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Never heard of this Dave…I’ll do a bit of finding out.
I felt similar after watching a programme on the money wasted (inc Expenses) by having the parliament sit both in Brussels and Strasbourg. The latter simply to appease the French.
I’m an avid fan of politics, I always have been for some reason. I remember this happening at the time.
If anyone thinks that the finincial crisis could never have been predicted they need to read up on what happened here. There was talk at the time that the sums of money that went missing or through these accounts were in the region of 1.6Trillion dollars.
It’s worth noting, that the crook that announced that there would be no enquiry into Clearstream was the same one that was saying we (the UK) should privatise our Postal service. This was back in 1991.
Anyone, naive enough to think that people like this will go any good for anyone but themselves really needs to brush up on their history a bit.
You called?
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
From The Sunday telegraph…
Euro chiefs ban ‘Miss’ and ‘Mrs’
The European Parliament has banned the terms ‘Miss’ and ‘Mrs’ in case they offend female MEPs.
By Simon JohnsonThe politically correct rules also mean a ban on Continental titles, such as Madame and Mademoiselle, Frau and Fraulein and Senora and Senorita.
Guidance issued in a new ‘Gender-Neutral Language’ pamphlet instead orders politicians to address female members by their full name only.
Officials have also ordered that ‘sportsmen’ be called ‘athletes’, ‘statesmen’ be referred to as ‘political leaders’ and even that ‘synthetic’ or ‘artificial’ be used instead of ‘man-made’.
The guidance lists banned terms for describing professions, including fireman, air hostess, headmaster, policeman, salesman, manageress, cinema usherette and male nurse.
However MEPs are still allowed to refer to ‘midwives’ as there is no accepted male version of the job description.
The booklet also admits that "no gender-neutral term has been successfully proposed" to replace ‘waiter’ and ‘waitress’, allowing parliamentarians to use these words in a restaurant or café.
It has been circulated by Harold Romer, the parliament’s secretary general, to the 785 MEPs working in Brussels and Strasbourg…Seven years ago, an attempt to amend noise laws came close to effectively outlawing bagpipes.
However, a number of bizarre EU rules remain in place, including a directive stating that every pair of rubber boots must be supplied with a user’s manual in 12 languages.I don’t think they need the cash for these PC outrages, that’s what they do.
The money goes to monkeys in the machine, that’s what they take.
However MEPs are still allowed to refer to ‘midwives’ as there is no accepted male version of the job description.
Very lax of them, I will complain to my MEP, whoever he or she may be
The WHO refer to midwives as ‘Traditional Birth Attendants’
From The Sunday Telegraph 23rd August…
Britain’s payments to the European Union will soar by almost 60 per cent next year, according to figures “buried” in government documents.
The Treasury statistics show that the UK’s net contribution to the EU will increase from £4.1 billion this year to £6.4 billion in 2010/11.
The figures were published in the Treasury’s annual Community Finances statement, which was slipped out last month just before parliament broke up for its summer recess.
The revelation will fuel the political debate over whether Britain benefits from being in the EU, after more than a quarter of UK voters in this year’s European elections backed parties which want to take Britain out of the EU…Full article at:-
Of course the beeb haven’t mentioned it yet since atmit, it isn’t in their interests to do so. I have no doubt though that the tellymediums who’s views are in tune with the Torygraph will be making a good ol’ song and dance about this.
Like you, I am very anti EU but I wouldn’t imagine it’s for the same reasons. What many people don’t understand is that Britain will never be a vainglorious superpower ever again and ‘proud Brits’ should just accept this and get on with their own lives. You’re not your country.
Since naval superiority is a sunken ship as it were, Britain is the bitch of every superstate going. Fact!
Glad to be back my friend and I look forward to the inevitable exchanges between the two of us.
Cheers Dave, how paranoid of me to suspect the BBC is anything but even-handed where the EU is concerned. I look forward to this info being on the 6 & 10pm national news,
The only reason for this large increase is the collapse of the Pound w.r.t. the Euro, and just another consequence of the Blair government’s lily-livered refusal to take the UK into the Eurozone during their first term.
Well Highflyer, the shifting value of the £ clouds the issue, but these paragraphs from the article:-
Britain’s EU rebate was designed to compensate the UK for the high costs of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which benefits Britain much less than other countries because of its relatively small farming sector.
Before the last big round of EU negotiations, Mr Blair promised parliament that the "UK rebate will remain and we will not negotiate it away."
However, at the European Council in December 2005 Mr Blair negotiated away around 20 per cent – or £7.2 billion – of the rebate Britain would have received over the period 2007 to 2013.
As part of the "deal", Britain received promises of cuts to the CAP subsidies paid to farmers. However, these have not so far been forthcoming, with the French government digging in its heels over plans to reform the CAP.rather suggest that, whatever the value of the pound against the euro (and the merits/disadvantages of adopting the euro), Blair managed to negotiate one hell of a crap deal for the British – and that from a position of strength (just been re-elected whereas French and German leader had forthcoming elections and were nowhere near as "popular" (I use the term loosely – I despised him) as Blair.
Why the f*** didn’t he (or Brown now come to that) say, ".. this reduction is wholly dependent upon you lot keeping your part of the bargain re. the CAP. Don’t keep it and you can whistle for our dosh."
Probably, because like most of our politicians (on both sides of the House), he’s no experience of running a business or haggling over contracts etc. Total wa@@er!Clouds the issue???
Isn’t it wholly predictable that the Sunday Torygraph would somehow fail to mention that the UK’s budgeted contribution towards the EU in 2010-11 has a shortfall of £2.4bn because — and ONLY because — of an unfavourable movement in the £/€ exchange rate?
All the other bluster about what Blair did or didn’t do at the European Council in 2005 is irrelevant (and I detest the man just as much as you do).
The only reason for this large increase is the collapse of the Pound w.r.t. the Euro, and just another consequence of the Blair government’s lily-livered refusal to take the UK into the Eurozone during their first term.
.. they made the mistake of promising us a referendum and they won’t win one of those, not matter how many times they run it, thank God.
Absolutely wonderful piece of work.
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