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to believe the EU should keep its grubby mitts off our vacuum cleaners

59 replies

longfingernails · 03/11/2013 20:04

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10423431/EU-energy-saving-rules-cut-power-of-vacuum-cleaners.html

We have enough nanny state petty interference and red tape from our own government. We don't need more from the unelected and unaccountable faceless bureaucrats from Brussels.

OP posts:
flatpackhamster · 07/11/2013 07:12

WestieMamma

Why? It's decisions aren't binding on the UK. The UK chooses to follow them but is completely free to ignore them if it wants, which the UK has done when it has suited.

That isn't entirely accurate. The UK courts are free to ignore if they so choose, but they have chosen subsidiarity. Further, the UK government is required, when dealing with a case involving human rights, to follow the ECHR.

IHadADreamThatWasNotAllADream · 07/11/2013 07:39

The UK could legislate for energy efficiency labelling at a local level, but then manufacturers would have to abide by twenty-something sets of regulations and label twenty-something different ways if they wanted to sell internationally; which is in the interests only of the manufacturers of testing rigs and labels.

WestieMamma · 07/11/2013 07:41

The UK government are not required to follow the ECHR, they choose to do so. When the ECHR said the UK were breaching prisoners human rights by not allowing them to vote, Parliament discussed it, voted on it and subsequently ignored it. When it comes to the ECHR parliament is supreme.

friday16 · 07/11/2013 08:02

When the ECHR said the UK were breaching prisoners human rights by not allowing them to vote, Parliament discussed it, voted on it and subsequently ignored it.

It always helps in an argument about the ECtHR to actually cite what they said, rather than what the Daily Mail told you they said.

The objection raised by the ECtHR over prisoner voting was not that many/most/all prisoners aren't allowed to vote. They aren't, to some greater or lesser extent, in most jurisdictions, and that's entirely fine. The objection was that in the UK, there has never been debate to determine who can and can't vote: you just can't. The court held in Hurst that that the UK government should make it clear what the rules are, and pass legislation accordingly which is compliant with Article 1: essentially, it's OK to deny people the vote providing it's been discussed and voted on. That happened, and the issue is now settled. The basic contention is that if you're going to deny people what would in general terms be their rights, there has to be some sort of due process.

People who bang on about prisoner voting making them physically sick, as Cameron claimed, should take heart from Scoppola (No. 3) v. Italy which held that a lifetime ban on voting for particular classes of offences (something far harsher than UK law, where murderers on life license can vote), was entirely compliant. The government was just grandstanding over Hurst (pandering to the sort of UKIP illiterates who think that the ECtHR is part of the EU, or that Britain's membership of the ECHR and the Council of Europe arises from our membership of the EU) when it could trivially easily have passed legislation along the lines of Italy's and had done with the whole issue.

Facts of the situation: www.echr.coe.int/Documents/FS_Prisoners_vote_ENG.pdf

limitedperiodonly · 07/11/2013 08:17

I forgot about that story westiemamma. It just went away, didn't it? So possibly there was nothing to get outraged about?

It could be argued (and no doubt it will) that because there was so much of a fuss about it Parliament grew a backbone and stood up to Europe for once. Hurrah. Bring back Maggie's handbag, I say.

There's always someone who wants to ruin a good tale by bringing facts into it friday16. Pedant Wink

claig · 07/11/2013 09:00

Yes, they will try and get it through. They will try to do it in stages

"New machines will be banned from having motors that exceed 1,600W from September 2014, and they will be limited to 900W from 2017."

It is a deliberate policy and is part of their green, eco agenda which they claim will help "save the planet".

They have already succeeded in getting rid of our healthy lightbulbs and replacing them with ones that contain mercury

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1340938/Eco-bulbs-health-hazard-babies-pregnant-women-mercury-inside.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363448/We-pick-toxic-new-bulbs-Councils-say-energy-saving-lights-dangerous-binmen.html

and they have already succeeded in changing our washing machines and the temperature of the wash

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2400567/How-eco-friendly-cool-wash-infest-clothes-GERMS.html

The socialists and progressives will vote all of these things through. But there has been a huge change in Europe which is worrying the progressives and which may mean that their plans for the people cannot be carried through.

On the 'Daily Politics', Andrew Neill has interviewed socialist EU parliamentarians who are worried that 30% of the EU parliament may soon be made up of anti-establishment, anti-EU right wing parties and they are worried that this means that they will not be able to get their policies voted through.

UKIP may become Britain's largest party in the EU Parliament. I don't think they will vote for it and one day we may even get our old healthy lightbulbs back.

www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/31/eu-unite-sceptics-populists-italian-pm

Shutdown for the EU

claig · 07/11/2013 09:18

The reason that all of these EU laws are passed is because the European elite are "all in it together" with their green agenda to curb the living standards of the people and increase green taxes on the people and increase environmental legislation on the people.

But UKIP and the anti-establishment right wing parties aren't "all in it together" with them and their green ways.

There is still hope that they may be able to prevent the assault on the people's standard of living by the European elite and Brussels bureaucrats.

claig · 07/11/2013 09:33

The European elite in their ivory towers with their green credentials and their expenses essentials may want to change the wattage on the people's hoovers, they may well want us to "suck it up", but in their green glee did they instead *uck it up?

AchyFox · 07/11/2013 21:31

"New machines will be banned from having motors that exceed 1,600W from September 2014, and they will be limited to 900W from 2017."

But since the motors never actually use that much power, motor manufacturers will simply nameplate the same motors as having a lower power.

It's all bollocks.Grin

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