William Hague wants a Euro 'red card' to veto those parts of EU law that Britain doesn’t want to comply with, how long would it be before ordinary people saw their rights eroded, and what guarantees is he offering it would not open to abuse?

Dear All

Did you notice riots in Turkey?

As I previously blogged, there is a virus in Southern Europe, and it is travelling northwards, it is a financial virus caused by the Euro crisis and incredibly bad political decisions.

The cure is rather painful, serious measures are needed to be undertaken to fix banking which has become too important, in the old days, financial warfare was just an academic exercise sometimes played out in military colleges, much the way of new and current fad of cyber warfare.

Countries can be destroyed from within; mind you it isn’t unreasonable to expect that those knocking away the supports aren’t your own elected public officials, who should grasp; the reality of climbing into bed with big corporations who only have self interest not national interest at heart.

  

The question which ordinary people have been asking is who do elected politicians answer to?

In generally once they get your vote, there is an air of entitlement, closely followed by sucking up to big business, some politicians get blinded by power, wealth and ultimately greed.

They then make an complete arse of running the country get kicked out, and the new lot come in promising ‘hope and aspiration’, four or five years done the line, people notice one thing, things are still bad.

The EU is broken, it has been for some time, decades, ever since the people doing the books refused to sign off on them; you might have thought that this would have set alarm bells going off, but you would be wrong.

Is it because it is too big?

Or is it because the people running it are doing it piecemeal?

William Hague has called for national parliaments to be given the power to block new laws created by the European Union.

On the surface you might think this is a good idea, and it could be sold as such, however, motive should be looked at.

In Britain, the establishment and various hangers on for political advantage have failed to understand the nature of such things as human rights.

It can be explained this way; people don’t know the difference between ‘I want’ and ‘I am entitled to’ in human rights, a while ago, a happy camper in the EU said that going on holiday was a human right, as he outlined travelling around Europe should be paid for by the taxpayer if you couldn’t afford it.

Quite simply that is bollocks!

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary has outlined a “red card” system which would allow member states more freedom in choosing what parts of EU legislation they accept.

This is dangerous, because, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that the ‘red card’ would in effect mean eroding rights from ordinary British people.

So, again who exactly do politicians represent?

 

This brainchild is the coalition’s first major proposal on Europe since David Cameron has signalled he wants to renegotiate the UK’s membership.

In others words, he wants an in-out referendum in 2017, which he doesn’t believe in, and will be campaigning against, his bargaining chip will be possibly some concessions, depending on what the French and Germany feel.

Under the plan, more than one country would have to object to a law for it to be thrown out, though Mr Hague did not specify how many countries’ objections would be required.

I have doubts because, such a plan could be circumvented by deals done behind closed doors as members trade off votes on areas such as trade.

His keynote speech, to a foreign policy think-tank in Germany, was a direct appeal to Europe’s elite and its most powerful member, Germany, to allow a more flexible arrangement, and at this point, you have to wonder, is this protectionism of Britain’s financial markets?

In the address, Mr Hague said national parliaments should be able to overrule unwanted legislation coming from the EU.

Rather than try to fireproof national interest, would it not be better to make the EU and its MEPs beef up their act and start asking real detailed questions.

Mr Hague told the conference in Berlin that it was time “to make the EU more democratically responsive.

He added:

“Trust in the institutions is at an all-time low. The EU is facing a crisis of legitimacy.”

And given events in Europe, sovereign governments are having the same trouble from their own people.

Mr Hague asked the audience:

“How can we build a European Union that acknowledges and respects the diversity of its member states? One that recognises that our national approaches to and ambitions for the EU may sometimes differ? I think instead that the solution lies in promoting the role of national institutions in European decision-making – because ultimately it is national governments and national parliaments that are accountable to our electorates. They are the democratic levers voters know how to pull.”

Wasn’t it diversity that dropped us all in the shit in the first place?

How much injustice would there be in Britain without the European Court of Human Rights?

I would hazard a guess, and say quite a bit, this is part of the problem that William Hague seeks to remove, and you can remember the idea floated of removing the Human Rights Act and replacing it with a weaker Bill of Rights.

No one thinks for a minute that the proposed replacement is enhancing legislation?

The proposed “red card” would be an extension of the little-known “yellow card” system already in place; parliaments in member states can issue a “yellow card” to the European Commission, forcing it to reconsider a law.

That doesn’t seem unreasonable, in fact it has much merit, where as the ‘red card’ system is open to abuse, and the public wouldn’t get the opportunity to speak on it except once every four or five years.

And let’s remember, although a person is elected to represent the people, the truth is that they are in receipt of the party whip, so they follow that lead and vote accordingly.

So, will the party whip system be removed and parliament votes on every issue as a ‘free vote’?

No, that won’t be happening!

The introduction of the “red card” would completely thwart any EU legislation deemed inappropriate and undermine the power of the commission.

If there is a problem in the commission that area should be addressed and where need, commissioners removed.

Hague also talks about the frustration many Britons feel about Europe, this is immigration and other issues which come with that particular issue.

He said:

“Too often, the British people feel that Europe is something that happens to them, not something they have enough of a say over. That the EU is happy speaking but does not seem interested in listening. That the EU is sometimes part of the problem, not the solution.”

Isn’t part of the problem that national governments don’t listen?

The Labour Party opened the flood gates on immigration because they wanted to do a social engineering experiment to make Britain more diverse, people were lied too and told this was about solely economics.

Since being kicked out, and having seen what they have created, there has been an apology of sorts, UKIP is rising as a political force because the mainstream political parties stopped listening to people.

Britain is an unfair, unjust and top down controlled society which is falling apart, read a newspaper or what television and you see how deep and divisive, it is becoming.

Previously, if you spoke out about immigration, you where branded a racist, the left love sticking labels on people so that they can be smeared and dismissed.

UKIP has become a mainstream party; they have made the breakthrough in the minds of the public.

Mats Persson, of the Open Europe think-tank warned the British public would only back the idea if the government demonstrated it was actively pushing for change now rather than later.

If it is used to erode rights, and pushed through as something else, one can see a situation where rioting will come back to the streets of Britain. At present, Labour, Tories and Lib Dems are all talking tough on Europe, this is solely down to the rise of UKIP, but there will come a time, when their voters will say enough is enough, and sweep them from power.

In times of austerity, there is always a shift to right wing policies as politicians say they are listening. I have to say this new idea, certainly needs a lot of explaining and safeguards, because it doesn’t strike me as viable.

Are the Tories as part of their ‘red card’ proposing changing free movement of workers from within the EU coming to Britain?

If immigration isn’t on the table, then the next ‘red card’ could see them sent off as the government, with a bigger coalition of Lib Dems and UKIP.

   

 Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University