The Committee of the Regions adopted an opinion…..

Posted on February 21, 2012 by IanPJ


According to the local and regional authorities, the CoR must be fully involved in fixing the Union’s priorities in relation to financial instruments to support integration, and in evaluating the results of integration programmes, so as to help develop more targeted approaches and support more coherent integration strategies.

From the text of an opinion adopted by the Committee of the Regions on the European Agenda for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals that it was adopted by the Commission in July 2011.

The opinion adopted underlines that local and regional authorities implement integration policies although responsibility for it lies mainly with the Member States. The opinion commends the position of the Commission, which emphasises the key role of local and regional players in ensuring full involvement of immigrants in all aspects of local civic life, and therefore proposes channelling more Union funding in future towards promoting integration at local level. The mayors and presidents of EU regions therefore call for a strategic partnership to be set up between the CoR and the European Commission and European networks of cities and regions, in order to draw more on the experience of local authorities, to exchange best practice and to coordinate initiatives more effectively. (source)


The spouting of Brussels based unelected no-bodies, eager to safeguard their lifestyles, to fix a problem that they themselves created.

Did your local authority ask your opinion on this or permission to spend more taxpayers money? No, thought not. You the taxpayers are just supposed to shut up and pay up.


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MPs cleared to lie in parliament

Posted on February 21, 2012 by IanPJ


This from The Age highlights everything that is wrong with politics.

Lying becomes the new truth as politicians totally destroy any moral ground they once stood upon.

The Queensland Opposition today declared the "lying season" open after a controversial bill passed through the house, allowing MPs to lie in parliament without fear of prosecution.

The Criminal Code Amendment Bill was controversially passed by the government today following heated debate by MPs in recent weeks.

Introduced by Attorney-General Linda Lavarch, it decriminalises lying to a parliamentary committee, allowing the parliament instead to deal with contempt issues.

The change was made following the case of former minister Gordon Nuttall who was relegated to the backbenches last year after accusations he lied to a parliamentary estimates committee regarding overseas-trained doctors as then health minister.

Under the previous criminal code, lying to parliament could result in criminal charges being laid.

But the government decided, during an extraordinary sitting of parliament last December, not to take any further action against Mr Nuttall.

The new legislation was rushed into parliament ahead of the next Budget estimates sittings, due to begin in July.

Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg said the new law signalled the end of parliamentary accountability in Queensland.

"The lying season is about to start in Queensland," Mr Springborg told journalists.

"The government will effectively legislate so ministers can lie today."

Mr Springborg said the legislation was "very timely" as it would allow ministers to face the upcoming estimates hearings without any fear.

"They want to give themselves the protection of being able to lie with impunity this year with no criminal sanction, so the opposition cannot get the truth," he said.

"From now on it will just be more spin and more lies from the Beattie Labor government."

But Premier Peter Beattie, during debate on the issue in the parliament late yesterday, said the laws would merely bring Queensland into line with all other states and territories and with Westminster.

"This provision was never meant to apply to members of parliament, and that is a fact," Mr Beattie said.

"At the end of the day, we will support this legislation because it is right.

"It is about time that we got rid of some of these anachronistic provisions that have been around since Adam and Eve were in shorts."

Lets repeat one of the sentences above:
‘the laws would merely bring Queensland into line with all other states and territories and with Westminster.’

We in Britain have known for a long time that our MPs lie, to us the public, to the press, on TV and even to the House and its various committees. But there it is in black and white. Have we not had enough of this.

We now live in a very rotten world, that rot needs now to be cut out and disposed of, physically.

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Free Robert Green website launched

Posted on February 21, 2012 by IanPJ


The official Free Robert Green website has now been launched and can be viewed at http://freerobertgreen.co.uk

It is still in the process of collating the mass of information that has arrived on our desks, and will begin more presentational works as we are able to put them up.

Meanwhile, we are looking for authors for the site and coordinators to work with the disparate groups around the country so that we can present a single coherent campaign.

Getting Robert freed from his unjust incarceration is our primary objective.


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The ethics of debt and the creation of debt-serfdom

Posted on February 19, 2012 by IanPJ


There is an interesting guest post over at Zero Hedge today, from which I quote the teaser.

When Debt Is More Important Than People, The System Is Evil.
The ethics of debt, at least in the officially sanctioned media, boils down to: nobody made them borrow all those euros, and so their suffering is just desserts. What’s lost in this subtext is the responsibility of the lender.

Yes, nobody forced Greece to borrow 200 billion euros (or whatever the true total may be), but then nobody forced the lenders to extend the credit in the first place. Consider an individual who is a visibly poor credit risk. He would like to borrow money to blow on consumption and then stiff the lender, but since he cannot create credit, he has to live within his means. Now a lender comes along who can create credit out of thin air (via fractional reserve banking) and offers this poor credit risk $100,000 in collateral-free debt at low rates of interest. Who is responsible for the creation and extension of credit? The borrower or the lender? Answer: the lender.

In other words, if the lender is foolish enough to extend huge quantities of credit to a poor credit risk, then it’s the lender who should suffer the losses when the borrower defaults. This is the basis of bankruptcy laws–or used to be the basis. When an over-extended borrower defaults, the debt is cleared, the lender takes the loss/writedown, and the borrower loses whatever collateral was pledged. He is left with the basics to carry on: his auto, clothing, his job, and so on. His credit rating is impaired, and it is now his responsibility to earn back a credible credit rating….The potential for loss and actually bearing the consequences from irresponsible extensions of credit was unacceptable to the banking cartel, so they rewrote the laws.

Now student loans in America cannot be discharged in bankruptcy court; they are permanent and must be carried and serviced until death.

This is the acme of debt-serfdom.
The whole rather detailed article can be read here.

This is the new debt-serfdom being thrust upon Europe by the Troika, The EU, the IMF and the ECB, with the added threat of a loss of democracy and the installation of puppet technocratic governments headed by bankers.

Are you prepared for that? Are you prepared to accept that?

As I keep saying over and over, this is not a failure of Capitalism, it is a failure of its sick and twisted twin, Creditism.

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Robert Green, Hollie Demands Justice campaigner jailed by Scottish Court

Posted on February 17, 2012 by IanPJ


Press Release Robert Green1 170212 (PDF)

.http://holliedemandsjustice.org

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You pay, They play

Posted on February 16, 2012 by IanPJ


Following on from the corruption mentioned in my last post, and the political smoke and mirrors involved, there are two EU bodies operating under the radar whose budgets have been increasing in an unchallenged way: the Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Committee of the Regions (CoR).

As taxpayers, and therefore the paymasters of these organisations that make decisions that govern your life, you have a right to know who they are and what they get up to, although I guarantee that the vast majority of Britons have never even heard of them.

The CoR is made up of local and county councillors as mentioned before, and the EESC is made up of technocrats, businessmen and trade union reps, all appointed, none elected to these positions.

Over the last eight years, the budgets of the EESC and CoR have increased by some 50 percent, with over half of the annual budgets devoted to their members’ expenses, travel costs and staff salaries and pensions, collectively amounting to €220 million of your hard earned taxes.

There are around 50 officials at each committee with a minimum salary of €123.890 and six officials at each committee earning over €180,000 – more than the Dutch or UK prime minister.

The main mandate of both committees is to "engage participation" from citizens. But there are many indications that neither committee is successful in this, especially as most citizens have never heard of them or even have a clue as to who they are.

The EESC has 344 Members who are appointed for a term of five years. The current mandate runs from October 2010 till September 2015, and the Members elect the Committee’s Presidency each time for a period of 2,5 years. The Lisbon Treaty permits the number of Members to grow up to a ceiling of 350 Members with the next EU enlargements.

The Committee’s Members are lead by the President. The President is assisted in his tasks by two Vice-Presidents, one in charge of communication and the other one of the budget. The President and the Vice-Presidents form the EESC presidency.

You may access the full list of EESC Members here and search for Members by name or country, you will find the full list of CoR UK members in the previous post.

Hundreds of self important people all pontificating and generating ‘opinions’ on how you should run your lives, living the life, claiming the expenses, wining and dining ALL at your expense, and what an expense with the average ‘opinion’ coming out at an average cost of €660,000, while no information is made available regarding how these opinions influenced legislation, if at all.

You pay, they play.

But then, these are just 2 of the 31 EU Agencies that were analysed by the European Court of Auditors. Their report (produced in Nov11) was sent to the EU Parliament on Wednesday (15th Feb) and it does not make good reading.

Eleven out of the 22 surveyed could not properly account for half the expenses they filed in 2010, the auditors found.

All 31 agencies except two are subject to the European Parliament (EP) budgetary control. MEPs in 2010 already refused to sign off the accounts of a police training agency which used EU funds to purchase furniture, cars and mobile phones for personal use.

You pay, they play.

One of the agencies not under the scrutiny of MEPs is the Office of Harmonisation for the Internal Market (Ohim) which is self-financing because it cashes in on the creation of EU trademarks. "Nearly 50 percent of the total amount of cash [of EU agencies] is held by Ohim. Considerable annual surpluses have been recorded by the agency over successive years, leading to a surplus, in 2010, of €495 million," the report notes.

Nice little earner. You pay, They Play.



Pic: EESC members.

These people are elected by no-one, these people add nothing, these people make nothing, these people contribute nothing, yet they expect you to pay, whilst they spend millions of your taxes in talking shops, on hotels, bars, restaurants and travel. Across the EU there are now in excess of a million people who do nothing but spend your money whilst contributing nothing to your life except grief, hardship, rules, regulations and excessive taxation.

We have long said that the EU is nothing more than a corporate mafia, forcing your taxes, local and national ever higher whilst their budgets and playtime keep going up.




You Pay, They Play


The EU? Pah, can we leave yet?

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East Midlands Regional Assembly

Posted on February 15, 2012 by IanPJ

I thought the government had abolished these… they certainly deny their continuing existence…

The Localism Bill currently going through Parliament will hand over power to these groups, rejected by the voters of the North East in the only referendum on the matter. The corruption will continue, and as you can gleen from this article in the Hinckley Times members of Regional Assemblies also sit on the EU Committee of the Regions, who formulate and run policy that the Regional Assemblies then enable and feed to the County and Local councils..

The Leader of Leicestershire County Council will be investigated by the standards committee over expenses irregularities.

Following an anonymous whistle-blower’s letter about travel expenses, County Councillor David Parsons is being investigated by the standards committee of the county council. He is alleged to have delayed paying £5,400 travel expenses back to East Midlands Regional Assembly who would have booked his travel after having claimed the expenses from the Committee of the Regions.

Cllr Parsons is also Chairman of East Midlands Regional Assembly / East Midlands Council and also has a seat on the Committee of Regions in Brussels, made clear in the Auditors report. Only elected once to the County Council, this man will be collecting 3 salaries, 3 lots of expenses and he still has to defraud the taxpayer. That’s Common Purpose training for you.

The auditors report said:

“David Parsons received sufficient information to enable him to be aware that he was not reimbursing East Midlands Regional Assembly / East Midlands Council as should have been the case and especially if he had been claiming reimbursement from Committee of the Regions beforehand.

It went on to say: “If David Parsons has claimed promptly and his claims were approved without delay, he potentially would have received substantial personal cash flow benefit.

Whilst there is a good example of corruption here, more importantly there is the political deception smoke and mirrors that is the Localism Bill/Regional Assemblies and the Committee of the Regions, all of which you are paying for with your taxes.

If the Localism Bill passes, the corruption and graft will only get worse, you will get poorer and the democratic deficit will only get bigger, because at the local level it means you will be directly ruled from Brussels, leaving Westminster as a dry husk, little more than a hollow shell, only kept alive to fool you and rubber stamp EU legislation into UK law.

The EU? Pah, Can we leave yet?

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

APPOINTING THE UK DELEGATION OF THE CoR

The UK delegation is structured along political lines, with each political group meeting before the full delegation meeting. Relations between UK Members across political divides is usually co-operative and rarely adversarial. Votes are taken on issues of policy and strategy.

The UK Delegation has always set out to be representative of UK sub-national government, drawing on a range of criteria to ensure that it is balanced.

Although the UK Delegation is formally nominated by the UK Government, it receives proposals from the following bodies: the Local Government Group (in consultation with the Greater London Authority); the Scottish Executive (in consultation with the Scottish Parliament and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities); the Welsh Assembly Government (in consultation with the Welsh Local Government Association); and the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland (in consultation with the Northern Ireland Local Government Association).

Local councils in England are represented collectively by the Local Government Group and in Wales by the Welsh LGA (WLGA). The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) and the Northern Ireland LGA (NILGA) represent local government in their respective areas. The LG European & international team provides the secretariat for UK local government on international bodies (CoR; CEMR; Congress of local and regional authorities in Europe; UCLG). Many individual local authorities or regional consortia have their own Brussels Offices.

Don’t forget that each one of these bodies you pay for, keep paying, cover their expenses, their meals, their travel. This is not LOCAL representation, this is regional government with embassies in Brussels.

A number of powers have been assigned to the devolved (regional) administrations. i.e. Scotland, Wales & NI. The Localism Bill effectively gives the same powers to the 9 Regional Governments of England…… but you must not know the extent of this until its too late to do anything about it.

… and if you are wondering who these people are that currently make decisions on your behalf in the EU Committee of the Regions, here is the list, because you pay for everything they do.

Name Function Country
Cllr  ANSARI, Doris Full member United Kingdom
ARNOLD, Jennette Alternate member United Kingdom
Cllr  BAKER, Paula Alternate member United Kingdom
BARNES, Sandra Alternate member United Kingdom
Cllr Sir  BORE, Albert Full member United Kingdom
Cllr  BRIGHT, Robert Full member United Kingdom
BYRNE, Amanda Full member United Kingdom
CANVER, Nilgun Alternate member United Kingdom
CHAPMAN, Christine Full member United Kingdom
Cllr, OBE  CLUCAS, Flo Full member United Kingdom
DALLAT, John Alternate member United Kingdom
Sir  DAY, Simon Full member United Kingdom
EVANS, Roger Full member United Kingdom
Cllr  GARVIE, Graham Alternate member United Kingdom
Cllr  GILLHAM, Linda Full member United Kingdom
HATCH, Arnold Alternate member United Kingdom
Cllr  HEATLEY, Martin Alternate member United Kingdom
HOLLEY, Chris Alternate member United Kingdom
Cllr  HUDDART, Doreen Alternate member United Kingdom
Cllr, CBE  KEYMER, Gordon Full member United Kingdom
Cllr  KNOX, Roger Full member United Kingdom
Cllr  MALCOLM, Iain Full member United Kingdom
MANLEY, Herbert Alternate member United Kingdom
MAXWELL, Stewart Full member United Kingdom
Cllr  MCCHORD, Corrie Full member United Kingdom
MELTON, Alan Alternate member United Kingdom
MOLLOY, Francie Full member United Kingdom
Cllr  MOORE, Peter Alternate member United Kingdom
PARK, Alexander Smith Alternate member United Kingdom
Cllr  PARSONS, David Full member United Kingdom
PEARCE, Judith Full member United Kingdom
Cllr  POLLARD, Kathy Alternate member United Kingdom
ROBINSON, Mary Alternate member United Kingdom
Cllr, OBE  SHAKESPEARE, David Alternate member United Kingdom
SIMMONDS, David Full member United Kingdom
STONE, Roger Alternate member United Kingdom
STRIBLEY, Ann Alternate member United Kingdom
SWANNICK, Neil Full member United Kingdom
Cllr  TAYLOR, Sharon Alternate member United Kingdom
THOMAS, Rhodri Glyn Alternate member United Kingdom
THOMPSON, Peter Alternate member United Kingdom
Cllr the Lord, CBE  TOPE, Graham Full member United Kingdom
Cllr, OBE  TWITCHEN, Kay Full member United Kingdom
Cllr  WILCOX, Dave Full member United Kingdom

 

 

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Growth and Stability EU style – Sugar

Posted on February 15, 2012 by IanPJ


The EU forces sugar giant Tate & Lyle into job cuts at Silvertown refinery.
London24 has the story:

It follows 12 months in which the Silvertown refinery has been operating at 60 per cent efficiency due to the effects European Commission tariffs on importing sugar cane.

It meant that the refinery only had enough raw materials to operate 240 days out of the year. For the remaining 124 days there was nothing for the staff to do. The refinery, which employs a total of 850 people, works 24 hours a day, seven days a week and only closes for Christmas Day.

Now the company is consulting its workforce over the introduction of a five-day working week.

Ian Bacon, President of Tate and Lyle Sugars, said: “This is a sad day for us, and is in no part the fault of our skilled and dedicated workforce. It is entirely due to the constraints on our raw material supply created by the European Commission.

“For over a year our refinery has been running at 60 per cent because the Commission is failing to allow cane refiners fair access to raw material. We are taking steps to address this directly with the Commission but in the meantime must look to align our production workforce to the reduced volume of raw material.

“We remain highly concerned that the Commission is not taking steps to remove the artificial constraints on our raw material supply and to create a fair market in Europe.”

Syed Kamall, Conservative MEP for London: “This London company should be allowed to import as much sugar cane as it needs.”

Few people know or understand that both cane and beet Sugar has long been a restricted product subject to quotas, controlled by government, and more recently the EU. Bet ya all thought it was a free market eh..

Well the EU having got its hands on the continent’s sugar quotas is not about to let go, and will use those, as it does with everything else for political purposes, to the detriment of old and established British firms and to the benefit of French or German competitors, as well as manipulating the production with subsidies and market prices of sugar.

The EU currently has a programme in place to reduce the amount of sugar consumed by humans (we have all seen the ads and propaganda) and to divert sugar production towards increasing the percentage of ethanol blended into gasoline products, but restrictions are also imposed by a ruling by the WTO following a 2006 agreement with the EU.

As Bloomberg explains:
The WTO ruling limits EU exports of subsidized sugar to 1.37 million metric tons. Beet growers have been asking to increase the amount of sugar they can ship outside the region, as well as how much can be sold for food use within the bloc.

With most developing countries enjoying unlimited duty- free access to the EU market, but EU exports limited by WTO rules as long as there are quotas, an end to quotas is the only option for providing the sector with a long-term perspective.

The EU began paying sugar factories to shut in 2006 to cut output. Tate & Lyle Plc (TATE), after 132 years in the business, sold its EU refineries last year to American Sugar Refining Inc. and Danisco A/S, based in Copenhagen, sold its sugar operations in 2009 to Germany’s Nordzucker AG.

The consumption-sugar quota for the 2011-12 season that started Oct. 1 is about 13.8 million tons, according to the commission. EU farmers can’t sell their entire crop for food use because of the quotas.

Note: the new agriculture policy mentioned in the Bloomberg article failed to include the ending of sugar quotas in 2015. In the UK there are only 2 major sugar refiners. Tate&Lyle refines cane sugar predominately imported from the Caribbean and Silver Spoon refines beet sugar, the largest (EU single market) growers of which are guess who?…… France & Germany, followed by Poland.

UK loses again, to the same countries, as we have already seen with coal mining, steel production, pork raising, car production, in fact you name any major British industry that has declined, see it thriving in our ‘single market’ neighbours….

When can we leave?


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A quick view – Common Purpose

Posted on February 14, 2012 by IanPJ


Cross posted from James Higham at OoL, Via Cassandra [Netherlands] via Twitter – well, well, well, who wouldathunkit?  Have they achieved their infiltration, do you think or have they been outed?




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Whats missing from the US Presidential Press Room?

Posted on February 9, 2012 by IanPJ


Take a look at the picture below.




The President is there, the press is there, the teleprompters are all there so what is missing?

Ask yourself is this press room of the President of the USA or that of an Arab State?

What have you done with the flags Mr President?

We know our Government is not that keen on its own England flag, but …the US?




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