WELL DONE EUROPE!

Congratulations to the European Union on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Amid all the bile that is hurled at the EU, we should never forget that its founding purpose was to prevent general European war after two devastating conflicts that had ripped the continent apart.

 

However I sometimes feel that relying on that justification to support the EU is a bit desperate, the last refuge of a pro-European who has run out of other arguments. So let’s look at much more up to date evidence that the EU is doing a good job whilst most British politicians are engaged in a pathetic race to prove their Euroscepticism to a deluded British public.

 

Let’s take the Home Secretary’s announcement that she is considering pulling the UK out of European police and justice co-operation. The European arrest warrant is at the heart of this with Euro sceptics claiming that we are in danger of being lifted off the streets at the whim of some Belgian or Bulgarian policeman and left to languish in a foreign jail for years.

 

How the warrant works may need looking at but it, along with a whole range of other measures have been highly successful in breaking up paedophile rings, arresting terrorists, deporting dangerous criminals and catching fraudsters who thought they were safe from British justice as the sunned themselves on the Costa del Crime.

 

Those pressing for this grand assertion of British independence from the grip of Europe should ponder the successes of the warrant in arresting Hussein Osman one of the failed 21/7 London bombers or more recently the arrest of Jeremy Forrester the teacher wanted for alleged child abduction having run off with a 15 year old pupil.

 

We need to work wholeheartedly within the European Union and stop this ridiculous half in half out nonsense. Take the current discussions on bank regulation. Do we suppose that just because we are not in the Euro zone, our banks won’t be affected. They trade in Euros all the time. Our voice must be heard to make a difference.

 

Despite this Tory and Labour politicians grow increasingly frightened of UKIP. David Cameron and Ed Miliband both know withdrawal from the EU would be disastrous for Britain but fear that is what would happen if the public was offered an in/out referendum.

 

So examine the Prime Minister’s remarks on a referendum very carefully. What he is likely to offer is a referendum on what concessions he can get on social and employment law, probably after the General Election.

 

You can predict that he will get very little from the other 26 countries on the basis that we all have to abide by the same rules in a free market. The press will criticise the package, the voters will vote to reject Cameron’s package……and then what?

 

It is a disgraceful con and shame on Labour for flirting with the possibility of offering a similar referendum.

 

We are in the EU, let’s use our influence to reform it and away with this endless boring argument about leaving.

 

ALF MORRIS

 

I went to the memorial service for Lord Alf Morris who died this summer. Born into Manchester poverty he was Wythenshawe’s MP for over thirty years. His crowning achievement was the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act which has transformed the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

Few politicians make a real difference, Alf was one.

 

 

UNITED STATES OF EUROPE? SHOULD WE JOIN?

Only a banking union is going to save the Eurozone. That’s effectively an economic union which needs democratic political control. That means a United States of those countries in the Eurozone which leaves the continental countries outside the Eurozone as an uncomfortable rump plus the UK. London has the biggest banking and financial centre in Europe; therefore we should be part of the United States of Europe.

Whilst Eurosceptics (most of you) gag on this outrageous proposition, let me make my case. It won’t be easy in a country that has been heavily influenced for a long time by the anti-EU Murdoch press. Remember what former Prime Minister John Major told the Leveson Inquiry this week. How this jumped up Aussie press baron had threatened the Prime Minister of this country that if he didn’t change his policy on Europe, all his newspapers would aim to bring him down.

The Greek vote this weekend may accelerate the deepening crisis brought about by the contradiction of having a common currency without central banking control. Whether the Greeks elect a far left government that repudiates their bailout conditions or not, the President of the European Commission is already paving the way for a banking union to start next January.

It would mean common supervision of Eurozone banks giving the German Chancellor what she wants, joint accountability and joint control all in one.

Whilst euroscepticism is rampant in Britain, the response of European politicians to the deepening crisis is to see the solution in closer integration.

David Cameron and George Osborne won’t be taking my advice, although they will support the Eurozone drawing closer together. After all the Chancellor is convinced this Euro chaos rather than the Jubilee Bank Holiday or the wrong kind of rain is hampering our recovery. The UK will demand a strengthening of the single market involving all 27 member states to protect our large financial services sector.

But the Germans aren’t happy with the British government’s approach. They fear the danger of a 2 speed Europe if there is a tight Eurozone with Britain outside. But they aren’t going to get us in because most people in Britain think the Euro is a failure and we are well out of it. I doubt if that is a wise judgement in the longer term.

If we were part of a united Europe we would be able to add our economic and fiscal wisdom to a collection of countries that badly need it. We should be alongside Germany and France in spreading best practice from Eastern Europe to the Atlantic. That way we could ensure stability in our biggest market. As it is we are shouting advice from the sidelines and we could soon be down the tunnel and out of the stadium.

That’s because the pressure for a referendum on our continued membership of the European Union is wearing down all politicians. There are even suggestions that the Labour Party is dallying with this irresponsible nonsense.

Irresponsible nonsense to give the British people a say? I’m afraid so. There would be a big vote to get out and only then would we realise what we’ve lost. We’d be like Norway, obeying all the EU rules so that we could sell our goods but with no influence.