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Christopher Booker's notebook
(Filed: 27/11/2005)

Spin and silence at the end of the special relationship
A crazy kind of 'reasonable'
We'll keep the blue flag flying
In pursuit of 'The Great Deception'

Spin and silence at the end of the special relationship

Last week moved up by several notches the slow-motion catastrophe unfolding over
Britain's defence policy, ending our "special relationship" with the US and
committing us to total dependence on our EU partners. First, EU defence
ministers confirmed their moves towards creating a "European defence industry",
which is in practice committing Britain to waste billions of pounds buying
equipment from our EU partners, when we would formerly have bought superior and
cheaper equipment made in the US or Britain.

Second, President Bush had to cave in to the US Congress's wish to end the
release to Britain of sensitive technological information, on the grounds that
we can no longer be trusted not to pass this on to other EU countries or China.
This spells an end to such joint Anglo-US defence projects as the F-35 joint
strike fighter.

Third, the Ministry of Defence provided "non-answers" to questions put by MPs,
including the Tories' front-bench spokesman Gerald Howarth, on the recent
decision, revealed in this column, that we are to lose our last
explosives-making facilities, making us wholly dependent on explosives imported
from abroad. The MoD refuses to say where all the explosives for Britain's Armed
Forces will in future be made.

Meanwhile the National Audit Office covered up for the MoD by producing a joke
report on various recent defence projects. It congratulated the MoD for bringing
in on time the Javelin anti-tank missile, without admitting that this has been
available since 1996, and that we only bought it from the US after wasting £109
million on a Continental version that did not work.

The NAO approved the Army's biggest ever truck purchase from the German firm
MAN, without pointing out that the trucks failed to meet specification and that
better vehicles could have been bought from two US-British consortia. The report
congratulated the MoD on "saving £157 million" on its order for a French missile
for the Eurofighter, without pointing out that it could have saved £900 million
by buying the US equivalent.

The NAO also fell for MoD spin that it had "saved £145 million" by reducing the
efficiency of its three planned Type-45 destroyers, equipped only with French
anti-aircraft missiles and costing £1 billion each. It did not explain that we
could have followed the example of the Australian Navy by buying US-designed
ships, British-built and equipped also to fire cruise and anti-submarine
missiles. Complete with missile systems, these would have cost only £600 million
each, saving £1.2 billion for much more capable ships.

Finally the Queen gave Royal Assent to the MoD's scrapping of our last
county-based infantry regiments, to be merged INTO phpbb_new "large regiments" to fit
the British Army to the needs of the "European Rapid Reaction Force".

Not a good week. But the Government gets away with it, not least because defence
now arouses so little interest. The BBC was more interested, through its Money
Programme, in exposing the business record of Paul Drayson, the junior defence
minister who in recent years has been one of the Labour Party's biggest
contributors, and has not only been given a peerage but put in charge of
Britain's arms procurement. For the rest of us it has not been a bargain.

A crazy kind of 'reasonable'

For 80 years, Barnard Bros mill in Ipswich has been selling every kind of animal
feed and bedding. All day, Terry Nunn and his four staff are in and out of the
building, humping sacks to vehicles, and dressed accordingly. What happened on a
cold day last April, when they were visited by Karen Dunne, a new council health
inspector, provided a perfect vignette of modern England.

Ms Dunne measured the temperature of the open building at 10 degrees (50 degrees
Fahrenheit). This, she said, was in breach of health and safety regulations,
under an EC directive, which decree that the minimum temperature of a workplace
must be 16 degrees. This month Ipswich magistrates found the firm guilty, fining
Mr Nunn £1,000 and giving him a criminal record.

In vain did Mr Nunn explain that he and his staff were warmly dressed, since
much of their work was outside. The only employee indoors was sitting in a
well-heated office. The firm has now had to instal a heating system for the
whole building, to waste thousands of pounds pouring out heat INTO phpbb_the
surrounding air, in defiance of government pleas to save energy.

What makes this episode odder is that the EC directive on which the law is based
says only that workplace temperature must be "adequate for human beings, having
regard to the working methods being used". The regulations putting this INTO phpbb_UK
law state only that temperatures must be "reasonable". To make Mr Nunn a
criminal, Ms Dunne had to rely on the "approved code of practice" which defines
"reasonable" as not less than 16 degrees, regardless of circumstances.

Under the directive and regulations, Mr Nunn was not committing an offence. But
Ms Dunne made a sanctimonious little speech about how exposing employees to cold
can give them frostbite and hypothermia, and those politically correct Ipswich
magistrates doubtless went home thinking they had done a good day's work.

We'll keep the blue flag flying

Olive Brown, the Europhile former leader of a Co Durham council, hopes to
replace the flag of St George currently flying outside her council offices with
that of the EU. To the chagrin of Ms Brown, a member of the EU's Committee of
the Regions, Wear Valley council had to haul down the "ring of stars" on one of
its three flagpoles, when it was pointed out that this was illegal without
planning permission. On Thursday the council voted unanimously to give itself
permission to fly the EU flag, although 19 members of the public had lodged
objections, with none in favour.

In pursuit of 'The Great Deception'

Last weekend, at the annual conference of the Bruges Group, Dr Richard North and
I launched a new paperback edition of The Great Deception, our best-selling
history of the EU (Continuum, £9.99). This has been extensively revised and
updated, to include the story behind the rise and semi-fall of the EU
constitution.

When the first edition appeared in 2003, it was praised by historians and
commentators as by far the fullest and most revealing account of the "European
project" to date, and sold more than 10,000 copies.

Last weekend all 50 copies of the new edition on sale were snapped up. But
anyone who tries to order it via Amazon must be careful to look for the new
subtitle "Can The European Union Survive?" Thanks to the legendary idiosyncrasy
of that computerised bureaucracy, it still shows the cover of the old edition,
by which some readers have already been misled.

Independent UKIP

After many years of buying the Telegraph I think that is that. I'm in the right age group for Sarah Sands though am a Male reader. I think with great regret I will become a Mail reader from now on. I very much hope you will continue posting here the Booker column as that is a major reason why I bought the paper every week but it has declined too much for me to spend my money on it despite wanting to read Booker every Sunday morning.