Earning your pension

Cameron to right of them, 

 Milliband to left of them, 

 Voters in front of them 

Volley'd and thunder'd 

Storm'd at with hue and cry 

 Boldly they rode Into the jaws of Death 

Into the mouth of Hell 

 Rode the Lib Dem EUphiles 

 With apologies to Alfred Tennyson...

The boy Clegg announced the suicide of his party today, struggling against the rise of Ukip and the voters growing distaste and hatred of the EU Clegg firmly nailed his parties colours to the mast in supporting the EU and gaining his pension for the year from them.
BBC.

Nick Clegg has used his new year's message to tell voters the Liberal Democrats are "Britain's party of in" when it comes to the European Union.
The Lib Dem leader said other parties would put "narrow political interest" ahead of the UK economy.
Mr Clegg said UKIP "want out" of the EU, the Conservatives were "flirting with exit" and Labour "don't have the courage of their convictions on this"

As this blog has said many times, Cameron and Milliband do not want to take us out of the EU, despite the wishes of many in their parties, what they are aware of though is the growing threat of a party who are determined to take us out and who are taking votes from their core support, both left and right. This means that they are having to go against their base instincts and at least court the anti-EU wings of their parties in order to shore up their support.
Clegg however refuses to do this, he somehow believes that there may be support for the EU in the coming EU elections and that the Lib Dems can tap into it. The fact that he has to big up the EU as part of his pension deal is of course not mentioned by the BBC.
Mind you, bucking national trends is second nature for the Lib Dems, it's part of their mythos of always being the party of choice in protest vote politics, although they've discovered the price of power now in that sooner or later everyone despises you.
So perhaps all this is a cunning plan to send the Lib Dems permanently into protest vote obscurity?
Wouldn't put it past them...

Giving away our money Europe style

Why is it that politicians and apparatchiks of the EU are so determined to tell us how to live our lives and pay out our wealth on projects and scams most of us have little interest in?
Telegraph.

European immigrants should be able to claim handouts and pensions without first having to pass a test proving that they have settled in Britain, the European Union has said.
The demand is the latest response in a continuing row after Iain Duncan Smith said that such a system would mean immigrants could get benefits on the first day of entering Britain.
The Work and Pensions Secretary said last month that it would cost taxpayers £155 million a year if the UK was forced to get rid of the “habitual resident test”.
The test makes sure that foreigners have genuinely lived and paid taxes in the country before they can claim welfare payments.
His department has been holding talks with the European Commission for months in an effort to find a solution, but sources said on Thursday that Brussels was preparing to sue Britain by the end of this year unless the test is scrapped.

The European Commission seems to have a little bit of bother over deciding what's theirs and what's ours, though if I had my way I'd make getting access to what's ours a great deal harder to get at than it currently is. The fact that you live here as an immigrant should under any reasonable circumstances mean that you are not entitled to anything at all from our benefits system unless you've paid into the system, it should also (though currently it doesn't) mean that you get nothing at all out unless you've paid a fixed amount in, either by way of a deposit or bond to settle or by having paid in 10 years worth of taxation in order to gain full citizens rights.
What we shouldn't be doing is allowing those who are elected and unelected to simply hand over this countries wealth to those who have simply come here to get their hands on our (over) generous welfare payments. The European Commission ought to have no say over our wealth, that it has is down to our own idiot politicians handing over that right, though sadly the voters here in the UK keep electing the corrupt mendacious thieving sods.
It really is becoming very simple, if we want control over our finances, immigration, production and laws we need to leave the EU.
The first steps to that are to vote for any party that says it will take us out.

They can have ours

One of the weirder aspects of the Scottish Nationalist Parties attempts to remove itself from the UK has been its insistence on handing over its independence to the EU. Still it must have been a bit disappointing to them to learn that if they do gain independence they'll have to apply to join the EU, rather than still be an accepted member.
Express.

IF Scotland were to gain independence it would have to apply again for EU membership, a European Commission spokesman said. EC spokesman Olivier Baiily and President Jose Manuel Barroso have said that any potential new member would have to request accession from outside the EU.
Today, EC spokesman Olivier Bailly told BBC Radio Scotland that there are two steps.
"There is a secession process under international law, and the request for accession to EU member state under EU treaties.
"In the mean time, of course, this new treaty is not part of the EU since it has to make a request for accession."
But SNP government minister, Keith Brown denied that an independent Scotland would have to apply for entry.
Mr Brown said: "It's simply our position, as it always has been, that Scotland will accede to the EU simply because we take on the same obligations and treaties that we currently have.

Well, first off, Scotland as such doesn't have any obligations or treaties with the EU, those are the remit of the UK government in Westminster, I suspect Mr Brown must know this, though it makes a good soundbite. Should Scotland however leave the UK, then it is not part of the EU, whereas the UK would be (more's the pity)
Still, there is a solution, a fairly simple one at that. Were Scotland to take possession of the UK's treaty of Rome, then they would remain in the EU and the rest of us would have to approve a Westminster governments attempts to take us back into the EU vis a referendum.
They get all the benefits of being in the EU, we get all the benefits of not having to pay for the EU.
Win, win.

Note, this article should be seen as entirely tongue in cheek...

Playing the odds

Insurance companies are like bookies, they figure out a set of odds on a set of circumstances happening and give you a quote based on the likelihood of your failing to avoid those circumstances. After that it's up to you whether you figure the cost is worth it, even with car insurance it's the same for all it's supposed to be mandatory to have it, some people (particularly those who are not good a good bet at avoiding accidents) will choose not to take out the insurance, after all, they are rarely caught and if they are, the fine they get is usually less than their premium.
Well, that used to be the way the system worked until the equality industry got involved...
Mail.

Millions of women drivers could have to pay an extra £362 a year for their car insurance after a ruling by European judges, it emerged yesterday.
The increase follows a decision that men cannot be charged more for their policies even though they are more likely to have a serious crash.
The ruling, described by critics as ‘madness’, means that from December 21 women drivers – although generally safer – will no longer be able to access cheaper car insurance rates because of their gender.
Labour transport spokesman John Woodcock said female drivers face an ‘insurance timebomb’ and called on ministers to curb the impact of the ruling.

First off, this judgement happened on Labours watch, their record on ameliorating ECJ rulings is precisely nil, all that they are doing in this case is using it as a stick to blame and beat the government with (as I'm sure the Tories would have done if the positions were reversed)

Insurance experts warned that younger women will be hit particularly badly as they will end up having to pay the same premiums as ‘boy racers’.
A woman under the age of 22 pays around £1,682 in car insurance while a young man is charged an average of £2,750.
This is because men under 22 are ten times more likely to have a serious crash, 25 times more likely to commit a driving offence and twice as likely to make an insurance claim.
Policies with more than one named driver will be adversely affected if the main policy holder is a woman.
When a man is the main driver and a woman the ‘named’ driver, premiums are likely to come down. The changes will be forced through without Parliament having the chance to fight the ruling by the European Court of Justice.

As you can see, it was all pretty much about odds, statistically women are safer drivers (lets not go down the path of better) in that they have fewer accidents. That meant to insurance companies they were a better risk overall compared to men so could be charged less, it was all about risk after all.
Instead because some idiot consumer group based in Belgium brought a case before the ECJ insurance groups are no longer allowed to play the odds (by giving a good quote) based on gender. As Douglas Carswell put it "Three weeks ago the Prime Minister held a meeting for the insurance industry at Downing Street. But because we are not prepared to do anything about Europe, we can do absolutely nothing about this madness."
Again and again foreign judges are interfering with the way we live our lives, yes I know the ECJ isn't the EU, however it is still allowed to interfere in the laws of this land without taking into account our wishes, after all, what might work for one country may not work for another, but they put a blanket ruling in anyway.
The EU, the ECJ, the HRA, all interfering in our rights, all without a squeak of protest other than the odd bit of media mention and various bloggers plugging away.
When will our politicians start representing us and tell them where to get off or we'll leave?
Don't hold your breath on that one, they are traitors and panderers to the grand European dream.