also, proportionately, be given an appropriate level of coverage by programmes covering the by-election.

For example, 'Look East' looked at Glenn Tingle's candidacy on 15 July and Radio Norfolk did a piece on him the following day. UKIP leader Nigel Farage's visit to the constituency also featured on 'Look East' and 'Look East Special' on 20 July.

We'd like to assure you that we've registered your comments on our audience log. This is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily for all programme makers and commissioning executives within the BBC, and also their senior management. It ensures that your points, and all other comments we receive, are circulated and considered across the BBC.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us with your concerns.

Labour buries bad news: very bad news

Our losses - how your money is wasted:

Stamp duty receipts dropped by £6.1 billion from 2007-08.
Corporation tax take fell by £5 billion,
VAT went down by £5 billion.
Income tax and national insurance contributions fell by £5.7 billion, as the Government increased personal allowances to compensate those hit by the abolition of the 10p tax rate.

A faulty IT system handling the army payroll had resulted in £140 million of net errors, according to the MoD accounts. The NAO said that limited checks had allowed a rise in suspected fraud. The document also showed the MoD had been unable to account for £155 million worth of secure radio sets issued to troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Treasury has failed to stem fraud and error in the tax credit system, which rose from 7.8 to 8.6 per cent last year. This included 50,000 cases of fraud in the system administered by HM Revenue and Customs, accounting for between £100 million and 200 million. The Government insisted it was still aiming to cut the rate of fraud and error to 5 per cent by 2011.

A highly critical report on the new Equalities and Human Rights Commission criticised the organisation’s decision to hire consultants who had already been paid hefty redundancy payments by the Government when three equality commissions merged.

The Treasury accounts revealed that it had spent £24 billion bailing out the banks last autumn without getting parliamentary approval first. Lloyds Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland had bad loans guaranteed under the Asset Protection Scheme to stave off a banking meltdown. A Treasury spokesman claimed there was no time to seek MPs' backing.

A government training scheme has been condemned as a waste of money. The National Audit Office says that Train to Gain needs to be better managed, does not provide value for money, and sets unrealistic initial targets. At least a third of people failed to complete their course, at a quarter of the colleges providing the training.

Hat tip: Cato

Share trading platforms

Fausty is furious!

Interactive Investor offers Quotestream - a reasonably good Level 2 stock market trading interface. When it works.

More often than not the blasted thing, reliant on Java, fails to load. And at crucial times, such as the start and end of the trading day and the start of the American trading days, the b*ggering thing crashes. Oftentimes, to get the java applets working involves a system reboot.

Does III really consider reboots to be an acceptable solution? I certainly don't.

And then there's ADVFN. A fine service, when it works. Sadly, even paid members find that they can't connect to level 2, due to java issues. ADVFN's customer 'service' is anything but - it should be renamed "customer denial service".

B*gger.

EU states want a share of UK financial services industry

Speaking to George Parker of the FT, on the Tories' plans for financial regulation.  Osborne criticised the EU's plans because the EU failed to understand the nature of the City's business. Nigel Farage made the same point, recently.

George Osborne raises a valid point - one which has bothered me for some time. Frankfurt has long hankered for a piece of the UK financial services action and it has its beady eye on the LSE, so keen is it to knock London off its number one perch.

FT: You talk about international corporation; and obviously you’d like to work through the financial stability forum and international organisations? What about the European Union? What do you think of what’s coming out of Brussels, at the moment?

GO: Well, I think a lot of it is ill-conceived, and badly drafted. I think the hedge fund directive, the alternative investment directive, is a case in point. I think that is immensely damaging, without actually protecting the European consumer, or the European taxpayer. So it fails on both fronts, and I see a complete absence of the British Treasury, over the last year, out there in Europe, in Brussels, arguing the case for Britain as the home of European wholesale financial services.

And I think there’s a none too subtle agenda from some, to try and diminish Britain’s share of this European business, and I think the Treasury needs to be out there, fighting as hard as the French fight for their small farm holdings, and the Germans fight for the luxury car market, and we should be out there. Now, how do we do that? First of all, I think the chancellor of the exchequer should turn up at Ecofin, and turn up, not just for the actual meeting, but turn up before and stay afterwards and ...

FT: I’m going to write that down!

GO: Yes of course, I forget you’re a Brussels veteran. But I just don’t think we’ve put enough negotiating weight there. And one of the things we proposed we were going to do in this White Paper, is create for the next couple of years, while a lot of this legislation is conceived in Europe, a treasury minister who is based out there in Brussels for a large amount of his time, or her time; so, a minister for European regulation; a treasury minister who’s going to be based in Brussels arguing the case, with the help of UKREP for British financial services.

FT: Do you agree with the principle of having European level standards and rules?

GO: What I think is you should have European coordination of national regulation. So, just as there is international coordination of national regulation, I am against an executive pan-European regulator with executive powers to pose any regulatory answers. And I think that is bad news for Britain, because I don’t think there’s a sufficient understanding in the Commission, or indeed, in the rest of Europe, of some of the complexities of wholesale financial services. And, as I say, there is a none too subtle agenda by some other member states to get a share of Britain’s financial services industry, and use the credit crunch and the so-called crisis in Anglo-Saxon capitalism, as an excuse to grab some of our business. And we need to fight our corner hard

So yes, engage in Europe. Make sure the European regulation is right. We want an internal market in financial services, in fact a Conservative MEP has just been appointed as chairman at the Internal Market Committee in the European Parliament, which by the way gives the lie to the idea that the Conservative MEPs were going to be marginalised in the European Parliament. It’s one of the most important committees.

And what is Labour saying or doing about this EU member states' grab for British business?

Nothing.

What is Labour doing fighting our corner against this ridiculous EU legislation?

Nothing.

Germany: Lisbon Treaty dilemma

Angela Merkel faces a general election in September and is keen to have the Lisbon Treaty ratified before then. The CSU, the CDU's socialist coalition partner, however, wants ratification delayed until German law has been changed to allow the law to be altered to permit ratification of the treaty.

On the face of it, there is no dilemma because the Constitutional Court decided that the Lisbon Treaty cannot be ratified until the law is changed because the treaty is unconstitutional.

So why does Merkel want to ratify the treaty before the the law is changed, defying the ruling of the Constitutional Court?

Might the pending Irish referendum have anything to do with it?

The Irish are being led to believe that if they do not return a Yes vote, financial doom awaits Ireland as the EU will withdraw its support. A recent poll, however, suggests that 70% of Germans are against bailing out Ireland in spite of indications from the German government that it may be planning to offer financial help to some countries, - particularly Ireland.

So what is Merkel to do? If Germany hasn't ratified the treaty before the Irish go to the polls, the No camp's argument is weakened. If, before the Germans go to the polls, Merkel indicates her intention to bail out Ireland, she'll get clobbered by her electorate. Should that translate to a drubbing at the elections, the Lisbon Treaty's fate might be the bin, if the socialists come to power.

Swine flu began life in a lab

Swine flu has human flu, swine flu and bird flu components and is therefore believed to have been manufactured in a lab.

The swine flu pandemic has had the whiff of bogusness about it from the outset. When only a few cases had been 'detected', the WHO was already declaring it to be a potential pandemic originator. When only one death had occurred (as opposed to millions worldwide, yearly for regular flu), the WHO was calling deadly. When it was later found to be fairly mild in nature compared to regular flu, swine flu was peddled as being potentially costly for economies.

And now, we're told that governments are preparing for "military style" vaccination programs of the entire populace.

All the while, pharmaceuticals make billions on Tamiflu and vaccinations and the government rakes in taxes on those billions.

Recall, too, the containers of swine flu which exploded on a train in Switzerland. How co-incidental.

Is anyone fooled by this? There's something amiss here.



Now vaccinations will be 'fast-tracked' after only 5 days' trial and "regulators said fast-tracking would not be at the expense of patient safety. “The vaccines are authorised with a detailed risk management plan,” the EMEA said. “There is quite a body of evidence regarding safety on the trials of the mock-up, and the actual vaccine could be assessed in five days.”" reports the Times.

Eh? In 1976 an epidemic of swine flu was predicted, the populace was vaccinated and thousands were injured or killed by the vaccine itself. The epidemic, of course, never materialised. But the pharmaceuticals made a lot of money out of it.

Do you fancy being a lab rat for the pharmaceutical companies, while they profit at your expense? If you do, be sure to take out a suitable insurance policy - if any insurance company is dumb enough to offer one.

Watching the watchers: fight back

Daily, we read stories of people prevented by police or 'security' from filming in a public place and harassing or even arresting those that do, especially if the target of the frame is the police themselves.

After all, they don't want us recording and publicising their heavy-handedness with law-abiding people, do they?

I suggest that we fight back and equip ourselves with wearable cameras.

Update: In response to John M Ward's blog, AmateurPhotographer has more information about the amateur photographer arrested in Chatham, Kent.

The Met has issued 'guidelines' on photography which have not been approved by the Home Office.

Tired of Windows?

In 2010, you'll be able to switch to Google Chrome OS - free, presumably, since it's open source.

The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

One thing bothers me, though. If your OS is web-based, doesn't that have data security implications? How much more data will Google be able to collect from people?

Goldman Sachs: a criminal organisation?

Glenn Beck and Patrick Byrne discuss on Fox Radio the possibility that Goldman Sachs and major media organisations have been 'captured' by criminal elements and that "regulatory capture" has occurred - where regulators "come under the thumb" of industries they're meant to regulate.

Ron Paul talks of the corrupt system of government and fiscal management in the US. This, of course, has eerie parallels here, given the financial and political links between the US and the UK.



Update: Alex Brumner provides a précis of Goldman Sachs's history.

Obama's teleprompter crashes

... and then ...

Hat tip: GrumpyOldTwat: Obama Talks Bollocks

War criminals: Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney ... Blair

For Panorama's Licence to Torture last night, Hilary Andersson said:

I chose to ask whether a crime was committed by members of the Bush administration in authorising the interrogation techniques in question. It seemed a central question to ask of the world's most powerful democracy.

Obama refuses to prosecute Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and co-conspirators for war crimes during Bush's tenure, but he is willing to go after the lawyers who supposedly advised the regime on ways to tweak their operations and the law, to make torture legal.

This, despite the fact that the atrocities perpetrated by the Bush regime in Guantanamo and elsewhere are in violation of the Geneva Convention.

Bush and Rumsfeld contended that prisoners were treated properly as prisoners of war, as per the Geneva convention rules, but most involved in the operations knew that these were bald-faced lies.

Prison guards who perpetrated the torture - underlings - face censure for their evil deeds, as they should. But if those deeds were sanctioned or encouraged, as Licence to Torture asserts, then surely Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, architects of the torture policies, are ultimately culpable.

It's true that no soldier can expect mercy for "following orders" when he knows that those orders are illegal or just plain wrong - as Nuremberg exemplified. But if a soldier is found guilty for following orders, then those that gave the orders, or made it possible to do so, should be far more severely dealt with.

The Bush / Cheney "exigent circumstances" argument cannot justify their torture policies and nor can their amendments to US law to accommodate their new definitions of torture be allowed to exonerate them, where they defy the Geneva Convention rules. If America and Britain are permitted to get away with torture, they cannot cry foul in future conflicts when their own soldiers suffer the same fate as the Guantanamo detainees.

Should Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney be indicted, can Blair conceivably escape the same fate?

It would be most peculiar were the EU to appoint a potential war criminal as its first 'permanent' President. What message would that send to the rest of the world?

Yes, the Irish Guarantee is a fiction - Farage

Further to a previous post, Nigel Farage, in another hard-hitting speech, declares the Irish 'guarantee' to be worthless.

Hat tip: England Expects

Good stuff, Nigel.



Vaclav Klaus's speech to which Farage refers, offends the EP, because he speaks passionately, with conviction about democracy, which is so lacking in the EP. The EP brooks no opposition, which makes it borderline totalitarian.

Brown-induced nausea

I'm forcing myself to listen to Brown in his "wooden and perfunctory manner", not answer the questions posed by members of the House of Commons Liaison Committee.

You can see from the sickened faces of the questioners that they have utter contempt for this weasel, who poses as our Prime Minister.

Not only does he not answer questions in a select committee but he takes every opportunity to drooooooonnnne on, and on, and on about his government's fictional achievements.

I might be too unwell to post tomorrow.

Nudge me, if you don't hear from me.

Back to the droning ....

Lisbon Treaty: Irish guarantees a fiction?

We must to more than hope that the Irish will wake up to the con that they're being sold. We must help them to open their eyes. The EU will be throwing our money at a Yes vote, in the process, interfering with the democratic process in a sovereign state.

Let's look at what Gordon Brown said today.

Background:

About 48 minutes into the HoC Liaison Committee’s deliberations (today, from 10:00 to 12:32), Gordon Brown was asked whether Parliament would have to vote again on a protocol that attaches to the Lisbon Treaty, regarding Ireland’s ‘guarantees’.

Brown said that it would, but that whether or not the protocol was itself ratified, the Lisbon Treaty would still be ratified, if all member states did so in their respective countries.

The protocol would be attached to the next accession treaty.

Questions:

Given that the Lisbon Treaty is self-amending, requiring no agreement from member states to ratify any further treaties or amendments to current treaties, what guarantee is there that the Irish ‘guarantee’ protocol will actually be implemented?

What are Ireland’s options if, post-Lisbon Treaty ratification, the next accession treaty does not implement the ‘guarantee’ protocol?

Aren’t the Irish being asked to take on trust that this ‘guarantee’ protocol will be incorporated, as agreed with Ireland?

Are any sceptics asking these questions and ensuring that the Irish understand the implications of the pile of sh*t they are being sold?