The EU Budget Increase

In their arrogant way the eurocrats are just about to get to the point where not only British taxpayers but taxpayers across the EU are going to get so angry that not only our government but also other governments are going to have to take notice. The demand for an increase in the EU budget when Greece is being told to cut its budget is somewhat insensitive to say the least of it. It is insensitive also to demand more from other countries which are having to embark on cuts to their budgets as well. As far as the UK is concerned any demand to do away with our rebate will be like a red rag to a bull as will any increase in our contribution and any imposition of new EU taxes. Although the rebate point is said to be only a rumour at this point our Government is taking it seriously as Downing Street has announced that not only will they vote against unreasonable rises in the budget and oppose the introduction of new EU taxes they will also protect the rebate. If the rebate were to go we would be contributing more to the EU even than Germany. In a way I hope the eurocrats insist on the withdrawal of the rebate as the backlash will be huge and give us the necessary oomph to ensure that our relationship with Brussels is changed significantly for the better. We'd be better out but if that proves a step too far then at least we should be able to do a Swiss type deal. In his blog this morning Daniel Hannan said "the EU has become a racket: a mechanism to redistribute resources from the many to the few. I can understand why the Greeks are protesting. What I can’t understand is why the rest of us aren’t." The moment to protest has not yet arrived but it will do soon and with a vengeance if the rumour about the rebate is true.

The Chelsea Barracks

I look across the road at the Chelsea Barracks and wonder what the new development on it is going to look like. As I understand it it is going to be higher than the Chelsea Barracks Partnership had been hoping for although as yet the style and shape of the proposed buildings have not been revealed. As Westminster has pointed out the new buildings will though be lower than the 2 nasty '60s blocks still standing on the site. The plans are due to be voted on by Westminster any moment now and I hope will be sensitive to the locale unlike the monstrosity proposed by that awful jerk and tasteless architect Lord Rodgers. Thank God the Kandy brothers are no longer involved - what an opportunity they had with the redevelopment of No 1 Knightsbridge and what a banal disappointment that piece of glass has turned out to be. I wonder if the Barracks development still includes a hotel. A hotel could add a touch of glamour to the area but I doubt it will be as popular as the Sloane Club where everyone's grandparents and aunts and uncles seem to stay. How the traffic in this part of town will be affected as a result of all the additional cars the development will bring in the immediate area is anyone's guess. Will they change the traffic light sequence along the Chelsea Bridge Road and will that prevent the frequent jams in the evening rush hour? Will these jams become worse? Will the re-opening of Albert Bridge help? Quite possibly.    

IMF and Other Things

So Christine Lagarde has been appointed Managing Director of the IMF. It is a pity that someone from a developing country or from the BRIC countries didn't get it, someone not so interested in pursuing the failed bail out policy of the EU and the IMF. Perhaps Lagarde will surprise us but I doubt it. If she were wise she would take Lord Lawson as an adviser. He was in great form on Jeff Randall live this evening reminding us that whilst the euro was first under discussion he had said it would fail as a currency union will not work unless there is both fiscal and political union and there was not then and never will be a desire for political union amongst the various EU countries and their peoples. Lord Lawson was also scathing about those euro politicians who believed that a political vision alone could bring about successful monetary union and decried their lack of attachment to reality. He also thought those bankers who had invested in Greek debt should be sacked without compensation as to have thought Greek debt was a safe investment was negligent. Jeff Randall also had Charles Jenkins of the Economist Intelligence Unit on his show this evening who stated that if Greece were to default the UK could manage the outfall. He thought that Ireland and Portugal might suffer a knock on effect from Greek default but that rather than Spain, Italy was another country to worry about.   

London Traffic

I don't know what it's like in other parts of town but the traffic jams in and around SW3 are a nightmare and have been so since at least the beginning of last year. It is not because of the traffic itself but because of the endless unharmonised road works. Sloane Street was dug up at least five times last year and the King's Road has been dug up at least that number of times this year. Numerous holes have been dug this year in the Royal Hospital Road as well as on the Embankment and the Fulham Road. There are road works again somewhere today in the area causing jams in the New Kings Road, the Kings Road, Lower Sloane Street, Chelsea Bridge Road and no doubt elsewhere. It's chaos out there and unless the road works are completed quickly it will no doubt get worse on Thursday when the rage of the lazy, overpaid, underperforming public sector workers is to be unleashed on us all in the first wave of strikes due to be held on that day. It was great to read yesterday though that Francis Maude says the government is set to ban the practice of paying Union officials out of the public purse. Good to hear too that Pickles has refused to allow one of the union boss's into the Department of Communities and local Government to persuade his members to join Thursday's strike. The public will have their revenge on these pampered skivers who think they have a greater right than the rest of us to pensions that no one else can afford. 

The Art of the Possible

We have always been told that politics is the 'art of the possible'. I have stopped believing that saying ever since I realised it is an excuse for not pursuing a particular policy which is thought to be too much like hard work to push through often after focus groups have told politicians that a particular policy has become unpopular. That a government should be flexible enough to do a u-turn where, after debate, it is shown that the original policy can be improved by changing or even abandoning it is not in dispute. Simply to try and buy votes by pursuing policies that you do not believe in but which are thought to keep the electorate on side is cynical and wrong. Who would now ever trust Blair or his lying communications director Alistair Cambell again? The Coalition must not use the same tactics although the u-turn on the sale of forests was a pretty cynical act particularly as the original idea was a sensible one. What is more important though is that there are no real u-turns on the the NHS reforms, nor on education, nor on welfare reform, nor on keeping the EU at bay and holding a referendum before any changes to the existing treaties can take effect. The Government should though get real on the damage being done by the renewable energy nonsense and the eurozone bail outs.     

What Next in the EU

Charles Moore in the Telegraph today states that John Major when talking about the then possible introduction of the euro made a practical minded British mistake of assuming that because something wont work it wont happen. The euro did happen and Charles Moore believes we are making another practical minded British mistake of assuming that the, as he puts it, crazy aspects of the project will be abandoned. He points out that the opposite is happening and says fiscal union is being pushed forward so that the economies of eurozone states can be centrally controlled. A frightening prospect which will lead to a monumental disaster in the next few years if fiscal union does indeed come to pass. It will be a disaster for all the reasons given by those, now proved right, who thought the euro was misconceived and would collapse. What makes it even more certain it will end up a disaster is Blair's statement a couple of days ago supporting fiscal union in the eurozone and predicting Britain at some point should join the euro. Charles Moore goes on to talk about how we are hated in Europe for pointing out the euro project failings and that all we can do is be sympathetic to the euro woes and stay out (of what he does not make clear but I assume he means the euro and the bail outs). He does not believe there is an opportunity here to be exploited. I disagree with Charles Moore and who cares if we are hated - situation normal as it has been and always will be. This is yet another opportunity for us and we should not hesitate to hold a referendum to leave the EU. It will liberate us and hopefully will lead to a common market which encourages free trade through the rest of the world.  We can no longer continue as members of an organisation run by eurocrats (europhile politicians and EU bureaucrats) intent on digging deeper into the hole they have been digging by insisting on an ever closer union. It is a pity that eurocrats believe their own propaganda rather than the instincts of the ordinary voter who may be disengaged from all the detailed and analytical arguments but who does have the virtue of seeing the wood for the trees.

Milly Dowler

The Dowler family have been upset about the way in which Bellfield's defence counsel cross examined them and a review of how victims and their families are questioned is being demanded. Surely though a defendant's counsel has an obligation to try and throw doubt into the minds of the jury on the case presented by the prosecution. The method of doing so however must be up to the defendant's counsel. The manner in which he carried out his cross examination may well have been distressing but the fact is it did not work and Bellfield was found guilty. The Dowler family quite understandably believe that the death penalty be re-introduced and that Bellfield should be hung. A majority in this country feel that the death penalty should be re-introduced but it is difficult to see Parliament changing its mind on this issue. MPs believe they are better informed on this issue and thus better able to make a more rational judgment. MPs believe there are many other issues on which they are better informed and better able to make a judgment. For example they believe they know more about climate change and are thus justified in committing this country to expenditure of an unaffordable kind on so called renewables that has the unfortunate consequence of closing down factories such as our steel making foundries. We are now being warned about the dire consequences of Greek default and how we will suffer as a result. Maybe we could use the change that will be brought about to our own advantage.