20 November 2008

Oct 20th - 23rd 2008 - Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session

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Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session Oct 20th - 23rd 2008 Tuesday Oct 21st, President Sarkozy addressed Parliament He claimed that Europe brought an end to the crisis in Georgia, ie his intervention The Lehman brothers collapse of Sept 15th stimulated action in Europe,- he supports the banks and capitalism but we must end tax havens EU must have a voice in world finances and in world economic government! we must support G8 and now G5 (to incl India, China) there must be a re-foundation of global finances Then EU protectionism crept in,- He does not want European companies to be under non-European capital we must set up SOVEREIGN ZONES (financial) in Europe we must defend European Industry and face competition from outside And then the expected,- the crisis causes us to REFORM the INSTITUTIONS of the EU so NO rotating EU Presidency agrees with Barroso, there must be a response to the Irish No vote and he was stupified to find there was no European economic government Thursday Votes on the budget for 2009 where £100,000,000,000 of taxpayer's money was allocated in about 30 minutes. Among this UKIP voted to reduce spending on a few items, especially export refunds for cereals and the special beef premium. Boring? - No, the cereals export subsidy means exporting to the third world at well below local prices, putting farmers there out of business, ie dumping. The beef subsidy in Spain translates into a subsidy for bull fighting! By the way, in voting to reduce farming subsidies I can hardly be said to support the CAP, as some misguided people believe. Otherwise, Piracy off Somalia was voted on and one amendment was passed which down-grades piracy to a criminal act as opposed to an act of war. Now EU warships can not fire on pirates without themselves incurring charges! So the Royal Navy can not properly defend our shipping, worse, this is only the EU, does not affect the USA or Russia, so now the RN can not support the Americans! Derek Clark MEP Strasbourg Oct 23rd 2008

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17 November 2008

Nov 17th – 20th 2008 - Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session

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Strasbourg Commentary Plenary Session Nov 17th – 20th 2008 You will be delighted to hear that your MEP was this week able to vote on a proposal by Mrs Diana Wallis, Lib-Dem Yorkshire, on, “Driver’s seat on wheeled agricultural or forestry tractors”. The vote on bee keeping might be seen as a little more useful. Six hundred and forty six MEPs travel to Strasbourg for that but there was some more. We also voted on a proposal to ensure that school children received fresh fruit in their diet. The fact that the amount specified is less than the UK recommendation to the school meals service is an illustration of what I believe to be one of the reasons for the welter of EU regulations. They are all behind us and are trying to catch up, not by taking our examples but by reinventing the wheel. Far and away the most significant event this week was on Thursday when the Court of Auditors presented their annual report. No fewer than 34 MEPs were present to hear that after fourteen years the auditors have signed the books. Before you put the flags out you should note that the auditors said that there were still great errors in the use of funds in areas such as education and aid to development. As a result improvements in accounting were no longer necessary but corrective actions would take time to be effective. The commissioner, Siim Kallas declared a clean bill of health because they are getting closer to their aim of being 98% free of error. What it means is that there are still over six billion euros lost but not by the auditors. They know where it has gone adrift, namely, in the application of these funds by member states. So they have applied the good old principle of passing the buck and all is well. All the MEPs who spoke expressed some criticism but generally praised the auditors and the commissioner in varying degrees of warmth. You may be surprised to hear that our own Godfrey Bloom took a different view. He remarked that there had been fourteen years of unacceptable accounts and he was very unhappy that UK plc was part of that. Godfrey said he had read the auditors account, it was not a clean bill of health and that in a similar situation in the UK company directors would be in jail. He completed his lone voice protest by saying that he would now watch how UK MEPs vote on this issue. You didn’t seriously expect to change did you? Derek Clark MEP Strasbourg Nov 20th 2008

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10 November 2008

Nov 10th 2008 - Northampton Commentary

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Northampton Commentary Nov 10th 2008 East Midlands Regional Assembly, Friday Nov 7th 2008, where Democracy died. As usual I attended, as noted in my previous commentary, but where I was not allowed to speak my mind. Dissent was not allowed. Their usual system is that if an MEP submits a written report it is printed in the meeting booklet and the MEP is asked to speak to it and to take questions. I always do this so that I can attack the EU, speaking of the lack of democracy and of some of the craziest new Directives. I am not popular and the questions to me have noticeably dwindled over the last year or so. This time, having submitted my report on Oct 15th , two days later they asked me to revise it! They wanted me to include comments about the financial situation and about the pesticide directive. I refused, saying that what I wrote was what I wanted to say this time. At the meeting I was approached by the vice-chair, Pat Zadora, again asking me not to speak to my report and repeated the earlier request. So I spoke to my report, concentrating on my last issue about an EU health report, included since EMRA often has one. I was told to shut up as soon as I got to the point of attacking the EU. Interrupted again in speaking about the financial situation and again in speaking about pesticides. I think they took particular exception to my comments on pesticides since I started with, “Where have you been? I sent my first email reply about pesticides to a farmer on Sept 4th 2007, a written letter two days later, -nearly 100 responses all told to date-, and three press releases at that time resulting in several radio broadcasts”. “British farmers”, I continued, “are more than capable of getting it right and, in any case, where are all the queues at doctor’s surgeries of people made ill by crop spraying,” and, “ The Pesticide Directive is one of the most damaging ones yet”. That was too much for them and I was instructed to stop. Should I have done? I observed democratic protocol and accepted the request of the Chairwoman: that they are now clearly undemocratic is all the more reason for me to conduct myself properly. In any case, as I left the podium the whole shabby episode became clear. The chairwomen said that they were re-organising MEP input. In future they would ask MEPs what legislation was coming up in the European Parliament so as to table that for debate at the assembly and give the MEPs advice and guidance. Being translated that means to instruct our vote. No way. I left the assembly immediately but, given the opportunity, I shall tell them that my mandate comes from the East Mids electorate who voted UKIP precisely in order to voice opposition to the EU project. Derek Clark MEP Northampton Nov 10th 2008

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4 November 2008

Nov 4th - 5th 2008 - Brussels Commentary Employment Committee

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Brussels Commentary Employment Committee Nov 4th - 5th 2008 A very good week for UKIP Monday attended the NEC and the following Press release explains my heading,- UKIP rejects a BNP take over Yesterday, Monday Nov 3rd, the National Executive Committee of the UK Independence Party repulsed a blatant attempt at a BNP takeover. Although uninvited, one time member "Buster" Mottram, had infiltrated this private meeting and refused to leave. He had come direct from the BNP leadership with their takeover plan. He proposed a deal in which each party would stand aside from the other, BNP not to oppose UKIP in the south of the country and UKIP to give them the north. Undisclosed but substantial sums of money were mentioned as sweeteners. Your UKIP MEP for the East Midlands, and the Party's permanent MEP representative on the NEC, Derek Clark, addressed Mr Mottram directly, denouncing his plan. "I will never, under any circumstances, contemplate any offer made by this party", he said. "We are", he continued, "non-sectarian and non-racist and I will always reject any approach from this quarter". Immediately after Mr Mottram had been removed, with police assistance, the plan was formally rejected and a motion to expel Mr Mottram from the Party was tabled. Derek Clark voted in favour and he is pleased to place on record that the motion was carried unanimously, effective instantly. ENDS Tues, Second reading vote in Employment Committee, Nov 5th 2008. Following notes for next press release,- In passing this Directive the Employment Committee brought about further restrictions for employers. * The Common Position was endorsed. * On the vexed question of on call time any inactive On-Call time may not be included in the calculation of rest periods. So an employer must now pay for extra periods of inactivity. * People holding more than one job must add up the hours of work and rest in all employments so that they do not exceed the 48 hours regulation in total. * Employers must consult workers who are not under a collective agreement regarding working patterns and taking measures in the health and safety area but, even under collective agreements,- * Overtime and other work conditions are to be subject to trade union agreements and the worker can withdraw his agreement to work overtime at any time in the first six months of a maximum one year agreement, even after having signed an agreement to work overtime. This undermines collective agreements made by trade unions and threatens to de-stabilise a company's work force. It boils down to a weakening of our opt-out. How could it be otherwise when the rapporteur, Alejandro Cercas, in opening the debate yesterday, spoke of promoting a "social Europe", that the WTD was all about protecting workers, especially in Health and Safety and that," it was nothing to do with economics". Weds,- first the votes on the WTD, among others. Roger Helmer appeared to vote on this, it was due to be the first vote. He was lost because they had changed the voting order the previous day. I helped him out, so he resumed his newspaper, voted as per the Tory whip, and left the chamber before the rest of the votes. It was all he had come for. I stayed for all votes. Debate,- Rights in cross - border Health Care I did not contribute, I've already done that. Main points made by speakers were that, "popular countries would find themselves over burdened", and, "how could patients find the costs up front for repayment later". Where have they been? If you look up my speech of Sept 25th it will be more than these speakers have done! My week finishes Friday with EMRA meeting. Comment,- I sent in my written report three weeks ago but was contacted ten days ago for a re-write. They wanted me to include that which I had not;- comments on the financial situation and on the pesticide directive. I refused, not prepared to alter. In any case, as I said to them, the financial situation is a state of flux and what I wrote then would be out of date by the time of the meeting. But I promised to make verbal comments. On pesticides I shall ask them where they have been, the pesticide directive has been on the go for months and Paula is currently sending off the latest of my replies to letters from farmers and pesticide producers, more than 50 so far! Not quite the end. Looking forward to seeing some of you at the Nottingham campaign event this Saturday. Derek Clark MEP Brussels Nov 5th 2008

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