Toby on Tuesday

'Enlarge and Expand' 

Last week I wrote about Turkey’s application for EU membership.   Today I want to write about yet another candidate country, Bosnia-Herzegovina, with a membership application that is far further advanced.   Now, on 28th June, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, and his wife Sophie were assassinated when visiting its capital, Sarajevo.   This was the trigger that ignited the First World War and just five weeks later Britain went down into the abyss.   Today we live with the consequences of that assassination and, if we vote to “Remain” a member of the EU, we shall find ourselves in a political union with Bosnia-Herzegovina.   In 2010, visa-free travel to the Schengen zone (and by definition on to Britain) began and last month the country applied formally for EU membership, an application which, given its close links to Germany throughout the 20th century, will be little more than a formality.   Yet we know so little about this particular Balkan state with its population of some 4 million and with which we may soon be intertwined.   So some study is worthwhile and here I am indebted to my dear old friend Rodney Atkinson, as gifted and original a political economist as his brother Rowan, now appearing on ITV as Maigret, is an actor.

 

Now Rodney has recently published his latest polemic on the EU, “And Into the Fire – Fascist Elements in Post War Europe and the Development of the European Union.”   Published by GM Books, it is available through Amazon as either an ebook or as a paperback.   And Chapter 14 is entitled ‘Bosnia:  Re-formed the Nazi SS Division “Handzar” in 1991.’   It describes our very own Paddy Ashdown’s little-known appointment (through Tony Blair’s influence) as “High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina” from 2002 to 2006, when he became all-too close to Alia Izetbegovic, the country’s President from 1990 to 2000.   And at Izetbegovic’s funeral in 2003 our Paddy declared, “He became the father of his people – the person who did more than any other to ensure the survival of the modern state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”   That’s quite a tribute but just for the record, Izetbegovic had been the author of “The Muslim Declaration”, in which he commended Pakistan as the model for the future of his country.   And in it he wrote, “There can be no peace nor co-existence between the Islamic Faith and non Islamic institutions...The Islamic movement must and can take power as soon as it is morally and numerically strong enough not only to destroy the non Islamic power but to build a new Islamic one.” 

 

Rodney’s book also describes how Izetbegovic re-formed the Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division from World War II, the “Handzar” or “Dagger” Division.   And he reproduces a photograph on display at the Imperial War Museum showing Heinrich Himmler inspecting the 13th Waffen SS Division Handzar, responsible among other grisly tasks for maintaining the rail link between the Balkans and Auschwitz, as well as a Balkan War poster from 1991 with the headline, “The Handzar Division is Ready.”   More recently, the “Handzar Division” formed Izetbegovic’s personal guard.   And Rodney quotes a Wall Street Journal report from 2001 that, “For the past 10 years, the most senior leaders of al Qaeda have visited the Balkans, including bin Laden himself on three occasions between 1994 and 1996.   The Egyptian surgeon turned terrorist leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri has operated terrorist training camps, weapons of mass destruction factories and money-laundering and drug-trading networks throughout Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Bosnia.   This has gone on for a decade.”   

 

Now, a vote to “Remain” part of the EU would be a vote to be in a political union with both Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina.   Somehow we have to get this message across to voters.   The EU never stands still and my firm belief is that the safe choice is now to “Leave”.   Both Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina may be exotic and exciting places to visit, but history has a horrible habit of repeating itself.   Paddy Ashdown might have got just a bit over-excited at becoming a “High Representative”, but there is a limit to the amount of excitement that most of us can take and that limit that has definitely now been reached!

 

Until next Tuesday!

 

Toby

Toby on Tu..Wednesday *cough*

'Snakes in the Grass'

In the past and given its infestation by spies and traitors, George Blake, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, John Vassall and the rest, and given its obsession with the Euro-project, it has been all-too easy to condemn our Foreign Office as a nest of vipers.   But this is unfair and untrue, as the Foreign Office also contains some outstanding public servants who dedicate themselves to our country with courage and integrity.   And here I would like to introduce you to one of them, Andrew Green, who founded Migration Watch UK and who in 2014 became Lord Green of Deddington.   Such has been his influence in unearthing reliable data on the sheer scale of migration that the other day no less a personage than the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was able to declare that dismissing the fears of those concerned about mass migration as racist was “outrageous.”

 

Now if anyone knows about the trouble that Britain has stored up for herself by her lax migration policy since 1973 it is Andrew Green.   After studying Arabic in the Lebanon, he served in six posts in the Middle East.   From 1991 to 1994, he was our Ambassador in Syria before becoming the Foreign Office’s Director for the Middle East and then finally our Ambassador in Saudi Arabia for nearly five years.   Since retiring in 2000 he has chaired Migration Watch UK, which he co-founded, as well as serving for 12 years on the board of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, highlighting the plight of persecuted Christians.   A wholly admirable man, you might say, but his work has brought him nothing but abuse and vilification from the left.   

 

Yet he has prevailed and it is now possible to talk about the consequences of uncontrolled immigration without being trashed by the politically-correct thought police.   And to confirm the facts, freedom of movement, including access to all benefits, is a core principle of EU membership.   For Britain and Ireland, which are not part of the 26-member Schengen border-free zone, there are passport checks at entry but presentation of a red EU passport still entitles its owner to enter the UK or Ireland and then to just the same rights as existing British or Irish citizens.   The Schengen zone of course, like the doomed Euro currency, is another utopian Euro-construct which is unravelling before our eyes, due in large part to Germany’s trampling over the EU’s own Dublin Regulation on migration.

 

And Andrew Green’s Migration Watch UK has finally started to reveal the true scale of migration into our country, despite all the authorities’ attempts to suppress the figures.   The official statistic is that last year, 617,000 migrants came to live in Britain, while 294,000 emigrated, to give a net figure for migration of 323,000.   Yet Migration Watch UK has revealed that last year 630,000 EU citizens registered for a new National Insurance number.   Given that the official figure includes non-EU immigration, the anecdotal figure of some 1 million new entrants to the UK per annum is almost certainly correct and the population of our country is clearly way ahead of the official statistics – supermarket food sales indicate a figure well over 80 million.   The £9 per hour living wage by 2020 can only act as a further magnet.   

 

If ever the argument that, after 40 years of immigration Britain now needs 40 years of integration, required evidence to support it, then this is it.   And where this is relevant is that, under the current EU-Turkey agreement, some 80 million Turkish citizens will from June onwards enjoy visa-free travel to the Schengen zone and consequently to the UK.   Turkish accession to the EU will follow soon afterwards.   And despite the misgivings of wise and good men like Andrew Green, both the Foreign Office and David Cameron himself are hell bent on bringing Turkey into the EU.   In David Cameron’s own words, “Turkey deserves its place at the top table of European politics – and that is what I will fight for!”   I’ll leave it to you to decide what that particular judgment, just like our Dave’s “Arab Spring” policy in Libya, will do for the EU, but I can guess what someone who really understands the Middle East like Andrew Green must think!

 

Until next Tuesday!

 

Toby

Toby on Tuesday

'Banknotes and Bankruptcy'

 

Last week I wrote about EFTA, that sensible Swiss-based institution created by British civil servants to further European trade and co-operation.   Its members thrive while the truly insane ambitions of the EU are drawing the whole Continent deeper into the abyss.   We can only hope that a vote for “Leave” on 23rd June will act as a wake-up call for Europe and ensure that the EFTA model, not the EU model, is the way ahead.   Maintaining the balance of the Continent, after all, has been Britain’s strategic role in Europe over the centuries and this time will be no different.   And where better to start than by bringing realism to the whole failed structure of the Eurozone, described recently by Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013, on the Andrew Marr programme as an “economic disaster” for Britain.   Now no one understands the Euro currency better than Mervyn King who guided our country through the 2008 banking crisis.   This fine central banker has just published his memoirs which he calls “The End of Alchemy” and which is essential reading for anyone interested in the EU.   And when interviewed about his book and the June Referendum the other day he declared, “I saw this letter from business leaders this week saying we should stay in.   Some of them are the same people who said Britain should adopt the euro.   Why on earth should we listen to them?”   And his book could not be more explicit in its condemnation of the whole EU project.

Although couched in central bankers’ language, the immensely practical Mervyn King cannot hide his frustration at the devastating effect of the euro on large parts of the EU, in particular Greece.   Of this beleaguered country he writes, “The situation in Greece encapsulates the problems  of external indebtedness in a monetary union.   GDP in Greece has collapsed by more than in the US during the Great Depression.   Despite an enormous fiscal contraction bringing the budget deficit down from around 12pc of GDP to below 3pc in 2014, the ratio of government debt to GDP has continued to rise, and is now almost 200pc...Fiscal austerity has proved self-defeating because the exchange rate could not fall to stimulate trade...It is evident, as it has been for a very long while, that the only way forward for Greece is to default on (or be forgiven) a substantial proportion of its debt burden and to devalue its currency so that exports and the substitution of domestic products for imports can compensate for the depressing effects of the fiscal contraction imposed to date.   The inevitability of restructuring Greek debt means that taxpayers in Germany and elsewhere will have to absorb substantial losses.”   The longer that the EU fails to acknowledge the basic design flaws of the euro, the greater will be those losses and you can be certain that, as long as Britain is an EU member, even if not a Eurozone member, we will have to pick up part of the tab when the moment of truth arrives.

For my own part, and this is not UKIP policy, I believe that the euro should now become a fiat or artificial currency to be used as wished by anyone wanting to trade within the EU.   However, Eurozone member states should now be free to reconstitute their own national banks and currencies which can issue their own money.   The old pre-euro currencies can be restored which can then fluctuate against the euro and find their own market level.   The Greek “New Drachma” could then depreciate against the euro, helping its economy to return to growth, while the same could apply to all of Southern Europe.   By contrast Germany could restore its own “New Deutschemark”, which would strengthen against the euro and give comfort to German savers.   Only in this way could equilibrium return to the eurozone, with the euro itself running as a parallel currency alongside the restored currencies of the EU’s member states, each with its own national bank once more.   Now you may ask why Britain, where we have retained Sterling in large part thanks to fine central bankers like Mervyn King, should be interested in these things?   The reasons are twofold, the first being that we have been and also certainly will again be asked to bail out the euro during its next crisis and the second being that the effect of the Eurozone on the whole EU is, in Mervyn King’s words, an “economic disaster” for Britain.   And an overwhelming vote for “Leave” on 23rd June could just be the catalyst that will at last bring the whole EU to its senses!

Until next Tuesday!

Toby

Toby on Tuesday

'The Orderly Management of Decline'

With Sir Jeremy Heywood’s conduct over the Referendum as head of the civil service under the spotlight, let me tell you about an earlier head of the civil service, Sir William Armstrong.  Now when Edward Heath as Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974 was bent on taking us into the EEC, William Armstrong was head of the civil service – indeed his influence was so great that he was known as the “Deputy Prime Minister.”   His best known saying was that his task was “the orderly management of decline.”   It took later governments to reverse his and Edward Heath’s mindset, but even if the British people refused to decline, William Armstrong’s health rapidly did.   A recent semi-official account recalls how, “In the spring of 1974 William Armstrong, head of the civil service, suffered a breakdown...and talked apocalyptically of his control of the Blue Army in its war against the Red, then lay full length on the floor of Number Ten’s waiting room, at the feet of an astonished delegation of businessmen.”   An unofficial account describes further how he was naked at the time, chain smoking and shouting that the world was coming to an end, before being hospitalised and then sent to Lord Rothschild’s villa in Barbados to recover.   And what we laughingly call our “Establishment” looks after its own, for soon afterwards he became Lord Armstrong of Sanderstead and Chairman of the Midland Bank which rather says it all.

 

But not long before then there had been a time when our civil servants could think bravely and creatively.   Indeed there was a splendid civil servant in the 1950’s called Sir Frank Figgures who had been one of the instigators of EFTA, the European Free Trade Association, founded by Britain as a free trade alternative to the political construct of the EEC.   Indeed at its foundation in 1960 EFTA had seven members, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, as opposed to the EEC’s six members, France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.   EFTA’s first two General Secretaries, Sir Frank Figgures from 1960-65 and Sir John Coulson from 1965 to 1972, were both British and both committed to our country’s traditional belief in free and open trade.   They negotiated a host of successful free trade agreements, including agreements with the global community of Commonwealth nations.   Yet in 1973 the “managers of decline”, the Ted Heaths and William Armstrongs, tragically turned their backs on EFTA to join the EEC.   But EFTA, which now consists of just four members, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, continues to prosper.   From its headquarters in Geneva it has negotiated preferential trade relations with 24 states and territories, in addition to the 28 member states of the EU.

 

So to argue that you cannot trade with the EU without being a member is simply nonsense.   And although this is not official UKIP policy, my hope is that on 24th June, the day after our Referendum, our civil service will dust down its EFTA files from 1973 and apply to rejoin an organisation based on open trade, rather than a failed attempt to create an aggressive European superstate.  Indeed, and I will write about this next week, I believe that the whole of Europe should now leave the EU and apply to join EFTA.   Politicians and civil servants like Edward Heath and William Armstrong in 1973, and David Cameron and Jeremy Heywood today, may not like any attempt to reverse their “orderly management of decline”, but the British people and indeed the whole Continent of Europe surely will!

 

Until next Tuesday!

Toby

Toby on Tuesday

'Charlemagne and Charlatans' 

 

Since 1950, the German city of Aachen has awarded an annual prize, the Charlemagne Prize, to those who have contributed most to the process of European integration.   Named after the Emperor Charlemagne, the founder of the Holy Roman Empire who was buried at Aachen, the prize embodies the spirit of a United Europe.   As long ago as 1963 it was awarded to Edward Heath.   In 1999 it was awarded to Tony Blair, in 2000 to Bill Clinton and in 2002 bizarrely to “The Euro”.   More recently, it was awarded in 2014 to Herman Van Rompuy, first President of the European Council, and in 2015 to Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament.   It is probably the most prestigious of all the EU’s awards.   Emperor Charlemagne’s creation, the old Holy Roman Empire, absorbed many territories, above all the old Kingdom of Germany but also the old Kingdoms of Bohemia, Burgundy and Italy.   It was this dual nature of the Empire, uniting the Franks into what would become France and Germany, that made it such a totem for 20th century Eurofederalists.  

 

Where this matters is that it demonstrates that from the start the EU has openly been a political project, the instrument for a centralised, fully integrated and expansionist Continent.   There has never been any doubt of this, despite the great deception played over decades by our own politicians that this is simply a trading organisation.   The truth is that trade has been a secondary consideration and a centralised United States of Europe has always been the objective.   And if we vote “Remain” on 23rd June then we will be voting to be finally absorbed into a tightly-controlled country stretching from the North of Scotland all the way, following Turkish accession, to the borders of Iran, Iraq and Syria.   There should be no doubt that this is the clear objective of our so-called “partners”.   They have always been entirely open about this, while the true deception has rested with our own political masters.

 

Of course Charlemagne was also the name given to the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division, the Charlemagne Division, of the Waffen-SS during World War 2.   Recruited solely from French volunteers and supported by France’s Vichy Government, it claimed to embody the spirit of Charlemagne’s Empire.   Its crest was made up of the Imperial Eagle on the dexter side, representing East Francia (Germany) and the fleur-de-lys on the sinister side, representing West Francia (France).   It fought with ferocious courage on the Russian front and again in 1945 in Berlin, defending the Fuhrerbunker against the advancing Red Army.   Indeed it was among the last regiments to surrender to the Allies in the battle for Berlin, so brilliantly described by the historian Robert Forbes in his “For Europe – The French Volunteers of the Waffen-SS.”  To say these things is not to denigrate those who advocate a “Remain” vote on 23rd June.   It is simply to demonstrate the true motives of our “partners”.   The EU is not a simple trading organisation as our political leaders have always maintained.  In our Referendum, we will finally decide whether or not we wish to be absorbed into this aggressively ambitious project.   And if we do vote to “Remain”, then we can safely expect that David Cameron, like Edward Heath, Tony Blair and “The Euro” before him, to be awarded next year’s Charlemagne Prize!

 

Until next Tuesday!

 

Toby