Godfrey Bloom MEP

Following the announcement of the sad death of Margaret Thatcher today, Godfrey Bloom, local UKIP MEP commented, “The last real Conservative with a spine. RIP.”

Fears that the EU is intent on seizing control of Britain's justice system have been raised by MEP Godfrey Bloom.

"A new league table of Europe's legal systems, the first annual 'Justice Scorecard,' has been unveiled in Brussels comparing how criminal trials are conducted in the EU's 27 member states," he explained.

"This is another power grab by these Eurocrats, who want to rule every aspect of our lives - and it must be resisted. I have no doubt they are compiling data as a step towards imposing a single criminal justice system across the EU that will be controlled by unelected European judges."

"We have the finest legal system in the world and it operates differently from that in the other EU states. Imposing their harmonisation 'one size suits all' principle will be a total disaster for British justice."

"You cannot have a league table involving disparate justice systems across Europe, including details such as how quickly cases come to court and how many offenders are convicted. There is already too much box ticking going on in our courts without more civil service fingerprints all over it," he said.

European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has claimed the audit is aimed at "improving the quality, independence and efficiency of national judicial systems" and she is expected to unveil plans for a new European Public Prosecutor this summer.

"Even the dopiest defendant could read the writing on the wall as far as EU bulldozer tactics here are concerned," said Mr Bloom, UKIP MEP for Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire..

"I would like to say that I am confident that our Justice Secretary Chris Grayling will be successful in fighting it, as he has vowed, but I'm not."

"Time and again this government just rolls over while Brussels marches all over us. That's because they are usually powerless to stop it and because actually they are Europhiles."

"Watching the budget coverage it became apparent that it is high time governments were made to meet international accounting standards when presenting their budgets. Yet again we saw a Chancellor stand up to address parliament on the state of the national accounts in such a way that were he finance director of a FTSE company it would land him in jail.

“Osborne lauded the fact that the Government would maintain international foreign aid at 0.7% of GDP. Remarkably this actually accounts for 50% of the projected growth for 2014, a fact not even mentioned by a single commentator. So before any such rather optimistic growth has even been achieved, half of it has already been spent on projects that will in no way benefit the UK economy. If that growth is then not achieved, as is more likely, it's a huge sum of extra debt the UK taxpayer would have to foot.

“Underwriting first time buyers' deposits and making a "Government Building Society" as Osborne proposed in his ‘Help to Buy’ policy is what happened through the Community Investment Act under Carter in America, which ultimately led to the subprime mortgage crisis. The ‘Help to Buy’ scheme is a spin on what simply amounts to support for the construction industry. To aim to sustain overly inflated house prices creates an artificial asset bubble that will eventually burst. It is nonsense to hope for a lower price of bread while at the same time wishing that house prices rise. 

“Sustainable house prices historically post war have never been more than three and a half times average national wage. Anything above that is unsustainable. When house prices then collapse due to too many people being out priced by the market, as indeed they are at present, the bubble will burst leaving the government with yet more toxic assets.

“There is a big difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion. Tax avoidance is perfectly legal and everybody in some respects does this. Nobody wishes to pay taxes where they are not required by law to do so. However tax evasion is illegal. One cannot legislate for tax avoidance, yet Osborne in his speech grossly conflated the two.

“The Chancellor's presentation of GDP was entirely fraudulent. It failed to account for private funding initiatives and public sector pensions. For example Network Rail debt is government guaranteed. And yet it remained off the balance sheet. This would amount to a criminal offence in the private sector Accounting for these added liabilities would in fact put our ratio of debt to GDP at 215%, pretty much the same level as Greece.

“It is time for governments to present their accounts in exactly the same way as the private sector. We might start with a serious cross examination post 2014 budget from a rather more objective public sector broadcaster whose charter still includes the commitment to inform the general public as well as entertain.”

The levy on British bank deposits in Cyriot banks, as part of a new Eurozone-IMF bail in of the banks, has been described as “incredible” by local MEP Godfrey Bloom.

Mr Bloom, UKIP’s economics spokesman said, "This is just incredible. It is EU theft with a fancy name.

“Senior bondholders of these banks are left untouched while thousands of British savers in Cypriot banks shall have their hard earned savings stolen without their consent.

“This is corporate welfare on crystal meth. The Eurozone ministers who agreed this deal should be forced to go to Nicosia on Tuesday and take the money themselves.

Following a warning that an extra 250,000 school places will be needed in England by the autumn of next year local MEP Godfrey Bloom has blamed this on uncontrolled immigration.

He also pointed out, “ And that’s without the expected surge from Bulgarians and Romanians on 1st January next year.:

The National Audit Office’s report warns that these school extra places will be needed to meet rising demand because the past decade has seen the biggest increase in birth rate since the 1950s.

Mr Bloom UKIP Euro-MP said, “Labour cut back school places, this government is playing catch-up but the elephant in the room in all the reporting on this issue today is that not one media commentator suggested this was the result of uncontrolled immigration.

“One in five primary school places is full, we know that the majority of migrants are coming from the EU accession states.  The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows the net migration and population increases/decreases in the 27 EU states. 

“Britain has the fifth largest population growth behind Cyprus, Ireland, Spain and Luxembourg.  And conversely, the countries with a net migration loss are Latvia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, Hungary and Poland. 

“It is no coincidence that the number of people in their 20s has risen from 6.6m to 7.6m - that additional one million people are most likely to be migrant workers from these latter countries.  And it is no coincidence that we have one million out of work young people and that the birth rate has risen.

“I am asking the government – have you made provision for the unknown numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians arriving with their children on 1st January?” he said.

ends

Editors’ notes:
http://www.nao.org.uk/report/capital-funding-for-new-school-places/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2174396/Previous-waves-immigrants-added-variety-diversity-makes-great-tipping-point.html

After the rejection by MEPs of EU spending cuts, local Euro-MP Godfrey Bloom has called for British payments to Brussels to be halted.
  
 "We want to close the account and cancel our £53 million per day standing order to the European Union,” said Mr Bloom, UKIP’s Economics spokesman.

Speaking from Strasbourg after voting on two resolutions concerning the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework (Budget)  he said that calls to boost spending, which could cost British taxpayers up to £1.7 million in extra contributions this year, were “ridiculous.” 

“UKIP voted against the Council agreement because it would have cost the UK more money in the end. We don't want to pay these fat bureaucrats a penny piece and we also voted against the European Parliament call for more spending.

Euro-MP Godfrey Bloom has welcomed the U-turn by David Cameron about introducing a minimum price for alcohol.

“I know it has yet to be formally ditched but the writing was always on the wall as far as this nonsense was concerned,” said Mr Bloom, UkIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

“ There is no doubt that we do have a problem with binge drinking in this country but the proposed move would just hit the law-abiding, sensible majority who drink moderately.

“A massive reduction in beer tax would help stop the tragic decline in pubs, which are the heart of communities,” he said.

For International Womens´ Day on March 8th  the European Commission talks a good fight about womens´equality but its own figures show that it employs a much larger percentage of men in senior positions of authority and high grade while women are overly represented in low grade positions.

It also shows that while the UK makes up 12.5% of the EU population, UK nationals make up only 4.6% of EU officials. So much for looking for proportion representation of nationalities.

Commissions own figures are here.
http://ec.europa.eu/civil_service/docs/europa_sp2_bs_nat_x_grade_en.pdf
UKIP Deputy leader Paul Nuttall MEP said,
The rank hypocrisy of the European Commission talking about Gender equality on Womens´Day is stunning.

It talks the talk but does not walk the walk.
The Commission's own figures show that it employs a much larger percentage of men in senior positions of authority and pay grade while women are overly represented in low pay grade positions.

It also shows that while the UK makes up 12.5% of the EU population, UK nationals make up only 4.6% of all EU officials. So much for looking for proportional representation of nationalities.

Other the other hand, UKIP´s Party Director is a woman, as is it´s Brussels Chief of Staff and its best candidates in the last three by-elections in the UK. UKIP candidate Diane James did us very proud in Eastleight, as did Margot Parker in Corby and Jane Collins in Rotherham."

ENDS

Notes for Editor,
European Commission releases for Womens´ Day.
EU citizens think more women in power in developing countries would make a positive difference
On the eve of International Women’s Day 2013, a new Eurobarometer shows that 78% of Europeans think that having more women in positions of political power in developing countries would ‘make things better’.
8 March 2013: International Women’s Day - Almost a third of women and 5% of men having a young child worked part-time in 2011
On the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2013, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, publishes a selection of data on women in employment and on reconciliation of work and family life. The tables in this News Release only show a small part of the large amount of gender based data available at Eurostat. A dedicated section on the topic of gender equality is available on the Eurostat web site.

MEP Godfrey Bloom has hit out at EU plans to effectively ban electronic cigarettes.

“These e-cigarettes are designed as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes and many smokers have found this product acceptable as it delivers the same amount of nicotine as a cigarette without containing tobacco, smoke, tar or the 4 000 toxins found in tobacco smoke.

“But this apparently successful ersatz of cigarette is threatened by a new piece of EU legislation and more specifically the Chapter V Article 18 of the European Products Directive and electronic cigarettes,” said Mr Bloom, UKIP Euro-MP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

It states that, ‘Nicotine containing products that either have nicotine level exceeding 2mg, a  nicotine concentration exceeding 4mg per ml or whose intended use results in a mean maximum peak plasma concentration exceeding 4mg per ml may be placed  on the market only if they have been authorised as medicinal products.’

"This new piece of legislation made in Brussels is so counterproductive and illogical one must ask oneself the question, who is really behind it?" said Mr Bloom.

"In fact,  I would even go further by adding you'd really have to be extremely naive not to understand their game. I know the EU technocrats have a liking in telling us how to live our lives but this case is more pernicious, it is about money and money only.

“By demanding that e-cigs be authorised as medicinal products, it means that the market will be literally taken over by the pharmaceutical industry as the small companies selling the product will be prevented from competing through lack of human resources or money. 

"Think about it, these e-cigs are in direct competition with nicotine patches or even anti-depressants. They are seriously threatening their business, aren't they?"

The directive is currently being discussed in various committees at the moment and is expected to be voted on in plenary session of the EU in September this year. 

"I have received lots of letters from constituents who were addicted to smoking tobacco and who have found a great relief in this alternative. Me and my UKIP colleagues will definitely vote against such a ridiculous and so blatantly partial directive,” said Mr Bloom.

“We in UKIP are pro-choice people, we believe that if people want to ruin their health by smoking tobacco it is their choice, but we also believe that they have the right to quit with the alternative they have chosen and not the one that has been imposed to them by silly technocrats influenced by greedy lobbyists. We want to bring ethics back in politics,” he added.

Following the EU decision over bankers’ bonuses local MEP Godfrey Bloom, UKIP economic spokesman, said,  "So much for the David Cameron's talk of repatriating powers from the EU!

“This outcome on bankers´ bonuses perfectly illustrates how weak and ineffective the British government is in defending the interests of one of our largest industries.

“I am sure the financial bigwigs of Zurich and Asia are rubbing their hands in glee at this outcome, because that is where the business and talent will go.

“Being outnumbered 26 to 1 shows how isolated the UK really is in this matter. The UK has no veto on bankers´ bonuses, so we lost big time today.

“It should be the shareholders of the banks who decide how much their employees get paid, not the EU. What next? Shall the EU now legislate on the wages of bank clerks? We can see that principle has been conceded, so we are back to 1970´s Labour pay policies. This is a very dangerous time indeed for Britain's financial sector," he said.