Nigel's gravy train

[Flashman]

Yep, you know how the cloggies deal with this? They put the big decisions on water management in the hands of the cabinet and the 'waterschappen', or elected 'water councils', which have the same immunity from prosecution as ministers, but can be sued (which rarely happens because they tend to get it right on this issue). It seems to work well and might be an idea for a flood prone area like southern England. The EU just doesn't get much say in the matter really, because at the end of the day if the EU wants to arrest the directors, they'll have to phone the UK police and ask them to do it, at which stage they get told to sod off. Really, I think what's happening here is that British politicians have taken poor decisions (poor, with hindsight, to be fair), and have shifted the blame to the EU.

As I understand it EU directives are implemented through National Governments. In this country EU laws become British law through our Westminster Parliament. Mostly through statutory instruments which don't even get voted on in Westminster.

So British police in British police uniforms enforce EU made law. There really is no need for the EU to phone anyone at all.

Quite a clever system really. It allows our lovely British politicians to swan about pretending to run the country while the EU does the heavy work.

[doodab]

Quite clever really. It allows our lovely British politicians to swan about pretending to run the country while the EU does the heavy work.

More importantly it allows them to blame the EU for all the stuff they **** up.

[darmstadt]

Frothing is a very British thing. No doubt they will try to ban that shortly

Well that'll **** up the luvvie duvvies and their 'Latte Machiatto' then

[darmstadt]

I like the fact the UKIP is pretty much bankrolled by the Tories:

- UKIP's biggest donor is Paul Sykes, an ex-Tory donor, who has made his level of control over the party absolutely clear with statements like "Me and Nigel work well together. He's articulate and he's learned a lot ... but remember I binned Nigel once before in 2004".

- Another major Tory party donor turned UKIP backer is Eton educated Stuart Wheeler, who has risen rapidly through the UKIP party ranks to become their treasurer. Before he defected to to UKIP Wheeler handed out over £625,000 to the Tory party.

- Other major Tory donors that have taken to bankrolling UKIP include James Hanson, £10,000; Robin Birley, £15,000; Michael Stone, £20,000; John Scott, £7,500; John Craven, £12,500; William MacDougall, £8,000; and David Caldow, £16,000.

- Aside from the major Tory party donors turned UKIP backers, there are also the Tory wives. There's Yvonne Vinson, the wife of Tory bigwig Nigel Vinson, whose donation seems to be related to her husband's threat to defect to UKIP if David Cameron doesn't take a more Euroskeptic stance. Then there's a £100,000 donation from Clare Barbour, who is the wife of Tory donor Patrick Barbour.

UKIP are funded in exactly the same way as the Tory party, and were they ever to obtain any real measure of power, you can be absolutely sure that their financial backers will be looking for payback (in the form of favourable legislation, seats in the House of Lords, knighthoods, political appointments, subsidies and outsourcing contracts or even the chance to actually write government legislation for them) in exactly the same way major donors to the Tory party have been handed countless favours by the Tory led government.

[SueEllen]

As I understand it EU directives are implemented through National Governments. In this country EU laws become British law through our Westminster Parliament. Mostly through statutory instruments which don't even get voted on in Westminster.

So British police in British police uniforms enforce EU made law. There really is no need for the EU to phone anyone at all.

Quite a clever system really. It allows our lovely British politicians to swan about pretending to run the country while the EU does the heavy work.

And who are some of these people who think up stupid EU laws?

[vetran]

UKIP are funded in exactly the same way as the Tory party, and were they ever to obtain any real measure of power, you can be absolutely sure that their financial backers will be looking for payback (in the form of favourable legislation, seats in the House of Lords, knighthoods, political appointments, subsidies and outsourcing contracts or even the chance to actually write government legislation for them) in exactly the same way major donors to the Tory party have been handed countless favours by the Tory led government.

So much like the Labour Party being manipulated by the Unions?

FactCheck: party donors – who funds Labour and the Tories? | The FactCheck Blog | The FactCheck Blog

Its no surprise many of the backers are ex tories, their agenda is similar to previous Tory eras.

I suspect Maggie would have joined UKIP.

[Flashman]

Meanwhile back in Brussels Nigel carries on.

Gloves are coming off now. Openly calling EU leadership a bunch of maniacs. .

[darmstadt]

Its no surprise many of the backers are ex tories, their agenda is similar to previous Tory eras.

I suspect Maggie would have joined UKIP.

Or the fact that they're really an 80's Tory party in disguise:

- It seems that a lot of UKIP voters are not familiar with the fact that the party is stuffed full of Tory politicians. Their leader Nigel Farage is the most high profile ex-Tory in UKIP having abandoned the Tory party in 1992.

- William Legge (or the Earl of Dartmouth - to refer to him by his establishment title) who quit the Tory party in 2007 and got himself elected as an MEP for the South West region for UKIP in 2009

- Stuart Wheeler, who abandoned the Tories and soon became the UKIP party treasurer.

- Roger Helmer, who was elected as a Tory MEP for the East Midlands region, but defected to UKIP in 2012.

- Former Tory MP Neil "cash for questions" Hamilton, who was welcomed into UKIP with open arms.

And the mad ones:

- Boston Councillor Elizabeth Ransome who famously said "I no [sic] this is probably a stupid question, but is tuna a real fish like ones that swim in the sea?"

- Julia Gaspar who claimed that gay people have sex with animals and children

[darmstadt]

Mind you, this is good:

[darmstadt]

Sexy Bang-Bang UKIP Pinups