Tell Me When I've Touched The Bone

Following on from yesterday's post, more evidence that the election was merely a pause in government affairs rather than a real change. The Daily Mail reports that:

More than half of councils are continuing to impose fortnightly bin collections, despite Conservative pledges to crack down on Labour’s ‘bin bullies’.

Which is, of course, no surprise as the changes to our bin collections are the result of EU legislation. Not that the Tories or indeed the Mail mention this, though some of the comments below the article are better informed.

Also in the Mail is the report that the Tories have accused Ed Balls of being to the right of Enoch Powell on immigration:

Education Secretary Michael Gove said Mr Balls had managed to 'outflank' the Tory leader to the right on both immigration and Euroscepticism, ' something not done since Enoch Powell was in this House'.

Hilarious if it wasn't so serious, at least though the Mail this time acknowledges the EU dimension:

[Ed Balls'] proposals would require the Lisbon Treaty to be amended - something which Labour had attacked the Tories for wanting during the election campaign.

I'm not sure how Mr Balls proposes to amend the treaty as it would require the permission of all the other 26 nations, which they have often indicated they would not do. A point missed by the Tories when they proposed returning powers from the EU back to the UK.

Most of the papers are running with the story I mention yesterday that the EU wants to vet the UK's budget before Parliament does, despite the UK not being in the Euro:

Mr Van Rompuy and the European Commission have tabled plans that will require all of Europe’s governments to discuss their budget plans with other EU finance ministers and officials before they presented to national parliaments.

“A government presenting a budget plan with a high deficit would have to justify itself in front of its peers, among finance ministers,” said Mr Van Rompuy.

This is such a clear infringement on parliamentary and national sovereignty - the power to set our own budgets how we wish - that that Van Rompuy should be told where to go in no uncertain terms. Below is an extract from an email from my Tory MP when I questioned him over the European Public Prosecutor:

if we win the next election, our first step would be to prohibit, by law, the transfer of further power to the EU without a referendum. Never again should it be possible for a British government to use a Treaty to transfer areas of power to the EU without the British people's consent.

...and that we must never allow Britain to slide into a federal Europe.

Vetting national budgets is a clear transfer of power, so what will Cameron do? Well the signs are not good:

An official insisted that the move would not lead to ‘unannounced dawn raids on national treasuries’.

But he added: ‘The new provisions allow for visits to check on the economic maths, if there are reasons for concern - such as national figures being revised at short notice without obvious reason - or other signals that something may be wrong with the calculations.’

A UK official said: ‘We originally rejected this idea, but we've now discovered just how bad the Greek situation was, and there's an appetite to make sure it doesn't happen again.

'A lot has changed in the last few months, and people are ready to accept some things that they would not have done just a short time ago.’

Chancellor George Osborne last night insisted he was on a mission of 'positive engagement' with Europe.

So more talk tough, act weak. And the EU will come back for more powers, then more, then more ad infinitum. At what point are the Tories going to say no? Well never it seems.

It reminds me of the "you crossed the line" scene below from the British hooligan film I.D. from which the title of this post is taken from. (as you would expect in a film of this nature some robust language in the clip).