Talking points
Many issues that affect us adversely, stem from our membership of the European Union. Politicians in Westminster continue to make promises when they want your vote, but before you lend them your support, ask yourself if they can follow up on them? You may be surprised how restricted our government is by EU directives and regulations.
Thank you.
Dear
William,
I Hope you will excuse the informal style of address but I feel we
have been through a lot together since my son Michael was first
extradited to Hungary. I am presently sat here with my other son
Paul who you have of course met. We are searching for words that
could express our gratitude to you for your fearless and relentless
campaign to secure the release of Michael from that former KGB
prison in Budapest.
Clearly words will never be enough to express or explain our
gratitude. Our government and it's judicial system appeared
powerless to intervene in my sons case, even when it became clear
that he was being subjected to psychological torture. As a family we
didn't know where to turn.
As the only British political party to oppose the European Arrest
Warrant legislation we contacted UKIP.
Your response has been overwhelming and your personal endeavours
well beyond the call of duty. You were the only British politician
to take the bull by the horns and travel to Budapest, meeting the
Hungarian authorities face to face and demanding justice for your
constituents. A task which displayed incredible courage and
fortitude in this overbearing post Communist regime.
You took their case to the European Parliament, you brought the
injustice to the attention of the press, you reassured our family
and Michael's friends...... The rest is history, Michael is now back
with us amongst his friends and family. A wonderful conclusion to a
formidable campaign.
Standing firm on the steps of the Hungarian Embassy in London,
confronting the Hungarian authorities in Budapest or debating the
matter on the floor of the European parliament, you never faltered
in your fight for justice. As dark clouds appear to gather over
European politics there will always be light as long as men as brave
as you are prepared to carry the torch.
Your efforts have clearly gone beyond politics and we thank you from
the bottom of our hearts, we hope that one day will be our guest of
honour at The Castle Inn and Michael will be able to serve you a
pint of traditional local ale.
You will always be remembered in our hearts and prayers.
Yours Sincerely,
Mark Turner, on behalf of The Turner family, and the village of
Corfe Castle, The Castle Inn, 63 East Street Wareham, Dorset.
José Manuel Barroso, thanks
his supporters, (which include the Tories), for choosing him as
President of the European Commission.
"Mr. President, Honourable Members
First and foremost I'd like to express my warm thanks to you for this
expression of enormous confidence in me. That expression of confidence is a
great honour for me, it is very exciting and it also gives me a strong sense
of responsibility. That expression of confidence is also a signal from this
Parliament that it is fully involved in the ambitious program of activities
that I have in mind for the next five years.
As I said in the discussion we had before the vote, I want to work with all
the political groups that have signed up to this ambitious program for a
Europe of solidarity and freedom. Of course, I also need to add my
particular thanks to the European Peoples' Party which before the
elections took a risk in Warsaw by expressing their support for my program.
Thus setting out from the very beginning a commitment to European
parliamentary democracy but as I said in plenary yesterday and over the last
few days as President of the Commission my party is going to be
Europe and anyone who wants to come on board on this exciting journey that
is the integration of Europe then they are needed to provide the necessary
consensus for a united Europe.
May I take this opportunity also to add a word about my own country: Without
the initiative and the support of the government there Mr. José Socrates'
Prime Minister I wouldn't be able to be standing as candidate and I thank
the President of the Republic Mr. Cavaco Silva. I also thank all of those
who have supported me through their belief in Europe and their
determination to see the European project succeed.
And to all members of this house, my sincere determination to work closer
with you during the next five years so that you can build a stronger
European parliamentary democracy. I believe that the European Parliament and
the European Commission as a typical community institutions have a special
duty towards our citizens. And that is exactly what I said I would do and
that is exactly what I am going to do: A stronger Europe for freedom and
solidarity.
Thank you very much."
Guest Spot -
What links the Copenhagen conference with the steelworks closing in Redcar?
- by renowned Sunday Telegraph columnist Christopher Booker
What
is the connection between Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the Indian railway engineer
who has been much in evidence at the Copenhagen climate conference, as
chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and an
Indian-owned steel company's decision to mothball its giant Teesside steel
works next month, ripping the heart out of the town of Redcar by putting
1,700 people out of work?
Nothing of this complex story is likely to be heard in the dreary concrete
shed outside Copenhagen where, as temperatures drop towards freezing, 17,000
prime ministers, officials and climate activists are earnestly discussing
how the planet is warming up towards extinction. But it certainly sheds a
little light on a colossal worldwide racket these delegates are helping to
promote, because the end of the story is that we shall all be paying to
export thousands of British jobs to new steel plants in India, for no gain
in the reduction of worldwide CO2 emissions.
Thirty years ago Britain's state-owned steel industry, over-manned and
highly subsidised, was the most inefficient in Europe. By 1988, after Mrs
Thatcher's privatisation and having lost two thirds of its workforce, it was
as efficient as any in the world. In 1999, for reasons never fully
explained, much of it was sold off to the Dutch firm Corus, which in 2007
was bought by the Indian giant, Tata Steel.
One of Corus's prizes was the Redcar steel works, once Europe's largest
blast furnace. It is this which is now to be mothballed, according to Corus
because of worldwide "over-production". But this is transparently not the
case, since its new owner, Tata, is planning to more than double its steel
production in India over the next three years. Furthermore, only last month
Corus announced plans to build a 20 million euro plant in the Netherlands,
with the help of 15 million Euros from the EU and 5 million euros from the
Dutch government. Our Government says it is unable to help over the closure
of Redcar because this would not be allowed under EU state-aid rules,
although Gordon Brown says he may be able to offer a little "re-training".
The real gain to Corus from stopping production at Redcar, however, is the
saving it will make on its carbon allowances, allocated by the EU under its
Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). By ceasing to emit a potential six million
tonnes of CO2 a year, Corus will benefit from carbon allowances which could
soon, according to European Commission projections, be worth up to £600
million over the three years before current allocations expire.
But this is only half the story. In India, Corus's owner, Tata, plans to
increase steel production from 53 million tonnes to 124 million over the
same period. By replacing inefficient old plants with new ones which emit
only "European levels" of CO2, Tata could claim a further £600 million under
the UN's Clean Development Mechanism, which is operated by the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change – the organisers of the Copenhagen conference.
Under this scheme, organisations in developed countries such as Britain –
ranging from electricity supply companies to the NHS – can buy the right to
exceed their CO2 allocations from those in developing countries, such as
India. The huge but hidden cost of these "carbon permits" will be passed on
to all of us, notably through our electricity bills.
Thus, at the end of the day, Redcar will lose its biggest employer and one
of the largest manufacturing plants left in Britain. Tata, having gained up
to £1.2 billion from "carbon credits", will get its new steel plants – while
the net amount of CO2 emitted worldwide will not have been reduced a jot.
And the connection with Dr Pachauri? Directly there is no connection at all.
But it just happens that Dr Pachauri's other main job, apart from being
chairman of the IPCC, is as director-general of the Tata Energy Research
Institute, funded by Tata, which he has run since 1981.
He may not benefit in any way personally from Tata's exploitation of the
various carbon trading schemes set up to implement the 1997 Kyoto Protocol,
but it is the IPCC which provides the recommendations which drive those
schemes, Last year, on official figures, buying and selling the right to
emit CO2 was worth $126 billion across the world. This market, now enriching
many of our leading financial institutions (not to mention Al Gore), is
growing so fast that within a few years it is predicted to be worth
trillions, making carbon the most valuable traded commodity in the world.
Forget Big Oil: the new world power is Big Carbon. Truly it has been a
miracle of our time that they have managed to transform carbon dioxide, a
gas upon which all life on earth depends, into a "pollutant", worth more
than diamonds, let alone oil. And many of those now gathered in Copenhagen
are making a great deal of money out of it.
Christopher Booker's The Real Global Warming Disaster (Continuum,
£16.99) is available from Telegraph Books for £14.99 plus £1.25 p&p
Christopher Booker