Plain To See

One of the BBCs favourite subjects was back in the frame today as it got terribly excited about the Government's latest anti-smoking measures:

The government is considering plans to strip all branding from cigarette packs sold in England in a bid to make smoking appear less attractive. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told the BBC he hoped the ban would prevent people from taking up smoking and also help those trying to give up.

The government is to launch its consultation on the issue on Monday.

And there's a whiff of deja vu, this from 2010:

Cigarette packets should have plain packaging to make smoking less attractive, ministers have suggested.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said "glitzy designs on packets" attracted children to smoking and it made sense to look at "less attractive packaging".

I'm not sure what good plain packaging will achieve as there's a ban on displaying them in shops anyway. But of course logic doesn't come into it. No, not when the manufacture. presentation and sale of tobacco products comes under the authority of the European Union, notably Directive 2001/37/EC.

So naturally it comes as no surprise that in 2010 we had this:

An EU consultation document on revising the 2001/37/EC Directive. And Option 3 (page 7) says:

Option 3 - Introduce generic or plain packaging

Plain or generic packaging would standardise the appearance of tobacco packaging. Manufacturers would only be allowed to print brand and product names, the quantity of the product, health warnings and other mandatory information such as security markings.

The package itself would be plain coloured (such as white, grey or plain cardboard). The size and shape of the package could also be regulated.

The European Commission is currently deliberating the responses to the consultation and is due to make recommendations later this year.

Of course that the EU is considering such proposals and the UK have launched a consultation is entirely a coincidence. When the EU eventually gets round to making a decision, then by keep announcing proposals we can pretend it was our idea all along, aided and abetted by the great and the good in our media.

Drowning In Sentimentality

One has to laugh:

A Titanic memorial cruise was this afternoon forced to turn round just hours after leaving dock as it retraced the doomed liner's voyage across the Atlantic.

MS Balmoral – carrying relatives of Titanic victims among its 1,309 passengers, the same number as on the doomed ship – was earlier battered by 30ft waves as it crossed the Irish Sea.

Maybe it's just me but I find the whole cruise ship jolly nothing more than a shallow and pathetic self-publicity seeking exercise. There was never such tribute - a memorial trek to the South Pole - for Scott and his colleagues. Perhaps because that would have been too difficult.

Update: Nevermind at least you can buy Titanic tat from the shopping channel QVC:

Wake me up when it's all over...

It Was Twenty Years Ago...Yesterday

I didn't get time to blog, but yesterday marked 20 years since the 1992 election when the Tories won their last ever majority. The election itself was notable for many reasons; the War of Jennifer's Ear, the infamous Sun front page and Major campaigning on his soap box. And as the picture above illustrates (shamelessly nicked from political betting) the exit polls got the predictions spectacularly wrong.

1992 also marked the terminal decline of the Tory party as divisions, particularly over Europe, wreaked havoc from which they have never recovered. Diehard party members and supporters departed en masse, donations and subscriptions collapsed between 1992 and 1997. Labour's win in 1997 was less to do with Tories switching sides but that they stayed at home instead.

On a personal note, I remember 1992 well. It was the first election I ever stayed up all night to watch - I missed out being able to vote in it by just 2 months. It also marked the beginning of my journey of eurosceptisim, as the next 18 months left their mark on our country in the form of Maastricht and the ERM crisis.

20 years on and still they can't win an election. Couldn't happen to nicer chaps. Bastards.

Another Brick In The Wall

This above image (click to enlarge) is probably quite old, but one is bored with vacuous, infantile and depressingly popular bollocks that passes itself off as journalism.

Record Low...

Mike Smithson at Political Betting has an interesting post on the latest polling figures of the 3 leaders of the main parties (my emphasis):

Combined view of the three leaders moves to record low.

After I’d Tweeted the latest YouGov leadership numbers I was asked whether the overall aggregate negative of 121% was a record. I stand to be corrected but I cannot find a period in modern UK political history when all three leaders have registered such poor numbers at the same time.

Generally when one or two are down then the other is up. What we are seeing is quite exceptional. 

This view is echoed by the Spectator:

Everyone's a loser

Have the opinion polls ever looked more discouraging, overall, for the Tories during this government? Not that I can remember, although I'm happy to be corrected...But Ed Miliband, for all his bravado in the Observer today, shouldn't get too excited just yet...the public appear similarly mistrustful of both the Tories and Labour at the moment...

One final point: the proportion of people telling YouGov that they will vote ‘Other’ at the next election is at its highest level (17 per cent) for all of this Parliament. 

Individual polls always have to be treated as just that, but it does add to a trend that the gap between the governed and governing is ever widening. One major, albeit largely unacknowledged, reason is we are outsource more and more of our sovereignty away to an unelected bureaucratic body, our own MP's are left with an ever diminishing pool of power as highlighted by Dr Richard North:

Having offshored most of Britain's governmental powers, some to Brussels and others to amorphous, anonymous groups such as the Bank of International Settlements, there is so little left of public policy-making in the UK that the elites are driven ever-more to micro-managing an increasingly limited spectrum.

So emerged the "schools 'n' hospitals" meme, as the only two issues of any substance over which British politicians still had any influence – issues which have dominated successive elections. And so it is that today The Boy returns to the Failygraph to write about – you guessed it - schools 'n' hospitals.

I link to it in the side bar, but it's worth reproducing the words of the infamous document 1971 FCO 30/1048 (my emphasis):

...the transfer of major executive responsibilities to the bureaucratic Commission in Brussels will exacerbate popular feeling of alienation from government. To counter this feeling, strengthened local and regional democratic processes within the member states and effective Community regional economic and social policies will be essential.

Parliamentary sovereignty will be affected as we have seen. But the need for Parliament to play an increasing (if perhaps more specialised) role may develop. Firstly, although a European Parliament might in the longest term become an effective, directly elected democratic check upon the bureaucracy, this will not be for a long time, and certainly not in the decade to come.

In the interval, to minimise the loss of democratic control it will be important that the British Parliamentarians should play an effective role both through the British membership in the European Parliament and through the processes of the British Parliament itself.

The document suggested that problems of "public anxieties" masquerading as concern for "loss of sovereignty" would only become fully evident at the end of the [20th] Century. This situation has now come to pass and despite the reluctance of the MSM to acknowledge where the power has gone as the big three UK Parties operate as a closed shop. In the real world "public anxieties" are at an all time high as predicted.

It can't (and won't) continue like this

Quote Of The Day

An interesting use of logic reached me via my inbox last week. A UKIP candidate due to stand in the local elections asked Oxford City Labour Councillor Delia Sinclair (who incidentally has been investigated for failing to declare an interest) the following question:

"Why can't we have a return to weekly waste collections?"

A fair and reasonable question I think. And the response from Councillor Sinclair?

"Weekly collections are already in place on an alternative weekly basis."

Its Orwellian beauty is truly genius. And it wouldn't do to mention the elephant of course.

Have Your Say And Make A Difference

Credit where credit's due, sometimes one has to acknowledge that occasionally the EU gets things completely right, and today against all the odds, contrary to all my expectations and constant criticisms, the EU has begun the much desired process of democratic reform, to the extent where it now leads the way on democracy.

As per the requirements of the Lisbon Treaty today is when the European Citizens’ Initiative comes into effect:

In accordance with the Regulation, it will only be possible to launch the first European Citizens' Initiatives from 1 April 2012.

Which allows:

....one million EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies, by calling on the European Commission to make a legislative proposal.

Don't delay, you can find all the facts here, learn how to sign up here and follow the procedure here. We can all make a difference, all we need is enthusiasm. Please partake, together we can help make the EU a safer, happier and more prosperous place to live for everyone.

Update: and you know what? UKK41 agrees with me

It Took Its Time...

...But the Sun gets it:

CHANCELLOR George Osborne was yesterday accused of crumbling to euro judges by enforcing the hated Pasty Tax.

A European Court of Justice ruling meant he was under pressure to either slap VAT on all hot takeaway food or axe the duty completely.

In the case, a German won a bid to carry on selling grilled sausages without charging VAT.

Last night the Treasury admitted they had taken account of a number of court cases. Some Tory bigwigs reckon Mr Osborne will do a U-turn — a call made by The Sun's Who VAT All the Pies? campaign.

A Big Fix

Patrick O'Flynn in the Express today writes that:

 "Downing Street has finally awoken to the danger of losing support to UKIP – one poll this week had UKIP on seven per cent to the Conservative 33 per cent, with Labour way ahead on 43 per cent.

“Cameron’s chief pollster Andrew Cooper has realised, after a decade of advising there should be no talk about Europe or immigration, that these issues are important to voters after all and especially to potential Tory voters,” says the source. 

Despite Cameron's wishes to the contrary the issue of Europe is not going away, particularly regarding the Conservative party. So Cameron is trying to find a way to dodge pressure to leave the EU and to do that he's apparently planning a rigged referendum:

...let me assure you that slightly under the surface big things are happening. I was this week reliably informed that David Cameron is very seriously thinking about pledging to hold a EU referendum, either on the day of the next election or soon after it.

But:

...the bad news is that he does not wish to hold the referendum the Daily Express and so many of its readers have been crusading for since November 2010. You see, Mr Cameron does not envisage anything so vul- gar as a straight question about whether Britain should stay in the EU or leave. Such a stark choice would, after all, mean him having to implement faithfully the result.

Instead he is mulling over holding an “indicative” referendum in which the people of Britain get to tell him their preferred “direction of travel” on matters European then leave him to sort out the details on their behalf.

In other words we would get the inevitable "repatriating powers question" which would win the vote and be phrased in such a way that allows 'cast-iron' to carry on as normal. And, displaying further contempt for the electorate and the seriousness of the issue, Cameron intends to hold the referendum on or around polling day in order to maximise the Tory votes. A mechanism therefore merely to prop up Cameron's position -  everything about it will be rigged for his benefit, the question, the timing, and the funds.

But there is hope, 3 years is a very long time, and Cameron is not a very good politician - so there's plenty more cock-ups to go yet particularly with Europe (if he's still PM). When he pretends to be Eurosceptic a la 'veto' it has a tendency to go backfire spectacularly. So if he opens that Pandora's box it has the potential to go all horribly wrong (for him).

Benefits Of The EU?

The saga of 'PastyGate' rumbles on. Despite the VAT's origins in Brussels, what's intriguing (and not entirely surprising) has been the Tory response or lack of to damaging headlines.

A tax on food obviously resonates deeply, particularly after a budget that reduced the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p (my emphasis):

"This is basically a tax on the working man of Britain," she says, "and on the many elderly and unemployed people who come by here for a pasty every lunchtime.

"My hot pasties would go up by 50p from £2.75: for some people, that will make a big difference. I'm planning to put a sign up in the window: 'Hot for the rich, and cold for the poor.'"

But only a couple of years ago Cameron was desperate, as opposition leader, to 'decontaminate' the Tory brand: no issue was too cuddly to avoid and, acutely aware of his Eton background, he was eager to play down any thoughts that the Tories are for the rich - as his awkward interview with Andrew Marr in 2009 demonstrated.

Yet here we are with a tax which will hit the working man the hardest, and from Cameron et al there's silence. Osborne could have tried covering it up by saying it was all Brussels' fault - "we'll fight them on the beaches etc" even though we all know in reality it would be empty rhetoric as it so often is.

But no, instead they're prepared to take the electoral polling hit, prepared to scupper their next electoral chances and prepared to recontaminate the 'brand' (and once that sticks it ain't going anywhere). In short preparing to destroy their own party just for the sake of appeasing our EU masters.

All of which demonstrates very clearly who the EU benefits, and it certainly ain't us.