Burning cars and waving placards

I am not surprised that a few months ago large numbers of the French immigrant population were rioting in the streets. Unemployment amongst this area of society is currently 49%. Youth unemployment averages in France 23%, and total unemployment is desperately struggling to get down below 9%. This, in a Western European economy. It's no wonder economic growth for 2005 was only 1.9%.

Over half GDP in France comes from the public sector - private businesses are in the minority, and why? Because it's almost illegal to fire someone so there is no incentive for businesses to expand and new jobs to be created. With all the risks that come with starting up a new business, having the additional fear that you will be lumbered with wages for people who aren't making money for you isn't going to encourage you.

Unfortunately, this is an example of the European Social Model being thrust upon the unfortunate members of the European Union: A Union so blinded by its desire for a single state, it fails to see how chronically ill so many economies are, and how it's prescription will cause the vibrant economies to stutter to a halt in time.

Here is a little summary from the Guardian today about welfare systems and employment in some EU countries:

FRANCE: Job protections include generous vacation, pensions and maternity leave,
and subsidized meals and transport. It is extremely difficult to fire anyone
with a permanent contract, and layoffs can be blocked by courts. High youth
unemployment prompted a new law that would make it easier to fire young workers
to try to encourage hiring. The law has prompted protests and strikes.

BRITAIN: Most benefits are decided by the employer, not the state. Layoffs for
economic reasons are common. Mass protests are rare, though anger over a pension
dispute prompted public sector workers to stage a one-day strike Tuesday.

GERMANY: Workers enjoy several weeks of vacation and generous pensions, and most
work weeks run less than 40 hours. The two ruling parties agreed last year to
ease the regulation of the labor market to encourage firms to hire more staff,
but the move has met wide opposition.

ITALY: Job security is playing a key role in the campaign for April 9-10
elections. The government introduced temporary work contracts in 2002 after
protests forced them to water down deeper reforms. Like France, Italy has
generous protections and high youth unemployment.

NORWAY: With a booming oil economy, Norway has just 3 percent unemployment.
Norwegians have strong rights in the workplace, good unemployment and sick leave
benefits, legislated time off, holidays and working hours. Employers often
include a contract clause of a six-month trial period for new employees.

BALTIC STATES: Labour laws in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia favour employers, who
have few restrictions in hiring and firing. With many young people having moved
to Britain, Ireland and Sweden since 2004, employers are offering health plans
and career training to entice workers. Estonia's laws protect workers with
children younger than 3 and make it nearly impossible for employers to fire
pregnant women.

POLAND: The EU's highest jobless rate at 18 percent. Its rigid labor laws - in
part a legacy of the strong social safety net once guaranteed by communism -
make firings difficult.

SWEDEN: Strong worker protections and generous welfare benefits are hallmarks of
Sweden's cherished social model. To fire a worker, an employer must show it is
absolutely necessary because of cutbacks or the worker has severely failed to
live up to expectations. Offers a minimum of five weeks paid vacation or the
right to up to 480 days of paid parental leave.

I prefer cats myself

Whilst trying to book a hotel for the boss in Brussels, which turned out to be nigh-on impossible due to the world and his wife descending on Brussels, I stumled across a rather pretentious hotel.

Comfort Art Hotel Siru - Brussels - 3*

A showcase of Contemporary Belgian Art, between 1989 and 1990, the Comfort Art Hotel Siru gave free rein to the imagination of 130 painters, sculptors and comic-strip draughtsmen to turn its 101 rooms into as many paintings and in the process turn this property into the first "museum-hotel" in the world. The imaginative and individual decor of each room makes for an enjoyable and refreshing visit.

I wondered if Todd might like a trip at some point, so I checked their pets policy:

Pets policy

Children welcome

ooh, that's a shame. If cats were allowed I might have paid them a visit, but children - no thanks!

The truth about the Labour Party

The truth about the Labour Party

Our author takes no prisoners! A very interesting read.

It's easier to do it this way

My computer at 'work' doesn't let me attach pictures but some clever person has managed to do it for me!

http://englandexpects.blogspot.com/2006/01/something-i-meant-to-do-long-time-ago.html

In the spirit of solidarity I put these on my blog! I am not constrained by their religous laws, and until they start treating women a bit better, I'm not that bothered about them jumping up and down about their 'rights' and 'respecting them'.

Eastern Europe gets rubbish from EU

Literally, and not just via stupid, ill-thought-out regulations! Well, I'm afraid they can't have it all their way:
Reuters
Czechs fear EU garbage plan could worsen dumping
08 Mar 2006 17:19:46 GMT
Source: Reuters

PRAGUE, March 8 (Reuters) - EU plans to relax rules on refuse disposal could see
poorer members swamped with rubbish from their richer neighbours, the Czech
Republic said on Wednesday.

Prague, worried by how much German rubbish has come into the country where
disposal is cheaper, has barred foreign waste for dumping and burning, allowing
it in only for recycling.

But under a proposed European Union directive, to be discussed by ministers in
Brussels on Thursday, a member state could no longer refuse to import waste for
burning.

Czech Environment Minister Libor Ambrozek said he would protest against the
proposal.

"The directive does not reflect the difference in the economic conditions in the
new EU member states," he said in a statement.

"The different price levels in the waste treatment area create preconditions for
an undesirable cross-border transfer of waste ... to new member states, for
eco-dumping."

The Czech Republic, which borders much richer and larger Germany, has
experienced a rise in cases of often illegal waste imports -- "eco-dumping" --
as companies try to cut costs.

It fears the new plan could cause a massive rise in shipments, including illegal
ones.

There are about 20,000 tonnes of illegally dumped German waste in the country, a
ministry spokeswoman said.

Customs officials have tightened up border controls and have caught six trucks
this month trying to enter Czech territory with undeclared illegal waste, the
news agency CTK reported.

The Environment Ministry said Prague would try to widen opposition to the
planned directive, and discuss this with nearby Slovakia, Hungary and Poland.

They have received huge amounts of money from the EU budget - and if I recall then the UK paid £7bn into the slush fund, which was going out to the underground system in Warsaw and the sewers in Budapest: both of which represent huge, sensible investments to the British tax payer who wants to save for their pension or their childrens' university fees.

The comment about the different economic situations also angers me somewhat. We know here in the west that there are different economic situations: this is why we have had about 300,000 economic migrants from eastern europe since 2004. They can't have their cake and eat it, I'm afraid. Whilst the EU may seem to them a way to be a player on the international stage, a way of getting free money from hard working tax payers in other countries and new working destinations it's also about the eradication of laws based on what is best for individual countries and the erosions of national borders and customs until we are one fat, sinking, economically retarded federal state. Just ask Richard Corbett. Or the Communists.

Let's celebrate womens day

By talking about the rape laws in pakistan and the abortion laws in South Dakota.

Let's start wíth the rape first:

In 2002 six men were sentenced to death for the gang rape of a woman. Gang rape is hideous enough, but what makes this case even more so is that it was actually ordered as a punishment by a council. Mukhtar Mai was raped by four men on the instruction of tribal elders after she refused to marry a member of a clan whose relative buggered her 12 year old brother. What I cannot understand is how these people can think so little of women - that she is just a pawn and a bargaining tool so men can get what they want. She wanted justice for the crime committed on her brother and instead gets brutally raped, degraded and humiliated by people who are supposed to be the leaders of the village. Can someone explain that to me? Maybe when they do, can they also explain what is honourable about murdering a female member of your family for having an independent spirit and not wanting to live their lives for others? Why women jump on the funeral pyres of their dead husbands, so they aren't a 'burden' to anyone? Why are there so many people in this world who seem to think that women are inferior to men? Without women the human race would not exist. Without men, the human race would not exist. Surely it's logical that both sexes are equal and that such attitudes are just a way of control and power?

On that happy note, let's go to the South Dakota abortion laws. A marmalade-dropping moment if ever I heard, although I don't eat marmalade. From July it will be a crime in South Dakota to perform any abortion unless a pregnant woman's life was in danger.That means that pregnancy from rape or incest is not included! Danger from whom? Danger from what? From herself? From trying to self abort through sheer desperation, because when you make abortion illegal, the number of abortions do not fall, but the number of women who die rises. If you ban abortion, you end up with some very seriously injured women: back street abortions end up with severe bleeding, internal damage and hysterectomies. But presumably the "pro-lifers" (whose life, may I ask? Certainly not that of the pregnant woman - her wishes for her life are not even taken into consideration)consider this to be some kind of punishment for having the audacity to end an unwanted pregnancy.

A woman cannot be free until she has the right over her own body and her own future. This means access to contraception, to abortions, to education, healthcare, the same wage for the same job as men, to public positions and to legal personality. Not being able to decide what happens to your own body is an abuse of human rights. And no, I do not think that a foetus has the same rights as a human, because rights come with responsibilities. A foetus at ten weeks might look like a baby when magnified and stuck on the front cover of the Daily Outrage, but considering it's about the size of a walnut I can't see it surviving. And until it can survive outside the womb, the wishes of the pregnant woman must come first.

Happy Womens Day: I'm going shopping.

If Kinnock thinks it's good, it must be bad

So we need to change all our road signs from miles to kilometers do we? And why is that? We hear again today that the Commission say that the UK will not reduce it's budget deficit to under the 3% target before the end of the year so what a good thing to spend yet more money we don't have on changing road signs just for the sake of harmonisation.

Alastair Darling MP last night on question time said that he didn't think it was necessary but when Nigel Farage MEP said that the EU Directive due to come into force by 2010 was going to ban imperial weights and measures he called him 'nasty' and 'anti European'. Darling, please try come up with something convincing as an argument and try not be hypocritical.

Whilst we have our heads in the sand...

Yet more proof that this idea for a Single European State will press ahead regardless of what people in Europe really want. The French and Dutch said "no", the Commission went "la la la, we're not listening". The majority of people do not want Turkey to join, so negotiations opened. The Parliament repeatedly reject the Port Services Directive (for different reasons, because countries are not the same, Mr Barrot)the COmmission keeps on trying to get it passed.

EUobserver.com
Verheugen predicts political union in 20 years
20.02.2006 - 09:53 CET | By Mark Beunderman

EU industry commissioner Gunter Verheugen has predicted that some EU states will
in 20 years form a political union.

In in an interview with German daily Die Welt, the commissioner was asked how he
sees the EU in 20 years' time.

He responded by saying "I believe… we will have a political union, but maybe not
with all states that now form part of the EU."

"Certain European states will agree to have common competencies in foreign,
economic and financial policy as well as in judicial policy," he explained about
his long-term vision.

The remarks point to the possible creation of a "core" Europe of EU states
further integrating policies, with other states opting out.

This vision emerged in the 1990s in German conservative political circles, and
has since won supporters mainly in France and Belgium, with the Belgian prime
minister Guy Verhofstadt recently suggesting closer co-operation between the
eurozone states.

The commissioner also appeared to predict predicted a further enlarged EU
encompassing the western Balkans, Turkey, Switzerland and Norway - but excluding
states like Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Russia.

"In 20 years all European states will be members of the EU, except the
post-Soviet states that do not yet form part of the EU now," he said.

Mr Verheugen served as the EU's enlargement commissioner in the previous Prodi
commission from 1999-2004, succesfully managing the bloc's 2004 expansion while
championing further enlargement, including with Turkey.

© EUobserver.com 2006
Printed from EUobserver.com 20.02.2006

Unless we actually do something solid about it, and elect people to power who aren't bribed with nice positions in a new central government, we will no longer have national identities. But the people of Britain appear not to care - they act as though if they ignore it, it will go away. And slowly, they accept the creeping changes until they are used to seeing the EU pirate flag hanging from buildings in Brussels, and being waved at the last night of the Proms (an event which is full of patriotism and national pride - I bet the BBC paid someone to wave it about). It won't go away, we can't ignore it so hello media, can we have some coverage on what is going on over here. Hello people, stop saying you hate the EU and don't want Britain to be a part of it, and do something about it!

slimey creatures

Fish are. scaley and odd colours. Still, as much as I don't particularly like them, they aren't anywhere near as slimey as Tory politicians! I grant you, many of the other denominations are bad - but their hypocracy never fails to astound me.

The reason I mentioned fish was because this new gut wrenching tory comment is about fish, fishing, the Common Fisheries Policy and a stable. At least, that's what the Shetland box sounds like.

The Tories, in particular Struan Stevenson, have been slagging off UKIP MEPs for voting against the preservation of this Shetland box because they say that we should be happy that we are allowed 40% of fish stocks as long as the Germans, Norwegians and some others could come along and fish too. They don't seem to understand that according to UNCLOS III, that area is part of the British Exclusive Economic Zone and selling our fishing rights away has not only caused havoc for fish stocks but also cost British fishermen and their communities greatly. The EU allowed Spain to sue each and every fishing village under the CFP because they were fishing in British waters and they weren't allowed to!

We should have 100% not 40%. So Mr Stevenson, you are part of a party which has already lied about the CFP when you said the Tories would renegotate, and now you lie about this being a good deal. Tories jumping into bed with Labour - continual evidence for this centerist politics we have now. The Commission themselves, when they were asked by Nigel Farage years ago, and by Catherine Stihler a few weeks ago have said that if you withdraw from the CFP, you leave the EU. And the Tories don't have the backbone to come up with a sensible policy such as withdrawing from this hideous, economically retarded dictatorship.

I am enjoying this

Over the last two six nations championships, England haven't really done that well - because they had lost key players from injury and resignation after the 2003 World Cup win. I had a plastic Taff boyfriend some time ago, and last year, even though we had split up (his fault) I still had to endure his triump of Wales over the 'hated Saes'. Hated, I think, because the English were successful in the Empire. I noticed yesterday when Chelsea were beated 3-0 to Middlesborough? that people wanted to see success brought down: it was these people who were happy that Chelsea lost who were also supporting Italy against England, even though they were not Italian.

But, ha ha, we won. AGAIN. Maybe not with such pizazz as we would have liked, but we did. And I sincerely hope that Scotland beat Wales today, because to see the table lead with England and follow with Scotland, and have Wales at the bottom would make me supremely happy.

What's wrong with selection?

Am just listening to a programme on the education proposals and yet again I wonder where this country is going to. Well, that country, since I am not there at the moment.

Ma main gripe is that political correctness has gone mad, and when it affects how well children are educated, this really, really bothers me.

Only yesterday someone told me that in AS level economics text books they are promoting the euro and in exam papers, they ask for one sided opinions on why the euro is good. This is not acceptable.

But why are schools not allowed to select their pupils? I went to a school where I had to pass an exam to get into and we had streaming in certain subjects. And guess what, the results were excellent. Higher with the internal streaming than without because the school was open in admitting that some children are more clever than others, and some children were good at things that other children weren't.

Why can't schools be allowed to select pupils? Why should really bright children be held back by children who need a different teaching method? Why should parents who encourage their children do their homework, and read and learn more have their efforts thwarted by people who don't care how their children behave and feel that someone else should do it for them?

I am simply not intelligent enough to be a brain surgeon, and I hate the sight of blood too. I accept that, it's fair enough - and those who are clever enough and dedicated enough: I applaud them. If you refuse to allow children to be taught in ability groups and in different methods then you will increase the illiteracy rates to higher than they are now (and now, they are higher than in Victorian times) and you will polar the system as parents who can and care enough to, send their children to private school.

How far will Richard Corbett go?

He first incurred my wrath when he accused me of lying about being attacked in the European Parliament: I was protesting peacefully about the EU Constitution (his baby -literally) when I was pounced on by 4 security guards and then in the forthcoming investigation, they failed to interview the one member of staff who was acutally involved in it (me). Corbett in his deepest, wildest fantasies came out and accuse me of being a liar, without ever having met me, asked me about what happened and not evenbeing a spectator to the incident.

He seems to spend his time following everything to do with Godfrey Bloom; one can only guess he is in the pursuit of a personality. He has now decided to openly accuse UKIP of being racist.

Now, the OED (it's produced in England, Richard, not Belgium so you probably won't have read it) describes racist as:

discrimination against or antagonism towards other races.

When you google UKIP, and actually bother to research anything about, it rather than get in a small hyperactive fit about a party saying that the forcing together of nations who want to be individual is anything other than a good thing, you will find that UKIP is a non racist party. Yes, honey. Wanting control over your own borders doesn't mean you hate people from other countries. Saying that the embracing of cultures that are different doesn't make you racist. Saying you want trade, rather than aid (in the spirit of education I point you in the direction of any book containing the 'lost decade of development') doesn't mean you are a racist. Quite the contrary. In fact, saying someone or a party is racist without actually checking any facts is actually an offense.

May I suggest, angel of the north - or wherever you live - that you spend a little less time exerting your considerable energies over your obesession with UKIP, and more time trying to so something useful. I would not be so bold as to suggest what that could involve.

Todd, come in! It's past your bedtime

Pets will now have 5 freedoms enshrined by law. Well, that sounds lovely and fluffy, just like tummy of a kitten, but shall we think about this.

Firstly, the RSPCA haven't called for such legislation - there are already animal cruelty legislations in UK law. Secondly, when I studied law we were taught that rights come with responsibilities. That is why parents undertake many actions for children and are responsible for them, and under 18 year olds don't vote in elections.

The practicalities of this do seem rather anti-pet, too. My cat has a right to have a cordened off area to do a poo, but I have to make sure he comes in at night. My cat, Todd, is rather more bright than most. Firstly, he does no work and gets looked after like a king. He also had a vote in this years Conservative party leadership elections. (he voted for David Cameron). When he wants a poo he tends to go outside as that is rather more private than most. Okay, the neighbours may not like that extra large truffle on their rhubarb, but that's cats for you. He's nocternal and a hunter - he sleeps during the day and goes out at night and he doesn't want to be locked up because the Labour party thinks that he should have to. Mind you, maybe it's not too long until he's not allowed to hunt....

Shouldn't the government be concentrating on the abysmal state of the NHS or the worryingly high levels of adult illiteracy rather than trying to make household pets the subject of costly legislation which can't be inforced and doesn't need to be in place?

Are the cast of Watership down going to be knocking on my front door to inspect health and safety standards around the food bowls? Will Lassie be monitoring my phone conversations to make sure I am not planning on letting Todd out after nine in the evening? Is David Blunkett's dog going to become a cabinet minister?

first bras, now shoes...what's a girl to do?

Well, Peter Mandelson isn't going to be the one to answer that, is he. Not sure how varied his knowledge of all things female is.

A glance the other day in my copy of 'forthcoming items of legislation' and my eager eyes spotted the words 'shoes' followed by imports. A day or two later, and Eliab sends me this from the European Foundation's Newsround:

Now It’s Shoe Wars

By Svetlana Subbotina

Shoe-producing EU members are lobbying for anti-dumping duties on shoe imports from China, which now take up about a quarter of the EU shoe market. The EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, is resisting demands from domestic producers worried about their profits. Imports from China went up by 322 per cent during the first nine months of 2005 after quotas were lifted on January 1 2005. EU officials observed that dumping — exporting goods to another country and selling them at prices lower than one charges at home — is not linked to the volume of imports.

A separate source suggested that the price of Chinese shoes plummeted from €13.8 to €7.7 per unit which could mean shoes are being sold at prices below the cost of production. China called these figures “flawed” and threatened to refer the EU to the WTO if tariffs for Chinese goods are introduced. European shoe retailers also said that action against Beijing would threaten some 600,000 European jobs. Sales would also go down leaving price rises of up to €20 per unit.

Well, if they are charging below the cost of production then the WTO need to get involved. However, had price ever really been the issue when it come to shoes. Potatoes, yes: normal goods with quantity inversely related to price. Shoes aren't quite the same, though. Many people like the fact that their shoes cost lots of wonga - they are status goods and, rather like with Chanel handbags (not LV, though) the more expensive they are, the more they are demanded. I don't think that just counts for ladies shoes either - I cold get a Gina pair and some Jimmy's for the price of one pair of mens shoes (and they are no where near as pretty).

I think that most of these queries from China are more to do with the protectionist attitude of the EU and their failure to grasp free trade.

Let's face it, when it comes to reality, the EU institutions either have their heads in the sand, or stuck somewhere else where the views of the people of Europe can't reach them.

More on that tomorrow.

Bob Geldof

Is a good chap who genuinely cares about poverty, in my opinion. Don't know him but that' how he comes across, and actions speak louder than words.

I am also glad that, in spite of joining policy forums for the Conservatives on policy, he is going to remain non-partisan, Why?

I saw a clip on tv about him questioning Margaret Thatcher regarding the VAT on the Bandaid single. The reason VAT can't be removed on products is because of the EU - it is currently one of the few ways the EU can collect its own revenue, until the proposed EU tax comes into play.

If Bob Geldof wants to combat poverty, he is looking in the right direction with trade. I wonder what he made of the WTO talks with Mandelson holding back progress with every minute he was there representing the French. The way to development is through trade - it increases parity. Everyone can become better off through efficiency and the sharing of knowledge. Ricado came up with this in the nineteeth century, so why so we have a common external tariff? Why are we driving ourselves into economic obscurity with this regulation, and then raising tariffs to make sure that we don't become uncompetitive in our own markets?

Our former colonies who chose to stay with the Commonwealth can decide their own trade policy, but we can't. The British, who spread trade and liberal democracy throughout the world, and who now are being tied down with some kind of 'middle class guilt' about being a global power, are being governed by people who are not accountable to anyone but themselves. You want a good example, there's a former leader of the opposition and his family doing very well for himself....

Mr Geldof - you want to help make poverty history, then help the 3rd largest trading nation in the world leave the EU.

mental bureaucrats

ARGH!

Am just listening to the fat portuguese 'president' of the Commission, and it is making me very angry.

He says that this has been a good year for European development - HELLO? Are they just completely deaf to the cries of the people who have to pay for this ridiclous circus and who rejected the Constitution? Why are they boasting about aid to developing nations when these countries used to get more aid when it wasn't centralised by the EU? Well Done Glynnis Kinnock. Why are they spouting this shit when Commissioner Mandelson, apparently speaking on behalf of 25 countries (who can he when they all have different trade needs - eh, eh?) but who looks suspiciously like he is twice sacked from the British Government and is now working for the French - will not lead by example. Why do they give aid to these countries when they don't trade with them, which is a long term solution to their poverty. Why do they continue with these fisheries deals which ransack the fishstocks of african nations and then come back and sit in the sterile environment of the council or the Parliament and talk about how well they are doing?

And most bizarre of all - why do people believe them? Why do people vote for them? Bliar yesterday completely ignored David Cameron's comment about why Ireland was receiving more per capita from the EU budget than these eastern european countries who Blair said our taxes are going to help.

And that's another thing - I thought charity started at home? I hope that the charity 'Shelter' this year doesn't have any homeless people to help because our tax money first of all went to help British people? They should be helped by our government, not ignored because people are used to the problem of poverty in the UK, and it is no longer a vote winner.

Rebate fiasco

I'm to copy a little summary from today's 'SUN' newpaper, as I'm not feeling very well (not just because I'm physaically sickened by the 'deal' Bliar decided upon today...Deal - I think steal I is more appropriate') and also because it summed up in very few words how I feel:

Saturday, December 17, 2005
A lost chance

A BILLION here, a billion there and pretty soon you are talking about realmoney. Last night Tony Blair caved in to the French and handed over another billion ayear to keep the shambolic EU in business.

The fiendishly complex gravy train defies rational explanation. But we know itis wasteful and corrupt.Each Pound shrinks by 20p just by passing through the bureaucratic EU wringer. Vast sums are sprayed around the world in inefficient aid.

Much of the rest sticks to grubby fingers as its passes along the line. Some actually ends up in new roads and bridges, but in the most expensive wayimaginable. Year after year, EU auditors refuse to sign off the accounts.

Tony Blair had a chance to put a bomb under this scandal last night.He could have vetoed plans to spend even more and force a shake-up of the wholeshambles. Instead, to Gordon Brown’s fury, the PM signed up to an extra £7BILLION overseven years. That’s money the Chancellor must find in higher taxes to pay for a spending splurge which is running out of steam.

Odd that the Sun still insists on supporting Labour, mind. These are the comments that UKIP have been making for ten years...

facilities

Am looking for a hotel in Edinburgh for Hogmanay. Have absolutely wanted to go for years and am very excited! May have to buy some shoes, or possibly some warm boots for the occastion.

Anyway, I digress. When I pick a hotel I want
1) a bed
2) washing facilities I don't have to share with the wierd people who make the banging noises in the middle of the night (am I jealous that isn't me...maybe)
3) that I don't go bankrupt paying for it.

What I am not particularly bothered about, yet hotels use as a means of alluring you

1) tea and coffee making facilities. eugh
2) Biscuits. Did your granny make them? No? Then I don't care!
3) Windows that open. Honestly, that was on a hotel website.

AM also looking forward whilst I am up there of seeing the Scottish Parliament. Am hoping that I can take a bit home in a kind of tax rebate way, since it was so bloody expensive. And am also hoping to hear people talking in that famous language, 'Scots'. Thought it was a dialect myself...are we going to have cockney rhyming slang translated in Westminster next?

England Expects

England Expects

Great blog, in a similar but less frivilous vein to this.

I've been wondering: If Turkey join the EU, what happens if a Turkish MEP gets speaking time during their prayers?

A little bit of humour on a cold and frosty day

ELEVATION OF SECURITY LEVELS

As many are aware, the French government recently announced it was to
raise its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The normal level is
"General Arrogance", and the only two higher levels in France are
"Surrender" and "Collaborate". The rise was precipitated by a recent
fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralysing
the country's military capability.

It's not only the French that are on a heightened level of alert: Italy
has increased the alert level from "Shout loudly and excitedly" to
"Elaborate military posturing". Two more levels remain, "Ineffective
combat operations" and "Change sides".

The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdain" to "Dress in
uniform and sing marching songs". They have two higher levels: "Invade a
neighbour" and "Lose".

Seeing this reaction in continental Europe the Americans have gone from
"Isolationism" to "Find another oil-rich nation for regime change".
Their remaining higher alert states are "Attack random countries
(ideally those without any credible military)" and "Beg the British for
help".

The British are also feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings
and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved". Soon
though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even
"A Bit Cross". Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the Blitz in
1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been
re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "Bloody Nuisance". The last time the
British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the Great
Fire of 1666.