CentreRight

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

It's no secret that the overwhelming majority of Brussels Eurocrats were positively overjoyed at the election of President Barack Obama, but don't you think this promotional graphic for the European Parliament's 2009 election coverage is going a little far?

Then again, they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...!

Why the Republican Party is like Detroit

Over at the National Public Radio blog there's an interesting piece from Newt Gingrich advisor Merrill Matthews comparing the Republican Party's recent woes to those of the City of Detroit.

The "motor city" is, of course, in terminal decline with almost 11% of its population out of work, a median house sale price of just £5,300 over the last three months (yes, you read that correctly), a Mayor who recently finished a four month prison sentence following multiple convictions for obstruction of justice...

Take a look.

Hat tip: Syed Kamall

You've gotta laugh...

Hat tip: Phil Martin

The EPP is to blame for putting Britain’s Working Time Directive opt-out in peril

The debate about whether or not the Conservatives should remain in the EPP group in the European Parliament has largely centred around arguments about the tensions between the group's Euro-federalist outlook and our decidedly more sceptical position. 

Acknowledging that some tensions exist, supporters of British EPP membership have tried to paint the EPP as Tories in the Ken Clarke mould; perhaps a little more pro-European than others, yet firm market liberals and excellent Conservatives nonetheless.  This is as insulting to Mr Clarke as it is disingenuous. 

The position taken by the group on an amendment moved by Spanish Socialist Alejandro Cercas calling for the abolition of Britain's opt-out from the Working Time Directive points at profound differences in political philosophy and provides yet more proof that the British Conservatives should leave the EPP group in the European Parliament.

How would you reform the House of Lords?

Iain Dale’s timely blog post about the need for Bishops sitting in the House of Lords to avoid party politics has got me thinking.  Am I alone in noticing that the issue of House of Lords reform has almost completely disappeared from the political agenda?   

Firstly, I can understand, even if I disagree with their ability to do so, the value of allowing Bishops to contribute to Lords debates about moral issues such as the right to life.  I'm constantly reminded, however, of an outrageous speech delivered in the Lords by Archbishop John Sentamu this summer in which he ridiculed Eurosceptics and passionately endorsed the European Constitution. 

As a private citizen, I have no problem with the Archibishop Sentamu voicing his support for the European Constitution, however misguided I may believe his views to be.  As a representative of the national faith, however, who sits in the Lords by virtue of being the Archbishop of York rather than Mr John Sentamu, he has no right to involve himself in such matters. 

Secondly, I have never heard a convincing argument as to why Britain should remain the only country in the world other than Swaziland to still allow tribal chieftains - yes, herediary peers - to sit in our national legislature.  Aside from this unacceptable anomoly, one only need look at the 357 life peers created by Tony Blair (as compared to 341 created during the Thatcher and Major years) to conclude that the chamber is broadly reliant on party-political patronage as opposed to genuine ability.

Re: Channel 4 should be utterly ashamed

The reputation of public service broadcasting in the UK has taken a knock in the past few months; be it the BBC's Ross/Brand fiasco or Channel 4's  recent willingness to provide a platform for a man who believes Israel "must be wiped off the map" and sanctions the execution of gay teenagers.

As their broadcasts become more and more removed from the fundamental principle of 'public service broadcasting', the future of the BBC and Channel 4 must be seriously reconsidered. 

Proponents of the continuation of the BBC's present charter arrangements frequently argue that specialist local and cultural broadcasting would suffer at the hands of a part-privatised BBC.  This needn't be so.  Indeed, the reverse could well be true.

Surely it is now time, with channels such as Sky News, Fox News, CNN and even more peripheral players like Al Jazeera providing the type of national and international news coverage which could once only be provided by Auntie Beeb, for the organisation to withdraw from the crowded field of 24 hour national and international news provision?  Existing - and in parts outstanding - elements of the BBC's national and international news services such as the corporation's website could be legitimately privatised.

The paranoia of Ms Mary Honeyball

A lady named Mary Honeyball, who I am led to believe is a Labour Member of the European Parliament for London, has got her knickers in a twist about the latest RyanAir Christmas charity calendar. 

Quoting portions of a report from the Women's Rights and Gender Equality committee of the European Parliament, Honeyball calls for affirmative action to combat "harmful" and "damaging" gender stereotyping in advertising and slams the "self-regulatory" nature of the British Advertising Standards Authority.

"Why are Irish children", she fumes, "protected from growing up surrounded by sexist stereotypes when British children are not?".

Ms Honeyball is clearly rather exercised by this issue, asking visitors to her website vote in an online poll as to whether or not they consider "Ryanair's advertising for its 'bare all' [it is not a "bare all calendar] calendar offensive and derogatory to women?".

Indeed, it's difficult to see what else Ms Honeyball does in the European Parliament aside from writing rather paranoid blog posts about the plight of women in western society. Of the 191 blog posts she has made since she launched her website in February 2008, the majority have been dedicated to gender issues.

Highlights include:

• Cyprus appoints women commissioner
• No women for new top EU posts
• Bonkers Boris sacks women
• Iceland appoints two women bank chief executives

One could be mistaken, given the tone of many of Ms Honeyball's postings, for thinking European women toiled under the same conditions as those imposed by the Al Saud family in Saudi Arabia.

Whilst no sane person could disagree that women have traditionally been grossly under-represented in the world of business and politics and that problems such as pay disparities between genders must be eliminated is Ms Honeyball's time, especially during the present economic criss, best occupied by campaigning against a charity campaign which raises more than €100,000 each year to provide emergency shelter for Dublin's homeless community?

Illinois Governor arrested for trying to sell Obama's open Senate seat

The Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich was taken into custody by the FBI a few minutes ago for, amongst other things, attempting to sell his gift of an appointment to the Senate seat left open following Barack Obama's election to the Presidency.

US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who has filed more than seventy pages of corruption charges against the Governor, said:

"The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering... Blagojevich put a 'for sale' sign on the naming of a United States Senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism"

According the charge sheet, Blagojevich had the following to say about Obama's open Senate seat:

"I’ve got this thing and it’s f****g golden, and, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for f***n’ nothing. I’m not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there... I want to make money”

Even before his arrest, Blagojevich's approval rating stood at a paltry 11%.  It’s fair to say it may now have dropped even further!

A full copy of the 78-page list of charges filed in the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Divsion District Court can be found can be found here. Explosive stuff.

Re: Get our nurses back to nursing

My sister, a nurse at a busy inner-city hospital in South London, has e-mailed me the following comments to add to Dr Crippen's earlier post:

"He's right.  The auxiliary staff working in NHS hospitals who describe themselves as 'nurses' really should not be doing so.  'Auxiliary nurses' - or 'healthcare assistants' to give them their correct title - often have no healthcare qualifications and receive no formal training. 

"I can recall cases when auxiliary 'nurses' have been placed on wards whilst unable to even take a patient's blood pressure - one of the most basic elements of medical training. 

"In one particular hospital in South West London, an auxiliary 'nurse' was asked to take a set of observations on a post-operative patient and as a result of her lack of medical training she failed to spot a major deterioration in a patient’s condition which ultimately resulted in them suffering a cardiac arrest.

"Yes, real nurses should go back to nursing and healthcare assistants should not be relied on unless they have successfully passed through a formally-assessed training programme to ensure they are fully competent before placing them in wards"

Clearly, it's more nurses we need, not a government whose policies place potentially dangerously unqualified staff on our hospital wards.

Another Stéphane Dion PR disaster

Canadian Liberal leader Stéphane Dion's address to the nation last night was supposed to be his opportunity to convince an already sceptical public of the merits of a 'grand coalition' between his party, the Bloc Québécois and hard-left New Democratic Party.  With the Canadian economy in turmoil and anti-government feeling running high, it was a chance to put some blue water between his coalition and Stephen Harper's Conservative Party.

Well, the reviews are in - and they're not good. 

"Some said the amateur-looking tape that aired Wednesday night looked like video from a camera phone. Others joked it was taped by people holding Dion hostage.

"But what's dead serious is that the Liberal leader's message - a defence of his coalition with the NDP, and a rebuttal to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's earlier address about the political crisis on Parliament Hill - was nearly eclipsed by the medium. 

"While Dion's face was out of focus, the books in the background were not - including the book, Hot Air. It was shot from an uncomfortably tight angle. And on the French version of the address, Dion's face was an unnatural shade of pink.

"The tape was meant to air one minute after Harper's address ended, at about 7:10 p.m. Instead, the Liberals showed up more than half an hour late, according to an official at the National Press Gallery.  Meanwhile, TV anchors were forced to kill time while they waited for the tape...

"The video went to air 20 minutes after it was supposed to -and after CTV gave up waiting and resumed regular programming, likely costing Dion a couple of hundred thousand viewers.

It's astonishing, given the media age we live in, that his advisors could have allowed such a poorly-produced video anywhere near prime-time television.

Dion's latest public relations triumph follows this occasion during the October General Election campaign upon which he was, struggling with his poor grasp of the English language, repeatedly unable to articulate his tax policies.

Lamentable!

The EPP: In Their Own Words

It's a well known fact that the overwhelming majority of Conservative Party members support the party's immediate exit from the pro-federalist European People's Party grouping in the European Parliament.

Yesterday's reports of the treatment of Swedish Eurosceptic Dr Lars Wohlin at the hands of the leadership of EPP group on this and Daniel Hannan MEP's excellent blog once again prove the urgency with which the Conservative Party must withdraw from the alliance.

Beyond the petty and vindictive nature of the EPP's leadership towards anyone who so much as questions le grand projet (which, in itself, is a reason for us to leave), the policy positions espoused by the group differ from those of the British Conservatives in the same way as night differs from day.  Scratch below the surface - or rather spend ten minutes on the EPP website's own internal search engine – and you will find abundant proof of the ideological mismatch between the British Conservatives and the wider EPP group.

POLITICAL ISSUES

• "The EPP favours a federal Europe based on subsidiarity"
• "The EPP is committed to making its own contribution to the process of bringing EU policies closer to the people... We expect our member parties to give much more prominence to the European dimension in both their internal debates and electoral campaigning"
• "The EPP-ED Group has worked consistently and successfully to consolidate the European Union on the bases of the primacy of law... The EPP-ED Group is the political centre in Europe"
• "The EU needs to continue streamlining its decision-making practices and its institutional balance. The guiding idea in this endeavour can only be a federalist one"

EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION

• "In January 2001, the EPP called for a Convention to elaborate a Constitutional Treaty for the EU. At the Estoril Congress of October 2002, the EPP presented its ideas for a “Constitution for a Strong Europe”. Many of these ideas became part of the Draft Treaty because the EPP played a major role within the Convention. Our ambition was to shape the new Constitutional Treaty"
• "The EPP is convinced that it was the right decision to draft a Constitutional Treaty as a 27 new basis for the European Union... our citizens want a strong Europe and they want Europe to deliver an added value and to deal with the problems that concern them"
• "The national framework alone is no longer in a position to be able to guarantee the common good of all European citizens in all its aspects... that is why the EPP supports a European Constitution"
• "The EU must first and foremost be seen as a constitutional union based on common values. This means that the limits of the Union are not by nature geographical, economical or political, but that membership of the EU is more related to accepting a common constitution"

FOREIGN POLICY

• "Right from the beginning the EPP-ED Group has actively participated in the setting up of the European Security and Defence Policy... it will remain one of the driving forces of this process aiming at establishing a Security and Defence Union with joint defence forces and a common arms policy"
• "[We support the introduction of] a High representative for the Common Foreign and Security policy responsible for the EU's external relations and actions, backed by a European diplomatic service" 
• "EU Member States should reflect on the best way to be represented in the structures of the various international organisations. The EPP favours a single EU representation wherever possible, and certainly in those organisations responsible for issues falling under the Union's competences. Where a single representation is not possible, the Member States should pledge to coordinate their position"

Election 2008 is far from over

It was clear, by little after 1am GMT on the morning of 5th November, that the Republican Party had suffered a painful defeat at the hands of the Democrats. The party lost the Oval Office and watched scores of seats in the House of Representatives slip away. But they'd only, at that point, lost five Senate seats and it appeared as if they may have defied the pundits' expectations by holding onto several other 'at risk' seats. 

However, early hopes that Oregon's Gordon Smith and Alaska's Ted Stevens (who would have been expelled from the Senate in January following his corruption conviction and replaced by a nominated Republican replacement) would hold their seats were quickly dashed.

Despite leading until nearly 90% of the vote had been counted Smith was overwhelmed by a surge of late-reporting results from Democrat strongholds while absentee ballots from the Democrat-leaning Anchorage area turned an election night majority of 3,000 for Stevens into a Democratic gain by 3,724 votes. That took the Democrats to fifty eight Senate seats - two away from the sixty seats at which they gain a "supermajority and the power to override filibusters and pass any bill they please".

Even now, eighteen days after election day, the fates of Republican incumbents Saxby Chambliss and Norm Coleman, remain undecided.

What kind of foreign policy can we expect from the Obama administration?

On Tuesday evening, I was delighted to have the opportunity to attend a timely and fascinating lecture by Jonathan S. Paris, a London-based adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute, on the foreign policies we can expect from the Obama administration.

Aside from discussing the incoming administration’s likely approach to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, Paris offered a range of varied and interesting observations:

• Barack Obama is a law professor. He will govern as one

As a law professor, Obama is well versed in the art of weighing up issues and arguments methodologically. In taking decision he will draw on the advice of a wide range of advisors led by his newly-appointed Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel and Vice-President Joe Biden. Unlike the Bush administration, whose foreign policy outlook was shaped by a small cabal of advisors who wilfully ignored the State Department, policy formation will not be “top down” but rather “bottom up”. In a similar way to which President John F. Kennedy brought a set of celebrated Harvard academics to his White House, Obama’s administration will be greatly influenced by his friends and former colleagues from the Chicago political circuit. 

European Investment Bank loans: opportunity or threat?

The BBC are reporting that Alistair Darling has issued a statement urging British companies to take advantage of £4 billion in loans available to them from the European Investment Bank.

Syed Kamall, the ever-vigilant Conservative MEP for London and spokesman for International Trade in the European Parliament, has quickly pointed out that the loans are, according to the EIB's own website, granted only to projects designed to "further the objectives of the European Union".

So, is this another example of EU attempts to extend their sphere of influence over British business or a golden opportunity our financial institutions would be fools not to take up? Discuss.

Obama 15, McCain 6

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first result.

The voters of Dixville Notch, a sleepy New Hampshire village whose twenty one electors make a point of voting en masse shortly after midnight on election day, have delivered Barack Obama a landslide 15 vote to 6 victory over John McCain.

It is the first time since 1968 that the town has not supported the Republican Presidential nominee.

The European Parliament has launched its own internet television channel

In a supposed effort to “bring the debates, discussions and opinions of MEPs into the homes of those that will be affected by their decisions”, the European Parliament has launched its very own internet television channel. Despite the €40 million price tag, this is a website Eurosceptics could well grow to love for the ease of access it provides to a plethora of Euro-absurdities.

To date, my ‘favourite’ video on the website is the debate on the ‘use by Parliament of the symbols of the Union (new Rule 202a)’ led by a Heseltine-haired Spanish socialist by the name of Carlos Gonzalez Carnero. Syed Kamall MEP has the background to the issue here.

Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, who sits with the British Conservatives inside the federalist EPP group, speaks of "getting a bit emotional when he sees the European flag flying outside a building or hears the Ode to Joy”. Play the world’s smallest violin. Later, when directly addressing a DUP MEP, Méndez de Vigo makes reference to the staunch unionist’s "compatriots" who wore "the tricolour and the colours of the revolution". Lib Dem Andrew Duff labels the speeches of Eurosceptic MEPs from former communist countries as "strange" and "tragic". Finally, Cypriot MEP Marios Matsakis doesn’t miss his chance to have a pop at Turkey; criticising the presence of a “mammoth sized Turkish flag on the side of the Kyrenia mountain range”.

Joking aside, EuroParl TV is an infinitely better resource than the British Parliament’s woeful offering, Parliament Live. It is easy to navigate, informative and, for the EU, refreshingly open. You can watch it online by clicking here.

See how they run

Europhile or Eurosceptic, nobody could disagree that the European Parliament's expenses system is in desperate need of a dramatic overhaul.   

Mayoral elections give Brazil’s centre-right the upper hand

With 99% of the votes counted, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party has suffered a frustrating defeat in the second round of voting in the mayoral elections that took place this weekend in country’s key population centres. 

In Brazil’s largest city Sao Paulo the incumbent Mayor Gilberto Kassab (with Jose Serra, right), who trailed in third place in the opinion polls as little as two months ago, repelled a strong challenge from former Mayor and Tourism Minister Marta Suplicy by a surprisingly large margin of 61% to 39%.  Lula visited the city several times in the last few weeks in support of Suplicy, lending his name and image to her campaign posters and television advertisements.

Baroness Ashton's confirmation hearing now underway

Baroness Ashton's confirmation hearing before the International Trade committee of the European Parliament in Strasbourg is currently underway.

For the Conservative Party, Robert Sturdy MEP and Syed Kamall MEP are leading the questioning.

Click here to watch live.

The committee will vote on her nomination at around 10:00pm GMT. If successful at the committee stage, her nomination will be voted on by the entire European Parliament on Wednesday.

The credit crunch: where it all started

Congratulations to super-sleuth Syed Kamall MEP for uncovering this New York Times article from September 1999 covering the decision by failed US mortgage lender Fannie Mae to “ease the credit requirements on loans purchased from banks and other lenders”.

The article appears to lend credence to the arguments of some commentators over the past couple of weeks that the Clinton administration, who actively encouraged the foolhardy drive to expanded access to unaffordable mortgages and sub-prime lending, should burden at least some of the blame for the crisis.

Even in the heady economic times of the late 1990s, warning sirens were already being sounded about Fannie Mae’s lending practices:

"In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times.  But the government-subsidzed corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loans industry in the 1980s".

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

The strongest argument ever for House of Lords reform

Quentin Letts has more...

"Gordon Saves The World"

That was the title of an e-mail I received a few minutes ago from a left-leaning colleague regarding our Prime Minister's response to the present financial crisis.

She highlights, in an effort to rile me, some excerpts of an article published in the New York Times this morning by new Nobel economics laureate Paul Krugman:

"The Brown government has shown itself willing to think clearly about the financial crisis, and act quickly on its conclusions. And this combination of clarity and decisiveness hasn’t been matched by any other Western government, least of all our own.

"But when Henry Paulson, the U.S. Treasury secretary, announced his plan for a $700 billion financial bailout, he rejected this obvious path, saying, “That’s what you do when you have failure.” Instead, he called for government purchases of toxic mortgage-backed securities, based on the theory that ... actually, it never was clear what his theory was.

"As I said, we still don’t know whether these moves will work. But policy is, finally, being driven by a clear view of what needs to be done. Which raises the question, why did that clear view have to come from London rather than Washington?

"It’s hard to avoid the sense that Mr. Paulson’s initial response was distorted by ideology. Remember, he works for an administration whose philosophy of government can be summed up as “private good, public bad,” which must have made it hard to face up to the need for partial government ownership of the financial sector.

"I also wonder how much the Femafication of government under President Bush contributed to Mr. Paulson’s fumble. All across the executive branch, knowledgeable professionals have been driven out; there may not have been anyone left at Treasury with the stature and background to tell Mr. Paulson that he wasn’t making sense.

"Luckily for the world economy, however, Gordon Brown and his officials are making sense. And they may have shown us the way through this crisis"

Voodoo economics or a miracle cure? Discuss.

Ken Livingstone for the European Commission? Horrific.

For the first time ever, I'm speechless.  I really can't find the words to express what a horrific idea this really is.

Even our left-leaning, right-appeasing, big tent lovin’ Prime Minister would balk at this one.

That said, I’m sure Ken would feel right at home.

Is Baroness Ashton allowed to be a European Commissioner?

Over at the Centre for European Politics blog, Giacomo Benedetto raises a question many of us have been asking over the past couple of days; who is the new European Commissioner Baroness Ashton?

Assuming Gordon Brown wishes to reappoint her for a full term following the European elections in June, it is likely that Baroness Ashton will be in office until June 2014 - four years into what we all hope will be David Cameron's first term in government.  Heads of government are unable to rescind Commission appointments mid-term and may only appoint replacements for a Commissioner who has resigned from their post (as in Peter Mandleson's case).

But is she even allowed to take office as a Commissioner?

As Giacomo says in his post, European Commissioners are forbidden under all circumstances from sitting as members of their respective national legislatures.

Looking forward to the Biden vs Palin debate?