Cartographic conspiracy

The Party has today spotlighted a new EU directive that is being legislated, "establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in the Community" (aka INSPIRE, see initial proposal). In a nutshell this mild-sounding directive will forcibly harmonise all maps and geographical information.

Not only that, but the EU, with John Prescott's help, is trying to establish regions that cross national boundaries, in order to work towards "a United Europe". Germany's plans for its presidency next year will involve this territorial integration to attempt to "overcome old borders".

This would mean Britain would be split up into: North Sea Region (includes east Britain), the Atlantic Region (west Britain), the Ireland-Wales Region, the Transmanche Region (south east England) and the Northern Periphery Region (north Scotland). It's hard to comprehend.

Eric Pickles MP, Shadow Minister for Local Government said:

"Under the Labour Government, Britain has already been sub-divided into regions as part of John Prescott's empire building. Yet worse could be to come; a conspiracy of cartographers in Brussels is seeking to break up Britain into regions that cross national boundaries. I fear that there is an agenda is to undermine national identities and impose a United States of Europe by stealth. Conservatives will fight these attempts to balkanise Britain."

The new powers would also include compiling property information into a database - possibly with a view to charging an EU-wide property tax.

Deputy Editor

Comments

[Richard Weywood]

Unbelievable. Those pesky national borders eh, Germany?

[knight of cydonia]

If anybody has a history of rearranging borders it's the Germans.

[Andrew Woodman]

I heard about this on the radio last night. Surely 5 months and 2 days too late.

I wonder what the EPP will have to say about it?

[Ted]

I do love the way bureaucrats can build the foundation of a further diminution of national rights & increase in EU aquis communitaire.
i.e.
"Environmental phenomena such as migration of species, wind, flows of water happen irrespective of national borders. In addition, pressures and impacts on the environment (flooding, air and water pollution, etc.) often cross national borders. Environmental policies therefore require the establishment of environmental management entities covering the territory of various Member States, such as the river basin districts established under the Water Framework Directive1"

Arguement seems to be member states signed up to common environment policies, these cannot work if we stick to national boundaries so we'd better create new regions which reflect environmental areas. Subsidiarity is of course important but this needs to apply to these created regions. As there are not, and cannot be cross border elected bodies without breaking national boundaries, it's got to be bureaucrats who manage these issues.

So we agree to work on common environmental issues as partners - this suddenly becomes that the EU commission must lead on environment.

As the Blessed Margaret said " No, No, No"

[Yet Another Anon]

I recall the EU Commission producing one map that left Wales out.

Regions that cross countries really is the beginning of the end of European Nation States - I would imagine that the SNP and Plaid Cymru and Irish Nationalists would have something to say about this, as it is Gibraltar is for European Purposes already counted as being part of Southern Spain rather than the UK, this is akin to the popish attempt to divide the world up between Spain, Italy, France and Portugal.

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

"Germany's plans for its presidency next year will involve this territorial integration to attempt to "overcome old borders"."

Who said Germans don't have a sense of humour? Why else would they invite the inevitable stream of jokes about German plans for territorial integration to overcome old borders?

"In a nutshell this mild-sounding directive will forcibly harmonise all maps and geographical information."

I hope they remember to include Wales this time.

[Denis Cooper]

Hum, some of us have been saying this for some years ... I can't find a link to the map we've been handing out all that time ... but google for "Transmanche Region" plus "Committee of the Regions" and this is one of things which comes up, from ca 2000, CBR being the recognised abbreviation for Cross Border Region:

http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/225/01/F-2002e_CBR2.doc

3. The Political Economy of Scale
Bob Jessop

Page 18

Sixth, and conversely, it may be supranational bodies that promote CBRs to undermine the national scale through a pincer movement from above and below. This can be illustrated by the strategy of the Europe of the Regions (see Sparke’s case study of the Transmanche region, this volume). As the President of the Euroregion noted: ‘the European Union expects the regions to form networks, across frontiers, to enable them to counterbalance the power of member states’ (J. Chabert, Euroregion seminar, Brussels, 29.3.94, cited Taylor 1995: 77). This strategy involves inventing new, indirect modes and means of steering lower level tiers and non-state actors so that they become strategic allies of the European Commission (Tömmel 1998: 54-55).

[tory bunny]

A minor point in the bigger scheme of things, but how on Earth can Ireland not be in the "Atlantic" region, surely they have more claim than anyone but Iceland!

[Yet Another Anon]

Wales is in West Britain, in fact so is Northern Ireland, the fact is that the British Isles are seen by Brussels as being peripheral, it's still based on a notion of a France\Germany\Low Countries as being somehow the core of the EU.

[Malvolio]

A while ago I read an excellent booklet entitled "The Fourth Reich" which shows how the EU has developed as a German-inspired conspiracy. It was written by a long-serving Conservative loyalist. Maybe somebody else can remind me who it was?

Rodney Atkinson has also highlighted the Nazi origins of today's EU.

The more you read the truth about the EU the more chilling it becomes. This latest development confirms our worst fears.

My meaage to UKIP supporters is that they are wasting their time because UKIP will never win an election. The Tories WILL, and we all need to pull together now to make sure that the Conservative Party's next manifesto includes a commitment to pull out of the EU altogether.

[DavidTBreaker]

It's time we told the EU "We'll get our coats". This is more EU madness. The EU is now clearly a nationalist project, we must not be any part of it. Any attempt to remove identity and replace it with a new identity, for whatever purpose, is entirely wrong.

[Andrew Woodman]

We can't even leave the EPP David, never mind the EU. Would love to hear the Europhiles opinion of this latest part of 'the project'

[JO]

The Conservatives will have a job fighting this. Its already happened!
Border Regions are already in place.
Haven't the Conservatives ever heard of Interreg?

http://www.interreg3c.net/sixcms/detail.php?id=305

What chance has this country got if even Her Majesty's Opposition is so ignorant?
Grrr.

[Malvolio]

I believe that David Cameron is basically genuinely committed to leaving the EPP. He's been given the runaround by unreliable advisers and it's our duty to back him up and see he goes through with it.

First step - out of EPP. After that we need to agitate to pull out of the EU altogether. Only the Tories can do it and we've go to start the ball rolling.

Britain has no future in the EU. We need to coalesce around the Better Off Out campaign.

Basically, I think David is soundly anti-EU. He just needs to be sure that the party is 100% behind him.

[tapestry]

We campaigned on this in 2001 for UKIP, and no one believed us. I doubt many will believe this even now. William Hague stopped Conservative policy in 2001 from offering a genuine eurosceptic programme - keep the £ for one Parliament was the best he could do. Now he's sabotaged us again and is keeping us inside the EPP just long enough while the Eurocompliant wrap us up.

Daniel Hannan offered to break away and start a new grouping outside the EPP, but he's got kids to feed and the threat of deselection has barred his rebellion. Roger Helemer might have been willing but can hardly move alone.

Prescott's pushing us into regions. Gordon Brown has probably cut a deal to force us into the Euro, and Cameron's been silenced.

Shame really. IDS would have got us out of it in time. Now it's going to get very messy indeed. Why do Conservatives keep faith with William Hague when the evidence of his EU-compliance grows by the month? When's he next at a Bildeberg meeting with Ken Clarke. At least ken Clarke's open handed about his treachery to his country.

[Jack Stone]

I find it unbelieveable that people are taking seriously a clearly silly idea coming from the Germans.
I don`t doubt for one minute that all this nonsense will never see the light of day.
Of the critism of William Hauge. Apart from David Cameron William is the party`s greatest asset. When we take power after the next election he will make a truely great Foreign Secretery.

[TomTom]

Rodney Atkinson has also highlighted the Nazi origins of today's EU.

Actually it is true that in both WWI and WWII Germany's goals were economic. The First War was to establish an economic sphere bringing Belgian coal and Russian raw materials within Germany's economic ambit.

In the Second War men like Otto Stinnes, Friedrich Flick, Krupp, wanted control of the steel and coal sectors and the idea was to create a Europaischer Wirtschaftsraum.........this was a favourite of Himmler. As the article below shows it would have incorporated southern Sweden into the Reich

http://www.college-prep.org/Program/academics/history/markel/sweden.htm

The proposal so alarmed The Allies that they responded with The Atlantic Charter in August 1941

This is probably the source you want:

http://tinyurl.com/gwq6b

Herzstein, Robert Edwin
When Nazi Dreams Come True
London: Abacus, 1982

One thing to remember is that German industry wanted a large "home" market and that has been one of the consistent foreign policy objectives - it is perfectly logical from the standpoint of a country with 30% EU manufacturing capacity

[Ian Olive]

With the number of serious altercations that have been fought over lines on maps put there mostly after 1918 and 1945 by the alleged winners of various world wars without much regard to what might happen in the future, this just confirms toi me what a silly mess the EU is developing into. Come back Margaret T and handbag some sense into them.

[TomTom]

When we take power after the next election he will make a truely great Foreign SecretAry.

Yes he will in time become a worthy successor to the great Margaret Beckett.........but he must buy a caravan !

[malcolm]

You really ought to learn to spell his name Jack ,it's Hague not Hauge.

[Democrat]

In the International Currency Review of Summer-Autumn 2005 Christopher Story unmasked Edward Heath as a long-term agent of the Nazi International who achieved the longest ever penetration of the British establishment.

Heath's treason was publicly exposed only after his death

http://www.englishdemocraticparty.org.uk/bulletin309.html

[Denis Cooper]

Jack Stone @ 18:01 - "I find it unbelieveable that people are taking seriously a clearly silly idea coming from the Germans. I don`t doubt for one minute that all this nonsense will never see the light of day."

Same old story then, Jack, like when the Tory leader of Bucks County Council Cllr David Shakespeare wrote a reassuring letter about Regional Assemblies to the Bucks Free Press, printed December 14th 2001, literally saying:

"They have nothing whatsoever to do with the EU"

despite the fact that he was then both the Chairman of SEERA, and an alternate member of the EU's Committee of the Regions.

You should read Lindsay Jenkins' book:

"Disappearing Britain - The EU and the Death of Local Government",

available here:

http://www.junepress.com/coverpic.asp?BID=766

and particularly Chapter 16, "Borders are the Scars of History"

[eublues]

So this is what the traitors Heath and Thatcher have got us into. Thatcher may have said NO NO NO, but she still signed. And why has Thatcher remained silent all these years.

[tapestry]

When we take power after the next election he will make a truely great Foreign Secretery.

Secret ery is exactly what Hague is all about, Jack. Hague's lied about his intentions on the EPP. He had every chance to carry out Cameron's promise and he made sure it was frustrated. How can he ever be trusted again? We have many others who are trustworthy.

[Phil]

I always hope that with the accession of E European nations, the centralising tendencies of the EU would be checked, and there would be a greater chance of the EU developing into a more flexible trading block of co-operating independent nation states, and we won't have to leave. But this "Cartographic Conspiracy" is further proof that the process of merging us into a European superstate continues regardless. And they are trying to force Poland into submission in domestic matters that 'Brussels' should have no business interfering in. Perhaps we would be "Better off out"

[DavidTBreaker]

Jack Stone @ 18:01 - "I find it unbelieveable that people are taking seriously a clearly silly idea coming from the Germans. I don`t doubt for one minute that all this nonsense will never see the light of day."

From Dan Hannan in the Telegraph a while back: Stage One is mock-incredulity: "No one is proposing any such thing. It just shows what loons these sceptics are that they could even imagine it." Stage Two is bravado: "Well all right, it's being proposed, but don't worry: we have a veto and we'll use it." Stage Three is denial: "Look, we may have signed this, but it doesn't really mean what the critics are claiming." Stage Four is resignation: "No point complaining now, old man: it's all been agreed."

[eublues]

Malvolio says: "Britain has no future in the EU. We need to coalesce around the Better Off Out campaign. Basically, I think David is soundly anti-EU. He just needs to be sure that the party is 100% behind him."

The capacity of human-beings to cling to hope is astonishing.

[Matt Wright]

Jack I disagree with you on this. The history of the EU has been to float disruptive systems aimed at undermining the nation state. Gradually they introduce each idea and it has only been dogged opposition that has managed to stop some of their moves. The driving force behind this goes back a long way and is rooted in a Franco-German agenda. Why do we keep swallowing their nonsense?

Matt

[NigelC]

I have to agree with Denis Cooper and Dan Hannan explained the process.

The East of England Regional Assembly already has a Brussels office.
From EERA's website
"Why
Today, most professional associations and regions have permanent offices in Brussels, to follow at close hand the processes whereby far-reaching decisions are made - these affect many areas of corporate activity, public and private.

What does the Brussels Office do?
Helps to develop two-way communications between the region and the European Commission"

So John Prescott's regions have nothing to do with Europe, do they???

[John Ashworth]

The October Conference will be a test if David Cameron is anti EU. If "Built to Last" is anything to go by, the EU is off agenda, and integration will continue with the Leaders and Hague's blessing.

[eublues]

You can be certain the EU will be off the agenda at the October conference. Of course that makes anything else being discussed pretty pointless.

[JO]

"The Tories WILL, and we all need to pull together now to make sure that the Conservative Party's next manifesto includes a commitment to pull out of the EU altogether."

A recently formed movement is already working to achieve this. See www.votersrevolt.org.uk

[Tam Large]

Wake up everybody. This is what the EU is FOR! Dividing up nations to make a new, non-democratic, country called "Europe". People have been sleepwalking into it for years, ignoring the evidence and the clear voices of continental politicians. The Conservatives must say NO - in unequivocal terms - and they must do it NOW, not in 2009.

[DavidTBreaker]

Maybe get some Better Off Out t-shirts, badges and banners printed to wear and hand them out at the conference? All one colour for impact. I think lots would put them on. The media will at least pick it up, and that will drive the leadership to address the issue. Plus the emerging Netroots can play a part, it seems to lead the news agenda these days.

[Dee]

The government are getting away with the regionalisation of Enagland because the oppositon is incredibly weak and useless.
Heck, the oppositon even take part in the regional break up of England by paying the assemblies from our taxes and sitting in the damned things!
Westminster is morally bankrupt. England MUST have its own Parliament to look after England's interests and not those of the freeloading neighbours.

[Modern Conservative]

This is a proposal for a Directive isn't its - not a Directive itself. In which case it can be resisted. I wouldn't trust Tony to do it but then he waned to join the Euro!

I know a lot of you feel passionately about leaving the EU but it's so not a viable option. It's the sort of policy position that would drive moderate voters into the arms of the other parties.

I want to see a Eurosceptic Conservative government not a Europhile Labour governemnt - or worse a Eurofanatic coalition of Labour and the Lib Dems.

[Cllr. Gavin Ayling]

When we have power and no longer need worry about opinion polls and the media, maybe the party can hold a poll of the membership and decide once and for all whether we're euro-realists or euro-idealists...

I'm for complete withdrawal now.

[Malvolio]

It's fantastic to see how much support there is here for a total EU pullout.

I hope David and other opinion-formers are reading this. The message is solid.

Better off out!

[Anne Palmer]

I despair at the Conservative 'head in the sands' attitude. The proposal they have so recently discovered has been around for quite some-time.
The German interest, "The Ordering of a Superstate" can be found on
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56021/print

There are those that want a mighty European Supranational State,(In competition to the USA) which is what the European Union is intent on becoming, because our leaders and other national leaders will follow the Treaties before they look to their own Constitutions. However, these leaders either have no idea, or couldn't care less, how the PEOPLE feel about these great ambitions of the Union,and I am not just writing about the British people, I mean our friends on the continent of Europe, because they too do not like the way the EU is ignoring them either. Democracy? Something we thought we had. We were robbed of that hard won "Democracy" for we left it where all could see it. Freedom? We had that too but it was crushed by not so gentle hands, and Justice? An sham, an illusion, a disgrace.

In the end those in temporary power will come to understand that it is the people that are sovereign in this country and it will be a hard and difficult lesson for the people and for those in temporary power, to learn and strangely, it will be the people that have chosen to make this country their permanent home that will bring this about.

There is still a choice but it is a choice that is only here briefly. Either choose your country and make it a sovereign independent country once again or give it away forever and be loyal and true to the Union. But can those in power remember what loyalty is, I wonder?

[michael mcgough]

This mapping fits nicely with the Tory policy of ever closer union;in the EPP and run by the EPP.How can you be against this and remain in the party?

[mark starr]

As members of the EPP which believes in a Federal Europe our opposition is not believable

[eublues]

Of course the EU will use its usual stealth tactics to get this plan up and running - money will only be allocated to schemes that are in full accordance with the plan.

[tapestry]

where are the usual eurocompliant contributors today?

[Tony Barton]

I agree that supporters of the Conservative Party have been fooled for generations.

There is no way the Party will ever admit that it assisted the Queen in surrendering our sovereignty to the European Community, or the Reich in waiting, any more than will New Labour, so the establishment will continue with the spoof that the Queen is still Monarch and that the government of the day still governs.

The only people who cannot see how we were fooled are those who do not wish to see it, and that is because they do not want to face up to the fact that the only way we will get ourselves out of the EU is by exposing the truth as to how we got in, and that simple truth is, the Queen exceeded her powers and signed away our sovereignty, just why she did so is immaterial, the fact is she did, and more recently she signed us up to the EU constitution.

This country will finally be finished off by two words, 'incredulity and 'deference'.

Too few people could believe that the Queen betrayed us and sold us out, and no one in the establishment is going to swim against the tide in their own little race.

So, when you see at our airports 'welcome to the EU', that is what it means, we are no longer a nation state, our statehood is now a sham, a charade put in place until the Reich is ready to be activated, and all the huffing and puffing from the so-called Eurosceptics is meaningless rhetoric, they just refuse to accept and believe that they have been emasculated.

Clearly the three leading parties have been infiltrated for a very long time, and the signs are that UKIP has been virtually from its concept; that is the nature of politics.

[eublues]

I agree with all in the last post except that I think the infiltration theory is over-stated. The main problem is that the public is too dense to take much interest in the EU - they are more interested in driving a Merc or BMW or having cheap flights (and think somehow that being in the EU makes that more achievable). The professional politicians follow public (lack of) interest.

[ToMTom]

the public is too dense to take much interest in the EU - they are more interested in driving a Merc or BMW

That is one way to look at Mercedes and BMW drivers I suppose

[Allusion fan]

The source of the phrase is the Stoppard play "Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead":

Rosencrantz: I don't believe in it anyway.
Guildenstern: What?
Rosencrantz: England.
Guildenstern: Just a conspiracy of cartographers, then?

Apposite, isn't it?

[George Hinton]

This only confirms that that we knew, that the EU is a conspiracy to eliminate the nation-state and install a supra-national state of the regions.
By having the regional structure they will be able to eliminate national vetoes and abstract more monies from the slaves resident. Also it means complete harmonisation of taxes and laws and rules, which for us in the UK will come as a complete culture shock. Paying taxes on the capital gains everytime you move house will shatter the house market and become a bonanza for a Euro Exchequer.
The sooner we have a referendum on Europe with all the facts out in the open the better.
We really need to leave the EU experiment and get back to ruling ourselves through our own parliament with an accountable political system doing the bidding of the people.
I just hope that the present level of apathy can be broken and that the electorate wakes up to the fact that their political masters and representatives have been selling them down the river for decades.

[Malvolio]

What we really need on this thread is somebody who actually believes Britain should stay in the EU?

Calling all Eurofanatics! Calling all Eurofanatics!

Come in please...

[Euro Fanatic]

The EU has been the bedrock of peace in Europe for the last 60 years. Without the EU we would not have the prosperity and economic success that all member states have enjoyed over the last few decades.
Membership has given all, unrivalled access to a democratic process that was not previously available. Stability in the economic and political spheres has given the people of the EU an unparalled opportunity to benefit.
Those that are anti-EU are die-hard revisionists unable to accept the grand plan and march forward to a better world.

[DavidTBreaker]

Modern Conservative, why is EU withdrawal not a viable option?

The EU is a skillful language twister. They use the word 'Europe' to mean the EU, when Europe is actually a continent. We must not call ourselves Eurosceptic, rather Liberal Internationalist [as we believe in the freedom and self-goverance of all nations within a multi-national planet]. We must stop calling them Europhile, and instead call them Euro-Nationalist [as they believe in a single European nation]. Most of all we should call ourselves pro-Europe, anti-EU, instead of anti-Europe [remember Europe is a continent, not the EU]. We must take action to avoid any allegations of being racist, xenophobic, Little Englander etc. I have had enough of the EU twisting things to be seen as 'nice', with Eurosceptics as backward and 'nasty'.

[DavidTBreaker]

Euro Fanatic said "The EU has been the bedrock of peace in Europe for the last 60 years. Without the EU we would not have the prosperity and economic success that all member states have enjoyed over the last few decades. Membership has given all, unrivalled access to a democratic process that was not previously available. Stability in the economic and political spheres has given the people of the EU an unparalled opportunity to benefit.
Those that are anti-EU are die-hard revisionists unable to accept the grand plan and march forward to a better world."

Peace: NATO did this, EU only existed in current form since 1990s, integration not vital to peace (see rest of World), artifical integration often causes violence (see Yugoslavia, US civil war etc).

Prosperity and economic success: Margaret Thatcher and the free market did this, Euroland economy awful, free trade possible without EU (see Switzerland, Australia, NAFTA).

Democratic process: don't make me laugh, democracy requires 'demos' - a single, coherent and unified people seeing each other as 'one nation/people'. Also democracy pre-dates the EU and has nothing to do with it.

Stability: see peace

Those that are anti-EU are die-hard revisionists: like the EU which thinks it is rebuilding the Roman Empire and that 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 were civil wars (according to an EU history book).

Unable to accept the grand plan and march forward to a better world: like the USSR? Giant leaps forwards? Let's have some forced celebration and Euro-nationalistic parades hey?

[George Hinton]

We don't have to be nice to the EU fanatics and fascists.
Lets call a spade a spade.
Those that support the EU are nothing more than closet Stalinite Fascists, hellbent on suborning and then suppressing a continent of people and creating a political elite to rule as some latter day feudal despots.
Bah humbug and stuff em i say.

[Anne Palmer]

As the Government/s of the day in 1972/3-5 fooled 56 million people, do you not think them capable of fooling one more? Isn't everyone under the British Constitution innocent until proven guilty? Until 1997 the Judges HAVE been able to follow in the main the British Constitution, however, with the rapid action ("We shall hit the ground running" Blair Government) of the trashing of anything decent in this Country, the Judges have had to look deeper into the cracks left by the botched legislation brought forward by this Government, to find decent summing up.

Perhaps I live nearer to the ground than some, I drive a SMALL family car, and I do not belong to any political party of organisation which keeps the mind clear and I have to think for myself-no thoughts from others to confuse any issue- the ordinary people that I meet are angry and what is more, they will not "give up their country" as easily as those that get paid for a job they no longer can do.
The three Political Parties should remember, when their is no difference between them, there is no point in voting for any.

I will never vote for any party that will not remove this country from the European Union. The British people have generally been polite to our Politicians up until now, but will they always be so polite?

[eublues]

Some comment on this in The Sun today (Also, a short article with rough map showing chopped-up UK.)

Quote:

Wolf at the door

“THE Germans have a masterplan to redraw the map of Europe . . . ”

It seems we have heard those words before. And now we are hearing them again.

Next January, when the Germans begin a six-month EU presidency, they intend to “facilitate trans-European territorial integration”.

In other words they want to scrap national borders and wipe Britain off the map.

As luck would have it, EU officials in Brussels have drawn up a map splitting Britain into five “transnational” regions.

It’s just about as barmy as it can get — uniting bits of Kent and Sussex with France, combining Wales and Ireland, and throwing Cornwall in with Portugal.

The first reaction is, of course, to have a good laugh. But don’t.

The Germans are deadly serious. They want to bring back the dreaded European Constitution.

Their Federal Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee says: “There is great hope underlying the goal of a United Europe that we can permanently overcome old borders”.

Not if The Sun has anything to do with it, Wolfgang.

[eublues]

Also see this (particularly look at "maps" and "who's who" and savour the Orwellian use of language throughout:

http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/interreg3/index_en.htm

[matt wright]

Where I do agree with DavidT is that the campaign against EU supra-nationalism has repeatedly faltered because it is expressed in negative terms not positive ones. People generally avoid changing what is effect the status quo when a negative proposition is put to them. That is why the EU is clever in making things happen by the back door and then saying its to late to change. Opposing the EU really requires a different approach that presesnts an alternative positive proposition. I have said this for a long time but hey if I natter on maybe someone will listen,

Matt

[malcolm]

I listen Matt and I think you're right.

[Denis Cooper]

"That is why the EU is clever in making things happen by the back door and then saying its too late to change"

Yep, like Reid going to a meeting to discuss relinquishing our veto on Justice and Home Affairs while our MPs are still on holiday. See eg:

http://www.openeurope.org.uk/research/jha_veto.pdf

"Will giving up the UK’s veto over Home Affairs threaten the UK’s legal system?"

[eublues]

I love this quote from Conservative spokesman Eric Pickles in the Daily Mail:

"We should work constructively with Europe to promote trade and co-operation between nations, but Conservatives believe that this is just the type of unwarranted interference that gives Brussels a bad name."

Gosh - he's really laying in to the poor old EU.

[Ex-YC]

Pickles is thoroughly unreliable. A leftist Federast.

He's a one-man EU lard mountain.

[michael mcgough]

"the campaign against EU supra-nationalism has repeatedly faltered because it is expressed in negative terms not positive ones."

The www.Betteroffout.co.uk campaign is a positive one!

[Lindsay Jenkins]

Denis Cooper in an earlier posting has already kindly mentioned my book Disappearing Britain, The EU and the Death of Local Government (foreword by Lord Tebbit) and published last year (easily available and also from Amazon). It covers this whole issue.

In it you will find not only the history of regions into which this country and the rest of the EU has already been divided but also the bigger Euroregions like Transmanche in a chapter called Borders Are the Scars of History.

There are over 70 such mega regions some very advanced across the whole of Europe, not just the EU, and it is pretty obvious that they are intended to be the regional government of the United Stages of Europe. I cover the critical role of Germany in the last two chapters.

What the Germans are pushing today (and tomorrow) has been around for a long time.

When will David Cameron and team wake up?

Cameron should be confronting this issue head on.

What will it take?

[Monday Clubber]

An excellent book Lindsay.

I would like to see it as required reading for all members of the Conservative Party.

[Martin Cole]

John Redwood and others aware of the real facts has to finally make a move given Oliver Letwin's latest statements.

I suggested one possibility on UKIP Uncovered this evening.

[Tony Barton]

What statements were those Martin and what is it that you are suggesting?

[DavidTBreaker]

Our possitive alternative should emphasise;
1. Freedom for all nations, not just Britain
2. Self-governance and national democracy
3. Respect and understanding
4. Mutual co-existance in peace [after all, if you need to 'integrate' to stop a country making war, is that really the sort of country you want to integrate with?]
5. A situation like good neighbours, not an unhappy national marriage

[eublues]

That there is even residual confidence in David Cameron or John Redwood doing something on this is impressive.

[matt wright]

DavidT, positive propositions would leap frog the aims of the EU by expressing a vision of the future of International affairs that would render the EU so obviously out of date. On domestic affairs Cameron is showing signs of new approaches and if he also innovated on international affairs as well then there may be a new approach to dealing with the negative aspects of the "EU",

Matt

[Rodney Atkinson]

Helmut Kohl when he was a young man was caught ripping out border posts on the Germna French border! No use belly aching. Ever since 1972 good patriots have revealed the true fascist and imperial nature of German Europe (see Fascist Europe Rising and Europe's Full Circle) but there has only ever been one solution - the one we created in 1999 The British Declaration of Independence www.bdicampaign.org which exposes the enemy, identifies the friends, legislates for freedom and "finishes the job".

[Malvolio]

Rodney, great to see you on here.

Do you think there is any chance of signing David up to the bdi initiative?

[Anne Palmer]

ACROSS THE DUCK POND. 1997

To drain the English Channel is now a positive must,
For the “Committee of the regions” have repositioned US,
East and West Sussex, are now both one Region,
They’re joined up to France and their Foreign Legion.

I cannot be sure if we’ve “gained” part of France?
Or was it part of England, that from US was lanced?
That part of Sussex will be mixed up forever,
C’est uncanny! C’est exactement mon dilemma!

The above was written in the year ninety-nine,
So why bring it back NOW, into the limelight again?
Is it to distract eyes from the evil dastardly plot
Of relinquishing the veto from JHA? Surely not?

Such treachery, betrayal the like never seen before,
A legacy Blair hopes we will live with, evermore.
But Blair should remember, Britain is not HIS to give,
For in a free sovereign country Brit’s WILL fight once more, to live

[Gerald Pym]

Being English I have never been in the EU.
I have to abide by the dikdats that the elected rabble pass to use without even reading them, they are not law though.
The people believe they are in the EU they choose to How about adopting my thinking.

[eublues]

Not thinking about it won't stop the effects of the continuing ruination of our fishing grounds, mad immigration, or the £100,000 per minute cost of the EU (etc.).

[Joe]

This would be a great story if it were true. However, it has no basis in reality.

What is this Directive about? Scrapping national borders? Redrawing maps? Wiping out Britain? Alas, no. It’s about the less exciting subject of harmonising databases so that information on the effect of human activity on the environment can be shared.

How does this morph into ‘EU Plots to scrap nation States’? Your guess is as good as mine.

You’re welcome to read the Directive if you can stay awake long enough. In fact you can follow the entire history of this Directive from 2004 up to date, because, far from being some secret EU conspiracy, it has all been published on the internet. In fact, there is an entire website devoted to it and it has been the subject of a public consultation on the internet, a public hearing, has had a first reading in the European Parliament, been back to the Commission, back to the EP etc. There are newsletters, working groups and many other secret goings-on:
http://inspire.jrc.it

Where the German conspirators come into any of this I don’t know.

[Tony Barton]

I suppose eventually some bleating apologist had to emerge out of the swamp of Eurofanaticism.

Let's hope he's read the messages so he knows how much today's Tories hate the truly vile EU for what it is.

The Fourth Reich.

[eublues]

"It’s about ... harmonising databases so that information on the effect of human activity on the environment can be shared."

Please can you explain what these phrases mean in ordinary English - I might then understand the noble and honest purposes of the European Commission.