Too true

Yet more hypocrisy from the Tories

I read the story the other day that up to 3000 foreign criminals would be released without being deported and wondered how it was once again in the news. Only 250 EU criminals (and I'm not talking about MEPs here) will be even considered for preliminary deportation procedures, according to a probation circular.

Well, I'm not surprised. Last year I was talking about the same regulation stopped countries from denying entry to EU nationals on the basis of a criminal record:

Article 27 (2) of 2004/58/EC says:

'Measures taken on grounds of public policy or public security shall comply with the principle of proportionality and shall be based exclusively on the personal conduct of the individual concerned. Previous criminal convictions shall not in themselves constitute grounds for taking such measures (restricting freedom of movement).'

If we continue:

he Conservatives said yesterday that the revelation was a further embarrassment for Home Secretary John Reid.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: 'Yet again we see that the public will be put at risk as a direct result of John Reid's failure.

'He spun he had a deal to remove these offenders but the rhetoric has not matched the action. John Reid was brought in to deal with the foreign prisoner crisis yet one year on as he quits office we see he has totally failed.'

Oooh, the Tories are criticising an EU law! But why? This law came into force because of EU enlargement to ten new member states, which the Tories were in favour of!

As I have said before, it was also a Tory who wrote the report in the European Parliament calling for Bulgaria to join the EU, and they are also in favour of Turkey joining.

It was under Michael Howard's stint as Europe Minister that laws governing control of our borders were first given away to the EU, and also the Tories are always talking about how much they love the single market, and how freedom of movement must be incorporated into this for it to work properly.

So what is David Davis complaining about? Why is he blaming John Reid? If the Tories didn't like it, they could have voted against it, rather than supporting it....

Important work going on in Poland

Following on from the news that children as young as five in England are being encouraged to read books at schools with the titles 'The Sissy Duckling', 'Hello Sailor' and 'Daddy's Roommate' and teenagers are provided by their local LEAs with a book entitled 'strange boy' which talks about a boy of 10 and 14 getting jiggy with each others bits, Poland have gone one step further....

Poland to probe if Teletubbies are gay

The 10-year-old Teletubbies became a target of religious conservatives after US
evangelist Jerry Falwell suggested Tinky Winky could be homosexual.

Poland's conservative government took its drive to curb what it sees as
homosexual propaganda to the small screen today, taking aim at Tinky Winky and
the other Teletubbies.

Ewa Sowinska, government-appointed children rights watchdog, told a local
magazine published today she was concerned the popular BBC children's show
promoted homosexuality.

She said she would ask psychologists to advise if this was the case.

In comments reminiscent of criticism by the late US evangelist Jerry Falwell,
she was quoted as saying: "I noticed (Tinky Winky) has a lady's purse, but I
didn't realise he's a boy."

"At first I thought the purse would be a burden for this Teletubby ... Later I
learned that this may have a homosexual undertone."

Poland's rightist government has upset human rights groups and drawn criticism
within the European Union by apparent discrimination against homosexuals.

Polish Education Minister Roman Giertych has proposed laws sacking teachers who
promote "homosexual lifestyle" and banning "homo-agitation" in schools.

But in a sign that the government wants to distance itself from Sowinska's
comments, Parliamentary Speaker Ludwig Dorn said he had warned her against
making public comments "that may turn her department into a laughing stock".

The 10-year-old Teletubbies, which features four rotund, brightly coloured
characters loved by children around the world, became a target of religious
conservatives after Falwell suggested Tinky Winky could be homosexual.

Forget Russia and 'Star Wars mark II'; this is the hot topic of the moment! Could the pure Polish boys suddenly break free of all restraint, eat too many burgers and paint themselves purple before dancing around with handbags saying 'eh oh' and banging their bits into their friend's fundaments? Quite possibly. Which is why we need a ministry to stop it!

are they going to ban draught drink?

Fair enough question from Father Trixy as we sit watching the news that we are soon going to have nanny state labels on alcohol.

Alcoholic drinks will carry new health warning labels by the end of 2008 under a voluntary agreement between ministers and the drinks industry.
The labels will detail alcoholic units and recommended safe drinking levels.

I find alcohol rather useful, actually, particularly if I am stuck talking to someone who is very dull. So, for me, a safe drinking level depends rather on where I am and who I am with.

What gets me about this move, however, is that this is how the smoking fascism started. First we had little warnings, then bigger warnings,(I always go for the ones about smoking cutting ones sperm count because they won't do anything to me) then we weren't allowed to smoke in certain places, then the warnings had pictures on them (some of them are rather amusing) and soon only criminals will be allowed to smoke.

How long before our drinks get covered in stupid labels, and then we are only allowed a certain number of drinks, and then we are only allowed to drink at certain times, and then drinking is banned altogether?

And my father does have a point: how are they doing to put the warnings on pints of beer? Or is that a rather handy way of getting rid of that irksome unit of measurement?

Help required

Rachel from North London is being stalked by an overweight, greying nut job. She needs help to catch the 'lady' in question...

Had a stalker myself. Not as bad as this, though. He just used to buy me lots of presents and appear at my house. Oh, and he wanted to move to our town to be near me. He should have just stuck at the buying presents thing.

Had a bit of an accident last night which has rather knocked me for six so will probably be a bit quiet over the next few days whilst I recover. I will be back as soon as I can, and as offensive as ever, I hope!

Trixy

Galileo is dumb

Not my words, but the words of the EU Commission Vice-President:

Verheugen: Galileo was a “dumb project”

Handelsblatt reports that Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen has made the latest in a series of gaffes. He told journalists that the Galileo EU satellite project was “in some ways a dumb project”. His spokesman quickly moved to correct the Commissioner saying that his remark had been misunderstood and that the Commissioner naturally thought Galileo was “extremely important”. He explained that “Verheugen indeed said ‘dumb’, but he meant ‘simplistic’”.

Thanks to Handelsblatt for that one...

Poor Spam

Back in March the Boy Blunder was in Brussels speaking at the launch of the new group called the Movement for European Reform which wanted a new EU agenda for the 21st century. I'd quite like one of those, where the UK is out of the EU and we can have some democracy, free trade, a free markets approach to business and small government. I don't think Davey-Boy and his pals share my thoughts, though, as they seem to rather like the EU, despite the fact it is holding back development and globalisation.

One of the groups that Spam wanted to join his little group of centre-right fun was the SDS (or UDF in English) has not done that well in the Bulgarian European Elections, though....

Right-wing parliamentary formations SDS and DSB failed to clear the electoral bar of 5.6% and will not participate in the shareout of the 18 MEPs seats that were up for grabs.

What will anyone offer me for Tory MEPs still being in the EPP in 2010?

what people say when they think no one is listening

The kettle broke in my office today so I had to pop along to my club to have a cup of tea. as luck would have it, I had some entertainment in the form of a press conference given by William Hague and David Cameron.

It was ostensibly about Iran and what the UK should do (which from what I gathered was mew pitifully at the feet of the US and the EU) but when it came to questions, it was very definitely back to the subject of grammar schools. I'm not surprised the press aren't giving up on this subject, because it's a good one. William Hague did not look all that happy about what Cameron was saying about grammar schools not promoting social mobility. Maybe he understands that for them to really do that you need more of them, especially in inner cities, to avoid the situation of the 'post code lottery'.

What amused me more was when I popped into the bar afterwards to finish my cup of tea and have a cigarette and Cameron and Hague were there with their team. As people drifted off, it was just Hague left with his press lady, who informed him that he had a live interview lined up where they wanted to talk about the Litvinenko case and road pricing. Old Bill didn't look too happy at that news. In fact, if I recall correctly, he placed his hands on the bar, leaned on them and say he 'didn't know anything about road pricing' and that he wasn't that confident on Litvinenko.

I had a look at the interview on the TV and he was right, he didn't know that much. I'm so happy that a policy being debated in the House of Commons today which is of considerable importance, especially if Galileo has anything to do with it, is off the radar of the Shadow Foreign Affairs Secretary. As someone whose portfolio includes the European Union, he really should know that road pricing using satellites is a nice way of the British taxpayer funding this black hole in the EU budget, which has already cost them £200 million. As UKIP have pointed out:

This government signed up to Directive 2004/52 which will ensure the entire road pricing schemes in EU countries are the same, and can be linked to Galileo.

And as I have written before:

Galileo satellite system: Multi billion pound 'grand project' that is driven by delays, costs and technical problems. Will be superseded by competition. The need to pay for this project is the main reason for the hated road pricing scheme.

So there we go. I'm glad that Mr Hague is so on the ball.

I'm Spartacus

has anyone see?

A little bird has told me that David Cameron has lost his green tie. Come to think of it, it's been a while since I have seen spam parading around with his neck attire of environmental kindness. I wonder if the loss of the tie will mean he'll stop talking bullshit about carbon offsetting and attaching pieces of The Netherlands to his house.

I doubt it.

news flash

I hear that Prince Harry is not going to go to Iraq after all. Instead, he's going to get slaughtered in Boujis.

Bad taste?

Tories hypocrisy on education

I am baffled that the "two-brains Willetts" thinks that

"We must break free from the belief that academic selection is any longer the way to transform the life chances of bright poor kids,"

In a recent report by Bristol University, it was found that children from poor backgrounds do particularly well in grammar schools.

For the minority of poor children who do gain a place in a grammar school, the advantage this bestows appears to be greater than for more affluent children

Of course, due to the policies of recent governments, there are not enough grammar schools in the country to ensure that all bright children have the option of going to a grammar school. What this achieves is a system where children with richer parents can either afford to send their child to a private school, or they can afford to move house to an area where there is a grammar school, where house prices will be more expensive.

I am please that the party I belong to, the UK Independence Party, believes that there should be a grammar school in every town.

The comments by the Tory party show the sheer level of hypocrisy they are willing to sink to, especially when you consider that five members of the shadow cabinet went to grammar school, as did Baroness Thatcher. So it's okay for them to have a quality education, but not for poor children.

That's nice.

By abandoning grammar schools we are holding back brightest children from all areas of society, to the detriment of the whole country. Simple.

Long arm of the law

A little bird has just sent me a story saying that a court has been told that a police man 'played with himself' in front of a suspect. Nice.

A policeman masturbated in the back seat of a squad car in front of a
woman, a jury heard today. Police Constable Richard Bowen, 31, based at Lampeter Police Station, west Wales, had been sent to London in April last year with the task of bringing back the woman to Wales.

A policewoman drove the unmarked Ford Escort back on the 240-mile journey with Bowen sitting in the rear seat with the 25-year-old woman, Swansea Crown Court heard today.
Elwen Evans QC, prosecuting, alleged that along the way Bowen wrote a series of increasingly sexually explicit notes to the woman.

She said among them were the messages "You are sexy. You have got an amazing smile and lush tits", and also "I am hard". She said that Bowen secretly wrote down the messages and propositioned the woman in writing so that the policewoman who was driving would not suspect.

After the final message "he slipped down into his seat, opened his zip and started masturbating. "He then took out a white handkerchief and ejaculated into it."

Classy.

It gets better...

A white cotton handkerchief was discovered among his clothes and was found to be soaked in sperm. But before it was discovered Bowen had spoken to his inspector at the station to explain the state of the handkerchief.

He said: "Inspector, I think you need to know that I knocked one out before I came to work."

Miss Evans said: "I think that it is clear that what he meant by that was masturbating to ejaculation."

The suspect seemed to have raised more than a smile!

But, as my friend points out to me, at least he didn't cover her in custard.

Commies are okay

Very few things irritate the sandal wearing leftie brigade who enjoy knitting their own knickers more than pointing out that the Nazis were National Socialists. In the European Parliament, they hate it almost as much as they hate people pointing out that Communism was, in terms of numbers killed, a far nastier regime than aforementioned jackboot wearing evil bastards. It's just as well for the Communists who sit as MEPs in the European Parliament that they think like that. Oh, yes. There are a group of people who were elected as Communists and who sit as Communists, along with lovely people like Sinn Fein, and no one bats an eyelid.

Not quite the same as the reaction to the 'right wing' group who formed a few months ago, who are made up of MEPs, some of whom were elected on a right wing ticket, where people said that they shouldn't be allowed to form a group. Or sit as MEPs, I am sure.

I dislike both sides immensely. As a libertarian, I find them extremely distasteful. I also find that the biased nature that left wing nut jobs are okay, but right ones
aren't rather raises my blood pressure.

From the IHT here is another example of why Communism is okay in the European Union:

BRUSSELS, Belgium: A leading Polish member of the European Parliament who
refused to submit a declaration that he did not cooperate with communist-era secret police will not have his mandate revoked, his political group said Saturday, after Poland's highest court struck down legislation requiring him to do so.

Bronislaw Geremek, 75, a former dissident and foreign minister, faced losing his
mandate after refusing to comply with the controversial law, which he said violated moral rules and threatened the freedom of speech. The warning by Polish officials that he could be stripped of his duties caused a stir in the EU assembly, and all major political groups stood by Geremek.

Poland's Constitutional Tribunal on Friday struck down parts of the controversial new law requiring that up to 700,000 Poles be screened for past collaboration with the communist-era secret police. Geremek's group, the Liberal Democrats, said this means he can keep his mandate as an EU parliamentarian

I suppose given that there have been claims made that the former President of the Commission is rather fond of Communism, and some of the current shower of shitsCommissioners have somewhat dubious pasts this should not really come as a surprise.

Eurovision geopolitics

I rather enjoyed watching the Eurovision song contest last night. Not for the quality of music, you understand: I'd like to think that having been a musician since I was three that I could produce something rather better. A demonstration is why it is not a musical competition can be nicely shown here, with the Ukraininan entry:



The other element of the competition which amuses me is the blatant political nature of the voting. The UK, for example, produced a really shit song, full of not-so-subtle sexual inuendo like 'Would you like something to suck on?'and yet Malta, with whom we have very strong ties, gives us 12 points. Ireland still felt obliged to give us seven. It's a game, guessing who will get the points before they are announced, and no one is too surprised when, for example, we guess that Finland gives Sweden 12 points.

My friend said that maybe the musical tastes are more similar in countries in close proximity to each other, especially if they have a land border. I think that's a nice idea, but basically countries can't help but vote in a political way, even in something as camp and irrelevant as the Eurovision song contest. Perhaps that's the way we should decide voting in the Council of Ministers?

And on that point, how come there are now 48 countries taking part in the EUROvision?

odd choice

Does anyone else know why Blair chose to announce the date that he is stepping down as PM at a Methodist barn dance?

A weighty issue

Lots of talk today about imperial measurements being 'saved', which I thought I would just clarify. It's not the most simple of topics and, being rather new to the debate, it's taken me a bit of time to gather the information. The main point it that it is still illegal to sell goods in imperial measurements. Your butcher cannot sell you a pound of sausages, he has to sell you it in metric.
The claims in the papers are regarding a derogation on supplementary indicators. From 31st December 2009 it was going to be illegal for shops etc. to include the price of things in imperial as well as metric, but now that has been dropped, although the Commission and the DTI are yet to make an official statement on it.

What has rather irritated me, as I pointed out in the post below, is the Tories jumping up and down about how they are the St George to the imperialist virgin. They aren't.

If we have a little look at Hansard from the 11th April 1989 we can see that it was none other than the current Conservative Party Chairman St Francis of Maastricht who brought in yet more measures about metrification.

European Community (Weights and Measures)

10.17 pm

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Corporate Affairs (Mr. Francis Maude) : I beg to move

That this House takes note of European Community Document No. 4102/89 on units of measurement ; and welcomes the proposals as providing adequate transitional periods to enable businesses and consumers to adapt and become used to the new measurements. In 1965 the then Government announced their support to encourage the adoption of metric units as the primary system for weights and measures in the United Kingdom.

That was a decision taken for purely domestic reasons, in response to urging by the CBI and others ; it had nothing to do then with possible membership of the European Community. In 1971 the then member states of the Community adopted a directive which established the sole use of the metric system throughout the Community. When the United Kingdom and Ireland acceded to the Community the Government accepted that eventually the metric system should be the only system to be used.

In consequence, a White Paper on metrication was published in 1972. It stated that all practicable progress towards the full use of the metric system should be made within the next few years, in the interests of economic prosperity. This led to the education system moving to the use of metric units in 1974. As a result, 11 million children since then have been taught only in the metric system.

he goes on:

Under the present weights and measures legislation, which has been in existence, subject to amendment from time to time, for a long time, it is, and has been for many years, a criminal offence to sell goods in measures which are not authorised under the legislation

Which does rather make a mockery of the statement by Giles Chichester MEP that:

The threat to miles, yards and pints is off the agenda after Giles Chichester MEP, Conservative Industry Spokesman, got confirmation from Industry Commissioner Verheugen that "dual marking" of goods in imperial and metric will 'continue indefinitely'.

I'm still smelling that smoke...is anyone else?

Giles Chichester says: "After saving the crown on the British pint, I am happy the Conservatives have persuaded the Commission that it is good not only for international business but for the British people that traditional measurements are kept. I just hope there won't be any more need for metric martyrs and that the government will avoid forcing metrication down the public's throat."

But you don't mention that it's still illegal to sell in imperial? Still trying to convince your voters that you're eurosceptic, are you? You're an embarrassment to the nation, Giles, and I hope you and your cronies are thoroughly ashamed of yourself. I also hope you don't get elected in 2009 and you have to find a job in the real world. One that then gets shut down because of all the harmful EU legislation that you and your other MEP colleagues have helped to bring about to justify your own existence.

Shame on you.

predictive text

A friend has just text me saying that thanks to predictive text, she almost sent a rather inappropriate text message to her boss. She wanted to talk about the preso (presentation) but her phone decided that actually, what she wanted to talk about was sperm. Nice.

The ones which amuse me are the dirty type which don't come out quite as planned. A male friend of mine was rather bemused when he received a request from a young lady asking him to 'duck my aunt', which he felt was rather unusual as he hadn't even met her parents. Even more strange was the request for him to'Kick my yet puppy'. Odd what gets some people off.

Also, why would I want to use the word 'sub' instead of 'pub'? Why does my phone not know my name, and instead use the word 'concaldekle'? Why has it not learnt that while 'knickers' is a word, 'logaless; isn't. Neither is 'locales?' a suitable alternative for 'knackered'.

It's all rather strange.

Giles Chichester: telling porkies

It seems that there is some good news emerging from the EU that the Commissioner for Industry has said that in 2009 there won't be forced metrification in the UK.

If this is the case, and our government doesn't decide to gold-plate EU legislation on measurements, it must be claimed as a team victory.

It's a shame that Tory MEP Giles Chichester doesn't see it like that. The man who wrote the legislation which ended the crown stamp on pint glasses is now claiming that:

"After saving the crown on the British pint, I am happy the Conservatives have persuaded the Commission that it is good not only for international business but for the British people that traditional measurements are kept...

No, Giles, you didn't. What you actually did was allow a pretty picture to go on a pint glass as long as the EU CE stamp to validate the measurement is also on there.

I smell smoke. Is that because your pants are on fire?

Deaf and Dumb?

Isn't it annoying when you're in a bar or a club and you're trying to order a drink, but the bar staff can't hear you properly?

Well, just thank your lucky stars that the Royal National Institute for the Deaf aren't in government:

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People said staff working where loud music was played should get ear plugs.

Classic. It's such a stupid idea, I'm surprised it didn't come from the EU. Oh, hold on...

Under EU directives, firms have to ensure staff are protected where noise
exceeds 85 decibels.

Most clubs and some pubs and bars will exceed this, but the music and
entertainment industry has been given an exemption until next April.

And after that? Are we all to carry round note pads and pens to write down our orders and flash them to the staff? Or perhaps we could all learn sign language? Or, even better, perhaps people could realise that rather like staff working in pubs and having to deal with smoke, people are aware of the downsides of jobs when they take them. I can't imagine it coming across as a real shock to someone starting a job in a nightclub that they play loud music.

What next? Ear plugs for the clubbers as well? Don't laugh; with the EU you know it's a possibility...

elections

Am so tired; haven't been to bed since Wednesday night, but am alert enough to be unimpressed with the election results. Labour didn't do as bad as they could have, but they didn't do well. And Cameron's Conservatives did make lots of gains, yes, but they've also sold out. And considering the state of this government, they should have done better.

Am disappointed by the UKIP results in Wales: the BNP did too well, sadly, and ruined our chances of getting a list seat in North Wales. However, there were seats we stood in for the first time where we secured some respectable results: Bruce Lawson scored 10.1% in Montgomeryshire, to name one. The party has also secured some new council seats and some very good places with high percentages, which means we are building up a good local network in places in the country.

I think the thing which stands out about all of this, though, is the bloody shambles of the Scottish votes. How can they have independence when they can't even get ballot boxes to the mainland?

Doctors refuse abortion forms

Yet another reason why the need for two doctors to sign a referral for an abortion should be removed.

Up to one in four GPs is refusing to sign abortion referral forms because of moral objections – and nearly one in five wants terminations banned.

I could write and write about this topic, but I'm not going to. Instead I am going to agree with these words:

A spokesman for family planning clinics Marie Stopes International, which carry out about a third of the 180,000 abortions in Britain each year, said: 'Doctors are not gods. Parliament in this country passed the law 40 years ago and women are entitled to access this procedure legally and safely. What right do doctors have to judge?'

But he added: 'We still have this anachronistic legislation which that says women cannot take control of their bodies and can only have abortions with two signatures from doctors.'

I think I will start up a petition at the Downing Street site...

The FCO EU site

I complained about the quiz they had on there, which was, well, factually incorrect. However, it does rather piss me off that money from the public purse is being used to make lies and inaccuracies, which can be found on the EU section of the FCO website. I personally shall be writing in to complain. I hope all you right thinking people do too.

How to bring elderly relatives into the country

Any of you out there have relatives living abroad who could do with some free health care? Perhaps you have a new wife who you'd quite like to bring into the country without the bother of the usual immigration obstacle course?

THE owner of a fish and chip shop says he was shocked to be contacted by an advice centre for immigrants offering to help him bring elderly relatives into the country for health treatment.

Evan Llewellyn-Jones, who runs Llew’s in Bridgend, says he was so incensed that he contacted the head office of Ukip, the UK Independence Party.

Mr Llewellyn-Jones, a former miner and oil rig worker who set up his own business in the 1980s, said, “Some people who don’t realise that Llew is a Welsh name appear to think the fish and chip shop is a Chinese takeaway. I have received material in the past in Chinese which I haven’t understood but which I assume was offering to sell me rice etc.

Well, that's nice, isn't it. It's not as if the NHS, monumental statist, centrist Stalin-like organisation that it is, isn't already failing miserably at providing a decent service comparable with the rest of the developed world. It's not like the welfare bill in this country is massively exceeded by national insurance payments; indeed, that source of government income, despite a rise of 10% under this 'government' does not even cover pensions.

What state have we got to that private businesses are reduced to this pitiful state of money making which, conversely, make the country worse off:

“A few days ago I received a leaflet from an organisation called the Newport Immigration Advice Centre offering a range of services, including ‘advice and application on how to bring elderly people to the UK for medical treatment’. Other services include advice on bringing elderly parents or relatives to visit the UK, howhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif to bring people to the UK on a work permit, how to bring a newly married wife or husband into the country, how to bring students to the UK and so on, including helping people to extend their stay in the UK and appeal when they are turned down.

“Obviously the body from Newport also thought that I was running a Chinese takeaway. Perhaps they looked us up in the Yellow Pages.

I suppose we are lucky that they made a mistake in who they sent their literature out to and the Western Mail and UKIP exposed this company for the morally bankrupt, unpatriotic bastards that they are.

You can read the whole thing here

So funny....

A few of my favourite things

Shoes and Trade!

It seems that Clarks shoes have finally felt the sting of the harmful and economically backward decision by arch numpty Peter Mandelson:

Profits at C&J Clark, the family-controlled shoe company, fell last year after the EU imposed tariffs on shoes imported from China and Vietnam.

CandJ Clark's profits fell last year as a result of EU imposed tariffs on shoes imported from China and Vietnam.

Turnover at the company, which owns Clarks, Britain's largest shoe retailer, rose from £920.6m to £972.7m in the year to January 31 2007, but pre-tax profits slipped from £71.9m to £69.4m, according to accounts filed at Companies House.

In his statement to shareholders Peter Davies, chairman, said that the "politically inspired decision to impose anti-dumping duties on footwear imports from China and Vietnam" had cost the group £4.8m and warned that it was likely to cost a further £13m this year.

As I have written before, the decision by the EU to impose tariffs on shoes coming from China and Vietnam was nothing but a politically motivated decision designed to appease the countries in Europe who have not, and do not plan to, adapt to globalisation.

What was particularly stupid about this decision was that the European Commission team went to Brazil to decide whether or not China and Vietnam were engaged in anti competitive practises.
The GDP per capita in China is $8600
The GDP per capita in Vietnam is $7600
The GDP per capita in Brazil is $3100

So they aren't exactly identical now, are they. What's more, with the sheer numbers of people, particularly in China, their wages are much lower. Now, whilst not paying workers very much might cause a huge tizz amongst the bleeding heart socialists, in order for countries to develop and get rich, they take advantage of the resources they have in abundance. If poor countries develop then yes, the rich get rich first, and then there's a trickle down effect. If you have a look at the Kuznets curve we see that inequality rises initially when there is a switch away from primary products markets to the secondary sector.

There was no real reason for these protectionist barriers to free trade to be imposed on Chinese and Vietnamese exports, apart from countries such as Italy, Spain and Portugal not being able to compete with them, because they like the over regulated, union driven markets which the EU holds in such high regard. And as a consequence, British firms and consumers have suffered.

As Nigel Farage MEP said to Commissioner Mandelson:

How can 25 countries have one single trade policy? One size does not fit all, whether it is trade policy or shoe sizes.

Quite. It doesn't. We are the world's third largest trading nation, and it is outrageous that we don't have UK representation at the WTO.

So, can we leave yet?