[Pic from Adventures In Historical Materialism]
If it wasn’t grim enough up North before it certainly will be once that odious prick Nick Griffin and his sidekick, former politics lecturer and National Front leader Andrew Bron take office in Brussels – but not for them. No credit crunch for Griffin and Bron. They’ll be doing quite nicely thank you.
No wonder candidates are desperate to get elected:
In the last five-year term of the parliament, it is estimated British MEPs have been able to claim more than £1.8m in expenses and allowances.
They have been receiving more than £363,000 a year in expenses without receipts including £259 a day for “subsistence allowance”, the infamous “sign in and sod-off” payment.
Travel expenses of £87,407 a year are permissible and there is £3756 available as an additional annual travel allowance.
Staff allowances, which have been widely abused, are almost £184,000 and many MEPs, including SNP president Ian Hudghton, employ members of their family. In Mr Hudghton’s case it is his wife, Lily.
Office expenses are around £45,000 and no receipts are required and almost £6000 is available if they want to go on language or IT courses.
Other perks include being able to claim the cost of medical treatment and dental repairs. This is on top of their salaries which, for UK MEPs, are currently linked to the salary of a Westminster MP’s pay of around £64,000.
It’s easy to blame Labour for the election of two fascist British National Party MEPs. Why the hell not? Everything else is their fault. But blame for the recent expansion of neonazism in Britain lies squarely on the shoulders of those who didn’t vote, or who spoiled their ballot; or who, worse still, those who thought it would be clever and funny to vote for a neonazi, just ‘to send those bastards a message’.
Most would I expect loudly disclaim any sympathy with the BNP’s blatant racism and their unsavoury candidates with their history of convictions for dishonesty and/or violence.
But when it comes to the simplest, easiest way to combat creeping fascism – to vote against it – they somehow find themselves too busy or tired or too something or other. Someone else’ll do it. Won’t they? I’ll bet this morning the non-voters are looking at ‘Griffin elected’ headlines and clucking to workmates ‘Ooh, I know, isn’t it terrible?’ before going on dismiss nazism in favour of new Apprentice Yasmina’s white dress and loser’s Kate’s glowing radioactive teeth.
Anyone attacked by resurgent criminal neonazis revitalised by a Griffin victory in Manchester or Hull or Leeds, might feel quite justified in slapping known non-voting colleagues or family silly on hearing such hypocritical mealy-mouthedness.
Antisemite and Holocauset denier Griffin might wear suits and be a fun protest vote for idiots but he’s a Nazi.
There are those who’ll comfort themselves with the notion that one , okay two, Nazi MEPs can’t do very much damage. But it’s not just one or two, is it?
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Across Europe, the far right is on the march, claiming increased numbers of seats in ten different member states. However, in Belgium, France and Poland, the far right saw some significant losses as well.
In total, the far right is up eight seats on the 2004 European elections.
[…]
In Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and the UK, the far right made moderate to significant advances.
Thanks, the North: you’ve given Britain’s fascists a chance to build links with openly Nazi politicians internationally, and to do it at public expense. I’d like to say that Yorkshire, Humberside and Lancashire have made a rod for their own backs, but they’ve made one for all of us.
The BNP’s cunning plan appears to be (once they’d ridden a very apathetic wave of popular disgust with politics into Brussels) to copy UKIP’s methods and to turn their EU parliamentary office into a funding stream for further party development.
One MEP helps fund campaigning the next and so on, courtesy of absurdly generous and mostly unpoliced MEP’s salary and allowances.
Had EU elections been run under first-past-the-post rather than a proportional voting system Holocaust denier Griffin, who he co-authored a pamphlet In 1997 about Jewish conspiracies to brainwash people in Britain, found guilty of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred and given a two-year suspended prison sentence, wouldn’t’ve had much hope of this lucrative opportunity to have his tiny racist party funded by the same EU it rails against.
Without this potential source of income income the BNP would have been forced to rely on donations from UK members to support future campaigns and current support wouldn’t be enough to fight a general election even with added,potentially illegal, overseas donations from American neonazis.
…invokes the desire of the peoples of Europe to transcend their ancient divisions in order to forge a common destiny
Not, as Griffin would have it, ‘the white people of Europe’ or the Aryans or the Celts of Europe.
As an MEP Griffin will be also able to bolster up his always shaky leadership and the live the lifestyle he always wanted. Questions have already been asked by enemies and associates alike about what proportion of BNP finances are chanelled through Griffin family businesses, either directly and openly through salaries and allowances or indirectly and not so openly, through various opaque pension plans, business transactions and building projects, or offshoot companies and investments.
Yet Griffin has campaigned with a straight face against excessiive politician’s pay and EU corruption. Will either he or Bron turn down a staff allowance of £182,000 a year and the ability to dispense jobs and favours to family members and political cronies?
Over a full term, MEPs could easily bank almost £450,000 in staff allowances — even if they employed several genuine full-time assistants.
The campaign group estimates that MEPs claiming the maximum subsistence of £257 a day while staying in cheap accommodation could also pocket about £105,000 from this source over five years.
MEPs could make £217,800 in office expenses by claiming their home was also their constituency office. No receipts are required to receive this money.
The lack of any need to provide receipts to justify travel expenses means that MEPs could receive a £54,000 tax-free profit while still making regular journeys between Brussels and their home country.
MEPs also have a final salary pension scheme which is even more generous than the one provided to members of the Westminster parliament. The TaxPayers’ Alliance calculates that the cash value of this benefit would be about £350,000 over a full parliamentary term.
At current exchange rates the grand total profit over five years comes to £1,176,800.
That figure does not include an MEP’s salary, which is due to increase after the June European elections thanks to a “harmonisation†of MEPs’ pay.
British MEPs receive £63,291 a year, the same as Westminster MPs. After July their pay after tax could rise from about £46,835 to almost £69,000 a year, depending on the exchange rate and whether they can pay the lower European Union tax rate of 15%.
That I suggest is the reason why the fascists’ have concentrated on campaigning for the European, rather than the UK parliament. Athough they DO have ambitions in that direction they need more funds to build support amongst the angry and disaffected who alone have the motivation to go out and vote for the BNP and to broadcast their hateful, deceitful message before a general election.
£1,176,800 profit over a 5 year term is lot of unaudited, tax-free money to fund propaganda work on their communication strategy with. Griffin and colleague Andrew Bron must be immensely pleased at the prospect.
What probably pleases the man who allegedly named two of the pigs on his farm ‘Anne’ and ‘Frank’ even more is the prospect of using his comfy, well-funded office in Brussels to unite with other neonazis to subvert and challenge the original postwar anti-fascist European Union ideal, from within, and at the EU’s own expense.
