Moscow Central and Ashton

Ashton in '82: 3rd agent from the left

The Times revelation today that Baroness Ashton, newly crowned Labourist foreign affairs boss of the EU, had Soviet links should come as no surprise to anyone. After all, half the current Labour party, including and especially a whole host of older government ministers, were (are?) communists. Add to that the fact that the continental left - including the far left - dominate the EU's bureaucratic machinery and its increasingly powerful political arm and you have a picture of a centralist takeover reminiscent of the thankfully defunct Soviet empire.

The fact that this sounds so bizarre to reasonable people is precisely what is allowing them ("them" being European socialists) to get away with building the new socialist empire on the sly. No wonder they don't want democracy coming anywhere near their grand federalist project. It's not just that the majority of the half billion people currently being railroaded into an undemocratic superstate would have rightly rejected Lisbon had they been given the choice, but that socialists are not interested in democracy in the first place. That is to say they are, at least, not interested in the brand of democracy you or I are used to, namely, pluralist liberal democracy and parliamentary sovereignty. They prefer the Soviet-style, trade union brand with delegates armed with the "bloc vote" of members. What is, after all, "supranational democracy" and "qualified majority voting" other than a rehashed form of block voting on an international scale? Of course this system was preferred by the left because it has all the added advantages of not only always securing the outcomes that are politically desirable, at least to the federalist movement, but of ignoring any dissenting voices. And all the time they are able to argue, as our politicians constantly do, that since our politicians have been democratically elected and they choose their members for the European Council and the European Commission, and now European "ministries" too, then all is well - we are democratically represented. Allied to this is the European Parliament, where directly elected MEPs thrash out day to day lawmaking, fiercely defending their nation's interests.

This is, of course, all garbage. In reality, all we have is delegates, hand-picked by domestic - and now often foreign - politicians who technically do not have the national constitutional and/or sovereign right to do so, who wield the power they have been given, (not with which they have been entrusted), in whatever way they see fit, basically unanswerable and unlimited. In reality, also, the European Parliament has no teeth (who would want it to anyway? I for one prefer Westminster to Strasbourg - but I digress), its members talk and talk and claim generous expenses but they don't make law, they can't hold the EU executive branches to account and they certainly won't (with notable exceptions) "fiercly [defend] their nation's interests," cohabiting, as they do, in transnational political - yeah, you guessed it - blocks. In fact, it's very hard to tell what they do do. In short, they accomplish nothing and amount to little more than a sop or nod to pluralist (genuine) democracy.

The real power is and always will be with the variously appointed EU commissioners, councellors, judges and now "ministers". The Lisbon Treaty, far from closing this democratic gap, has simply served further to widen it, which was, after all, its real purpose. The appointment of the risible Baroness Ashton, complete with "alleged" Soviet links through the CND and communist past, merely serves perfectly to illustrate the point. In fact, given how unknown and useless she and the newly installed "President" are, it appears that the commissioners are unwilling to give up the power in any event. Stitch-ups within stitch-ups, then, in what amounts to a wholly unedifying affair - and dangerous times for the continent of Europe.

Baroness Ashton of Upholland’s past came back to haunt her yesterday when the European Union’s new foreign affairs chief was forced to deny taking funds from the Soviet Union during her days as treasurer for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Lady Ashton, a surprise choice for her post, was challenged to deny that she had contact with Russian sources while she was in charge of its accounts at the height of the Cold War.

The Times has learnt that concerns about her CND involvement are felt across countries from the former Iron Curtain now in the EU and that MEPs plan to question her about it when she appears before them for the hearing to confirm her in her post.

Nigel Farage, the UK Independence Party leader, raised the matter on the floor of the European Parliament yesterday, earning himself a reprimand for referring to Lady Ashton and Herman Van Rompuy, the new European President, as pygmies

Mr Farage added: “She was treasurer during a period when CND took very large donations and refused to reveal the sources. Will Baroness Ashton deny that while she was treasurer she took funds from organisations opposed to Western-style democracy? Are we really happy that somebody who will be in charge of our overseas security policy was an activist in an outfit like CND? I do not think she is a fit and proper person to do this job.”

Lady Ashton was not present but her spokesman said: “This was more than 25 years ago. She left the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1983 and has had no involvement in the organisation since then. During her time in the CND she never visited the Soviet Union, had no contact with the Soviet Union and has never accepted any money from Soviet sources. The first time she visited Russia was as EU Trade Commissioner.”

All the candidates for the next European Commission must undergo formal hearings at the European Parliament and the European People’s Party, the main centre-right group, has pledged to reject any who have promoted communism in the past. Lady Ashton has denied being a member of the Communist Party.

She is due to have an informal meeting with the MEPs’ Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday and a formal hearing in January, although she starts her new job on Tuesday.

Krisjanis Karins, a centre-right Latvian MEP, said: “Some information has been published that she was involved in this Marxist movement. If this is the case it is disturbing. We are especially concerned how the High Representative for Foreign Affairs will conduct discussions with our eastern neighbour.”

Hynek Fajnon, an MEP for the Czech centre-right ODS party, told the newspaper DNES: “There is no doubt that the Kremlin supported CND activities. If Mrs Ashton as treasurer had played any role in that, it would be a great scandal.”

CND rejected the claims, predictably, and are now seeking legal advice about whether they should take action against Farage and his fellow Kipperist Eurotroughers. I'd would love that, especially the part where Ashton is called as a witness:

(Best Alec Guinness voice) Barrister: "Did you handle any money from the Soviet Union sent to help fund the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and other, shall we say, 'dodgy' organisations?"

Ashton (clearly flustered): "I had no links with Moscow Central in 1982 and I know of no one named 'Karla.'"

Oops.

(Borrowed) Quote of the Day

Letters from a Tory has picked up Dan Hannan's powerful comment on the recent imposition by secret committee of an over-promoted, over-gonged socialist/Labourist paper shuffler, "Baroness" Ashton, on the half a billion people who make-up the entirely undemocratic EU as some sort of "Foreign Minister". In spite of the fact that the BBC was desperately trying to play down the shocking anti-democratic gall of this appointment, proposing - laughably - that it, and the choice of a "boring" Belgian as the so-called EU President, represents the end of the road for EU federalism, the reality remains that, as Michael Portillo said yesterday on This Week to slimy Europhile Chris Huhne, the Eurozone is "not a democratic space". As Portillo went on, it is therefore "impossible to be anything other than Eurosceptic" since, I assume he meant, that that half billion people, including 65 million Britons, are being railroaded into some weird form of liberal/socialist paternalistic authoritarianism.

All these appointments, and the increases in central EU powers they embody, will achieve is to increase the frustration felt by literally hundreds of millions of people at what is rightly perceived as a further undermining not only of the sovereignty of nation states, but also of the principle of representative democracy itself. The EU's democratic deficit has just grown much larger - and, therefore, by the same token, has the threat to European peace in terms of social and political stability. Frustration, if left unassuaged, often boils over into fury. An awful lot of people don't like power grabs, especially surreptitious socialist ones, which is what this latest shameful episode amounts to. It's an insult to our intelligence, not to mention to the memory of hundreds of thousands of British soldiers who died fighting to protect British democracy from a foreign menace.

But, ultimately, to me that's all Ashton's appointment really represents: a bloody insult - and a deliberate one at that.

Dan Hannan:

“Everything about this process rubs our noses in how undemocratic the EU is. It’s not just the way Baroness Ashton was appointed; it’s her whole career. Lady Ashton is a lifelong quangocrat who has never once been elected to anything. She went from running a health authority to working at the National Council for One Parent Families to being a Labour life peer, to leading the Lords, all without facing the voters. She steered the Lisbon Treaty through the Upper House, cancelling the referendum on it that all three parties had promised. She was then appointed to the European Commission because Gordon Brown wanted to avoid a by-election. Now, she gets the top job as a kind of compensation to Labour over the rejection of Tony Blair. Every chapter in the story is a denial of the democratic principle.”

- Dan Hannan takes aim at Baroness Ashton, newly appointed EU foreign affairs supremo (full article HERE)

There's nothing more to add to that. What should follow is action.

I Don't Like To Say...

...I told you so, but I will (because I do really). A few days ago I claimed that Cameron would actually benefit from Labour's EU stitch-up, especially after the unedifying spectacle of Brown and co. gloating horribly from the Labour benches during PMQs. Now the Spectator reveals in a poll that, sure enough, far from being harmed by the events surrounding the final ratification of Lisbon, people appreciate that none of this was his fault and that he is dealing with what is, in fact, an entirely new set of circumstances.

Labour's (and the left media's) massive miscalculation is in imagining that this
has somehow harmed Cameron or the Conservatives. It hasn't. All he and his party
have to say - and they would be truthful in saying it - is that it's not the
Conservative Party Labour has harmed with its double dealings on Lisbon, it is
every British subject. In addition, now that Cameron has outlined his key policy
changes in his speech this afternoon, in which he promised the setting up of a
constitutional court, referendums for any and all future EU proposals that
materially affect the British constitution and to claw back powers from
Brussels, I predict that support for the Tories will, if anything, grow.

The media, left and right, has got it totally wrong all the way through on this issue - and misjudged the mood of the people too. The BBC and the rest of the left media have been gleefully trying to characterise this as a Conservative policy U-turn, or a "broken promise", which will inevitably lead to an old-style split over Europe. Not so. All Conservative documentary evidence proves that there was no such promise made. Cameron and Hague have been consistent all the way through: once Lisbon was law, all referendum bets were off. If I understood that (angrily) then I imagine that nine tenths of the population did too (the other tenth aren't interested). But what of the Right(er) media? Well, they've been all over the place as well. Even the Spectator in its poll article starts off with "So, has he got away with it?" What tosh! The only person who's gotten away with murder, figuratively speaking at least over Lisbon, is Gordon bloody Brown and his bunch of promise-breaking Labourists. The fanatically Eurosceptic right media seem not to want to comprehend that fact for reasons of their own. Me, I just want Britain protected from what I believe to be a European political revolution that is not in her interests. I also want my vote to count - in Britain.

It is therefore up to Cameron and Hague to mend the broken pieces of the contract of trust between government and the people it is meant to be elected to govern, not betray, while preserving and protecting the identity and democratic legitimacy of a sovereign nation. They have made a start by promising some interesting changes in the law ostensibly to protect future generations from what now feels like an inexorable creep towards a continental federal superstate based on the socialist model. They will have to go much further than this, however, to convince me that they have the right answers to what is nothing more or less to me than a Franco-German power grab and a grave threat to the sovereignty, diverse, pluralist identity and democratic legitimacy of this country. But they have my full support in their attempt to develop them, mocking French buffoons notwithstanding.

Incidentally, if you are wondering why Britain and this European federalist model are so incompatible in the minds of millions of British people, I recommend you read the Half Blood Welshman's latest outstanding piece on this subject. The yawning sociopolitical/geographical/historical gap between continental Europe and the UK have rarely been more succinctly explained. I especially enjoyed the opening:

This is the second time in two days I have posted on Europe. I hope I'm not obsessing about it. To start with an anecdote. In about 1825, Lord Dudley, the British Ambassador to Vienna, was talking to Prince Metternich, the Austrian Chancellor. The conversation, which was in French, the European lingua franca of the time (hence the phrase) was along these lines:
Metternich: "I must compliment your Lordship on your command of French. You are the only Englishman who speaks it really well. Why, it is said that in Vienna even the common man speaks French better than the educated man in London."
Dudley: "That may well be. Your Highness should recall that Napoleon has not been twice in London to teach them."

And so it continues. Sparkling stuff.

The Czechs Cave In; Brown's Days Numbered

Unlike Donal Blaney (although I feel as frustrated as he clearly does), I have some sympathy for the Czech Republic's besieged President and can appreciate why he has finally caved in to the extreme, intense and sustained pressure from their giant, frightening neighbour, Germany and from the bullies in Brussels. Vaclav Klaus has made a spirited last-man stand but it was only a matter of time before the unforgivable, scurrilous personal attacks on him and the threats of economic and political sanctions against the nation he was elected to serve took their toll - and had their desired effect.

The Spectator's take on this latest bombshell for referendum campaigners like yours truly is pretty decent:

Czech President Vaclav Klaus has developed cult status among Eurosceptics in Britain, but it would have been nothing short of miraculous if he had been able to derail the Lisbon Treaty. The Telegraph reports that Klaus can delay signing the treaty no longer. He said:

"The train carrying the treaty is going so fast and it's so far that it can't be stopped or returned, no matter how much some of us would want that. I cannot and will not wait for British elections, unless they hold them in the next few days or weeks."

The Czech Courts will rule on compatibility on the 27th October, after which the treaty will become law. Mr Klaus' train metaphor compounds the argument that Brussels, not Europeans, has driven this process - indeed that Brussels has simply disregarded the wishes of sovereign nations. From the British perspective, the Lisbon horse has bolted; Cameron and Hague must remind voters that Brown and Blair are culpable for that. A referendum post-ratification represents the most facile of political gestures. Rumours abound that the Conservatives will seek accomodation with European leaders over recovering sovereignty, surrendered by successive governments without the agreement of the British people.

On the bright side, however, betting will surely be closed on how long Brown has left as Prime Minister. In aiding and abetting the authoritarian Brussels power grab by railroading Britain into adopting what remains an EU constitution, he has now served his purpose. His days are definitely numbered. Mandelson, that viper in the British bosom, will seize control of the PLP and the government at his earliest convenience, having served up the UK to the EU centralist-federalists on a silver platter (the gold's all gone), and make a new king - or queen - that he can bend more easily to his will.

In the meantime, the Conservative party better wake up and realise that Lisbon ratification is no longer a "hypothetical scenario". It's time for a post-Lisbon policy - and that policy must include a referendum of one kind or another. They must think of the right question and not be cowed by threats from the bullies of Brussels like the Czechs have. Otherwise, this country, quite simply, will have been sold-out by its own, democratically elected rulers (as is always the case with fascism). It's time for Cameron to get a grip on this.

As for Labour and Brown, they will never be forgiven for their broken promises and ultimate betrayal. And they will be punished for it.

They'd better believe it.

Big Day Tomorrow?

Could be. The expenses scandal, after yesterday's revelations, is about to rear its ugly head again. This report from Peter Spencer of Sky News earlier seems to be suggesting so. Creepy Pete does well here, striking the right balance (unlike the biased BBC's reporting), given that evidence so far shows that it's far more likely the government generally and Brown in particular will be blamed for most of the corruption that's been going on - and rightly so since most of the worst abuses have come from Labour MPs and even ministers, including Gordon Brown himself!



Donal Blaney even suggested this morning that it's the expenses issue, not his eyesight, that will provide Brown with the excuse to get out of office with some degree of dignity. I'm not so sure after watching this report, but who knows? My feeling is that the Labourists are so punch drunk now, trotting out the horrible Yvette Cooper-Balls - herself a serial trougher along with her equally horrible husband - to try to limit the damage from the surge in the Conservative Party's popularity, that they might have just given up. It's a chilling thought, but it seems to me that they could be resigned to their fate and so will keep drawing the comfortable salary, treading political water and sinking the country ever deeper into debt right up until the very bitter end. A large proportion of these invertibrates seem to want to leave Brown in place, with Alan "Postie" Johnson well-positioned to take over, simply so that the former carries the can for what now looks like inevitable electoral annihilation. They will squeeze as much time out of their term simply to line their own pockets prior to unemployment. No Labour MP's seat is safe now - and they all know it.

So it is a big day tomorrow, but mainly for Labour, who are stuck firmly between the proverbial rock and hard place, right where they deserve to be. Whatever the outcome of all this, the best they can expect is, as Spencer puts it, "zilch". For them that would be a real result. That's how bad things are for them - and that's how little they care about the needs of the country. They'd sooner go on like this, paralysed and unwanted, than trigger a genuine challenge to their own, bankrupt and moribund leadership.

I still think Brown will be gone by early November (or sooner), mind you, but it will have a lot more to do with the Czech president's actions than expensesgate and his failing eyesight. The plucky little Czechs I reckon are about to cave in and ratify Lisbon, given that the Germans in particular are putting gigantic amounts of pressure on them to do so, including vicious personal attacks on their head of state.

I buy the theory now that once that weasel Mandelson has got what he wants and locked us into Lisbon, with the future President Blair waiting in the wings, Brown will be dropped like a radioactive turd.

If you think not even the New Labour hierarchy could be cynical enough to try to pull this coup d'état off, think again. Mandelson, Campbell, Blair: the most infamous, treacherous and crooked three men ever to wield power in the history of British politics. Even Brown, the awkward, perfidious incompetent, pails before them.

Remember their names!

No Means No!

Another truly inspired piece of timely propaganda from Ollie Cromwell. I urge all who support freedom and the democratic right to choose the fate of your own country to copy this widget to your own blog. Help Ireland in its hour of need, as EU hardleft-imperialism threatens to swallow it whole. And just remember, we're next!

Ireland says: "NO MEANS NO!"

Here's the widget. As you can see, it's jolly witty and makes the point effectively enough.


Get Widget

Click on the picture to get to Ollie's Red Rag site. There you will find the croc of golden html that will let you copy the widget to your own blog.

As I said, if you want to stop the EU steamroller from crushing our sovereignty - and liberty - into dust, ably aided and abetted by our own, corrupt politicians, then start voicing your support in whatever way you can. Our time's up!