25 July 2007

Jul 25th 2007 Northampton Commentary

Northampton Commentary 25th July 2007 FLOODS The following letter was sent to most national dailies and to all East Mids papers today. Dear Sir It is understood that the government is considering a formal claim to the European Solidarity Fund for aid in the current disastrous floods. Why wait til now? I wrote to the Department of Communities and Local Government on July 5th , no answer, and again on July 24th pressing for an immediate application to be made. Latest news. In a phone call to me at 3pm this afternoon the DCLG spokesman said that the government had made no application yet. They were only talking to the EC and to colleagues and looking into whether we had reached the threshold of three billion euros worth of estimated damage. So while people go on baling out, have their possessions ruined and, sadly have to bury loved ones, the government just ponders. Why do they hesitate, its our money. After all, they would only be asking for some of this year’s EU contribution of fourteen billion pounds to come back to us. Derek Clark MEP UKIP East Midlands PS:- The DCLG spokesman was returning my call this afternoon and he wanted to leave the message with Paula; he did not want to speak to me but Paula put him through. Did you know, that a short while ago, that the EU fined DEFRA for its incompetence in farm subsidy payments? They found the money by raiding the Environment Agency’s Waterways and Flood Defences Fund. DRC

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11 July 2007

Jul 11th 2007 Strasbourg Commentary

UK Independence Party From the Office of Derek Clark, MEP, East Midlands Rowan House, 23 Billing Road, Northampton NN1 5AT Tel: 01604 620064 Fax: 01604 636002 Email: mep@derekclarkmep.org.uk Strasbourg Commentary It’s Wednesday in Strasbourg and to-days press are running the story “Barroso hails the European Empire”, well at last I now know we were spot on with our predictions over the years. Nigel Farage, UKIP leader, commented on this during his morning speech whilst the President of the European Commission shook his head in denial. Nigel Farage was at the time responding to a speech by the new EU President in Office, Jose Socrates, Prime Minister of Portugal, and other speakers who included EU assistance to Africa in their self congratulatory outpourings. Nigel’s comments that if the EU was serious about helping Africa the first thing they should do would be to ban Mugabe from the impending African Conference and, secondly, withdraw the EU fishing licences which reduce African fishermen to poverty went down like a lead balloon. There are none so deaf as those that do not wish to hear. Wednesday lunchtime and we hoped to stage a demonstration outside in the courtyard against the new Constititution(sorry I meant Treaty). To do so you must get written permission, we duly applied as did the UEN (Union for Europe of the Nations), they got permission and guess what?, we were denied! I do not know if this was a good or bad thing. We were going to use the large, inflatable bulldozer that had been confiscated by the Belgian Police in Brussels two weeks ago. I stood by it to keep an eye on it whilst the police deflated and then rolled it up to put in the back of their van. The police wanted to know what I was doing and I told them it was our property. At that time it was undamaged, save for a few scratches from the gravel it was dragged over. I was right to be suspicious. When we got it back from the Belgian Police on Tuesday it was found to have been attacked by knives with many slashes in the tough fabric. Welcome to the “Common system of Justice and Security” as mentioned in the new Constitution (sorry, Treaty). Derek Clark MEP Strasbourg Wednesday 11th July 2007

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11 July 2007

Jul 9th -12th 2007 Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session

Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session July 9th - 12th 2007 (Short week for me, home on Wednesday so as to take part on a panel for a schools' event in Northampton Guildhall, Thursday,- topic, "The Nanny State.) Meanwhile, Wednesday in Strasbourg, "Barroso hails the European Empire", is the headline on today's press digest in front of me. So now we know, our statements repeated over the years are spot on. This came out at a press conference yesterday and when Nigel commented on it in his speech this morning Barroso shook his head! Incidentally, Nigel was responding to the speech by the Portuguese Prime Minister, newly the President in Office. The prime minister and all the speakers up to Nigel mentioned 'Lisbon', the Constitution, Africa, Brazil, 'moving forward' and 'Climate Change'. Nigel's response included the remark that if they were serious about helping Africa the first thing they should do is to ban Mugabe from the impending African Conference and, secondly, withdraw the EU fishing licences which reduce African fishermen to poverty. Not well received. We wanted to stage a demo in the courtyard at lunchtime today to protest against the new constitution. Written permission is needed; the UEN group applied and were granted leave, we applied and, guess what, we were refused. Actually, I don't know whether that's a good thing or not. We were going to use the inflatable bulldozer which, you will remember, was confiscated by the Belgian police two weeks ago. The picture shows me keeping an eye on it, standing by while it was deflated by the police, rolled up and loaded into their van. The police wanted to know what I was doing and I told them it was our property. At that time it was undamaged, save for any scratches resulting from being dragged over the gravel. I was right to be suspicious. When we got it back from the Belgian police yesterday it was found to have been attacked with knives, with many slashes right through the tough fabric. Welcome to the, "Common system of Justice and Security", as mentioned in the new constitution! Derek Clark MEP Strasbourg July 11th 2007

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