EU-DIGEST

British Expats in euroland shouldn't get depressed - by Rosemary Righter

As for the 20 per cent fall of the pound against the euro, an overlooked factor is that, reflecting stronger growth in the UK than in core eurozone countries, the pound has been extremely strong in recent years (too strong, in terms of purchasing power parity, making London the most expensive city in Europe). The higher you climb, the farther there is to fall. When the City hit the rocks this autumn and “No more boom or bust” turned into “No more boom. Bust”, sterling was heavily hit. Logically enough: the UK's heavy reliance on financial services made it likely that it would suffer a particularly severe recession. In addition, investors were alerted to just how much of that seemingly impressive growth had been buttressed by public borrowing and a three-fold increase in household debt. The final straw, though, was yet again interest rates: once the Bank of England slashed rates to 2 per cent with further cuts expected, sterling assets looked decidedly unattractive.

Brits living in continental Europe have to put up not only with shrinking wallets, but a touch of condescension. The French feel vindicated in their distrust of le capitalisme sauvage (which really means distrust of capitalism). After a decade enduring lectures from Gordon Brown about their earthbound economy, the Germans are being less than tactful about their views of his housekeeping. And here in Italy, La Stampa gleefully calculates that, at the current exchange rate, Britain's GDP was lower than Italy's.

Labels: Britain, Economy, EU

This is the moment of truth for credit-crunch Britain. There are this morning, if forecasts are to be believed, just four economy-saving, cavalry-coming-over-the hill, belated binge-spending days until Christmas. VAT's come down; the shops have slashed their prices and started January sales earlier than ever before. "Half price" is the latest ticket to be glued to goods on the High Street. Many discounts reach 70 per cent. Hundreds of supermarkets are to open around the clock in the next few days. And, with thousands of jobs at stake, shopkeepers are putting all their faith in a last-ditch spending spree this weekend, traditionally the busiest of their year.

At the moment when sales were supposed to reach their peak yesterday, the signs were not looking good. Footfall was down 7 per cent on last year, according to experts at Synovate Retail Performance, and despite brave efforts by retailers to talk up the sales, shop workers said they were shocked at how quiet things were.

Labels: Britain, Economy, EU

In breezy Britain, wind farm cooperatives take off

With annual returns of 10 percent coupled with low risk, wind farm cooperatives are drawing growing numbers of investors in Britain -- good news for Europe's hopes to lead the world in renewable energy. Along with being a safe investment during turbulent economic times, the cooperatives are drawing interest from those concerned not just with global warming and climate change, but also with energy security. "It's not only a climate issue, but it's also a problem with energy supplies," Clive Burke, a shareholder in the Westmill cooperative near Swindon, southwest England, told AFP. "We are exceeding the ability of our planet to support our energy needs."

Labels: Alternative Energy, Britain, EU, Windfarms

Britain - Novera Energy plans two wind farms in the UK

Novera Energy plc, a leading independent UK renewable energy company, is pleased to announce it has submitted planning applications for two wind farms in Northumberland. The Wingates Wind Farm application made to Alnwick District Council is for six turbines with an anticipated capacity of 12-15MW to be located approximately six kilometres south of Longframlington. The Todd Hill Wind Farm application made to Castle Morpeth District Council is for four turbines with an anticipated capacity of 8-10MW to be located at a site approximately six kilometres northwest of Morpeth.

Labels: Alternative Energy, Britain, Britain. EU, Windfarms

Merkel comes to Brown's rescue

Gordon Brown would like Britain to believe that he has stumbled into the sort of family row that erupts when two drunken relatives turn on each other at the end of a wedding. The prime minister said that Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, had decided to dismiss Britain's £20bn fiscal stimulus plan as "crass Keynesianism" because of "internal German politics". That's a polite way of describing a feud in Germany's grand coalition as Steinbrück's SPD gears up for a general election next year against the CDU, led by the chancellor, Angela Merkel.

Brown's explanation appeared to be borne out as the EU summit opened this afternoon. Hours after Steinbrück's sniffy remarks about Britain's 2.5% cut in VAT, Merkel announced that she supported a European-wide €200bn fiscal stimulus package that is one of the main items on the summit agenda.

Labels: Britain, Economy, EU, EU SUMMIT, Germany

Britain's credit 'riskier than McDonald's' as sterling continues euro slide - by Hugo Duncan

Sterling slid to a new all-time low against the euro this morning as the markets rated Britain a greater credit risk than the fast food chain McDonald's. At its low point, one pound bought just under 1.14 euros - its weakest-ever showing against the single currency and a blow for holidaymakers planning festive trips. It comes as growing concerns over a lengthy recession heighten the prospects of UK interest rates falling to all-time lows below 2 per cent next year, putting pressure on the pound.Today the National Institute of Economic and Social Research think-tank said Britain's economy shrank by 1 per cent in the three months to November as the pace of the downturn quickened.

The Government has also provided billions of pounds of funding to the UK's banking sector to boost lending to homebuyers and small businesses. It is being paid for by hundreds of billions of pounds of extra Government borrowing which has resulted in Britain having a worse credit rating than McDonald's and other large companies. Investing in Government debt is now almost twice as risky as buying McDonald's corporate bonds, according to the market in credit default swaps, a form of insurance for buyers of such debt. Professor Stephen Haseler, director of the Global Policy institute at London Metropolitan University, said the pound could soon be worth $1 as an 'unfortunate consequence' of Government plans to spend its way out of recession. 'Britain is already in a full-scale sterling crisis,' he said.

Labels: Britain, EU, McDonald

Britain: Campaign against Sharia law in Britain to be launched at the House of Lords

Britain - Campaign against Sharia law in Britain to be launched at the House of Lords

According to campaign organiser, Maryam Namazie, “Even in civil matters, Sharia law is discriminatory, unfair and unjust, particularly against women and children. Moreover, its voluntary nature is a sham; many women will be pressured into going to these courts and abiding by their decisions. These courts are a quick and cheap route to injustice and do nothing to promote minority rights and social cohesion. Public interest, particularly with regard to women and children, requires an end to Sharia and all other faith-based courts and tribunals.”

The campaign has already received widespread support including from AC Grayling; Terry Sanderson, Keith Porteous Wood, Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Bahram Soroush; Baroness (Caroline) Cox; Caspar Melville; Deeyah; Fariborz Pooya; Gina Khan; Houzan Mahmoud; Homa Arjomand; Ibn Warraq; Joan Smith; Johann Hari; Mina Ahadi; Naser Khader; Nick Cohen; Richard Dawkins; Shakeb Isaar; Sonja Eggerickx; Stephen Law; Tarek Fatah; Tauriq Moosa; Taslima Nasrin and others. It has also received the support of organisations such as the National Secular Society; Children First Now; Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain; Equal Rights Now – Organization against Women’s Discrimination in Iran; European Humanist Federation; International Committee against Stoning; International Humanist and Ethical Union; Iranian Secular Society; Lawyers Secular Society; and the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

The campaign calls on the UK government to recognize that Sharia law is arbitrary and discriminatory and for an end to Sharia courts and all religious tribunals on the basis that they work against and not for equality and human rights.

Labels: Britain, EU, Sharia law

RCCG leader speaks hope to 60,000 Christians assembled in London - by Maria McKay

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God was in London last night to reinvigorate Christians for mission and cast off doom and gloom in the midst of the credit crunch. Speaking ahead of the event, Pastor Enoch Adeboye told Christian Today it was imperative that believers look to God to help them through difficult times. Pastor Adeboye said he believed Europe was on the brink of a major revival. Festival of Life has grown to become the largest all night non-denominational gathering of Christians in Europe, gathering tens of thousands year-on-year since it first began in 1996. The night features preaching, worship and prayer for revival.

Labels: Britain, Christians, EU, God, Religion

Beatings and abuse made Barack Obama’s grandfather loathe the British - by Ben Macintyre and Paul Orengoh

Barack Obama’s grandfather was imprisoned and brutally tortured by the British during the violent struggle for Kenyan independence, according to the Kenyan family of the US President-elect. Hussein Onyango Obama, Mr Obama’s paternal grandfather, became involved in the Kenyan independence movement while working as a cook for a British army officer after the war. He was arrested in 1949 and jailed for two years in a high-security prison where, according to his family, he was subjected to horrific violence to extract information about the growing insurgency.

“The African warders were instructed by the white soldiers to whip him every morning and evening till he confessed,” said Sarah Onyango, Hussein Onyango’s third wife, the woman Mr Obama refers to as “Granny Sarah”.

The British responded to the Mau Mau uprising with draconian violence: at least 12,000 rebels were killed, most of them Kikuyu, but some historians believe that the overall death toll may have been more than 50,000. In total, just 32 European settlers were killed. At the height of the rebellion, an estimated 71,000 Kenyans were held in prison camps. The vast majority were never convicted. Letters smuggled out of the camps complained of systematic brutality by warders and guards. According to the Harvard historian Caroline Elkins, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her exposé of British atrocities during the Mau Mau uprising, there were reports of sexual violence and mutilation using “castration pliers”. “This was an instrument devised to crush the men’s testicles,” she writes in Britain’s Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya (2005).

Mr Obama refers briefly to his grandfather’s imprisonment in his best-selling memoir, Dreams from My Father, but states that his grandfather was “found innocent” and held only for “more than six months”.

Labels: Barack Obama, Britain, EU, Kenya, Torture

Britain: Offshore wind offers tentative welcome to Marine Management Organisation - by Tom Young

The wind energy industry offered a cautious welcome to the Marine and Coastal Access Bill outlined in the Queen's Speech today, claiming the legislation should help simplify the complex planning rules governing the development of offshore wind farms. Maria McCaffery MBE, chief executive of the British Wind Energy Association, said that she hoped the creation of a new single body tasked with managing the marine environment would help ensure that conservation and renewable energy interests are balanced. "The Marine and Coastal Access Bill is a pioneering piece of legislation, but we must ensure that it allows for the expansion of marine renewable energy, including offshore wind, wave and tidal," she said. "It would be a pyrrhic victory if short-term conservation undermined long-term sustainability and our ability to tackle climate change." The renewable industry remains fearful that a number of high-profile marine energy projects, such as the proposed Severn tidal barrage, could yet be derailed by concerns over coastal conservation.

Labels: Alternative Energy, Britain, EU, Offshore Windparks

Is Britain's Stimulus Plan a Wise Move? - by Mark Scott

The economic picture in Britain—Europe's second-largest economy—is getting ugly. The country's GDP growth has started to slow, unemployment levels have risen at their fastest rate in almost two decades, the value of British real estate has fallen 15% in the last year, and the pound has lost a quarter of its value against the dollar since midsummer. To bolster confidence, Britain's Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, already has poured billions of Pound Sterling into the country's financial-services industry. Now, his attention has turned to the wider economy. The country's public finances—already facing a roughly 4% deficit—will come under additional strain as policymakers take on more debt to jump-start lagging consumer spending. As a result of the new stimulus package, public borrowing will top £118 billion ($178.6 billion) next year, equivalent to approximately 8% of Britain's total GDP. To pay for these extra costs, experts figure taxes eventually will have to be increased and government spending slashed.

"We've never had a package like this before in light of the huge structural deficit we currently find ourselves in," says Geoffrey Wood, professor of economics at City University's Cass Business School in London. "An increase in public spending could be ill-advised to help strengthen the economy."

Labels: Bailout, Britain, Economy, EU

Barroso says crisis has brought Britain closer to euro

The international financial crisis has set off a radical change in thinking in Britain about the euro, EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said Sunday. While acknowledging the majority opposition in Britain to embracing the euro, Barroso told French radio: "We are now closer than ever before." He added: "I'm not going to break the confidentiality of certain conversations, but some British politicians have already told me: 'If we had the euro, we would have been better off'."Barroso pointed to the case of Denmark, another EU state which has so far refused to accept the euro but is considering holding a new referendum on the single currency. The Danish voted against joining in 2000.

Labels: Britain, EU, euro

Europe ( as a result of British Generalities) unable to unite in credit crisis - by John Huizing

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who currently holds the European presidency, has called on his European colleagues to reconvene in Brussels to tackle the credit crisis. During a lunch arranged at the last minute, the European leaders formulated a common position on Friday for the G20 summit, due next week in Washington. But Europe is not expected to play a strong leading role. "They are hardly long-term solutions," says Karel Lannoo from the Brussels think tank CEPS. He also questions the idea to give the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a larger role. If the IMF really wants to act as a financial policeman, then national governments would more or less have to be obliged to adopt its recommendations. And for this to happen the structure of the IMF itself would have to change radically. The US already has trouble accepting interference by international organizations in its national politics, warns Mr Lannoo. And there's another difficulty.the IMF is largely controlled by Europe. But the United States and the newer industrialized countries might prefer to see the voting positions and the capital chairs within the IMF rearranged. Something European countries may not like. Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos said: "We should watch out that we don't just formulate a general ambition, a general agenda for things that need to happen across the globe. In the worst case, it would result in endless discussions about what needs to be done in the world, while we forget there's a couple of things we need to do right now in Europe." It was a deliberate sneer at the British. They would like to arrange everything globally in the hope that London's financial center, the City, stays free of strict European regulation.

Labels: Britain, Council of Europe, G20, IMF, the Financial crises

Britain - Court rules Islamic Sharia law discriminatory - by Robert Verkaik

Britain's highest court has criticised Islamic law for discriminating against women after a case in which a mother was forced to flee the Middle East for Britain to protect her son from his abusive father. In a 5-0 ruling, the law lords said that there was no place in sharia for the equal treatment of the sexes. It would be a "flagrant breach" of the European Convention on Human Rights for the Government to remove a woman to Lebanon, where she would lose custody of her son because of sharia-inspired family law.

Sharia was the product of a much-observed religious and cultural tradition, "but by our standards the system is arbitrary because the law permits of no exceptions to its application... It is discriminatory too because it denies women custody of their children after they have reached the age of custodial transfer simply because they are women." Yesterday's decision reversed rulings by the Court of Appeal, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and the Home Secretary that returning EM to Lebanon with her son would not violate her right to family life.

Labels: Britain, EU, Sharia law

Britain - Shop till you drop: Australian developer launches Europe's largest shopping complex in West London

Australia's Westfield Group has opened the biggest shopping centre in Europe, spending euro 2.08 billion (US $ 2.65b) on the project in West London. It is to be proceeded by an even bigger development by Westfield at the 2012 Olympic Site in East London. The timing is unfortunate given the fact that Britain is on the brink of recession and that consumer spending it set to fall in the next 12 months after a decade of solid growth.It is to be proceeded by an even bigger development by Westfield at the 2012 Olympic Site in East London.

Labels: Britain, Consumerism, EU, Retailing

Snow blankets London for Global Warming debate • by Andrew Orlowski

Snow fell as the House of Commons debated Global Warming yesterday - the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922. The Mother of Parliaments was discussing the Mother of All Bills for the last time, in a marathon six hour session. In order to combat a projected two degree centigrade rise in global temperature, the Climate Change Bill pledges the UK to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. The bill was receiving a third reading, which means both the last chance for both democratic scrutiny and consent.

Labels: Britain, EU, Global warming

Britain - At this rate, it won't be long before we're joining the euro - by Steve Richards

The calls for a significant cut in interest rates get louder. In the US there is speculation that before very long rates will be close to zero. The long list of those keeping their fingers crossed here that the Bank of England will deliver a headline-grabbing reduction next week includes home-owners with big mortgages, small businesses, big businesses, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Prime Minister.

One wonders how long it will be before a traumatised senior minister thinks the following: "This wretched independence for the Bank is the worst of all worlds, yet it would make matters even worse to revert to the old arrangements. Therefore the least risky course is to join the euro". If the arrangements aimed at stabilising the currency are now a source of turbulence, and a return to the old system would cause even more storms, there is no obvious alternative option. That great sleeping issue, Britain's membership of the euro, will be waking soon.

Labels: Britain, EU, euro

UK now leader in offshore wind energy

The UK has now surpassed Denmark as the country leading the world in production of offshore wind energy, said Mike O’Brien, a minister in the UK’s new Department of Energy and Climate Change. With the completion of Centrica’s Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms 5km off the Lincolnshire coast, the UK now has 579MW fully constructed—enough to power around 300,000 homes—and should add another 938 megawatts by the end of next year through new construction of five more wind farms.

Labels: Britain, EU, Offshore Wind Energy

UK - Bring on energy revolution - by Gloria McShan

Nervous retailers, panicky bankers, gloomy estate agents - amid the continuing global stock-market turmoil, many investors are running scared. But is renewable energy one of the sectors with brighter financial prospects, due to EU and UK climate change targets?Mark Dowdall, of North-east land and property development company The Banks Group, believes renewables are where “the wise money is going” and says his company’s sustainable energy interests are helping offset a lean period in the property sector. Since in 2007 less than 5% of the UK’s electricity came from renewables, there is a mountain to climb even to meet 2020 EU goals. However, even more than investment, he flagged up the planning process as a critical area for the Government to address.

For example, protests against wind farms often held up projects for several years. “We’re pussyfooting around,” he added. Government targets make renewable energy an attractive sector.

Labels: Alternative Energy, Britain, EU, Windpower

Religion vs science: can the divide between God and rationality be reconciled? - by Paul Vallely

''A clergyman in charge of education for the country's leading scientific organisation – it's a Monty Python sketch," pronounced Britain's top atheist, Richard Dawkins, recently. The problem was that Reiss, as well as being an evolutionary biologist and population geneticist, is a non-stipendiary priest in the Church of England. When he said recently that science teachers should answer questions about creationism if pupils asked them he was deemed to have been advocating the idea that British schools should teach the idea that the world was magicked up (complete with fossils and ancient geology) just 6,000 years ago – and then tell pupils to make their own minds up between that and the theory of evolution to which the overwhelming scientific evidence points.The idea that science and religion are incompatible is a fairly recent import into contemporary culture. It has been given huge credence by the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. The pronounced motivation of Islamic fundamentalists in 2001 hammered home that some people are prepared to inflict outrageous acts of inhumanity in the name of religion.

Labels: Britain, evolution, Religion, Science

Consortium Plans World's Largest Wind Farm in UK - by Michael Graham Richard

A joint venture between Shell, E.On UK and Core Limited has for goal to build an offshore wind farm off the South-East coast of England. The power generation potential would be of 1,000 megawatts, making it the biggest in the world and allowing it to power about 25% of London, which would cut emissions of carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas) by 1.9 million tonnes a year. Currently, "the world's biggest offshore wind farm that's already in operation is Denmark's Nysted windfarm, which can produce 165 megawatts."

Labels: Alternative Energy, Britain, EU

UK - The mad world of shadow bankers -by Ian Macwhirter

The madness of the shadow banking system became apparent over a year ago when Northern Rock was nationalised, but regulators ignored the implications. The Treasury minister Yvette Cooper discovered to her dismay that Northern Rock didn't own half of its own mortgages: £50bn had been hived off to a Jersey-based company, Granite, registered as a charity benefiting Down's syndrome children in the north-east of England. Needless to say, the charity didn't get any cash - this was a special-purpose vehicle that allowed the Rock to trade in complex securities without having to meet the stringent capitalisation requirements of a normal bank. But it wasn't just the Rock. Most banks and other financial institutions did exactly the same, setting up "orphan companies", often under charitable trusts, that did not appear on their published balance sheets. This is one reason why such apparently well-capitalized and solvent institutions as Royal Bank of Scotland collapsed so suddenly. Their true liabilities had been hidden for years in the shadow system while they made huge profits from lending.

How did they get away with it? If you or I set up fictitious offshore identities to evade tax and conceal high-risk financial activities, we would end up in jail. But the regulators turned a blind eye, partly because they didn't fully understand structured finance, and partly because the government believed that it must be a good thing, as it generated so much profit and tax revenue. This was the regime of "light-touch regulation" of the City that turned the British economy into a cross between a Liechtenstein tax haven and a giant hedge fund.

Labels: Banking system, Britain, EU, Fraud

Picture "Burger Queen" from CandianContent

For the complete report from the Telegraph click on this link

British Queen owns a McDonald's

Among Her Majesty's Queen Elizabeth II most recent acquisitions was a retail park in Slough - which encompasses a drive-through McDonalds. Bath Road Retail Park was purchased in June by the Crown Estate, which administers the monarch's property portfolio, for euro 100 million. The site, which is visible from the Queen's State Apartments at Windsor Castle, is also home to a B&Q superstore, and branches of Comet, JJB Sports and Mothercare. But it seems unlikely that the Royal taste buds will be tempted by the fare on offer too often. The purchase will be good news for shops in these times of uncertainty, because having the Queen as landlady means the future of the site is secure.

Labels: Britain, EU, McDonalds, Queen Elizabeth

UK and US 'share blame' over world financial crisis

Gordon Brown has accepted that British banks must take their share of the blame for the global financial crisis. The prime minister has previously consistently emphasised the role of the United States in the turmoil stalking world markets and economies. But in an interview on Thursday he said irresponsible behaviour in the City had to be punished. "Most of this has come out of America and then affected the British banking system, but there have been abuses in our system as well and these have got to be dealt with too," Mr Brown told GMTV. "Where these guys have taken irresponsible risks; that is completely unacceptable. The problem is they didn't know what they were buying from America."

Labels: Britain, US Economic Meltdown

Brown shock as support for Tories passes 50% for first time since 80s - by Gerri Peev

Conservatives have smashed through the 50 per cent barrier in the polls for the first time since Margaret Thatcher's heyday, a further blow to Gordon Brown's struggling leadership.
An Ipsos MORI poll published today showed the Tories up four points on 52 per cent. The news comes amid reports that another member of the government is set to quit within days over Mr Brown's leadership.

Labels: Britain, EU

Britain will be Europe's biggest country by 2060 with 77m people - by ames Kirkup

The UK population will rise by a quarter to 77 million in 2060, the European Commission said in a study of EU states population trends. That puts Britain on course to overtake Germany as the biggest country in the union. Germany's current population is 82 million, but the commission's analysts believe that a falling birth rate will reduce that to 71 million over the next half century. The EU's 27 members currently have a combined population of 495 million. The EU total will peak in 2035 at 521 million before falling back to 506 million in 2060.

Labels: Britain, EU, Population

Britain - The private lives of phone-sex operators - by Catherene Townsend

When I see the late-night ads for premium-rate phone sex lines featuring nubile, tanned young women, I get curious about who is actually on the other end of the phone. Like many people, I sometimes imagine that she's a bored housewife, moaning and calling herself a "naughty girl" while smoking a fag and doing the ironing. In fact, a quick skim of UK websites reveals that any scenario not involving children or animals seems to be up for grabs. There are some who believe that, in an era of YouPorn and free internet chatrooms, phone sex lines may soon become an anachronism. Although callers often pay more than £1 per minute to 0909 numbers, and the industry still rakes in billions, the salaries advertised for operators are from £10 to £24 per hour – and that, presumably, is if the phone rings constantly.

Labels: Britain, EU, Phone sex

Britain - Why Miliband was right - by Denis MacShane

Labour must embrace English culture which today is as much Salman Rushdie as it is Shakespeare. There is plenty in the English canon of culture and political science to be inspired by without importing modish American theories about nudging or the latest Heritage Foundation paper regurgitated by Cameron’s millionaire frontbench.

Ministers are trapped administrating – that is where the word comes from. But they are politicians and must do politics again. Not the disastrous politics of briefing against Brown nor the disastrous politics of attacking Miliband because he manages to sneak an anti-Tory article into the Guardian. Of course personality counts. But none of our great prime ministers – from Gladstone, to Attlee to Thatcher – had smoothie-chops Old Etonian charm, rather the opposite. They had ideas and vision and worked in a team of like-minded visionaries and believers in policy. Labour needs to do likewise.

Labels: Britain, EU, Politics

Britain Ratifies EU's Treaty of Lisbon

Britain has formally ratified the European Union's Treaty of Lisbon, the country's Foreign Ministry said in London. The beleaguered treaty's future is still in doubt after Irish voters rejected it last month. Both houses of the British parliament as well as the head of state Queen Elizabeth II gave the nod to the reform treaty. All steps for the final ratification were taken and the documents were deposited in Rome, where the 1957 Treaty of Rome for the founding the European Economic Community was signed.

Labels: Britain, EU, Lisbon Treaty

Europe’s Tory nightmare

As to me declaring bankruptcy because "I am on a road of debt": Maybe I should clarify that everyone's net worth is based on equity minus debt. Given that basic economic principle my equity at the moment stands at a a minimum of $200.000 - $50.000 = $150.000 not counting the potential benefit from the sale of MMA or EU-Digest. Bankruptcy is therefore the last thing I am considering at this point. My suggestion is to get your trust to pay me $150.000 and I sign over my part of the Cutler deed to you. Out of this capital I will buy property in Europe and put Adaja, Justin and Andre as the co-owners to inherit it when I pass away.

Labels: Britain, EU, The Lisbon Treaty

Labels: Britain, Brown, EU, Lisbon Treaty

For the complete report from TIME click on this link

Tony Blair's Leap of Faith - by Michael Elliot

On May 30 in New York, Blair, 55, formally unveiled The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which, among other things, is dedicated to proving that collaboration among those of different religious faiths can help address some of the world's most pressing social problems."Faith is part of our future," Blair says, "and faith and the values it brings with it are an essential part of making globalization work." For Blair, the goal is to rescue faith from the twin challenges of irrelevance—the idea that religion is no more than an interesting aspect of history—and extremism. Blair and those working with him think religion is key to the global agenda.

"You can't hope to understand what's happening in the world if you don't know that religion is a very important force in people's lives," says Ruth Turner, 37, formerly a top aide to Blair in 10 Downing Street, who will head the foundation. "You can't make the world work properly unless you understand that, while not everyone will believe in God or have a spiritual life, a lot of people will." Blair, she says, has been thinking about these issues "for decades and decades and decades." Over time, says Blair of the foundation's work, "this is how I want to spend the rest of my life."

Labels: Britain, EU, Middle East, Religion, Tony Blair

In Britain, Rape Cases Seldom Result in a Conviction- by Michael van der Galien

In Britain, a nation whose justice system has been used as a model around the globe, government officials and women’s rights activists agree that rape goes largely unpunished. Solicitor General Vera Baird, who oversees criminal prosecutions in England, estimated that 10 to 20 percent of rapes are brought to authorities’ attention. According to government figures, 14,000 cases a year are reported and 19 out of 20 defendants walk free.

Labels: Britain, EU, Rape

As EU takes over Smith Square, Conservatives remain silent on - by Christopher Booker

There is rich symbolism in the fact that the former Conservative Central Office in Smith Square, Westminster, is to be renamed "Europe House", as the new London headquarters of the European Commission (currently tucked away in an obscure alley up the road).The EU doubtless regards it as only appropriate that it should be able to hang its "ring of stars" flag outside one of the most iconic political buildings in Britain, just as its new "Not the Constitution" comes into force - with the added sweetness that it will be like a final symbolic victory over Lady Thatcher, for whom it was the backdrop to her political triumphs of the 1980s.

Note EU-Digest: One can only have pity and maybe even feel compassion for the British who believe that they are able to be an independent entity against the rest of the world without the help of their brothers and sisters in Europe.

Labels: Britain, EU

For the complete report from guardian.co.uk Books click on this link

Publishers battle to sign up Europe's sex sensation - by Jason Burke

Charlotte Roche's exploration of filth in all its meanings now tops Germany's literary charts. Soon it will hit the shelves in her country of birth. Wetlands, which has beaten Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns and Ken Follett's latest to the top of Amazon's international sales list, has sparked a frenzy among major British publishers. Roche's German publishers last week refused to speak to The Observer or to arrange an interview with Roche to avoid pre-empting what is expected to be a massive UK deal and publicity campaign. 'No, nothing, impossible,' they said.

For whether it is the fantasies about sex, the polemics against the use of deodorants, the avocado cores grown specially for use in masturbation, or the detailed and inventive passages of scatological or genital description, Wetlands has left few indifferent.

Labels: Britain, Charlotte Roche, EU, Germany, Literature, Sex

British elections: Brown's party routed in UK elections, loses London - by Tim Castle and Katherine Baldwin

"If the economic crisis continues through 2010, Brown's dead in the water," MORI pollster Robert Worcester told Reuters. The Conservatives, the once dominant party of Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, were in buoyant mood after more than a decade in the political wilderness.They scored victories in the north of England where they have struggled and in Labour heartlands in Wales. Labor lost Reading council, its last remaining stronghold in the wealthy southeast of England.

Labels: Britain, Elections, EU, Gordon Brown, London, Politics

For the complete report from the Daily Mail click on this link

RAF pilot crash-landed euro 88.25 million fighter jet after 'forgetting to put the wheels down'

An RAF pilot crash-landed a euro 88.25 million fighter jet at 130mph after apparently forgetting to put the wheels down. The state-of-the-art Eurofighter Typhoon careered down a runway without its landing gear down and experts are now investigating how the accident could have happened.

The pilot and the co-pilot, from 17 Squadron, were on a training exercised in California and miraculously walked away from the high-speed crash unhurt.

Labels: Britain, EU, EuroFighter, RAF

UK - Politicians' acts of denial give the game away - by Stephen King

When it all begins to go wrong, politicians typically adopt one of three strategies. They deny. They claim it's worse elsewhere. Or they blame others for their woes. The UK economy must, then, be going horribly wrong. Our political leaders adopted all three tactics last week, thereby betraying their deep-rooted fears. Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, offered the denial. In an interview with the BBC, Mr Brown said: "We've seen house prices rise by about 180 per cent over the last 10 years and they have risen by about 18 per cent over the last three years, so a 2.5 per cent fall is something that is containable. "Mr Brown's decision to blame the US for the world's economic woes is nonsense. It's certainly true that the US has major economic problems. It's also true that, after the slippage in the US economy over the last few months, people are becoming increasingly worried about economic prospects in the UK. But it doesn't follow that there is a causal link running from the US to the UK. In truth, the shock facing the UK economy is remarkably similar to the shock facing the US economy because both countries chose, a few years ago, to do a deal with the debt devil. For every increase in US house prices, there's been an increase in UK house prices. For every rise in US household debt, there's been an increase