Quote of the day

I can't see any way we're going to avoid an almighty collision with the ECHR on this.

David Davis:

"The Court seems to have forgotten that our Parliament is the ultimate authority.  It can tell Ministers to produce proposals if it likes. What it can't do is give them a timetable to do anything that Parliament won't approve.  And Parliament's made it clear that it won't accept any of the proposals for votes for prisoners that have been put up to date."

Euro quotes...

*They* once said:

“Remaining outside the eurozone will hurt the British economy…”
“The euro will remain stable and eurozone countries will be protected from crises…”
“There will be no bailouts…”
“Only countries that fulfil strict economic conditions should be allowed to join…”
“Greece joining the euro will be good for both the EU and Greece…”

 Etc, etc, etc.

Keep an eye on Finland...

Can things get any worse economically for the Republic?

With the CDU in trouble in Germany and a Finnish general election two weeks away, I think they might- read here on Slugger why.

The Racist is the other...

I've missed the "European Actionweek against Racism" by one day but not to worry, this was one of the best posters I've ever seen on the subject.

The People's Pledge

The People's Pledge:

"I will only vote at the next election for a candidate who publicly promises to support a binding referendum on our EU membership and to vote for it in the House of Commons”.

More here.

Cornish pasty saved by Eurocrats!

Not so much "saved", more "protected" but following in the footsteps of the Lough Neagh Eel, Rutland Bitter and the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie:

The Cornish pasty has become a protected food following a long campaign to prevent it being copied by imitators.

Only pasties prepared in Cornwall and following the traditional recipe can now be described as Cornish after the European commission awarded the dish "protected geographical indication" (PGI) status. Authentic pasties can still be finally baked elsewhere in Britain.

Campaigners celebrated the decision, saying it was important for the local economy – thousands of jobs are involved in the pasty industry – as well as for consumers.

Alan Adler, chairman of the Cornish Pasty Association, said: "By guaranteeing the quality of the Cornish pasty, we are helping to protect our British food legacy.

The association said a genuine Cornish pasty had a distinctive "D" shape and was crimped on one side, never on top.

Like this?

I'll have some of that (with a bottle of Rutland, if I can find it):

The texture of the filling is chunky, made up of uncooked minced or roughly cut chunks of beef (not less than 12.5%), swede, potato, and onion with a light seasoning. The pastry casing is golden in colour, savoury, glazed with milk or egg and robust enough to retain its shape throughout the cooking and cooling process without splitting or cracking. The pasty is slow-baked and no artificial flavourings or additives must be used."

Hain hits too convenient a target

Far be it for me to accuse Peter Hain of being economical with the truth:

Wales will lose three times the proportion of MPs as the average for the rest of the United Kingdom – a reduction in Wales’s voice in Parliament of fully a quarter from 40 to 30. Wales – a nation with just 5 per cent of the population of the UK – is contributing 20 per cent of the cut in MPs.

… but there is one salient fact that he has forgotten to mention there; post the change (if it happens) Wales, with “just” 5% of the UK’s population will have… 5% of the total number of the UK’s MPs, which seems fair enough to me.

One other relevant fact is that we now have 300 (yes, that’s right 300!) other directly elected full-time parliamentarians in the Scottish Parliament, the European Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, the Greater London Authority and the Northern Ireland Assembly. If anything we should also be organising a cull (humane, of course) of some of that lot- for example, Northern Ireland, population 1.7 million reallly needs 108 MLAs to *ahem* operate as efficiently as it presently does? I think not.

Could be an historic Thursday...

Landmark day in for civil liberties in the United Kingdom...:

Identity cards will be consigned to history today as the database recording the biometric details of thousands of people goes up in flames. Hard disk drives from the national identity register, which underpinned the ID card scheme, will be shredded and incinerated in a symbolic demonstration of efforts to rein back the "database state" and restore civil liberties.

... and for the (potential) re-assertion of our right as a sovereign nation to decide our own laws and practises:

MPs have overwhelmingly voted to keep the ban on prisoners voting, in defiance of a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

The House of Commons' decision is not binding, but could put pressure on ministers to go against the Strasbourg court's decision.

MPs backed a motion opposing the move by a 234 to 22 - a majority of 212.

The government says it has to end the ban on inmates voting, or face being sued for tens of millions of pounds.

Senior Tory backbencher David Davis and former Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw tabled the motion, urging ministers to defy the European Court of Human Rights ruling that a blanket ban on prisoners voting was illegal.

During a Commons, Mr Davis said Parliament must "assert" itself on an issue of "great democratic importance".

And it did... it's now up to the government to "walk the walk" as well as merely "talking the talk".

It's certainly part of the story...

Further Education funding and tuition fees is rapidly taking over from health provision as not only the Devolution Experiment's biggest inequity, but also one almighty cock-up.

I received this yesterday from the Campaign for an English Parliament:

The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Exp...

Any questions?

(and excuse my bad manners, Hattip to Our Kingdom for the alert)

Belgium still may be saved.... by the N-VA!

Give it another 17 days and Belgium will officially be the "World Champion in Not Forming a Government".
The country has been in limbo since last June's(!) elections and by the middle of this month, it will be 250 days that it's officially operated without a government. The fact that the country, minus a few jitters on the bonds markets, seems to be ticking along quite nicely, as it did the Czech Republic in a similar situation couple of years ago, probably tells us all we need to know about the indispensibility of political elites in modern democracies.

The party which polled the most votes last year, the Flemish separatists, the New Flemish Alliance have been an integral part of the on-off negotiations:

Today’s blockage is unlike previous ones in that an avowedly separatist party, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), has for the first time become dominant in Flanders. Led by Bart de Wever, a charismatic bruiser, the N-VA’s appeal stems precisely from popular exasperation with the messy, unsatisfying compromises of the older political groups. It wants a decisive shift of powers to Flanders, and makes little secret of its wish to see Belgium “evaporate” within the EU.

Charlemagne in last week's Economist, however, points out the dangers inherent in the N-VA's apparent (more on that later) desire to split the nation along ethno-linguistic lines:

William Wallace, the 1916 Connection

I've posted on Slugger O'Toole today a piece detailing the campaign to have "Celtic treasures" sent back to their original countries and regions.

Hold on, wasn't that Alex's idea?

The Arc of Prosperity returns?

David Cameron has urged countries across northern Europe to form an "alliance of common interests".

The UK prime minister, who hosted leaders of Nordic and Baltic countries, said they could become an "avant garde" for economic growth.

The PMs of Iceland, Norway, Latvia, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Lithuania and Estonia are at the London summit

No invite for the Republic in Dave's version though...

Students for Separation

Obviously one doesn't want to condone this kind of caper:

A coalition of students from other countries in the UK has launched a campaign for Scottish independence in the belief that it would signal a free-for-all at universities north of the border.

A group calling itself English, Welsh and Northern Irish Students For Independence has been leafleting university campuses on the understanding that the European Union would force an independent Scotland to scrap tuition fees for students from the rest of the UK.

But at least there is a solid non-nationalist logic behind their treason;)

The group's literature states: "Currently, if a student is domiciled in Scotland, SAAS (Student Awards Agency Scotland) will pay his or her tuition fees.

"This will not be the case when Scotland becomes independent. Let us make it happen now, so that English, Welsh and Northern Irish students can enjoy the benefits of a free education in Scotland."

Tuition Fees- if even the government doesn't grasp the implications then...

You need a masters in Applied Logic to understand the complications of the various devolved Tuition Fees debates:

State funding for poor students at English universities could have to be made available to all EU citizens, according to draft government plans.

Any proposed discounts or fee waivers would have to be open to all EU students on an equal basis, they say.

Before the crunch tuition fees vote it was suggested poor students could get a year's fees paid for by the government.

A government source said if all EU students could apply, they would have to think very carefully about the idea.

Two points here:

1. Does "all" EU students really mean "all" in this case?
2. Shouldn't they have thought "very carefully" about the implications behind the idea before making the original suggestion in the first place?

Russell promises UK students that (he will do his best to make sure) they receive same rights as their counterparts from the rest of the EU

Sort of...

In the light of the recent tuition fees furore (here and here), this is an interesting development:

The cost of European students studying in Scotland has quadrupled in nearly a decade, with the Holyrood government having to pick up the bill.

A record number of EU students, 15,930, are now attending Scots institutions, costing the taxpayer £75m a year.

Education Secretary Mike Russell is seeking an end to what is seen as a cheap option for Europeans who would have to pay for education at home.

He said the funding loophole was "no longer tenable".

The latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that, between 2008-09 and 2009-10, the number of EU students increased by 17%, from 13,585 to 15,930.

Ultimately, it's not just the Scottish taxpayer who is coughing up on this one but it is good to see Russell acknowledging the hard reality. It would have been nice to see him also acknowledge the present unfairness of a Scottish system towards students from the rest of the UK.... but if this EU anomaly is sorted out, then at least it will be a start.

Euroscepticism sighted in North Down?

From The Freedom Association:

We would like to congratulate the 41 MPs who supported Bill Cash’s amendment to the European Union Bill in relation to the sovereignty clause, which would turn the EU bill into something worthwhile, rather than remaining a paper tiger.

27 Conservatives, 8 Labour, 5 DUP and most intriguingly for N.Irish readers, one independent, Lady Hermon "made", as the Freedom Association puts it "a stand for the cause of Euroscepticism and freedom".

Curious. OK, doesn't quite entitle her to membership of the "Better Off Out" Club, but still; I'd have never had her down as a fully fledged Euro-sceptic.

Update:

As Lee (and IJP in the comments-zone) points out, Lady H's voting record in the HOC leans much more towards social conservatism (anti-abortion, pro-hunting, luke-warm towards EU) than you would probably have expected.

Quote of the day

The European Union's basic weakness in a shameful nutshell:

“To join the EU you have to smell of roses. But if you are a member and you start to reek, there is nobody to make you take a bath.”

The British mixed bag

Bagshott:

The current British mood is unusually lethal: to simplify, it mixes Sicilian levels of cynicism with a Swedish rage for transparency, in a country that no longer does deference. That is a combination that has never been tried before.

I'd throw one ingredient in; the belief that a Norwegian style welfare state can be paid for by Swiss level of income taxes.

Unionist confidence, Facebook and EU media independence

It can be very useful to occasionally put yourself in your opponent's shoes; I've posted this challenge to Unionists on Open Unionism:

"Come on, rack your brains; make the argument for the “United” Ireland to the uncommitted voter, more pertinently, for a Unionist readership; make the argument why a “United” Ireland is inevitable."

Well....?

I've also now set up a Facebook page here for "A Pint of Unionist Lite", although it is one of those things that once you've done it you think:
"Right that's that sorted. What happens now?"

The basic intention is to use both it and my twitter account more interactively with the blog this year in order to get the ideas, thoughts (rants) on here read by a bigger and more involved readership. I just haven't yet work out the best way to achieve this, so any suggestions will be welcomed.

Finally, I've also put up my first piece on Slugger O'Toole.

The topic (protecting freedom of expression in the EU) is certainly lateral to the point behind this blog and probably also Slugger. But I think it is still very relevant to anyone who wishes to have their opinion expressed and read freely- be it online, in the printed or televisual media.The picture I've placed at the top right/hand corner of the blog is directly connected and will remain until the Eurocracy finally does its moral duty in this specific case. If you're interested to find out more, read the article, or tap the picture.

How's that for a mixed bag, all in one easily digestible post!