Do not vote for the Farage Tax

UKIP supporters claims that business leaders want to leave the EU is simply not true, as proven by the recent CBI poll which showed 80% of their members want the UK to stay in. A similar overwhelming majority of members of the Engineering Employers Federation said the same 3 weeks. Not a single credible business organisation wants to leave the EU. Hardly surpising in view of CBI's analysis that EU membership is worth £3000 p.a. to every household in the UK. For those who are interested the abolition of hordes of regulations that is result of merging 27 different nations set of product safety rules into a single common code, is also a major factor. No longer do I have to design a French version, or a German version or an Italian version of the same widget – I just make a British version and no-one can prevent me from selling it in any country within the EU as used to happen pre-Maastricht Treaty days. Perhaps James might appreciate why Nissan have said that an EU exit would threaten continued production of their cars in the UK.

There is no paperwork required to export goods to any country within the EU, or any bureaucratic barriers. There is paperwork, bureaucracy and costs associated with exporting anything outside of the EU – those of us who have to pay these costs call them 'The Farage Tax' – as that is the burden of red-tape and costs that fall on every business in the UK the day we walk out of the EU. Many small businesses would find it uneconomical to continue to export goods to Europe once these costs are imposed on them, which is why small businesses now also support EU membership. 

So it would be helpful if opponents of the EU just for once listened to business, as it is their exports that creates Britain's wealth and employment.

A Living Wage for All

As Tories line up to attack Milliband's proposal to offer tax breaks to businesses who choose to pay a living wage - they are rushing to the European Court to prevent the EU bringing in a cap on Banker's Bonuses. Nuff said!

Bedroom tax for MPs Electricity Bills

Heating Benefit of £5822 is claimed to have been paid to a Tory MP. Surely any employee should expect to have expenses covered to carry out their job, but they should be 'reasonable' costs. The solution to this latest scandal is to extend the Bedroom Tax concept to MPs, limiting their claim for second homes to 50% of the average household bills.

The Human Rights Act Speaks for itself

These are the main articles from the European Convention of Human Rights, which must be retained in British Law

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/46637


Every person has the right to life, liberty and security; their private and family life should be respected, and they have the right to get married. No-one should be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and has the right to a fair trial.

No-one can be enslaved; or suffer discrimination due to sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.
People should have the freedom of thought and religion; and in accordance with law freedom of expression, association and assembly.

UKIP will cost jobs

Whilst I am pleased that Derek Childs, UKIP MEP for the East Midlands, remembers the export papers I offered him for my last shipment to the USA; it is a pity that he failed to look at them. I wonder if he also forgot about the small business woman in the audience who so eloquently told him how the EU's abolition of export paperwork had helped her small business grow thanks to the ease of exporting to what is now the largest trading bloc in the world. UKIP not only seeks to impose this costly and bureaucratic burden on every business in Britain, they would also place us outside the emerging EU/USA Free Trade Area area – isolating British businesses from the 2nd largest trading bloc in the world. It is time UKIP were honest, and came clean about the businesses that will close, and jobs that will be lost due to their isolationist policies. It is hardly surprising that the October 2013 survey carried our by the Engineering Employers Federation found that 85% of their respondents wanted to stay in the EU, a figure matched by the CBI September in which 78% voted to stay in. In fact not a single credible business group in Britain wants to leave the EU. It is a pity that the vocal minority who want to damage British interests by undermining our global trading links listened to British businesses.

Leave the EU for Constipation

In my most recent debate with UKIP I presented my opponent, East Midlands MEP Derek Childs with a dodgy dossier. It contained all the paperwork I had to fill out to export some apparatus to the USA. The equipment in question is a specialist device used to measure the elasticity of skin known as the Linear Skin Rheometer (LSR), and it has been used by cosmetic companies to evaluate the effectiveness of skin moisturisers, pharmaceutical companies to test the efficacy of medicated bandages for older people prone to skin tears, and in fundamental research in support of potential tissue engineering therapies. So it is clearly a VIP, at least Customs & Excise think so.
As the apparatus was sent on loan, I had to apply for a UK passport for it, known as a Controlled Export Procedure. Having proved that the LSR was British the passport duly arrived and was included in the Airway Bill Pouch. The USA has one of the most secure borders, for goods at least, in the world. So a British Passport for dumb equipment is not enough. Along with it I had to include 4 copies of a standarised invoice, declaration of country of manufacturer, and a statement of its harmonised code. Also required were some very intimate details, a description of the LSR in terms of height, length, breadth and size; which goes far further than the data required for a Human British Passport.
During its vacation the LSR developed a fault, and a part was returned for repair. Not an easy process as it was deemed to be an illegal immigrant! I had to apply for a Visa for it to temporarily enter Britain for TLC, using Inward Processing Relief – which has nothing to with constipation. When the illegal immigrant left Britain to the USA, I had to inform the authorities. Finally it all come home. I had to alert Border Patrols in advance to look out for this British return; which they duly did, examined its passport which was cancelled and the LSR was allowed entry to the UK. I dread to think what happened on the 4 occasions it passed through American Customs, but foreign countries have their own social mores, culture and bureaucracy.
Needless to say this is a not a pain free process. In all the LSR crossed 8 Borders during its vacation, and each crossing cost money and time.
To send an LSR anywhere in the EU requires only 1 piece of official documentation. It is called a postage stamp, you lick it and stick it to the outside of the parcel.
Derek seemed disinterested in my woes, he would not even look at the paperwork. Yet it is this burden of horrendous and costly red-tape that he, UKIP, and many Conservatives want to impose on Britain's businesses. If they have their way not only will our export costs to our biggest trading partner go through the roof, we would be outside of the new USA-EU Free Trade Area.
Derek's response was to re-open the Commonwealth Preference and trade with Australia! Australia however have the worlds 3rd largest market on their doorstep, China, and the major economies of Japan and Far East to deal with. They have also gone on record as wanting the UK to remain within the EU. I think Derek should talk to the Australians first before trying to take us back to a long-lost past.
The reality is that taking the UK out of the EU will be disastrous for business, leading to a huge burden of red-tape, insolvencies and job losses.

The UK is not isolated, as UKIP seem to want

Nigel Farage's Radio 4 interview on UK foreign policy was a display of utter incompetence. He was wholly ignorant of Operation Palliser, in which British forces successfully assisted the end of the bloody conflict in Sierra Leone; a military operation that did have the support of law and was in our National Interest. He also failed to recognise the value of International Cooperation to combat Somali Pirates, in which the EU's operation NESTOR will play a major role by training Horn of Africa regional naval forces to take over naval law enforcement currently being undertaken by NATO. His final gaff was the absurd claim that the UK's foreign policy is determined by Brussels, when last week's key vote in the House of Commons on Syria demonstrated to all that the UK, and its Parliament are the ultimate arbiters our foreign policy and military interventions. Perhaps he could instead explain how standing isolated from our allies is good for Britain's security?