AIRSTRIP ONE

OCTOBER NEWS SURF:

• Nice - Facts, Figures & Phantasies
• Labour Euro Safe-guards Campaign - their view on the Nice treaty
• End of the Tory Party?
• Guy Fawkes LIVES!
• Blair accused of treason

Hi, I'm Jim...
Know me as Gemineye Jim or Jim Gemineye. Anything, as long as it's not Jim Gemineye chéri !

On the other hand, Eric is a nice name..

BLAIR'S MILLENNIUM

Eric Blair wrote the book 1984 using the pen name GEORGE ORWELL. Like all good science fiction 1984 dealt not so much with fanciful illusions about the future, but about his own perceptions of his time (1948). Writers sometimes have to use outlandish contexts in order to break the barriers of preconceptions that readers put up. However, in creating this new context, he explored several ideas that we could apply to other eras and also see come to fruition in this new millennium.

• Telescreen - we thought this was his view of the new medium of TV being used to brainwash the masses. That was before digital TV came along. Digital TV will evolve - it will be on all the time, it will be two way - the TV in the bedroom will have to go.
• Newspeak - Didn't quiet get this right. The idea was destroy the ability to express unorthodox ideas by destroying the language required to communicate them. This was done by simplification. Well, if anything, language has become even more complex. But some might argue that corruption of words like cool and wicked accomplish the same thing as Newspeak. On the other hand with the creation of a ‘drug culture' do you need Newspeak? If you're on the right drugs you can drivel on for hours without saying anything meaningful - let alone radical.
• Chocolate rations - Not quite sure why chocolate rations figured so much in Orwell's vision. It was used as a kind of reward or punishment. If news was bad, chocolate rations were reduced - if news was good, chocolate rations were increased. It was as if the people were held to blame for events in Airstrip One, We don't have chocolate rations now - but we do have interest rates.

Airstrip One was the new name for England or Britain under the regime of Big Brother.

Welcome to a different kind of spin... it's less gassy and leaves no bitter after-taste.

Has Anita Roddick ever heard of Gerald Ratner?

When it's one of those as if it's hard to guess kind of months.

FREE TRADE or SLAVE TRADE?

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SQUARING THE CIRCLE

There's only one thing you need to be good at to be a politician - geography.

Few could have missed the images from Palestine last month. The picture of a young father trying to save his son from Israeli gunfire will not be forgotten easily. But what outcry came from all those in the US government - those who speak so much of humanitarianism? All I can remember is that there was a great call for calm, for both sides to adopt a cease fire and talk of 'moving forward'.

Apparently there were some ‘strong words' from congress, but I never found out what they were. I did hear the message given to Serbia.

Last month also saw a public up-rising against the Serbian Government. There was a lot of vandalism, the sort of thing that gets Tony Blair to introduce draconian legislation and the Israelis to get Robocop out of its locker. The message from the American Government was ‘we will not stand by if Serbia acts against it's people'.

Well, tanks and helicopter gun-ships were sent in - and innocent civilians were killed - but the Yanks are still standing by.

You could be forgiven for thinking otherwise, but it does make sense - when trying to square the response to both these events - all you need is a good grasp of geography.

ONLY THE EURO DROPS

In the Mail on Sunday - October 1st - David Blunkett let us all in on the Government's wise perception of events in Denmark.

Apparently the Dane's decision to vote NO in the Danish referendum on the Euro was nothing to do with the Euro at all!

Nothing to do with the loss of sovereignty. Nothing to do with the erosion of democracy.

Blunkett tells us that the Danes voted NO to the Euro because they felt ‘antagonistic' to those in power and wanted to give them a ‘bloody nose'. And there was me thinking they were just saying NO to the Euro, NO to loss of Sovereignty and NO to an erosion of their democracy.

So the penny still hasn't dropped! - the Danish Government, like some chauvinistic male who just doesn't understand the meaning of no, expects to try it's luck again in five or so years time when the Danes will simply be begging for it - they think.

No wonder the people throughout Europe are becoming ‘antagonistic' - any move towards independence from Euro Federalism is only accepted as temporary, while moves towards Euro Federalism are seen as inevitable and permanent!

QUIET NIGHT IN

The pro-Europe, pro-Human Rights Act propagandists have been out in force - and I'm beginning to wonder what planet they're from. Have you heard what some of them will say to further their cause?

One argument I've heard in favour of it is that if we don't like the act we can always repeal it. This is an outright lie. We have signed the treaties - even if the act was repealed we would still be subject to European laws via the European Court of Human Rights. All the act does is transfer the means of enforcing it. Instead of European Law being external, it is now part of the fabric of a European state called UK!

I'm reminded of an episode of Porridge where the banter between Fletcher and his cell mate covers all the things they could do that evening - going to the pictures, a night out on the town clubbing and so on. Of course they find all sorts of excuses for not doing any of them. Instead they settle for a ‘quiet night in" - like they had a choice.

And this is the mode of operation for the Europhile - they try to calm us with reminders of all the things we will still be able to do, but somehow we always end up with a ‘quiet night in'.

It's time we got out more!

TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING

We all recognise that change can be stressful, but we must not turn our backs on change - we must move forward. After fifty long years of putting into place the infrastructure required for a United States of Europe, it is time to move forward and lay to rest the concept of federalism and bigness. We must resist the conservatism of the Europhiles and reconfigure our nations to be in balance with each other - not to be absorbed into an imbalance of power that superstates bring.

Did any of that strike you as being bland, empty and meaningless? It should, it uses the same words constantly being used by Europhile propagandists. That these words can also just as easily express the desires of Eurosceptics only shows just how bland and empty those words are:

But change is very useful. When the Thatcher Government wanted to shift the emphasis of financing local services away from central government funding to local funding from local taxation - simply raising rates when people were already moaning about high spending councils was seen as too transparent. So the government changed the system. We moved forward to a fairer system called the Community Charge (the Poll Tax).

Michael Portillo said at the Conservative Party conference in 1990 - "The community charge is courageous, fair and sensible. Far from being a vote loser.., it will be a vote winner". The Government did know otherwise, while they were talking about capping councils and fairness, advisors informed the government that one in seven households would end up paying up to 80 per cent more under the new system - the Poll Tax became deeply unpopular. It was changed yet again - to the Council Tax, another move forward - The Local Government Finance Act was supposed to cap council spending, but somehow people ended up paying more than ever. Still, we must not turn our backs on change - especially if it brings us more in line with Europe!

Naturally, propagandists will only focus attention on changes that are likely to be welcomed. When the Constitution of the United States of America was created there was no mention of a Federal tax on income. Had it been there - the Constitution might have been greeted with a bit more scepticism. No, the move forward to Income Tax came later in the amendment labelled Article 16. Then there was Prohibition (Article 18) - which would have had the people tearing up the Constitution had it been included in the original. Still we must not turn our backs on change - even if those ‘constitutional' changes must be undone at some later date.

And now Europe wants a written constitution - we are told. What for? What's the point? So, it's written - might just as well be a post-it note on the fridge door for all the permanence it has. A written constitution, charter (whatever) , has only two functions:

1. To validate and sanction acts of a Federal Government - so that a government need no longer be accountable to the people, but to the constitution - they can just say ‘the constitution requires it', or ‘the constitution forbids it'. Can't argue with the constitution can you? 2. To guarantee rights. But like some dodgy double glazing guarantee, it's really only there to reassure the buyer. And if there is one thing politicians put above all else - it is the need to reassure the people who are going to vote for them. We all know what those guarantees are worth - to write them down is an act of outrageous self-deception.

Yet a lot of people in Europe still buy the guarantees promised by a constitution or charter - even though none of them can guess how such a constitution will evolve. And, as can be seen from the USA, a written constitution can simply be ignored when convenient.

Things have changed? I think not!

FEDERAL LANDMARKS TIME LINE

1949:
Treaty of London, creates the Council of Europe.

1951
Council of Europe creates The European Coal & Steel Community (ECSC).

1957
Treaty of Rome creates European Economic Community (EEC or "Common Market").

1967
European Community formed by a merger of the EEC, Euratom and European Coal & Steel Community. EEC becomes EC.

1993
Maastricht Treaty Ratified. The EC becomes the EU

20??
United States of Europe formed by a merger of EU and Council of Europe. EU becomes USE.

We need to look back to 1949 to see where it all began and to see how clear that goal was all along. From the Council of Europe's website I quote a bit of history:

Winston Churchill was the first to point to the solution, in his speech of 19 September 1946 in Zurich. According to him, what was needed was "a remedy which,as if by miracle, would transform the whole scene and in a few years make all Europe as free and happy as Switzerland is today. We must build a kind of United States of Europe". Movements of various persuasions, but all dedicated to European unity, were springing up everywhere at the time. All these organisations were to combine to form the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity. Its first act was to organise the Hague Congress, on 7 May 1948, remembered as "The Congress of Europe".

A year later the Council of Europe was formed. Today CoE countries include all the European countries (west and east), Iceland, Scandinavian and Baltic states and the Russian Federation.

Only two countries are missing from this group - Serbia and Belarus. Obviously they can't be allowed to spoil things for the tidy minded Europeans - something will have to be done about them. It looks like Serbia has been 'made safe' for the EU for now - at no small cost to America - some say around 80 million US dollars was donated to Serbian opposition groups (eat your heart out Bernie Ecclestone).

Oh well - One down, one to go.

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