EU politics: they're at it again
Wednesday 22 May 2013
 To start the proceedings, Van Rompuy is hosting a working lunch with an exchange of views on energy planned. In his letter of invitation, he says he wants heads of state and governments to consider what should be done at the level of the EU to further increase energy efficiency, to consider what is needed to further develop indigenous resources, and how to achieve a more predictable energy policy, as "a prerequisite to attract the necessary investments into a modern energy infrastructure". Also on the agenda is a discussion on "on effective steps to fight tax evasion and tax fraud, as well as to tackle aggressive tax planning in order to protect revenues and enhance the effectiveness of tax systems". The European Council is expected to call for rapid progress on a number of issues, including automatic exchange of information, taxation of savings interest and measures to counter VAT fraud. It is also expected to welcome the agreement reached by the ECOFIN Council on a negotiating mandate for strengthened savings tax agreements with Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra and San Marino. Heads of state and government will also "focus their discussion on other aspects of the automatic exchange of information that have gained momentum following the launch by five member states of a pilot initiative". The next step, we are told, "will be to enshrine automatic exchange within an EU framework in order to promote it as a global standard. To that end the EU will develop strong coordinated positions in the G8, G20 and OECD frameworks". In other words, the "colleagues" are going to agree a "common position" for these forthcoming talks, so that all the members are singing from the same hymnsheet, and no one is rash enough to make a solo run. Then, tucked in at the end is a reference to the European Council being expected to call for urgent action to address VAT fraud. This will includes measures such as the "quick reaction mechanism", which will enable rapid intervention by member states in cases of sudden and massive fraud, and the "reverse charge mechanism", which specifically targets carrousel fraud. We have been banging on about this since 2006, but there must be something in the wind that is pushing recent initiatives. No figures have been mentioned but the speed with which action is being taken suggests something has spooked the commission. It is acknowledged, though, that the carbon market fraud cost an estimated €5 billion. The legacy media and agencies are concentrating on the Amazon, Google and Apple tax scams, but the commission is saying that the most prevalent form of fraud is still carousel fraud and similar scams. While the media is looking in one directions, therefore, it is likely that much is happening in the wings, which will remain unrecorded. The interesting thing is that all this is supposed to happen within the space of one afternoon, with the proceedings starting at one pm and winding up at five, with a press conference. This is governance with a difference. Our wise and beneficial leaders must be on the political equivalent of viagra. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 22/05/2013 |
UK politics: the fatal weakness of UKIP
Wednesday 22 May 2013
 Nevertheless, he addresses a serious issue which badly needs some air, although the headline doesn't do the piece justice with the wholly misleading title: "Nigel Farage's biggest problem is UKIP doesn't do details". As Autonomous Mind points out, for the piece to be more accurate, the headline should have read, "UKIP's biggest problem is Nigel Farage doesn't do detail". AM goes on to state that it is Farage alone who calls the shots and the party dances to whatever tune he chooses to play on any given day. Without Farage's direct approval, nothing is able to stand. By an interesting coincidence, I had a long talk yesterday with an ex-UKIP staffer, who had worked for may years alongside Farage, and who offered exactly the same "take" that I have of Farage. Without any academic qualifications of his own, and with no academic skills, he cannot tolerate people close to him with better skills than his own, and plots to get rid of them. That UKIP lacks both properly thought-out policy lines (better than can be formulated on the back of a beer mat after a boozy session in the pub) is, therefore, entirely due to Farage. Many people have tried, and failed to get sensible policy past Farage, only to give up in disgust, or be fired for their efforts. Now the more intelligent journalists like Allister Heath are beginning to notice the policy vaccum. Heath thus remarks that UKIP's problem is that its policy positions are uncosted aspirations, rather than properly thought-through proposals. Until this is sorted, Heath says, they risk being torn to shreds as media scrutiny increases. Needless to say, the rabid supporters who have come to the fold with a child-like adulation for Farage, and a naïve faith in his charm and abilities, are those who simply wish to protest against a snooty establishment, or who like how Farage "represents people like us". These people won't mind, that Farage's arguments have all the depth and sophistication of the lower Remove, and completely lack real world appeal. But, Heath adds, much of the country will. For want of well-crafted policies, UKIP's bubble would deflate almost as fast as it takes its leader to down a pint. What Heath has specially noted is that UKIP doesn't have a plan to exit the EU. Furthermore, it has failed to introduce alternative trading arrangements that reflect the complexities of the modern economy. The challenge, he says, is especially acute when it comes to complex rules of origin for manufactured goods, and to protect London's financial services industry against protectionism. This has to be one of the most bizarre gaps in the UKIP platform. For twenty years, the party has existed to promote the withdrawal of the UK from the EU but, in all that time, it has never come up with a single detailed (or any) coherent plan for how we would actually effect our withdrawal. But it actually far worse than that, a situation known only to those people who really know UKIP in depth and have worked inside the organisation - as opposed to the shallow outsiders who are vain enough to think they know what makes UKIP tick. Anyone who really knows Farage - who really does know him as opposed to those who have swallowed the media myth - know him to be a vicious and quite unprincipled bully. The sound of the man screeching down the phone from his office in Strasbourgh, at an unfortunate colleague in England, so loud that the use of the instrument was unnecessary, is permanently etched on my brain. Like many bullies, though, Farage is also a coward. He will not directly confront those who challenge him, or those whom he sees as a challenge. Instead, he goes by devious, circuitous routes to undermine them or remove them, where he can. There are those in the Party, however, over whom he has no control – people who are immune to his bluster. And amongst those are a small but extremely influential group whom I have take to calling the "unilats". These are the zealots who insist on UKIP standing for immediate withdrawal from the EU, without prior negotiation. These people are utterly tenacious, with the intensity of a religious cult. They will stop short of nothing to have their views accepted, other than partake in an honest, open debate. But they can make endless trouble for Farage within the party. As far as I know, Farage doesn't wholly agree with them – although it is very difficult to know exactly what he does believe, beyond his immediate and oft' repeated rhetoric of arranging an "amicable divorce" and negotiating a free trade agreement. But, whether he agrees with them or not, Farage will not argue with them, or disown them. He is afraid of them. Thus, he allows them to represent their views as UKIP policy, even though they exist nowhere on any formal UKIP policy documents. For decades, he has ducked the issue, and never takes a clear line on what the actual policy might be. Thus does Heath assert that Farage needs to sort out the detail of his policies. At the moment, he says, they simply do not stand up to detailed scrutiny. But, as long as Farage is the leader of UKIP, the party will never be able to progress to the stage of offering settled policy on key issues. This is the fatal weakness of UKIP. And unless the Party is able to learn to deal with it, it has the potential to bring it down. Furthermore, having become the standard-bearer for euroscpeticism, Farage's personal inadequacies have the capability irrevocably to damage the movement. And that is far more important. Euroscepticism is bigger than Farage: it should be more that just a platform for his political ambitions. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 22/05/2013 |
Media: the other side of the coin
Tuesday 21 May 2013
While there may be reasons why the media isn't telling us things, it is as well to ponder about the other side of the coin - why it is telling us the things it does. And leaping into that category is the news about "Bopris" (as the Mail happily misspells him in one of its captions) fathering a previously secret "love child" (aka bastard).
What is interesting about this piece of news is the extent to which Mr Johnson sought to conceal it, and the effort which the Mail sought to publish it, defending a case in the High Court and then fighting a case in the Appeal Court. In this latter case, the findings of Master of the Rolls Lord Justice Dyson are pretty damning, the judge effectively ruling that the public has a right to know about Boris Johnson's philandering past, which takes precedence in this instance when "weighed in the balance against the child's expectation of privacy". The disclosure, however, is more that just a news story. From last year when Mr Johnson was the darling of the media and being widely slated as the next Conservative prime minister, possibly deposing the incumbent, this amounts to a signal that his bid for the leadership is over. Even the Telegraph Media Group Ltd, which must have been aware of its employee's behaviour, but so far kept silent, has been forced to out its employee. And, with the outing, it may well be that Mr Johnson's utility as an over-paid columnist is numbered. Certainly, to some of the business's customers, his attraction will be reduced and – as anIndependent poll indicates – to a measurable extent. But what is also very interesting is Mr Johnson suddenly became so popular – especially as this is a man with few demonstrable leadership skills who handled the August riots badly, and who has none of the political experience that would be required of a prime ministerial candidate. Not only is he not, currently, an MP. He has no ministerial much less cabinet experience. One suspects here that Johnson found so much favour with the media for the same reason that Mr Farage is so much in vogue – he was a useful stick with which to beat David Cameron. And, if that is the case, now that Mr Farage has so willingly stepped up to the plate, the London Mayor is redundant. There, possibly, is the real agenda behind today's news. For you, Meester Johnson, ze varr ees over. And you read it first in the Daily Mail. COMMENT THREAD Richard North 21/05/2013 |
Posts
