Out of the mouths of MSPs

Monday, April 13, 2009

Out of the mouths of MSPs

One of the bizarre aspects of devolution is that issues which would previously be regarded as "national" are now treated as regional matters if they occur in either Wales or Scotland.

So it is that the political repercussions of the murder of Moira Jones are being reported by the media as a Scottish issue. The Times, for instance, only offers details in its Scottish edition, while The Daily Telegraph reports it as a Scottish problem.

However, the report concerns a "pledge" by the Home Office to crack down on criminals exploiting the EU's free movement rules, in the wake of the jailing of a Slovakian serial offender for the murder of Moira Jones – a 40-year-old businesswoman, in Queen's Park in Glasgow. Harcar has 13 previous convictions, four of which involved violence, for offences he committed in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 

While this is an issue which affects the whole of the UK, it has not been discussed in Westminster, but by Scottish parliament Conservative justice spokesman, Bill Aitken. 

Aitken also cited the recent case of the Lithuanian Vitas Plytnykas - one of the two men who killed Jolanta Bledaite before chopping off her head and hands and dumping them in the sea - as evidence that tighter controls were needed. Plytnykas, 41, had been convicted of manslaughter in Germany in 2001 after stabbing a man and throwing him into a river. The Lithuanian was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison, but after his release he travelled to Scotland. 

What is doubly remarkable about all thus is that Aitken has declared: "It is clear that the UK needs a joined-up strategy to deal with what is often a hidden problem, emerging after something terrible has happened." But the MSP for Glasgow then adds: "Whilst we must take care about allowing entry to non-EU citizens with custodial sentences abroad for violent or sexual crimes, nobody arriving from an EU country can be refused entry into the UK." 

Thus, we get ourselves into the absurd position where the only outcome of two grisly murders by known criminals who have had free access to our shores is an anodyne statement from the UK Border Agency, which tells us that "We are working with our European colleagues to make sure that criminals cannot exploit free movement. We aim to share information on convictions with other countries and to make sure that their convictions can be taken into account in our courts." 

So, we cannot stop criminals coming in, and we must go cap in hand to our "European colleagues" in order to get information on them, so that they get stiffer sentences (or not) when they commit crimes here. 

Yet, although this is the natural and inevitable result of the EU treaty provisions requiring "freedom of movement", one that now forces the UK into further integration under the guise of "co-operation", it is only a Scottish issue?

One has to concede though, that Westminster MPs have far more important things to deal with. The murder of British citizens by criminals from EU member states is of secondary importance.

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Sunday, April 12, 2009

Filling their boots …

One of the country's highest-paid council bosses was handed an estimated £500,000 redundancy package just weeks before walking into a £150,000 job at another local authority. Sheila Healy was able to pocket the payout of taxpayers' money from one council before moving to a similar role following a controversial reform of local government.

This is from the Mail on Sunday.

And the reason for not rising up and slaughtering them is?

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And the news is?

"EU trains a new diplomatic corps - without waiting for Lisbon Treaty" storms theTelegraph, with Bruno Waterfield doing his bit to keep us informed.

This is the EU's putative External Action Service (EEAS), with five hundred and thirty staff from the EU commission having already begun training to build a "shared diplomatic culture and an esprit de corps", ready to take over once the treaty has been bludgeoned into place.

Then we get Declan Ganley telling us that: "It is cause for serious concern that, by implementing the Lisbon Treaty, EU institutions are manifesting outright contempt for democracy." He is right to be concerned. As we wrote:

The EU is also forging ahead with a European diplomatic service, officially called an External Action Service, with EU embassies and ambassadors in every country to project EU foreign policy and issue EU visas. The service, which some governments hope will replace national diplomatic services, will answer to the European foreign minister, a post created by the constitution, but to which Javier Solana, the EU's current head of foreign policy, has already been appointed.

Officials have been told by member governments to start laying the groundwork for the European diplomatic service. One official said the work was continuing: "We are in limbo, but we are carrying on. What else can you do right now?" A British government spokesman said, however: "The external action service does not exist. The only thing happening is preparatory work, and it will not come into being without a treaty."

The only thing is that we wrote this on 8 June 2005, based on a story in The Times. In December 2005, there was further evidence that the EU was implementing the constitutional treaty and, as we know from COM(2006)712 final, it has been actively plotting to take over embassy functions for some considerable time.

This is simply the tip of the iceberg, just another step in the slow process of integration. There is no point in complaining about it – this is what the EU does. The EU, by its very nature, by the very fact that it exists, makes it contemptuous of democracy. It is there to destroy democracy. The only option is to get out.

What is different, of course, is that we are coming up to the euro-elections. So we not only have Ganley pitching in, the Conservatives are also staking a claim.

We thus have Mark Francois, the Conservative spokesman on the EU, declaring: "This project shows just how much more power Brussels would gain over our foreign policy. It is outrageous that the British people are being denied any say over it. That's why the Conservatives will be campaigning for a referendum in the European elections."

And when the election is over, the parties will go back to sleep and we will hear no more until it is convenient to raise it again … when plans will be even further advanced. Nothing else will have changed.

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