The Euro is Collapsing - it will take the EU with it
It is becoming more and more clear that the Euro cannot survive in its present form. EU leaders still refuse to recognise the inevitable, and think that they can take on the world bond markets and win. Greece and Portugal are bankrupt, Italy and Spain in trouble, and Germany is not going to give them a blank cheque.
We are not in the Eurozone, but it is our biggest market. We need to start focusing our trade away from Europe - a declining region - and towards the rest of the world. Leaving the EU would provide the catalyst we need. EU rules prevent us from negotiating trade deals for ourselves with the growth regions of the world. Instead, we have to leave it to the EU. Their objectives are not our objectives. We urgently need fewer barriers to trade in services - they do not.
The EU itself will not long survive the collapse of the Euro - the dream of "ever-closer union" will be shattered. Their folly, their purblind arrogance, will cost the people of Europe dear.
The EU no longer looks like the future - more like a discredited past.
Britain is Isolated - just like the Titanic survivors
The BBC and others who moan about Britain's isolation and weakness are missing the point. It's not us that's in trouble, it's the Eurozone. As Ian Hislop put it recently, we are isolated on the sidelines while the centre collapses. The summit did almost nothing to solve the real problem - the debt crisis - despite all the talk of "ten days to save the Euro". The bond markets will see this. Will we perhaps have headlines "Another Ten Days to Save the Euro?" I don't think the Titanic survivors worried too much about being isolated - they just rowed like mad to avoid being dragged down when the ship sank.
Back up Cameron's Veto - Sign our Epetition
David Cameron has shown great courage in vetoing the proposed EU governance treaty - the only British Prime Minister to have ever said No to a treaty. City tax and regulation has nothing to do with saving the Euro - it could have been conceded to Britain without affecting the really important issues. It matters to us, but not them. However Sarkozy needed a scapegoat for the summit's inevitable failure. The real problem for Sarkozy and Merkel is that they cannot agree what they want to do, so they can't impose it on the rest of us, as they usually do. Merkel is giving almost nothing in return for her version of fiscal union. She won't bankroll the Eurozone, whatever Sarko thinks.
We can't stay where we are for long. This has to be the first step in a complete renegotiation of our relationship with the EU. Merkel and Sarkozy will aim to take their revenge by imposing as much of a regulatory burden as they can on London - they have long aimed to cut it down to size. Their first step in doing this must be met with the same robust response - we will not accept it. And if EU rules don't allow us to refuse, we will just have to stop being subject to EU rules.
There has been much talk of repatriating powers from the EU. Anyone who knows much about the EU knows that this is out of the question for EU leaders – it would mean abandoning their whole central principle of “ever-closer union”. They will only do so under extreme pressure. As we have seen, vetoing a treaty is not enough. They would offer nothing to Cameron. The only threat they might recognise is a threat to leave the EU. Even that may not be enough, though the fact that we are the second-largest contributor to the EU budget might give them pause. It is said the Sarkozy wants a smaller EU, without Britain constantly obstructing his grand plans. If so, we had better let him have it. He and Merkel are steering the Eurozone straight towards the rocks. We will be better out of it.
To help add to the pressure for change in our relationship with Europe, we have put a petition onto the Government’s epetitions website. It is new, so it has few signatures yet. Please sign it, and ask others to do so. If we can get enough signatures, we can have a House of Commons debate. You can vote by clicking http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22274. If the Government does try to renegotiate, its failure will make it easier for us to win an in/out referendum, which most of us want.
The EU is holding Back the UK Recovery
We are paying too much (our net EU contribution is rising from some £3.5 billion in 2008-9 to £12 billion in 2014-15), and the vast body of EU regulation stifles business and the City of London. Rising powers like Brazil, India and China don't have these burdens. To recover, we have to make the UK competitive. We cannot do that without leaving the EU.
We would flourish outside the EU.
We Must Leave the EU
EU leaders are determined to create a United States of Europe – a single country of which Britain would be merely a province. The EU is taking more and more power over member states – the most recent being a plan for Eurozone governance - ie control over taxes and spending in return for a central bail-out fund. “Ever-closer union” is their declared aim.
We cannot stop this process. Successive British Governments have tried, and failed even to slow it down. They have resorted to denying it is happening. The only way to keep Britain an independent country is to leave the EU. We can leave – our parliament is still sovereign (for the present). We are subject to EU law because British legislation says so. Repeal the legislation and we are free. It only takes the political will.
- The European Union costs us a fortune every year in budget contributions
- The burden of its rules and regulations hampers our businesses and costs us jobs.
- The EU stops us from making our own trade arrangements with the rest of the world
- The EU harms the Third World by excluding them from EU markets
- The EU harms the environment by counter-productive policies such as the Common Fisheries Policy, which requires thousands of tons of fish to be thrown back dead into the sea every year.
- The Euro is damaging the economies of the member states as they struggle to cope with recession, without control of their own interest rates or exchange rates.
More and More Want Britain to Leave the EU
A ComRes opinion poll for The Independent on Sunday on Dec 11 showed that 58% wanted a referendum on any new EU treaty, with 15% against. 52% would vote to leave the EU, with 26% against
According to an Angus Reid poll in Britain in July 2011, 49% would vote for Britain to leave the EU and only 25% wanted Britain to remain a member .
Pros and Cons of our Membership- Update from the Bruges Group
See http://www.brugesgroup.com/RebuttalToDavidLidingtonLetter.pdf
Three Campaigns
We are giving our full support to three campaigns:
The People's Pledge
A campaign demanding an “in or out” referendum on Britain’s European Union membership attracted more than 20,000 supporters on its very first day - 15 March 2011.
Voters signed up in droves for the cross-party People’s Pledge initiative, which aims to name and shame the MPs who are not prepared to back a referendum on whether Britain should quit the EU. The campaign will particularly target MPs in marginal seats. Sign up on www.peoplespledge.org/
The Daily Express Crusade
Details of the main Express campaign for a referendum on leaving the EU are on www.express.co.uk/web/europecrusade where you can sign up to support the campaign. Our news page will carry articles from time to time on the progress of the Express Europe crusade.
On 8 January the Express published a 24 page supplement on why the UK should leave the EU. You can read it on http://images.dailyexpress.co.uk/pdfs/GetBritainOutoftheEU.pdf
The campaign scored a success in February when Editor Peter Hill led a march on Downing Street to hand over sacks of petition coupons signed by 373,000 readers. Thanks for your support. The campaign continues.
Hugh's Fish Fight
Since January, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has been carrying out a very effective campaign to ban discards - the requirement of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy that fish in excess of a fisherman's quota must be thrown back dead into the sea. This comprises well over half of each catch. Over 700,000 people have signed up to support his campaign. His publicity stunts to drum up support have included giving away discarded fish free to a whole town, walking around Parliament attached to a huge balloon, and placing half a trawler in front of the European Parliament showing film of discards and an indicator of how many people have signed up to support his campaign. He has made at least two TV programmes to publicise this scandal, which the EU has been enforcing for decades.
He has suceeded in persuading the EU's Fisheries Commissioner to draw up proposals for a new fisheries policy, including a ban on discards. This is probably the first time the EU has ever listened to the public. The European Parliament will vote on the proposals, se we need to keep up the pressure. Please sign up on www.fishfight.net/the-campaign/
