|
|
| News and Articles |
|
|
The Sprout - March 2005
|
Thursday February 17th. A day that will live in infamy for free born Englishmen. A day when over a thousand years of country tradition was blown away by a tiny group of bitter and twisted full time Westminster politicians. It was the British Prime Minster’s consolation prize to supporters for the Iraq shambles. A throw back to the old class warfare that has bedevilled British politics for over a century.
Yet on that last day of legal foxhunting, as I galloped across the beautiful Wiltshire downs with the Vale of the White Horse hounds a rather bizarre thought occurred to me. It must be obvious to even a European Court that a massive injustice has been done. Banning a sport without compensation, jeopardising the lives of thousands of dogs bred through the centuries for only one job, abolishing a way of life and employment for thousands of people all because the Prime Minister made a fool of himself over Iraq. Only the other day there was a report that a bunch of the usual appalling tinkers and travellers had set up camp in a West Country village quite illegally yet the mere threat of a European Court was enough to persuade the council not to act. Some years ago a bunch of terrorist thugs’ families were awarded compensation by a European Court. Bizarre retrospective judgements abound to the despair of British Commerce.
Yet Middle England who loath and despise everything to do with the European Union may actually find themselves with only one last port of call. This grotesque injustice could yet be overturned. What an enormous impact it would have on British public opinion if Europe was suddenly perceived as a saviour instead of a bloated corrupt monkey on the back of the British people.
I wonder when the Europhile machine will wake up to this open goal while the chance is there. Probably not, the average jobsworth politician is nothing if not stupid.
Talking of bloated and corrupt monkeys I was lobbied the other day by the Scotch Whisky Association about bottle sizes. Pages of the usual nonsense I get from people in various industries who earn their living responding to the unbelievable Gilbertian absurdities which spew from the commission. Apparently, and I quote “people before 1992 were confused by the proliferation of different sized spirit bottles”. Now I grant you I have been pretty confused by spirit bottles in the past, but only when I have consumed the contents. I have never been confused beforehand. Of course the Scotch Whisky Association on enquiry could not name anyone who was confused but presumably somebody there is paid handsomely to take all this balderdash seriously. A bright, young reporter from my constituency picked up on this and from her own calculations reckoned the cost of the committee turning up to discuss this would be about £88,000 if you included translators and paperwork. She approached the parliament and a spokesman explained this was “just a minor part of the committee’s work” and they spent most of the time discussing ways of giving back money to poorer parts of the constituency. It begs the question does it not, if governments did not steal so much money from people to start with we would not need committees to decide how to give some of it back (after deducting their expense of course).
Admittedly I am the “new bug” as Farage refers to me but is the entire European project run for the corporate benefit of Air France. Having two parliament buildings is crazy enough, having one in Strasbourg is at the least eccentric (why not Biarritz?) but to simply fail to put in any travel infrastructure is scandalous. It is impossible from Yorkshire/Lincolnshire and must be a nightmare for the new Eastern European members. Last Monday was a classic. I could have got to New Zealand in the same time and at the same cost as my trip to Strasbourg. Is the writing on the wall for Strasbourg notwithstanding the brilliant French lawyers who worked the absurd deal into the original treaty.
One wonders a bit at the Spanish people, every year they get a big fat cheque courtesy of mainly German and British hard pressed tax payers and they can hardly be bothered to turn out to set us all an example in the Constitutional referendum. I have always had a golden rule for nieces, nephews and god-children at Christmas. No “thank you” letter for the cheque, no cheque next time. Surprisingly some recaltriant youngsters never caught on to my system. Perhaps the Spanish just think the gravy boat never empties and can only pour in a south westerly direction.
Anyone who can confirm the truth in the rumour that glamorous Mary Lou McDonald is throwing a Sinn Fein champagne and caviar party at the 77 Restaurant in Petit France please ring me immediately I am after an invite.
Godfrey Bloom |
| Back to content list
To print this story click here. The story will open in a pop up window, Click on File and then click print, you can then close the pop up window.
|
|
|
|
