A deeply authoritarian project

You know how things come in threes? Well, the continuing onslaught against liberty by the European Union is no exception to this rule. Prior to the European Arrest Warrant and the European Investigation Order, the first of these sneak attacks came in the form of….

….Council of Ministers Conclusions that reveal that Brussels now wants law enforcement agencies in its member countries to build lists of political activists as part of a ‘systematic data collection’.

What is particularly sinister about this programme, is the deliberate vagueness of its terms of reference….

Broader authoritarian agenda

This move by the EU to document and keep under surveillance political activists follows on from the establishment of Project Indect.

This European Commission funded and inititated programme is designed to develop a system of automated surveillance monitors that will identify ‘abnormal behaviour’.

In addition to CCTV footage, these sensors will comb through web sites, internet discussion forums, file servers and individual computers.

In Britain, York University and the Police Service of Northern Ireland are spearheading the development of this project with £10million of Brussels funding (our money – LdlP).

Again, there is a failure, or refusal, to actually spell out what constitutes ‘abnormal behaviour’ and this means that what in a traditional liberal democracy might be considered to be legitimate activity that should be free of state surveillance will, in the context of the EU, be considered appropriate for state intervention.

This is the default setting for methods of political and social control devised by the post-democratic EU and its subordinate “governments”, the ASBO for instance.

Perhaps even more troubling is that….

In addition to the dangerously illiberal content of this new EU drive to document and keep tabs on political activists, what is disturbing is the fact that this policy is being executed without any parliamentary or public consultation whatsoever.

Had the commendable Statewatch not somehow managed to see and expose the relevant documents, nobody in this or anyother member country would even be aware this was even taking place.

This blog hopes, but isn’t holding its breath, that David Cameron’s documented opposition to the EAW will persuade him that this is an erosion too far, and that the question, and indeed the constitutionality, of its implementation must be put to Parliament. He is, after all, “proud to be a member” of the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative Party.

Theresa May, who nodded through the EIO last month with hardly a murmur heard in Parliament, is doubtless rubbing her hands with glee.

Turkeys voting for Christmas

Daniel Hannan is perfectly entitled to continue as a Member of the European “Parliament”, despite the fact that is a body whose legitimacy and sovereignty he questions. He is, after all, only following the time-honoured custom of champions of liberty like Charles Stewart Parnell, but one can’t help but wonder which audience he thinks he’s addressing here.

Doctrinally not quite up to his usual high standards….

Yellow card, Daniel.

Any enlargement of the EU is wrong because the EU is, in and of itself, wrong.

If Mr Cameron wishes to conduct bi-lateral diplomacy with a country that for decades protected our south-eastern flank against the Soviet Union (in the best Tory tradition, as you say) that is one thing, but to wrap his discourse in honeyed phrases about Turkey’s eventual entry into the EU is quite another. It is merely a continuation of the treason, committed by others and compounded by him, when he failed to deliver a referendum on Lisbon.

It won’t be the Liberal Democrats who bring down the Coalition, it will be the libertarian right that reclaims the party of Pitt and Peel.

Turkey lurkey

Another stiletto between the shoulder blades of democracy from iDave as he talks up  Turkey’s membership of the EU.

He compared hostility to the membership bid in some parts of the EU with the way the UK’s entry was once regarded.

Trust me, Dave, the UK’s entry into the EU is still regarded with hostility, not least in Britain.

Meanwhile….

Adding comments has been disabled for this video.

Says it all really.

For Cleveland, Ohio, read Hackney, Maryhill….

….Birmingham Ladywood, Peckham, Shoreditch, Manchester Central, Liverpool Riverside….

How do we save our most depressed inner city regions?

• By encouraging inward private sector investment and making it easier for companies to function, giving schools and teachers the flexibility to make their own decisions, and improving services and civic pride by introducing commercial rigour into moribund, union-dominated municipal assets?
• Or by burdening these areas with ever greater levels of regulation, taxation, red tape and bureaucracy, while allowing doctrine, political orthodoxy and self interest to trump common sense and results-driven public services?

Watch this great series of shorts from Drew Carey’s excellent Reason TV and decide for yourself….

No brainer? You would have thought so, wouldn’t you?

Quote of the week

It’s only Monday but this, from Norman Tebbit, will be hard to beat….

If in the face of the most disastrous government since we lost the American colonies the best the opposition can expect is a hung Parliament, it is time that Camp Cameron asked itself some serious questions. Of course there will be many people, like Phil Keane, a regular poster of comments on this site, who quite rightly point to the potential horrors of another bout of the NuLab infection, saying that we all have a duty to vote in the best way to avoid that. It is the most powerful argument for voting Conservative to be heard at present, but surely we should be hearing some more powerful and positive arguments than that.

As I said a few days ago, perhaps we deserve a hung parliament.

Well and truly hung

As the Tories’ poll lead heads south and the prospect of a hung parliament moves closer and closer to reality, one can really only marvel at Labour’s ability to defy gravity, and wonder whether the Prime Minister is secretly employing mass hypnosis techniques on a large section of the electorate.

Still, hope springs eternal. This morning’s shock revelation by Andrew Rawnsley that Gordon Brown is emotionally unfit to govern (as if we needed telling) might give the undecided a decisive nudge in the right direction, but if they don’t and a hung Parliament it must be, so be it. Perhaps we need to endure a few more years of pain, mistrust and social unrest before the nation finally awakes from its apathetic torpor.

There is, of course, one policy which would sweep Cameron to power in a landslide, but his position on the matter is sadly all too evident, the argument being some kind imagined threat to party unity. Are they seriously trying to kid us that they couldn’t have found 600-odd candidates who were unanimous about taking us out of the European Union?

If the Liberal Democrats were truly liberal, in the event of a hung parliament they would align themselves with the Conservatives and give this, the most illiberal, authoritarian, interventionist government in three-and-a-half centuries, an unceremonious punt into the political wilderness.

But they aren’t, so they won’t.

Net UK government debt is….