Thanks to the Yahoo! Finance link below, here are the key points in the post-election budget of Chancellor George Osborne.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/budget-key-points-know-111606650.html
Archive for the ‘Welcome’ Category
Key Post-Election Budget Points, 8th July 2015
mercredi, juillet 8th, 2015EU Referendum: European Leaders’ Views on Britain’s Renegotiation
vendredi, juin 26th, 2015Thanks to the on-line Telegraph, here’s an interesting range of views on Britain’s current negotiating position to feed into our EU discussion programme.
EU Reform possible without Treaty Change?
lundi, mai 25th, 2015Steve Peers, Professor of EU and Human Rights Law at the University of Essex, suggests that renegotiation of the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU) could be possible without treaty change (click on the link below for his article).
« So some have suggested the ?Danish solution?: namely a decision of the EU Heads of State and Government, meeting within the European Council, which constitutes the EU?s response to the renegotiation request, probably in conjunction with amendments to EU secondary legislation.
Such Decisions have been adopted in the past, as regards Denmark and Ireland, in order to address the former Member State?s difficulties ratifying the Maastricht Treaty and the latter Member State?s difficulties ratifying the Treaty of Lisbon. In the latter case, the European Council (ie Member States? Presidents and Prime Ministers) also agreed the broader legal and political context of this decision: the decision was ?legally binding?, it did not constitute a Treaty amendment, and its content would be set out in a Protocol to be attached to the Treaties in future. Indeed, the latter protocol was subsequently signed and ratified as promised. The UK could be offered a similar commitment. »
http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/is-it-possible-to-reform-eu-without.html
MPs and their Second Jobs
lundi, mars 2nd, 2015This entertaining article from The Independent of 2nd March, 2015 shows how careful politicians of all parties should be when addressing the sensitive issue of MPs’ « other » activities, given the reaction of an increasingly distrustful, disillusioned and cynical electorate living with the pressures of austerity on their incomes.
That being said, it would seem more beneficial for their constituents if MPs also had experience of the « real » world outside politics.
French Economy Not Best Example To follow?
vendredi, février 20th, 2015BCiP member Sophie Loussouarn compares the British and French economies in her article « Quand la France devient le contre-exemple absolu dans la campagne électorale des conservateurs britanniques »
Je Suis Charlie – Agathe Cayuela
mardi, janvier 13th, 2015Agathe Cayuela as a young BCiP member posted in 2012 a tribute on our website to the Jewish school children murdered in Toulouse and has again been very moved by the massacre at Charlie Hebdo.
« The Unbearable lightness of being »
Life.
That?s the very consequence.
Life, stronger and deeper.
Life beating death.
I?ve seen people gathering from everywhere,
I?ve seen people holding hands,
I?ve seen strangers crying together.
I do believe that the very first vocation of an artist is to make beautiful things.
I want to thank all those who died. Yet to the very end, and long after their death, they will have created beautiful things.
This national movement, this calmness beating despair, this light shining in the dark, is in fact deeply human. It is the movement of humanity.
Now, let us be clear : extremism may not disappear – and shall take away many other people.
But things are different now.
We do have this strength.
And this is huge.
We have the power to give back mankind its dignity – and I believe that it is the real meaning of the slogan « I am Charlie » – yes, we are all Charlie, and as a matter of fact, we have decided to build up the greatest work of art ever.
There is no such thing as destiny or fate.
Every act of compassion makes a difference.
You can make a difference.
From now on, be artists, be the creators of beautiful things.
Agathe Cayuela
« In light of the recent events in Paris, I felt the urge to write about it, just like I did three years ago following the Toulouse shootings of school children in 2012.
The drawing is from me too. »
Broader Vision Needed to Reform EU?
lundi, décembre 8th, 2014The Conservative party still needs to project a broader vision of the future of the European Union (EU), if it wants to reform it?
Katharina Klebba writing in LabourList (see article linked to below) thinks:
« A British reform agenda has to be rooted in a wider vision of the role the EU should play in the coming decade. The British public appears at the very least to be sceptical of the idea of an ?ever closer union?.
Yet the realities of monetary union are such that closer integration among the euro countries is almost inevitable ? a development that the UK appears to equally resent.
Therefore, timid proposals on restrictions to the freedom of movement of EU migrants may satisfy some public concerns but they won?t address many of the more fundamental anxieties of the British public regarding the EU.
Currently all three major parties are committed to Britain remaining an EU member if the UK?s demands for reform are met yet the terms of such a membership appear unclear. »
http://labourlist.org/2014/12/if-we-want-to-reform-the-eu-we-need-a-broader-vision-of-its-future/
Ken Clark & Prime Minister’s EU Reform Plans
jeudi, novembre 27th, 2014The intervention below from Ken Clark, complements very nicely the previous article by BCiP member Robin Baker on « Freedom of movement within the EU ».
Speaking at The Guardian on 19th November, 2014 and concerning British Prime Minister David Cameron’s EU reform plans, Ken Clark the former Conservative Chancellor said:
» fellow EU leaders would not agree to change the free movement of people on the grounds that it is a fundamental tenet of the EU and had been championed by Thatcher in the creation of the single market. »
He added:
?The idea that you are going to make Brussels give up freedom of movement of labour ? Margaret Thatcher was an advocate of this. It was a British Conservative government that gave momentum to the single market.
?The Conservative party and the Labour party have been advocates of freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and labour. It is one of the underpinning things of greater prosperity that we are all trying to get back to.?
Value of EU not just its price.
samedi, octobre 18th, 2014Read this interesting article below published on www.europeanpublicaffairs.eu :
« The outcome of misinformation on the one hand and total resignation of pro-EU advocates on the other has resulted in one thing ? Europeans have learnt the cost but forgot the value of the EU membership. »