Lame Duck President Tells Britain What To Do

President Obama's inappropriate intervention in exerting pressure on Briton to stay in
the EU, does nothing to strengthen the case for doing so. Indeed, what would be
the response of the US if, in the unlikely event, the UK attempted to influence
its foreign policy?

A free-enterprise economy operating in an open, representative democracy
led to the rise of the United States as the pre-eminent global power. It has
underpinned the defence and economies of Western countries since the
Second World War.

These values represent everything that the EU is not. Its Commission, far
from representing the will of the people, represents an unelected and
unaccountable elite. Jean Monet, a founding father of the
EU, planned the deceit which has been visited on the peoples of Europe:
"European nations should be guided towards being a superstate, without
understanding what is happening".

The introduction of the flawed single currency, the monumentally wasteful
Common Agricultural Policy, large unaudited capital transfers to the 26
largely net recipient countries, funded by Germany and the UK (on borrowed
money), are manifestly socialist and antithetical to the free-market principles
the US has always stood for.

With 7% of the world's population, 25% of its GDP but 50% of global spending
on welfare and the unrelenting tide of immigrants, time for the EU is indeed running
out. In the absence of fundamental structural economic and political reform,
yet more quantitative easing by the ECB cannot delay for much longer the
inevitable Implosion of the entire EU project. Is this what President Obama
wants the UK locked into? We must resist President Obama's invitation to "outsize" 

our influence with the US, since it is based on the false premise of an imagined special relationship

relationship which is, in reality, its own national self-interest.

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Immigration - Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

Official figures show that in the

past year 257,000 EU immigrants

have arrived in the UK and 630,000

EU citizens have requested National

Insurance numbers.

These figures, taken together with

with the news in Times article (Feb

27) 'Blair accused of opening doors

to 2m migrants' suggests little has

changed in government obscuring 

inconvenient facts from public gaze

Notwithstanding the debatable

benefit of marginally higher GDP, the 

effects of such a massive inflow can

be seen in the NHS, housing and 

education, where scarce resources are 

being stretched to breaking point.

We are where we are but should remind 

ourselves how this situation has arisen. 

The continuing assertion that, when in office, 

Labour acted in good faith in not properly 

assessing the impact of immigration and 

of integration is contradicted by the facts. 

A publication of 2000, obtained under the 

Freedom of information Act, contained a 

secret Cabinet Office report, which 

characterised Labour's open-door 

immigration policy as a deliberate attempt 

to rub the Right's nose in cultural diversity.

Current projections are that each year

immigration will add to the UK population

the equivalent of a city the size of Bristol

size of Bristol.

We must regain the ability to control our

borders.

Official figures show that in the

past year 257,000 EU immigrants

have arrived in the UK and 630,000

EU citizens have requested National

Insurance numbers.

These figures, taken together with

with the news in Times article (Feb

27) 'Blair accused of opening doors

to 2m migrants' suggests little has

changed in government obscuring 

inconvenient facts from public gaze

Notwithstanding the debatable

benefit of marginally higher GDP, the 

effects of such a massive inflow can

be seen in the NHS, housing and 

education, where scarce resources are 

being stretched to breaking point.

We are where we are but should remind 

ourselves how this situation has arisen. 

The continuing assertion that, when in office, 

Labour acted in good faith in not properly 

assessing the impact of immigration and 

of integration is contradicted by the facts. 

A publication of 2000, obtained under the 

Freedom of information Act, contained a 

secret Cabinet Office report, which 

characterised Labour's open-door 

immigration policy as a deliberate attempt 

to rub the Right's nose in cultural diversity.

Current projections are that each year

immigration will add to the UK population

the equivalent of a city the size of Bristol

size of Bristol.

We must regain the ability to control our

borders.

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Lagarde and Osborne's Quid Pro Quo

IMF chief, Christine Lagarde, was appointed with the strong backing of 
George Osborne and is currently under criminal investigation for fraud.
The former French finance minister and arch-EU advocate admits to
defective judgement in the past regarding the performance of the U.K.
economy. The chancellor has missed all his fiscal targets for deficit
reduction, resulting in a complete loss of confidence. Incredibly, both 
siren voices are now calling on UK voters to trust in their judgement and 
remain in the EU. Is the next phase of this seemingly quid-pro-quo 
relationship one in which the former will support the latter in any early 
career move.

EU 'RED CARD' AND END TO UK SOVEREIGNTY

History will probably view a vote to stay within the EU with 

safeguards in the forthcoming referendum as having been
largely inconsequential.

The EU's desire for ever-closer union will be given added
impetus to pool the sovereignty of 27 countries by the
need to address the huge disparities in their economic
performance. This will have the effect of weakening
the very modest concessions won by the Prime Minister in
his Brussels negotiations.

Putting aside the possibility that the EU could soon
implode under the weight of its economic and democratic
inconsistencies, what would be the position of the UK, 

stripped of any self-determination by the impossibility
of negotiating any legislative changes, not with 27
countries, but with a European?

This would render the 'red card' for dealing with 

damaging Brussels legislation non-sequitur. At the

same time the primacy of the European Court of
Justice over UK law would continue, making the
the UK a sovereign state in name only.

FLATß TAX TO TRANSFORM UK ECONOMY

George Osborne in considering the contents

of his pre-budget report will be only too well

aware that he need nothing less than a

game-changer to address the still rising“

level of public debt. At £1.5 trillion this is

about to exceed the UK's annual GDP.

He will know that it is a proven fact that,

beyond a certain level, higher taxes result

in lower revenues, as the increasing burden

of public spending diminishes the will to

work. The knock-on effect of a flat-tax 

would be to boost incomes and productivity

which are unsustainably low compared

with our global competitors.

In making the case for lower taxes we need

only look to the Russian Federation, following
the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In order to invigorate a sclerotic economy, 

the introduction of a flat tax resulted in a 25% rise 
in revenue from personal income tax, followed by 
a similar increase in the second year and 15% in 
year three.

The chancellor will be mindful that the Laffer 
Curve predicts such an outcome, attributing
the primary reason for increased revenues to
higher levels of economic growth, stemming
from the introduction of a flat-tax. If the UK
Government were to adopt such a model it would

benefit the exchequer by increasing declared
income and reducing the dead-hand of 
bureaucracy by simplifying the way tax is
calculated and collected.

A flat tax would drastically reduce the complexity of
a system that has grown exponentially. With over
17,000 pages Tolley's Tax Guide - the world's
longest - reflects how the need for specialist 
interpretation wastes vast amounts of public money 
by diverting taxes and talent from other vital areas.
Small businesses have to fund an army of
accountants and lawyers, in order to navigate the
system. People with creative ideas are discouraged 
from starting small businesses, the backbone of the
economy.

The chancellor, now with an overall, albeit small, 
majority, has made plain his intention to achieve
a high-growth, low-tax economy. The introduction
of a flat-tax over the medium term is the big idea,
which could release the latent energy of the British
people, driving aspiration and an accelerating GDP.

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OBAMA ATTEMPTS TO INFLUENCE UK's EU REFERENDUM

The news that President Obama is preparing to plead with Britons to stay in
EU (Times report, February), does nothing to strengthen the case for doing so.

A free-enterprise economy operating in an open, representative democracy
led to the rise of the United States as the pre-eminent global power. It has
underpinned the defence and economies of Western countries since the
Second World War.

These values represent everything that the EU is not. Its Commission, far
from representing the will of the people, represents an unelected and
unaccountable elite. The introduction of the flawed single currency, the
monumentally wasteful Common Agricultural Policy, largely unaudited
capital transfers to the 26 net recipient countries, funded by Germany
and the UK, are manifestly antithetical to what the US has always stood
for.
In  warning the UK against leaving the EU, perhaps President Obama
reflects a possible drift of the US Government into the kind of mindset
that US republicans fear. For economic and other reasons the President
may have come into line with the social, political and economic values
of the US's main trading partner, using its 'special relationship' with the
as a convenient means to an end. This could be a real possibility if a
more left-leaning democrat such as Bernie Sanders were returned to
the White House.
This poses potential risks. With all Western economies virtually flatlining,
how long before the EU Commission begins to insinuate its social objectives
into US policy as a quid pro quo for trade, with predictable economic and
geo-political consequences?

PRIZE OF ECONOMIC FAILURE

Gordon Brown's appointment as a senior wealth creation
adviser to Pimco, the global asset management company, is 
triumph of apparent nepotism - Ed Balls's brother is the company's chief 
investment officer - over breathtaking incompetence. Between
1999 and 2002 Mr Brown sold off over half the UK's gold reserves
at a fraction of their subsequent value. The move was indicative of a 
mindset that appears to run counter to Pimco's view that gold is important
part of an economic portfolio.

The sell-off happened in order to protect the solvency of major US banks,
which had become dangerously over-exposed in the gold derivatives
market. The cost to the UK taxpayer amounted to billions. It occurred
at the behest of Gordon Brown without any consultation reganrding what,
turned out to be the squandering of taxpayers' money. The decision was
announced well in advance, thus achieving the US banks' objective: the 
lowest possible gold price.

This disastrous decision adds to Gordon Brown's lasting legacy of profligacy
and near national bankruptcy. Under his chancellorship there was rampant
public spending during a period of brisk growth, unsustainable consumer
debt and frequent extensions of the business cycle in an attempt to balance
the books. He continued with his reckless borrow and spend policy, while
making the absurd assertion that he had abolished boom and bust. I am at a
loss to know what qualifies him for the role at Pimco.














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