A last ditch battle?
A plaintive letter from Tory MP Peter Bone finds its way into
The Daily Telegraph today (17/01/08). Bone is complaining that on
Tuesday night, the House of Commons passed the European Communities Finance Bill. This committed the British taxpayer,
according to Treasury figures, to contribute more than £100 billion between now and 2013 to the EU - enough money to
run the National Health Service for a year.
One might have thought, writes Bone, this took detailed, lengthy and considered debate. One would be wrong. The Government imposed a guillotine on the Bill and debate lasted only 208 minutes. This is equivalent to spending £481 million a minute.
He then tells us that MPs were severely restricted in the time they could speak and scrutinise the Bill. Clearly the Government wanted this measure to slip through unnoticed, so that the appalling deal done by ministers in negotiating away part of our EU rebate would go unnoticed.
Bone then adds that the government claims the deal is good for Britain, yet our net contributions to the EU will increase from an already horrendously large £4.7 billion to £6.8 billion in 2011. This is the same government, he concludes, that won't honour the police pay review.
On a point of order, one is not sure from where Bone gets his £6.8 billion. The latest government estimate for our 2011 contribution is between £14.1 – 14.5 billion with a rebate of £3.5 - 4.1 billion, making the worst case a £11 billion net payment and at the very least £10 billion.