A Race Model for China’s EU Policy

14th July is the first day of new EU parliament. The clash between Griffin, the far-right BNP (British National Party) leader and MEP, and Baroness Kinnock, Britain’s minister for EU, bursts. It implies there is a huge gap amongst British attitude to EU. Indeed when European parliament election was happening in June, the diversity of the EU emerged cross the continent, not limited in Britain. The message is clear. The turn-out hit the historical low. The voters lost their interest in the EU. The right wing was winning. After this election, the EU will confront the Irish second referendum on Treaty of Lisbon. The first referendum has been vetoed last year. The referendum will determine whether Ireland accepts the EU constitution-like. If the referendum was failed again, the EU would face a constitutional crisis.

Such hesitation also presents Chinese dilemma. It is apparent that China has not found a united Europe when facing EU. Chinese EU policy seems fragile and isolated. In order to deal with the massive diversity inside the EU, China has developed a buy-your-bill’s strategy with European countries. To maximise Chinese benefit, the most ideal deal should be that China could buy at a whole-sale price. However currently China has to make individual deals with each member and the total cost is more expensive than the whole sale.

The case of Sarkozy claims the failure of Chinese strategy. China always takes it for granted that French like China for Chinese had so many old French friends like Chirac, Mitterrand. All of them and other Frenchmen loved Chinese culture so much. Even to Sarkozy, China once offered generous support when he was in the lowest in his political career. When Sarkozy visited China in 1995 and 2005, he was expelled from Chirac’s inner circle but was arranged to meet President Hu Jintao. Additionally, in 2008 China also secured its friendship with France by purchasing Airbus and nuclear technologies in order to comfort French. But in the end, China still can not tame the energetic little Napoleon. Sarkozy’s tricks on Tibet and tax haven blacklist have demonstrated China’s failure.

Crossing the English Channel, though China has no such old English friends as Chirac, Mitterrand in France, the bilateral relationship of China-UK has developed rapidly and fruitfully since 1999. Chinese students have become the largest international students group there. Most of them are self-funded. To normal Chinese, Britain is more attractive and recognised. (need more info to support relations developed rapidly and fruitful since 1999: the next is the supportive cases)Last October, David Miliband (full name), the UK foreign sectary, recognized China’s sovereignty over Tibet by announcing “we regard Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China” Immediately, UK foreign office published the memorandum of the UK and China: the framework of Engagement in the early of 2009.To differ from buying French airbus, Chinese are more prefer to import British ideas in politics, finance and R&D. Even the crisis beats UK’s reputation in finance, China still like to learn from London City and their financial regulation.

The development between China and UK implies some possible cooperation on EU’s affair. Britain is a veteran to play with Europe. Euro-skepticism is always a long controversy in British politics. However, Britain would never withdraw itself from EU. Both Tory (spell the full name: Tory is the nickname of Conservative) and Labour share the intention of bringing British influence to play the game in EU. The euro-skeptic Tory deliberately ignores this EU’s strategic value: Britain is not only a member of EU, but also a spokesman for EU. The spokesman’s role has given British the credit in the front of his ally American during the WWII and Cold War. Entering into 21st century, Britain transferred the credit in the War on Terrorism. Today it is fighting global recession.

With the end of Iraq and Afghanistan war, Obama intends to end the tension between America and the other worlds. To avoid losing his weight in the America-Anglo special relation, Britain must find a new interest point with America. The fight against global recession is the next one. The G20 summit showed that Brown still can work with America, but Obama switches his weight to European gradually.

The competition in EU is coming. Sarkozy leads France back to NATO. He shows his intention to pursue a European leadership. Britain’s role of the EU spokesman is under threatened by Sarkozy’s aggressiveness. The time is coming that Britain and France will compete inside Europe and global. In the global stage, Brown needs find a leverage to sell his spokesman’s role. Undoubtedly, Brown shows his friendly and comfortable gesture to China, for example the flexibility on Tibet and the warmth for long-term engagement. As a return, in this G20 summit, China reacts positively to Brown’s fiscal stimuli plan.

The fight against global recession implies the UK need China to buy the bill. It predicts the further cooperation in a wide range of issues. On the EU affair, it has to been admit that China is not a veteran. The more reasonable and pragmatic way is to select a potential collaborator inside EU. Britain may be a good candidate. The recent development on Sino-UK has set their milestone for future. To integrate Britain into China’s EU policy could be an attempt to end the dilemma of buy-your-bill’s strategy.

A new race model may be worthy of being considered to China’s EU policy. In this model, China need not use his economy power to comfort the each country in EU. What he can do is to choose some potential candidates for the race. Only the winner is awarded. Obviously Britain and France are good candidates. It seems that today Britain is Chinese favourite. The British duality of EU spokesman and traditional Euroskeptic provide himself enough space to manipulate. Therefore China should throw away the efforts and illusions to find a united Europe. Put the bet on a qualified horse and tame some old naughty friend.

A book wanted to read

I posted 5 books to Oxford, which cost 5.56 Pounds.

On the way back home, I stayed in Oxfam shortly and skipped the book of What the Media are doing to our Politics.This is the second time to read this book. In my mind, it can be listed with Andrew Marr's My Trade and Alistair Campbell's The Blair's Years. These two have been on my bookshelf. But I just read the preface of the latter and the contents of the first. John Lloyd's work seems more plain and frank for me.

Recently I have bought several second hand books from Oxfam. The current reading on my bed table is Illustrated English Social History by G.M.Trevelyan. I just open the first pages. It is very attractive, especially when I returned from the travle to Wales. After hesitating, I put the book back to the shell and give me some time to finish the four volumes of Trevelyan's books firstly. The big weekend is an opportunity.

Who is the racist of political correctness?

There is always a question haunting in my mind: whether English ever eat turtle, at least in history. The question was raised after I read a commentary last year. In that article, the writer scornfully ended that he would not like go to a country of tortoise-eater. I have to say it totally undermined Chinese appetite for deliciousness. Actually they only eat the turtle, not tortoise. They are absolutely dissimilar tastes.

But to eat the turtle is not the Chinese or other East Asian privilege. In his Hard Time about 19th century intention between capitalist and miner, Dickens painted the upstart of Bounderby’s dream in such words “turtle soup and version of golden spoon”. It sounds that the turtle was the rising upper class’s favourite in Victorian era. Thanks to Heston in Channel 4. His programme confirmed my assumption recently. In his experimental chef show of Heston’s Victorian Feast”, he reconstructed a typical Victorian dinner according to an archived menu, the turtle was the delicious option in the table.

The selective amnesia about turtle meat would sometimes lead the misunderstanding and confliction amongst cultures. There is an example in China’s cyberspace this week. It is a stir triggered by a cartoon about evolution from apes to future human amongst various areas. In this satire picture, to African, the evolution ends as an anthropoid. And the destination of Chinese is a crab with three luxury watches. In Mandarin, the crab is homophonic to harmonious, the contemporary political slogan. And the three luxury watches implied the today CCP’s politics strategy, named three representative theory. Representative is identically pronounced as “to wear a watch” in Mandarin.

To a normal Chinese, the cartoon deems to be extremely satire about Chinese censorship. However, Custer, an English blogger from South Africa and in China, stamped racism to this picture and regarded it offensive politics correctness. He Caitou, who is a famous Chinese blogger and posted this picture on his own blog originally, refuted scornfully Custer’s commentary in his blog yesterday. This debate has attracted lots of comments and posters in both blogs.

Of course Custer’s opinion is constructive and friendly; moreover, it is not wrong to claim the racism is a bad social behaviour and politics incorrectness today. But the hidden problem is how Chinese think about the racial issues and whether they are aware of the linkage between racial issues and political correctness, as if which had been really established social issues in contemporary China.

Unfortunately, political correctness is rarely one failed case of the massive imported western ideas to China. I still remember it was first to read this word from a magazine more than nine years ago. In the following years, it failed to be popular as democracy, soft power or other keywords. Officially, in China, we have to admit some political tattoos which play as the roles of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as racism in western nations. But few label them with the term of political correctness. To Chinese, racism seems to be an issue beyond political correctness. You are very easy to find some funny stereotypes and negative jokes about black man in China. As turtle to Chinese, the sort of discrimination mostly is based on the stereotype from folk media, it is different from racism to the western, which is rooted in the brutal slave trade and colonial past.

Dr. Ferguson commented that, in Victorian era, British Empire was unsatisfied with the goal of just ruling this world, instead, redefine it. Today the allegation of racism has been established as a universal political correctness, ironically by these previous colonial nations. It can be regarded as the extension of British Empire’s narrative. It is supposed to introduced acceptably and prevail in post-colonialised countries.

Unluckily, it is not fit to Chinese context. Initially, as China has never colonized and treated brutally Africa like main European countries, the accusation of racism would not inspire Chinese guilt as ex-conical countries like UK, Spain, German and France. More importantly, China has either been colonized as India or most Asia-Africa-Latin American countries. Therefore, Chinese are lack of sympathy for the colonial memory and experience. The seemly hint of racism left to Chinese might be the war of Sino-Japan, or the faded history from late Qing dynasty. However, these miserable past emphasises Chinese that “lagging behind leaves one vulnerable to attacks.” It did not drive anti-racism to be a prevailing civil campaign in China.

The controversy in this week’s cyberspace reminds that China has come to a vanishing boundary world: globalisation. The dilemma is that Chinese is adopting a language system defined by English and subject itself to an Anglo-Atlantic predominated context. This is not only of racism, but more.

Poor Labour's peaceful society

After reading this, it sounds that UK should not only import cheap Chinese T-shirts and pants, but also the notion of “harmony society”, invented by Chinese communist party in the recently years. For example, in China, the central government has increased the salaries of the teachers and civil servants, who are normally employed by state, in the past five years. This policy is more direct and efficient than windfall tax discussed here these days. It also makes Chinese wallet much richer and provides insider consumption abilities. It could be understood that China government has turned his eye to the potential inside domestic market, not only Shanghai, but middle and west of China, when the export becomes more and more difficult today. You have to acknowledge that Chinese communist party is wiser than Labour in economics and ideology.

The Prime Minister: Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown has taken over the power today. As Nick Assinder predicted in Who's who in Team Brown?, Gordon would introduce more financial persons into his team and most of them own the experiences of working with him before. This point reminds me to compare the difference between Chinese and British politics. As it is common acknowledged that Chinese politicians would employ the close persons to build his team, it caused an term of sectary gang in China. Maybe the coming two or three weeks, we can exam Brown's strategy in team-building.

Additionally, Nick mentioned Ed Miliband in his list and it sounds very interesting that his brother ,David, was ignored now. Let's waiting for the reshuffle.

He is Matthew Parris

I just read Matthew Parris' comment of Frudge? Consensus? Give me ding-dong politics any day in today's Times. He is talking about Brown's offer to Lord Ashdown. It is abtractive to me for I am about to write some comment on this issue too. This unsucessfully offer should be Brown's gambit as a British PM though he is still waiting until the next Week.

There is a brief about Matthew Parris from internet.

Born 7th August 1949 in Johannesburg, Matthew Parris was educated in Britain and Africa, graduating from Clare College, Cambridge and going on to study International Relations at Yale.Two years at the Foreign Office were followed by a spell at the Conservative Research Department. From 1977 until the 1979 General Election, he was on the staff of Mrs Thatcher's office.Elected Member of Parliament for West Derbyshire in 1979, he gave up his seat in 1986 to become presenter of LWT's Weekend World, a political interview programme.He led expeditions to Mount Kilimanjaro in 1967, 1989, Zaire 1973, the Sahara in 1978 and to Peru and Bolivia on several occasions. A keen runner, he has competed several times in the London Marathon, achieving two hours thirty-two minutes.His writings have included Parliamentary Sketchwriter for The Times and for the Investor's Chronicle. He is an occasional contributor to other publications. He is a frequent television and radio broadcaster. His first book, Inca-Kola in 1990 was about his travels in Peru. His second, in 1991, was a compilation of his pieces in The Times under the title 'So Far, So Good'.. Since then there has been an up-date of the compilation, published in 1993 (revised 1994) and called Look Behind You. Scorn, a book he has edited of quotations about curses, jibes and general invective, was published in October 1994.He was awarded the London Press Club's Edgar Wallace Outstanding Reporter of the Year Award in 1990, the British Press Awards Columnist of the Year for 1991 and 1993 and the `What the Papers Say' Columnist of the Year for 1992. In 1994 he won the national newspaper category in the annual media awards given by the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependency.Matthew Parris's style is often humorous, mainly light but sometimes with a more serious undercurrent.

At the same time, Brown also showed his veto on EU's issues. The summit can be combined with his offer to Lord Ashdown into my column this week. I mostly concern on demostic politics when I started my column. It is time to learn something abouth the relation between UK and EU.

Hague's 'foreign land' speech

Speech by William Hague MP, leader of the Conservative party, to the Spring forum in Harrogate

Sunday March 4, 2001
Guardian Unlimited

“As we gather here this weekend, we think of our fellow members and friends who had planned to be with us today in Harrogate, but who have had to remain at home or on their farms.

The thoughts and sympathy of the whole Conference are with all those whose livelihoods are at risk from the spread of the foot and mouth disease.

The pall of black smoke from the funeral pyres of slaughtered animals across our nation today tells the desperate story of a countryside in crisis.

I know from my own constituency that, for farmers already struggling in the depths of the worst agricultural depression for sixty years, this latest blow could not be more cruel or more bitter.

We support all the Government is doing to eradicate the disease and we welcome the financial support they have announced.

People have responded with calmness and restraint to this crisis. In postponing a protest in which they had invested months of preparation, the hundreds of thousands of people who were due to take part in the Countryside March for Liberty and Livelihood have shown great responsibility and courage.

I believe it would show the nation’s solidarity with the countryside in this terrible hour if the Government were to suspend consideration of the Hunting Bill in Parliament at least until those who wish to protest against it are free to do so again. This morning we have also heard of a different kind of courage – the courage of one young man in a Burmese jail. James Mawdsley.

We heard about his unwavering belief in freedom.

We heard of his passionate commitment to democracy and hatred of oppression.

We heard of his defiance in the face of the extraordinary efforts made to silence him.

And we heard of his pride that he is part of this Conservative family.

By his actions James Mawdsley reminded us of all that is best about our Party.

We remember the enduring values that have run through two centuries of Tory history.

The Tory values that stretch back to the days when Wilberforce freed the slaves, and Pitt led a war against tyranny, and Burke wrote his great tracts and Shaftsbury stood and watched the pauper’s funeral and dedicated his life to the poor.

The values that animated the Conservative leaders of the Twentieth Century: the leadership of Winston Churchill, the resolve of Margaret Thatcher and the decency of John Major.

All of us are proud to be part of this Conservative family.

And the values that have shaped our past must also guide our future.

The determination to fight for freedom and democracy.

The resolve to protect our national independence.

The courage to speak the truth in an age of spin and political correctness.

The self confidence to fight for our beliefs even when the odds are against us and to fight so hard against those odds that we win.

The boldness to fight the next election on the most ambitious Conservative programme for a generation.

For we are going to go further than any government has ever gone before to hand back to individuals and families the ability to shape their own lives.

At his Party’s Spring Conference, Tony Blair said that we were to blame for cynicism about politics. What a typically cynical attack from a man whose entire career has been built on one piece of cynicism after another.

When a Cabinet Minister who is sacked for telling lies is re-appointed, in the face of every constitutional convention, only for the same man to be sacked again from the same Cabinet for the same offence by the same Prime Minister – no wonder the public are cynical about politics.

When the Lord Chancellor violates the trust of his great office of state to solicit party donations from people whose careers he can control, and then says ‘I’m not sorry, and I’d do it again’ – no wonder the public think that power has gone to thei r heads.

When we have a Deputy Prime Minister who tells people not to drive cars but has two Jags himself, and where the Minister who tells people not to have two homes turns out to have nine himself – no wonder the public believe politicians are hypocrites.

And when the man who holds the highest office in politics will say anything and do anything to stay in power, when he thinks nothing of deceiving the public and Parliament, when he stuffs offices of the Crown with his cronies from Islington, breaking every promise on which he was elected, spinning yet another gimmick and yet another re-announcement in order to disguise his failure to deliver on anything at all - no wonder the public say they don’t trust their Government.

This morning we read in the papers that, at the last election, the Labour Party hired American students to infiltrate our campaign.

Well, we have a confession to make. They weren’t the only ones playing that game. We hired a bearded buffoon to infiltrate their campaign. But we never thought in our wildest dreams that he’d end up as Foreign Secretary.

None of the worthless promises and miserable failure of Labour’s first term compares to what they have in store if we were to let them win again.

Just imagine four more years of Labour. Try to picture what our country would look like. Let me take you on a journey to a foreign land – to Britain after a second term of Tony Blair.

The Royal Mint melting down pound coins as the euro notes start to circulate. Our currency gone forever.

The Chancellor returning from Brussels carrying instructions to raise taxes still further. Control over our own economy given away.

The jail doors opening as thousands more serious criminals walk out early to offend again. Police morale at a new low.

The price gauge on the petrol pump spinning ever faster as fuel taxes rise still further.

Letters arriving on doorsteps cancelling yet another round of hospital operations under a Government that is all spin and no delivery.

That’s Labour’s Britain four years from now.

And if there are meant to be so many people enthusiastic for another four years of Labour, how come you never meet any of them?

Labour’s Britain four years from now.

Could anybody stomach it?

The Dome still for sale.

Peter Mandelson re-appointed to the Cabinet for a fourth time.

The Liberals, on the edge of their seats, still convinced that a referendum on proportional representation is just around the corner.

We’re not going to sit idly by and let this happen to our country.

That’s why Michael Ancram has prepared us to fight the best organised, most vigorous, most spirited campaign we’ve ever fought in order to save Britain from this nightmare.

We are going to say to all the people who have been hit by Labour’s stealth taxes: Can you afford another four years?

To all the people who are still waiting for their operation: Can you really wait another four years?

To all the people who are still waiting to see a policeman on their street: Can you really wait another four years?

To all the parents who are waiting for better education: Can you really wait another four years?

So we’re ready for the fight. We’re ready because of the changes you have made to our Party. We’re ready because of the victories that you have won in local and European elections.

But above all we’re ready to speak for the people of Britain: for the mainstream majority who have no voice, for the hard-working people who feel they are ignored, for the men and women who despair that their country is being taken from them. We are not going to let them down.

We’re ready and we can win.

As the next election draws near, people are beginning only now to focus on what the two parties stand for.

Well if there’s one thing above all that sets me apart from Tony Blair, it’s this: I’m not embarrassed to articulate the instincts of the British people.

The governing of this country has drifted far away from the decent, plain speaking common sense of its people. Its time to bring it back. It’s time to bring Britain home.

We have a Government that has contempt for the views of the people it governs.

There is nothing that the British people can talk about, that this Labour Government doesn’t deride.

Talk about Europe and they call you extreme. Talk about tax and they call you greedy. Talk about crime and they call you reactionary. Talk about asylum and they call you racist. Talk about your nation and they call you Little Englanders.

This Government thinks Britain would be alright if only we had a different people.

I think Britain would be alright, if only we had a different Government.

A Conservative Government that speaks with the voice of the British people.

A Conservative Government never embarrassed or ashamed of the British people.

A Conservative Government that trusts the people.

I trust the people.

I trust the people on tax. People know that you can’t spend more than you have. And they know that that holds true for governments as well for them. It seems like common sense to you and me. But not to Gordon Brown.

He’s already running up huge bills on your behalf. He’s promising to blow billions of pounds of your money. And what’s spent today will have to be paid for tomorrow.

With Michael Portillo as Chancellor, Britain will spend no more than it can afford; and Britain will tax no more than it needs.

We will scale back the waste and bureaucracy that has grown up like a fungus under this Government. We’ll cut the size of Whitehall and cut the number of politicians.

I’m going to reduce the size of the Cabinet, cut the number of ministers, reduce the size of the House of Commons, campaign for a European Parliament with 100 fewer members, halve the number of political advisers, and abolish a huge swathe of Labour’s regional bureaucracies and agencies – and their offices in Brussels.

It is the mission of the next Conservative Government to build the Responsible Society. That’s why I want to support the people who are trying to do the right thing.

To the hard-working people who set a little bit aside each month, to provide for their children, or to fund their own retirement, I say: you should be rewarded not punished. You should be allowed to keep every penny of the interest on your savings. You’ve already paid tax on your money once; you shouldn’t have to do it twice. We’re going to make your savings tax free.

And to the pensioners who have paid their contributions throughout their lives, and who now want the dignity of independence, I say: you have already done your bit. You shouldn’t have to go on paying. We’re going to take a million pensioners out of the tax system altogether.

And to the younger people who don’t want to rely on the state in their retirement, I say: you should have the opportunity to build up your own pension fund. You should be able to use the National Insurance system to fund your own retirement. We’re going to give you the choice we never had to be independent of the Government.

And to married couples, struggling and sacrificing to do their best for their children, I say: you are doing the right thing. You are providing the stable homes that children need. Your contribution should be recognised. That’s why we’re going to introduce a new Married Couple’s Allowance – a transferable allowance worth as much as £1000. It’s time we had a Government that supported the idea of marriage instead of doing everything it can to undermine it.

Spending only what the country can afford, rewarding savings, encouraging independence, supporting marriage: people know that these things are common sense. And I trust the people.

And I also trust our doctors and nurses and teachers and policemen. I say let them get on with their jobs without politicians peering over their shoulders.

To the teacher weig hed down with paperwork, I say: you’ve been messed around too often. You came into teaching to spend your time teaching children not filling in forms.

Listen to Chris Woodhead, the former Chief Inspector of Schools: ‘David Blunkett has … wasted taxpayers’ money, distracted teachers from their real responsibilities and encapsulated the worst of the discredited ideology that has done so much damage since the 1960s. He has just not delivered. A generation of children has been betrayed’.

The end of term report on a Labour Government. A generation of children has been betrayed.

Labour have been listening for too long to the so-called experts who think that competition is a dirty word and that communicating facts to our children is elitist. Well, they’ve had their chance and, in all too many schools, we can see the result: poor discipline, declining standards and low expectations.

Let’s not be afraid to speak the common sense truth: you can’t have high standards without good discipline.

Let’s trust the common sense instinct that says that children need a structured day, that heads know most about their own school, and that teachers should be free to get on with teaching.

When Theresa May is Education Secretary we’re going to set our schools free with their own admissions policies. Parents will get higher standards and a real choice about where to send their children. And teachers who run disciplined classrooms will get our support not end up in court.

And what’s true for our schools is true for our hospitals. To the patient queuing up even to be allowed on to a waiting list, I say: you’ve waited long enough. Doctors, not politicians, should decide when you are treated.

When Liam Fox is Health Secretary, there’ll be guaranteed waiting times and those with the most serious conditions will be treated first. Nurses will be nurses, not pen pushers. And instead of Labour’s dogmatic hostility to any form of private medicine, we’re going to expand the total health care available in the country by supporting instead of attacking those who take out personal medical insurance.

People know that it’s just common sense. And I trust the people.

And I trust the people on crime. Labour may dismiss the views of the mainstream majority as prejudiced and ignorant. They may scoff at our calls for punishment that fits the crime.

But we know, and the British people know, that we will never defeat crime until we put more police on the street and given them the support they need to do their job.

It seems common sense to you and me. But Labour, once again, prefers to listen to the self-appointed experts: to the liberal sociologists, who have so much to say about the rights of the criminal, and so little about the rights of the victim.

I met a lady a few weeks ago on a housing estate in Newark who said to me: ‘I can’t remember when I last saw a policeman on my street. And I’m frightened to go out after 5 o’clock’.

I say to her: every street should be safe. And to the people who feel that their own town centres are closed to them on a Friday night, I say: we will crack down on violence and yobbery.

We will stop releasing prisoners early. We will reverse Labour’s cuts in police numbers. We will support our police where Labour has undermined them.

And we will take on the compensation culture that pays out thousands of pounds to IRA terrorists who shoot their way out of jail. Such payments insult the victims of terrorism and disgrace our country: I believe it is an outrage.

The people of Britain want a Home Secretary who will give them back their streets. They want a Home Secretary who will speak up for the victim, not the criminal. Ann Widdecombe will be that Home Secretary.

And it’s common sense that when we’re dealing with an international trade in asylum seekers, we should make Britain a safe haven not a soft touch.

So to the law-abiding citizen, who wants to help those genuinely fleeing persecution, but who also wants fairness in the system, I say: we will sort out the asylum crisis. The next Conservative Government will assess the validity of asylum claims within weeks, not years. And, where applications are unfounded, immediate deportation will follow.

This country must always offer sanctuary to those fleeing from injustice – Conservative Governments always have, and always will. But it’s precisely those genuine refugees who are finding themselves elbowed aside by claimants who have been rehearsed in how to play the system.

Once again, Labour despises the opinions of the people it is supposed to represent.

But we trust the people. They are not bigoted or ungenerous. They understand that Britain has responsibilities to those who have been displaced by war or persecution. But they can also read maps. And they can tell that something is going badly wrong when tens of thousands of people are crossing the entire length of the European Continent, travelling through safe countries en route, before suddenly lodging an asylum claim in Britain.

And they can tell that something is going badly wrong when desperate people hide in the undercarriage of high speed trains to get through the Channel Tunnel.

We will clear up Labour’s asylum mess. We will welcome genuine refugees, but we will be a safe haven not a soft touch.

That is not bigotry. It’s plain common sense. People know it. And I trust the people.

Above all, the people of Britain believe in their country. They are not narrow nationalists. They are not xenophobes. But they take pride in what our country has achieved.

No country has contributed as we have to the freedom of mankind. Through the centuries, we have aligned ourselves with the cause of nationhood everywhere. In the Nineteenth Century, we sponsored the independence of Italy and Greece and Hungary, and we nurtured the freedom of the South American Republics. In the Twentieth Century, we twice fought for the cause of all nations against tyranny.

We introduced the world to free trade. We carried law and freedom to new continents. These were our achievements as a sovereign and united country. And they are achievements that we should be proud to teach in our schools.

But now we have a government that scorns and despises all the things that have made our country what it is. A government that holds Britishness cheap.

You can see it in their failure to defend the Union of the United Kingdom.

It is because we believe in the Union that we have accepted the wishes of the peoples of Scotland and Wales to have a Scottish Parliament and a Welsh Assembly. But there is a logical consequence, also vital to the survival of the Union.

In the opening days of our administration, we will change the rules so that when matters that only affect England come before the House of Commons only MPs from England will vote.

And we have a Labour Government that scorns and despises the very Parliament to which they were elected.

Prime Minister’s Questions reduced to once a week. The Speaker driven to complain because announcements are being leaked to the press, not made at the Dispatch Box. The Prime Minister and his MPs rarely even in the Chamber. Parliament’s powers parceled out in every direction – outwards to Brussels, downwards to the devolved assemblies, sideways to our judges through the Human Rights Act. Now, Tony Blair intends to give up the first and greatest of Parliament’s prerogatives, namely the right to control revenue.

Within two years of winning an election, Tony Blair would force this country into the euro.

It’s true that he’s had to promise us a referendum. But who will set the terms of that referendum? Tony Blair. Who will decide when to hold it? Tony Blair. Who will draft the question? Tony Blair.

If anyone believes that we’ll be allowed a free and fair vote, just take a look at the way in which Labour have already rigged the rules.

They’ve given themselves the right to use the Government’s resources to push for a “Yes” vote. They’ve fixed artificial spending limits, to give the “Yes” campaign a huge financial advantage. They’ve even written in a special exemption so that the “Yes” campaign can receive money from elsewhere in the EU.

They’ll spend every pound they can lay their hands on, until there’s no Pound left at all. And I say to everyone who believes in our country: make no mistake about it, this election is your last chance to keep the Pound.

And it’s your last chance to vote for a Britain that still controls its own destiny. Labour and their Liberal lapdogs have said that if they win the election, they will ratify the Nice Treaty, and establish a European constitution and the start of an EU legal system. And they’ll agree t