European elite shows it is still holding Britain back
BRITAIN is forbidden by European Union laws from reaching its own free trade deals with non- EU countries. The Brussels elite has decided that such important work is above the pay grade of national governments.
Were the EU more proactive in striking such deals on behalf of its members there is little doubt that unemployment would be lower and economic growth higher throughout Europe. But inertia rather than dynamism is the watchword in Brussels.
That can be seen from the ridiculous reaction of European politicians and bureaucrats to allegations that the American government has been spying on them.
It beggars belief that the wounded pride of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande should lead even to the suggestion that a vital and long- awaited trade agreement between the EU and the US could be further delayed.
The economies of Europe are in desperate need of something – anything – to boost business confidence and activity. To put in doubt a major trading stimulus because the American intelligence agencies may have been running rings round their French and German counterparts is pathetic.
This kind of “reprisal” will merely result in even longer dole queues across Europe. The episode demonstrates yet again why Britain would be so much better off out of the EU and with its national economic destiny back in its own hands.
WE have 67 days until January 1, 2014, which may be an important turning point in this country’s future as we are likely to have a population explosion. On January 1 our borders will be open to 30million Romanians and Bulgarians because transitional arrangements expire.
I want to ask the Prime Minister and Home Secretary whether they have enough school places, homes, doctors, officers handling benefits, job centre staff and police officers? Because so far they have steadfastly refused to say.
They have refused to predict how many might settle here so in the absence of the Government being helpful I will try to forecast the numbers.
Migration Watch, run by former diplomat Sir Andrew Green, believes around 50,000 per year will arrive and continue to come for the next five years. The Bulgarian and Romanian ambassadors to Britain between them predict up to 35,000 in the next year. It is not hard to do the maths.
Between April- June alone the Office for National Statistics released figures showing an immigration surge of 26 per cent in those three months. That is 141,000 Bulgarians and Romanians already working in the UK, which is the largest rise of any nationality in recent years.
We are a magnet because of benefits, housing, education and wages that pay four or five times what they get paid at home. Then look at where we are in terms of infrastructure and employment.
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