Banged up! - by Richard... Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Banged up! - by Richard... Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Tom Wise has been jailed for two years, according to The Times and others. That means he will do one year, less some, but the first two weeks are the hardest anyway. He also has to pay £30,000 towards prosecution costs - although he can pay that out of his generous EU pension.

It has to be said that the sentence is well-deserved. Had not Daniel Foggo picked it up, the fraud would have been much more extensive than the £39,000 he actually ripped off. But this was not just a matter of theft. It was an outright betrayal of rank-and-file UKIP members and the cause for which they stand, carried out, one has to say, with the knowledge (and tolerance) of other UKIP MEPs, who tried their best to cover up for him.

As Foggo wrote last Sunday, Wise remained a member of UKIP right up to this year, while an "internal inquiry" in UKIP under former leader Roger Knapman concluded that Wise's actions had been "honest and honourable throughout".

There is good evidence to suggest that Wise is far from being alone amongst UKIP MEPs in ripping off the system. Investigations are ongoing, which may lead to some more having their collars felt.

That there should be other politicians in the same boat is neither here nor there. We knew from the start that UKIP MEPs were going to be especially vulnerable to scrutiny from the authorities, so there was a special need to be whiter than white.

But not only was Tom Wise a thief, he was not even discrete - and then it took nearly four years to catch up with him. At least, though, he will now have plenty of time to reflect on his sins.

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Way out in front - by Richard...

A seriously good piece, made better (but then I would say that) by the last paragraph under "further reading".

That said, it is a good piece, reflecting how the serious thought and discussion is to be found on the blogosphere and not in the media. Today, for instance, we get a short, superficial story in The Daily Telegraph on "Hints of Afghan exit strategy", yet we get nearly a full page on the "grieving mother" story, with Gordon Brown and his letter – with a complete transcript of the conversation between the prime minister and Jacqui Janes.

This is the media losing the plot, exploiting the death of a young solider as a means of attacking Gordon Brown. And it is an indication of the disconnect between the media and their readers that the publicisn't buying it.

The greater loss, though, is the amount of space being wasted on such issues, when there is a desperate need for a real strategic debate over Afghanistan, addressed in wider terms than we have seen so far. One of the turning points for me was this piece, and regular readers of DOTR will see that I am gradually moving away from the "toys" issue to dealing with the wider strategic issues, with high-quality discussion on the forum.

It is this that one would expect an adult media to do, but it isn't happening. And, although there are some serious MPs who are actually thinking about the issues, they are in the minority.

If, however, we are going to extricate ourselves from the morass of Afghanistan, without leaving the whole region in flames – with potentially hundreds of thousands dead (as happened with the partition of India) – then the politicians and media collectively have got to up their game. 

For the time being though, the torch-carriers are on the internet, but we can't do the job. As I have been known to observe, the blogosphere is a poor medium for serious debate. From our own experience, we find that the longer, better-researched pieces get fewer readers, so it is not in the interest of bloggers (if they want the hits) to take up the slack. The media is still a vital part of our democracy, and it - in particular - must do its job.

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Spin and double-speak - by Richard...

Yes it did, and no it didn't. The Court of Auditors gaveclean opinions on the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions for "Revenue", commitments for all policy groups and payments for the policy groups "Education and Citizenship" and "Administrative and other expenditure". 

Qualified opinions were given for two policy groups. The Court concluded that payments for "Agriculture and natural resources", except for Rural Development, and for "Economic and financial affairs", except for expenditure in this policy group concerning the Sixth Framework Programme for research and technological development, were, in all material respects, legal and regular. 

The Court then gave adverse opinions on the legality and regularity aspects for the policy groups "Cohesion", "Research, energy and transport", as well as "External aid, development and enlargement". Payments in these policy groups are materially affected by errors, although at different levels. 

In other words, the Court signed off bits of the accounts, but not other bits ... the bits that just happened to cover the larger part of the expenditure. The press release is rather like saying that the "car worked perfectly", except for the engine, the tyres, brakes, suspension ...

I guess the media can be forgiven ... or not – depends how charitable you feel.

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Somebody reads it - by Richard...

Harry Patterson (aka Jack Higgins) of The Eagle had Landed fame, with the author at Waterstones in St Hellier at last Saturday's book signing of Ministry of Defeat. 

We had a long, interesting chat and the man then queued up at the till and bought the book. The photograph was his idea, and the photographer Ian Le Sueur later presented me with a print, in a brass frame. For all the evil in this world, there are still some nice people around. I was really touched.

At least we sold a few copies, and had the buzz of seeing the book in the shop window. I would be lying if I said the book was going well – it isn't, although it has covered its costs. Interestingly, we were joined by a young soldier, an Iraq "veteran", who had "been there" for six months. He has spent the entire tour in Basra Air Station.

However, I am not part of the gilded circle of correspondents who have tramped the foreign fields and thus claim the cachet of being there, so the book has not made the break-through I would have liked. But, I am told, it has been – and is being – read in high places (remarkably so) and there is some small comfort in that.

All I have to do now is explain to Mrs EU Referendum why I spent six months of solid writing, for a pittance that did not even pay the Council Tax ... not that I have paid it yet, although that is another story. Her name is on the summons, so she gets banged up in the nick, not me.

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And the real story is? - by Richard...

Time and again, we have warned that nothing you ever read in the newspapers can be relied upon until it has been checked against the original source. We need to heed our own warnings.

Relying mainly on The Daily Telegraph, but cross-checked against this, last night we recordedthat the European Court of Auditors had published its annual report on the EU's £110 billion budget and, "while noting some improvements in the management of funds, refused to sign off the accounts for the 15th year running."

But – prompted by a reader – we see from the Auditors' official web site that the Court: "is issuing an unqualified (clean) opinion on the reliability of the 2008 EU accounts." It goes on:

The Court concludes that the 2008 annual accounts of the European Communities present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the European Communities and the results of their operations and cash flows. In terms of the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts, the overall results for 2008 reflect the improvements in the management of the budget in recent years.

Unless we have missed something, there seems to be a slight discrepancy in the media accounts, compared with what the Court of Auditors is actually saying. Have we missed something?

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Ignorance is bliss - by Richard...

On balance, it is much easier to write portentous leaders in a national paper when you don't know what you are talking about.

Thus does The Daily Telegraph leader offer its recipe for reforming the EU budget and reducing the fraud and mismanagement.

This is after the European Court of Auditors has published its annual report on the EU's £110 billion budget and, while noting some improvements in the management of funds, we learn that it has refused to sign off the accounts for the 15th year running.

But the leader-writer's idea of achieving "reform" is to have the new president making it his priority to encourage a root and branch overhaul of the EU's finances. It might, he says, "then be a job worth having".

The very slight problem, of course, is that the president of the European Council will not have any executive powers, and nor will the institution he will chair. The purpose of the European Council is to give "political direction" to the EU.

The man in the hot seat, when it comes to managing the finances, is the president of the EU commission – and we already have one of those. If he made it his priority to encourage a root and branch overhaul of the EU's finances, would his then be a job worth having? Or would it be better to get rid of the budget altogether?

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Howling in the night - by Richard... Tuesday, November 10, 2009

David Cameron, that is, according toSimon Heffer - when it comes to Europe

How long he [Cameron] can hold the meaningless new line remains to be seen. He must hope it will last until he has had his meeting with destiny – or, rather, the electorate – next spring, writes the earnest columnist.

Heffer suspects it will not be long after the treaty comes into force on December 1 that the full implications of it will become apparent to even the most casual observer, and with it the emptiness of Mr Cameron's promises. He does seem to make European policy without ever considering its consequences.

As Norman Lamont's boot boy, Mr Cameron had a ringside seat for the travails of John Major during the last civil war. He appears to have learned little from the exercise. Sir John encouraged false expectations and they were destroyed by the reality of the European project. Mr Cameron, even before he gets into power, risks making the same, corrosive mistake.

Perhaps when we all realise how much has been sacrificed for us in the name of European unity. Heffer adds, it will be easier for alleged sceptics like Mr Cameron to tell the truth. 

One thing, though, is never in doubt. To pretend that Britain might one day dine à la carte from the menu of the Treaty of Lisbon would be just the latest grotesque deceit practised upon this country in the name of Europe.

The only thing Heffer is uncertain about is whether Cameron is "obtuse or simply dishonest." I suppose he could be both.

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Cowboys and Indians - by Richard...

You get the feeling that our military haven't quite got the measure of Afghanistan. See: Defence of the Realm.

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Leaderless - by Richard...

Divisions in the EU make it increasingly unlikely members will agree unanimously on the appointment of a Europe Council president and a high representative.

Thus are we informed by Reuters which records that Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has been consulting EU leaders, but unanimity has proved elusive. He is now mooting filling the posts by majority vote.

With the British candidates effectively out of the running, though, the parochial British media seems to have lost interest in the "contest" – especially as this blog's predicted winner, Luxembourg leader Jean-Claude Juncker, remains very much in the running. 

You have to give it to the EU though, when it even manages to make the selection of its president boring.

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Brigadier Anthony Cowgill - by Richard...

Died on October 29 aged 93. He had a varied career as a soldier; as chief industrial engineer for Rolls-Royce; and providing high-level liaison between many of Britain's leading companies and government policy-makers. But his two most notable contributions – illuminating one of the most controversial episodes of the Second World War and explaining the "gobbledegook" of EU treaties.

Two weeks before he died, from a massive and sudden stroke, he rang me to tell me about a piece in the media about global warming. Amongst his many attributes, he was very "sound" on this issue as well. While we were talking, I took the opportunity to ask him about his experiences in India, and he recounted that, as India prepared for Independence in 1947, he had been seconded to the Partition Commission, organising the separation of the country's armed forces between India and Pakistan

After that, he was assigned to the new Pakistani army. This led to what he described as the most worrying moment of his life. Returning to his Lahore headquarters one day he found himself, in British Army uniform, the only white man on a train overrun by thousands of armed Pathan tribesmen bent on seizing Kashmir. Sure his last hour had come, he was highly relieved when, addressing him as "sahib", they treated him instead with friendly respect.

That story found its way into Booker's obituary of the great man in The Daily Telegraph. They don't make them like that any more. He will be missed.

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