Wonder how you feel about the news that the UK Government’s high-profile national DNA database is now in tatters after a landmark ruling by the European Court.

In an unprecedented move, judges decided that keeping samples of people with no  criminal convictions on file is a breach of their human rights. The verdict could force the Government to remove the DNA details of hundreds of thousands of Britons from the current total of about 4.5 million held on the England, Wales and Northern Ireland database. In a way, I actually welcome the idea that innocent people’s DNA is not to be retained in the sweaty paws of government, but on the other hand I resent the European Court having any say in what we do!

We all know how arrogant the European Union is and how little regard it has for the views of the ordinary citizens that make up the Nation States it seeks to control. So it was no BIG surprise to read that the European Commission president said the UK was ‘closer than ever before’ to signing up to the single currency.  Jose Manuel Barroso said he had held private conversations with ‘the people who count in Britain’ and knew that they were ready to move into the euro-zone.

And who are “the people who count in Britain”? Step forward Lord Peter Mandelson – the man who has been forced to resign TWICE from government and who has been brought back from the EU to the UK government by Prudence Brown in a last-gasp attempt to save his ailing regime. Mandelson believes that the UK should  abandon its ancient currency and join the Euro-zone and now he is back at the black heart of government there will be more spinning on this subject.This man is pure political poison.

Of course the government knows that the people of Britain would reject the Euro if we were ever given the vote, but as we saw in Ireland, even when the people speak and say No, the EU elite, inlcuding Mandelson, reject such a response. So, is it possible that Brown could try and rail-road us into the Euro without a referendum, using the financial crisis as a useful flag of convenience? Nothing would surprise me since we have a government that delights in evasion, guile, deceit and arrogance.

Well then – I see that the mighty economic goliath, the Eurozone, has gone into official recession!

“EU figures showed that the economy shrank by 0.2% in the third quarter. This follows a 0.2% contraction in the 15-nation area in the previous quarter from April to June. Two quarters of negative growth define a technical recession. The news was widely anticipated and follows data showing that Germany and Italy, two of the biggest eurozone economies, are already in recession.”

I suggest that this merely shows we DO live in a globalised economy and nowhere can be insulated from the sort of energy and banking seismic shocks that we have all witnessed in recent times. More interesting will be to see how the Euro-elite respond to the challenge of recession. We will see surging unemployment in the next year, slumping economic growth. I also wonder if the strong Euro vs Dollar/Pound will add further woes to European exporters chances of pulling through. No sane person would take delight from the Eurozones woes, and I certainly hope it will not be as bad as I fear. However despite all the political verbiage, I’m not sure the political class can do that much to help. But there is ONE issue that this now highlights. Europe has seen massive inward immigration – what now for those, mainly Muslim, people who see Europe as their base? Who will fund their unemployment benefit? What will be the societal consequences?How can such diverse economies have effective responses when the ECB has a one size fits all strategy? Time will tell…

Telling statistics.

British businesses are being tied up with record levels of Brussels red tape, a report warned yesterday. The TaxPayers’ Alliance says that UK firms are struggling under the ‘severe burden’ of EU regulation, which is estimated to cost £150billion a year. The study found that there are currently 16,980 EU laws in force in this country and they are increasing at a rate of 2,000 a year. It said that Whitehall had added to the regulatory burden by using EU directives as ‘vehicles for their own policy agendas’ and attaching numerous additional clauses and extending their scope – a practice known as ‘gold-plating’. Ben Farrugia from the alliance said: ‘Regulations are an enormous burden to business, particularly in a time of financial hardship. The EU’s addiction to regulating and Whitehall’s compulsive gold-plating have added billions to business costs in recent years. ‘Both the legislative process which has created this regulatory tangle and Britain’s relationship with the EU needs a serious rethink.’

Not really much to think about. We need OUT.

Did you see that John Hutton has become the first defence secretary to back a French plan for a European army, branding those who dismiss it as “pathetic”.

“In a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Times, he said: “I think we’ve got to be pragmatic about those things. Where it can help, we should be part of it.” His support goes beyond the public position of Gordon Brown, the prime minister, and will antagonise those who believe that further European cooperation will undermine Nato by excluding the United States. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has sought to develop Europe’s military structures with new headquarters and rapid reaction forces, each consisting of 1,500 troops from member countries.

So, who will fight and die for the EU? Would you? The prospect of the British Army included amongst the massed ranks of the French and Belgiums may cause Hutton’s heart to flutter – but in truth it is a pathetic idea and the mark of a rabid europhile.

Of course the question of a Euro-army raises a number of interesting questions that Hutton does not answer.

1. Will the citizens of Europe be prepared to PAY the necessary costs for such a major undertaking given existing reluctance to even commit resource to NATO? Higher taxes for a Euro-army strikes me as a unlikely political proposition. The truth is that the US has been underwriting European expenditure on its military for decades and as the US starts to pull back from this, the costs for the Euros will escalate. Given the condition of the European economy, where will the cash come from exactly?

2. Who will the Euro-army fight, exactly? And who will decide? Might it’s remit be more of a  function of  keeping the citizens of Europe under control – in their own interests, naturally?

3. If there is a Euro-army, why retain a National army? Without a national army, without a national currency, without a national defence of foreign policy, what is a nation?

The truth is that Hutton is whistling in the Euro-breeze but at least it lets us see where the Euro-tyrants would like us to go.

Isn’t it a disgrace market trader was convicted yesterday of selling fruit and
vegetables using imperial measures – even though the EU says it should
not be an offence. This is how the EU operates and how British officials gleefully run with it all…

Metric martyr Janet Devers said she had been made a ‘scapegoat’ after being sentenced for
selling goods on her market stall in pounds rather than kilos. The
mother of two fought back tears as she was ordered by magistrates to
pay almost £5,000 in costs and told she would have a criminal record
after being found guilty of eight offences under the Weights and
Measures Act.

As part of the landmark case, the greengrocer was also convicted of
selling vegetables for £1 a bowl rather than counting them out
individually – a practice commonplace amongst Britain’s 40,000 market
traders who use bowls to help customers baffled by grams and kilograms. Now the pensioner, from Wanstead, East London, faces
financial ruin as the costs of fighting the case could see her lose her
market stall in nearby Dalston. It has been in the family
for more than 60 years since her mother Irene Hunt became one of the
first woman to run a stall in the East End during the Blitz. The
verdict, which has outraged campaigners, comes a year after EU said it
would no longer force Britain to adopt the metric system of weights and
measures.

Interesting to see the European Union being put under the crucible of financial scrutiny as the individual nations do their own thing to protect their own interests at this time of economic crisis. In essence, it’s every Nation State for itself, much to the chagrin of the Europhiles.

M. Sarkozy was incandescent last week when Berlin torpedoed Dutch and French
ideas for an EU-wide rescue package, even before they had been formally
tabled. Berlin said at the time that it did not approve of grand,
taxpayer-funded rescue plans, only action to cope with problems at
individual banks.

Naturally, there are those who are prepared to use this crisis to try and argue for even deeper European political unity. The straw-man being thrown up at the moment is that of the EU was the same as the US - one economic and political system – then collective action would be easier! Laughable stuff indeed – but indicative of the mindset that prevails in Brussels.

Leaders of Britain, Germany and Italy joined the French president at a hastily called summit in Paris to discuss the financial crisis facing Europe.

But Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel and Silvio Berlusconi all had very different agendas when they sat down to talk together – not least because the crisis has affected each of their countries differently. 

Who’d have thought that? Who’d have thought that different nations, with different national stories, distinct cultures, different governmental, judicial and administrative systems, different currencies and diversely structured economies would have found the troubles affecting them differently.

Golly gosh!

It rather undermines the case for a pan-EU solution to what are particular local factors. Since they’re also admitting that one-size-does-not-fit-all, it weakens the very case for the EU.

First Ireland, now Greece. We are watching the EU suffer a convulsion as politicians do that which comes naturally – cover their own backs from an angry electorate.

“Europe’s dispute over how to protect the banking sector from the
financial crisis deepened yesterday when Greece joined Ireland in
offering to guarantee savings in domestic banks.

George
Alogoskoufis, the Greek finance minister, said deposits “in all banks
that operate in Greece” would be “absolutely guaranteed”, amid signs
that savers were becoming restless. The move by a second
eurozone country presented a big challenge to European leaders meeting
at an emergency summit tomorrow in Paris to hammer out a coordinated
response to the threat of meltdown among European banks.

Ireland’s
move, which passed through parliament after 30 hours of debate, amounts
to a €440bn (£313bn) underwriting exercise that has been criticised as
anti-competitive. The European commission has said it is not yet clear
whether the Irish move is legal. Market experts said there was growing
concern of a rift between those guaranteeing their banks and those
refusing to write blank cheques.”

Look – I don’t blame the Irish of the Greeks. They are trying to sustain confidence in THEIR banking systems, to ensure that cash does not haemorrhage from them. However the EU thinks that IT should be in control and so we now see the predictable national self-interest versus supranational EU control freakery that lies (and boy does it lie) at the heart of the entire European project. How would Irish people feel if they see the decision by their government to protect their savings declared illegal? Wonder would that impact at all in any looming Euro-constitution referendum re-run?

Interesting to read that there has been some seismic electoral results in Austria.

It is fascinating to see the European electorate slowly waken up to the existential threat posed by Islam, even as the political elite go into denial. I am not sure why it is xenophobic to express objection to the toxin of unassimilated Islam being injected into one’s society. I believe other European nations have similar groundswells of popular opinion and how this can be contained by the Euro-dhimmi class should prove interesting to watch! Today Vienna – but it’s on a roll.