BETTER OFF OUT

EU Select Committee costs the taxpayer over £2 million a year

Lord Stoddart of Swindon, a leading BETTER OFF OUT signatory, has exposed the enormous annnual cost of running the House of Lords European Union Select Committee through a written question.  The Committee cost the taxpayer a staggering £2,043,000 in the financial year of 2007-08.

Commenting on the answer he received, Lord Stoddart, an Independent Labour Peer, said:  "I was expecting it to be a large sum of money but I was quite taken aback when I saw the actual figure, which beggars belief.  All the more so, since I cannot recall a single instance in which the deliberations of the European Union Select Committee have had any effect on governmental or EU policy.  This is a colossal waste of money which cannot be justified at a time when the economy is in such dire straits and so many people are suffering as a result.

"I am also concerned to note that Lord Grenfell, who could be relied upon for a degree of impartiality,  has resigned as Chairman of the Committee and been replaced by Lord Roper, who is an ardent Europhile.  This will almost certainly make the Committee an even bigger white elephant."

The non-competitiveness of the European Union

Read an article on the failure of the EU's Lisbon Agenda, which sought to make the EU the most competitive world region within ten years, by Professor Jorge A. Vasconcellos of the Portuguese Institute of Economic Freedom: Download ArticleNoncomp.pdf

Lord Tebbit at the Bruges Group 20th Anniversary Dinner

Daily Express poll shows massive support for leaving EU

Following Lord Tebbit's Bruges Group speech (see video here) A Daily Express on-line poll, asking the question, "If there was a referendum in Britain tomorrow, would you vote to leave the European Union?" is currently showing over 90% support for leaving the EU.  This is in line with recent ITV and BETTER OFF OUT polls, which both showed majority support for leaving the EU.

Maurice Golden, the Conservative Party candidate in the Glenrothes by-election, made it clear that he was in favour of Britain leaving the EU, but was forced to retract this by the Conservative Party.  When will the Tories wake up to the fact that a majority of voters want Britain to free itself from the corrupt and undemocratic European Union?

Luton votes to leave the EU

As Daniel Hannan MEP writes on his blog:

Look, if no one else is going to say it, I will. Congratulations, Luton. In a mock referendum conducted for ITV's Tonight programme, the Bedfordshire town voted by 54 per cent to 35 to leave the EU.

The vote is interesting, because the programme had sought to replicate the conditions of an actual referendum, with leaflets, broadcasts, canvassing and so on. (Kudos to the Democracy Movement, which ran the "No" campaign.) It is significant, too, because Luton is a typical English town, represented by two Labour MPs.

We are forever being told that Eurosceptics must be careful to train their fire only on the Lisbon Treaty, the euro or some other new EU initiative. if the campaign becomes a wider plebiscite on British secession, conventional wisdom holds, people will vote for the status.

EU closes down Eurorealist blog

In yet another example of blatant suppression of free expression, the European Union has closed down Gawain Towler's excellent England Expects blog.

For a place where freedom of expression will be celebrated, visit The Freedom Zone on the Conservative Party Conference fringe.

BETTER OFF OUT backs LibDem EU referendum policy

Lindsay was speaking following the announcement that, in a mini-referendum, held on Bournemouth Pier Approach during the LibDem Conference, 78% of those voting voted that "Britain would be better off out of the EU".  Given that it was easy for LibDem delegates to vote in the mini-referendum, this result may understate public support for leaving the EU.

Watch the full version of Lindsay's speech here.

Roger Helmer MEP, Hon. Chairman of The Freedom Association, speaking after Lindsay, congratulated "the Liberal Democrats on junking their obsessive commitment to everything to do with Brussels and the European Union".

Watch the full version of Roger's speech here.

BETTER OFF OUT AT THE LIBDEM CONFERENCE

With Vincent Cable ditching the LibDem promise to join the Euro, the EU issue has surfaced at the LibDem Party Conference in Bournemouth, where The Freedom Association is holding a mini-referendum on EU Membership, with a "polling station" on Bournemouth's Pier Approach - see ballot box, above.  At 12 noon on Tuesday 16 September, Roger Helmer MEP and Lindsay Jenkins, Director of BETTER OFF OUT, will be speaking at a public meeting at the Royal Exeter Hotel (below), directly opposite the Bournemouth International Centre, where the LibDem Conference is being held.  No conference passes are required to attend this meeting.  Admission is free, so please come along if you can.  Cash bar.

BETTER OFF OUT on the Conservative Party Conference Fringe

The Freedom Zone - promises to be the biggest thing ever to hit the Conservative Party Conference Fringe.  Hosted by The Freedom Association in conjunction with Forest/The Free Society it will provide top quality speakers and lively debate all day long on Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 September in a superb venue - see map below. Of particular interest to supporters of BETTER OFF OUT will be the opening sessions on Monday 29 September, including the 10.00 a.m. session, "Freedom beyond the EU", featuring Daniel Hannan MEP and Douglas Carswell MP (both leading supporters of BETTER OFF OUT) and chaired by Lindsay Jenkins, Director of BETTER OFF OUT.

DAY ONE Monday 29th September 2008

8.00 a.m. – The Big Bad Breakfast

Complimentary bacon and sausage butties with tea or coffee. Canal-Side Coffee Lounge, adjoining the Kingston Theatre.

10.00 a.m. – Freedom beyond the EU

The Freedom Association presents a panel discussion on the free trade alternatives to the European Union. Douglas Carswell MP and Daniel Hannan MEP, authors of the newly published book, The Plan – twelve months to renew Britain. Chairman: Lindsay Jenkins, Hon. Director of BETTER OFF OUT.

11.15 a.m – What should be in the Conservative European manifesto 2009?

The Freedom Association presents an open discussion featuring Douglas Carswell MP, Therese Coffey (Prospective European Parliamentary Candidate for the South East), Jean-Paul Floru (PEPC for London), Daniel Hannan MEP, Roger Helmer MEP, Syed Kamall MEP, Rupert Matthews (PEPC for the East Midlands), Stuart Wheeler and Zehra Zaidi (PEPC for the South West).

12.15 p.m. – Book Signing

Douglas Carswell MP and Daniel Hannan MEP will be signing copies of their newly published book, The Plan – twelve months to renew Britain in the Canal-Side Coffee Lounge, adjoining the Kingston Theatre.

Don't miss it. See here for details and a full list of confirmed speakers.

Why would anyone think Giscard d’Estaing would deliver on a vague suggestion - and he is not even in a position of power?

Lindsay Jenkins, Director of BETTER OFF OUT, posted this on the Daily Telegraph web site:

"The Lisbon treaty is nearly ratified. A deal is well on the way in Ireland – many Irish won’t like it but of course they won’t be asked. The Poles and Czechs will thus be isolated – the usual position. And that just leaves the German constitutional court which no doubt will find a form of words to protect Germany, again as usual.

David Cameron has thus accelerated the Lisbon treaty by suggesting that were it not ratified he would offer the British people a referendum. I doubt he would have done so but he almost certainly wont get that chance.

So here we are - a nation fragmenting into regions part of a new state called Europe but a wonderful tax base to support the global ambitions of the EU.

Why would the Telegraph even think of supporting Britain in the single market – part of a customs union? Britons believe in free trade with the whole world. A customs union is not free trade it is a protectionist bloc.

Why would the rest of the EU agree to an associate membership? They need our money, they always have – we saved the CAP when we joined.

Why would anyone think Giscard d’Estaing would deliver on a vague suggestion - and he is not even in a position of power?

Nor did the British vote to join a common market in 1975 – they voted to remain in one ‘renegotiated’ by Harold Wilson after we had been members for 3 years– a sham of a renegotiation and a sham of a vote. Unfortunate if you use that as your starting point!

Then you equate the single market of 1992 and later with the common market of 1973. The Single European Act came in between and added wider boundaries and regulations galore.

May I suggest most politely that you first assess what relationship you wish to have with the EU against what could be negotiated. Realism.

I suggest the EU would only tolerate two strategies. One is the odd opt-out or two, which later can become opt-ins - as usual.

Second Britain leaving altogether and negotiating free trade deals from the outside from a position of strength not as a client government.

Nothing else will work so why spend a day behind your closed doors kidding yourselves?

Since we can already see all the doors marked freedom and liberty clanking shut we haven’t got long to make up our minds."