EU

Forever divided?
It had to come, a push back against the bungling by the PM and her unelected advisors on how Brexit should be going. Also that this would happen right under the nose of the PM. While just weeks ago the official Conservative Party Conference was at the International Convention Centre, ICC, in Birmingham, the other conference, the alternative conference, was held a short walk away at the Birmingham and Midland Institute, BMI. The ICC has been used many times before by the Conservatives for their big bash. The BMI was chosen for similar reasons, one of the promoters of the alternative conference has been there before but not during the official conference week. But then push back is very much the game at the moment; you could say the 2016 Brexit referendum result was just that and brought the need not just for an alternative Conservative Party Conference but a new look at all of our UK political activities. Tradition has it that politics is based upon divisions but the Left and Right carve up is looking worn, not least because long ago the Labour party abandoned its roots to become a virtue signallers' club.

What to do?
The idea of organic farming is sound and we support it both in principle and practise. Guy Watson owns farms in the UK and France and will be best known for his company, Riverford , who sell and deliver organic vegetables to your door. He wrote the following news letter while working in France and put it on the Riverford website and put a copy in each of the deliveries.

“I get asked about Brexit at every break from our field work. The sentiment is generally that we should stay; that the European project is precious but fragile, and that our exit may make it crumble. Everyone here acknowledges that the EU has problems and needs to become more democratic and responsive to concerns of Europeans rather than Eurocrats, but resentment at a potential exit is not far under the surface. With Holland and the Czech Republic threatening to follow, it is not in Europe’s interest to make exit look easy; indeed, EU politicians are likely to get voters’ approval for making our post-exit life hell. I have no appetite for “ever closer union” or an ever larger Europe; if this was a referendum on whether to join the EU, I would be for staying out, but that train has left and I will be voting to stay for three reasons:

1.

A knockout blow for the EU?

Following the death of Günther Schabowski we were reminded that the Berlin Wall was brought down by accident. When reporting his death much of the press called him 'the blunderer', and 'former communist'. The Berlin Wall was started in 1961 and was by virtue of that mistake by Schabowski made redundant in 1989, that's 28 years. And then some 26 years later another German blunderer and also a former communist, Angela Merkel, makes a mistake on immigration policy and walls, of sorts, start to be built again by some EU countries. Beyond the notion of human frailty, stupidity and the like we don't really know why Schabowski made his mistake. Perhaps with Merkel it's different, but then perhaps not? She's not beyond frailty and stupidity herself; but it has been suggested she had her eye on what, following the example of Tony Blair, we might call her legacy. Perhaps the Nobel Peace prize beckons, time will tell? But for the moment she must make do with some minor reward from Time magazine, with gushing prose normally used to describe Hollywood stars they named her person of the year.

In some ways Blair and Merkel are two of a kind.

The original Mr Bean

Poor old Vince Cable. Like his party his fortunes are on the way down. The Liberal Democrats look to be stuck as the fourth party in UK politics several points below UKIP for the foreseeable future. While the performance of the LibDem Leader, Nick Clegg, must be responsible for some of this he cannot shoulder all the blame; so attention switches to the coalition Business Secretary, Vince Cable. The National Audit Office says that the Royal Mail privatisation was wrong to sell the shares too cheaply and this has cost the taxpayer £750 million.

However, Cable is very proud of the way he handled the sell-off and has refused to resign. Perhaps we have to feel a little sorry for Cable as way back in late 2007 he was the Leader of his party and in a position to dish it out to Gordon Brown. It was during a debate on defence that Cable said -

We now see that having a go at Brown was not only easy, he was a natural target, but the high-water mark for Cable. What a turn-around that Cable now finds himself being biffed by Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary.

Pumps from Holland, and the carbon footprint is?
When it comes to something tricky you can't beat an expert. As for the floods alas experts to help us prevent them seem to be in short supply. But the flooding of the Somerset Levels has been watched over by Christopher Booker and his vantage point has been his home, he lives in a Somerset village. So not only is he our man on the spot but an acknowledged authority on the EU. The flooding of the Levels is one of those EU ideas so we are in good hands with Booker. Who very often teams up with Richard North and it is the North blog that gives us what we need. North has pulled together the work of Booker and others, added his own and it is an ideal starting point. Naturally technical so heavy reading lies ahead but well worth the effort.

The MSM have done a different job, as they do. Pictures of elderly people in rubber boats being taken to safety by the authorities tell their own story. But what of the various organisations involved? Leo McKinstry had this to say. Naturally the supporters of big government, and the Environmental Agency is huge, are in a quandary. How to help the likes of Chris Smith, now Lord Smith of the EA, but without getting the wrong side of public opinion?