Energy Dependency - As Big A Threat As Terrorism?

Yesterday was as hectic as they get. Sadly, a planned meeting with Prof Igor Jurgen's, advisor to President Medvedev, was delayed due to his being stuck in our wonderful Brussels traffic. I had another meeting to go to, and so I was unable to meet the man who famously declared that modernisation of Russia is “impossible under the supremacy of the Putin elite”’. I suspect we would have seen eye-to-eye on that one!

And so to the European Wind Energy Association in the company of the CEO of engineering giant 'Sarens', and a leading academic from the European Geopolitical Forum. The wind sector in the Ukraine is outgrowing its own infrastructure, and there is a need to develop the ability to export surplus wind generated energy. It was an interesting meeting. The Ukraine needs to end its dependency on Russia as much as we do.

Reliance on Russian energy is as big a threat to our security as is terrorism, I would argue. In August 2008 Russia demonstrated its willingness to use 'hard power' to enforce its supremecy in this area.

72 hours before the invasion of Georgia, a pumping staion in eastern Turkey was taken out by the PKK, a Moscow sponsored terrorist group. This was not widely reported in the west. Russian aircraft also bombed perilously close to Georgian  pipelines outside of the disputed areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Was this a dry run for an attack on western energy infrastructure?

Russia is also investing heavily in western nuclear programmes, in some cases, such as in Bulgaria, taking a controlling interest.

The much vaunted BTC pipeline is supposed to give the EU a certain amount of security of supply. The EU, however, quietly pretends not to notice the Russian naval bases at Tartus and Latakia, which face the receiving end of BTC...

Renewable energy is not just an environmental issue . it is about security of supply. Something we do not have at the moment.

The mouse that roared.

"Belgium is dying. Behind the bland facade lies a failing state - a dying country which has never effectively functioned, and has finally become ungovernable. It's time to look forward to a world without Belgium".

So say the authors of the book 'After Belgium'. They are calling for independence for Flanders, with the French speaking Walloons being free to form their own republic. The Walloons are unlikely to want to go down this road, as their impoverished region is reliant on the industrious Flemings. Sadly, the French don't particularly want the Walloonies either.

I would love to see Belgium split, mainly because I live here, and it would be fascinating to watch it happen. An independent Flanders would probably be a great success, and there is a precedent in the successful split-up of Czechoslovakia. So let us watch and wait.....

Dambusters

I just finished reading Max Arthur's "Dambusters". Based on first hand accounts of the crews, and others at RAF Scampton, as well as German civilians who experienced the deluge, this is an easy but superb read. It is impossible to imagine ourselves in the situation these men were in, but they help us understand how they were able to function, and to maintain a semblance of normality, with the threat of death hanging over them every day. I strongly recommend this book.

As a young air cadet I spent time at Scampton back in 1977. 617 squadron were flying Vulcans there in those days, and what magnificent aircraft they were. I subsequently worked mainly around Phantoms, but I was lucky enough to catch the tail-end of a previous generation of aircraft. I once fitted a gunsite camera into a Lightning - this aircraft was essentially a metal tube wrapped around two huge engines, with wings and a couple of redtop missiles bolted on. It could take-off at astonishing speed, and then climb vertically like a rocket. It was a seriously impressive piece of kit. I also saw Buccaneers, Victors, and once got to sit in the cockpit of an F-104 Starfighter. By the time I left the service, Tornadoes were taking over from the Phantom, and it was the end of an era.

ps, Guy Gibson's dog is buried outside one of the hangars at Scampton, and yes - he was called 'Nigger"!

Timo Soini to run for president?

I think I actually admire Timo Soini. He is the Finnish MEP who resigned when his party, the True Finns, acheived a significant share of the vote in the country's recent general election. He had a reasonable expectation of entering government, probably at a high level. However, he refused to compromise his principles and allow his party to drop its opposition to EU bail-outs. “It would have been nice to be part of the government but you cannot betray yourself,” he said.

Compare that to the behaviour of UKIP.

Soini is essentially a nice chap, but I never realised he would be so principled. I have misgivings about allegations of racism, and his party contains some pretty eccentric types, but I now wish I had taken time to know him better when he was in Brussels. I still can't quite work out how a Finnish politician came to be a Millwall supporter, but hey, we need all the support we can get, so that's fine by us.

He has been re-elected as party leader, and it has just been announced that he is almost certain to run for president. It will be interesting to see how the electorate rewards him for his principled stand.

Daylight Robbery!

Another one of those marvellous Belgian moments.....

I called into the pharmacy today to pick something up for my daughter. They had what I needed.

"It will cost 4 euros more today because it is Sunday" the lady told me.

"How much is it?" I asked.

"11 euros and 10 cents" she replied. I agreed to buy the product.

"11 euros 10 plus 4 euros, that will be 16 euros 35 cents" she stated.

"How can 11,10 + 4 be 16,35?" I asked.

Without any shame at all, she looked me in the eye and replied "It is extra tax!"

As I produced my credit card, she said (quietly so that her colleagues could not hear, maybe) "I can only take cash today."

Having seen the customer before me pay with a card, I questioned her about this. She shrugged and suggested I go to the cashpoint across the road and get her some readies.

Needless to say, at this point I decided that I had had enough of this rather unsophisticated attempt at theft, and left the shop empty handed.

Strauss-Kahn's Manifesto for an EU Utopia.

Tempus Fugit is not just Dan Dare's spaceship! It's real, and it seems to be happening too fast.

The controversy surrounding Dominique Strauss-Khan made me think of his 'Building A Political Europe', published in 2004 at the very end of the Prodi Commission. It seems such a long time ago now, and so much has happened since the paper's publication. The face of the EU is barely recognisable from what it was in 2004. Strauss-Khan speculated on what was then the proposed constitution, and how it would enable future incumbents to create a "Utopia" (his word) for Europeans. It also lays down the challenge "We have built Europe: now let us build Europeans", which sounds a bit like something Pol Pot might have come out with if he had been born in France, and not one of it's protectorates.

The document was a eurosceptic's dream when it was published, and I recall being asked to write a précis by the MEP Jeffrey Titford. Sadly, this particular sitting target was never even noticed.

The paper is still worth reading, and it would be churlish to deny the insight and superb understanding of European politics that Strauss-Khan demonstrates. It does, however, read like an extremist manifesto. It also introduced into mainstream debate issues such as a European Tax, and the concept of super-constituencies, and their attendant Pan-European parties (which have actually been with us since 1992)..

The EU tax is still on the table - although it does already exist in a small way in the form of VAT - the Constitution is with us, under another name, and the super-constituencies are being debated at this very moment.

I enjoyed reading the paper again after all these years, but a word of warning - this has nothing to do with democracy as we in Great Britain know it!

FUTURUS

It was nice to meet up with some old friends as well as some current colleagues at a recent meeting in London to discuss the relaunch of FUTURUS, the think tank.

One of the many criticisms that has come out of the recent civil war in UKIP is the lack of academic integrity and a reliance on outdated arguments. FUTURUS will not be a UKIP project as such, that would not help our case at all, it will be non-party political, but with strong eurosceptic leanings.

There are certain policy areas in which eurosceptics are provided with rows of open goals. Sadly these are all too often missed, amongst the shadow chasing and in-fighting that dominates our slice of political space. FUTURUS is not the only such project emerging at present, and I think we can look forward to a long-awaited refreshment and rejuvination of our platform.

I was delighted to receive a copy of the new book ”Too ‘nice’ to be Tories?: How the modernisers have damaged the Conservative party” by Anthony Scholefield and Gerald Frost. The author's analysis of the flawed reasoning behind the modernisation of the Conservative party is extremely interesting and their arguments convincing. I strongly recommend it.

Enjoying my second childhood!

My son and I spend a lot of time at the military museum in Brussels http://www.klm-mra.be/klm-new/engels/main01.php?id=menu_links/startpagina

For those who are interested in such things, a few new exhibits have arrived. An 88mm flak gun and a Hawk SAM system to name but two. It is also possible to actually watch restoration work going on, and a DH Dragon Rapide is starting to look pretty impressive now.

Well worth a visit, and there is a reasonable cafe in the aircraft hangar where on Saturdays it is quite normal to sit down and join groups of Belgian veterans  for a spot of lunch. Youngsters can also sit in the cockpit of a Hawker Hunter, and wander around an old Flying Boxcar, but for some of us the superb collection of WW1 biplanes is the star attraction.

No Virgins for Osama!

By now I guess Osama Bin Laden will have realised that all that stuff about 72 virgins awaiting him in paradise was all total nonsense.

I think he is somebody who will not be terribly missed, but I wonder how the conspiracy theorists are taking the news. Many of them believed that Bin Laden did not actually exist.

I am aquainted with a true master of plots and conspiracies - in fact I breifly shared an office with him - who once explained to me that Bin Laden was an invention of a world government, and the George Bush ordered the destruction of the World Trade Centre. This was so that this shady secret world government could introduce 'anti-terror' laws that would enable them to enslave us. He was truly convinced of this. Mind you, he also believed that the Russian invasion of Chechnya was a CIA plot, and that wind-turbines are throwing the Earth off of its axis.

How does he feel now that Bin Laden is dead? How is he taking the news that his sad theory was complete nonsense?

Another favourite topic of the conspiracy theorists is the Bilderberg group. In fact, I remember about 10 years ago there was speculation about whether that group really existed, or whether it was part of an elaborate smokescreen put in place to hide the existence of something even more shadowy - there are even conspiracy theories about conspiracy theories, it seems. I decided to find out a bit more about the Bilderberg group, so I called up their secretariat in the Hague. A charming lady answered all my questions. Another barmy theory bites the dust - a bit like Osama Bin Laden!

Afghan insurgents employed by Group 4 Security.

Typical Norfolk Villagers Go About Their Business - 2011

It's true! According to the Royal British Legion magazine 'Legion' (Mar/Apr 2011), the British Army has built a replica Afghan village in Norfolk  in order to train troops in a realistic environment. (They could have saved some money of course, and just deployed to Hounslow).

This village is so realistic it even has genuine Afghan insurgents - supplied by Group 4 Security! Honestly, I am not making this up.

This is brilliant. Group 4 have been coming in for a bit of stick here in Brussels, but this one really takes the biscuit.

Things have moved on a wee bit from my day, when troops were sent to Sherwood Forest to prepare for operations in Rhodesia. Lets just hope that when we pull out of Afghanistan in 2014 we leave behind us something a bit more like the real world, and a lot less like Zimbabwe . But you know what? I am not all that optimistic.

Belgians can't drive properly: Police approve!

This morning, whilst crossing the 5 lane chaos that is Rue Belliard, just outside the parliament, I and my fellow pedestrians had a narrow escape when a taxi came hurtling through a red light and over the crossing. This is far from being my first near death experience on a pedestrian crossing in Brussels.

Belgians, generally, are appalling drivers. Belgian taxi drivers, however, make Italian drivers look good. They are rude, ignorant, dangerous, and they don't give a flying f*ck for other road users. They are totally reliant on GPS systems that they are too stupid to use properly, and they overcharge shamelessly. Change is something that has to be demanded with menace. I once got into a cab with a driver who took me for about 20 minutes in what turned out to be the wrong direction, before he stopped the cab and called a friend for directions.

Now I learn that BelgaPlod are actually incentivising bad driving. The Brussels police have announced that from now on they are only going to prosecute speeding drivers if they are going really really fast.

Belgium already has a disproportionately high accident rate, partly due to the appalling state of its third world roads, and partly due to the stupidity of the average Belgian driver. Once on a pedestrian crossing in a shopping street I was almost hit by a van. His head was tipped back, and he appeared to driving one-handed while he tipped the contents of a crisp packet down his neck. He was totally unaware of the red light he was jumping, or the pedestrians he narrowly missed. This is normal behaviour on the roads of Brussels.

Iceland Votes No! We pay... as usual.

 Icelanders have voted to reject proposals to repay something like 4 billion quid that they owe us and the Dutch. Well, isn't that a great example of democracy in action? I may have a vote on whether or not to pay my phone bill next month, and taking into account the Icelandic result, I am expecting a landslide "No" vote.

"The Icelandic nation has been put in a terrible situation," Reykjavik voter Helgi Sigurdsson has told the Associated Press news agency. "It has two choices - both are bad." 

Well, how about a third option? How about giving Britain it's money back? 


The tragedy is that in a desperate bid to renage on their obligations, Icelanders will now push to join the EU asap, and pass the debt to Europe's taxpayers. What's good for the Irish, Greeks, and Portugese, is surely good enough for Helgi Sigurdsson. As for that cod they bravely fought us for in the 1970s? They can kiss that goodbye. The Spanish will sterilise their fishing grounds inside of a decade. Then, I guess, they will want compensation. Bloody parasites!