No champion of the environment

It is unfortunate that many well meaning people who are concerned with the welfare of the environment have been deceived by an incompetent media and incessant propaganda into believing two major myths, the first that we must sacrifice our industrial society in order to counter non existent anthropological climate change, the second that the European Union deserves support because of its support for green causes. Enough has been said already on the first as it becomes more obvious by the day that a dwindling group of vested interests have vastly overreached themselves and are losing the argument as the ordinary person does not wish to endure living in the sort of country that would exist were we to try to replace effective energy generation with unreliable wind farms.

As far as the second is concerned it is true that international problems such as pollution of the seas or the air, the sharing of water resources and the preservation of endangered species can only really be dealt with by nations acting together but this does not mean that a supranational entity such as the EU, with its pretensions to being a single economic and political state is required. Nevertheless those seeking to promote this monster constantly pretend that not only is it needed but that it is already working hard to save the environment. The green lobby could not be more cruelly deceived, for the truth about the EU is that its use of regulations and ill conceived policies is a major cause of pollution. One of the reasons that Brussels is supported by multi-national companies is precisely because it responds to their often corrupt lobbying and uses its regulatory powers to ensure that nothing stands in the way of their profits, whatever danger this presents to the environment.

The Common Agricultural Policy has destroyed efficient and sustainable farming within the EU while it also undermines Third World producers, who are unable to compete in closed European markets, yet see their own markets undercut by large scale dumping from heavily subsidised EU farmers.

The Common Fisheries Policy has decimated the British fishing industry and ensured that more fish have been thrown back dead in discards, or landed illegally, than are landed legitimately. The factory ships from countries such as Spain have all but wiped out stocks around our shores and now the EU promotes similar actions in African coastal waters, where its activities threaten economic calamity for nations reliant upon fishing. We rightly condemn the attacks on shipping by pirates off the east African coast but we should be aware that many are driven to desperation by the selfish policies emanating from Brussels. That landlocked countries such as Austria should be entitled to a share of fishing quotas shows how economic reality can be distorted by incompetent bureaucrats and gutless politicians. These same people have also worked to water down recommendations by scientists which would have saved thousands of cetaceans from dying in industrial fishing nets.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of GM foods it is a fact that the average EU citizen is opposed to their use and we have been warned that the long term effects could prove disastrous. Nevertheless the EU has issued guidance which means that, as the Soil Association states: "almost one in every hundred mouthfuls of organic food will actually be GM food".

Kenya's small flower growers have been driven out of business by Brussels bureaucrats, using complex rules under EU regulation 178/2005, leaving the field clear for the multi-nationals. Despite EU insistence on endless red tape with which it is impossible for small growers to comply Brussels does nothing to prevent dangerous pesticides being used, costing many of the workers their health, including loss of eyesight.

The nature of the EU ensures that the money of the multi-nationals and the desires of bankers to see profits put before any other consideration means that the interests of the Third World count for nothing. Only democratic bodies will give green issues the priority they deserve and the structure and intent of the EU is too institutionally corrupt and undemocratic to achieve this. Political lobbyists, paid for by large companies, persuade or suborn easily corruptible apparatchiks into supporting environmentally damaging schemes.

No one who believes in green policies should support the continuing existence of the EU.