Blair MUST stand trial over Iraq

A year before the invasion of Iraq, long before the UN had completed its programme of weapons inspections, long before the Parliament of the United Kingdom had considered the matter, long before even the publication of Alastair Campbell's fraudulent and false 'dossier' and long before the exhaustion of diplomatic means, Blair wrote letters like an infatuated schoolboy to the American President assuring him that the the UK was committed to support an invasion of Iraq for the purpose of regime change. 

Fine. Except such actions are more than embarrassing - they're almost certainly illegal, contrary to international law. 

The Mail reports Cameron's refusal to release the Blair letters and attributes it to a deal for electoral support. Rubbish. Cameron and Blair are from the same mould - and Cameron is as committed to all members of the political class being immune for their actions as is Blair. Cameron is with-holding the evidence because he doesn't want to set the precedent of a politician being held accountable for his actions.   

Blair, whose 'peacemaker' role as ME envoy has become a risible parody of all the past failures there, must stand trial before the International Court to achieve what the Septics call 'closure' on Iraq. Or he will go to his grave with the 'war criminal' tag firmly attached.

A Zero-growth future?

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's grasp of the dire state of the global economy never fails to make a dismal and depressing read to cheer me up, and his current column in the Telegraph is a corker. All that Osborne's tsunami of QE has achieved, it seems, is to have made the obscenely wealthy even richer and sent the Gini coefficient soaring. Everyone else is struggling with static incomes but increasing outgoings - a condition that suits the political-corporate class very nicely, as a population concentrating on keeping its head above water doesn't have much time for riotous behaviour. Until things reach a tipping point. 

Post-war politicians have had it easy, with continuous economic growth modulated only by the business cycle, and since the business cycle and electoral cycles are at differing frequencies each party has had a Buggin's turn of good and bad. But what if zero to low economic growth is the norm? What if, like in the century before the Black Death, wages remain at the same levels for 150 years? Where are the technological changes that drive economic growth? (no, a new model of iPad really doesn't count unless it flies alongside you and you can have an intelligent conversation with it).

Our grandchildren may have to learn to live in a very different economic world.

"UK will debate proposals, then obey them"

When the war correspondent Alan Moorehead reached Brussels shortly after liberation, he found the city's zoo being used to hold alleged Nazi collaborators. "What will happen to them?" he asked. "They will be given a fair trial, then they will be shot" came the answer. 

It seems the character of the Bruxellois hasn't changed a great deal in sixty years. The Speccie publishes the EU's programme for the latest stage in its takeover of national governments; "National ministers study the AGS and adopt conclusions" is this Winter's task for Cameron's government, and in June of next year Cameron is instructed that "national ministers discuss the Commission's budget recommendations and adopt conclusions"

Osborne is nothing but a foolish and incompetent dilettante who shouldn't be let near running a tuck shop, but at least he's our idiot. I've no confidence that the foolish and incompetent zealots from Brussels will be any better at running the UK economy than 'Boy' Osborne but why on Earth should we give them the chance? Why are all 27 EU nations included in surrendering their budgets to Brussels, not just the Eurozone masochists?

Bring on the referendum.

Real European values

This is an edited version of posts I tried making last week

The landscape here in this part what the EU is terming the 'Alpe-Adria' or Alpine Adriatic region is dramatic. Steep-sided valley sides with crystal clear rivers rushing between them, with tractor-activity on the flat valley floors but otherwise 45° farming the old way - livestock - with woodland coming in when this is impractical, up to the tree-line. Just a brief word about the tree-line: if there has been an increase in atmospheric CO2 levels, these high trees will benefit. At 2,500m trees grow very slowly due to low CO2 concentrations, and woodland is consequently extremely cheap. More CO2 means quicker growth and, er, more CO2 'locked in'. And an economic benefit in terms of increased timber production. 

Environmental quality is really important here. The mountain water is pure enough to drink, and they aim to keep it that way right down to the lakes and reservoirs, so only saily boats or electric-engined craft are generally allowed here. This extends to restricting Nitrate fertilizer use to prevent the run-off that has polluted so much UK water. And if you want instant popularity here, say 'Monsanto' and spit (hygienically, into a container, for safe disposal). They don't like GM, hate the big farming-pharma companies, loathe corporate farmers and love their bees. They could almost be Greens except that you won't find one single bloody windmill anywhere. Not one. Despite all those high mountains and strong winds, the entire skyline remains undespoiled by those useless, absurd, alien objects. 

If Hungary is securing 'Home, Work, Family, Health and Order' with the cudgel then Austria uses 'nudge' to promote much the same values. With the memory of Vichy France replacing 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' with 'Work, Family, Fatherland' as a national slogan perhaps in mind, there remains a certain sensitivity here towards anything too prescriptive. It's an odd contrast. As is the almost universal regard for the memory of Jörg Haider I encountered. Five years ago in Lambichl near Klagenfurt he piled and rolled his government-issued car. His death had a sort of JFK impact - of great potential cut short, and like JFK he was swiftly popularly canonised. This video is typical. Quietly, and after half a bottle of Schnapps, even an eminently sensible Ing.Dr. Frau will whisper to you that he was killed. 

There is no question about the Roma and the Sinti. They are not wanted here under any circumstances, and all means of keeping them out are regarded as fair. Generally they are picked up on the way in at the borders by the traffic cops, who rarely fail to find fault with their vehicles or documents. Those that get through are watched and caught. Handgun ownership for household protection is common here (each person is allowed one full-calibre pistol or revolver plus another up to .22 calibre) and with the Glock factory nearby, you can pick up a 3rd-generation 9mm Glock G17 for about €300. This may also be a deterrent for any ill-minded Roma.

The attitude to the EU is as ambivalent as everywhere. The strongest 'for' reasons, in order, are Security, Trade and Economy, International influence and the strongest 'anti' reasons in order are Interference in domestic matters, Corruption and pro-Corporatism. The CAP, under which (it is quoted here) France, with 15% of the EU's farmers, gets 70% of the budget, is seen as in need of urgent reform. Small, mixed, traditional farms are the norm here - not by themselves productive enough to sustain a family, but hugely valuable both for cultural and environmental reasons. A secondary income stream from employment, tourism or niche marketing of specialist products is needed to make these small farms sustainable - and if we can do it, they say here, why can't the bloody Kermits?

Oh, and finally smoking. Yes, the Austrians say, it is a bad thing and people should stop. But they must also be free to smoke if they want to. So smoking is banned in public (government) buildings only - but not in bars, hotels or restaurants. If you want a smoke-free coffee, go to the Bahnhof cafe or the Rathauskellar. This is eminently sensible and actually works very well. 

It all makes one really wonder why our politicians and civil servants are so bloody stupid. 

"Um, those are what we call clouds, sir"

Losers

Don't read too much into the barbaric events in Woolwich. All it really proves is that a couple of young black jihadists can run another person down in a car then finish them off. And these losers in their cheap Chinese polyester clothes didn't even have the nous between them to get a proper firearm. However, as tool-using primates with opposable thumbs, they did what they could. They might have used rocks or pointed sticks if they'd been unable to get hold of steel weapons. That Islam provided them with what they imagined was justification for their barbarism remains the real problem; with no recognised spiritual hierarchy to definitively interpret the Koran otherwise, Islam will always provide the enemies of our peoples with an excuse for violence against us. 

The problem is, our police and government are incapable of the sort of proactive combing-out of physically dangerous Jihadists that targets only the threats; they still insist on measures that hurt us all. Let's be honest - the Seventh Day Adventists are never going to hijack a petrol tanker, the Hasidic Jews aren't going to kidnap the Prime Minister and the Zoroastrians ain't going to fire-bomb Catterick. 

No doubt there are a vast majority of peaceful law-abiding Moslems in Britain. That doesn't mitigate the fact that hundreds of hostile, violent, immature Jihadists who pose a real threat are hiding like fish in the waters of the Islamic population. Let's have the police and Security Service bait some hooks.

I'm still here!

Apols all - my plans to blog from the mountains on my mobile have failed miserably despite daily efforts. And to be frank I'm completely out of touch with the news, immersed in local culture (read: a barrel of most at my elbow) and chasing all sorts of hares .. back to normal service soon, meanwhile 

Oxford products of first-cousin marriages?

Looking at the mug shots of the convicted Pakistani kiddy-fiddlers from Oxford, and again at those of the convicted Telford Pakistani sex gang below, it cannot but strike the viewer that they do not exactly radiate any impression of individual or collective cerebral capacity. To be blunt, and possibly offensive, many carry the look of what we used to term 'the retarded'. 

The look is not confined to Pakistan, of course. It is still common in isolated areas of Kentucky and Louisiana, and until the 20th century could be seen in parts of North Norfolk and Wales. It is, of course, the common result of a prevalence of first-cousin marriages, and particularly of parallel cousin marriages (son to brother's daughter) that produces the highest volume not only of serious birth defects but significantly increased rates of imbecilism and feeble-mindedness. This is the most common marriage relationship amongst Pakistanis. 

Back in February 2008 Labour Minister Phil Woolas shocked his constituents by mentioning this 'elephant in the room' - he was moved by the large number of hideously deformed babies he'd seen who were the result of such relationships. In August 2010 Channel 4 screened a documentary entitled 'When Cousins Marry' that further exposed the dangers of "Preferential patrilateral parallel cousin marriage". A comment at the time on the programme's website was

As a Teacher of children with severe special needs, working predominantly within the asian community, I am very pleased to see this issue being publicly raised. Along with the distress the child may suffer throughout it's life as the result of a first cousin marriages, society has a huge financial burden to bare in providing the necessary support. These include a huge range of medical interventions, paediatric care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, specialist teaching support, respite care, transportation, building adaptations etc, etc etc.

If deviant sexual behaviour amongst the retarded but otherwise functioning young men from such relationships is now costing us to maintain some 250 of them in prison for the next fifteen years or so it may just be a cost too far. Should we now give serious consideration to banning such relationships in the UK, as many parts of the US has done, to lessen the incidence of these benighted imbeciles in our society?    

Housekeeping - spam

With apologies to all contributors I've had to turn the comments verification thingy on; the sheer volume of spam recently, between 50-100 a day, is making it increasingly hard to police manually, and I'm going to be rather busy over the next week.

We'll see how it goes.

Unofficial Conservatives win record poll share

The Unofficial Conservatives have scored an unprecedented 18% in the most recent ICM / Guardian poll, which also shows the three main parties all 4% down. I'm talking about UKIP, of course. The response of Tory stalwarts, which started by telling UKIP supporters that they were all mad, has switched to something (in Tory eyes, anyway) more subtle - telling them they're wrong. Cameron is doing marvellously on Europe they say; and anyone who patronises the ROH in Covent garden will know how effective his immigration crackdown is; his refusal of a work permit for an American counter-tenor last month was masterly. And suggestions that he is too much like the despised Blair are simply absurd; Blair went to Fettes whilst Cameron went to Eton, Blair's only worth £8m whilst Cameron's worth £12m, Blair lives in the Agaland of Bucks whilst Cameron's country home is in Rayburn shire, Oxon. They couldn't be more different.

Ed's £4m London home is a quite normal asset for any unemployed young man to have acquired, say Labour's apologists, and besides he needs it for entertaining now that he's become interested in politics. And London's full of poor people, yah? So it keeps him in touch with common people. He spoke to someone in a shop recently. 

And Nick is at pains to point out just how hard he and Miriam try to distance themselves from the Tories; in avoiding Osborne & Little wallpaper for their London home, and having to use the more expensive Zoffany instead, they spent an extra quarter mil in decorating. How's that for political dedication? 

Suggestions that they all keep bumping into each-other in the same fashionable London restaurants, shows, parties and first-nights are silly, they all say. Their diary secretaries keep in close contact to ensure this doesn't happen.

No, no they're all completely unlike each-other, totally distinctive, all very different, lots of clear blue water between them. Not at all like each-other. Not at all all the same. Got it?

Rerum Novarum again

Regular readers will know that Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum has long been a favourite of mine; its unequivocal condemnation of socialist doctrine and of the interference of the State in personal and family life stands the test of years. Yet it not only condemns socialism but corporatism; making wealth is fine, and retaining wealth so that capitalists and their families may live 'becomingly' with their station in life is also fine, but excess and conspicuous consumption, or wealth for power is not. The wealthy have a duty to use any excess of wealth to the benefit of their fellow man. 

Paradoxically, as the Telegraph (£) reports today, the EU's crisis is driving people to reject the authority of the corporatist super-State and reinforcing the authority of the family and the local community. The role of the churches and their charities such as Caritas have also been enhanced and they have gained authority. The Bishops of the European Community are in conference and due to meet in October under the chairmanship of Cardinal Marx. But don't worry. Cardinal Marx supports Marxism in the same way as Cardinal Sin supported Sin. Rather, it is hinted, COMECE will look back to Leo XIII. 

All the gains of the political class and their corporatist allies over the past decades are being washed away like sand by the tide. Europe is turning away from its politicians, bankers and global magnates; their authority is eroded, their status derided, their pretences popularly ridiculed. The Telegraph reports the Archbishop of Toledo as saying that the roots of the debt crisis lie in the "moral disarmament" of the last quarter century. A `get-rich-quick' culture of "stupid consumption" and "deranged indebtment" has corrupted public life. Children have been brought up to wallow in self-gratification. "This is common to the whole of Western Europe. It goes back to the core issues of moral philosophy, of what we are as human beings. It is here that we must search for a way out of the impasse," he said.

The Devil has all the best tunes

Understanding the far right in Germany takes a paradigm shift in thought. Imagine an earnest group of young folk musicians from Cumbria with a repertoire dedicated to the courage of their grandfathers at Tobruk, ballads celebrating the advance of the Royal Tank Corps at El Alamein and sweet guitar riffs backing songs about their love of their folk customs. This approximates the narrative behind much of Germany's far right; that the Wehrmacht was the finest war-machine ever created, that German soldiers in WWII performed nobly and with outstanding courage against overwhelming odds, that their grandfathers were true heroes. It's as if Nick Griffin were suddenly to produce a Spanish guitar and began to strum chords declaring "I'd like to share something I wrote recently ..." . To us, where the liberal-left seem to have a monopoly of the performing arts, it seems strange indeed.



All this of course is 'wrong' and contrary to the official post-war narrative of guilt and liability established in Germany. Right-wing parties in Germany however have been pulling a worrying number of votes - up to 15%, and enough for the Government to set up a Commission to counter the growth of the movement. In seeking to re-write Germany's recent history, to give meaning to those five million Wehrmacht dead, these young people can perhaps be understood. And the German government will have a hard time of it - there's nothing so hard to suppress as a song, and the Devil always has had the best tunes. 

BBC alone report new Asian child sex ring

Sentences of 18 and 14 years for the two ringleaders Ahdel Ali and Mubarak Ali (top) and others making a total of 100 years for a further seven Asian men have been imposed as a major new trial of Asian child sex offenders - this time operating in Telford, in Shropshire - concludes. The news was the second item on the BBC R4 6 o'clock radio news last night.

Following the mass convictions of Asian men in Rochdale earlier this year for child sex offences, and the scale and severity of the sentencing, the BBC were right in the priority they accorded this news item. The written story on the web site is somewhat harder to find; you need to navigate through to BBC Shropshire to see it. And apart from a brief and well-hidden mention in the online Mail, that's all the coverage the UK national media gives to the story.

The Guardian reports the arrest of a double bass player who allegedly groped someone at a music school, but not this. The Indie wonders whether animated faces in our text messages are dumbing us down but is not nearly so curious about mass long term child sex abuse. The Telegraph warns its readers to get their money out of Spain quickly. 

So why this MSM silence on the Asian sex gangs? We're now filling the best part of an entire prison with Asian men serving hundreds of years for the sexual abuse of white girl-children and this isn't something we should be talking about?

And after Rochdale and Telford, where the hell else has this been going on, and how many more mass-trials of these ugly perverts are we going to see?

Lady Toynbee like Cnut against the tide

As the Labour tide is turning, as those on the left are just waking up to the real dangers and evils of the EU, Lady Toynbee plants her chair firmly in the sand and commands the seas to retreat. Her Euro-sceptic colleagues on the left are really anarcho-conservatives, says the archetypal hereditary capitalist-socialist, who should learn to love centralist, dictatorial institutions for their own good. The people don't know what's best for them and can't be trusted to make the right decision, declares Lady T; and they should not be let anywhere near the ballot box, especially in the downswing of a recession. 

If we left, Lady Toynbee wails, the same isolationism would sweep us out of the European human rights convention too. Do we want to be Belarus? She asks. Um, what, and be able to expel Islamic terrorists at will? Be able to deport prisoners after their sentences are served? Have the ability to allow our own highly skilled, just and capable courts to make case law? Well, yes please, actually.

Just as Toynbee's purblindness cannot imagine a Britain that for eight hundred years led the World in human rights without any assistance from European institutions, she cannot imagine our unique advantages in global location, language, historical links, economic strength and pre-eminence in international institutions amounting to much without Europe's parasitical deadweight. 

Luckily, those on the left who work for a living and don't belong to Lady Toynbee's privileged left-liberal aristocratic and hereditary mileau have always been as sceptical about voting advice from the Big House as they have been of foreign interference in British ways. And when the Referendum comes - and it will - half of them will vote 'No' to the EU.

Price fixing and energy saving subsidies

Suppose the government wanted to encourage the take-up of wood pellet burners. To do so, it introduces a 50% subsidy on purchase cost. Good news all round, you would have thought; manufacturers sell more boilers, householders buy more and the government reduces the nation's CO2 output. Except, of course, it doesn't work like that and never has done. 

What actually happens is that the manufacturers and retailers of the boilers in the subsidised nations double their price. The government subsidy then goes directly to the retailers. Householders see no great price advantage and don't buy, and the government ends up spending a lot of money with no real reduction in CO2.

Take a look at http://kotly.com/ then take a look on eBay UK. Most of this kit is built not in China but in Eastern Europe; it fully meets CE standards and certification and can be installed in the UK without problem. And it's half the price of the same stuff sold domestically.

What's true for solar thermal above is also true for solar PV, except that most solar PV is made in China. Good news for Euro governments intent on increasing PV take-up at minimum cost to the taxpayer, one would have thought. But no. As Der Spiegel reveals, the reaction of the EU is to impose swingeing tariffs on Chinese PV to protect overpriced Euro manufacturers, fat margins and bloated profits. Yet again money is going straight from taxpayers pockets to fatcat corporate investors, revealing again the green-scam for what it is; a business opportunity for the big boys. It's got nothing to do with CO2. 

£30bn a year better off out

The latest CIVITAS paper estimates the benefits of withdrawal from the EU at around £30bn a year. Of this, it estimates the saving in the cost of regulation at about £20bn. As heavyweights such as Lord Lawson start to get behind the figures, we can expect a strong counter-reaction from those firms who benefit most from regulation - the large corporations.

Take the food allergen labelling regulations. A small high street baker, you're adding a fruit cake to your range. It will take you three hours to make and bake two dozen fruit cakes - but thirty hours to find, research, correspond, query and prepare legal food labels to stick onto the packaging. The Allergen Labelling Regulations, for example, compel you to declare any traces of Celery, Cereals containing gluten, Crustaceans, Eggs, Fish, Lupin, Milk (including Lactose), Molluscs, Mustard, Nuts, Peanuts, Sesame seeds, Soybeans or Sulphur Dioxide.

Of course Megapolis Foods and their ten-acre cake factory has no problem complying with all these regulations; they have an entire department for it. They even pay a lobbying firm in Brussels to persuade MEPs and the Commission's officials that even more regulations are needed. If you bake a million cakes a year the overhead costs of regulation are small; if you only bake 500 they're horrendous. 

The incestuous links between the large corporations and Brussels go much further than this. Brussels regularly uses taxes raised from EU nations to stuff the mouths of the big corporations with gold; just take a look at the UK recipients of the EU grants programme HERE to see who will be opposing any withdrawal from the EU. It won't be Britain's small firms and SMEs, the economic powerhouse of growth and the sector most likely to retain economic benefit in the UK. 

During 2011 big corporations shared an EU bribe pot of €4,509,352,492.66. So when you see the Chairman of Global Foods plc on the TV opposing EU withdrawal, check the database to see how much tax money he's had before you believe him.   

Thank goodness for Sir Cliff

As figures from the world of 'light entertainment' as it used to be called tumble like ninepins as sexual delinquents one can only be grateful that one figure at least remains aloof from the whispers and rumour. Sir Cliff has often been derided for his chaste and disciplined life, one underpinned by his Christian faith. Now as his contemporaries are facing public disgrace and prison he can feel vindicated. 

Of course the focus must now move to the eighties and the excesses of the new generation of variety performers and light entertainers; the generation of Ben Elton, Rik Mayall, Rowan Atkinson, Ade Edmondson, Alexei Sayle, Pamela Stephenson and their media contemporaries. There are dark tales of illegal drugs, alcohol in excess and sexual perversions. 

Then of course the nineties and the new media stars such as Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond must come under the witchfinder-general's spotlight. Surely the trio cannot be that cheerful without having committed some gross breaches of good behaviour?

And when of course the deviants themselves and all record of the miscreants, all their shows and recordings, have been removed from broadcast and consigned to a secret locked archive and only Sir Cliff remains as fit to transmit we will all be happy. Won't we?

Whoever

Sometimes you can't have everything. I'd like a cheap and very robust tablet with integral GPS that runs marine chart software and does office functions. I don't need a megapixel camera or to store half a million MP3 songs. In the end, of course, I'll pick the best fit available. And this, I think, is what we will also do with our new choice of four main parties. Out of the Eurofederacy but in free-movement Europe? Tick. My borough no longer over-run by Nigerian women having babies? Tick. H.M. Armed Forces properly financed and effective? Tick. No more bloody windmills? Tick. And most importantly Are they listening to me or just talking at me? Tick.

Ryan Shorthouse, Director of 'Bright Blue' advises Tories today that “Conservatives should not panic and react by trying to be more hardline than UKIP on welfare, Europe and immigration. Instead, we should convince voters we are the only party with enough experience, gravitas and compassion to be really trusted - with the difficult and complex job of government, to sort out the public finances, and with supporting the vulnerable and those struggling in these challenging economic times”

The problem is, people just don't believe it. It lacks sensible credibility. The voters know that if they were stuck changing a tyre on a lonely rain-swept road at night it would be Nigel and not David who stopped to lend a hand. 

UKIP's success also spells the death of the LibDems. The corrupt and crooked party funding proposals first from Hayden Phillips and then from Christopher Kelly that would reward the three incumbent parties on the basis of their last voting share - so long as they had MPs sitting - was designed to maintain the status quo and keep the LibDems afloat. Any attempt now to introduce such a scheme would quite rightly provoke a march on Parliament with pitchforks and burning brands. The LibDems, with probably no more than 40,000 members and bereft of all their opposition cash, are now up against the ropes. 

Phillips, Kelly and all the rest of the cosy political establishment have taken a slapping. The real kicking will come with next year's Euro elections - when there's everything to play for.

Reasons to be cheerful

Sorry, no post this evening. I only had £100 on at 5/4 for more than 100 UKIP gains, but when they paid out at about sixixh I found I could afford some alcohol ...

UKIP for change

The problem of warnings that 'Vote UKIP - get Miliband' have is that people really don't care - most can see little difference between Miliband and Cameron and want neither of them equally. I've said on this blog time and time again that people are hungry for change, that they're not 'apathetic' but fed-up with a political class that has betrayed them. Europe has failed, globalisation has delivered benefits to everyone but the West, Corporations have prospered, the obscenely wealthy have become more so, self-interest and greed characterise all our most senior public servants, MPs scrabble with their snouts for yet more money, third-world standards of electoral distortion are maintained for party advantage, immigration has changed the face of our nation without the people ever having been asked about it, the ancient hills are littered with bloody pointless windmills and still they distort and pervert science for lunatic ideology. 

So No Mr Cameron and No Mr Miliband and No Mr Clegg  I really don't care what UKIP's policy on plastic surgery is, or how their sums on the aggregates levy add up. You see, I loathe you all so very, very much right now that I will vote for anyone to slap hard your silly smug privileged faces. 

And however bad the UKIP candidate may be, they're infinitely better than the alternative slaves of the existing metropolitan political clubs.

France and Germany

We may have been mildly shocked at crude and insulting semi-official comments directed at Cameron from the French government. Governments don't speak to each-other in this way, do they? As with John Major, opponents may be 'the Bastards' in private but 'valued colleagues' in public. The Kermits, however, seem to have lost it.

As Ambrose Evans-Pritchard catalogues, the latest exchange of insults between France and Germany is quite unprecedented. And France started it. The problem is that the garlic-munchers blame their woes on everything and everybody but themselves; their sclerotic economy and productivity, an industrial sector on the Liverpool Death Pathway, more hands grasping rewards from the tax-till than can be re-filled, an agricultural sector that takes most of the CAP budget - 22% of CAP money goes to France, which has just 7.8% of the EU's farms over 1 European Size Unit (ESU) - and outdated beliefs in 'Gloire' that make France look as decayed and absurd as Miss Havisham in scarlet lippy. 

It's not just Germany that must contemplate whether to bail-out the Kermits yet again; they cost each working Briton a fortune, keep food prices artificially high, decimate our fish stocks and are taught at birth to sneer. Despite not having produced an international pop star since Edith Piaf. Turkey may once have been the 'sick man of Europe' - but today it's France and not just diplomatic flu, but a basket case. 

But like a huge art-nouveau ocean liner sinking beneath the waves, she'll pull us down too if we're too close to her. And voting for UKIP is important for this alone; who cares what their policy on bloody dormice is when we're struggling to stay alive.