On the horror of the European Stability Mechanism:
The path on which the EU is embarked is not only profoundly anti-democratic but it also tramples the classical Rule of Law. The benefits of trade are tremendous but that shouldn’t stop us being concerned that our neighbours are headed this way.
The Treaty is here. It does at least provide for vetos over some of the worst decisions possible. Proposals for Euro breakup are here.
Via Merkel wins rescue fund vote after raising spectre of war – Telegraph:
She told MPs: “Nobody should take for granted another 50 years of peace and prosperity in Europe … that’s why I say: If the euro fails, Europe fails.
Quite. It’s what I was getting at when I wrote this. If I can, I will try to expand the argument in tomorrow’s general debate on the UK Chairmanship of the Council of Europe. The arguments are available in the chapter Peace Schemes of this book: PDF, online, Amazon.
“There’s no, on my part, no bad blood, no rancour, no bitterness. These are valued Conservative colleagues, I understand why people feel strongly and we will go forward together and tackle the difficult decisions the country faces.”
via BBC News – EU referendum: Cameron says no bad blood towards rebels.
The debate is available here. I voted for the motion, in line with my pledges. I now look forward to continuing my support for the Government.
At the People’s Pledge Congress today, I appeared on a panel discussing the political implications of the Eurozone crisis. I would have loved to focus on democracy, freedom and the rule of law but the cause of the crisis was the key theme.
As ever, I blamed our statist, inflationary monetary arrangements for creating the incentives and institutions which supported such dreadful behaviour and outcomes. I went on Russia Today (who asked) to discuss the campaign afterwards.
You can find my speaking notes here.
For more, see especially Philipp Bagus, The Tragedy of the Euro and this primer.
Update: Appearance on Russia Today:
IDS writes for the Telegraph:
This Government is currently striving to build a new welfare system, one based on a fairer deal between claimants and the British taxpayer. But a decision emerging from Europe this week has the potential to completely undermine these reforms.
The UK has no problem playing its part in supporting the free movement of labour in the EU. However, what the EU is now trying to do is get us to provide benefits for those who come to this country with no intention to work and no other means of supporting themselves, with the sole purpose of accessing a more generous benefit system.
More: Brussels poses serious threat to our welfare reforms – Telegraph.
Via Action Now! EU Hands Off Biking:
There’s a raft of issues emanating from Europe that will have a profound effect on riders and the motorcycle industry generally and we must stand up. Some of them are driven by the EU Commission, like the new Type Approval and Market Surveillance Regulation that will see the introduction of compulsory ABS, the sealing of powertrains from airbox to the diameter and aspect ratio of the rear tyre, restrictions on the aftermarket industry, possible roadside checks by police or other Gov agencies to inspect emissions or for owner ‘tuning’ and more.
Reminds me of C S Lewis:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
It’s time for a short ride.
I was grateful to the BBC today for the opportunity to discuss my colleage Dr Anthony J Evans’ work for ESCP Europe on the potential for multi-lateral debt write offs between EU nations.
You can find the interview here at about 1 hour 10 minutes and Anthony’s work is here.
As I said in the interview, there are all kinds of catches and complexities but, as Anthony has said, multilateral debt write-offs between EU member states are a policy option.
More of Anthony’s economic work is available here, including the superb measure of the money supply he developed with Toby Baxendale.
Tory and Labour MPs believe that if the eurozone moves towards a single tax system – as chancellor George Osborne advocated again – then the EU will become a fundamentally different organisation to the one the UK joined in 1973. Many also fear that Britain will come under intense pressure to adapt its tax and regulatory policies to conform more closely with the eurozone once fiscal union is under way, even if the UK remains out of the single currency.
Steve Baker, the Tory MP for Wycombe and a member of the fiercely eurosceptic 2010 Conservative intake, said: “It is very clear that the EU is heading at full speed towards being one country. As that is the case there is absolutely no doubt that the British people should be offered a vote on whether to be a part of that.”
I see no reason why fiscal planning at the EU level should be any more successful or acceptable to the European people than the arrangements which have failed. It would be better to abandon the Euro in favour of new monetary arrangements — such as competing currencies, proposed by the Treasury in November 1989 — and abolish the EU in favour of ultra-minimal arrangements under the Council of Europe to guarantee free trade and peace.
In the meantime, my People’s Pledge page is here.
I spoke yesterday on the Roadmap to a Single EuropeanTransport Area (04 July 2011):
Setting those issues [of planning] aside, I want to make two points about sovereignty. First, on the technical side, there are questions about pricing, taxation and how the Government will work within the framework of the EU, which I touched on in my questions. Secondly, there is an issue of principle. I do not think that anyone reading the document earnestly, and with an open mind, could infer anything other than the fact that it sets out a transport plan for a single nation state—by “nation state”, I mean an organisation with a territorial monopoly on the use of coercion. Getting some of these things through will require legislation—that is the intention—and I do not doubt that the EU will legislate and legislate, and expand and expand, until it gets its way. I sincerely believe that if we wish to live in a country that is legitimate and governed legitimately, we have to look carefully at these grand planned dreams for the whole of Europe and ask whether they are valid and whether they have been democratically endorsed by our populations.
Despite national austerity measures, including a savage EU-IMF programme of cuts in Greece, The Daily Telegraph understands that a draft EU “multiannual financial framework” will increase spending by 12.5 per cent.
The rise, at over five times the EU rate of inflation, will take Britain’s annual contribution to £13billion a year.
via Britain told to find extra £1.6bn a year to fund EU – Telegraph.
Out.
