January 2002

1. FROTH & LATHER ACCOMPANY EURO LAUNCH

So Euro notes and coins have finally arrived. Amid great fanfare, the 12 countries of the Eurozone duly unveiled the new currency on 1st. January. Predictably, prices have shot up. Taxis in Brussels have tried to double their fares in some instances, preying on the confusion of passengers with the new money. Food stores have rounded everything up. Even a simple cup of coffee has increased to 2 Euros in most cafes, representing a 30% hike on previous prices. Those Europhiles who claim that Britain would enjoy lower prices if we joined the Euro must be joking. Do they honestly believe that traders in the UK would round their prices down?

Frankly, I've been amazed at the press coverage of the Euro launch. Nearly every newspaper in Britain and indeed across the EU claimed that the arrival of the new notes and coins had been a huge success and had exceeded expectations in almost every Member State. On closer analysis it seems that this 'success' involved each government in the Eurozone ensuring that their cash dispensers were filled with Euros in time for the first New Year revellers to fill their wallets. Some success! On digging deeper we even discover that in Greece the launch was chaotic, in France the banks went on strike, in Italy the Foreign Minister resigned and in Germany the public have expressed outrage at losing their much-cherished Deutschmark. However, on the back of the frothy hysteria in the media, the Euro predictably rose slightly in the currency markets, only to slip back again later.

The fact remains that the Euro is a con. We were told that it would be a strong currency. In fact it has been an incredibly weak currency, losing up to 30% of its value against the U.S. $ since its' launch. We were told that Britain would suffer if we stayed outside the single currency. In fact we have higher economic growth than almost every country in the Eurozone. Our unemployment is half the level of that in the Eurozone and our inward investment accounts for almost half the total going into the entire EU.

Notwithstanding these startling statistics, President Blair, the self-styled 'world's second most important leader', remains a convinced Europhile and intends to take the UK into the single currency by hook or by crook. 'Euro-creep' has already begun, with the government actively encouraging British shops and stores to accept Euros. However, their strategy for Euro-entry was blown apart following a serious gaff by a senior Treasury Spokesman who admitted that a decision on entry to the single currency would be 'political' rather than based on the famous 'five economic tests,' about which we have heard so much and know so little.

So now it is clear. Blair wishes to join the Eurozone not because it would make Britain stronger economically, or create more jobs, because it will achieve neither, but rather because it will make Tony Blair stronger and, in his twisted logic, an ever more powerful player as he struts around the globe. Blair will only call a referendum when he thinks he can win. The task of all Conservatives is to ensure that he does not win. We should remember that repeated opinion polls indicate a strong majority of British people resolutely oppose entry to the Eurozone. This situation did not happen by accident. It happened because Conservatives have campaigned long and hard to save the pound. Some say our concentration on this issue may have cost us the last election. But it is an issue of such vital importance to the future of the UK that history may yet judge that our tactics lost the battle but ultimately won the war.

2. A BILLION EUROS GOES UP IN SMOKE

The Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament is filled with 'so-called' experts from all 15 Member States. Five former Ministers of Agriculture can be counted in its ranks. It was in this committee that decisions were taken to endorse the ban on British beef to prevent the remote (one in ten million) chance of anyone catching CJD. It was also here that stringent controls were imposed on animal foodstuffs to ensure that tiny traces of dioxins could not enter the food chain. Even GMO's, which have never caused so much as an upset tummy to anyone, have been threatened with an outright ban by the agri-experts.

Bizarrely, it was in this same committee last week that the decision was taken to continue subsidising the European tobacco industry to the tune of One Billion Euros a year - enough to build three new Scottish Parliaments! This incredible piece of hypocrisy is supported by an army of MEPs from Greece, Spain, Portugal, France and Italy - the EU's main tobacco growing areas - who claim that tens of thousands of jobs would be at risk if the subsidy was stopped. The fact that tobacco smoking kills 500,000 EU citizens every year appears to be of little concern.

Over the past ten years precisely ten and a half billion Euros of taxpayers' money has been given to tobacco growers in the EU. At the same time, we claim to be at the cutting edge of health reform and spend hours debating whether we should ban tobacco advertising. Sadly, apart from a lone Belgian Green MEP and myself, not another voice of protest was raised against this obscene use of public money. But at least the European Commission have got the message. They have just drawn up a report recommending that all tobacco subsidies should be phased out over the next five years......much to the consternation of the 'experts' on the Agriculture Committee.

3. SCIENCE FICTION

Scientists from Imperial College in London have just published a report which suggests that UK citizens are five times more likely to contract CJD from eating lamb than from eating beef. This nonsensical proposition was, nevertheless, taken seriously by the media. Sky News even carried it as their lead story when the report was published earlier in January. In the small print of the report, the scientists confess that their prediction is based on a theoretical worst case scenario. They then admit that there is no evidence whatsoever that BSE has ever infected sheep. However, their spurious claim is that if BSE was ever to be discovered in the UK sheep flock, then because of the numbers of sheep compared to cattle and because of the stringent anti-BSE measures in place in the beef industry, people would run a five times greater risk of contracting CJD.

It is staggering that scientists can come up with such baloney. It is even more staggering that they should be allowed to get away with it. Just as the beleaguered British farming industry was trying to struggle back to its feet after the horrors of foot and mouth and BSE, along come this group of Barmy boffins with a report that kicks the sheep sector firmly in the groin and gives our French colleagues yet another excuse to impose an illegal export ban. It is even more sinister when one realises that Imperial College were commissioned to produce this rubbish by the Food Standards Agency. Just whose side are they on? It was only a few months ago that we heard another bunch of loopy scientists had been on the verge of recommending the slaughter of every single sheep in Britain after supposedly discovering signs of BSE in sheep brains. Disaster was narrowly averted when it was revealed that they had, in fact, spent years studying cow brains by mistake!

I am convinced that scientists who publish such scare-mongering nonsense should be held to account under the law. They should be made to pay compensation to the sheep industry for every lost order or lost job.