An EU ruling that Cameron must fight

James

I emigrated to Aus 5 years ago (yes, I know it was lucky timing).

Can I have some cheques in the post please. I think I deserve it due to my human rights or something.

kinglear

If Cameron wants to win the next election he needs to accede to the referendum that was promised and align his thoughts with the mass of the British population and become a eurosceptic

perdix

In the event of any "fines" from the EU for refusing to change our rules we should simply deduct them from our agreed payments to the EU.

Wax

If the Conservatives cannot 'pull the trigger' and finally start the long over due fight back against the EU, over this issue, they are officially as worthless as Labour in my books!

Do or die, the time is now! This whole story is scary enough to bring tears to my eyes, the really terrifying part is I don't know whether my Government will fight my corner for me.

Edward Sutherland

"It threatens to destroy public support for immigration". Crikey, you can certainly see Fraser Nelson lives in the Westminster village- and doesn't get out much!

Anthony Zacharzewski

"who governs Britain?"

Easy, the law of the land. Of which European law is a part. And if you think that's a problem, ask the million Brits living in the rest of the EU, and the hundreds of thousands of UK firms trading and operating there.

Chairman of Selectors

The Cameron strategy:

Step 1: Make tub thumping speech at Tory conference, denouncing this.
Step 2: Telegraph, Speccie and Mail delighted that Cameron is standing up for Britain's interests.
Step 3: Britain rolls over and does exactly what it is told by Brussels.
Step 4: If it is even possible, Britain becomes even more of a shithole with its own indigenous idle feckless dole scroungers now joined by armies of criminal eastern europeans.
Step 5: JOY!

oohkuchi

"Even now, when foreign citizens account for 90 per cent of the expansion of the workforce, I’d still argue to keep our open borders"--sorry, but if you really mean this, then you are an idiot at best and a traitor at worst. You are using the front page of the Speccie to argue for race replacement.

Kiwi Mac

Like James I emigrated too - to NZ 7 years ago in my case.

May I also have some cheques?

Peter Hedges

Well, I have been pondering this for some time. If this should come to pass then I will vote with my feet, so to speak, and take steps to ensure that my money is not used to fund benefit tourists from the continent. I do not pay ridiculous levels of tax in order to fund the unemployed of foreign lands. I have paid my share, diligently, for many years. I will soon be starting my own business in which I will be taking many payments in cash. I will deduct my "share" of the cost of such an eventuality by failing to declare a proportion of my earnings earnings. It's illegal, yes, but since nobody in this "democracy" stands for defending taxpayers against Eurocrats we will have to take matters into our own hands. Until we Brits stand up and refuse to play ball, nobody is going to listen.

Question Time is on right now. If the usual bunch of lefties can be so hostile to the EU , what excuse does the governing class have for refusing to heed the opinions of its people?

Gawain

Time to ask them to leave. I know its difficult and very embarrassing but The EU has outstayed its welcome. All we need now is someone with the guts to have a quiet word with them

David Price

Can't the EU understand that the more they push us, the more resentment they're likely to create in Britain, and the more they're likely to make the British public want to leave the EU completely.

We need to restore 'the social chapter' back to the UK, along with the supremacy of our judiciary. We need to pass a law here that says every law passed here has priority over EU law. Ironically, the Europhiles should be pushing for this as this is the only thing likely to keep people in the UK believing in the EU, as so much of it is dysfunctional, corrupt and/or disgraceful.

Austin Barry

Like James and Kiwi I emigrated too... to Ireland.....Help!!!!!

JohnPage

Really, Fraser, what did you expect? Welfare tourism is an inevitable consequence of freedom of movement.

Or were you burying your head in the sand?

pmt008

This latest move is not surprising, but it is seriously annoying me and even more so is the fact that all I expect to happen is a "We don't agree with it but we have to go along with it" response that will follow yet another rolling over to possibly the most pointless organisation of the "Common Era"!

George Rolph

Oh good. We all get to watch Cameron cave in just as he is supposed too. No doubt he will put on a bit of a fight for show but the result will be as it always is with the EU.

Frank Sutton

By what means does the EU enforce this? What could they actually do if we told them to eff off?

Hexhamgeezer

Fraser,

You are the turkey who has just noticed the existence of a calendar.

Your complaints have no coherence. They make no sense. You are a deluded metropolitan buffoon. Shut up and get on with making dave and Clegg the Eurobot's life easier.

Ian

I am British and live in Portugal. The system here, is a minimum of contributing to the tax system for 15 months, before I can claim benefits (and some work, such as my work as a post-doctoral scientist, you still cannot claim benefits). The benefits are temporary. This is the same for everyone. This means the welfare system is cheap, but it also means a proportion of people live close to starvation because they have no income. Established people with wealth benefit tremendously (because benefits is proportional to income). The UK system is great and it protects the most needy. I suggest that the UK leave Europe and not sure why they haven't already!

Cynic

" ... an influx of welfare dependent (sic) ... threatens to destroy public support for immigration"" What public support for immigration? I don't know of anyone (except for you and the out of touch political elite, of course) who supports immigration at all! Come and visit the real world once in a while.

Derek

"A simple issue is at stake: who governs Britain? "

Has the penny, at long last, dropped?

McClane

"An EU ruling that Cameron must"

He won't fight. Clegg won't let him. He's got an EU pension to protect.

daniel maris

You need to get real Fraser. The world is changing.

What did you think you were getting into when you supported continued membership of the EU?

Cameron can fight it all he wants - if the ECJ tells him he's wrong, that's the end of the story.

Foundavoice

The 'Supreme Court' is unlawful anyway. The highest court in the land can only ever be the House of Lords with Lords patent.

Chairman of Selectors

The Chairman, on the other hand, is returning to the UK after 3 years in Oz. How stoo-pid is that? They moan here about 4 desperate people a week landing on the northern territories on homemade rafts, while we accept thousands of illegals a week who promptly disappear into the system, or if they are now from the EU, help themselves to a hosue and bloody benefits.

ed l

Fraser, I'm sorry but your facile facilitation of the EU and all its works means you are part of the problem and not the solution.

H2B cannot, and more importantly will not, be able to do a jot about this and you are more responsible than most so save your crocodile tears of anger.

PuppetMaster

What a brilliant way of getting people to support the dismantling of the welfare state, which is long overdue.
The problem will be that unless all the red tape is removed from business, there will not be the jobs for people to move into.
I can't see the Tories taking on the large corporations which have supported the EU project, as they benefitted most from legislation which has reduced competition.
Things are going to have to get a lot uglier before big business is willing to allow competition.

London Calling

Fraser…

Reading between the lines, this has nothing to do with welfare, its power posturing, together with the financial tax on EU banks two days ago with a warning from the EU Commission to the UK that resistance is futile, knowing 80% trade from the EU Banks goes through the City of London.

Lord Hope should demand an internal Audit into the EU’s accounts, seeing as it’s never seen the light of day, this isn’t a fight, it’s a Law war …also the United Kingdom should declare its relationship with the EU insolvent on the grounds of its undemocratic unelected formation, whilst at the same time ensuring our relationship with the European community continues to remain loyal and strong…

Enough is enough…

Owen Morgan

I don't know what James is feeling so smug about, just because he emigrated to Oz. Gillard is determined to drive the Australian economy back into the Stone Age with her Carbon Tax and the Australian politically correct courts are now punishing thought-crime. If we could only get a PM here with enough spine to hold an in/out referendum on the eu, we could give James somewhere worth migrating back to.

TomTom

Do you get the fax from Party Conference organisers to feed the plebs with these stories ? It is so funny just like Hot Cross Buns and Mince Pies in supermarkets in September just in time for 5th November. I find seasonal stories so amusing

Boudicca

"I’m proud to live in one the most tolerant country in the world"

Not any more it isn't. The Lib/Lab/CON have killed that with their EU obsession and open-door policy on immigration. There will be serious civil unrest within a decade if things continue as they are.

It seems that the EU is deliberately trying to provoke the British. We are being forced to bail out their single-currency-folly. They are trying to tax (and thereby damage) our Financial Services Industry and now they want us to pay welfare for any EU national who turns up at Dover.

Well - I'm provoked. I was provoked by Maastrict; by the Lisbon Treaty and every other imposition from this undemocratic and unaccountable monstrosity which our political elite are so in love with.

Cameron fight ....... you must be kidding. He is as wet as the English Channel - you know, that bit of sea that used to protect us from marauding foreigners.

The British people are sick and tired of paying welfare to other British people who won't work/can't work. If this is enforced and we are told we must pay tax to provide welfare for thousands of Eastern Europeans, Greeks, Spanish and the rest, there will be riots.

But then riots are what it seems to take to get this Government's attention.

jazz606

We definitely need to stand up to this one, otherwise we'll have most of the Greek population here claiming benefits.

Sir Everard Digby

I don't see the problem. Pay them the money....once the public finances tank we can ask the EU for a bailout and get a refund.

Jon Stack

Leaving aside the arguments about who governs Britain, surely the answer would be to cut UK benefits below other EU state levels, so that our lot of welfare addicts head off to their place in the sun

EC

Try claiming any benefits, as a Brit, in Germany and France and see how far you get. Try registering as a resident in Germany without telling them where you work/how you support yourself and they tell you to leave, in person if necessary!

Ed P

The EU is a fascist state. This issue marks the beginning of a fight back as important as the one 72 years ago.

Swiss Bob

In what sense is the Spectator 'right-wing'?

prziloczek

And do you honestly think that Mrs Clegg will let the government stop this ruling?
She stands to get three hundred thousand euros a year for expenses alone!

oldtimer

The answer is simple. Call an In/Out referendum on this very issue.

steveal

"It threatens to destroy public support for immigration"

?

Oh for goodness sake

Take legal action?
So what can the European court do, send the bailiffs in?

Tell them in plain terms to get knotted. We hold all the cards

strapworld

So now we have the answer to why Fraser Nelson, that doughty fighter for truth etc, did not take up that promise to readers of this blog and me inparticular to write a piece on Neather. It was because the public support immigration!

Mr Nelson. Get out more. Get out into those areas of our great country which have been transformed into lookalikes of Asia and Africa. Then, when there, ask any white person you may see if they 'support immigration'.

I suppose, in your thinking, we all support the EU?

denis cooper

But this article doesn't accurately reflect the linked press release, which cites this case:

"For example, a non-UK citizen from another Member State came to the UK from Italy (where she had lived since 1989) to work for an Italian company. She worked in the UK from April 2007 until April 2009 when she was made redundant. All throughout her employment in the UK, she paid taxes and national insurance contributions, yet her claim for income-based jobseekers' allowance was refused on the grounds that she did not have a right to reside in the UK. If the UK had applied EU social security coordination rules, those citizens confirmed as habitually resident in the UK would enjoy the same protection as habitual residents in other EU Member States."

Heartless Perry

Pay the Piper - dance his tune!

Simples!

Hugh

Fraser
You are disgraceful sometimes.
My first thought is that we must get a million people on to the streets. The more mature approach however is to ask you to analyse carefully the differences between the UK definition of "residence" and the EU definition of "habitual residence".

Rhoda Klapp

The theory that this is political posturing before the conference allowing an apparent tough attitude for a Cameron speech fits all the facts. Did they expect to fool the Coffee House? Are you their loyal aide in the attempt? I hope you will be a little more incisve in unspinning the lines of the upcoming week.

If you are for free movement of labour, Fraser, there is nothing wrong with that. It is a noble philosophical sentiment, to some. It's just that you didn't ask the folks. That is all. Have your policy, if you can sell it, but get a mandate, don't just sneak it past. Massie never replies when I bring up that one, and I don't expect you to either, because you are just an eloi.

HFC

Mr Cooper, As the Italian woman was made redundant by her Italian employer - albeit in UK - surely common sense suggests that the Italian state should fund her benefits?

Tanope

You obviously havn't had to watch a son with a good science degree scramble for any job, no matter how lowly. Only to be constantly turned away...All the jobs that saw young people get a foot on the work ladder have now gone to foreign nationals.
Pay back the student loan...not a chance.
But i suppose your offspring will get a nice sinicure with a MP.
Just like Blairs became a Senators bag carrier, whilst he was sending young working class kids off to die in Iraq and Afghan...
I hate all Politicians and their hangers on and apologists. Your all useless and would happily drown the people in the mud whilst you scrambled up their backs.

Prodicus

Cameron has to roar NO at the EU over this, or he is toast. And I mean roar. The whole country has to hear him whether he and his LibDem coalition friends (sic) find it politically convenient or not.

Amazingly, only about 4 per cent of voters count 'the EU' as important when voting at a GE. This ruling, effectively ending Britain's legal independence and on a matter of over-riding importance to an already-angry electorate, should wake up the other 96 per cent.

If Cameron plays this shrewdly, it could offer him an election-winning, ditch-the-LibDems, spatchcock-statist-Labour platform for a landslide victory. That's assuming Cameron wants such things, of course. Quite an assumption, I know.

Y Rhyfelwr Dewr

Yes, Cameron has to fight, but he won't. We all know he won't.

He'll huff and puff, wring his hands in outraged woe, maybe declare how the ruling makes him "physically sick", declare how there is no way on earth he would ever want to submit to this ruling.

But finally, he will quietly declare, on a good day to bury bad news, that he is doing the bare minimum to comply -- the operative word being "comply".

Maggie

There are lots of Greeks heading in this direction. It must be a comfort to them to know that the current President of the European Court of Justice is a Greek.

michael

the biggest threat does not come from Europeans and can be dealt with by disenfranchising the supreme courts and leaving the final say with regional (local) government as they do in Germany, befuddling Brussels.
The main threat still comes from Pakistan because plenty of its citizens and colonials still want to kill or assimilate us.

On a more serious note I do see the attraction of mass immigration into Scotland. With all that oil, no one for miles around, and all those mountain hideaways- they should feel right at home.

In the words of erm ... Mel Gibson
"FREEEEDOM"

-and don't forget, it's Idi v Sean in the presidentials

jon dee

You say it all - it is indeed a calamity and must be opposed.

The EU is not only testing our patience and resolve, it is breaking our will to support it's future.

Dennis Churchill

The Con/Lab/Lib Brands are merely the native administrators of a colonial administration.
Post Democratic.

Tony E

Once, when I was a kid, a Conservative PM went to the electorate on the ticket "Who Runs the Country" He lost.

Unless the PM is willing to ditch the coalition and go to the country now on a mandate of giving us the referendum on EU membership, he has no legal tools to fight this ruling.

Our sovereignty is notional, not practical, and the UK courts will bend over backwards to impose this ruling, or any other ruling, from Brussels.

The only way for a Conservative PM to fight this is to go to the country and let that be a referendum on our relationship with the EU.

He had better be sure that he understands what it is the majority of people want or he will go the same way as Edwards Heath - who was remembered firstly as well meaning but weak, and later as a quisling as the whole truth emerged.

ButcombeMan

When I see wet articles like this from Fraser Nelson, I am reminded why I stopped buying the print edition.

"threatens to destroy public support for immigration"

Humbug. Get out of your ivory metropolitan tower. Lean on a few bars, talk to the voters about immigration AND the EU control over our lives.

God help us. Even the Spectator has succumbed.

We are all doomed. Doomed I say.

Mike

IM screaming inside our own people are having to cut back on everything oue old peole dont get a proper pension Mr Cameron lets get out its about time i dont think there is any people in the Uk want to be in the EU so do us all a big favour and you will get re-elected have the referendum you promised and let get back to being a nation with BALLS

denis cooper

HFC -

If you're asking me what I think would be common sense in the particular case cited in the Commission press release, then my answer is that I would have to agree with the Commission viewpoint UNLESS originally the woman had only been allowed to come and work here under stated restrictions, eg that she could only work here for a specified limited period or while a specified company wished to employ her.

But if the UK government admitted her on an open-ended basis and indeed welcomed her as a potentially permanent part of the UK workforce, the Fraser Nelson position, then even I think that it would be unreasonable for her not to be treated as such even though she's a foreign citizen.

I doubt that the UK government has a leg to stand on in such cases, especially as the relevant EU regulation on the coordination of social security systems:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:166:0001:0001:EN:PDF

explicitly states:

"(32) In order to foster mobility of workers, it is particularly appropriate to facilitate the search for employment in the various Member States; it is therefore necessary to ensure closer and more effective coordination between the unemployment insurance schemes and the employment services of all the Member States."

Magnolia

Law and order will break down if this goes ahead.
The government would be forced to drastically cut welfare benefits to accommodate the masses who arrive.
There would be vaste amounts of new build on green fields to house them all.
I've had my pension nicked in the last welfare grab which was spent on the first Greek bail out.
This is the sort of thing that will cause a brain drain.
We would be off and we would take our skills with us.
They can try a house tax if they want but people would still just leave their empty homes to rot. Is the state going to steal private houses now?

Publius

Cameron will cave in. That's what he does. He will speak to Ask Nick. Nick will instruct him to cave in. Cameron will cave in.

Just as he will cave in over the City.

James Noble

I could scream. I have voted tory for many years, but never again if we do not stand up here.

Justathought

From the EC press release link you have provided it says ;

"EU rules on the social security coordination (EC Regulation EC 883/2004) allow the UK to grant social benefits only to those persons who habitually reside in the UK, however Article 4 of this Regulation prohibits indirect discrimination through the requirement for non-UK citizens to pass an additional right to reside test"

It seems to me that we should abandon the additional UK habitual residence test (below) that causes the EC offense and apply the simpler EU habitual test criteria which is just as effective IMO.

There is a wider problem for IDS in that as the austerity measures bite in Greece and other countries in the EU there will be much greater 'legal' welfare immigration to the UK. Longer term the 2.5 million recent EU immigrants will be eligible to bring their relatives, many of whom would enjoy better pension and healthcare than in their native countries.

Is it not time to consider lobbying the EU that we are allowed to introduce a simple rule that any immigrant can only claim the same amount of benefits that they would be entitled to in their home country to stem this welfare tourism?

Dogzzz

I have stopped supporting UKIP. Or I should say, I have stopped 'just' supporting UKIP. Now I have fully joined up. The only way to prevent these abuses of our nation is to get the hell out of the EU altogether.

I am not working my nuts off to pay taxes to give a bunch of foreigners who have never lived, worked or paid taxes here a standard of living on benefits than is far far greater than my own. Even worse is the ruling that they can claim our benefits and remain living in their own country of origin!!! I mean WTF!?!?!?!

Dogzzz

Quote: ""who governs Britain?"

Easy, the law of the land. Of which European law is a part. And if you think that's a problem, ask the million Brits living in the rest of the EU, and the hundreds of thousands of UK firms trading and operating there."

AND WHO SETS THAT LAW? AND IN WHOSE INTERESTS?

Clearly the EU is NOT working in the interests of those who are the biggest contributors to it anymore. It is now not just a drain on our finances in a time of austerity, but has become a monstrous and extreme drain, with the proposal of 2.45 TRILLION Euros worth of bail-outs set to hit the pockets of EU taxpayers, we CANNOT afford to remain in. With this insane and inflamitory and gratuituosly offensive judgement on benefit payments, we would have to be a completely and totally deranged insane lunatic to want to remain inside the EU.

The political, social and economic costs now clearly and undeniably FAR outweigh the benefits.

Shame

"Even those, like me, who defend mass immigration"

F Nelson The Spectator.

My last 3 comments have been censored by the agenda driven moderators, or perhaps the originator of the article. So I will repeat in another way (there was no swearing or offensive comment in my previous attempt - it was just not on message) that I am stunned by those words emanating from the editor of the Spectator.

The rest of the article is irrelevant. Until those words are renounced by Mr Nelson then it is clear that he,the editor of the Spectator, is a supporter of the project to impose mass immigration on Britain, and in particular England. You wondered why he wouldn't write about Neather?

He should resign immediately.

Will the moderator let this one through?

Publius

"I am a defender of the free movement of workers, to the chagrin of some CoffeeHousers"

I think you misrepresent "some CoffeeHousers'" objection with this smug comment of yours. I suppose it makes you feel good to paint CoffeeHousers as silly racist Little Englanders.

Dogzzz

"I don't see the problem. Pay them the money....once the public finances tank we can ask the EU for a bailout and get a refund."

How I like the humorous sentiment, the reality is far different. What makes you think that the EU would lift a finger to help the UK? We do have precedent on this going back to Black Wednesday. Our European partners did NOTHING to help us in our hour of need. (Thank God as it helped keep us out of the Euro) However 12 months later when the French Franc faced exactly the same challenge, the rest of Europe bent over backwards to help them and rescue them from economic humiliation.

BTW, speaking of Black Wednesday, It is interesting to note that this single, one-time-only infamous day cost the tax-payer so much money that the tories lost all economic credibility with the City of London, the Media and the general public for almost 18 years!!!

Labour's annual deficit inherited by the tories in 2010, was the equivalent of a Black Wednesday happening every single week!

Think about that the next time the BBC are complaining about the government's attempts at cutting the deficit.

William Blakes Ghost

Well the parasite political scum who caused this outrage with their europhiliac sycophancy should pay for it themselves.

Why should we?

Magnolia

Fraser, my kids have literally over a hundred second cousins and cousins once removed, living over in Europe (large catholic family etc.) We are in close touch with many and see them as often as we can.
However much I love my spouse's relatives, I do not wish them all to live here on benefits because that would be the same as an invasion.
The immigrant that came here in the 1950's worked non stop for the NHS. They have earned their NHS pension.
It is possible to be married to those of foreign blood and still be a Eurosceptic.
The Eurosceptic wants to protect the idea of a nation state for all of Europe's people.

Gisele Sanches

The culture of benefit claiming needs to change. And jobs that the "Brits were not interested in" should be the jobs encouraged to be taken by the Brits benefit seakers, and they would appreciate things for working harder and have less time to waste hioting or wondering around the streets with their hoodies on. If that happened, there would be no jobs left for migrants and less benefit claiming by them as it would make imigration a not so interesting thing. Most benefits are claimed by Brits, not because imigrants have less of a chance to claim but because they hardly ever come to this country to claim benefits or bend the rules to get them which often happens here, most of them come to work hard.

SonofBoudicca

There cannot be a better ground upon which to fight the monolithic European Commission than on migrants claiming benefits. Britain is broke and it is a complete insult to its workers and taxpayers to have to obey this Brussels diktat. If Cameron funks this challenge he really does deserve to lose the next election and he will certainly forfeit my vote, which is already questionable.

Patricia

Gisele Sanches - "most of them come to work hard" - they also bring dependants with them who receive benefits.

Verity

You are all ignoring that well-known elephant in the living room, i.e., the fact that David Shameron sees his future supping at the top table in Brussels. Everything he does is directed to that end.

He has no connection to the British people.

Simon Davies

What an absurd fuss over nothing.

1) this farce proves the right-wing claim that immigrants are coming over here and sponging off our benefits is a lie.

2) reading the press release reveals this isn't about 'welfare tourism' in the slightest. The example used is of someone who has contributed to the tax system for years and is still not entitled to welfare.

3) reading the related section of the EU website shows that 'non-contributory' benefits are massively restricted by EU law anyway.

4) the UK is one of the stingier EU countries in terms of benefits - why would foreigners come over here to get less money than they would back home!?

This is just another example of how shameless, populist posturing based on a right-wing fantasy of the real world creates more problems than it solves.

Dimoto

Simon Davies: nice post, but don't spoil the fun.

All of these provocative blogposts are just to make sure everyone is revved up for the Conservative conference.

And then, there are the Eurocrats whose noses have been put out of joint by Osborne crowing about the UK as a "safe haven".

They are not best pleased with us at the moment, despite the (dripping with insincerity) calls for the protection of the Euro from sundry UK cabinet ministers.

The EU "narrative" was that the UK has been wrecked by it's pursuit of "unconstrained Anglo-Saxon capitalism".

General Sir Charles Napier

To paraphrase;

"I am a defender of the free movement of workers". "I am proud to live in one of the most tolerant countries in the world"
"The system was acceptable because most immigrants were coming here to work"
"90% of new jobs are filled by immigrants and I will argue that this is acceptable"
"There is now (and only just now)the real prospect of welfare tourism" and God forbid some of these new welfare tourists might, just might, on occasions, possibly, ask for the odd council house now and again." i.e. I don't think this has ever happened before; much.
"Those like me who defend MASS IMMIGRATION can't make the case for an influx of the welfare dependent"

Fraser, are you on crack!?

And if this wasn't enough....

All this "threatens to destroy public support for immigration!!!!!!!"

F*ck me I'm almost lost for words. Fraser you need to get out in the real world and stop mixing with the Westminster/BBC/Media Whores/Islington fluffers.

I'm fed up with people p*ssing on my back and telling me its raining.

The nation is crying out for a credible radical right of centre political party that we can vote for. Who will fill the vacuum?

Fraser you are a windbag and part of the problem afflicting our nation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0151pys

Censorship Rules at the Speccie

It would appear that I am not allowed to mention a certain issue here, because my multiple attempts to draw it to people's attention on various relevant articles here have not been posted by the moderators.

Google "Big Issue Benefits" and you will find a Telegraph article of interest. I see the effects of it day in and day out.

There, is that allowed?

Yow Min Lye

Come on over, Fraser. Join the rest of us erstwhile Europhiles who have now seen the EU for exactly what it is and who believe there remains no other meaningful option left to this country except to quit the EU forthwith.

I had Damascus Road moment back in the late 1990s when the BSE crisis exposed just how little power the British agriculture minister now had over British agriculture.

Now this latest fiat from Brussel has exposed just how little power IDS has over Britain's benefit system. Unless the Coalition find the balls to tell the EU to go f*c*.

Sorry about the blunt langauage, Fraser. However, hopefully now thatyou too have clearly experienced that inchoate rage that burns within once one finally appreciates just what Nick Ridley meant when he likened the EU to handing over our country to Hitler.

Derek

Why on earth did you waste your time writing this drivel Mr Nelson. Anyone who complains about immigrants coming to the UK and in the same breathe welcomes mass immigration has lost the plot! The one will automatically go with the other! Time to switch yer brain on methinks!

Mark M

A good opportunity to reform welfare beckons. Perhaps if we didn't have such a generous welfare system then people wouldn't be so keen to flock here. Time to do some 'benchmarking'. Let's change our welfare system to be the 15th most generous in Europe, rather than the most. Then let's see what those EUrocrats have to say.

Colin Cumner

Since entering the EU, Britain has seen more and more of its freedoms eroded by the dictates of the bureaucrats in Brussels. These continued assaults on the nation's 'life and liberty' and successive British Governments' acceding to these demands is a gross insult to all those who have fought to defend our cherished national values. My blunt message to Cameron is GET BRITAIN OUT NOW.

John David Barnett

Mass immigration has been an ummitigated disaster for this country. It is one of the great evils of our time. No sane person could posibly support it.

Minnie Ovens

"I am a defender of the free movement of workers"

One can defend this philosophy when it is legal within the EU but how can Nelson wish for the destruction of a country through free worker movement throughout the world? Or, to put it more bluntly, advocate massive muslim immigration into the UK.
Woolly, superficial,intellectually lazy and self satisfied remarks by an Establishment crony.

TGF UKIP

"It threatens to destroy public support for immigration." As if we needed further evidence that Never Neather, and the rest of them down there, do inhabit a parallel world.

HeXhaMgeEezer

Dear Censorship Rules at the Speccie
8:57pm

That sort of attitude wont get you invites to the Lib/Lab/Con Dinner Party

Niels Christensen

Polish 'guestworkers' in Denmark, who often get payed a lot less than danish workers, and who also not always pay tax, are entitled to children allowance for their children in Poland. And danish children allowance is a lot worth in Poland; and at the same time makes it easier for the polish worker to undercut danish wages.
But thats what EU and the free market is all about.