Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Glasgow Skeptics EU Referendum debate turns up the heat as Green MSP Patrick Harvie accuses Westminster of being ‘racist and xenophobic’ on immigration, Harvie displays the classic signs of the ‘regressive left’ by thinking labelling and smears win arguments


















Dear All

It seems that the tide has turned in the EU referendum debate away from the ‘remain’ camp and towards ‘Vote Leave’.

As the referendum is now a little more than two weeks away, we are finding out more and more about the anti democratic nature of the EU and how it functions.

In my research I discovered a process called ‘co-decision’, this is the method of how EU law is drafted and made. This process involves three parts of the EU, the EU Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission.

Are you aware that the EU Parliament cannot initiate, propose or repeal EU laws?

We have 751 MEPs who are all part of a parliament which is effectively neutered, to add insult to injury; we see that each MEP over the course of a year costs us in the region of £1.79 million pounds. This is a massive amount of money for a parliament which is little better than a talking shop.

This parliament is a front to given the illusion of democracy, over two debates I have attended both Anas Sarwar and Patrick Harvie spoke of starting a ‘dialogue’ in Europe to ‘fix’ the EU.

Do you know that all recommendations for change, 72 in total; put forward by Britain have all been rejected by the EU?

Britain due to the way the system is set up is always going to be outvoted; the German and Franco alliance dominates the EU.

The EU debate is about many things, it is about democracy, accountability and about trust, all these key ingredients are missing in the EU, and that is why the remain camp are restoring to scaremongering and emotional arguments instead of trying to address facts.

So; what kind of facts are useful to know, well debt for a starter, 'France is totally bankrupt'!

Who said that, none other than the French jobs minister Michel Sapin.

Last week, there were protests and riots in France, about 1.2 million people took to the streets over the erosion of worker’s rights. A few days earlier, the people of Belgium were out on the streets, again Labour protests. Politicians talk about how the EU protects workers rights, where are the EU to protect the French and Belgians?

Let us now look at some other issues that affect worker’s rights.

Zero hours contracts are being promoted under EU Flexible Labour Market rules. If you think back to the movie, ‘On the Waterfront’, people would come down to the docks each day to be ‘picked’ to work, zero hours contracts are the modern day equivalent of this, an obscenity.

Another part of our EU legacy is that collective bargaining has been attacked and weakened in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Romania as an EU bailout condition. Who does this benefit?

Large corporations!

So it is clear, the EU doesn’t stand on the side of workers despite the window dressing of ‘protection’.

Is there more, well if you google the ‘Viking-Line’ case in the ECJ, this case threatens to impose lower wages than the UK minimum wage. The upshot of this is allowing companies using an HQ address of convenience in Poland or Romania to impose the overseas minimum wage on their UK workers.

The EU’s free movement of labour rules are exploiting workers, allowing unscrupulous employers to import cheap labour and force down UK wage rates. This is constantly denied even by people employed in Unions allegedly to protect workers rights.

Have you heard of the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership? It has a catchy nickname called TTIP, except the tip of the iceberg would see EU’s ability to fine Governments that remove hospital services, railways and other contracts from private companies. This agreement could lead to the destroying of the National Health Service in Britain. If you have the time then please read up specifically on this development. Again, this is designed to help large corporations at the expense of the people.

Our very democracy and sovereignty is being attacked by the EU, Compulsory competitive tendering of all railway networks will be mandatory from 2019 under new EU laws over-ruling our UK Parliament.

Not long ago, Alan Johnson, the Labour MP and Leader of the In campaign said something rather incredible, which I would like to share with you:

“Austerity, Greece, the manifest lack of democracy and accountability all are spreading disillusionment about the EU among the left.”

Do, you know that there is a backlog of almost £20 billion in unpaid bills which member states will have to pick up?

Guess what, we are tagged to pay £2 billion of this, and you can also factor in that at present we pay 20% of the EU budget. Not only are we political losers, we are also economic losers, as Anas Sarwar remarked to me ‘there are always winners and losers’, to which I replied that ‘we are always the losers’.

It is highly likely that with France being “totally bankrupt”, and Greece and Italy understood to be on the brink of crisis that Britain will be forking out money in order to keep those countries afloat.

Last night I attended a Glasgow Skeptics event, my friend Alex on the panel with me put a brilliant defence of Leave’s position, I was off form due to recovering from illness. To my surprise I found the contribution by Patrick Harvie to be bizarre, at one point I said to him that shouting doesn’t make his points more credible. He also was keen to stress that Westminster was racist and xenophobic on the issue of immigration. It was almost like he was in the wrong debate and he was fighting the independence referendum.

Tax dodging multinationals have effectively run rings round Brussels, major employers such as McDonald’s, Starbucks and Amazon do the bulk of their business in the UK, but EU has allowed Luxembourg to become the tax-haven of choice for tax-dodging multinationals.

The architect of Luxembourg’s tax-cheat regime was their Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker now the President of the European Commission. Juncker has made repeated threats that Britain will suffer consequences if we leave the EU. One thing is clear to me in my mind, the EU is an anti democratic, anti people organisation which is firmly in the pockets of big business.

If you consider that you truly believe in democracy, if you believe that we should elect our lawmakers and that the sovereignty of our country matters, then on the 23rd of June, cast your vote with confidence and Vote Leave.

Finally, the tide towards exit is sweeping through the country, the Leave campaign is pulling away, winning the argument, making the case, and using facts not fear to convince people.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

2 comments:

  1. Dipstick hypocrite Harvie, seems to think that people are stupid. They see these ECONOMIC MIGRANTS crossing from one SAFE country to the next, just to get to the UK. Who are these people anyway,,, terrorists? who knows would Harvie give them a room in his hous? Yeh right,, same as Sturgeon, all mouth.
    . We don't want them here, we're full up. Once we leave the CORRUPT EU, we can be like Australia and other countries and tell them to go somewhere else. Does Harvie think the Australians are racist and xenophobic because they look after their borders. Grow up Patsie Harvie.

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  2. IM OUT Georgie boy , undemocratic that's why the SNP love it

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