Today’s first letter is from our eminent contributor Torquil Dick-Erikson. His warnings on the ‘Security Treaty’ which leaves the EAW in place must be taken very seriously indeed and will hopefully lead to action on our, UKIP’s, part:

Sir,

Now even the Express is cheering on the perfidious “Security Treaty”. Everybody is jumping up and down about the “Transitional agreement”, protesting – quite rightly – about the betrayal of our fishermen, or admiring Mrs May’s “steely resolve” in the face of “Russian aggression”, while under the radar this Security Treaty with the blasted European Arrest Warrant is going through quietly, unnoticed and unopposed.  

I posted this readers’ comment online on the page with that article, tho’ I doubt if it’ll make much difference:

THOSE WHOM THE GODS WISH TO DESTROY, FIRST THEY MAKE THEM GO MAD.

The EU has said they want to punish us. By continuing with the European Arrest Warrant, we are giving them the whip-handle.

Under the EAW, any prosecutor in Europe can have anybody in Britain arrested and forcibly transported to any jail in Europe and held there for lengthy months on NO EVIDENCE, but on mere suspicion, based on clues, or evidence so flimsy it would not stand up for 5 minutes in a British court. Yet a British court is NOT ALLOWED to even ask for evidence. It has to trust the dodgiest European judiciary blindly.

One innocent victim of this system was even a British judge (!!!), Colin Dines, whose MP Dominic Raab took up his case.

The possibilities of abuse of these terrifying and arbitrary powers on trumped-up charges masking underlying political aims, are colossal.

We are placing ourselves at their mercy. Recklessly, purblindly, and needlessly.

Respectfully, Torquil Dick-Erikson

Today’s second letter is from our correspondent Septimus Octavius. He takes a closer look at the situation in Italy where new storm clouds are gathering which might be threatening Brussels:

Sir,

On 5 March, a German MEP called Olaf Henkel warned the German government to “Get out of the Euro now!” From any sensible, objective point of view, that was very wise advice; but when have the eurocrats ever behaved sensibly or objectively with regard to the Euro?

In July 2012, Mario Draghi was staring into the abyss.  Bond yields had reached 8% in Italy and Spain, and the euro was on the brink of implosion.  He then uttered some magic words: “The ECB will do whatever it takes, within its powers, to preserve the euro; and believe me, it will be enough.” Astonishingly, this utterance was effective to dupe the whole world into having complete faith in the euro’s longevity and integrity. As things turned out, the measures he announced the following month, which amounted to unlimited bond purchases from any nation seeking a bailout, have never been used.  Instead, what he has done is a massive programme of quantitative easing, which the German Constitutional Court has ruled is not within the powers of the ECB, though adding that it could not interfere with the decision.

On Friday 23 March, the Italian Parliament reconvenes to start the long and tortuous process of trying to form a government. The big news is that Five Star and the League have, in the last few days, tentatively indicated that they might be prepared to enter into discussions with each other; and between them, they command more than 50% of the seats.  Moreover, the Brothers of Italy would almost certainly in practice support such a coalition, even if not part of it.

All those three parties have been anti-Euro, anti-immigration and Eurosceptic in different ways and to different degrees, but in each case these attitudes softened somewhat in the lead up to the election.  Nevertheless, they do all sing from the same hymn-sheet, albeit in harmony rather than in unison; and what they have in common remains very much broadly Eurosceptic, particularly with regard to the Euro.

Italy has never thrived on the Euro; it has needed to devalue its currency on a regular basis for over a century, and of course it cannot do that while using the euro as its currency.  Germany has benefitted immensely from the Euro, as it has given them an artificially low currency; all the other users, even France, have suffered from a currency that is too high. Even Mr Macron has said that the Euro cannot survive in its present form; he would like to see genuine Eurobonds, pooling risk among all the users, something which Germany will never agree to.

On any view of the matter, whatever happens in Italy cannot be good for the Euro, and could well be extremely bad for it. I therefore endorse Mr Henkel’s sage words to Germany: “Get out while the going’s good!”

Respectfully, Septimus Octavius